cia contra program (stockwell)

 
The praetorian guard : the u.s. role in the new world order, essays based on earlier lectures., by John Stockwell, 1991

p.67
The record, however, proves that the contras and their CIA managers were smuggling drugs.  There was a massive flow of drugs through the CIA/contra aircraft into the United states, where they had clearances to land at Air force and National guard bases without being inspected by customs.  Senator Kerry's investigation revealed this and there are dozens of cases where people in the  contra  program, including Adolfo Calero's brother-in-law, were caught smuggling cocaine into this country, using informal “national security” passes or telephone numbers from the White house to get themselves cleared when FBI or Drug enforcement agency (DEA) officers caught them.  This is nothing new.  DEA records have been made public revealing that the CIA intervened on behalf of drug dealers at least two dozen times during the 1970s. 

p.69
The Sandinistas were eventually ousted, but under President Bush's watch, after Reagan had retired.  

pp.119─120
     During about the same period of time the CIA implemented another major destabilization program in Central america, in which it had numerous aircraft flying continuously into and out of every country, to and from the United states, and through islands in the Caribbean.  It can be no surprise that during this same period of time the Medellin cocaine cartel became a multibillion dollar industry.  The importation of cocaine into the United states in 1981, according to figures published by the Drug enforcement agency, was 12,000-17,000 kilograms.  By 1987, it has jumped to an estimated 70,000-100,000 kilograms, a little over 100 tons. 
     The public record includes numerous instances in which people related to the CIA's contra program were involved in smuggling cocaine.  Several court cases turned up evidence of involvement by  contras  and CIA subsidiary companies that were supporting the  contras'  involvement in drug smuggling.  The Senate committee headed by John Kerry (D-MA) estimated that 50-100 fights of CIA/contra aircraft had hauled cocaine and marijuana back into the United statess.  Milian Rodriguez presented testimony and documents at his trial that several million dollars in cash had been paid by the Medellin cartel to the contras, buying access to the aircraft pipeline into the United states.  Felix Rodriguez, a long-time CIA agent who had landed in the Bay of Pigs a few days before the CIA's ill-fated landing in 1961 and served in Military region III in Vietnam with the CIA chief of base, Don Gregg (later Vice-president George Bush's national security advisor), was in charge of the  contra  air effort working out of Ilopango in El Salvador.  Rodriguez was also named as having been involved in receiving money for the contras  from the Medellin cartel. 
   Federal attorneys in Florida reported that they received instruction from the Justice department in Washington, apparently originating with Attorney general Ed Meese, obstructing their prosecutions of drug smugglers on the grouds of “national security.”  Other law enforcement officers in the DEA, Customs, and the FBI had similar experiences.  

p.120
     The beauty of the  contra  program for the Medellin cartel was that the people running the program from the CIA and the White House were either indulgent and/or eminently corruptible, while the airplanes that flew the arms down to Central america came back to land at National guard and Air force bases in the United states where the CIA had  de facto immunity from security checks and regular customs and immigrations inspections.23  
     23.  for more on the CIA drug connection, see Frontline's video, Guns, Drugs, and the CIA, or read
The great Heroin coup by Henry Krüger (boston: south end press, 1980);
Nazi gold by Ian Sayer and Douglas Bottin (London: granada, 1984); 
The iran-contra connection, by Jane Hunter, Jonathan Marshall, and Peter Dale Scott (boston: south end press, 1987); 
The politics of heroin in southeast asia, by Alfred W. McCoy (new york : harper and row, 1972); 
The cocaine war, by Paul Eddy, Hugo Sabogal, and Sara Walden Paul (new york : norton, 1988); 
The senator must die, by Robert D. Morrow (santa monica, ca: roundtable, 1988). 

   (Stockwell, John, 1937-
The praetorian guard : the u.s. role in the new world order / by John Stockwell.
essays based on earlier lectures.
1. united states -- politics and government -- 1945-
2. united states -- military relations -- foreign countries. 

320.973
E839.5.S78   1991
322'.5'0973--dc20

1991
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