投稿者 佐藤雅彦 日時 2001 年 10 月 26 日 00:20:17:
●『幸運なる二世ジョージ・ブッシュの真実』は、ただでさえ数少
ない小ブッシュの伝記のうち、邦訳が読める貴重な本ですが、
その著者ジェイムズ・ハットフィールド氏は、小ブッシュの大統領
就任から半年後の７月18日に「処方薬の過剰摂取による自殺」
を遂げていました。ちなみにこの伝記がどのくらいスキャンダラス
なもおんかは、つぎの広告からも知ることができるでしょう。
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『幸運なる二世ジョージ・ブッシュの真実』
J.H. ハットフィールド (著), James H. Hatfield (原著),
二宮 千寿子 (翻訳), 渋谷 正子 (翻訳), 真喜志 順子 (翻訳)
単行本 - 461 p (2001/04/01)
青山出版社 ; ISBN: 4899980167 ; サイズ(cm): 18 x 13
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エディターレビュー
ダ・ヴィンチ
新世紀最初の大統領の地位に昇りつめたジョージ・W・ブッシュとは、
一体何者なのか？――名門ブッシュ家の異端児の生い立ちから、
学生時代、石油会社や野球チームの経営者時代、政治家生活まで、
彼の素顔を語り尽くす、世界で話題の一冊。
(ダ・ヴィンチ2001年7月号「今月の注目本100冊」 Copyright（c）
MEDIA FACTORY 2001.All rights reserved.)
内容（「BOOK」データベースより）
その生い立ちから、学生時代、石油会社や野球チームの経営者
時代、テキサス州知事時代、そして大統領をめざすまで、ジョージ・
W.ブッシュのすべてを語り尽くす。封印された最大の疑惑の解明
にも挑んだ、著者渾身の一冊。
内容（「MARC」データベースより）
ブッシュ新大統領の少年時代から1999年5月の大統領選挙出馬
表明までを追ったノンフィクション。綿密かつ膨大な取材をもとに、
新大統領の封印された素顔を暴き出す。全米で10万部がリコール
された衝撃の書の翻訳化。
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●マスコミに報じられたハットフィールド氏の最期というのは、
ハリウッドのサスペンス映画なみの奇妙なものだったようです。
●そもそも、米国大手のセントマーチンズ・プレスから同書が出版
された直後に、ハットフィールド氏が「委託殺人」容疑で起訴されて
いたことが“発覚”して同社は７万部を回収、２万部をお蔵入りに
してしまったわけですが、発売当時はすでに2000年大統領選の
前哨戦が始まっており、共和党サイドから版元へのタレコミや
恫喝があった可能性は否定できない。そして、「自殺」の直前には
ハットフィールド氏は「クレジットカード詐欺」の容疑がかかり、
警察が逮捕のために自宅に踏み込んだらすでに「逃走」しており、
結局、ホテルで死体となって発見されたとのこと。これとて、「詐欺」
の件はデッチ上げの可能性だって考えられるし――本当のところ
はわかりませんが――マスコミ報道はこの著者の評判をおとしめる
ようなストーリーを書いているだ。（日本の記者クラブほどではない
でしょうが、こうした情報も警察の記者発表を鵜呑みにして書いている
可能性が高い。）
●「処方薬の飲み過ぎ」で「逃亡先」の「ホテル」で「自殺」した、という
ストーリー自体、暗殺を思わせるものですな。
●ところで、この「自殺」の直前に、ハットフィールド氏が発表した
最後の原稿は、よりによってウサマ・ビン・ラディンと小ブッシュが
昔ビジネスパートナーだった事実を暴いたものだったのです。
●以下に、ハットフィールド氏自身のスキャンダラスな過去を
わざわざ書きたてながら、彼の「自殺」を報じた『ワシントン・ポスト』
記事と、彼の最後の原稿になったウサマ・ビン・ラディンと小ブッシュ
の腐れ縁暴露記事、そして発禁扱いとなった小ブッシュ暴露本の
出版を引き受けた小出版社による弔辞を紹介しておきます。
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【ジェイムズ・ハットフィールド氏の謎の“自殺”を報じた
『ワシントン・ポスト』紙の記事】
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A29283-2001Jul20
Bush Accuser Dies Of Drug Overdose
【ブッシュ大統領を告発した人物が薬物過剰摂取で死亡】
Discredited Author Faced Financial Woes
【評判を落とした著作者は借金苦で喘いでいた】
By Irene Noguchi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 21, 2001; Page C03
The troubled author of a biography accusing President Bush of hiding a three-decade-old cocaine arrest committed suicide Wednesday. James Howard Hatfield, 43, was found in a hotel room in Springdale, Ark., and appeared to have died from a overdose of prescription drugs, police said.
Hatfield wrote "Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President" in 1999. The book cited unnamed sources in claiming that Bush was arrested in 1972 but that his case was expunged. Bush, who was campaigning for president when the book was published, denied the allegations.
Soon after "Fortunate Son" was released by St. Martin's Press, the company discovered that Hatfield had been convicted in 1988 of attempted murder of his former supervisor. It recalled 70,000 copies in October 1999 and left an additional 20,000 books in storage.
Police went to Hatfield's house Tuesday morning to arrest him on charges of credit card fraud, but Hatfield wasn't home, said Detective John Hubbard of the Bentonville, Ark., Police Department.
His body was found around noon Wednesday by a hotel housekeeper. Hatfield left notes for his family and friends that listed alcohol, financial problems and "Fortunate Son" as reasons for killing himself, police said. He is survived by a wife and daughter.
After the book had been dropped by St. Martin's, it was picked up a month and a half later by Soft Skull Press, a small publisher on New York's Lower East Side. Sander Hicks, the head of Soft Skull, said yesterday that he joins the family "in feeling this deep loss."
"He did have a past that he was working very hard to put behind him," Hicks said.
In "Fortunate Son," Hatfield said three unnamed sources claimed a judge had expunged Bush's case and given him community service as a favor to his father, who was ambassador to the United Nations at the time. The incident raised questions of how well publishers screen the credentials of authors and check facts in their books.
Hatfield was convicted in 1988 of paying a hit man $5,000 to murder his former boss with a car bomb. Both passengers in the vehicle, the intended victim and a colleague, escaped unharmed when the bomb malfunctioned. After news of that conviction surfaced, it was also discovered that Hatfield had pleaded guilty to embezzlement in 1992.
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【ハットフィールド氏が謎の“自殺”を遂げる直前に発表した
最後の原稿は、ウサマ・ビン・ラディンと小ブッシュとの
腐れ縁を暴露したものだった】
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Attack_on_America/Hatfield-R-091901/hatfield-r-091901.html
Why would Osama bin Laden want to kill Dubya, his former business partner?
【ウサマ・ビン・ラディンは何故、昔の
商売仲間だった小ブッシュを殺したいのか？】
By James Hatfield
Editor's note: In light of last week's horrific events and the Bush administration's reaction to them, we are reprising the following from the last column Jim Hatfield wrote for Online Journal prior to his tragic death on July 18:
July 3, 2001――There may be fireworks in Genoa, Italy, this month, too.
A plot by Saudi master terrorist, Osama bin Laden, to assassinate Dubya during the July 20 economic summit of world leaders, was uncovered after dozens of suspected Islamic militants linked to bin Laden's international terror network were arrested in Frankfurt, Germany, and Milan, Italy, in April.
German intelligence services have stated that bin Laden is covertly financing neo-Nazi skinhead groups throughout Europe to launch another terrorist attack at a high-profile American target?his first since the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen last October.
According to counter-terrorism experts quoted in Germany's largest newspaper, the attack on Dubya might be a James Bond-like aerial strike in the form of remote-controlled airplanes packed with plastic explosives.
Why would Osama bi Laden want to kill, Dubya, his former business partner?
I knew that bombshell would whip your heads around. So here's the straight scoop, folks.
In June 1977, Dubya formed his own drilling company, Arbusto Energy ("arbusto" means "bush" in Spanish), in Midland, Texas. Like his father before him, Dubya founded his oil business with the financial backing of investors, including James R. Bath, a Houston businessman whom Dubya apparently first met when they were in the same Texas Air National Guard unit. (Interestingly, both Dubya and Bath were both suspended from flying in August and September 1972, respectively, for "failure to accomplish annual medical examination.")
Tax documents and other financial records show that Bath, an aircraft broker with controversial ties to Saudi Arabia sheiks, had invested $50,000 in Arbusto, granting him a 5 percent interest in two limited partnerships controlled by Dubya.
Time magazine described Bath in 1991 as "a deal broker whose alleged associations run from the CIA to a major shareholder and director of the Bank of Credit & Commerce." BCCI, as it was more commonly known, closed its doors in July 1991 amid charges of multibillion-dollar fraud and global news reports that the financial institution had been heavily involved in drug money laundering, arms brokering, covert intelligence work, bribery of government officials and?here's the kicker?aid to terrorists.
Bath was never directly implicated in the BCCI scandal, but according to The Outlaw Bank, an award-winning 1993 book by Time correspondents, Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne, Bath originally "made his fortune by investing money for [Sheikh Kalid bin] Mahfouz and another BCCI-connected Saudi, Sheikh bin Laden," reportedly the brother of none other than Osama bin Laden, the man accused by the U.S. government of masterminding the August 1998 terrorist bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which killed more than 250 people.
According to court documents, Bath swore that in 1977 he represented four prominent and wealthy Saudi Arabians as a trustee and used his name on their investments in the United States. In return, he received a 5 percent interest in their deals. Time reporters Beaty and Gwynne suggest in their book that the $50,000 Bath invested in Dubya's Arbusto Energy drilling company may have belonged to Bath's Saudi clients since the Houston businessman "had no substantial money of his own at the time."
The FBI and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network later investigated Bath after allegations were made by one of his American business partners that the Saudis were using Bath and their giant piggy bank to influence U.S. policy. (Dubya's father had been appointed by President Ford to head the CIA from 1976?77.)
So, folks, the Middle Eastern oil money used to underwrite the first business venture of our future president of the United States, may have been derived at least in part from the family fortune of Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden, who is now being accused of masterminding his assassination.
From the what-it's-worth-department: I think Dubya's handlers have fed disinformation through the CIA and other backdoor channels to German and Italian intelligence agencies about a possible hit on Dubya by the fugitive terrorist to gain public sympathy and concern for a U.S. president who has taken a nose-dive in the opinion polls.
The latest New York Times/CBS News poll showed Dubya's approval rating fell to 53 percent from 57 percent a few weeks ago, its lowest since he took office. Only 50 percent of those polled approved of his handling of the economy, while 47 percent approved of his foreign policy performances. Some 44 percent felt Dubya was not respected by foreign leaders, a mere 39 percent agreed with his policies on the environment, and a whopping 61 percent of Americans believed the new prez was not addressing the issues they care most about.
Obviously, the pollsters didn't call Dubya's sugar daddies?the oil and gas companies. Because he damn sure is taking care of their interests.
●注１：Dubya 米国マスコミが名付けた小ブッシュの愛称。小ブッシュは以前から、大ブッシュ（元大統領）と同名の自分を「George W」と言っていたが、南部なまりでこの「W」が「ダブリュー」ではなく「ダブヤ」のように聞こえるところから定着したあだ名。
●注２：arbusto スペイン語で「藪[やぶ]」のこと。
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【セントマーチンズ・プレスで発禁になったハットフィールドの
小ブッシュ暴露本を引き受けたソフトスカル・プレス社の弔辞】
http://www.lovearth.net/fortunateson.htm
Press Release
Soft Skull Press Publishers of
Fortunate Son by James Howard Hatfield
Monday July 23, 2001
Dear Friends and Members of the Press,We have been reeling from the news since Friday. Jim Hatfield is gone. In a country where not enough reporters and talking heads have the courage to speak truth to power, Hatfield, the President's most controversial biographer, ended his own life in solitude in an Arkansas motel last week.
I knew Jim. He could be tempestuous, moody and unpredictable. He was also intensely driven, articulate and full of Southern charm. When I spoke with his widow Nancy on Friday, we agreed, "He was a good writer." He was a hell of a fighter and you wanted him on your side. Just last month we spent a weekend together in Chicago on the trade show floor of Book Expo America. He signed books, shook hands, worked the crowd, spoke out, strategized with me and revealed sources. We went non-stop together to promote his Bush biography Fortunate Son. He was fond of quoting Langston Hughes, "I've been insulted, eliminated, locked in, locked out, and left holding the bag. But I am still here."
Like Hughes, Hatfield will live on through his books. Jim's life will not be soon forgotten. The story of Fortunate Son is gravely important. Jim was on the verge of collapse due to financial difficulties, and part of this was due to the failure of this book. The American media followed the trail laid for them: the piercing inquiries into Bush's drug history were diverted into ironic stories about Jim Hatfield's own checkered past. After Hatfield was fed information and then discredited, he faced financial ruin and obscurity. He lost two other book contracts. His death was by his own hand but the causes go deeper. October of 1999 was glorious for him: he celebrated the initial publication of Fortunate Son and the birth of his daughter. But October was shattered by a book burning, a
two-year long media carnival, and the character assassination of Jim Hatfield, an ex convict turned author who had paid his debt to society.
Jim Hatfield's death is in part on the hands of an imperious American media establishment that reserves the softest touch money can buy for George W. Bush and all sons of privilege. Jim Hatfield, a working class journalist unannointed by the media elite, was viciously made into an example.
He had a fearlessness that will be missed.
Sander Hicks
CEO
Soft Skull Press, Inc.
for more information on Fortunate Son, please see
http://softskull.com/catalog/hatfield/fortunate_son.html
for my Publisher's Preface, please see
http://softskull.com/catalog/hatfield/fs_karlrove.html
Dear Sander Hicks
You say ...His death was by his own hand... then you say
He was fond of quoting Langston Hughes, "I've been insulted, eliminated, locked in, locked out, and left holding the bag. But I am still here."
These statements seem to be in conflict.
Mark Elsis
He prided himself on his ability to survive. Until that ability was exhausted.
I don't know for certain, but the evidence does seem to indicate suicide.
Not everyone believes this, of course....
Sander Hicks
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題名には必ず「阿修羅さんへ」と記述してください。