Comunidades de fauna

The patriarch of this political dynasty—as wealthy and influential as the more “liberal” KENNEDY

clan—was Samuel Prescott Bush (1863—1948), a New York native who made millions as president of the Buckeye Steel Casting Company (1907–27), first president of the National Association of

Manufacturers, and a charter member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In 1929–33 he was a close adviser to President Herbert Hoover, whose hands- off approach to the financial crises ushered in the Great Depression.

The Bush family suffered no pangs of hardship during that era, as Prescott Sheldon Bush (1895– 1972) expanded into banking. (He also inaugurated the family’s ties with Yale University and the super- secret SKULL AND BONES Society.) Prescott was a

director and major shareholder in the United Bank- ing Corporation (UBC), which in turn purchased the Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation from Nazi industrialist Fritz Thyssen. Herr Thyssen obtained many of his workers from the Auschwitz concentra- tion camp (not yet converted to a full-time slaughter- house for Jews), and exposure of that enemy link in 1942 prompted U.S. authorities to seize UBC and two other Bush-managed firms (Holland-American Trading Corp. and Seamless Steel Equipment Corp.) in October 1942 under terms of the federal Trading with the Enemy Act. The stigma of helping finance

ADOLF HITLER did not prevent Prescott Bush from

serving in the U.S. Senate (1955–63), although he lost his first political race in 1950.

Meanwhile, George Herbert Walker Bush (1924– ) had returned from World War II a hero, decorated for airborne action against the same THIRD REICH

supported by his father’s investments. A Yale gradu- ate and Skull and Bones loyalist, George soon expanded the family’s portfolio to include Texas OIL

fields. Twice defeated in campaigns for the U.S. Sen- ate (1964, 1970), Bush finally settled for a seat in the House (1967–71) and then served as U.S. representa- tive to the UNITED NATIONS (1971–73), chairman of

the Republican National Committee (1973–74), U.S. liaison to China (1974–75), and director of the CEN- TRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (1976–77). A failed

Republican presidential candidate in 1980, Bush accepted the consolation prize of serving as RONALD REAGAN’s vice president (1981–89). In that capacity

he worked overtime to cement Reagan’s ties with the

INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS and

helmed the first U.S. War on Drugs, condemned by U.S. Coast Guard spokesmen as “an intellectual fraud.” As Reagan’s successor in the White House (1989–93), Bush invaded PANAMAand launched the GULF WAR against IRAQ, but domestic fumbles

doomed him to a one-term presidency. In the end, his staunchest supporters on the far right wound up

suspecting Bush of treason after his public references to a NEW WORLD ORDER inspired a host of fresh

conspiracy theories. Before leaving office, Bush pardoned six of his comrades in the IRAN-CONTRA CONSPIRACYand engineered the taxpayer bail-out of

son Neil’s Silverado Savings and Loan company, one of the prime offenders in the national SAVINGS AND LOAN SCANDAL.

Neil Mallon Bush (1955– ) never tried his hand at politics, but his brothers made up the difference. George Walker Bush (1946– )—commonly called Dubya to distinguish him from father George—

attended Yale as a Bush “legacy” and completed his obligatory term with Skull and Bones. The war in

VIETNAM threatened Dubya’s health and welfare

upon graduation, but his family arranged for George, Jr., to serve his country stateside in the Texas Air National Guard. The uniform proved too confining, and Dubya literally vanished during the last 12 months of his military service, later spinning contradictory yarns about that missing year while his commanding officers assured reporters that he had not been at his post. For whatever reason no charges were filed, leaving Dubya to dabble in oil BUSH dynasty

President George W. Bush sits with his wife Laura during morning church services at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Behind Bush (left to right) are his father, former President George Bush, his mother Barbara, his daughters Jenna and Barbara, and his mother-in-law Jenna Welch. (Corbis)

BUSH dynasty

and professional baseball while he sought his true calling. Those ventures prompted an SEC investiga- tion on charges of insider trading. Again, no charges were filed, but a formal statement from the SEC warned: “It must in no way be construed as indicat- ing that the party has been exonerated or that no action may ultimately result.” Dubya changed direc- tions in 1994, campaigning successfully to become governor of Texas. During his term in office (1995–2000), Texas led all other U.S. states in exe- cutions of prison inmates and in spiraling environ- mental pollution.

While George, Jr., made his mark in Texas, brother John Ellis (“Jeb”) Bush (1953– ) was staking out the family’s claim in Florida. Jeb broke the clan’s tie with Yale, preferring the University of Texas, but he other- wise maintained tradition by his involvement in dubi- ous real-estate transactions (including defaulted loans) and his losing race for the Sunshine State’s governor- ship in 1994. Successful on his second try four years later, Jeb Bush presided over a regime that was second only to Texas in execution of prisoners and attempts to sink oil wells in protected nature preserves. Jeb’s alleged manipulation of ballots during Dubya’s first presidential campaign posed one of the major controversies in a still-disputed ELECTION2000, but the

family prevailed (with help from five Republican

SUPREME COURT justices) to put George, Jr., in the

White House.

As president, Dubya swiftly wiped out the hard- won national economic surplus and charted a course toward record deficit spending, while calling for tax cuts to benefit the richest 2 percent of Americans. He also ordered federal agents to “back off” investiga- tions of the Saudi Arabian BIN LADEN FAMILY, long-

standing financial allies of the Bush dynasty. That move backfired with the PENTTBOM attacks of Sep-

tember 11, 2001, masterminded by AL-QAEDAleader

Osama bin Laden, but Bush rallied by invading

AFGHANISTAN and pushing passage of the USA PATRIOT ACT in the name of “enduring freedom.”

While the United States sank deeper into recession, Bush next declared media war against a mythical

AXIS OF EVIL, allegedly including mortal enemies IRAQ and IRAN with isolationist North KOREA. In

2003 Bush launched OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM to

unseat SADDAM HUSSEIN, but the advance claims that

Iraq possessed “weapons of mass destruction” were soon proved false. That glitch notwithstanding, Dubya seemed intent on waging his reelection cam- paign in the guise of a warrior, donning military garb to pose with combat veterans 30 years after evading his own stint of military duty.

CAMBODIA

When FRANCE colonized Southeast Asia in 1863, it

merged the modern nations of Cambodia, LAOS, and VIETNAM into an artificial unit dubbed French

Indochina. In Cambodia the invaders seized all but ceremonial powers from the Hindu Khmers who had ruled Cambodia since A.D. 600. French extraction of

rubber and other raw materials was interrupted by

JAPANin World War II. France reluctantly “liberated”

Cambodia in 1949, though full military independence was not achieved until 1955. The royal Norodom family sought to remain neutral in Vietnam’s war with the United States, but Vietnamese rebels sought sanctuary in Cambodia, pursued by U.S. troops under President RICHARD NIXON. Pressure from indigenous

communists (Khmer Rouge) prompted a military coup by Gen. Lon Nol in March 1970. Khmer Rouge forces under Pol Pot seized power in April 1975, inaugurating a four-year campaign of genocide against native Cambodians. Vietnamese troops deposed Pol Pot in January 1979, but he fought on from hiding until 1997, while various coups dis- rupted the Cambodian government. (Finally captured and sentenced to house arrest for his crimes, Pol Pot died on April 15, 1998.) UNITED NATIONS efforts to

establish a WAR CRIMES tribunal failed in February

2002. Cambodian officials vowed to handle the mat- ter themselves, but Prime Minister Hun Sen—himself a former Khmer Rouge member—has thus far done nothing to punish his former colleagues.

CAMDEN 28

CAMORRA

While the MAFIA restricts “made” membership to

persons of Sicilian ancestry, the Camorra criminal society is composed of mainland Italians. Details of its history are deliberately obscure, but the Camorra’s roots are traceable to the Garduna, a Span- ish secret society transplanted to Italy when Spain seized Naples in the 16th century. Blood oaths and secret signs were employed, and a Grand Ruling Council based in Naples supervised the operations of small units led by caporegimes (a term shared with the rival Mafia, frequently shortened to capo). Whereas the early Mafia was chiefly a rural organization, the Camorra enjoyed an urban power base, frequently using the CATHOLIC CHURCHas a cover. Sporadic war-

fare between the Camorra and the Mafia increasingly turned toward collaboration after World War II. By the 1970s Camorra gangsters on the Italian mainland worked hand-in-hand with the Mafia’s heroin smug- glers. More recently, authorities have claimed links between the Camorra and the RUSSIAN MAFIAin smug-

gling of contraband that includes weapons-grade nuclear material.