CIA_DRUG.TXT

By David P Beiter

From Acres USA, August 1990, p 41. (c) 1990 by Charles Walters, Jr.

Reprinted with permission from Acres USA, POB 8800, Metairie, LA  70011
(504)889-2100  Subscriptions: $20/yr.  acresusa@aol.com

Mini-Editorial
THE RECORD

The following is a chronology of events which demonstrates the intimate
connection between CIA and the drug dealing of the Contras.

1959: Felix Rodriguez, a Cuban refugee, hired to be a member of a special
assassination team, works under Theodore Shackley of the CIA in Miami, Florida.

1970: Felix Rodriguez works under Donald Gregg in the CIA operation in
Vietnam.  Gregg reports to Shackley.

1976: George Bush succeeded William Colby as the head of the CIA under Gerald
Ford.  Bush appoints Ted Shackley to be his Chief of Covert Operations
Worldwide.

12/1/81: Bush meets with the National Security Planning Group in the White
House.  They discuss and approve a $19 million expenditure to Argentina for the
creation of a 500 man anti-Sandinista Contra force.

4/82: Bush meets with Australian Labor leader Hayden to discuss the CIA's
involvement with the Nugan Hand bank in Australia.  Nugan Hand was [a]
money-laundering machine for the southeast Asia heroin operation that began
during the Vietnam war.  Defense Department spokesman Richard Armitage acted as
bagman, carrying cash from Bangkok, Thailand, to Australia.

11/82: $3,690,000 payment made to the Contras by Ramon Milan Rodriguez, the
bookkeeper of the Columbian Cocaine Cartel, at the request of Felix Rodriguez,
in exchange for protection from prosecution.

1983: Gustave Villolda gets a letter of recommendation from Donald Gregg as
"combat advisor" to the Contras.  Villolda was with Felix Rodriguez during the
Bay of Pigs invasion and the CIA trackdown and execution of Che Guevara in
Bolivia.

10/84: Gerald Latchinian, co-director with Felix Rodriguez of Giro Aviation, a
CIA proprietary airline, arrested for smuggling $10,300,000 in cocaine to
finance the assassination of Honduran President Roberto Suazo Cordova.
Latchinian maintains that this was a CIA operation.

12/84: Felix Rodriguez meets with Donald Gregg, who is now George Bush's
National Security advisor.  Gregg has an autographed photo of Rodriguez on his
desk.  He gets Gregg to call other high-ranking officials for help in getting a
job in El Salvador as a Contra military advisor.

1/85: Felix Rodriguez meets with George Bush to discuss the Contra job, less
than two months after the Latchinian indictment.

6/85: Felix Rodriguez meets in Washington, D.C.  with Donald Gregg and Colonel
Steele of the Salvador Milgroup that works with the Contra supply network.
Steele was given one of the super-secret KL-43 encryption devices for secure
telephone conversations.

8/5/85: Bush's office is the first place notified when the C-123 carrying
Eugene Hassenfus is shot down.  Buzz Sawyer, the pilot of the plane, has the
private White House phone number of George Bush in his pocket when his body is
recovered from the plane.  Hassenfus testifies that he worked for the CIA under
Max Gomez (alias Felix Rodriguez) and Ramon Medina (alias Luis Posada Carriles)
with the knowledge and approval of George Bush.  Telephone logs from the phone
company in El Salvador for the "safe houses" used by the plane crew show many
calls to North's White House office.

12/85: Felix Rodriguez attends the Christmas party at George Bush's White House
office, and is introduced to the staff as as old friend of Donald Gregg and
Bush.

1/86: Felix Rodriguez meets in Bush's office with Colonel Sam Watson, Gregg's
deputy in Salvador, and Colonel Steele to discuss counter-insurgency.

5/86: Felix Rodriguez meets with Bush, Gregg and North in Bush's office.

6/86: Felix Rodriguez is called to Washington to meet with North to explain
phone calls to Tony Avirgan and Martha Honey (U.S.  journalists in Costa Rica),
which North has taped.

8/86: Felix Rodriguez meets with Bush and Donald Gregg to complain about the
quality of arms shipments from Richard Secord's arms supply operation.  Later
that same month, Donald Gregg meets with Alan Friers, the Central American Task
Force chief, to support the purchase of military equipment from Felix Rodriguez
rather than Secord.  Friers is told by Gregg, "Don't buy any of those damned
airplanes from Secord."

9/86: General Singlaub sends memo to North expressing concern about Felix
Rodriguez's daily contact with the Bush office, warning of "damage to President
Reagan and the Republican Party."

The above information was compiled from The Politics of Heroin in Southeast
Asia by McCoy (1972), Price of Power by Seymor Hersch (1983), Endless Enemies
by Jonathan Kwitny (1984), Veil by Bob Woodward (1987, Out of Control by Leslie
Cockburn (1987), Crimes of Patriots by Jon Kwitny (1987), as well as the
affidavit submitted to the Federal Court in Miami, Florida, in the RICO
(Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act) suit filed by Tony Avirgan
against those who bombed the press conference at La Ponca [sic] in 1984, and
the "Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy" statement issued by the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee in December 1988.


Top

Text version of this file

Back to COVER.LTR

This URL: http://www.pdxnorml.org/CIA_DRUG.TXT.html

Home