BUSH FLIES INTO AN AIR FORCE COCAINE CLOUD

THE Republican frontrunner for the White House, George W Bush, was
suspended from flying as a young pilot for failing to take a medical
examination that included a drug test.

Documents obtained by The Sunday Times reveal that in August 1972, as
a 26-year-old subaltern in the Air National Guard, Bush was grounded
for failing to "accomplish" an annual medical that would have
indicated whether he was taking drugs.

Rumours of cocaine use and "lost weekends in Mexico" have plagued Bush
Jr, 53, son of the last Republican president, for months since he
declared himself a candidate in the presidential race.

With character enshrined as an election issue after the short-lived
but popular candidacy of John McCain, the Arizona senator and Vietnam
war hero, the latest revelation is certain to rekindle interest in
Bush's past. Yesterday it provoked accusations by Democrats of a cover-up.

While he has consistently admitted to a "misspent youth", Bush has
evaded questions about cocaine or other drug use, implying only that
he has not taken illegal substances since 1974, the year after he left
the Air National Guard.

Allegations about his stint in a reserve unit at the height of the
Vietnam war are likely to provoke parallels with Bill Clinton, whose
early presidential candidacy was mired in accusations of draft-dodging
and questions of whether he inhaled marijuana as a student.

Bush was not required to face drug tests when he first entered the
reserve unit as a Yale graduate in 1968. It was only at the end of
1971 that the US Air Force, facing a backlash against drug-fuelled
escapades in Vietnam, introduced a screening policy. In April 1972 the
Pentagon implemented a drug-abuse testing programme that required
officers on "extended active duty", including reservists such as Bush,
to undergo at least one random drug test every year.

The annual medical exam that year included a routine analysis of
urine, a close examination of the nasal cavities and specific
questions about drugs.

Under regulations issued in the 1972 air force manual, doctors were
directed to ask: "Do you now or have you ever used or experimented
with any drug, other than prescribed by a physician (to include LSD,
marijuana, hashish, narcotics or other dangerous drugs as determined
by the attorney-general of the United States)?"

The code stated that personnel must undergo the medical in the month
following their birthday. For Bush, this meant August. In May, the
young airman moved from his air force training base in Houston to
Alabama. He was working part-time on the Republican Senate campaign of
Winton Blount, a politician he had met through his father, then a
congressman, while continuing his military service.

To avoid constant travel, he applied to move his training programme
from Houston to Dannelly air base in Montgomery, Alabama. There is no
evidence in his record, however, that once there he ever attended the
periodic drills required by part-time guardsmen.

William Turnipseed, a retired general who commanded the Alabama unit
at the time, said Bush never appeared for duty. Two commanders at
Ellington air force base in Houston said in his record they were
unable to perform his annual evaluation covering the year from May 1,
1972 to April 30, 1973. "Lt Bush has not been observed at this unit
during the period of this report," they wrote.

He eventually served 32 days in Houston before requesting and
receiving a discharge in October 1973, eight months before the end of
his six-year term.

The Bush presidential campaign last week insisted that the Texas
governor had performed his duties to the letter and denied that Bush
was involved with drugs at the time. Dan Bartlett, a spokesman, said
Bush had transferred to Alabama as a non-flying guardsman and so
required no medical assessment.

"As he was not flying, there was no reason for him to take the flight
exam," said Bartlett. "And he was not aware of any changes that
required a drug test."

Bush was said to have been unable to take the medical because he was
in Alabama while his doctor was in Houston. His campaign official,
however, said Bush was aware that he would be suspended for missing
his medical as soon as he left Houston because the air force was
unable to process his new status before the August deadline for the
test.

"It was just a question of following the bureaucratic procedure of the
time," he said. "He knew the suspension would have to take place."

This explanation does not impress Democrats, who claim Bush's past
will become the subject of intense scrutiny in the run-up to the
Republican convention in Philadelphia at the end of next month.

Chris Lapetina, a former marine and Democratic political consultant,
said controversy about the medical exam could hurt Bush's chances
among several voting blocks, including pensioners and veterans. Many
servicemen would be upset if they thought a possible future president
had avoided an obligatory military examination that included a drug
test, he said.

"When someone doesn't take a physical in the military there's got to
be very good reason," Lapetina said. "It looks like he made a decision
not to take it because the alternative was unpalatable."

Veterans claim Bush has not been shy in extolling the virtues of his
flying career despite not being backed up by his record.

His military record came under scrutiny last year following
accusations that he had been given a helping hand by his influential
father, then a Texas congressman, in obtaining a place in the air
guard unit while others were forced into Vietnam service.

Ben Barnes, a former Texan politician, alleged that he had secured
Bush's position after being asked to do so by a wealthy oilman who was
a friend of the elder Bush. The younger Bush, who has consistently
denied that he joined the unit to avoid Vietnam duty, said he had no
idea that anyone exerted influence on his behalf.