And another little interesting bit...
Here's a tiny sampling of what's known about the Bushies.I was working in Miami in the early 1980s when Jeb Bush popped up on the scene like a
malevolent jack-in-the-box. Doors, especially those in Little Havana, swung open wide for the "vice president's son." My interest was drawn to one
particular door -- a health maintenance organization owned by Miguel Recarey. It would turn out that Recarey had ties to the Contra terrorists in
Nicaragua and to the Mafia family of Tampa's godfather, Santos Trafficante. Bush brushed aside the mob allegations and declared that Recarey was "a
good supporter of the Republican Party." And Bush helped arranged for the HMO to treat wounded Contras -- part of the larger clandestine, and very
illegal, Reagan Administration scheme to help the terrorist outfit (a group that, as it would later turn out, was padding its coffers by smuggling
drugs into American cities).
Bush was soon on the Miami HMO's payroll as a "real estate consultant." He never found a real estate deal for Recarey, but he did open doors in
Washington to get a massive infusion -- a billion bucks or so -- of Medicare funding. Recarey stole $230 million of the taxpayer's cash and fled the
country in 1987.
I later covered a story about a scummy real estate deal of Jeb's: He tanked more than $4 million in loans on a commercial building -- money you and I
ended up paying. Ah, what a capitalist, I thought.
My curiosity about Bush was piqued, and it was amazing to watch his South Florida story unfold. There wasn't a rake or a blackguard he didn't seem
to befriend. They only thing that mattered was that Bush's friends had to be sufficiently fanatical (often maniacal) in their right-wing extremism.
Those pals included Leonel Martinez, a major league cocaine smuggler. Even more interesting was that Jeb -- who would later join his brother's "war
on terrorism" (aka the war for Halliburton and against American liberties) -- finagled the release from prison of a really bloodthirsty terrorist who
rivals any of Osama bin Laden's boys: the ultra-right Orlando Bosch, who had committed 30 acts of terrorism, including the bombing of a Cuban
airliner that killed 73 people. Likewise, Bush was ever-so-tight with Jorge Mas Canosa, the thoroughly low-life (and now thankfully deceased) leader
of the Cuban-American National Foundation. Mas boasted of his terrorist exploits, including the machinegun strafing of Havana residential
neighborhoods.
Terrorism, it appears, is in the eye of the beholder.
atlanta.creativeloafing.com...