Drugging
America
A Trojan Horse
By Rodney Stich
INTRODUCTION
Drugging America details and documents the arrogant and corrupt war on
drugs that is more of a war against the people, implicating people in key offices
in the three branches of government. The explosive book, Drugging America--
A Trojan Horse, exposes the arrogant and corrupt side to the government’s
sham war-on-drugs, how it threatens everyone, and how it inflicts devastating
financial and personal tragedies upon thousands of men, women, and families.
Much of the information stated in these pages, and the other books written
by former federal agent Rodney Stich, is based upon the actual discovery of
these insiders, either what they discovered, or what they were involved in.
A coalition of government agents and deep-cover operatives (FBI, CIA,
DEA, INS, Customs, ONI and others) reveal government corruption that is undermining, like a Trojan horse, the government and the people of the United
States. Also contributing to the book’s contents are police officers, Mafia family members, and former drug traffickers, some of who were houseguests to
Colombian drug lords.
The book’s contents will help the readers by showing:
• That the present national attention on terrorists from outside the United
States diverts attention from the far greater Trojan horse type of threat,.
This source has constituted a greater threat, and has inflicted great harm
upon the men, women, and children of the United States, that external terrorists have done. This Trojan horse “terrorism” source consists of corrupt
people in key government offices.
• Why drug smuggling has not been reduced, despite the billions of taxpayers dollars spent, and use of thousands of government agents, government
informants, and government prosecutors.
• Why the drugs keep entering the United States. The CIA and other allies in
government have been smuggling drugs into the U.S. for decades, often in
collusion with foreign drug cartels and organized crime groups, while government and non-government checks and balances act to keep the public
ignorant of these crimes.
• Learn who are the real criminals in the “war-on-drugs,” and who simultaneously charge innocent people or those committing minor drug offenses
with drug offenses resulting in long prison sentences!
• The people in government engaging in cover-ups, including the various divisions of the U.S. Department of Justice, congresspersons, federal judges,
and much of the broadcast and print media.
• That an army of government informants, agents, and prosecutors prey upon
America’s men and women, often fraudulently charging them with drug related offenses, often using known perjured testimony, resulting in long
prison sentences for tens of thousands of men and women, many of whom
are totally innocent, or innocent of the exaggerated charges.
• How to reduce your chances of being falsely charged and sent to prison,
maybe for life, regardless of innocence.
• How drug users and small dealers are sentenced to long prison terms while
major drug traffickers are protected by an army of government personnel.
• America’s political prisoners, including government agents and ordinary people, falsely charged by Justice Department officials seeking to prevent
the exposure of government in drug smuggling operations.
• Killings and mysterious deaths of people exposing high-level government
corruption.
• Shows the worsening lying by U.S. leaders in the three branches of government.
Drugging America is a literal college course on understanding the inner secrets of the government’s arrogant and sham war on drugs. It has the potential
to bring about the release from federal prison of thousands of men and women
fraudulently charged, or sentenced to long prison terms totally out of proportion to the nature of the charged or actual offense.
CHAPTER ONE
Decades of Drug Smuggling
by Government Agents
The CIA’s role in drug trafficking into the United States has been the subject of investigative magazine and newspaper articles, books, congressional testimony, and television presentations, for decades. I first became
aware of this practice in the 1950s while I was an airline pilot for Japan Airlines, based in Tokyo, and while flying in the Middle East transporting Muslim
pilgrims to Mecca. During conversations with other pilots, they talked about
the drug loads they were transporting for CIA-related activities. At that time
there was very little attention given to the drug trade and I was as indifferent to
the problem as the remainder of the population.
CIA Drug Smuggling is
Only Part of the Problem
The evidence indicates that the CIA started the avalanche of drugs flowing
into the United States shortly after being formed in 1947. But along the way,
other government entities became implicated in drug smuggling, as will be seen
within these pages. In addition to the people and government entities directly
involved in drug smuggling, there are the people and government entities who
were in the drug smuggling loop, including various state governors, within the
White House, the National Security Council, the State Department, and the
U.S. military. Further, there are the people and government entities that aided
and abetted these criminal activities, including members of Congress, federal
judges, and much of the broadcast and print media.
No Absence of Highly Documented
Books on the Subject
Dozens of highly documented books have been written by people who investigated the subject or who were involved in some aspect of drug trafficking.
One of the first highly detailed books linking the CIA to drug trafficking was
Alfred McCoy’s The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia published in 1972,
and his heavily documented 1991 update The Politics of Heroin, CIA –
Complicity in the Global Drug Trade. McCoy was a professor of Southeast
Asian history at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and had made an exhaustive study of the CIA’s involvement in drugs while living in various parts
of the world. He started investigating the drug trafficking in the 1950s, questioning people in all phases of the drug culture from the growers to the end users. His books describe how CIA helicopters, supposedly fighting communists
in Vietnam, were hauling drugs from the fields to distribution points, making possible the heavy drug sales to American GIs.
PepsiCo and Coca-Cola
Involved in Drugs
McCoy described the role of the PepsiCo bottling plant in the drug processing. Adolfo Calero was an executive with the PepsiCo bottling plant in Nicaragua, and was identified in several congressional hearings as a known major
drug trafficker. He worked with the National Security Council and the CIA in
their war activities in Nicaragua. Statements given to me over the years by
various deep-cover sources clearly show that the PepsiCo and Coca-Cola companies, or their agents in foreign countries, were involved in the drug business.
McCoy described the many people who testified in closed-door congressional
hearings for the past twenty years, leaving no doubt that the CIA was primarily
responsible for the drug crisis in the United States. He described the pressure
put upon the media by the CIA to halt his book.
Many other highly detailed books have been written about CIA drug trafficking by people who were part of the operation. These include, among others,
Dope, Inc.; The Big White Lie; Cocaine Politics; Out of Control; Bluegrass
Conspiracy; The Cocaine Wars, and The Crimes of Patriots. But relatively few
Americans have read them, insuring that they remain ignorant about the criminal and subversive activities implicating their leaders in government.
Activist Colonel “Bo” Gritz
In his book, Called to Serve, former U.S. Army Colonel James “Bo” Gritz
described his several meetings in May 1987 with Khun Sa, the head of the largest heroin-producing region in Southeast Asia. Gritz had been on a team mission called LAZARUS trying to locate missing prisoners of war when he found
evidence of massive heroin production involving the CIA and the military.
Khun Sa and U.S. Drug Pipeline
Khun Sa described to Gritz how he sought U.S. help in replacing the heroin
crop with another salable commodity and how this offer was refused. Gritz described how heroin production in the Golden Triangle area shot up from 40
tons in the early 1950s to 700 tons in the early 1960s. During the first set of
meetings, Khun Sa said to Gritz that he might consider telling who were his
largest prior U.S. customers for the heroin, but would not disclose the present
customers.
During the second set of meetings in mid-1987, Khun Sa brought his aides
together for a meeting with Gritz, at which time the group provided Gritz specific information on who in the United States were his main customers for heroin. Gritz wrote in his book that these U.S. customers included:
• Theodore Shackley (former deputy director for covert operations in the
CIA). Shackley was identified by several of my deep-cover sources as being actively involved in drug trafficking.
• Richard Armitage, also CIA, later holding the key position of Assistant
Secretary of Defense in the United States. (He also handled much of the
drug-money laundering for Khan Sa through Armitage’s connections with
the Nugan Hand Bank.) In his defense department position, Armitage was
responsible for locating missing POWs. But if these POWs were found and
returned to the United States, they could be expected to describe the U.S.
involvement in drug trafficking.
. Daniel Arnold handled the arms and drug sales formerly handled by Armitage. He served as CIA station chief in Thailand.
• Jerry Daniels, a CIA agent who replaced Armitage when Armitage returned
to the United States.
• Santos Trafficante, head of one of the many criminal cartels with which the
CIA had been doing business for decades.
Gritz’s trip to visit Khun Sa was known to Justice Department officials, who
sought to have him arrested on bogus passport charges before he went back to
Indochina. Gritz left the United States before this could be accomplished.
Among the many articles on CIA drug trafficking was the April 1988 story
in The Progressive. The article described the testimony given by Michael Toliver concerning his flights for the CIA hauling drugs from Central America
into the United States, including landing with 25,000 pounds of marijuana at
Homestead Air Force Base in Florida. The article stated that Federal Judge Patrick Kelly found the testimony compelling enough that he called it to the attention of President Ronald Reagan, as well as the CIA, the FBI, special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh, and Congress. Judge Kelly directed federal marshals to
deliver the transcript of Toliver’s deposition directly to President Reagan. Toliver’s story was broadcast on CBS television’s West 57th Street. According to
the article, no one from the Justice Department questioned Toliver about his serious charges.
“George Bush is Up to
His Neck in Illegal Drug Running.”
Numerous CIA operatives, including Phillip Agee who worked as a CIA
agent for many years, have written about the various criminal activities of the
CIA. An Associated Press article (January 29, 1990) quoted from Agee’s
speech at Oregon State University in Corvallis: “Bush Is up to his neck in illegal drug running on behalf of the Contras.”
Much of the heroin entering the United States came from Southeast Asia in
the Golden Triangle area according to a U.S. News & World Report article
(March 26, 1990):
For more than a decade, Khun Sa, the warlord of opium, has flooded
Washington with offers to end the poppy production within his Golden Triangle fiefdom in exchange for financial aid. The U.S. has not responded,
and this year the region’s crop could double from the levels of just a few
years ago. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh unsealed an indictment
against the man considered responsible for 40 percent of the U.S. heroin
supply. But Sa is not likely to be booked soon. In the remote hills of Burma,
a private army of thousands protects him.
U.S.-Initiated Wars, with Heavy Casualties, Provided Logistics
For Start of CIA Drug Smuggling
into United States
For decades the British and the French controlled the huge drug operations
in Southeast Asia, which were taken over by the United States through the CIA
in the 1950s. Vietnam was a CIA operation that escalated, either intentionally
or unintentionally, providing the logistics for the CIA to greatly expand drug
trafficking into the United States.
Many Americans, brainwashed to believe that the Vietnam War was in the
interest of freedom and to fight communism, supported the war that sacrificed the lives of 58,000 Americans. Great numbers were painfully injured and crippled mentally and physically. The phony argument was that the United States
could not allow the people of Indochina to decide what type of government
they would have, and that if they chose leaders with communist leanings it
would harm the United States. Believing that spin from their Washington leaders caused many families to lose sons, husbands, and fathers, just as it had several years earlier in Korea.
Even in Death the GIs
Were Misused as Pawns
The CIA drug trafficking in Indochina resulted in many American servicemen becoming drug addicts. In addition, the bodies and the caskets of dead
soldiers often contained drugs being smuggled into the United States on military aircraft. Plastic-wrapped drugs were shipped into the United States in the
bottom of caskets, in body bags, and even in body cavities. Upon arrival at Air
Force bases, and especially Travis Air Force Base in California, the drugs
would be removed from the caskets and bodies identified by secret codes.
Many articles have been written in the alternative press about this sordid
practice. In one instance, an officer from the army’s Criminal Investigation Division uncovered a large-scale heroin smuggling scheme using the bodies of
dead GIs. His group filed reports with the Pentagon describing how the bodies
were cut open, gutted, and filled with sacks of heroin. Approximately fifty
pounds of heroin with multi-million-dollar street value were stuffed into each
body.
Widespread Practice Known or
Controlled from Washington
The cover-ups in the military, in the CIA, in the Justice Department,
weren’t isolated rogue acts; the practices were too widespread. Exposure of
these crimes was blocked by high-level officials. Any time an investigator reported the problem, he or she was ordered to remain quiet.
These aspects of the CIA’s Vietnam War that used Americans as pawns are
never brought up at Memorial Day ceremonies. The American public is led to
believe that the hundreds of thousands of dead, maimed, or injured Americans
suffered for an honorable cause. This is not to discredit those who endured the
fighting, but to bring reality into the picture.
Code Names for CIA
Far East Drug Smuggling
The CIA drug trafficking had grown so huge that it was handled like a major corporation, but secretly. Different geographical areas and different types or
levels of operations are given code names. In the Golden Triangle area of
Southeast Asia, the code names included Operation Short Flight, Operation
Burma Road, Operation Morning Gold, and Operation Triangle.
The CIA transferred some of its operatives who developed the drug trafficking in the Golden Triangle area of Southeast Asia to Central and South
America. They reportedly included Theodore Shackley, Edwin Wilson (who is
in federal prison for selling arms to Libya—which was a CIA operation), and
Frank Terpil. In Central and South America the code names for CIA drug trafficking included Operation Snow Cone, Operation Toilet Seat, and Operation
Watchtower.
Expanding the CIA’s
Drug Smuggling Empire
A similar pattern and excuse was used to develop the smuggling of drugs from Central and South America into the United States. Fabricating another excuse, the CIA and other covert government entities encouraged, trained,
funded, and armed, groups to undermine the Nicaraguan government. This operation toward Nicaragua provided the logistics for bringing large quantities of
drugs into the United States. Again, the American public was manipulated to
believe that Nicaraguans did not have the right to choose their desired form of
government, and the United States, through its CIA, would correct the situation!
Massive amounts of arms were sent from the United States by planes and
ships, returning with drugs that were payment for the military equipment. Prior
to the CIA’s development of the massive drug shipments, the drug problems in
the United States were relatively minor and mostly unheard of by the general
public.
CIA’s Purpose for Drugging
America Can Only be Speculated
Prima facie evidence exists that the CIA engaged in drug trafficking for
years. Why this was done can only be speculated. Anyone reading the third edition of Defrauding America with its many other crimes against Americans
could reach the conclusion that people in control of the CIA have engaged in
acts for the last half century to morally, physically, and financially undermine
the United States.
The general thinking has been that the reason for the government’s involvement in drugs was to fund “black” operations. (As if that justified inflicting the
drug scourge upon the United States!) These could be subverting foreign governments, assassinating foreign leaders, supplying arms to a group or country,
setting the groundwork for wars such as in Indochina, and many others as described in Defrauding America.
My CIA sources indicate that the profits from drug sales far exceeded what
was needed for these operations. They report that most of the profits are hidden
in offshore financial institutions, and much of these funds come back in well disguised forms and corporations, acquiring properties and businesses of all
types—including broadcast and print media.
White House Involvement
in Drugging America
Evidence is overwhelming that while the United States was inflicting war
through surrogates upon Nicaragua, the White House and the National Security
Council were directing the drug smuggling operations. People working closely
with George Bush were key participants in CIA drug trafficking from Central
America into the United States. John Hull, a friend of Dan Quayle and George
Bush, was involved in the drug trafficking by making a fuel stop available on
property that he owned in Costa Rica. Another close friend of Bush was Felix
Rodriguez, who played a key role in the illegal arms and drug trafficking that
were key parts of the Contra scandal.
My friend, and a close friend of Hull, Hoot Gibson, confirmed that Hull
was a CIA operative in Costa Rica. Gibson owned land in Costa Rica and lived
there for the past 20 years. His wife was an attorney and member of the Costa
Rican government. Gibson was a highly publicized TWA pilot who in the
1960s experienced a high-altitude jet upset that almost ended in disaster. A
television documentary showed Gibson’s exciting and near-fatal ordeal.
CIA operative Gunther Russbacher, whom I have known for over ten years,
and whose many deep cover operations are detailed in Defrauding America,
told me of the frequent visits of Senator Dan Quayle to Hull’s Costa Rica
ranch. Russbacher stated that Quayle was deeply involved with the Contra operation and drugs, as well as being closely associated with noted drug trafficker
Felix Rodriguez. Russbacher said, “Quayle was one of our bag boys.”
Propaganda to Justify
Hidden Agendas
CIA-fed media releases claimed that the United States had to fund the Contras for freedom purposes and to combat communism. The real reason appeared
to be the profitable drug trafficking. My CIA contacts stated the CIA was shipping arms to both sides, defending this practice in a tongue-in-cheek comment,
“How else can we keep the war going?” (So much for the U.S. idealism in
Nicaragua !) The CIA sought support from Congress for its Contra operation by
reporting that the Sandinistas were trafficking in drugs and claimed that the
Contras were not doing the same. In reality, it was just the opposite!
To stimulate congressional and public support for continuing to aid the
Contras, the CIA installed video cameras in an aircraft flown by CIA pilot
Barry Seal and secretly video-recorded the placement of drugs on board the
aircraft at a Central American arms and drugs transshipment point. The White
House stated that the drugs were loaded by the Sandinistas, making the tapes
available to Congress and the media. The White House sought to inflame public opinion against the Sandinistas so that Congress would vote for funding the
Contras. The people represented as Sandinistas loading drugs in that video
were actually Contras. The scheme worked: Congress voted money for the
Contras and the public was oblivious to having been duped.
All types of aircraft were used for flying arms to Central and South America and returning with drugs. Some aircraft were large airline or military types,
landing in the United States at military or general aviation airports.1
Some were
single and twin-engine general aviation aircraft and usually landed at private
airports.2
1 Almost all military bases became drug transshipment points, and especially Homestead (Florida); Davis-Monahan (Arizona); Luke (Arizona); McGuire (New Jersey); McClellan and Travis (California).
2 Frequently mentioned airports include Mena Airport and others in the vicinity (Arkansas); Angel Fire Airport (New Mexico); Marana Airport (Arizona); Spirit of St. Louis Airport (Missouri); McMinnville Airport (Oregon); Coolidge Airport (Phoenix); Midland-Odessa (Texas); Lakeside Airport (Chicago); Addison Airport (Denton, Texas); Shamrock Airport (Houston); Pietra Negro (Black Rock), northeast of El Paso; and Redbird Airport in Dallas, (where I had once taught aviation flight and ground training). The airport at Mena, Arkansas, was a well-known CIA arms and drug trans- shipment point, and was featured on two television shows, Frontline and Now It Can Be Told, and in numerous newspaper stories.
Infamous Mena Airport and
Ties to Two Presidents
Mena Airport, which is described in various pages, became infamous during the 1980s for the arms and drugs shipping through this western Arkansas
airport by the CIA and other government agencies. It involved Oliver North,
Vice President and then President George Bush, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton and others who became involved in the covert activities.
Another Infamous Name
in Drug Trafficking
Among the well-known names operating out of Mena Airport was Barry
Seal, who coordinated frequently with Oliver North and who used the drug
profits to purchase arms that went to Central America. But Seal was becoming
a threat to the CIA drug operations; he knew too much, and talked too much
about government drug trafficking. He thought that the threat of exposing highlevel CIA and DEA officials in drug trafficking to Congress was insurance for
him. But if he had known that Congress already knew about the drug trafficking and kept the lid on the scandal by cover-ups, he surely would not have been
so confident.
The Threat of Exposing
High-Level Corruption Eliminated
Seal was killed on February 19, 1986. On the day he was killed the FBI
seized his personal belongings, hiding evidence of his CIA-sanctioned drug operations. His death conveniently kept him from revealing the CIA and DEA involvement in drug trafficking activities that would have been revealed at an upcoming trial.
Costa Rica Report on CIA
Arms and Drug Trafficking
An 80-page report by the Costa Rican government (July 20, 1989) officially detailed and documented the U.S. role in drug trafficking in Central and
South America. The report, titled, “Special Select Commission Appointed To
Investigate Drug Traffic Crimes,” was the official legislative assembly report of
Costa Rica. Excerpts from the 115-page report (in Spanish) revealed what the
mainstream U.S. media kept from the public, and showed the movement of
arms from the United States to Central America was associated with massive
shipment of drugs on the return flights. That report and other Costa Rican
documents showed that Oliver North and John Hull were among Americans
charged with drug and other crimes and for whom extradition warrants were
outstanding in Costa Rica.
Sham Basis for Invading A
Foreign Country and Killing Its People
In 1990, President Bush ordered the U.S. military to invade Panama on the
argument that Colonel Manuel Noriega was allegedly violating U.S. laws by
allowing drug trafficking through Panama. Noriega did in fact aid drug trafficking, assisting the CIA, DEA, the U.S. military, and the Mossad. Noriega assisted Oliver North and his associates, including Vice President Bush, in the
arms flow to Central America and the drug-laden aircraft returning to the
United States.
Many CIA personnel believe that Noriega was taken out because he knew
too much about the involvement of U.S. officials and that he was demanding
too high a cut for his part in coordinating the U.S. drug trafficking through Panama. After the invasion of Panama, the United States saw that key banking
positions were filled by people who would continue the drug money laundering.
The U.S. invasion killed hundreds of Panamanians and inflicted billions of
dollars of damages as it invaded this sovereign country on the pretense of outrage that Noriega engaged in drug activities. Twenty-six U.S. servicemen died,
and none of their families knew the real reason for the invasion.
Arguably, employees and people holding office in the United States, who were secretly involved in drug trafficking, were far guiltier than Noriega, based
upon their position of trust.
Noriega, as head of a foreign country, had the right to legalize drug activities just as many in the United States have argued that U.S. law should do.
(This isn’t my position, but it is a defense.)
Replacing Noriega with
Other Drug Players
The drug trafficking through Panama into the United States didn’t stop with
Noriega’s kidnapping. The Bush Administration arranged for the new president
of Panama to be ^Guillermo Endura^ president of a Panamanian bank extensively used by Colombia’s Medellin drug cartel. Picked for vice president was
Guillermo Ford, part owner of the Dadeland Bank of Florida. He reportedly
was heavily involved in drug-money laundering. He was also chairman of Panama’s Banking Commission. Another official selected by the Bush administration to be attorney general of Panama was Rogello Cruz.
U.S. District Judge Covering
Up for CIA Drug Trafficking
The federal judge presiding over the trial of Manuel Noriega barred attorneys defending Noriega from presenting any information on the CIA’s role, or
that of Vice President George Bush, in drug trafficking or anything of a political nature. The judge repeatedly refused to allow CIA documents that Noriega
needed in his defense to be introduced. Noriega’s U.S. attorneys limited their
defense arguments so as not to expose the CIA involvement in drug trafficking.
Paying for Perjured Testimony
Justice Department prosecutors rewarded known drug smugglers who had
long prison sentences by dropping charges, or releasing them from prison, for
testifying against Noriega as the prosecutor wanted them, while simultaneously
protecting perjurers against perjury charges. An Arizona Republic article (November 27, 1991) described the huge rewards paid to major drug traffickers
who testified against Noriega. Three of them, facing life terms with no possibility of parole, and with a collective 546 years in prison, were released and given
immunity from further prosecution (including immunity from perjured testimony). They were given large financial payments, and their families brought to
the United States.
The star witness against Noriega was his former pilot, Floyd Carlton, who
faced life imprisonment with no parole for having flown large quantities of cocaine into the United States. Justice Department prosecutors allowed Carlton to
transfer his drug-related assets from Panama to the United States, with no risk
of forfeiture or income taxes. Carlton was also given several hundred thousand
dollars, along with permanent U.S. residency for himself, his wife and children,
and nanny.
Another Panamanian paid for his testimony was Ricardo Bilonick, who reportedly earned $47 million during a three-year drug trafficking period. He
faced 50 years in prison unless he testified as Justice Department prosecutors
wanted him to testify. His prison sentence was greatly reduced; he was allowed
to keep millions of his drug-related income, and relieved of income tax liabilities.
Colombian pilot Roberto Striedinger, considered by Justice Department
personnel as one of the top drug traffickers, and who flew large quantities of cocaine into the United States, was given a greatly reduced prison sentence.
Justice Department personnel returned to Striedinger his seized bank accounts,
Mercedes-Benz automobile, a 40-foot yacht, an airplane, and guns, including
AK-47 assault rifles, Uzi and MAC-10 submachine guns (Arizona Republic,
November 27, 1991).
When someone other than the government is using felons to testify, their
testimony is discredited on the basis they had committed some prior offense.
Presumably, a witness—not used by the government—must be a sequestered
nun or someone fitting that background. When it suits government prosecutors,
the testimony of felons is not only considered reliable, but they deserve to be
handsomely paid for it. Title 18 USC Section 201(c)(2), known as the anti bribery statute, makes it a criminal offense to offer anyone compensation for
their testimony. But this applies only to the public, not government officials!
On July 10, 1992, a federal jury in Miami sentenced Manuel Noriega to 40
years in federal prison.
Senate Testimony by
Noriega’s Pilot, Floyd Carlton
Floyd Carlton testified to a senate subcommittee in 1986, while wearing a
hood, hiding his identity. Carlton testified about large quantities of drugs
shipped to the United States from Colombia and Panama on Eastern Airlines, a
fact that Eastern Airlines Captain Gerald Loeb had described to me in detail.
Carlton corroborated that the ranch John Hull ran in Costa Rica was used by
drug trafficking aircraft and that Hull was a close associate of Dan Quayle and
George Bush.
In 1999, I started communicating with John Hull, and there is another side
to the various stories written about him. Hull had purchased ranches in Costa
Rica and farmed the land, doing quite well. In the 1980s, CIA agents approached him to use his land for airstrips, and being patriotic, he gave them
permission. The CIA eventually abandoned Hull when the Costa Rica authorities charged him with drug trafficking.
Hull learned to fly in the Civil Pilot Training (CPT) program shortly before
World War II and then joined the Canadian Royal Air Force. After the war, he
conducted a pilot training school in Indiana. During a trip with his parents to
Costa Rica Hull fell in love with the country and purchased a ranch near Molle,
Costa Rica, near a beautiful lake. He also managed property for absentee owners in the United States.
During the 1980s, Hull was approached by the CIA to use his property for
aircraft carrying out CIA activities. Becoming a CIA asset often has serious
consequences. After a television broadcast in Costa Rica revealed that Hull’s
property was being used by the CIA for drug and arms flights, the Costa Rican
government arrested and incarcerated him. Deprived of drugs for his diabetes
and heart problems, and the harsh jail conditions, precipitated heart problems
and a bout with pneumonia.
The CIA denied any relationship with Hull, a common disavow practice.
Hull was eventually released pending trial, at which time he fled the country,
returning to the United States. His 1100 acres in Costa Rica was seized by the
government. Today, in his 80s, Hull is living a simpler life as a farmer.
U.S. Ignoring Noriega’s
Drug Trafficking Years Earlier
Carlton testified that he offered to give information in July 1986 to the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration office in Panama, and the DEA refused to
take the information. Carlton’s evidence was extremely valuable since he had
frequent direct contacts with Noriega and the Medellin and Cali drug cartels.
The evidence included taped telephone conversations, documents, personal information about “money laundering, drugs, weapons, corruption, and assassinations.” But to have allowed Carlton to give that information would expose the
CIA, DEA, and Mossad involvement in drug trafficking. Carlton testified that
one of the DEA agents in Panama, who refused to receive the information, was
Thomas Tyre.
Standard Obstruction of Justice Tactic
Using a standard Justice Department tactic to silence or discredit whistleblowers, U.S. agents arrested Carlton in January 1987, charging him with drug
trafficking. The charges were made in such a way that Carlton would not be allowed to testify about the CIA role, which he had earlier sought to expose. DOJ
charges in 1987 may have been to silence and discredit what he knew about
CIA, DEA and U.S. military involvement in drug trafficking.
CIA—Noriega Drug Trafficking Coalition
U.S. Senator John Kerry stated what was already well known, that:
General Noriega had been on the payroll and an employee of the CIA for
many, many, many years and, I have been given to understand, up until
rather recently. It is not inconceivable, but it is most probable that this activity that the CIA had with this thug [Noriega] who was in their employ,
and how proud they must have been that one of their own, that they nurtured for so many years, had risen to this power position.
Articulating the “Depravity
of” Americas’ Drug Users
The Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Communications published a 1988 report stating:
The reason for believing the narco-trafficking is a matter for national security is that the Latin criminal cartels who have profited from the depravity
of some Americans constitute an international underworld so extensive, so
wealthy, and so powerful that it can literally buy governments and destabilize entire societies. This is a national security matter...Latin drug trafficking directly detracts from our ability to defend ourselves from military attack. Drug abuse has affected readiness within our Armed Forces...[What a load of crap DC]
Operation Toilet Seat
Caribbean Drug Smuggling
The CIA used Boeing 727, C-123, and C-130 type aircraft to haul drugs
from Central and South America to locations in the United States, including
military bases, as was well known to military personnel. The planes were
leased or operated by CIA proprietary airlines and flown either by
CIA/DIA/DEA crews or by pilots for private airlines acting as fronts for the
CIA, or CIA proprietaries.
Operation Watchtower
Operation Watchtower 3
was one of many drug trafficking operations from Central America consisting of the placement and operation of low frequency
radio beacons to guide low-flying pilots from Colombia to Panama. It also consisted of making available to the pilots the radio frequencies and schedules of
drug interdiction aircraft so as to avoid detection. Because of the extremely low
altitude these drug-laden aircraft flew, often less than five hundred feet, they
could not receive the line-of-sight navigational signals available throughout the
world (VOR). Radio transmission from a drug-carrying aircraft on a particular
frequency actuated a relay at the radio beacon that started up the gasoline engine-powered generators and the radio transmitters used for navigation.
3 Riders X-Change, Oct 1991 Edition; Called To Serve, 1991 Author Colonel James Gritz ; Freedom, Nov-Dec 1993; Freedom, Jan-Feb 1993; Freedom, Jan-Feb
1995, authored by U.S. Army Colonel William Wilson.
Military Involvement for
Drugging America
The CIA utilized the Army Intelligence Agency in Operation Watchtower,
which began in the mid-1970s. U.S. Army Colonel A.J. Baker was ordered to
oversee part of Operation Watchtower. It turned the operation over to Army
Colonel Edward P. Cutolo, who also commanded the 10th Special Forces based
at Ft. Devens, Massachusetts. Cutolo had supervised Operation Orwell for the
intelligence agencies. This operation spied on political figures for the purpose
of blackmail. Many of my deep-cover sources described the military’s passive
or active role in the drug trafficking into the United States.
Cutolo’s Fear of Death was Prophetic
Army Colonel Edward P. Cutolo, who had been ordered by the CIA to supervise Operation Watchtower, grew increasingly concerned about its illegality.
He conducted an investigation in an attempt to bring it to a halt. Fearing he
might be killed because of his investigation, he prepared a fifteen-page single spaced affidavit dated March 11, 1980, describing the CIA drug trafficking and
related undercover activities. Cutolo gave copies of it to several trusted friends 4
with instructions to release the affidavit to government officials and the media
if he was killed or died under suspicious circumstances. He was prophetic.
Colonel Cutolo died in a one-car accident near Skullthorpe, England, in 1980,
while on a military exercise near the Royal Air Force base at Skullthorpe.
Cutolo’s death was under strange circumstances, and occurred shortly before he
was to meet Harari. Cutolo was killed, as were several other people working
with him who sought to expose the drug trafficking operation.
4
Colonel A.J. Baker ; Hugh B. Pearce; Paul Neri, and eventually to Colonel James Gritz and William Tyree.
The Cutolo affidavit, the drug operation, and deaths, were the subject of a
one-hour television documentary on A&E Investigative Reports (March 22,
1999).
The affidavit described the installation and operation of the radio beacons
and several of the drug flights in which he participated. The first one occurred
in December 1975, headed by Colonel A.J. Baker, under whom Cutolo worked.
Cutolo stated in his affidavit that, in the February operation, “30 high-performance aircraft landed safely at Albrook Air Station,” and “the mission was 22
days long.”
The affidavit listed key people meeting the aircraft, including Colonel
Manuel Noriega, who was then Panama’s Defense Force Officer assigned to U.S. Customs; CIA operatives Edwin Wilson and Frank Terpil, and Mossad operative Michael Harari. Harari worked closely with U.S. intelligence agencies
in the drug trafficking operation, sharing the profits for Israel and sharing the
blame for the U.S. drug epidemic and associated crime wave. Harari had authority from the U.S. Army Southern Command in Panama to operate on military bases. Israel’s Mossad participation in drug trafficking made Israel a participant in undermining the welfare and security of the United States.
Operation Orwell
The Cutolo affidavit described another undercover mission, Operation Orwell, 5
which consisted of spying on politicians, judicial figures, state law enforcement agencies and religious figures. Compromising information was then
distributed to certain members of the military-industrial complex. Colonel
Cutolo stated in his affidavit that the compromising information was needed to
silence these people if information on the criminal activities leaked out:
5 Authority for the Army to become involved in this CIA operation came directly from FORSCOM through CIA operative Edwin Wilson, under Army Regulation (AR) 340-18-5 (file number 503-05).
Mr. Edwin Wilson explained that it was considered that Operation Watchtower 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 Colombia into Panama.
Based on that possibility, intense surveillance was undertaken by my office
to ensure that if Watchtower became known, the United States government
and the Army would have advance warnings and could prepare a defense.
The affidavit listed some of the people against whom the surveillance was directed:
I 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’Neill, to name a few of the targets. Surveillance at my orders was instituted at the Governors residences in Massachusetts, Maine, 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.
I specifically used individuals from the 441st Military Intelligence detachment and 402 Army Security Agency Detachment assigned to the 10th
Special Forces Group to supplement the SATs tasked with carrying out Operation Orwell. I also recruited a number of local state employees who
worked within the ranks of local police and, as court personnel, to assist in
this Operation. They were veterans and had previous security clearances.
They were told at the outset that if they were caught they were on their
own.
Sgt. John Newby received threatening phone calls and then died in a parachuting accident when his chute failed to open. Colonel Robert Bayard was murdered in Atlanta, Georgia in 1977 as he went to meet Mossad agent Michael Harari.
Colonel Baker died while trying to determine if Harari had killed Colonel Cutolo. Colonel James Rowe was assassinated on April 21, 1989, in the Philippines within three days after Mossad agent Harari arrived in that country. Rowe had been investigating Harari’s links to Cutolo’s murder and to CIA operatives Edwin Wilson and Thomas Clines. Pearce was killed in a helicopter accident in June 1989 under mysterious circumstances. Congressman Larkin Smith died in an airplane accident on August 13, 1989.
The affidavit stated that Mossad agents associated with Operation Watchtower were being protected by CIA Director Stansfield Turner and George Bush and that Washington military authorities had approved the drug trafficking operation:
Harari was a known middleman for matters involving the United States in Latin America and acted with the support of a network of Mossad personnel throughout Latin America and worked mainly in the import and export of arms and drug trafficking. Edwin Wilson explained that Operation Watchtower had to remain secret...There are similar operations being implemented elsewhere in the world. Wilson named the “Golden Triangle ” of Southeast Asia and Pakistan... Wilson named several recognized officials of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Burma, Korea, Thailand and Cambodia as being aware and consenting to these arrangements, similar to the ones in Panama.
Referring to the huge profits received by the CIA from the drug trafficking, the affidavit continued:
Edwin Wilson explained that the profit 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 funneled through Swiss banks with a small remainder being handled by banks within the United States. 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. Wilson also stated that an associate whom I don’t know also aided in overseeing the laundering of funds...Wilson indicated that most of Operation Watchtower was implemented on the authority of [CIA Thomas] Clines.
I was notified by Edwin Wilson that the information forwarded to Washington, D.C., was disseminated to private corporations who were developing weapons systems for the Dept. of Defense. Those private corporations were encouraged to use the sensitive information gathered from surveillance of U.S. senators and representatives as leverage [blackmail] to manipulate those Congressmen into approving whatever costs the weapon systems incurred.
As of the date of this affidavit, 8,400 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. I have stored certain information gathered by Operation Orwell on Fort Devens, and pursuant to instructions from Edwin Wilson have forwarded additional information gathered to Washington, D.C....Certain information was collected on suspected members of the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg group. Among those that information was collected on were Gerald Ford and President Jimmy Carter. Edwin Wilson indicated that additional surveillance was implemented against former CIA Director George Bush, whom Wilson named as a member of the Trilateral Commission.
Edwin Wilson named three weapons systems when he spoke of private corporations receiving information from Operation Orwell. (1) An armored vehicle. (2) An aircraft that is invisible to radar. (3) A weapons system that utilizes kinetic energy. Edwin Wilson indicated to me during our conversation, which entailed the dissemination of Operation Orwell information and the identification of the three weapons systems, that Operation Orwell would be implemented nationwide by 4 July 1980.
The affidavit made reference to classified information and “the activities of the CIA in the United States and in Latin America.” Referring to people working with Edwin Wilson, the affidavit continued:
Each operation had basically the same characters involved...with Edwin Wilson...Robert Gates and William J. Casey...
Master Sergeant Mark Larochelle, also involved in Operation Orwell, was killed during a helicopter-training mission at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas in July 1990.
Colonel William Wilson, a Green Beret, described the drug trafficking in Operation Watchtower. After retirement he authored two articles appearing in Freedom (Nov-Dec 1993 and Jan-Feb 1995) describing his knowledge and role in the operation. Wilson served with the Army’s Office of Inspector General, and assisted in uncovering and documenting the massacre of hundreds of Vietnamese civilians by American troops at My Lai on March 16, 1968.
As Colonel Cutolo suspected, Neri was killed, apparently to silence him.
Paul Neri was one of the people who Cutolo entrusted with the affidavit and
who had been requested to make the affidavit public upon his death. In distributing the affidavit to members of Congress and the media, Neri wrote:
Both Col. Rowe and Mr. Pearce agreed to go public after the meeting with Larkin Smith, to call for a full investigation into the events described in Col. Cutolo’s affidavit. But both men died prior to the meeting with Smith.
With the deaths of Col. Cutolo, Col. Baker, Col. Rowe (and Col. Robert Bayard named in Col. Cutolo’s affidavit) it is hard to believe the deaths of these men are not the work of the Israeli Mossad. It is equally easy to attribute the death of Col. Cutolo directly to Operation Watchtower inquiries.
Meeting the same cover-up response that I received for the past thirty years from the establishment media, Neri’s letter stated:
For your information a copy of the affidavit will be sent to the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe. The men who died so far...were good men. They attempted to let the public know what really occurred in Latin America, and in the never-ending drug flow.
In 1980 Col. Cutolo died in an accident while on a military exercise. 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. I believe that Col. Cutolo died in his attempt to expose Operation Watchtower...
Colonel Baker enlisted the aid of Colonel James N. Rowe, and between Col. Baker, Col. Rowe and myself, we set out to prove that Harari murdered Col. Cutolo, and that Operation Watchtower...netted Edwin Wilson and Frank Terpil of the CIA a large sum of tax free dollars.
Prior to getting very far into the investigation, Col. Baker died. We had no doubt as to the guilt of Thomas Clines, whom we suspect was the mastermind behind Operation Watchtower.
Neri went on to describe how Harari and Col. James Rowe 6 were in the Philippines when Rowe was assassinated. Neri’s letter continued: “I believe Harari’s motive for murdering Col. Rowe was due to Col. Rowe’s inquiries about Harari’s movements and relationships to Edwin Wilson, Thomas Clines and Manuel Noriega.”
Deaths Associated with
Military Drug Operation
The Cutolo affidavit continued: “I have seen other men involved in Operation Watchtower meet accidental deaths after they were also threatened.”
Cutolo’s affidavit identified the people who died in strange fashion and who
had posed a danger of exposing the drug trafficking. Sgt. John Newby received threatening phone calls and then died in a parachuting accident when his chute failed to open. Colonel Robert Bayard was murdered in Atlanta, Georgia in 1977 as he went to meet Mossad agent Michael Harari.
Colonel Baker died while trying to determine if Harari had killed Colonel Cutolo. Colonel James Rowe was assassinated on April 21, 1989, in the Philippines within three days after Mossad agent Harari arrived in that country. Rowe had been investigating Harari’s links to Cutolo’s murder and to CIA operatives Edwin Wilson and Thomas Clines. Pearce was killed in a helicopter accident in June 1989 under mysterious circumstances. Congressman Larkin Smith died in an airplane accident on August 13, 1989.
The affidavit stated that Mossad agents associated with Operation Watchtower were being protected by CIA Director Stansfield Turner and George Bush and that Washington military authorities had approved the drug trafficking operation:
Harari was a known middleman for matters involving the United States in Latin America and acted with the support of a network of Mossad personnel throughout Latin America and worked mainly in the import and export of arms and drug trafficking. Edwin Wilson explained that Operation Watchtower had to remain secret...There are similar operations being implemented elsewhere in the world. Wilson named the “Golden Triangle ” of Southeast Asia and Pakistan... Wilson named several recognized officials of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Burma, Korea, Thailand and Cambodia as being aware and consenting to these arrangements, similar to the ones in Panama.
Referring to the huge profits received by the CIA from the drug trafficking, the affidavit continued:
Edwin Wilson explained that the profit 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 funneled through Swiss banks with a small remainder being handled by banks within the United States. 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. Wilson also stated that an associate whom I don’t know also aided in overseeing the laundering of funds...Wilson indicated that most of Operation Watchtower was implemented on the authority of [CIA Thomas] Clines.
Spying on Politicians
Referring to Operation Orwell, which spied upon politicians for subsequent
blackmail: I was notified by Edwin Wilson that the information forwarded to Washington, D.C., was disseminated to private corporations who were developing weapons systems for the Dept. of Defense. Those private corporations were encouraged to use the sensitive information gathered from surveillance of U.S. senators and representatives as leverage [blackmail] to manipulate those Congressmen into approving whatever costs the weapon systems incurred.
As of the date of this affidavit, 8,400 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. I have stored certain information gathered by Operation Orwell on Fort Devens, and pursuant to instructions from Edwin Wilson have forwarded additional information gathered to Washington, D.C....Certain information was collected on suspected members of the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg group. Among those that information was collected on were Gerald Ford and President Jimmy Carter. Edwin Wilson indicated that additional surveillance was implemented against former CIA Director George Bush, whom Wilson named as a member of the Trilateral Commission.
Congressional Cowardice and
Resulting Obstruction of Justice
It is easy to understand how members of Congress can be blackmailed into
ignoring criminal activities involving personnel of intelligence agencies or the
Justice Department when information on their personal lives is secretly collected by the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies for blackmail purposes.
Implementing Secret Political
Surveillance Nationwide
The affidavit described some of the weapon manufacturers who received
this CIA information: Edwin Wilson named three weapons systems when he spoke of private corporations receiving information from Operation Orwell. (1) An armored vehicle. (2) An aircraft that is invisible to radar. (3) A weapons system that utilizes kinetic energy. Edwin Wilson indicated to me during our conversation, which entailed the dissemination of Operation Orwell information and the identification of the three weapons systems, that Operation Orwell would be implemented nationwide by 4 July 1980.
The affidavit made reference to classified information and “the activities of the CIA in the United States and in Latin America.” Referring to people working with Edwin Wilson, the affidavit continued:
Each operation had basically the same characters involved...with Edwin Wilson...Robert Gates and William J. Casey...
Continuing Murders
Before leaving on his trip, Cutolo wrote a note to Colonel Rowe, informing
him that he had arranged to meet with Michael Harari (in Manila). Why would
a U.S. military intelligence officer meet secretly with a Mossad operative if the
two intelligence agencies routinely met with each other? Cutolo died on May
26, 1980, his death caused by multiple fractures to the skull, other fractures,
and punctured organs. These were out of the ordinary for the type of auto accident in which he was involved. Master Sergeant Mark Larochelle, also involved in Operation Orwell, was killed during a helicopter-training mission at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas in July 1990.
Colonel William Wilson, a Green Beret, described the drug trafficking in Operation Watchtower. After retirement he authored two articles appearing in Freedom (Nov-Dec 1993 and Jan-Feb 1995) describing his knowledge and role in the operation. Wilson served with the Army’s Office of Inspector General, and assisted in uncovering and documenting the massacre of hundreds of Vietnamese civilians by American troops at My Lai on March 16, 1968.
Colonel Neri—Killed
by Israel‘s Mossad ?
Both Col. Rowe and Mr. Pearce agreed to go public after the meeting with Larkin Smith, to call for a full investigation into the events described in Col. Cutolo’s affidavit. But both men died prior to the meeting with Smith.
Killing of U.S. Personnel
by Israel‘s Mossad
Referring to the Mossad, Neri’s cover letter stated: With the deaths of Col. Cutolo, Col. Baker, Col. Rowe (and Col. Robert Bayard named in Col. Cutolo’s affidavit) it is hard to believe the deaths of these men are not the work of the Israeli Mossad. It is equally easy to attribute the death of Col. Cutolo directly to Operation Watchtower inquiries.
Meeting the same cover-up response that I received for the past thirty years from the establishment media, Neri’s letter stated:
For your information a copy of the affidavit will be sent to the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe. The men who died so far...were good men. They attempted to let the public know what really occurred in Latin America, and in the never-ending drug flow.
In 1980 Col. Cutolo died in an accident while on a military exercise. 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. I believe that Col. Cutolo died in his attempt to expose Operation Watchtower...
Colonel Baker enlisted the aid of Colonel James N. Rowe, and between Col. Baker, Col. Rowe and myself, we set out to prove that Harari murdered Col. Cutolo, and that Operation Watchtower...netted Edwin Wilson and Frank Terpil of the CIA a large sum of tax free dollars.
Prior to getting very far into the investigation, Col. Baker died. We had no doubt as to the guilt of Thomas Clines, whom we suspect was the mastermind behind Operation Watchtower.
Neri went on to describe how Harari and Col. James Rowe 6 were in the Philippines when Rowe was assassinated. Neri’s letter continued: “I believe Harari’s motive for murdering Col. Rowe was due to Col. Rowe’s inquiries about Harari’s movements and relationships to Edwin Wilson, Thomas Clines and Manuel Noriega.”
6 Rowe was in the Philippines serving as chief of the Army Advisory Group.
Referring to another death in those seeking to expose Operation Watchtower, Neri wrote:
In June 1989, Mr. Pearce was killed in a helicopter accident. The accident has a story of its own I am told. Both Col. Rowe and Mr. Pearce agreed to go public, after the meeting with Larkin Smith, to call for a full investigation into the events described in Col. Cutolo’s affidavit. But both men died prior to the meeting with Smith.
Since the Israeli Mossad openly traffics in arms and drugs in Latin America, a theory that Clines, Wilson, Terpil, Harari and Noriega engaged in Operation Watchtower is very easy to believe at this time, especially following the Libyan situation and the Iran-Contra affair. It all fits, this entire scenario carried over from Operation Watchtower directly into the Iran/Contra affair with the same characters.
This CBS cover-up made possible the continuation of the drug trafficking and more murders. Over the years I encountered many deep-cover operatives who offered and provided evidence of the CIA drug trafficking to television and radio networks, and experienced the same cover-ups that I experienced the past 30 years.
Mr. Paul Neri, of the National Security Agency, died on April 29, 1990. Before his death, he requested that I mail the enclosed affidavit to you. Paul Neri was concerned that he would be killed or lose his security clearance if he revealed the affidavit before he died. According to him, these facts are true. If you investigate and interview the parties named within the affidavit, you will find the information is true. I am simply carrying out the wishes of a good friend, but do not want to get involved any further; therefore, I shall remain anonymous.
It was too risky to allow a military court to review the charges against Pvt. Tyree with Operation Orwell still ongoing and Senator Garn’s office requesting a full investigation. Pvt. Tyree therefore had to stand before a civilian court of law on the criminal charges.
On 29 February 1980, Pvt. Tyree was convicted of murder and will spend the duration of his life incarcerated. I could not disseminate intelligence gathered under Operation Orwell to notify civilian authorities who actually killed Elaine Tyree.
Tyree was crew chief on a “sterile”7 helicopter used in Operation Watchtower. The Special Forces Teams were used to install and maintain the radio beacons that were part of Operation Watchtower. Tyree described an incident in which a group of Green Berets 8 identified as Special Action Team Number 1 were ambushed in Colombia near the village of Turbo by four dozen soldiers from a Colombian Army Unit who mistook the SAT members for local bandits. Two of the SAT team members were shot before their radio request for air evacuation was carried out.
7 Special forces used the term Asterile@ to indicate the aircraft was stripped of all identification, the purpose of which was to deny the role of the United States in the operation.
8 The Green Berets were divided into three Special Action Teams, each one consisting of approximately seven men.
9 Including U.S. Senator E.J. Garn (R-Utah)
Colonel Rowe took command of Operation Orwell following Colonel Cutolo’s death. Rowe advised Tyree of the continued surveillance activities, including that of Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence H. Tribe. The surveillance activities were initiated by Special Forces personnel because of the people’s opposition to Washington policies. Rowe told Tyree that he had substantial evidence showing that Colonel Edward Cutolo, Colonel James Baker, and Colonel Robert Bayard, were all victims of foul play, and that Mossad operative Michael Harari was involved in the deaths.
Tyree wrote that the last message he received from Colonel Rowe was just prior to Rowe’s departure for Manila, where Rowe was assassinated in April 1989. Rowe told Tyree that if he remembered any more details on what Tyree had earlier told him, to call a certain phone number and leave a message.10 After Rowe was assassinated, Tyree called the number and reached a Colonel Richard Malvesti,11 who stated that he was in possession of the material on which Colonel Rowe was working. From time to time Tyree received news clippings in the mail relating to personnel involved in Operations Watchtower or Orwell, without the name or address of the sender. Tyree stated that he thought the mailings were from Colonel Malvesti or Paul Neri of the U.S. National Security Agency.
10 Phone number for Colonel Rowe was 919-396-3832.
11 Malvesti was director for operations of the Joint Special Operations Command.
Malvesti's activities on behalf of exposing Operation Watchtower and Orwell probably played a role in his subsequent death 12 on July 26, 1990. During a routine parachute jump in 1990, his parachute failed to open. This failure could easily be brought about by someone tampering with the chute.
12 Malvesti is buried in the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne.
General Carl W. Stiner, a four-star general who was commander in chief of the U.S. Special Operations Command, spoke at Malvesti funeral, stating, “The Ranger experience is not for the weak or the faint-hearted.” Excellent rhetoric, but it didn’t address the criminal activities associated with Malvesti’s death or the many others, or of the subversive and criminal activities by people allegedly representing and protecting the interests of the United States.
Tyree said that on July 23, 1990, he received the affidavit of Colonel Cutolo that was sent on behalf of Paul Neri, and that the information that pertained to Tyree and his personal observation was correct.
Tyree overheard several of the Panamanian military officers give credit to a Colombian armed forces officer named Eber Villegas for assisting the success of Operation Watchtower.
Tyree explained how he gave Secret and Top Secret U.S. documents to PDF and Israeli agents, possibly explaining how the drug-laden aircraft obtained the radio frequencies and flight schedules of drug-interdiction aircraft.
I personally witnessed members of the Panamanian Defense 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 Lis del CID, and Major Ramirez. 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.
Tyree described seeing Wilson provide PDF officers with manila folders containing the following addresses: CIA, Office of Naval Intelligence, and Defense Intelligence Agency. The contents appeared to be photographs taken by satellites or SR-71 high-altitude spy aircraft.
Colonel Cutolo, who commanded the second and third Watchtower missions, and Tyree were transferred to the 10th Special Forces Group at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, along with another participant, Sergeant John Newby. As stated earlier, Newby started receiving threats upon his life, and his life ended in October 1978.
During the 1976 Watchtower operation, Tyree said that the pilots appeared to be mercenaries who spoke several foreign languages and had German, French, and English accents. The pilots and lead personnel in the first 1975 operations appeared younger and acted as if they were U.S. Army or U.S. Navy personnel. He thought that British Special Air Service (SEA’S.) pilots were on some of the flights.
Tyree said that Ted Shackley, a former high-ranking CIA operative, was deeply involved in Operation Watchtower and other CIA-related drug operations. He believed that the Navy’s Task Force 157 participated in Operation Watchtower. He said that “Colonel. Baker, Col. Rowe and I believe Thomas Clines, with the aid of Edwin Wilson and Frank Terpil, orchestrated Operation Watchtower...with full CIA auspices.”
13 Including Senator J. Garn of Utah.
Sergeant Kenneth Garcy stated in an affidavit dated September 29, 1990, that Elaine Tyree was keeping a record of what she had learned about the drug operation. He said she intended to turn the diary-style book over to the Criminal Investigation Division (CID), and that Tyree was concerned about the safety of his wife. She started receiving threats and made these threats known to Colonel Cutolo, First Sergeant Frederick Henry, and Garcy.
Francis M. Gardner, the manager of the apartments where the Tyrees lived at the time of Elaine Tyree‘s death, signed a statement before a notary public stating that he observed a person identified as Earl Michael Peters leaving the Tyree‘s apartment carrying a box (which the Tyrees had stored for him). Police arrived shortly thereafter and Elaine Tyree was found stabbed to death. According to Tyree the police never interviewed Gardner. Gardner stated to investigators that he saw the police remove the diary kept by Elaine Tyree and other papers. The police denied this.
14 Trial Court, First Northern Middlesex Division, Cases No. 271-272-273 of 1979 308 & 367.
To prevent further investigation into the murder, Army officials conspired with Lieutenant J. Dwyer of the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office and the county district attorney. They went to the Massachusetts Supreme Court and obtained a ruling prohibiting any court but the Massachusetts Supreme Court from ordering the arrest of suspects in the Tyree murder. This was without precedent, as any court in Massachusetts had authority to issue arrest warrants for murder suspects. But the ruling protected the real murderer, Michael Peters, who, if charged, would have exposed Operation Watchtower and Operation Orwell.
Massachusetts Judge James F. McHugh 15 refused to accept testimony from active duty personnel of the U.S. Army Special Forces who came forward to corroborate the existence of Operation Watchtower. The judge even threatened to charge Tyree with perjury if he decided that the statements were false. Army attorneys warned Tyree he would be prosecuted for divulging classified information, the military-CIA drug trafficking being considered “classified information.” Judge McHugh refused to accept live testimony from active duty U.S. Army Special Forces personnel, who could expose the truth.
15 Middlesex Superior Court, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
After Tyree was held guilty in the murder of his wife the military at Fort Devens,
Massachusetts gave Tyree an honorable discharge. If Tyree had actually murdered his
wife, the Army would undoubtedly have given him a dishonorable discharge. Even
Elaine Tyree‘s father felt, and wrote, that he did not believe Tyree to be the murderer.
I recommend that you destroy the surveillance material collected at the Tyree residence on January 30, 1979, if you have not already done so.
Droney was using, as the primary witness against Tyree in the murder of Elaine Tyree, the same person seen leaving the Tyree residence at the time of the murder.
[The congressman] was hated by many different factions in the United States...the perfect place to assassinate him would be outside the U.S., where the law enforcement authorities are not as apt to control the evidence, crime scene, etc. This fact was known to [the state department], and they acted on it as a precaution. The Special Forces team assigned to guard the U.S. Representative didn’t arrive on the ground in Jonestown until minutes after the U.S. Representative was dead. Several facts in dispute are:
• Did the Special Forces team deliberately delay in reaching Jonestown? If so, why did they delay, and on whose orders did they delay?
• That the Special Forces team were the people that actually killed the U.S. Representative. This is possible, as the person who told me that version is a person who has always proved to be a credible source.
• A number of Special Forces were training the ranchers in and around the Jonestown complex in security measures.
As stated earlier, A&E Investigative Reports aired a one-hour television documentary that included the murder of Elaine Tyree (March 22, 1999).
Russbacher was my initial gateway into the blurry world of undercover activities in the late 1980s and this continued to the end of the twentieth century, at which time he became a key member of Austrian intelligence. He was very detailed in his description of undercover activities, and I feel he was very truthful in what he conveyed to me through thousands of hours of oftentimes deposition-like questioning covering a ten-year period.
It was ironical that Parker had crossed paths with Russbacher. It added still more corroboration of Russbacher’s status. Parker provided me information on CIA activities that Russbacher had failed to mention. Once Parker gave me preliminary information about the activities, Russbacher then enlarged upon them when I asked. One such activity was called Operation Indigo which he described in court filings.16
16 United States of America vs. Trenton H. Parker, U.S. District Court, Denver,, No. CR 93-43.
Operation Indigo
Russbacher enlarged upon Operation Indigo. He said the full name was Operation Indigo Sky, and confirmed that it had been in operation since approximately 1976. Russbacher said that the operation consists of producing heroin in poppy fields in Nigeria and processing in the capital city of Lagos, along with transportation to Europe and the United States.
Russbacher stated that the intent of Operation Indigo Sky was to get an alternate supply for heroin coming from the Golden Triangle area and the Indian subcontinent. The operation began with the 1976 purchase of the Star Brewery in Lagos and its subsequent multi-million-dollar upgrade into a heroin processing facility. The brewery’s name was changed to Star of Nigeria and then to Red Star. The transportation of the drugs from Lagos was initially by the CIA and DEA and then changed to contract operators. Most of the processed drugs in Operation Indigo Sky went from Lagos to Amsterdam, where it was further packaged and then shipped to European and United States destinations.
Parker provided me with a confidential employee status report showing his CIA status from December 23, 1964 to May 24, 1992. His last rank was shown as Colonel in the United States Marine Corp. The report showed that he had a top-secret clearance, and that he was attached to Marine-Naval intelligence and to the CIA. His MSID identification number was 2072458. The reports identified Parker as a member of the ultra-secret Pegasus group, with headquarters in the U.S. Department of Labor offices in Fairfax, Virginia. The status report listed his alias, Pegasus 222.
The 4,000 pounds of cocaine, including the bad cocaine that Ochoa had switched, was then shipped to Miami and seized by U.S. Customs, as planned. Bush got good publicity for his role as drug czar and Ochoa and his insiders made over fifty million dollars by replacing good cocaine with bad cocaine.
The sting operation in which Parker participated used an informant to notify DEA agent Phelps in Bogota that the drugs were arriving at Miami International Airport on a particular flight at a given time. Phelps then notified DEA and Customs at Miami so they could be present at the aircraft’s arrival.
Several people working with Parker were at the aircraft, presenting the appearance of being there to unload the cargo. However, they intended to run off as the DEA and Customs agents appeared. But no agents arrived. The pilots wanted the drugs unloaded fast and wanted to leave. To avoid losing the drugs intended for the planned seizure, Parker’s people unloaded the crates containing the drugs onto the tarmac.
The cocaine was hidden in boxes of Levi jeans, with yellow bands on the boxes containing the real Levi’s, and white bands on the boxes containing the cocaine. Parker’s people sprayed the boxes containing the cocaine with ether, used in the preparation of cocaine, insuring the cocaine would not be missed.
The absence of the expected DEA and Customs agents presented Parker with a problem. He advised his men by radio to stand by. An hour later, Parker saw through his binoculars a couple of Customs agents, engaging in frivolity, walking slowly toward the boxes, obviously unaware of the presence of drugs. Parker then radioed his men to stay clear of the area.
Parker watched through his binoculars as the agents poked holes in the boxes to check for possible drugs. The third box that they poked caused white cocaine powder to escape. Parker then radioed his people to immediately leave the area.
Parker boarded a commercial airline for return to Denver. That night the U.S. media described the drug find as the largest discovery in the nation’s history. DEA and Customs officials described the drug-find as the result of an intensive coordinated effort between the DEA and Customs.
ORIGINAL TRANSMISSION DATE: 3/3/93 RETRANSMISSION DATE: 3/10/93
DOCUMENT CLASSIFICATION STATUS: TOP SECRET TO: MONA B. ALDERSON,
LITIGATION DIVISION, OGC,
CIA/WASHINGTON D.C. CONFIDENTIAL
PRO: 703-874-3197
FAX: 703-874-3208
RE: INQUIRY OF 3/3/93 Defense Exhibit No. G-47-F-222
MR. JOSEPH MACKEY,
ASST. U.S. ATTORNEY,
DENVER, COL.
PRO: 303-844-2081
FAX: 303-874-3208
NOTICE: PURSUANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY ACT OF 1947, 50 USC 401 & 402, ET. SQ. – THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS CONSIDERED INFORMATION OF A CLASSIFIED NATURE INVOLVING NATIONAL SECURITY AND SHOULD BE TREATED BY YOU AND YOUR DEPARTMENT/OFFICE ACCORDINGLY.
RE: BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND CURRENT OP'S-STAT ON SUBJECT, TRENTON N. PARKER AKA PEGASUS-222 – 2/2/45-COL. USMC/GS18 ATTACHED MARINE-NAVAL ITLG-SEC/TAD-CIA-12/23/64 TO 5/24/92. SECURITY LVL/TOP SECRET/EXP 5/24/92. MSID NO. 2072458. SS NO. 553-60-1458. MSA/SPL-DDO/SEC-CHIEF-SP/AG PEGASUS UNIT. CONFIRM/REC/CIA/DENVER, CO. SBS/CUR/RES – DENVER, CO. ALL OP'S/ASSIGN. CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET/UNAVAILABLE. CUR/SEC/STAT: HIGH RISK. FED/CR/IDC/DENVER-1/27-93.
NO ADDITIONAL RECORDS OR BACKGROUND INFORMATION AVAILABLE FOR RELEASE TO YOUR OFFICE AT THIS TIME ON SUBJECT DUE TO MATTERS OF NATIONAL SECURITY AND PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/G-BUSH 5/24/92.
DO/DA RECOMMENDATION: - STANDARD DENIAL
ANSWER BACK/REF/P-222,
DO/COMM-CTR/3/3/93,
FDR/ATL/SEC – DOD/DOA, CONFIDENTIAL
DRC/CIA/LANG/VA.
The above is a CIA confidential document showing Parker’s ONI and CIA status, which has been recopied by the author from the original document so as to make the contents more easily readable.
“We made arrangements with Colonel Noriega, and this was the point where Noriega became involved with the CIA and the drugs,” Parker said. He continued: “The deal was that the meeting between M-19 and Ochoa and Escobar would be held in a neutral point, namely Panama. During the second week of January 1982, everything was set up.”
Lehder was getting way out of line. He was shooting at people, and when he finally shot at Walter Cronkite, who happened to be sailing around in the area, Walter broke the news and a lot of people were saying how can this guy be operating out of Norman’s Cay just off the shores of the United States?
Parker stated that Lehder was then forced to leave Norman’s Cay and return to Colombia, where he joined the Medellin Cartel. Parker said that before leaving Nassau he was joined by Robert Vesco (wanted in the United States for bank fraud), and then a CIA aircraft flew them to Havana, where they were met at the airport by security guards and Fidel Castro. Parker said:
I personally delivered two million dollars to Fidel Castro. And for those two million dollars he was to see that a shipment of arms was to go to M19, which was a right-wing revolutionary force that we wanted to keep active so that we could have pressure on the government to bring about certain things that we wanted to do. And we needed pressure from below and pressure from above. He agreed to do that and he did do that.
Parker continued: “I took the remaining two million dollars and flew into Panama City, Panama and there I checked into Holiday Inn.” where he met with the head of Colombia’s M-19. Parker added: “I delivered my one million dollars to him and then I met with Colonel Noriega and delivered one million dollars to him. That one million dollars was to pay Noriega to act as the neutral party to help bring about the release of Ochoa‘s sister. Sure enough, Ochoa’s sister was released.” Parker continued:
And then he was also supposed to make an offer that he could and would provide protection for the drugs coming into the United States through the back door to the midway. And what that was, is that we had already made a move on the cartel to close down some of the small operations. At that time Noriega offered a connection into the Sandinistas, the drug operations. Refinery plants were set up there. And that’s what we wanted, as we wanted to show the Sandinistas as being the bad guys and justify U.S. involvement.
What we were doing was also financing operations because a certain group in the CIA was going ahead and flying guns down into Nicaragua, and dropping them off by parachutes to the Contras. They then went over to the Sandinistas, picked up drugs and flew them into the United States, after which the money would be returned to the Sandinistas. In effect we were taking over some of the flying services for the Medellin Cartel. The money from the drugs produced the money for the guns and that is how the operation worked, and Bush knew the whole goddamn thing.
Parker explained that after completing that trip, he flew back to Denver where he was to go to trial on charges relating to a CIA operation called Operation Gold Bug. He explained that he was on a one-million-dollar self-recognizance bond, which was rather bizarre since any offense requiring that large a bond would be too serious to permit release on one’s own recognizance.
Parker thought that charging him was a mistake unless it was to silence or discredit him. Parker said, “First, my trial was to start on February 2, 1982. Second, when it came up it came up by a pure fluke.” He explained how the CIA was to protect him from prosecution. Prior to trial his CIA handlers instructed him to remain silent about the CIA operation as it was ongoing and that any exposure of it would have serious consequences. His handlers stated that he would receive a very light prison sentence or probation and would soon be free.
These statements added further fuel to the charges that the CIA was involved in Kennedy’s assassination. In light of other CIA criminal activities, there should be little doubt that the CIA has the mindset to assassinate a president of the United States.
Parker described the necessity of Pegasus going underground within the CIA because of the inability to report to a president, and that the files on corrupt CIA operations gathered by the Pegasus group were moved to various secret locations. Denver was one of the sites.
Parker said that his Pegasus group secretly gave files on the CIA criminal activities from 1976 to 1982 to a member of the Joint Armed Services Committee, Congressman Larry McDonald. These files revealed corrupt activities by several U.S. presidents, federal officials, the CIA, and other members of government.
Parker said that McDonald let it be known to the press that he was going to reveal startling evidence upon his return from the Far East showing that the CIA and certain high-ranking public officials were part of an operation responsible for drug trafficking since 1963 from Southeast Asia. McDonald boarded KAL Flight 007, which was shot down by the Russians.[that just proves they are all in it together,what are the odds,the Russians shoot down THAT plane? DC]
Another CIA contract agent, Ron Rewald, was used in a similar operation and was later recruited by the CIA to operate a proprietary in Hawaii known as Bishop, Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham and Wong (BBRDW ). This operation is described in detail in the third edition of Defrauding America.
To qualify Parker for use in financial operations, the CIA obtained employment for him with New York Stock Exchange brokerage firms from 1971 until 1974 in California and Colorado. While in those positions, he supplied confidential information to the CIA on customers’ accounts and transactions. Eventually he opened his own brokerage firm as a front for the CIA through the SEC and NASD.
This is similar to the operation described to me by CIA operative Gunther Russbacher in which Russbacher received training at Mutual Life Insurance Company and then incorporated and operated a number of CIA financial institutions headquartered in Missouri. These institutions had offices throughout the United States including Denver, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and Traverse City, Michigan.
Parker elaborated upon other CIA operations in which he was involved, including infiltration of U.S. financial institutions, drug operations in Central and South America, and the Nigerian operation known as Indigo Sky.
17 A syndicated show of Sun Radio Network, heard throughout the United States, and on short wave five nights a week.
18 Prouty authored The Secret Team, and other CIA books.
There was another possible reason for filing charges against Parker. He stated that his handlers had asked him to be part of an expanding drug operation in Nigeria called Operation Indigo Sky and that he refused. He didn’t care to get involved in drug trafficking, and further, living conditions in Nigeria were deplorable.
Justice Department prosecutors and CIA personnel encouraged Parker to plead guilty, assuring him that he would be released as soon as attention to his case no longer existed. Parker pled guilty in 1982 and he refused all newspaper interviews. He was promptly hidden in the federal prison system, including months of diesel therapy that kept him from a law library and telephone. (“Diesel therapy” is a term used to describe the practice by prison officials to transfer a prisoner from prison to prison, during which he is often unable to communicate with his lawyer or family.)
The opportunity to seek legal relief arose while Parker was in an Arizona prison where he could prepare and file a post-conviction motion, which was heard by U.S. District Judge Marquez in Tucson on February 12, 1986. The judge ordered the prison warden and the U.S. Attorney to release Parker immediately. In 1992, U.S. Attorney Michael Norton in Denver charged Parker with money laundering charges that had been part of his CIA operations. At his arraignment, the judge ordered him released pending trial that was set for April 1993. Before his release, Parker occupied a cell with Stewart Webb, a private investigator whom I had met earlier, and who was trying to expose the HUD and savings and loan corruption in the Denver area. Webb showed Parker some of my writings, causing Parker to contact me upon his release.
Parker said that he had been with the CIA for approximately 30 years and was part of Faction “B” and with a unit called Pegasus 222. The CIA reportedly has three factions. Faction One or sometimes referred to as Faction “A,” appears to be under the control of the Justice Department: Faction Two or Bfaction is supposedly under the control of the Office of Naval Intelligence. Faction. Faction Three is small, including former OSS operatives and reportedly a loose-knit group of rogues.
While waiting for trial, Parker filed papers with the court listing the secret CIA operations that he would reveal. He also filed a list of documents that he would submit, including the confidential status report showing him to be a Colonel in the U.S. Marines assigned to the Office of Naval Intelligence and to the Central Intelligence Agency.
Once Parker filed the list of documents with the court, an assistant U.S. attorney in Denver complained to the judge that Parker should have filed the documents under seal because they revealed secret CIA activities. Because of those revealing documents, U.S. Attorney Norton dismissed all charges against Parker, which avoided revealing the Agency’s dirty linen. Parker called me on March 23, 1993, stating: “All charges have been dropped. I’m going underground. Don’t ask any questions.” He then hung up.
A year later, in June 1994, the State of Arizona again sought to extradite Parker from Colorado. Colorado attorney Dennis L. Blewitt said to me that almost twenty law-enforcement personnel surrounded Parker’s home and arrested him, based upon the Arizona extradition papers.
Parker then sought to have the papers filed in the previous extradition attempt, in the possession of another judge, sent to the court where the new extradition request was to be heard. Blewitt and several friends went to the clerk of the court where the case was pending, requesting help in getting from the other judge the necessary documents. When the clerk heard the name of my book, Defrauding America, she reached under the counter and pulled out a copy. When she realized that Parker was in the book she told the group not to worry, that she would get the records for Parker.
Reportedly, the clerk and the two judges had a copy of the book with Parker’s activities described in detail. Arizona requested that a $500,000 cash bond be required for Parker’s release pending a hearing on the extradition request. The judge settled for $3,500. After Parker was released he called me, describing the events, and said that even the Thornton city police, who arrested him, had a copy of Defrauding America in the police station, and it was being read by the people on duty. Several times Parker credited the book with bringing about his release.
Fighting extradition, Parker filed into court records the Expanded Second Edition of Defrauding America, referring to the sections explaining Parker’s CIA activities and telling how Justice Department officials sought to silence or discredit CIA assets by filing sham charges and incarceration. The judge refused to honor the extradition papers from Arizona, ordering Parker released from custody. Parker felt that the book played a role in his release.
Another source that I describe in Defrauding America, Leo Wanta, who played a role in destabilizing the Russian currency, described meetings he had in Europe with Vincent Foster.
During the years following these events Parker told me he wanted nothing else to do with any of the corruption in government. He felt that the nation’s checks and balances were too corrupt, the public too illiterate about government misconduct, and too indifferent, for anyone to show any meaningful concern.
Bowen gave me many hours of information concerning his activities for the OSS and CIA. Much of what Bowen told me was confirmed by other deep cover operatives. The amount of information he provided was nothing near what Russbacher provided, but it still was valuable to understand the actions of the CIA and its predecessor during World War II, the Office of Strategic Services.
Bowen was a pilot in World War II flying P-38’s with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, and other decorations for meritorious service. He said he was the youngest P-38 fighter pilot at that time.
During World War II, Bowen was brought into the OSS by General William Donovan, who was selected by President Franklin Roosevelt to form this intelligence unit. When President Truman disbanded the OSS in 1947, several dozen OSS members secretly maintained their organization under the cover of the CIA and were known as “Faction Three” in the Central Intelligence Agency. Bowen was part of a group of about seventy-five people from the former Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
In his OSS /CIA role, Bowen was the pilot for United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammserskjold, the Shah of Iran, and eventually Fulgencio Batista, the former dictator of Cuba. My flight paths and Bowen’s had crossed when my piloting duties took me to the Middle East on temporary assignment from my base at Oakland, California. I flew Muslim pilgrims to Mecca during the summer months in the mid-1950s, and also flew through Middle East countries flying planes containing over 1600 monkeys from New Delhi, India, to the United States for the Salk polio vaccine program. Bowen often flew DC-3 and C-46 aircraft from Kabul, Afghanistan, to Beirut via Teheran, the route that I frequently flew in the same type of aircraft. Bowen was flying material for the CIA.
Bowen surprised me when he said that two employees of the airline that I worked for, Transocean Airlines, were CIA operatives: Allan A. Barrie, General Manager for Iranian Airways in Tehran, and Henry F. “Hank” Maierhoffer. Bowen started up several airlines in South America after the war that served as covers for the CIA.
Casey was part of the OSS during World War II until President Truman disbanded it in 1947. He then became a covert operative for the CIA with no publicized connection to the Agency until 1981, when President Reagan appointed him Director of the CIA.
Bowen elaborated upon his dealings with the Medellin and Cali drug cartels as a CIA operative and the role played by the Mossad in these dealings. Bowen was a friend of Theodore Shackley, a CIA kingpin in CIA drug activities, working closely with the cartels. Bowen said that the CIA provided Theodore Shackley the alias of Robert Haynes. Bowen worked with Shackley from the early 1950s to 1984.
I had an opportunity to question Shackley on this crash while I was a guest at the national convention for the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) held at San Francisco in November 1995. While eating lunch at the convention I suddenly spotted Shackley and his wife sitting immediately across from me. Since I did not know if he had read my earlier books in which I made reference to him, and since I wanted to be low-key at this convention, I didn’t introduce myself to him. However, I wanted to get Shackley’s reaction to the plane crash described by Bowen, and asked former National Security Agency (NSA) agent Joe T. Jordan, who sponsored my appearance at the convention, to ask.
“Of course! It was loaded with drugs!” Bowen responded. Bowen enlarged upon the purpose of that trip. He stated that this trip occurred several years before Shackley was made CIA station chief in Miami, and that Shackley was instrumental in setting up the CIA drug trafficking into the United States from South America. Bowen said that the series of flights went from Miami, to Colombia, to Quayaqui, to Lima, and then to Arequita. After the plane left Arequita going eastbound over the Andes, one of the two engines failed, causing the aircraft to lose altitude. Bowen was able to maneuver the aircraft into one of the few available flat areas, and crash-landed the plane.
Bowen said that Shackley had arranged for cocaine to be loaded on board the aircraft, where it was hidden in the tail section. Bowen, Shackley, and the others then abandoned the crashed aircraft. Eventually the Bolivian authorities discovered the drugs, but the pilots and passengers were long gone. This would explain why Shackley wanted to distance himself from that crash.
Bowen described the conflict between different CIA factions. “At that time,” Bowen said, “Shackley was the leader of the CIA faction bringing the drugs in. The CIA team I worked for did not want the drugs in.”
Referring to the CIA headquarters that was first in Washington and then in McLean, Virginia, I asked, “Would you have any knowledge of whether McLean or Washington was aware of this drug operation?”
“They ordered him to do it.”
When Shackley was chief of station for the CIA in charge of Central and South American operations, he reportedly directed the massive drug trafficking into the United States that subsequently blossomed. He directed the operation known as “TRACK II,” which led to the overthrow of the Salvador Allende government in Chile in 1973. He was just the man to coordinate the CIA’s development of the burgeoning drug trafficking from Central and South America into the United States.
Bowen gave me details of the CIA ties to the Medellin drug cartel that Russbacher and Parker had described to me earlier. Each gave me details of the formation of the Medellin cartel from another perspective.
Bowen said that he was requested by CIA operative Henry Meierhoffer 19 to pilot a trip to Medellin, Colombia, carrying a government undercover agent and to return with another agent. But when Bowen arrived in Medellin, he said Shackley placed eight hundred pounds of cocaine on board the return flight, including two hundred pounds belonging to the Mossad.
19 On March 2, 1984. Interestingly, Meierhoffer had been an employee of Trans- ocean Airlines in Beirut during the time I was a captain for the airline.
Refusing to allow evidence to be presented that is necessary to a person’s defense, when covert government activities are involved, is a standard pattern by federal judges. Almost every CIA and DEA person with whom I have talked, and who had been imprisoned, experienced this pattern, including Russbacher, Rewald, Riconosciuto, Wilson, and others.
Bowen’ s court-appointed defender displayed the usual lack of aggressiveness, with no desire to raise a defense that would expose covert government activities. It is probable that the naive jury felt that Justice Department prosecutors surely would not lie or bring false charges against an innocent person. They convicted Bowen, and he was sentenced to ten years in prison.
During Abbott‘s DEA employment, he worked out of DEA offices in Denver, Charleston, and in 1978 the DEA facility at Addison Airport, north of Dallas. Abbott named other DEA pilots who, acting under DEA orders, flew drug flights from Central America to the United States. These pilots included Cesar Rodriguez, Daniel Miranda, and George Phillips.
These flights were profitable for everyone involved, including the pilots. In addition to being paid in cash for each flight, pilots flying for the DEA were sometimes given part of the drug loads, which they later sold. Abbott received $60,000 and fifty pounds of pot for this flight to the Miskito Indians and return with drugs.
Abbott described flying drug loads out of small landing strips in Nicaragua, Antigua, Honduras, Costa Rica, Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico. He arranged for fuel supplies and ground facilities at these locations, and regularly bribed local politicians to cooperate and protect the arms and drug flights. These flights were hazardous in many ways. Abbott described DEA pilots flying arms to the M-19 group in Colombia, during which some of the pilots were assassinated. Abbott‘s fluency in several languages besides English—Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish—was helpful in covert activities. During his DEA-associated activities, he circulated in prominent Central America society, socializing with well-known political figures, including Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay.
Abbott described a Bolivian 707 that regularly hauled drugs into Panama with the DEA‘s knowledge. When Abbott asked his DEA handlers about it, they told him to forget it.
Abbott was eventually released. After his release on probation, Abbott tried to obtain media interest in DEA drug trafficking, including the Larry King Show. He had no more success than I had during 30 years of attempting to expose government corruption. Abbott even tried to give his evidence to Manuel Noriega‘s attorneys to show how Noriega was simply a part of the CIA, DEA, and Mossad drug trafficking into the United States.
Several sources did respond to Abbott‘s efforts: the DEA, FBI, and Department of Justice. They fabricated a reason for arresting Abbott while on probation, stating that he had left the geographical limits of his parole at Dallas by flying a private plane to nearby Austin. Upon readying his plane for the return flight to Dallas, government agents arrested him, charging him with violating parole conditions.
Abbott described his frequent contacts with the DEA‘s Central America
Bureau Chief, Sante Bario, and how the DEA silenced Bario to keep the CIA
and DEA drug smuggling operations from the public. Bario was supervising
agent in Mexico City for Central and South American affairs.
According to Coller, Bario became involved in drug trafficking on the side and was set up by a government informant in Chicago, where he was arrested. Another source had it that Bario knew too much about Mexican and U.S. government involvement in drugs, and that either or both governments wanted him out of the way.
In 1979, DEA and Justice Department attorneys charged Bario with drug offenses, causing his imprisonment. When Bario was brought before U.S. District Judge Fred Shannon in San Antonio, Bario reportedly tried to describe his DEA duties and the DEA and CIA drug trafficking, but Justice Department attorneys and the judge blocked him from proceeding.
After being returned to his jail cell in San Antonio’s Bexar County Jail, a prison guard gave Bario a strychnine-laced peanut-butter sandwich, causing immediate painful convulsions and subsequent death. The official autopsy report covered up for this murder, reporting that Bario died of asphyxiation.
Abbott described acquiring a common-law wife in Sweden who bore their child. She moved to the United States and started an import business bringing sweaters into the United States from Norway and Iceland. Abbott feared for the safety of his wife and daughter after the DEA targeted him, and he sent them back to Sweden.
Abbott‘s grief over his wife’s assassination, and the constant attempts by government agents to silence him, made him determined to expose the drug trafficking by the DEA, CIA and Justice Department. He sent me many letters describing in great detail the DEA and CIA drug operations, including maps of landing sites, people he contacted, and the names of other DEA pilots.
Abbott was released from prison on November 14, 1994, and became one of several former prisoners who credit my letters (such as to the parole board in Abbott‘s case), along with a copy of the second edition of Defrauding America, with bringing about their release.
Abbott described many of the people with whom he came in contact who were also heavily involved in drug-related activities. He described his close contacts with Eric Arturo Del-Valle, a member of Panama’s Jewish community, and who was president of Panama. Arthur’s family was in the sugar export business, which Abbott said was a subterfuge for cocaine exports to the United States by the Mossad.
From Tocumen Airport the cocaine was loaded onto small planes, or onto TACA Airlines, flying to the United States. Every morning at 6 a.m. TACA departed Tocumen for El Salvador, Belize, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and eventually to New Orleans, Miami, and Houston. Cocaine was offloaded at one or all of these stops in the United States. The cocaine would sometimes be driven from Atala’s warehouse at Tocumen to the Colon Free Trade Zone, placed into another of Atoll’s front companies, and eventually put on ships going to the United States. Abbott described the frequent presence of Manuel Noriega at CIA and DEA drug transshipment points. He said that Noriega’s CIA code name was “Nelson.”
Making reference to the use of large jets in similar situations, Mexican Foreign Minister Jose Angel Gurria said in a recent interview that drug traffickers had stopped using large passenger jets.
Maholys deep-cover connections were given additional support when investigative journalist and author of Barry and the Boys Daniel Hopsicker discovered letters in possession of the widow of infamous drug trafficker Barry Seal. Among these letters was a letter by Democratic powerbroker Richard Ben-Veniste that referred to Michael Maholy.
Maholy wrote in one of his many letters to me about his role at a U.S. Embassy:
I have spent time in South American countries providing photos, documents, maps, and all intelligence for the U.S. Embassies in Central and South America. I first became acquainted with agent Robert Hunt in 1985 in Panama where I was the liaison officer for the U.S. Embassy. He was always accompanied by Oliver North and his team. This went on for several years. I recall reading cable traffic where his name came up repeatedly.
During my contacts with CIA Director William Casey, I was drafted into the Southern Zone (Central and South American countries) so that we could start operations on spying on Panama, Colombia, and other countries that were making huge amounts of money from drugs. They needed weapons and firepower. We, the CIA, provided them. They in turn sold us drugs... many instances of cover-up conspiracies that continue to multiply as we are talking.
On one tour to South America I worked on a CIA-owned oil rig operated by a company called Rowan International, based in Houston, Texas. Rowan is a worldwide drilling exploration company with very friendly liaisons in Central America and South America, as well as Africa and Middle East.
While in Balboa Harbor off the coast of Panama, on the rig Rowan Houston, at approximately 2:00 a.m., a helicopter landed on the heliport. I was monitoring cables and traffic when our radar detected a small support group which turned out to be patrol boats, four in all. At this point I thought the rig was going to be taken over by hostile forces. But instead I could not believe who was getting out of the chopper: it was Noriega and another man. I contacted the “company man” and he informed me that this meeting was not to be documented and to go back and resume the task of cable and traffic. I found out later that this man with Noriega was [Mossad agent] Michael Harari. I found out later that they were trying to raise money for the CIA by selling drugs to plan the destruction of a hydroelectric power plant on the Orinoco River in Venezuela.
Over a period of many months, Maholy gave me details of CIA and Mossad drug trafficking. He named the companies owning the oil rigs off the coast of the United States, Central and South America, Nigeria, and Angola: Santa Fe, Zapata, and Rowan. He physically saw Evergreen International Airlines and Southern Air Transport hauling drugs, confirmed by cable traffic he handled.
I had repeatedly heard from investigators and CIA contacts that various divisions of the Zapata Corporation,20 such as Zapata Petroleum, Zapata OffShore, and Zapata Cattle Company were heavily involved in drug trafficking. The oil rigs were used to carry out the drug operations. Drugs would be offloaded from ships onto the drilling platforms and then taken into the nearby coastal areas in helicopters that were constantly carrying supplies and personnel. Maholy confirmed that this practice existed, having learned about it from CIA cable traffic and his own observations while on the rigs.
20 Zapata Corporation, based in Houston, was a CIA asset, and the stock partly owned by George Bush. Zapata Petroleum was organized by George Bush, who reportedly had major interests in various Zapata divisions
In another letter, Maholy wrote in part:
The real mission [of these oil and gas drilling platforms] was to funnel weapons and money to the Nicaraguans, and also to bring illegal drugs into the United States. Being a CIA-funded mission, the rig had Naval SEAL teams diverted through its location....Rowan International was a cover for a branch of Zapata Oil. Zapata Oil and Exploration had many land-based operations in Central and South America as well as offshore rigs.
We had access to military cryptographics such as the kW 135, the KL 16, KL 10 and the CW 4 to decode and sifter out any cable traffic from transmissions from Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama.
Maholy confirmed what other CIA sources had told me about the CIA drug trafficking through Pacific Seafood. He wrote:
This company Pacific Seafood used a number of vessels to carry out covert missions to run weapons, drugs and cash from country to country. Not only would their “shrimp” trawlers use the oil rigs for loading, unloading and refueling, and also to deliver large sums of money for aid to the Contras. The shrimpers would constantly converge on our rig to convert, store and transport all of the above. The crews were all seasoned paramilitary experts in their abilities to search and destroy, CIA trained and specialists in their fields.
It was from one of the shrimp boat captains that I would come to meet Barry Seal’ s main right-wing contact from Morgan City, La. His name was Russell Hebert, and the name on his shrimp boat was Southern Crossing. This boat had state-of-the-art radar, hi-tech navigation systems, extra fuel tanks, and a crew consisting only of “special forces or [Navy] Seals.”
Maholy wrote that he remembers Russell Bowen flying onto the rig and then flying two DEA agents to Colombia. I called Bowen, who lived in Winter Haven, Florida at the time, and asked him about this flight. Bowen confirmed that it was him. I said to Bowen that Maholy mentioned having seen him at the oilrig, and Bowen then confirmed it, stating it was part of the operation that extracted CIA agent Sam Cummings from Costa Rica.
Maholy described the cover-up of the drug operation by such people as the Chief of the DEA cocaine operations in Washington, Ron Caffrey, Oliver North, CIA’s Duane (Dewey) Clarridge, Army Lieutenant General Paul Gorman (commander of the Panama-based U.S. Southern Command), and others. Excerpts from some of Manhole’s letters:
A person I’ve met on several occasions was in the Colombia Cartel, Carlos Lehder. During Operation Back Door he and several of his soldiers were planning to use CIA oil rigs and the shrimp industries to import drugs into America. Carlos had DEA personnel assigned to work with him. I myself have been to his home on Norman’s Cay in the Bahamas. He had a stash of drugs shipped back and forth to Everglade City in the Ten Thousands Islands area of Southern Florida. When the rig Rowan Midland was in Venezuela, Carlos had a regular agent of his as a tool-pusher to oversee all shipments coming and going. The CIA would buy drugs and supply friends of the Colombian government with money and weapons.
They used the remote mangrove swamps to unload huge loads of pot and cocaine to get it to Miami to distribute. With help from CIA and DEA agents, Carlos would set up a few loads as decoy to make it look good so he could get major shipments into the United States. Operation Back Door had a priority of great importance. I was to monitor some of the cable and equipment, also scramble transmissions made from his boats and planes, so he could go undetected.
Also to make sure his money would be on the rig when he wanted it, Carlos got to be “mouthy.” The government set him up and double-crossed him. The rig was then moved to Aruba and once again set up as a relay station and command center. The M-19 group was also involved in several covert missions. Operation Back Door simply meant the drugs would come to America via the back door.
Maholy described his dealings with drug trafficker Barry Seal (aka Ellis McKenzie and a former pilot for TWA Airlines). Maholy said that Seal was involved with the Noriega Cartel in a top-secret operation. Seal’s Miami contact was a person using the name of “Lit.” They flew through airspace “windows” when the military radar would ignore the targets. As the planes approached the oil rigs off the coast of the United States the planes flew close to the water, avoiding radar detection.
Maholy elaborated upon his role in Operation Screamer, which was a mammoth sting operation, aimed at penetrating the network of mercenary pilots that were flying drugs in competition with the CIA. On this operation Maholy worked under DEA agent-in-charge Randy Beasley. Maholy told how Seal offered to turn informant, allegedly implicating high federal officials, including former Watergate prosecutor Richard Ben-Veniste. Maholy stated, “This made Beasley and others uneasy. Why? Because they themselves were dirty.”
Five people were charged with importing heroin, possession with intent to distribute heroin, and conspiracy. A subtitle to a San Francisco Examiner article describing the case stated it was the “largest-ever seizure.” Over 1,000 pounds of high-grade “China White” heroin was smuggled into the Port of Oakland from Taiwan.
The 1991 seizure of the largest quantity of China White heroin involved the arrest of two families from Thailand who lived in nearby Danville, California. The case was assigned to Judge Vaughn Walker.21 His actions, and those of the Justice Department attorneys, showed evidence of covering up the CIA drug operation. Apparently, they learned that the drug seizure involved an ongoing CIA drug smuggling operation, and they now had to keep the lid on the drug seizure and avoid a publicity-generating trial.
21 USA v Chen, et al., CR 91-2096 VRW.
Russbacher stated that the operation, sanctioned on September 21, 1987, originated in San Francisco, and operated out of the offices of Levi International Imports-Pier 51. He then gave me the names of many key participants in the operation. He said that key personnel from the CIA included David Fuller from Los Angeles; John Beardsley from Mississippi, and Patrick O’Riley from New York City.
He said that those involved from the U.S. Department of Justice included Russ Taylor out of Lincoln, Nebraska; Saul Trattafiore out of Williamsport, and Sandy Weingarten out of St. Louis. Russbacher stated that they were all attorneys and, he believed, also Assistant U.S. Attorneys.
Drug Enforcement Administration participants in the drug operation, according to Russbacher, included Michael Cobb out of Orlando, and John David Pigg out of Oklahoma City. Pigg was killed in July 1993 in Anadarko, Oklahoma, reportedly for expressing disenchantment with the operation.
Russbacher described Navy Task Force liaison personnel as himself, using his navy alias of Robert Andrew Walker ; John A. Woodruff (CIA person using that alias, and who is now deceased), and CIA operative Oswald LeWinter (with whom I had been in contact for many years).
Referring to Customs, Russbacher identified key participants as David Cohen out of the El Paso office; Priscilla Montemajor and Taryn Weber out of the San Francisco office, and Brett Sanderson out of the Seattle office.
First name is Robert Silberman, out of Chicago. Second name is Marta Bleiblatt, also out of Chicago. Third name, Simon, last name Goldblatt. He is out of Haifa and attached to New York. Fourth name, Ariel Colderman, San Francisco. Fifth one is Kasam Merchant, out of Los Angeles. Sixth one is David Turner, San Jose. Silberman and Bleiberg work for a company called Edeco. Goldblatt is a field supervisor on Operation White Elephant. The next one, the last three, are attached to Operation Lemgolem.
I told him that I would list their names in the next edition of Defrauding America, and he warned me about the viciousness of the Mossad and their killing of people in various countries whose statements or conduct displeased them. “I have no use for the Mossad and the harm they’ve inflicted upon the United States, and I’ll take my chances,” was my reply.
Mossad operatives connected with the drug operations included Michael “Freddy” Harari and David Kimche. Both worked hand-in-hand with the CIA and the drug traffickers, including the Medellin and Cali Cartels. When U.S. forces invaded Panama to arrest Noriega, Harari was caught in the fighting. Despite the fact that the Mossad’s role in drug trafficking was serious and that he was a co-conspirator with Noriega, the U.S. intelligence agencies allowed Harari to escape in an Israeli jet. If Harari had been captured and questioned, Israel‘s involvement in the drug trafficking could have come out, as well as that of U.S. intelligence agencies.
Former OSS and CIA operative Russell Bowen had told me he worked alongside the Mossad and Harari for many years. He told me that Harari had started his vast Central and South American operations by smuggling cigarettes and then branching out into drugs.
An investigation into drug trafficking was conducted by a British law commission headed by Lord Louis Blom-Cooper, which then conducted a year of hearings. The London Times referred to the commission’s report as “a scorcher,” which found:
• The use of Antigua by the Mossad for drug trafficking and for training and arming the private armies of Colombia’s drug barons.
• Lying by CIA officials to the White House, claiming that the Israeli operations in Antigua were to train rebel forces to oust Panama’s Manuel Noriega.
• Mossad‘s training of hundreds of Colombians into killers for assassination purposes.
• A long-standing practice by U.S. authorities to cover for the crimes of the Mossad group, which supported my findings and as described by my CIA and DEA sources.
• The role played by Israeli Major General Pinchas Shachar in the arms and drug operations. Shachar was the official representative for Israel Military Industries in the United States, with special access to the Pentagon and other guarded U.S. military installations. According to reports, CIA Director William Sessions wanted the British report entered into Shachar’s file and to suspend his special privileges. Attorney General William Barr rejected the recommendation, keeping the American public in the dark about this part of the drug trafficking. The article described how the Bush White House sought to ignore the report, just as the many other reports have been hidden from the American public.
Justice Department officials referred inquiries to the State Department, claiming it was a foreign affair matter, and the State Department referred inquiries to the Justice Department, claiming it was a criminal matter.
Referring to the drug-smuggling projects, Operation New Wave and Operation Backlash, Russbacher said that the intent of the operations were to bring heroin into the United States from the Far East using freighters, cruise-line transports, and other international lines. The ships would bring heroin from Far East ports through Central America, sometimes through northern South America, and then into the United States. Some of the intermediate points included Acapulco, Mazatlan, Sewantenego, Cabo San Lucas, and Ensenada.
United States ports included San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. At San Diego, a transshipment point, non-military vessels went to the federal port known as O-1, District 00.01. In Los Angeles they used the Long Beach basin.
Also used were tankers, including the Greek tanker line Orion, which docked at Manhattan Beach, California. The oldest freighters would normally be Pan American or Iberian registry.
Drugs were also transshipped from Colombia, many times in ships of Norwegian registry, until 1989, and these were mostly cruise ships. Russbacher elaborated on the method of packing drugs on ships:
On the cruise liners it was generally in the freezers, brought on board inside carcasses of beef. Also in the flour bags, 100 pound bags. They are referred to as flower barrels. On other types of ships it was either stored in the paint lockers, or there was a separate compartment built.
I asked, “What is the remuneration or rewards for the different agencies that are involved in this operation?” Russbacher stated that there is a “split profit sharing” where the profits are divided among various proprietaries or front companies used by the different agencies.
You never think that while you’re on vacation, you’re in the midst of serious drug smuggling. You think you’re safe and secure on a cruise to Bermuda but in fact, there are drug smugglers serving you lunch or making your meal.
But they [CIA] couldn’t get an agreement going with the British out of Hong Kong. The problem was, they wanted a higher percentile participation than our government was prepared to give. Instead of using Hong Kong, we used Macao. Eighty percent of the morphine block, we are not talking about the liquid, comes out of Macao, before it becomes morphine sulphate.
Loeb described how he gave detailed information of the drug trafficking to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Airline Pilots Association, to EAL President Frank Borman, and to Time magazine’s Jonathan Beaty, all of whom kept the lid on the criminal activities.
Dozens of times Customs agents discovered drugs hidden behind aircraft inspection plates as the Eastern Airlines aircraft arrived in Miami. Eastern pilots were concerned over the drug trafficking, as they themselves could be charged with drug-related offenses. As ALPA Chairman of Legislative Affairs for the Eastern pilots group in Miami, Loeb received many complaints from pilots about drugs being found on their aircraft as it arrived in Miami. Loeb testified to Congress that there were over sixty cases reported to him where this happened.
Loeb identified these FBI agents as Special Agent in Charge F. Corliss, Assistant Special agent (ASAC) William Perry, and Special Agent Rod Beverley. The Eastern Airlines employee from Panama was threatened by FBI personnel and warned that he himself would be charged with a federal crime if he reported the drug and drug-money trafficking. Under federal criminal statutes these threats constituted federal crimes.22
22 Title 18 USC §§ 1512, 1513.
Other Eastern Airlines employees contacted FBI agents seeking to report drug trafficking that they had observed, including, among others, an Eastern Airlines flight attendant and a ground service agent. Instead of receiving the information from these people, FBI agents threatened to file criminal charges against them for not reporting the criminal activities earlier. Failure to report a federal crime to a federal judge or other federal officer is called misprision of a felony under the federal crime reporting statute, Title 18 U.S.C. § 4.
The FBI traumatized witnesses to keep them from reporting the criminal acts involving federal personnel, and is a practice that I had seen for years. The FBI threats caused the witnesses to remain silent, which is apparently what the FBI agents wanted and which the agents knew would insure that the drug trafficking continued! Some of these witnesses then blamed Loeb for what had happened, and then went under cover.
23 Testimony given on February 8, 1988 to the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Communications, and as published under Drugs, Law Enforcement, and Foreign Policy: Panama, S. Hrg. 100-773, Pr. 2.
The officials at Eastern Airlines and the corporate officers deemed [my reporting of the drug trafficking to the FBI] to be outrageous conduct. Having learned from the FBI within hours of my giving that information, they hired two private detectives and [then the harassment against me commenced]....[Drugs aboard Eastern Airlines aircraft] was an ongoing scenario, particularly from Panama, the hub operation, and Colombia. Our crews were very aware that they were unwittingly being duped and flying cargo, as [the drugs and drug-money were] called, that was unlisted in their aircraft, un-manifested, into ports of call in the United States of America.
The House Committee on Government Operations issued a report after its hearings (March 1992) titled “Serious Mismanagement and Misconduct in the Treasury Department, Customs Service, and Other Federal Agencies and the Inadequacy of Efforts To Hold Agency Officials Accountable.” The report stated in part:
This is the third in a series of hearings looking into allegations of mismanagement and misconduct by the U.S. Customs Service. Witnesses have testified about attempts by both Customs and Internal Affairs to prevent investigations from going forward. These are serious allegations. [Criminal would be more fitting!]
This hearing...focuses on the implementation of the Customs reorganization plan, and the accountability of the Inspector General. But what is really at issue here is the overall effectiveness of counter-narcotics law enforcement efforts along the U.S.-Mexico border. The credibility of the Customs Service is at stake. Allegations of improper associations between law enforcement agents and drug traffickers are bad enough, but the inability and unwillingness to properly investigate such allegations cause the public to lose faith in the ability of the United States government to fight the war on drugs.
The report revealed that government officials sought to block the testimony of witnesses, showing the existence of obstruction of justice, which by itself is a crime. Included in the report was a letter to the committee signed by anonymous field agents of U.S. Customs, stating in part:
We are writing to you to advise you of the continuing systemic corruption at the U.S. Customs Service. The “reorganization” of the Office of Enforcement has only removed necessary checks and balances. Integrity is virtually a non-existent commodity in Customs management.
Former DEA agent Michael Levine wrote in The Big White Lie how the Drug Enforcement Administration destroyed evidence that resulted in high-level drug traffickers escaping prosecution.
Next
CIA’s Arkansas Drug Activities
In June 1989, Mr. Pearce was killed in a helicopter accident. The accident has a story of its own I am told. Both Col. Rowe and Mr. Pearce agreed to go public, after the meeting with Larkin Smith, to call for a full investigation into the events described in Col. Cutolo’s affidavit. But both men died prior to the meeting with Smith.
Mossad Arms and Drug Trafficking
Paul Neri continued: Since the Israeli Mossad openly traffics in arms and drugs in Latin America, a theory that Clines, Wilson, Terpil, Harari and Noriega engaged in Operation Watchtower is very easy to believe at this time, especially following the Libyan situation and the Iran-Contra affair. It all fits, this entire scenario carried over from Operation Watchtower directly into the Iran/Contra affair with the same characters.
“This Is Now Your Pandora’s Box”
Referring to the deaths associated with the attempted exposure of Operation Watchtower and the Mossad‘s involvement, Neri wrote, “I’m sorry that I
am unable to carry the work any further. This is now your Pandora’s Box.”
60-Minutes Cover-Up
Before he was murdered, Colonel Rowe also tried to get CBS’s 60 Minutes
interested in the contents of the Cutolo affidavit, the murders, and the CIA-U.S.
military-Mossad drug trafficking. CBS replied (July 13, 1987), refusing to proceed with the matter. Despite the responsibility of the media to expose government corruption, CBS chose to cover up. Cover-up of a federal crime is a crime
by itself under Title 18 USC Section 4. This CBS cover-up made possible the continuation of the drug trafficking and more murders. Over the years I encountered many deep-cover operatives who offered and provided evidence of the CIA drug trafficking to television and radio networks, and experienced the same cover-ups that I experienced the past 30 years.
Finally They Killed Neri
On April 29, 1990, Paul Neri died. An unknown person wrote a short letter
that was sent with the Cutolo affidavit and Paul Neri’s accounting of what had
happened, writing: Mr. Paul Neri, of the National Security Agency, died on April 29, 1990. Before his death, he requested that I mail the enclosed affidavit to you. Paul Neri was concerned that he would be killed or lose his security clearance if he revealed the affidavit before he died. According to him, these facts are true. If you investigate and interview the parties named within the affidavit, you will find the information is true. I am simply carrying out the wishes of a good friend, but do not want to get involved any further; therefore, I shall remain anonymous.
Another Killing to Hide
U.S. Involvement in Drugs
The Cutolo affidavit described the killing of an Army servicewoman,
Elaine Tyree, who had knowledge of Operation Watchtower which she described in her diary. To shift attention from the actual killer and his connection
to the ongoing drug operation, the military charged Tyree‘s husband with the
killing. The Cutolo affidavit continued: It was too risky to allow a military court to review the charges against Pvt. Tyree with Operation Orwell still ongoing and Senator Garn’s office requesting a full investigation. Pvt. Tyree therefore had to stand before a civilian court of law on the criminal charges.
Found Innocent at First Hearing
At the first military hearing, the presiding judge found no reason to bind
Pvt. Tyree‘s husband over for trial for the murder of his wife. This decision
risked further investigation and possible exposure of the corrupt operation.
Army pressure caused the county prosecutor to indict the husband for murdering his wife, even though the army knew the actual killer was someone else.
The Cutolo affidavit stated: On 29 February 1980, Pvt. Tyree was convicted of murder and will spend the duration of his life incarcerated. I could not disseminate intelligence gathered under Operation Orwell to notify civilian authorities who actually killed Elaine Tyree.
Military Deep Cover
I made initial contact with William Tyree in 1994 and this contact continued for many years, during which time Tyree furnished me with considerable
details and documents on Operation Watchtower, Operation Orwell, and other
covert operations in which the military was involved. I am convinced that
Tyree was framed by military officers and prosecutors in Massachusetts for the
murder of his wife. Tyree prepared several highly detailed affidavits describing
what he himself had observed of Operation Watchtower, describing it as a secret Army Special Forces operation. Tyree was crew chief on a “sterile”7 helicopter used in Operation Watchtower. The Special Forces Teams were used to install and maintain the radio beacons that were part of Operation Watchtower. Tyree described an incident in which a group of Green Berets 8 identified as Special Action Team Number 1 were ambushed in Colombia near the village of Turbo by four dozen soldiers from a Colombian Army Unit who mistook the SAT members for local bandits. Two of the SAT team members were shot before their radio request for air evacuation was carried out.
7 Special forces used the term Asterile@ to indicate the aircraft was stripped of all identification, the purpose of which was to deny the role of the United States in the operation.
8 The Green Berets were divided into three Special Action Teams, each one consisting of approximately seven men.
Drug Experiments on
American Servicemen 27s
In his February 10, 1992, affidavit, Tyree described reports of drug experiments on American GIs in Europe during the early 1950s by Doctor James P.
Cattell. This information was given to Panama Defense Force (PDF) personnel
(PF-8) by Edwin Wilson for the purpose of interrogations. Tyree’s affidavit at a
later date described how his wife started receiving threatening phone calls and
notes left on parked vehicles in October 1978, warning her to stop writing and
reporting the secret activities, including Operation Watchtower and Operation
Orwell. Tyree identified the military superiors and members of Congress 9
to
whom he reported the threats. 9 Including U.S. Senator E.J. Garn (R-Utah)
Colonel Rowe took command of Operation Orwell following Colonel Cutolo’s death. Rowe advised Tyree of the continued surveillance activities, including that of Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence H. Tribe. The surveillance activities were initiated by Special Forces personnel because of the people’s opposition to Washington policies. Rowe told Tyree that he had substantial evidence showing that Colonel Edward Cutolo, Colonel James Baker, and Colonel Robert Bayard, were all victims of foul play, and that Mossad operative Michael Harari was involved in the deaths.
Tyree wrote that the last message he received from Colonel Rowe was just prior to Rowe’s departure for Manila, where Rowe was assassinated in April 1989. Rowe told Tyree that if he remembered any more details on what Tyree had earlier told him, to call a certain phone number and leave a message.10 After Rowe was assassinated, Tyree called the number and reached a Colonel Richard Malvesti,11 who stated that he was in possession of the material on which Colonel Rowe was working. From time to time Tyree received news clippings in the mail relating to personnel involved in Operations Watchtower or Orwell, without the name or address of the sender. Tyree stated that he thought the mailings were from Colonel Malvesti or Paul Neri of the U.S. National Security Agency.
10 Phone number for Colonel Rowe was 919-396-3832.
11 Malvesti was director for operations of the Joint Special Operations Command.
Malvesti's activities on behalf of exposing Operation Watchtower and Orwell probably played a role in his subsequent death 12 on July 26, 1990. During a routine parachute jump in 1990, his parachute failed to open. This failure could easily be brought about by someone tampering with the chute.
12 Malvesti is buried in the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne.
General Carl W. Stiner, a four-star general who was commander in chief of the U.S. Special Operations Command, spoke at Malvesti funeral, stating, “The Ranger experience is not for the weak or the faint-hearted.” Excellent rhetoric, but it didn’t address the criminal activities associated with Malvesti’s death or the many others, or of the subversive and criminal activities by people allegedly representing and protecting the interests of the United States.
Tyree said that on July 23, 1990, he received the affidavit of Colonel Cutolo that was sent on behalf of Paul Neri, and that the information that pertained to Tyree and his personal observation was correct.
Tyree overheard several of the Panamanian military officers give credit to a Colombian armed forces officer named Eber Villegas for assisting the success of Operation Watchtower.
Tyree explained how he gave Secret and Top Secret U.S. documents to PDF and Israeli agents, possibly explaining how the drug-laden aircraft obtained the radio frequencies and flight schedules of drug-interdiction aircraft.
Pan American Defense Forces
Assisted the CIA-Military
Drug Trafficking
Tyree told how members of the Panamanian Defense Forces (PDF) assisted
in unloading the cocaine at Albrook Air Station. In one of his affidavits Tyree
said: I personally witnessed members of the Panamanian Defense 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 Lis del CID, and Major Ramirez. 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.
Israel‘s Mossad Agents
Killing Americans
Tyree wrote, “It is not uncommon for Israeli Mossad agents to kill Americans who the Israeli’s deem a threat to the security of Israel.” This belief has
been stated to me numerous times by CIA contacts. The Israelis didn’t hesitate
to kill 34 U.S. sailors when it attacked the U.S. navy ship U.S.S. Liberty (June
8, 1967). Tyree described seeing Wilson provide PDF officers with manila folders containing the following addresses: CIA, Office of Naval Intelligence, and Defense Intelligence Agency. The contents appeared to be photographs taken by satellites or SR-71 high-altitude spy aircraft.
Colonel Cutolo, who commanded the second and third Watchtower missions, and Tyree were transferred to the 10th Special Forces Group at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, along with another participant, Sergeant John Newby. As stated earlier, Newby started receiving threats upon his life, and his life ended in October 1978.
During the 1976 Watchtower operation, Tyree said that the pilots appeared to be mercenaries who spoke several foreign languages and had German, French, and English accents. The pilots and lead personnel in the first 1975 operations appeared younger and acted as if they were U.S. Army or U.S. Navy personnel. He thought that British Special Air Service (SEA’S.) pilots were on some of the flights.
Tyree said that Ted Shackley, a former high-ranking CIA operative, was deeply involved in Operation Watchtower and other CIA-related drug operations. He believed that the Navy’s Task Force 157 participated in Operation Watchtower. He said that “Colonel. Baker, Col. Rowe and I believe Thomas Clines, with the aid of Edwin Wilson and Frank Terpil, orchestrated Operation Watchtower...with full CIA auspices.”
Describing His Wife’s Death
Tyree described details of his wife’s death. On January 30, 1979, Elaine Tyree was
stabbed to death at the Tyree’s off-post residence. Subsequently, Erik Y. Aarhus (U.S.
Army SP4) and Earl Michael Peters were charged with her murder. Prior to his wife’s
death, Tyree had repeatedly contacted members of Congress 13 about his findings of
drug trafficking from Central America; of the drugs and arms trafficking at Fort Devens, and the threats to him and his wife. 13 Including Senator J. Garn of Utah.
Sergeant Kenneth Garcy stated in an affidavit dated September 29, 1990, that Elaine Tyree was keeping a record of what she had learned about the drug operation. He said she intended to turn the diary-style book over to the Criminal Investigation Division (CID), and that Tyree was concerned about the safety of his wife. She started receiving threats and made these threats known to Colonel Cutolo, First Sergeant Frederick Henry, and Garcy.
Francis M. Gardner, the manager of the apartments where the Tyrees lived at the time of Elaine Tyree‘s death, signed a statement before a notary public stating that he observed a person identified as Earl Michael Peters leaving the Tyree‘s apartment carrying a box (which the Tyrees had stored for him). Police arrived shortly thereafter and Elaine Tyree was found stabbed to death. According to Tyree the police never interviewed Gardner. Gardner stated to investigators that he saw the police remove the diary kept by Elaine Tyree and other papers. The police denied this.
Initial Decision Exonerated Tyree
Those charges ended with a decision 14 by Special Justice James W. Killam,
III, exonerating Tyree (May 15, 1979), and holding that Erik Aarhus and Earl
Michael Peters should be tried for the murder of Elaine Tyree. 14 Trial Court, First Northern Middlesex Division, Cases No. 271-272-273 of 1979 308 & 367.
Prosecutor Protecting the Real Killer?
The district attorney refused to accept this decision. Instead, he moved to
prosecute Tyree and blocked all prosecution of Peters. Local district attorney
John Droney obtained an unusual ruling from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC), dismissing the murder charges against Peters, even though he
was seen leaving the murder scene.
Pentagon Cover-Up of CIA-Mossad
U.S. Military Drug Trafficking
Prior to Tyree’s February 1980 trial, he sent a certified letter to the Pentagon detailing the criminal activities involving U.S. personnel in Operations
Watchtower and Orwell. He received no response. To prevent further investigation into the murder, Army officials conspired with Lieutenant J. Dwyer of the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office and the county district attorney. They went to the Massachusetts Supreme Court and obtained a ruling prohibiting any court but the Massachusetts Supreme Court from ordering the arrest of suspects in the Tyree murder. This was without precedent, as any court in Massachusetts had authority to issue arrest warrants for murder suspects. But the ruling protected the real murderer, Michael Peters, who, if charged, would have exposed Operation Watchtower and Operation Orwell.
Massachusetts Judge James F. McHugh 15 refused to accept testimony from active duty personnel of the U.S. Army Special Forces who came forward to corroborate the existence of Operation Watchtower. The judge even threatened to charge Tyree with perjury if he decided that the statements were false. Army attorneys warned Tyree he would be prosecuted for divulging classified information, the military-CIA drug trafficking being considered “classified information.” Judge McHugh refused to accept live testimony from active duty U.S. Army Special Forces personnel, who could expose the truth.
15 Middlesex Superior Court, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
Destroying Evidence
In a December 5, 1979 letter on official letterhead of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, District Attorney John J. Droney wrote to Colonel Cutolo:I recommend that you destroy the surveillance material collected at the Tyree residence on January 30, 1979, if you have not already done so.
Droney was using, as the primary witness against Tyree in the murder of Elaine Tyree, the same person seen leaving the Tyree residence at the time of the murder.
Cover-Up by Chairman
of Joint Chiefs of Staff
In 1994, President Clinton appointed Army General John Shalikashvili
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Shalikashvili was the commander of the
army unit that carried out Operation Watchtower. Colonel Cutolo succeeded
Shalikashvili as the group commander of the 10th Special Forces Group, Airborne (SFG (A)). Since Colonel Cutolo was disturbed by the drug trafficking in
Operation Watchtower, it can be assumed that the operation was originated by
higher authority.
Jonestown Tragedy
Tyree had been part of a team operating in Surinam and French Guiana,
and had insider information about Jim Jones and Jonestown in Guyana. Tyree
wrote about former personnel from Army Special Forces groups training some
of the enforcers at Jonestown prior to the mass murders and suicides. Tyree
wrote that Congressman Leo Ryan who had traveled to Jonestown to investigate allegations of wrongdoing was to have been protected by an Army Special
Forces team but that the team did not appear until after the congressman had
been assassinated. Tyree wrote: [The congressman] was hated by many different factions in the United States...the perfect place to assassinate him would be outside the U.S., where the law enforcement authorities are not as apt to control the evidence, crime scene, etc. This fact was known to [the state department], and they acted on it as a precaution. The Special Forces team assigned to guard the U.S. Representative didn’t arrive on the ground in Jonestown until minutes after the U.S. Representative was dead. Several facts in dispute are:
• Did the Special Forces team deliberately delay in reaching Jonestown? If so, why did they delay, and on whose orders did they delay?
• That the Special Forces team were the people that actually killed the U.S. Representative. This is possible, as the person who told me that version is a person who has always proved to be a credible source.
• A number of Special Forces were training the ranchers in and around the Jonestown complex in security measures.
Legal Action Seeking to
Bring About Tyree‘s Release
In 1999, Attorney Ray Kohlman of Attleboro, Massachusetts filed a federal
action in the U.S. District Court at Boston seeking to have a court receive evidence of government drug trafficking and also seeking Tyree‘s release. As stated earlier, A&E Investigative Reports aired a one-hour television documentary that included the murder of Elaine Tyree (March 22, 1999).
Gunther Russbacher : High-Level
CIA-ONI Operative
In the third edition of Defrauding America I write extensively upon the remarkable career of Gunther Russbacher, involved for decades in many high level undercover activities for the CIA and Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI). His roles in some of the CIA’s most bizarre events dwarf anything found in
most fiction novels. Russbacher was my initial gateway into the blurry world of undercover activities in the late 1980s and this continued to the end of the twentieth century, at which time he became a key member of Austrian intelligence. He was very detailed in his description of undercover activities, and I feel he was very truthful in what he conveyed to me through thousands of hours of oftentimes deposition-like questioning covering a ten-year period.
Enlargement on Earlier Discoveries
When we first met, Russbacher refused to divulge any undercover activities
to me. However, since he and I were both former Naval aviators, we had a certain bond that increased over time. At first he described his role in the Iran/Contra affair, and then in October Surprise, which are described in great detail
in Defrauding America, along with other covert CIA activities.
Revealing CIA Drug
Trafficking Activities
Russbacher described the different ways the drugs are shipped into the
United States, including being shipped in sealed containers leased from Phillips
Electronics and other companies. He described ways of circumventing Customs
inspections in the United States and those incidents in which Customs and the
DEA protected the drug shipments. He described the swapping of sealed containers at bonded warehouses in Hoboken, New Jersey and other locations, and
the secret unloading of drugs at airfields throughout the United States, including Boeing Field in Seattle.
Two Deep-Cover Agents Crossing Paths
Another of the many confidential sources with whom I had contact was
Trenton Parker who played a key role in CIA activities in the Caribbean. Parker
described the purpose of a flight from Dobbins Air Force Base near Marietta,
Georgia, in January or February of 1982, and included a description of the pilot. He said the pilot was a Navy Lt. Commander with the nickname of “Gunsel.” Russbacher had told me several years earlier that Gunsel and Gunslinger
were nicknames he used. Parker stated that the pilot was very articulate, which
fit Russbacher’s description. Russbacher confirmed that he did fly such a flight,
and that the route of flight and the name of one of the passengers coincided
with Parker’s description. It was ironical that Parker had crossed paths with Russbacher. It added still more corroboration of Russbacher’s status. Parker provided me information on CIA activities that Russbacher had failed to mention. Once Parker gave me preliminary information about the activities, Russbacher then enlarged upon them when I asked. One such activity was called Operation Indigo which he described in court filings.16
16 United States of America vs. Trenton H. Parker, U.S. District Court, Denver,, No. CR 93-43.
Operation Indigo
Russbacher enlarged upon Operation Indigo. He said the full name was Operation Indigo Sky, and confirmed that it had been in operation since approximately 1976. Russbacher said that the operation consists of producing heroin in poppy fields in Nigeria and processing in the capital city of Lagos, along with transportation to Europe and the United States.
Russbacher stated that the intent of Operation Indigo Sky was to get an alternate supply for heroin coming from the Golden Triangle area and the Indian subcontinent. The operation began with the 1976 purchase of the Star Brewery in Lagos and its subsequent multi-million-dollar upgrade into a heroin processing facility. The brewery’s name was changed to Star of Nigeria and then to Red Star. The transportation of the drugs from Lagos was initially by the CIA and DEA and then changed to contract operators. Most of the processed drugs in Operation Indigo Sky went from Lagos to Amsterdam, where it was further packaged and then shipped to European and United States destinations.
Parker provided me with a confidential employee status report showing his CIA status from December 23, 1964 to May 24, 1992. His last rank was shown as Colonel in the United States Marine Corp. The report showed that he had a top-secret clearance, and that he was attached to Marine-Naval intelligence and to the CIA. His MSID identification number was 2072458. The reports identified Parker as a member of the ultra-secret Pegasus group, with headquarters in the U.S. Department of Labor offices in Fairfax, Virginia. The status report listed his alias, Pegasus 222.
Vice President George Bush
and Colombian Drug Lords
Parker told me that the CIA, with Vice President Bush‘s approval, set up a
sham drug bust in Miami during March 1980 using 4,000 pounds of cocaine,
the biggest drug bust at that time. The purpose of the scheme was to generate
support in the United States for the newly appointed drug czar, Vice President
George Bush, justifying the use of the U.S. military in the so-called war against
drugs.
CIA and Colombian Drug Lord
In carrying out the scheme, the CIA reportedly coordinated with Jorge
Ochoa, a Colombian drug dealer. Ochoa organized many of Colombia’s drug
dealers to contribute cocaine for a large shipment into the United States, advising that there was safety in numbers. Most of the dealers didn’t know that this
was a planned drug bust and that they would lose whatever cocaine they contributed to the shipment. After the drug dealers contributed their cocaine into
Ochoa’s warehouse, Ochoa switched large quantities of bad cocaine that he had
accumulated with good cocaine contributed by other dealers. Later, Ochoa sold
the cocaine obtained in the switch for about fifty million dollars. The 4,000 pounds of cocaine, including the bad cocaine that Ochoa had switched, was then shipped to Miami and seized by U.S. Customs, as planned. Bush got good publicity for his role as drug czar and Ochoa and his insiders made over fifty million dollars by replacing good cocaine with bad cocaine.
The sting operation in which Parker participated used an informant to notify DEA agent Phelps in Bogota that the drugs were arriving at Miami International Airport on a particular flight at a given time. Phelps then notified DEA and Customs at Miami so they could be present at the aircraft’s arrival.
DEA “Sophisticated” Drug Bust
There were comical elements to this planned drug bust. Parker described
what he observed when the 4,000 pounds of cocaine arrived on board TAMPA Airlines at Miami International Airport. Watching the scene from an unobserved distance via binoculars, Parker said that the airplane with the two tons of
cocaine arrived at the parking area, but there were no Customs agents there to
seize the drugs, despite the considerable planning that went into the operation. Several people working with Parker were at the aircraft, presenting the appearance of being there to unload the cargo. However, they intended to run off as the DEA and Customs agents appeared. But no agents arrived. The pilots wanted the drugs unloaded fast and wanted to leave. To avoid losing the drugs intended for the planned seizure, Parker’s people unloaded the crates containing the drugs onto the tarmac.
The cocaine was hidden in boxes of Levi jeans, with yellow bands on the boxes containing the real Levi’s, and white bands on the boxes containing the cocaine. Parker’s people sprayed the boxes containing the cocaine with ether, used in the preparation of cocaine, insuring the cocaine would not be missed.
The absence of the expected DEA and Customs agents presented Parker with a problem. He advised his men by radio to stand by. An hour later, Parker saw through his binoculars a couple of Customs agents, engaging in frivolity, walking slowly toward the boxes, obviously unaware of the presence of drugs. Parker then radioed his men to stay clear of the area.
Parker watched through his binoculars as the agents poked holes in the boxes to check for possible drugs. The third box that they poked caused white cocaine powder to escape. Parker then radioed his people to immediately leave the area.
Parker boarded a commercial airline for return to Denver. That night the U.S. media described the drug find as the largest discovery in the nation’s history. DEA and Customs officials described the drug-find as the result of an intensive coordinated effort between the DEA and Customs.
CIA Role in Establishing
the Medellin Cartel
Parker told how the CIA set up the meetings in which various Colombian
drug dealers organized into a drug trafficking cartel. Parker mentioned two preliminary meetings in late 1981 arranged by the CIA in which individual Colombian drug dealers organized into a cartel to facilitate the sale and shipment
of drugs to the United States. He stated that the first meeting occurred with
twenty of the biggest cocaine dealers in Colombia present; that the second and
final meeting was held at the Hotel International in Medellin attended by about
two hundred drug dealers, pushers, and smugglers. The Medellin Cartel was
established in December 1981, and each of the members paid an initial $35,000
fee to fund a security force for the cartel members to protect their drug operation.
Further Confirmation of These
Meetings and Their Purpose
Several years earlier Russbacher described these meetings to me, and then
reconfirmed the meetings after I told him what Parker had told me. Russbacher
stated there had been a preliminary meeting in September 1981 in Buenaventura, Colombia, which established the format for the subsequent meetings.
Russbacher attended the September 1981 meeting, which was initiated by the
CIA to facilitate drug trafficking into the United States, permitting the CIA to
deal with a group rather than many independent drug dealers.ORIGINAL TRANSMISSION DATE: 3/3/93 RETRANSMISSION DATE: 3/10/93
DOCUMENT CLASSIFICATION STATUS: TOP SECRET TO: MONA B. ALDERSON,
LITIGATION DIVISION, OGC,
CIA/WASHINGTON D.C. CONFIDENTIAL
PRO: 703-874-3197
FAX: 703-874-3208
RE: INQUIRY OF 3/3/93 Defense Exhibit No. G-47-F-222
MR. JOSEPH MACKEY,
ASST. U.S. ATTORNEY,
DENVER, COL.
PRO: 303-844-2081
FAX: 303-874-3208
NOTICE: PURSUANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY ACT OF 1947, 50 USC 401 & 402, ET. SQ. – THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS CONSIDERED INFORMATION OF A CLASSIFIED NATURE INVOLVING NATIONAL SECURITY AND SHOULD BE TREATED BY YOU AND YOUR DEPARTMENT/OFFICE ACCORDINGLY.
RE: BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND CURRENT OP'S-STAT ON SUBJECT, TRENTON N. PARKER AKA PEGASUS-222 – 2/2/45-COL. USMC/GS18 ATTACHED MARINE-NAVAL ITLG-SEC/TAD-CIA-12/23/64 TO 5/24/92. SECURITY LVL/TOP SECRET/EXP 5/24/92. MSID NO. 2072458. SS NO. 553-60-1458. MSA/SPL-DDO/SEC-CHIEF-SP/AG PEGASUS UNIT. CONFIRM/REC/CIA/DENVER, CO. SBS/CUR/RES – DENVER, CO. ALL OP'S/ASSIGN. CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET/UNAVAILABLE. CUR/SEC/STAT: HIGH RISK. FED/CR/IDC/DENVER-1/27-93.
NO ADDITIONAL RECORDS OR BACKGROUND INFORMATION AVAILABLE FOR RELEASE TO YOUR OFFICE AT THIS TIME ON SUBJECT DUE TO MATTERS OF NATIONAL SECURITY AND PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/G-BUSH 5/24/92.
DO/DA RECOMMENDATION: - STANDARD DENIAL
ANSWER BACK/REF/P-222,
DO/COMM-CTR/3/3/93,
FDR/ATL/SEC – DOD/DOA, CONFIDENTIAL
DRC/CIA/LANG/VA.
The above is a CIA confidential document showing Parker’s ONI and CIA status, which has been recopied by the author from the original document so as to make the contents more easily readable.
CIA Planning and Funding
the Kidnap of Ochoa‘s Sister
Prior to organizing the Medellin cartel, the CIA created a crisis situation, providing an impetus for the Colombian drug dealers to consolidate their splintered members into the Medellin Cartel. Parker described the CIA operation in early December 1981 that led to the kidnapping of Jorge Ochoa‘s sister, Leona,
from a University outside of Bogota. Parker said that, acting in his CIA capacity, he paid a group known as M-19 to carry out the kidnapping and to also kidnap Carlos Lehder. (Lehder escaped after he was captured.) The CIA paid the
M-19 group three million dollars, of which two million dollars was in guns and
one million in cash. “We made arrangements with Colonel Noriega, and this was the point where Noriega became involved with the CIA and the drugs,” Parker said. He continued: “The deal was that the meeting between M-19 and Ochoa and Escobar would be held in a neutral point, namely Panama. During the second week of January 1982, everything was set up.”
Paying Bribe Money to
Nassau Prime Minister
Parker said he first landed at Grand Cayman Island, where he picked up
five million dollars in cash from a CIA source. The next landing was at Nassau,
where Parker paid Prime Minister Lynden Pindling one million dollars to get
rid of a drug trafficker at Norman’s Cay. Parker explained that Norman’s Cay
was a main drug transshipment point operated by Colombian drug dealer Carlos Lehder, who he described as one of the five keys of the Medellin Cartel.
Parker stated: Lehder was getting way out of line. He was shooting at people, and when he finally shot at Walter Cronkite, who happened to be sailing around in the area, Walter broke the news and a lot of people were saying how can this guy be operating out of Norman’s Cay just off the shores of the United States?
Parker stated that Lehder was then forced to leave Norman’s Cay and return to Colombia, where he joined the Medellin Cartel. Parker said that before leaving Nassau he was joined by Robert Vesco (wanted in the United States for bank fraud), and then a CIA aircraft flew them to Havana, where they were met at the airport by security guards and Fidel Castro. Parker said:
I personally delivered two million dollars to Fidel Castro. And for those two million dollars he was to see that a shipment of arms was to go to M19, which was a right-wing revolutionary force that we wanted to keep active so that we could have pressure on the government to bring about certain things that we wanted to do. And we needed pressure from below and pressure from above. He agreed to do that and he did do that.
Parker continued: “I took the remaining two million dollars and flew into Panama City, Panama and there I checked into Holiday Inn.” where he met with the head of Colombia’s M-19. Parker added: “I delivered my one million dollars to him and then I met with Colonel Noriega and delivered one million dollars to him. That one million dollars was to pay Noriega to act as the neutral party to help bring about the release of Ochoa‘s sister. Sure enough, Ochoa’s sister was released.” Parker continued:
And then he was also supposed to make an offer that he could and would provide protection for the drugs coming into the United States through the back door to the midway. And what that was, is that we had already made a move on the cartel to close down some of the small operations. At that time Noriega offered a connection into the Sandinistas, the drug operations. Refinery plants were set up there. And that’s what we wanted, as we wanted to show the Sandinistas as being the bad guys and justify U.S. involvement.
What we were doing was also financing operations because a certain group in the CIA was going ahead and flying guns down into Nicaragua, and dropping them off by parachutes to the Contras. They then went over to the Sandinistas, picked up drugs and flew them into the United States, after which the money would be returned to the Sandinistas. In effect we were taking over some of the flying services for the Medellin Cartel. The money from the drugs produced the money for the guns and that is how the operation worked, and Bush knew the whole goddamn thing.
Parker explained that after completing that trip, he flew back to Denver where he was to go to trial on charges relating to a CIA operation called Operation Gold Bug. He explained that he was on a one-million-dollar self-recognizance bond, which was rather bizarre since any offense requiring that large a bond would be too serious to permit release on one’s own recognizance.
Parker thought that charging him was a mistake unless it was to silence or discredit him. Parker said, “First, my trial was to start on February 2, 1982. Second, when it came up it came up by a pure fluke.” He explained how the CIA was to protect him from prosecution. Prior to trial his CIA handlers instructed him to remain silent about the CIA operation as it was ongoing and that any exposure of it would have serious consequences. His handlers stated that he would receive a very light prison sentence or probation and would soon be free.
CIA Involved in JFK Assassination?
Parker said that after President Kennedy decided to pull U.S. troops out of
the CIA’s Vietnam operation, which would cause the loss of billions of dollars
from the CIA drug trafficking, certain CIA factions decided to assassinate Kennedy. Pegasus people learned of the plot and told Kennedy two weeks before he
was assassinated. These statements added further fuel to the charges that the CIA was involved in Kennedy’s assassination. In light of other CIA criminal activities, there should be little doubt that the CIA has the mindset to assassinate a president of the United States.
President Reagan More
of a Puppet Head
Parker stated that after Kennedy’s death, the Pegasus unit was not able to
function as intended because of activities by U.S. presidents after the Kennedy
assassination. He named Johnson, Nixon and Bush as knowing of the planned
assassination, and that the Pegasus group had taped telephone conversations
making reference to the operation. He stated that Reagan was not implicated
like the others; he was more of a figurehead for powerful factions controlled by
former CIA Director Bush. Parker described the necessity of Pegasus going underground within the CIA because of the inability to report to a president, and that the files on corrupt CIA operations gathered by the Pegasus group were moved to various secret locations. Denver was one of the sites.
Parker said that his Pegasus group secretly gave files on the CIA criminal activities from 1976 to 1982 to a member of the Joint Armed Services Committee, Congressman Larry McDonald. These files revealed corrupt activities by several U.S. presidents, federal officials, the CIA, and other members of government.
Parker said that McDonald let it be known to the press that he was going to reveal startling evidence upon his return from the Far East showing that the CIA and certain high-ranking public officials were part of an operation responsible for drug trafficking since 1963 from Southeast Asia. McDonald boarded KAL Flight 007, which was shot down by the Russians.[that just proves they are all in it together,what are the odds,the Russians shoot down THAT plane? DC]
Operation Mother Goose
Parker described his various assignments in the CIA from when he first
joined the Office of Naval Intelligence. He was involved during 1964 in the
CIA scheme called Operation Mother Goose dealing with joint military selection, recruitment, and training of qualified enlisted men with security ratings.
These people were educated and trained in basic covert and undercover activities. After training they were released from active military duty to enroll in colleges and universities under the GI Bill. While under CIA supervision, they infiltrated student activities and student movements as they related to the Vietnam War and other political areas. Parker trained at the United States Marine
Corps base at Camp Pendleton, California.
Operation Back Draft
Parker’s next CIA assignment was an enlargement upon Operation Mother
Goose called Operation Back Draft. This operation provided financial assistance to students while attending college and trained them to infiltrate and disrupt student activities. Parker participated in this program while attending college and university programs in Southern California. Another CIA contract agent, Ron Rewald, was used in a similar operation and was later recruited by the CIA to operate a proprietary in Hawaii known as Bishop, Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham and Wong (BBRDW ). This operation is described in detail in the third edition of Defrauding America.
To qualify Parker for use in financial operations, the CIA obtained employment for him with New York Stock Exchange brokerage firms from 1971 until 1974 in California and Colorado. While in those positions, he supplied confidential information to the CIA on customers’ accounts and transactions. Eventually he opened his own brokerage firm as a front for the CIA through the SEC and NASD.
This is similar to the operation described to me by CIA operative Gunther Russbacher in which Russbacher received training at Mutual Life Insurance Company and then incorporated and operated a number of CIA financial institutions headquartered in Missouri. These institutions had offices throughout the United States including Denver, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and Traverse City, Michigan.
Operation Anaconda
Another CIA assignment held by Parker was participation in Operation
Anaconda in the mid-1970s, through which CIA personnel ran for state and
federal political office. Another purpose of the operation was to swing key elections to a particular candidate, away from one whose interest may be detrimental to the CIA or other covert government unit. This was used against Senator Church and Representative Pike after their committees exposed CIA misconduct. Parker elaborated upon other CIA operations in which he was involved, including infiltration of U.S. financial institutions, drug operations in Central and South America, and the Nigerian operation known as Indigo Sky.
Operation Interlink
Parker appeared as guest on several talk shows with Tom Valentine of Radio Free America.
17 During one appearance on July 29, 1993, he shared the
two-hour program with former CIA employee and author Fletcher Prouty,18 describing the mechanics of the CIA’s Operation Interlink. Prouty stated during
the show that Parker’s revelations “make this one of the most important shows
on the CIA that has ever occurred.” 17 A syndicated show of Sun Radio Network, heard throughout the United States, and on short wave five nights a week.
18 Prouty authored The Secret Team, and other CIA books.
Operation Snow Cone
Parker stated that the CIA and Justice Department had sacrificed him in
1982 to protect an ongoing secret scheme called Operation Snow Cone. He had
been charged by the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) with a money
laundering operation that was part of a CIA operation under Operation Interlink
and Operation Gold Bug. This CIA operation was accidentally exposed by the
SEC, which was unaware of the CIA’s role in the ongoing operation. Usually
Justice Department officials in Washington quickly step in and the charges are
dropped. But in this case, the SEC charges were filed and publicized by the
media so it was too late to retract the charges. There was another possible reason for filing charges against Parker. He stated that his handlers had asked him to be part of an expanding drug operation in Nigeria called Operation Indigo Sky and that he refused. He didn’t care to get involved in drug trafficking, and further, living conditions in Nigeria were deplorable.
Justice Department prosecutors and CIA personnel encouraged Parker to plead guilty, assuring him that he would be released as soon as attention to his case no longer existed. Parker pled guilty in 1982 and he refused all newspaper interviews. He was promptly hidden in the federal prison system, including months of diesel therapy that kept him from a law library and telephone. (“Diesel therapy” is a term used to describe the practice by prison officials to transfer a prisoner from prison to prison, during which he is often unable to communicate with his lawyer or family.)
The opportunity to seek legal relief arose while Parker was in an Arizona prison where he could prepare and file a post-conviction motion, which was heard by U.S. District Judge Marquez in Tucson on February 12, 1986. The judge ordered the prison warden and the U.S. Attorney to release Parker immediately. In 1992, U.S. Attorney Michael Norton in Denver charged Parker with money laundering charges that had been part of his CIA operations. At his arraignment, the judge ordered him released pending trial that was set for April 1993. Before his release, Parker occupied a cell with Stewart Webb, a private investigator whom I had met earlier, and who was trying to expose the HUD and savings and loan corruption in the Denver area. Webb showed Parker some of my writings, causing Parker to contact me upon his release.
Parker said that he had been with the CIA for approximately 30 years and was part of Faction “B” and with a unit called Pegasus 222. The CIA reportedly has three factions. Faction One or sometimes referred to as Faction “A,” appears to be under the control of the Justice Department: Faction Two or Bfaction is supposedly under the control of the Office of Naval Intelligence. Faction. Faction Three is small, including former OSS operatives and reportedly a loose-knit group of rogues.
While waiting for trial, Parker filed papers with the court listing the secret CIA operations that he would reveal. He also filed a list of documents that he would submit, including the confidential status report showing him to be a Colonel in the U.S. Marines assigned to the Office of Naval Intelligence and to the Central Intelligence Agency.
Once Parker filed the list of documents with the court, an assistant U.S. attorney in Denver complained to the judge that Parker should have filed the documents under seal because they revealed secret CIA activities. Because of those revealing documents, U.S. Attorney Norton dismissed all charges against Parker, which avoided revealing the Agency’s dirty linen. Parker called me on March 23, 1993, stating: “All charges have been dropped. I’m going underground. Don’t ask any questions.” He then hung up.
A year later, in June 1994, the State of Arizona again sought to extradite Parker from Colorado. Colorado attorney Dennis L. Blewitt said to me that almost twenty law-enforcement personnel surrounded Parker’s home and arrested him, based upon the Arizona extradition papers.
Parker then sought to have the papers filed in the previous extradition attempt, in the possession of another judge, sent to the court where the new extradition request was to be heard. Blewitt and several friends went to the clerk of the court where the case was pending, requesting help in getting from the other judge the necessary documents. When the clerk heard the name of my book, Defrauding America, she reached under the counter and pulled out a copy. When she realized that Parker was in the book she told the group not to worry, that she would get the records for Parker.
Reportedly, the clerk and the two judges had a copy of the book with Parker’s activities described in detail. Arizona requested that a $500,000 cash bond be required for Parker’s release pending a hearing on the extradition request. The judge settled for $3,500. After Parker was released he called me, describing the events, and said that even the Thornton city police, who arrested him, had a copy of Defrauding America in the police station, and it was being read by the people on duty. Several times Parker credited the book with bringing about his release.
Prison Release Brought About
by Defrauding America Book?
After federal charges were dropped against Parker the State of Arizona
filed money-laundering charges against him, arising from Parker’s earlier CIA
activities. Extradition papers were filed with Colorado authorities where Parker
was residing, seeking to have him extradited to Arizona. Parker felt that this
charge arose from activities of the United States Department of Justice. Fighting extradition, Parker filed into court records the Expanded Second Edition of Defrauding America, referring to the sections explaining Parker’s CIA activities and telling how Justice Department officials sought to silence or discredit CIA assets by filing sham charges and incarceration. The judge refused to honor the extradition papers from Arizona, ordering Parker released from custody. Parker felt that the book played a role in his release.
Meeting Foster at Mena
Before I lost contact with Parker, he described to me during a June 1994
telephone call a meeting he had at Mena, Arkansas at which there were present
CIA asset Terry Reed and Rose Law Firm partner Vincent Foster. Parker said
that CIA money laundering was the primary topic of discussion. This meeting
provided extra support for the fact that the law firm was involved in the CIA related activities. Another source that I describe in Defrauding America, Leo Wanta, who played a role in destabilizing the Russian currency, described meetings he had in Europe with Vincent Foster.
During the years following these events Parker told me he wanted nothing else to do with any of the corruption in government. He felt that the nation’s checks and balances were too corrupt, the public too illiterate about government misconduct, and too indifferent, for anyone to show any meaningful concern.
OSS -CIA Veteran Russell Bowen
Former OSS- CIA veteran, Russell Bowen, revealed considerable undercover activities to me when we first met in the early 1990s. Our somewhat
similar backgrounds caused him to confide things in me that he ordinarily
would not have done. Both of us were World War II pilots. We had flown in international operations and especially in the Middle East. And we had both
flown the Curtis C-46 airplane that appears to bond into a group those pilots
who have flown it. It was huge for the time, and when one of the two engines
failed, it was like hanging onto a raging tiger to keep the plane under control.
(This broad aviation background, and my exposure activities, gave me a camaraderie relationship with many deep-cover sources that I acquired over the
years.) Bowen gave me many hours of information concerning his activities for the OSS and CIA. Much of what Bowen told me was confirmed by other deep cover operatives. The amount of information he provided was nothing near what Russbacher provided, but it still was valuable to understand the actions of the CIA and its predecessor during World War II, the Office of Strategic Services.
Bowen was a pilot in World War II flying P-38’s with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, and other decorations for meritorious service. He said he was the youngest P-38 fighter pilot at that time.
During World War II, Bowen was brought into the OSS by General William Donovan, who was selected by President Franklin Roosevelt to form this intelligence unit. When President Truman disbanded the OSS in 1947, several dozen OSS members secretly maintained their organization under the cover of the CIA and were known as “Faction Three” in the Central Intelligence Agency. Bowen was part of a group of about seventy-five people from the former Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
In his OSS /CIA role, Bowen was the pilot for United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammserskjold, the Shah of Iran, and eventually Fulgencio Batista, the former dictator of Cuba. My flight paths and Bowen’s had crossed when my piloting duties took me to the Middle East on temporary assignment from my base at Oakland, California. I flew Muslim pilgrims to Mecca during the summer months in the mid-1950s, and also flew through Middle East countries flying planes containing over 1600 monkeys from New Delhi, India, to the United States for the Salk polio vaccine program. Bowen often flew DC-3 and C-46 aircraft from Kabul, Afghanistan, to Beirut via Teheran, the route that I frequently flew in the same type of aircraft. Bowen was flying material for the CIA.
Bowen surprised me when he said that two employees of the airline that I worked for, Transocean Airlines, were CIA operatives: Allan A. Barrie, General Manager for Iranian Airways in Tehran, and Henry F. “Hank” Maierhoffer. Bowen started up several airlines in South America after the war that served as covers for the CIA.
OSS Pilot Involved in
Kidnapping Ochoa‘s Sister
Bowen described his role in various deep-cover activities, including extracting CIA assets from various locations in South America and in assassinations.
He described in great detail the role he played in the kidnapping of Ochoa‘s sister. He piloted the DC-3 aircraft that flew Leona to a remote location where she
was held until her release.
Casey‘s Undercover CIA Operations
Bowen said that he reported directly to William Casey in the CIA during
the 1960s and 1970s. He indicated that Casey was with the CIA in a covert capacity after World War II and long before becoming its director in 1981. Bowen
said that he flew dozens of covert CIA operations in the Middle East and Latin
America under Casey’s direction. Bowen also mentioned meeting Casey and
other handlers on his trips to Washington at secret places and receiving verbal
instructions and suitcases filled with money. Casey was part of the OSS during World War II until President Truman disbanded it in 1947. He then became a covert operative for the CIA with no publicized connection to the Agency until 1981, when President Reagan appointed him Director of the CIA.
Bowen elaborated upon his dealings with the Medellin and Cali drug cartels as a CIA operative and the role played by the Mossad in these dealings. Bowen was a friend of Theodore Shackley, a CIA kingpin in CIA drug activities, working closely with the cartels. Bowen said that the CIA provided Theodore Shackley the alias of Robert Haynes. Bowen worked with Shackley from the early 1950s to 1984.
Crashing in the Andes
In 1959, Shackley was on board a C-46 aircraft flown by Bowen when an
engine failure forced them to crash-land on the eastern slopes of the Andes in
Bolivia. I’ve also flown C-46 aircraft, and know that with an engine out, it is very difficult to maintain level flight, and especially at the high altitude being
flown over the Andes. The plane crashed, but everyone survived. I had an opportunity to question Shackley on this crash while I was a guest at the national convention for the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) held at San Francisco in November 1995. While eating lunch at the convention I suddenly spotted Shackley and his wife sitting immediately across from me. Since I did not know if he had read my earlier books in which I made reference to him, and since I wanted to be low-key at this convention, I didn’t introduce myself to him. However, I wanted to get Shackley’s reaction to the plane crash described by Bowen, and asked former National Security Agency (NSA) agent Joe T. Jordan, who sponsored my appearance at the convention, to ask.
Crash Landing with CIA
and Drugs on Board
Jordan said that Shackley “stated unequivocally that it was untrue.” I didn’t
think that Bowen would lie to me on a matter like that so I called Bowen at his
Florida residence, advising him of Shackley’s reply. I asked, “Was there something going on with that flight that Shackley would not want anyone to know
that he was on it?” “Of course! It was loaded with drugs!” Bowen responded. Bowen enlarged upon the purpose of that trip. He stated that this trip occurred several years before Shackley was made CIA station chief in Miami, and that Shackley was instrumental in setting up the CIA drug trafficking into the United States from South America. Bowen said that the series of flights went from Miami, to Colombia, to Quayaqui, to Lima, and then to Arequita. After the plane left Arequita going eastbound over the Andes, one of the two engines failed, causing the aircraft to lose altitude. Bowen was able to maneuver the aircraft into one of the few available flat areas, and crash-landed the plane.
Bowen said that Shackley had arranged for cocaine to be loaded on board the aircraft, where it was hidden in the tail section. Bowen, Shackley, and the others then abandoned the crashed aircraft. Eventually the Bolivian authorities discovered the drugs, but the pilots and passengers were long gone. This would explain why Shackley wanted to distance himself from that crash.
Key CIA Official Setting Up
Drug Suppliers and Routes
Bowen said that Shackley went to Ascension, Paraguay to arrange for drugs
to be shipped to Miami, meeting with the head chief of one of the Indian
groups and a Lieutenant Colonel in Paraguay’s military. Bowen said that these
people were the backbone of Strainer’s intelligence and drug dealing activities. Bowen described the conflict between different CIA factions. “At that time,” Bowen said, “Shackley was the leader of the CIA faction bringing the drugs in. The CIA team I worked for did not want the drugs in.”
CIA Mastermind of Drug
Route from South America
I asked who set up that initial drug operation. Bowen, referring to Shackley, said, “He was the mastermind of the drug operation. He had full authority
to set it up.” Referring to the CIA headquarters that was first in Washington and then in McLean, Virginia, I asked, “Would you have any knowledge of whether McLean or Washington was aware of this drug operation?”
“They ordered him to do it.”
Money Laundering Proprietaries
Bowen described one of the CIA proprietaries operated by Shackley,
INTERKREDIT, with offices in Medellin, Amsterdam, and Ft. Lauderdale.
During the Vietnam War Shackley helped manage the extensive CIA drug operations in the Golden Triangle Area, and was the executive director of the CIA
Phoenix Program (that murdered over 40,000 Vietnamese civilians). Shackley
directed the CIA’s secret war against Laos in the mid-1960s, and later became
chief of station in Saigon. He directed the transfer of tens of millions if not billions of dollars received from the CIA-promoted heroin trade in the Golden
Triangle of Burma, Thailand, and Laos. When Shackley was chief of station for the CIA in charge of Central and South American operations, he reportedly directed the massive drug trafficking into the United States that subsequently blossomed. He directed the operation known as “TRACK II,” which led to the overthrow of the Salvador Allende government in Chile in 1973. He was just the man to coordinate the CIA’s development of the burgeoning drug trafficking from Central and South America into the United States.
Bowen gave me details of the CIA ties to the Medellin drug cartel that Russbacher and Parker had described to me earlier. Each gave me details of the formation of the Medellin cartel from another perspective.
Unusual Attempt to Expose
Drug Trafficking, Or, Simply Caught!
During a drug-hauling flight in 1982 for the CIA Bowen was arrested hauling drugs. The resulting media publicity prevented the CIA from arranging a
get-out-of-jail card and he spent several years in federal prison. Bowen said that he was requested by CIA operative Henry Meierhoffer 19 to pilot a trip to Medellin, Colombia, carrying a government undercover agent and to return with another agent. But when Bowen arrived in Medellin, he said Shackley placed eight hundred pounds of cocaine on board the return flight, including two hundred pounds belonging to the Mossad.
19 On March 2, 1984. Interestingly, Meierhoffer had been an employee of Trans- ocean Airlines in Beirut during the time I was a captain for the airline.
Standard Silencing Tactic
On the return flight to the United States, as he landed at Sylvania Airport in
Georgia, federal agents surrounded the aircraft and he was arrested. Bowen said
that at his trial in 1985, the U.S. District Judge refused to allow him to have his
CIA handlers, including Meierhoffer, appear as witnesses. The Judge refused to
allow Bowen to produce records and testimony showing that he was carrying
out CIA activities. Refusing to allow evidence to be presented that is necessary to a person’s defense, when covert government activities are involved, is a standard pattern by federal judges. Almost every CIA and DEA person with whom I have talked, and who had been imprisoned, experienced this pattern, including Russbacher, Rewald, Riconosciuto, Wilson, and others.
Bowen’ s court-appointed defender displayed the usual lack of aggressiveness, with no desire to raise a defense that would expose covert government activities. It is probable that the naive jury felt that Justice Department prosecutors surely would not lie or bring false charges against an innocent person. They convicted Bowen, and he was sentenced to ten years in prison.
DEA-CIA Drugs-Arms-
Trafficker, Basil Abbott
Another pilot with whom I had been in frequent contact was Basil “Bo”
Abbott, who operated in the lower levels of undercover operations as a pilot
for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). His experiences provided another insight into the bizarre world of CIA and DEA drug trafficking. Abbott
flew arms from the United States to Central and South America from 1973 to
1983 in small general aviation planes that were provided to him by the DEA.
Over a period of several years Abbott provided me with details and maps relating to these arms and drug activities for the DEA and CIA.
DEA Drug Pilot Training at
FAA Center, Oklahoma City
Abbott described receiving specialized pilot training from DEA air wing
commander William Coller at the FAA facility in Oklahoma City, preparing
him to fly drugs in and out of short dirt strips in Central and South America,
how to ditch in the water, and other emergencies. Classroom training was given
on how to avoid radar detection, the routes to fly and the hours to fly them so
as to avoid detection by drug interdiction aircraft. Coller trained Abbott in numerous aircraft, including the Cessna 180, 185, 206, 210, and 310, and Piper
Aztec, Aerostar, and Navajo. (In 1999, Coller confirmed to me that he coordinated the Air Wing operation and that he did give Abbott flight training.) During Abbott‘s DEA employment, he worked out of DEA offices in Denver, Charleston, and in 1978 the DEA facility at Addison Airport, north of Dallas. Abbott named other DEA pilots who, acting under DEA orders, flew drug flights from Central America to the United States. These pilots included Cesar Rodriguez, Daniel Miranda, and George Phillips.
Flying Arms for the DEA to
Central America and Drugs Back
Abbott was ordered by the DEA to fly arms to numerous Central America
locations. One of these flights, occurring in 1982, flew arms into a dirt strip
near Bluefields, Nicaragua for the Miskito Indians. From there, Abbot flew to a
strip known as B2E, where drugs were loaded for the return flight to the United
States. Some of these flights landed at a small airfield near Memphis, Tennessee. These flights were profitable for everyone involved, including the pilots. In addition to being paid in cash for each flight, pilots flying for the DEA were sometimes given part of the drug loads, which they later sold. Abbott received $60,000 and fifty pounds of pot for this flight to the Miskito Indians and return with drugs.
Abbott described flying drug loads out of small landing strips in Nicaragua, Antigua, Honduras, Costa Rica, Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico. He arranged for fuel supplies and ground facilities at these locations, and regularly bribed local politicians to cooperate and protect the arms and drug flights. These flights were hazardous in many ways. Abbott described DEA pilots flying arms to the M-19 group in Colombia, during which some of the pilots were assassinated. Abbott‘s fluency in several languages besides English—Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish—was helpful in covert activities. During his DEA-associated activities, he circulated in prominent Central America society, socializing with well-known political figures, including Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay.
Abbott described a Bolivian 707 that regularly hauled drugs into Panama with the DEA‘s knowledge. When Abbott asked his DEA handlers about it, they told him to forget it.
Drug Plane Traffic Like
Grand Central Station
“It was like Grand Central Station at some airstrips in Belize and Nicaragua,” was how Abbott described the number of planes flying drugs. Abbott told
how he and other DEA personnel flew to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, in a Convair 340
to set a trap for the son of the Israeli Ambassador, Sam Weisgal, involving a
large shipment of cocaine to the United States. When the drug bust occurred,
several people were killed. The DEA seized the drugs and then reshipped them
as if they were DEA loads. Weisgal escaped the drug bust, but was later captured. However, Israeli pressure brought about his release.[How come I am not surprised with that outcome? DC]
Danger of Knowing Too Much
about CIA-DEA Drug Trafficking
On a flight to Cancun, Mexico (June 1983), DEA agents acting with Mexican police arrested Abbott. While in jail, he was interrogated by DEA agents
Richard Braziel, Torry Schutz, Jerry Carter, and Assistant U.S. Attorney
(AUSA) John Murphy. When Abbott wouldn’t answer the questions, Mexican
police, at Brazil’s request, tortured him. U.S. agents then transported Abbott to
a county jail in San Antonio, Texas, where he was visited by CIA agents who
assured him that he would be released shortly. Instead, Abbott was sentenced to
eight years in prison by Judge Fred Shannon. DEA agent Richard Braziel then
told Abbott the sentence was only for show, and that they would get him released if he did not say anything about the DEA and CIA drug operations. Abbott was eventually released. After his release on probation, Abbott tried to obtain media interest in DEA drug trafficking, including the Larry King Show. He had no more success than I had during 30 years of attempting to expose government corruption. Abbott even tried to give his evidence to Manuel Noriega‘s attorneys to show how Noriega was simply a part of the CIA, DEA, and Mossad drug trafficking into the United States.
Several sources did respond to Abbott‘s efforts: the DEA, FBI, and Department of Justice. They fabricated a reason for arresting Abbott while on probation, stating that he had left the geographical limits of his parole at Dallas by flying a private plane to nearby Austin. Upon readying his plane for the return flight to Dallas, government agents arrested him, charging him with violating parole conditions.
Death to DEA Chief Pilot
Exposing DEA-CIA Drug Trafficking
According to Coller, Bario became involved in drug trafficking on the side and was set up by a government informant in Chicago, where he was arrested. Another source had it that Bario knew too much about Mexican and U.S. government involvement in drugs, and that either or both governments wanted him out of the way.
In 1979, DEA and Justice Department attorneys charged Bario with drug offenses, causing his imprisonment. When Bario was brought before U.S. District Judge Fred Shannon in San Antonio, Bario reportedly tried to describe his DEA duties and the DEA and CIA drug trafficking, but Justice Department attorneys and the judge blocked him from proceeding.
After being returned to his jail cell in San Antonio’s Bexar County Jail, a prison guard gave Bario a strychnine-laced peanut-butter sandwich, causing immediate painful convulsions and subsequent death. The official autopsy report covered up for this murder, reporting that Bario died of asphyxiation.
Abbott described acquiring a common-law wife in Sweden who bore their child. She moved to the United States and started an import business bringing sweaters into the United States from Norway and Iceland. Abbott feared for the safety of his wife and daughter after the DEA targeted him, and he sent them back to Sweden.
Assassinating Abbott‘s Wife
After he was arrested and in federal prison at Bastrop (near San Antonio,
Texas) his wife, living in Sweden, tried to get media attention on the DEA drug
trafficking by talking to newspapers in Germany, hoping that this attention
would force the DEA and Justice Department to release Abbott. Instead, she
joined the long list of those who posed a threat to U.S. officials and their criminal activities; she was assassinated. Abbott‘s grief over his wife’s assassination, and the constant attempts by government agents to silence him, made him determined to expose the drug trafficking by the DEA, CIA and Justice Department. He sent me many letters describing in great detail the DEA and CIA drug operations, including maps of landing sites, people he contacted, and the names of other DEA pilots.
Abbott was released from prison on November 14, 1994, and became one of several former prisoners who credit my letters (such as to the parole board in Abbott‘s case), along with a copy of the second edition of Defrauding America, with bringing about their release.
Operation Buy Back :
CIA-DEA Drug Smuggling Operation
Abbott told of an operation, which CIA-ONI agent Gunther Russbacher
enlarged upon, involving smuggling drugs in frozen shrimp, using a CIA front
company, Pacific Seafood Transportation Company. Russbacher and other CIA
operatives confirmed the drug trafficking by Pacific Seafood. Russbacher said
that shrimp containers “were filled with ice and everything but shrimp.” He
said it was part of a joint DEA-CIA operation called Operation Buy Back. Abbott described many of the people with whom he came in contact who were also heavily involved in drug-related activities. He described his close contacts with Eric Arturo Del-Valle, a member of Panama’s Jewish community, and who was president of Panama. Arthur’s family was in the sugar export business, which Abbott said was a subterfuge for cocaine exports to the United States by the Mossad.
Using Export Companies
as Fronts to Ship Drugs
Abbott described the relationship between the major Bolivian drug traffickers, Sonia and Walter Atala, the Roberto Suarez cocaine gang, and the CIA. The Atala's leased a Boeing 727 in 1980 and 1981, painted the name Lloyd Aero
Boliviano on the side, and used it to haul cocaine into Tocumen Airport from
Bolivia and Paraguay. At Tocumen Airport the cocaine was off-loaded to a
warehouse owned by the Atala's, which was a front for exporting Hitachi radios
and television sets back to Bolivia and Paraguay. (Abbott also picked up cocaine numerous times at Tocumen Airport.) From Tocumen Airport the cocaine was loaded onto small planes, or onto TACA Airlines, flying to the United States. Every morning at 6 a.m. TACA departed Tocumen for El Salvador, Belize, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and eventually to New Orleans, Miami, and Houston. Cocaine was offloaded at one or all of these stops in the United States. The cocaine would sometimes be driven from Atala’s warehouse at Tocumen to the Colon Free Trade Zone, placed into another of Atoll’s front companies, and eventually put on ships going to the United States. Abbott described the frequent presence of Manuel Noriega at CIA and DEA drug transshipment points. He said that Noriega’s CIA code name was “Nelson.”
Belize as A Major Drug
Transshipment Point
Abbott described the heavy drug trafficking occurring in Belize and how
that country was used by the CIA for training Contras, similar to what was occurring in Arkansas at Mena Airport. Abbott described Operation Bushmaster
in Belize, which was intended to take over the drug business from the many independent drug smugglers, being taken over by the CIA for greater profit and
greater security. Busting independent drug traffickers was one of the joint CIA/Justice Department tactics to control the drug business into the United States.
So powerful was the CIA’s presence in Belize that it literally took over the government.
Helping Former Savings and
Loan Kingpin with Drug Trafficking
He described a Mexican cocaine-processing lab that he discovered north of
Cuatrocienegas in the state of Chihuahua. Abbott stated that he helped Robert
Corson, well known in the savings and loan scandals of the 1980s, set up that
lab, after which DEA agents arrested Abbott. Abbott stated that cocaine processed at that lab was transported by land, and sometimes by air, to a small airstrip at Lajitas in West Texas, on land controlled by Walt Mischner. From there
it was then flown to other points in the United States.
The Arkansas Connection
One of the Arkansas airstrips into which Abbott was directed to deliver
drugs was south of Interstate 30 just southwest of W. Memphis, Tennessee,
called Marianna. Several of my other deep-cover contacts described drugs going into that same airport, and the role played by state police in protecting the
drug and arms operations.
DEA Agent Received Drug
Load in Arkansas
While Arkansas
State Police Provided Protection
Abbott described how Arkansas State Police protected drug loads by blocking off roads leading to small airstrips when drug flights arrived. He described
one such instance occurring in the spring of 1982. Abbott flew a Cessna 210
containing 300 kilos of cocaine from one of several warehouses at Tocumen
owned by drug traffickers Walter and Sonia Atala, to the crop-duster landing strip at Marianna, Arkansas. He made a fuel stop in Belize, famous for transition of drug-loaded aircraft, and then proceeded to his Marianna destination. A
Memphis-based DEA agent took the cocaine from Abbott, while an Arkansas
state trooper blocked the road leading to the landing strip. A week later, Abbott
took off from that strip with six suitcases of money, delivering it to Cesar Rodriguez at Isla Contadora. Abbott said the plane was provided by Robert Corson
through Jim Bath of Houston.
Further Confirmation of
CIA-DEA Theft of Planes
Abbott described the CIA stealing of general aviation planes within the
United States for use in the CIA’s arms and drug shipments. This coincided
with what several of my CIA contacts had stated to me for several years, and as
described by former CIA asset Terry Reed in his book, Compromised. The stolen aircraft were repainted and new serial numbers applied, after which they
were flown to Central and South America with loads of arms, and then drugs
on the return flights.
Mexican Airliners and Drugs
It was in the early 1990s that Abbott described how he arranged the unloading of drugs from Mexican airliners in the Mexican desert near Texas. At the
time this sounded rather bizarre, but his detailed description of the events over
a period of several years convinced me that he was telling the truth. Further, an
article (November 30, 1995) in the New York Times (and earlier in the Los Angeles Times ) was headlined, “Drug Plane Unloaded in Mexico, Maybe by Police.” The article described a Caravelle passenger jet being landed on a dry
lakebed near Todos Santos, Mexico. The Caravelle was a French-built airliner
that was flown by United Airlines during the 1960s.
Mexican Federal Police
Protecting Drug Operation
Normally this operation would have gone unreported, as many others had
occurred. But this drug operation was reported because of the unusual events
surrounding its occurrence. The aircraft’s nose wheel was damaged upon landing, preventing a subsequent takeoff. The article described how heavily armed
federal police unloaded the plane after it landed and then proceeded to destroy
the aircraft. All identifying documents and avionics equipment were removed
from the plane, the wings cut off, and an attempt made to blow up the plane. A
large hole was bulldozed in the ground and the plane was buried.
Confrontation Between Mexican
State and Federal Police
Complications developed while the plane was being destroyed. The state
police commander and several deputies arrived to investigate, and were confronted in a tense standoff with the federal police, who advised that the army
had been notified and the situation was under control. The 30 federal policemen
involved in the drug operation were suddenly transferred and unavailable for
questioning by the federal prosecutor in the Baja California jurisdiction. Making reference to the use of large jets in similar situations, Mexican Foreign Minister Jose Angel Gurria said in a recent interview that drug traffickers had stopped using large passenger jets.
CIA Cable Analyst Michael Maholy
For several years, starting in 1993, I was in contact with deep-cover operative Michael Maholy whose primary duty was monitoring cable traffic at different CIA locations. Maholy started giving me information and a different
slant on the role of federal officials in drug trafficking from Central and South
America into the United States. Maholy said he was a liaison officer for the
U.S. Embassy in Panama and worked for the U.S. State Department and CIA
for over two decades. Maholys deep-cover connections were given additional support when investigative journalist and author of Barry and the Boys Daniel Hopsicker discovered letters in possession of the widow of infamous drug trafficker Barry Seal. Among these letters was a letter by Democratic powerbroker Richard Ben-Veniste that referred to Michael Maholy.
Maholy wrote in one of his many letters to me about his role at a U.S. Embassy:
I have spent time in South American countries providing photos, documents, maps, and all intelligence for the U.S. Embassies in Central and South America. I first became acquainted with agent Robert Hunt in 1985 in Panama where I was the liaison officer for the U.S. Embassy. He was always accompanied by Oliver North and his team. This went on for several years. I recall reading cable traffic where his name came up repeatedly.
During my contacts with CIA Director William Casey, I was drafted into the Southern Zone (Central and South American countries) so that we could start operations on spying on Panama, Colombia, and other countries that were making huge amounts of money from drugs. They needed weapons and firepower. We, the CIA, provided them. They in turn sold us drugs... many instances of cover-up conspiracies that continue to multiply as we are talking.
On one tour to South America I worked on a CIA-owned oil rig operated by a company called Rowan International, based in Houston, Texas. Rowan is a worldwide drilling exploration company with very friendly liaisons in Central America and South America, as well as Africa and Middle East.
While in Balboa Harbor off the coast of Panama, on the rig Rowan Houston, at approximately 2:00 a.m., a helicopter landed on the heliport. I was monitoring cables and traffic when our radar detected a small support group which turned out to be patrol boats, four in all. At this point I thought the rig was going to be taken over by hostile forces. But instead I could not believe who was getting out of the chopper: it was Noriega and another man. I contacted the “company man” and he informed me that this meeting was not to be documented and to go back and resume the task of cable and traffic. I found out later that this man with Noriega was [Mossad agent] Michael Harari. I found out later that they were trying to raise money for the CIA by selling drugs to plan the destruction of a hydroelectric power plant on the Orinoco River in Venezuela.
Over a period of many months, Maholy gave me details of CIA and Mossad drug trafficking. He named the companies owning the oil rigs off the coast of the United States, Central and South America, Nigeria, and Angola: Santa Fe, Zapata, and Rowan. He physically saw Evergreen International Airlines and Southern Air Transport hauling drugs, confirmed by cable traffic he handled.
I had repeatedly heard from investigators and CIA contacts that various divisions of the Zapata Corporation,20 such as Zapata Petroleum, Zapata OffShore, and Zapata Cattle Company were heavily involved in drug trafficking. The oil rigs were used to carry out the drug operations. Drugs would be offloaded from ships onto the drilling platforms and then taken into the nearby coastal areas in helicopters that were constantly carrying supplies and personnel. Maholy confirmed that this practice existed, having learned about it from CIA cable traffic and his own observations while on the rigs.
20 Zapata Corporation, based in Houston, was a CIA asset, and the stock partly owned by George Bush. Zapata Petroleum was organized by George Bush, who reportedly had major interests in various Zapata divisions
The real mission [of these oil and gas drilling platforms] was to funnel weapons and money to the Nicaraguans, and also to bring illegal drugs into the United States. Being a CIA-funded mission, the rig had Naval SEAL teams diverted through its location....Rowan International was a cover for a branch of Zapata Oil. Zapata Oil and Exploration had many land-based operations in Central and South America as well as offshore rigs.
We had access to military cryptographics such as the kW 135, the KL 16, KL 10 and the CW 4 to decode and sifter out any cable traffic from transmissions from Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama.
Maholy confirmed what other CIA sources had told me about the CIA drug trafficking through Pacific Seafood. He wrote:
This company Pacific Seafood used a number of vessels to carry out covert missions to run weapons, drugs and cash from country to country. Not only would their “shrimp” trawlers use the oil rigs for loading, unloading and refueling, and also to deliver large sums of money for aid to the Contras. The shrimpers would constantly converge on our rig to convert, store and transport all of the above. The crews were all seasoned paramilitary experts in their abilities to search and destroy, CIA trained and specialists in their fields.
It was from one of the shrimp boat captains that I would come to meet Barry Seal’ s main right-wing contact from Morgan City, La. His name was Russell Hebert, and the name on his shrimp boat was Southern Crossing. This boat had state-of-the-art radar, hi-tech navigation systems, extra fuel tanks, and a crew consisting only of “special forces or [Navy] Seals.”
Maholy wrote that he remembers Russell Bowen flying onto the rig and then flying two DEA agents to Colombia. I called Bowen, who lived in Winter Haven, Florida at the time, and asked him about this flight. Bowen confirmed that it was him. I said to Bowen that Maholy mentioned having seen him at the oilrig, and Bowen then confirmed it, stating it was part of the operation that extracted CIA agent Sam Cummings from Costa Rica.
Offshore Oil Rigs and Drugs
Maholy described the drugs that he had seen on the oil platforms operated
by the CIA and Zapata Corporation. In one letter he wrote, “A shrimp boat arrived with a load of cocaine with the markings of the Mossad‘s famous two triangles that resembled the Star of David.”
Flying Slow to Avoid Suspicion
Maholy described how the drug planes would fly low and proceed from the
off-shore oil rigs to the United States at very slow speeds of approximately 120
knots, so that they would appear on radar as helicopters servicing the rigs. Maholy described how the Ochoa drug cartel used the coastal oil rigs for drug
transshipments. He described the role of a Venezuelan naval officer by the
name of Lizardo Marquez Perez, who was in charge of this drug operation, and
frequently seen on the oil rigs by Maholy. Maholy described the cover-up of the drug operation by such people as the Chief of the DEA cocaine operations in Washington, Ron Caffrey, Oliver North, CIA’s Duane (Dewey) Clarridge, Army Lieutenant General Paul Gorman (commander of the Panama-based U.S. Southern Command), and others. Excerpts from some of Manhole’s letters:
A person I’ve met on several occasions was in the Colombia Cartel, Carlos Lehder. During Operation Back Door he and several of his soldiers were planning to use CIA oil rigs and the shrimp industries to import drugs into America. Carlos had DEA personnel assigned to work with him. I myself have been to his home on Norman’s Cay in the Bahamas. He had a stash of drugs shipped back and forth to Everglade City in the Ten Thousands Islands area of Southern Florida. When the rig Rowan Midland was in Venezuela, Carlos had a regular agent of his as a tool-pusher to oversee all shipments coming and going. The CIA would buy drugs and supply friends of the Colombian government with money and weapons.
They used the remote mangrove swamps to unload huge loads of pot and cocaine to get it to Miami to distribute. With help from CIA and DEA agents, Carlos would set up a few loads as decoy to make it look good so he could get major shipments into the United States. Operation Back Door had a priority of great importance. I was to monitor some of the cable and equipment, also scramble transmissions made from his boats and planes, so he could go undetected.
Also to make sure his money would be on the rig when he wanted it, Carlos got to be “mouthy.” The government set him up and double-crossed him. The rig was then moved to Aruba and once again set up as a relay station and command center. The M-19 group was also involved in several covert missions. Operation Back Door simply meant the drugs would come to America via the back door.
Maholy described his dealings with drug trafficker Barry Seal (aka Ellis McKenzie and a former pilot for TWA Airlines). Maholy said that Seal was involved with the Noriega Cartel in a top-secret operation. Seal’s Miami contact was a person using the name of “Lit.” They flew through airspace “windows” when the military radar would ignore the targets. As the planes approached the oil rigs off the coast of the United States the planes flew close to the water, avoiding radar detection.
Getting Rid of the Drug Competition
Maholy elaborated upon his role in Operation Screamer, which was a mammoth sting operation, aimed at penetrating the network of mercenary pilots that were flying drugs in competition with the CIA. On this operation Maholy worked under DEA agent-in-charge Randy Beasley. Maholy told how Seal offered to turn informant, allegedly implicating high federal officials, including former Watergate prosecutor Richard Ben-Veniste. Maholy stated, “This made Beasley and others uneasy. Why? Because they themselves were dirty.”
Largest Heroin Seizure in U.S.
History: Another CIA Drug Operation
Much of what is written in the media is not what it seems. In May 1991,
federal agents seized over 1,000 pounds of heroin in an Oakland, California
warehouse, reportedly the largest heroin seizure in the nation’s history at that
time. Due to the compartmentalization common to intelligence agencies, the
arresting agents were unaware that they interrupted a large-scale drug smuggling operation involving the CIA. Five people were charged with importing heroin, possession with intent to distribute heroin, and conspiracy. A subtitle to a San Francisco Examiner article describing the case stated it was the “largest-ever seizure.” Over 1,000 pounds of high-grade “China White” heroin was smuggled into the Port of Oakland from Taiwan.
The 1991 seizure of the largest quantity of China White heroin involved the arrest of two families from Thailand who lived in nearby Danville, California. The case was assigned to Judge Vaughn Walker.21 His actions, and those of the Justice Department attorneys, showed evidence of covering up the CIA drug operation. Apparently, they learned that the drug seizure involved an ongoing CIA drug smuggling operation, and they now had to keep the lid on the drug seizure and avoid a publicity-generating trial.
21 USA v Chen, et al., CR 91-2096 VRW.
Standard Practice of Judicial
And Justice Department
Obstruction of Justice
Despite this being the biggest heroin seizure in the nation’s history, Justice
Department prosecutors and District Judge Vaughn Walker approved a lenient
sentence for most of the defendants. Through a plea agreement reached in July
1993, the defendants pled guilty in exchange for probation or a short prison
sentence. Several of the defendants pled guilty to knowing a federal crime had
been committed and failing to promptly report it to federal authorities. By failing to promptly report a federal crime to a federal judge or other federal officer,
the failure becomes a crime by itself (Title 18 U.S.C. Section 4). The plea
agreement with its lenient terms eliminated a trial that could have exposed
high-level government connections to the heroin operation.
Operation New Wave and
Operation Backlash
CIA agent Gunther Russbacher first told me about that operation on August
23, 1993. He said it was a major heroin trafficking operation into the United
States, and that the code name for the parent operation was Operation New
Wave, coded as NW 688-01-B-NSC. One segment of that operation was named
Operation Backlash and coded BL421-D-06. Russbacher stated that the operation, sanctioned on September 21, 1987, originated in San Francisco, and operated out of the offices of Levi International Imports-Pier 51. He then gave me the names of many key participants in the operation. He said that key personnel from the CIA included David Fuller from Los Angeles; John Beardsley from Mississippi, and Patrick O’Riley from New York City.
He said that those involved from the U.S. Department of Justice included Russ Taylor out of Lincoln, Nebraska; Saul Trattafiore out of Williamsport, and Sandy Weingarten out of St. Louis. Russbacher stated that they were all attorneys and, he believed, also Assistant U.S. Attorneys.
Drug Enforcement Administration participants in the drug operation, according to Russbacher, included Michael Cobb out of Orlando, and John David Pigg out of Oklahoma City. Pigg was killed in July 1993 in Anadarko, Oklahoma, reportedly for expressing disenchantment with the operation.
Explaining the Mossad‘s
Role in Drugging America
Russbacher described the role played by the Mossad in the drug trafficking
into the United States in Operation New Wave and Operation Back Lash. He
said the Mossad’s role was to guard the shipments until they reached the United
States. He said that one of his Mossad contacts was Delilah Kaufman, a paralegal with an Italian law firm in the San Francisco area. Russbacher described Navy Task Force liaison personnel as himself, using his navy alias of Robert Andrew Walker ; John A. Woodruff (CIA person using that alias, and who is now deceased), and CIA operative Oswald LeWinter (with whom I had been in contact for many years).
Referring to Customs, Russbacher identified key participants as David Cohen out of the El Paso office; Priscilla Montemajor and Taryn Weber out of the San Francisco office, and Brett Sanderson out of the Seattle office.
Naming Mossad Agents
During a telephone conversation (September 6, 1993) Russbacher gave me
the names of the Mossad personnel implicated in this drug trafficking operation
who handled drug distribution in the San Francisco area. First name is Robert Silberman, out of Chicago. Second name is Marta Bleiblatt, also out of Chicago. Third name, Simon, last name Goldblatt. He is out of Haifa and attached to New York. Fourth name, Ariel Colderman, San Francisco. Fifth one is Kasam Merchant, out of Los Angeles. Sixth one is David Turner, San Jose. Silberman and Bleiberg work for a company called Edeco. Goldblatt is a field supervisor on Operation White Elephant. The next one, the last three, are attached to Operation Lemgolem.
I told him that I would list their names in the next edition of Defrauding America, and he warned me about the viciousness of the Mossad and their killing of people in various countries whose statements or conduct displeased them. “I have no use for the Mossad and the harm they’ve inflicted upon the United States, and I’ll take my chances,” was my reply.
Mossad‘s Drug Trafficking
Several of my CIA and DEA sources who were directly involved in the
drug trafficking described the Mossad‘s role in Central and South American
drug trafficking. These sources described how the Mossad marked their drug
Decades of Drug Smuggling by Government Agents 45
packages, how the Mossad shared space on CIA aircraft flying drugs into the
United States, and about the vast network of Mossad operatives throughout
Central and South America engaging in drug smuggling. Mossad operatives connected with the drug operations included Michael “Freddy” Harari and David Kimche. Both worked hand-in-hand with the CIA and the drug traffickers, including the Medellin and Cali Cartels. When U.S. forces invaded Panama to arrest Noriega, Harari was caught in the fighting. Despite the fact that the Mossad’s role in drug trafficking was serious and that he was a co-conspirator with Noriega, the U.S. intelligence agencies allowed Harari to escape in an Israeli jet. If Harari had been captured and questioned, Israel‘s involvement in the drug trafficking could have come out, as well as that of U.S. intelligence agencies.
Former OSS and CIA operative Russell Bowen had told me he worked alongside the Mossad and Harari for many years. He told me that Harari had started his vast Central and South American operations by smuggling cigarettes and then branching out into drugs.
Mossad Agent Describing
CIA Drug Trafficking
Ben-Menashe writes in his book, Profits of War, “Whenever U.S. officials
were caught red-handed doing something illegal, they usually lied like crazy
and accused everyone else.” Ben-Menashe’s book tells about the drug trafficking into the United States by the CIA and the Israeli intelligence community,
and how the profits went into the coffers of these intelligence agencies and into
private companies controlled by them.
British Investigation
An investigation into drug trafficking was conducted by a British law commission headed by Lord Louis Blom-Cooper, which then conducted a year of hearings. The London Times referred to the commission’s report as “a scorcher,” which found:
• The use of Antigua by the Mossad for drug trafficking and for training and arming the private armies of Colombia’s drug barons.
• Lying by CIA officials to the White House, claiming that the Israeli operations in Antigua were to train rebel forces to oust Panama’s Manuel Noriega.
• Mossad‘s training of hundreds of Colombians into killers for assassination purposes.
• A long-standing practice by U.S. authorities to cover for the crimes of the Mossad group, which supported my findings and as described by my CIA and DEA sources.
• The role played by Israeli Major General Pinchas Shachar in the arms and drug operations. Shachar was the official representative for Israel Military Industries in the United States, with special access to the Pentagon and other guarded U.S. military installations. According to reports, CIA Director William Sessions wanted the British report entered into Shachar’s file and to suspend his special privileges. Attorney General William Barr rejected the recommendation, keeping the American public in the dark about this part of the drug trafficking. The article described how the Bush White House sought to ignore the report, just as the many other reports have been hidden from the American public.
Justice Department officials referred inquiries to the State Department, claiming it was a foreign affair matter, and the State Department referred inquiries to the Justice Department, claiming it was a criminal matter.
Implications of Mossad Involvement
in Drugging America
The repeated discovery that the intelligence agency of a foreign country, Israel, was heavily involved in several of the drug operations conducted against
the American people was disturbing. Throughout my discoveries I learned of
the involvement of Mossad agents in the smuggling of drugs into the United
States and other crimes, including the October Surprise scheme, the theft of the
Inslaw software, and the looting of Chapter 11 assets. Referring to the drug-smuggling projects, Operation New Wave and Operation Backlash, Russbacher said that the intent of the operations were to bring heroin into the United States from the Far East using freighters, cruise-line transports, and other international lines. The ships would bring heroin from Far East ports through Central America, sometimes through northern South America, and then into the United States. Some of the intermediate points included Acapulco, Mazatlan, Sewantenego, Cabo San Lucas, and Ensenada.
United States ports included San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. At San Diego, a transshipment point, non-military vessels went to the federal port known as O-1, District 00.01. In Los Angeles they used the Long Beach basin.
Also used were tankers, including the Greek tanker line Orion, which docked at Manhattan Beach, California. The oldest freighters would normally be Pan American or Iberian registry.
Drugs were also transshipped from Colombia, many times in ships of Norwegian registry, until 1989, and these were mostly cruise ships. Russbacher elaborated on the method of packing drugs on ships:
On the cruise liners it was generally in the freezers, brought on board inside carcasses of beef. Also in the flour bags, 100 pound bags. They are referred to as flower barrels. On other types of ships it was either stored in the paint lockers, or there was a separate compartment built.
I asked, “What is the remuneration or rewards for the different agencies that are involved in this operation?” Russbacher stated that there is a “split profit sharing” where the profits are divided among various proprietaries or front companies used by the different agencies.
New York Times Article
Describes Drugs on Cruise Ships
A New York Times article (September 6, 1998) described the arrest of cruise
ship employees with Celebrity and Norwegian cruise lines. Crewmembers on
the ships, involved in the drug trafficking, had code names such as Fidel, Ratty,
and 007, Puny. The drugs went from Jamaica to New York City and then to
Bermuda. Speaking for the U.S. Attorney’s office, Jodi Avergun said: You never think that while you’re on vacation, you’re in the midst of serious drug smuggling. You think you’re safe and secure on a cruise to Bermuda but in fact, there are drug smugglers serving you lunch or making your meal.
Drug Smuggling Operations Still Active
Russbacher said the operations were active, but limited to DEA and Customs involvement. He said the CIA and Department of Justice dropped from
active participation in March 1993, except for the criminal prosecutions in San
Diego and San Francisco that had to be completed.
Uncoordinated Government Agency
Drug Smuggling Operations
I asked Russbacher why the Department of Justice occasionally files criminal charges against people involved in drug smuggling operations tied in with
the CIA or some other government agency. He said that the many individual
fiefdoms in the CIA, Justice Department, and other agencies, and the compartmentalizing of information, result in charges being filed by one office against a
person or operation that may be sanctioned by another office. Or, there may be
turf battles between different agencies or between different offices of the same
agency.
Thailand Drug Smuggling Operation
Since the defendants in the San Francisco action were from Thailand, I
asked Russbacher how that country fits into the operation. He said the drug
shipper in Thailand was a CIA front called Van Der Bergen International Shippers in Bangkok. “They’re the ones that are responsible for gathering [the
drugs] out of Southeast Asia,” adding that Hong Kong was sought as a drug
shipment point: But they [CIA] couldn’t get an agreement going with the British out of Hong Kong. The problem was, they wanted a higher percentile participation than our government was prepared to give. Instead of using Hong Kong, we used Macao. Eighty percent of the morphine block, we are not talking about the liquid, comes out of Macao, before it becomes morphine sulphate.
Increased Budgets Threatened
the Drug Shipments
Part of the operations was suspended in 1991 due to increased awareness at
the southern transshipment ports. More federal funds were allocated for DEA
and Customs agents, causing smuggling by certain DEA and Customs factions
to be compromised. Even though the drug trafficking involved personnel from
almost every federal agency responsible to prevent such trafficking, the smuggling was compartmentalized.
Eastern Airline Whistleblower
A former Eastern Airlines captain (EAL), Gerald K. Loeb, called me in
1994 and conveyed information about drug trafficking that he discovered while
a pilot for the airline. He discovered a pattern of drug shipments going from
Central and South America into the United States on EAL aircraft and shipment
of pallets of money from Miami to Panama and Colombia.
Eastern Airlines Carrying
Drugs and Drug Money
Loeb frequently noticed, in departures from Miami for Central America,
containers placed on board the aircraft, which followed a pattern of usually arriving at the last few minutes before departure. This was followed by the same
containers being off-loaded in Panama or Colombia in the presence of armed
guards. The activity indicated drug and drug-money trafficking. Loeb described how he gave detailed information of the drug trafficking to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Airline Pilots Association, to EAL President Frank Borman, and to Time magazine’s Jonathan Beaty, all of whom kept the lid on the criminal activities.
Dozens of times Customs agents discovered drugs hidden behind aircraft inspection plates as the Eastern Airlines aircraft arrived in Miami. Eastern pilots were concerned over the drug trafficking, as they themselves could be charged with drug-related offenses. As ALPA Chairman of Legislative Affairs for the Eastern pilots group in Miami, Loeb received many complaints from pilots about drugs being found on their aircraft as it arrived in Miami. Loeb testified to Congress that there were over sixty cases reported to him where this happened.
FBI Retaliation Against People
who Expose Drug Shipments
Loeb developed a friendship with a young Eastern Airlines station agent in
Panama City, Panama, who revealed to him that cocaine was being shipped on
Eastern Airlines planes from Colombia and Panama into the United States.
Loeb contacted a friend, Governor Thompson of New Hampshire, and described the massive drug smuggling and drug-money shipments that he had
discovered. The governor then contacted Justice Department officials, who arranged for Loeb and two other Eastern Airlines employees to give information
to the FBI in Miami. Loeb identified these FBI agents as Special Agent in Charge F. Corliss, Assistant Special agent (ASAC) William Perry, and Special Agent Rod Beverley. The Eastern Airlines employee from Panama was threatened by FBI personnel and warned that he himself would be charged with a federal crime if he reported the drug and drug-money trafficking. Under federal criminal statutes these threats constituted federal crimes.22
22 Title 18 USC §§ 1512, 1513.
Other Eastern Airlines employees contacted FBI agents seeking to report drug trafficking that they had observed, including, among others, an Eastern Airlines flight attendant and a ground service agent. Instead of receiving the information from these people, FBI agents threatened to file criminal charges against them for not reporting the criminal activities earlier. Failure to report a federal crime to a federal judge or other federal officer is called misprision of a felony under the federal crime reporting statute, Title 18 U.S.C. § 4.
The FBI traumatized witnesses to keep them from reporting the criminal acts involving federal personnel, and is a practice that I had seen for years. The FBI threats caused the witnesses to remain silent, which is apparently what the FBI agents wanted and which the agents knew would insure that the drug trafficking continued! Some of these witnesses then blamed Loeb for what had happened, and then went under cover.
Numerous Appearances Before
Congressional Committees, Followed
by Felony Congressional Cover-Up
Loeb testified before numerous congressional committees, including Senator John Kerry‘s (D-MA) Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Communications. Referring to the meeting in Miami with the FBI, Loeb
testified 23 that the FBI reported to Eastern Airlines president Frank Borman what Loeb and the other witnesses had said, and that the FBI said something had to be done to silence him and the other witnesses. Referring to his testimony, Loeb wrote in part: 23 Testimony given on February 8, 1988 to the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Communications, and as published under Drugs, Law Enforcement, and Foreign Policy: Panama, S. Hrg. 100-773, Pr. 2.
The officials at Eastern Airlines and the corporate officers deemed [my reporting of the drug trafficking to the FBI] to be outrageous conduct. Having learned from the FBI within hours of my giving that information, they hired two private detectives and [then the harassment against me commenced]....[Drugs aboard Eastern Airlines aircraft] was an ongoing scenario, particularly from Panama, the hub operation, and Colombia. Our crews were very aware that they were unwittingly being duped and flying cargo, as [the drugs and drug-money were] called, that was unlisted in their aircraft, un-manifested, into ports of call in the United States of America.
Hiring Private Detective Agency
to Discredit Airline Captain
Loeb testified that a private detective agency hired by Eastern management, Intercontinent Detective Agency of Miami, offered bribes of $2,500 and
$5,000 to people to discredit Loeb and the Air Line Pilots Association, which
was representing the pilots on whose plane drugs were found. The airline’s
president fired Loeb for being “disloyal” to the company, after which Loeb
fought the dismissal. Eventually, Loeb took a financial settlement and left the
airline. Two weeks after Eastern fired Loeb, the airline fired another pilot,
Ramon Valdez, who had hired an investigator to obtain additional evidence on
the drug and drug-money shipments on Eastern Airlines aircraft.
Cover-Up by Eastern Airlines‘ President
Loeb told me that when he first reported the drug trafficking on Eastern
Airlines aircraft to Eastern president Frank Borman, and that Borman told him
to mind his own business. Instead of responding to the serious problem, Borman and other Eastern management proceeded to harass Loeb.
Sudden Amnesia by Cowards
Initially, many Eastern Airlines pilots wanted to testify about the drug trafficking and drug-money laundering. But after they saw what happened to Loeb,
they all developed “amnesia.” Loeb reported the drug trafficking to the president of the Airline Pilots Association, Henry A. Duffy, and explained that over
two dozen Eastern Airlines’ pilots were actively involved in drug trafficking.
Loeb said the ALPA president told him that drug trafficking was none of the
union’s business. (I encountered a similar attitude when I brought to Duffy’s
attention major air safety misconduct that was playing a key role in a series of
fatal airline crashes, as explained in Unfriendly Skies.)
Bush, Noriega, and Drugs
Loeb told how, during the criminal proceedings against Noriega, that
Noriega’s attorneys told Loeb that they had audio and videotapes of Noriega
and Bush, and would release the tapes if the charges were not dropped against
Noriega. One of the attorneys asked Loeb to pass the information to the Justice
Department prosecutors, warning that if the charges were not dropped, the
tapes would be released. The judge in the Noriega trial refused to permit any
evidence entered into Noriega’s trial relating to the CIA or any other U.S.
agency’s involvement in drug trafficking.
American Airlines and Braniff Airlines
had Similar Drug Problems
I asked Loeb if the airlines that took over the Central and South America
air traffic after Eastern Airlines went out of business became involved in the
drug trafficking. He stated that American Airlines encountered similar problems. He also described how drug traffickers heavily used Braniff Airlines before it went out of business. The House Committee on Government Operations issued a report after its hearings (March 1992) titled “Serious Mismanagement and Misconduct in the Treasury Department, Customs Service, and Other Federal Agencies and the Inadequacy of Efforts To Hold Agency Officials Accountable.” The report stated in part:
This is the third in a series of hearings looking into allegations of mismanagement and misconduct by the U.S. Customs Service. Witnesses have testified about attempts by both Customs and Internal Affairs to prevent investigations from going forward. These are serious allegations. [Criminal would be more fitting!]
This hearing...focuses on the implementation of the Customs reorganization plan, and the accountability of the Inspector General. But what is really at issue here is the overall effectiveness of counter-narcotics law enforcement efforts along the U.S.-Mexico border. The credibility of the Customs Service is at stake. Allegations of improper associations between law enforcement agents and drug traffickers are bad enough, but the inability and unwillingness to properly investigate such allegations cause the public to lose faith in the ability of the United States government to fight the war on drugs.
The report revealed that government officials sought to block the testimony of witnesses, showing the existence of obstruction of justice, which by itself is a crime. Included in the report was a letter to the committee signed by anonymous field agents of U.S. Customs, stating in part:
We are writing to you to advise you of the continuing systemic corruption at the U.S. Customs Service. The “reorganization” of the Office of Enforcement has only removed necessary checks and balances. Integrity is virtually a non-existent commodity in Customs management.
Former DEA agent Michael Levine wrote in The Big White Lie how the Drug Enforcement Administration destroyed evidence that resulted in high-level drug traffickers escaping prosecution.
Next
CIA’s Arkansas Drug Activities
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