Greg Palast Documentary Highlights How Bush's Military Records Were Purged

[Q]

New Greg Palast Documentary Highlights How Bush's Military Records Were Purged

As controversy swirls around the authenticity of documents used by 60 Minutes last week, we play an excerpt of a new documentary "Bush Family Fortunes" by investigative reporter Greg Palast that examines Bush's military duty and includes a rare interview with former Texas Air National Guardsman Lt. Col. Bill Burkett.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/17/1348234

[Q]

1. A funny quote from Palast's documentary:

"In order to get into the guard, George Bush* had to take a test. He scored 25 out a possible 100...just one point above 'too dumb to fly'.

- Excepts can be seen on Democracy Now.

[Flammable Materials]

2. This is not a new documentary ...

... if it's the same on that was run on BBC a while back (which I have on SVCD).

[Q]

3. Bush Family Fortunes...

...They call it new and it has information relevant to today's politics.

- Many, many people remain ignorant of this information. Perhaps YOU could help enlighten us if you know so much about it?

[Flammable Materials]

8. Don't get so defensive.

I was only wondering if there was a newer, expanded version of the program.

Sheesh, I'm really thinking I need to take a break from DU. There's some really bad mojo around here lately.

[0007]

10. See 'ya!

[teryang]

4. Incontrovertible facts

The young George W. Bush used political influence to get a position in the TANG to avoid service in Vietnam ahead of thousands of others more qualified and ahead of him in line.

He went AWOL from that service.

Thanks for the link. Very informative.

[Karenina]

5. Kick!

:kick:

[Judi Lynn]

6. So Karen Hughes is part of this, according to Burkett! Interesting.

From your link:

GREG PALAST: And you heard that off the voicebox?

LT. COL. BILL BURKETT: Yes.

GREG PALAST: Yourself?

LT. COL. BILL BURKETT: Yes.

GREG PALAST: The call came in from this woman's office, Karen Hughes, Governor Bush's Chief of Staff.

GREG PALAST: Now, they wouldn't go along with a call from a politician and actually clean the files, would they?

LT. COL. BILL BURKETT: Yes.

GREG PALAST: They would?

LT. COL. BILL BURKETT: Yes.

GREG PALAST: Did they?

LT. COL. BILL BURKETT: Yes. There were several documents, and I saw that they had George W. Bush's name at the top of them. And this was a bin that was about to be shredded. A specific document that I do remember was a pay document. A second specific document that I remember was a retirement points document. That in fact might explain some tremendous gaps in the records. It makes no sense.

LT. COL. BILL BURKETT: This is during the Vietnam war? Yes. And did he show up for training? There's no documentation at all that he showed up.

GREG PALAST: Are you saying that the president may have been A.W.O.L., taken off during the war?

LT. COL. BILL BURKETT: If you look at the definition of absent without leave, which is used to court-martial individuals, he met those ramifications of those charges. On two occasions, I had had soldiers who did not show up for drill, not just one drill, but a second drill, and on their second drill, yes, I did refer them to the selective service board, which was one of the options of a commander.

GREG PALAST: As basically...

LT. COL. BILL BURKETT: They were put in priority status to go to Vietnam and find themselves a foxhole and fight with the rest of the guys.
(snip)

It would be FANTASTIC to ask Karen Huge to swear under oath she had nothing to do with the records disappearing while _Bush was acting as the Governor of Texas!

[DeepModem Mom]

7. kick

[shooga]

9. Joe "somebody" from FEMA

Joe "somebody" from FEMA was one of the operatives who purged (destroyed) the real bush military files. He was "rewarded" with the FEMA job. maybe someone out there can remember his last name ... he ia a big guy with glasses and a flat-top butch hair-cut.


http://www.civilawareness.com

[TahitiNut]

11. Joe Allbaugh

"FEMA Director Joe Albaugh Meets With Region VII Staff
FEMA Director, Joe Allbaugh answers questions at a recent All Hands meeting with Region VII staff. In comments, Mr. Allbaugh told the staff that he feels fortunate to have the opportunity of representing an agency that has such a fabulous reputation around the world for helping people. He thanked employees for what they do--for being a part of the FEMA family--for being the hope for those who have no hope."
http://www.fema.gov/regions/vii/ph_regvii_2.shtm

Allbaugh's response

In an interview with NBC News, Allbaugh admits he did have "several conversations" with James about getting Bush's National Guard record. But Allbaugh says he never instructed anyone to remove "embarrassing files."

"For anyone to suggest that he or I or a member of his staff wanted to alter any of the records, absolutely false, pure hogwash, that's all it is, hogwash," he said.

Allbaugh says he has "never heard" of Burkett before.

Allbaugh described his conversations with James as an effort to review the files and then to make some of them public.

"We had several conversations about it, that obviously people were going to be asking about his honorable service, and we wanted to know how to make the information available, and we didn't know where the official records were kept" said Allbaugh.

As for charges by Democrats that Bush shirked his duties, Allbaugh said, "That's unacceptable and inappropriate. AWOL means absent without leave. I remind you at the time of service in the National Guard, it was a very fluid situation, many people served at sporadic times but put their service in. They were allowed to, based upon their unit commanders, to make up their time."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4261654/

[shooga]

12. thank you

if there is Congressional hearings into the Bush AWOL docs, Joe Allbaugh "knows where all the bodies are buried"


hence the cushy, powerful job appointment to FEMA.



http://www.civilawareness.com


"... Joe Allbaugh was key operative in the purging of most of incriminating Bush military records ... " I walked into the room and saw Joe Allbaugh standing near a trash can full of military records ... I tried to look at the documents which were laying on the top of the pile in the trashcan...""

[shooga]

13. Rather need this document

[TahitiNut]

15. Allbaugh is a Bush Cabal Enforcer

He was involved in Funeralgate. He was complicit in destroying TANG records. His wife (Diane) was an "Energy Lobbyist" (on the industry/Enron payola rolls) in Texas when Allbaugh was on Bush's staff and became an "Energy Lobbyist" in D.C. when Bush was selected in January 2001. (Payrolling the wife as a "lobbyist" is a way of paying off a crime family soldier.)

Just like Bath, he helped bury the bodies 30 years ago and has been on the payroll ever since.

On edit:
Diane M. Allbaugh 'earned' $120,000 in 2000 as a lobbyist for four Texas energy companies, all of which were involved in the Enron rape of California.

Entergy Corp $20,000 Entergy Corp -
Northpoint Technology $60,000 Northpoint Technology -
Reliant Energy $20,000 Reliant Energy -
Texas Utilities Co $20,000 TXU Corp

http://www.opensecrets.org/lobbyists/firm.asp?ID=99132&year=2000

[0007]

14. Thanks Q for the documentary

It was great and miles ahead of the media. Eric Boehlert (sp) was more than creditable.

[nomatrix]

16. Greg Palast has the real story it's GTech

Real story behind Barnes/Bush/Guard/lottery

http://gregpalast.com/


"Here's what happened. Just after Bush's election, Barnes' client GTech Corp., due to allegations of corruption, was about to lose its license to print money: its contract to run the Texas state lottery. Barnes, says the Justice Department document, made a call to the newly elected governor's office and saved GTech's state contract.


The letter said, "Governor Bush ... made a deal with Ben Barnes not to rebid because Barnes could confirm that Bush had lied during the '94 campaign."

In that close race, Bush denied the fix was in to keep him out of 'Nam, and the US media stopped asking questions. What did the victorious Governor Bush's office do for Barnes? According to the tipster, "Barnes agreed never to confirm the story and the governor talked to the chair of the lottery two days later and she then agreed to support letting GTech keep the contract without a bid."

And so it came to pass that the governor's commission reversed itself and gave GTech the billion dollar deal without a bid.

The happy client paid Barnes, the keeper of Governor Bush’s secret, a fee of over $23 million. Barnes, not surprisingly, denies that Bush took care of his client in return for Barnes’ silence. However, confronted with the evidence, the former Lt. Governor now admits to helping the young George stay out of Vietnam."

Who is GTech today? The largest lottery business in the WORLD.