controlled by persons who would later be convicted for marijuana smuggling and money
laundering. Many of the FBI questions focussed on this connection between Aronow and Kramer.Later, after Bush's victory in the 1988 presidential election, the FBI again questioned Brittain, and (^)
again the central issue was the Aronow-Kramer connection, plus additional questions of whether
Brittain had divulged any of his knowledge of these matters to other persons. A possible conclusion
was that a damage control operation in favor of Bush was in progress.
Tommy Teagle, an ex-convict interviewed by Burdick, said he feared that George Bush would have
him killed because information in his possession would implicate Jeb Bush in cocaine smuggling.
Teagle's story was that Aronow and Jeb Bush had been partners in cocaine trafficking and were
$2.5 million in debt to their Columbian suppliers. Dr. Robert Magoon, a friend of Aronow, is
quoted in the same location as having heard a similar report. But Teagle rapidly changed his story.[fn 3] Ultimately, an imprisoned convict was indicted for the murder of Aronow.
But the circumstances of the murder remain highly suspect. Starting in 1985, and with special
intensity during 1987-88, more than two dozen persons involved in various aspects of the Iran-
contra gun-runniknowledgeable about Iran-contra, but one or more steps removed from eyewitness knowledge ofng and drug-running operation met their deaths. At the same time, other persons
these operations, have been subjected to campaigns of discrediting and slander, often associated
with indictments on a variety of charges, charges which often stemmed from the Iran-contra
operations themselves. Above and beyond the details of each particular case, the overall pattern of
these deaths strongly suggests that they are coherent with a damage control operation by thenetworks involved, a damage control operation that has concentrated on liquidating those
individuals whose testimony might prove to be most damning to the leading personalities of these
networks. The death of Don Aronow occurred within the time frame of this general process of
amputation and cauterization of the Iran-contra and related networks. Many aspects of Aronow's
life suggest that his assassination may have been a product of the same "damage control" logic.
Return to the Table of Contents
NOTES:
For Bush's "war on drugsWar on Drugs," Washington Post, June 20, 1988;", see Jack Anderson and Dale Van Atta, "How Bush Commanded the Lawrence Lifschultz, "Bush, Drugs and Pakistan: (^)
Inside the Kingdom of Heroin," The Nation, November 14, 1988; "Drug Czars We Have Known,"
The Nation, February 27, 1989; and Robert A. Pastor and Jorge Castaneda, Limits to Friendship:
The United States and Mexico (New York, 1988), p. 271.
"Bush, Drugs, and Pakistan," The Nation, November 14, 1988.
See the cover of Newsweek, October 19, 1987 "Fighting the 'Wimp Factor,'" which portrays
Bush at the controls of Fidelity. A similar photo appears facing p. 223 in George Bush and Vic
Gold, Looking Forward (New York, 1987).
See Thomas Burdick and Charlene Mitchell, Blue Thunder (New York, 1990), p. 229. The
following account of the relations between Bush and Aronow relies upon this remarkable study.
Blue Thunder, p. 182.
Blue Thunder, p. 235.
Blue Thunder, p. 18.