There exists a shadowy Government with its own Air Force, its own Navy, its own fundraising mechanism, and the ability to pursue its own ideas of the national interest, free from all checks and balances, and free from the law itself.
Senator Daniel K. Inouye
(WASHINGTON,
DC) - There are no reports of an overthrow of the US government by
a small group of people; the very idea that a coup d'etat took place would be
dismissed as nonsense by most Americans. Call it what you want but the
illegal cocaine trafficking into US military bases in violation of the law to support
of the overthrow of the Nicaraguan government specifically prohibited by
Congress; the murder of officers and enlisted men by the government who were a
threat to disclose the illegal narcotrafficking; the addictions, deaths and
imprisonment of thousands of Americans from crack cocaine; and the last minute
pardon of senior civilian leaders from felonies associated with Iran/Contra
whose impending trials were a threat to the sitting president are the ways of
doing business in a totalitarian state.
The allegations of intelligence abuse are not the tirades of some left-wing
fanatics, but the confessions of the CIA as reported by CIA Director Michael
Hayden and others. In June 2007, Hayden admitted that the agency violated its
charter for 25 years by conducting illegal wiretapping, domestic
surveillance, assassination plots, and human experimentation. In this world,
our government needs information and intelligence for law enforcement, national
security, military, and foreign policy objectives.
Vice
President George H. Bush claimed that he was “out of the loop,” on Iran-Contra
but his diaries were not released to investigators until after the 1988
Presidential election; they revealed that he was aware of many if not all of
the details. Donald Gregg, Bush’s national security advisor, was a career CIA
officer who recruited Felix Rodriquez, another CIA operative, in February 1985
to honcho the Contra resupply operation at the Ilopango air base in San
Salvador. The Contras used Hangars 4 and 5 at Ilopango. Both hangers “were
owned and operated by the CIA and the NSC. Weapons and supplies for the
Nicaraguan Contras were stored in these hangars as well as cocaine for shipment
to the US.
Felix
Rodriguez, "a.k.a." Max Gomez.”[1]
Rodriquez was an active participant in the CIA Phoenix Program whose mission
was to infiltrate, capture and/or assassinate the infrastructure of the National Liberation Front of
South Vietnam (the Viet Cong). Gregg supervised Rodriquez during the
Vietnam War and introduced Rodriquez to Vice President Bush, according to the
Walsh Report (Chapter 29): "Gregg introduced Rodriguez to Vice President
Bush in January 1985, and Rodriguez met with the Vice President again in
Washington, D.C., in May 1986. He also met Vice President Bush briefly in Miami
on May 20, 1986.” It’s not a stretch to believe that Bush had knowledge of the
Contra resupply operations and cocaine trafficking, notwithstanding his
official position that he was “out of the loop.”
The Walsh Report (Chapter 28) noted that Bush
acknowledged to the FBI that he was “regularly informed” of Iran arms
sales. However, he denied knowledge of the diversion of
proceeds from the arms sales to assist the Contras and knowledge of the
resupply operation at Ilopango. Lawrence Walsh concluded that, “The
criminal investigation of Bush was regrettably incomplete (Walsh Report,
Chapter 28).”
Profits
from the sales of arms to the Iranians were used to purchase weapons and
supplies for the Contras. Even though it was a violation of law to sell arms to
the Iranians, many Americans at the time would not have objected to the
excessive mark-up of sales of TOWs and Hawk missiles to Iran. The sale of
weapons to the Iranians was a violation of the Congressional embargo to sell arms
to the Iranians. After the taking of hostages from the US embassy in
Tehran in 1979, very few Americans held fond memories of this strategic Middle
Eastern country and the Grand Ayatollah Khomeini. The mark-up and diversion of
funds from the sales of weapons to support the Contra War in Nicaragua and the
prospect of the US entanglement in a war in Central America were illegal and,
even if it were not, had no chance of approval by Congress and the American
public.
The
Reagan administration painted the picture of Contras as “freedom fighters,”
good guys riding into town with their white hats taking on the gang of
Communists that had forcefully taking over Nicaragua and threaten the US.
The
amount of funds raised from the sales of TOWs and Hawk missiles to Iran was
miniscule in comparison to the billions of dollars generated from the sales of
cocaine in the US. There were no Congressional investigations of the cocaine
trafficking by the Reagan and Bush administrations; media and Congressional attention
was on the sales of weapons to the Iranians.
Senator
John Kerry (the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee on Terrorism,
Narcotics, and International Operations) reported in 1989 that “individuals who
provided support for the Contras were involved in drug trafficking ... and
elements of the Contras themselves knowingly received financial and material assistance
from drug traffickers.” But, Senator Kerry had not reported that the Contras
were using US military bases to ferry the white powder into the US.
After
the Boland Amendments prohibited the use of appropriated funds to support the
Contras, briefings were used by Lt. Colonel North to solicit funds from right
wing millionaires willing to write checks to fund the ‘cause.’ Had they known
about the sale of cocaine to fund the Contras and the use of CIA proprietary
airlines to transport the weapons from the US to Central America and the
cocaine into the US, private donations for ‘the cause’ would have dried up
quickly.
Those
in the administration who knowingly turned the other eye to the cocaine
shipments into the US would have faced serious jail terms. The revelation that
US military bases and personnel were used to support the Contras’ supply of
weapons and cocaine is not widely known and would be disputed by those in the
know, but that’s not unexpected since no one wants to acknowledge committing a
felony, even if the statute of limitations ran out.
The
investigations and subsequent report of Senator John Kerry’s Subcommittee on
Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Relations described the operations of a
series of airstrips constructed by John Hull, an American who purchased
thousands of acres in Costa Rica in the mid-1970s, who was a key refueling hub
for aircraft in the Contra supply network.[2]
Gene
Wheaton, an experienced a criminal investigator for the US Air Force Office of
Special Investigations (OSI) and the US Army Criminal Investigation Command
(CID) with contacts in the CIA and extensive experience in the Middle East, was
a good cop with a nose for digging out information on criminal activity.
He served on active duty with Marines, Air Force and Army from 1953 to 1975.
His special assignments included homicide and fraud investigator and narcotics
agent. He is a Farsi linguist and traveled extensively over a 30
year period in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Arab
Emirates, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt. [3]
After
retiring from the Army, Wheaton was executive assistant and director of
security for the Rockwell Corporation, supervising the design of security
systems used by the Iranian Air Force in the IBEX airborne electronic
intelligence program. Wheaton said that IBEX was a CIA program to give
the Iranian government “the equivalent of a small NSA or National Security
Agency.”[4]
In
a deposition given to Daniel Sheehan, Christie Institute, in March 1988,
Wheaton said in 1985-1986, he was the Vice President of National Air Cargo, an
airline operating a fleet of 23 twin-engine Spanish Casa 212 turbo-prop cargo
planes, operating out of the UPS hub at Louisville airport. In the summer
of 1985, Wheaton on a trip to Washington looking for more business for the
airline, Wheaton was recruited to fly weapons to the Contras and the
Mujahedeen in Afghanistan. Wheaton had no problem with a legitimate
covert operation but backed away when he learned that retired Air Force Major
General Secord was involved and the covert operation involved laundered drug
money and the mark-up of prices to enrich those involved in illegal activities.[5] Wheaton
had not been an intelligence agent; he was foremost an investigator, a good
cop. The CIA operatives had contacted the wrong man. Wheaton subsequently
briefed the staffs of Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, the House/Senate
Select Committee, and Pentagon officials on his personal knowledge of the
Iran-Contra Affair (1985-1989).
The
sales of weapons to the Iranians had deadly consequences for US military
personnel. Arrow Air was one of the CIA
proprietary airlines used by Ollie North for Iran-Contra shipments. An
Arrow Air DC-8 crashed on takeoff after refueling in December1985 from Gander,
Newfoundland. In total 256 persons on board the DC-8 were killed in the crash.
The flight had originated in Cairo, Egypt and was destined for Fort Campbell,
KY, the home of the 101st Airborne. Wheaton served as a consulting investigator
from 1989 to 1992 to “Families for Truth about Gander,” representing the
families of 248 101st Airborne Division soldiers killed on their way
home from a peace keeping mission in the Sinai. The majority member
report from Canadian Aviation Safety Board (CASB) determined wing icing as the
cause of the crash; a CASB minority opinion stated that the crash may have been
caused by an onboard explosion.
Wheaton
reported, “…investigations to date have found proof that the Canadian Air
Safety Board (CASB) wrote a fraudulent report stating that wing icing was
the cause of the crash. Four years after the crash, [I have] uncovered positive
evidence that the aircraft had an on-board explosion.”[6]
Wheaton
had evidence that terrorists were responsible for an in-flight explosion and
the resulting crash; a thorough investigation by the FBI would have revealed
that illegal weapons were carried in the “belly of the aircraft,” part of the
Iran-Contra scandal.[7]
Wheaton said that a bomb may have been planted in the aircraft at Cairo;
Islamic Jihad terrorists claimed responsibility.
Wheaton was actively involved in the
investigation of Colonel Sabow’s death at El Toro in January 1991 and provided
information to the DOD IG about the connection between the murder (officially a
suicide) of Colonel Sabow, Iran-Contra, and cocaine trafficking into the
US. Wheaton told Dr. David Sabow in 1994 about an extremist intelligence
assassination cell:
There is an extremist intelligence
related assassination cell concealed within the Pentagon/DOD which murders NOT
enemy agents but rather loyal US Government officers who threaten to expose
illegal covert operations by their renegade superiors…I first crossed paths
with this network while investigating the “Gander Crash” of 12 Dec 85, which
resulted in the death of 248 US soldiers and 8 civilian crew members.
This crash threatened to expose “Iran-Contra” one full year before it was
officially brought light (Nov 1986). I was specifically cautioned that if
I successfully exposed the Gander cover-up I would be murdered by this
assassination network. This warning was given to me by one of the US
military’s highest ranking and highly respected General officers. I have again
crossed paths with this network during my investigation of the 21 Jan 1991
murder of USMC Col Jimmy Sabow at USMC Air Station El Toro, CA…while working as
a USAF O.S.I. special agent, I was personally approached to be a member of a
secret assassination sub-culture within the US Government. The code name
within the military for this assassination underground was “the Z-D program,
Z-D being the abbreviation for “Zeta-Diogenes”. This operation arose out
of the intelligence failure at the Bay-of-Pigs invasion of Cuba. I feel
we should do everything possible to expose this psycho-lunatic fringe
sub-culture ASAP.
The
DOD IG interviewed Wheaton in 1994 as part of their investigation of the
death of Colonel Sabow. Wheaton provided information on the smuggling of money
and narcotics into the country. Wheaton told the DOD IG that Colonel
Sabow was murdered to prevent him from disclosing a covert operation that
had gone rogue at MCAS El Toro, involving the use of civilian C-130s to
transport weapons to Central and South America and illegal drugs on the return
trips north. Wheaton said that El Toro and remote locations on military
installations in the “western part of the United States” were used for these
illegal activities. As part of his investigation, “he had identified and interviewed two pilots who had been engaged in this operation.”
The operations were ended with the death of Colonel Sabow
and then moved to “Libya as a training mission in support of Muammar Gaddafi”
in return for oil. The covert operations at El Toro were under the
control of Colonel Joseph Underwood, the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing’s
Chief of Staff.” [8]
The
C-130s were “unmarked or marked with logos of civilian companies” and “flown by nonmilitary type crews, i.e., long hair
and blue jeans.” Wheaton’s witnesses told him that these aircraft would
taxi to “Spook Corner,” in the Southwest quadrant of the El Toro “where unidentified material and equipment was loaded or unloaded as part of the
illegal covert operation or for some sort of servicing of the aircraft. The aircraft would then depart El Toro.”
Wheaton had MP witnesses who had provided
testimony to this effect but refused to provide their names to the IG with the
exception of Staff Sergeant Randy Robinson, who had already gone on record
describing the unmarked C-130s.[9]
Wheaton
provided more details to the DOD IG. Wheaton told the IG that a covert
operation under the cover of a US Department of Agriculture program named
'Screw Worm,' provided weapons, ammunition and other material to the Government
of Peru in their struggle against guerrilla forces known as the “Shining
Path.” Wheaton said that a number of individuals involved in this covert
operation were concurrently conducting an illegal covert operation whereby they
were smuggling additional weapons, ammunition and material to Peru. The
individuals were selling the weapons, ammunition and material to the Shining
Path as well as to the Government of Peru, for money and narcotics. The money
and narcotics were then smuggled back into the United States and air dropped at
remote locations on military installations in the western part of the
United States.
Wheaton
told the DOD IG that Tom Clines and Ted Shackley, two former CIA
operatives, “had run a top-secret assassination program since the 1960s.”[10]
The
DOD IG interviewed Pentagon officials knowledgeable about military flights
into Central and South America. Their search of Pentagon records provided
no confirmation of Wheaton’s allegations. But, the unmarked C-130s were no
longer military aircraft; they were not under the control of DOD. Top secret
flights of weapons and drugs were covert operations under the control of the
CIA or the NSC. The DOD IG, even if they were serious about checking
Wheaton’s story, were looking in the wrong places.
The
DOD IG noted that agents interviewed “21 individuals regarding allegations by
Mr. Wheaton and Dr. Sabow of illegal covert operations at MCAS El Toro and the
alleged knowledge of these activities by Cols Underwood and Sabow.”
With the exception of Randy Robinson, “no one else could confirm the
existence of illegal covert operations taking place at MCAS El Toro.”
Subpoenas
of records from CIA proprietary airlines may have revealed more
information, but the DOD IG didn’t have broad subpoena authority to walk into
companies and demand to see their records, even if their investigation was not
bias. There’s no indication that the DOD IG made any effort to review El Toro’s
database files on the refueling and servicing of civilian aircraft in the
1980s.
El
Toro was not closed when the DOD IG conducted their review in 1994. Data
files would have been available for review. The DOD IG had access to Lieutenant
General Hollis Davidson, the Marine Corps Inspector General, who flew into
El Toro in January 1991. General Davidson could have been
interviewed. If done, he could have confirmed
his inspection team found El Toro’s MWR data files on the refueling and
servicing of civilian C-130s purged. And, if the investigators were
timely, they may have interviewed SSgt Tom Wade, a computer guru who may have
been ordered to purge the data files, before he was pulled from his car on
Christmas Eve in 1994 and shot two times in the back of the head. General Davidson’s inspection team could have
done the same thing in 1991, gotten the young Marine to admit that he purged
the data files on orders of senior Marine officer and prevented his
murder.
Gene
Wheaton accompanied Nick Schou, writing for the Orange County Weekly in
September 2006, to a meeting in the desert with a mysterious
source who claimed to have top secret documentation showing the use of US
military bases to fly drugs in the country in the 1980s. Schou wrote:
…the man pulled a folder from his
pocket and handed it to me. Inside was a piece of paper stamped with the logo
of the US Department of Defense. It looked like an uncensored version of what
had been faxed to my office a week or so earlier: instructions from the
Pentagon to El Toro Marine Corps Air Station and March Air Force Base
not to record landings or takeoffs by two civilian airlines. This time,
the names of the airlines weren't blacked out: Southern Air Transport and
Evergreen International Airlines. The man with the walkie-talkie didn't demand
anything—except that I take the paper from his hands. But the document wasn't
stamped "declassified." It could be stolen, Wheaton warned, and if I
accepted it, I could go to federal prison for violating national security
laws.”[11]
To
his regret, Schou decided not to accept the document; asked the source to mail
it to him, but never heard from him again.
The Iran-Contra hearings showed what can happen when one
branch of the government decides it can operate outside of the rule of
law.
[1]
Both hangers “were owned
and operated by the CIA and the National Security Agency: Written
Statement of Celerino Castillo III, (D.E.A., retired) for the House Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence, April 27, 1998, http://www.akha.org/content/drugwar/ciacocaineelsalvador.html
[2] US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations,
Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations, “Drug, Law
Enforcement and Foreign Policy Report,” December 1988, pg. 53-55.
[3] Wheaton is a good cop: Gene Wheaton’s C.V.
obtained from Dr. David Sabow. Address and telephone numbers redacted.
[4] IBEX was a CIA program: Transcript of
Wheaton interview from Declassified on the “Gander Crash Program, Public
Radio Satellite System, 8/22/2001, http://publicrecordmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/documentaries/GC_2001_pd.pdf.
[5] Deposition given to Daniel Sheehan: Summaries of
Wheaton’s deposition to Daniel Sheehan provided to us by Dr. David Sabow.
[6] Families for Truth about Gander: Information
taken from Gene Wheaton’s C.V. provided by Dr. David Sabow.
[7] Illegal weapons were carried in the belly of the
aircraft: Transcript of Wheaton’s interview from Public Radio Satellite
System, op. cit.
[8] Wheaton alleged that MCAS El Toro was being
used for narcotrafficking: Wheaton provided
extensive testimony to the DOD Inspector General investigation into the
death of Colonel James E Sabow in 1996. A redacted copy of the DOD report of
the investigation was forwarded to Dr. David Sabow pursuant to the
provisions of Section 1185(b) of the National Defense Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 1994, Title 10, United States Code, Section 113, note,
"Investigations of Deaths of Members of the Armed Forces from Self-Inflicted
Causes." DOD Inspector General, “Review of the Naval Criminal
Investigative Service Investigation into the Death of Colonel James E. Sabow,
United States Marine Corps, June 5, 1996.
[9] The
C-130s would go to a remote part
of the airfield, described as "Spook Corner," where unidentified
material and equipment was loaded or
unloaded as part of the illegal covert operation: Ibid, p.
31.
[11] Nick Schou,” Cocaine Airways”, Orange
County Weekly, September 14, 2006, http://www.ocweekly.com/2006-09-14/news/cocaine-airways/
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