-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- London Sunday Times January 23 2000 UNITED STATES Bush hit by claims of 'lost weekends' in Mexico Tom Rhodes, New York A BOOK to be published this week about George W Bush, the Republican frontrunner, claims his father's chief of staff admitted in 1998 that the candidate had taken cocaine during the 1970s. Michael Dannenhauer, chief of staff to former president George Bush, is said to have told Toby Rogers, a journalist with the Houston Public News, a newspaper in Texas (where Bush Jr is governor), that the politician was "out of control" from the time he attended Yale University. "There was cocaine use, lots of women, but the drinking was the worst," the aide is alleged to have said. Dannenhauer purportedly also told Rogers of an admission by the former president that his son experienced "lost weekends in Mexico". Rumours of drug abuse have plagued Bush Jr for months since he declared himself a candidate in the presidential race. Since character is an important election issue, the latest claims are bound to rekindle interest in Bush's past. He has admitted to a "misspent youth", but has repeatedly evaded questions about cocaine. The claims will come under intense scrutiny. They were never published by the Houston newspaper, which has since closed. The story was briefly aired on September 13 last year by The Greenwich Village Gazette, an internet magazine in New York, but was pulled from its website. The publisher was concerned about legal action and the absence of any second source to support the allegation that Bush had started to use cocaine "some time before 1977". In a taped conversation with Rogers, Dannenhauer subsequently called the allegations a "total lie". He initially denied they had met, then claimed the interview had taken place years earlier. Rogers, now a freelance contributor to various publications including The Village Voice, the respected liberal paper in New York, claims a photograph apparently showing the two men together was taken on April 21, 1998. The allegations appear in the introduction to a revised biography of Bush by J H Hatfield, a Texan writer. The first imprint of his book, Fortunate Son, published in October last year, was withdrawn from shops after it emerged that Hatfield had served a five-year prison sentence for soliciting the attempted murder of his boss at a finance company in 1987. The book, with additional material from Rogers, is now being reissued by Soft Skull, a radical publishing company based in New York. It retains hotly disputed accusations made in the earlier version, which cited claims by three anonymous sources - one of them identified as a former Bush contemporary at Yale and another said to be an unofficial political adviser - that Bush was arrested in 1972 for cocaine possession. The book alleges that the record was expunged by a friendly judge as a favour to Bush Sr. Both father and son strenuously deny the claims. Last night Scott McClellan, the Bush presidential campaign spokesman, said: "This book belongs to science fiction. All allegations in it are ridiculous, false and libellous." Hatfield alleges that in return for a clean slate the judge ordered Bush to perform community service as a youth counsellor at the Professionals United for Leadership League (Pull), an urban poverty programme in Houston. The former president, however, has said he referred his son to the youth centre after an incident in which Bush drove drunk with his brother as a passenger. Sixty Minutes, the CBS documentary show, is due to broadcast an interview with Hatfield next month, raising the prospect that his allegations will attract further attention as the primaries get under way. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soap-boxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
