|
PIRATE NEWS - SEPTEMBER 911 SURPRISE: Top Secret Pentagon Papers detail US military plans to wage terrorism on US citizens in USA and blame a foreign nation to start war. US plans included hijacking, bombing and crashing US airliners via remote control, killing innocent US citizens, and US soldiers attacking and killing US soldiers. Pentagon report declassified in 2001 and "quietly" reported by ABC.com and other news outlets. Evil warplan required media deception and public ignorance to succeed. HISTORY OF IRAN-CONTRA AND CHRISTIC INSTITUTE RICO LAWSUITEdited by John Lee Distributed for research and educational purposes per 17 USC §107 INDEX OF PUBLIC RECORDS REAGAN/BUSH IRAN-CONTRA FILES
http://www.oocities.org/iran_contra_christic_institute 35 volumes of US Senate hearings re Iran-Contra can be found at UT Law Library. Another 35 volumes of US House hearings are still classified Top Secret TRIAL LAWYERS FOR PUBLIC JUSTICE - CO-FOUNDED BY RALPH NADER "A little sunlight is the best disinfectant." --U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis And Ye shall know the Truth,
Ye shall know the truth,
UPDATE 2001 http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010507&s=kornbluh COMMENT | May 7, 2001 Bush's Contra Buddies by PETER KORNBLUH The current President George Bush, whose very name evokes a dark era many would prefer to forget, seems determined to resurrect the ghosts of America's scandal-ridden past. A number of his foreign policy appointments are former Iran-contra operatives who are being rehabilitated and rewarded with powerful foreign policy posts. John Negroponte's nomination to be US ambassador to the United Nations is a case in point. Bush has named him to represent the United States at an institution built on principles that include nonintervention, international law and human rights. Qualifications for the job: Negroponte was a central player in a bloody paramilitary war that flagrantly violated those principles and was repeatedly denounced by the institution in which he would now serve. As ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985, Negroponte was the acknowledged "boss" of the early covert contra operations; he also acted as a proconsul, working closely with the Honduran military commander, whose forces aided the covert war while his embassy consistently denied or misrepresented politically inconvenient evidence of atrocities and abuse. The nomination of Otto Reich to be Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere is even more offensive to international and domestic principles. A longtime anti-Castro Cuban-American, Reich is backed by Senator Jesse Helms and the hard-line exile groups that want political payback for giving Bush his real or imagined margin of victory in Florida. Like Negroponte, Reich was a key player in the illicit contra war. In 1983 a CIA propaganda specialist named Walter Raymond handpicked Reich to head the new and innocuous-sounding Office of Public Diplomacy. Housed in the State Department, Reich's office actually answered directly to Raymond and to Oliver North in the White House. A General Accounting Office review showed that Reich's office repeatedly provided sole source contracts to other members of North's network, including those involved in illegal fundraising for arms. More important, a Comptroller General's review concluded that Reich's office had "engaged in prohibited, covert propaganda activities designed to influence the media and the public." Among those activities, as revealed in declassified records, were "white propaganda" operations--having contractors plant articles in the press or influence print and TV coverage while hiding their government connection--and using US military psychological warfare personnel to engage in, as Reich put it, "persuasive communications" intended to influence public opinion. Reich himself engaged in a crude form of "persuasive communications," personally berating media executives and harassing reporters if news coverage was not favorable to the Reagan Administration's position. When NPR's All Things Considered ran the first major investigative report on contra human rights atrocities, Reich demanded a meeting with its editors, producers and reporters, at which he informed them that his office was "monitoring" all their programs and that he considered NPR to be biased against the contras and US policy. A Washington Post stringer remembers that after a contentious briefing from Reich in Managua in which the stringer and a reporter from Newsweek questioned the truthfulness of the Administration's assertions, an article appeared in a right-wing newsletter put out by Accuracy in Media calling him a "johnny sandinista" and falsely asserting that the Nicaraguan government was providing the two reporters with prostitutes. Reich's office, the then-US Ambassador to Managua told the Post reporter, was responsible for the rumors. Reich's role as a revolving-door lobbyist is also likely to be a factor in his nomination hearings. As a partner in the Brock Group, a lobbying firm that according to Justice Department records represented the anti-Castro liquor giant Bacardi, Reich advised Jesse Helms's office on the drafting of the Helms-Burton legislation, which tightens the embargo against Cuba. Since passage of the law in 1996, Reich's own lobbying firm, RMA International, has received $600,000 in payments from Bacardi. Another Reich organization, the US-Cuba Business Council, has received more than $520,000 in US Agency for International Development money for anti-Castro work supporting the goals of the Helms-Burton law. If he's confirmed, Reich would become the key policy-maker interpreting and implementing legislation on Cuba, which he was handsomely paid to promote--a clear conflict of interest. Reich's only diplomatic credential is his 1986 posting as Ambassador to Venezuela, to which officials in Caracas repeatedly objected. While there, Reich became responsible for the case of notorious terrorist Orlando Bosch, jailed in Caracas on charges of masterminding the bombing of an Air Cubana flight that killed seventy-three people in 1976. In September 1987 Bosch wrote a letter in which he thanked the ambassador as "compatriot Otto Reich" for support--a letter that, after it became public, Reich described in a cable to Washington as "a case of Cuban-Soviet disinformation." When a Venezuelan court ruled that Bosch should be released in late 1987, Reich sent a short "Clearance Response" cable to the State Department's visa office--apparently a request for Bosch to enter the United States. Bosch subsequently entered the United States illegally and was detained on parole violation charges related to terrorism and threatened with deportation because, according to the Justice Department, he had "repeatedly expressed and demonstrated a willingness to cause indiscriminate injury and death." Reich's nomination hearings will provide the first public forum for him to explain the purpose of his "clearance" cable and what role, if any, he played in the first Bush Administration's clearly political decision to drop charges against Bosch and allow him to stay in Florida. Negroponte has already survived confirmation hearings for two ambassadorships since the Iran/contra scandal and is unlikely to face significant opposition, but Democrats say they are drawing the line at Reich. Senators John Kerry and Christopher Dodd are leading the opposition to Reich on the grounds of his "questionable history." According to Senate aides, opponents plan to put a "hold" on the nomination--a tactic perfected by Helms against Clinton appointments--which will provide time for an investigation, access to classified records and organization of support from farm belt Republicans who understand that Reich's hard-line policy on the trade embargo against Cuba will hurt agricultural interests in their states. The political effort to line up votes against Reich and to seek full disclosure of documents on his public diplomacy operations, ambassadorship and corporate lobbying will begin in earnest after the Senate returns from Easter recess. In a campaign reminiscent of the successful effort twenty years ago to block Reagan's anti-human rights appointee Ernest Lefever to be Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, the Center for International Policy, the Institute for Policy Studies and the Washington Office on Latin America, among others, are mobilizing to stop the nomination and are confident they can win. "With so much muck connected to his name and his past," suggests CIP director William Goodfellow, "Reich is an inviting target to show that the Democrats are not dead." Indeed, failure to block Reich could open the door to ever more noxious foreign policy appointees. Senator Helms's top aide, Roger Noriega, is Bush's lead candidate to be ambassador to the Organization of American States. And at least one conservative religious group is touting pardoned Iran/contra criminal Elliott Abrams as a nominee for a human rights post--ambassador at large for international religious freedom. © 2001 The Nation Company, L.P. http://www.kmf.org/williams/bushbook/bush18.html George Bush: The Unauthorized Biographyby Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin Chapter -XVIII- Iran- Contra We cannot provide here a complete overview of the Iran-Contra affair.
We shall attempt, rather, to give an account of George
|
|
http://www.capitalresearch.org/GreenWatch/California/christic.htm
Christic Institute
Address: P.O. Box 845
Telephone: Fax: Internet:
Founded: Staff: Membership:
Mr. Daniel Sheehan, President
"Christic Institute is an interfaith center for law and national policy in the public interest. We commit our resources to legal investigations carefully selected for their potential to advance human rights, social justice, and personal freedom--at home and abroad." Works to "connect religious principles to public policy." Initiated litigation in the Karen Silkwood and Greensboro, North Carolina cases; gained a Supreme Court victory in the Silkwood case. (Karen Silkwood "died mysteriously in 1974 after threatening to expose unsafe conditions at the Kerr McGee nuclear plant in Oklahoma. The Greensboro incident "occurred during an anti-Klan protest in November, 1979 when four protesters were killed and nine injured in an attack that was alleged to have been aided by police.") Conducted litigation to "protect the public from radiation exposure in the process of the Three Mile Island reactor cleanup." Sponsors the Nuclear Reform Project "to assist local governments in protecting citizens from radiation hazards." Researches "theological underpinnings of public policy concerning nuclear weapons and energy and peace economics." Is conducting "a major study of the national security state, with special attention to escalating increases in military expenditures and reductions in civil liberties." Published Cover Up, In Contempt of Congress, Inside the Shadow Government, The Killing of Karen Silkwood, La Penca on Trial, and La Penca Report. National Director Sara Nelson has served as chair of the National Organization for Women's labor committee and director of both the Karen Silkwood Fund and the Greensboro Civil Rights Fund. She cofounfed Community Access Television, Inc. of California and served as codirector of American Documentary Films in New York and San Francisco. http://www.conspire.com/pics.html Conspire.com http://www.conspire.com/sheehan.html Editor's Note: The following lengthy text is a transcript of a speech given in late 1986 by Daniel Sheehan, chief counsel for the Christic Institute, a public interest law and policy center in Washington D.C. Sheehan gained an impressive measure of notoriety in the late 1980s with his lawsuit against "The Secret Team," the group of former and current military men and intelligence agents who, Sheehan alleged, are responsible for a continuing pattern of corruption and violence that dates back at least to the JFK assasination, and further, to World War II--and in the '80s manifested itself in the Iran-Contra Affair. http://www.radio4all.org/crackcia/reading.htm CIA AND DRUGS READING LIST
THESE BOOKS NAME NAMES, DATES AND PLACES WHERE THE CIA DEALT DRUGS. NOT ONE OF THE ABOVE AUTHORS HAS BEEN SUED FOR LIBEL -- EVER! Almost all of these books are available by mail or phone order from:
CIA Report on Contras and CocaineNameBase index of the CIA report, Volume II, and repost of articles regarding it from the Washington Post and the New York Times This report is available from PIR as hitz.zip (547,075 bytes) From the annotation in NameBase: Central Intelligence Agency. Allegations of Connections Between CIA and the Contras in Cocaine Trafficking to the United States. 96-0143-IG. Volume II: The Contra Story. Issued on 1998-04-27 as a classified report, and 1998-10 in declassified form. 236 pages. (This page count depends on the printout; the report itself uses paragraph or item numbers instead. NameBase also used these, resulting in numbers from 1 to 1148, new numbers for appendices A to E, and again for graphical reproductions of documents in G1 to G14.) In August 1996, Gary Webb and the San Jose Mercury News sparked a frenzy about the CIA's role in 1980s cocaine trafficking in Los Angeles. After the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post savaged Webb's story in three-part harmony, the Mercury News caved and Webb was out of a job. Four so-called "investigations" were launched on the issue of CIA, contras, and cocaine: two by Congress, one by Justice, and one by the CIA's then-Inspector General, Frederick Hitz. Two years later, it looked like a fizzle. Then Volume II of the Hitz report was posted on the web, and quite unexpectedly, it was full of names. Hitz lacked subpoena power, but he had a 17-person team dig out old CIA records. This report reviews the record of CIA message traffic, letters, and documents. There are no stunning conclusions, merely an overwhelming impression for anyone who reads it: CIA consistently dropped the ball on this issue, and rarely ran with it to begin with, except to neutralize external pressure. Their only concern was the contra war effort, and everything else took a back seat. NameBase index NOTE: This index refers to item or paragraph numbers in the CIA's report. The index was compiled by PIR, not by the CIA. To retrieve an item or paragraph, use this guide to see how the item numbers are distributed among the various sections of the report. http://jinx.sistm.unsw.edu.au/~greenlft/1992/58/58p16b.htm Moves to close US civil rights centreBy Andy Lang WASHINGTON, D.C. -- For the first time since the McCarthy era, the federal government may attempt to seize the property of a civil rights organisation. Officials of other public-interest groups warn that the threatened government action against the Christic Institute -- a liberal civil rights law centre -- could establish a dangerous precedent that will block future civil lawsuits against the abuse of power by government agencies or private corporations. The institute has won several landmark civil lawsuits, including the "Greensboro massacre" case against members of the American Nazi Party and Ku Klux Klan who assassinated demonstrators in 1979, and the "Silkwood" case against the nuclear industry. The institute does not charge legal fees and depends entirely on contributions from churches, Jewish philanthropies, private foundations and individual supporters. Massive financial penalties have been ordered against the institute by a federal judge who blocked a politically controversial lawsuit four days before the trial was scheduled to begin. The institute has already paid a $1.2 million punitive sanction imposed by a judge who ruled that a 1986 lawsuit filed by the institute was "frivolous". The suit, Avirgan v Hull, exposed 29 key figures in the Iran-contra scandal six months before the operation was officially acknowledged by the Reagan administration. Now the institute faces additional penalties. In February, three judges of the federal appeals court in Atlanta, ruling that the institute's attempt to appeal the original sanctions order was also "frivolous", imposed new sanctions. The new fine may be fixed at $400,000. This is the largest financial penalty imposed on a public-interest law organisation. According to the US Judicial Conference, the average federal sanctions order is $4000. In a related development, the Internal Revenue Service may soon act on the recommendation of a regional office to revoke the institute's classification as a tax-exempt organisation. The sole basis of the IRS opinion appears to be the sanctions imposed in the Avirgan case. The Bush administration began to investigate the institute last year after a postcard campaign organised by the Avirgan defendants demanded that the IRS move against the public-interest law centre. A group of 24 conservative members of Congress also pressured the IRS to strip the institute's tax-exempt classification. This article was posted on the Green Left Weekly Home Page. For further details regarding subscriptions and correspondence please contact greenleft@peg.apc.org http://www.publiceye.org/rightwoo/Rwooz-09.htm RIGHT WOOS LEFT - 10by Chip Berlet, Political Research Associates Rightist Influences on the Christic Institute Theories The problem of conflating documentable facts with analysis and conclusions and then merging them with unsubstantiated conspiracy theories popular on the far right has plagued progressive foreign policy critiques for several years. The Christic Institute's "Secret Team" theory is perhaps the most widespread example of the phenomenon. While many of the charges raised by Christic regarding the La Penca bombing and the private pro-Contra network are documented, some of their assertions regarding the nature and operations of a long-standing conspiracy of high-level CIA, military, and foreign policy advisors inside the executive branch remain undocumented, and in a few instances, are factually inaccurate. There are two related questions in this matter. One is whether or not the case was handled properly with regard to the actual clients, Martha Honey and Tony Avirgan. The other is how much unsubstantiated conspiracism was made part of the case and its surrounding publicity. This paper will focus on the issue of the undocumented conspiracy theories. Some critics of the Christic Institute say undocumented conspiracy theories, perhaps first circulated by the LaRouchians and the Spotlight, were inadvertently drawn into Christic's lawsuit against key figures in the Iran-Contra Scandal. The Christic Institute no longer uses the "Secret Team" slogan, which it employed for the first few years of its Iran-Contra lawsuit, Avirgan v. Hull. The suit, filed in 1986, is also called the La Penca case, after the Nicaraguan town where a 1984 bombing killed three journalists and at least one Contra and wounded dozens, including television camera operator Avirgan and the intended target, Contra leader Eden Pastora. Among the twenty-nine defendants named were retired Generals Richard Secord and John Singlaub, businessman Albert Hakim, Colombian druglord Pablo Escobar, and contra leader Adolfo Calero. It is arguable that while Christic pursued the broad conspiracy of the "Secret Team" , the bedrock portions of the case involving the actual La Penca incidents took a back seat. A few weeks before the case was slated for trial, the Christic Institute still had not diagramed the elements of proof, a legal procedure where the text of the complaint is broken down into a list of single elements that have to be proven with either valid documentation, a sworn affidavit, or a live witness. This had created problems for researchers and lawyers who had no master list of what needed to be proven when devising questions for depositions and witnesses. When a special meeting was convened shortly before trial, it turned out that for some of allegations concerning the alleged broad "Secret Team" conspiracy, the only evidence in possession of the Christic Institute was newspaper clippings and excerpts from books--and in a few instances there was no evidence other than uncorroborated assertions collected by researchers. Raised at the meeting was the issue of whether or not the case had unwittingly incorporated unsubstantiated conspiracy theories from right-wing groups such as the LaRouchians. The staff was warned that some defendants would likely prevail at trial due to lack of court-quality evidence and would then likely pursue financial penalties (called Rule 11 sanctions). <$FThe author attended the meeting and has corroborated these assertions with other persons attending the meeting. The author also is aware that ethical problems are created by reporting even in broad summary the contents of a meeting of a legal team working on a lawsuit. This decision was made only after much thought, discussion, and a failed attempt to carry out private discussions to resolve some of these matters. These matters were first raised by the author internally to Christic staff and leadership in the summer of 1988. Other attempts were made by the author and other persons to have these criticisms dealt with between 1988 and 1990. A final private discussion in the summer of 1991 originally involved the author, Christic client Tony Avirgan, and Christic leadership. It was the Christic Institute's unilateral decision to discontinue that attempt to resolve as many issues as possible privately before the criticisms were made public. The issue is also timely because if Christic refuses to deal with criticism of some of its work in the case, and succeeds in placing the issue of the dismissal before the Supreme Court, the almost-inevitable refusal to reverse the trial judge's decision would take a bad ruling and certify it as the law of the land.> These matters are important because Christic press statements have fueled the idea, and many Christic Institute supporters believe, that the dismissal of the case was just another example of a massive government conspiracy and cover-up. It is undeniable that the presiding judge was hostile to Christic and stretched judicial discretion to the breaking point in dismissing the case. The dismissal was unfair. However, according to a statement issued by Christic client Tony Avirgan, the Institute must share at least "partial responsibility for the dismissal of the La Penca law suit." It's sad that these issues have to be raised by `outsiders' such as Berlet. But the truth is that criticism-self criticism, an essential tool in any social movement, has never been tolerated by the leaders of the Christic Institute. Those who criticized the legal work of Sheehan were labeled as enemies and ignored. There were, indeed, numerous undocumented allegations in the suit, particularly in Sheehan's Affidavit of Fact. As plaintiffs in the suit, Martha Honey and I struggled for years to try to bring the case down to earth, to bringing it away from Sheehan's wild allegations. Over the years, numerous staff lawyers quit over their inability to control Sheehan. We stuck with it--and continued to struggle--because we felt that the issues being raised were important. But this was a law suit, not a political rally, and the hostile judges latched on to the lack of proof and the sloppy legal work. The case, before it was inflated by Sheehan, was supposed to center on the La Penca bombing. On this, there is a strong body of evidence here in Costa Rica. It is enough evidence to get a reluctant Costa Rican judiciary to indict two CIA operatives, John Hull and Felipe Vidal, for murder and drug trafficking. Unfortunately, little of this evidence was successfully transformed into evidence acceptable to U.S. courts. It was either never submitted or was poorly prepared. In large part, this was because Sheehan was concentrating on his broad, 30-year conspiracy. The exercise Berlet suggested--breaking each allegation down and compiling evidentiary proof for it--was indeed undertaken by competent lawyers on the Christic Institute staff. But it was an exercise begun too late. The case had already been spiked by Sheehan's Affidavit. We feel that it is important to openly discuss these things so that similar mistakes are avoided in the future. The conspiracy Avirgan refers to was spelled out in a two-page circular sent out to promote the sale of the "Affidavit of Daniel P. Sheehan," filed in 1986 and revised in early 1987. The circular began: For the last 25 years a Secret Team of official and retired U.S. military and CIA officials has conducted covert paramilitary operations and "anti-communist" assassination programs throughout the Third World... The international crimes committed by this group in the name of the United States are at the heart of the Iran-contra scandal.... For a quarter of a century this group has trafficked in drugs, assassinated political enemies, stolen from the U.S. government, armed terrorists, and subverted the will of Congress and the public with hundreds of millions of drug dollars at their disposal. The leaders and chief lieutenants of the Secret Team are defendants in a $17 million civil lawsuit filed in May 1986 by the Christic Institute on behalf of U.S. journalists Martha Honey and Tony Avirgan... In a thoughtful analysis of the Christic Institute's lawsuit, David Corn observed in the July 2-9, 1988, Nation that the institute "deserves credit. . . for recognizing the Iran-contra scandal and its significance early on." He added: "It has kept the investigative fires burning, sought to hold individuals accountable for their roles in the affair, and probed issues overlooked by the congressional investigating committees (including the contra drug connection and the La Penca bombing. . . )" The institute's "advocacy of the Secret Team theory," on the other hand, struck Corn as a serious flaw. It might be handy for raising money in direct-mail solicitations but it presented problems for people who prefer evidence to rhetoric. (In February, 1993 Avirgan and Honey filed a motion seeking Sheehan's disbarment.) Jane Hunter of Israeli Foreign Affairs agrees that some of the Christic research is problematic. "As a researcher I have over the years found nothing in the Christic case worth citing," says Hunter. Hunter worries about the rise of conspiracism on the left, including some of the allegations made in the Christic lawsuit. "If you keep looking for all the connections, all you are going to see is something so powerful that there is no way to fight it. We have to look at the system that produces these covert and illegal operations, not who knew so and so three years ago." Dr. Diana Reynolds is another critic of portions of the Christic thesis. Reynolds, an assistant professor of politics at Bradford College in Massachusetts, thinks undocumented conspiracy theories hurt the Christic case. She believes there is much solid evidence concerning the actual La Penca bombing and aftermath, and some specific Iran-Contra material, but she thinks "it is fair to say that some right-wing conspiracy theories were woven into the theory behind the Christic case." Reynolds read thousands of pages of depositions taken by the Christic Institute while she was researching a story on federal emergency planning, later published in Covert Action Information Bulletin. According to Reynolds: It is clear to me from the depositions of Ed Wilson and Gene Wheaton that the notion of a broad conspiracy conducted by the so-called Enterprise, beyond the La Penca bombing and the specific Iran-Contra scandal, has many holes. I am thoroughly convinced that those two depositions contain the nub of the unsubstantiated conspiracy theory, and I have said this for a very long time. When we get into the Christic allegations regarding the Middle East and Asia and the Camp David accords and forty years of conspiracy, their thesis falls apart. Reynolds suggests it is fair to ask whether or not Christic was manipulated by right-wing persons associated with factions in the intelligence community. "It is curious that Wilson is a former intelligence operative, and that Wheaton, at the same time he was working for Christic, was also alleged by Mr. Owen in his Christic deposition to be passing information to Neil Livingston at the National Security Council to protect some of the people who were implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal," says Reynolds. At least two former Christic investigators say they warned Sheehan not to rely on conspiratorial analysis and to be suspicious of material from right-wing sources. Nevertheless, Sheehan was rebuked by his own staff and others in Christic leadership for repeatedly lapsing into an overly conspiratorial analysis in public appearances, and for making claims that the Christic staff could not document or otherwise support when responding to follow-up inquiries by reporters. <$F Interview with two former Christic staff who were eyewitnesses to several of these incidents.> While the allegation that right-wing conspiracy theories were woven into the case is hotly denied by Christic, the contacts by the LaRouchians during the mid and late 1980's are not disputed. According to a Christic spokesperson: In conducting investigations historically we have sometimes had to get information from persons with whom one would not normally associate. People like drug dealers, mercenaries and intelligence agents. During our investigation, there were some meetings with LaRouche staffers conducted by Lanny Sinkin and David MacMichael. The information was always viewed very skeptically and none of it found its way into our casework or courtroom materials. All those contacts were stopped by 1989. We take seriously the view that the LaRouche organization is an organization with whom progressives should be very wary. David MacMichael and Lanny Sinkin are no longer affiliated with the Christic Institute. Sinkin says his contact with the LaRouchians while at Christic was limited to a few brief conversations. MacMichael, a former CIA analyst turned agency critic who now writes and lectures on covert action, has had a more extensive relationship to the LaRouchians. MacMichael and Sinkin, however, were not the only Christic investigators who received information from the LaRouchians. Christic investigator Bill McCoy also received information from the LaRouchians as did at least one other Christic researcher, according to former staffers. Sheehan was warned by his own staff in 1988 that contacts with the research circles around LaRouche and Liberty Lobby were a problem on both factual and moral grounds. Later Danny Sheehan appeared on the Undercurrents program broadcast on WBAI-FM and other Pacifica and progressive radio stations. Christic told the radio audience that it was untrue that LaRouchians had supplied information to the Christic Institute, and blasted a passing reference to this matter in Dennis King's book, Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism. Shortly after Sheehan's statements, an offer to promote King's book as a premium gift during an annual fundraising drive for the radio station was withdrawn. King believes Sheehan's unequivocal denial undercut the credibility of his book and was responsible for WBAI withdrawing the original offer. http://www.saunalahti.fi/~makako/mind/drug_cow.txt Topic 102 DRUGS & COVERT OPS: BRIEF HISTORYchristic.news 12:13 pm Oct 12, 1991 DRUGS AND COVERT OPS: A BRIEF HISTORYBy ALFRED McCOY
[Covert operations rely on lliances with drug smugglers. In 1972, Alfred McCoy documented this relationship in his groundbreaking study, _The Politics of Heroin in Souheast Asia_. The C.I.A. attempted to prevent its publication, and it has since disappeared from most libraries. Now a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, McCoy has expanded his study to include evidence from cover wars fought on almost every continent. Published by Lawrence Hill Books, to which the Christic Intitute is grateful for permission to reproduce the following excerpt, this revision is titled, The Politics of Heroin: C.I.A. Complicity in the Global Drug Trade. For details on how to order Prof. McCoy's book and other resources on drugs and covert operations, please contact the Institute at the address listed at th end of this article.] Few in official Washington are willing to discuss the imposition of controls over C.I.A. covert operations to ensure that the United States does not continue to protectdrug lords. Over the past 40 years American and allied intelligence agencies have played a sig- nificant role in protecting and expanding the obal drug traffic. C.I.A. covert operations in key drug-producing areas have repeat- edly restrained or blocked D.E.A. efforts to deal with the problem. [The D.E.A., or Drug Enforcement Administration, is the nation's chief law enorcement agency in the war on drugs.] |
|
The list of governments whose clandestine services have had close relations with major narcotics traffickers is surprisingly long-- Nationalist China, Imperial Japan, Gaullist France, French Indochina, the Kingdom of Thailand, Pakistan and the United States. Instead of reducing or represing the drug supply most clandestine agencies seem to regulate traffic by protecting favored dealers and eliminating their rivals. Indeed, if we review the hisory of postwar drug traffic, we can see repeated coincidence between C.I.A. covert action assets and major drug dealers. During the 1950s the C.I.A. worked with the Corsican syndicates of Marseilles to restrain communist influence on the city's docks, therebystrengthening the criminal milieu at a time when it was becoming America's leading heroin supplier. Si- multaneously, the C.I.A. installed Nationalist Chinese irregulars in northern Burma and provided them with the logistic support that they used to transform the country's Shan states into the world's largest opium producer. During the 1960s the C.I.A.'s seret war in Laos required alliances with the Hmong tribe, the country's leading opium growers, and various national political leaders who soon became major heroin manufacturers. Although Burma's increased opium harvest of the 1950s supplied only regional markets, Laos' heroin production in the late 1960s was directed at U.S. troops fighting in South Viet- nam. Constrained by local political realities, the C.I.A. lent its air logistics to opium transport and did little to slow Laotian heroin shipments to South Vietnam. When U.S. troops withdrew from Vietnam in the early 1970s, South- east Asian heroin followed the GIs home, capturing one-third of the U.S. drug market in the mid-70s. Ater protracted complicity in the marketing of opium and heroin, the C.I.A. emerged from Laos with an entire generation of clandestine cadres experienced in using na cotics to support covert operations. During the 1980s, the C.I.A.'s two main covert action opeations became interwoven with the global narcotics trade. The agncy's support for Afghan guerrillas through Pakistan coincided wit the emergence of southern Asia as the major heroin supplier for the Eu- ropean and American markes. Although the United States maintained a substantial force of D.E.A. agents in Islamabad dring the 1980s, the unit was restrained by U.S. national security imperatives and did almost nothing to slow Pakistan's booming heroin exports to America. Similarly, C.I.A. support for the Nicaraguan contras has sparked sustainedlegations, yet unconfirmed, of the agency's complicity in the Caribbean cocaine trade. Significanty, many of the C.I.A. covert warriors named in the contra operation had substantial ex- perience in the Laotian secret war. Surveying C.I.A. complicity in the narcotics trade over the past four decades produces several conclusions. First, agency alliances with Third World drug brokers have, at several key points, ampli- fied the scle of he global drug traffic, linking new production areas tothe world market. Protected by their C.I.A. allies, these drug brokers have been allowed a de facto immunity from investiga- tio during a critical period of vulnerability while they are forg- ing new market linkages. Of equal importance, the apparent level of C.I.A. complicity has increased, indicating a growing tolerance for narcotics as an informal weapon in the arsenal of covert warfare. Over the past 20years, the C.I.A. has moved from transport of raw opium in the remote areas of Laos to apparent cmplicity in the bulk transport of pure cocaine directly into the United States or the mass manufacture of heroin for the U.S. market. Finally, Ame- rica's drug epidemics have been fueled by narcotics supplied from areas of major C.I.A. operations, while periods of reduced heroin use coincide with the absence of C.I.A. activity. In effect, American drug policy has been crippled by a contradic- tion between D.E.A. attempts to arrest major traffickers and C.I.A. protection for many of the world's drug lords. This contradicion between covert operations and drug enforcement, seen most recently during Pakistan's heroin boom of he 1980s, has recurred repeat- edly. The C.I.A.'s protected covert action assets have included eille's Corscan criminals, Nationalist Chinese opium warlords, the Thai military's opium overlord, Laotian heroin merchants, Af- ghan heroin manufacturers, and Pakistan's leading drug lords. Although there are problems in many C.I.A. divisions, complicity with the drug lords seems limited to the agency's covert operation units. In broad terms, the C.I.A. engages in two types of clan- destine work: espionage, the collection of information about pres- ent and future events; and covert action, the attempt to use extralegal means--assassination, destabilization or secret war- fare--to somehow influence the outcome of tose events. In the cold war crisis of 1947, the national security ac that established the C.I.A. contained a single clause allowing the new agency to perform ``other functions and duties'' that thepresident might direct--in effect, creating the legal authority for the C.I.A.'s covert oper- atives to break the law in pursuit of their objectives. From this vague clause has sprung the entir C.I.A. covert action ethos and the radical pragmatism that have encouraged repeated alliances with drug lords over the past four decades. With the demise of the cold war in 1989-1990, it might now be possible to impose some controls over the C.I.A. A small reform of the national security legislation would close down the C.IA.'s covert action apparatus, which is no longer necessary, without weakening the agency's main intelligence-gathering capabilities. Regulation of the C.I.A.'s covert operations might thus deny soe future drug lord the political protection he needs to flood America with heroin or cocaine. To order this book or learn more about the Christic Institute, please call us at (202) 7-8106 or write us at the following adress: Christic Institute
Andrew Lang 151251507 CHRISTIC telex Christic Institute PeaceNet 202-797-806 voice Internet 202-529-0140 BBSuunet!pyramid!cdp!christic UUCP 202-462-5138 fax Bitnet http://www.newc.com/theboots/top50/901116.html November 16 & 17, 1990
November 16, 1990, Set List: Brilliant Disguise / Darkness On The Edge Of Town / Mansion On The Hill / Reason To Believe / Red Headed Woman / 57 Channels / My Fathers House / 10th Avenue Freeze Out / Atlantic City / Wild Billys Circus Story / Nebraska / When The Lights Go Out / Thunder Road / My Hometown / Real World / Highway 61 Revisited / Across The Borderline November 17, 1990, Set List: Brilliant Disguise / Darkness On The Edge Of Town / Mansion On The Hill / Reason To Believe / Red Headed Woman / 57 Channels / The Wish / Tougher Than The Rest / 10th Avenue Freeze Out / Soul Driver / State Trooper / Nebraska / When The Lights Go Out / Thunder Road / My Hometown / Real World / Highway 61 Revisited / Across The Borderline Notes: After almost two years off from performing, not including surprise club gigs, and a year of a lot of personal change (he moved to LA, became a father, and broke up the E Street Band), Bruce agreed to do two acoustic shows for the Christic Institute, a public watchdog agency, with Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne. Many, many rumors of Bruce's recording activities circulated in the spring and summer of 1990, and many people wondered if Bruce was going to debut any new songs. Between the two nights, six new songs were played. The first night included the debuts of Red Headed Woman, When The Lights Go Out, 57 Channels, and Real World. Other highlights from this show include a slow version on piano of 10th Avenue Freezeout, Thunder Road (Bruce forgets the words), and My Hometown, as well as the acoustic premiere of Darkness on the Edge of Town. Real World is performed on piano, which most fans prefer to the version later released on Human Touch. The second show for the Christic Institute featured the premieres of The Wish, a real rarity until the Ghost of Tom Joad Tour and later released on Tracks, and Soul Driver, later released on Human Touch. Bruce also Tougher Than the Rest on piano. When the Lights Go Out is never played again, but is released on Tracks. Portions of these shows are available on several CDs, including "Springsteen, Raitt, and Browne," "American Dream," Swingin' Pigs' "Acoustic Tales," and "Christic Nights." According to an article in the Boston Globe a year later, bootleg tapes of these two shows were so good that Landau and Bruce considered releasing portions of these shows. Home | Newsroom | Tour '99 | "Tracks" | Lost Masters | Top 50 Shows | Bruceleg Information Photo Gallery | Books & Articles | Rolling Stone Covers | Bruce Quiz | Thanks! | Other Links | Contact Us Site provided by New Connections and Top Site Indexing.
http://www.fitzroy-legal.org.au/links/sub_gcor.htm Government Corruption Chris Griffith's story list. The stories cover
scams, the police, corruption, politics, whistleblowing, and more. With
a
http://www.spunk.org/library/pubs/openeye/sp000941.txt CIA drug-running and ClintonAs the powerful Western countries grapple with the extradition of two
The Christic Institute: under attack The one organisation which looked as if it might be able to put some
Clinton's cocaine cover-up?=20 A small dirt airstrip at Mena, Arkansas, was a major North American
focus
The Deniable Link One episode which ought to have brought the Mena activites to the
Pictures courtesy of Christic Institute: 8733 Venice Boulevard, Los
http://www.pd.org/topos/perforations/perf2/disinformation.html Anatomy of a Disinformation CampaignJohan Carlisle Johan Carlisle is a free-lance journalist based in San Francisco. The remote jungle shack full of journalists and guerillas exploded suddenly in a murderous flash. The blast from the metal camera case full of C-4 plastique which had been carefully set down in front of Eden Pastora devastated the small group. Seventeen journalists were wounded that evening, May 31, 1984, at La Penca, Nicaragua, and three eventually died. Pastora, the charismatic ex-Sandinista hero, and some of his contra rebels were slightly injured. The wounded journalists were forced to lie unattended in their own blood for hours before everyone was finally evacuated by canoe and jeep to the nearest hospital in nearby Costa Rica--an eight hour trip at best. In the confusion of the understaffed hospital emergency room the bomber slipped away unnoticed and while his cover identity is known, he has never been found. Over the next few days, American news reports of the bombing and the identity of the bomber varied widely. Most news agencies said the identity of the bomber was unknown and reported the details of the bombing with few speculations about the sponsor of the tragic event. ABC and PBS, in their evening news broadcasts on June 1, held forth with a startling announcement that the bombing was the work of ETA (1) Basque "terrorists" working for Nicaragua's Sandinista government. Here was another example of Reagan's infamous "terrorist internationale" in the news only a few months before the 1984 presidential election. The ETA story played for about a week until the French authorities said that the alleged Basque terrorist, Jos Miguel Lujua, had been under house arrest in southern France for a number of years. By that time the La Penca bombing had become old news and was forgotten until May of 1986 when the Christic Institute filed a lawsuit against 28 individuals, on behalf of Tony Avirgan, one of the injured journalists, and his journalist-wife, Martha Honey. In the course of investigating the so-called Secret Team (2), it became obvious from new evidence provided by government documents that the ETA story was a carefully planned US government disinformation campaign. The ETA cover story provides a rare opportunity to track the genesis of a covert propaganda operation. The US government profited greatly from the widespread belief that the Sandinistas were behind the assassination attempt of Eden Pastora at La Penca. Col. North had discussed on several occasions provoking the Costa Ricans into requesting direct US military intervention in the illegal war against Nicaragua. Linking the Nicaraguans with international terrorism played well at home and revived Reagan's wilting bouquet of trumped up rationales for continuing the contra war. Shifting the blame to the Sandinistas for a callous attack on the international journalist community to eliminate the troublesome Pastora (3) hit the Sandinistas coming and going. After the assassination attempt, Eden Pastora faded away as a major player in the Southern Front and members of Col. North's "off the shelf" covert supply network and "Somocista" contras moved in. The disinformation campaign began in a series of articles in the Costa Rican and Spanish newspapers in September of 1983 (nine months before the bombing) with the arrest of ETA member Gregorio Jimenez in San Jos, Costa Rica. He was charged with planning to assassinate Eden Pastora as part of an ETA commando group assignment. It was later shown that the news reports alleging ETA activities in Costa Rica aimed at the elimination of Pastora were generated by the intelligence community and were never substantiated. At the time, Costa Rican president, Luis Monge was in Spain, as was Nicaraguan Interior Minister, Toms Borg. Monge was trying to get European support for Costa Rican neutrality in the contra war, while Borg was attempting to get sorely-needed financial aid from the socialist government of Spain. As a result of the widely publicized arrest of Jimenez, a meeting between Monge, Borge and the president of Spain was cancelled and new tensions were created between Nicaragua and two potential Spanish-speaking allies. The fact that the stories started about nine months before the bombing and continued to appear sporadically with very few facts has fueled speculation that this was part of an orchestrated campaign. [See Chronology of a Disinformation Campaign, for more details.] On March 15, 1984, a little over two months before the bombing, the State Department's Office of Public Diplomacy (4) (OPD) contracted with a private consultant, Luis Miguel Torres, to produce a report on ETA terrorism in Central America. Torres, an associate of Frank Gomez who worked with the various Spitz Channell organizations (5), produced an interview with a man using the alias Alejandro Montenegro, a friend of Torres' and an alleged FMLN (Farabundo Marti Liberacion Nacional) defector. Allegations from this interview were leaked to the press immediately after the bombing. Montenegro claimed that ETA had tried numerous bombings in El Salvador, very similar to the one at La Penca. David MacMichael, a former Central American analyst for the CIA, says that these events never took place. The Montenegro interview, it turned out, was the only piece of evidence that OPD was able to provide in an internal memo/chronology of alleged ETA terrorist activities in Central America sent to the NSC right after the bombing. Furthermore, the urgency to complete the Torres report is odd. Otto Reich, the titular head of OPD, wrote three memos demanding that the report be finished by March 26, 1984--eleven days from contract issuance to completion. Several sources note that this is an extremely short time for production of a government report--particularly one of such an obscure nature (6)-- raising the possibility that it was to be used as a cover for the La Penca bombing. The report was apparently not completed until May 5, 1984, sixteen days before the La Penca bombing. On June 15, 1984, Otto Reich authored a 41-page memo entitlted "Press Reports on Attempt on Eden Pastora". The memo contains the text of the leaked Montenegro interview done by Torres, Department of State cables, Foreign Broadcast Information Service reports, and various press clippings (7). The last of these articles, written by Roger Fontaine (8) in the Washington Times on June 11, 1984, cites the Montenegro interview--which would not be distributed by the OPD for another 4 days--as his principal piece of evidence supporting the ETA story. Fontaine cites the French government assertion that the alleged Basque terrorist, Jos Miguel Lujua, was under house arrest in France at the time of the bombing, but concludes that, "US officials in Washington and San Jos remain confident, however, that Mr. Lujua or someone like him with similar terrorist connections was involved in the incident." [Emphasis added by author.] This is a classic intelligence community tactic--feeding disinformation to a journalist and then using his story as evidence which is then fed to other journalists through confidential briefings. ABC World News Tonight seems to have been the primary outlet for the ETA story. It remains a puzzle why the rest of the US news establishment declined to use the ETA story emanating from the US intelligence community and the OPD. A few journalists said they immediately became suspicious of the story and decided to wait and see. ABC Pentagon correspondent, John McWethy apparently harbored no such doubts. He boldly stated on ABC's evening news program that, "there is growing evidence the Sandinistas have hired international hit men from a Basque terrorist group known as ETA to have Pastora killed." He then mentioned the September, 1983, arrest of Gregorio Jimenez and the January, 1984, deportation of 6 ETA members from France to Panama. "They end up in Panama . . . later moving to Cuba, then to Nicaragua. Intelligence reports place a group of half a dozen Basques in Nicaragua's capitol. They stay at the Camino Real hotel, posing as journalists. The same hotel occasionally used by some of the journalists who attended the Pastora press conference 2 days ago." McWethy's story is so elaborate, complete with fancy maps showing the routes taken by the "terrorists" that it could be used in journalism school as a shining example of superhuman investigative reporting. Instead, hidden propagandists were feeding these lies to him and he was reporting them as truth. He concluded, "Analysts [...] say the type of explosive used [is] strikingly similar to many other assassination attempts in Central America. All of them linked to Basque hit men." An amazing bit of information considering that the June 15, 1984, OPD memo was unable to reveal any other ETA "hits." McWethy, when questioned about the sources of his information on the ETA connection reportedly said that a Department of Defense report, in addition to CIA information, pointed the finger at ETA. While there is no proof that the OPD briefed McWethy, it is interesting to note that one of the principal "official leakers" at the OPD was an Air Force intelligence officer on loan to OPD named Mark L. Richards, working under the actual head of the OPD, Walter Raymond, Jr., a CIA psychological warfare expert(9). MacNeil/Lehrer, the only other major US news organization to carry the ETA story, was not as dramatic or positive as ABC. The program featured an in-depth interview with Robert Leiken, a senior associate of the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace and a neo-conservative who was secretly on the payroll of the covert Spitz Channell fundraising/propaganda operation at the time. Leiken was introduced as an expert on Central America without any mention of his recent conversion from liberalism or his involvement with Channell. Leiken said that he had heard that Pastora's followers were denying that the CIA was behind the bombing, and claimed that Basque terrorists connected with the ETA had instigated it. Actually, Pastora concluded fairly quickly that the assassination attempt was sponsored by the CIA and the FDN. Thus, two of the five major US TV networks used information from the Office of Public Diplomacy and other intelligence sources along with Costa Rican stories of dubious nature to quickly paint an elaborate scenario blaming the bombing on the Sandinistas and the Basque ETA. Richard Dyer, publisher of the Costa Rican English language newspaper, the Tico Times, said, "[The ETA story] didn't make too much sense, but on the other hand we had no other clues and so for the moment it was sort of accepted, maybe we were getting somewhere." Derry Dyer, co-publisher of the Tico Times , which had employed Linda Frazier, the only US citizen killed at La Penca, said, "It certainly looks like there was an active disinformation campaign. Certainly there were so many leads that when tracked down turned out to be completely false. And they served to get everybody off the trail in the days following the bombing." The dis-information had additional effects. First, it obscured the identity of the real killer and arguably contributed to his escape. Second, these stories inflicted further injury on Tony Avirgan. Following the bombing, ABC News flew a specially equipped Lear jet to San Jos to transport the severely-injured reporter, at the time working for ABC, to the US for medical treatment. Because of his reported links to Basque terrorists, Avirgan was detained for three days in Costa Rica, while the assassin slipped away. The horror stories associated with the contra war continue to unfold although there seems to be a general apathy on the part of mainstream American investigative journalists. Many analysts think that the purpose of the La Penca bombing could well have been to inflame the tensions between Nicaragua and Costa Rica and to provide an excuse to invade Nicaragua with American troops. Whatever its purpose, the ETA disinformation campaign is typical of CIA propaganda operations which have preceded successful coups d'etat. In Guatemala, in 1954, the CIA set the stage with clandestine radio stations and other types of covert propaganda operations. In Chile, in 1973, the CIA ran one of its most sophisticated propaganda campaigns against Allende. The ETA story raises serious questions about US intelligence operations. Should the intelligence community be prohibited from influencing the media and Congress? How can this be legislated and monitored, given the failures of the Congressional oversight committees, the reticence of the Iran-contra committees, and the ability of a charismatic president to blithely sidestep the Boland Amendment? Unfortunately, the ETA story is only one of thousands of such covert operations that has been discovered. Covert intelligence operations are rarely exposed and even when they are, they are seldom censured. The only hopeful development in all of this is the beginning of a new movement, partly generated by the Christic Institute's La Penca lawsuit, to aggressively challenge the National Security Act of 1947. Many feel that only by rewriting this original charter for American intelligence operations can the fundamental cancer creating havoc worldwide be excised. Research assistance by Sheila O'Donnell and Rick Emrich. Notes: (1) ETA (Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna) translates roughly as Basque Homeland and Liberty. ETA has been waging a guerilla/terrorist war for independence from Spain and France for decades. (2) The Secret Team, named in the civil RICO indictment, includes Gen. Richard Secord, Gen. John Singlaub, Albert Hakim, Adolfo Calero, Ted Shackley, Thomas Clines, and Chi Chi Quintero. The lawsuit was dismissed by the Chief Federal judge in Miami on June 24th, 1988, one working day before the historical trial was to begin. The Christic Institute and the plaintiffs, Tony Avirgan and Martha Honey, are appealing in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. (3) Pastora had called the La Penca press conference, at the insistence of Costa Rican security officials, to announce an end to years of conflict with the Somocista contras in Honduras who, along with the CIA, had been pressuring him to join forces with them, and thus, present a unified image to Congress. Ironically, the front page of the New York Times, June 1, 1984, carried the bombing story prominently while underneath was a small story about Pastora cutting all ties with the FDN and denouncing the CIA. (4) The OPD was created to influence the public and Congress on the contra war and other Reagan administration covert wars around the world. OPD was found guilty of conducting "white propaganda" efforts by the Government Accounting Office in 1987, and quickly became the only casualty of the Iran-contra affair. For further information, see two articles by Peter Kornbluh: "Reagan's Propaganda Ministry", Propaganda Review #2, and the Washington Post, 9/4/88, p. C-1. (5) Carl R. ("Spitz") Channell raised money, legally and illegally, for the contras from 1985 until 1987 when he pled guilty to defrauding the IRS and the US Treasury. At one point, Channell controlled an elaborate network of non-profit organizations and consultants. (6) The "Ultimate Destination" for the 25 page report was The Official Coordinator for the U.N. Conference on Scientific and Technological Development. The director of this office denied ever commissioning or seeing the report. (7) The State Department refused to turn over the OPD memo in response to subpoena served in the Christic Institute lawsuit. In fact, State has released only one document under subpoena to the Christic attorneys, the cover sheet to a January 20, 1987 twenty-page report on the Christic lawsuit with a handwritten note at the top by a State Department official named Peter Olson. The note says, "Delib. CIA effort to throw people off track of real perpetrators." (8) Fontaine is a close associate of Gen. Singlaub and one of the principal WACL (World Anti-Communist League) creators of the contra war. He served as Special Assistant for Central American Affairs on the NSC in the early '80s and works for the Georgetown Institute for Strategic Studies in addition to writing for the Washington Times. (9) Virtually all of the specialized personnel at the OPD were officially "on loan" from other agencies. This helped to obscure the true nature of the OPD. Thus, while Otto Reich, a political appointee, was the titular head, Walter Raymond was the actual operational director. RESTRICTIONS: Copyright 1991 by Propaganda Review. All rights reserved under the International Copyright Union, the Universal Copyright Convention, and the PanAmerican Convention. Unauthorized republication is prohibited but reprinting (or reposting in other conferences or networks) of all Propaganda Review articles is encouraged. Please contact Johan Carlisle (jcarlisle), Managing Editor, for permission. Copies of Propaganda Review magazine (with illustrated articles) are available for $6. [Note: issues #1 and #5 are out of print.] For more information, to order back issues, or to subscribe to PR ($20/4 issues; $40-libraries & foreign) contact jcarlisle (via e-mail on PeaceNet), call (415) 332-8369, or write to: PROPAGANDA REVIEW
http://www.silcom.com/~patrick/mag3/pwraudio.htm Prevailing Winds Research Audio Tapes PHILIP AGEE "Producing the Proper Crisis"Philip Agee was one of the first CIA staff officers to go public and protest the Agency's illicit activities. In his speech, delivered at UC Santa Barbara on April 24, 1991, Phil guides you from early CIA activities in foreign lands to events leading up to the Persian Gulf war. Carefully tracing a mass of historical evidence, Agee demonstrates how Bush & Co. produced the "proper crisis" to legitimize their lavish "defense" cartel. Excellent, eye-opening speech!!! (NOTE: In our reprint section we have an early transcript of this speech from Z Magazine, but when Phil spoke at UCSB, he greatly elaborated on the text we have and updated the materials.) #100 2-90 min tapes.$11.95 TONY AVIRGAN "La Penca, John Hull, Drugs & Central America" At the Santa Barbara Free Methodist Church on May 1, 1990, award-winning photojournalist Tony Avirgan spoke about his experience at La Penca and discusses recent CIA activities in Central America. Avirgan's eloquence and journalistic perspective provide a unique listening experience. Avirgan is introduced by Father Bill Davis. (A transcript of Avirgan's speech is also available -- see reprint listings.) 2-60 min. tapes. #101 $9.95 http://www.monitor.net/monitor/censored/jensen.html Interview With Carl JensenTwenty Years of Censored Newsby Jeff Elliott Far more than a rehash of old news, Jensen reveals new important developments Did you know about the CIA link to the Savings & Loan Scandal? Or that the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history was near the small town of Church Rock, New Mexico? Or that child labor is worse today than during the Great Depression? Carl Jensen knows about these suppressed news stories and more -- 200 of them, in fact. The founder of Project Censored, Jensen has written a book that updates twenty years of censored news. Starting in 1976, Jensen led students and colleagues at Sonoma State University in scrutinizing media coverage -- or usually, lack of coverage -- of important news. Now cited in journalism textbooks and by scholars like Noam Chomsky and Ben Bagdikian, Project Censored and its annual report of the year's top censored stories are widely respected. Jensen, who retired in 1996, has updated the first two decades of Project Censored stories in a new book ("20 Years of Censored News," Seven Stories Press). Far more than a rehash of old news, Jensen reveals new developments with these important but Northern California office. 3 out of 4 stories are still overlookedMonitor: Your updates are full of surprises. Although some stories eventually made it into the mainstream press, many are still dangling. Jensen:I had a lot of fun with this book. Each of the stories turned out to be like a mystery. Tracking it down, seeing what happened, bringing it up to date. It was a marvelous experience. I wanted to do more than just the history of Project Censored; I wanted to go back and find just what kind of impact we've had over these last twenty years. Unfortunately, I discovered three-quarters of the stories are still overlooked, censored stories today -- they still haven't been told completely. How a nondescript Reagan decision lead to an airline crashOften it's hard to understand why these stories are ignored, or take years to make it into the headlines. The human radiation experiments made the Project top ten list in 1986, but the media still ignored it for several years. I thought that was a fascinating story. It was just incredible that they were using unsuspecting American citizens as guinea pigs for testing radiation poisoning -- but most of the media paid no attention until Eileen Welsome at a small daily, the Albuquerque Tribune, did a series in 1993. Then suddenly it went out on the wire. She won a Pulitzer Prize. When journalists say, "That's an old story, nobody's interested," I disagree -- a lot of these stories are potential Pulitzer Prize winners. With many stories, I also cross reference them to other stories to show their connections. It's also a great reference tool for journalists because your updates reveal new angles. For example, you take a nondescript 1985 story, "The Reagan Autocracy" and show how it lead to an airline crash. That's a classic example. Some might say the media can't be expected to cover an obscure executive order like the one Reagan signed in 1985, but a journalist in a small alternative publication noticed that it meant doing cost-benefit analysis on government regulations. Then in 1993, the National Transport Safety Board wanted the FAA require smoke detectors and other safety measures in cargo holds of commercial airliners. But the FAA said no -- it's wasn't cost effective, and according to Reagan's executive order, they didn't have to comply. Then of course, in 1996 the Valujet plane goes down in Florida, losing 110 lives. Investigators discovered that if there had been smoke detectors in cargo holds it wouldn't have happened -- that those people would be alive today. The Contra-Drug coverupAnother Project Censored story that's remained controversial is the Contra-Drug case. We listed that in 1987, and thought it was an important story being overlooked by the mainstream media. The Christic Institute report that year described the whole thing -- the drugs, contra, and CIA connection. What they didn't cover was what was happening with the drugs up here in urban centers like Los Angeles.. Then in 1996, Gary Webb at the San Jose Mercury News looks into that story and does incredible, exhaustive research. What appeared in the newspaper was just the tip of the iceberg, but on the Internet it was all there: The letters, interviews, everything. The background of this entire story. Webb updated the Christic Institute to the present day, showing the impact of that whole conspiracy in terms of drugs in Los Angeles. When the Christic Institute did the story and we publicized it as one of the censored stories, none of the media was interested. And when Webb did the story, the same thing happened -- few paid attention. But when it went out on the net, it exploded overnight. Everybody was talking about it. Then the three major dailies in the United States had to do something; they couldn't just let it go. Within ten days, all of them came out with articles and editorials lambasting Gary and the Mercury News for having done that story. The New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times all attacked the story savagely, insisting that there was no CIA drug connection, and so on. But those are blatant lies! They know damn well that in the past there have been many connections between the CIA and drugs in Southeast Asia, Central America, and other places, too. There have been Congressional investigations on it. What happened to Gary Webb is a good example of what happens when you do these sensitive stories. He was literally shoved out by the Mercury News and the editor ran a column, apologizing and kowtowing to the three major newspapers. To let his own journalist down like that... it was incredible. I was recently asked for my opinion on the future of journalism in America, and I said the outlook is very bleak. A related story tied the CIA with the Savings and Loan scandals. The Houston Post broke that story and it went nowhere at all. The writer of that story, Pete Brewton, was the last person you'd expect to be an investigative journalist; he was soft spoken, an all-time nice guy. But he did an extensive investigation and produced this series of stories about the CIA and S&L scandal. The one thing that he wasn't able to do -- and he conceded this -- was produce that smoking gun. But the circumstantial evidence was extensive. Like the case with Gary Webb, the only time it was mentioned in the media was when it was to criticize the story or savage him. In your introduction, you draw parallels between our situation today and a century ago. Once again we have robber barons, threats to public health -- and media silence on those critical issues. I was recently asked for my opinion on the future of journalism in America. I said the outlook is very bleak. First, there's the increasing monopolization of the press. Giant conglomerates are taking total control -- ten companies control most of the media in the U.S. Also, they're starting to teach "IMC" in journalism school --Integrated Marketing Communication. It combines advertising, marketing, public relations and journalism. That's already happening in the media. Last fall, the LA Times merged its advertising and editorial departments -- and they announced gleefully that executives from advertising and marketing and editorial will sit down together to map out the news strategy. This is totally unheard of. The division between editorial and advertising at a responsible newspaper was always sacrosanct. And now the LA Times -- one of the top three newspapers in the country -- is blatantly doing that. Also consider that Chrysler has directed its advertising agencies to get magazine articles before they're printed to see if they want to advertise in those issues. It's chilling. There are a lot of people out there saying that this is the wave of the future, but I'm not so sure of that, personally. Sooner or later the media moguls are going to have to look at what's happening with their business -- they're losing readers and TV news shows are losing viewers. The losses are in the millions. They even have a name for them: "The Vanished." Maybe they'll discover the problem is we're giving the public what they want, not what they need. I've debated this with Jim Hightower, who's optimistic because of the alternative news in the United States -- programs like his, NPR, Pacifica radio and the alternative weeklies. But I don't agree. I don't see those media reaching out with the scope and intensity needed to get these stories out to the public. That's a depressing messageThe fact is, we're losing. ABC reporters went undercover to investigate the Food Lion chain and found conditions appalling. It's an impressive story that makes an impact. But then Food Lion sues ABC -- not for libel, but for the undercover reporters making false statements on their application form. And Food Lion won the case. They sued not because of the truth of the article -- they admitted the conditions were as bad as they were. That's frightening. The latest example, also about food, is Oprah Winfrey's being sued for saying she would never eat another hamburger. Why? Because in Texas there is a food disparagement law -- if you say anything nasty about meat or apples you can be sued if it causes a loss of a farmer's income. If you can have food disparagement law, how soon will it be before we have automobile disparagement law? We wouldn't have had Ralph Nader writing about the Corvair. Or a book disparagement law, so you can't criticize a book. This is an endless thing. If enough people get madder than hell, they may be able to get their stories out. The exposure of sweatshops in recent years was mostly through the hard work of people like Charles Kernaghan and the National Labor Committee, who dogged the press to cover the topic. They did much of the investigative work to get that story out. Will the future have activists bringing investigative stories to journalists? Absolutely. When the press fails to do its job, groups arise to do the job for them, then embarrassing the press into running those stories and continuing their research. That's a terrific thing. When I was doing the Project Censored newsletter several years ago, I received a letter from a little veteran's organization in the Northeast. They were hoping to get some media coverage because many of their Gulf War veterans were becoming ill. Nobody knew what was happening, but they wanted somebody to investigate. I wrote that up several times in my newsletter, but nobody picked it up. Of course, it developed into a major story about ongoing health problems. Veterans groups coordinated their efforts to push it -- they literally made that a national issue by hounding the media and politicians to pay attention. If enough people get madder than hell through their own grassroots organizations, they may be able to get their stories out. My only hope is that we might find ourselves in another golden age of muckraking.
And
as with the muckrakers in the early part of the century, it will have an
impact on the
elected representatives and some changes will be made. In 1906, Upton Sinclair
wrote
his famous muckraking book, The Jungle, going undercover in Chicago meat
packing
plants. I've recently been reading his correspondence with Teddy Roosevelt;
it's
incredible the impact that his book had. It led to the first Pure Food
and Drug Act in
the nation -- it made a difference.
"20 Years of Censored News," by Carl Jensen, published by Seven Stories Press, New York, is available in bookstores nationwide or by calling 800/596-7437 Comments? Send a letter to the editor. Albion Monitor Febrary 4, 1998 (http://www.monitor.net/monitor) All Rights Reserved. Contact rights@monitor.net for permission to reproduce. http://www.shout.net/~bigred/cim Subject: Part 1, DANIEL SHEEHAN: CIA Agents Infest U.S. Mass Media
____
____
Part 1, DANIEL SHEEHAN: CIA Agents Infest U.S. Mass Media
GARY NULL:
Daniel Sheehan, as much as any attorney in the United States, and
DANIEL SHEEHAN:
GARY NULL:
DANIEL SHEEHAN:
Originally, the intent of "Operation Mocking Bird" was to make certain
For example, the Chief National Security Correspondent for TIME
Now, that kind of relationship between self-conscious "assets" of
GARY NULL:
Subject: Part 2, DANIEL SHEEHAN: CIA Agents Infest U.S. Mass Media
____
____
Part 2, DANIEL SHEEHAN: CIA Agents Infest U.S. Mass Media
DANIEL SHEEHAN:
They mounted what they called the "Track One" and "Track Two"
This "Track One" program, however, was not allowed to be the only
They then pursued the Ambassador of the democratic Government of
[JD: The murder victims were Ambassador Orlando Letelier
and
Now that kind of activity was being conducted by the Central
These are the kinds of activities that they [the CIA] have been
Subject: Part 3, DANIEL SHEEHAN: CIA Agents Infest U.S. Mass Media
____
____
Part 3, DANIEL SHEEHAN: CIA Agents Infest U.S. Mass Media
DANIEL SHEEHAN:
That's the kind of infection that is at the heart of the democratic
We have this kind of history, tracking all the way from the end of
GARY NULL:
Then they whip the media into a frenzy, always showing THEIR side.
DANIEL SHEEHAN:
the brother of John Foster Dulles, who, in fact,
When, in fact, the citizenry of Guatemala had organized themselves
[JD: C.I.A. operative Marita Lorenz has testified, under
oath
Now, that overthrow was -- for one of the major reasons -- to reinstall
So, it was very clear, in that particular instance, that there is a
[JD: There is, indeed, a domination of our U.S. State Department
Now, those things have happened again and again. We have examples
Subject: Part 4, DANIEL SHEEHAN: C.I.A. Agents Infest U.S. Mass Media
____
____
Part 4, DANIEL SHEEHAN: C.I.A. Agents Infest U.S. Mass Media
|
|
DANIEL SHEEHAN:
There were a number of books written, giving great detail about the
So, that's what they do. That's what they did in Germany throughout
GARY NULL:
DANIEL SHEEHAN:
GARY NULL:
Daniel Sheehan, I want to thank you very much for sharing insights
The Christic
Institute
http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/ FINAL REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL FOR IRAN/CONTRA MATTERSVolume I:
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT Division for the Purpose of
Appointing Independent Counsel
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Volume 1 Contributors Letter of Transmittal iii
Part I The Underlying Facts 1 Part II History of the Investigation 25 Chronology of Key Public Developments 51 Part III The Operational Conspiracy:
Part IV Investigations and Cases:
Chapter 1 U.S.
v. Robert C. McFarlane 79
Part V Investigations and Cases:
Chapter 8 The
Enterprise and Its Finances 159
Part VI Investigations and Cases:
Chapter 15 William
J. Casey 201
Part VII Investigations and Cases:
Chapter 24 George
P. Shultz, M. Charles Hill and Nicholas Platt 325
Part VIII Investigations and Cases:
Part IX Investigations of the White House 443 Chapter 27 President
Reagan 445
Part X Political Oversight and the Rule of Law 555 Part XI Concluding Observations 561 Index 567
Source for this document http://www.afn.org/~dks/i-c/a00-title-page.html UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT Division for the Purpose of
Appointing Independent Counsel
FINAL REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL FOR IRAN/CONTRA MATTERS
Volume I:
Lawrence E. Walsh
August 4, 1993
http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/aae/side/irancont.html
| Presidential Scandals | General Articles | The Presidents | GME Contents | IRAN-CONTRA AFFAIR The tangled U.S.
foreign-policy scandal known as the Iran-contra affair came to light in
November
Reagan appointed
a review board headed by former Republican senator John Tower. The Tower
Select Congressional
committees conducted joint televised hearings from May to August. They
Special prosecutor
Walsh continued his investigation. On Mar. 11, 1988, Poindexter's predecessor
Robert Shogan For Further Reading Cohen, W. S.,
and Mitchell, G. J., Men of Zeal (1988)
| Presidential Scandals | General Articles | The Presidents | GME Contents |
| Grolier Interactive Products | Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia (Subscribers Only) | Copyright © 2000 Grolier Incorporated. All rights reserved. http://www.webcom.com/pinknoiz/covert/irancontra.html Documents related to the Iran/contra affairThe Contras and Cocaine
Recommended by Pink Noise Home Page http://www.webcom.com/pinknoiz/covert/icsummary.html
Summary of the Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/contra mattersExecutive Summary In October and November 1986, two secret U.S. Government operations
were publicly exposed, potentially implicating
As a result of the exposure of these operations, Attorney General Edwin
Meese III sought the appointment of an independent
The Special Division of the United States Court of Appeals for the District
of Columbia Circuit appointed Lawrence E. Walsh
(1) the direct or indirect sale, shipment, or transfer since in or about
1984 down to the present, of military arms, materiel, or
(2) the direct or indirect sale, shipment, or transfer of military arms,
materiel or funds to any government, entity, or person
(3) the financing or funding of any direct or indirect sale, shipment or transfer referred to above; (4) the diversion of proceeds from any transaction described above to
or for any person, organization, foreign government, or
(5) the provision or coordination of support for persons or entities
engaged as military insurgents in armed conflict with the
This is the final report of that investigation.
Overall Conclusions The investigations and prosecutions have shown that high-ranking Administration
officials violated laws and executive orders in
Independent Counsel concluded that: the sales of arms to Iran contravened United States Government policy and may have violated the Arms Export Control Act1 the provision and coordination of support to the contras violated the
Boland Amendment ban on aid to military activities in
the policies behind both the Iran and contra operations were fully reviewed
and developed at the highest levels of the Reagan
although there was little evidence of National Security Council level
knowledge of most of the actual contra-support operations,
the Iran operations were carried out with the knowledge of, among others,
President Ronald Reagan, Vice President George
large volumes of highly relevant, contemporaneously created documents
were systematically and willfully withheld from
following the revelation of these operations in October and November
1986, Reagan Administration officials deliberately
In addition, Independent Counsel concluded that the off-the-books nature
of the Iran and contra operations gave line-level
Prosecutions In the course of Independent Counsel's investigation, 14 persons were
charged with criminal violations. There were two broad
All of the individuals charged were convicted, except for one CIA official
whose case was dismissed on national security
(1) Robert C. McFarlane: pleaded guilty to four counts of withholding information from Congress; (2) Oliver L. North: convicted of altering and destroying documents,
accepting an illegal gratuity, and aiding and abetting in the
(3) John M. Poindexter: convicted of conspiracy, false statements, destruction
and removal of records, and obstruction of
(4) Richard V. Secord: pleaded guilty to making false statements to Congress; (5) Albert Hakim: pleaded guilty to supplementing the salary of North; (6) Thomas G. Clines: convicted of four counts of tax-related offenses for failing to report income from the operations; (7) Carl R. Channell: pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States; (8) Richard R. Miller: pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States; (9) Clair E. George: convicted of false statements and perjury before Congress; (10) Duane R. Clarridge: indicted on seven counts of perjury and false statements; pardoned before trial by President Bush; (11) Alan D. Fiers, Jr.: pleaded guilty to withholding information from Congress; (12) Joseph F. Fernandez: indicted on four counts of obstruction and
false statements; case dismissed when Attorney General
(13) Elliott Abrams: pleaded guilty to withholding information from Congress; (14) Caspar W. Weinberger: charged with four counts of false statements
and perjury; pardoned before trial by President
At the time President Bush pardoned Weinberger and Clarridge, he also pardoned George, Fiers, Abrams, and McFarlane.
The Basic Facts of Iran/contra The Iran/contra affair concerned two secret Reagan Administration policies
whose operations were coordinated by National
The Iran and contra operations were merged when funds generated from
the sale of weapons to Iran were diverted to support
The secrecy concerning the Iran and contra activities was finally pierced
by events that took place thousands of miles apart in
When these operations ended, the exposure of the Iran/contra affair
generated a new round of illegality. Beginning with the
Independent Counsel has concluded that the President's most senior advisers
and the Cabinet members on the National
Scope of Report This report provides an account of the Independent Counsel's investigation,
the prosecutions, the basis for decisions not to
Part I of the report sets out the underlying facts of the Iran and contra
operations. Part II describes the criminal investigation of
Volume I of this report concludes with a chapter concerning political
oversight and the rule of law, and a final chapter containing
Because many will read only sections of the report, each has been written
with completeness, even though this has resulted in
The Operational Conspiracy The operational conspiracy was the basis for Count One of the 23-count
indictment returned by the Grand Jury March 16,
(1) supporting military operations in Nicaragua in defiance of congressional controls; (2) using the Iran arms sales to raise funds to be spent at the direction of North, rather than the U.S. Government; and (3) endangering the Administration's hostage-release effort by overcharging
Iran for the arms to generate unauthorized profits to
The charge was upheld as a matter of law by U.S. District Judge Gerhard
A. Gesell even though the Justice Department, in a
Within the NSC, McFarlane pleaded guilty in March 1988 to four counts
of withholding information from Congress in
Judge Gesell ordered severance of the trials of the four charged in
the conspiracy indictment because of the immunized
The Flow of Funds
The illegal activities of the private citizens involved with the North
and Secord operations are discussed in detail in Part V. The
(1) donations from foreign countries; (2) contributions from wealthy Americans sympathetic to President Reagan's contra support policies; and (3) the diversion of proceeds from the sale of arms to Iran. Ultimately, all of these funds fell under the control of North, and through him, Secord and Hakim. North used political fundraisers Carl R. Channell and Richard R. Miller
to raise millions of dollars from wealthy Americans,
Professional fundraisers Channell and Miller pleaded guilty in the spring
of 1987 to conspiracy to defraud the Government by
Secord pleaded guilty in November 1989 to a felony, admitting that he
falsely denied to Congress that North had personally
Agency Support of the Operations Following the convictions of those who were most central to the Iran/contra
operations, Independent Counsel's investigation
The White House and Office of the Vice President As the White House section of this report describes in detail, the investigation
found no credible evidence that President Reagan
President Reagan's directive to McFarlane to keep the contras alive
"body and soul" during the Boland cut-off period was
Independent Counsel's investigation did not develop evidence that proved
that Vice President Bush violated any criminal
The chapters on White House Chief of Staff Regan and Attorney General
Edwin Meese III focus on their actions during the
The evidence indicates that Meese's November 1986 inquiry was more of
a damage-control exercise than an effort to find the
The Role of CIA Officials Director Casey's unswerving support of President Reagan's contra policies
and of the Iran arms sales encouraged some CIA
Casey's position on the contras prompted the chief of the CIA's Central
American Task Force, Alan D. Fiers, Jr., to "dovetail"
Following the Hasenfus shootdown in early October 1986, George and Fiers
lied to Congress about U.S. Government
Four CIA officials were charged with criminal offensesGeorge, the deputy
director for operations and the third highest-ranking
State Department Officials In 1990 and 1991, Independent Counsel received new documentary evidence
in the form of handwritten notes suggesting that
The key notes, taken by M. Charles Hill, Shultz's executive assistant,
were nearly verbatim, contemporaneous accounts of
Independent Counsel concluded that Shultz's early testimony was incorrect,
if not false, in significant respects, and misleading, if
Independent Counsel concluded that Hill had willfully withheld relevant
notes and prepared false testimony for Shultz in 1987.
Independent Counsel's initial focus on the State Department had centered
on Assistant Secretary Elliott Abrams' insistence to
Secretary Weinberger and Defense Department Officials Contrary to their testimony to the presidentially appointed Tower Commission
and the Select Iran/contra Committees of
The notes demonstrated that Weinberger's early testimonythat he had
only vague and generalized information about Iran arms
Weinberger's notes provided detailed accounts of high-level Administration
meetings in November 1986 in which the
Weinberger's notes provided key evidence supporting the charges against
him, including perjury and false statements in
There was little evidence that Powell's early testimony regarding the
1985 shipments and Weinberger's notes was willfully false.
The Reagan, Bush and Casey Segments The Independent Counsel Act requires a report as to persons not indicted
as well as those indicted. Because of the large
CIA Director Casey is a special case. Because Casey was hospitalized
with a fatal illness before Independent Counsel was
Under normal circumstances, a prosecutor would hesitate to comment on
the conduct of an individual whose activities and
Observations and Conclusions This report concludes with Independent Counsel's observations and conclusions.
He observes that the governmental problems
Independent Counsel asks the Congress to review the difficult and delicate
problem posed to the investigations and
Independent Counsel also addresses the problem of implementing the Classified
Information Procedures Act (CIPA) in cases
Classified Information In addition to the unclassified Volumes I and II of this report, a brief
classified report, Volume III, has been filed with the
Summary of Prosecutions After Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh's appointment in December
1986, 14 persons were charged with criminal
Completed Trials and Pleas Elliott Abrams - Pleaded guilty October 7, 1991, to two misdemeanor
charges of withholding information from Congress
Carl R. Channell - Pleaded guilty April 29, 1987, to one felony count
of conspiracy to defraud the United States. U.S.
Thomas G. Clines - Indicted February 22, 1990, on four felony counts
of underreporting his earnings to the IRS in the 1985
Alan D. Fiers, Jr. - Pleaded guilty July 9, 1991, to two misdemeanor
counts of withholding information from Congress about
Clair E. George - Indicted September 6, 1991, on 10 counts of perjury,
false statements and obstruction in connection with
Albert Hakim - Pleaded guilty November 21, 1989, to a misdemeanor of
supplementing the salary of Oliver L. North. Lake
Robert C. McFarlane - Pleaded guilty March 11, 1988, to four misdemeanor
counts of withholding information from
Richard R. Miller - Pleaded guilty May 6, 1987, to one felony count
of conspiracy to defraud the United States. U.S.
Oliver L. North - Indicted March 16, 1988, on 16 felony counts. After
standing trial on 12, North was convicted May 4,
John M. Poindexter - Indicted March 16, 1988, on seven felony charges.
After standing trial on five charges, Poindexter was
Richard V. Secord - Indicted March 16, 1988 on six felony charges. On
May 11, 1989, a second indictment was issued
Pre-trial Pardons Duane R. Clarridge - Indicted November 26, 1991, on seven counts of
perjury and false statements about a secret shipment
Caspar W. Weinberger - Indicted June 16, 1992, on five counts of obstruction,
perjury and false statements in connection
Dismissal Joseph F. Fernandez - Indicted June 20, 1988 on five counts of conspiracy
to defraud the United States, obstructing the
http://www.webcom.com/pinknoiz/covert/contracoke.html See also CIABASE and more Iran/contra information Selections from the Senate Committee Report on Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policychaired by Senator John F. Kerry I. INTRODUCTION
NARCOTICS TRAFFICKERS AND THE CONTRAS I. INTRODUCTION The initial Committee investigation into the international drug trade,
which began in April, 1986, focused on allegations that
As the Committee proceeded with its investigation, significant information
began surfacing concerning the operations of
While the contra/drug question was not the primary focus of the investigation,
the Subcommittee uncovered considerable
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
--Payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds
authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to
These activities were carried out in connection with Contra activities in both Costa Rica and Honduras. The Subcommittee found that the links that were forged between the Contras
and the drug traffickers were primarily pragmatic,
... took advantage of the anti-communist sentiment which existed in
Central America ... and they undoubtedly used it for drug
While for some Contras, it was a matter of survival, for the traffickers
it was just another business deal to promote and protect
II. THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH RESPONSE TO CONTRA/DRUG CHARGES In the wake of press accounts concerning links between the Contras and
drug traffickers' beginning December, 1985 with a
Following that review, the State Department told the Congress in April,
1986 that it had at that time "evidence of a limited
According to the Department, "... these attempts for the most part took
place during the period when the resistance was
Following further press reports linking contra supply operations to
narcotics, and inquiries from the Foreign Relations
In this report, the State Department said, "... the available evidence
points to involvement with drug traffickers by a limited
A year later, in August 1987, the CIA's Central American Task Force
Chief became the first U.S. official to revise that
Appearing before the Iran-Contra Committees' the CIA Central American
Task Force chief testified:With respect to (drug
The CIA's Chief of the Central American Task Force went on to say: We knew that everybody around Pastora was involved in cocaine ... His
staff and friends (redacted) they were drug smugglers
The Justice Department was slow to respond to the allegations regarding
links between drug traffickers and the Contras. In the
The failure of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies to respond
properly to allegations concerning criminal activity
On May 6, 1986, a bipartisan group of Committee staff met with representatives
of the Justice Department, FBI, DEA, CIA
In the days leading up to the meeting, Justice Department spokesmen
were stating publicly that "the FBI had conducted an
At the same meeting, representatives of the CIA categorically denied
that the Neutrality Act violations raised by the Committee
In August 1986, Senator Richard Lugar, then-Chairman of the Committee
and the ranking member, Senator Claiborne Pell,
On October 5, 1988, the Subcommittee received sworn testimony from the
Miami prosecutor handling the Neutrality and
The Subcommittee took a number of depositions of Justice Department
personnel involved in responding to the Committee
III. THE GUNS AND DRUG SMUGGLING INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPS Covert war, insurgency and drug trafficking frequently go hand-in-hand
without regard to ideology or sponsorship. General
DEA Assistant Administrator David Westrate said of the Nicaraguan war: It is true that people on both sides of the equation (in the Nicaraguan
war) were drug traffickers, and a couple of them were
Drug trafficking associated with revolution in Nicaragua began during
the late 1970's with the Sandinistas attempt to overthrow
Costa Rica, which has dozens of unsupervised airstrips near the Nicaraguan
border, became an important supply and staging
Former senior Costa Rican Law enforcement officials told the Subcommittee
they were instructed to keep their narcotics
A number of Costa Ricans became suppliers for the Sandinistas. These
included Jaime "Pillique" Guerra, who owned a crop
When the Sandinista insurgency succeeded in 1979, smuggling activity
in northern Costa Rica did not stop. Surplus weapons
Costa Rican law enforcement authorities said that the drug trafficking
through northern Costa Rica continued as well. They said
Werner Lotz, a Costa Rican pilot serving sentence for drug smuggling,
testified that there was little the Costa Rican government
"Costa Rica has got only civil guards, underpaid and easily bought ...
To be very clear ... our guard down there is barefoot, and
IV. DRUG TRAFFICKING AND THE COVERT WAR When the Southern Front against the Sandinista Government in Nicaragua
was established in 1983, Costa Rica remained
Following their work on behalf of the Sandinistas and the Salvadoran
rebels, the Colombian and Panamanian drug operatives
In the words of Karol Prado, an officer of the ARDE Contra organization
of Eden Pastora on the Southern Front, "drug
The head of the Costa Rican "air force" and personal pilot to two Costa
Rican presidents, Werner Lotz, explained the
"There was no money. There were too many leaders and too few people
to follow them, and everybody was trying to make
The logic of having drug money pay for the pressing needs of the Contras
appealed to a number of people who became
As DEA officials testified last July before the House Judiciary Subcommittee
on Crime, Lt. Col. Oliver North suggested to the
Lotz said that Contra operations on the Southern Front were in fact
funded by drug operations. He testified that weapons for
The problem of drug traffickers using the airstrips also used to supply
the Contras persisted through 1985 and 1986. By the
having drug traffickers use that site, and this was a continuing concern during the period of June, July and August.[29] The concern highlights the degree to which the infrastructure used by
the Contras and that used by drug traffickers was
V. THE PILOTS Pilots who made combined Contra weapons/drug flights through the Southern Front included: --Gerardo Duran, a Costa Rican pilot in the airplane parts supply business.
Duran flew for a variety of Contra organizations on
--Gary Wayne Betzner, drug pilot who worked for convicted smuggler George
Morales. Betzner testified that twice in 1984 he
--Jose"Chepon" Robelo, the head of UDN-FARN air force on the Southern
front. Robelo turned to narcotics trafficking and
VI. U.S. GOVERNMENT FUNDS AND COMPANIES WITH DRUG CONNECTIONS The State Department selected four companies owned and operated by narcotics
traffickers to supply humanitarian assistance
--DIACSA, a Miami-based air company operated as the headquarters of
a drug trafficker enterprise for convicted drug
--Frigorificos de Puntarenas, a firm owned and operated by Cuban-American drug traffickers; --Vortex, an air service and supply company partly owned by admitted drug trafficker Michael Palmer. In each case, prior to the time that the State Department entered into
contracts with the company, federal law enforcement had
Officials at NHAO told GAO investigators that all the supply contractors
were to have been screened by U.S. intelligence and
The payments made by the State Department to these four companies between
January and August 1986, were as follows:
SETCO, for air transport service.......................$186,924.25
Total [35] .............................................806,401.20 A number of questions arise as a result of the selection of these four
companies by the State Department for the provision of
--Who selected these firms to provide services to the Contras, paid
for with public funds, and what criteria were used for
--Were any U.S. officials in the CIA, NSC, or State Department aware
of the narcotics allegations associated with any of
--Why were Contra suppliers not checked against federal law enforcement
records that would have shown them to be either
Ambassador Robert Duemling, Director of the Nicaraguan Humanitarian
Assistance Organization (NHAO), who was
At best, these incidents represent negligence on the part of U.S. government
officials responsible for providing support to the
A. SETCO/HONDU CARIB Before being chosen by the State Department to transport goods on behalf
of the Contras from late 1985 through mid-1986,
U.S. law enforcement records state that SETCO was established by Honduran
cocaine trafficker Juan Matta Ballesteros,
For example, a 1983 Customs Investigative Report states that "SETCO
stands for Services Ejectutivos Turistas Commander
One of the pilots selected to fly Contra supply missions for the FDN
for SETCO was Frank Moss, who has been under
In addition to flying Contra supply missions through SETCO, Moss formed
his own company in 1985, Hondu Carib, which
A second DC-4 controlled by Moss was chased off the west coast of Florida
by the Customs Service while it was dumping
B. FRIGORIFICOS DE PUNTARENAS Frigorificos de Puntarenas is a Costa Rican seafood company which was
created as a cover for the laundering of drug money,
From its creation, it was operated and owned by Luis Rodriguez of Miami,
Florida, and Carlos Soto and Ubaldo Fernandez,
Luis Rodriguez controlled the bank account held in the name of Frigorificos
which received $261,937 in humanitarian
In statements before a Florida federal grand jury in connection with
a narcotics trafficking prosecution of Luis Rodriguez, Soto
Milian-Rodriguez told Federal authorities about Luis Rodriguez' narcotics
trafficking prior to Milian-Rodriguez' arrest in May
Despite the information possessed by the FBI, Customs and other law
enforcement agencies documenting Luis Rodriguez'
In May 1986, Senator Kerry advised the Justice Department, Drug Enforcement
Agency, State Department, NHAO and CIA
The indictment of Luis Rodriguez on drug charges 18 months later demonstrated
that the concerns raised by Senator Kerry to
C. DIACSA DIACSA was an aircraft dealership and parts supply company partly owned
by the Guerra family of Costa Rica. DIACSA's
In an affidavit filed in federal court in January, 1985, DEA Special
Agent Daniel E. Moritz described working as an undercover
From March 1985 until January 1986, Moritz received approximately $3.8
million in U.S. currency from members of this
Moritz met both Alfredo Caballero and Floyd Carlton in March of 1985.
Moritz had previously learned from a confidential
Other members of the group were Miguel Alemany-Soto, who recruited pilots
and selected aircraft and landing strips, and
The indictments of Carlton, Caballero and five other defendants, including
Alfred Caballero's son Luis, were handed down on
Despite the indictments, the State Department made payments on May 14,
1986 and September 3, 1986, totaling $41,120.90
In addition, the State Department was still doing business with DIACSA
on its own behalf six months after the company's
Each of the defendants in the DIACSA case was ultimately convicted on
charges of importing cocaine into the United States.
D. VORTEX When the State Department signed a contract with Vortex to handle Contra
supplies, Michael B. Palmer, then the company's
The contract required Vortex to receive goods for the Contras, store,
pack and inventory them. At the time the contract was
VII. THE CASE OF GEORGE MORALES AND FRS/ARDE In 1984, the Contra forces under Eden Pastora were in an increasingly
hopeless situation. On May 30,1984, Pastora was
Despite continued pressure from the United States, Pastora refused to
place his ARDE forces under a unified command with
Although there are discrepancies among the parties as to when the initial
meeting took place, Pastora's organization was
According to the State Department report to the Congress of July 26, 1986: Information developed by the intelligence community indicates that a
senior member of Eden Pastora's Sandino Revolutionary
The State Department said it was aware of only one incident of drug
trafficking resulting from this agreement between the
Robert Owen, courier for Lt. Col. Oliver North, testified to the Iran/Contra
Committees that he told North he thought Karol
Morales testified that his involvement with the Contras started in 1984
at the urging of Marta Healey, the widow of one of his
At the time of his first contract, Morales was under indictment for
marijuana smuggling. He testified that he thought by assisting
On October 31, 1987 in San Jose, Costa Rica, the Subcommittee videotaped
the depositions of three Contra leaders with
Each denied knowing that Morales was under indictment for drug trafficking
when they first met him at Marta Healey's house in
In addition, all three denied receiving more than $10,000 in cash from
Morales. The Subcommittee found that $10,000 was
While denying receiving funds personally, Prado, Aguado and Cesar each confirmed elements of Morales' story. According to Prado, Octaviano Cesar and his brother Adolfo allied themselves
politically with Pastora in the Summer of 1984.
Pastora told Chamorro that the C-47 was the most practical plane for
the Contras at the time and Popo returned to Miami to
In addition, Chamorro gave the Subcommittee a list of flights made by
that C-47 to ferry arms from Ilopango to Costa Rica
The Subcommittee substantiated key elements of the Morales story, although
it did not find evidence that Cesar, Chamorro, or
Aguado summarized the relationship between the Southern Front Contras
and the drug traffickers in terms of the exploitation of
Octaviano Cesar testified that when he dealt with Morales he was: Thinking in terms of the security of my country. It just didn't enter
my mind that I would become involved in such a mess,
I went a couple of times inside in Nicaragua and I saw people there.
Young kids 15, 16 years old, they were carrying 30, 40
In addition, Cesar told the Subcommittee that he told a CIA officer about Morales and his offer to help the Contras. Senator KERRY. Did you have occasion to say to someone in the CIA that
you were getting money from him and you were
Mr. CESAR. Yes, I passed the information on about the--not the relations--well,
it was the relations and the airplanes; yes.
Senator KERRY. And they basically said to you that it was all right
as long as you don't deal in the powder; is that correct? Is
Mr. CESAR. Yes.[87] After the La Penca bombing of May 30, 1984, all assistance was cut off
by the CIA to ARDE, while other Contra groups on
In a sworn deposition which was taken in San Jose Costa Rica by the
Subcommittee on October 31, 1987, Karol Prado,
Thomas Castillo, the former CIA station chief in Costa Rica, who was
indicted in connection with the Iran/Contra affair,
Morales testified that he offered to cooperate with the government soon
after he was arrested, and that he was willing to take a
Leon Kellner and Richard Gregorie, then the head of the criminal division
of the Miami U.S. Attorney's office, met with the staff
Following his testimony before the Subcommittee, Morales renewed his
offer to work with the government. This time, federal
VIII. JOHN HULL |
|
John Hull was a central figure in Contra operations on the Southern
Front when they were managed by Oliver North, from
Hull is an Indiana farmer who lives in northern Costa Rica. He came
to Costa Rica in mid-1970's and persuaded a number of
On March 23, 1984, seven men aboard a U.S. government owned DC-3 were
killed when the cargo plane crashed near Hull's
Five witnesses testified that Hull was involved in cocaine trafficking:
Floyd Carlton, Werner Lotz, Jose Blandon, George
Lotz said that drugs were flown into Hull's ranch, but that he did not
personally witness the flights. He said he heard about the
Two witnesses, Blandon and Carlton recounted an incident involving the
disappearance of a shipment of 538 kilos of cocaine
Gary Betzner started flying for Morales' drug smuggling network in 1981.
Betzner testified that his first delivery of arms to the
Betzner said the weapons were unloaded at Ilopango by Salvadoran military
personnel and an American whom he assumed
According to Betzner, the next Contra weapons and drugs flight took
place in July 1984. Morales asked him to fly a load of
Yet another guns for drugs flight was made two weeks later. On this
trip, Betzner said he flew a Panther to an airstrip called
Hull became the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Attorney for
the Southern District of Florida in the spring of 1985. In
Feldman and the FBI agents met with U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica, Lewis
Tambs, and the CIA Chief of Station, Thomas
Feldman concluded that U.S. Embassy officials in Costa Rica were taking
active measures to protect Hull. After Feldman
In an effort to stop the investigation against him and to cause the
Justice Department to instead investigate those urging an
To this day, the Justice Department has taken no action against John
Hull for obstruction of justice or any related charge in
In the period in which he was providing support to the Contras, Hull
obtained a loan from the Overseas Private Investment
In 1983, Hull and two associates, Mr. William Crone and Mr. Alvaro Arroyo
approached OPIC for a loan to finance a joint
By the end of 1985, after one interest payment, the loan lapsed into
default, and OPIC officials began to recognize that the
In fact, Costa Rica has a favorable exchange rate for foreign investment
and the excuse Hull offered does not make sense.
On the basis of the subsequent OPIC investigation of the loan to Hull's
company, in April 1987, the case was referred to the
OPIC foreclosed on the properties which Hull had put up as collateral
for the loan. Following the foreclosure to recover their
OPIC then attempted to sell the property directly. An advertisement
was placed in The Wall Street Journal which attracted a
The Subcommittee also heard testimony investors who had allowed Hull
to purchase property for them and then to manage the
In mid-January 1989, Hull was arrested by Costa Rican law enforcement
authorities and charged with drug trafficking and
IX. THE SAN FRANCISCO FROGMAN CASE, UDN-FARN AND PCNE The San Francisco Frogman case was one of the first cases in which allegations
linking specific Contra organizations to drug
"This case gets it nickname from swimmers who brought cocaine ashore
on the West Coast from a Colombian vessel in
The allegations made by Cabezas and Zavala involved two Southern Front
Contra groups--UDN-FARN, a military group
After the trial, the U.S. government returned $36,020 seized as drug
money to one of the defendants, Zavala, after he
The Subcommittee found that the Frogman arrest involved cocaine from
a Colombian source, Carvajal-Minota. In addition,
During the Pereira trial, evidence was also presented by the Costa Rica
prosecutor showing that drug traffickers had asked
Troilo and Fernando Sanchez were marginal participants in the Contra
movement and relatives of a member of the FDN
X. THE CUBAN-AMERICAN CONNECTION Several groups of Miami-based Cuba Americans provided direct and indirect
support for the Southern Front during the period
There have been allegations that Rene Corbo and other Cuban Americans
involved in anti-Sandinista activities in Costa Rica
In August 1986, the Committee requested information from the Justice
Department regarding the allegations concerning Corbo
Less than three months earlier, the Justice Department had advised both
the press and the Committee that the allegations had
At no time did the Justice Department disclose to the Committee in response
to its inquiry that extensive information had in fact
At the May 6, 1986 meeting with Committee staff, the CIA categorically
denied that weapons had been shipped to the Contras
In fact, as the FBI had previously learned from informants, Cuban American
supporters of the Contras had shipped weapons
The Cuban-American contingent supporting the Contra effort on the Southern
Front work with Pastora until May 30,1984
Notes taken by Colonel Robert L. Earl during his tenure at the NSC described
how in August 1986, the CIA was worried
... disreputable characters in the Cuban-American community that are
sympathetic to the Contra cause but causing more
In August 1988, Corbo and Castro were indicted in a Neutrality Act case
involving the Contras brought by the U.S. Attorney
One of the three principals in Frigorificos de Puntarenas and Ocean
Hunter, Luis Rodriguez, was indicted on drug charges in
XI. RAMON MILIAN RODRIGUEZ AND FELIX RODRIGUEZ A particularly controversial allegation arose during the course of the
Subcommittee's investigation. This involved Ramon Milian
In a June 26, 1987 closed session of the Subcommittee, Milian Rodriguez
testified that in a meeting arranged by Miami private
Milian Rodriguez testified that he also offered to assist in entrapping
the Sandinistas in a drug sting--all in return for dropping the
Felix Rodriguez strenuously denied Milian Rodriguez's version of the
meeting, stating that he reported Milian's offer to a number
Raoul Diaz refused to respond to a Committee subpoena to discuss his
recollection of the meeting. Therefore, because of the
Senator Kerry, the Subcommittee Chairman, arranged for one of the country's
leading polygraph experts, Dr. Donald Raskin of
1. Did Felix Rodriguez ask you to arrange deliveries of money for the Contras during the meeting at Raoul's office? Answer, yes. 2. Did you arrange approximately five deliveries of money for the Contras
on the basis of phone calls you personally received
Answer, yes. On the third question, Dr. Raskin could not determine whether or not
Ramon Milian Rodriguez was being truthful in his
3. Did you arrange the deliveries of at least $5 million for the Contras using the procedures that you and Felix worked out? Answer, yes. At that point, Milian Rodriguez stated that he did not want to continue
the examination. Based upon Dr. Raskin's oral evaluation
During Felix Rodriguez' public testimony before the Subcommittee on
July 14, 1988, Senator Kerry stated that he did not
However, Milian Rodriguez' testimony regarding the Cartels, General
Noriega's role in narco-trafficking, and his involvement in
FOOTNOTES [1 ]Subcommittee deposition of Marcos Aguado, Part 3, p. 285. [2] "Allegations of Misconduct by the Nicaraguan Democratic Resistance,"
State Department document #3079c, April 16,
[3] State Department document 3079c [4] Allegations of Drug trafficking and the Nicaraguan Democratic Resistance,
State Department document #5136c, July
[5] Iran-Contra testimony of Central American Task Force Chief, August 5, 1987, 100-11, pp. 182-183. [6] Iran-Contra deposition of Central American Task Force Chief, Appendix
B, Vol. 3 pp. 1121 - 1230. Also North Diary
[7] See extensive FBI investigative materials released in discovery
in U.S. v. Corbo and U.S. v. Calero, SD Florida, 1988,
[8] National Public Radio, All Things Considered, May 5, 1986, Bill Buzenberg; New York Times, May 6, 1986, p. A-6. [9] Memcoms of May 6,1986 meeting, Subcommittee files. [10] Winer MemCom, 5/6/86, Messick MemCom, 5/6/86; Marum Memcom; 5/6/86,
Committee Files; see Iran/Contra
[11] Foreign Relations Committee-Justice Department correspondence, August 10,1985. [12] Subcommittee testimony of Jeffrey B. Feldman, October 5, 1988, p. 24; Feldman MemCom, November 17, 1987. [13] Subcommittee testimony of General Paul Gorman, Part 2, February 8, 1988 p. 44. [14] Subcommittee testimony of David Westrate, Part 4, July 12, 1988, p. 144. [15] Interviews conducted by Senator John F. Kerry with current and
former Costa Rican law enforcement officials, San Jose,
[16] Subcommittee testimony of Jose Blandon, Part 2, February 9, 1988 pp. 138-139. [17] Kerry interviews in Costa Rica, op. cit. [18] Subcommittee closed session with Werner Lotz, Part 4, April 8,
1988, p. 673; Blandon testimony, Part 2, p. 86; see also
[19] Lotz testimony, Part 4, p. 674 and Subcommittee testimony of Frances J. McNeil, Part 3 April 4, 1988, p. 58. [20] Blandon testimony, Part 2, p. 86 and McNeil, Part 3, p. 55, and
Subcommittee testimony of Floyd Carlton, Part 2,
[21] Kerry interviews in Costa Rica, ibid. [22] Lotz testimony, op. cit., p. 690. [23] Lotz, Part 4, p. 690. [24] Lotz, Part 4, p. 678. [25] DEA Testimony before House Subcommittee on Crime, July 28,1988. [26] Ibid, pp. 683-684. [27] Ibid, pp. 680, 682. [28] Kerry interviews in Costa Rica, ibid. [29] Castillo deposition, ibid., p. 483. [30] Lotz, Part 4, p. 681- Letter of Eden Pastora to David Sullivan
and Assistant Secretary of State Elliot Abrams, April 10,
[31] Subcommittee testimony of Gary Betzner, Part 3, April 7, 1988, pp. 262-265. [32] Robert W. Owen, Iran-Contra testimony, May 14, 1987, p. 7; see
also memo from Owen to Oliver North, April 1,
[33] Subcommittee interviews with GAO analysts, September 28,1988. [34] Subcommittee interviews with GAO analysts, ibid.- interviews with Ambassador Duemling, April 6, 1988. [35] Source for Payments to Suppliers: GAO Analysis of NHAO Accounts,
final figures provided by Department of State to
[36] Duemling statement to Senator Kerry, April 6, 1988. [37] Iran-Contra deposition of Robert Duemling, Appendix B, Volume 9, pp 47-78. [38] See Iran-Contra testimony of Adolfo Calero, Appendix B, Volume 3, p. 176. [39] U.S. Customs Service investigative report, "Guy Penilton Owen,
et al., N90201," file NOGGBDO30036, New Orleans,
[40] Subcommittee interview with Sheriff of Port Charlotte County, Florida, May 1987. [41] See Commerce Department Shipper's Export Declaration for R/M Equipment,
Inc., file 0003688, Miami, Florida,
[42] Commerce Department's Shipper's Export Declaration for R/M Equipment,
Inc., file # 0003688, Miami, Florida,
[43] Customs report, NOGGGGGBDO300036, ibid., p. 13 [44] Address book seized by Customs, Port Charlotte, Florida, N2551, March 16,1987. [45] Subcommittee staff interview with Sheriffs investigators, Port Charlotte County, Florida, May, 1987. [46] Grand jury statements of Carlos Soto on file in U.S. v. Rodriguez,
99-0222, USDC, Northern District of Florida,
[47] Ibid. [48] U.S. v. Luis Rodriguez, 87-01044, US District Court for the Northern
District of Florida; U.S. v. Luis Rodriguez,
[49] Banking records of Frigorificos de Puntarenas subpoenaed by House
Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western
[50] Corporate Records, Florida Secretary of State, ocean Hunter, Inc. [51] Grand jury statements of Soto, ibid., Ramon Milian-Rodriguez, ibid. [52] Documents on file in U.S. v. Rodriguez, 99-0222, USDC, Northern
District of Florida, 1988, from grand jury statements
[53] Documents on file in U.S. u. Luis Rodriguez, ibid., Northern District of Florida. [54] FBI 302, Continental Bank Bombing, FBI Agent George Kiszynski,
MM174A-1298, released in U.S. v. Corbo,
[55] GAO Analysis of NHAO Payments, Western Hemisphere Subcommittee
of House Foreign Affairs Committee, May
[56] U.S. V. Luis Rodriguez, ibid., Northern District of Florida; GAO analysis of NHAO payments. [57] Affidavit of Daniel E. Moritz, Special Agent for the DEA January 1985, U.S. v. Carleton et al., SD Florida, 85-70. [58] Ibid. [59] Moritz Affidavit, pp. 3-4, ibid. [60] Ibid. [61] See Iran-Contra testimony of Adolfo Calero, Appendix B Volume 3, p. 176 [62] U.S. v. Carlton, et al., U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, January 23, 1986. [63] GAO Analysis, NHAO Accounts, provided to Subcommittee September, 1988 [64] Motion For Permission to Travel, U.S. v. Caballero, SD Florida, 86-70-CR, July 16, 1986. [65] Court record, U.S. v. Carlton-Caceres, et al. SD Florida 86-070. [66] Indictment, U.S. v. Palmer, Detroit U.S. Attorney's Office, 1986;
Subcommittee testimony of Michael B. Palmer, Part 3,
[67] Palmer, Part 2, p. 205 and Palmer Subcommittee Deposition, April
5, 1988, pp. 75-79, see generally Palmer indictment
[68] Palmer testimony, House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, September 23,1988. [69] Subcommittee deposition of Karol Prado, Part 3, p. 278, see also
Iran/Contra Testimony of CIA Central American Task
[70] Castillo executive session, Iran/Contra Committees, ibid., pp. 9-10. [71] Subcommittee deposition of Octaviano Cesar, San Jose, Costa Rica, October 31, 1987, Part 3, pp.278-281. [72] State Department document #5136c, p. 5. [73] Ibid. [74] Subcommittee testimony of Marco Aguado and Karol Prado, Part 3, p. 285. [75] Iran-Contra testimony of Robert Owen, Appendix B, Volume 20, pp. 849-850. [76] Deposition of Karol Prado, ibid., p. 285. [77] Subcommittee testimony of George Morales, Part 3, April 7, 1988, p. 297. [78] Ibid., p. 300. [79] Closed session testimony of Adolfo "Popo" Chamorro, April 6, 1988, p. 13. [80] Ibid., p. 15. [81] Testimony of Karol Prado, Part 3, p. 278. [82] Ibid., pp. 278-279 [83] Chamorro, ibid., pp. 11-12. [84] Depositions of Aguado, Prado and Cesar, Part 3, pp. 277-286 and Chamorro, ibid., pp. 16, 20. [85] Aguado, Part 3, p. 285 [86] Cesar, Part 3, p. 286. [87] Ibid., p. 282. [88] See e.g. Letter from Eden Pastora to David Sullivan and Elliott Abrams, Ibid. [89] Subcommittee testimony of Karol Prado, Part 3, p. 385. See North
Diary p. Q0450, July 24, 1984. The entry reads: "get
[90] Iran-Contra declassified executive session of Thomas Castillo, p. 84. [91] Subcommittee testimony of George Morales, Part 1, July 16, 1987, p. 98. [92] David Keany and Andy Semmel of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
staff and Dick McCall of Senator Kerry's
[93] See correspondence from DEA Administrator to John C. Lawn to Senator John F. Kerry, January 13, 1989. [94] North notebook pages Q 0344, 0414, 0415, 0426, 0431, 0543, 0550,
0932, 0955, 0977, 1156 1159; Iran-Contra
[95] Castillo executive session, ibid., p. 59. [96] Iran-Contra deposition of Robert W. Owen, Appendix B, Vol. 20, pp. 650, 802 [97] Testimony of Louell Hood and Douglas Siple, Subcommittee on International
Economic Policy, Trade, Oceans and
[98] "The CIA Blows an Asset," Newsweek, September 3, 1984, pp. 48-49. [99] Subcommittee testimony of Jose Blandon, Part 2, p. 129. [100] Subcommittee deposition of Werner Lotz, Part 4, April 8, 1988, pp. 681-682, 691-696. [101] Subcommittee testimony of Floyd Carlton, Part 2, pp. 205-507;
Subcommittee testimony of Jose Blandon, Part 2, pp.
[102] Betzner, Part 3, pp. 253-254, 256. [103] Ibid., pp. 257-258 [104] Ibid., pp. 262-267; see also Morales testimony, Part 3, pp. 301-304 and DEA polygraph of Morales. [105] Ibid., pp. 262-267. [106] Iran-Contra deposition of Jeffrey Feldman, Appendix B, Volume
10, April 30, 1987, pp. 77-78; Statements of Steven
[107] Feldman, ibid., pp. [108] Ibid. p. 86. [109] Ibid. pp. 86-88. [110] Ibid., p. 84. [111] Ibid., pp. 86-88. [112] Iran-Contra testimony of Leon Kellner, Appendix B, Vol. 10, April 30, 1987, pp. 1094-1095. [113] Testimony of Eric Garfinkel, Vice President and General Counsel,
Overseas Private Investment Corporation,
[114] Ibid., p. 107. [115] Ibid., p. 127. [116] Subcommittee interviews with prospective purchasers. [117] OPIC testimony, ibid., p. 107. [118] Subcommittee interviews with OPIC and Justice staff, January 1989. [119] OPIC documents provided the Subcommittee. [120] Subcommittee testimony of Crone, Sipple and Hood, ibid., pp. 147-167. [121] State Department Document #5136c, July 26, 1986 [122] San Francisco Examiner, March 16, 1986. [123] Ibid. [124] November 8, 1982, FBI teletype from San Francisco to Director, U.S. v. Zavala, et al. [125] CBS Evening News, June 2, 1986. [126] Iran/Contra Testimony of Robert Owen, May 14, 1987, Exhibit RWO 7, p. 801. [127] Blandon, Part 2, pp. 132-133. [128] CBS Evening News, June 12, 1986. [129] Staff interview with Carlos Cabezas, March, 1988, and with former Contras in San Francisco and Miami. [130] FBI 302's of Special Agent George Kiszynski, released in U.S.
v. Calero and U.S. v. Corbo , both Southern District of
[131] State Department Document #5136c, July 26, 1986. [132] Letter of John Bolton to Senator Richard G. Lugar and Senator Claiborne Pell, August 11, 1986. [133] Statements of DOJ spokesman Pat Korten to National Public Radio,
May 5, 1986; New York Times, May 6, 1986;
[134] Winer Memcom, May 6, 1986 meeting, Subcommittee files. [135] See generally the investigative files of Special Agent Kisyznski
released in U.S. v. Corbo and U.S. v. Calero; SD
[136] FBI 302's of SA Kisyznski, released in U.S. v. Corbo, SD Florida, 1988. [137] North Notebook Entry Q-0344. [138] Iran/Contra Deposition of Robert L. Earl. Appendix B, Vol. 9, p. 1109. [139] U.S. v. Calero et al. and U.S. v. Corbo et al., ibid. [140] U.S. v. Luis Rodriguez, Northern District of Florida; FBI 302's of SA Kiszynski, ibid. [141] Iran-Contra Testimony of Owen, Appendix B, Vol. 20, pp. 733-735;
deposition of Thomas Castillo, Appendix B, vol 3,
==================================================== http://www.webcom.com/pinknoiz/covert/dc6notes.html "Honduran DC-6 which
GIF ==================================================== http://www.webcom.com/pinknoiz/covert/tacayantoc.html
Psychological Operations in Guerilla WarfareOne of the CIA's illegal training manuals for the contras. It advises the "Armed Propaganda Teams" on ways to justify the assassination of civilians, use blackmail and professional criminals to destabilize a country. Psychological Operations in Guerilla Warfare by "Tacayán" INTRODUCTION 1.Generalities
COMBATANT-PROPAGANDIST GUERRILLA 1.Generalities
ARMED PROPAGANDA 1.Generalities
Armed Propaganda Teams (APTs) 1.Generalities
DEVELOPMENT AND CONTROL OF FRONT ORGANIZATIONS 1.Generalities
CONTROL OF MASS CONCENTRATIONS AND MEETINGS 1.Generalities
MASSIVE IN-DEPTH SUPPORT THROUGH PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS 1.Generalities
APPENDIX 1.The Audience
============================================== http://www.webcom.com/pinknoiz/covert/weinberger.html The first indictment of Defense Secretary Caspar Weinbergersee C:// file =============================================== THIRD INTERIM REPORT TO CONGRESS BY INDEPENDENT COUNSEL FOR IRAN/CONTRA MATTERSJune 25, 1992 The Independent Counsel statute provides that an "independent counsel
appointed under this chapter may make public from
Under the governing statute, Independent Counsel's responsibilities
are threefold. First, he has an investigative role, 28 U. S. C.
The purpose of this report is to inform the Congress of the status of
Independent Counsel's investigation and prosecutions in the
Status of the Investigation The criminal investigation of Iran/Contra is in its final phase. We
are attempting to determine whether officials at the highest level
The indictment of former Defense Secretary Weinberger by the grand jury on June 16, 1992, stemmed from that investigation. A copy of the Weinberger indictment is attached. Independent Counsel
has yet to determine whether additional proposed
While pursuing the final phase of the investigation, the Office of Independent
Counsel will proceed with the trial of three pending
Independent Counsel is sensitive to concerns expressed by Members of
Congress and others as to the length and the resulting
To speed up the completion of our investigation, I announced last December
the appointment of Craig A. Gillen as Deputy
Length of Investigation In evaluating the cost and time involved in the effort of Independent Counsel to carry out his assignment by the Appointing Panel,
it is important to understand that the Iran/Contra
The operations were executed by high Reagan Administration officials
in support of presidential foreign policy objectives. They
It was imperative for Independent Counsel to focus first on the facts
that might be the subject of immunized testimony, including
Once the first major indictment was brought in March 1988, Independent
Counsel turned to trial work. In the North case
The decision by U.S. District Judge Gerhard Gesell to sever the four
defendants in the case to preserve the right of each of the
Classified information problems have also complicated Independent Counsel's
prosecutions and consumed enormous time and
Crimes Charged and Tried Independent Counsel has not been able to prosecute the basic operational
crimes committed in the course of the Iran/Contra
Independent Counsel has been able to prosecute the crimes committed
in the course of the Iran/Contra cover-up. These have
Criminal charges have been brought against 14 persons in three venues,
including three cases that have not yet come to trial.
The Office of Independent Counsel could not complete its work without
questioning all significant witnesses and pursuing all
Since then, the continuing investigation was fueled by newly discovered
documents, including the personal notes of key officials,
Conclusion In the past two years, the continuing investigation has developed new
and disturbing evidence that made it necessary to
It is not a crime to deceive the American public, as high officials
in the Reagan Administration did for two years while
Respectfully submitted, s/ LAWRENCE E.WALSH Independent Counsel ======================================================== http://www.webcom.com/pinknoiz/covert/stip.html IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
You are instructed that the United States has admitted for purposes of this trial the following facts to be true: 107 OFFICIAL US GOV CONFESSIONS ======================================================== http://www.imt.net/~mtpatriot/ciafund.htm The BIG SKY PATRIOT A CIA FUNDING OPERATIONby Gene "Chip" Tatum 12/28/96 Step 1: Find a depository which fits the following criteria: 1. Large cash reserves. 2. Much of the cash reserves should represent
deposits from an illegal activity (ie. drug transactions). For this example
Step 2: Arrange for a loan from this depository. We will use the name of George
Bush in this example for the person obtaining the loan.
Step 3: Split the loan proceeds in half. One half ($4 billion) will be sent
to Iran to purchase "super bills" at the rate of two "super bills"
Step 4: Repay original loan to depository in "super bills." (Give Banco Nacional
de Panamá $8 billion in "super bills" to replace the
Step 5: Arrange to sell Iran something of value for the authentic currency used
to purchase the "super bills." In this example, we will use
Step 6: Ensure that the "super bills" are not withdrawn. This is done through
the process of neutralization of the depositor.
Step 7: This CIA launderer in possession of one-half of the original loan proceeds
is moving his $4 billion through a maze of banks
Step 8: Neutralize the CIA launderer. In this example Nana Debusia was indicted
by the U.S. on 32 counts to include bank fraud. The
CIA TALLY $4 billion for use in unauthorized black ops* (*black operations are
those covert operations performed without the knowledge
SUMMARY OF THE EXAMPLE To summarize the example, the Director of the CIA, William Casey, approached
the Ex-Director of the CIA and current Vice
If you have comments or suggestions, email The BIG SKY PATRIOT at mtpatriot@imt.net Since January 22, 1997 this page has had 52,834 accesses. Return to The BIG SKY PATRIOT HOME PAGE http://encarta.msn.com/find/Concise.asp?ti=05555000 Iran-Contra AffairIran-Contra Affair, American political scandal of 1985 and 1986, in which high-ranking members in the administration of President Ronald Reagan arranged for the secret sales of arms to Iran in direct violation of existing United States laws. Profits from the $30 million in arms sales were channeled to the Nicaraguan right-wing "contra" guerrillas to supply arms for use against the leftist Sandinista government. This, too, was in direct violation of U.S. policy. The chief negotiator of these deals was Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, a military aide to the National Security Council. North reported his activities initially to National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane, the council's head, and subsequently to his successor, Vice Admiral John M. Poindexter. The sale of arms to Iran was initiated at the suggestion of the Israeli government with the dual goal of bettering relations with Iran and of obtaining the release of American hostages held in Lebanon by pro-Iranian terrorists. North was instrumental in setting up a covert network for providing support to the contras, with its own ship, airplanes, airfield, and secret bank accounts. In November 1986 a Lebanese magazine disclosed that the United States government had negotiated an arms deal with Iran. Later that month Attorney General Edwin Meese verified that millions of dollars from these sales had been sent to the contras in direct violation of the Boland Amendment, which Congress had passed in 1984 and which prohibited direct or indirect U.S. military aid to them. As new details of the widening scandal emerged, a series of congressional and legal investigations began. In February 1987 the Tower Commission, a special panel headed by former U.S. Senator John Tower of Texas, issued a report castigating President Reagan and his advisers for their lack of control over the National Security Council. The Congressional Joint Investigative Committee collected more than 300,000 documents, conducted more than 500 interviews and depositions, and listened to 28 witnesses in 40 days of public hearings. In November 1987 the committee reported that the president bore the ultimate responsibility for the implementation of his administration's policies but found no firm evidence that he had known of the diversion of funds to the contras. In May 1989 North was tried and convicted of obstructing Congress and unlawfully destroying government documents, but his conviction was subsequently overturned. A guilty decision on Poindexter's actions was also later reversed. The scandal's reverberations concerning the ultimate responsibility for the operation continued into the 1990s. In December 1992 President George Bush, who had been vice president under Reagan and who had also been implicated, but not charged, in the scandal, issued pardons to many of the top government officials who had been charged or convicted for their role in the Iran-Contra affair. Independent prosecutor Lawrence E. Walsh published his final report on the investigation of the affair in January 1994. Walsh concluded that there was no evidence that Reagan had broken the law, but he noted that Reagan may have participated in, or known about, a cover-up. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE
© 1993-2000 Microsoft Corporation.
http://sun00781.dn.net/irp/offdocs/walsh/ FINAL REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL FOR IRAN/CONTRA MATTERSVolume I:
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT Division for the Purpose of
Appointing Independent Counsel
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Volume 1 Contributors Letter of Transmittal iii
Part I The Underlying Facts 1 Part II History of the Investigation 25 Chronology of Key Public Developments 51 Part III The Operational Conspiracy:
Part IV Investigations and Cases:
Chapter 1 U.S.
v. Robert C. McFarlane 79
Part V Investigations and Cases:
Chapter 8 The
Enterprise and Its Finances 159
Part VI Investigations and Cases:
Chapter 15 William
J. Casey 201
Part VII Investigations and Cases:
Chapter 24 George
P. Shultz, M. Charles Hill and Nicholas Platt 325
Part VIII Investigations and Cases:
Part IX Investigations of the White House 443 Chapter 27 President
Reagan 445
Part X Political Oversight and the Rule of Law 555 Part XI Concluding Observations 561 Index 567
Source for this document http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/lost11.html The Consortium
Lost History: Dole Nearly Cited in Iran-Contra ReportBy Robert Parry Special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh was so outraged by Sen. Bob Dole's disruption of the Iran-contra criminal cases against senior Reagan-Bush officials that Walsh "briefly considered" adding a chapter to his final report criticizing Dole's tactics. Walsh detailed Dole's strategy for hindering the prosecutions in Firewall, a book scheduled for publication next year. Walsh, a lifelong Republican, released two chapters now to show voters how Dole lobbied President Bush to pardon former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger in 1992. Because of that position, Walsh deemed Dole's recent demands that Clinton eschew pardons for Whitewater defendants a clear case of "Dole's hypocrisy." The two chapters offer other insights as well into how Bush and Dole engineered the Iran-contra end game to minimize political damage to the Republican Party. Their strategy succeeded, in part, because some leading Democrats and influential members of the Washington news media signaled acceptance of the Weinberger pardon. Bush pardoned Weinberger and five other Iran-contra figures on Christmas Eve 1992, less than a month before Bush was to leave office. The Weinberger pardon spared Republican superstars, such as Colin Powell and possibly Bush himself, from the embarrassment of testifying and opening themselves to the risk of perjury charges. After Bush left office, the ex-president soon reneged on an understanding that he would submit to a full-scale interview with Walsh about Bush's real involvement in the scandal. Walsh had postponed the questioning until after the presidential election to spare Bush from the distraction. Angry Walsh In ducking the interview, Bush was aided again by Democratic timidity and an apathetic Washington press corps. Bush's avoidance of the testimony was barely mentioned deep inside the major national newspapers in early 1993. Yet outside the media's gaze, there was a big story missed. Privately, Walsh was considering possible indictment of the ex-president, especially given Bush's failure to produce his notes from 1986-87 until Dec. 11, 1992. "We continued investigating how Bush's notes came to be withheld and what role he had played in the 1986 cover-up," Walsh wrote. "Griffin Bell, a former attorney general [under President Carter] who was now counsel to President Bush, asked me to announce that Bush was no longer a subject of our investigation. I, of course, refused." When Bush balked at a full-scale interview, "my immediate instinct was to use the grand jury and subpoena Bush," Walsh wrote. "In this I was alone. The staff unanimously opposed the use of the grand jury, arguing that to do so would exaggerate public expectations and would appear retaliatory. ...I gave up. We then turned our full attention to our final report." Walsh "briefly considered adding a chapter on Senator Dole's intrusion into our [perjury-obstruction] case against Weinberger, but I did not want to divert attention from the importance of the case itself and Bush's pardons," Walsh wrote. The final chapter explained both the historical events of the Iran-contra scandal and the criminal matters investigated. Dole's repeated disruptions of that investigation had surprised Walsh, who claimed to have long respected Dole as a Republican leader. "I had once felt a certain kinship with Dole as a fellow mainstream Republican," Walsh wrote. "Perhaps because of my previous favorable impression of Dole , I was doubly shocked that he would so openly intrude in a federal prosecution. ... "This type of influence-peddling is generally left to party fixers, who are important within a political organization itself but not usually the public party leaders. ...It was surprising to me that a Senate leader -- especially one who seriously aspired to the presidency -- would use the power of his office directly or indirectly to influence the outcome of a criminal case being prosecuted by the federal government. Never during my service at the Justice Department, the district attorney's office, or the governor's office had I encountered one instance of a U.S. senator's trying to influence the disposition of a pending case." Dole AttacksBut Dole put on a full-court press to harass the Iran-contra investigators, especially after a re-filed Weinberger indictment on the Friday before the 1992 election hurt Bush's drive to overtake Bill Clinton in the polls. In a Nov. 9, 1992, letter, Dole demanded that Walsh fire James Brosnahan, a San Francisco lawyer who had been brought in to try the Weinberger case. Dole attacked Brosnahan's past involvement in Democratic politics. When Walsh refused, Dole's spokesman Walt Riker said Walsh's response did "not address the active, liberal agenda of Mr. Brosnahan and, obviously, it is politics at its worst." On Nov. 11, four GOP senators followed Dole's urging and demanded a special prosecutor to investigate Walsh, the special prosecutor, particularly over whether the new Weinberger indictment had been timed for political reasons, though there was no evidence that was the case. Walsh believed that the Republicans feared the Weinberger trial would prove a high-level GOP cover-up of the illegal actions that had permeated the secret sale of arms to Iran and diversion of profits to the Nicaraguan contras. In turn, that could have damaged the Reagan legacy and future Republican presidential campaigns, such as Dole's. So Dole continued to play the hatchet man. "It is time for Mr. Walsh and his staff to plead guilty to playing politics for their taxpayer-funded inquisitions," Dole declared. "As of August [1992], Walsh had billed taxpayers for more than $5.6 million for office space, $881,000 for incidental expenses, $401,000 for maintenance, $698,000 for contractual services, and a whopping $665,000 for per diem and subsistence, including $300,000 for personal living expenses and an estimated $65,000 in room-service meals." By late November 1992, Dole was openly advocating Weinberger's pardon. By December, he was demanding a list of all Walsh's employees so the Republicans could mount personal investigations and judge each "employee's objectivity and impartiality." The senator also obtained information about the staff's pay levels. "With the election over, maybe the Walsh political operatives will decide to pack it in," Dole wished. "The only mischief left for them is more humiliating courtroom defeats." On Christmas Eve, Dole got his final Iran-contra wish. Bush pardoned Weinberger and five others, effectively ending Walsh's investigation and blocking a full public view of the Iran-contra cover-up. (c) Copyright 1996 http://www.tarpley.net/bush18.htm George Bush: The Unauthorized Biographyby Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin Chapter -XVIII- Iran- Contra http://serendipity.magnet.ch/wod/levine.html Interview with Michael Levine
from The People's Spellbreaker
ROBERT KNIGHT: This is UNDERCURRENTS for Monday, November 11th, 1991. I'm Robert Knight, with Paul DeRienzo in the field, at the Marble Collegiate Church in New York City where Saturday there was held a conference -- a 100-city national teleconference called, "Causes and Cures: A National Campaign on the Narcotics Epidemic." Present at that teleconference were such experts in the drug field as Michael Levine, Peter Dale Scott, Alfred McCoy and Daniel Sheehan of the Christic Institute. In today's program, we'll be hearing a special interview, conducted by Paul DeRienzo, with former United States Drug Enforcement Agency officer Michael Levine. 13. Michael Levine, Consulting STONE RIDGE NY law experts. This Website
is
hosted by ExpertPages
|