[Firestarter]

Cuba, Castro, Vesco

In 1987, in the US trial of Carlos Lehder Rivas, Robert L. Vesco was identified as his co-conspirator. Lehder was charged with smuggling 3.3 tons of cocaine into north Florida and Georgia from Colombia through the Bahamas from 1978 to 1980.

Charles Kehm testified on his conversation with Vesco.
Continental Airlines pilot, Eben Mann, admitted making 3 cocaine-smuggling flights for Lehder to Colombia in 1977-78 for $75,000 in cash.
Radio announcer, Russ O'Hara, said he began working for Lehder in 1978, as co-pilot on drug flights made by John Finley Robinson and Jack Carlton Reed.

The witnesses received immunity for their testimony: https://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/11/us/fu...trial.html
(http://archive.is/h3cfQ)


Vesco bought IOS in 1970 for less than $5 million, gaining control of an estimated $400 million in funds.

After he escaped the US to evade the charges brought against him, he first settled in Costa Rica, where he invested some $11 million to become “friends” with President José Figueres.
Vesco also befriended nephew of President Richard M. Nixon, Donald A. Nixon Jr., and gave $200,000 to the Nixon campaign illegally.
After Vesco started a machine guns factory, which included President Figueres’s son as a partner, a public and political outcry ensued, and in 1978 he was forced to leave for the Bahamas.
In the years that followed he hop scotched to several countries, including stops in Antigua and Nicaragua, before settling in Cuba.

Vesco eventually became an enemy of the Castro government, when he was accused of defrauding a state-run biotechnology laboratory run by Fidel Castro’s nephew, Antonio Fraga Castro, and sentenced to 13 years. This was about the production of the miracle medicine Trioxidal that would cure cancer, AIDS, arthritis and even the common cold.
I couldn’t find more information on Trioxidal…

After serving most of his time in a private cell, Vesco was quietly released in 2005 and continued to live a “simple” life.

Vesco died 23 November 2017, without ever facing charges in the US for crimes that included securities fraud, drug trafficking and political bribery: http://www.robertnovell.com/robert-vesco...h-16-2018/
(http://archive.is/5YsZv)


In 1991, convicted cocaine trafficker Carlos Lehder testified during Gen. Manuel A. Noriega's drug trial that Robert Vesco helped him ply the drug trade in Cuba and the Bahamas.
Lehder testified that the Cubans directed cocaine traffic through the Central American nation with the complicity of the Sandinista government.

Lehder stated that he first visited Cuba in 1981 to meet with Vesco and Raul Castro (Fidel’s brother) and he donated a plane to Raul Castro as part of a deal to allow the cartel to ship drugs through Cuba.
In 1982, Lehder became the cartel's "connection" for shipping drugs through Cuba.

Lehder testified that in 1984 he saw Vesco in Nicaragua with Manuel "Redbeard" Pineiro, the head of Cuba's intelligence service: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-11...uba-lehder
(http://archive.is/xkRpH)


Fidel Castro's former bodyguard, Juan Reinaldo Sanchez, has also accused Fidel Castro of being involved in drug trafficking.
See Castro and Juan Reinaldo Sanchez shaking hands.


Sanchez claims that he once was told by Castro to “don’t record” an interview of several hours. Out of curiosity Sanchez put on the headphones to listen in on their conversation.
Gen. José Abrantes asked for Fidel’s authorisation to bring a Cuban “lanchero” (someone who smuggles drugs by boat) living in the US, as the “lanchero” would pay $75,000.
Fidel agreed with this scheme.

In 1986, Castro founded the MC Department (for Moneda Covertible: convertible currency), which traded in illegal and legal goods for “hard currency” from third parties, principally Panama.

Fidel used a warning light to alert the president of the court discreetly, whenever a session should be interrupted.
It has been rumoured that Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa’s death sentence and José Abrantes’ sentence to 20 years in prison were over drugs. After 2 years of detention, in 1991, Abrantes died of a reported “heart attack”: https://nypost.com/2015/05/03/former-bod...uble-life/
(http://archive.is/V2o5c)

[Firestarter]

1001 Club

Since I’ve been investigating drugs and money laundering regularly members of the 1001 Club appear to be involved. The 1001 Club was founded by, co-founder of the Bilderberg Group and WWF, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands supposedly to raise funds for the eugenics WWF.

The 1001 Club has included several members of Royal families (including Bernhard’s friend, Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth) and some controversial (other) dictators.
Several members of the Rothschild and Rockefeller families got together in the 1001 Club.
Also the following major players in Dope Inc. were part of the 1001 Club.

Robert Vesco
Vesco was a good friend of Prince Bernhard.
In 1973, Vesco was accused of stealing $224 million from the IOS.
He illegally contributed $200,000 to Richard Nixon’s campaign funds. He was also a friend of Richard’s nephew, Donald Nixon.

Dr. Alfred Hartmann
In 1976 became vice-chairman of the drug producing Hoffman-La Roche, and in 1978 its CEO.
In 1983, was selected by Baron Elie de Rothschild as general manager of Rothschild Bank AG of Zurich. Resigned from Hoffman-La Roche, to work for various Rothschild organisations.
Also vice-chairman of the NY-Inter Maritime Bank of Geneva, which was headed by his close ally Bruce Rappaport.
Friend of former CIA director William Casey.
Major shareholder in the Bank of New York.
Chief financial officer for BCC Holding.
Head of BCCI’s secretly controlled Swiss affiliate, Banque de Commerce et Placements (BCP).
Also director of BNL that was accused of providing $3 billion in loans to Saddam Hussein for the Iraqi missile programs.

Agha Hasan Abedi
In 1972, founder and then chairman of BBCI.
According to an NBC report, from 1984 to 1986 Abedi met (then CIA director) William Casey every couple of months in a Washington Hotel, where they discussed the Iran-Contra arrangement.
BBCI was also used to fund the poppy growing Afghanistan Mujahedeen.

Tibor Imgas Rosenbaum
In 1958, set up the Swiss Banque du Credit International (BCI) with the help of Edmond de Rothschild. Laundered money for Meyer Lansky. Significant shareholder in Permindex.
In the early 1960s, BCI bought a significant stake in Henry Luce’s Time Life.
Financed Mossad operations.

Peter Munk
Born in Hungary, later one of the wealthiest men in Canada and a skiing partner of Prince Charles.
In 1983, together with the Iranian arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, founded Barrick Gold (the world’s largest gold-mining corporation) of which Munk became the CEO. Nat Rothschild sits on the advisory board of Barrick and is also a business partner with Munk in other projects.
Khashoggi has close ties to the British royal family and was helped in the earlier stages of his career by the Bin Laden family.
Barrick once purchased the rights to a gold mine in Nevada — containing $10 billion in gold — for only $10,000.
In 1967, Munk was accused of insider trading: https://isgp-studies.com/1001-club-of-the-wwf
(long version: https://isgp-studies.com/1001-club-membership-list)

[Firestarter]

Henrik Kruger - The Great Heroin Coup; Richard Nixon

In this post a book by the Danish Henrik Kruger.
The value of this book to this thread is that it takes a different perspective than the other books I’ve posted about. Kruger starts his investigation in France, and winds up in South America and the US.
Maybe the most important information, is that also disgraced US President Richard Nixon was connected to the mob. I´ll add some information on Nixon after my summary of the book.

There is at least one aspect that I disagree with; Kruger claims that until the beginning of the 1970s Marseille, France was the biggest heroin exporter with the Turkish poppy production. As far as I can tell, Turkey was never near the largest poppy producer in the world but was an important entry point for transporting heroin into Europe...
According to Kruger, the Marseille heroin monopoly by the Corsican Mafia, mainly used Paraguay to transfer the heroin. It was replaced by the CIA-backed monopoly of South East Asia heroin exported to the US through Mexico.

Kruger starts his investigation with the French crook Christian David.
When David was locked up in prison; 1961 he was released after making a deal with Pierre Lemarchand to join the terror organisation of French intelligence agency SAC.
In 1965, David was recruited by French intelligence agency SDECE: and sent to Africa and South America, for activities that included murders.
In 1965, David was involved in the assassination of Ben Barka in Paris, who was a political enemy of Moroccan King Hassan.

David claimed Antoine Guerini told him he hired Lucien Sartri, who recruited 2 Frenchmen, to kill John F. Kennedy.
This was confirmed by Michel Nicoli, who named the other 2 snipers as Francois Chiappe and Jean-Paul Angeletti.

In 1971, 29 drug refineries in South East Asia were dismantled, including one that was disguised as a Pepsi Cola plant, financed with USAID money.

In 1975, Sam Gianca was extradited to Mexico, from where he was sent to France to face trial. En route to France he was murdered by US agents.

In 1975, Alberto Sicilia-Falcon arrested, who claimed that CIA had $260 million on Swiss accounts for covert operations:

The FBI destabilised Mexican government, after President Echevaria refused loans from World Bank and IMF.

In 1976, convicted cocaine and marijuana smuggler Kenneth Gordon Burnstine would testify against Mitch Werbell III (who was in business with John Singlaub). Before he could; he died in a plane crash, and Werbell was acquitted.

Juan Cesar Restoy tried to get his freedom and hundreds of thousands dollars by threatening to expose a close friend of Richard Nixon as a drug trafficker; Restoy was shot and killed by narcotics agents.
Santo Trafficante Jr. knew Jack Ruby, and was an associate of Meyer Lansky and Jim Hoffa, who supported Richard Nixon.
Nixon was involved with real estate firms that laundered Lanksy’s money.
IOS millionaire Robert Vesco, who handled Lansky’s money, was a friend of Nixon.

There is relatively large amount information added since 1980.
Henrik Kruger also wrote the following book (I haven´t found a freely viewable version, here are some excerpts) – The Great Heroin Coup: Drugs, Intelligence and International Fascism (1980): http://quixoticjoust.blogspot.nl/2013/12...er-14.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


In March 1985, Capital Cities Communications (formerly named Mary Carter Paint Company) bought the giant ABC network.

Some of the major players in Capital Cities are:
William Casey, former CIA director, was a founder in 1954. Casey was also a major shareholder.
Tom Dewey, former New York governor and twice Republican candidate for president, was also a founder.
Tom Murphy, also a director of Texaco and IBM, was Capital Cities’ president in 1985.

In 1959, Capital Cities was purchased by an investment group that included Lowell Thomas, Thomas Dewey and John Crosby, who were also prominent in Resorts International.
The late James Crosby (son of John Crosby) was a close friend of Nixon; he donated $100,000 to his campaign in 1968. James would become chief executive of Mary Carter/Resorts International and his sister would become Tom Murphy's wife.

James Crosby played host to the (then) recently deposed Shah of Iran at Resorts International's hotel on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.
James Crosby was also a friend of Charles “Bebe” Rebozo, who was also in business with Santo Trafficante.
See Rebozo with Nixon.


In 1968, the Mary Carter Paint Company changed its name to Capital Cities Communications and concentrated on hotels and casinos in Atlantic City and the Bahamas.
Later, it acquired Intertel, which specialised in private "security" and intelligence gathering for corporate and other clients. Some of these clients were close the CIA, including ITT, Anastasio Somoza, the Shah of Iran and Howard Hughes' empire of casinos and arms manufacturers.

Resorts International was involved with Robert Vesco and the Meyer Lansky crime syndicate: https://kennedysandking.com/articles/the...ng-company
(archived here: http://archive.is/TbK9v)


On 30 October 1978, it was reported that the principle investors of Resorts International were Meyer Lansky, Tibor Rosenbaum, William Mellon Hitchcock, David Rockefeller, and Baron Edmond de Rothschild.

In one of those strange coincidences, in 1987 Donald Trump purchased his first casino interests when he acquired 93% of the shares in Resorts International.: https://philosophyofmetrics.com/how-roth...p-freepom/

[Firestarter]

Kruger – Condor, Shackley, Olof Palme assassination

I´ve found a good 2 part article by Henrik Kruger on the circumstances surrounding the murder of Olof Palme in February 1986. It was written in 1988. It explains how drugs and money laundering finance terrorism. The most important man in this story is Theodore Shackley.
It is not only relevant to this thread, but also to false flags, Propaganda Due(P2 ): https://www.lawfulpath.com/forum/viewtop...5026#p5026


The writer introduces some “unknown” organisations that control the international drug trade, money laundering. These organisations are intertwined (most of them I had not heard of).
- Operation Condor: a terrorist organisation located in Chile affiliated with both the Chilean secret service and the CIA.
- World Finance Corporation (WFC), the gigantic banking system that was set-up in Miami by Cuban exiles to launder money and finance terrorism.
- World anti-Communist League (WACL): a terrorist supporting, fascist organisation under the guise of fighting Communism.
- Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO): the intelligence agency for WACL, and in control of the CIA.
- The Enterprise: the people specialised in money laundering and financing terrorism - Ted Shackley himself, Thomas Clines, Richard Secord and Albert Hakim.

Michael Townley, for Condor, arranged a number of political murders, including Chile’s former Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the US, Orlando Letelier, by a car bomb. Townley had planned this murder with CIA trained Cuban exiles.
In 1976, Townley was in Madrid together with the Italian terrorist Stephano delle Chiaie. They weren´t successful in assassinating Olof Palme on that occasion.

Operation Condor carried out assassinations (mostly in Latin America). Condor was to a large extent supported by the CIA. In 1974, it was disclosed by an American Senate committee, that CIA agents in Latin America had instructed Condor operatives in torture methods. At the time, the CIA chief for its Latin American branch was - Theodore Shackley.
Condor´s Banzer plan (named after the Bolivian dictator) was especially brutal. It involved the torture and murder of nuns, priests and bishops, and included the assassination of El Salvadorian Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980.
The Condor agents were supported financially by WFC, mainly by drug money. WFC laundered the money and channelled it to the death squads and Cuban exile terrorist groups in a long succession of Latin American terrorist attacks during the 1970’s.
WFC was exposed and forced to close after a police investigation in the beginning of 1979.

In 1961, Ted Shackley was already the CIA’s station chief in Miami. His closest colleagues were Thomas Clines and David Atlee Phillips. At the time Santo Trafficante was the USA’s largest narcotics importer.
Later Shackley was transferred to Laos, where he allied himself with the heroin general Vang Pao and his Meo tribes warriors.
The death campaign in Laos was controlled by Shackley. The Meo soldiers along with American Green Berets from the Special Operations Group, under the leadership of General John Singlaub, killed ten thousands of men, women and children. Singlaub had a young lieutenant working for him with the name of Oliver North, and a lieutenant major Richard Secord. All 3 would become leading figures in the Iran/Contra affair in the 1980s, and part of the “Secret team” of Ted Shackley.
The Secret team also controlled the Nugan-Hand Bank in Australia, whose main activity was weapons and narcotics transactions.

The Enterprise was led by Shackley himself, Thomas Clines, Richard Secord and Albert Hakim. These were also heavily involved in Iran/Contra.
Florida was the epicentre of large scale cocaine smuggling in connection with Iran/Contra. This involved Shackley’s people. The court case was halted by Edward Meese, Reagan’s Attorney General.
There was also a civil suit against Shackley crowd, including former WACL chief John Singlaub, for the bombing and assassination attempt on former Contra leader Eden Pastora that killed 7 people.

The Croatian fascist Miro Baresic (a.k.a. Tony Saric) made explicit death threats against Palme.
Baresic was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of the Yugoslavian ambassador to Sweden. After his associates took a plane hostage and threatened to blow up the plane with the 86 passengers aboard, the Swedish government released Baresic and 5 other imprisoned Croatians.
They flew to Spain, and in the beginning of 1974 they flew to Paraguay. In Paraguay Miro Baresic worked directly under Condor’s Paraguay chief, head of the Security Police - Pastor Coronel.

Baresic decamped to Uruguay, where he became a key operative for the Condor networks.
In 1977, Baresic (under the name Tony Saric) came to the US on a diplomatic passport and acted as chief of security for Paraguay’s embassy in Washington DC. Later US law enforcement found out Baresic’s real identity and was extradited to Sweden.
Baresic had requested for clemency. These requests were personally blocked by Palme.

When Olof Palme was murdered, Baresic was still in Swedish prison. On the day Palme was killed, Baresic was on unsupervised leave.
Yugoslavia had repeatedly and unsuccessfully pressed to have Baresic extradited. In December 1987, Miro Baresic was released and boarded a flight to his beloved Paraguay. Only after releasing him, the Swedish authorities decided they wanted to question him.

In April 1978, there was a WACL conference in Washington DC in the presence of Baresic (under the alias Tony Saric). Two Swedes were also present, Ake J. Ek and Anders Larsson, as well as the Norwegian Tor Petter Hadland.
Anders Larsson was also at this Washington conference of WACL. Larsson had good relationships with the Anti-Bolshevik Block of Nations (ABN) – a WACL umbrella organisation under.

Ake Ek had various dealings with Hadland, Larsson, Miro Baresic, and numerous other neo-Nazis.
Hadland was Erik Blucher’s right-hand man, Blucher was the leader of the Norwegian neo-Nazis. In 1981, Hadland settled in Orebro, Sweden while Blucher travelled to London. In 1983, Blucher left for Sweden (under the name Erik Olsen), where Hadland arranged an apartment for him.
When Olof Palme was killed, 4 Scandinavian WACL adherents were in Sweden. It seems strange that the Swedish authorities had no interest at all in these Scandinavians that were part of the WACL that in the past had threatened Olof Palme.

On 20 February 1986, Stieg Larsson delivered a mysterious letter with the text: “Palme Dead” (a week before Olof Palme was killed).
One month before Palme’s death, the Yugoslavian mercenary Ivan von Berchan approached Alf Karlsson of Sapo (Sweden’s intelligence agency). Von Berchan stated that a CIA agent using the name George Moran had been offered $2 million to murder Palme. He knew the CIA agent from Libya at the end of the 1970s. Both Inger Baven and the secretary confirmed that Von Berchan had warned that Palme would be assassinated.

Olof Palme supported both Cuba and Chile under Allende and later the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. This could be a motive for “neutralising” him.
A short time before his death, Palme was making arrangements to stop the Bofors arms transports to Iran. This could also be a motive: http://spitfirelist.com/news/the-assassi...lof-palme/
(archived here: http://archive.is/Jr7u3)


In 1976, Michael Townley had also been in Stockholm for the (then unsuccessful) assassination attempt of Olof Palme.

WACL’s official facade is the General Secretariat of the right-wing Moon religious movement’s building in Seoul, South Korea. WACL holds yearly official congresses and outwardly looks like a legitimate organisation.
The death squadron’s leaders were members of WACL’s Latin American branch - CAL. Among their victims were the 72 killed when a Cuban airliner exploded over Barbados in 1975. That terrorist act was planned by members of the WACL Cuban exile group, Alpha-66.

Shackley became the CIA’s chief of station in Vietnam. In 1972, he was relocated to Latin America. He became the chief of Operation Track II. Track II arranged a campaign of terror that led to Allende’s overthrow in Chile to bring Pinochet to power.
Shackley’s Cuban exiles established the World Finance Corporation banking system in Miami. It was used to launder Mafia boss Trafficante’s drug money and then channelled to Condor and Cuban exiles terror groups, like Alpha-66, Omega-7 and CORU.
The investigation into WFC was stopped by the CIA. The policeman who headed the investigation told the press that at least 28 CIA agents had worked in the WFC bank.

Shackley’s close associate, David Atlee Phillips, headed the AFIO.
Two of Shackley’s associates trained terrorists in Libya, including Frank Terpil. Terpil once explained to a journalist:

It is in reality the assholes from AFIO that run the CIA from the outside, as a shadow leadership: Ted Shackley, Phillips, Angleton, Conein...

Bofors weapons were bought through Swedish weapons dealer Karl-Erik Smitz.
The Danish ship Erria, smuggled Bofors weapons to both Iran and the Contras in South America. The Erria was owned by Dolmy Business Inc, which was controlled by Richard Secord and Albert Hakim.
The leader of Svenska Incorporated was the drug and weapons smuggler, Steven Samos. Samos was a close business partner of “the Enterprise” and deeply involved in Contragate.
Planes of St. Lucia Airways often transported Bofors weapons. St. Lucia was operated by “the Enterprise” and directed with the assistance of Oliver North.

Former high level US military intelligence officer Gene Wheaton was stationed in Iran during the late 1970s.
Wheaton and 2 colleagues, came across the illegal transactions of Shackley’s team and prepared a report on these activities. When Wheaton’s 2 colleagues were on their way to Washington with the report, they were conveniently murdered, and the report disappeared. Wheaton lists 17 murdered people by “the Enterprise”. There are many more, like Barry Seal and Don Arnow, who both had close connections to cocaine smuggler George Morales.

Kevin Mulcahy died the day before he would have given testimony in the lawsuit against the narco-banking system WFC.
Another chief witness, Steven Carr, was found dead of a drug overdose: http://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/f...me-part-2/
(archived here: http://archive.is/MeycE)

[Firestarter]

Gary Webb - Dark alliance

Maybe the sub topic on which I have most information in this thread is the cocaine importing orchestrated by Oliver North for the Reagan/Bush White House in which the Governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton was also involved.
It shows that the whole Iran-Contra affair was a cover-up of the ugly truth that the CIA was making the crack epidemic of the 1980s happen, and used the proceeds to finance the Contras in Nicaragua. Also some other Latin American countries were involved (notably the Panama of Dictator Manuel Noriega).

Maybe Gary Webb’s book that I present in this post is the best book in this whole thread because Webb presents almost an overkill of evidence. The result is that it’s too long for people that rather wait for the movie than read a book (the PDF counts 867 pages).


Gary Webb is one of the suspicious deaths of the Clinton-Bush bodycount; on 9 December 2004 he was suicided. Conveniently Webb’s suicide letter was typed.
According to Coroner Robert Lyons: “It’s unusual in a suicide case to have two shots, but it has been done in the past, and it is in fact a distinct possibility”.
Webb was found with 2 bullets from a 38 calibre revolver in his head ((some claim even 3 pistol shots).
One of the sources Webb had based his story on, Ricky Ross, spoke to Webb in the days before his death. Webb had told him that he was working on a new story concerning the CIA and drug trafficking: http://www.rense.com/general60/move.htm


I will to summarise the book, by presenting the most interesting names, with some additional information. And some nice pictures.


PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN
In March 1981, Ronald Reagan authorised the CIA to explore ways of aiding the Contras. By November 1981, the Contra project was already running, and the CIA made its sponsorship of the FDN official. Reagan approved the plans and in December 1981 sent CIA director William Casey to present it to Congress, saying that the covert operations for Nicaragua were in the interest of US national security.
From 1981 to 1984, the CIA helped the Contras directly, by providing weapons, money, training, planning strategy and tactics, and keeping tabs on its hirelings.

The Contras became too controversial (if I understand correctly about some minor technicalities like murdering some innocent people). On Christmas Eve 1982 the Boland amendment passed the House by a vote of 411–0. It looked like Congress was cracking down the Contra project, by cutting funding, but without actually doing so.
By early 1983, CIA dollars were pouring into Honduras and Costa Rica, which benefitted the Contras. But the money the Contras received wasn’t nearly enough to finance the growing military organisation. The CIA recruited Norwin Meneses so that drug sales could be used to support the Contras.
Ronald Reagan installed Oliver North to arrange the details.

The following picture shows from right to left Ronald Reagan, Oliver North, Adolfo Calero (CIA operative installed as FDN commander) on 4 April 1985.


In the following picture are Adolfo Calero (centre) and drug lord Norwin Meneses on the far right, around June 1984.



OLIVER NORTH
With the assistance of lawyer and then CIA-director William Casey, Oliver North created a network of offshore bank accounts to conceal the source of the drugs money.
When the Boland Amendment went into effect in October 1984, day-to-day control of the Contra project passed to the Reagan White House and Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North at the National Security Council. The US government was business partners with cocaine traffickers.
Norwin Meneses' cocaine was smuggled to the USA in military transport planes.

In June 1985, on a yacht in the Pacific port of Balboa, North and Manuel Noriega made a deal that Panama would help to support the Contras; particularly by making airbases located in Panama available for the drugs for arms pipeline.
The Columbian drug trafficker, George Morales, testified that in March 1984 in Fort Lauderdale he talked with 3 Contras close to the CIA, Octaviano Cesar, Adolfo "Popo" Chamorro and Marcos Aguado, who asked him to support the Contras and told him they worked for the CIA. Cesar and Aguado (old friends of Meneses) promised Morales that they could help make his “legal problems disappear”.
Aguado, the chief pilot for the ARDE Contra forces in Costa Rica, was identified in a 1987 congressional testimony as a CIA agent.
Morales said planeloads of weapons were flown to a ranch in Costa Rica owned by CIA-operative John Hull; a training area for Contra soldiers. After the arms were dropped off, large green duffel bags stuffed with cocaine from the Contras were loaded aboard and flown back to the United States, usually to the public airport at Opa Locka, Florida. A pilot, Gary "Hippie" Betzner, testified that their flights were protected by the CIA.

In 1984, at a top-level meeting with DEA officials in Washington, North shocked the room by suggesting that $1.5 million in cocaine cash the DEA planned to seize from the Medellin cartel should be turned over to the Contras.
A $10 million donation from the Medellin cartel to the Contras was arranged by Carlos Lehder and paid to the Cuban (former) CIA agent Felix Rodriguez. Here’s a picture of George H.W. Bush and Rodriguez.


Oliver North used Rob Owen to carry out orders and inform him on the CIA’s operation in Central and South America. In this way North could keep his hands clean.
According to Oliver North’s personal notes in July and August 1985 he was informed of the drugs trafficking by the Contras: https://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2015/04/...lassified/
North summarised a meeting with Rob Owen on 9 August 1985 and wrote down in his notebook:

Honduran DC-6 which is being used for runs out of New Orleans is probably being used for drug runs into U.S.

MANUEL NORIEGA
Manuel Noriega was the dictator of Panama that helped in the cocaine trafficking; he suddenly became an enemy of the USA and was sentenced to prison.
In 1988, Noriega's pilots would fly up weapons for the Contras along with the drugs, leaving the guns behind in Costa Rica, and dumping the drugs in Louisiana and Texas.


NORWIN MENESES
Norwin Meneses Cantarero came from Nicaragua to the USA in 1979 (he settled in Miami), and later moved to Costa Rica.
In the 1980s, Meneses and Blandón became the biggest cocaine suppliers for the USA; both were working for (one or both of) the DEA and CIA.
In 1982 and 1983, Blandón and Meneses brought 3 or 4 planeloads of cocaine from Miami to Los Angeles. Each one of those loads ranged between 200 and 400 kilos. These flights continued until at least 1984.
When Meneses lived in Costa Rica he was dealing cocaine for the Contras. Meneses was one of the first economic supporters of the FDN in Costa Rica.

Both to the Costa Rican authorities and the DEA knew that Norwin Meneses was a drug lord. The DEA was informed of Meneses' Costa Rican drug operations in February 1984.
According to Contra supporter Dennis Ainsworth: Meneses was protected by the US government.
Enrique Miranda Jaime, who became Meneses' emissary to the cartels of Colombia in the late 1980s, testified in his 1992 trial in Nicaragua that:

Norwin was selling drugs and tunnelled the benefits to the Contras with help of high-ranking military officials of the Salvadoran Army, especially with the help of the head of the Salvadoran Air Force and a Nicaraguan pilot named Marcos Aguado.

In 1992 Meneses was sentenced to prison. In January 1996, Gary Webb interviewed Meneses in the Tipitapa prison outside Managua.


DANILO BLANDON
On 5 July 5 1979 Oscar Danilo Blandón Reyes arrived at LAX from Nicaragua; he became partners with Norwin Meneses and used Ricky Ross to sell cocaine in Los Angeles.
The Colombians advanced Blandón 15 kilos (worth about $885,000). He started out with 15 kilos a month and within a couple months had progressed to 30 kilos a month. According to Meneses between 1980 and 1991 Blandón moved some 50,000 kilograms of cocaine to the USA.
Blandón's DEA case agent, Charles Jones, stated in 1995 that Mr. Blandón was considered the largest Nicaraguan cocaine dealer in the United States.
Blandón’s attorney, Bradley Brunon, said in court in 1992 that the DEA knew already in 1981 of Blandón's dope dealing.
Blandón set both Meneses and Rocky Ross up, in return for a relatively small prison sentence. Blandón walked out of jail on 19 September 1994 after serving only 28 months for 10 years of cocaine trafficking.


RICK ROSS
Ricky “Freeway” Donnell Ross was selling between 1,000,000 and 1,250,000 doses of crack every single month in Los Angeles (20–25 rocks of crack per gram of powder, 20,000 to 25,000 per kilogram). At seven kilos a day, Ross was moving more than 200 kilos of cocaine every single month. That meant he was pumping out around 165,000 vials of crack a day (5 million rocks a month).
When in 1987 things got a little too hot for Ricky Ross in LA, he moved to Cincinnati. Pretty soon Blandón made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Ross asked some of his associates to come over from LA, and took over the cocaine business not only of Cincinnati, but also Toledo, Cleveland, Columbus, Hamilton, Middle-town, Fairfield, Ohio, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Atlanta, Texas, and even in faraway Seattle.
Ross said he sold 300 or 400 kilos of Blandón's cocaine in the Midwest, netting around $2 million in profits.
When one of his dealers, Alphonso Jeffries, got locked up in prison, Ricky decided to go back home to LA in the fall of 1988.

Right at that moment the LAPD was doing something against crack. In 1988, the sheriff's office hauled in $33.9 million in cash and another $33 million in 1989 — along with 66 houses, 110 vehicles and 4 airplanes. In 1988, only the Majors had brought in 4,470 pounds of cocaine.
Alphonso Jeffries had turned government witness against Ricky Ross. When Ross was finally arrested, the cops beat him up. Ross was asked to testify against the cops that had not only had beaten him up, but were also taking some of the money from the dealers. On 22 February 1990, a federal grand jury indicted 10 deputies on 27 counts of theft, tax evasion, and conspiracy, Ricky Ross the star witness in 1991.
Ross was released from federal prison in August 1993 and returned home to South Central. He still had another charge in Texas, to which he pleaded guilty, and re-entered prison in December 1993, until August 1994 when he was released.

Then Blandón contacted Ricky Ross numerous times. Ross said he wanted to stay clean, but found a normal job too difficult, and the profits too low. When his friend, Chico Brown, asked Ross to introduce him and his friend from Baltimore, Curtis James, to his dealer, in return for the $30,000 Ross had already loaned, and an additional $70,000 for his troubles, Ross introduced them to Blandón.
In late February 1995, Ross, Brown, and James were set up by government witness Blandón and were arrested. Ross's third strike; he was looking at a very long time in prison this time.
Gary Webb repeatedly interviewed Ricky Ross in prison for his book.


Gary Webb “Dark alliance - The CIA, the CONTRAS, and the CRACK COCAINE EXPLOSION” (1998): http://www.mediafire.com/file/kdayngc76n...953236.pdf

[Firestarter]

Gary Webb – Kelso, Vesco

Chapter 17 from Gary Webb’s book – We're going to blow your fucking head off – details the deposition by Joseph “Joe” Kelso.

In 1986, the federal government sent Kelso to Costa Rica to search for Robert Vesco. Kelso found Vesco’s private jet, parked in a hanger in San Jose. The storage bills for the jet were paid for by the owners of the cocaine dealing CIA front, Frigorificos de Puntarenas, that was used by Oliver North to funnel US government money to the Contras.
Kelso was taken to the US embassy, where DEA agents began copying the documents in his briefcase until Rob Owen (Oliver North’s aide) came in and took all the documents with him.

The Rothschild's Swiss offices of Banque Privee, Banca Privata in Lugano SA, and Rothschild Bank AG of Zurich ran (from behind the scenes) the Swiss branches of the notorious Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) and Banco Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL).
Alfred Hartmann, who headed the Swiss branches of both BCCI and BNL, had been a manager for Rothschild since 1983.
Hartmann also served as the chief financial officer of BCC Holding.
Georges Karlweis was on the board of both BCCI and BNL

In New York in the early 1960s Robert Vesco was picked up by Dr. Benjamin Payne, a financial adviser to the Rothschilds.
Payne, introduced Vesco to Georges Karlweis, the managing director of Edmond de Rothschild's Geneva merchant bank Banque Privee. In 1965, Karlweis provided Vesco with a "loan" that enabled him to buy the New Jersey defence-aerospace firm, Captive Seal, merging it with International Controls Corp (ICC). Two years later, Karlweis would provide a similar start-up capital to George Soros…

From the very beginning, in 1950, lOS was a front-operation for the Meyer Lansky organised crime syndicate, sponsored ostensibly by the New York City Dreyfus Fund.
Through his Rothschild connection, Vesco was also introduced to Henry Buhl III, heir to the General Motors fortune, and a board member of the Swiss Investors Overseas Services (IOS). Soon lOS's subsidiary lIT was swimming in ICC stock, and Vesco became even wealthier.

In April 1972, Vesco began to systematically loot IOS of its cash. Vesco was acting for the Rothschild, Lansky crime syndicate.
IOS officials knew, how first Cornfeld and then Vesco, were laundering money.

When IOS was finished, Drexel emerged to take its position.
Drexel was backed by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, who helped orchestrate Max Fisher's takeover of United Fruit Company in 1975. Fisher in turn helped bankroll Cincinnati businessman Carl Lindner, who became one of Drexel's primary front men in a series of takeovers of a string of US companies.
Lindner was joined by other Drexel clients, including Meshulim Riklis (of the Anti-Defamation League) who had helped Robert Vesco to take over lOS; Saul Steinberg (Jacob Rothschild’s business partner); Miami gangster Victor Posner; and hotel and media takeover specialist Laurence Tisch.

Ironically in 1994 the Drug Policy Foundation (DPF), America's leading pro-drug lobby group, announced that it would receive $10.5 million over the next 3 years from George Soros: http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/19...e_bean.pdf

[Firestarter]

Kerry; Secret agreement CIA-DoJ

Webb collected an impressive amount of information for his book, but he wasn’t the first.
On 9 July 1987, 2 protesters, Michael L. Kreis and Michael E. Bardoff both from Baltimore, held up a banner "Ask about cocaine smuggling" during the Iran-Contra hearings, when Oliver North was lying under oath.
Kreis and Bardoff were arrested, we can’t have activists trying to expose the ugly truth, when the government is trying really hard to cover it up, can we?

While they were led away, they yelled things like:

What about the cocaine dealing that the U.S. is paying for?
Why don't you ask how many non-combatants have been killed by the . . . contras?
Why don't you ask questions about drug deliveries?

They were charged with “disrupting a congressional hearing and demonstrating within a Capitol building”.
Kreis and Bardoff were pronounced guilty in November 1987 (but only got a light sentence): http://articles.latimes.com/1987-07-09/n..._1_contras


Maybe more interesting is the cover-up Committee led by Senator John Kerry of Skull & Bones, which concluded in a report released on 13 April 1989:
That individuals who provided support for the Contras were involved in drug trafficking and the Contras knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers, including cash, weapons, planes, pilots, air supply services and other materials.

Participation of narcotics traffickers in Contra supply operations through business relationships with Contra organisations.

the CIA's Chief of the Central American Task Force went on to say: We knew that everybody around Pastora was involved in cocaine ... His staff and friends (redacted) they were drug smugglers or involved in drug smuggling.

The US State Department paid over $806,000, authorised by Congress, to known drug traffickers to “carry humanitarian assistance to the Contras”. In some cases after the traffickers had already been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges, in others while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerry_Committee_report


In March 1998, the CIA Inspector General testified that from 1982 to 1995 there had been a secret agreement between CIA and the Justice Department that the CIA didn’t have to report drugs offenses by its assets.
The actual request from Central Intelligence Agency Director William J. Casey to Attorney General William French Smith to exclude “narcotics violations” from the “reportable offenses” is still kept secret.

Here’s the reply by William French Smith to William Casey, dated 11 February 1982:

Dear Bill:

Thank you for your letter regarding the procedures governing the reporting and use of information concerning federal crimes. I have reviewed the draft of the procedures that accompanied your letter and, in particular, the minor changes made in the draft that I had previously sent to you. These proposed changes are acceptable and, therefore, I have signed the procedures.

I have been advised that a question arose regarding the need to add narcotics violations to the list of reportable non-employee crimes (Section IV). 21 U.S.C. 874(h) provides that `[w]hen requested by the Attorney General, it shall be the duty of any agency or instrumentality of the Federal Government to furnish assistance to him for carrying out his functions under [the Controlled Substances Act] . . .' Section 1.8(b) of Executive Order 12333 tasks the Central Intelligence Agency to `collect, produce and disseminate intelligence on foreign aspects of narcotics production and trafficking.' Moreover, authorization for the dissemination of information concerning narcotics violations to law enforcement agencies, including the Department of Justice, is provided by sections 2.3© and (i) and 2.6(b) of the Order. In light of these provisions, and in view of the fine cooperation the Drug Enforcement Administration has received from CIA, no formal requirement regarding the reporting of narcotics violations has been included in these procedures. We look forward to the CIA's continuing cooperation with the Department of Justice in this area.

In view of our agreement regarding the procedure, I have instructed my Counsel for Intelligence Policy to circulate a copy which I have executed to each of the other agencies covered by the procedures in order that they may be signed by the head of each such agency.

Sincerely,
William French Smith

Casey in reply thanked French Smith, dated 2 March 1982:

I am pleased that these procedures, which I believe strike the proper balance between enforcement of the law and protection of intelligence sources and methods, will now be forwarded to other agencies.

From 2 March 1982 to 3 August 1995, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Attorney General and the DCI under Executive Order 12333 excluded reporting narcotics violations for "non-employees" of the CIA (like assets and independent contractors).
This MOU was made public by Representative Maxine Waters (who did her own investigation on the drugs trafficking by the CIA in the wake of the Dark Alliance series by Gary Webb) on 7 May 1998.

See the following definition for "employee" from the MOU:

C. `Employee' means:
1. A staff employee or contract employee of an Agency;
2. Former officers or employees of an Agency, for purposes of offenses committed during their employment; and
3. Former officers or employees of an Agency, for offenses involving a violation of 18 U.S.C. 207

Then in Section “IV. NON-EMPLOYEE REPORTABLE OFFENSES” is prescribed which offenses by “non-employees” are “reportable”, the list excludes narcotics offenses.

That secret understanding remained in effect until August of 1995, when Attorney General Janet Reno rescinded the agreement. The 1995 MOU didn´t exclude drugs crimes (for non-employees).

The original documents were removed from the internet. Its text is available on the following archive link: http://archive.li/csck8

[Firestarter]

See the video about the Cocaine Importing Agency, compiled by James Corbett (36:59).
It includes interviews with “Freeway” Ricky Ross and Gary Webb (from 2003, 2004).
Ricky Ross made $2 million dollars a day in his top period.
On 14 December 2004, Kevin Booth calls Ricky Ross in prison to tell him that Gary Webb was “suicided”. Ross tells that Webb was looking forward to the future, his phone was tapped, people were following him, and when he got home at night there were “government people” people snooping around.
Gary Webb was still investigating the case.
https://youtu.be/FS-oNTe9kwE


There were some links with the video, amongst others to official documents from the NSA: http://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/index.html
(archived here: http://archive.fo/vBkYt)

On 10 February 1986, Rob Owen ("TC") wrote North ("BG") regarding a plane, belonging to the Miami-based company Vortex, run by Michael Palmer, one of the largest marijuana traffickers in the US. Palmer received over $300,000 from the Nicaraguan Humanitarian Aid Office (NHAO) - an office overseen by Oliver North, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Elliott Abrams, and CIA officer Alan Fiers - to ferry “supplies” to the contras.

Reagan administration officials interceded on behalf of José Bueso Rosa, a Honduran general who was involved with the CIA's contra operations. In 1984, Bueso and co-conspirators hatched a plan to assassinate Honduran President Roberto Suazo Córdoba; to be financed with a $40 million cocaine shipment to the United States, which the FBI intercepted in Florida, after which Reagan interfered in his trial to give him a relatively light sentence: http://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//NSAEBB/NSAEBB.../doc13.pdf
http://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//NSAEBB/NSAEBB.../doc14.pdf


An import source for information to Gary Webb, were the 1990 court testimonies of Fabio Ernesto Carrasco, a pilot for the Columbian drug smuggler George Morales. Carrasco testified that in 1984 and 1985, he piloted planes loaded with weapons to the Contras in Costa Rica. On the return flights, drugs were flown to the US.
Carrasco also testified that Morales provided "several million dollars" to Octaviano Cesar and Adolfo "Popo" Chamorro, who worked with the head of the Contras' southern front, Eden Pastora. Chamorro told him that he had called his CIA control officer to ask if the Contras could accept money and arms from Morales, who was under indictment for cocaine smuggling, which "was fine".
See the 3 images from this official document: http://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//NSAEBB/NSAEBB.../doc17.pdf

[Firestarter]

Castillo – Powderburns; Robert Morrow

On with another “whistleblower” former DEA agent Celerino Castillo III. I’m not sure about Castillo, who tries very hard to portray himself as an all-American hero. The problem with his book is that the most important “evidence” comes from other public sources.
According to Castillo he was an important source for Webb...

Castillo claims that he "quickly discovered that the Contra pilots were, indeed, smuggling narcotics back into the United States”.
Castillo attempted to seek justice, by reporting on Oliver North and George H.W Bush on 24 March 1986. Castillo found that Craig Chretien was one of the agents sent to El Salvador to squash his reports.
Castillo was asked to keep his file on the Contras open, so that Walsh's Iran-Contra investigators could be denied access to the reports under the Freedom of Information Act.
So he filed a report, but where are the details?

When Castillo met Bush, he said to him:

There’s some funny things going on with the Contras in El Salvador.

Bush didn’t reply but walked away, seeking another hand to shake. Castillo claims that this is evidence that Bush knew about the drug trafficking. See Celerino Castillo with George H.W. Bush, 14 January 1986.


In 1994, Castillo went on the road to stop Oliver North’s Virginia Senate campaign – Castillo claims he was able to stop North...

After Castillo arrived in Guatemala, Stia described the covert US operation with the Nicaraguan rebels, run out of Ilopango air base near San Salvador by Marine Lt. Colonel Oliver North:

Be careful what you do up there. Don't interfere in their operation.

Sofi told Castillo about big cocaine loads from Guatemala to Miami. Where are the details?

One time, missiles destined for the Contras were seized by the Hondurans.
A phone call from Reagan convinced President Roberto Sauzo Cordoba of Honduras to release the shipment. Washington rewarded Honduras with additional aid.

Celerino Castillo III and Dave Harmon "Powderburns: Cocaine, Contras & the Drug War": https://www.scribd.com/doc/111246977/Pow...E-DRUG-WAR
(alternative: https://www.scribd.com/document/11707368...burns-2012)
----------------------------------------------------

The second source in this post is a long article by Robert Morrow on some of the whistleblowers on drugs trafficking by the CIA in the 1980s, going all the way to George H.W. Bush, his son Jeb Bush and Oliver North.
I don’t think that Daniel Hopsicker is a reliable source for information though, but the other “whistleblowers” probably are.

Al Martin’s book “The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran-Contra Insider (2001) details a September 1985 meeting where Jeb Bush discussed the murder of Barry Seal in February 1986 with Oliver North, Richard Secord and Dewey Clarridge.

Martin writes about a meeting chaired by Jeb Bush, where North explained that they would “fight” against the lower revenue of cocaine because of the lower prices, by importing more.
CIA-assisted enterprise narcotics trafficking depressed the street price value of cocaine from $30,000 in early 1985 to $12,000 by mid-1986.

When Martin said he would expose what was happening, Jeb Bush responded by telling him that it would be “unfortunate”, since he might wind up like George Morales or Johnny Molina.
Jeb continued on Morales (then in prison): “Of course, Morales will never leave prison alive”.
The day after Morales would be released from jail, he would be flown to Washington to tell about the Iran-Contra affair. The day before Morales was to be released, he died, after slipping on a bar of soap in the prisoner’s shower.

When Bush threatened Martin at 10:30 a.m., Molina was still alive…
The next day Martin read that Molina had “committed suicide” the same evening at about 9:30 p.m. in Pensacola, Florida.
Lawyer Neil Lewis also threatened Martin, to which Martin responded by telling that he was aware that his former colleague, Larry Hamil, prior to the November 1998 elections, was involved in a political campaign money laundering scheme. Hamil laundered monies of Chinese origin to certain Republicans, including Jeb Bush.

Martin has personally known almost 400 people that died under suspicious circumstances.

In 1988, Bo Gritz, wrote a letter to George H.W. Bush about a video tape showing Khun Sa offering to stop 900 tons of illegal narcotics and expose dirty USG officials. In reply to this letter Gritz was threatened to stop his investigation and his partner Scott was jailed.
In a 28 June 1987 letter from Khun Sa to the US Justice Department, Richard Armitage, Theodore Shackley (former Deputy Director CIA from Covert Operations) and others are named as being involved in drug trafficking: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2013/4/...al-in-1986
(archived here: http://archive.is/vjH4c)

[Firestarter]

Gene Wheaton – Iran-Contra

Here’s information from another whistleblower - Gene Wheaton…
Wheaton was probably the first to make the “Iran-Contra” scandal public.

In 1971, Wheaton and his family were transferred to Iran where he was the narcotics and counter-terrorism advisor to the Shah of Iran.
Wheaton retired from the army in 1975, and went back to Iran as a “civilian”.
For 2 years he was executive assistant to a vice president of the CIA front Rockwell Corporation, and director of security for a program over there called the IBEX program.

In 1985, Wheaton became vice-president of the cargo airline National Air.
In the early 1980s, Wheaton got close to CIA paramilitary mercenary operator Carl Jenkins, who had been the commander of the biggest CIA base in Laos while Shackley was there. Neil Livingston invited Wheaton to a party, to meet Ollie North. In 1985, Ollie North asked Wheaton to help devise a plan for weapons to the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan and provide airplanes for missions to the Contras.
In October 1985, Congress voted for $27 million in non-lethal aid for the Contras (which included weapons). Wheaton, Jenkins and Paul Hoven tried to get some of those $27 million to Honduras. They were told in no uncertain terms that the only way to do this was to go through Dick Secord and his aviation supply route. Wheaton refused because he knew that Secord had an unsavoury reputation.

Wheaton received direct information that Secord and his group (Oliver North, Ted Shackley, Edwin Wilson and Tom Clines) were diverting aircraft and hauling illegal cargo on the side (smuggling). Secord had direct knowledge that kickbacks from the Saudi AWACS program, were used to buy weapons for the Contras (that paid handsomely for these weapons with cocaine…).
In May 1986, Wheaton personally told CIA director Bill Casey, but Casey simply denied that the agency was involved in any of this illegal stuff. Then Wheaton took his story to the journalists Newt Royce and Mike Icoca, who put it on the front page of the Hearst newspaper.

Wheaton paints the big picture like this:

Ted Shackley and Vernon Walters and Frank Carlucci and Ving West and a group of these guys used to have park-bench meetings in the late 70s in McClean, Virginia so nobody could overhear they conversations.
They basically said, "With our expertise at placing dictators in power," I’m almost quoting verbatim one of their comments,
"why don’t we treat the United States like the world’s biggest banana republic and take it over?"
(…)
Reagan never really was the president. He was the front man. They selected a guy that had charisma, who was popular, and just a good old boy, but they got George Bush in there to actually run the White House.
(…)
They made sure that George Bush was the chairman of each of the critical committees involving these covert operations things.
(…)
They got Bush in as the chairman of the committee to deregulate the Savings and Loans in ’83 so they could deregulate the Savings and Loans, so that they would be so loosely structured that they could steal 400, 500 billion dollars of what amounted to the taxpayers’ money out of these Savings and Loans and then bail them out.
They got hit twice: they stole the money out of the Savings and Loans, and then they sold the Savings and Loans right back to the same guys, and then the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation - the taxpayers money - paid for bailing out the Savings and Loans that they stole the money from ... and they ran the whole operation, and Bush was the de facto president even before the ‘88 election when he became president.
(…)
This crowd really believes that the unwashed masses are ignorant, that we are people who are not capable of governing ourselves, that we need this elitist group to control the country, and the world - these guys have expanded. They look at the United States not as a country, not in any kind of patriotic mode now, but they look on it as a state within a world that they control. And that’s this attitude that they have.
They’re not unlike any other megalomaniac in the world. They’re nutty as fruitcake, but they’ve got distinguished gray hair, three-piece dark suits and they carry briefcases, and they’ll stand up and make speeches just as articulate as anybody in the world, but they don’t socialize and function outside their own little clique.
My experience with them is that they could be certified as criminally insane and put away in a rubber room and have the key thrown away. That’s how dangerous they are. But they’re powerful, and they’re educated. And that makes them twice as dangerous. And that’s basically what’s running the world right now.

When Harry Truman signed the National Security Act creating the CIA, he stated in that act that they couldn’t have any police powers, and shouldn’t operate in the US.
Congressional oversight of the intelligence community was increased after the Pike and Church hearings of the 1970s, in the wake of the Watergate scandal and CIA director Richard Helms convicted of lying to Congress (there were also kickbacks from the giant arm manufacturers to top politicians worldwide…).
The “secret group” of Ted Shackley, Tom Clines and Dick Secord were forced into retirement because of the scandal over Edmond P. Wilson’s training of Libyan terrorists.

After 9/11 was staged, the restrictions on US intelligence agencies were lifted.
75 and 80-year-old retired CIA people sat with tears in their eyes and told Wheaton:

Gene, what you’re into, you understand it more than we did, and it’s absolutely true, but it’s just so big you can’t do anything about it.

http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKwheaton.htm
(archived here: http://archive.is/1Y7VO)