Tuesday
July 23, 2002
By
Timmy Smith, Las Cruces Herald Staff
Writer
Kennebunkport, Maine –George Herbert
Walker Bush was arrested Sunday by Federal agents who stormed his summer home early
Sunday morning. Bush is charged with
being a top aide in an operation that funded Al Qaeda operatives in the
mid-1980s. Bush’s wife Barbara was also
arrested and charged with several counts of assaulting Federal agents and
resisting arrest.
An
FBI source, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that the arrest warrant
charges Bush with conspiring to provide weapons and money to Islamic
fundamentalists associated with Osama Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda terrorist
network. The funding allegedly took
place in the mid-1980’s when Al Qaeda operatives were waging jihad against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
Two
FBI agents received minor injuries during a scuffle with Mrs. Bush. They were treated at a nearby prompt care
facility. A third agent, on whom Mrs.
Bush allegedly performed a wrestling maneuver commonly referred to as a
“scissors lock”, was airlifted to a hospital in Portland, Maine. He his in serious but stable condition and
is expected to recover.
The
leader of the terrorist funding operation, Ronald Reagan, is still at large,
although the FBI source claims that an arrest is imminent.
President
Bush, when asked about the arrest, expressed satisfaction. “If you give money and stuff to evil-doers,
you are an evil-doer. We will find you
and arrest you. Make no mistake about
that.”