March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

D.C. group may have provided fuel to spark Bush-Perot feud

WASHINGTON — The Christic Institute, a left-wing advocacy group whose investigations of Lt. Col. Oliver North’s secret activities drew early media attention to the Iran-Contra scandal, may have helped spark the political feud between President Bush and Ross Perot.

Allegations reportedly spread by Perot that one of President Bush’s sons had links to an illegal gun-smuggling operation in support of Nicaraguan Contras touched off a bitter television exchange between both men last month. Those allegations likely originated with the Christic Institute, according to several sources. The institute also attempted to involve Perot in charges that Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton impeded state police efforts to halt a major drug-smuggling operation based at a rural airport in Arkansas, it was indicated.

Tony Mitchell, deputy press secretary for the Bush-Quayle re-election committee, said he was not aware of the “specifics” of Perot’s relationship with the Christic Institute. “(but) we’re hardly surprised about Mr. Perot’s investigating anyone at this point,” he said. Press spokesman Jim Squires was asked to comment on Perot’s involvement with the Christic Institute, but did not respond.

Daniel Sheehan, head of the Washington-based advocacy group, confirmed Tuesday that Perot asked him on Nov. 12, 1986, to provide a confidential briefing on his group’s investigation of White House involvement in secret arms dealings and drug smuggling by those supporting the Contras. The briefing took place at the U.S. Naval Academy after Perot lectured cadets, according to Sheehan.

Among the findings presented to Perot, he said, were documents pertaining to a federal lawsuit filed by Sheehan claiming that 26 White House operatives were responsible for the murder of three journalists at La Penca, a Contra base camp in Nicaragua on May 30, 1984. The lawsuit ultimately was dismissed by the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Christic allegations were widely discredited, leading to court fines of $1.2 million which nearly bankrupted the institute. Perot’s interest in Christic findings continued for a period of years, Sheehan said.

Rumors about Bush’s sons

The sore point between Bush and Perot regarding the president’s sons may trace back to a Christic investigation in Miami, Fla. John Mattes, a local public defender who did investigative work for Christic, said that he unearthed links between the president’s son, Jeb, and a group of right-wing Cubans who planned several paramilitary operations in Nicaragua.

Those links surfaced while Mattes was preparing his legal defense for a man named Jesus Garcia, one of those implicated in the planned commando raid. Mattes said he relayed information about Jeb Bush’s alleged ties to Garcia and other illegal Contra activities to Sheehan. He believes that Sheehan passed that information on to Perot.

At the time, Mattes said, he was aware of Perot as being “one of the individuals the institute was networking with.” An Aug. 1, 1986, a Bangor Daily News story detailed Mattes’ claim of a link between Jeb Bush and Contra gunrunners. An earlier NEWS series focused on the La Penca bombing. Sheehan said he doesn’t recall mentioning Mattes’ findings to Perot, but conceded he or other Christic employees could have relayed the rumors.

Two weeks ago, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward wrote that Perot had used private detectives, former Green Berets and the Christic Institute to investigate allegations of impropriety by President Bush and his sons, including reports that one son was involved in illegal gun-smuggling in support of the Contras. That Washington Post story angered the White House.

In a television interview on the ABC program “20/20,” Bush complained, “If (Perot) was having my children investigated, that is beyond the pale. … I think the American people will reject that kind of tactic.” Other Republican figures seized on the Woodward story to suggest that Perot was dangerously unbalanced and would pose a threat to American civil liberties if put in charge of the “CIA, FBI and IRS.”

Appearing on the CNN program, “Larry King Live,” Perot produced a handwritten note from Bush to Perot dated December 1986 that stated:

“Dear Ross … I was very touched by your call(s) about my kids.”

Perot’s investigative mentality

Although Perot’s use of the president’s note took some of the edge off Republican questions about his “investigative mentality,” the Texas businessman’s links to the Christic Institute could intensify that perception. In a ruling that was upheld by the Supreme Court last summer, a three-judge panel concluded that Sheehan filed court documents riddled with “unknown, non-existent, deceased sources (and) fabricated testimony … to mask (his affidavit’s) shortcomings.” The judges concluded that the Christic allegations of White House involvement in the murder of journalists at a press conference held by Contra commander Eden Pastora were “scant, almost non-existent.”

Sheehan claimed that the bombing conspirators would be brought to justice only should Perot or Clinton defeat Bush in this fall’s presidential election. Mattes claimed that the La Penca lawsuit filed by Christic was essentially on target with respect to the bombing murder of journalists, but was bungled by Sheehan when he attempted to turn the lawsuit into a “rewrite of 40 years of history going all the way back to the Kennedy assassination.”

Federal Judge Lawrence King fined the Christic Institute $1.2 million for Sheehan’s alleged judicial misconduct. According to Sheehan, the institute managed to raise enough money to pay the fine, some of it coming through the efforts of entertainment figures, but has been forced to lay off most of its staff and could be put out of business by an IRS ruling seeking to revoke the group’s tax-exempt status. The institute operates out of a rundown building in one of Washington, D.C.’s, most crime-ridden neighborhoods.

“It’s clear they’re out to destroy us,” Sheehan said.

Mattes said he learned of Jeb Bush’s alleged involvement with Contra groups when he defended Jesus Garcia, who was sentenced to three years in prison for allegedly plotting to conduct commando raids on the Russian and Cuban embassies in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital.

“My client informed me that he met with Jeb Bush. He said that Bush had the power to help him out. … We established that Garcia had an hour and a half meeting with Jeb Bush and gave Bush a letter to deliver to his father,” Mattes said.

According to Mattes, the man who enlisted Garcia to obtain illegal firearms for the commando mission was an associate of John Hull, an Indiana farmer charged by courts in Costa Rica with masterminding the conspiracy to plant a bomb at Pastora’s press conference. Hull later acknowledged working with the CIA chief of station in Costa Rica to help the Contras and said he was paid $10,000 a month by North for those activities. The Florida court rejected most of Mattes’ defense evidence and found Garcia guilty on a guns charge.

As for Jeb Bush, Mattes said, “Everybody in Miami knew about his ties to right-wing Contra supporters. He wore those ties like a badge of honor.”

Betting on Perot

Sheehan makes it clear he has placed his political bets on Perot.

“I’m very impressed by the guy. He is extremely bright and very focused. I believe he has complete integrity. … I don’t think he ever trusted (the Ollie North) crowd at the White House,” said Sheehan.

However, in his autobiography, North claimed that Perot several times offered to put up hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money for North’s covert operations to free U.S. hostages. North claimed that Perot once offered to pay all of his family’s living expenses if North agreed to make a public statement clearing Ronald Reagan of any involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal. Sheehan said that Perot’s interest in high-level wrongdoing extends to more public figures than the president and his sons.

“He became interested in disclosures about an Arkansas drug-smuggling operation that also was training Contras,” said Sheehan. “(Evidence) about this operation was communicated to Governor Clinton. He did nothing. He just stonewalled people,” said Sheehan.

Investigators “tried to get Ross to telephone Clinton and tell him that those people were up to no good … that there was no national security justification for the operation,” he said.

“I know that federal investigators met with Ross and persuaded him to make the call. I don’t know whether he actually did it,” Sheehan said.


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