Just the other day, I found an old newspaper clipping of the UPI's Merrimam Smith in the 1960's writing a long column defending Lyndon Johnson over the Vietnam War. This was at the peak of the Vietnam War, while millions of Vietnamese were being murdered, 58,000 American soldiers being sent to the grinder, many more Americans were being physically and psychologically damaged. All of this because Lyndon Johnson, more than any other single person, lied his way into the Vietnam War and shoved murder, mayhem and untold destruction onto millions of people.
In the midst of all this Lyndon Johnson created hell, Merrimam Smith wrote a long column, not to excoriate Lyndon Johnson, but to attack the anti-war protestors for their manners and the nasty names they were calling Lyndon Johnson, who by the way murdered John Kennedy among numerous other people and who also had a personal hit man named Malcolm Wallace.
I thought to myself - that sounds like something that the most insidious journalist in Washington DC, RON FOURNIER, would do. Which is to protect, enable the criminal/murderer/rapist in the high position of power while all the time talk about manners, transparency, decency, fair play, "doing what's right," serving one's fellow man.
And then I remembered that Ron Fournier has won the "Merriman Smith" White House journalists award 4 times and then I understood how deliciously fitting that was. Lyndon Johnson was the biggest criminal I have ever read about in American history and the UPI's Merrimam Smith, the dean of Wash DC journalists, was defending him on his most heinous crimes just like Ron Fournier validates the Clintons and Bushes on a regular basis as legitimate, decent, above board political players. Fournier spent 25 years with the Clintons and he writes campaign memo columns calling Hillary "warm and honest." Nothing about Bill's state trooper goons or Hillary's nasty private detectives Palladino and Pellicano running terror campaigns on Bill's sex victims and former girlfriends. Or the fact the Clintons terrorized reporter Suzi Parker in the late 1990's when she reported on the HIV-positive and Hep C positive blood Bill's cronies were selling on the world market in the 1980's.
McAuliffe is precisely correct that the Bushes, the old man and his sons, are a bunch of criminals who should have been thrown in jail a long, long time ago. Except I would add, so are the Clintons and the crimes of Iran-Contra - murder, CIA drug dealing, financial crimes - which is why the Clintons and Bushes are so chummy today. Permanent liability that never goes away.
Did Jeb Bush, VP George Herbert Walker Bush and Oliver North Murder CIA Drug Smuggler Barry Seal in February, 1986?
By Robert Morrow 512-306-1510 Morrow321@aol.com
There is a question that needs to be asked of Jeb Bush, George Herbert Walker Bush, and Oliver North.
It is: “Did you murder Barry Seal in February, 1986?’
Ross Perot: “When you look into the [Vietnam POW] prisoner cover-up, you find government officials in the drug trade who can’t break themselves of the habit.”
Ross Perot: “What I have found is a snake pit [CIA drug smuggling] without a bottom. They will do anything to keep this covered up.”
Bill Clinton to L.D. Brown (in the mid 1980’s) after Brown had excoriated Clinton for setting him up with the CIA’s Barry Seal who had brought back a brick of cocaine after a roundtrip flight from Arkansas to Central America: “That’s [Dan] Lasater’s deal! “That’s Lasater’s deal! And your buddy [VP George Herbert Walker] Bush knows about it!”
Jeb Bush to intelligence operative Al Martin, who had worked closely with Jeb Bush during the Iran-Contra scandal and was threatening to go public: “There is no constituency for the truth.”
Terry McAuliffe, Clinton insider and later the governor of Virginia in 2014: “These folks should all have been put away in jail. But you know what? Because of their power, and because George [H.W.] Bush went into office and he got to pick the attorney general, the U.S. attorneys, it all got hushed up. And George [W.] Bush - he’s now the president of the United States of America. Chief law enforcement officer!” (McAufliffe laughs) - from the documentary Boogie Man, The Lee Atwater Story.
Barry Seal was a legendary CIA drug smuggler and ace pilot who had literally worked for the Agency since he was a teenage pilot prodigy in the late 1950’s. By 1986 Barry Seal was having legal problems (criminal and a huge IRS tax liability) that not even his CIA connections could protect him from and according to Seal’s lawyer Lewis Unglesby, Barry Seal was a threat to testify against Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush. In fact, in early 1986 Barry Seal was threatening GHW Bush to get the IRS off his back or he (Seal) was going to blow the whistle on the Contra scheme and CIA drug smuggling.
Two weeks after his argument with Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush, Barry Seal was pumped full of bullets and murdered outside his Baton Rouge halfway house on Feb. 19, 1986. The three Columbians who were convicted of the crime thought they were working for Lt. Col. Oliver North of the National Security Council. North’s alias in the 1980’s was “John Cathey.” The personal phone number of George Herbert Walker Bush was found in Seal’s possessions, even after the “men in black” had swept in to pick car of the slaughtered CIA drug smuggler clean of evidence. Years later, Texas Gov. George W. Bush was literally being flown around in what had been the favorite plane of Barry Seal.
Many folks don’t know that on the exact same day (2/19/86) Barry Seal was murdered in Baton Rouge, his mistress “Barbara” was also murdered in Miami; two other men also affiliated with the Medellin drug cartel, Pablo Carrera (Medellin’s #2 man) and Pablo Ochill, were also assassinated in Colombia.
Some people think the CIA American drug cartel were switching horses from the Medellin drug cartel to a partnership with the Cali, Colombian drug cartel. The three men convicted of murdering Barry Seal were from Cali, Colombia. The CIA American drug cartel was using the Cali cartel in a killing spree to wipe out the competition and murder anyone who might pose a threat to spill the beans on CIA drug smuggling and the participation of very high U.S. officials.
Jeb Bush in 1986 was the 33-year-old chairman of the Dade County Republican party and he was up to his eyeballs in the Iran-Contra scandal. To get a taste of that read Al Martin’s book The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran-Contra Insider (2001) and read about Jeb Bush’s dealings with operatives such as Al Martin, Oliver North, Richard Secord, Dewey Clarridge, Sam Watson, Fred Ikley and, of course, his father George Herbert Walker Bush. Basically Jeb Bush was in the center of a wasp’s nest of dirty dealing CIA/military operatives engaged in rampant criminality – all in the name of “national security.” The murder of CIA drug smuggler Barry Seal was just the tip of the iceberg. There was a lot of murdering going on to keep a lid on Iran-Contra in the 1980’s. Some of the big revelations of L.D. Brown’s (Bill Clinton’s favorite state trooper) book Crossfire: Witness in the Clinton Investigation (1999) was that Bill Clinton had gotten L.D. Brown into the CIA, that Barry Seal was L.D. Brown’s CIA handler, Barry Seal was running cocaine and that a GHW Bush associate Felix Rodriguez (aka “Max Gomez” his CIA code name) had attempted to get Bill Clinton’s favorite state trooper L.D. Brown to murder a man named Terry Reed in Mexico. Reed was involved in Oliver North CIA Contra operations and Bush was obviously very worried about this man. Grisly stuff – and you can see why this material has been suppressed in the MSM because it is so discrediting to the political elites of the Republican & Democratic parties, the Bushes & the Clintons. Now you know why Bill Clinton and GHW Bush are so chummy: they are tied at the hip by some epic liability in Iran-Contra. There is no statute of limitations for murder.
Terry Reed, who thankfully was not murdered by L.D. Brown who just did not have the stomach or the depravity to do it, later went on to write an extremely important expose Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA (1994). There is a famous scene in that book of Gov. Bill Clinton smoking dope and at the same time trying to convince Terry Reed to move to Mexico for the Contra support operations. I have always wondered if Clinton, by doing that, was setting up Reed to be murdered because he knew too much. Reed certainly busted it wide open with his expose book in 1994. Regarding Jeb Bush: just read the material below. And particularly see what Jeb Bush had to say to Al Martin about the murders of George Morales and Johnny Molina. This material has been on the public record for 5-10-20 years. It really is stunning that Jeb Bush with such epic Iran-Contra liability could even be considered for president. It just shows the arrogance of these people – the Bushes and the Clintons – who think that rules are for everyone else, but not for them. As someone said “Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry.”
Some examples might be gargantuan drug running, money laundering and murdering people to keep it all covered up. Below there is a lot of material relating to the 1986 murder of CIA drug smuggler Barry Seal as well as CIA/governmental drug smuggling in general. Be sure and check at the end of this article the bibliographies on CIA drug smuggling and one on the dark side of the Bushes.
The Personal Phone Number of VP George Herbert Walker Bush was Found in CIA Drug Smuggler Barry Seal’s Trunk
Texas Governor George W. Bush later flown around in the favorite airplane of the murdered Barry Seal
CIA and Government Sponsored Drug Smuggling was the Real Scandal of Iran-Contra; This unpleasant fact was suppressed by the government, the media and both the Republican and Democratic Parties because both the Bushes & Clintons were involved in the CIA Iran-Contra Drug Trade up to their Eyeballs.
In the 1980’s the dirty little secret of the Iran-Contra scandal was not that the government was illegally dealing with the Iranians to free American hostages and not that the U.S. government was illegally supporting the Nicaraguan contras. Rather the “dirty little secret” of Iran-Contra was in fact a whopper: the U.S. government and its high level politicians of both political parties (the Bushes and the Clintons) were up to their eyeballs in drug trafficking to support the Nicaraguan contras! I think they were also skimming plenty of money for themselves, too, especially on the Clinton end.
In fact, one of the big reasons that Ross Perot ran for president in 1992 was because he was incensed at George Herbert Walker Bush’s participation in the drug trade. The US Government and the CIA were running billions of dollars’ worth of drugs into the USA and they were doing in hand in hand with Columbian drug cartels and people like Panamanian dictator and CIA asset Manuel Noreiga.
Funny how “Pineapple Face” Noriega goes to jail but the American politicians involved (Oliver North, the Bushes, the Clintons) in the drug trade never do.
Ross Perot knew about GHW Bush’s involvement in the CIA Drug Trade and he was Incensed about it; it was a big reason Perot ran for President in 1992: to Torpedo GHW Bush!
Ross Perot once said in private “When you look into the prisoner cover-up, you find government officials in the drug trade who can’t break themselves of the habit.” (See “Ross Perot Will Not Like This Book,” Richard Bernstein, NYT 8/7/96) Google “Chip Tatum Pegasus” and you will learn about GHW Bush’s attempts to intimidate or possibly murder Ross Perot who simply knew too much about the governmental drug trade. Here is CIA Pegasus assassin Chip Tatum’s story and it includes being asked by President GHW Bush to murder or intimidate Ross Perot. Perot was incensed about the CIA Iran-Contra drug trade and particularly GHW Bush’s involvement in it. The reason Bush feared Perot so much was because he was a billionaire who could self-fund his campaign. If elected Perot could have done what Bill Clinton did the first thing he got in office – fire every US attorney in the country, put people in those slots who could have prosecuted, convicted & thrown GHW Bush in jail. It is no exaggeration to say that GHW Bush was terrified of Ross Perot. Poor Perot – he knocked out one Republican CIA drug smuggler from office … and installed a Democratic CIA drug smuggler as his replacement!
The Weight of the Evidence in the Barry Seal murder:
There have been a lot of good books written on the bipartisan CIA drug trade of the 1980’s. When one reads the cumulative work of Daniel Hopsicker, Gary Webb, Robert Parry, Pete Brewton, Leslie Cockburn, Ambrose Evans Pritchard, Al Martin, L.D. Brown, Chip Tatum & Bo Gritz one cannot help but think that the Bushes and Lt. Col. Oliver North were behind the 1986 murder of Barry Seal with intent to cover up the Iran-contra drug smuggling activities.
Below are some web links to articles and some passages from books that cover this topic. Read them and decide for yourself if you think Jeb Bush, VP George Herbert Walker Bush and Oliver North were involved in the murder of Barry Seal. Here are some interesting excerpts from some expose books.
Barry Seal and his Argument with VP George Herbert Walker Bush
[Daniel Hopsicker, "Barry & the Boys: The CIA, The Mob and America's Secret History," pp. 375-376]
"Lewis Unglesby is today a prominent and very well connected Louisiana lawyer. At the time his name was daily on the front page of the state's newspapers., defending his long-time client and associate, Governor Edwin Edwards.
Unglesby had told us about a confrontation he had with Barry over the fact that Seal was keeping him in the dark about matters Unglesbly considered crucial to defending him...
"Barry pushed the phone across the desk to me and said, 'You wanna know what's going on? Here. Dial this number. Tell 'em you're me,' Unglesby related.
"When I did what he requested," he continued, "A female voice answered the phone, sayin''Vice President Bush's office, may I help you?'"
"I said, 'This is Barry Seal.' She asked me to wait while she transferred the call, which was immediately picked up by a man who identified himself as Admiral somebody or other, who said to me 'Barry, Where you been?'"
"That's when I told him that I wasn't Barry Seal, I was his lawyer," said Unglesby. "Immediately he slammed down the phone."
So why was Barry Seal murdered?" we asked Sharpstein.
"Unglesby said he had been with Seal when the IRS came and seized all his property," Sharpstein related. "The IRS man said, 'You owe us $30 million for the money you made in drug dealing.'
"Hey, I work for you," was Seal's reply. "We work for the same people."
"You don't work for us," the IRS agent stated. "We're the IRS."
"Unglesby was with Seal when he retired to a back room." Sharpstein stated. "He watched as Seal placed a call to George Bush. He heard Barry Seal tell Bush, 'If you don't get these IRS assholes off my back I'm going to blow the whistle on the Contra scheme."
Sharpstein spoke solemnly, aware of the gravity of his words..., "'That's why he's dead,' is what Unglesby said."
One week after the phone conversation between Barry Seal and George Bush, Seal was sentenced to a halfway house. Two weeks later he was dead.
"Barry Seal, you mean that agent that went bad?" Gordon Novel had casually inquired, when we'd posed the question of his associations with Seal.
An agent that 'goes bad,' as we understand intelligence industry trade jargon, is one who contemplates talking.
"Seal was gunned down, supposedly by those Colombians," says Sharpstein. "But they were fed information by the assholes in our government who wanted him dead."
The assassination of Barry Seal was very likely even not the first attempt on Seal's life by North, we were told by CIA electronics expert Red Hall, on the ground in Nicaragua with Seal on the Sandinista drug sting....
"The only thing I knew was the CIA had a lot to do with it (Barry's murder.) The killers were being directed by Oliver North at the time. It was the same thing Oliver North pulled on us down in Nicaragua."
"Then, I didn't know yet that Oliver North had it for Barry Seal, because he was working with Oliver at that particular point. We was undercover, and we were still down there (Nicaragua), when Oliver blew the whistle on us."
Chip Tatum, another covert operative who had known Seal and shared confidences with him, listened with amusement the first time we breathlessly relayed what we'd discovered: that Oliver North is guilty in the assassination of Barry Seal...
"No shit, Sherlock," he replied, laughing. "It ain't exactly the secret of the century, I can tell you."
[Daniel Hopsicker, Barry & the Boys: The CIA, The Mob and America's Secret History, pp. 375-376]
Al Martin’s conversation with Jeb Bush just days after the Feb, 1986 Murder of Barry Seal in Baton Rouge. Jeb Bush had been at a meeting in Sept, 1985, where the assassination of Barry Seal had been discussed
Al Martin: "In this discussion, I had mentioned the recent assassination, only a few days before, of Barry Seal [Feb, 1986, outside his halfway house in New Orleans].
I said to Jeb, "Isn't it convenient that Barry Seal was assassinated when he was? And now suddenly all the information and documents he had are gone missing?"
Jeb had a rather broad smile on his face, and he concurred that it was convenient. He added a little snicker - as he often had a tendency of doing. Also little beads of sweat formed on his forehead, as when he gets nervous. It's something you can notice when he's on television. He still has a tendency to have little beads of sweat around his forehead, when he is either lying about something, or he's nervous about what someone is saying."
My conversations with Jeb at this meeting were overheard by the two Secret Service agents who were always assigned to Jeb when he was in his office at 1390 Brickell Avenue in Miami.
I had intimated that if certain parties in Washington were not prepared to come to my aid pursuant to my grand jury testimony, that it would be entirely possible that certain details of a certain meeting occurring in September of the year [Sept., 1985] before might be leaked out to the press.
Jeb asked me what I was talking about.
I specifically mentioned a September meeting of the Dade County Latin America Chamber of Commerce, which Jeb chaired, and which, of course, was not used as a Chamber of Commerce meeting at all. It was essentially used as a political meeting for covert operational planning pursuant to Iran-Contra.
As I've said before, Oliver North, Richard Secord or Dewey Clarridge or, in a few cases, even Sam Watson and Fred Ikley himself, would show up at these meetings.
Anyway, I had recounted to Jeb, as if he didn't know what the text of that meeting was that he chaired - the conversations he had with Oliver North and Richard Secord and Dewey Clarridge, all of whom attended that meeting.
Dewey seldom attended the meetings, but this time the four of them were discussing the assassination of Barry Seal and how it was to be carried out, since Barry was becoming an increasing liability.
I had told Jeb that I had substantial corroboration of that meeting. And I think Jeb understood what I meant.
It would certainly place him into a conspiracy to assassinate a CIA drug runner for the sake of political expediency.
When I was through speaking, Jeb became quiet and his demeanor became serious and changed. He became flushed, as he often does when he's frightened.
Jeb responded by telling me that it would be most unfortunate if I were to do that, since I might wind up like George Morales or Johnny Molina.
[ Al Martin, "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran-Contra Insider," p. 194-195]
Jeb Bush and the Murders of George Morales and Johnny Molina
[ Al Martin, "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran-Contra Insider," p. 195-198 ]
What he was referring to, of course, was that, a number of months earlier, George Morales had been set up on a cocaine charge – to distance what Morales was doing from the CIA.
As any serious student of Iran-Contra would know, Morales absolutely screamed “CIA, CIA.”
But ultimately he was convicted.
He was bound and gagged in the courtroom before the Republican Judge Hoover, who allowed him to present no CIA defense. He couldn’t mention any Bush names, or North, or Secord, or anything.
He got the standard fifteen-year sentence for cocaine trafficking. At the time, in the State of Florida, you had to serve six years nine months mandatory.
Jeb then went on to mention to me about Morales. He said “Of course, Morales will never leave prison alive.”
Fast forward to the time when Morales was due to be released from prison in early 1992.
The day before Morales was to be released, he did, in fact, slip on a bar of soap in the prisoner’s shower and supposedly died as a result of the fall.
The following day, Morales was due to be picked up at the Miami International Airport by a Congressional charter flight arranged for him by Congressmen Alexander, Rose, Brooks and Gonzalez. He was to be taken to Washington to have a detailed discussion with them and their investigators about his knowledge of Iran-Contra.
At that moment, the threat Jeb was making to me – the sublime threat about not wanting to wind up like Johnny Molina – really didn’t mean anything to me because I knew as of the day before that Molina was still alive and well.
I didn’t think anything of it until the next day when I got into my office and opened the Miami Herald.
I read that Mr. Molina had in fact “committed suicide” that evening in the parking lot of a restaurant in Pensacola, Florida.
He had “committed suicide” by discharging an entire twenty-round clip of a MAC-10 into his own body.
Of course, by the following day, the body had quickly been cremated – before his family was notified and before an autopsy could be done.
It’s the same old story.
It was interesting to note that Jeb had issued that threat at that meeting which was held at about 10:30 a.m.
Molina “committed suicide” at about 9:30 p.m. that evening.
I found the connection rather humorous, but also salient in that Bush knew what was going to happen a number of hours before it actually did.
A second interesting and humorous story I can relate from that September meeting was not only the discussion of Barry Seal, but the general discussion of narcotics, wherein Jeb was talking to Oliver North.
Dewey Clarridge and Joe Fernandez were there and Jeb was whining about how they were importing so much cocaine for the purposes of maintaining illicit covert revenue streams that, in fact, they were depressing the street value of the price of cocaine.
Revenues were in fact diminishing.
And North chuckled, and said that he had already made arrangements, that he, Dewey, Fred Ikley and Clair George had made arrangements.
What they were referring to by “arrangements” was the opening of the so-called sea routes to substantially increase the amount of cocaine that was being imported.
Jeb Bush said to Oliver North, “All you would manage to do is to further the price of cocaine.”
North’s attitude was, “Well, we’ll simply bring in more and more of the stuff to maintain revenues.”
As it has been pointed out in the past, CIA-assisted enterprise narcotics trafficking managed to depress the street price of a value of cocaine from $30,000 in early 1985 to $12,000 by mid-1986.
Later in the conversation, Jeb, wanting to be helpful, threw out a suggestion regarding the separate Guns-For-Drugs Operation being run out of Mena Airport in Arkansas.
He suggested that North start changing the fraction vis-à-vis the Contras.
Instead of one M-16 rifle, 1,000 rounds of ammunition, and the full field kit in exchange for one kilogram of cocaine, Bush suggested that North inform Enrico Bermudez and Eden Pastora that henceforth it was going to be two kilograms of cocaine for the same weapons delivery as it had been in the past.
North rebuffed this suggestion, reminding Bush that the one M-16 rifle, ammunition and field kit cost them a total of a $1,000 net delivered and the value of the kilogram of cocaine was still $17,000 or $18,000.
The third and final salient highlight I’d like to point out about that meeting (which was an important and pivotal meeting) is that General Secord had mentioned to Jeb Bush – and I was standing not two feet from him – that some of Jeb’s hangers-on (some of the old Cuban Bay of Pigs crowd that were Jeb Bush hangers-on vis-à-vis Jeb wearing his hat as a scamscateer and a money launderer) were beginning to have big mouths.
And Jeb asked, “Who?”
Secord specifically said it was the infamous Manny Perez, who was a very close ally of Jeb’s and had been for a long time. Perez used to act as a straw at various fraudulent deals for Jeb. He transported cash. He wired money into accounts he controlled through a variety of other straws. He was also very close with Jeb at Eagle National Bank in Miami.
Jeb asked General Secord what he, Jeb Bush, was supposed to do about it.
And Dick Secord said, “Well, your father controls your show and he’s got to clean up his own mess.”
History records it wasn’t long after an article appeared in a certain major newspaper about Manny Perez.
Evidently Manny’s body was found floating in a canal in West Hialeah, and his death was duly declared a “swimming accident.”
Perhaps the reader can better understand the phone call I received the day after the November 1998 elections when Jeb Bush won the governorship of the State of Florida.
On that very same evening, I got a phone call from Neil Lewis in Miami, an attorney who had previously represented both Jeb and me, and who had acted as a conduit for people like me to Jeb and Dick Secord and a variety of others.
Neil told me that he had a direct message from Jeb stating that if I wished to continue to be a resident of this state and to remain at large and with life that I best not reveal stories such as I have revealed here.
When Neil relayed the threat to me that evening, I told Neil that when he talked to Jeb the following day (which I knew he would because he wanted to know what my response would be) to tell Jeb that I was aware that my former close colleague, Larry Hamil, prior to the November 1998 elections, had been involved in a political campaign money laundering scheme, wherein Mr. Hamil laundered certain monies of Chinese origin to certain Republicans (not Democrats, but Republican candidates) including the gubernatorial campaign of Jeb Bush.
Neil laughed and said, “Are you certain you want me to relay that?”
I said, “Yes,” and I didn’t talk to Neil after that.
I can only presume Neil did, in fact, relay that message because the next morning when I got out of bed, I was greeted by a view (outside of my bay windows) of two unmarked cars parked directly in front of my townhouse. They were of the sinister variety I’m used to – dark Chevy Caprices, darkened windows, black-wall tires, four or five aerials coming out of the back of them, Washington D.C. plates.
There was enough sunlight that I could see two men sitting in each vehicle.
And that’s all they did.
They simply sat there and looked directly at my unit. They stayed for a few hours in that position and then drove off.
I had one of my neighbors record the D.C. plates on the car and upon checking them out later in the day, I was informed that no such plates existed.
But nonetheless, the message was sent.
[ Al Martin, "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran-Contra Insider," p. 195-198 ]
Oliver North speaking to Jeb Bush and Dewey Clarridge in the 1980's: "Well, we haven't decided how we will rule his demise yet - whether it will be accident, natural causes, or suicide."
[Al Martin, The Conspirators: Confessions of an Iran-Contra Insider, p.201]
"As I am a middle-aged man, I have worked or been involved in illegal covert operation of government all my adult life.
How many others in my age group can say they have personally known in their adult lifetimes almost 400 people who have died under clouded circumstances?
The common thread among the deaths of these 400 people was not anything they did - but what they knew.
I wonder how many others can make the same comment about their lives.
It's an indication of the type of life I've led.
Even what I have revealed thus far - it isn't a tenth of what I know. And it is such a task. That's the type of life I've led and what I know. I hope that the flavor of this comes out of what has happened to my friends, those I've known, who became inconvenient to their superiors and who died to maintain the deniability of others.
The egregious nature of the conspiracy surrounding their death goes to a level that is virtually humorous.
When Jeb Bush, Oliver North and Dewey Clarridge once spoke about an individual, North laughed and said, "Well, we haven't decided how we will rule his demise yet - whether it will be accident, natural causes, or suicide.""
[ Al Martin, "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran-Contra Insider," p. 201]
Jeb Bush to Al Martin: “Al, there are no heroes, and there are no tooth fairies.”
The others are those who know too much about those in power to both draw and enforce that line. And what pisses me off about Jeb Bush – and why I have a particular dislike for him – is how he ground me into me in subsequent periods when I had some contact with him through Neil Lewis, when I was trying to work something out in 1992.
He said, “Al, there are no heroes, and there are no tooth fairies.”
That comment will stick in my craw and it will do so forever.
The reason it sticks in my craw is because he’s right.
What he was referring to was the life I have to lead.
[Al Martin means living as a middle aged man who has worked or been involved in illegal covert operation of government for all of his adult life.]
[ Al Martin, "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran-Contra Insider," p. 199]
Al Martin on just how far Oliver North was willing to take things: a nuclear “incident” with the USSR to divert attention away from Bush/North/Casey epic criminality!
“The Enterprise,” “The Cause” – had gone so far beyond what it was originally intended to be the diversion of money from an Iranian operation to arm Contras.
As a cover story underneath, there would be narcotics trafficking, fraud, weapons, things like that to generate a certain number of billions of dollars to replenish the proverbial coffers.
But in fact, we’ve gone way beyond that, and North was even now talking about this Operation Orpheus – what would happen if everything fell apart and everything was to be revealed.
What the public reaction would be to the enormity of the fraud, of the narcotics and weapons trafficking so that as George Bush later said the people would have chased everyone in Washington and lynched them all.
With North being the Chairman of the National Programs Office (NPO) and the NPO building up sizeable assets of its own covertly, North was talking about Operation Orpheus, which included potentially instigating an incident with the Soviet Union to divert U.S. public attention should our involvement be known.
This was very dangerous in an era of heightened tensions, particularly with North being as powerful as he was.
Being so far out of the loop, taking naps through meetings, Reagan had no real control at that time.
North, Casey and George Bush. They were “The Three.” And they were it.
With god-like powers, they could act with absolute impunity.
And God knows what these guys would have done to protect themselves because had Iran-Contra become revealed, policies going back decades may have also become revealed in the interlinkages and that would have been one hell of a problem.
To even start a limited thermonuclear exchange with the Soviet Union, I would not have put that past “The Three,” as they call themselves.
[ Al Martin, "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran-Contra Insider," p. 205-206 ]
Chip Tatum - CIA operative who worked closely with Oliver North in the 1980's: Says Oliver North said GHW Bush was going to have Jeb Bush “arrange something out of Colombia.”
Mr. North stated the following to the other passengers, "One more year of this and we'll all retire." He then made a remark concerning Barry Seal and Governor Clinton. "If we can keep those Arkansas hicks in line, that is," referring to the loss of monies as determined the week prior during their meeting in Costa Rica. I stood silently by the vat of leaves, listening to the conversation. General Alverez had gone with the Contra leader to discuss logistics. The other three - North, Rodriguez, and Ami Nir - continued through the wooden building, inspecting the cocaine. North continued, "...but he (Vice President Bush) is very concerned about those missing monies. I think he's going to have Jeb (Bush) arrange something out of Columbia," he told his comrades, not thinking twice of my presence. What Mr. North was referring to ended up being the assassination of Barry Seal by members of the Medellin Cartel in early 1986."Compromised: Clinton, Bush & the CIA; how the Presidency was Co-opted by the CIA" by Terry Reed & John Cummings, pp. 211-213]
CIA drug smuggler Barry Seal thought he had blackmail info on the Bushes, until he ended up riddle with bullets on Feb. 19, 1986 in Baton Rouge, LA
"As the two walked away, Terry could hear Seal say, "Well, I'm sorry Leroy, if they feel like I'm blackmailin''em. But this is business and I just gotta do what I gotta do ..."
At 10 AM, after saying goodbye to Tracta, the two prepared to depart. Terry felt that he would be home for dinner with any luck. He was wondering what new excitement would be awaiting him on the trip back.
It didn't take long for him to find out. As soon as the two were airborne, Seal laid it on him. He was full of pent-up emotion and startled his flying companion as they exited Howard airspace.
Seal began yelling at the top of his voice, something out of character for him. Terry had never seen him this euphoric.
"YEE-HAWWWWWW," he screamed. "I'm gonna fuckin' make it. We're gonna do this, Terry. We've got these assholes eatin' outa our hands. YEE-HAWWWWWWWWW. Give me the fuckin' airplane.
He grabbed the control yoke and executed a series of aileron rolls. Terry had never been sick in an airplane, but he was sure about to lose his SOS.
"OK, enough of that shit," Seal said after seeming to tire of the aerobatic antics. "You got the airplane, I'll hook up the radios."
"Terry sat silently at the controls, trying to figure out what was driving Seal. As Barry emerged from under the electrical panel, after making the radio connections, he abruptly began pounding with his right hand on the dash of the Lear until Terry thought the avionics in the control panel would be dislodged.
"There ain't nuthin' in this world more powerful than good ol' fucking blackmail, Terry. And don't let anybody ever tell ya different. Jeeeeeesus Christ, I got some good shit on some big people."
"Will you let me in on your party? Calm down, Barry! Tell me what's goin' on."
"Terry, what's most important right now is for ya ta play ball with these guys and get your ass down to Mexico ASAP. You impressed the shit out of Leroy... Robert Johnson [William Barr, later Attorney General for GHW Bush], too. I won't be able ta come to Mexico right now, I've got a little matter to take care of. But ya get on down there and get in a position to receive me, and I'll be joining ya soon. Goddam, this'll be great. Won't it be fun workin' together and spendin' all their fuckin' money?"
"What this blackmail, you're talking about?"
"Ever hear the old expression, it's not what ya know, it's who ya know? Well, whoever said that just hadn't caught the Vice President's kids in the dope business, 'cause I can tell ya for sure what ya know can definitely be more important than who you know.
"You gotta calm down and tell me what you're talking about, if you want me to know. What's this about the Vice President's kids and dope."
"I don't wannna tell ya too much, 'cause truthfully ya don't have a need to know. But Terry I been workin' with several federal agencies for the past couple of years as ya probably suspicioned. In the course of that business, a person can't help but run across some real sensitive information. It seems some major players in the Medellin Cartel, whom I personally know, ran across some knowledge that's very valuable to both the Republican and Democratic party. Real national security stuff. It seems some of George Bush's kids just can't say no ta drugs, ha ha ha ha ... Well, ya can imagine how valuable information like that would be, can't ya? That could get ya out of almost any kind of jam." Seal paused for a moment than asked, "Ya ever play Monopoly? The information I got is so good it's just like a get-out-of-jail-free card ... ha, ha, ha, ha YEE-HAWWWW..."
"Barry, are you telling me George Bush's kids are in the drug business?"
"Yup, that's what I am tellin' ya. A guy in Florida who flipped for the DEA has the goods on the Bush boys. Now I heard this earlier from a reliable source in Colombia, but I just sat on it then, waitin' to use it as a trump card, if I ever needed it. Well, I need ta use it now. I got names, dates, places.... even got some tape recordins'. Fuck, I even got surveillance videos catchin' the Bush boys red-handed. I consider this stuff my insurance policy. It makes me and my mole on the inside that's feedin' the stuff to me invincible. Now this is real sensitive shit inside of U.S. Customs and DEA and those guys are pretty much under control. It's damage control as usual.
L.D. Brown: "Crossfire: Witness in the Clinton Investigation" L.D. Brown for a time in the 1980's was Bill Clinton's favorite Arkansas state trooper and Bill Clinton helped him get into the C.I.A.
Barry Seal was L.D. Brown’s CIA handler
Bill was loving every minute of living this association with the C.I.A. through me. Just as he enjoyed the womanizing, going to the bars and doing his best to dribble a basketball like one of the guys, he was getting his vicarious jollies through yet another source. But by using the C.I.A. and me, he would push my ability to follow orders to the breaking point - and destroy our friendship. [...]
Barry Seal was a crazy man. He was also everything Dan Magruder [Donald Gregg, an aide to GHW Bush] was not. Happy-go-lucky, irreverent and loud, Seal telephoned me and told me he was the man I was told would call me. It was the mid-1980's and with the decadence of that time and the free-flowing cocaine, Cajun's Wharf was a hangout for the bond daddies such as Lasater and company. [...]
[L.D. Brown, Crossfire: Witness in the Clinton Investigation, p. 102-103]
The first words out of Seal's mouth, "How's the Guv?" reminded me of Magruder's apparent familiarity with Bill. An overweight, jovial, almost slap-happy man as my contact with C.I.A. was not exactly what I expected. Seal, too, knew everything about me. He focused on my D.E.A. training as Magruder had done in Dallas.
[L.D. Brown, Crossfire: Witness in the Clinton Investigation, p. 104]
"Seal reached back to open the duffel bag in the back. He removed a manila envelope identical to the one he had given me after the first trip. I knew what was in the envelope but there was something else. He reached deeper in the bag and gave me the shock of my life.
Seal's face had a sly, smirkly, almost proud look as he removed a waxed paper-wrapped taped brick-shaped package from the bag. I immediately recognized it as identical to bricks of cocaine from my days in narcotics. I didn't know what to think and began demanding to know what was going on. I cursed, ranted and raved and I believe I actually caused Seal to wonder if I might pull a gun and arrest him. Seal threw up his hands and tried to calm me down saying everything was all right and quickly exited my car. He removed the bag from the bag and hustled back toward the plane.
I at once felt a sense of panic and relief that Seal was gone. Had he left something in the car? Was I about to be surrounded by the police? Wait a minute I was the police and furthermore this was an operation sanctioned by the C.I.A and I was recruited by them - and by Bill Clinton. [...] I would become furious with Bill for shepherding me through this mess, indeed for getting me involved. I would then as quickly think of explaining it all away as a 'sting' operation designed to trap the people on the other end of our flight who maybe had sold drugs to Seal. [...]
[L.D. Brown, Crossfire: Witness in the Clinton Investigation, p. 113-114]
The tension was building up inside me as I saw Bill coming out the back door. I was getting mad all over again as I got out of my car and he strode over to me. It was the first time we talked since the trip, the trip he knew I was going to take. His mouth opened and the words "You having fun yet?" were already forming on his lips when I burst out, "Do you know what they are bringing back on those airplanes?" He immediately threw up his hands in a halting fashion and took a couple of steps back. I know he thought he was in danger of receiving a class A state police ass-whipping. My hopes of an innocent explanation to the whole sordid affair were dashed with the now-famous line, "That's Lasater's deal! That's Lasater's deal!" he whined as if he had just taken a tongue lashing by Hillary. "And your buddy [Vice President George Herbert Walker] Bush knows about it!"
Bill had done to me what I had seen him to do so many other people. I, too, had now been used and severely betrayed. I immediately ran to Becky, who lived in a small house on the mansion grounds. I told her of the incident and cried with the pain it caused me.
[L.D. Brown, Crossfire: Witness in the Clinton Investigation, p. 116]
But I was not done with the C.I.A. In early 1985, I received a telephone call from a man at the Mansion who identified himself as Felix Rodriguez. A man who claimed he was Barry Seal's boss. He asked if he could come to Arkansas and meet me and I agreed. Could it have been that Seal was doing drug transports on his own? I was more curious than anything else and had to find out. Rodriguez was the man to tell me.
Felix Rodriguez is a Cuban-American with a long history of intelligence work. He had telephoned me at the Mansion and wanted to meet me there in the parking lot. When he arrived, he drove in the back gate as if he had been there before. We sat in his rental car and shook hands. Felix was a polished, articulate man and it was obvious he did not like Seal. He had already been told by someone about my experiences with Seal and was obviously upset with what Seal had done. I am still puzzled over how Rodriguez found out about the incident. When I telephoned C.I.A. personnel in Dallas I never mentioned what had happened with Seal. It must have come from Bill through whomever his contact at the Agency was. Rodriguez made me feel comfortable. He had C.I.A. credentials which he showed me. "Don't worry about him. We'll take care of him," is how he assured me of the 'problem' with Seal. Indeed Seal would die a violent death a year later- at the hands of whom is still a point of controversy in some circles.
[L.D. Brown, Crossfire: Witness in the Clinton Investigation, p. 118]
Former (honest) DEA agent Cele Castillo on George Herbert Walker Bush and his participation in drug smuggling.
"The end of my career with the DEA took place in El Salvador. One day, I received a cable from a fellow agent, saying to investigate possible drug smuggling by Nicaraguan Contras operating from the Ilopango Air Force Base.
"I quickly discovered that the Contra pilots were, indeed, smuggling narcotics back into the United States - using the same pilots, planes and hangers that the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, under the direction of Lt. Col. Oliver North, used to maintain their covert supply operation to the Contras."
Instead of playing along with the criminals inside government profiting from cocaine trafficking, Castillo attempted to seek justice, naming many high-level officials along the way, including North and former President George H.W Bush.
In fact, after Castillo blew the whistle, Bush made a point to seek out Castillo during one of his South of the border visits, in essence trying to "feel out" Castillo, but at the same time careful not to make any incriminating statement.
"When Bush confronted me and then just walked away after I told him some of the evidence I had, it was obvious he knew what was going on and was involved in the illegal drug trade," said Castillo.
And when Castillo's allegations first went public, he was the first government DEA agent with first-hand knowledge of North's drug dealing sanctioned by Bush and other higher-ups.
DEA agent Cele Castillo knew all about Contra Drug Smuggling at Ilopango Air Base in El Salvador; GHW Bush most certainly did not want to discuss it at a 1986 meeting!
On January 14 [1986], Vice President George Bush visited Guatemala City to put the U.S. stamp of approval on Cerezo’s inauguration. I met Bush at the obligatory cocktail party at the ambassador’s residence. Embassy personnel and Guatemalan dignitaries elbowed through the crowd, jockeying for floor space near the Vice President. I was standing alone, watching the steel-faced secret service agents watching everyone else, when Bush approached. He read the tag on my lapel identifying me as a member of the U.S. embassy, and asked what I did. As he shook my hand, someone snapped a photo. I told him I was a DEA agent assigned to Guatemala. He said, “Well, what do you do?” I knew it wasn’t wise to bring up the Contras – this man was part of the Administration, and Reagan had even declared himself to be a Contra.
I just blurted it out. “There’s some funny things going on with the Contras in El Salvador.”
Bush didn’t reply. He simply smiled and walked away, seeking another hand to shake. After that exchange, I knew that he knew.”
[Celerino Castillo & Dave Harmon, Powderburns: Cocaine, Contras & the Drug War, p. 132]
FBI Undercover Agent Darlene Novinger on the involvement of Jeb Bush and Vice President GHW Bush in the drug trade in Florida. Cocaine deliveries to VP office; drug lords providing prostitutes for Jeb Bush & VP GHW Bush
[Rodney Stich, Drugging America: a Trojan Horse – FBI, CIA and Other Insiders Reveal Greatest Threat to America’s Men and Women From Government’s Fraudulent War-On-Drugs, pp. 425-426 ]
After testifying in Harrisburg, Darlene returned to her Florida assignment with the South Florida Drug Task Force. Because of her earlier associations with the Smatt brothers, who by now were reportedly major drug smugglers, the FBI suggested that Darlene renew her contacts with them. In December 1982 she called Raymond Smatt in Jamaica, who invited Darlene to his mansion, where she stayed for several weeks. Raymond then suggested that Darlene stay with another brother William, who had a mansion in Miami, where she stayed for several days before going back to Jamaica.
Claiming Vice President Involved in Drugs
During one of many conversations with William Smatt at his Jamaica mansion, William started talking about the corrupt nature of the American judicial system and the White House. In one instance he said, “Let’s take, for instance, the vice president and his son, referring to George Bush and his son, Jeb Bush.”
Darlene asked, “What about them, you mean George Bush and his son; which son?” Smatt responds, “Jeb.”
Darlene responded, “You mean, Jeb with the Miami Republican party?” “Yes,” he replied. Darlene started explaining what occurred:
I was in one of the drug lords mansions which I was trained to encounter and infiltrate. I was sitting on a couch and a conversation turned up that would lead to something that would change the rest of my life. I was sitting and talking about justice in the judicial system. Well, these people were not American citizens, but they had strong opinions about the American judicial system, and how it worked, and they wanted to express it to me. I’ll never forget this day. What came out was the following.
They proceeded to tell me how money is the way to justice. Without it, there is no chance. You’re living in a Disney World to believe otherwise. This is what I was told by them. They proceeded to tell me how they had to pay the Republican Party in Miami. At that time, Jeb Bush was the chairman of the Republican Party in Florida [editor’s note: Jeb was Dade County GOP chairman in the early 1980’s]
They told me about the visits Vice President George Bush made to their mansion. The story that unfolded was incredible that I thought I had heard everything until this gentleman was done showing me correspondence. His office phone was ringing at this time. Lo and behold, it was the Miami Republican Party calling. He was screaming at them because he said, “I just gave you a couple hundred-thousand dollars and I want this done!”
Darlene explained how Smatt told her about providing pharmaceutical-grade drugs to aircraft arriving from Washington, DC, which were then flown back to Washington and delivered by courier to the Bush White House. [editor’s note: Office of the Vice Presidency] Smatt told Darlene of the money that he provided to the head of the Republican Party in Florida, and the relationship he had with Florida politicians. He was complaining that they kept asking him for more money. Darlene explained:
I asked him why he continued to do business with them if he didn’t like them. He said it was very simple. His contributions were going to the vice president and his sons’ interests because he was going to be appointed roving ambassador in the
Caribbean. Meaning something called the Caribbean Basin initiative, which was to their benefit to get passed because they would make a lot of money, on top of everything else.
He proceeded to tell me how he and his family, particularly he, furnished prostitutes to Jeb Bush and George Bush when they were in Miami, Florida, and of the use of cocaine by these individuals and George Bush’s staff in Washington, D.C. He proceeded to also tell me about flying pharmaceutical grade cocaine, and how the currier delivered it to the vice president’s office in Washington, D.C.
Darlene continued to explain what was said:
At that point I was sitting there with absolutely nothing to say other than, I could not believe it. I then sort of regrouped and said, “How do I know that what you’re saying is true? That just seems so incredible.”
Darlene explained William Smatt opening his desk drawer and “showing me personal correspondence from the vice-president , his son, photographs, and checks. I had no reason to believe that this man who I had known for years made this up.”
At another time, while staying at Raymond Smatt’s Miami mansion, Raymond said that Vice President George Bush and Jeb Bush had used cocaine at his Miami home.
[Rodney Stich, Drugging America: a Trojan Horse – FBI, CIA and Other Insiders Reveal Greatest Threat to America’s Men and Women From Government’s Fraudulent War-On-Drugs, pp. 425-426 ]
Darlene Novinger and her 1982 Report to the FBI Office in Harrisburg
Darlene said that after she submitted her report in December 1982, an investigation was commenced. Darlene said that in January 1983, newspapers reported that Vice President George Bush’s entire staff on the South Florida Drug Task Force was replaced. She assumed this was due to her report. She also remembered a Washington Post article in January 1983 that stated many members of the South Florida Task Force were using drugs…
[Rodney Stich, Drugging America: a Trojan Horse – FBI, CIA and Other Insiders Reveal Greatest Threat to America’s Men and Women From Government’s Fraudulent War-On-Drugs, pp. 427]
Darlene Novinger was Set Up to be Murdered by Drug Traffickers by Justice Department personnel who intentionally blew her cover, revealing she was an informant.Someone in government wanted Darlene dead. She survived.
Darlene returned to her assignment in Florida and found herself being set up by someone in the Miami U.S. attorney’s office to be killed. She explained that while staying at the Raymond Smatt mansion in Jamaica, and while talking to Raymond, the phone rings. It was a call from his brother, William Smatt in Miami, who stated that his contact in the Miami U.S. attorney’s office found out that Darlene was an FBI informant. Darlene explained:
That particular office, the Miami U.S. attorney’s office, almost cost me my life. I was at the mansion of a major drug lord in Jamaica, and a phone call was made when I was in the living room of their house. I could hear part of the conversation and they were talking about me. I could hear Raymond acting, “The FBI in Miami said who was working for them?” They were talking about me!
I felt trapped. There I was in his home, on an island, trapped, and I’m hearing this man get this call, and I thought, “I’m going to die.” I really did. I thought, whew, it was a close one, I’ll tell you. And he kept looking at me and he was a little grumpy. I said, “The next thing you know, they’ll have me working for the CIA.”
Eventually he lightened up, and I talked my way out of that one. Later, I found out that that gentleman was very heavily involved and he was not playing on the up and up….
Apparently, whoever told William Smatt that Darlene was an FBI undercover agent knew that Darlene was staying in Jamaica at the Raymond Smatt residence, and wanted Darlene killed. That would solve the problem with the report on Vice President George Bush and his son, Jeb.
[Rodney Stich, Drugging America: a Trojan Horse – FBI, CIA and Other Insiders Reveal Greatest Threat to America’s Men and Women From Government’s Fraudulent War-On-Drugs, pp. 428-429]
Bo Gritz Letter to VP GHW Bush in 1988 and regarding US government Heroin Smuggling
Bo Gritz Letter to George Bush |
1 February 1988, Sandy Valley, NV |
Honorable George Bush, Vice President, United States of America, Washington, D.C.
Sir:
Why does it seem that you are saying "YES" to illegal narcotics in America?
I turned over video tapes to your NSC staff assistant, Tom Harvey, January 1987, wherein General KHUN SA, overlord of Asia's "Golden Triangle", offered to stop 900 tons of heroin/opium from entering the free world in 1987. Harvey told me, "...there is no interest here in doing that." General Khun Sa also offered to identify U.S. Government officials who, he says, have been trafficking in heroin for more than 20 years.
November 1986, Scott Weekly and I went into Burma in coordination and cooperation with The White House. Tom Harvey told me you received a letter from Arthur Suchesk, Orange County, CA, dated 29 August 1986. Dr. Suchesk said that Gen Khun Sa had access to U.S. POWs. Harvey said the letter had received "highest attention". He gave me a copy along with other case documents. I was asked if it was possible to verify the information. According to Harvey, the CIA said Khun Sa had been assassinated some months before. Harvey supplied Scott and myself with language under White House and NSC letterhead that would help us gain access to Khun Sa. It worked. Unfortunately, Khun Sa knew nothing about US POWs. He did, however, offer to trade his nation's poppy dependence for a legitimate economy.
Instead of receiving an "Atta Boy" for bringing back video tape showing Khun Sa`s offer to stop 900 tons of illegal narcotics and expose dirty USG officials, Scott was jailed and I was threatened. I was told that if I didn't "erase and forget" all that we had discovered, I would, "hurt the government". Further, I was promised a prison sentence of "15 years".
I returned to Burma with two other American witnesses, Lance Trimmer, a private detective from San Francisco, and Barry Flynn from Boston. Gen Khun Sa identified some of those in government service he says were dealing in heroin and arms sales. We video taped this second interview and I turned copies over in June 1987, to the Chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence; Chairman of the House on Foreign Affairs Task Force on Narcotics Control; Co-Chairman, Senate Narcotics Committee; Senator Harry Reid, NV; Representative James Bilbray, NV; and other Congressional members. Mister Richard Armitage, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, is one of those USG officials implicated by Khun Sa. Nothing was done with this evidence that indicated that anyone of authority, including yourself, had intended to do anything more than protect Mr. Armitage. I was charged with "Misuse of Passport". Seems that it is alright for Oliver North and Robert MacFarlane to go into Iran on Irish Passports to negotiate an illegal arms deal that neither you nor anyone else admits condoning, but I can't use a passport that brings back drug information against your friends.
Lance Trimmer and I submitted a "Citizen Complaint of Wrongdoing by Federal Officers" to Attorney General Edwin Meese, III on 17 September 1987. Continuous private and Legislative inquiries to date indicate that the Attorney General's Office has "lost" the document. Congressional requests to the Government Accounting Office have resulted in additional government snares and stalls.
January 20, 1988, I talked before your Breakfast Club in Houston, Texas. A distinguished group of approximately 125 associates of yours, including the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, expressed assurance that you are a righteous man. Almost all of them raised their hand when I asked how many of them know you personally. If you are a man with good intent, I pray you will do more than respond to this letter. I ask that you seriously look into the possibility that political appointees close to you are guilty of by passing our Constitutional process, and for purposes of promoting illegal covert operations, conspired in the trafficking of narcotics and arms.
Please answer why a respected American Citizen like Mister H. Ross Perot can bring you a pile of evidence of wrongdoing by Armitage and others, and you, according to TIME magazine (May 4, page 18), not only offer him no support, but have your Secretary of Defense, Frank Carlucci tell Mr. Perot to "stop pursuing Mr. Armitage". Why Sir, will you not look into affidavits gathered by The Christic Institute (Washington, D.C.), which testify that Armitage not only trafficked in heroin, but did so under the guise of an officer charged with bringing home our POWs. If the charges are true, Armitage, who is still responsible for POW recovery as your Assistant Secretary of Defense ISA, has every reason not to want these heroes returned to us alive. Clearly, follow on investigations would illuminate the collective crimes of Armitage and others.
Several years ago a secretary working for Armitage asked me "Why would he have us expunge his official record of all reference to past POW/MIA assignments and activities?" Not knowing, I ventured a guess that maybe he was considering running for public office and didn't feel the POW -Vietnam association would be a plus in his resume. It was about the same time a CIA agent named by Khun Sa turned up dead in Bangkok under "mysterious circumstances". Also about this time, as an agent of NSC's Intelligence Support Activity, I was told by ISA Chief Jerry King, "...there are still too many bureaucrats in Washington who don't want to see POWs returned alive". I failed to realize the fullness of his meaning, or these other events, until in May 1987, Gen Khun Sa, in his jungle headquarters, named Richard Armitage as a key connection in a ring of heroin trafficking mobsters and USG officials. A U.S. agent I have known for many years stopped by my home last month enroute to his next overseas assignment. He remarked that he had worked for those CIA chiefs named by Khun Sa, and that by his own personal knowledge, he knew what Khun Sa said was true. He was surprised it had taken so long to surface.
I am a registered Republican. I voted for you twice. I will not do so again. If you have any love or loyalty in your heart for this nation; if you have not completely sold out, then do something positive to determine the truth of these most serious allegations. You were Director of the CIA in 1975, during a time Khun Sa says Armitage and CIA officials were trafficking in heroin. As Director of Intelligence you were responsible to the American people for the activities of your assistant - even as you should know what some of these same people are doing who are close to you now as our Vice President because I feel these "parallel government" types will only be promoted by you, giving them more reason to bury our POWs.
I am enclosing some documentation that supports the charges made. Chief is a letter from Khun Sa to the U.S. Justice Department dated 28 June 1987, wherein Richard Armitage is named along with Theodore Shackley (your former Deputy Director CIA from Covert Operations) and others. Please also note William Stevenson's article, "Bank of Intrigue-Circles of Power". You, Armitage, and General Richard Secord are prominently mentioned. Stevenson, you might remember, authored A MAN CALLED INTREPID. Also Tom Fitzpatrick's article, "From Burma to Bush, a Heroin Highway", should interest you. Both of these men are prize winning journalists. The book, CRIMES of PATRIOTS, "A True Tale of Dope, Dirty Money, and the CIA", by Jonathan Kwitny, reporter for the Wall Street Journal, details for you the bank connections that Khun Sa mentions. Finally, the basic primer that spells out exactly how this dope for covert operations gambit began, is Alfred McCoy's THE POLITICS OF HEROIN IN SOUTHEAST ASIA. All of these should be required reading for the man appointed chief cop by our President to safeguard America from illegal narcotics. These are just a sampling of many works now available that chronical disgraceful conduct by those sworn to protect and defend our Constitution.
Parting shot Mr. Vice President: On 28 January 1988, General Khun Sa tendered an offer to turn over to me one metric ton (2,200 pounds) of heroin. He says this is a good faith gesture to the American people that he is serious about stopping all drugs coming from the infamous Golden Triangle. I, you and Nancy Reagan are really serious about saying "NO" to drugs, why not test Gen Khun Sa? I challenge you to allow me in the company of agents of your choice to arrange to receive this token offer worth over $4 billion on the streets of New York City. It will represent the largest "legal" seizure of heroin on record. You can personally torch it, dump it in the ocean, or turn it into legal medication; as I understand there is a great shortage of legal opiates available to our doctors. I think Gen Khun Sa's offer is most interesting. If you say "YES" then the ever increasing flow of heroin from Southeast Asia (600-- tons-- '86, 900 tons-- '87, 1200-- tons'88) may dry up--not good for business in the parallel government and super CIA circles Oliver North mentioned. If you say "NO" to Khun Sa, you are showing colors not fit for a man who would be President.
What is your decision? I challenge you to demonstrate exactly where you stand with respect to big-business-drugs, parallel government, misuse of U.S. tax-payer dollars in foreign drug supression programs that don't work, no interest in dialogue that will stem the flow of illegal narcotics, return of POWs while they are still alive? I for one am not for a "USA, Inc." with you or anyone else as Chairman of the Board.
Respecting Your Office,
James "Bo" Gritz, Concerned American, Box 472 HCR-31Sandy Valley, NV 89019, Tel: (702) 723-5266
Chip Tatum: VP GHW Bush was at one point on the verge of Murdering Oliver North (a loose cannon) and U.S. intelligence *did* Murder Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme (2/28/86) to keep a lid on Iran-Contra
Sounds awful? Remember these are Machiavellian CIA Mafia types and there is no honor among thieves or murderers. People have a hard time accepting such material but this is par for the course for these folks. Note bene: the murder of Olof Palme (2/28/86) came within two weeks after the murder of Barry Seal (2/19/86), so desperate measures were being taken to keep Iran-Contra secret in early 1986. It later broke wide open on Oct. 5, 1986 with the downing of the American C-123 cargo plane over Nicaragua and capture of Eugene Hasenfus. - Robert
From Jon Gentry of Dallas who interviewed CIA Pegasus agent and assassin Chip Tatum in 1997; that is the “agent” who Jon Gentry is referring to below and Gentry interviewed Tatum 4 times:
Many people have reported on the activities of GHW Bush. In 1997, I interviewed one of Bush, Sr's top CIA agents who refused an unethical order and went AWOL, subsequently got charged with treason for refusing a direct order from the President. This guy had been one of Bill Colby's close group and actually retired when Bush became DCI, only to be dragged out of retirement by Bush. Long story. Interviewed him in 1997 and again in 1998, both times at the behest of a former head (SAIC) of the Los Angeles FBI. Real interesting stuff. But perhaps most interesting is that this agent made statements in the form of predictions, but they weren't predictions, per se. They were the culled intel from being in over a hundred eyes-only planning sessions with Bush. Stuff like the plan for a global governance, a New World Order; the bringing down of the American economy and the splitting of the currency into domestic and international, two separate systems to protect against hyper-inflation as the dollar dies in world currencies. Many other things. All these "predictions" came from meetings no later than early 1992 when he walked out. Our current maladies have been in the works that long.
And I'll throw this in just for Kensley. This agent participated in the hit on Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden. The hit was ordered because of an unwise conversation Lt. Col. Oliver North had with Palme in reference to illegal firearms dealing. "Loose lips sink ships," was one of Bush, Sr's favorite axioms. In this case a foreign head of state died because of North's "loose lips." North has no idea how close he came to sharing the same fate. The agent had orders that if a handkerchief was not dropped after a conference with Gorbanifar, the entire room including North were to be eliminated. That was after another North gaff. But Bush's "loose lips" policy extended to those who could give testimony in congressional hearings, also. I believe an Israeli by the name of Amiram Nir got a subpoena. The agent I spoke of actually knew Nir, but he was not told whose plane it was he was ordered to bring down. Nir died in the crash and subsequent fire, another victim to Bush's "loose lips" policy. I don't know, but I am told that Amiram Nir had about the same public interest in Israel as JFK, Jr. had in America. Bush, Sr gave the order for Nir's elimination to cover his own trail. Bush proclaimed, "I was not in the loop," on Iran Contra. Yeah, right.
Kensley, how naive do you wish to remain? Bush headed the CIA before becoming Vice President. An international child kidnapping-trafficking organization with its hub in Washington, DC was being investigated by Customs, the DC Police and the FBI. The investigation into this horrific monstrous operation was shut down with notes that it was "a CIA internal matter." With the current internet snooping I don't recommend checking it out but the org was The Finders. Yes, it made the papers. Yes, there are Customs documents pertaining to their interrupted investigation. Let me assure you, Bush, Sr. IS in the loop.
JON GENTRY 6/8/11 email to Robert Morrow and tlcdallas list serve
Thanks for the dissertation. I saved the entire email to a file to study.
I noted you underlined threaten to murder, talking about Pegasus and Perot. Tatum did explain that a neutralization was a three-step process. First would come intimidation-coercion. If that did not work, or jointly in conjunction would be a compromise phase. Only if intimidation and compromise failed would the stage three assassination be carried out. What Tatum was not telling is that by the time he received the tasking, initial stages had already been tried in almost every case. The Operational Sub-Group which Tatum/Pegasus worked for was the assassination group. They were the Jackals which John Perkins referred to in his book, "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man." When Perkins failed, Pegasus got the call.
An example of the intimidation/coercion/assassination being all wrapped into one was the case of Daniel Ortega. The US was demanding Ortega hold democratic elections. Ortega refused until he was contacted and told to put a whole battalion around his nephew Raul (I think I recall) and he would still die on the specified date. The nephew died and Ortega held democratic elections. That was a Pegasus operation.
In the case of Perot, I've talked to some of Perot's people, one bodyguard in particular. Perot had his own Merc's. This one stated his opinion that no one would have been able to get by them and get to Perot; that it couldn't happen; which is just ridiculous. But it presents the state of mind that threats would likely not work to intimidate Perot and his encampment. I'm guessing Perot had already been contacted in some way previous; that this was no surprise.
I can't claim to understand Tatum's mind. But from putting things together he said another possibility also occurs to me. Within the covert ops community it was well-known that an operative involved in a high profile incident would likely be disappeared afterwards, have an accident. Tatum was no friend of the Bush crowd. What do you do when you're expendable? You receive a high-profile assignment? Time to resign. So he makes his resignation count by sending word through a trusted FBI friend to Ross Perot that an assassination would be attempted if Perot did not step down. Perot was informed at Saddlebrook Academy in Florida. What more compelling threat could be delivered than having one of the country's top assassins inform you he had just refused the mission, but someone else would be found who would carry it out? It worked. Perot stepped out of the race.
JG
Watch the YouTube interview of CIA Pegasus assassin Chip Tatum about his orders from GHW Bush to neutralize (murder) Ross Perot in 1991-1992 period:
"CIA +George HW Bush,Gary Hart,H Ross Perot,Blackmail" is name of YouTube video.
Also, watch this extremely valuable video of CIA Pegasus Assassin Chip Tatum: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHV68fjDiCE Entitled "Presidential Secrets - Former CIA Black Op Speaks Out with ex-FBI Ted Gunderson. “The Crimes of Mean” by Sally Denton and Roger Morris
A Slew of other Articles on CIA Drug Smuggler Barry Seal & his Murder in Baton Rouge in February, 1986
Ross Perot knew all about the CIA/governmental drug trade and it was a big reason that he ran for president in 1992 although he would never say this publicly. Here is a hit job NYT piece by Richard Bernstein on Ross Perot who was incensed over CIA drug smuggling. Perot is quoted as saying – and this is extremely important to understanding the Perot- GHW Bush epic rift – “When you look into the [American Vietnam POW] prisoner cover-up, you find government officials in the drug trade who can’t break themselves of the habit.” Barry Seal: Set up for Murder: This is a must read letter from the Louisiana Attorney General William J. Guste, Jr. to the US Attorney General Edwin Meese on March 3, 1986, complaining about why Barry Seal was not given governmental protection. Attorney General Guste was enraged at how such a valuable drug asset like Barry Seal could be assassinated and not protected by the government. My response: well, if you are about to plea bargain and take down high officials in government who are drug dealing, these things tend to happen. Web link to buy the fabulous book “Barry and the Boys” by Daniel Hopsicker. Read this book and you will never look at modern American politics in the same way again.
Bibliography on governmental and CIA drug smuggling and related criminal activities:
Jonathon Marshall (1998)
Bibliography of Books about the Darker Side of the Bushes
6) The Two Faces of George Bush by Anthony C. Sutton (1988) 10) October Surprise by Barbara Honegger (1989) 11) October Surprise by Gary Sick (1992) Books by some of the perps in Iran-Contra who were running gargantuan amounts of drugs into the USA, committing financial crime, & murdering people to cover it up, etc. Somehow they forgot to put that in their books.
1) Under Fire: An American Story– Oliver L. North with William Novak (1992) Question: If you truly have character, do you really have to have books written by and about you pertaining to “character” and “integrity?”
2) Profiles in Character by Jeb Bush and Brian Yablonski (1996) Final note: Doug Wead is a nice man but he allowed the Bushes to use him and his Christian credentials like a roll of toilet paper. I wonder if Doug Wead today (2013) fully understands the depravity of the people he was promoting for all those years, and particularly how GHW Bush & Jeb Bush have conducted their lives.
