George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

overthrowing the government of Nicaragua. '' `` Boland I, '' as it was called, remained in
effect until Oct. 3, 1984, when it was superseded by a stronger prohibition known as ``
Boland II. ''@s4
February 1983:
Fawn Hall joined Oliver North as his assistant. Ms. Hall reported that she worked with
North on the development of a secret `` Crisis Management Center. '' Lt. Colonel North,
an employee of the National Security Council, is seen here managing a new structure
within the Bush-directed SSG/CPPG arrangements of 1981- 82.@s5
March 3, 1983:
In the spring of 1983, the National Security Council established an office of `` Public
Diplomacy '' to propagandize in favor of and run cover for the Iran-Contra operations,
and to coordinate published attacks on opponents of the program. Former CIA Director of
Propaganda Walter Raymond was put in charge of the effort. The unit was to work with
domestic and international news media, as well as private foundations. The Bush familyaffiliated
Smith Richardson Foundation was part of a National Security Council `` private
donors' steering committee '' charged with coordinating this propaganda effort. A March
3, 1983 memorandum from Walter Raymond to then-NSC Director William Clark,
provided details of the program: ``
As you will remember you and I briefly mentioned to the President when we briefed him on the
N[ational] S[ecurity] D[ecision] D[irective] on public diplomacy that we would like to get
together with some potential donors at a later date....
``To accomplish these objectives Charlie [United States Information Agency Director Charles Z.
Wick] has had two lengthy meetings with a group of people representing the private sector. This
group had included principally program directors rather than funders. The group was largely
pulled together by Frank Barnett, Dan McMichael (Dick [Richard Mellon] Scaife's man), Mike
Joyce (Olin Foundation), Les Lenkowsky (Smith Richardson Foundation) plus Leonard Sussman
and Leo Cherne of Freedom House. A number of others including Roy Godson have also
participated. '' [Everything above in parentheses is in the original].@s6
Elsewhere, Raymond described Cherne and Godson as the coordinators of this group.
Frank Barnett was the director of the Bush family's National Strategy Information Center,
for which Godson was the Washington, D.C. director. Barnett had been the project
director of the Smith Richardson Foundation prior to being assigned to that post. The
Smith Richardson Foundation has sunk millions of dollars into the Iran-Contra projects.
Some Smith Richardson grantees, receiving money since the establishment of the
National Security Council's ``private steering committee'' (according to the foundation's
annual reports) include the following:
• Freedom House. This was formed by Leo Cherne, business partner of CIA Director
William Casey. Cherne oversaw Walter Raymond's ``private donor's committee.''
• National Strategy Information Center, founded in 1962 by Casey, Cherne and the Bush
family (see Chapter 4). Thus, when an item appeared in a daily newspaper, supporting the