Interview · moment 6 of 14
Block and Bridge and the Fake Suspect
from Live From The NY Comedy Festival (with Russ Baker) · #80
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
5 minGuest
They unpack the CIA tradecraft term 'block and bridge' using the story of a low-level file clerk falsely identified as the CIA's George Bush, plus the story of Bush informing on his own employee to establish an alibi call from Tyler, Texas.
- 21:05Tim learns that 'block and bridge' is a CIA tradecraft term for laying groundwork to anticipate and preempt future problems.
- 21:44The Bush family used block and bridge to manage George W. Bush's drug history by leaking a controlled admission of marijuana use.
- 22:57George H.W. Bush called the FBI after Kennedy's assassination claiming he might know who did it.
- 23:16Bush called the Houston FBI office instead of Dallas, and the agent who took the report was his personal friend.
- 23:44The suspect Bush fingered was his own employee, omitting that detail from the report.
- 24:27Bush appears to have been establishing an alibi by calling from Tyler, Texas about an hour after the shooting.
- 24:47The caller calculated Bush had been in Dallas that morning via private plane and was working for the CIA that day.
- 25:16Three—then four—presidents were in Dallas on November 22: Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson.
Lyndon JohnsonJohn F. KennedyRichard NixonGeorge H. W. BushGeorge W. BushFBICIAThe Washington Post