Command: GET "12_1996&157759"
Subject: Re: DEA: CIA STATION CHIEF ASSISTED HEROIN PRODUCERS IN 1993
From: jimh@wwa.com (Jim Hargrove)
Date: Tue, 03 Dec 1996 15:00:35 GMT
Message-ID: <581fal$isu@kirin.wwa.com>
Organization: WorldWide Access (tm) - Chicagoland Internet Services
(http://www.wwa.com)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.org.cia,alt.conspiracy.jfk
References: <5805t5$g0i@kirin.wwa.com>
Here are some html links describing additional charges of CIA involvement or
complicity in the opium/heroin trade. A quick Web search will reveal many,
many more. Excerpts from each of the four pages cited here are included.
--Jim Hargrove
================================================
The State Department had forced out Horn's two immediate DEA predecessors in
Rangoon, but he still considered it his "dream job" when he arrived in June
1992. Not for long. Horn is bound to silence by DEA rules, but his lawyer has
provided TIME with a long letter he wrote to Democratic Congressman Charles
Rangel detailing Horn's allegations. It recounts that Horn and Franklin
Huddle, the embassy's charge d'affaires, clashed over a report to Washington
that Horn thought unfairly denigrated the junta's antidrug efforts. Horn says
Huddle refused to obtain expert help from the U.S. to draft manuals for
Burmese police and prosecutors implementing new drug laws, but did approve
training at the CIA for Burmese intelligence officers. He claims that the CIA
divulged the name of a DEA informant to the junta and sabotaged a DEA survey
of opium yields by revealing to the government that the CIA - distrusted by
the Burmese - had secretly given the DEA the funds to conduct it. The ultimate
insult was discovering Huddle's cable to Washington relaying exact quotes from
a phone conversation Horn had made from his home. Horn knew of another
instance where the CIA had bugged a DEA agent, and concluded the same had been
done to him.
http://pathfinder.com/@@M60EcgcAFlJ7psbY/time/magazine/
domestic/1994/941107/941107..diplomacy..html
==============================================
Rep. Robert Torricelli (D-NJ) shocked reporters at a March press conference
when he revealed that Michael Devine, an American innkeeper in Guatemala, was
tortured to death with the approval of a US Central Intelligence Agency
informant in 1990.
The informant, Col. Julio Roberto Alpirez, a graduate of the US Army's School
of the Americas at Ft. Benning, GA, was on the CIA's payroll for
five years and is renowned as a "murdering spy," according to The New York
Times. At the Flores military base in Guatemala's rainforest,
Alpirez's troops killed countless suspected "subversives," says Amnesty
International. [....]
Former DEA agent Cele Castillo ("The Celerino Castillo Story," May '95 HT)
recalls working the rainforest near the Flores base during the
DEA's Operations Popeye and Olive Oil in the 1980s. "We used to fly our
airplanes and helicopters for spraying missions out of there. There
were a lot of marijuana plantations. We found out that Alpirez's unit was
involved in cultivation and the payoffs for the marijuana. It was also heavily
documented that they protected the opium plantations."
Alpirez denies any wrongdoing or complicity with the CIA, bellowing to
reporters after his testimony to the Guatemalan attorney general, "Never,
never have I worked for a United States agency. I receive my salary from the
Guatemalan Army, not from any US institution." CIA spokesperson David
Christian neither confirms nor denies that Alpirez worked for the agency,
stating, "I am not at liberty to discuss these reports as we are conducting an
internal investigation." The DEA, NSC, State Department and American in
Guatemala Embassy are equally tight-lipped about the colonel's narco
connections.
http://www.hightimes.com/~hightimes/ht/mag/957/guatema.html
================================================
Colonel Bo Gritz Addressing the American Liberty Lunch Club:
What I want to tell you very quickly is something that I feel is more heinous
than the Bataan death march. Certainly it is of more concern to you as
Americans than the Watergate. What I'm talking about is something we found out
in Burma - May 1987. We found it out from a man named Khun
Sa. He is the recognized overlord of heroin in the world. Last year he sent
900 tons of opiates and heroin into the free world. This year it will be 1200
tons.
(video showing discussion at Khun Sa's headquarters -- some translation of
Burmese to English going on..Bo Gritz still talking to Lunch club
in the foreground)
On video tape he said to us something that was most astounding: that US
government officials have been and are now his biggest customers, and have
been for the last twenty years. I wouldn't believe him. We fought a war in
Laos and Cambodia even as we fought whatever it was in Vietnam. The point is
that there are as many bomb holes in those two other countries as there are in
Vietnam. Five hundred and fifty plus Americans were lost in Laos. Not one of
them ever came home. We heard a president say, "The war is over, we are out
with honor - all of the prisoners are home." and a few other lies. Now we got
rid of that president, but we didn't get rid of the problem. We ran the war in
Laos and Cambodia through drugs. The money that would not be appropriated by a
liberal congress, was appropriated. And you know who we used for distribution?
Santos Trafficante, old friend of the CIA and mobster out of Cuba and Florida.
We lost the war!
http://www.alternatives.com/crime/CIAOPIUM.HTML
================================================
WORMSCAN Updated: 960420 (c) Copyright 1980, 1996, by David P Beiter,
proliferate freely. WORMSCAN is a collection of news items
concerning the involvement of police, lawyers, judges, politicians, bankers,
prison guards, spooks, and other social predators in the enormously profitable
illegal drug business....
[NOTE: Wormscan is a reasonably large database, but it appears to be updated
only through late April of this year.--jh]
Former DEA agent Celerino Castillo stated that he and three other ex-narcs
were willing to testify before Rep. Robert Toricelli's proposed subcommittee
on the intelligence community and human rights violations in Guatemala and
Central America regarding the extent of direct involvement by the Central
Intelligence Agency in international drug trafficking. The estimate he gave
the newspaper was that approximately 75 per cent of the drugs that enter the
United States do so with the acquiescence or direct participation of U.S. and
foreign CIA agents. But this story has been around longer than has the War On
Drugs. More in WORMSCAN.
http://hemp.uwec.edu/wormscan/wormscan
================================================
--Jim Hargrove
[end of message ... text also available at ]
Date: Fri Jun 20, 1997 9:11 pm CST
From: ciadrugs
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Subject: ciadrugs] Hung Out to Dry: 'Dark Alliance' Series Dies
Found at http://www.delve.com/consort.html
The Consortium
June 30, 1997
Hung Out to Dry: 'Dark Alliance' Series Dies
By Georg Hodel
The "Dark Alliance" contra-crack series, which I co-reported with Gary
Webb, has died with less a bang or a whimper than a gloat from the
mainstream press.
"The San Jose Mercury News has apparently had enough of reporter Gary Webb
and his efforts to prove that the CIA was involved in the sale of crack
cocaine," announced Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz, who has
written some of the harshest attacks on Webb. "Editors at the California
newspaper have yanked Webb off the story and told him they will not publish
his follow-up articles. They have also moved to transfer Webb from the
state capital bureau in Sacramento to a less prestigious suburban office in
Cupertino." [WP, June 11, 1997]
Webb got the news on June 5 from executive editor Jerry Ceppos, who had
publicly turned against the series several weeks earlier with a personal
column declaring that the stories "fell short of my standards" and failed
to handle the "gray areas" with sufficient care. [SJMN, May 11, 1997]
In killing the new stories, Ceppos said Mercury News editors had
reservations about the credibility of a principal Webb source, apparently a
reference to convicted cocaine trafficker Carlos Cabezas who has claimed
that a CIA agent oversaw the transfer of drug profits to the contras.
Ceppos also complained that Webb had gotten too close to the story.
Ceppos then ordered Webb to the paper's San Jose headquarters the next day
to learn about his future with the newspaper. On June 6, as that final
decision was coming down, I called Ceppos to protest. I wanted him to
understand the human as well as journalistic costs of what he was doing,
not just to Webb but to other journalists associated with the story in
Nicaragua where I have worked for more than a decade.
I thought he should know that his decision to distance himself from the
"Dark Alliance" series -- combined with earlier attacks from major American
newspapers -- had increased the dangers to me and others who have been
pursuing this story in the field.
Just as Webb has been under personal attack in the United States, I have
faced efforts from former contras to tear down my reputation in Nicaragua.
Ex-contras also have harassed Nicaraguan reporters who have tried to follow
up the contra-cocaine evidence.
In one paid advertisement, Oscar Danilo Blandon, a drug trafficker who has
admitted donating some cocaine profits to the contras in the early 1980s,
called me a "pseudo-journalist" and accused me of having some unspecified
links to an "international communist organization." Blandon also accused
Nicaraguan reporters from El Nuevo Diario of "trying to manipulate" members
of the U.S. Congress looking into the contra-cocaine charges.
Former contra chief Adolfo Calero declared in an article in La Tribuna what
he thought should be done to these politically suspect Nicaraguan and
foreign reporters. He used metaphorical language that refers to leftist
Nicaraguan journalists as "deer" and fellow-traveling foreign reporters as
"antelopes." "The deer are going to be finished off," Calero wrote on Feb.
2. "In this case, the antelopes as well." As a Swiss journalist, I would be
an "antelope."
Less subtly, there have been threatening phone calls to my office. In late
May, a male voice shouted obscenities at me over the phone and threatened
to "screw" my wife who is a Nicaraguan lawyer representing Enrique Miranda,
one of the Nicaraguan cocaine traffickers who has spoken with congressional
investigators.
Earlier I had sent Ceppos a letter which complained that his May 11 "column
provoked ... a series of very unfortunate reactions that seriously affect
my working environment and exposes unintentionally everybody here who has
been involved in this investigation." In the phone conversation on June 6,
Ceppos first denied having received the letter, but then admitted that he
had it. Still, he refused my request that the letter be published.
A Clear Message
My appeal also did not stop Ceppos from informing Webb later that day that
the investigative reporter would be transferred to a suburban office 150
miles from his home where he and his wife are raising three young children.
That would mean that Webb would have to relocate from Sacramento or not see
his family during the work week. The message was clear and Webb did not
miss its significance: he saw the transfer as a clear message that the
Mercury News wanted him to quit.
The retributions against Webb were a sad end to the "Dark Alliance" series
which has been enveloped in controversy since it was published in August
1996. The series linked contra cocaine shipments in the early 1980s to a
Los Angeles drug pipeline that first mass-marketed "crack" cocaine to
inner-city neighborhoods.
The series drew especially strong reactions from the African-American
community which has been devastated by the crack epidemic. In fall 1996,
however, The Washington Post and other major newspapers began attacking the
series for alleged overstatements. The papers also mocked African-Americans
for supposedly being susceptible to baseless "conspiracy theories."
The furor obscured the fact that "Dark Alliance" built upon more than a
decade of evidence amassed by journalists, congressional investigators and
agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration who found numerous
connections between the contras and drug traffickers. Some of that evidence
was compiled in a Senate report issued in 1989. Other pieces came out
during the Iran-contra scandal and still more during the drug-trafficking
trial of Panamanian Gen. Manuel Noriega in 1991.
But the contras were always defended by the Reagan-Bush administrations
which saw the guerrillas as a necessary geo-political counterweight to the
leftist Sandinista government that ruled Nicaragua in the 1980s. With a few
exceptions, the mainstream media joined the White House in protecting the
contras -- and the CIA -- on the drug-trafficking evidence. [For more
details about the controversy, see Robert Parry's Lost History: Contras,
Cocaine & Other Crimes or I.F. Magazine, July-August 1997]
Contra Cocaine
Still, from time to time, even The Washington Post has acknowledged
legitimate concerns about contra drug trafficking. Last fall, for instance,
after initiating the attacks on "Dark Alliance," the Post ran a front-page
article describing how Medellin cartel trafficker George Morales
"contributed at least two airplanes and $90,000 to" one of the contra
groups operating in Costa Rica. The story quoted contra leaders Octaviano
Cesar and Adolfo "Popo" Chamorro as admitting receipt of the contributions,
although they insisted that they had cleared the transactions with their
contact at the CIA. [WP, Oct. 31, 1996]
The Post did not mention the name of that contact, an omission that angered
Chamorro. He told me that the CIA man was Alan Fiers, who served as chief
of the CIA's Central American Task Force in the mid-1980s. Fiers has denied
any illicit involvement with drug traffickers, although he testified to the
congressional Iran-contra investigators that he knew that among the Costa
Rican-based contras, drug trafficking involved "not a couple of people. It
was a lot of people."
While admitting some truth to the contra-cocaine allegations, the Post
story stopped short of any self-criticism about the newspaper's failure to
expose the contra-drug problem in the 1980s as the cocaine was entering the
United States. In the Oct. 31, 1996, story, the Post only noted that "a
broad congressional inquiry from 1986 to 1988 ... found that CIA and other
officials may have chosen to overlook evidence that some contra groups were
engaged in the drug trade or were cooperating with traffickers."
The Post then added obliquely: "But that probe caused little stir when its
report was released." With that indirect phrasing, the Post seemed to be
shunting off blame for the "little stir" onto the congressional report. The
newspaper did not explain why it buried the Senate report's explosive
findings on page A20. [WP, April 14, 1989]. Instead, last fall, the Post
and other big papers focused almost exclusively on alleged flaws in "Dark
Alliance."
When that drumbeat of criticism began, Ceppos initially defended the
series. He wrote a supportive letter to the Post (which the newspaper
refused to publish). But the weight of the attacks from major newspapers
and leading journalism reviews eventually softened up the Mercury News.
Inside the paper, young staffers feared that the controversy could hurt
their chances of getting hired by bigger newspapers. Senior editors fretted
about their careers in the Knight-Ridder chain, which owns the Mercury
News.
New Leads
In the meantime, Webb and I continued following contra-drug leads in
Nicaragua and the United States. The new information eventually became the
basis for Webb's submission of four new stories to Ceppos. Webb has
described these stories as completed drafts although Ceppos called them
just "notes."
Though I have not seen Webb's drafts, I know they include two stories
relating to witnesses in Nicaragua who were part of the cocaine networks of
Norwin Meneses, a longtime Nicaraguan drug trafficker who was based in San
Francisco and who collaborated closely with senior contra leaders.
Meneses's operation surfaced with the so-called Frogman case in 1983 when
the FBI and Customs captured two divers in wet suits hauling $100 million
worth of cocaine ashore at San Francisco Bay. The federal prosecutor
ordered $36,020 captured in that case be given to the contras who claimed
it was their money.
For the new "Dark Alliance" stories, we interviewed Carlos Cabezas who was
convicted of conspiracy in the Frogman case. Cabezas insisted that a CIA
agent -- a Venezuelan named Ivan Gomez -- oversaw the cocaine operation to
make sure the profits went to the contras, not into the pockets of the
traffickers.
Last year, Cabezas outlined his claims in a British ITV documentary. "They
told me who he [Gomez] was and the reason that he was there," Cabezas said.
"It was to make sure that the money was given to the right people and
nobody was taking advantage of the situation and nobody was taking profit
that they were not supposed to. And that was it. He was making sure that
the money goes to the contra revolution."
The ITV documentary, which aired on Dec. 12, 1996, quoted former CIA Latin
American division chief Duane Clarridge as denying any knowledge of either
Cabezas or Gomez. Clarridge directed the contra war in the early 1980s and
was later indicted on perjury charges in connection with the Iran-contra
scandal. He was pardoned by President George Bush in 1992.
The new "Dark Alliance" stories also would have examined the claims of
other contra-connected drug witnesses in Nicaragua as well as the career
problems confronted by DEA agents when they uncovered evidence of contra
drug trafficking. But prospects that the full contra-cocaine story will
ever be told in the United States have dimmed with the shutting down of
"Dark Alliance."
I am also afraid that Ceppos's decision to punish Webb will strengthen the
campaign of intimidation inside Nicaragua. But beyond the personal costs to
Webb and me, Ceppos's actions sent a chilling message to all journalists
who some day might dare investigate wrongdoing by the CIA and its
operatives.
What's especially troubling about this new "Dark Alliance" tale is that the
investigative spotlight was turned off not by the government, but by the
national news media. ~
(c) Copyright 1997
* The New York Times Comes Clean, Sort of...
* Indonesia: More Years of Living Dangerously
[Image]
Comments, Questions or Responses, Please E-Mail rparry@ix.netcom.com
---
For list service help, send a message to ciadrugs-request@mars.galstar.com
with a subject of HELP.
On Fri, 20 Jun 1997 13:13:15 -0400 Barbara Ploegstra
writes:
>Does anyone have ascii art of an armadillo???
>
>Is that enough a's in one sentence, or do I need more?
>
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 13:48:52 EDT
From: Joan Stark
Subject: Re: Second Attempt (A Group Hug??)
______________________________
.-' G R O U P H U G '-.
.' ________________________ '.
/ .-'(")/6 6\(") /O O\("/6 6\'-. \
/ /o o\(") =_//a a\_=_/_(")-_/a a\ \
| /\ -/o o\"/ )\_^_/(")( \/o o\_-_/\ |
| \(")\ - // /___/o o\__\ \ = /(")"/ |
\ '------' ____) -(____ '------' /
\ _____)(____ /
jgs\ ____) (____ /
`'---------.____) (____.---------'`
maybe?
-joan
--
_
_(_)_ wWWWw _
@@@@ (_)@(_) vVVVv _ @@@@ (___) _(_)_
@@()@@ wWWWw (_)\ (___) _(_)_ @@()@@ Y (_)@(_)
@@@@ (___) `|/ Y (_)@(_) @@@@ \|/ (_)\
/ Y \| \|/ /(_) \| |/ |
\ | \ |/ | / \ | / \|/ |/ \| \|/
jgs|// \\|/// \\\|//\\\|/// \|/// \\\|// \\|// \\\|//
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
joan stark
ASCII ART GALLERY:
On Fri, 20 Jun 1997 12:46:35 -0400 Bob Vandersteen
writes:
>Based on lack of response, I don't know if anyone (other than me) got
>my first post. So, FWIW, here's an instant replay!
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> GREETINGS FROM THAILAND
> "the Land of Smiles"
>
>Hi All...
>
>I'm a member of an all male discussion group.
>(U.S. Pro Football - G.B. Packers)
>
>During a particularly 'warm fuzzy' exchange, a group member made
>reference to a group hug.
>
>Sooo... what I'm wondering is, if anyone has a piece of ascii-art
>that depicts a group hug? (or something close, that I might alter or
>customize)
>
>Thanks for any tidbits!
>
>>>>-FULL-CHEESE-AHEAD--> GO CHAMPS !!!
> __
> / \
> (_ _)
> __][__
> Cheers!!
> Bob...
>
------------------------------
End of ASCIIART Digest - 18 Jun 1997 to 20 Jun 1997
***************************************************
Date: Fri Jun 20, 1997 11:29 pm CST
From: ciadrugs
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TO: parapol-request
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CC: ciadrugs
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BCC: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: ciadrugs] Full Circle: Meneses Arrested
NICARAGUANS ARREST EX-BAY MAN LINKED TO COCAINE, CONTRAS
San Francisco Chronicle (SF) - MONDAY December 16, 1991
By: Jonathan Marshall, Chronicle Staff Writer
TEXT:
A former Bay Area resident linked to the Contra rebel forces and Bay Area drug
shipments has been charged in Nicaragua with masterminding a huge cocaine
smuggling ring, according to law enforcement officials.
Norwin Meneses was arrested in Managua on November 3 in one of the biggest
drug busts in Nicaragua's history. Agents seized 738 kilograms of cocaine at
two locations.
Meneses is a Nicaraguan who moved to Hillsborough and opened a restaurant
in San Francisco's Mission District after the fall of Anastasio Somoza in 1979.
Roger Mayorga, chief of the National Police Criminal Division, called
Meneses the king of cocaine in Nicaragua. The officer also called Meneses the
top representative in Nicaragua of Colombia's Cali cartel, considered to be the
world's premier cocaine trafficking organization.
ORGANIZATION. WANTED IN U.S.
Meneses, 48, is also wanted in the United States on cocaine trafficking
charges. A sealed indictment against him was handed up by a federal grand jury
in San Francisco on Feb. 8, 1989, according to a law enforcement source. No
extradition treaty exists between the United States and Nicaragua.
State and federal agents in 1984 arrested several members of Meneses'
organization, including three of his nephews, according to Jerome Smith,
special agent in charge of the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement in San
Francisco.
One member of the organization told an undercover agent that Meneses planned
to import 50 to 100 kilograms of cocaine from Costa Rica. One of his nephews
testified that he sold as much as 30 kilograms a month, generating more than
$1.5 million a month.
'SHADOW IN BACK'
Meneses was never charged. "We had a hard time with Norwin," said Smith.
"He was never around. He was always the shadow in back of people we were
dealing with."
Dick McCall, a U.S. Senate staff member who investigated Central American
drug trafficking in the late 1980s, said Meneses played a role in the "frogman"
operation. The San Francisco frogman bust in 1983 netted 430 pounds of cocaine,
one of the largest seizures in Bay Area history. The ring was named for divers
who were arrested while retrieving the drugs from a Colombian freighter docked
at Pier 96. The source of cocaine in the frogman case was also Cali, drug
experts said.
An FBI report from the period named a Costa Rican-based Nicaraguan, Meneses
associate Horacio Pereira, as one of the suppliers. Other suppliers named in
the report were Troilo and Fernando Sanchez, brothers of one of the founding
members of the Nicaraguan Contras' political directorate.
Pereira was sentenced to 12 years in prison on cocaine charges in Costa
Rica.
Two of the smugglers convicted in the frogman case claimed that a large
portion of their profits went to finance Contra groups. The government returned
to them $36,020 that was originally seized as drug money after Contra leaders
claimed that the money represented political funds for the "reinstatement of
democracy in Nicaragua."
Meneses also had political connections in Nicaragua. Two of his brothers
were high-level officers in Somoza's National Guard. One of them, Colonel
Edmundo Meneses, was chief of police in Managua in the mid-1970s.
During his stay in the Bay Area, Meneses hosted several functions for the
Nicaraguan Contras in San Francisco and Los Angeles. He also met several times
with Adolfo Calero, head of the largest anti-Sandinista force, the Nicaraguan
Democratic Front, based in Honduras.
A news story in 1986 quoted Calero and other Contras admitting to the meetings
but Meneses denying them.
------------------------
I hadn't seen this posted to the list, apologies if it appeared before I joined.
Observations:
Note the $1.5 million a month.
And all these fraternal connections to political operatives.
The frogman said "a large portion" of their profits went to contra groups.
Meneses hosting these little contra get-togethers illustrates yet another way
that drug money supported the covert war and overt political efforts.
---
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Date: Wed Jun 25, 1997 11:55 am CST
From: ciadrugs
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MBX: ciadrugs@mars.galstar.com
TO: CTRL
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TO: ciadrugs
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BCC: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: ciadrugs] CTRL -CIA Drug-Money Laundering
from Portland Free Press:
http://www.radio4all.org/pfp/
-----
CIA Drug-Money Laundering
(A continuation of "New York Mob at Mena")
by Ace R. Hayes
(May/June 1997 issue, Page 22)
[Editor's note: PFP received the complete 50-page uncensored Brenneke
deposition taken by Congressman William Alexander, 21 June 1991. It was
faxed directly from the library at Arkansas State University, which
holds the Alexander collection.
We herewith provide additional excerpts (see also "New York Mob at
Mena," January/February 1997 issue). The questioner is Congressman
Alexander; all answers are Mr. Brenneke's.
Before starting, two points need to be made. First, knowledge of
drug-running through Mena, Arkansas has been known to the FBI and the
head of the Arkansas State Police since January 1988 (see PFP
November/December 1996, p. 11). The Arkansas Attorney General and
Special Prosecutor Walsh have known of this since June 1991
(January/February 1997 PFP). How in the hell have the corporate media
and government law enforcement succeeded in playing dumb for the past
decade?
Second, the PFP is poor. We fund the magazine entirely out of
subscriptions, occasional reader enthusiasm and our day jobs. We don't
have a credit line or credit card to send some hot reporter down to the
Dean Ellis Library at Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, to spend a
week or more reading the Alexander collection. This, however, should be
the mother load of records and documents to blow the cover on the entire
bipartisan kleptocracy.
All of the major media know this, from 60 Minutes to The Wall Street
Journal. All are avoiding the Alexander collection like a mine field.
The Inspectors General at the CIA and Department of Justice, the FBI and
the Department of Justice, et al., damned well know what they are
ignoring. Obstruction of justice seems as common in D.C. as
wife-swapping in Hollywood.
But can the Republic survive terminal corruption?]
Q. Now, I was asking you about whether or not the CIA had a "black bag"
operation at Rich Mountain Aviation in Mena, Arkansas. And maybe a more
interesting way to ask that question would be, you knew that you were
dealing with criminals; is that correct?
A. That's correct, sir.
Q. You were dealing with criminals that were transporting and selling
cocaine in the United States?
A. Yes.
Q. You were working for the federal government agency known as the
Central Intelligence Agency. In a sort of man-on-the-street vernacular,
how do you keep these guys honest? I mean, do you -- what precautions did
you take and [sic] the CIA to know whether or not they were dealing with
this cargo in the manner in which it was intended?
A. The general procedure and the procedure specifically used in the case
of Rich Mountain Aviation was to go through the files from time to time
to be sure that there were no papers being kept back that would link the
CIA to the activities there, and if they were, they were removed from
the file; and to look at such things as income tax returns and bank
statements to make sure that the people with whom we were dealing were
not stealing more than their fair share.
Q. We will -- and so you checked on Hampton, did you?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. And what did you discover?
A. I discovered that Mr. Hampton was not stealing more than his fair
share, and in general was performing the services that he was -- that he
had agreed to provide.
Q. Now, what had he agreed to provide?
A. He provided landing facilities, a place to store the aircraft,
assistance with mechanical problems on the aircraft or avionics problems
on the aircraft if they were necessary to get it out of there, a storage
area for drugs that were brought in, a storage area for weapons that
were taken out, a place where people could rest or wait for a truck to
haul them out to Nella.
Q. And how much did the CIA pay him for his services?
A. I don't know the dollar figures. That's -- the figure I saw on his tax
returns at one point indicated that he had received something in excess
of $10,000.
Q. Who would have handled the payment to Hampton for the CIA?
A. My understanding was that the man I was working for at the time paid
him, and that was Bob Kerritt.
Q. Bob Kerritt. Can you identify where he might reside?
A. Mr. Kerritt is a full-time employee of the Central Intelligence
Agency; and when I first met him, I checked on that by waiting for him
to return to Washington, calling Information in the D.C. area, got the
phone number for the switchboard at the CIA, called and asked for him by
name, and I got him.
Q. Okay. Now, how did you check on Reale; did you check on --
A. Well, I had already seen him. He and -- I mean, I had seen him in New
York. I knew who he was. And, as I say, we'd been dealing with these
folks in New York since 1968-69.
Q. When you say "we," you mean the Central Intelligence Agency?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Now, did the Gotti organizations, through Reale, pay money to the CIA
for the drugs?
A. Yes, they did.
Q. Do you know how much money?
A. Firsthand knowledge, somewhere in the $50,000,000 bracket.
Q. How do you know how much money?
A. Because I banked that money for them in Panama City, and ultimately
transferred it to other locations in Europe.
Q. Did they pay you in cash?
A. Yes, generally.
Q. And what do you mean "generally"; what other forms did they pay you
in?
A. You're given -- I owned an aircraft in Mexico City for a while that
was payment for some work I had done.
Q. I see.
A. Occasionally there were items like that.
Q. So what would be the procedure for you to receive the payment from
the Gotti organization for the drugs?
A. Generally the money was -- okay. Let me restate that. The money was
given to us in cash.
Q. "Us," you mean the CIA?
A. "Us" meaning the people I worked with, who were also associated with
the Central Intelligence Agency. We would transfer that money to banks
in Central and South America; and from there transfer it via accounts
that I had established back in 1970 to -- they were accounts of which I
was a beneficial holder and the named signee on it.
Q. Let's take a payment from Mr. Reale in cash, and follow the procedure
step by step as you know it for the transmittal of that money from the
Gotti organization to the Central Intelligence Agency.
A. Okay. That money was delivered to us in cash. There were -- there were
occasions where there were wire transfers, but generally -- the generally
followed method was cash. That would be stored in the aircraft on its
return trip to Panama. Once it reached Panama, we would put it into a
bank account, which at that time was in the Banquo DePanama.
Q. Banquo DePanama?
A. Yeah.
Q. All right.
A. And the account name was the initials IFMA, which was a company that
I set up in Panama City in 1970, I believe; it may have been '69.
Q. Did you get a receipt for deposit?
A. No, sir. We would not get a receipt for deposit. The money would be
deposited there, but it would be subsequently and then almost
immediately transferred to -- the transfer points in general followed
this way; they came -- it came to Spain or Liechtenstein, from there it
went to either -- it went to Monte Carlo, and the ultimate destination
was Zurich or Geneva but, in any case, Switzerland.
Q. The money was given to you by the Gotti -- the agent for the Gotti
organization?
A. Yes, sir. And there were other people besides the man that I've
named. And I'd have to see photographs, but I can surely pick them out
for you.
Q. Well, we can return to the manner in which the money was transferred
at a subsequent time. I'm trying here to identify the source of the
money --
A. Yes.
Q. -- and the place that the money went to, and who received the money.
And you have said that that went to the CIA?
A. To CIA accounts that I established on their behalf in the late
sixties and early seventies. I still have the incorporation papers on
them.
Q. How do you know that the money went to the CIA itself?
A. Because I would transfer personally that money out of that account
into others.
Q. Did you ever talk to any people in the CIA about the money?
A. Sure. I talked to Mr. Kerritt from time to time, Mr. Ellis, who was
also a controller, from time to time --
Q. Who is Mr. Ellis, can you tell us, and --
A. Ellis is an employee and was an associate of Mr. Kerritt's. Robert
Ellis is his name, E-L-L-I-S. He was an associate of Kerritt's. The two
used to work together frequently. (pp. 22-27)
Q. So you're saying that you were recruited by the CIA to organize and
open accounts for the CIA for the purpose of laundering money?
A. That's correct.
Q. And how many accounts did you open for the CIA, and can you identify
where those accounts were opened and in which banks?
A. Yes, I can. They were opened in Panama. The accounts -- or the
companies -- if you wish, I will provide you with the Articles of
Incorporation --
Q. Yes.
A. -- as they were drafted at that time.
Q. We will ask you to submit those as an exhibit to your testimony. And,
of course, we will have to come together again in order for that to be
presented -- those documents to be presented.
And just describe for the moment, since we're going to have to come back
again with these documents, the countries, the names of the banks that
you recall that you opened; where you opened accounts for the CIA.
A. Panama City, Banquo DeMexico, at one point we were using a Citibank
correspondent down there whose name escapes me. I just don't recall it.
We had a man on site who worked for us, as well as worked for Ron
Martin, a man named Johnny Mollina, M-O-L-L-I-N-A, I believe. John was --
would spend a lot of his time in Panama City there and worked in one of
the banks that we used. I set up an account in -- well, I set up more
than one account in Madrid that was used. I set up an account in
Brussels at Bank Lambert that was regularly used. I set up accounts at
Credit Suisse and --
Q. Is that a Swiss bank?
A. That is a Swiss bank. And Bank of Credit and Commerce, commonly
referred to as BCCI, also a Swiss bank. A bank that no longer exists
called Bank Hoffman. And to facilitate matters -- not to drag this out --
to facilitate matters I set up a bank in Panama City on behalf of the
mutual fund company I worked for so that I could ultimately control how
the transfers were handled.
Q. And you organized a bank in Panama for the CIA?
A. I organized it for the company I worked for, that was -- it was
subsequently used by the CIA and it was used by members of the organized
crime families. The bank was called U.S. Investment Bank. It really
existed in Panama City. You could actually go in and open a checking
account there.
Q. And the money that you got from the Gotti organization that you put
on the airplane and returned to Panama on the next trip, you personally
took to a bank in Panama City?
A. You bet, I did.
Q. And you deposited that money. And can you tell us the amount of those
deposits, and the directions that you would give to the officers at the
bank, and the name of the bank, and where the money would go? Just
detail that for us.
A. All right. The money would go into -- let's take Banquo DePanama, the
Panamanian National Bank down there, as an example. I would go in. I
would meet with -- at times I would meet with, for instance, Johnny
Mollina. John worked for one of the banks down there, I think it was
City that he worked for at one time. In any case, I would go in. I knew
the bank officers by name. Unfortunately, I don't recall all their names
since it's been many years ago. And I would provide them with directions
as to how the money was to be transferred and where to transfer; that is
-- is it to be transferred by cashier's check and courier to Madrid in a
specific account there or is it to be just wire transferred to Madrid as
a transfer of funds from IFMA, a Panamanian corporation, to IFMA's
affiliate in Madrid or Brussels at Bank Lambert. They needed to know
that. And then I would have to tell them at the other bank that money
was coming into that account. (pp. 31-34)
Q. All right. Let me just ask a couple of general questions in order to
try to reach a conclusion here. Did you ever discuss your concerns with
the CIA Director, the late Bill Casey?
A. Yes, I did on a number of occasions. And Mr. Casey's telephone logs
would reflect phone calls to me, made to me in -- specifically in Lake
Oswego, which was at that time the location of my office.
Q. So Mr. Casey called you?
A. Yes, sir, he did.
Q. On how many occasions?
A. Two that I can recall specifically.
Q. What was the nature of the conversations with Mr. Casey?
A. What went wrong in Central America.
Q. Can you relate to us that discussion -- tell us what he said and what
you said?
A. Certainly. Bill Casey's main concern -- there were two main concerns
to him: One, exposure of the operations in Central America; and two, why
did the system break down? To me he sounded like sort of a general or
supervisor who doesn't have his hands on the pulse of what's really
happening out in the trenches. And by this time I had caused sufficient
problems for CIA and others in South and Central America that the
Israelis had in fact sent over a team of people to shut down the Israeli
involvement in anything that closely resembled the drug business. I
could get no assistance of any kind similar to that from the United
States Government, and I explained that to Mr. Casey. And his first
question was, why I had gone to Israel, and I said, because I tried
everybody in the U.S. Government first and they sure as hell weren't
going to help.
Q. Well, we haven't asked you about that effort that you were referring
to -- to try to stop the operation -- and I think my associate will ask
you about that in a moment.
A. Sure.
Q. I think, finally, I want to ask you if you have any knowledge of the
money that you're talking about coming from the Gotti organization being
used for any other purposes, other than depositing in the bank accounts
for the CIA?
A. Sure. We had to run the operations at Nella, for instance. The
training facilities at Nella had to be paid for.
Q. Now, where is Nella?
A. Nella is about 10 miles out of Mena, north.
Q. North of the Mena Airport. We've not talked about that, Mr. Brenneke.
Can you tell us what you know about Nella; what it is, and for what
purposes it was established?
A. Sure. Nella was a training base for military and paramilitary folks
from south of the border, Mexico, Panama.
Q. Who managed the base? Who operated the base?
A. Don't know the names of the operators.
Q. What agency operated the base?
A. Central Intelligence Agency, as far as I knew.
Q. Did you know anyone from the agency that was responsible for the
operation?
A. I knew the names of some of the people over there. I didn't spend
much time at Mena, so I'd have to answer that by saying, no, I really
don't know. I do know one of the folks who was a flight instructor over
there, and that was Terry Reed. (pp. 37-40)
(All emphases added.)
[This provides -- along with the January/February issue -- the essential
parts of the Brenneke deposition. For those who want the complete
50-page document, please send $5 to the PFP at P.O. Box 1327, Tualatin,
Ore. 97062.] M
-----
Aloha, He'Ping
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Peace Be, Amen.
Roads End
Kris
---
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with a subject of HELP.
Date: Wed Jul 02, 1997 6:31 pm CST
From: ciadrugs
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: ciadrugs@mars.galstar.com
TO: ciadrugs
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: ciadrugs@mars.galstar.com
BCC: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: ciadrugs] Written Concisely
From: jimh@wwa.com (Jim Hargrove)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.org.cia
Subject: Re: Donations OK from Mob-connected CIA-asset
Date: Wed, 02 Jul 1997 12:48:34 GMT
On 1 Jul 1997 11:05:25 GMT, accessguru@aol.com (AccessGuru) wrote:
>Dear Larry,
>I do not see anything in your proof all that daming. Vague accusations
>with very weak link to the CIA are not proof.
>You string this stuff together as if it meant something but
>I just do not think it really does. Perhaps I was hasty
>maybe you are just a paranoid whacko and are not
>deliberatly lying.
Well, then, let's take a look at some simple, unequivocal statements
regarding narcotics and the CIA made by other "paranoid whackos:"
"I have put thousands of Americans away for tens of thousands of
years for less evidence for conspiracy with less evidence than
is available against Ollie North and CIA people. . . . I
personally was involved in a deep-cover case that went to the top
of the drug world in three countries. The CIA killed it."
Former DEA Agent Michael Levine
CNBC-TV, October 8, 1996
"The connections piled up quickly. Contra planes flew north to the
U.S., loaded with cocaine, then returned laden with cash. All under
the protective umbrella of the United States Government. My
informants were perfectly placed: one worked with the Contra pilots
at their base, while another moved easily among the Salvadoran
military officials who protected the resupply operation. They fed me
the names of Contra pilots. Again and again, those names showed up
in the DEA database as documented drug traffickers.
"When I pursued the case, my superiors quietly and firmly advised me
to move on to other investigations."
Former DEA Agent Celerino Castillo
_Powder Burns_, 1992
"The Subcommittee found that the Contra drug links included:
--Involvement in narcotics trafficking by individuals associated with
the Contra movement.
--Participation of narcotics traffickers in Contra supply operations
through business relationships with Contra organizations.
--Provision of assistance to the Contras by narcotics traffickers,
including cash, weapons, planes, pilots, air supply services and
other materials, on a voluntary basis by the traffickers.
--Payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds
authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to the Contras,
in some cases after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law
enforcement agencies on drug charges, in others while traffickers were
under active investigation by these same agencies."
Senate Committee Report on Drugs,
Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy
chaired by Senator John F. Kerry
"I really take great exception to the fact that 1,000 kilos came in,
funded by U.S. taxpayer money."
DEA official Anabelle Grimm, during a 1993
interview on a CBS-TV "60 Minutes" segment
entitled "The CIA's Cocaine." The 1991
CIA drug-smuggling event Ms. Grimm described
was later found to be much larger. A
Florida grand jury and the _Wall Street
Journal_ reported it to involve as much as
22 tons.
---
For list service help, send a message to ciadrugs-request@mars.galstar.com
with a subject of HELP.
Date: Wed Jul 02, 1997 10:50 pm CST
From: ciadrugs
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: ciadrugs@mars.galstar.com
TO: ciadrugs
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: ciadrugs@mars.galstar.com
BCC: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: ciadrugs] US Government Still on Ropes Over Lockerbie
Found at:
http://www.copi.com/octopus/
US Government Still on Ropes Over Lockerbie
By John Ashton
Originally Appeared in June 9, 1996 edition of The Mail on Sunday
- London
-----------------------------------------------------------------
There are two very different theories about Lockerbie, the first
is black and white; the second is murky and gray. The black and
white version presents the bombing as a victory of terrorist
cunning over American innocence. The gray version suggests that
Uncle Sam has as much blood on his hands as the bombers. Not
surprisingly, it is the first version that the US and British
governments came to believe.
The conflicting accounts are now the heart of an extraordinary
battle to prevent a book from being published in the US Trail Of
The Octopus by Donald Goddard and Lester Coleman first appeared
in Britain in 1993, but no major American publisher would touch
it. "If the book's allegations prove to be correct," says Dr. Jim
Swire, who lost his daughter Flora at Lockerbie, "it will make
Watergate look like vicar's tea party."
Like Spycatcher, it is a sensational whistleblower's account of
alleged excesses by the spooks. But whereas Spycatcher prompted a
government to launch a clumsy legal attempt at censorship, Trail
Of The Octopus is being resisted by a collection of private
individuals. This has made the current battle much more low-key;
but it is no less hard fought.
A firm of distributors has already pulled out of handling the
book. "I've known nothing like it for 20 years," says Warren
Hinckle, head of its own small publisher Argonaut Press. A
veteran of many censorship battles, Hinckle is now planning to do
up the stakes. In doing so, he intends to expose a seven year
campaign by government agencies against those who have challenged
the official version of Lockerbie. If he is successful the
repercussions could be immense.
Some of the facts about Lockerbie are not disputed. The most
obvious is that on December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was
destroyed by a bomb built into Toshiba radio cassette player. All
259 people on board were killed, along with 11 residents of the
Scottish town.
Then there is the Iranian connection. In July 1988 the US Navy
battle cruiser Vincennes accidentally shot down an Iranian
Airliner over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people on board.
Within days hard-liners within the Tehran government had
commissioned a Syria based group, the Popular Front For The
Liberation Of Palestine, General Command (PFLP-GC), to carry out
a revenge attack. Led Ahmed Jibril, it had specialized in blowing
up planes since 1970.
By mid-October 1988, Jibril had everything in place. His
bomb-maker, Marwan Khrecat, had been dispatched to Germany and
had assembled five bombs designed to detonate at altitude.
However, the German police were watching Kreesat's moves. On
October 26, he and 14 other PFLP-GC suspects were rounded up in
an operation code named Autumn Leaves. One of the aircraft bombs
was seized. It had been built into a Toshiba radio-cassette
player.
It is at this point that the two versions begin to diverge.
According to the first version, Autumn Leaves halted Jibril's
plan and opened a window of opportunity for the Libyan leader
Colonel Gadafy. Western intelligence sources maintain that he was
desperate to avenge 1986 American raids on his country. It is
claimed that the action suddenly shifted to Malta where two
Libyan agents, working undercover for Libyan Arab Airlines, are
alleged to have assembled a bomb in another Toshiba
radio-cassette player. They then managed to smuggle it on board a
flight to Frankfurt, in an unaccompanied suitcase labeled to New
York. At Frankfurt it evaded Pan Am's security and, still
unaccompanied, was loaded on a first leg of flight 103 to
Heathrow, where it joined the ill fated jumbo jet. This version
became official in November 1991, when the British and American
government issued indictments against the two alleged agents:
Abdel Basser Ali Al-Mergrahi and Lamen Khalifa Phimah.
According to alternative versions, Autumn Leaves were a mere
hiccup in Jibril's plans. Four more airplane bombs were still at
large, and, within days, most of the suspects, including Kreesat
had been freed.
It is on the question of what happened over the next two months
and, in particular, how the bomb got on the flight 103, that the
alternative version becomes too controversial. Its supporters
allege that Jibril used an unwitting dupe; a young Lebanese-born
American Khalid Jafaar. The Jafaar clan was one of the major
drug-producing dynasties in the Syrian occupied Bekaa valley. It
is claimed that Jafaar walked aboard flight 103 believing himself
to be carrying heroin, but that he had been double-crossed by
Jibril's men. Having learned of the drug shipments through the
treacherous world of the Bekaa, Jibril realized that they
provided an ideal means for getting the bomb on the plane.
Under normal circumstances it might have been detected in a
routine security check, but, so the story goes, this was
drug-trafficking with a difference. It was part of a shady
bargain struck between elements within the CIA and the Syrian
overlords of Lebanese narco-terrorism. In return for the Syrian
using their influence to free the remaining American hostages,
the CIA helped them to safely transport their heroin on
transatlantic flights. Jafaar had a foot in both camps; as well
as bring a mule for the drug barons, he was secretly an asset of
the CIA.
Coming as it did on the heels of Irangate (which also involved
shady deals over hostages), the CIA was desperate to keep the
operation secret. For this reason, it is claimed, it sought cover
behind the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). At this
point the Trail Of The Octopus comes in.
The book tells the story of its co-author Lesier Coleman.
Originally a journalist, in the mid-Eighties he began to work as
a contract consultant for the DEA's Cyprus office. At that time
Cyprus was the nerve center of efforts to monitor drug production
in Lebanon. It was no ordinary assignment because Coleman was
simultaneously employed by the US Defense Intelligence Agency
(DIA), the ultra-secretive military spooks. According to Coleman,
the DEA was desperate for information about Lebanon, but it also
wanted to keep a discreet eye on the DEA and CIA, both of which
it viewed with suspicion.
By the time Coleman arrived in Cyprus, the flow of drugs out of
Lebanon was so great that the best the DEA could hope for was to
monitor where it was going to in the US to catch the dealers
there. In order to do this, he claims, he relied on a technique
called controlled delivery. This involves an agent, or informant,
carrying a specially marked bag containing drugs. The shipment is
monitored by the DEA and, through cooperation with other
countries, is allowed to pass through security and customs
unhindered.
Trail Of The Octopus claims that the controlled deliveries
provided the CIA with its fig leaf. Not only that, but the DEA
allowed its network of informants to double as the CIA's eyes and
ears in Lebanon. It was this mixing of roles, Coleman asserts,
that proved fatal. The informants were not trained agents; worse
still, he believes, some of them were reporting back to the
Syrian backed terrorists. Security, thus, was a sham. Coleman
insists that he tried to raise the issue with the head of the DEA
Cyprus, Michael Hurley, but was ignored. Tension between the two
men grow and Coleman eventually left the island in May 1988.
Before departing, he claims to have warned Hurley, in a taped
telephone conversation that the security situation was a disaster
waiting to happen. Hurley has accused Coleman of editing in the
phrase, and says that Coleman was sacked by the DEA for
unsatisfactory behavior.
Despite his avowed prophecy, Coleman says that it was not until
months after Lockerbie that he realised the disaster might be
connected to drug-trafficking. He claims the realization was
triggered by the discovery that Khalid Jafaar was among the
victims. "The kid was one of those I saw coming through the
office in Cyprus," he says, "I knew from the conversations around
me in 1988 that he was involved in controlled deliveries ---
there's no doubt in my mind about that at all." The DEA denies
any connection with Jafaar.
Coleman was not the first to hint at the alternative version. In
the days after the disaster rumors were rife that Jafaar had been
duped into carrying the bomb. The rumors were fueled by the fact
that large quantities of heroin were found among the debris.
These finds were later denied by the British and American
authorities.
In 1990 the ceiling fell in on Coleman's world. He was arrested
by the FBI and charged with passport fraud. Although he admitted
applying for a passport under the name Thomas Leavy, he maintains
that he was acting under orders from the DIA, which he says, had
just reactivated him for an undercover assignment. When he tried
to call his DIA contact numbers, he says, the numbers were dead.
Then the anonymous death treats started. Rather then waiting
around for a trial, he decided to flee to Sweden. On arrival, he
became the first American citizen to apply for political asylum
since the Vietnam war.
Coleman presents himself as a latter-day version of the man who
knew to much, but to his detractors the passport charges show
that he is a trickster and a con man. They point out that he has
yet to produce the hard evidence to prove his claims. Chief among
his enemies, predictably, is old DEA boss Michael Hurley. In May
1994 Hurley issued a libel writ against the book's British
publisher, Bloomsbury. The case has still to come to court.
Coleman counters his critics by pointing out that they too have
yet to make public proof of their allegations. He is adamant that
he could proof his case in an instant, if the US Government
allowed him access to documents relating to him and to the DEA's
controlled delivery operations. In 1990 he requested under the US
Freedom of Information Act. The application was refused on the
grounds of "National Security'; a curious response from a
government which claims it has nothing to hide.
What Coleman does have, in spades, is evidence that the American
authors have played dirty. In 1992 the FBI applied to the Swedish
government to have him extradited. Among the papers it submitted
was an "investigative summary" concerning the passport case. It
claimed the FBI had been alerted to the fraud by the public
records office in the town of New London, Connecticut. Suspicions
had been raised, the report stated, when someone identifying
himself as Thomas Leavy had requested a copy of his birth
certificate. He listed his date of birth as July 4, 1948.
According to the FBI, when the records office ran a computer
check, they discovered "that the real Thomas Leavy had died in
New London, Connecticut, two days after his 1948 birth." The
impostor, the FBI suggested, was Coleman.
The FBI was lying through its teeth. In January 1995 Coleman's
lawyers obtained a sworn statement from the registrar of public
records in New London. It stated that "after a diligent search of
the records...neither a birth record on or about July 6, 1948,
nor a death record, on or about July 6, 1948, of one Thomas Leavy
was recorded.'
On September 21, 1993, the US government issued another
indictment against Coleman this time for perjury. The alleged
offenses were contained in an affidavit he had sworn for Pan Am's
lawyers in 1991. To those wondering why the government would wait
two years before acting, Coleman points out that the charges came
just days before Trail Of The Octopus was published in Britain.
"It was a blatant spoiling operation," says his co-author Donald
Goddard. "They even announced the charges in a press release."
The indictment once again showed the government to have been
careless. Its first count alleges that Coleman lied about his
ability to speak Arabic. In fact, he speaks three dialects of the
language quite competently. "If the American government is
prepared to lie about Coleman," says Jim Swire, spokesman for the
British Lockerbie relatives, "then who is to say the official
version of Lockerbie is not also a lie?'
In 1993 I began to investigate Lockerbie for a TV documentary
called, "The Maltese Double Cross", made by an internationally
renowned film-maker, Allan Francovich. The project attracted
controversy because it was initially funded by Lonrho plc, which
had business ties with the Libyan government, and later by the
company's former chief executive, Tiny Rowland. Francovich, only
agreed to be involved on condition that there was no interference
from Rowland or Libya. The condition was met.
Before long we came across alarming evidence that Coleman was not
the only one whom the authorities had tried to silence. I made it
a priority to find policemen and volunteers who had the grim task
of scouring the Scottish hillsides for debris. Five years on, it
was hard to get people to talk. Most reticent were those who had
searched the area around Tundergarth, where the nose section of
the plane had landed, and the heroin was found.
The day after the crash, the area was swarming with plan-clothed
Americans, Searchers told me, off the record, that the agents
seemed desperate to find something. Although the search effort
was supposed to follow the strict rules of evidence gathering,
they seemed to have been given carte blanche to do their own
thing. In the meantime junior police officers and volunteers were
warned that, under the Official Secrets Act, they must never
reveal what they had seen.
The film eventually concluded that the alternative version of
Lockerbie was correct. Despite all the new evidence we uncovered,
we were never approached by the Scottish police, or FBI, to help
with their inquires. It was due to be premiered at the 1994
London Film Festival, but, for the first time in its 38 year
history, the festival pulled out at the last minute owing to
fears of legal action. Following the decision, a number of
screenings were organized by an anti-censorship center in
Birmingham called the Angle Gallery. The day after the first
screening both the gallery and the home of the organizer were
burgled. Nothing of value was taken, but office files had been
rifled. A few weeks later, the gallery organized a further
screening. This time it suffered an arson attack.
Channel 4 eventually agreed to show the film on May 11 last year.
The day before the broadcast the British and American governments
launched an extraordinary assault. Simultaneously, the Scottish
Crown Office and the US Embassy in London sent every national and
Scottish newspaper a press pack. It consisted of a series of
unsubstantiated smears against four of the film's interviewers.
Among them, inevitably, was Lester Coleman. Great play was made
of the fact that he was a fugitive from justice but the FBI's
blatant lies were ignored.
Also targeted was a New York based investigator called Juval
Aviv. In 1989, at the recommendation of a number of prestigious
law firms, he was hired to investigate the bombing by Pan Am.
After three months he delivered a report based on anonymous
intelligence sources, which was the first detailed incarnation of
the alternative version. A few weeks later it was leaked to the
media. Some of the lawyers representing the Lockerbie relatives
played hell, accusing Aviv and Pan Am of cooking up a story that
would exonerate the airline's faulty security.
Ever since that time, Aviv claims, he has been a marked man. He
alleges a series of break-ins at his Madison Avenue offices.
"They rarely took anything, but they left signs of their
presence. It was like they were saying, "Don't step out of line
again,"" he says. He also claims his clients have been approached
by FBI agents and advised to sever contact with him. This may
sound like the stuff of paranoid fantasy, but he points to the
fact that, since the report was leaked, all his contacts with
government agencies have dried up.
Within days of The Maltese Double Cross being broadcast, Aviv was
indicted on fraud charges. The alleged offense had
occurred---you've guessed it---years earlier. He is adamant that
it was trumped up to help the governments spoiling operation
against the film (indeed it was trailed in the press pack). His
lawyer, Gerald Shargel, applied for the case to be dismissed on
the grounds of selective prosecution. In an affidavit submitted
last September, he wrote; "In all my (25) years of practice, I
have never seen the resources of the FBI and the US Attorney's
Office devoted to such an insignificant, inconsequential,
isolated, four-year-old matter." The judge turned down the
application last month, but not before condemning some of the
prosecution's arguments "pathetic" and "dishonest'.
Despite the legal set back, there is now dramatic evidence of the
government's vendetta against Aviv. It is contained in a report
produced by Martin Kenney, a New York based international lawyer
who specializes in serious financial crime. Earlier this year he,
Aviv, and one other partner, set up an asset search and recovery
company in Bermuda called Interclaim Ltd. The plan was to utilize
Kenney's legal skills and Aviv's investigative know-how.
They lined up a handful of distinguished legal and commercial
figures from Britain and the US to become both investors and
members of the company's board of directors. The also approached
an investment banking firm from the City of London and three
major accountancy firms. All were enthusiastic about Interclaim.
Aviv was completely open with Kenney about the outstanding
charges. Kenney conducted his own investigation into the
allegations and into Aviv's background. He concluded, "I found
the incongruity between the fact of the indictment, and the
quality and content of Mr. Aviv's professional background,
standing and professional and client references to be
remarkable.'
Suddenly, last month, Kenney regretfully asked Aviv to step down
from the company. According to Kenney's report, the bankers,
accountants, and at least one of the directors, had suddenly got
cold feet and there was a danger that they would abandon the
venture. The reason, Kenney claims, is that most of them had been
warned by unnamed US government officials that Aviv was a man not
to be touched.
The US government's dirty tricks may just be about to unravel.
The catalyst could be the remarkable battle currently being waged
over Trail Of The Octopus. Warren Hinckle agreed to publish it
last year and by February of this year it was at the printers.
Then the barrage began. His distributor, Publishers Group West
Inc.(PGW), was bombarded by faxes demanding the company pull out
of the deal.
They were mostly from Michael Hurley, who warned that the book
"is highly defamatory of myself and many other US citizens and is
currently the subject of libel proceedings in the UK'. Legal
threats were also made by Ron Martz, a journalist on the Atlanta
Constitution newspaper, who was referred to in the book.
Joining in the assault were Daniel and Susan Cohen from New
Jersey, who lost their daughter Theodora on flight 103. Their fax
warned: "If this book appears in the US we can assure you that we
will not sit by quietly. We will energetically denounce not only
the book and its scum-bag author, but all those who seek to make
money on our daughter's death."
This is not the first time the Cohen's had used such tactics.
When Channel 4 first showed interest in The Maltese Double Cross,
it was besieged by faxes and phone calls from them, which
variously accused us of being "scum', "bastards" and of "whoring
for Gadafy'. Jim Swire used to be on friendly terms with the
couple, but they have ostracized him ever since he announced he
was keeping an open mind about the book and the film. "In effect
they wanted to impose censorship," he says. "To my mind that's
wrong because the public should have a chance to see and read for
themselves, and make their minds up on the bases of that.'
Another opponent of the film to become embroiled in the current
controversy is ex-CIA officer Vincent Cannistraro.
As the head of CIA's Lockerbie investigation until October 1990,
Cannistraro had helped provide the intelligence that pointed the
finger away from drug-running and towards Libya. Previously he
had worked alongside Colonel Oliver North in a secret program
designed to destabilize the Gadafy, regime.
Nevertheless, the campaign to halt the publication of Trail Of
The Octopus appeared to be working. On March 11, PGW told Hinckle
that it would not be distributing the book. The company had
published many controversial books in the past, but it had never
faced such an onslaught. A few days later, British publisher
Bloomsbury attempted to revoke its license agreement with
Hinckle.
If the book's opponents think they have won the battle, they
should think again, they have chosen to tangle with the wrong
man. As editor of the investigative magazine Ramparts in the
Sixties, Hinckle was frequently involved in similar scrapes. Now
he's taking the gloves off again. He intends to press ahead with
publication come what may. The counter-offensive is being taken
to Washington. Two constitutional rights groups have shown an
interest in the legal action and the renowned American lawyer
Alan Dershowitz is reported to be looking into the case. With
their help, Hinckle hopes to use the case to investigate whether
the campaign against the book has been encouraged in any way by
the government.
And that's not all. Hinckle plans to force a Congressional
inquiry into government smear tactics against Coleman, Juval Aviv
and others. He has already made a formal approach to the Senate
Intelligence Committee, which is supposed to monitor the spooks.
He believes that, once the pattern of dirty tricks is made clear,
members of Congress will go after the perpetrators with a
vengeance. "Someone, somewhere in the dark recesses of government
has been coordinating all of this," he says, "I intend to see
these bastards forced onto the witness stand and made to sweat."
Once the American public is treated to such a spectacle, its
faith in the official version of Lockerbie may well crumble.
Hinckle plans to team up with yet another victim of the US
government's underhand tactics. Until four years ago Dr. Bill
Chasey was one of Washington DC's most successful political
lobbyists. After 22 years in the game he had many influential
contacts in government and his clients included some of America's
largest corporations. A conservative Republican by instinct, he
had earlier spent nine years as a US Marine Corps officer. In
short, he was the ultimate Establishment figure.
In 1992 he took on what, for him, was a slightly unusual
contract, with an American company called International
Communications Management (ICM). It had been hired by the
government of Libya to help normalize relations with the US, in
the wake of the Lockerbie indictments and the resulting UN
sanctions. When he was first approached about the assignment,
Chasey felt uneasy, As a loyal citizen, he had no reason to doubt
his government's account of the bombing. However, on reflection,
he figured that the assignment was not necessarily unpatriotic.
Normalizing relations need not involve acceptance of Libya's
innocence. In any case, the US did business with plenty of the
world's more unsavory regimes.
Chasey agreed, on condition that everything be played by the
book. Under US law, anyone representing a foreign government in
this way must register as a foreign agent. If the assignment was
in breach of the UN sanctions, he assumed that the Department of
Justice would deny his registration. It did not, and he became
registered as Foreign Agent number 4221.
Over the coming weeks, Chasey met with representatives of the
Libyan regime, who assured him that the US government had
deliberately covered up the truth about Lockerbie. He didn't
believe them but became convinced that they deserved a fair
hearing on Capitol Hill. Before he was able to make any headway,
his world fell apart.
On December 3, 1992, the US government's Office of Foreign Assets
Control(OFAC) Issued him with a formal order to stop work on the
contract. He was told it was in breach of UN sanctions and that
he would be liable to criminal charges. Chasey was bemused; if
the contract was illegal, why had he been allowed to register as
a foreign agent? Nevertheless, he agreed to cooperate with OFAC
and felt sure everything could be sorted out amicably.
Two weeks later as he was about to leave on a Christmas skiing
vacation, his wife Virginia phoned, in panic, to tell him that
their bank account had been frozen. He immediately called OFAC to
find out what they were playing at. An agent explained that it
was because he had breached sanctions by accepting Libyan money.
Chasey again pointed out that the money had come from an American
company, ICM, but to no avail. OFAC refused to budge and the
account remains frozen today.
Chasey believes while all this unfolded, he was being closely
monitored. "Whenever I arrived in Washington, the FBI would greet
me at the airport. How could they have known my travel plans
without monitoring my calls?" He also claims to have received
anonymous phone calls, in which a man with an Arab accent warned
him: "There are a lot of people who don't want this case
reopened. If you want to stay alive, stay away from Pan Am 103.'
Eventually, in May 1994, OFAC fined him &50,000. He was never
allowed a hearing to put his case. By that time his lobbying
business had been badly hit. As with Juval Aviv, a number of
clients were approached by the FBI and told that he was under
investigation for fraud. Last year he finally wound down the
company and got out of Washington. He lost his homes there and in
California, and, at 55 years old, was forced to rebuild his life
from scratch.
With hindsight, Chasey believes his story demonstrates that the
Libyans were right all along. "They went after me because they
were worried that I might stumble upon this almighty cover-up and
tell my friends in congress about it." Four years ago he would
have viewed someone like Warren Hinckle with distaste, but now
the publisher is a valuable ally.
Like Lester Coleman, Chasey was moved to write a book about his
experiences. Called Foreign Agent 4221: The Lockerbie Cover-Up,
it was launched in Washington on April 22 last year. As he
entered the city's airport to return home to California, there
was another encounter with the FBI. An agent served him with a
Grand Jury subpoena for all his business records dating back to
1989. He also questioned Chasey about the Oklahoma bombing three
days earlier. He asked if Chasey had any contacts with the
Libyans and warned that if he did not report any future contact
with them, he would be prosecuted.
America took little notice of the book and it sold just a few
thousand copies on the fringe conspiracy market. Now he's updated
it and renamed it Pan Am 103: The Lockerbie Cover-Up. It is about
to be published for the first time in the UK. It begins with a
quote which sums up his experiences "I love my country, but I
fear my government." The sentiment will be shared by all those
who have probed the dark secrets of flight 103.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Look for The Trail of the Octopus to be featured soon in Deep
Politics
In the mean time, please read this
Special Appeal for Help from Lester Coleman
[ Decorative Rule]
[DEEP POLITICS]
---a bookstore for democracy ---
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Date: Wed Jul 02, 1997 11:15 pm CST
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Subject: ciadrugs] American Investigator: Mena Under Investigation, 1/30/96
Washington, DC January 30, 1996
[Image]
MENA INVESTIGATION
(Excerpts from NET special report, "American Investigator: Mena, Arkansas
Under Investigation")
Congressman James Leach
Congressman James Leach (R-NY), Chairman of the House Banking Committee has
begun an investigation into the Mena story. "It's quite conceivable that to
the degree politics is involved, it might end up embarrassing as many
Republicans in Washington as Democrats in Arkansas. But we are convinced
that there is a story there but the magnitude of the story is still very
difficult to piece together." "The stronger role and capacity that we have,
is, that as the United States Congress we do have the capacity to compel
certain documents from the Executive branch and to potentially compel
witnesses if relevant ones develop. One aspect of virtually everything that
deals with the drug issue is that at some point in time there's a
conversion to money, at that point in time there's sometimes a capacity to
trace the money." Asked who has the potential to be damaged more by this
investigation - Republicans or Democrats?, he said, "You know -- I just
don't know - to me, the only issue is the truth."
This is the story of an unlikely collusion, almost a partnership, made
possible by a strange condition - a government with selective respect for
its own laws. Some discredit the story as a mythical conspiracy. What is
now coming to the fore through new government investigations took years to
make and may take years to uncover. Leave aside a conspiracy; the evidence
emerges from each player pursuing his own self-interest, his career or
simply putting in money in the bank.
At the center lies Barry Seal, a young pilot who activated the operation
with his skills of persuasion and organization. Seal's talents also masked
his other identity: a drug smuggler through Mena, Arkansas with a possible
CIA connection, who eventually became a DEA informant.
Russell Welch
Russell Welchch, former Arkansas State Investigator: "He was extremely
intelligent, tended to have control of whatever setting he was in at the
time. He was a manipulative person. I don't have anything good to say about
him. He was a cocaine smuggler. He caused a lot of problems and he solved
some problems to stay out of prison. Whether that justifies everything he
did or not, I don't know. The worst of his stuff goes beyond cocaine
smuggling but he dealt out a lot of pain." By his own admission, Barry Seal
moved tons of cocaine into the US, but his career ended in 1986 when he was
brutally assassinated in Baton Rouge by the Medellin Cartel. Seal wrote his
own epitaph, saying he was a rebel adventurer.
Because of Seal's CIA involvement, he is alleged to have ties to Oliver
North. North was dedicated to getting arms to the Contras. When his actions
became public through the Iran-Contra hearings, the Reagan Administration
wrote North off as a loose cannon, but the White House may have given North
the green light. And it's speculated the CIA gave North the power to set up
an operation such as Mena. Last year, North ran for a Senate seatāand lost.
The money and distribution man may have been Dan Lasater, a wealthy
Arkansas bond trader with links to the Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan
(now called Central Bank and Trust), Rose Law firm and the Arkansas
Development Finance Authority, also known as ADFA. Lasater also had his own
airfield. He was an aggressive trader, but he was also well-known for his
aggressive and systematic pursuit of young women with cocaine as the bait.
In 1986, he was convicted of cocaine distribution.
Ray Baxter
Ray Baxter, former legal counsel for Dan Lasater: "There's a side to Dan
Lasater that the general public doesn't know. He's a very active man in his
church, yes, he had his problems, sure he did. But if there's ever been a
situation where there's been a completely and totally changed life it's Dan
Lasater." Charles Cooper, Lasater's neighbor: "No, I'm sorry, One's actions
will speak for themselves. He ain't walking the talk."
Today, Lasater, although a millionaire, is said to be a church volunteer in
Arkansas and an avid hunter. At the edge of the chart is a friend of
Lasater's, Bill Clinton, an ambitious man who was elected to four terms as
governor of Arkansas. Clinton established ADFA; a creation which was meant
to spur economic growth through encouraging and controlling investment in
the state. Through its loose bookkeeping, ADFA became Clinton's reward
system for the good ole boy network in Arkansas, circumventing a
traditional check and balance system. Acquiring money for one of the
nation's poorest states and taking risks became daily strategies for
then-governor Clinton. He is now the 42nd President of the United States.
How could the lives of such different men cross paths? Through
intermediaries and networks.
Ray Baxter: "Arkansas is a small enough state that a political game is
played in Arkansas with a small enough number of players to where everybody
knows everybody."
Now the setting. An isolated airport in western Arkansas, an unusually long
airstrip found in the midst of a small backwater town called Mena. The
mountains make it ideal for evading radar detection, and the area itself
has a long tradition of lawlessness. Barry Seal moved his drug operation to
Mena from Baton Rouge, Louisiana to begin an alleged dual-operation:
running guns to the Nicaragua contras and smuggling drugs to the US. All
under the cloak of national security and with the implicit nod of Governor
Clinton. These allegations stem from numerous clues: a history of airplane
modifications and money laundering, plus the testimony of Barry Seal and
others about Rich Mountain Aviation, the company which Seal called home.
In this story, self-interests connect each character and enhance the
credibility of the plot. Oliver North provided security and a CIA cover
while Barry Seal ran the arms and brought back the cocaine. Dan Lasater
bought cocaine and laundered money which in turn injected Clinton's
Arkansas economy, including ADFA, and Lasater contributed to Clinton's
political campaigns. Finally, Governor Clinton allegedly provided cover at
the state level.
The American Investigator team went to Arkansas to examine the evidence for
a story which is still unfolding. We talked with the skeptics as well as
the believers about the activities in Mena.
Jim Johnson
Former Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Jim Johnson, a historian of Arkansas
politics, says the implications of Mena are appalling. Jim Johnson: "These
people got what they needed in their operations down there. But I'm sure
that the powers that be surely to God didn't mean to put America in the
dope business. And that's what resulted in Mena, with America literally
being in the dope business. And there's nothing as degrading as the thought
of my country being a party to that kind of activity and that occurred, in
my view, in Mena."
Two investigators have worked carefully and relentlessly for over ten years
against a backdrop of Federal and State-level resistance. Russell Welch, a
state police investigator, has kept watch on Barry Seal's drug-running from
the beginning. Bill Duncan, an IRS investigator, tracked money laundering
in Mena banks. Enter Terry Reed, a self-proclaimed major player in the
events at Mena. Terry Reed threw together in novelistic form a series of
richly detailed assertions. Terry Reed's credibility and his assertions are
in question; in fact, some serious investigators despise the book. Yet Reed
has catalyzed the Mena issue; Reed is currently in court over an alleged
framing by Clinton security loyalists Buddy Young and Tommy Baker. The
upcoming trial has served as a conduit for new Mena evidence.
Investigators, and troopers from Clinton's security detail were recently
questioned -- the American investigator team has acquired their
depositions.
In an extensive phone interview, Bill Duncan asserted that he had over 25
specific instances of money laundering in Mena area banks, (including Union
Bank) from over 7000 pages of evidence on the Mena case. According to the
depositions: a scared secretary at Rich Mountain Aviation (RMA) reported
the use of cashier's checks to avoid filing Currency transaction reports;
the first cases of money laundering were used to build Seal's hangar in
Mena airport; a local bank VP admitted under oath that RMA had laundered
money with them; Seal's pilot confessed that irregular procedures were
used; and, an overheard conversation between the CIA and US customs hinted
at "some type of joint operation at the Mena Airport" "active as late as
October of 1991."
Fred Hampton
Asked about money laundering around Mena airport, Fred Hampton, Owner of
Rich Mountain Aviation: "Well - there were cashier's checks bought. But
because you buy cashier's checks don't mean you laundered money. If you had
a customer like Barry Seal, who, that's all he paid you in was cash. I mean
that son-of-a-gun, he never wrote a check. I guess sometime in his
lifetime, but I guarantee, to my company he never wrote a check. Even if he
had to go to the bank of Gonzales and borrow money to come pay me, he did
it in cash. That's just the way he did it. And of course I took the
cashier's - I took the cash and I bought cashier's checks in Barry Seals
name, remitted to my company and put those things in the bank. That's not
laundering money." Russell Welch, former Arkansas State Investigator: "If
you purchased or made a deposit of a check in excess of $10,000 you have to
pay taxes on it or notify the IRS. So if you make frequent deposits or
purchases -- if you purchased cashier's checks for large sums of money - to
put it in Barry Seals own words, the people in Mena would know his
business. So you put it in less than 10,000, as opposed to 100,000 you get
a series of 9,000 checks. I think a lot of people do that, I think a lot of
honest people probably did it, but cocaine smugglers did it too."
In December 1985, Russell Welch and Bill Duncan interviewed Barry Seal
under a plea agreement, less than two months before he was gunned down. He
confessed to drug smuggling on a massive scale. According to the
depositions: a DEA official verified Seal's claim of arms and drug-running;
a well-understood method of cocaine delivery emerged from the questioning
and the physical evidence; and, an informant reported that cocaine had
actually been kept in the hangars.
Fred Hampton, Owner of Rich Mountain Aviation: "He did not have a drug
smuggling operation here." Russell Welch, former Arkansas Stale
Investigator: "Barry Seal was a cocaine smuggler. He used the Mena airport.
He used other places too, but he based his operation - starting in 1982 and
through 1983 - to smuggle cocaine, not for anybody but Barry Seal, he based
it at the Mena airport. That is not even debatable."
Barry Seal had mentioned his connections with the CIA early on. Because the
CIA claim is often a handy cover for drug smuggling, the evidence must be
corroborated by other sources. According to the depositions: DEA officials
testified that the CIA was closely involved with the Central American trips
and RMA; at least one of Seal's airplanes may have come from a CIA-front;
DEA briefings were held with White House officials and Oliver North on
Seal's operations; a multitude of eyewitness accounts suggest that Nella,
an airstrip ten miles north of Mena could have been used for Contra or
Panamanian training; and, possibly, Oliver North made an appearance at Mena
airport.
Russell Welch
Russell Welch: "You know you can back through certain case files-completely
unrelated investigations and you would find information that you could --
someone could say, yes that is part of a CIA operation. Umm. If I had seen
a CIA operation I wouldn't have interfered with it. I wouldn't have
interfered with a legitimate government operation, not knowingly."
Sources from the House Banking Committee say that Seal's money laundering
was at least in the seven figures. It is speculated that the money trail
may go beyond the Mena area, perhaps as far as Dan Lasater's firm. One
curious fact: Lasater and Co made millions of trades in the account of an
unsuspecting Kentucky citizen during 1985. The trading suddenly stopped in
February, 1986, the month that Seal was killed. Reed's book claims that Dan
Lasater was a major recipient of Seal's cocaine. It is a fact that in late
1986, Dan Lasater pleaded guilty to distributing cocaine and received a
30-month sentence. It was cut short by a pardon from Governor Clinton who
had lobbied to give Lasater a $30 million State Police radio contract.
Lasater contributed to Clinton's campaigns, was a major underwriter of
Arkansas bond issues, and had hired Clinton's brother, Roger as a chauffeur
-- even paid Roger's drug debts. Patsy Thomason, now at the White House and
under fire for her role in the Foster affair, was Lasater's Chief Executive
Financial Officer. Although both Lasater and Clinton now claim that they
have only met a few times at crowded events, Congressman Dan Burton, former
Chairman of the Republican Study Committee strongly disagrees. "He was so
close to the Governor that he got $664 million in Arkansas development
bonds from which he was able to get $1.6 million in commissions. And this
was at a time when Dan Lasater was under investigation by the state police
for cocaine trafficking and cocaine use."
In a reluctant deposition Trooper Barry Spivey, former Governor's security,
unwittingly agreed with Congressman Burton. Spivey also remembers taking
Lasater's plane to Kentucky with Lasater and Clinton while they bet on
horses. The question is: Why would Dan Lasater and Bill
L.D. Brown, Governor's security and traveling aide: socialized closely with
the Governor Clinton misrepresent their relationship? from January of 1983
to July 1985. In April 84 Brown saw an ad for the CIA in Hillary's Sunday
Times.
L.D. Brown
L.D. Brown, former Arkansas State Trooper assigned as a body guard to Gov.
Clinton: "Bill came out to go jogging I think it was and I showed him, I
said: look at this - is this for real? And he said: 'sure you oughta do
that. I always told you would make a good spy. I'll help you with it.'"
Brown say's that Clinton helped him draft an essay for the Agency. L.D.
Brown: "This is kind of a funny deal. I mean I don't really care if the
American public champions this cause or whatever, if they believe it or
not. But this is something I've been try to - not cover up - but stay away
from for over ten years. But - I kept some of the things that I had sent
into the agency. I kept that essay on "Marxism in Central America." You
know, I knew what that was but it wasn't exactly my topic du jour to get
into the CIA. He's the one that said: 'that's what they want to hear.' And,
you know, I played along and we wrote it."
With Clinton's recommendation, Brown was cleared by an operative in Texas.
Brown received a call from Barry Seal, inviting him to Mena airport. Two
identical missions followed. With Brown on board, Seal's plane left Mena,
dropped crates somewhere in Central America, loaded duffel bags in Honduras
and returned to Mena. L.D. Brown: "The second time we come back from where
Seal said we were going, which he said was Honduras, he breaks open a bag
and pulls out of it what to me, having worked in Narcotics, was a kilo of
cocaine. I mean he never opened it -- it had a numbers sign and two on it -
which I had seen packaged before. And then, I just, we supposedly were
flying guns - it's what he had told me. I didn't know what was coming back
on return trips."
Brown confronted Clinton outside the Mansion. "He was about to ask me - are
you having fun? -- again, I know he was and that's when I just lost it and
I said you know what they're bringing back and I'm just cursing and you
know what's on those blankety-blank airplanes and he says what do you mean,
what do you mean. I said they're bringing back coke and he says wait a
minute, he throws his hands up and says that's Lasater's deal. And
throughout this whole thing, Lasater's name was never brought up about
anything. I know Lasater, I've seen him at the mansion, been to his house
and sat in his racing box at the horse races and I knew that the only time
I'd see the Governor around any kind of cocaine was at Dan Lasater's house
when it was on the table and I got him outta there. So just like a big
light goes off in my headācocaine, the governor and when he's says Lasater
I'm thinking oh no, what's going on." "When I saw the coke, well you know
all my DEA training, I'd been to the advanced schools and gotten their
achievement award. Well, man, I thought this is a drug operation it's a
sting thing - I'm trying to convince myself of that, all the way back to
Little Rock and up until the time I meet with Clinton, and he blows all
that perception and tells me: 'No, it's a straight drug deal, L.D.'"
According to Bill Duncan, nine separate state and federal probes into Mena
went nowhere or were blocked. What happened to the investigations? And what
happened to the investigators? According to the depositions: Troopers were
told to keep their mouths shut, to forget what they had heard or what they
had seen; the House subcommittee on crime in 1990 never allowed Duncan's
evidence; a now-controversial Grand jury made no convictions; an FBI agent
memorandum copied to FBI and CIA headquarters spoke of the cover-up.
Charles Black
American investigator interviewed Charles Black, a local prosecutor. In
1988, frustrated with the Federal investigations, Black tried to pursue
financial assistance for an investigation on the local level. Black
hand-delivered a request to Bill Clinton in 1988. Charles Black: "He stood
there and he listened to me. And he said some words to the effect that he
would get a man on it and would get word back to me. And I never heard back
from him after that. I never heard back from anybody on his behalf."
Insight Magazine recently reported that, based on a deposition by Betsy
Wright, Governor Clinton's former chief of staff, the Governor's Mansion
was "inundated" with phone calls concerning Mena in 1985. Bill Clinton has
claimed that he knew nothing about Mena until 1988. Even then, the State
Authorities took no action and no-one was prosecuted. Instead, the
investigators suffered consequences. While preparing committee evidence,
Welch became violently ill. The doctor's diagnosis: military-style anthrax.
In Mena, he was blocked from opening new cases. A forced transfer to Hot
Springs followed. The charge? Ironically, Welch's caseload was down.
Finally, Welch was given a forced retirement without cause. The State
police had knocked on his door in an attempt to collect his uniform and
badge just a few days before our interview. Russell Welch, former Arkansas
State Investigator: It's hard to explain. It's hard to sit down and go
through the whole story from day one, and how a straightforward criminal
investigation turned into this. It shouldn't never have - this shouldn't
have happened. Things shouldn't be where they are at now." "If I could sit
here and name names and show you documents, if I could give you the answer
to every question that surrounds Arkansas right now, it wouldn't make any
difference. What would you do? If the president committed a felony on
national television, who's going to go knock on the door and say: come on
down to the station; you better call your lawyer. Who's going to do that?
Who's going to bang on the door? If the President obstructs justice, who's
going to knock on the door and say, Mr. President, come on down to the
station, we've got some questions to ask you."
Contact: NET investigative reporters on this story Ethan Gutmann & Therese
Kaplan 202.544.320
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Date: Wed Jul 09, 1997 8:22 pm CST
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Subject: ciadrugs] The Real Drug Lords
Found at:
http://www.magnet.ch/serendipity/cia.html
The Real Drug Lords
A brief history of CIA involvement in the Drug Trade
by William Blum
1947 to 1951, FRANCE
According to Alfred W. McCoy in The Politics of Heroin in Southeast
Asia, CIA arms, money, and disinformation enabled Corsican criminal
syndicates in Marseille to wrestle control of labor unions from the
Communist Party. The Corsicans gained political influence and control
over the docks -- ideal conditions for cementing a long-term partnership
with mafia drug distributors, which turned Marseille into the postwar
heroin capital of the Western world. Marseille's first heroin
laboratories were opened in 1951, only months after the Corsicans took
over the waterfront.
Early 1950s, SOUTHEAST ASIA
The Nationalist Chinese army, organized by the CIA to wage war against
Communist China, became the opium barons of The Golden Triangle (parts
of Burma, Thailand and Laos), the world's largest source of opium and
heroin. Air America, the ClA's principal airline proprietary, flew the
drugs all over Southeast Asia. (See Christopher Robbins, Air America,
Avon Books, 1985, chapter 9.)
1950s to early 1970s, INDOCHINA
During U.S. military involvement in Laos and other parts of Indochina,
Air America flew opium and heroin throughout the area. Many Gl's in
Vietnam became addicts. A laboratory built at CIA headquarters in
northern Laos was used to refine heroin. After a decade of American
military intervention, Southeast Asia had become the source of 70
percent of the world's illicit opium and the major supplier of raw
materials for America's booming heroin market.
1973-80, AUSTRALIA
The Nugan Hand Bank of Sydney was a CIA bank in all but name. Among its
officers were a network of US generals, admirals and CIA men, including
fommer CIA Director William Colby, who was also one of its lawyers. With
branches in Saudi Arabia, Europe, Southeast Asia, South America and the
U.S., Nugan Hand Bank financed drug trafficking, money laundering and
international arms dealings. In 1980, amidst several mysterious deaths,
the bank collapsed, $50 million in debt. (See Jonathan Kwitny, The
Crimes of Patriots: A True Tale of Dope, Dirty Money and the CIA, W.W.
Norton & Co., 1987.)
1970s and 1980s, PANAMA
For more than a decade, Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega was a highly
paid CIA asset and collaborator, despite knowledge by U.S. drug
authorities as early as 1971 that the general was heavily involved in
drug trafficking and money laundering. Noriega facilitated
"guns-for-drugs" flights for the contras, providing protection and
pilots, as well as safe havens for drug cartel officials, and discreet
banking facilities. U.S. officials, including then-ClA Director William
Webster and several DEA officers, sent Noriega letters of praise for
efforts to thwart drug trafficking (albeit only against competitors of
his Medellin Cartel patrons). The U.S. government only turned against
Noriega, invading Panama in December 1989 and kidnapping the general,
once they discovered he was providing intelligence and services to the
Cubans and Sandinistas. Ironically drug trafficking through Panama
increased after the US invasion. (John Dinges, Our Man in Panama, Random
House, 1991; National Security Archive Documentation Packet The Contras,
Cocaine, and Covert Operations.)
1980s, CENTRAL AMERICA
The San Jose Mercury News series documents just one thread of the
interwoven operations linking the CIA, the contras and the cocaine
cartels. Obsessed with overthrowing the leftist Sandinista government in
Nicaragua, Reagan administration officials tolerated drug trafficking as
long as the traffickers gave support to the contras. In 1989, the Senate
Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations (the
Kerry committee) concluded a three-year investigation by stating:
"There was substantial evidence of drug smuggling through the
war zones on the part of individual Contras, Contra suppliers,
Contra pilots mercenaries who worked with the Contras, and
Contra supporters throughout the region.... U.S. officials
involved in Central America failed to address the drug issue
for fear of jeopardizing the war efforts against Nicaragua....
In each case, one or another agency of the U.S. govemment had
information regarding the involvement either while it was
occurring, or immediately thereafter.... Senior U.S. policy
makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a
perfect solution to the Contras' funding problems." (Drugs,
Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy, a Report of the Senate
Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism,
Narcotics and Intemational Operations, 1989)
In Costa Rica, which served as the "Southern Front" for the contras
(Honduras being the Northern Front), there were several different
ClA-contra networks involved in drug trafficking. In addition to those
servicing the Meneses-Blandon operation detailed by the Mercury News,
and Noriega's operation, there was CIA operative John Hull, whose farms
along Costa Rica's border with Nicaragua were the main staging area for
the contras. Hull and other ClA-connected contra supporters and pilots
teamed up with George Morales, a major Miami-based Colombian drug
trafficker who later admitted to giving $3 million in cash and several
planes to contra leaders. In 1989, after the Costa Rica government
indicted Hull for drug trafficking, a DEA-hired plane clandestinely and
illegally flew the CIA operative to Miami, via Haiti. The U.S.
repeatedly thwarted Costa Rican efforts to extradite Hull back to Costa
Rica to stand trial.
Another Costa Rican-based drug ring involved a group of Cuban Americans
whom the CIA had hired as military trainers for the contras. Many had
long been involved with the CIA and drug trafficking They used contra
planes and a Costa Rican-based shrimp company, which laundered money for
the CIA, to move cocaine to the U.S.
Costa Rica was not the only route. Guatemala, whose military
intelligence service -- closely associated with the CIA -- harbored many
drug traffickers, according to the DEA, was another way station along
the cocaine highway. Additionally, the Medellin Cartel's Miami
accountant, Ramon Milian Rodriguez, testified that he funneled nearly
$10 million to Nicaraguan contras through long-time CIA operative Felix
Rodriguez, who was based at Ilopango Air Force Base in El Salvador.
The contras provided both protection and infrastructure (planes, pilots,
airstrips, warehouses, front companies and banks) to these ClA-linked
drug networks. At least four transport companies under investigation for
drug trafficking received US government contracts to carry non-lethal
supplies to the contras. Southern Air Transport, "formerly" ClA-owned,
and later under Pentagon contract, was involved in the drug running as
well. Cocaine-laden planes flew to Florida, Texas, Louisiana and other
locations, including several militarv bases Designated as 'Contra
Craft,' these shipments were not to be inspected. When some authority
wasn't clued in, and made an arrest, powerful strings were pulled on
behalf of dropping the case, acquittal, reduced sentence, or
deportation.
1980s to early 1990s, AFGHANISTAN
ClA-supported Mujahedeen rebels engaged heavily in drug trafficking
while fighting against the Soviet-supported govemment and its plans to
reform the very backward Afghan society. The Agency's principal client
was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, one of the leading druglords and a leading
heroin refiner. CIA supplied trucks and mules, which had carried arms
into Afghanistan, were used to transport opium to laboratories along the
Afghan/Pakistan border. The output provided up to one half of the heroin
used annually in the United States and three-quarters of that used in
Western Europe. U.S. officials admitted in 1990 that they had failed to
investigate or take action against the drug operation because of a
desire not to offend their Pakistani and Afghan allies. In 1993, an
official of the DEA called Afghanistan the new Colombia of the drug
world.
Mid-1980s to early 199Os, HAITI
While working to keep key Haitian military and political leaders in
power, the CIA turned a blind eye to their clients' drug trafficking. In
1986, the Agency added some more names to its payroll by creating a new
Haitian organization, the National Intelligence Service (SIN). SIN was
purportedly created to fight the cocaine trade, though SIN officers
themselves engaged in the trafficking, a trade aided and abetted by some
of the Haitian military and political leaders.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
William Blum is author of
Killing Hope: U.S Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II
available from Common Courage Press,
P.O. Box 702, Monroe, Maine 04951, USA;
tel: (207) 525-0900; fax: (207) 525-3068
The CIA The "War on Drugs" Serendipity Home Page
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