# George H.W. Bush

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "George H.W. Bush," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/george-hw-bush/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The 41st president, and the one John Kiriakou briefed a number of times, finding him "far more worldly" than the others, as befits a former CIA director. Kiriakou credits him with throwing away his presidency by keeping his word and stopping short of Baghdad, faults the ceasefire's helicopter loophole that let Saddam slaughter the Shia, calls him the last president to give the Arabs a fair shake, cutting off loan guarantees until Israel stopped building settlements, and traces the second Iraq war's personal edge to Saddam's 1993 attempt to assassinate him.*

- **Office:** 41st President; former CIA director, UN and China ambassador
- **Kiriakou's briefings:** Briefed him a number of times, "far more worldly" than other presidents
- **Gulf War:** "Threw away his presidency by keeping his word", no march on Baghdad
- **Israel policy:** Cut off loan guarantees until settlement-building stopped

**George H.W. Bush** was the 41st President of the United States, and one of the presidents [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) briefed personally during his CIA career.

## In the briefing room

Kiriakou spoke with George H.W. Bush, [Bill Clinton](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bill-clinton), [George W. Bush](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/george-w-bush), and Jimmy Carter over his career; he met and briefed the elder Bush a number of times.[1] Clinton was the smartest, combative, wanting to tussle, but Bush was *"far more worldly, more aware of the country's position in the world"*: he had run the CIA, served as ambassador to the United Nations and to China.[2] Kiriakou remembers the agency years under Bush 41 and Clinton as genuinely good ones.[3]

## The Gulf War and the ceasefire

Kiriakou stands by an unfashionable judgment: the first Gulf War was not a regime-change war, and Bush *"actually threw away his presidency by keeping his word and not moving all the way to Baghdad."*[4] He watched the unilateral ceasefire announcement with colleagues at the agency[5], and faults its execution: the no-fly rules grounded Saddam's planes but not his helicopters, which slaughtered enormous numbers of Shia who had believed Bush's call to rise.[6] The timing of the war itself, he notes, was set by logistics: Bush declared Kuwait would be liberated on August 2, but the wait until February 1991 was how long it took to move the satellite from over the [Soviet Union](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/soviet-union) to over Iraq.[7]

Saddam's revenge, the [1993 plot to assassinate Bush](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/1993-bush-assassination-plot) in Kuwait, is, in Kiriakou's reading, the personal root of the second Bush's obsession with Iraq.[8] Bush 41 opens the sequence Kiriakou calls *"a pissing match between [Saddam Hussein](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saddam-hussein) and a series of American presidents."*[9]

## "The last fair shake"

Kiriakou relays the assessment, one he shares, that Bush 41 was the last president to give the Arabs a fair shake: when he told the Israelis to stop building settlements and *"the Israelis gave him the finger, he cut off loan guarantees until they did stop."*[10] Less flattering entries in the ledger: an administration that pandered to the Saudis, Prince Bandar was a family friend[11][12], and a record on leak prosecutions Kiriakou rates as *"pretty bad."*[13]

## "Now's not the time to go wobbly"

Kiriakou's account of the Oval Office on the morning of the [Iraqi invasion of Kuwait](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kuwait-invasion-intelligence) has Bush closing the meeting without a decision, *"Gentlemen, thank you. I need to think about this"*, and Kiriakou is explicit about what that meant: *"He genuinely didn't know what to do."*[14][15]

What moved him, in Kiriakou's telling, was a phone call from Margaret Thatcher later that afternoon: *"George, now's not the time to go wobbly."* Kiriakou runs the consequence straight on from the sentence, six aircraft carrier battle groups on their way to the Gulf, a quarter of a million ground troops, and the liberation of Kuwait in February 1991.[15]

## The loan guarantees

Kiriakou cites Bush as the sharpest instance of an American president pushing back on Israeli requests for military action against Iran. Where other presidents simply refused, saying it would start a world war, Bush *"actually revoked loan guarantees for Israeli housing construction because the Israelis would not stop with these constant requests to bomb Iran."*[16]

He places the episode in a run of American hope that the problem could be handled diplomatically: that the Iranians would come round to talks, perhaps through the Omanis or the Algerians. That never happened, and the Israeli pressure continued.[16]

## See also

- [1993 Bush assassination plot](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/1993-bush-assassination-plot)
- [George W. Bush](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/george-w-bush)
- [Saddam Hussein](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saddam-hussein)
- [Bill Clinton](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bill-clinton)

## Sources

1. Whistleblower John Kiriakou On the Rob Kall Bottom up Show (2017-06-29), at 03:44. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2t-xAWvn0g&t=224s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-06-29-rob-kall-bottom-up-show/
2. Whistleblower John Kiriakou On the Rob Kall Bottom up Show (2017-06-29), at 04:50. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2t-xAWvn0g&t=290s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-06-29-rob-kall-bottom-up-show/
3. KGNU Community Radio (2017-08-29), at 30:41. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIU21Gq6xUw&t=1841s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-08-29-kgnu-community-radio-kgnu-community-radio/
4. SND#40 Gulf Mines & Incubator Babies w/John Kiriakou (2019-06-14), at 36:48. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM85ukUYXm8&t=2208s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-06-14-slow-news-day/
5. Radio Liberty interview, 4-15-10, John Kiriakou (former (2019-06-19), at 06:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPfqguIwcqU&t=402s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-06-19-soundwaves-2000/
6. Radio Liberty interview, 4-15-10, John Kiriakou (former (2019-06-19), at 08:20. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPfqguIwcqU&t=500s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-06-19-soundwaves-2000/
7. CIA Spy Breaks Down What's REALLY Happening in Israel (2023-12-11), at 1:02:09. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw_RQc2tpvY&t=3729s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-12-11-danny-jones-whats-really-happening-in-israel/
8. The Real News Network (2015-05-07), at 25:36. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLYqlR0kP9w&t=1536s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-05-07-the-real-news-network-the-real-news-network/
9. The Iraqi Pissing Match - John Kiriakou on RAI (4/10) (2015-04-23), at 01:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKTfNz1JIoE&t=102s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-04-23-the-real-news-network-the-iraqi-pissing-match-john-kiriakou-on-rai/
10. Putin Warns Staggering Response to NATO — Iran (2025-10-25), at 43:44. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2htCOU-tTw&t=2624s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-25-dialogue-works-putin-warns-staggering-response-to-nato-iran/
11. Newly released Saudi 9/11 documents (2021-09-15), at 05:03. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eLIxrbiMjc&t=303s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-09-15-garland-nixon/
12. Ep. 5264 – John Kiriakou on What Could Have Prevented 9/ (2020-05-25), at 03:51. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhjFW9ey15U&t=231s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2020-05-25-scott-horton/
13. The Legal Power Hour - with Guest: John Kiriakou (2017-09-05), at 09:03. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t87STIG3TpY&t=543s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-09-05-stack-the-legal-odds-in-yo-the-legal-power-hour-with-guest-john-kiriakou/
14. Why CIA Torture Was Illegal and Ineffective (2026-06-26), at 1:32. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQYGh8EnFag&t=92s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-26-the-kiriakou-report-why-cia-torture-was-illegal-and-ineffective/
15. Why CIA Torture Was Illegal and Ineffective (2026-06-26), at 2:03. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQYGh8EnFag&t=123s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-26-the-kiriakou-report-why-cia-torture-was-illegal-and-ineffective/
16. Iran, Israel & Epstein Are All Connected (2026-03-24), at 24:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWucl8ZRiK8&t=1470s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-24-michael-franzese-iran-israel-epstein-are-all-connected/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/george-hw-bush/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt