For Immediate Release: Contact: Sander Hicks Soft Skull Press, Inc. 212 673 2502
George W. Bush's 1972 Flying Suspension in the TEXAS Air National Guard COINCIDES WITH FORTUNATE SON'S ALLEGATIONS.
* Released military record shows "failure to take medical exam" during same time that Soft Skull Press's controversial Bush biography purports the Republican presidential front-runner was arrested for cocaine. * New sources debunk Bush's official explanation. * Same document links Bush to BCCI criminal financier James Bath. * Editor Sander Hicks trusted with identity of Hatfield's three Afterword sources. * Fortunate Son Introduction possibly linked to resignation of President Bush's Chief of Staff Michael Dannenhauer.
As FORTUNATE SON, the re-issued edition of the controversial best-selling biography of George W. Bush, begins arriving in bookstores nationwide, Soft Skull Press publisher, Sander Hicks, has released a document from Bush's Texas Air National Guard file which notes that the presidential front-runner was once suspended from flying for failing to take a requisite medical exam.
Bush's 175-page National Guard service records, obtained by Hicks from the Department of Defense through the Freedom of Information Act in January of this year, cite the verbal orders of the "Comdr on 1 Aug 72 suspending" Bush, a 27-year-old first lieutenant at the time, for "failure to accomplish annual medical examination" while stationed at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston.
"It is the timing and the location of the flying suspension for a failure to take this physical that is important," states Hicks, who was recently informed of the identity of the three sources used in Hatfield's Afterword.
"Where was George W. Bush in 1972?" asks Hicks, "Our author, J.H. Hatfield, cites three sources close to the Texas governor in the Afterword to Fortunate Son who state Bush had a cocaine arrest 'fixed' by his father in Houston in 1972. No has adequately explained why he had a sudden charitable desire to perform community service at Project P.U.L.L., an inner-city youth center. Ironically, government documents note during the same period Bush's flying suspension for failure to take an annual medical examination, even though the Republican presidential candidate has repeatedly stated he was a healthy young man at the time. Combined with the new introduction to the book that cites an on-the-record admission by Michael Dannenhauer, former chief of staff to the elder Bush, that George W. was 'out of control' in his abuse of cocaine and alcohol and experienced 'lost weekends in Mexico' in the '70s, the Defense Department document adds further credibility to Hatfield and FORTUNATE SON."
Soft Skull Press has learned that Michael Dannenhauer was recently demoted to a staff position at the George Bush Presidential Library.
George W. Bush's official explanation of the 1972 flying suspension has been that "his doctor" was in Houston, while he was in Alabama campaigning for Red Blount. However, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Lou Kaposta today told Soft Skull Press, "According to my background of many years as a pilot in the Air Force, you have to take the annual physical as scheduled. You do not have a choice about when, where or how. You're in the military, the individual's desires don't count. Everybody knows that."
According to Veteran of the Texas Air National Guard, former Staff Sergeant Mark Wilson, there is "something fishy" about Bush's explanation of the suspension in 1972. Wilson told Soft Skull Press Bush was stationed very near Maxwell Air Force Base at the time of the campaign for Blount, and could have easily travelled there. Wilson also pointed out that Bush's initial physical exam while still at Yale in 1968, was done at Westover Air Force Base in Massachusettes.
Could it be there were special circumstances that caused George W. Bush to want to take the physical only with "his doctor?" Or could it be extenuating circumstances existed that prevented Bush from travelling back to Texas in 1972?
More research needs to be done regarding George W. Bush's behavior in 1972. Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, Bush's complete file can be obtained by written request, faxed to Ms. Willy Ann Rudolph, National Guard Bureau, (fax ) 703 607 3692.
Editor Sander Hicks was recently trusted with the indentity of the three sources. J.H. Hatfield took the independent publisher into confidence with the three names that no one in the media or at the former publisher ever received. Hicks says, "The three sources are disassociated with each other enough to guarantee accuracy. They tell the same story, and not all three are in the same camp. We know now this is consistent."
A photograph of the former President Bush Chief of Staff Michael Dannenhauer meeting with Reporter Toby Rogers (who co-wrote the new introduction to Fortunate Son) is available at:
http://www.softskull.com/gw_media.html
Also, a page of the Suspension of Flying Status Report is also available for download there.
Ironically, the same military document from Bush's service record cites the flying suspension of Major James R. Bath for also failing to take his annual medical examination. In 1977, five years later after serving together in the same Texas Air National Guard unit, Bath, a Houston businessman and aircraft broker with business ties to Saudi Arabia sheiks (including the family of terrorist Osama bid Laden), invested $50,000 in Bush's first oil drilling company, Arbusto (which means "bush" in Spanish).
More information on BCCI-linked financier is available on www.softskull.com, in the "Highlights" section on FORTUNATE SON. (See http://www.softskull.com/gw_highlights.html under: BCCI OIL MONEY.)
45,000 copies of the updated FORTUNATE SON are being shipped to stores and Soft Skull publisher Sander Hicks has planned an extensive media blitz, which reportedly includes an interview with Hatfield on the highly-rated newsmagazine 60 Minutes.
Contact: Sander Hicks
212 673 2502
Sander Hicks Chief Operating Officer Soft Skull Press, Inc.
OFFICE: 98 Suffolk Street #3A FACTORY: 100 Suffolk New York City NY 10002-3366
FAX: 212 673 0787 VOX: 212 673 2502 http://www.softskull.com