ZAPATA CORPORATION
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'Zapata Corporation' is a holding company based in Rochester, New York. It traces its origins to 'Zapata Oil', founded in 1953 by George H. W. Bush (hereafter identified as George Bush), along with his business partners John Overbey, brothers Hugh Liedtke and Bill Liedtke, and Thomas J. Devine.
Bush and Thomas J. Devine were oil-wildcatting associates. "Their joint activities culminated in the establishment of Zapata Oil."[1]
The initial $1 million investment for Zapata was split by the Liedtkes (and their circle of investors) and by Bush's father and uncle, Prescott Bush and Herbert Walker (and his family circle of friends). Hugh Liedtke was named president, Bush was vice president; Overbey soon left. In 1954, Zapata Off-Shore Company was formed as a subsidiary, with Bush as president. (He raised some startup money from Eugene Meyer, publisher of the ''Washington Post,'' and his son-in-law, Phillip Graham).[1][2]
Zapata Off-Shore accepted an offer from inventor R G LeTourneau for the development of a mobile but secure drilling rig. Zapata advanced him $400,000, refundable if the completed rig didn't work; if it did, he'd get an additional $550,000 plus 38,000 shares of Zapata Off-Shore common stock. Zapata split in 1959 into Zapata Petroleum (headed by the Liedtke's) and Zapata Off-Shore (headed by Bush, funded with $800,000).[3] Bush moved his offices and family that year from Midland, TX to Houston. Zapata Petroleum merged in 1963 with South Penn Oil and other companies to become Pennzoil.
Zapata Off-Shore concentrated its business in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Central American coast in the late 1950s and early 1960s, according to Nicolas King's ''George Bush: A Biography.'' The US government began to auction off mineral rights to these areas in 1954. Drilling contracts in 1958 with the seven large US oil producers included wells 40 miles north of Isabela, Cuba (131 miles south of Miami), near the island Cay Sal. (Fidel Castro overthrew Cuba's Batista government in July 1959.) Zapata also won a contract with Kuwait. Bush was joined in Zapata by a fellow Yale Skull and Bones member, Robert Gow, in 1962. Zapata Offshore had four oil-drilling rigs operational by 1963: Scorpion (1956), Vinegaroon (1957), Sidewinder, and (in the Persian Gulf) Nola III.
By 1964, Zapata Off-Shore had a number of subsidiaries, including: Seacat-Zapata Offshore Company (Persia Gulf), Zapata de Mexico, Zapata International Corporation, Zapata Mining Corporation, Zavala Oil Company, Zapata Overseas Corporation, and a 41% share of Amata Gas Corporation.
In 1960, Jorge Diaz Serrano of Mexico was put in touch with Bush by Dresser. They created a new company, Perforaciones Marinas del Golfo, aka Permargo, in conjunction with Edwin Pauley of Pan American Petroleum, with whom Zapata had a previous offshore contract. The deal with Pemargo is not mentioned in Zapata's annual reports. A Bush spokesman in 1988 claimed the deal only lasted seven months, from March to September 1960. Zapata sold Nola I to Pemargo in 1964.
Bush ran for the US Senate in 1964 and lost; he continued as president of Zapata Off-Shore until 1966, when he sold his interest to his business partner, Robert Gow, and ran for US Congress. William Stamps Farish III, age 28, joined the board in 1966.
Zapata's filing records with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are intact for the years 1955-1959, and again from 1967 onwards. But records for the years 1960-1966 are missing. "The records were inadvertently placed in a session file to be destroyed" by a federal warehouse explains SEC records officer Suzanne McHugh, noting that a total of 1,000 boxes were pulped in this procedure. The destruction of records occurred either in October 1983 (according to McHugh) or in 1981 shortly after Bush became Vice President of the United States (according to SEC record analyst Wison Carpenter).
Several independent researchers have offered evidence suggesting that Zapata Off-Shore, and Bush in particular, cooperated with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) beginning in the late-1950s.
Two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) memos have been offered to show connections between the CIA and George Bush during his time at Zapata. The first memo names Zapata Off-Shore and was written by FBI Special Agent Graham Kitchel on 22 November 1963, regarding the John F. Kennedy assassination at 12:30 p.m. CST that day. It begins: "At 1:45 p.m. Mr. GEORGE H. W. BUSH, President of the Zapata Off-Shore Drilling Company, Houston, Texas, residence 5525 Briar, Houston, telephonically furnished the following information to writer. .. BUSH stated that he wanted to be kept confidential. .. was proceeding to Dallas, Texas, would remain in the Sheraton-Dallas Hotel."
A second FBI memo, written by J. Edgar Hoover himself, identifies "George Bush" with the CIA. It is dated 29 November 1963 and refers to a briefing given Bush on 23 November. The FBI Director describes a briefing about JFK's murder "orally furnished to Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency. .. [by] this Bureau" on "November 23, 1963.
When this second memo surfaced during the 1988 presidential campaign, Bush spokespersons (including Stephen Hart) said Hoover's memo referred to another George Bush who worked for the CIA.[4] CIA spokeswoman Sharron Basso suggested it was referring to a George William Bush. However, others described this G. William Bush as a "lowly researcher" and "coast and beach analyst" who worked only with documents and photos at the CIA in Virginia from September 1963 to February 1964, with a low rank of GS-5.[5] [6][7] In fact, this G. William Bush swore an affadavit in federal court denying that Hoover's memo referred to him:
In his book ''The Immaculate Deception: The Bush Crime Family Exposed'' (1991), US Army Brigadier General Russell Bowen wrote there was a cover-up of Zapata's CIA connections.
On January 8, 2007, newly released internal CIA documents revealed that Zapata had in fact emerged from Bush’s collaboration with a covert CIA officer in the 1950’s. According to a CIA internal memo dated November 29, 1975, Zapata Petroleum began in 1953 through Bush’s joint efforts with Thomas J. Devine, a CIA staffer who had resigned his agency position that same year to go into private business, but who continued to work for the CIA under commercial cover. Devine would later accompany Bush to Vietnam in late 1967 as a “cleared and witting commercial asset†of the agency, acted as his informal foreign affairs advisor, and had a close relationship with him through 1975.[3],[4],[5]
The CIA codename for the Bay of Pigs invasion of April 1961 was "Operation Zapata". (See Beschloss, p.89). Through his work with Zapata Off-Shore, Bush is alleged to have come into contact with Felix Rodriguez, Barry Seal, Porter Goss, and E. Howard Hunt, around the time of the Bay of Pigs operation.[6] John Loftus writes: "Zapata [Off-Shore] provided commercial supplies for one of [Allen] Dulles’ most notorious operations: the Bay of Pigs invasion."[7]
CIA liaison officer Col. L. (Leroy) Fletcher Prouty alleges in his book, ''The Secret Team'' (1973) and on his website, that Zapata Off-Shore provided or was used as cover for two of the ships used in the Bay of Pigs invasion: the ''Barbara J'' and ''Houston''. Prouty claims he delivered two ships to an inactive Naval Base near Elizabeth City, North Carolina, for a CIA contact named George Bush, who re-named the boats.[8]
The Bay of Pigs operation was directed out of the "Miami Station" (aka JM/WAVE), which was the CIA's largest station worldwide. It housed 200 agents who handled approximately 2,000 Cubans. Robert Reynolds was the CIA's Miami station chief from September 1960 to October 1961. He was replaced by career-CIA officer Theodore Shackley, who oversaw Operation Mongoose, Operation 40 (including Porter Goss, Felix Rodriguez, Barry Seal), and others. When Bush became CIA Director in 1976 he appointed Ted Shackley as Deputy Director of Covert Operations. When Bush became Vice President in 1981, he appointed Donald Gregg as his National Security Advisor.
Kevin Phillips, in ''American Dynasty,'' discusses George Bush's "highly likely" peripheral role in the Bay of Pigs fiasco. He points to the leadership role of Bush's fellow Skull and Bones alumni in organizing the operation. He notes an additional personal factor for Bush: the Walker side of the family (who initially funded Zapata Corporation) had lost a small fortune when Fidel Castro nationalized their West Indies Sugar Co. Edwin Pauley was "known for CIA connections," according to Phillips, it was Pauley who put Pemargo's Diaz and Bush together.
Phillips (and others) have detailed subsequent involvement by Zapata associates in the Watergate scandal. George Bush, as Nixon's ambassador to the United Nations, urged his former Zapata partner Bill Liedtke to launder $100,000 to the White House plumbers. After Nixon's 1972 re-election, he appointed Bush as Chairman of the Republican National Committee. When the laundering was exposed, those involved included several CIA officials: E. Howard Hunt, Frank Sturgis, Eugenio MartÃnez, Virgilio González, and Bernard Barker. A discussion of the laundering appears on the Nixon tapes for June 23, 1973.White
Michael Maholy alleges that Zapata Off-Shore was used as part of a CIA drug-smuggling ring to pay for arming Nicaraguan Contras in 1986-1988, including Rodriguez, Eugene Hasenfus and others. Mahony claims Zapata's oil rigs were used as staging bases for drug shipments, allegedly named "Operation Whale Watch." Mahony allegedly worked for Naval Intelligence, US State Department and CIA for two decades.
Zapata, under Robert Gow's direction, acquired a controlling interest in the United Fruit Company in 1969. Robert's father, Ralph Gow, was on United Fruit's board of directors.
Gow apparently left Zapata in 1970. He took with him from Zapata Peter C. Knudtzon. Ties to the Bush family continued-- in 1971 both Jeb Bush and George W. Bush worked for Gow's new company, Stratford of Texas (aka Stratford of Houston). Stratford imported tropical plants. According to Knudtzon, George W. Bush reportedly flew for Stratford to Florida and Guatemala.[9] Stratford evidently had ties to a large ''finca'' (nursery or plantation) in La Democracia, Huehuetenango, Guatemala.
In the 1970s, under chairman and CEO William Flynn, Zapata expanded its business to include subsidiaries in dredging, construction, coal mining, copper mining and fishing.
By the late 1970s, saddled with weak operations, high debt and low return on investment, the company again began undergoing changes in management and direction. Lead by John Mackin, who succeeded William Flynn, the company began selling off some of those businesses and refocused on offshore oil and gas exploration and production.
In 1982 chief operating officer Ronald Lassiter assumed the role of CEO, and presided over a decade of red ink brought on by the collapse of oil prices. Zapata Offshore became Zapata Corporation in 1982. Its stock performed poorly. By 1986 Zapata was one of the bad loans that shook the foundations of San Francisco-based Bank of America, with a debt of more than $500 million and a fiscal year loss of $250 million. The company announced several restructurings during those years and managed to stave off bankruptcy, but continued to incur major losses. In 1990 the oil drilling company proposed selling its entire fleet of offshore drilling rigs to focus solely on fishing. The company had not had a profitable quarter in more than five years.
Zapata Offshore continued on as an offshore drilling company until the early 1990s when it was purchased by Arethusa Offshore which a few years sold the rigs to Diamond Offshore. Still struggling with debt by 1993, Zapata signed a deal with Norex America to raise more than $100 million through a loan and stock sale. But financier Malcolm Glazer, owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL franchise and then-owner of 40 percent of Zapata, didn't want his holdings diluted and filed a lawsuit to block the deal.
By 1994 the company had come under Glazer's control, after a proxy fight. Glazer became chairman of Zapata, replacing Ronald Lassiter, and in 1995 Avram Glazer was named CEO and president of Zapata. De facto headquarters moved from Houston to Rochester, NY. It no longer engaged in exploration, but owned several natural gas service companies. It also produced protein products from the menhaden fish. In subsequent years Zapata sold its energy-related businesses and focused on marine protein.
The Glazers spun off the company's fishing business, renamed Omega Protein, in 1998. Between 1998 and 2000, Zapata tried to position itself as an internet media company under the "zap.com" name. The company's stock boomed and crashed along with other dot-coms, and in 2001 the company conducted a 1 for 10 reverse stock split. The venture was cited by many investment journalists as an example of a company jumping on the internet bandwagon without any relevant experience. Zapata also built up a controlling stake in Safety Components International at this time.
The Zapata Corporation continues to serve as an investment vehicle for the Glazer family. Avram Glazer is the chairman and chief executive officer of Zapata.
On December 2, 2005, Zapata Corp. Chairman, Avie Glazer, announced the sale of 4,162,394 shares, 77.3%, of Safety Components International to Wilbur L. Ross, Jr. for $51.2 million. Safety Components is an independent manufacturer of air bag fabrics and cushions. Safety Components is headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina and has plants located in North America, Europe, China and South Africa.
Zapata was also the holding company for the 'Omega Protein Corporation', which Zapata sold off its remaining stock in December 1, 2006, it is a marine protein business that processes the Atlantic menhaden into foods and industrial oils.
Since the sale of Safety Components International and Omega Protein Corporation, Zapata Crop. has no active subsidiary.
1. Secret admirers: The Bushes and the Washington Post Michael Hasty
2. Adios, Zapata!: Colorful company founded by Bush relocates to N.Y.
3. Zapata Oil Files, 1943-1983, George Bush Personal Papers, George Bush Presidential Library
4. John Fitzgerald Kennedy
5. Bush called FBI when JFK died
6. George Bush: World Class Monster
7. [2]
★ SEC filings of Zapata Corporation
★ Zapata Offshore Annual Reports, Microform Reading Room, Library of Congress.
★ Transcript and audioof a "smoking gun" tape of Nixon telling Haldeman and Ehrlichman about the "Bay of Pigs" and "Texans."
★ National Security Archives documentation of GHW Bush's CIA involvement in the early 1960s.
★ United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Civil Action 88-2600 GHR, Archives and Research Center v. Central Intelligence Agency, Affidavit of George William Bush, September 21, 1988.
★ George Bush personal papers
★ "Adios, Zapata! Colorful company founded by Bush relocates to N.Y.," ''Houston Business Journal'', April 26, 1999
★ Franklin, H. Bruce, "Net Losses", Mother Jones, March 2006 - extensive article on role of Menhaded in ecosystem and possible results of overfishing. Retrieved 21 February, 2006
★ Kevin Philips, ''Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush,'' (2004), esp. pp.200-208.
★ Russell Bowen, ''The Immaculate Deception: The Bush Crime Family Exposed'' (1991).
★ Joseph McBride, "The Man Who Wasn't There: 'George Bush,' CIA Operative," ''The Nation'', July 16/23, 1988, p. 42.
★ Joseph McBride, "Where Was George?", ''The Nation'', August 13/20, 1988, on the whereabouts of GHW Bush on 22 November 1963.
★ Nicolas King, ''George Bush: A Biography.''
★ Webster Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin, ''George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography'', Chapter 8.2 (1991), and "Bush as a covert CIA operative during the early 1960s". Tarpey and Chaitkin are associated with Lyndon LaRouche.
★ Laura Hanning 2004, ''Study of Evil -- A World Reappraised'': supporting documents, photos, letters, part III George Herbert Walker Bush
★ Anthony L. Kimery, "George Bush and the CIA: In the Company of Friends," ''Covert Action Quarterly'', Summer, 1992.
★ "George HW Bush and Felix Rodriguez: the tale of two old friends"
★ ''The Mafia, CIA & George [HW] Bush,'' Pete Brewton, S.P.I. Books, 1992
★ Richard Bissell, ''Reflections of a Cold Warrior,'' (Yale University Press, 1996).
★ David Atlee Phillips, ''The Night Watch''.
★ E. Howard Hunt, ''Give Us This Day'' (New Rochelle: Arlington Press, 1973)
★ Michael R. Beschloss, ''The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev, 1960-63'' (New York: Edward Burlingame Books, 1991), p. 89 refers to "Operation Zapata" as the codename for the Bay of Pigs operation.
★ Leroy Fletcher Prouty, ''The Secret Team'' (1973).
★ Michael Maholy (of Yankton, SD), [10]
★ Daniel Yergin, ''The Prize,'' (1991).
★ Rodney Stich (former FAA investigator) ''Defrauding America'' (1994), and ''The Drugging of America'' (1999).
★ Zapata Corporation
Early Business History, 1953-1966
Bush and Thomas J. Devine were oil-wildcatting associates. "Their joint activities culminated in the establishment of Zapata Oil."[1]
The initial $1 million investment for Zapata was split by the Liedtkes (and their circle of investors) and by Bush's father and uncle, Prescott Bush and Herbert Walker (and his family circle of friends). Hugh Liedtke was named president, Bush was vice president; Overbey soon left. In 1954, Zapata Off-Shore Company was formed as a subsidiary, with Bush as president. (He raised some startup money from Eugene Meyer, publisher of the ''Washington Post,'' and his son-in-law, Phillip Graham).[1][2]
Zapata Off-Shore accepted an offer from inventor R G LeTourneau for the development of a mobile but secure drilling rig. Zapata advanced him $400,000, refundable if the completed rig didn't work; if it did, he'd get an additional $550,000 plus 38,000 shares of Zapata Off-Shore common stock. Zapata split in 1959 into Zapata Petroleum (headed by the Liedtke's) and Zapata Off-Shore (headed by Bush, funded with $800,000).[3] Bush moved his offices and family that year from Midland, TX to Houston. Zapata Petroleum merged in 1963 with South Penn Oil and other companies to become Pennzoil.
Zapata Off-Shore concentrated its business in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Central American coast in the late 1950s and early 1960s, according to Nicolas King's ''George Bush: A Biography.'' The US government began to auction off mineral rights to these areas in 1954. Drilling contracts in 1958 with the seven large US oil producers included wells 40 miles north of Isabela, Cuba (131 miles south of Miami), near the island Cay Sal. (Fidel Castro overthrew Cuba's Batista government in July 1959.) Zapata also won a contract with Kuwait. Bush was joined in Zapata by a fellow Yale Skull and Bones member, Robert Gow, in 1962. Zapata Offshore had four oil-drilling rigs operational by 1963: Scorpion (1956), Vinegaroon (1957), Sidewinder, and (in the Persian Gulf) Nola III.
By 1964, Zapata Off-Shore had a number of subsidiaries, including: Seacat-Zapata Offshore Company (Persia Gulf), Zapata de Mexico, Zapata International Corporation, Zapata Mining Corporation, Zavala Oil Company, Zapata Overseas Corporation, and a 41% share of Amata Gas Corporation.
In 1960, Jorge Diaz Serrano of Mexico was put in touch with Bush by Dresser. They created a new company, Perforaciones Marinas del Golfo, aka Permargo, in conjunction with Edwin Pauley of Pan American Petroleum, with whom Zapata had a previous offshore contract. The deal with Pemargo is not mentioned in Zapata's annual reports. A Bush spokesman in 1988 claimed the deal only lasted seven months, from March to September 1960. Zapata sold Nola I to Pemargo in 1964.
Bush ran for the US Senate in 1964 and lost; he continued as president of Zapata Off-Shore until 1966, when he sold his interest to his business partner, Robert Gow, and ran for US Congress. William Stamps Farish III, age 28, joined the board in 1966.
Zapata's filing records with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are intact for the years 1955-1959, and again from 1967 onwards. But records for the years 1960-1966 are missing. "The records were inadvertently placed in a session file to be destroyed" by a federal warehouse explains SEC records officer Suzanne McHugh, noting that a total of 1,000 boxes were pulped in this procedure. The destruction of records occurred either in October 1983 (according to McHugh) or in 1981 shortly after Bush became Vice President of the United States (according to SEC record analyst Wison Carpenter).
Alleged connections with the CIA
Several independent researchers have offered evidence suggesting that Zapata Off-Shore, and Bush in particular, cooperated with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) beginning in the late-1950s.
FBI and CIA memos
Memo from FBI Special Agent in TX, regarding call by "GHW Bush of Zapata Off-Shore Drilling Company" received 75 minutes after JFK's murder
Memo from J. Edgar Hoover, referring to "Mr. George Bush of the CIA", briefed 24 hours after JFK's murder
Two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) memos have been offered to show connections between the CIA and George Bush during his time at Zapata. The first memo names Zapata Off-Shore and was written by FBI Special Agent Graham Kitchel on 22 November 1963, regarding the John F. Kennedy assassination at 12:30 p.m. CST that day. It begins: "At 1:45 p.m. Mr. GEORGE H. W. BUSH, President of the Zapata Off-Shore Drilling Company, Houston, Texas, residence 5525 Briar, Houston, telephonically furnished the following information to writer. .. BUSH stated that he wanted to be kept confidential. .. was proceeding to Dallas, Texas, would remain in the Sheraton-Dallas Hotel."
A second FBI memo, written by J. Edgar Hoover himself, identifies "George Bush" with the CIA. It is dated 29 November 1963 and refers to a briefing given Bush on 23 November. The FBI Director describes a briefing about JFK's murder "orally furnished to Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency. .. [by] this Bureau" on "November 23, 1963.
When this second memo surfaced during the 1988 presidential campaign, Bush spokespersons (including Stephen Hart) said Hoover's memo referred to another George Bush who worked for the CIA.[4] CIA spokeswoman Sharron Basso suggested it was referring to a George William Bush. However, others described this G. William Bush as a "lowly researcher" and "coast and beach analyst" who worked only with documents and photos at the CIA in Virginia from September 1963 to February 1964, with a low rank of GS-5.[5] [6][7] In fact, this G. William Bush swore an affadavit in federal court denying that Hoover's memo referred to him:
"I have carefully reviewed the FBI memorandum to the Director, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Department of State dated November 29, 1963 which mentions a Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency. ... I do not recognize the contents of the memorandum as information furnished to me orally or otherwise during the time I was at the CIA. In fact, during my time at the CIA, I did not receive any oral communications from any government agency of any nature whatsoever. I did not receive any information relating to the Kennedy assassination during my time at the CIA from the FBI. Based on the above, it is my conclusion that I am not the Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency referred to in the memorandum." (''United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Civil Action 88-2600 GHR, Archives and Research Center v. Central Intelligence Agency,'' Affidavit of George William Bush, September 21, 1988.)
In his book ''The Immaculate Deception: The Bush Crime Family Exposed'' (1991), US Army Brigadier General Russell Bowen wrote there was a cover-up of Zapata's CIA connections.
On January 8, 2007, newly released internal CIA documents revealed that Zapata had in fact emerged from Bush’s collaboration with a covert CIA officer in the 1950’s. According to a CIA internal memo dated November 29, 1975, Zapata Petroleum began in 1953 through Bush’s joint efforts with Thomas J. Devine, a CIA staffer who had resigned his agency position that same year to go into private business, but who continued to work for the CIA under commercial cover. Devine would later accompany Bush to Vietnam in late 1967 as a “cleared and witting commercial asset†of the agency, acted as his informal foreign affairs advisor, and had a close relationship with him through 1975.[3],[4],[5]
Bay of Pigs
George Bush on Zapata oil rig, c.1963
The CIA codename for the Bay of Pigs invasion of April 1961 was "Operation Zapata". (See Beschloss, p.89). Through his work with Zapata Off-Shore, Bush is alleged to have come into contact with Felix Rodriguez, Barry Seal, Porter Goss, and E. Howard Hunt, around the time of the Bay of Pigs operation.[6] John Loftus writes: "Zapata [Off-Shore] provided commercial supplies for one of [Allen] Dulles’ most notorious operations: the Bay of Pigs invasion."[7]
CIA liaison officer Col. L. (Leroy) Fletcher Prouty alleges in his book, ''The Secret Team'' (1973) and on his website, that Zapata Off-Shore provided or was used as cover for two of the ships used in the Bay of Pigs invasion: the ''Barbara J'' and ''Houston''. Prouty claims he delivered two ships to an inactive Naval Base near Elizabeth City, North Carolina, for a CIA contact named George Bush, who re-named the boats.[8]
The Bay of Pigs operation was directed out of the "Miami Station" (aka JM/WAVE), which was the CIA's largest station worldwide. It housed 200 agents who handled approximately 2,000 Cubans. Robert Reynolds was the CIA's Miami station chief from September 1960 to October 1961. He was replaced by career-CIA officer Theodore Shackley, who oversaw Operation Mongoose, Operation 40 (including Porter Goss, Felix Rodriguez, Barry Seal), and others. When Bush became CIA Director in 1976 he appointed Ted Shackley as Deputy Director of Covert Operations. When Bush became Vice President in 1981, he appointed Donald Gregg as his National Security Advisor.
Kevin Phillips, in ''American Dynasty,'' discusses George Bush's "highly likely" peripheral role in the Bay of Pigs fiasco. He points to the leadership role of Bush's fellow Skull and Bones alumni in organizing the operation. He notes an additional personal factor for Bush: the Walker side of the family (who initially funded Zapata Corporation) had lost a small fortune when Fidel Castro nationalized their West Indies Sugar Co. Edwin Pauley was "known for CIA connections," according to Phillips, it was Pauley who put Pemargo's Diaz and Bush together.
Watergate
Phillips (and others) have detailed subsequent involvement by Zapata associates in the Watergate scandal. George Bush, as Nixon's ambassador to the United Nations, urged his former Zapata partner Bill Liedtke to launder $100,000 to the White House plumbers. After Nixon's 1972 re-election, he appointed Bush as Chairman of the Republican National Committee. When the laundering was exposed, those involved included several CIA officials: E. Howard Hunt, Frank Sturgis, Eugenio MartÃnez, Virgilio González, and Bernard Barker. A discussion of the laundering appears on the Nixon tapes for June 23, 1973.White
Iran-Contra affair
Rodriguez visiting Bush in the White House c.1988
Note from Bush to Rodriguez, Dec. 1988
Felix Rodriguez, Porter Goss, Barry Seal, and others, Mexico City 22 January 1963
Michael Maholy alleges that Zapata Off-Shore was used as part of a CIA drug-smuggling ring to pay for arming Nicaraguan Contras in 1986-1988, including Rodriguez, Eugene Hasenfus and others. Mahony claims Zapata's oil rigs were used as staging bases for drug shipments, allegedly named "Operation Whale Watch." Mahony allegedly worked for Naval Intelligence, US State Department and CIA for two decades.
Business History 1969 to present, offshoots
Zapata, under Robert Gow's direction, acquired a controlling interest in the United Fruit Company in 1969. Robert's father, Ralph Gow, was on United Fruit's board of directors.
Gow apparently left Zapata in 1970. He took with him from Zapata Peter C. Knudtzon. Ties to the Bush family continued-- in 1971 both Jeb Bush and George W. Bush worked for Gow's new company, Stratford of Texas (aka Stratford of Houston). Stratford imported tropical plants. According to Knudtzon, George W. Bush reportedly flew for Stratford to Florida and Guatemala.[9] Stratford evidently had ties to a large ''finca'' (nursery or plantation) in La Democracia, Huehuetenango, Guatemala.
In the 1970s, under chairman and CEO William Flynn, Zapata expanded its business to include subsidiaries in dredging, construction, coal mining, copper mining and fishing.
By the late 1970s, saddled with weak operations, high debt and low return on investment, the company again began undergoing changes in management and direction. Lead by John Mackin, who succeeded William Flynn, the company began selling off some of those businesses and refocused on offshore oil and gas exploration and production.
In 1982 chief operating officer Ronald Lassiter assumed the role of CEO, and presided over a decade of red ink brought on by the collapse of oil prices. Zapata Offshore became Zapata Corporation in 1982. Its stock performed poorly. By 1986 Zapata was one of the bad loans that shook the foundations of San Francisco-based Bank of America, with a debt of more than $500 million and a fiscal year loss of $250 million. The company announced several restructurings during those years and managed to stave off bankruptcy, but continued to incur major losses. In 1990 the oil drilling company proposed selling its entire fleet of offshore drilling rigs to focus solely on fishing. The company had not had a profitable quarter in more than five years.
Zapata Offshore continued on as an offshore drilling company until the early 1990s when it was purchased by Arethusa Offshore which a few years sold the rigs to Diamond Offshore. Still struggling with debt by 1993, Zapata signed a deal with Norex America to raise more than $100 million through a loan and stock sale. But financier Malcolm Glazer, owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL franchise and then-owner of 40 percent of Zapata, didn't want his holdings diluted and filed a lawsuit to block the deal.
By 1994 the company had come under Glazer's control, after a proxy fight. Glazer became chairman of Zapata, replacing Ronald Lassiter, and in 1995 Avram Glazer was named CEO and president of Zapata. De facto headquarters moved from Houston to Rochester, NY. It no longer engaged in exploration, but owned several natural gas service companies. It also produced protein products from the menhaden fish. In subsequent years Zapata sold its energy-related businesses and focused on marine protein.
The Glazers spun off the company's fishing business, renamed Omega Protein, in 1998. Between 1998 and 2000, Zapata tried to position itself as an internet media company under the "zap.com" name. The company's stock boomed and crashed along with other dot-coms, and in 2001 the company conducted a 1 for 10 reverse stock split. The venture was cited by many investment journalists as an example of a company jumping on the internet bandwagon without any relevant experience. Zapata also built up a controlling stake in Safety Components International at this time.
The Zapata Corporation continues to serve as an investment vehicle for the Glazer family. Avram Glazer is the chairman and chief executive officer of Zapata.
Safety Components International, Omega Protein Corporation, former subsidiares
On December 2, 2005, Zapata Corp. Chairman, Avie Glazer, announced the sale of 4,162,394 shares, 77.3%, of Safety Components International to Wilbur L. Ross, Jr. for $51.2 million. Safety Components is an independent manufacturer of air bag fabrics and cushions. Safety Components is headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina and has plants located in North America, Europe, China and South Africa.
Zapata was also the holding company for the 'Omega Protein Corporation', which Zapata sold off its remaining stock in December 1, 2006, it is a marine protein business that processes the Atlantic menhaden into foods and industrial oils.
Since the sale of Safety Components International and Omega Protein Corporation, Zapata Crop. has no active subsidiary.
References
1. Secret admirers: The Bushes and the Washington Post Michael Hasty
2. Adios, Zapata!: Colorful company founded by Bush relocates to N.Y.
3. Zapata Oil Files, 1943-1983, George Bush Personal Papers, George Bush Presidential Library
4. John Fitzgerald Kennedy
5. Bush called FBI when JFK died
6. George Bush: World Class Monster
7. [2]
Public records
★ SEC filings of Zapata Corporation
★ Zapata Offshore Annual Reports, Microform Reading Room, Library of Congress.
★ Transcript and audioof a "smoking gun" tape of Nixon telling Haldeman and Ehrlichman about the "Bay of Pigs" and "Texans."
★ National Security Archives documentation of GHW Bush's CIA involvement in the early 1960s.
★ United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Civil Action 88-2600 GHR, Archives and Research Center v. Central Intelligence Agency, Affidavit of George William Bush, September 21, 1988.
★ George Bush personal papers
Zapata
★ "Adios, Zapata! Colorful company founded by Bush relocates to N.Y.," ''Houston Business Journal'', April 26, 1999
★ Franklin, H. Bruce, "Net Losses", Mother Jones, March 2006 - extensive article on role of Menhaded in ecosystem and possible results of overfishing. Retrieved 21 February, 2006
George Bush
★ Kevin Philips, ''Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush,'' (2004), esp. pp.200-208.
★ Russell Bowen, ''The Immaculate Deception: The Bush Crime Family Exposed'' (1991).
★ Joseph McBride, "The Man Who Wasn't There: 'George Bush,' CIA Operative," ''The Nation'', July 16/23, 1988, p. 42.
★ Joseph McBride, "Where Was George?", ''The Nation'', August 13/20, 1988, on the whereabouts of GHW Bush on 22 November 1963.
★ Nicolas King, ''George Bush: A Biography.''
★ Webster Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin, ''George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography'', Chapter 8.2 (1991), and "Bush as a covert CIA operative during the early 1960s". Tarpey and Chaitkin are associated with Lyndon LaRouche.
★ Laura Hanning 2004, ''Study of Evil -- A World Reappraised'': supporting documents, photos, letters, part III George Herbert Walker Bush
★ Anthony L. Kimery, "George Bush and the CIA: In the Company of Friends," ''Covert Action Quarterly'', Summer, 1992.
★ "George HW Bush and Felix Rodriguez: the tale of two old friends"
★ ''The Mafia, CIA & George [HW] Bush,'' Pete Brewton, S.P.I. Books, 1992
CIA
★ Richard Bissell, ''Reflections of a Cold Warrior,'' (Yale University Press, 1996).
★ David Atlee Phillips, ''The Night Watch''.
★ E. Howard Hunt, ''Give Us This Day'' (New Rochelle: Arlington Press, 1973)
★ Michael R. Beschloss, ''The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev, 1960-63'' (New York: Edward Burlingame Books, 1991), p. 89 refers to "Operation Zapata" as the codename for the Bay of Pigs operation.
Others
★ Leroy Fletcher Prouty, ''The Secret Team'' (1973).
★ Michael Maholy (of Yankton, SD), [10]
★ Daniel Yergin, ''The Prize,'' (1991).
★ Rodney Stich (former FAA investigator) ''Defrauding America'' (1994), and ''The Drugging of America'' (1999).
External links
★ Zapata Corporation
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