Zapata Corporation
Encyclopedia
Zapata Corporation is a holding company
based in Rochester, New York
, and originating from an oil
company started by a group including the former United States president
George H. W. Bush
. Various writers have alleged links between the company and the United States Central Intelligence Agency
. In 2009, it was renamed the Harbinger Group Inc.
George H. W. Bush
, along with his business partners John Overbey, Hugh Liedtke, 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. The initial $1 million investment for Zapata was provided by the Liedtke brothers and their circle of investors, by Bush's father and
maternal grandfather—Prescott Bush
and George Herbert Walker
, and his family circle of friends. Hugh Liedtke was named president, Bush was vice president; Overbey soon left.
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.
In 1954, Zapata Off-Shore Company was formed as a subsidiary of Zapata Oil, with Bush as president of the new company. He raised some startup money from Eugene Meyer
, publisher of the Washington Post, and his son-in-law, Phillip Graham.
Zapata Off-Shore accepted an offer from an inventor, R. G. LeTourneau
, for the development of a mobile but secure drilling rig. Zapata advanced him $400,000, which was to be refundable if the completed rig did not function. If it did function, LeTourneau would get an additional $550,000 together with 38,000 shares of Zapata Off-Shore common stock.
In 1959, Zapata Corporation split into independent companies Zapata Petroleum, headed by the Liedtkes, and Zapata Off-Shore, headed by Bush funded with $800,000. Bush moved his offices and family that year from Midland, Texas
to Houston.
In the late-1950s and early-1960, Zapata Off-Shore concentrated its business in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico
, and the Central America
n coast. The U.S. government began to auction off mineral rights to these areas in 1954. In 1958, drilling contracts with the seven large U.S. oil producers
included wells 40 miles (64.4 km) north of Isabela, Cuba
, near the island Cay Sal. In January 1959, the Cuban government of Fulgencio Batista
was overthrown during the Cuban Revolution
. Zapata also won a contract with Kuwait
.
In 1960, Jorge Diaz Serrano of Mexico was put in touch with Bush by Dresser Industries
. 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. In 1988, a Bush spokesman claimed that the deal lasted only from March to September 1960. Zapata sold Nola I to Pemargo in 1964.
In 1962, Bush was joined in Zapata Off-Shore by a fellow Yale
Skull and Bones
member, Robert Gow. By 1963, Zapata Off-Shore had four operational oil-drilling rigs—Scorpion (1956), Vinegaroon (1957), Sidewinder, and (in the Persian Gulf
) Nola III.
In 1963, Zapata Petroleum merged with South Penn Oil and other companies, to become Pennzoil
.
By 1964, Zapata Off-Shore had a number of subsidiaries, including: Seacat-Zapata Offshore Company (Persian 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 1964, Bush ran for the United States Senate
, 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 the U.S. House of Representatives
.
In 1966, William Stamps Farish III
, age 28, joined the board of Zapata.
Zapata's filing records with the U.S.Securities and Exchange Commission are intact for the years 1955-1959, and again from 1967 onwards. However, records for the years 1960-1966 are missing. The commission's records officer stated that the records were inadvertently placed in a session file to be destroyed by a federal warehouse, and that a total of 1,000 boxes were pulped in this procedure. The destruction of records occurred either in October 1983 (according to the records officer), or in 1981 shortly after Bush became Vice President of the United States
(according to, Wison Carpenter, a record analyst with the commission).
(CIA), beginning in the late 1950s.
Two Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) memoranda have been offered to show connections between the CIA and George H. W. Bush during his time at Zapata.
The first memo, written by FBI Special Agent Graham Kitchel on 22 November 1963, names Zapata Off-Shore 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 memorandum, written by J. Edgar Hoover
, identifies "George Bush" with the CIA. It is dated 29 November 1963 and refers to a briefing given to 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 "December 20, 1963. When this second memorandum 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. 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. Moreover, this G. William Bush swore an affidavit in federal court denying that Hoover's memo referred to him:
Another writer quotes four former U.S. intelligence officials saying that Bush was involved with the CIA prior to the Bay of Pigs:
Robert T. Crowley
and William Corson of the CIA:
John Sherwood of the CIA:
An anonymous official connected to "Operation Mongoose
":
John Loftus, in his book Secret War quotes former U.S. intelligence officials reporting the same story:
In 1960, Fabian Escalante was in the Department of State Security (G-2) in Cuba. At the time of the Bay of Pigs Invasion
, Escalante was head of a counter-intelligence unit, and was part of a team investigating a CIA operation called Sentinels of Liberty, an attempt to recruit Cubans willing to work against Castro. His information about Bush comes from a counterintelligence operation against Tracy Barnes
of the CIA:
In early November 1960, the CIA agreed to use US contractors for the maritime component of the operation. The CIA codename for the Bay of Pigs Invasion
of April 1961 was "Operation Zapata". 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.
CIA liaison officer Col. L. (Leroy) Fletcher Prouty alleges that Zapata Off-Shore provided or was used as cover for two of the smaller ships (LCIs) 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 and he suspected very strongly that George Bush must have been involved:
John Loftus
writes: "Prouty's credibility, however has been widely attacked because of his consultancy to Oliver Stone's film JFK." but notes on page 598 that: "While his credibility has suffered greatly because of his consultancy to Oliver Stone's film JFK, his recollections about the CIA supply mission have been confirmed by other sources."
A CIA memorandum states that the freighter ships were leased, not purchased, by the Garcia Line Corporation that had offices in Havana
and New York City. The owners were Alfredo Garcia and his five sons. The CIA was using the Rio Escondido for "exfiltrating anti-Castro leaders......prior to 1961 BOP planning." It had brought out Nino Diaz, and Manolo Ray. Its captain Gus Tirado was well known to the CIA. Eduardo Garcia met with two CIA agents in NYC and D.C. to arrange the use of the Garcia ships for the invasion. The alleged price was $600.00 per day per ship plus fuel, food and personnel. Eduardo selected and hired 30 men who were "executioners for Batista" Miro Cardona of the Frente, and the CIA did not like the choice of men hired to protect the Garcia ships. "Nobody questioned that Eduardo was coming along with the expedition. "I'm going to be in charge of my ships", he said.
Memorandum From the Chief of WH/4/PM, Central Intelligence Agency (Hawkins) to the Chief of WH/4 of the Directorate for Plans (Esterline):
The Bay of Pigs operation was directed out of the "Miami Station" (code-name JM/WAVE), that 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. In 1976, when Bush became CIA Director, he appointed Ted Shackley as Deputy Director of Covert Operations. In 1981, when Bush became Vice President, he appointed Donald Gregg
as his National Security Advisor.
Kevin Phillips
discusses George Bush's "highly likely" peripheral role in the Bay of Pigs events. 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 apparently 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.
affair. George Bush, as Richard Nixon
's ambassador to the United Nations
, allegedly 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 Party
National Committee. When the laundering was exposed, those involved included several CIA officials: E. Howard Hunt
, Frank Sturgis
, Eugenio Martínez
, Virgilio González, and Bernard Barker
. A discussion of the laundering appears on the Nixon tapes for June 23, 1973.
Michael Maholy alleges that Zapata Off-Shore was used as part of a CIA drug-smuggling ring to pay for arming Nicaragua
n 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.
in 1969, but was outbid by AMK Corp. 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 (also known as Stratford of Houston). Stratford imported tropical plants. According to Knudtzon, George W. Bush reportedly flew for Stratford to Florida and Guatemala. Stratford evidently had ties to a large commercial 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. Led 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 loss-making brought on by the collapse of oil prices. In 1982, Zapata Off-shore became Zapata Corporation. 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.
In 1990, Zapata Offshore sold 12 of its drilling rigs to Arethusa Offshore, which a few years later merged with 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 at the time owner of 40 percent of Zapata, did not want his holdings diluted and filed a lawsuit to block the deal.
. 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, New York. 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.
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. This period is probably best remembered for Zapata's unsolicited (and unsuccessful) takeover bid of the Excite
internet portal.
During this period, Zapata also built up a controlling stake in Safety Components International, a manufacturer of air bag fabrics and cushions.
On December 2, 2005, Zapata Corporation Chairman, Avram ("Avi") Glazer, announced the sale of 4,162,394 shares, 77.3%, of Safety Components International to Wilbur L. Ross, Jr. for $51.2 million. The company sold its remaining stock in Omega Proteine on December 1, 2006, leaving it with no active subsidiary.
Sometime during 2009, the name of the company was changed to Harbinger Group Inc. The first thing that has happened is that the Glazer family selling it controlling stack of the Zapata Corporation to Philip Falcone’s Harbinger Capital 2009, which resulted in the company’s name being charged to Harbinger Group Inc. with the ticker symbol HRG on the NYSE. http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/lcddata.html?ticker=HRG http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aozeLSutM_QU http://www.harbingergroupinc.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=118763&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1350786&highlight= Also in 2010-2011 Harbinger Capital Partners LLC transferred it’s 54.4% in Spectrum Brands to Harbinger Group Inc. giving the company controlling interest in that company. http://www.harbingergroupinc.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=118763&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1470262&highlight= http://www.harbingergroupinc.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=118763&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1514182&highlight= Also in 2011 Harbinger Group Inc. acquired the insurance company Old Mutual U.S. Life Holdings, Inc. http://www.harbingergroupinc.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=118763&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1547525&highlight= http://www.harbingergroupinc.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=118763&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1536649&highlight=
Holding company
A holding company is a company or firm that owns other companies' outstanding stock. It usually refers to a company which does not produce goods or services itself; rather, its purpose is to own shares of other companies. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can allow...
based in Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
, and originating from an oil
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
company started by a group including the former United States president
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
. Various writers have alleged links between the company and the United States Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
. In 2009, it was renamed the Harbinger Group Inc.
Early business history
The company traces its origins to Zapata Oil, founded in 1953 by future-U.S. PresidentPresident of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
, along with his business partners John Overbey, Hugh Liedtke, Bill Liedtke
Bill Liedtke
Bill Liedtke, Jr. was the co-founder of Zapata Corporation in 1952, along with his brother, Hugh, and former U.S. President George H.W. Bush. Zapata merged with Pennzoil, and the Liedtkes took over United Gas Pipeline in 1956....
, and Thomas J. Devine
Thomas J. Devine
Thomas J. Devine in Rochester, New York, a 1949 B.S. M.I.T. graduate, worked for the CIA, and was an oil-wildcatting associate of George H. W. Bush. Devine helped Bush found Zapata Offshore in 1953 and he was an unnofficial foreign affairs advisor to Representative Bush in the 1960s...
. Bush and Thomas J. Devine were oil-wildcatting
Wildcatter
A wildcatter is an American term for a person who drills wildcat wells, which are oil wells drilled in areas not known to be oil fields. A wildcatter notable for his success was Texan oil tycoon Glenn McCarthy....
associates. Their joint activities culminated in the establishment of Zapata Oil. The initial $1 million investment for Zapata was provided by the Liedtke brothers and their circle of investors, by Bush's father and
maternal grandfather—Prescott Bush
Prescott Bush
Prescott Sheldon Bush was a Wall Street executive banker and a United States Senator, representing Connecticut from 1952 until January 1963. He was the father of George H. W. Bush and the grandfather of George W...
and George Herbert Walker
George Herbert Walker
George Herbert Walker was a wealthy American banker and businessman. His daughter Dorothy married Prescott Bush, making him a grandfather of former President George H. W. Bush and a great-grandfather of former President George W. Bush.-Life and career:Born in St...
, and his family circle of friends. Hugh Liedtke was named president, Bush was vice president; Overbey soon left.
According to a CIA internal memo dated November 29, 1975, Zapata Petroleum began in 1953 through Bush's joint efforts with Thomas J. Devine
Thomas J. Devine
Thomas J. Devine in Rochester, New York, a 1949 B.S. M.I.T. graduate, worked for the CIA, and was an oil-wildcatting associate of George H. W. Bush. Devine helped Bush found Zapata Offshore in 1953 and he was an unnofficial foreign affairs advisor to Representative Bush in the 1960s...
, 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
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
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.
In 1954, Zapata Off-Shore Company was formed as a subsidiary of Zapata Oil, with Bush as president of the new company. He raised some startup money from Eugene Meyer
Eugene Meyer
Eugene Isaac Meyer was an American financier, public official, publisher of the Washington Post newspaper. He served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1930 to 1933. He was the father of publisher Katharine Graham.-Biography:Born in Los Angeles, California, he was one of eight children of...
, publisher of the Washington Post, and his son-in-law, Phillip Graham.
Zapata Off-Shore accepted an offer from an inventor, R. G. LeTourneau
R. G. LeTourneau
Robert Gilmour LeTourneau , born in Richford, Vermont, was a prolific inventor of earthmoving machinery. His machines represented nearly 70 percent of the earthmoving equipment and Engineering vehicles used during World War II, and he was responsible for nearly 300 patents...
, for the development of a mobile but secure drilling rig. Zapata advanced him $400,000, which was to be refundable if the completed rig did not function. If it did function, LeTourneau would get an additional $550,000 together with 38,000 shares of Zapata Off-Shore common stock.
In 1959, Zapata Corporation split into independent companies Zapata Petroleum, headed by the Liedtkes, and Zapata Off-Shore, headed by Bush funded with $800,000. Bush moved his offices and family that year from Midland, Texas
Midland, Texas
Midland is a city in and the county seat of Midland County, Texas, United States, on the Southern Plains of the state's western area. A small portion of the city extends into Martin County. As of 2010, the population of Midland was 111,147. It is the principal city of the Midland, Texas...
to Houston.
In the late-1950s and early-1960, Zapata Off-Shore concentrated its business in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
, and the Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
n coast. The U.S. government began to auction off mineral rights to these areas in 1954. In 1958, drilling contracts with the seven large U.S. oil producers
Seven Sisters (oil companies)
The "Seven Sisters" was a term coined in the 1950s by businessman Enrico Mattei, then-head of the Italian state oil company Eni, to describe the seven oil companies which formed the "Consortium for Iran" and dominated the global petroleum industry from the mid-1940s to the 1970s...
included wells 40 miles (64.4 km) north of Isabela, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, near the island Cay Sal. In January 1959, the Cuban government of Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was the United States-aligned Cuban President, dictator and military leader who served as the leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1944 and from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution....
was overthrown during the Cuban Revolution
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
. Zapata also won a contract with Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
.
In 1960, Jorge Diaz Serrano of Mexico was put in touch with Bush by Dresser Industries
Dresser Industries
Dresser Industries was a multinational corporation headquartered in Dallas, Texas, United States, which provided a wide range of technology, products, and services used for developing energy and natural resources...
. 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. In 1988, a Bush spokesman claimed that the deal lasted only from March to September 1960. Zapata sold Nola I to Pemargo in 1964.
In 1962, Bush was joined in Zapata Off-Shore by a fellow Yale
Yale College
Yale College was the official name of Yale University from 1718 to 1887. The name now refers to the undergraduate part of the university. Each undergraduate student is assigned to one of 12 residential colleges.-Residential colleges:...
Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale....
member, Robert Gow. By 1963, Zapata Off-Shore had four operational oil-drilling rigs—Scorpion (1956), Vinegaroon (1957), Sidewinder, and (in the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
) Nola III.
In 1963, Zapata Petroleum merged with South Penn Oil and other companies, to become Pennzoil
Pennzoil
Pennzoil is an American oil company founded in Los Angeles, California in 1913. In 1955, it was acquired by Oil City, Pennsylvania company South Penn Oil, a former branch of Standard Oil. In 1963, South Penn Oil merged with Zapata Petroleum; the merged company took the Pennzoil name. During the...
.
By 1964, Zapata Off-Shore had a number of subsidiaries, including: Seacat-Zapata Offshore Company (Persian 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 1964, Bush ran for the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
, 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 the U.S. House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
.
In 1966, William Stamps Farish III
William S. Farish
William Stamps Farish III is an American businessman and a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom .-Family and Early Life:...
, age 28, joined the board of Zapata.
Zapata's filing records with the U.S.Securities and Exchange Commission are intact for the years 1955-1959, and again from 1967 onwards. However, records for the years 1960-1966 are missing. The commission's records officer stated that the records were inadvertently placed in a session file to be destroyed by a federal warehouse, and that a total of 1,000 boxes were pulped in this procedure. The destruction of records occurred either in October 1983 (according to the records officer), or in 1981 shortly after Bush became Vice President of the United States
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
(according to, Wison Carpenter, a record analyst with the commission).
Connections with the CIA
Various writers have suggested that Zapata Off-Shore, and Bush in particular, cooperated with the Central Intelligence AgencyCentral Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA), beginning in the late 1950s.
FBI memos
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI) memoranda have been offered to show connections between the CIA and George H. W. Bush during his time at Zapata.
The first memo, written by FBI Special Agent Graham Kitchel on 22 November 1963, names Zapata Off-Shore regarding the John F. Kennedy assassination
John F. Kennedy assassination
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...
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 memorandum, written by J. Edgar Hoover
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...
, identifies "George Bush" with the CIA. It is dated 29 November 1963 and refers to a briefing given to 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 "December 20, 1963. When this second memorandum 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. 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. Moreover, this G. William Bush swore an affidavit 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.)
Allegations by former CIA staff
US Army Brigadier General Russell Bowen wrote that there was a cover-up of Zapata's CIA connections:Bush, in fact, did work directly with the anti-Castro Cuban groups in Miami before and after the Bay of Pigs invasion, using his company, Zapata Oil, as a corporate cover for his activities on behalf of the agency. Records at the University of Miami, where the operations were based for several years, show George Bush was present during this time.
Another writer quotes four former U.S. intelligence officials saying that Bush was involved with the CIA prior to the Bay of Pigs:
Robert T. Crowley
Robert Crowley (CIA)
Robert Trumbull Crowley was an officer in the Central Intelligence Agency since 1947, achieving the rank of assistant deputy director for operations, second in command of the CIA's Directorate of Operations, which was in charge of covert operations.A native of Chicago, Illinois and graduate of the...
and William Corson of the CIA:
Bush was officially considered a CIA business asset, according to Crowley and Corson. "George's insecurities were clay to someone like Dulles", William Corson said. To recruit young George Bush, Robert Crowley explained, Dulles convinced him that "he could contribute to his country as well as get help from the CIA for his overseas business activities."
[Bush] was, according to Corson, "perfect at talent spotting and looking at potential recruits for the CIA. You have to remember, we had real fears of Soviet activity in Mexico in the 1950s. Bush was one of many businessmen that would be reimbursed for hiring someone the CIA was interested in, or simply carrying a message."
John Sherwood of the CIA:
Bush was at first a tiny part of OPERATION MONGOOSE, the CIA's code name for their anti-Castro operations. According to the late John Sherwood, "Bush was like hundreds of other businessmen who provided the nuts-and-bolts assistance such operations require... What they mainly helped us with was to give us a place to park people that was discreet."
An anonymous official connected to "Operation Mongoose
Cuban Project
The Cuban Project was a program of Central Intelligence Agency covert operations developed during the early years of the administration of President of the United States John F. Kennedy...
":
George Bush would be given a list of names of Cuban oil workers we would want placed in jobs... The oil platforms he dealt in were perfect for training the Cubans in raids on their homeland.
John Loftus, in his book Secret War quotes former U.S. intelligence officials reporting the same story:
The Zapata-Permargo deal caught the eye of Allan Dulles, who the "old spies" report was the man who recruited Bush's oil company as a part time purchasing front for the CIA. Zapata provided commercial supplies for one of Dulles' most notorious operations: the Bay of Pigs Invasion. -- Chapter 16, p. 368
In 1960, Fabian Escalante was in the Department of State Security (G-2) in Cuba. At the time of the Bay of Pigs Invasion
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful action by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support and encouragement from the US government, in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The invasion was launched in April 1961, less than three months...
, Escalante was head of a counter-intelligence unit, and was part of a team investigating a CIA operation called Sentinels of Liberty, an attempt to recruit Cubans willing to work against Castro. His information about Bush comes from a counterintelligence operation against Tracy Barnes
Tracy Barnes
Charles Tracy Barnes was a senior staff member at the United States' Central Intelligence Agency , serving as principal manager of CIA operations in the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état and the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion....
of the CIA:
Tracy Barnes functioned as head of the Cuban Task Force. He called a meeting on January 18, 1960, in his office in Quarters Eyes, near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, which the navy had lent while new buildings were being constructed in Langley. Those who gathered there included the eccentric Howard Hunt, future head of the Watergate team and a writer of crime novels; the egocentric Frank Bender, a friend of Trujillo; Jack Esterline, who had come straight from Venezuela where he directed a CIA group; psychological warfare expert David A. Phillips, and others. The team responsible for the plans to overthrow the government of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954 was reconstituted, and in the minds of all its members this would be a rerun of the same plan. Barnes talked at length of the goals to be achieved. He explained that Vice-President Richard Nixon was the Cuban "case officer", and had assembled an important group of businessmen headed by George Bush [Snr.] and Jack Crichton, both Texas
oilmen, to gather the necessary funds for [Operation 40]. Nixon was a protege of Bush's father [Prescott], who in 1946 had supported Nixon's bid for congress. In fact, [Prescott] Bush was the campaign strategist who brought Eisenhower and Nixon to the presidency of the United States. With such patrons, Barnes was certain that failure was impossible.
Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961)
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful action by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support and encouragement from the US government, in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The invasion was launched in April 1961, less than three months...
of April 1961 was "Operation Zapata". Through his work with Zapata Off-Shore, Bush is alleged to have come into contact with Felix Rodriguez
Félix Rodríguez (Central Intelligence Agency)
Félix Ismael Rodríguez Mendigutia is a former Central Intelligence Agency officer infamous for his involvement in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, in the interrogation and execution of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara and his ties to George H. W. Bush during the Iran-Contra Affair...
, Barry Seal
Barry Seal
Adler Berriman Seal , better known as Barry Seal, was a United States drug smuggler and aircraft pilot who flew covert flights for the Central Intelligence Agency and the Medellín Cartel.-Early life:...
, Porter Goss, and E. Howard Hunt
E. Howard Hunt
Everette Howard Hunt, Jr. was an American intelligence officer and writer. Hunt served for many years as a CIA officer. Hunt, with G...
, around the time of the Bay of Pigs operation.
CIA liaison officer Col. L. (Leroy) Fletcher Prouty alleges that Zapata Off-Shore provided or was used as cover for two of the smaller ships (LCIs) 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
Elizabeth City, North Carolina
Elizabeth City is a city in Pasquotank County and Camden County in the State of North Carolina. With a population of 18,683 at the 2010 census, Elizabeth City is the county seat of Pasquotank County....
, for a CIA contact and he suspected very strongly that George Bush must have been involved:
They asked me to see if we could find – purchase – a couple of transport ships. We got some people that were in that business, and they went along the coast and they found two old ships that we purchased and sent down to Elizabeth City and began to load with an awful lot of trucks that the Army was sending down there. We deck-loaded the trucks, and got all of their supplies on board. Everything that they needed was on two ships. It was rather interesting to note, looking back these days, that one of the ships was called the Houston, and the other ship was called the Barbara J. Colonel Hawkins had renamed the program as we selected a name for the Bay of Pigs operation. The code name was "Zapata." I was thinking a few months ago of what a coincidence that is. When Mr. Bush graduated from Yale, back there in the days when I was a professor at Yale, he formed an oil company, called "Zapata", with a man, Lieddke, who later on became president of Pennzoil. But the company that Lieddke and Mr. Bush formed
was the Zapata Oil Company. Mr. Bush's wife's name is Barbara J. And Mr. Bush claims as his hometown Houston, Texas. Now the triple coincidence there is strange; but I think it's interesting. I know nothing about its meaning. But these invasion ships were the Barbara J and the Houston, and the program was "Zapata." George Bush must have been somewhere around.
John Loftus
John Loftus
John Joseph Loftus is an American author, former US government prosecutor and former Army intelligence officer. He is a president of The Intelligence Summit and, although he is not Jewish, a president of the Florida Holocaust Museum. Loftus also serves on the Board of Advisers to Public...
writes: "Prouty's credibility, however has been widely attacked because of his consultancy to Oliver Stone's film JFK." but notes on page 598 that: "While his credibility has suffered greatly because of his consultancy to Oliver Stone's film JFK, his recollections about the CIA supply mission have been confirmed by other sources."
A CIA memorandum states that the freighter ships were leased, not purchased, by the Garcia Line Corporation that had offices in Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
and New York City. The owners were Alfredo Garcia and his five sons. The CIA was using the Rio Escondido for "exfiltrating anti-Castro leaders......prior to 1961 BOP planning." It had brought out Nino Diaz, and Manolo Ray. Its captain Gus Tirado was well known to the CIA. Eduardo Garcia met with two CIA agents in NYC and D.C. to arrange the use of the Garcia ships for the invasion. The alleged price was $600.00 per day per ship plus fuel, food and personnel. Eduardo selected and hired 30 men who were "executioners for Batista" Miro Cardona of the Frente, and the CIA did not like the choice of men hired to protect the Garcia ships. "Nobody questioned that Eduardo was coming along with the expedition. "I'm going to be in charge of my ships", he said.
Memorandum From the Chief of WH/4/PM, Central Intelligence Agency (Hawkins) to the Chief of WH/4 of the Directorate for Plans (Esterline):
The Barbara J (LCI), now enroute to the United States from Puerto Rico, requires repairs which may take up to two weeks for completion. The sister ship, the Blagar, is outfitting in Miami, and its crew is being assembled. It is expected that both vessels will be fully operational by mid-January
at the latest.
In view of the difficulty and delay encountered in purchasing, outfitting and readying for sea the two LCI's, the decision has been reached to purchase no more major vessels, but to charter them instead. The motor ship, Rio Escondido (converted LCT) will be chartered this week and one additional steam ship, somewhat larger, will be chartered early in February. Both ships belong to a Panamanian Corporation controlled by the Garcia family of Cuba, who are actively cooperating with this Project.
These two ships will provide sufficient lift for troops and supplies in the invasion operation.
The Bay of Pigs operation was directed out of the "Miami Station" (code-name JM/WAVE), that 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
Theodore Shackley
Theodore G. "Ted" Shackley, Jr. was an American CIA officer involved in many important and controversial CIA operations during the 1960s and 1970s. He is one of the most decorated CIA officers...
, who oversaw Operation Mongoose
Cuban Project
The Cuban Project was a program of Central Intelligence Agency covert operations developed during the early years of the administration of President of the United States John F. Kennedy...
, Operation 40
Operation 40
Operation 40 was a Central Intelligence Agency-sponsored undercover operation in the early 1960s, which was active in the United States and the Caribbean , Central America, and Mexico. It was created by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in March 1960, after the January 1959 Cuban Revolution, and was...
(including Porter Goss, Felix Rodriguez
Félix Rodríguez (Central Intelligence Agency)
Félix Ismael Rodríguez Mendigutia is a former Central Intelligence Agency officer infamous for his involvement in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, in the interrogation and execution of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara and his ties to George H. W. Bush during the Iran-Contra Affair...
, Barry Seal
Barry Seal
Adler Berriman Seal , better known as Barry Seal, was a United States drug smuggler and aircraft pilot who flew covert flights for the Central Intelligence Agency and the Medellín Cartel.-Early life:...
), and others. In 1976, when Bush became CIA Director, he appointed Ted Shackley as Deputy Director of Covert Operations. In 1981, when Bush became Vice President, he appointed Donald Gregg
Donald Gregg
-Personal history:Gregg worked for the CIA for 31 years, from 1951-1982. After graduating from high school he enlisted in the military and received training as a cryptanalyst. He then attended Williams College, in Williamstown, MA, until 1951. Upon his graduation, he was recruited by the CIA...
as his National Security Advisor.
Kevin Phillips
Kevin Phillips (political commentator)
Kevin Price Phillips is an American writer and commentator on politics, economics, and history. Formerly a Republican Party strategist, Phillips has become disaffected with his former party over the last two decades, and is now one of its most scathing critics...
discusses George Bush's "highly likely" peripheral role in the Bay of Pigs events. He points to the leadership role of Bush's fellow Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale....
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 apparently 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.
The Watergate Scandal (1972)
Phillips and others have detailed subsequent involvement by Zapata associates in the WatergateWatergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...
affair. George Bush, as Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
's ambassador to the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, allegedly urged his former Zapata partner Bill Liedtke to launder $100,000 to the White House plumbers
White House Plumbers
The White House Plumbers, sometimes simply called the Plumbers, were a covert White House Special Investigations Unit established July 24, 1971 during the presidency of Richard Nixon. Its task was to stop the leaking of classified information to the news media...
. After Nixon's 1972 re-election, he appointed Bush as Chairman of the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
National Committee. When the laundering was exposed, those involved included several CIA officials: E. Howard Hunt
E. Howard Hunt
Everette Howard Hunt, Jr. was an American intelligence officer and writer. Hunt served for many years as a CIA officer. Hunt, with G...
, Frank Sturgis
Frank Sturgis
Frank Anthony Sturgis , born Frank Angelo Fiorini, was one of the Watergate burglars.-Early Life and Military Service:...
, Eugenio Martínez
Eugenio Martínez
Eugenio Rolando Martinez was a member of the anti-Castro movement in the early 1960s, and later was one of the five men recruited by G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt in 1972 for the Memorial Day weekend Watergate first break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C...
, Virgilio González, and Bernard Barker
Bernard Barker
Bernard Leon Barker , known as "Macho" or by his mother's maiden name, "Terry", was a Watergate burglar, and burglar of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office....
. A discussion of the laundering appears on the Nixon tapes for June 23, 1973.
Iran-Contra affair (1986-1988)
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
n Contras
Iran-Contra Affair
The Iran–Contra affair , also referred to as Irangate, Contragate or Iran-Contra-Gate, was a political scandal in the United States that came to light in November 1986. During the Reagan administration, senior Reagan administration officials and President Reagan secretly facilitated the sale of...
in 1986-1988, including Rodriguez
Félix Rodríguez (Central Intelligence Agency)
Félix Ismael Rodríguez Mendigutia is a former Central Intelligence Agency officer infamous for his involvement in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, in the interrogation and execution of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara and his ties to George H. W. Bush during the Iran-Contra Affair...
, Eugene Hasenfus
Eugene Hasenfus
Eugene H. Hasenfus is a United States citizen who was alleged by Nicaragua Sandinista authorities to be employed by the U.S...
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.
Decline
Zapata, under Robert Gow's direction, sought to acquire a controlling interest in the United Fruit CompanyUnited Fruit Company
It had a deep and long-lasting impact on the economic and political development of several Latin American countries. Critics often accused it of exploitative neocolonialism and described it as the archetypal example of the influence of a multinational corporation on the internal politics of the...
in 1969, but was outbid by AMK Corp. 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
Jeb Bush
John Ellis "Jeb" Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd Governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. He is a prominent member of the Bush family: the second son of former President George H. W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush; the younger brother of former President George W...
and George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
worked for Gow's new company, Stratford of Texas (also known as Stratford of Houston). Stratford imported tropical plants. According to Knudtzon, George W. Bush reportedly flew for Stratford to Florida and Guatemala. Stratford evidently had ties to a large commercial plantation in La Democracia, Huehuetenango
Huehuetenango
Huehuetenango is a city and a municipality in the highlands of western Guatemala. It is also the capital of the department of Huehuetenango. The municipality's population was over 81,000 people in 2002...
, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
.
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. Led 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 loss-making brought on by the collapse of oil prices. In 1982, Zapata Off-shore became Zapata Corporation. Its stock
Stock
The capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...
performed poorly. By 1986, Zapata was one of the bad loans that shook the foundations of San Francisco-based Bank of America
Bank of America
Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...
, 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.
In 1990, Zapata Offshore sold 12 of its drilling rigs to Arethusa Offshore, which a few years later merged with Diamond Offshore
Diamond Offshore Drilling
Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. is a deepwater drilling contractor which provides drilling services to the oil and gas industry. The company's headquarters are located in Houston, Texas, but they have offices in Metairie, Louisiana, Africa, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Scotland, Singapore, Norway...
. 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
Malcolm Glazer
Malcolm Irving Glazer is an American businessman and sports team owner. He is the president and chief executive officer of First Allied Corporation, a holding company for his varied business interests, most notably in the food processing industry...
, owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football franchise based in Tampa, Florida, U.S. They are currently members of the Southern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League – they are the only team in the division not to come from the old NFC West...
NFL
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
franchise and at the time owner of 40 percent of Zapata, did not want his holdings diluted and filed a lawsuit to block the deal.
Glazer era and the Birth of Harbinger Group Inc.
By 1994, the company had come under Glazer's control, after a proxy fightProxy fight
A proxy fight or proxy battle is an event that may occur when a corporation's stockholders develop opposition to some aspect of the corporate governance, often focusing on directorial and management positions. Corporate activists may attempt to persuade shareholders to use their proxy votes A proxy...
. Glazer became chairman of Zapata, replacing Ronald Lassiter, and in 1995 Avram Glazer
Avram Glazer
Avram "Avi" Glazer is part of the Glazer family, he is the son of Malcolm Glazer, who control First Allied Corporation, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL, and who own the English football club Manchester United. The family is based in Florida....
was named CEO and president of Zapata. De facto headquarters moved from Houston to Rochester, New York. It no longer engaged in exploration, but owned several natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
service companies. It also produced protein
Protein
Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
products from the menhaden
Menhaden
Menhaden, also known as mossbunker, bunker and pogy, are forage fish of the genera Brevoortia and Ethmidium, two genera of marine fish in the family Clupeidae.-Description:...
fish. In subsequent years Zapata sold its energy-related businesses and focused on marine protein.
Between 1998 and 2000, Zapata tried to position itself as an internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
media company under the "zap.com" name. The company's stock boomed and crashed along with other dot-coms
Dot-com company
A dot-com company, or simply a dot-com , is a company that does most of its business on the Internet, usually through a website that uses the popular top-level domain, ".com" .While the term can refer to present-day companies, it is also used specifically to refer to companies with...
, and in 2001 the company conducted a 1 for 10 reverse stock split
Reverse stock split
On a stock exchange, a reverse stock split or reverse split is a process by a company of issuing to each shareholder in that company a smaller number of new shares in proportion to that shareholder's original shares that are subsequently canceled. A reverse stock split is also called a stock merge...
. The venture was cited by many investment journalists as an example of a company jumping on the internet bandwagon
Bandwagon effect
The bandwagon effect is a well documented form of groupthink in behavioral science and has many applications. The general rule is that conduct or beliefs spread among people, as fads and trends clearly do, with "the probability of any individual adopting it increasing with the proportion who have...
without any relevant experience. This period is probably best remembered for Zapata's unsolicited (and unsuccessful) takeover bid of the Excite
Excite
Excite is a collection of Internet sites and services owned by IAC Search & Media, which is a subsidiary of InterActive Corporation . Launched in 1994, it is an online service offering a variety of content, including an Internet portal, a search engine, a web-based email, instant messaging, stock...
internet portal.
During this period, Zapata also built up a controlling stake in Safety Components International, a manufacturer of air bag fabrics and cushions.
On December 2, 2005, Zapata Corporation Chairman, Avram ("Avi") Glazer, announced the sale of 4,162,394 shares, 77.3%, of Safety Components International to Wilbur L. Ross, Jr. for $51.2 million. The company sold its remaining stock in Omega Proteine on December 1, 2006, leaving it with no active subsidiary.
Sometime during 2009, the name of the company was changed to Harbinger Group Inc. The first thing that has happened is that the Glazer family selling it controlling stack of the Zapata Corporation to Philip Falcone’s Harbinger Capital 2009, which resulted in the company’s name being charged to Harbinger Group Inc. with the ticker symbol HRG on the NYSE. http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/lcddata.html?ticker=HRG http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aozeLSutM_QU http://www.harbingergroupinc.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=118763&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1350786&highlight= Also in 2010-2011 Harbinger Capital Partners LLC transferred it’s 54.4% in Spectrum Brands to Harbinger Group Inc. giving the company controlling interest in that company. http://www.harbingergroupinc.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=118763&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1470262&highlight= http://www.harbingergroupinc.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=118763&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1514182&highlight= Also in 2011 Harbinger Group Inc. acquired the insurance company Old Mutual U.S. Life Holdings, Inc. http://www.harbingergroupinc.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=118763&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1547525&highlight= http://www.harbingergroupinc.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=118763&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1536649&highlight=
Public records
- SEC filings of Zapata Corporation
- Zapata Offshore Annual Reports, Microform Reading Room, Library of Congress.
- Transcript and audio of 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, American 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 ChaitkinAnton ChaitkinAnton "Tony" Chaitkin is an author, historian, conspiracy theorist, and political activist with the LaRouche movement. He serves as History Editor for Executive Intelligence Review....
, George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, Chapter 8.2 (1991), and "Bush as a covert CIA operative during the early 1960s". Tarpley and Chaitkin are associated with Lyndon LaRoucheLyndon LaRoucheLyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr. is an American political activist and founder of a network of political committees, parties, and publications known collectively as the LaRouche movement...
. - 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
- Beschloss, Michael R. 1991. The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev, 1960-63 Edward Burlingame Books, p. 89 refers to "Operation Zapata" as the codename for the Bay of Pigs operation.
- Bissell, Richard M. Jr., with Jonathan E. Lewis and Frances T. Pudlo. 1996. Reflections of a Cold Warrior: From Yalta to the Bay of Pigs Yale University Press ISBN 978-0-300-06430-8
- Escalante, Fabian. 2004. The Cuba Project: CIA Covert Operations Against Cuba 1959-1962 (Secret War). Translation of "La guerra secreta de la CIA" (1993) by Maxine Shaw and edited by Mirta Muniz. Melbourne, Australia: Ocean Press. ISBN 1875284869
- Hunt, E. Howard. 1973. Give Us This Day. Arlington House ISBN 978-0-87000-228-1
- Pfeiffer, Jack B. 1979. Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation, Vol.III Evolution of CIA's Anti-Castro Policies, 1959-January 1961
- Phillips, David AtleeDavid Atlee PhillipsDavid Atlee Phillips was a Central Intelligence Agency officer for 25 years, one of a handful of people to receive the Career Intelligence Medal. He rose to become the CIA's chief of all operations in the Western hemisphere...
, The Night Watch. - Trento, Joseph J. 2005. Prelude to Terror: The Rogue CIA and the Legacy of America's Private Intelligence Network. Carroll & Graf Publishers Inc ISBN 978-0786714643
Others
- Prouty, Leroy Fletcher. 1973. The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the United States and the World ISBN 0-13-798173-2
- Michael Maholy (of Yankton, SD)http://www.phoenixarchives.com/contact/1994/1294/122794.pdf
- Daniel Yergin, The Prize, (1991).
- Rodney Stich (former FAA investigator) Defrauding America (1994), and The Drugging of America (1999).