Interview with Pete Brewton on the Alternative Views show (1992).
Summary:
Pete Brewton is the author of the book The Mafia, CIA and George Bush, which is based on his investigations of powerful Texas businessmen, politicians, and their connections to the savings and loans scandals of the 1980s.
The book grew out of an 8-part investigative reporting series that ran in the Houston Post, a series that the Seattle Times columnist John Hinterberger described as “a bombshell series backed up by eight months of investigation.”
The series won the Galvaston Press Club award for best investigative series. In 1991 PEN awarded the Journalism prize to Brewton, “Awarded for his series on the Savings & Loan scandal,” in the Houston Post.
Andrew Ferguson of the Weekly Standard characterized Brewton’s book as one of a series of anti-Bush books “written in Texas by veteran Texas activists who have grown bitter from the endless frustration and resentment that is their unhappy lot.”
Andrew Ferguson was a speech writer for George H. W. Bush in 1992.
Texas politician Jon Lindsay took out a newspaper advertisement to discredit Brewton’s book.
~ 1 hr 40 min
Content Source/Mirror: The Memory Hole
https://www.patreon.com/thememoryhole_
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Bio: Pete Brewton teaches journalism and law at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. Brewton is best known for an investigative journalism series he wrote for the Houston Post that were the basis of a book, The Mafia, CIA and George Bush.
He is a journalist with 15 years reporting experience at the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post. He practiced law in Houston for five years.
Pete Brewton holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Rice University, a master’s degree in astronomy from New Mexico State University, a master’s degree from the American Graduate School of International Management, and a law degree from the University of Texas.
He travels frequently to help with his mother’s working cattle ranch in Lampasas County. He is author of a 2006 novel, Lone Star Law.”
In 1986 he co-won 2 Matrix Awards for his story on “Hermann Hospital Estate” with Mary Flood, and for his story with John Mecklin on County Commissioner Bob Eckels, both in the investigative/interpretive category.
Additional Notes:
Paul Lional Edward Helliwell (1915 – 24 December 1976) was an American lawyer, banker, OSS official, and CIA officer. While serving in this capacity he became director of Sea Supply, Inc. and president of Castle Bank & Trust. Helliwell was instrumental in setting up Civil Air Transport and Castle Bank & Trust, both of which were CIA proprietary companies. According to The Wall Street Journal, he was “deeply involved” in financing covert actions against Cuba from 1964 to 1975. Helliwell was reported to have played a key role in the purchase of the site for Disney World.
He formed Castle Bank & Trust in the Bahamas in January 1962 to provide a financial channel to support CIA operations against Cuba and Latin America including the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1962 for which he was one of the pay masters.
Helliwell continued to work as a lawyer in Miami and served as legal counsel to a Panamanian holding company that controlled a Bahamian gambling casino connected with Meyer Lansky.
Beginning in 1965 by the IRS, “Operation Tradewinds” was an investigation into offshore tax havens primarily involving Castle Bank & Trust due to its association with suspected drug trafficking.
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Rafael “Chi Chi” Quintero Ibaria (1940–2006) was a CIA operative.
Quintero was born in Camagüey, Cuba on September 16, 1940. In the 1950s, he joined the resistance movement against Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. A few days prior to the Cuban Revolution he joined Fidel Castro’s group in the Sierra Maestra.
After becoming dissatisfied with the Castro regime, he joined Manuel Artime against Castro. Artime’s group was supported by Frank Sturgis and the CIA as related by Fabian Escalante in CIA Covert Operations: 1959 – 1962. Sturgis flew a CIA plane over Havana, dropping thousands of pamphlets urging the Cuban people to overthrow the Castro regime on October 21, 1959, as part of Artime’s operations. About December 1959, Manuel Artime left Cuba with a hundred thousand pesos when nothing happened. Quintero moved to the United States the next month.
On June 5, 1960, The Movement for the Recovery of the Revolution or was created by Manuel Artime, Tony Varona, Aureliano Arango, José Miró Cardona and Quintero. Around the same time, Quintero became a member of Operation 40 along with other anti-Castro Cubans. In 1961 Quintero secretly re-entered Cuba and was arrested just before the Bay of Pigs Invasion, was released and returned to the U.S.
Rafael Quintero served as deputy leader of MRR under Artime in 1962. Manuel Artime got money from the CIA through Theodore Shackley in 1963. Artime, Quintero and Félix Rodríguez moved to Nicaragua creating an army of 300 men and obtained weapons, supplies and boats to invade Cuba.