135 lines
6.4 KiB
Plaintext
135 lines
6.4 KiB
Plaintext
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Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 1 Num. 79
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======================================
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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Ex-DEA Agent Levels
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NEW CHARGES ON NORTH'S DRUG-RUNNING
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by Edward Spannaus
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[From *The New Federalist*, 8/15/94]
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Washington, Aug. 8 (EIRNS) -- More evidence that narcotics-
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trafficking was a central part of Oliver North's "Contra"
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operation in Central America was presented here on Aug. 2 by a
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former senior U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officer.
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Celerino Castillo, addressing a press conference at the National
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Press Club, said that massive amounts of drugs were being run out
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of the air base in Ilopango, El Salvador, the center of North's
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Contra supply program. "All of his pilots were drug traffickers,"
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Castillo said. A majority had been arrested for drug-trafficking.
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"He [North] knew what they were up to and refused to do anything
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about it."
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Castillo, the DEA's senior agent in El Salvador from 1985 to
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1991, said he had two informants at Ilopango who had access to
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all the flight plans and the pilots. The informants saw the drugs
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and the money, and the pilots also talked freely about cocaine
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they were taking to the United States and about the money. When
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the DEA ran the names of the pilots through their computer,
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"every single one of them was documented as a narcotics
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trafficker in DEA files."
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-+- In North's Own Notebooks -+-
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Castillo, who was joined in the press conference by author Terry
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Reed [*Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA*, by Terry Reed &
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John Cummings. New York: S.P.I. Books, 1994. ISBN 1-56171-249-3],
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also pointed to the 543 pages of Ollie North notebooks which make
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reference to drugs and drug trafficking, as identified by the
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Kerry Committee -- the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on
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narcotics and terrorism. [CN -- A good book which covers how
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branches of our government have been smuggling cocaine into the
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United States is *Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in
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Central America* by Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall.
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Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. ISBN 0-520-07781-
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4 (paperback).] "Robert Owens, his buddy, was warning him and
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advising him that the Contras were heavily involved in narcotics
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trafficking," Castillo charged.
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"His operation ran a lot of narcotics into the United States,"
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Castillo said. He noted that under the drug conspiracy laws, if
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someone has knowledge that drugs are being trafficked, and
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doesn't do anything about it, this is a violation of federal law.
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One of the key traffickers operating out of Ilopango, William
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Brasher, flaunted the fact that he was protected by North, by the
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FBI, by the CIA, and by top U.S. Embassy officials in San
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Salvador. Repeated efforts by Mr. Castillo and fellow DEA agents
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to bust Mr. Brasher and the other narco-pilots were met with
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interference from the White House, where Vice President Bush and
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Oliver North were personally in charge of the secret Contra
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program.
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Castillo also reported that Ollie North is still under
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investigation by the DEA, in a case involving weapons smuggling
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into the Philippines, an operation which also involved known drug
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traffickers. Castillo provided a case number, GFGD 91-39, which
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he said he believes is still an active DEA investigation.
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-+- Bush "In The Loop" -+-
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Castillo's book, *Powder Burns: Cocaine, Contras and the Drug
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War," co-authored with David Harmon, has just been released. In
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the book, Castillo reports that from the moment he arrived in
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Central America in October 1985 to take charge of DEA operations
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in El Salvador and Honduras, he was inundated with evidence that
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the Contra resupply base at Ilopango Air Field in El Salvador was
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a hub of cocaine trafficking.
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Ilopango was run by "former" CIA official Felix Rodriguez, a
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close personal friend of then-Vice President George Bush. It is
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well-documented that Rodriguez held a series of meetings at the
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White House with Bush and his senior intelligence advisor, Donald
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Gregg, during the time frame in which Castillo was gathering the
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evidence of the dope smuggling.
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At the same press conference here today, Terry Reed, co-author of
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the book *Compromised*, said that George Bush was definitely "in
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the loop" on the Contra drug operation. Reed says that the
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Israeli agents he worked with in Mexico referred to Bush as "the
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man in charge" on several occasions. "That didn't shock me," Reed
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said. "Knowing Bush's background, he should be; he was probably
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the most qualified to run the Iran-Contra affair."
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In *Compromised*, Reed also identified Rodriguez, Bush, and North
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as the key players running a guns-for-drugs operation through
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Guadalajara, Mexico. Reed discovered a large shipment of pure
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cocaine at a warehouse at Guadalajara Airport bound for the
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United States in August 1987. When he attempted to expose the
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operation, he was framed up by federal prosecutors in an
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unsuccessful effort to shut him up.
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In front of an audience of reporters that included Hollinger's
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Ambrose Evans-Pritchard [CN -- Evans-Pritchard writes for the
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London *Telegraph*], Reed declared that he is not out to unseat
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Bill Clinton. [CN -- According to Reed and others, guns were
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flown out of Mena, Arkansas to the Contras and the planes
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returned with tons of cocaine. Reed and others claim that Clinton
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was well-aware of what was going on.] The information he has "is
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not only damaging to the current administration, but also to the
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Reagan and Bush administrations as well. This is a bi-partisan
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issue," Reed said.
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"I'm out to defend my Constitutional rights," Reed asserted, as
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he described his civil lawsuit now underway in Little Rock. "In
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the course of doing that, if something spills off on Bill
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[Clinton] or George Bush, so be it."
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
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Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
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pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
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