bush Archives

US election 2016: Bush dynasty will support and vote for Clinton Dynasty

September 20, 2016 By administrator

US Republican ex-President George HW Bush will vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton in November, US news website Politico reports.

Mr Bush allegedly made the pledge to Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, niece to US ex-President John F Kennedy.

The former president’s office has not confirmed the report, with a spokesman saying he was checking.

Mr Bush, who held office from 1989 until 1993, has not endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump.

Neither has his son, Jeb Bush, who unsuccessfully competed for the Republican nomination, or other rivals in the race, Ted Cruz and John Kasich.

Ms Kennedy Townsend, a former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, posted a photo on Facebook of a meeting with George HW Bush, alongside the caption: “The President told me he’s voting for Hillary!”

Mr Bush’s spokesman, however, was cautious.

“Those reporting how @GeorgeHWBush will vote this year, it’s not clear anyone was there to verify KKT [Kathleen Kennedy Townsend]. Still checking, keep your powder dry,” Jim McGrath wrote.

Saudi ex-spy chief linked to al-Qaeda operative engaged in 9/11 attacks

August 7, 2016 By administrator

Former Saudi Ambassador to Washington Prince Bandar bin Sultan (R) with former US President George W. Bush

Former Saudi intelligence chief and long-time Ambassador to Washington Prince Bandar bin Sultan has been linked to an al-Qaeda operative by the co-chair of a recent US probe into the 9/11 terror incidents.

The recently declassified part of the 9/11 report regarding suspected Saudi ties to some of the hijackers involved in the terror events revealed that a phone log maintained by an alleged senior al-Qaeda operative, identified as Abu Zubaydah, included the unlisted phone number of a Colorado company associated with Bandar as well as the phone number of a bodyguard working at the Saudi Embassy in Washington at the time, CNN reported Friday.

The company in Aspen, Colorado used to manage Prince Bandar’s estate in the Western US state.

“Both of those numbers were unpublished, so they had to have gotten into Zubaydah’s phone book through a personal contact who knew what those numbers were and what they represented,” said former Senator Bob Graham, who co-chaired the congressional commission that compiled the 28 pages of the 9/11 report that remained secret until its release last month.

Although both US intelligence agencies, the CIA and FBI, concluded that there was no evidence that anyone from the Saudi royal family knowingly provided support for the 9/11 attacks, Graham insisted that connection between Zubaydah’s contact list and the company associated with the senior Saudi official was “one of the most stunning parts of the investigation” and worthy of further investigation.

Bandar served as the Saudi ambassador to the US from 1983 to 2005, during the administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. He later served as secretary general of Saudi Arabia’s National Security Council and the head of the kingdom’s General Intelligence Presidency, the equivalent of the CIA, until last year.

Bandar “is probably the most effective ambassador in Washington ever. Full stop,” said former CIA analyst Bruce Riedel. “He was highly regarded by every president.”

The senior Saudi official was known to have the closest relationship with George H. W. Bush, in part due to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in the 1990 Persian Gulf War, in which Riyadh viewed the Iraqi aggression as a threat and supported the subsequent US military action.

“Bandar was in the Bush White House, I would say, every other day and in some periods every day. It was a very, very close relationship,” Riedel added. “And I think the president and Bandar genuinely liked each other.”

Saudi authorities have denied allegations on their involvement in the September 2001 incidents in which nearly 3,000 people were killed in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers involved in the 9/11 attacks were Saudi nationals.

source: http://presstv.com/Detail/2016/08/07/478834/US-Saudi-Arabia-Prince-Bandar-bin-Sultan-911-commission-Senator-Bob-Graham-alQaeda-operative

Bush, Blair plotted Iraq war 1 year before invasion had started: White House memo

October 17, 2015 By administrator

Bush and Blair are shaking hands in February 2001. (AFP photo)

A damning White House memo has revealed details of the so-called “deal in blood” forged by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush over the Iraq war.

The document, titled “Secret… Memorandum for the President”, was sent by then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell to President Bush on March 28, 2002, a week before Bush’s summit with Blair at his Crawford ranch in Texas, Britain’s Daily Mail reported on Sunday.

The sensational memo revealed that Blair had agreed to support the war a year before the invasion even started, while publicly the British prime minister was working to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

The document also disclosed that Blair agreed to act as a spin doctor for Bush and convince a skeptical public that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction, which actually did not exist.

In response, Bush would flatter Blair and give the impression that London was not Washington’s poodle but an equal partner in the “special relationship.”

Powell told Bush that Blair “will be with us” on the Iraq war, and assured the president that “”the UK will follow our lead in the Middle East.”

Another sensational memo revealed how Bush used “spies” in the British Labour Party to help him to influence public opinion in the United Kingdom in favor of the Iraq war.

Both documents were obtained and published by The Mail on Sunday. They are part of a number of classified emails stored on the private server of former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton which courts have forced her to reveal.

Blair has always denied the claim that he and Bush signed a deal “in blood” at Crawford to launch a war against Iraq that began on March 20, 2003, that has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

The Powell memo, however, showed how Blair and Bush secretly prepared the Iraq war plot behind closed doors at Crawford.

Powell told Bush: “He will present to you the strategic, tactical and public affairs lines that he believes will strengthen global support for our common cause.”

The top US diplomatic official added that the UK premier has the presentational skills to “make a credible public case on current Iraqi threats to international peace.”

Powell wrote that Blair will “stick with us on the big issues” but he needs to show the British public that “Britain and America are truly equity partners in the special relationship.”

n March 2003, the US and Britain invaded Iraq in blatant violation of international law and under the pretext of finding WMDs. But no such weapons were ever discovered in Iraq.

More than one million Iraqis were killed as the result of the US-led invasion and subsequent occupation of the country, according to the California-based investigative organization Project Censored.

The US war in Iraq cost American taxpayers $1.7 trillion with an additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans, expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest, according to a study called Costs of War Project by the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University.

Source: presstv.com