The Bush Family: A Continuing Criminal Enterprise?

[Octafish]

Important American history from a smart and brave guy with integrity:

The Bush Family: A Continuing Criminal Enterprise?

Gary W. Potter, PhD.
Professor, Criminal Justice
Eastern Kentucky University

The S&Ls, the Mob and the Bushs

During the 1980's hundred of Savings and Loan Banks failed. Those bank failures cost U.S. taxpayers over $500 billion to cover federally insured losses, and much more to investigate the bank failures (Pizzo, Fricker, and Muolo, 1989; Brewton, 1992; Johnston, 1990). More than 75% of the Savings and Loan insolvencies where directly linked to serious and often criminal misconduct by senior financial insiders (Pizzo, Fricker and Muolo, 1989: 305). In fact, less than 10 percent of bank failures are related to economic conditions, the rest are caused by mismanagement or criminal conduct (Pizzo, Fricker and Muolo, 1989: 305).

A good example of the Savings and Loan failures can be found in the activities of Mario Renda, a Savings and Loan insider who often worked in close collaboration with organized crime (Pizzo, Fricker and Muolo, 1989: 123-126;302). Renda served as a middle man in arranging about $5 billion a year in deposits into 130 Savings and Loans, all of which failed (Kwitny, 1992: 27). Many of these deposits were made contingent on an agreement that the Savings and Loan involved would lend money to borrowers recommended by Renda, many of whom were organized crime figures or people entirely unknown to the banking institution involved (Kwitny, 1992: 27).

SNIP...

Prescott Bush: The Yakuza’s Frontman

Finally, and perhaps most seriously, the Bush family pioneered the practice which has now become commonplace of collaboration between corporate and organized criminals. Prescott Bush, uncle of the current President and brother of the former President, played a key role in helping the Japanese Yakuza extend their financial and real estate holdings to the United States. In 1989, Prescott Bush made arrangements for a front company for Japanese organized crime groups to buy into two U.S. corporations and to make a sizeable real investment in the U.S. (Helm, 1991a: 1; Isikoff, 1992: A1). West Tsusho, a Japanese corporation, was identified by Japanese police officials as a front company for one of that country’s largest organized crime syndicates. Prescott Bush was paid a fee of $500,000 for his help in negotiating West Tsusho’s purchase of controlling interest in Assets Management, a U.S. corporation (Helm, 1991a: 1; Isikoff, 1992: A1). Bush also assisted the Japanese mob in investing in Quantam Access, a U.S. software company, which was ultimately taken over by the Japanese (Helm, 1991b: 10; Isikoff, 1992: A1). Both companies ultimately went into bankruptcy (Isikoff, 1992: A1; Moses, 1992).

George Bush Sr.: Shutting Down the Organize Crime Strike Forces

Despite assessments from senior law enforcement officers and experts on organized crime that efforts to control organized crime would be crippled, in December 1989, the administration of George Bush, Sr. abolished all 14 regional organized crime strike forces (McAlister, 1989: A 21; Struck out, 1990). The organized crime strike had been created as independent entities so they would not be subject to political influences or bureaucratic wrangling within federal law enforcement. In the two decades of their operation the strike forces had secured convictions of major organized crime figures in several U.S. cities (Struck out, 1990). It is at the very least curious to note that the federal strike force in Miami had been responsible for indicting Miguel Recarey, the man for whom Jeb Bush had intervened with regulators. Organized crime strike forces had similarly indicted Mario Renda, the organized crime liaison to the S& L’s, as well as several other key figures in the Savings and Loan Fiasco (Pizzo, Fricker, and Mulolo, 1989: 112, 120-123, 303, 337).

CONTINUED...

http://critcrim.org/critpapers/potter.htm

That's the way a professor of criminal justice puts it. Bartcop, to get a better handle on War Inc's first family, called them the "BFEE" for short.



Welfare for the wealthy. Austerity for the rest.

[arendt]

1. Either a typo or a glaring mistake

In 1989, Prescott Bush made arrangements for a front company for Japanese organized crime groups to buy into two U.S. corporations and to make a sizeable real investment in the U.S. (Helm, 1991a: 1; Isikoff, 1992: A1).

Prescott Sheldon Bush (May 15, 1895 – October 8, 1972) was an American banker and politician. He was a Wall Street executive banker and a United States Senator, representing Connecticut from 1952 until January 1963. He was the father of George H. W. Bush (41st President of the United States) and the grandfather of George W. Bush (43rd President of the United States) and Jeb Bush (43rd Governor of Florida).

- Wikipedia

Does that author mean George H.W. Bush?

[Octafish]

3. Prescotts S. Bush, Jr.

Poppy's late big brother, the Rainmaker.

...Middle Kingdom Rainmakers, making dough for the Right People.

Today, we feel the strong connections still...

China blocks New York Times website after story on leader's family wealth

[arendt]

18. Thank you.

Your reply is most useful in supplying context to those of us who cannot recognize the name of an obscure member of a large, multi-generational family. Personally, I was totally unaware Prescott, Jr even existed. I knew of Jeb, Neil (of H. simplex fame), and W. But I never heard of Prescott, Poppy's brother.


I think it was legitimate to ask the question I asked. I do not believe the snark level applied to it. Sheesh.

Peace.

[Octafish]

22. You're welcome.

What snark?

PS: Sorry about the typo - Prescott. Prescott Sheldon Bush, pere et fils. This phone has a mind of its own.

[arendt]

26. Not you. The folks who kept recycling "glaring mistake"

Frankly, I couldn't tell if they were being friendly, mocking me for being stupid, or mocking you.

Its OK - you answered my question. (Did you really post the entire OP from a cell phone?)

[yankeepants]

12. I thought you were referring to the question mark at the end of the title.

Now that's a mistake or a glaring typo!

[Arugula Latte]

34. That was my first thought too.

[brush]

14. How do we give credence to this article with such a glaring mistake?

Prescott Bush was the father of H.W. Bush, not his brother.

And Prescott Bush took part in the infamous American Liberty League in the 1930s, a fascist-leaning group which attempted a coup against FDR (another reason to distrust the motives of the Bush family).

He also died in 1972 so how could he have done a deal in 1989.

Was the writer referring to Prescott Bush's son, maybe?

[JackRiddler]

15. Please correct your glaring mistake now. Thank you.

Guess what, just like there's more than one George, there can be more than one Prescott. It's almost like, any other family on earth! Gosh!

[brush]

16. Shouldn't the poster distinguish between . . .

Prescott Bush, the father and Prescott Bush Jr. the son?

Journalism 101.

[Octafish]

17. Explained upthread in Reply 3, first time your issue was raised. NT.

[brush]

20. When I replied the issue was not raised.

And so what if I raised it again. I offered additional, pertinent info. I didn't know there was a site editor at DU.

[Octafish]

24. Oh. Time stamp gave me the idea more than 5 hours had passed.

Thanks for the heads up on Prescott Sr. and FDR. Fascinating subject, provides much context for, and insight on, the current crisis, where democracy and the middle class are vanishing.

Would the nation today had a Smedley Butler.

[brush]

28. Yes, Smedley Butler was a real hero

His book, "War is a Racket", is worth looking into also.

And btw, I hadn't noticed the earlier post about Prescott Bush Jr.

[JackRiddler]

29. Shouldn't the reader be able to figure out the obvious.

President George Bush in 2002 wouldn't be President George Bush in 1989.

It may confuse you! I know, life is tough without any ability to check this stuff instantaneously prior to mouthing off in an entirely useless fashion. Why, the next library is probably in Nome, and the reference works you need may be checked out!

What's so hard about "oops, got that wrong." One might think you're just looking for a way to distract & attack the OP without needing to bother.

[brush]

30. Like I said . . .

Journalism 101, if it's Prescott Bush Jr. you say so in the first reference so there is no confusion.

It's not that hard. And when did you get appointed poster police? And if you weren't so intent on ridicule you might have noticed that I added pertinent info on Prescott Bush Sr., the Bush family and the American Liberty League.

[Ghost in the Machine]

25. "It's almost like, any other family on earth! Gosh!".... Actually, they seem to have some kind of

strange way of naming their kids. They use parts of the names of other family members to keep the names going somehow.

Example: George HW Bush married Barbara Pierce. Their one son, George Walker Bush married Laura Lane Welch. They have 2 daughters... Barbara Pierce Bush and Jenna Welch Bush... GWBs sister is Dorothy Walker Bush Koch.

Look at some of the recycled names through the years, dating back to the 1800s:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_family

Click on Preston or Prescott and look even further back!


Peace,

Ghost

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. "less than 10 percent of bank failures are related to economic conditions"

Seems to be repeating again, thanks to no indicments.

Looks like McCain supporters do not care that he was up to his eyebrows in the Savings and Loan Scandal.

[Octafish]

4. 'Control Fraud' is how William K. Black puts it...

Financial control frauds' "weapon of choice" is accounting. William K. Black explains:

The Two Documents Everyone Should Read to Better Understand the Crisis

by William K. Black
Assoc. Professor, Univ. of Missouri, Kansas City;
Sr. regulator during S&L debacle
February 25, 2009 10:31 AM

As a white-collar criminologist and former financial regulator much of my research studies what causes financial markets to become profoundly dysfunctional. The FBI has been warning of an "epidemic" of mortgage fraud since September 2004. It also reports that lenders initiated 80% of these frauds.1 When the person that controls a seemingly legitimate business or government agency uses it as a "weapon" to defraud we categorize it as a "control fraud" ("The Organization as 'Weapon' in White Collar Crime." Wheeler & Rothman 1982; The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One. Black 2005). Financial control frauds' "weapon of choice" is accounting. Control frauds cause greater financial losses than all other forms of property crime -- combined. Control fraud epidemics can arise when financial deregulation and desupervision and perverse compensation systems create a "criminogenic environment" (Big Money Crime. Calavita, Pontell & Tillman 1997.)

The FBI correctly identified the epidemic of mortgage control fraud at such an early point that the financial crisis could have been averted had the Bush administration acted with even minimal competence. To understand the crisis we have to focus on how the mortgage fraud epidemic produced widespread accounting fraud.

CONTINUED...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-k-black/the-two-documents-everyon_b_169813.html

Accounting leaves a paper trail. So. When are the crooks going to jail? Holder? Holder?

It's not a rhetorical question.

As four McCain, he's tight with the buy-partisan Phil Gramm.

[calimary]

5. All I'd say in reply, Octafish, is "YES."

[Octafish]

7. Agree, calimary.

What Gary Trudeau drew:



Sorry to sound like a broken record, but it seems DUers are blaming each other rather than those who've actually caused the nation's ills.

[UTUSN]

6. Sending this off to the local radio wingnut who, when I brought up the October Surprise,

replied that the article I cited was full of qualifiers like "probably" this or that and said it was all "unicorns". He considers himself a journalist/reporter (of over 40 yrs) yet is oblivious of what is common knowledge to us.

But, pal Oct, I wish the author in the link were more precise with his naming of the B.F.E.E. criminals, not for pickiness' sake but for credibility: Poppy is Geo. H.W. not "George BUSH, Sr," and you pointed out to somebody that the "Prescott" being referred to was Poppy's older brother not the grandfather.

[Octafish]

10. Thank you, UTUSN. Will forward the message...

As for the October Surprise -- it's what got Jimmy Carter out of office and the BFEE in.

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD

By Gary Sick

~snip~

Then two years ago, I began collecting documentation for a book on the Reagan Administration's policies toward Iran. That effort grew into a massive computerized data base, the equivalent of many thousands of pages. As I sifted through this mass of material, I began to recognize a curious pattern in the events surrounding the 1980 election. Increasingly, I began to focus on that period, and interviewed a wide range of sources. I benefited greatly from the help of many interested, talented investigative journalists.

In the course of hundreds of interviews, in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East, I have been told repeatedly that individuals associated with the Reagan-Bush campaign of 1980 met secretly with Iranian officials to delay the release of the American hostages until after the Presidential election. For this favor, Iran was rewarded with a substantial supply of arms from Israel.

~snip~

From Oct. 15 to Oct. 20, events came to a head in a series of meetings in several hotels in Paris, involving members of the Reagan-Bush campaign and high-level Iranian and Israeli representatives. Accounts of these meetings and the exact number of participants vary considerably among the more than 15 sources who claim direct or indirect knowledge of some aspect of them. There is, however, widespread agreement on three points: William Casey was a key participant: the Iranian representatives agreed that the hostages would not be released prior to the Presidential election on Nov. 4; in return, Israel would serve as a conduit for arms and spare parts to Iran.

At least five of the sources who say they were in Paris in connection with these meetings insist that George Bush was present for at least one meeting. Three of the sources say that they saw him there.

Immediately after the Paris meetings, things began to happen. On Oct. 21, Iran publicly shifted its position in the negotiations with the Carter Administration, disclaiming any further interest in receiving military equipment. From my position at the N.S.C., I learned that Cyrus Hashemi and another Iranian arms dealer secretly had reported to State Department officials that Iran had decided to hold the hostages until after the elections.

Between Oct. 21 and Oct. 23, Israel sent a planeload of F-4 fighter aircraft tires to Iran in contravention of the U.S. boycott and without informing Washington. Cyrus Hashemi, using his own contacts began privately organizing military shipments to Iran. On Oct. 22, the hostages were suddenly dispersed to different locations. And a series of delaying tactics in late October by the Iranian Parliament stymied all attempts by the Carter Administration to act on the hostage question until only hours before Election Day.

After the election, the lame-duck Carter Administration resumed hostage negotiations through Algerian intermediaries, but the talks stalled. On Jan. 15, Iran did an about-face, offering a series of startling concessions that reignited the talks and resulted in a final agreement in the last few hours of Jimmy Carter's Presidency. The hostages were released on Jan. 21, 1981, minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as President.

Almost immediately thereafter, according to Israeli and American former officials, arms began to flow to Iran in substantial quantities. A former senior official in the Israeli Ministry of Defense told me that the shipments by air and sea involved hundreds of millions of dollars worth of equipment and that detailed lists of each shipment were provided to senior officials in the Reagan Administration. Moshe Arens, the Israeli Ambassador to Washington in 1982, told The Boston Globe in October 1982 that Israeli's arms shipments to Iran at this time were coordinated with the U.S. Government `at almost the highest of levels.'

CONTINUED...

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1992_cr/h920205-october-clips.htm

Robert Parry and his Consortium News have several articles on this and related treasons: http://consortiumnews.com/category/october-surprise/

As for the radio wingnut, they are all the same. Never trust a fart.

[grasswire]

8. kick for truth to power

Keep on, keep on.

[Octafish]

21. ' Money trumps peace.' - George W Bush, Feb. 14, 2007

War Is Sell - Washington's Power Elite Are the Beneficiaries of War

The Bush family is getting financially fat off the "war on terrorism."

Exclusive to American Free Press
By Christopher Bollyn

War has always been a profitable money machine for shrewd investors with foresight, but the extremely close connections of the Carlyle Group, a Washington-based private equity investment firm and major war profiteer, to the Bush and bin Laden families-and the current occupant of the White House-raise unavoidable questions of waging war for profit.

Established in 1987 the Carlyle Group was founded by David Rubenstein, a former staff member in the Jimmy Carter White House, and his two partners, Dan D'Aniello and Bill Conway. Today there are 18 partners in the firm and one outside investor. The Washington Post has described Carlyle as a "merchant banking firm" set up "to serve corporations and wealthy families." From the beginning the founders of Carlyle have recruited former politicians as consultants: former President George H. W. Bush is among them-along with a host of other Bush family cronies.

The Bush connection to the Carlyle Group is nothing short of a scandal, according to Larry Klayman, a notable government watchdog best known for pursuing the scandals of former President Bill Clinton.

Now that the United States is bombing Afghanistan and allocating huge sums of money for defense, including $40 billion for the "war on terrorism" and more than $200 billion <1994 dollars> for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), the conflict of interest is "direct," Klayman says. "President Bush should not ask but demand that his father pull out of the Carlyle Group."

SNIP...

"Carlyle is as deeply wired into the current administration as they can possibly be," Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, said. "George Bush is getting money from private interests that have business before the government, while his son is president. And, in a really peculiar way, George W. Bush could, some day, benefit financially from his own administration's decisions, through his father's investments. The average American doesn't know that. To me, that's a jaw-dropper."

CONTINUED...

http://www.bollyn.com/war-is-sell-washington-elite-benefits-from-war

[malaise]

9. K & R

for truth

[Octafish]

31. Genoa, July 2001 G-8 Summit...

Pretzeldent Smirko was attending the G-8 summit at Genoa. Instead of staying on land at a luxury hotel, the commandeer-n-thief chose to sleep aboard a guided missile destroyer. Why? He was warned by Putin that "Osama bin Laden" was planning to attack the conference with hijacked jetliners. Here's the article from July 2001:

Why would Osama bin Laden want to kill Dubya, his former business partner?

By James Hatfield

Editor's note: In light of last week's horrific events and the Bush administration's reaction to them, we are reprising the following from the last column Jim Hatfield wrote for Online Journal prior to his tragic death on July 18:

July 3, 2001—There may be fireworks in Genoa, Italy, this month, too.

A plot by Saudi master terrorist, Osama bin Laden, to assassinate Dubya during the July 20 economic summit of world leaders, was uncovered after dozens of suspected Islamic militants linked to bin Laden's international terror network were arrested in Frankfurt, Germany, and Milan, Italy, in April.

German intelligence services have stated that bin Laden is covertly financing neo-Nazi skinhead groups throughout Europe to launch another terrorist attack at a high-profile American target—his first since the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen last October.

According to counter-terrorism experts quoted in Germany's largest newspaper, the attack on Dubya might be a James Bond-like aerial strike in the form of remote-controlled airplanes packed with plastic explosives.

Why would Osama bi Laden want to kill, Dubya, his former business partner?

CONTINUED...

http://web.archive.org/web/20060906150015/http://www.onlinejournal.org/Special_Reports/Hatfield-R-091901/hatfield-r-091901.html

FTR: The guy died a few days after this was published. A suicide.

[PeoViejo]

11. It's what they do.

You don't have to be Italian to run a Mob.

The 'Ivy League' Mafia.

[Octafish]

32. Prescott Bush Sr business partner Allen Dulles did just that.

The guy was head of CIA when they decided to take out Fidel Castro. Odd thing is: He did it in 1960, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower was in office, yet most of the coverage since makes it out like it was President John F. Kennedy's idea.

AUG 1960: Richard Bissell meets with Colonel Sheffield Edwards, director of the CIA's Office of Security, and discusses with him ways to eliminate or assassinate Fidel Castro. Edwards proposes that the job be done by assassins hand-picked by the American underworld, specifically syndicate interests who have been driven out of their Havana gambling casinos by the Castro regime. Bissell gives Edwards the go-ahead to proceed. Between August 1960, and April 1961, the CIA with the help of the Mafia pursues a series of plots to poison or shot Castro. The CIA’s own internal report on these efforts states that these plots "were viewed by at least some of the participants as being merely one aspect of the over-all active effort to overthrow the regime that culminated in the Bay of Pigs." (CIA, Inspector General's Report on Efforts to Assassinate Fidel Castro, p. 3, 14)

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/bayofpigs/chron.html

Imagine that thought at the time that Vice President Richard M Nixon would win the election that year.

[Unknown Beatle]

13. It's not surprising

to me that the BFEE continues to roll. With all their friends in high power, including two presidents in Bush Sr and Jr controlling the outcomes of investigations, the end result is guaranteed.

[Octafish]

33. Multi-generational power players...

Old news to DU. News to most of the nation:



Baron de Rothschild and Prescott Bush, sharing a moment and a bit o' information in this small world, back in the day.

Rothschild and Freshfields founders’ had links to slavery, papers reveal

By Carola Hoyos
Financial Times

Two of the biggest names in the City of London had previously undisclosed links to slavery in the British colonies, documents seen by the Financial Times have revealed.

Nathan Mayer Rothschild, the banking family’s 19th-century patriarch, and James William Freshfield, founder of Freshfields, the top City law firm, benefited financially from slavery, records from the National Archives show, even though both have often been portrayed as opponents of slavery.

Far from being a matter of distant history, slavery remains a highly contentious issue in the US, where Rothschild and Freshfields are both active.

Companies alleged to have links to past slave injustices have come under pressure to make restitution.

JPMorgan, the investment bank, set up a $5m scholarship fund for black students studying in Louisiana after apologising in 2005 for the company’s historic links to slavery.

CONTINUED (with registration, etc) ...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7c0f5014-628c-11de-b1c9-00144feabdc0.html

Some really believe that one group of people is superior to others. That used to be reasons for war, now it's called being a Republican.

[McCamy Taylor]

19. Have a feeling the Bush's are the front men.

The real power is likely to keep its name and face hidden. The Sauds are part of it, for sure. Monarchs can not hide their tracks. David Rockefeller--almost certainly. If you believe that Standard Oil was ever really split up, you will believe anything. The US oil companies march in lockstep. The Rothschild and the Morgans are joined at the hip, too.

The tricky thing about criminal business enterprises is that what is good for the pocketbook of one business sector is bad for the bank account of another. Bush's single minded determination to 1) raise the price of oil and 2) make use of banksters and their ability to manipulate the markets to raise oil prices while looking the other way as they manipulated all other markets made many other sectors of the economy very, very angry. Transportation, retail, manufacturing, travel, construction---all took a huge hit.

It is much easier to look at capitalism as feudalism with different economic sectors as different feudal houses, each forming alliances with houses that have similar goals and needs and each feuding with houses whose needs are not their own. If you understand this, you understand why MSNBC/GE (manufacturing/nuclear/"carbon credits"/Pentagon) was destined to become the weak link in the Bush administration's media lock down, unraveling the myth that only a complete surrender of our civil liberties--and war with Iran which would have raised gas to above $6 a gallon while completely destroying military morale and US readiness in the event of a real war--- would keep us safe from Terra.

The Bush Family and the CIA that kisses the ground Papa Bush walks upon are really just mercenaries for hire in a feudal war being waged by the massively rich and powerful---something the Bush family will never be. The United States military is just a mercenary for hire in this war, too. The biggest threat to the various houses is technology---change is coming so fast and from so many directions that they can not keep up. They are scared shitless that the source of their power will become worthless tomorrow. And fear makes them mean.

[scarletwoman]

23. Rec & kick.

Great post!

[mylye2222]

27. K&R.

No surprise Jeb wants to run. Hes the new standard bearer for tje BushInc criminal agenda.