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RealAu­dio

1. George W. Bush recent­ly appoint­ed Elliot Abrams to the Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil. Abrams was one of the con­vict­ed Iran-Con­tra con­spir­a­tors par­doned by his father short­ly before leav­ing office. (“Iran-Con­tra Fig­ure Back at White House”; New York Times; 6/30/2001; p. A4.)

2. Bush also recent­ly select­ed Robert Mueller, a mem­ber of his father’s Jus­tice Depart­ment, to be FBI direc­tor. (“S.F. Pros­e­cu­tor Mueller Picked to Lead FBI, Mend Its Image” by Zachary Coile and Bob Egelko; San Fran­cis­co Chron­i­cle; 7/6/2001; pp. A1-A12.)

Pres­i­dent Bush tapped Robert S. Mueller III, the U.S. attor­ney in San Fran­cis­co, as the new direc­tor of the FBI yes­ter­day, seek­ing a no-non­sense man­ag­er to repair the image of an agency accused of botch­ing sev­er­al recent high-pro­file cas­es.

Mueller, a 56-year-old vet­er­an fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tor who helped put Pana­man­ian strong­man Manuel Nor­ie­ga behind bars, was nom­i­nat­ed to suc­ceed Louis Freeh. Freeh, who led the depart­ment through eight tur­bu­lent years under Pres­i­dent Bill Clin­ton, retired last month.

Mueller was picked for the 10-year FBI direc­tor’s term after prov­ing him­self as act­ing deputy attor­ney gen­er­al dur­ing Bush’s pres­i­den­tial tran­si­tion. His nom­i­na­tion requires Sen­ate con­fir­ma­tion.

3. In his work for the Bush Jus­tice Depart­ment, Mueller was less than vig­or­ous in his role over­see­ing the pros­e­cu­tion of Gen­er­al Nor­ie­ga of Pana­ma and the BCCI case. (“In the Run­ning for FBI Direc­tor” by Sta­cy Finz; San Fran­cis­co Chron­i­cle; 7/1/2001; pp. A1-A6.) Both the BCCI case and the Nor­ie­ga case over­lap the Iran-Con­tra inves­ti­ga­tion and the elder Bush was prin­ci­pal­ly involved in the Iran-Con­tra imbroglio. Full dis­clo­sure con­cern­ing the BCCI case could lead to inves­ti­ga­tion of James R. Bath, the Texas busi­ness rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Bin Laden fam­i­ly and one of the financiers of George W.‘s first oil ven­ture. Bin Laden’s forces have for­mal­ly tak­en cred­it for bomb­ing the U.S.S. Cole dur­ing the cam­paign. (“Islam­ic Mil­i­tants Brag They Bombed War­ship Cole” by Diana Elias [AP]; San Fran­cis­co Chron­i­cle; 6/20/2001; p. A8.) It is believ­able that the Cole bomb­ing was exe­cut­ed for the ben­e­fit of the Bush cam­paign.

4. In that con­text, the broad­cast sug­gests the pos­si­bil­i­ty that some of the dif­fi­cul­ties that the FBI (among oth­er insti­tu­tions) has encoun­tered in con­nec­tion with the Cole bomb­ing may result from obstruc­tion by the Bush camp. (“U.S. Faces Hur­dles in Approach to USS Cole Probe” by David S. Cloud and Neil King, Jr.; Wall Street Jour­nal; 7/6/2001; p. A10.)

5. Next, the pro­gram exam­ines the pro-Bush stance of Fox News, run by George Sr.‘s asso­ciate Roger Ailes. (“Good Guys on Cable TV” by William Ger­man; San Fran­cis­co Chron­i­cle; 7/6/2001; p. A25.)

6. That net­work led the media rush to call Flori­da as a Bush win, and the Fox polit­i­cal desk was head­ed by Bush’s cousin, John Ellis.

7. The pro­gram high­lights the bizarre, cult-like ini­ti­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny of the elite Skull and Bones soci­ety, to which both Georges belonged. (“At Skull and Bones, Bush’s Secret Club Ini­ti­ates Ream Gore” by Ron Rosen­baum; New York Observ­er; 4/19/2001; pp. 11–17.)

8. The broad­cast high­lights the recent extra­di­tion of a col­lab­o­ra­tor of Enrique Fuentes Leon, a drug-deal­ing polit­i­cal ally of George W. Bush. (“U.S. Returns an Ex-Judge to Mex­i­co” by Tim Wein­er; New York Times; 6/22/2001; p. A3.)

9. Leon had bribed Ernesto Diaz on behalf of a wealthy Aca­pul­co play­boy who had raped, tor­tured and kid­napped a 6‑year-old girl. (“Los Ami­gos de Bush” by Julie Reynolds; El Andar; Fall, 2000; Vol. 11, #3; p.23;

10. Nar­co-attor­ney and Bush ally Roy Bar­rera, Jr. rep­re­sent­ed Har­ry Black­thorne, a Texas mul­ti-mil­lion­aire whose ex-wife was stabbed to death in front of her tod­dler quadru­plets. The hit man fled to Mex­i­co and was rep­re­sent­ed by Enrique Fuentes Leon. (Ibid.; p. 27.)