Looking behind the Bushes.
Great moments in a great American family
1918 - 1994
1918
Prescott Bush Sr., leads a raid on a Indian tomb to
secure Geronimo's skull for Skull & Bones.
1937
Prescott Bush's investment firm sets up deal for the
Luftwaffe so it can obtain tetraethyl lead.
1942
Three firms with which Prescott Bush is associated are
seized under the Trading with the Enemy Act.
SARASOTA HERALD-TRIBUNE: The president of the Florida
Holocaust Museum said Saturday that George W. Bush's
grandfather derived a portion of his personal fortune
through his affiliation with a Nazi-controlled bank.
John Loftus, a former prosecutor in the Justice
Department's Nazi War Crimes Unit, said his research
found that Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a
principal in the Union Banking Corp. in Manhattan in
the late 1930s and the 1940s. Leading Nazi
industrialists secretly owned the bank at that time,
Loftus said, and were moving money into it through a
second bank in Holland even after the United States
declared war on Germany. The bank was liquidated in
1951, Loftus said, and Bush's grandfather and
great-grandfather received $1.5 million from the bank
as part of that dissolution . . . Loftus pointed out
that the Bush family would not be the only American
political dynasty to have ties to the "wrong side of
World War II." The Rockefellers had financial
connections to Nazi Germany, he said. Loftus also
reminded his audience that John F. Kennedy's father,
an avowed isolationist and former ambassador to Great
Britain, profited during the 1930s and '40s from Nazi
stocks that he owned. "No one today blames the
Democrats because Jack Kennedy's father bought Nazi
stocks," Loftus said. Still, he said, it is important
to understand these historical connections for what
they tell us about politics today. The World War II
experience points out how easy it was then -- and
remains today -- to hide money in multinational funds.
SARASOTA HERALD TRIBUNE
1953
George Bush and the Liedtke brothers form Zapata
Petroleum. Zapata's subsidiary, Zapata Offshore, later
becomes known for its close ties to the CIA.
1954
The Bush family buys out the Liedtke brothers.
1955
George Bush sets up a Mexican drilling operation,
Permago, with a frontman to obscure his ownership. The
frontman later is convicted of defrauding the Mexican
government of $58 million.
1959
Manuel Noriega recruited as an agent by the US Defense
Intelligence Agency.
1960
Some investigators believe George Bush spent part of
this year and the next in Miami on behalf of the CIA,
organizing rightwing exiles for an invasion of Cuba.
Is said to have worked with later Iran-Contra figure
Felix Rodriguez.
1961
According to the Realist, CIA official Fletcher Prouty
delivers three Navy ships to agents in Guatemala to be
used in the Bay of Pigs invasion. Prouty claims he
delivered the ships to a CIA agent named George Bush.
Agent Bush named the ships the Barbara, Houston and
Zapata. (A reader points out, however, that the name
of the swamp surrounding the Bay of Pigs was Zapata]
Bay of Pigs invasion fails. Right-wingers blame
Kennedy for failure to provide air cover. CIA loses 15
men, another 1100 are imprisoned.
George Bush invites Rep. TL. Ashley -- a fellow Skull
& Boner -- down to Texas for a party in order to meet
"an attractive girl." Bush writes that "she may be
accompanied by an Austrian ski instructor but I think
we can probably flush him at the local dance hall."
Bush notes that he's had to unlist his phone because
"Jane Morgan keeps calling me all the time." [From a
letter in the Ashley archives uncovered by Spy
magazine.]
Zapata annual report boasts that the company has paid
no taxes since it was founded.
1963
John F. Kennedy is assassinated. Internal FBI memo
reports that on November 22 "reputable businessman"
George H. W. Bush reported hearsay that a certain
Young Republican "has been talking of killing the
president when he comes to Houston." The Young
Republican was nowhere near Dallas on that date.
According to a 1988 story in The Nation, a memo from
J. Edgar Hoover states that "Mr. George Bush of the
CIA" had been briefed on November 23rd, 1963 about the
reaction of anti-Castro Cuban exiles in Miami to the
assassination of President Kennedy. George says it
ain't him, admits he was in Texas but can't remember
where.
1964
George Bush runs as a Goldwater Republican for
Congress. Campaigns against the Civil Rights Act.
1966
Bush, runs as a moderate Republican, gets elected to
Congress. Robert Mosbacher chairs Oil Men for Bush.
Apache leader Ned Anderson meets with the Skull &
Bones lawyer and George Bush's brother Jonathan who
attempt to return the skull Prescott Bush had looted.
Anderson refuses the skull because he says it isn't
Geronimo's.
1968
George W. Bush joins Skull & Bones at Yale
1970
Bush loses Senate race to Lloyd Bentsen, despite
$112,000 in contributions from a White House slush
fund. Jim Baker is campaign chair. Bush later claims
to have reported correctly all but $6000 in cash
--which he denies he got. A 1992 story in the New York
Times says the $6000 was listed in records of Nixon's
"townhouse operation" which was designed in part to
make GOP congressional candidates vulnerable to
blackmail.
1971
Bush is named UN Ambassador by Nixon.
Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs finds enough
evidence of Noriega's involvement in drug dealing to
indict him, but US Attorney's office in Miami
considers grabbing Noriega in Panama for trial here to
be impractical. State Department also urges BNDD to
back off.
1972
Bill Liedtke gathers $700,000 in anonymous
contributions for the Nixon campaign, delivering the
money in cash, checks and securities to the Committee
to Re-Elect the President (the infamous CREEP) one day
before such contributions become illegal. Bill says he
did it as a favor to George.
1973
Bush is named GOP national chair. Brings into the
party the Heritage Groups Council, an organization
with a number of Nazi sympathizers.
Bush, according to Lowell Weicker, inquires as to
whether records of the "townhouse operation" should be
burned.
Robert Mosbacher wins an offshore drilling concession
from Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Watergate tapes indicate concern by Nixon and aide HR
Haldeman that the investigation into Watergate might
expose the "Bay of Pigs thing." Nixon also speaks of
the "Texans" and the "Cubans." and mentions
"Mosbacher."
In another tape, Nixon decides following his
re-election to get signed resignations from his whole
government so he can centralize his power. Says Nixon
to John Erlichman: "Eliminate everyone, except George
Bush. Bush will do anything for our cause."
1974
Bush is named special envoy to China.
1975
DEA report notes Noreiga's involvement in drug trade.
George W. Bush graduates from Harvard Business School
1976
Jerry Ford names George Bush CIA director, his fourth
political patronage job in a little over five years.
Bush later claims this is the first time he ever
worked for the CIA. At his confirmation hearings, Bush
says, "I think we should tread very carefully on
governments that are constitutionally elected."
Bush holds first known meeting with Noriega. Noriega
starts receiving $110,000 a year from the CIA.
Noriega found to be working for Cubans as well, but
keeps his CIA gig.
Bush sets up Team B within the CIA, a group of
neo-conservative outsiders and generals who proceed to
double the agency's estimate of Soviet military
spending.
Senate committee headed by Frank Church proposes
revealing size of the country's black budget --
intelligence spending that, in contradiction to the
Constitution, is kept secret even from the Hill.
According to journalist Tim Weiner, Bush argues that
the revelation would be a disaster and would
compromise the agency beyond repair. By a one vote
margin the matter is referred to the Senate. It never
reaches the floor.
Chilean dissident Orlando Letelier is assassinated by
Chilean secret police agents. CIA fails to inform FBI
of pending plot and of assassins' arrival in US. CIA
claims the hit was the work of left-wingers in search
of a martyr.
Bush writes internal CIA memo asking to see cable on
Jack Ruby visiting Santos Trafficante in jail. In
1992, Bush will deny any interest in the JFK
assassination while CIA head.
Bush claims nuclear war is winnable.
1977
Philippine dictator Marcos buys back Robert
Mosbacher's oil concession. Mosbacher claims he was
swindled. Philippine officials say they never saw any
expenditures by Mosbacher on the project.
1978
Bush, Mosbacher and Jim Baker become partners in an
oil deal.
>From a Washington Post article by Bob Woodward and
Walter Pincus: "According to those involved in Bush's
first political action committee, there were several
occasions in 1978-79, when Bush was living in Houston
and traveling the country in his first run for the
presidency, that he set aside periods of up to 24
hours and told aides that he had to fly to Washington
for a secret meeting of former CIA directors. Bush
told his aides that he could not divulge his
whereabouts, and that he would not be available."
Former CIA chief Stansfield Turner denies such
meetings took place.
George W. Bush declares his candidacy for the Midland
Congressional district. He wins the Republican primary
and loses in the general election.
George W. Bush begins operations of his oil firm,
Arbusto Energy. With the help of Jonathan Bush, he
assembles several dozen investors in a limited
partnership including Dorothy Bush, Lewis Lehrman,
William Draper, and James Bath, a Houston aircraft
broker
1980
Bush becomes Reagan's vice presidential candidate.
Runs as a rightwinger again.
Mosbacher becomes chief fundraiser for Bush's
presidential campaign. Forms a millionaire's club of
250 contributors, each of whom cough up $100,000.
William Casey forms a working group to prepare for
possible Carter October political surprise. In early
October, an Iranian official meets with three top
Reagan campaign aides. All three deny memory of the
meeting in subsequent proceedings.
On October 21, Reagan hints he has a secret plan to
release the hostages. This is right around the alleged
date of a Paris meeting at which the so-called
"October Surprise" was settled. Some allege that at
this meeting it was agreed to end the arms embargo
against Iran if Iran would release its hostages after
the election. While Bush's presence at this meeting
has been denied by the House committee investigating
the October Surprise, Bush's whereabouts at this
critical time remain in doubt. The White House, in
fact, has leaked conflicting stories.
Rep. Dan Quayle goes on a Florida golfing vacation
with seven other men and Paula Parkinson -- an
insurance lobbyist who later posed nude for Playboy.
Parkinson describes Quayle as a husband on the make,
but says she turned him down because she was already
having an affair with another congressman. Marilyn
Quayle says, "anybody who knows Dan Quayle knows he
would rather play golf than have sex."
The Reagan-Bush campaign receives stolen copies of
Carter's briefing books.
Bush's campaign manager, James Baker, forces the
dismissal of Bush aide Jennifer Fitzgerald, described
in a 1982 Time story as having "much to say about
where Bush goes, what he does and whom he sees." Bush
continues to pay Fitzgerald out of his own pocket.
1981
Reagan-Bush inaugurated. Hostages released moments
before. Shortly thereafter, arms shipments to Iran
resume from Israel and America. In July, an
Argentinean plane chartered by Israel crashes in
Soviet territory. It is found to have made three
deliveries of American military supplies to Iran. In a
1991 story in Esquire, Craig Unger quotes Alexander
Haig as saying "I have a sneaking suspicion that
someone in the White House winked." Says Unger: "This
secret and illegal sale of military equipment
continued for years afterwards."
James Baker named Reagan's chief of staff.
SEC filings for Zapata Oil for 1960-66 are found to
have been "inadvertently destroyed."
Reagan authorizes CIA assistance to Contras.
1982
CIA director William Casey begins Operation Black
Eagle to expand US role in Central America. Urges use
of "selected Latin American and European governments,
organizations and individuals" in the project.
Inslaw, a computer software company, signs a $10
million contract to install a case-tracking program in
94 US Attorney's offices. Four months later, after
obtaining a copy of Inslaw's proprietary version of
the program, the government cancels the contract and
begins an aggressive campaign to force the company
into bankruptcy. Later sources claim that the program
was installed by the CIA and sold to various foreign
intelligence agencies.
After $3 million is poured into Arbusto with little
oil and no profits, just tax shelter George W. Bush
changes the company name to Bush Exploration Oil Co.
Subsequently he is kept afloat by an investment from
Philip Uzielli, a Princeton friend of James Baker III.
For the sum of $1 million, Uzielli bought 10% of the
company at a time in 1982 when the entire enterprise
was valued at less than $400,000. Subsequently, to
save the company George W. Bush merges with Spectrum
7, a small oil firm owned by William DeWitt and Mercer
Reynolds. DeWitt had graduated from Yale a few years
earlier than Bush and was the son of the former owner
of the Cincinnati Reds. Bush becomes president of
Spectrum 7. He also gets 14% of the Spectrum's stock.
Meanwhile, 50 original investors in Arbusto get paid
off at about 20 cents on the dollar.
1983
Noriega meets again with George Bush.
Bush presents an autographed photo to a WWII Ukrainian
leader under the Nazis, whose regime killed 100,000
Jews.
KAL 007 crashes under circumstances that remain
suspicious to this day.
Bush promotes Jennifer Fitzgerald from appointments
secretary to executive assistant. Seven staffers
resign in protest. Fitzgerald tells the New York Post:
"Everyone keeps painting me as this old ogre. I really
don't worry about it. All these bizarre things just
simply aren't true."
Neil Bush forms his first oil company. He puts in
$100, his partners contribute $160,000 and Neil is
named president of the firm, JNB Exploration.
Jeb Bush's business partner, Alberto Duque, goes
bankrupt, is eventually convicted of fraud and is
sentenced to 15 years in prison.
1984
Jeb Bush lobbies the Department of Health & Human
Services on behalf of Cuban-American businessman
Miguel Recarey, Jr., whose medical firm later
collapses. Recarey, who was close to mobster Santos
Trafficante, later flees the US under indictment with
at least $12 million in federal funds.
George Bush takes part in meetings to plan increased
"third country" aid to the Contras..
CIA mines Nicaraguan harbors.
1985
Jennifer Fitzgerald is sent to work on Capitol Hill
after stories arise linking her romantically with
George Bush.
Stuart Spencer's public relation firm starts receiving
over $350,000 from Panama to improve Noriega's image.
CIA starts using BCCI as a conduit.
George Bush thanks Oliver North for "dedication and
tireless work with the hostage thing, with Central
America." Bush will later deny knowing about the
Contra effort until late 1986.
Neil Bush joins the board of Silverado S&L, serves
until 1988. Silverado loans his partners in JNB $132
million which they never repay. Silverado will
eventually collapse at a taxpayer cost of $1 billion.
408 TOW anti-tank missiles are shipped from Israel to
Iran. A day later, US hostage Benjamin Weir is
released.
1986
VP Bush goes to Honduras to promote support for the
Contras. Takes along baseball players Nolan Ryan and
Gary Carter.
Contra figure Felix Rodriguez meets with Donald Gregg,
Bush's national security advisor, to complain about
Iran-Contra operatives skimming funds from the
Contras.
Bush may have made several secret visits to Damascus
between 1986-88 according to a 1992 report in Time,
which said two senior GOP senators were pressing for a
probe. The allegation is that Bush went to negotiate
the release of hostages in Lebanon but in fact
stonewalled Syria, "playing for campaign timing.
Republicans want to get to the bottom of
intelligence-community suspicions that the US somehow
blew a chance to free Terry Anderson and his fellow
captives."
Iranian arms runner Manucher Ghorbanifar proposes
"diversion" of profits from Iran arms sales to
Contras.
George W. Bush and partners receive more than $2
million of Harken Energy stock in exchange for a
failing oil well operation, which had lost $400,000 in
the prior six months. After Bush joined Harken, the
largest stock position and a seat on its board were
acquired by Harvard Management Company. The Harken
board gave Bush $600,000 worth of the company's
publicly traded stock, plus a seat on the board plus a
consultancy that paid him up to $120,000 a year. When
Harken runs short of cash it hooks up with investment
banker Jackson Stephens of Little Rock, Arkansas, who
arranges a $25 million stock purchase by Union Bank of
Switzerland. Sheik Abdullah Bakhsh, who joins the
board as a part of the deal, is connected to the
infamous BCCI.
1987
Bush's former chief of staff, Daniel Murphy, flies to
Panama with South Korean influence peddler Tongsun
Park on a private plane owned by arms dealer Sargis
Soghnalian to meet with Noriega. Murphy later tells a
Senate subcommittee that he informed Noriega that he
need not resign before the 1988 election despite the
Reagan administration public pressure to the contrary.
Bill Casey dies.
Lee Atwater accuses Robert Dole of spreading stories
about Bush and Jennifer Fitzgerald. An agreement is
worked out, as reported by Sidney Blumenthal in the
Washington Post: "The Dole people didn't spread any
rumors and promised not to do it again. And the Bush
people haven't spread rumors about the Dole people
spreading rumors and won't do it again. "
Harken Energy project gets rescued by aid from the
BCCI-connected Union Bank of Switzerland in a deal
brokered by Jackson Stephens, later to show up as a
key supporter of Bill Clinton.
1988
Jeb Bush and a partner default on a $4.5 million loan
from a Florida S&L. The default will cost taxpayers'
millions. Bush and his partners will repay only ten
percent of the loan but will keep all real estate
collateralized by it.
Silverado S&L goes under after receiving 126 cease &
desist orders in past four years from the Topeka
office of the Office of Thrift Supervision. These
orders found conflict of interests, insider abuse and
other violations.
Dwight Chapin, ex-Nixon dirty trickster, gets job in
Bush campaign.
Rudi Slavoff becomes head of Bulgarians for Bush. In
1983, Slavoff organized an event honoring Austin App,
promoter of the theory that the Holocaust was a hoax.
Slavoff joins other GOP ethnic leaders in the
Coalition of American Nationalities co-chaired by
Edward Derwinski. Among them is a former member of an
Hungarian pro-Nazi party. After press revelations,
eight of the leaders accused of anti-semitism resign
from the campaign. Bush says: "Nobody's giving in...
These people left of their own account."
GOP flier warns that "all the murderers, rapists and
drug pushers and child molesters in Massachusetts vote
for Michael Dukakis."
Bush establishes Team 100, which will eventually grow
to 249 individuals who contribute nearly $25 million
in soft money to help the GOP cause. The contributions
also apparently help the contributors, various of whom
get ambassadorial appointments, legislative favors,
and intervention on regulatory and criminal matters.
Bush denies knowledge of Noriega's involvement in drug
dealing.
The Willie Horton ad is aired. Credit for similar
tactics is given to campaign guru Lee Atwater, whose
PR firm had represented drug-connected Bahamian prime
minister Oscar Pinding and the Philippines' Marcos.
Atwater himself had represented UNITA, the CIA-backed
Africa rebel group.
Fred Malek, ex-Nixon aide, resigns from the Bush
campaign after it's revealed that he compiled a list
of Jews in the Labor Dept. as part of a Nixon
investigation of a "Jewish cabal."
A few days before the supposedly surprise arrest of
five BCCI officials, some of the world's most powerful
drug dealers quietly withdraw millions of dollars from
the bank. Some government investigators believe the
dealers were tipped off by sources within the Bush
administration.
Although Felix Rodriguez, former leading cop under
Batista, claims he left the CIA in 1976, Rolling Stone
reports that he is still going to CIA headquarters
monthly to receive assignments and get his bulletproof
Cadillac serviced.
Bankruptcy judge George Bason Jr. concludes that the
government stole Inslaw's software through "trickery,
fraud and deceit."
Stock market drops 43 points on false rumor that
Washington Post was about the publish the
Bush-Fitzgerald story.
1989
Bush inaugurated. Aides tell the press that the new
administration would rather "stay one step behind than
be one step ahead."
Bush authorizes CIA support to Noriega's opposition,
giving Noriega an excuse to annul Panama's elections.
Bush claims executive privilege to avoid testifying in
the Oliver North trial, thus becoming first president
to use this power to keep his acts as vice president
under wraps.
Dan Quayle declares changes in Soviet Union "just a
public relations extravaganza."
Bush brother Prescott flies to Shanghai after the
Tiananmen Square massacre to close a deal for an $18
million resort there, despite his brother's ban on
high-level Chinese contacts. Prescott says, "We aren't
a bunch of carrion birds coming in to pick the
carcass. But there are big opportunities in China, and
America can't afford to be shut out."
Prescott Bush also visits Japan, searching for
consulting contracts just ten days before his brother
arrives on a presidential tour. The Japanese firm that
paid Prescott a quarter-million dollar consulting fee
comes under investigation for exchange law violations
and links to the Japanese mob.
C. Boyden Gray, the president's top ethics official,
corrects his 1985 and 1986 financial disclosure forms.
He forgot to include $98,000 in income.
George Bush signs the S&L bailout bill promising that
"these problems will never happen again."
The Chicago Tribune reports: "After 14 fishing
outings, the President has failed to catch a single
fish."
At White House behest, the DEA lures drug dealer to
Lafayette Park to make arrest in front of presidential
home for the benefit of Bush's upcoming drug speech.
At first, drug dealer is dubious, asks DEA agent,
"Where the fuck is the White House?"
Defense secretary nominee John Tower runs into
confirmation troubles when it is revealed that he has
received hundreds of thousands of dollars in
consulting fees from defense contractors. Runs into
more trouble with revelations of womanizing and
drinking. His nomination is rejected.
The sale of three communications satellites to China
is announced. Prescott Bush is a $250,000 consultant
in the deal.
GOP memo is leaked implying that House Speaker Tom
Foley is a homosexual.
President Bush signs a top-secret directive ordering
closer ties with Iraq, which opens the way for $1
billion in new aid just a little more than a year
before Bush goes to war against that country. The
agricultural credit allows Saddam Hussein to use his
hard currency for a massive military buildup.
A second judge concurs that the government stole
Inslaw's software.
The Statistical Abstract of the United States,
published by the US government, reports that the GNP
of East Germany during the 1980s was greater than that
of West Germany. The figures come from the CIA.
Bahrain officials suddenly break off offshore drilling
negotiations with Amoco and decide to deal with Harken
Energy, George Bush Jr.'s firm. Harken has had a
series of failed ventures and no cash, so the Bass
brothers are brought in to finance Harken's efforts at
a cost of $50 million.
Neil Bush bails out of JNB Exploration, the firm where
he became president with a $100 ante, leaving his
partners to worry about its debt. Days earlier he
forms Apex Energy with a personal investment of $3000.
The rest of the money -- $2.7 million -- comes from an
SBA program designed to help "high risk start-up
companies." Like JNB, it proves to be just that. Apex
will later go belly-up with no assets.
Two months after his father's inauguration, George W.
Bush announces that he and a syndicate of investors
have purchased the Texas Rangers. The investors are
Edward "Rusty" Rose, Richard Rainwater, Bill DeWitt,
Roland Betts (a former Yale frat brother) and Tom
Bernstein (Bett's partner in a film investment
concern). While Bush appears to lead the group,
Rainwater makes clear that Rose is to control how the
business is run. Bush's stake in the $86 million deal
is 2%, financed with a $500,000 loan from a Midland
Bank of which he had been a director and $106,000 from
other sources. Rainwater and Rose put up 14.2 million,
Betts and Bernstein invested about $6 million and the
balance comes from smaller investors and loans. Bush
will eventually sell his share for $15 million.
1990
Federal regulators give Bush son Neil the mildest
possible penalty in the $1 billion failure of the
Silverado S&L. The deal is so good that Bush drops his
appeal. Among other things, Neil, as a Silverado
director, voted to approve over $100 million in loans
to his business partners.
January: Bahrain awards exclusive offshore drilling
rights to Harken Oil. This is a surprise as Harken is
in very shaky financial condition, has never drilled
outside of Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma and had never
drilled undersea at all. The Bass brothers are brought
in by Harken for sufficient equity to proceed with the
effort. Harken's stock price increases from $4.50 to
$5.50.
George W. Bush sells two-thirds of his Harken Energy
stock at the top of the market for $850,000, a 200%
profit, but makes no report to the SEC until March
1991. Bush Jr. says later the SEC misplaced the
report. An SEC representative responds: "nobody ever
found the 'lost' filing." One week after Bush's sale,
Harken reports an earnings plunge. Harken stock falls
more than 60%. Bush uses most of the proceeds to pay
off the bank loan he had taken a year earlier to
finance his portion of the Texas Rangers deal.
August: Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait. Harken's stock
price drops substantially. Two months after Bush sells
his stock, Harken posts losses for the 2nd quarter of
well over $20 million and is shares fall another 24 %,
by year end Harken is trading at $1.25. Bush has
insisted that he did not know about the firm's
mounting losses and that his stock sell-off was
approved by Harken's general counsel.
George W. Bush is asked by Carlyle Group to serve on
the board of directors of Caterair, one of the
nation's largest airline catering services which it
had acquired in 1989. The offer is arranged by Fred
Malek, long time Bush associate who is then an advisor
to Carlyle.
October: Arlington, Texas Mayor Richard Greene signs a
contract that guarantees $135 million toward the new
Texas Ranger Stadium's estimate price of $190 million.
The Rangers put up no cash but finance their share
through a ticket surcharge. From the team's operating
revenues, the city will earn a maximum of $5 million
annually in rent, no matter how much the Rangers reap
from ticket sales and television (a sum that will rise
to $100 million a year). Another provision permitts
the franchise to buy the stadium after the accumulated
rental payments reached a mere $ 60 million. The
property acquired so cheaply by the Rangers includes
not just a fancy new stadium with a seating capacity
of 49,000 but an additional 270 acres of newly
valuable land. Legislation is passed and signed that
authorizes the Arlington Sports Facilities Development
Authority with power to issue bonds and exercise
eminent domain over any obstinate landowners. Never
before had a Texas municipal authority been given the
license to seize the property of a private citizen for
the benefit of other private citizens. A recalcitrant
Arlington family refuses to sell a 13 acre parcel near
the stadium site for half its appraised value. The
jury awards more
http://prorev.com/bush2.htm
|