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George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

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to Lake Resources, which he told me was a Chilean company.... ''@s6@s0<br />

<strong>The</strong> plan was to acquire false end-user certificates from his contacts in the Salvadoran<br />

armed forces for Blowpipe ground-to-air missiles supposedly being shipped into El<br />

Salvador. <strong>The</strong> missiles would then be illegally diverted to the Contras in Honduras and<br />

Nicaragua. Rodriguez continues, with self-puffery: `` <strong>The</strong> Salvadorans complied with my<br />

request, and in turn I supplied the certificates, handing them over personally to Richard<br />

Secord at that April 20 meeting. ''@s6@s1 While arranging the forgery for the munitions<br />

sale, Rodriguez was in touch with the <strong>George</strong> <strong>Bush</strong> staff back in his home office. On<br />

April 16, four days before the Rodriguez-North missile meeting, <strong>Bush</strong> national security<br />

adviser Donald Gregg asked his staff to put a meeting with Rodriguez on <strong>George</strong> <strong>Bush</strong>'s<br />

calendar. Gregg said the purpose of the White House meeting would be `` to brief the<br />

Vice President on the war in El Salvador and resupply of the Contras. '' <strong>The</strong> meeting was<br />

arranged for 11:30 A.M. on May 1.@s6@s2 Due its explicitly stated purpose--<br />

clandestine weapons trafficking in an undeclared war against the rigid congressional<br />

prohibition--the planned meeting was to become one of the most notorious of the Iran-<br />

Contra scandal.<br />

April 30, 1986 (Wednesday):<br />

Felix Rodriguez met in Washington with <strong>Bush</strong> aide Col. Sam Watson.<br />

<strong>The</strong> following reminder message was sent to <strong>George</strong> <strong>Bush</strong>:<br />

Briefing Memorandum for the Vice President<br />

Event: Meeting with Felix Rodriguez<br />

Date: Thursday, May 1, 1986<br />

Time: 11:30-11:45 a.m.--West Wing<br />

From: Don Gregg<br />

I. PURPOSE<br />

Felix Rodriguez, a counterinsurgency expert who is visiting from El Salvador, will provide a briefing on<br />

the status of the war in El Salvador and resupply of the Contras.<br />

III. [sic] PARTICIPANTS<br />

<strong>The</strong> Vice President Felix Rodriguez<br />

Craig Fuller<br />

Don Gregg<br />

Sam Watson<br />

IV. MEDIA COVERAGE<br />

Staff photographer. [i.e. internal-use photographs, no media coverage]@s6@s3<br />

May 1, 1986:<br />

Vice President <strong>Bush</strong> and his staff met in the White House with Felix Rodriguez, Oliver<br />

North, financier Nicholas Brady, and the new U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, Edwin<br />

Corr.

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