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DEEP
BLACK - THE SECRET DRUG WARS OF THE CIA By
David Guyatt The
narcotics industry has a turnover, estimated to be in excess of $1
trillion per annum. Put
more simply, it is the largest industry in the world.
Ongoing international measures to eradicate this industry have
largely proved futile, despite the billions spent.
For example, the death in Columbia - at the hands of law enforcement
officers - of drug baron, Pablo Escobar, and the US capture of Panamanian
middle-man, Manuel Noriega, didn’t interrupt the flow of Columbian
cocaine one iota. On
the contrary, shipments to the United States and elsewhere, increased
sharply in the wake of these so called Drug Enforcement “victories.” Meanwhile, information has surfaced that paints a damning picture of intelligence agency involvement in the narcotics industry. Sworn affidavit’s in this writer’s possession finger the Central Intelligence Agency for engaging in narcotics trafficking on an almost industrial scale. Some observers - perhaps with an element of merit - have, meanwhile, opined that the CIA’s long-term involvement with the narcotics industry resulted from their support of nations that strongly adhered to the anti communist philosophy. Under
this rubric, drug barons the world over were aided and assisted
in the production, transportation and distribution of narcotics,
and the proceeds were used to arm resistance movements.
So long as there was a “red menace” to fight, those dope
peddlers – large and small – who co-operated with the CIA’s cold
war strategy, remained immune to prosecution. With the collapse of communism in the late nineteen eighties
this rationale evaporated.
Curious then, that the narcotics industry has not declined
along with communism? One
the contrary, all the indications point to continued growth and
profits. Drugs
have become a self-perpetuating industry that continues to create
billionaire’s overnight. It
is, by far, the most Laissez
Faire enterprise of them all, enjoying spectacular financial
returns for relatively modest investment.
Arguably, reason enough, to ensure that continuing calls
to legalise some types of soft drugs remain doomed to failure at
the political level. Why
kill the Golden Goose that effortlessly lays so many golden eggs?
History
increasingly suggests that the hidden reality was that it was not
so much a “war on drugs,” as a “war for drugs.”
A war, moreover, aimed at winning the hearts and minds of
those who live in embattled regions of the globe, by silently impoverishing,
stupefying and killing those at home.
The innocent,, as always, are the major casualties of any
war: What
follows is drawn from an affidavit signed by Col. Edward P. Cutolo;
a letter written by his close friend, Paul Neri - an employee of
America’s huge National Security Agency; and an additional supporting
affidavit signed by PFC William Tyree - a soldier under Cutolo’s
command.[1]
Collectively, they amount to a powerful indictment of the
Central Intelligence Agency and senior Pentagon officers who knowingly
engaged in large scale narcotics trafficking. More
alarming still, are Cutolo’s and Tyree’s allegations concerning
a black operation suitably named “George Orwell” – that utilised
US Special Forces to spy on well-known American politicians, members
of the judiciary, law enforcement agencies and the Catholic church
in New York and Boston. The
“product” of this covert surveillance was used for the purpose of
blackmail. Colonel
Edward P. Cutolo was commanding officer of the US 10th
Special Forces (airborne), 1st Special Forces stationed
at Fort Devens, Massachusetts.
Possessing a distinguished record as a military officer,
Cutolo doubtless had seen many peculiar things and undertaken numerous
classified missions. Despite
this, he would rue the day, in December 1975, he was approached
by the CIA’s Edwin Wilson and Frank Terpil.
The
two CIA officers introduced Cutolo to two highly sensitive missions
unlike anything he had undertaken previously.
According to his close friends and comrades, Cutolo’s later
investigation into the legality of these missions would lead to
his death under suspicious circumstances.
Other senior military officers who investigated Cutolo’s
death also soon died under questionable circumstances.
As we shall see, all were believed to have been murdered
by Mike Harari, an alleged Israeli assassin who would come to prominence
a decade later for his role in the now infamous Contragate affair. Cutolo
begins his sworn affidavit by saying: “In December, 1975, I spoke
with Colonel “Bo” Baker concerning a classified mission he commanded
during that month, inside Columbia. The mission was known as “Watch Tower.” Continuing, he states “Following a lengthy discussion with
Col. Baker, I was introduced to Mr. Edwin Wilson and Mr. Frank Terpil.
Both Wilson and Terpil were in the employ of the Central
Intelligence Agency. Both
Wilson and Terpil inquired if I was interested in working for short
periods of time in Columbia, and I acknowledged that I was.” Cutolo
thereafter commanded the second and third Watch Tower missions.
The second mission took place in February 1976 and lasted
a total of 22 days. The
purpose of the mission was to “establish a series of three electronic
beacon towers beginning outside of Bogata, Columbia, and running
northeast to the border of Panama.”
With the beacons in place and activated, aircraft could fix
on their signal and fly undetected from Bogata to Panama, landing
at Albrook Air Station. All
told. 30 “high performance aircraft” flew the covert route to Allbrook.
The
aircraft were met by Panama’s Colonel Manuel Noriega - who would
later become head of state, prior to experiencing a US invasion
tasked to arrest and imprison him for laundering drug money.
Accompanying Noriega were a number of officers of the Panama
Defence Forces (PDF), CIA agent, Edwin Wilson, and Israeli agent
Mike Harari. Cutolo
adds that Harari had the authority from the “U.S. Army Southern
Command in Panama to be in the A.O (Area of Operations).”
Nor does Cutolo beat around the bush when explicitly stating
“The cargo flown from Columbia into Panama was cocaine.” Cutolo
continues his affidavit by outlining the third Watch Tower mission
which he commanded. This
occurred during March 1976, and lasted 29 days, safely cycling 40
cocaine carrying aircraft through to Panama.
On this occasion members of one of his Special Action Teams
(SATs), located at Turbo, Columbia were attacked by a large gang
of local bandits and were extracted by helicopters that entered
Columbian airspace without authority.
Cutolo adds that the third mission was “met in the previously
related fashion by those named – Noriega, Edwin Wilson, Mike Harari
et al. William
Tyree’s affidavit dated 6 September 1990, powerfully corroborates
Colonel Cutolo’s statements. Tyree, however, was able to provide additional direct testimony
on the First Watch Tower mission, which he participated in.
At that time he was assigned to the 1st/17th
Air Cavalry Division located at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
In Tyree’s own words, the mission was to “insert three SPECIAL
ACTION TEAMS (SATs) inside Columbia.
Once the SATs were in place they would activate electronic
beacons which aircraft could follow through a specific corridor
out of Columbia and into Panama where the aircraft, which were loaded
with cocaine, would land at Albrook Air Station.”
Tyree adds the “mission lasted 24 days and approximately
37 aircraft of various descriptions flew out of Columbia and into
Panama, all following the SATs electronic beacons.”
Tyree
goes on to state “I personally witnessed members of the Panamanian
Defence Force (PDF) help unload the bales of cocaine from the aircraft
onto the tarmac of Albrook Air Station.
Among the PDF officers were Colonel Manuel Noriega, Major
Roberto Diaz-Herrera, Major Liz del CID, and Major Ramirez.[2]
These men were always in the company of an American civilian
identified to me by other personnel involved in the operation as
Edwin Wilson, of the CIA.
Another civilian in the company of Wilson, I have since learned,
was Israeli Mossad agent Michael Harari.[3]” Of
additional interest are Tyree’s comments regarding Edwin Wilson
providing (presumably classified?) military style mustard coloured
files to Noriega and his fellow PDF officers.
Tyree states the files originally belonged to the CIA, Naval
Intelligence Service (NIS) and the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA).
The information contained in the folders appeared to have
come from all over the world and included: a) Coastal defences of
other countries, some of which appeared to be allies of the U.S.
b) written information, diagrams, naval charts and reconnaissance
photo’s etc. Tyree
judged the information was of a type and quality required to “institute
a major naval operation anywhere in the world.”
Other folders related to the “US Navy and various battle
groups, including number of personnel, number of aircraft, type
of armaments and whether a vessel had conventional or nuclear capability.”
It
is impossible to say with any authority why Wilson handed over this
type of sensitive information to Noriega.
Panama is not famous for its Navy, which, in any event, certainly
does not possess the capability to project itself around the world.
One can only speculate that such information was to be sold
or bartered by Noriega to foreign powers, and may have constituted
part payment for assistance with the cocaine trafficking?
On this aspect, we are unlikely to ever know. In
any event, after the Watch Tower missions, Col. Cutolo returned
to normal duty, and Tyree was later reassigned to another location
and command. There
the matter would have rested for evermore had not a curious sequence
of events occurred two years later. By
1978, Colonel Cutolo assumed command of the 10th Special
Forces Group (airborne) at Fort Devens, where he recognised two
soldiers - PFC William Tyree and Sgt. John Newby – both of whom
had operated under his command during Watch Tower, and who now were
assigned (in Tyree’s case re-assigned) to his command. 1978
also saw the return of Edwin Wilson with another deep black covert
operation on offer. This
was known as Operation George Orwell. During
a meeting with Cutolo, Edwin Wilson explained that “it was considered
that Operation Watch Tower might be compromised and become known
if politicians, judicial figures, police and religious entities
were approached or received word that U. S. troops had aided in
delivering narcotics from Columbia into Panama.”
Based on that possibility, Cutolo, formed twelve separate
Special Action Teams (SATs).
Their mission was to implement Army regulation 340-18-5 (file
number 503-05). Cutolo’s
authority for this action came directly from FORSCOM via Wilson. In
effect, Operation Orwell was tasked with implementing intense “surveillance
of politicians, judicial figures, law enforcement agencies at the
state level and of religious groups.”
The underlying purpose was to provide the “United States
government and the Army” with advance warning of the discovery of
Watch Tower to enable them to “prepare a defence.” Cutolo further states that he “was under orders not to inform
Colonel Forrest Rittgers, commanding officer of Fort Devens,” of
this mission. The reason
was to give Colonel Rittgers a “margin of plausible deniability”
in the event that Fort Devens personnel were “caught in the act
of implementing surveillance.” Cutolo
goes on to reveal that he instituted surveillance against “Ted Kennedy,
John Kerry, Edward King, Michael Dukakis, Levin H. Campbell, Andrew
A Caffrey, Fred Johnson, Kenneth A. Chandler, Thomas P. O’Neil,
to name a few of the targets.”
Additionally surveillance was placed on “…the Governors residences
of Massachusetts, Manine, New York and New Hampshire. The Catholic cathedrals of New York and Boston were placed
under electronic surveillance also.
In the area of Fort Devens, all local police and politicians
were under some form of surveillance at various times.”
As part of the operation, Cutolo recruited “a number of local
state employees who worked within the ranks of local police and
court personnel. Private
Tyree, in his sworn affidavit, confirms what Cutolo has revealed
about Operation George Orwell, including that it was initiated under
Army regulation number 340-18-5, file number 503-05.
He states that “I was involved in 10 separate surveillance
missions in the New England area, all under this same operation.”
He adds “… surveillance was instituted to monitor civilian
targets to determine: a) if Operation Watch Tower had been discovered.
B) the probability that an investigation or governmental
inquiry would be requested as a result of such a discovery.”
Tyree goes on to reveal that he, personally, participated
in surveillance against the Mayor of Lunenbourg, Massachusetts,
a community close to Fort Devens.
A second local target was “John Droney, District Attorney,
Middlesex County, Massachusetts.” Tyree continues by providing detailed information about criminal
wrongdoing by Droney, together with details of his sexual proclivities
and indiscretions. Moreover,
Tyree additionally states that his friend, Sergeant John Newby,
had engaged in surveillance against “…Senators John Kerry and Ted
Kennedy. Sgt. Newby
also stated to me just prior to his death in October 1978, that
he had been involved in some surveillance of ‘some judges’ in the
New Englad area.” These
included “… Levin H. Campbell, Andrew A Caffrey and Fred Johnson.”
He then goes on to reveal that Major Arnett, who was assigned
to Fort Bragg, North Carolina (home of the Green Berets) had “commanded
a team that allegedly maintained surveillance on Senator Jesse Helms.” The connection betwee, Kennedy, Kerry and Helms, Tyree states,
was that “all three were critical of the U. S. involvement in Latin
America.” Had they
learned of Watch Tower “they would undoubtedly use that information
to pull the U.S., out of Latin America, which in turn might effect
the security of that area and eventually the U.S.” Meanwhile,
Cutolo states that ” Sgt. Newby “had received threats just prior
to his parachuting accident that claimed his life in October 1978.
It was at that time that (then) SP4 Tyree began to report
threatening phone calls. I
saw a pattern and still believe a pattern exists.”
Clearly, by this time, Col. Cutolo was fearful for his own
life, too. “I gave
Colonel Baker the original copy of this affidavit.
I gave true copies to Hugh B. Pearce, and to Paul Neri of
the national Security Agency and instructed each person to deliver
the affidavit to the authorities in the event that something occurs
to me.” It
did. According to the
Paul Neri’s accompanying letter, in 1980, Colonel Cutolo died “while
on a military exercise in England. Just prior to his death he notified me that he was to meet
with Michael Harari, an Israeli Mossad agent.
It is my belief, though unsubstantiated, that Harari murdered
Col. Cutolo because of the information Col. Cutolo possessed.”
Neri then reveals that in the event of Cutolo’s death, he
was to discretely contact Col, Bo Baker.
In turn, Col. Baker enlisted the aid of Col. Nick Rowe –
all three were Special Forces officers with exemplary records.
The three of them thereafter set out to “prove that Harari
murdered Col. Cutolo…” Colonel
Nick Rowe was killed soon afterwards. On 21 April 1989 he was shot to death by automatic fire from
an M-16 assault rifle in Manilla, Phillippines.
Neri reveals that “Harari was in the Phillippines for three
days just prior to and after Col. Rowe’s murder.”
Chief
Warrant Officer (WCO) Hugh Pearce, who also received a copy of Cutolo’s
affidavit, also died in June 1989, as a result of a helicopter accident.
Pearce had commenced to help the others with their enquiries. Prior to his death he had directed Col. Rowe to an address
at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, and state politican, Larkin Smith.
Both Col. Rowe and CWO Hugh Pearce died prior to a scheduled
meeting with Smith – both having previously agreed to “go public”
and call for a “full investigation into the events described in
Col. Cutolo’s affidavit” following the arranged meeting. Smith, died in August 1989 - in an airplane accident.
Others to conveniently die included Colonel Bo Baker and
Colonel Robert Bayard – who was murdered in Atlanta, Georgia, in
1977, just prior to his meeting with Israeli Mossad officer David
Kimche. Clearly,
protecting the big secret of Operation Watch Tower has assumed priority.
This is, in fact, hinted at in Cutolo’s affidavit, when he
earlier speaks of El Salvadoran Archbishop Romero.
Cutolo states that Romero “… is in receipt of physical evidence
supporting several allegations that the United States is currently
with Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama covertly training
and sponsoring freedom fighters attempting to overthrow the current
regime in Nicaragua.” Cutolo’s
then states that “… these freedom fighters are also being supported
from funds arising from Operation Watch Tower in part.”
Cutolo closes this paragraph by saying “This information
made it necessary to protect Operation Watch Tower and Operation
Orwell regardless of the cost.” Needless to say, he was at that time, unaware that he and his
closest colleagues would form part of that “cost.” But
soon he would grow aware of the threat on his own life.
“I have detailed pertinent events in this affidavit should
something happen to me. The
lug nuts have been loosened on my car tires twice in the past week.
I have had someone tamper with my car and I have received
telephone calls at my home where no one answered at the other end.
I have seen other men involved in Operation watch Tower meet
accidental deaths after they were also threatened.” Cutolo
simply had too much direct knowledge of Operation Watch Tower to
survive, especially since he began having doubts about its legality.
During an earlier meeting with the CIA’s Edwin Wilson, Cutolo
states:
“Edwin Wilson explained that Operation watch Tower had to
remain secret and gave these reasons: 1) If it becomes public knowledge
it would undermine present governmental interests as well as those
in the future. 2) There
are similar operations being implemented elsewhere in the world:
Wilson named the ‘Golden Triangle’ of Southeast Asia and Pakistan. Wilson stated in both areas of the world the CIA and other
intelligence agencies are behind the illegal narcotics flow to support
forces fighting to overthrow communist governments, or In
any event, Wilson hadn’t yet concluded his narcotics lecture to
Cutolo, as he “… explained that the profits from the sale of narcotics
was laundered through a series of banks. Wilson stated that over 70% of the profits were laundered through
the banks in Panama. The
remaining percentage was funnelled through Swiss banks, with a small
remainder being handled by banks within the United States.”
Cutolo adds “Wilson indicated that a large portion of the
profits are brought into the banks of Panama without being checked.
I understood that some of the profits in Panamanian banks
arrived through Israeli couriers. I became aware of that fact from normal conversations with
some of the embassy personnel assigned to the embassy in Panama.”
Cutolo
then reveals that an associate of Wilson’s also “aided in overseeing
the laundering of funds, which was then used to purchase weapons
to arm various factions that the CIA saw as friendly towards the
United States. The
associates name is Tom Cline.”
Wilson then tells Cutolo that “most of Operation Watch Tower
was implemented on the authority of Clines.”
Tom Clines worked under Theodore Shackley – both of whom
were heavily implicated in gun running activities during Iran-Contra;
itself a notorious drugs-for-money-for-guns operation under President
Ronald reagan and Vice President George Bush. In
fact, Cutolo later reveals in his affidavit that the illegal activities
of Mike Harari were protected by a number of U. S. VIP’s.
Cutolo was told by
Pentagon “…contacts, of the record…” that these VIP’s included
Director of CIA, Stansfield Turner and former CIA Director George
Bush. Both, in Cutolo’s
words “shielded” Harari from “public scrutiny.”
The same contacts also told Cutolo that “Watch Tower” was
a sanctioned mission and that “United States military authorities
confirmed to me that Operation Watch Tower occurred and gave their
approval.” Cutolo,
also learned that “… Harari was a known middleman for matters involving
the United States in Latin America,” adding that the Israeli assassin
“acted with the support of a network of Mossad personnel throughout
Latin America and worked mainly in the import and export of arms
and drugs trafficking.” Motivation
in this regard is a contentious issue.
Paul Neri stated his belief that Wilson, Clines and Terpil
were acting without authority and for their own personal enrichment.
Clearly, this is not the case.
Cutolo is certain that both operations were sanctioned at
the highest level. Of course, this does not hinder some of those involved with
these missions from profiting on the side.
The indications are that so long as “skimming” was kept at
reasonable levels, no questions would be asked by those higher up
the chain of command. Indeed,
Cutolo’s affidavit reveals an intriguing sidebar to Operation George
Orwell that is only too believeable in regard to the big bucks world
of black budgets. The
surveillance product garnered by Operation George Orwell had uses
other than keeping loose mouths shut.
According to Cutolo, he “…was notified by Wilson that the
information forwarded to Washington D.C., was disseminated to private
corporations who were developing weapon systems for the Dept. of
Defense. Those private corporations were encouraged to use the sensitive
information gathered from surveillance on U.S. Senators and Representatives
as leverage to manipulate those Congressmen into approving whatever
costs those weapon systems incurred.” Three
weapon systems were mentioned to Cutolo in this respect: “1) Am
Armored vehicle. 2)
An aircraft that is invisible to radar. 3) A weapon system that utilises kinetic energy.”
He adds that he got the impression all three were for “…use
by NASA or for CIA purposes.”
Wilson also informed Cutolo, that “Operation
Orwell would be implemented nationwide by 4 July 1980.”[4]
He then adds that as of the date of this affidavit [11 March
1980], “2,400 police departments, 1,370 churches, and approximately
17,900 citizens have been monitored under Operation Orwell.
The major churches targeted have been Catholic and Latter
Day Saints.” Others
targeted included “suspected members of the Trilateral Commission
and the Bilderberg Group,” including former Presidents Gerald Ford
and Jimmy Carter and George Bush.
Cutolo notes that he did not have personal knowledge “that
Ford, Carter or Bush were under surveillance.” Anyone
who took an active interest in these operations were soon to experience
extreme rigor mortis. In
his covering letter, Paul Neri mentions the death of Supergun builder
and “Pentagon Scientist” Dr. Gerald Bull, who was shot dead outside
his apartment in 1990 – as an example of the deadliness of Mossad
officer Mike Harari. Neri
also casts dark glances at the role of President George Bush in
this whole affair, noting that Bush “knew or should have known about
Operation Watch Tower.” He
then adds that “With Mr Noreiga no longer in power, the Bush Administration
has helped install one president and two Vice-Presidents in Panama
who will continue to launder the drug money the CIA receives from
drug operations world wide..."” Neri
continues “How much longer, and how many more will be murdered,
die accidentally or be discredited through incarceration so that
poppies and cocca leaves can fund the secret war of the CIA?
Will Latin America be the next secret CIA war as was the
case in Vietnam? And
how many of our service people will die there?” Neri’s
allusion to Vietnam was not without meaning in terms of massive
narcotics trafficking by the CIA. Colonel Bo Gritz, [5]the
most decorated Special Forces officer from the Vietnam era, received
a copy of Cutolo’s affidavit.
Some years later he would travel to Burma and meet with warlord
Khun Sa – the leading producer of Heroin in Southeast Asia.
What Gritz discovered was fully documented and recorded on
video camera. Gritz’
story will form part two of this article, along with the associated
story of U.S. Prisoners of War.
In this case, the term “Missing in Action” has far more sinister
connotations in the view of many, who believe that the POWs/MIAs
are used a “drug mules” by an unscrupulous CIA, engaged in its global
dope and guns business. Many
of the names you have come across above will be reappear in part
two. DEEP
BLACK - THE SECRET DRUG WARS OF THE CIA
- PART 2 The
history of how the US became involved in narcotics trafficking dates
back more than a 150 years.
Prominent families of great wealth – often members of secret
societies such as Yale’s “secretive Order of the Skull and Bones
- pounced on the Opium trade to generate wealth and influence.
One of the founder families of the Skull and Bones were the
Russells. To this day,
the Russell Trust is the legal entity of the Order of the Skull
and Bones. In
1823, Samuel Russell established “Russell and Company.
He acquired his Opium supplies in Turkey and smuggled it
to China aboard fast Clippers.
By 1830, Russell bought-out the Perkins Opium syndicate of
Boston and established the main Opium smuggling enterprise to Connecticut.
His man in Canton, was Warren Delano Jr., grandfather of
Franklin Roosevelt who was US President during the WW11 years.
Other Russell partners included the Coolidge, Perkins, Sturgis,
Forbes and Low families. By
1832, Samuel Russell’s cousin, William Huntington, formed the first
US chapter of the Order of the Skull and Bones.
He attracted membership to the Order from the most powerful
and influential American families.
These membership roster read like a Who’s Who of America:
Lord, Whitney, Taft, Jay, Bundy, Harriman, Weyerhauser, Pinchot,
Rockerfeller, Goodyear, Sloane, Simpson, Phelps, Pillsbury, Perkins,
Kellogg, Vanderbilt, Bush, and Lovett – to name some of the more
prominent. Significantly,
Skull and Bonesmen have always had a very close and enduring association
with the US intelligence community.
Former US President and Bonesman, George Bush, was a one
time Director of Central Intelligence.
Interestingly, the by-product of Opium, Heroin, was a trade
name of the Bayer Company – still a world leader in the pharmaceutical
industry – that launched its highly addictive product in 1898. The
intelligence connection unsurprisingly dates back to Yale College,
where four Yale graduates formed part of the “Culper Ring” – one
of the first US intelligence operations established in great secrecy
by George Washington to gather vital intelligence on the British
throughout the War of Independence.
By 1903, Yale’s Divinty School had established a number of
schools and hospitals throughout China.
Mao Zedong was a member of the staff.
By the 1930’s such was the clout of Yale’s Chinese connection
that US intelligence called on “Yale in China” to assist them in
intelligence operations.[6]
Historically, Heroin and Cocaine were legally available to
purchase but were outlawed by the League of Nations – the forerunner
to the United Nations – and the USA in the 1920’s.
Following prohibition consumption of these drugs began to
spiral. Even so, the
wars years 1939-46 saw addiction virtually eradicated in Europe
and North America – a happy state of affairs that would not last
long. THEN ALONG CAME THE VIETNAM WAR Indochina,
historically under French control was captured by the Japanese during
WW11. At the conclusion
of the war, France regained control over Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos
and Thailand. But independence
movements had begun fighting to evict the French.
This ultimately resulted in the Vietnmin orchestrated battle
of Dien Bien Phu which resulted in French defeat and eventual withdrawal
from Indochina. They
were to be immediately replaced the United States. In
the interim, the French had developed a wide-ranging intelligence
apparatus throughout the region.
This was financed by Opium.
Maurice Belleux, former head of SDECE, the French equivalent
of the CIA, confirmed this during a remarkably frank interview with
historian, Prof Alfred McCoy.
Belleux told McCoy that “French military intelligence had
all their covert operations from the control of the Indochina drug
trade.” This covered
the French Colonial war from 1946 through to 1954. Bellereux
revealed how this worked.
French paratroopers fighting with hill tribes scattered throughout
the region, collected raw Opium and transported it aboard French
military aircraft to Saigon.
Here, it was handed over to the Sino-vietnamese Mafia for
distribution. Also
heavily engaged in the Opium traffic were Corsican crime syndicates
that shipped the Opium to Marseilles for refining into Heroin.
From here it was distributed to Europe and the United States
– becoming known as “The French Connection.”
It was a case of the underworld working hand in glove with
French government – both of whom benefited financially from the
joint arrangement. The
shared profits were channelled through Central bank accounts under
French Military intelligence control.
The SDECE master-spy closed his interview by stating that
he believed the CIA “had taken over all French assets and were pursuing
something of the same policy.”[7]
The
words ‘Vietnam war’ are something of a misnomer.
More correctly, the US involvement in the entire region should
be called the Southeast Asia war.
While the fighting in Vietnam reached the media on a daily
basis, the secret war in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand remained secret
and continued right through the nineteen eighties.
This was the CIA’s own hot little war, fought with the assistance
of local tribesmen and “off the books,” American soldiers and airmen,
who once captured were abandoned by a chillingly ungrateful and
cynical secret government.[8] The
American military strategy in Vietnam was unique.
Although American military superiority gave them the ability
to win the war in approximately one year, they were expressly forbidden
from doing so by US foreign policy makers.
This doctrine was spelled out in National Security Council
Memorandum 68 – which was the template for the “cold war.”
This was the same policy that forbade Allied victory in Korea,
as explained by Colonel Phillip Corso, former Head of Special Projects
Branch/Intelligence Division/Far East Command, in testimony to Congress
in 1996. Upon returning
from Korea, Corso was assigned to the Operations Coordinating Board
of the White House National Security Council, and discovered the
“No Win” policy. He
was appalled by it.[9]
But
if winning militarily was not a US objective, securing control of
the regions Opium production most certainly was.
Little time passed before the CIA had a stranglehold on the
Opium trade. This resulted
in a massive increase in Opium production followed by a surge in
Heroin addiction in North America and Western Europe. Paralleling this was a enormous growth in Heroin addicts amongst
US combat troops in Vietnam.
Fully one third of all combat forces were hooked on “China
White” – courtesy of the men from Spooksville, Virginia.[10] Drug
dealing was rampant amongst South Vietnamese military commanders.
One of the principal figures was General Dang Van Quang –
the Military and Security Assistant to President Nguyen Van Thieu.
Quang developed a network of dope trafficking via Vietnamese
Special Forces operating in Laos. Laos
- a CIA fiefdom - was a principal Opium producer under the nominal
control of General Vang Pao – leader of the Meo tribesman fighting
the CIA’s secret war. Vang
Pao would collect raw Opium grown throughout Northern Laos and transport
it aboard the CIA’s “Air America” helicopters to Long Thien.
A massive, sprawling US built complex, Long Thien was known
as “Spook Heaven” by some, or “Alternate 20” by others.
It was here that General Pao’s raw Opium was processed into
top grade No 4 China White heroin. At this point, direct CIA involvement in the “product” ceased.
Meanwhile, the CIA provided Vang Pao with his own airline
known to insiders as “Air Opium,” that would transport it to Saigon,
landing at the giant US military Ton Sohn Nut Air Base.
Thereafter part of the bulk was divvied up among Quang’s
network for sale to US servicemen hooked on the drug.
The rest was shipped to the Corsican syndicate in Marseilles
for delivery to Cuba – a transhipment point controlled by Mafia
boss Santos Trafficante - and thence to the United States.
A regular variation of the delivery route occurred when sealed
bags of Heroin were stitched inside the dead bodies of GI’s returning
home for military burial. Back
at home, US policy makers didn’t give a flying damn about the growing
drug problem among US servicemen.
The view of disregard was best stated by Secretary of State,
Henry Kissinger. “Military
men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy,”
Kissinger told Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein.[11]
We may also pose a related chain of thought in this respect.
If military men are “dumb, stupid animals” to be used and
abused as “pawns” for foreign policy, are ordinary tax-paying citizens
viewed any differently when it comes to the wholesale supply of
Heroin to America’s inner cities? An addict population, arguably, more than adequately caters
to one of requirements of NSC 68 – that of establishing “domestic
tranquillity.”[12]
In any event, the proceeds from dope sales were laundered
through the Nugan Hand bank in Australia and used to finance the
CIA’s secret war throughout the region. Following
the US backed invasion of Cambodia in May 1970, another Heroin pipeline
was established. Previously
inaccessible regions of Cambodia ideal for Opium cultivation were
immediately brought on-line.
The smuggling pipeline was operated by the Vietnamese Navy
who had established bases at Phonom Penh and throughout the Mekong
river. Within a week of the Cambodian incursion, an armada of Vietnamese
and US Navy craft – totalling 140 vessels – under the command of
Captain Nyugen Thaanh Chau crossed into Cambodia.
This was “hailed as a
‘tactical coup’ and a great ‘military humanitarian fleet,’”
the armada immediately went to work smuggling “vast quantities of
Opium and Heroin into South Vietnam.”[13]
Said to be the biggest pusher in South Vietnam, General Quang
- following the US withdrawal from Vietnam – quietly relocated to
Montreal, Canada, via the US Army’s military base, Fort Chaffee
in Arkansas. Quang’s
entry to Canada is said to have resulted from quiet but intense
pressure from the United States government. The
apparent face-value dichotomy between the CIA’s international, decades
long dope trade and the Drug Enforcement Agencies (DEA) “war on
drugs,” is illusory. During
a radio interview in 1991, historian Alfred McCoy outlined what
he called “… the institutional relationship between the DEA and
the CIA.” Back in the
1930’s the forerunner of the DEA – the Federal Bureau of Narcotics
(FBN) was established to curtail the use and sale of narcotics.
The FBN was the only
US agency that had agents working in covert roles prior to WW11.
With the arrival of WW11, key agents from the FBN were transferred
to the newly established Office of Strategic Services (OSS) – fore-runner
of the CIA – to teach OSS personnel the “clandestine arts.”
This relationship continues to present times, McCoy states.
The result is that where the CIA are running drug operations
in various parts of the world, the DEA officially goes to sleep[14].
This
has led to the realisation that the DEA is principally tasked with
prohibiting the flow of drugs from other than CIA “approved” sources
- and that successive US "war on drugs" programmes are,
de facto, engaged in killing off the competition.
Whether this is purposeful policy or not, the result is clearly
the same. Taken to
its logical conclusion, CIA approved and protected traffickers will
increasingly gain greater and greater control over the global dope
business, making the US government the biggest dope peddler in the
world. Meanwhile, some
believe this has already occurred and was always part of the long-term
plans drawn up by covert policy planners, as they cast jealous eyes
toward the planets raw materials – of which narcotics is one of
the most profitable. In
1973, President Richard Nixon declared his “war on drugs.”
Heroin entering the United States was produced by two principal
Opium monopolies: those controlled by the CIA in Southeast Asia,
and from Turkey – a close US ally.
Nixon’s “war on drugs” closed the Turkish connection that
flowed through Marseilles under the control of the Corsican crime
syndicates. This created
an ever greater demand for Heroin produced in the Golden Triangle
region of Southeast Asia – especially Burma.
Earlier,
in 1949, the region became an armed redoubt for fleeing Chinese
nationalist forces – under the command of Chiang Kai-Shek - following
their rout by Mao’s Red Army.
The CIA established a massive support operation that used
these former Chinese forces to collect intelligence inside China,
engage in pitched battles with communist forces and act as a “trip-wire”
to a feared communist invasion of Southeast Asia.
To finance this secret little war, the CIA required the type
of black funds that come from the large scale sale of narcotics.
It was here that the old OSS “China hands” did their duty,
by turning the region into largest single Opium producer of the
world, accounting for close to 1000 tons by 1961. Today,
the Burmese “growing fields” remain under the watchful control of
the CIA backed warlord, Khun Sa. It is here that out story comes full circle.
In Part One we revealed the contents of an affidavit signed
by Colonel Cutolo regarding his direct knowledge and involvement
of US military sanctioned Cocaine trafficking from Bogata, Columbia
to Panama. The senior
US Special Forces commanding officer of the entire region at that
time was Colonel Bo Gritz.
Gritz was one of those who quietly involved himself in the
investigation of Cutolo’s death and those of other officers. In
1978, Gritz, a long time campaigner for US Missing in Action/Prisoners
of War (MIA/POWs) from the Vietnam era, was informed by Ross Perot
that three American POWs were now held by Khun Sa and that the warlord
had agreed to hand them over.
Perot made arrangements to gain access to Khun Sa's headquarters
in the remote hills of Shanland, via high level contacts in the
Chinese government. Gritz
knowing he could get in and out a lot faster by utilising his network
of contacts in the region, set off with a few hand-picked ex Special
Forces men. It
took Gritz and his team three days to negotiate their way through
the wild and remote territory of Shanland.
Eventually meeting with a bewildered Khun Sa, Gritz was told
that there had never been any US POW's.
However, during their conversation, Gritz asked why Khun
Sa was so heavily involved in Opium, pointing out how many problems
this caused for America. The
reply was astonishing. Khun
Sa stated that his entire Opium supply - 900 tons
for 1989 - was bought by the US government. The warlord then stated he wanted to change production as he
hated Opium, and if Gritz could get the US to provide just one tenth
of what it spent in the war on drugs in the region, he would shift
production to other crops. Gritz
took this suggestion back to the US government and was amazed to
learn that the offer was spurned. The former Green Beret Colonel also discovered that he would
become a target of US dirty tricks if he didn't back away from the
Opium subject. Ignoring
these threats, Gritz travelled back to Burma for a second meeting
with Khun Sa, five months later.
This time he took a video recorder and asked Khun Sa to name
the names of those responsible on camera.
Khun
Sa instructed his secretary to read the names from his diary, but
stipulated that the names he was going to reveal were old ones and
not those he was presently doing business with.
The US government officer responsible for buying the Opium
crop was Richard Armitage - a high level and well known administration
official. Armitage
was working, the secretary read, with an individual named Santos
Trafficante, who operated as Armitage's "traffic manager." Gritz was well aware of who Trafficante was - the legendary
Florida "Boss" of the Mafia. During
a 1991 lecture, Gritz pointed out the economics of Khun Sa's Heroin
pipeline on the US government.
The warlord was paid $300,000 per ton from the US government,
but the product sold on the street for $1 million per pound.
"No one wants him out of business," Gritz observed
wryly. Once
more returning to America, Gritz attempted to get someone in the
administration - including Vice President George Bush - to take
note of his information. His
approaches were forcefully spurned.
As a gesture of goodwill to the US government, Khun Sa wrote
a letter to President Bush offering him free and gratis one ton
of No 4 pure Asian heroin.
This was the warlords way of offering an incentive with the
US to reach an agreement aimed at converting production from Opium
to another crop. Bush
didn't respond to the letter. Disgusted,
Gritz began actively campaigning to alert Americans just what their
government were doing in their name.
This eventually resulted in Gritz being arraigned on criminal
charges for using a false passport during his visit to Burma.
Pleading guilty to the charge, but pointing out that this
was standard procedure in the world of "black operations,"
the jury found him innocent. Since that time Gritz has become an outspoken critic of successive
governments - and their duplicitous, secret policies - and as a
consequence has suffered at the hands of a wretchedly biased media. Despite this, Gritz central story was not abandoned. Others had taken up the call from behind the scenes. Quiet investigations into the hidden activities of Richard Armitage, began in earnest. An immensely powerful "insider," Armitage had arranged for Colonel Dave Brown to been placed next to the president, as a military liaison, on a daily basis. The purpose of this move was in the words of one individual familiar with these events to "subtly influence his thinking daily." Moreover, "other actions of this type had been instituted in key departments and agencies."[15] THE
SPY DRUG-MEISTER With
the president effectively muzzled, Armitage and his small coterie
of Washington movers and shakers believed they were untouchable.
To a large extent they were.
Already the Assistant Secretary of Defence, Armitage was
nominated, in February 1989, by a grateful President Bush to become
Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs.
This move was blocked and Armitage was, instead, nominated
for the post of Secretary of the Army. Behind
the scenes, a virtual war was in progress as the department of Justice
and the FBI fought to indict Armitage for his narcotics and other
criminal activities. These
measures were powerfully resisted by Attorney General Thornburg,
a political appointee of President Bush.
Significantly, however, Armitage was also under scrutiny
by Federal Investigators working for the President's Commission
on Organised Crime, with a focus on foreign organised criminal activity
in gambling and drug trafficking. This
resulted from Armitage's close association with a Vietnamese female,
Ngdyet Tui (Nanette) O'Rourke. The latter was at the centre of an extremely large scale gambling
ring operated by US based Vietnamese.
O'Rourke was awarded US citizenship, according to one source,
under "highly suspect circumstances."
She was also suspected of being a prostitute. As investigators developed their case, they came to believe
that Armitage's association with O'Rourke dated back to his service
in Vietnam, when he is thought to have operated a shady bar with
her in Saigon. There
were also suspicions that O'Rourke operated as Armitage's "courier."
Another
source who was involved in these investigations noted that "
nearly every Vietnamese woman involved in major gambling operations
on the East Coast [of America] is married to an American who is
either CIA or has connections to the agency," - including O'Rourke's
husband. Meanwhile,
yet another investigator who believed Armitage was "dirty"
was frustrated in his investigations by Frank Carlucci, the Secretary
of Defence, and other powerful patrons.
In 1975 during Armitage's CIA tour in Vietnam, Carlucci was
the no2 man in the CIA. Because
of the numerous high level obstructions, investigations into Armitage's
criminal activities were curtailed, but not before some damaging
information had been gathered. Not least of this was Armitage's special relationship with
O'Rourke. Investigators
discovered a photo, believed to have been taken professionally,
showing a naked O'Rourke posing in her bedroom with a partly undressed
Armitage. This, and
other factors, led investigators and, in fact, some very influential
political insiders, to conclude that O'Rourke was really working
for North Vietnamese intelligence, and that the photo had been used
to blackmail Armitage into becoming a spy.[16] Such
was the strength of the information developed on Armitage that he
was forced to abandon his nomination for Secretary of the Army,
and, in fact, all other official US government posts.
Subsequently, Defence officials stated privately that Armitage
will never again be permitted to darken the doors of the Department
of Defence. Known as
"Mr Phu" (literally meaning "Mr. Rich") amongst
the Vietnamese community, Armitage, despite his disgrace was still
able to count on the enormous power of his political patrons and
avoided criminal prosecution.
Knowing far too much about US government "dirt"
during the previous three decades provided him with an instant "do
not go to jail" card. By
1992, the Opium crop from Khun Sa's region of the Golden Triangle
had reached a staggering 300,000 tons.
Whereas this had always been difficult to convey due to mountainous
terrain, a high speed tarmac road had been built allowing trucks
to move the drug at high speed to government run airports in Thailand.
From here, refined Heroin is flown direct to the US and other
western destinations. If
Frank Carlucci - formerly No 2 in the CIA hierarchy - was one of
Armitage's principal "protectors" during his "difficult"
years, we can also legitimately ask who else might have been protecting
the disgraced one time CIA officer. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, George Bush reigned as the CIA's No
1 honcho, following his appointment by President Gerald Ford as
Director of Central Intelligence.
This might make for a small world, but clearly a very dirty
one, too. In
the final analysis, the CIA's ongoing activities on behalf of a
small clique of powerful individuals clearly does amount to a secret
government that uses democratic structures as a little more than
a useful facade to hide behind.
Drugs, a phenomenally profitably product have financed much
of the secret governments secret activities.
Weapons, too, are another useful and highly profitable tool
extracted from the public purse.
The over-riding yet covert policy, apparently, is to continually
create nasty wars overseas and at the same time, keep the folks
back home drugged up to their eyeballs.
Or rather, those sections of society that are viewed as a
bothersome adjunct to the self elected elite masters who rule from
the shadows. The
kicker to the whole story, is not just that it's done in your name
and the name of freedom and democracy - captivating slogans that
mean less than nothing to those who utter them - but it's your money,
your tax dollars, that continues to finance the entire scam.
Maybe one reason why the slang term for drugs is dope? DRUGS
& THE MEDIA - THE UNMENTIONABLE SECRET When Gary Webb, an enterprising and courageous investigative reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, published his story in 1996, powerful shock-waves rumbled east across America for the best part of a year. Webb had earlier spent a year peeling away the nasty secret of crack cocaine, and how it came to prominence in Los Angeles. The
three part article was titled “The Dark Alliance,” and named names
– especially those who were formerly senior figures in the CIA backed
Contra movement. Webb
expected and received the whole-hearted support of his editor and
fellow Mercury News reporters.
The newspaper even dedicated a web-site to the series of
article and published electronic copies of important corroborating
documents. Meanwhile,
the shock waves reached Washington. Unstoppable, they flowed onwards to Langley, Virginia.
In
time, an even more disturbing counter shock wave rolled back westwards,
from Washington DC picking up impetus from Langley, Virginia, home
of the CIA. Gary Webb
had uttered the unutterable.
He had spoken a simple truth.
A truth, moreover, that was already well known to a great
many journalists, politicians, academics, military officers, intelligence
personnel and other insiders for decades past.
The truth spoken was that the Central Intelligence Agency
had engaged in the wholesale distribution of illegal narcotics. Within
a year, Webb’s colleagues in the Mercury News reversed their earlier
support and began to denounce him.
Such was the power of the signal returning-back from the
East Coast, that many of the Mercury News other journalists began
to fear that their career advancement – especially to the more prestigious
news corporations of America – may be ruined.
It was a classic case of guilt by association.
Worse still, Webb’s previously stalwart editor also denounced
him and published an editorial in the Mercury News, saying the quality
of Webb’s corroboration of the Dark Alliance series was poor.
The clear message was that the truth that was spoken had,
in fact, not been spoken.
Orwell called this double-speak.
For
daring to speak the truth, Webb was punished by being re-assigned
to a small town, backwater office of Mercury News – far away from
the limelight of head office.
Webb kept his job, or, at least, a kind of living death voodoo
concoction of a job. No
one can blame Webb for accepting the posting.
He has a family to feed and under the circumstances, his
chances of securing another job elsewhere in the media were surely
limited. The editor
clearly also kept his job, but we can and must blame him for rendering
journalistic integrity to Ceaser.
Some of Webb’s erstwhile colleagues have meanwhile, no doubt
moved on to higher and better positions in those all too desirable
national news corporations.
Here they may write copy all day, on any subject they choose,
so long as it is not one of the unmentionable subjects. Without
an independent and courageous Fourth Estate, there is no protection
against the subtle and consistent campaign to destroy democracy
in all but name. When
Webb first set out on his life-changing investigation, he was blissfully
unaware of the enormous threat he would soon pose to the national
security and political establishments of the United States.
His story threatened to reveal a sinister policy that dated
back to WW11: the covert US control of the global narcotics industry
spanning four decades. This
was just one of a great many unpalatable secrets that must not be
told. There are many
others. [17] ENDS [1] Cutolo’s affidavit runs to 15 pages and 86 paragraphs. Dated 11 March 1980, it is witnessed by a notary. PFC William Tyree’s affidavit runs to 13 pages and 41 paragraphs. Dated 6 September 1990, it is witnessed by a notary. Paul Neri’s accompanying 5 page letter is undated and unsigned and was prepared prior to his death on 29 April 1990, from a long illness. Cutolo’s affidavit and Neri’s death-bed letter were forwarded by a friend who wished to remain anonymous. The friend sent an accompanying type-written letter consisting of one paragraph, neither signed nor dated. All documents are in this writer’s possession. Copies of Cutolo’s affidavit were given to Colonels A. J. “Bo” Baker, Hugh B. Pearce and James “Bo” Gritz. [2] Cutolo names the same individuals in his affidavit. [3] Extracted from the Third Edition of “Defrauding America” by Rodney Stich (1998, Diablo Western Press, Inc) page 359. [4] My italics [5] The major film, “First Blood” starring Slyvester Stallone was modelled on Col. Bo Gritz. [6] The Yale material has been liberally extracted from Kris Millegan’s excellent essay “Everything you wanted to know about Skull and Bones but were afraid to ask.” Other first class material is available in Paul Goldstein’s and jeffrey Steinberg’s “George Bush, Skull and Bones and the New World Order.” Both are available on the internet only, so far as I am aware. [7] Paul DiRenzo interview with McCoy, November 1991. [8] For a detailed analysis of the connection between drugs and MIA/POWs see "Kiss the Boys Goodbye" by Jensen-Stevenson and Stevenson (Bloomsbury 1990). [9] See Corso’s 17 September 1996 testimony to the US House Subcommittee on Military Personnel. “The ‘No Win’ policy was contained in NSC 68, NSC 68/2, and NSC 135/3,” Corso told Congressmen, adding that “the basis for this policy was in directives ORE 750, NIE 2 2/1, 2/2, 10 and 11. We called it the ‘Fig leaf Policy.’” [10] Figures quoted by McCoy during his interview with Paul DiRenzio, 9 November 1991. [11] See “Kiss the Boys Goodbye – by Stevenson & Stevenson p97 (Futura 1990). [12] National Security Council memorandum 68. This document outlined the US requirement resulting in the cold war. [13] Confidential papers in this writers possession. [14] McCoy’s interview by radio host Paul DiRienzo, 9 November 1991. [15] Excerpted from a letter addressed to Senator Paul Laxalt dated 27 April 1987 [16] I am reliably informed that Ross Perot was one of those who believed Armitage was a North Vietnamese spy. [17] The moral to Webb’s story is don’t expect the major media to inform you of what is really going on in the world. They won’t. To paraphrase Walter Mattheu’s one-liner uttered to perfection in the movie JFK: “These dogs don’t hunt.” Least-ways not anymore. The old media “blood-hound” is, today, curled up on a rug in front of the salary fire. His muscles have wasted, his belly is full and his nose has forgotten how to twitch – and his arm twitching dreams are of earlier days. |
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