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Anyone remember Sen. Kerry's 1988 report "Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy"
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/storm.htm
>>
Although many readers of the Mercury News articles may not have known it, "Dark Alliance" is not the first reported link between the contra war and drug smuggling. More than a decade ago, allegations surfaced that contra forces, organized by the CIA to overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, were consorting with drug smugglers with the knowledge of U.S. officials. The Associated Press broke the first such story on December 20, 1985. The AP's Robert Parry and Brian Barger reported that three contra groups "have engaged in cocaine trafficking, in part to help finance their war against Nicaragua." Dramatic as it was, that story almost didn't run, because of pressure by Reagan administration officials (see "Narco-Terrorism: A Tale of Two Stories" CJR, September/October, 1986). Indeed, the White House waged a concerted behind-the-scenes campaign to besmirch the professionalism of Parry and Barger and to discredit all reporting on the contras and drugs.
Whether the campaign was the cause or not, coverage was minimal. While regional papers like the San Francisco Examiner--which ran a June 23, 1986 front-page exposé on Norvin Meneses, a central figure in the Mercury News series--broke significant ground on contra-drug connections, the larger papers and networks (with the exception of CBS) devoted few resources to the issue. The attitude of the mainstream press was typified during the November 1987 press conference held to release the final report of the Congressional Joint Iran-Contra Committees. When an investigative reporter rose to ask the lead counsel of the committees whether the lawmakers had come across any connection between the contras and drug-smuggling, a New York Times correspondent screamed derisively at him from across the aisle: "Why don't you ask a serious question?"
Even when a special Senate subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations, chaired by Senator John Kerry, released its long-awaited report, Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy, big-media coverage constituted little more than a collective yawn. The 1,166-page report--it covered not only the covert operations against Nicaragua, but also relations with Panama, Haiti, the Bahamas, and other countries involved in the drug trade--was the first to document U.S. knowledge of, and tolerance for, drug smuggling under the guise of national security. "In the name of supporting the contras," the Kerry Committee concluded in a sad but stunning indictment, officials "abandoned the responsibility our government has for protecting our citizens from all threats to their security and well-being."
The report:
http://www.cfr.org/narcotics-control/senate-subcommittee-report-drugs-law-enforcement-foreign-policy-kerry-committee-report/p28122
40 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
those who will not see.
I find DU is pretty typical of any large demographic. 1% think, 2% think they think and 97% would rather die than think. 
From DU2:
A Bank so Crooked, it Corrupts whoever it Touches: Bert Lance. Clark Clifford. George Bush Sr (oops, too late!)...
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/Mahfouz.html
Thanks for the narco backgrounder. It is effing amazing and helps me see why Ollie North hates John Kerry so. Ollie even sicced the FBI on Kerry;
OLLIE NORTH AND DRUGS
By Dennis Bernstein and Howard Levine
From The Texas Observer
EXCERPT...
If Iran-Contra prosecutor Lawrence Walsh had wanted to know the extent of former Colonel Oliver North's involvement in the smuggling of drugs from Central America to the United States, Walsh might have made at least one phone call to Celerino 'Cele' Castillo in San Antonio.
Between 1985 to 1991, Castillo was the Drug Enforcement Administration's main agent in El Salvador, where, he says, he uncovered "and reported" a huge drug and gun smuggling operation that was run out of the Ilopango military airport by the 'North Network' and the CIA.
North, now the Republican nominee for the U. S. Senate in Virginia, prevailed at the nominating convention last weekend by positioning himself far to the right of his rival, former Reagan budget director James Miller III, promising that if elected he will work to "clean up the mess" in Washington, and cultivating the support of the same fundamentalist Christian Republicans who
responded to the direct-mail campaign to finance the North defense committee.
But Castillo, the first government official with first-hand knowledge of North's drug dealing to speak publicly about it, says North belongs in prison, not in the U.S. Senate. "We saw several packages of narcotics, we saw several boxes of U.S. currency, going from Ilopango to Panama," Castillo said.
CONTINUED...
ORINGAL LINK BUSTED: http://www.csun.edu/CommunicationStudies/ben/news/cia/961120.castillo.html
A VERSION AT RUTGERS: http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/showthread.php?p=373527
BTW: I just LOVE Ratical.com. Sniff... I can't help myself. I'm a DemocRAT!
A Ten-Gallon Hat on a Half-Pint Head.
A Bank so Crooked, it Corrupts whoever it Touches: Bert Lance. Clark Clifford. George Bush Sr (oops, too late!)...
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/Mahfouz.html
Thanks for the narco backgrounder. It is effing amazing and helps me see why Ollie North hates John Kerry so. Ollie even sicced the FBI on Kerry;
OLLIE NORTH AND DRUGS
By Dennis Bernstein and Howard Levine
From The Texas Observer
EXCERPT...
If Iran-Contra prosecutor Lawrence Walsh had wanted to know the extent of former Colonel Oliver North's involvement in the smuggling of drugs from Central America to the United States, Walsh might have made at least one phone call to Celerino 'Cele' Castillo in San Antonio.
Between 1985 to 1991, Castillo was the Drug Enforcement Administration's main agent in El Salvador, where, he says, he uncovered "and reported" a huge drug and gun smuggling operation that was run out of the Ilopango military airport by the 'North Network' and the CIA.
North, now the Republican nominee for the U. S. Senate in Virginia, prevailed at the nominating convention last weekend by positioning himself far to the right of his rival, former Reagan budget director James Miller III, promising that if elected he will work to "clean up the mess" in Washington, and cultivating the support of the same fundamentalist Christian Republicans who
responded to the direct-mail campaign to finance the North defense committee.
But Castillo, the first government official with first-hand knowledge of North's drug dealing to speak publicly about it, says North belongs in prison, not in the U.S. Senate. "We saw several packages of narcotics, we saw several boxes of U.S. currency, going from Ilopango to Panama," Castillo said.
CONTINUED...
ORINGAL LINK BUSTED: http://www.csun.edu/CommunicationStudies/ben/news/cia/961120.castillo.html
A VERSION AT RUTGERS: http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/showthread.php?p=373527
BTW: I just LOVE Ratical.com. Sniff... I can't help myself. I'm a DemocRAT!
A Ten-Gallon Hat on a Half-Pint Head.
