1989 THROWBACK: GEORGE BUSH HOLDS HUGE BAG OF CRACK/COCAINE IN THE OVAL OFFICE ON LIVE TV! скачать в хорошем качестве

1989 THROWBACK: GEORGE BUSH HOLDS HUGE BAG OF CRACK/COCAINE IN THE OVAL OFFICE ON LIVE TV!

White House speech-writers thought it was the perfect visual for President Bush's first prime-time address to the nation -- a dramatic prop that would show how the drug trade had spread to the president's own neighborhood. "This is crack cocaine," Bush solemnly announced, holding up a plastic bag filled with a white chunky substance in his Sept. 5 speech on drug policy. It was "seized a few days ago in a park across the street from the White House . . . . It could easily have been heroin or PCP." But obtaining the crack was no easy feat. To match the words crafted by the speech-writers, Drug Enforcement Administration agents lured a suspected District drug dealer to Lafayette Park four days before the speech so they could make what appears to have been the agency's first undercover crack buy in a park better known for its location across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House than for illegal drug activity, according to officials familiar with the case. In fact, when first contacted by an undercover DEA agent posing as a drug buyer, the teenage suspect seemed baffled by the agent's request. "Where the {expletive} is the White House?" he replied in a conversation that was secretly tape-recorded by the DEA. "We had to manipulate him to get him down there," said William McMullan, assistant special agent in charge of DEA's Washington field office. "It wasn't easy." White House and DEA officials said they did nothing improper in their efforts to help Bush illustrate how widespread the local trade is. A senior White House official said the DEA was never asked to manufacture an arrest for the president's speech. According to DEA officials, the suspect had been the target of a three-month undercover investigation before the White House request and had sold crack to agents on three previous occasions in other parts of the city. DEA officials said yesterday they have held off on arresting the suspect in hopes that he would sell a larger amount of crack to undercover agents and could be charged with a more serious offense. "We were negotiating for a kilogram of crack and we were trying to identify his organization," said McMullan. "We were going to make that undercover buy anyway. What difference does it make where it happened -- whether it was in front of the White House . . .or in front of the Supreme Court?" DEA had planned to make an arrest this week, but the attempt fell through when the suspect failed to show up for a scheduled meeting with a DEA undercover agent. Another attempt will be made next week when a federal grand jury is expected to return indictments against him and possibly some of his confederates, said DEA spokesman Mario Perez. Kevin Zeese, a defense lawyer who specializes in drug cases, said DEA's efforts to maneuver the suspect to the area around the White House may enable his lawyer to argue that he was a victim of "outrageous government conduct." This would not help his defense against the three earlier crack sales, Zeese said. Nevertheless, "I think it's disgusting," he said. "The situation is not bad enough that they have to create a false situation? It's the government creating a hoax so they can rev up the war effort." As described by White House and DEA officials, the trail that brought crack to the White House began last month in Kennebunkport, Maine, where the president was on vacation and preparing for the speech that would unveil his anti-drug program. The idea of the president holding up crack was included in some drafts and Bush quickly approved. "He liked the prop," said one White House aide. "It drove the point home." Officials said that communications director David Demarest, who oversees the speech-writers, then asked Cabinet affairs secretary David Bates to contact the Justice Department about getting the drugs. Instructions to Justice were to find some crack that fit the description in the speech, not to go out and arrest someone just for the speech, aides said.