George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography

(Frankie) #1

Gregg: They were prepared by my assistant, Mrs. Byrne, acting on advice from Colonel Watson.


She signed my initials, but those are not my initials. I did not see the documents until December1986, when I called them to the attention of the House Intelligence Committee.... And if, you know (^) ,
if you do not--if my speculation does not hold up, I have to refer you to a memorandum that I
turned over to the Iran-Contra Committee on the 14th of May 1987, which--
Sen. Sarbanes: I am looking at that memorandum now.
Gregg: Okay. That has been my explanation up until now.
Sen. Sarbanes: But you are now providing a different explanation?
Gregg: It is the only one--I have been thinking about these documents for over two years, and it is
the only thing that I can come up with that would come close to explaining that agenda item--given
the fact that there was no intention of discussing resupply to the Contras. That resupply of the
Contras was not discussed, according to the testimony of everyone who was in the meeting....''
Sen. Kerry: Douglas Minarczik is who?
Gregg: He was one of my assistants in my office responsible for Mid-East and African affairs....
Sen. Kerry: And he was working for you in 1985 and 1986, that period?
Gregg: Yes.
Sen. Kerry: Now, when I began first investigating allegations of the gun-running that was taking
place out of Miami, one of the very first references that my staff, frankly, frequently heard, and Ithink you and I have talked about this, that Miami was buzzing with the notion that the Vice
President's office was somehow involved in monitoring that, at least [emphasis added]. Now, Jesus
Garcia was a Miami corrections official who got into trouble and wound up going to jail on
weapons offenses. Through that connection, we came across telephone records. And those
telephone records demonstrate calls from Garcia's house to Contra camps in Honduras, to John Hullin Costa Rica, and Douglas Minarczik in, not necessarily in your office, but directly to the White
House. However, there is incontrovertible evidence that he had in his possession the name of Mr.
Minarczik, a piece of paper in our possession, in Garcia's home in connection with monitoring those
paramilitary operations, in August of 1985. Now, how do you account for the fact that Minarczik's--
that the people involved with the Contra supply operations out of Miami ... had Minarczik's nameand telephone number, and that there is a record of calls to the White House at that time?
Gregg: I cannot account for it. Could it have anything to do with our old friend Mr. Brenicke [sic]?
Because Brenicke did have Minarczik's phone number....
Sen. Kerry: ... No. Totally separate.
Gregg: This is all new. I do not have an explanation, sir....
Sen. Kerry: Do you relives as a result; do you recall the downing of a Cuban airliner in [1976] imember that? n which 72 people lost their
Gregg: Yes.
Sen. Kerry: A terrorist bomb. And a Cuban-American named Luis Posada [Carriles] was arrested in

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