Reply #7: Even if Kerry's a bonesman, he's OUR bonesman. [View All]

[Octafish]

If the guy was a turd of the BFEE, we'd know by now. Thus, I'd rather have John Kerry, with ALL his CIA-bonesman connections with us than against us.

Why? Because the vast majority of CIA officers are good guys. The leadership? That's another question. I've had a problem with them since 22 November 1963. So has John Kerry.

Here's a bit of a blast from the not-too-distant past, the drug-running tentacle of the BFEE Octopus:


OLLIE NORTH AND DRUGS

By Dennis Bernstein and Howard Levine
From The Texas Observer

EXCERPT...

According to Castillo, the entire program was run out of
Ilopango's Hangars 4 and 5. "Hangar 4 was owned and operated by
the CIA and the other hangar was run by Felix Rodriguez, or 'Max
Gomez,' of the Contra operation . Basically
they were running cocaine from South America to the U.S. via
Salvador. That was how the Contras were able to get financial
help. By going to sleep with the enemy down there. North's people
and the CIA were at the two hangars overseeing the operations at
all times," Castillo said.

SNIP...

Cele Castillo joined the DEA in 1979, after a tour with the First
Cavalry in Vietnam, where he earned a bronze star, and a six-year
stint as a police officer in Edinburg. His first DEA assignment
was in New York, working undercover investigating organized
crime. After that, because of his Vietnam experience, he was
transferred to Lima, Peru, where he conducted air strikes against
jungle cocaine labs and clandestine airstrips. In 1985, he was
transferred to Guatemala, where he oversaw DEA operations in
Belize, Honduras and El Salvador. Castillo posed as a member of
one of the drug cartels, he said, and almost immediately became
aware of the drug smuggling operations at Ilopango's hangars 4
and 5. "We took several surveillance pictures...and they were
running narcotics and weapons out of Ilopango, with the knowledge
of the U.S. embassy."

Though Castillo had been reporting his findings all along, to no
avail, a December 1988 report prepared by the Congressional
Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations
(the Kerry Committee) confirmed Castillo's allegations and
concluded: "There was substantial evidence of drug smuggling
through the war zones on the part of the individual Contras,
Contra pilots, mercenaries who worked with the Contras, and the
Contra supporters throughout the region."

The committee, chaired by Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, also
found that on March 16, 1987, a plane owned by known drug
smugglers was seized by U.S. customs officers after dumping what
appeared to be a load of drugs off the Florida coast: "Law
enforcement personnel also found an address book aboard the
plane, containing among other references the telephone numbers of
some Contra officials and the Virginia telephone number of Robert
Owen, Oliver North's courier," the committee reported. And on
July 28, 1988, DEA agents testifying before Kerry's committee
said it was North's idea in 1985 to give the Contras $1.5 million
in drug money being used by DEA informant Barry Seal in a sting
operation aimed at the drug cartels.

CONTINUED...

http://www.csun.edu/CommunicationStudies/ben/news/cia/961120.castillo.html

A little else on the subject:

How was cocaine used to fund Regan's Contras?

The Justice Department was slow to respond regarding links between drug traffickers and the Contras. In the spring of 1986, even after the State Department was acknowledging there were problems with drug trafficking in association with Contra activities on the Southern Front, the Justice Department was adamantly denying that there was any substance to the narcotics allegations. At the time, the FBI had significant information regarding the involvement of narcotics traffickers in Contra operations and Neutrality Act violations.

On May 6, 1986, a bipartisan group of Committee staff met with representatives of the Justice Department, FBI, DEA, CIA and State Department to discuss the allegations that Senator Kerry had received information of Neutrality Act violations, gun running and drug trafficking in association with Contra organizations based on the Southern Front in Costa Rica.

As a witness in a drug trial, Carrasco testified that in 1984 and 1985, he piloted planes loaded with weapons for contras operating in Costa Rica. The weapons were offloaded, and then drugs stored in military bags were put on the planes which flew to the United States. "I participated in two which involved weapons and cocaine at the same time," he told the court.

The drugs were flown back to Florida. The only location in Florida that I can verify where flights of drugs terminated is Lakeland, FL.

CONTINUED...

http://www.brittsandusky.com/ollie.htm


And not to let history forget Mr. John "Disappears Americans" Hull:

'John Wayne in Costa Rica' Cheats U.S. and Investors

by Peter Shinkle and Dennis Bernstein
November 18, 1987 - San Francisco Bay Guardian

A Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee heard testimony Oct. 30 on alleged financial misdeeds by contra backer John Hull. Hull, a U.S.-born rancher in northern Costa Rica, received monthly stipends from the CIA and contra leader Adolfo Calero for his support of the contras. His farm includes airstrips used to resupply the contras.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass), who chairs the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, focused his attention on a loan Hull received in 1984 from the Overseas Private Investment Corp. (OPIC). OPIC lends money to U.S. citizens for investment in projects in developing countries. The agency apparently loaned Hull $375,000 to build a wood mill in northern Costa Rica. Hull has only paid $62,000 in interest payments on the defaulted loan, and foreclosure proceedings began last month, an OPIC official told the lawmakers.

The central question, Kerry maintained, was "whether the loan was made on its merits, in furtherance of the development of the Costa Rican economy, or whether it was at the behest of another agency or other individuals in furtherance of Mr. Hull's activities." OPIC general counsel Eric Garfinkel told the subcommittee that agency officials "certainly weren't aware" of the airstrips on Hull's farm when they made the loan.

Kerry faulted OPIC for failing to visit the project site before granting the loan, and for using a property appraiser suggested by Hull's attorney. One OPIC loan officer said the agency had been defrauded by Hull, who falsely asserted that valid mortgages were in place to cover the loan.

CONTINUED...

http://www.flashpoints.net/GovernmentsRole.html