Octopus

Transcript

again was elected to the presidency he installed Lucy Freda as head of FEMA the Federal Emergency Management Agency Jim freedom is an old cold warrior from Reagan California days whose specialty was suppression of unrest and dissent Jim Frieda north and George Bush began to turn FEMA into an instrument of domestic anti-terrorism the during there's a group of people in the administration who exploited article dissent with treason and if we cannot differentiate between emergency procedures which I think everyone agrees are necessary and suppressing political dissent and there's North and Poindexter in Casey we have a group of people who saw Americans who disagree with and they're threatening now the key has been in their planning has been a war a war you have a national you know security emergency you can declare martial law you can take emergency measures and war that you can't argue in peacetime and this is where they were heading towards the invasion of Nicaragua and it was derailed by the not just the iran-contra scandal although that definitely derailed it or postponed it but also the break apart of the Reagan machine there was just so much corruption he had too many incompetent wild men running the thing for him dealing with people like Oliver North when he should have had the carlucci's in there to begin with who would do about the same thing but more credibly more and more more soberly more sane and worth more credibility in the establishment he was beginning to come apart last fall before the iran-contra thing crashed brought him down to a point now the big question that we we debate everywhere I debated everywhere I discuss it with Daniel Ellsberg's and David McMichaels as I travel and lots of other people is whether or not he will succeed in invading Nicaragua and that's a horror unto itself but I have the feeling that people miss the broader implications of this in Asian when it happens now the Christic Institute this flawed affidavit it has a segment on the Rex 84 the detention centers the FEMA the Federal Emergency Management Agency which is part of this plan which is to to prepare detention centers and laws and an infrastructure across the country so that when they pull off the invasion they will be able to to suite 400,000 people off the streets and throw them in detention centers north in your work at the NSC where you have to sign that one down to work on plans for the continuity of government in the event of a major disaster question touches upon a highly sensitive and classified area so may I request that you not touch upon that sir I would be concerned because I read my papers and some of others that there had been a plan developed by that same agency a contingency plan in the event of emergency that would suspend the American Constitution and I would be from something about it we're wondering if that in which he had worked and I must make actually request that that matter not be touched upon at this stage if we wish to get into this on certain arrangements can be made for an executive session and tragically the only member who got close was Jack books and he was stopped other choice now this one I asked the FEMA people the sober ones there if they really had this documented because we talked about this wreck say tea for two or three years ago and the spotlight had mentioned it but it wasn't really proven and they assured me they said yes they have this one from top attorneys within FEMA who have admitted to it and they've got it documented when President Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese appeared in the White House briefing room on short notice today no one was prepared for their surprising announcements the money from the controversial Iran arms deal was secretly funneled to the Contra rebels fighting the sandanista government of Nicaragua according to attorney general Edwin Meese Admiral John Poindexter director of the National Security Council knew about the secret transfer of money and one of his deputies Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North arranged it Poindexter resigned North was fired for his part the president said he was not informed of North scheme and at the White House tonight NBC's Chris Wallace has more on these unexpected developments first Tom officials here are calling it the worst scandal of the Reagan presidency jeopardizing his policy in the Mideast and now Central America and costing him a top advisor the president was still maintaining today that his Iranian arms deal was not a mistake but he said that over the weekend the Justice Department uncovered one operation he had not known about which led to Poindexter's resignation and North dismissal the information brought to my attention yesterday convinced me that in one aspect implementation of that policy was seriously flawed the president refused to say what the floor was leaving that to attorney general meets and what knees described was a scheme devised by north to get around the congressional ban against military aid to the Contras then in effect this year he said the US and twelve million dollars in weapons to Israel which Israeli agents then sold to Iran for much higher prices 10 to 30 million dollars more the Israelis paid the 12 million back to the US but transferred the extra money to Swiss bank accounts controlled by the Contras the only persons in the United States government that knew precisely about this the only person was lieutenant colonel north Admiral Poindexter did know that something of this nature was occurring but he did not look into it further the Attorney General said later former National Security Advisor McFarland had also been aware of the scheme but Meese maintained involvement did not go any higher that the president vice president bush chief of staff Reagan Secretary of State Shultz and CIA director Casey all did not know of the plan niece did not explain how a Marine lieutenant colonel on his own could have arranged a deal involving three countries and millions of dollars or why an admiral known for playing by the bureaucratic rules would not have told superior he said he's looking into whether any laws have been broken and a blue-ribbon panel will review NSC operations but Poindexter's wife said he and North did nothing to embarrass the government that his decision to resign was to assist the president in continuing on with reforming the country and I don't think they're being made a scapegoat by anybody White House officials hope today's action will satisfy demands for a staff shake-up but there is continuing bitterness inside the administration toward Schultz for distancing himself from mr. Reagan and Mees hitted Shultz could be next I think anyone who is a member of the president's staff or the president's cabinet has an obligation either to support the policy decisions of the president or to get out but the biggest worry here tonight is just how far the Iranian operation went because after today's extraordinary events many officials here are concerned whether there's anything they still don't know time hello thanks for joining us tonight the international spy scandal with an Australian connection and later we'll talk to South Africa's foreign minister pic botha a man on a mission to improve relations between Canberra and Pretoria it's a spy scandal that's already rocked the White House an intrigue that could threaten the presidency of George Bush this story centers on incredible allegations of spying on a scale never before imagined it involves America's Central Intelligence Agency selling computer programs to foreign nations these programs allegedly allowed the CIA to spy on the intelligence agencies that bought it and one of the purchases was Australia we've been able to track down two key witnesses to those dealings witnesses who are now in fear of their lives Michael Holmes reports it may be the most bizarre spy story ever a story of corruption and betrayal at the highest levels of the American government a story of hostages used as pawns of the CIA spying on its friends of murders made to look like suicides I think it's about time to get the whole story out his name is Ari Ben minashi he's a former Israeli intelligence agent once it's out there's no reason to hurt me physically anymore and today he is hiding in Australia in fear he says of his life so many people in the last 10 years who are working for the various governments on these issues due to cover-ups died mysteriously he claims the United States tried to spy on Asia the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation by selling it a computer program that contained a hidden key hole a lock for which the CIA had a master key the computer software is called promise it's designed to track millions of pieces of information on tens of thousands of people and it's alleged to have been installed in dozens of government departments and security agencies around the world it's also alleged that American intelligence made some small modifications to the program modifications that enabled it to key in a special access code and gain entry to all the information on the computer would be equivalent to going into SEO or ezo and reading the handwritten files of all the agents except the computer has them neatly organized and typed and instantly indexed so it's much more convenient Bill Hamilton irons in slow the company that developed promised and offered it to the American government they would not have bothered to sell it to all these countries without first preparing it in such a way that it would be an easier Avenue of penetration into the files of these foreign governments the whole story might never have emerged but for the fact that the American government didn't own promised it pirated the software from Bill Hamilton's company we were dumbfounded couldn't conceive of it Hamilton's contract with the US Department of Justice to supply the promised software was cancelled in 1982 without any real explanation only some time later did Hamilton hear that his software was turning up all over the world I don't know how much Australia paid I've been told that Israel paid 5.5 million our eBay minashi confirms that promise was sold to Israel but claims the Israelis unlike the Australians were in on the secret the whole idea was that we would study it the Americans who then would sell it to our neighbors and then we could buy using telephone lines get until they're our neighbors computers but then our American friends just took it a step further they sold it to their allies as well including Australia the list of countries which allegedly bought the promised software reads like a who's who of America's friends as well as its most bitter enemies is spy on your friends considered you know a fair thing to do in the intelligence world oh it is it's always done using a Trojan horse to go inside the agency that gets a little aggressive it all sounds a bit too bizarre to be true but we've now been able to track down a key witness to a prison near Seattle in Washington State so you are 100% sure that promise or a derivative of promise was bought by Australia to be used in our intelligence and law enforcement Allu because I spent several thousand man-hours of programming time with a programming team you know developing that subset this unlikely looking character is a computer genius his name is Michael Reconnaissance Eze he was in charge of modifying the promise program so that it could be accessed by American intelligence so whoever was holding that master key could do what basically break into it and Spy ICO says it doesn't have and has never had the promised software of course it won't go into any detail about what sort of computer programs it does have which is very handy because according to Michael recon of the promised software was often altered and given different names before it was sold in Diedrich honest to toe' claims he specifically modified the program for Australia at the request of a Zeo I basically had to change the communications protocol which is how that software package interacts with other software packages already resident in the computer system in a federal court hearing Judge George Mason ruled the Justice Department had used illegal and underhanded methods to bankrupt Phil Hamilton's inslaw company he ordered the government to pay in slaw $8,000,000 trickery fraud and deceit you use those words when describing how the Justice Department stole the software do you stand by those words yes I there's no question in my mind about it the evidence was overwhelming so why was the Justice Department so desperate to get the software from Bill Hamilton to answer that you have to go back to 1980 Iran had seized American hostages all evidence proves that these people are spies if President Carter could secure their release he'd have a big advantage in the upcoming US elections it's now alleged that the Reagan campaign made a deal with the Iranians a deal to keep the hostages until after the election thus denying Carter the credit for their freedom the man alleged to have helped organize this deal is a Reagan political crony called Earl Bryan and his payoff three years later on the promise software about an hour and a half outside Washington DC you'll find this place Earl Bryan's multi-million dollar Country Estate if you believe Michael reconnaissance the house promise bought now we'd like to bring you our Brian personally denying that claim but he's not being interviewed by anybody all we got was this letter from his lawyers threatening action if we so much as associated all Brian's name with this story he had the contacts to help make sure that certain elements in Iran would not make a deal with President Carter in 1980 so that President Carter could not recover in the polls and that Reagan would win the election hi Ronald Reagan do solemnly swear just five minutes after Ronald Reagan took the oath of office Iran announced that the hostages would be released some 30 minutes ago the planes bearing our prisoners left Iranian airspace and are now and the story doesn't end there in a moment the murders that have been linked to the spy scandal there are many shady characters in this story spies former spies people with something to hide but there are players with impeccable credentials too in part two of this investigation we meet a man whose background more than qualifies him to know a scandal when he smells one what is being said about this conspiracy points to criminal conduct much worse than anything in Watergate and Elliot Richardson should know 17 years ago he resigned as US Attorney General on a matter of principle after clashing with Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal today Richardson is legal counsel for inslaw and once again he has the white house in his sights it might be reluctant to have it emerged that the US government had through clandestine means planted software on foreign intelligence agencies so that the US would be better able if the phrase goes to read their mail you the murders that have occurred to prevent leaks are incredible there's nearly 50 murders that can be directly ascribed to this pattern of activity the promise affair and the allegation that Ronald Reagan and George Bush made a deal for the hostages to be kept until after the 1980 election were being investigated by journalist and author Danny casolaro he said he had it he had some already and he was going to West Virginia to meet the source who had given him that evidence this source was now he said going to supply additional conclusive proof but Danny casolaro never got to reveal either his source or the hard evidence he said was going to break the scandal wide open on August 10th his body was found in this hotel room in West Virginia his wrists had been slashed and incredible 12 times danni castle arrows body was found naked in a pool of bloody water in the bathtub all his papers were gone within hours local police had declared the death a suicide you have a case of forensic artistry you know shall we say where you have professionally trained people that set up a crime scene and they make it phenomenally difficult for investigators to to backtrack make a murder look like a suicide his body was embalmed by Monday morning by the time we found out that is against the law in West Virginia his body was in bond without family consent that certainly makes an autopsy a little more difficult Tony castle arrow says his brother Danny featured here at a nephew's birthday just wasn't the suicidal type he was describing for me a few weeks before he died what he was doing and some of the people involved and he said a lot of accidents had happened to people who were working on the things that he had been working on he said you know if an accident happens to me don't believe it but bad things seem to happen to people who make waves in the in-floor affair earlier this year Michael rekon assumed tact at Bill Hamilton and signed a sworn affidavit for Hamilton's lawsuit against the Justice Department do you believe Michael rekon escucho did alter the software as he claimed it yes I do almost immediately recognizes was contacted by a Justice Department official and given a very clear message back off where else less than two weeks after that threat Michael Rick honest to toe' was arrested on drug charges my main concern right now is staying alive and protecting my family all right and remember judge basin who found in favor of inslaw against the Justice Department well a few months later judge basin's reappointment to the bench thought to be a formality was blocked by the Justice Department yeah his career has been destroyed would you still be a judge if you hadn't handed down the decision you did I think I would be I rendered the quote wrong decision in the case of ins law versus Department of Justice your replacement in the bankruptcy court was a lawyer who argued for the Justice Department in this case yes it does that smell is that busy it's certainly an odd coincidence isn't it but every time you figuratively pick up a rock in this case you find maggots under it Michael Holmes reporting on the saga that is now the subject of a u.s. congressional inquiry next up South Africa's attorney general Elliot Richardson who now represents inslaw says there's only one way to find the truth if there was it's not enough reason before to justify full-scale all-out hard-hitting impartial federal investigation the case for doing that now was overwhelming former attorney general ed Meese disagrees the question is whether there's any legal basis for it and I think the people who looked into it including the attorney general Thornburgh have indicated there is no basis for it and I would certainly have more confidence in mr. Thornberg his judgment as an impartial person on the subject than I would mr. Richardson who is obviously a partisan and represents one of the parties a House subcommittee led by congressman Jack Brooks has been investigating the insula case for two years Brooks has accused the Justice Department of stonewalling the committee's investigation by refusing for two years to release more than 400 documents relating to inslaw faced with a subpoena Attorney General dick Thornburgh finally produced some documents this summer but told committee investigators some were either lost or stolen even President Bush is being questioned about inslaw I know his views on that he then that explained I know what was the last the Justice Department says it has been able to reconstruct a 90% of the missing documents but a source close to the Brooks Committee says there's no way to tell how many documents are missing or how important they are to solving the mysterious inslaw case Casey wyan CNN business guns drugs and the CIA from the network of public television stations a presentation of KCTS seattle w NP t or w PB t miami wtbs Detroit and WGBH Boston this is frontline with Judy Woodruff good evening two of the most persistent offensive that the Reagan presidency have been the war against communism in Central America in the war on drugs here at home but investigations of America's secret war in Nicaragua have revealed mounting evidence that the Central Intelligence Agency has been fighting the Contra war with the help of international drug traffickers it is not a new story tonight's front line investigation traces the CIA's involvement with drug lord back to the agency's birth following World War two it is a long history that asks this question in the war on drugs which side is the CIA on our program was produced by Leslie and Andrew Coburn it is called gun drugs and the CIA and is reported by Leslie Coburn illegal drugs are one thing no community in America can should or needs to tolerate America's already started to take that message to heart that's why I believe the tide of battle is turned and we're beginning to win the crusade for a drug-free America Subcommittee on narcotics tourism international operations will come to order from what we have learned these past months our declaration on war against drugs seems to have produced a war of words and not action our borders are inundated with more narcotics and at any time ever before it seems as though stopping drug trafficking in the United States has been a secondary u.s.

foreign policy objective sacrificed repeatedly for other political and institutional goals such as changing the government of Nicaragua supporting the government of Panama using drug running organizations as intelligence assets and protecting military and intelligence sources from possible compromise through involvement in drug trafficking we start with the premise that drug trafficking is morally reprehensible our government agencies are not supposed to do anything like that but they do in a practical world would you raise your right hand please Ramon Milian Rodriguez saw that world is the chief accountant of the Colombian cocaine cartel responsible for managing 11 billion dollars in drug profits now serving a 43 year sentence for money laundering he has been a key witness for a Senate investigation probing links between drugs and the CIA they say for instance a drug group was involved in a war with a terrorist group a communist terrorist group well it would be who the CIA to give that drug group as much help and advice as possible so they can win their little war operations throughout the world but it's it's coincidental Victor Marchetti came to know the world of covert operations as a longtime CIA officer he is the highest-ranking agency official ever to go public about what he learned because all the way back to the predecessor of organization OSS and its involvement with the Italian mafia Julio the Cosa Nostra in Sicily in southern Italy later on when they were fighting them the Communists in France and that they got in tight with the Corsican Brotherhood of Corsican Brotherhood of course the big dope dealers testing was changed and in the world to say got involved with cooling tongue types in Burma who were drug running because of the resisting the drift towards communism there same thing happened in Southeast Asia later in Latin America and some of the very people who are the best sources of information or who are capable of accomplishing things in the light you happen to be the criminal element the CIA has had a solid rule against being involved in drug trafficking that's not to say that some of the people who CIA has used or been in touch with over the years may well have themselves been involved in drug traffic but not the CIA if the CIA is going to if their job is to maintain the safety of our country and freedom by manipulating foreign powers to do with this country ones and if the guy is holding the power at that particular moment happens to be a drug lord then you have to get involved with the drug lord as a result we kept getting involved with these kind of people not for drug purposes and not for personal gain but to achieve a higher ideological goal in a refugee camp in Northeast Thailand they lived the remnants of one such involvement they are the Hmong or male tribe while American troops were fighting in Vietnam these people were the foot soldiers of a secret CIA army they fought an undeclared war in northern Laos across the border from North Vietnam their Hill people their little guys like most Hill people they're pretty fierce in Laos we were the cause the war in Laos was a textbook example of what can be done in unconventional warfare general Richard Secord is one of many veterans of the CIA secret war in Laos because Laos was officially neutral American troops could not be used the CIA relied on massive air power and the tribal army to fight the local communists and the North Vietnamese on the ground in northern Laos a handful of CIA officers directed as many as eighty five thousand soldiers drawn from the mountain tribes but American officials did more than just send their allies in the battle early on I think that we all believe that what we were doing was in the best interest of America that that that we were in fact perhaps involved in some not so desirable aspects of of the the drug traffic however we believe strongly in the beginning that we were there for a Just Cause Ron Rick and boxer in Laos as an official for the US Agency for International Development from 1962 to 1969 he was on the front lines these people were willing to take up arms we needed to stop the red threat and people believed that in that vein you made you know certain compromises or certain trade-offs for a larger good growing opium was a natural agricultural enterprise for these people and they have been doing it for many many years before the Americans of agafia when we got there they continued to do so when they would move from one place to another they would carry their little bags of opium they smoked it by the way in pipes and opium could be bought in the streets of any village when a farmer raised a crop of opium what he got for his years worth of work was the equivalent of 35 to 40 US dollars that amount of opium were it refined in the more famous base than in the morphine than into heroin and appeared on the streets of New York that $35 crop of opium would be worth 50 60 $100,000 in 1969 dollars maybe is a million dollars today the war isolated the Mayo tribes people in their remote villages CIA owned our America flames became their only lifeline to the outside world while now children came to believe that Rice fell from the sky male farmers witnesses they could count on their America to move their cash crop it was then the presence of these air support services in and out of the areas in question where the product where the opium was grown that greatly facilitated an increase in production and an ease of transshipment from the point of agriculture to the point of process so when I say the Americans grease the wheels essentially what I'm saying is we did not create opium production we did not create a situation where drug trafficking was happening but because of the nature of our presence this very intense American means that was made available to the situation it accelerated in proportion dramatically the possibility that air America food drugs is still hotly disputed by many former senior officers you can question any number of people who were who were there who actually were there not people who claimed that they had some knowledge of rumors you can question any number of people and I'd venture to say that they will all support what I'm saying and that is that there was no commercial trade in opium going on and I was on the airstrip that was my job to move in and about and to go from place to place and my people were in charge of dispatching aircraft I was in the areas where opium was transshipped I personally was a witness to opium being placed on aircraft American aircraft I witnessed it being taken off smaller aircraft that were coming in from outlying sites yes I've seen the sticky bricks come on board and no one was challenging their right to carry it there was their own property Neal Hampton is a former senior Air America pilot now serving a sentence for smuggling cocaine we were some sort of a freebie airline in some respects there whoever the customer or local representative put on the airplane we flew primarily it was transported on our smaller aircraft the Helios the porters and the things like that that would visit the Lille outlying villages they would send their opium to market from the villages the planes took their cargo over the mountains too long gen CIA headquarters for the war it was a secret city unmarked on any map and carefully hidden from outsiders log Chen became one of the busiest airports in the world with hundreds of landings and takeoffs a day and at the height of the war then there were thousands of people in there there were villages all over there were landing pads up on what we call Skyline Drive which was the original site of launch in t-28s we're going in and out of there c-130s for going in and out of there there was an amazing place just amazing edy Dearborn is a veteran of long Chen and our America a key figure in the covert air operation from a sleepy little valley and village you know surrounded by the mountains and the cars to this great war machine actually working up there the heart and pulse of of Laos at that time more commonly referred to as the CIA secret base you know to leave their male army the CIA selected bang pow a former lieutenant in the French colonial army and Laos the agency made every effort to boost his reputation his name was bong Powell a charismatic passionate and committed man a patriot without a country anona vang Pao however did more than just lead his people in a war according to observers he and his officers dominated the trade in the male farmers cash crop in 1968 one visitor got a first-hand look at this trade in a village called long pot I was given the guest bed in the village infected District head man's house and I ended up sharing it with a guy in military uniform were elated now that was an officer of the vung tau army and one morning I was awoken very early by this great confusion of people a noise at the bottom of the bed I mean just literally people brushing up against my feet with these packets bracket icky sticky substance in bamboo tubes and wrapped up in leaves and bits and things and the military officer was there was weighing it out and paying off in a considerable amount of money to these people and there was this went on here for most of the morning and went on for several mornings and he brought up a great deal of this substance which I then started think about and you know asked and had it confirmed that this was in fact raw opium war photographer John Everingham has lived in Southeast Asia for over 20 years he was one of the very few outsiders who dared to look for and photographed the secret army for himself they all wore American supplied uniform and the village is very innocently and very openly Toby old they took up to long chain and I asked them how they took it they said oh well they took it on the helicopters there's everything else that went to from lingsha Long Jing went by helicopter and so did the opium and whose helicopters were they well they were the Air America helicopters which were on contract to the CIA we did not go down to the embassy and be privy to their secret briefings or anything else we flew the airplanes they put something on the airplane and told you not to look at it you didn't look at it because you'd no longer be employed I know the fact that soon after the army was formed the military officers soon got control of the opium trade it helped not only them make a lot of money and become good loyal officers to the CIA but it helped the villages the villagers needed their opium carried out and carried over land in a war situation was much more dangerous and more difficult and the officers robberies he painted good price because the villages were very eager to sell for the military people that's hogwash no way and as far as the agency ever ever advocating that is do you think that I would be in an organization where I've devoted my life to my country involved in an operation like that without blowing the whistle absolutely not Alma with your whom securely fold us God baby with us can we meet again for veterans like general aderholt and general Secord the war in Laos is now commemorated at nostalgic reunions last fall they gathered to the Florida Air Base to talk over old times in Christ business while bang pow does not attend such functions he is well remembered by his old comrades with the agency responsible for people's salaries were they paying bang pow oh yeah of course it responsible because bang panel was response responding to agency requirements even though they may have come from the highest level of the US government yes of course he was in the chain of command yes did you work with bang pow sure all the time what was your relationship I was who's a supplier of air therefore he stayed in close contact with me were you in charge of supplying air America point for the tactical air operations yes the movement of air America planes say witnesses was influenced by bank house business requirements on POW wanted control of the aircraft sure he would do the work that needed to be done but it would give him that much more freedom and that watched more flexibility to use these aircraft to go out and pick up the opium that needed to be picked up at this site or that site and to bring it back to longcheng and there was quite a hassle and von Powell one and not only did he get control of the aircraft but there was also a question of the operational control of the airplane that we're leaving being chunk to go south even in Thailand and there was an embarrassing situation where the Americans knew that this could be exposed and it would be a very compromising situation the way they got around that was was to concede to create for vung tau his own local airline and sin Quang Airlines came into reality as a direct result of this compromise that was worked out and they brought in a c-47 from from the States and they painted it up nice and put seeing Quang Airlines on it and they gave it to wrong pal and that aircraft was largely used for the transshipment of opium from longcheng to sites further south European arrow P those airplanes didn't really bombshell bang pow they belong to the agent along the agency they were maintained by the United States government in the form of Air America or cotton Hill so they didn't really own anything it wasn't something he could take away with him there's something that we controlled every iota of that operation lock stock and barrel you know what the nickname for that airline was no opium bear I've never heard that before back in the old days the men who flew for Air America and drank in the purple porpoise were less discreet most of them are long gone and far away from Laos now but one legendary CIA officer still lives across the mekong river close to his old Mountain battleground the man that was in charge of that local operation was a man by the name of Tony PO and he was notorious he had been involved with the agency from the OSS days he was a world war two combat veteran and had been with the agency from its inception and he was the prototype operations officer he they made a movie about him when they made Apocalypse Now he was the caricature of Marlon Brando until now Tony PO has never talked publicly about the Laos operation he saw it from beginning to end one of bank paused early case officers proclaims he was transferred from Long Chen because unlike his successors he refused to tolerate the male leaders corruption you don't let him run loose without a chain on him you gotta control him is like any kind of an animal or a baby you have to control Hey he's the only guy that had a pair of shoes when I first met him what are we talking about what is he need mercedes-benz apartments and hotels and homes where he never had him in his life before why are you gonna give it to him but he was making money on the side with his business Oh million but he had his own source of revenue for his own heroin Oh what did he do with the money okay believe me US bank accounts Switzerland wherever didn't they know when bank doubt that I want some aircraft I don't they know what you want that for I'm sure we all knew it was gonna but we've tried to monitor it because we control most of the pilot to see so we're giving him a freedom of navigation in the Thailand in their bases and we don't want him to get involved in in moving you know this illicit traffic okay silver bars and go okay but not apparently what they would do is they weren't going into time and they were flying it in a big wet wing airplane cat5 for 13 hours of dc-3 and all the wings were filled with gases they fly down the pack say then they fly over to tonight and then the number-two guy - president - would receive it nian Vinci was president of South Vietnam from 1967 to 1975 reports at that time accused president - of financing his election through the heroin trade like bang pow he always denied it remaining America's honored an indispensable ally they were all in a contractual relationship some of this goes to me and some going to be and you know just like bankers and businessmen they had a bookkeeping we deliver you on a certain day they had coded messages and that means that so and so this much comeback goes into our Swiss bank account Oh wonderful relationship and every maybe six months they've all come together they don't party somewhere and talk about their business needs good or bad you can like a mafia mmm yeah big organized mafia by the end of 1970 there were 30,000 Americans in Vietnam addicted to heroin GIS were dying from overdoses at the rate of two a day when the drug traffic became a real problem to the American troops in Vietnam then the CIA was asked by our President to get involved in the program to limit that traffic and stop it but in 1972 a US intelligence agent in Southeast Asia sent a secret field report to customs it suggested a serious conflict of interest quote it was ironic that the CIA should be given the responsibility of narcotics intelligence particularly since they were supporting the prime movers even though the CIA was in fact facilitating the movement of opiates to the US they steadfastly hid behind the shield of secrecy and said that all was done in the interest of national security m quote I doubt that they had any real strong deep understanding of what they were allowing to happen by turning their head the other way and letting Don Powell ship is dope out this was made into heroin which was going to our troops which was corrupting people throughout Southeast Asia and back here the effect it had on crime and I doubt that any one of them really thought in those terms at the time while the heroin trade was flourishing by 1970 the war in Laos was going badly as the Communists steadily advanced the civilian population faced a choice between evacuation to refugee camps or being bombed by the US Air Force these operations only added to the huge cost of feeding training and supplying the secret army for a war that did not officially exist the CIA was spending heavily the money was always there we had a program in fact that's the reason the agency supply system was so much better than the military supply system cash they did the case they didn't have to go through a procurement system a bureaucracy that made everything cost three times as much on two different occasions I brought bags up but I knew was payroll wish I'd have crashed on those times and they will stick that somewhere back in the jungle and go get it because it was unaccounted how much money would be in a bag well I'm you know a bag would probably have a couple hundred thousand dollars in it depending on what where you were going with it and who was going to I was sitting up there in the in the direct on the directory staff and that's where it all came together for operations such as Laos the CIA director senior staff prepared the agency's official budget allows I think was around thirty million perhaps forty million but it was very small walls that in fact nothing to run this wall well I don't think so I had yeah I would think that the war was costing quite a bit probably if all the costs were pulled together I would imagine it would probably cost as much as the entire agency's budget how is the war in Laos financed the u.s. appropriated funds through which agency I think through the CIA and through the Defense Department both a secret Pentagon report put the Defense Department contribution to the war in Laos at a hundred and forty six million dollars in 1970 but the report also showed that the CIA was spending up to sixty million dollars more than they were getting from Congress well there may have been other funds generated by Bank POW himself through the through his dope operations after all me they did there were poppy growers and opium smugglers and so I imagine there was money being earned that way that was Vaughn powers their contribution to the war is it conceivable of the CIA would fight a war with dope money well yes in the sense that they would not sell dope to earn money to support an operation but they would look the other way if the people they were supporting were financing themselves by selling dope general Bain Powell was financed by US government funds how much was he getting I don't know what general buying power was getting but to my program I'm sure ran several hundred million dollars at the end to fight a war like we were fighting and to have an airline I don't know what the funding was but I'm sure the congressional committees have access to those records as a former chief counsel for the House Select Committee on narcotics Joe Nellis did indeed have access to the records hands-only protection in Maryland in that area how much of the money that was going to pay these thousands and thousands of tribesmen to fight for us for the CIA where was that money coming from from the trade from the opium trade yes surely how would that work well money would be paid for the transportation and the safe arrival of the merchandise to its proper destination and that money would be paid to the carrier the person transporting the merchandise and then that money would be to pay off the farmers but have I told you they got so little of it there was an enormous amount left over and it was that money that was used to feed to the peasants in order to get them to continue not only fighting for us but also continuing to give us very important intelligence about the movement the North Vietnamese we wouldn't permitted it again there would have been too dangerous why you know because the American system wouldn't put up with it I have never revealed any classified information that I that I obtained when I was with the committee and hey I'm not gonna start now but I do know that that was verified but it was known here yes well without getting into classified information was that at a high level or a low level well I can't I can't discuss the level let's put it this way you're familiar with the iran-contra business yeah that was known at a very high level it was known that all sorts of levels really amazing if they could keep it secret as long as they did and I guess that was the situation was that other people in the CIA certainly knew it and at that time the count was I think was the head of the option I'm sure he must have reported it to the next thing former CIA director Richard Helms told us quote I knew nothing of this it certainly was not policy this it's patently impossible there are thousands of people involved in the intelligence community of the United States who read the reports who are intimately familiar with details of field activities and no such operation could ever be kept secret from the authorities in Washington the would never be tolerated never not for a minute how many people knew what was the oh I don't think it was very many at all five a handful a handful maybe 100 I personally did not complain not at the time I certainly complained after the fact but that came as a result of my own awakening as to the rather horrible implications of what we were doing I left working for the government rather abhorred of Li because I just could not tolerate myself what was going on his disgust was not only at the drug trade but at the human cost of a war in which the recruits were as young as eight years old these people were absolutely decimated the war itself took its own toll thousands and thousands of these people were either maimed or killed or died of disease or malnutrition secondary to the effects of the war many were bombed many were blown away by conflict and combat what was left after the war was the exodus to the south or to the West these people have had their whole life destroyed for helping out in our war for helping out in our war by 1981 six years after leaving Laos the CIA was fighting another secret war this time in Central America the secret army were the Contras fighting to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua once again they were trained and equipped by the CIA it was time for the old hands to go to work again it's an irregular war in Central America and there aren't a lot of people who have experienced an irregular worker paramilitary workers it would be natural to see people who were experienced in this kind of operation utilized again it's the old boy network as somebody called it at one time you know I mean you're the call goes out and who's got the experience it's the same or a different place and in different names we're not speaking flowers and we're speaking Spanish now but it's the same darn war I don't care what anybody says Eugene hasenfus was just one of a number of veterans from Laos who answered the call in Central America when his plane was shot down over Nicaragua in October 1986 and Air America handbook turned up in the wreckage husband puts it operated out of the illah pango airbase in el salvador headquarters for the White House contra resupply Network his commander there had been a veteran of another old CIA network Felix Rodriguez a Cuban American had been sent down from Miami the feeling that I see now in the Nicaraguan freedom fighters I honed I know they get their experience because I was left inside once I wanted to helping as much as I could like Rodriguez the Miami Cubans of Brigade 2506 are still ready to support the anti-communist cause 30 years after their failed invasion of Cuba they were willing recruits for the CIA's war against Nicaragua the brigade supplied soldiers in the field commanders and fundraisers for the Contra cause the brigade had been created and trained by the CIA for the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 after they defeat the CIA continued to maintain and use the skilled force of covert operators wherever they were needed their numbers grew into the thousands they had their own Navy as well as other assets provided by the CIA including businesses and banks I wasn't charged Manuel our team a was the agency's favorite Cuban hand-picked to command both the Bay of Pigs and the covert operations that followed in 1972 he recruited an arranged CIA training for a brilliant young accountant called Ramon Milian Rodriguez he ran covert operations out of Miami for the CIA so our team a had a whole group of people who were his people oh yes our team I ran a very large operation it was very large we're very active all over Central and South America a lot of Cubans go to work with the central Italian agency in foreign operations he was in charge of among other things the Watergate burglars and things like that did you launder any money for the Watergate I mean payments for the Watergate burglars yeah I started out in life in one scandal and I have ended it in another after Watergate the group that minority me was running in Miami was disband the fact that the burgers were human really hurt in my end so we had a situation where people were laid off they were just given the assets for instance if you were running a print shop you kept the print shop if you were she had a boat as there were many boats for surveillance and you just kept the boats and then that was really starting the hospital where you got some well trained people into the drug business many many Cubans worked for Artemi in that time some of them have become very successful good American citizens others have become gangsters but with a secret contra war to fight the agency was more interested in covert skills than good citizenship particularly when it came to raising money ramon million rodriguez was ideally placed with access to the limitless resources of the metagame cocaine cartel he had no problem raising cash you've been a supporter living in the cuban community passionately anti-communist and anti-castro you've also been a supporter of the Contras is that accurate yes sir are you aware of whether or not narcotics proceeds at some time may or may not have supported contra efforts yes sir narcotics proceeds were used to shore up the contract did you personally play a role in some of the transfer of that money yes I did in 1984 when Congress cut off contra funding the White House turned to other sources for support according to documents Ramon Milian Rodriguez had been laundering foreign payments for the CIA up to 1982 at the same time as he was laundering cash for the cocaine cartel he says the CIA turned to him again we have like me in place they can be used this marvelous woman the agency and quite rightly so has things that they have to do which they can't never admit to an oversight committee right and the only way they can fund these things is through drug money or through in this money that they can get their hands on in some way where's any of the money traceable to drugs or to drug-related transactions the money that we you're talking about the money that we provided that's right no sir and why was that because we were experts at what we do who's Ramon million Rodriguez he worked for the cartel so he was laundering money for the cartel yes and he worked with Noriega yes until last year Jose Blandon was general Manuel Noriega as head of political intelligence in Panama he was a key US government witness for the grand jury that indicted Noriega for drug trafficking general Noriega was more than ready to support the Reagan administration in the Contra war after Congress cut off funding how important was Noriega to the White House in the contrary supply effort he played a key role in the supply of hard to recover so when various administration officials like Oliver North met with general Noriega did they know that he was involved with narcotics trafficking I think that the United States had information on Vegas involving drugs since at least eight years eight years so yes a day so they know they they knew about that were they just looking the other way on his drug trafficking the problem is that for the White House I mean for the administration of the administration Nicaragua was so important and the focus of all the foreign policy of the United States in Central America was in Nicaragua in the fight against the communists so for then rocks was something in second place drugs took second place Noriega Contras support earned him powerful friends in Washington including the CIA director William Casey Noriega was on his payroll at a reported $200,000 a year there was a base base of relationship what kind of special relationship well they thought with Casey I have a lease that I know more than T meetings and although he received the support education what kind of support from Casey all kind of super political support so when somebody tried to dredge to get anything the cases top a little this is a very important piece in all this war so Casey would actually stop investigations of Noriega they meant that who helped Noriega very much according to bland owned Noriega was not the only drug trafficker to reap the rewards of contra support the cocaine cartel also saw the advantages of backing the US policy that's the reason why the cat Bellamy regime decided in 1983 to cooperate with a contra she was saying in 1983 the cartel started supporting the Contras yes and the reason was because they knew that they could therefore get protection yes how did they help them out was it arms plus cash or was it just arms how did that work they work in different weights first they study network to supply arms and also they paid in cash if one wants to organize an armed resistance or an armed undertaking for any purposes the easy place to get the money in the easy places to get the guns are in the drug world general park Ormond with the commander of the u.s. Southern Command based in Panama from 1982 to 1985 the most ready source of money big money easy money fast money sure money cash money is the narcotics ranked general Gorman was asked whether the Contras could have relied on drug cash based on your knowledge of how it works and what you understood from your experience down there wouldn't surprise you not at all particularly if they'd been on somebody's payroll and had their funds cut on it would be the natural recourse of those people how much money was actually contributed by you or through you for the conference a little under ten million dollars I presume it wasn't all sent in one suitcase oh no no it was her need basis you know they'd say we need so long so much it's such a location and we take care of the logistics over million Rodriguez says he used a series of Cuban controlled front companies in Miami and Costa Rica to funnel the ten million dollars to the Contra cause these fronts range from banks to obscure fish companies located in out-of-the-way Miami shopping centers or in provincial port towns in Costa Rica the route for the drug cash was carefully disguised are you familiar with the name of a company called frigid icicles they put that on us yes sir you know what is that company well it's a shrimp processing warehouse but more importantly it was one of the fronts that we used did you set it up what role did you play in it I was a key person in setting up the interlocking chain of companies around 3:00 woody finger hit boom tiny but where payments or arrangements made by which the Contras could receive money through fridge or a FICO's yes sir if you add up what it costs to run the Contra operation and you get to a bottom line figure and you think that's from that the known sources you're going to have a tremendous deficit I think the questions got to be worried you know how was the deficit taken care of there was a deficit yes they realized that and we took care of it I've been spending some time looking at the numbers here of the amount of aid that the Contras were getting at various times and I come to the conclusion that we're missing something that there's got to be another source of funding for the Contras other than those which this committee has so far identified last summer the iran-contra committees were aware that there had been an unacknowledged source of money from somewhere I think there's got to be some other source of funds that we meaning we meaning this committee is not yet uncovered well I I don't think I can help you there I don't know of anything else the war cost so much every day mmm they were getting a certain amount thanks to you through Switzerland and many others yes and many others but the war cost more than that mm-hmm do you have any idea how much more it cost well I think the director Casey asked me that a similar question in the spring of 86 I think it was and I told him that I thought that that the Contra effort would need a minimum of 10 million dollars over the next three months over and above the monies that we could apply in order to hang in there through the summer months until the Congress would act there was some expectation in the White House I guess in the state that the Congress would act much sooner than they acted thanks for going downhill rapidly the the people who receive this money were they aware of the fact that this was drug money the proceeds came from drug money I let's play like this senator Morrow the Contra peasant in the field did not but the men who made the contact with me did at that time I was under indictment I mean I was red-hot his arrest was well-publicized the five million dollar seized with him brought Vice President Bush to Miami to pose with what the money-launderer termed his petty cash did Ramon million Rodriguez have any friends who were working in the Contra resupply network yes who would that have been fellas Rodriguez Felix Rodriguez yes a veteran of the RTA organization and the CIA Felix Rodriguez was a key member of the White House resupply Network the Senate was told by the money-launderer that it was Felix Rodriguez who solicited the drug cash if you have a fellow that's tremendous patron like Felix Rodriguez who has sacrificed his personal needs for the cause of fighting communism and all of a sudden he finds himself in a position where his troops are going to run out of money they won't have money for bullets for food for medicine I think in the case of Felix it might have been something done out of desperation they had to get money and and they were willing to get it from any source to continue their war when they go on the offense they burn up a lot of ammunition weapons need a lot of air resupply radios uniforms boots food and all this stuff you know the cost just goes up well there are allegations that that Felix Rodriguez was desperately trying to make up that deficit if he was either it certainly didn't come to our attention nothing you have no knowledge of it no not at all well the allegations are that he tried to make up the deficit by soliciting money from drug traffickers and I thought you were circling back to that but certainly we didn't hear anything like that at the time as I said I Felix is no friend of mine but I'd be astonished if he were involved with that drug when general Noriega told you that Felix Rodriguez was friendly with Ramon million Rodriguez were you surprised to hear that Felix Rodriguez would be involved as a drug trafficker surprise what according to plan tone while Felix Rodriguez was supplying the Contras from Allah Pongo he was receiving arms shipments arranged with the help of this man Mike Harare a former Israeli intelligence agent and a key aide to general Noriega her Ari says blendin was also in business with the cocaine cartel using the same network to ship arms and drugs all with the sanction of the CIA did he get involved with narcotics trafficking in the course of helping to supply the contrast with weapons yeah it was one of their business so he was moving cocaine yes from Colombia to the United States no they used in the movie coca the cocaine from Colombia to Panama to the airship in Costa Rica or Andorra to run to the United States at the same time that he was gathering up arms for the Contras yes where were the arms coming from for you is love you I'm from the East Bloc the communist countries from 1983 to 1985 says blend own this network supported by Israeli and US intelligence was a major source of arms for the Contras Harare the Israeli who was working with Noriega was working with Felix Rodriguez yes and Harare at the same time was involved with drug trafficking yes who is Felix Rodriguez working for or with when he approached you well the only government mentioned he made was Vice President Bush and what was his relationship with bushes you understand it he was reporting directly to Bush I was led to believe he was reporting regularly to the vice president he was in touch with the VP's office on a number of occasions I really don't know I've never understood that relationship the request for the contribution made a lot more since Pete cause Felix was reporting to George Bush if Felix had come to me and said I'm reporting to anyone else would say you know Oliver North I might have been more skeptical I didn't know who Oliver North was and I didn't know his background but you know if you have a and let's say we'll call my ex CIA operative even though it's not true he's a current operative please Jamie you know everyone said he's ex-cia yeah there's nothing next about him but if you have a CIA what you consider to be a CIA man counting it to you saying I want to fight this war where are the funds can you help us out I'm reporting directly to Bush on it I mean it's very real very believable you having a CIA guy reporting to his old boss this February 1985 memo from General Paul Gorman confirms that Bush and the Cuban had known each other for years and that Rodriguez's primary responsibility was Nicaragua and the Contra fdn forces Rodriguez quote is operating as a private citizen but his acquaintance ship with the vice president is real enough going back to the latter's days as director of Central Intelligence Rodriguez his primary commitment to the region is in Nicaragua where he wants to assist the FBN did you say anything to Vice President Bush about your activities on behalf of this resupply operational shirt not doing or anyone who's tough but when husband ffice was shot down the first call that Rodriguez made from Central America was to a staffer a vice president Bush questions about that call forced the Bush office to put out a summary listing 17 meetings with Rodriguez including three with Bush himself nevertheless the vice president has insisted that these contacts with Rodriguez concerned only El Salvador not the Contras he wasn't selling drugs you know he was just raising money painted money granted but to a very good cause Felix Rodriguez claims he met with the cartels money launderer only once and never solicited cash we permitted narcotics we were complicit us as a country in narcotics traffic at the same time as we're spending countless dollars in this country to try to get rid of this problem it's mind-boggling if the war on drugs in this country really oh no no it's largely a joke there is no war on drugs no president who's ever announced one is ever fought one and no president has ever announced one they've ever given the soldiers the ammunition with which to fight one the intelligence agencies of this country by God should be involved in this battle instead of working with the scum of the earth which they've been doing they should be involved in this battle as a crusade for the survival of this country in this hemisphere I don't know if we've got the worst intelligence system in the world I don't know if we've got the best and they knew it all and just overlooked it but no matter how you look at it something's wrong something is is really wrong out there now you can deny US government involvement in drugs all you want but the patterns are there and the players are there popping up again and and you know eventually someone is going to realize that what the truth is this summer both Ramone million Rodriguez and Felix Rodriguez are expected to testify publicly in front of Senator Kerry's committee about the drug cartels alleged 10 million dollar contribution to the Contras vice president bush declined to be interviewed for this program or to reply to frontlines written questions about his relationship with Felix Rodriguez thank you for joining us I'm Judy Woodruff goodnight next week the future of the US commitment to the NATO alliance we're the cutting edge the frontline the first people that will be engaged in any type of conflict but when nuclear weapons are reduced in Europe could the armies of NATO actually win a war we feel that our skills outnumber their 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