By Greg Palast via Pandagon

Still Unreported: The Pay-off in Bush Air Guard Fix
Saturday, August 28,
2004

by Greg Palast

In 1968, former Congressman George Herbert Walker Bush of Texas, fresh from voting to send other men’s sons to Vietnam, enlisted his own son in a very special affirmative action program, the ‘champagne’ unit of the Texas Air National Guard. There, Top Gun fighter pilot George Dubya was assigned the dangerous job of protecting Houston from Vietcong air attack.

This week, former Lt. Governor Ben Barnes of Texas 'fessed up to pulling the strings to keep Little George out of the jungle. "I got a young man named George W. Bush into the Texas Air Guard - and I'm ashamed."

THE PAY-OFF

That’s far from the end of the story. In 1994, George W. Bush was elected governor of Texas by a whisker. By that time, Barnes had left office to become a big time corporate lobbyist. To an influence peddler like Barnes, having damning formation on a sitting governor is worth its weight in gold – or, more precisely, there’s a value in keeping the info secret. Barnes appears to have made lucrative use of his knowledge of our President’s slithering out of the draft as a lever to protect a multi-billion dollar contract for a client. That's the information in a confidential letter buried deep in the files of the US Justice
Department that fell into my hands at BBC television.

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 [the GTech lottery contract] 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 [of the draft dodging] 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.

Take a look at the letter yourself - with information we confirmed with other sources - at http://www.gregpalast.com/ulf/documents/draftdodgeblanked.jpg).

Frankly, I don’t care if President Bush cowered and ran from Vietnam. I sure as hell didn’t volunteer … but then, my daddy didn’t send someone else in my place. And I don’t march around aircraft carriers with parachute clips around my gonads talking about war and sacrifice.

More important, I haven't made any pay-offs to silence those who could change my image from war hero to war zero.

The point? You ask. My reply, character. When the time came and John Kerry was in a position, he said, "send me!" He volunteered to serve his country. He did so valiantly and was considered on the better or even best Swift Boat skippers, there was a maneuver named after him, his men have said if they had to go with him on one last mission, even it it was to Hell, they wouldn't hesitate.

George W. Bush fled combat by pulling strings to get in to the Texas Air National Guard, into what was called the "Champagne Unit." It was not enough that he pulled strings, 1972 and 1973, he went AWOL. Even by the White House's very loose standards, he did not fulfill his requirements.

However, GWB's friends have launched vile and, like McCain said, "Dishonorable and dishonest" attacks on John Kerry, his character and his service, while George W Bush has sat idly by refusing to condemn these lies. All this while George W. Bush tries to play the "good, solid, character" thing. But when we look at his actions now and his history, we can't but conclude that his character is not what he makes it out to be. On the other hand, when we look at John Kerry's character, now and his history, this is a nothing less than a good, solid man.

George Bush has done nothing to show that he is a man of solid character and worthy of the presidency of the United States. In John Kerry we have the opportunity to elect someone who would make an exceptional presiedent of the United States.