(downloaded from PeaceNet conference.)
/* Written 7:04 pm May 27, 1991 by jburnes in
cdp:alt.conspiracy */
/* ---------- "A NATION BETRAYED - PART 1" ---------- */
The following is a transcript of the video, "A NATION BETRAYED".
It documents alleged CIA involvement in covert drug running
activities and how they supposedly interfered with the nation's
attempts to recover POW/MIA's. It is very long (around 75K
bytes) so you may wish to save it and download it from your
network site for offline reading. It is a document I promised
I'd upload to the net. You may find it unbelievable. You may
not be surprised at what it says. I have several comments which
I will append to end of the document. Sufficed to say that
information of this type is its own shocking kind of pornography.
As far as I can see Gritz's arguments are more or less sound.
The evidence from three separate sources is even more compelling.
As I watched this video I felt thoroughly violated. It is not
enjoyable reading, but it may well be true.
"Be careful when you seek the truth. Upon finding it you may be
forced to change your view of the world."
(apologies to the original quote)
(Transcriber's note: The following is a transcription of spoken
English and as such can be difficult to read, much less
transcribe. I have tried to preserve exactly as was spoken
except for a few places where I have organized the language used
to clarify meaning. I am not an English major so don't slam me
for not using perfect English punctuation in the sometimes rather
strange usages.)
--------------------------- CUT HERE ----------------------------
Colonel Bo Gritz Addressing the American Liberty Lunch Club:
What I want to tell you very quickly is something that I feel is
more heinous than the Bataan death march. Certainly it is of
more concern to you as Americans than the Watergate. What I'm
talking about is something we found out in Burma - May 1987. We
found it out from a man named Khun Sa. He is the recognized
overlord of heroin in the world. Last year he sent 900 tons of
opiates and heroin into the free world. This year it will be
1200 tons.
(video showing discussion at Khun Sa's headquarters -- some
translation of Burmese to English going on ... Bo Gritz still
talking to Lunch club in the foreground)
On video tape he said to us something that was most astounding:
that U.S. government officials have been and are now his biggest
customers, and have been for the last twenty years. I wouldn't
believe him. We fought a war in Laos and Cambodia even as we
fought whatever it was in Vietnam. The point is that there are
as many bomb holes in those two other countries as there are in
Vietnam. Five hundred and fifty plus Americans were lost in
Laos. Not one of them ever came home. We heard a president say,
"The war is over, we are out with honor - all of the prisoners
are home." and a few other lies. Now we got rid of that
president, but we didn't get rid of the problem. We ran the war
in Laos and Cambodia through drugs. The money that would not be
appropriated by a liberal congress, was appropriated. And you
know who we used for distribution? Santos Trafficante, old
friend of the CIA and mobster out of Cuba and Florida. We lost
the war!
Fifty-eight-thousand Americans were killed. Seventy-thousand
became drug casualties. In the sixties and seventies you saw an
infusion of drugs into America like never was before. Where do
you think the Mafia takes the heroin and opiates that it gets
through its arrangement with the U.S. government? It doesn't
distribute them in Africa or Europe. This is the big money bag
here. We're Daddy Warbucks for them. So I submit to you that
the CIA has been pressed for solutions. Each time they have gone
to the sewer to find it. And you can't smell like a rose when
you've been playing in the cesspool. We've been embracing
organized crime. Now you've all looked and heard about Ollie
North, about the Contras, about nobody knowing anything.
(cut to part of Iran Contra hearings with Ollie North explaining
the flow of funds from Iran to the Contras)
North:
And Mr. Gorbanifar suggested several incentives to make that
February transaction work. And the attractive incentive for me
was the one he made that residuals could flow to support the
Nicaraguan resistance.
Legislator:
Even Gorbanifar knew that you were supporting the Contras.
North:
Yes he did. Isvestia knew it. The name had been in the papers
in Moscow. It had been all over Danny Ortega's newscasts. Radio
Havana was broadcasting it. It had been in every newspaper in
the land.
Legislator:
All our enemies knew it and you wanted to keep it from the United
States Congress.
North:
We wanted to be able to deny a covert operation.
(back to Bo at the Luncheon Club)
We have a constitution that says that the laws will be made by
the Congress, enforced by the executive branch, interpreted by
the judicial branch. But in reality we have an executive branch
that has for more than a twenty years operated in what Ollie
North called a parallel government. When the Congress says no,
it makes no difference. They're gonna do it anyway. And it is
special intelligence - top secret. Why? Not because the
Communists don't know what were doing, it's to keep it a secret
from you. You're not capable of making those kinds of decisions
according to those in parallel government. The reason I know ...
I was there. I've been a product of parallel government myself.
(Narrator)
Lieutenant Colonel James 'Bo' Gritz is the most decorated Green
Beret commander of the Vietnam Era. General William
Westmoreland, in writing his memoirs, singled out Bo Gritz as the
"American Soldier" for his exemplary courage in combat and
outstanding ingenuity in recovering a highly secret black-box the
Viet Cong had taken from a crashed U-2 spy plane. The feature
films "Rambo", "Uncommon Valor" and "Missing in Action" were
based in part upon his real-life military experiences.
(Back to Bo)
Dick Secord, General, United States Air Force, a man I know well,
said it best. Before the senate investigating committee Dick
Secord was asked - if we were supporting the Contras, why were we
selling them arms bought from a Communist block nation at
exorbitant profit rates.
(skip to scene from hearings)
Senator:
If the purpose of the enterprise was to help the Contras, why did
you charge Colero a mark-up?
Secord:
We were in business to make a living, Senator. We had to make a
living. I didn't see anything wrong with it at the time. It was
a commercial enterprise.
Senator:
Oh ... I thought the purpose of the enterprise was to aid
Colero's cause.
Secord:
Can't I have two purposes? I did.
Senator:
Oh ... all right.
(back to Bo)
And then Dick Secord said in his playboy interview: "I think I
deserve the eight million that we made from the Iran arms sale
for all the hard work I did." If you've got to pay a patriot,
you've got the wrong guy.
(applause from audience)
These are patriots for profit. There has been a guise of
patriotism that a lot of people have been hiding behind. War is
their business. Business has been good.
(fade to shots of the Vietnam 'conflict' - Narrator takes over
again)
Bo Gritz risked his life a thousand times in combat in Vietnam
before he was sent by a national security council staffer Tom
Harvey in the White House to Burma in November of 1986 in search
of American prisoners of war. He discovered instead a heroin
highway and a nation betrayed by high level American officials
involved in narcotics trafficking. Tom Harvey and his superiors
in the White House were not pleased with Bo's report.
(fade to scene of Bo - now with beard in a field obviously
somewhere in Southeast Asia - palm trees and oxen indigenous to
the area abound - I assume its in either Burma or Thailand)
The thing that I was most concerned about was - and I thought was
fantastic - was the general's offer to stop the flow of opium and
heroin into the free world. When I asked him (assume he's
talking about a conversation with Tom Harvey now) he said "that's
fantastic". There was a pause, then he said, "Bo, there's no one
here that supports that." And I said, "What?! Vice-President
Bush has been appointed by president Reagan as the Number One
policeman to control drug entry into the United States. How can
you say there's no interest and no support when we bring back a
video tape with a direct interview with a man who puts 900 tons
of opium and heroin across into the free world every year and is
willing to stop it?" And he said, "Bo, what can I tell you? All
I can tell you is there is no interest in doing that here."
Well that made me wonder. That's because it doesn't sound
American and it doesn't sound right. That's when we began to do
our own investigation because for about three years people had
told me, both in Washington D.C. and, interestingly enough, in
Oklahoma city that the whole POW situation was being undermined
by U.S. government officials involved in drug trafficking. I
wouldn't believe it. I said, "You guys aren't playing with a
full deck ... you've got yourselves strung out too thin." And
they said, "Bo, you better listen, because for three years we've
had prisoners literally within our grasp and something has
happened at the last minute." (I said), "Each time I've made
every effort to cooperate with government officials. I can't
believe that people in the U.S. government would actually, either
overtly or covertly, do anything to undermine a rescue
operation." Well, we're still without Prisoners of War and there
is no interest, we're told at the White House, in stopping the
flow of drugs coming in from the Golden Triangle into the free
world.
(fade to front-page articles about Bo Gritz in Parade magazine
and Soldier of Fortune ... narrator picks up here)
Lieutenant Colonel Bo Gritz is no stranger to controversy. In
thirty years of devoted service to the U.S. Army and to the
recovery of American prisoners of war, he has encountered plenty.
The making of this American warrior began early. He was five
years old when his father, a B-17 pilot, was shot down over
Europe during World War II. His mother, a pilot with the women's
Air Force, would later marry a master sergeant and remain with
the occupation forces in Germany after the war. Raised by his
maternal grandparents in Oklahoma, young Bo Gritz began training
at Fort Union Military Academy in Virginia. He was named Corps
Commander in his senior year when he chanced upon a recruiting
poster that changed his life. In short order, Gritz won his
green beret in the Army Special forces by passing all courses in
the unconventional warfare training. After graduating from
officer's candidate school, the newly-commissioned second
lieutenant then insisted on Ranger training. Assigned to the
command of the first mobile South Vietnamese gorilla forces to be
organized, Gritz also operated secretly in Cambodia and Laos with
his force of Cambodian mercenaries, or "Bos", as he called them.
By official body-count, over 450 of the enemy died as a result of
Gritz's actions. His wartime records are replete with examples
of Bo's concern for keeping Americans alive in a war gone mad.
As recon chief of the supersecret delta-force, Bo was cited for
Valor in saving the lives of 30 U.S. Infantrymen from the BigRed-
One division. More often than not, his valor was in placing
himself between the enemy and his men. According to an official
military report dated 31 July 1967 submitted on then Major Gritz,
"His personal bravery is legendary exemplified by the fact that
he has been awarded five silver stars and numerous other
decorations for valor." In all Bo Gritz was awarded 62 citations
for valor, five silver stars, eight bronze stars, two purple
hearts and a presidential citation.
Bo was ready to sign up for a fifth tour of duty when he had a
talk with General Fred Weiyan (sp?), the "daddy-rabbit" in
Vietnam. As Gritz described it, "I was a major and special
operations chief. I'll never forget that day. I stood there and
heard that man say, 'Bo, you're not going to win the war and
neither am I'." That was the most disillusioning moment of my
life. It meant that every man who had ever lost his finger or
his life had lost it for nothing. I decided, on the spot, to
leave Vietnam. I would not kill another enemy or risk another
comrade's life."
(back to Bo at the luncheon)
I've had the opportunity to do a lot of things that other
officers have not. I was the first recon chief and intelligence
officer for delta-force. Commanded the first gorilla forces that
went behind enemy lines. When I commanded special forces in
Latin America, we did it exactly right. And we did exactly what
men in camouflage are supposed to do. It was very natural that
Harold R. Aaron (sp?) would single me out because, besides
having a sixth-degree black belt in karate, I have established an
ability to operate on my own. And I think when Aaron said, "Bo,
we want you to do this", he understood that I'm also hard headed
enough that I wouldn't cave in. He said, "I want you to consider
retiring. It would only be temporary. We have overwhelming
evidence now that people are still there, being held in Communist
prisons." Mr. H. Ross Perot had been asked by Eugene Tighe,
director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, to back a private
mission that would look into the POW situation. Perot said, "Bo,
I want you to go there. I want you to do everything you have to
do. You come and tell me there aren't any prisoners of war left
alive."
(narrator)
Bo returned from Indochina with extensive evidence that there
were indeed American prisoners of war in captivity, including a
solid report of 47 at one particular camp. Perot turned the
project back over to General Tighe who wrote to Secretary of
Defense, Harold Brown asking that the source, a Nguyen Dok Jong
(sp?) be brought to the United States for a polygraph test.
Brown repeated the request to Secretary of State Cyrus Vance.
One month later, Vance finally responded that the commissioner of
immigration would not permit Jong into the United States for
further questioning. As Bo puts it, "Think about it. One man,
not a thousand and the defense intelligence agency chief and
secretary of state can't get him into the country. That was a
pretty clear signal that the military was politically handcuffed
on the prisoner of war issue."
For eight years Gritz sought to find and free American POW's. He
crossed five times behind enemy lines into Communist Laos and
Vietnam. Three times he was within moments of embracing those
American heroes our government had declared dead. Each time
something unexplained caused Gritz and his Operation Lazarus team
to fall short with freedom and victory in sight for the POW's.
There has never been a shortage of criticism from any number of
armchair generals such as Robert K. Brown of "Soldier of
Fortune" magazine who devoted an entire issue to condemning
Gritz's efforts. Even to the extent of publishing documents
stolen from Bo while he was on the mission in Laos. They have
even belittled his prayer before crossing enemy lines. (Gritz is
a devout Mormon. Ed.) His critics said he should have looked
more like the Rambo in the movies, who actually avoided the draft
in an all-girls school in Switzerland.
More debilitating than the hundreds of miles on foot within enemy
territory has been the disinformation propagated by those within
our government who have covered up the plight of our prisoners of
war. Gritz has been accused of being a media hound. He insists
he has never sought the spotlight, but when confronted has always
been a positive voice for our prisoners of war and will continue
to be until they are home to speak for themselves.
Working as an agent for the Intelligence Support Activity (ISA)
in the CIA, it was fine for Gritz to travel at great peril using
false documents, as Ollie North and Bud McFarland did when they
traveled to Iran on phony Irish passports. On one occasion he
was stopped by U.S. customs at Seattle-Tacoma airport with four
separate passports. He was quickly released when his
intelligence contact in Washington confirmed his mission. It was
quite acceptable with the U.S. government for Bo Gritz to travel
at such great peril until he returned from Burma's infamous
Golden Triangle on December of 1986 with information concerning
with involvement of high-level U.S. officials involved in large-
scale drug trafficking in Southeast Asia. His tremendous courage
in refusing to back down to their threats has lead to his current
indictment for misuse of a passport in order to keep him from
getting this information to the American public.
(back to Bo at the luncheon)
There a book out now called Secret Warriors, I think. Its about
an organization called the ISA. Congress never knew about and
everybody gives me credit for exposing it, but that's not true.
When I was called before congress in 1983, they said, "Bo, are
you working as an official agent for the U.S. government?" And I
said, "Yes". And they said, "For what organization?" And I
said, "I will not identify that organization, other than to call
it the activity." This is because even the initials I-S-A were
top secret. Because it wasn't an oversight. It was created by
Carter. Can you imagine that? He did one good thing that I know
of. (laughter) But it was parallel government. He created a
secret organization to do things that the CIA could not do and he
didn't dare let congress know about it.
Now ISA got Dosier back, the general that was captured by
terrorists in Italy. And ISA did a lot of other things. You can
read about them now because its in this book by some guy who
writes for the Wall Street Journal. The point is that Jerry King
was the head of ISA. Jerry King called me on the telephone and
said, "Bo, we have been ordered to put operation Grand Eagle...",
which was the governments name for the prisoner of war rescue
mission. It certainly wasn't grand and it sure wasn't an eagle
'cause it never got off the ground. But he said, "We've been
ordered to put operation Grand Eagle on the shelf as if it never
existed." Hand before God he said, "there are still too many
bureaucrats that don't want to see American prisoners of war come
back alive." Now I didn't know what Jerry King meant then. I
thought he was angry because there was a bureaucratic tug-of-war
going on between ISA, the CIA and defense intelligence and maybe
he was losing. But remember Jerry King's words, 'cause they'll
tie in here. I'm wondering why that the Vietnamese intercept
Colonel Richard Walsh (a POW. Ed.) moments before the turnover
and capture not only him, but the General also (unclear who the
General is here ... Ed.) And I knew that we still had him,
because in the newspapers it appeared that, "The Vietnamese and
Laos delegations of the United Nations confirm that they are
holding an American citizen in custody." And I said, "By golly,
we in our State Department are going to press for an identity."
Because doesn't it say that the president is required to
safeguard American citizens in hostile hands. And I knew when we
pressed what would happen? Richard Walsh would be identified.
Who is he? A prisoner of war. Hooray! Now the log jam is
broken. And who can Walsh testify to? The other men he was
with. And they can testify. Were going to get them all out now,
even though its going to cost us something. Did you ever see
Richard Walsh's name identified? I didn't.
Mrs. Walsh showed me a newspaper article that said where a Air
Force casualty officer came to her at this ....
/* ---------- "A NATION BETRAYED - PART 2" ---------- */
... time and said, "Your husband is alive. He's a prisoner of
war. We have high hopes he'll be coming home soon." They put it
in the newspaper there in Minneapolis. She was told that Air
Force Two was spooling up ... who's that belong to? ... George
Bush ... to go get her husband. That's what she told me, but it
never happened and I thought again, "What rotten luck and what a
bunch of wimps in the State Department for not going and
demanding that they identify that citizen." They probably did.
They found out who he was and they said, "lets forget it."
Because when I walked into the State Department shortly
thereafter, a friend of mine said, "Bo, we thought that you'd
been captured. Your passport turned up in a very unlikely
place." And I said, "Yeah, I know all about it." (not sure what
he's referring to here ... Ed.)
Do you think that all of this has just been rotten luck. Well,
when you wear the uniform of the United States you have this
faith ... hope that the system will do it. Just like General
Aaron said, "Let the system do the rest." Now comes truth ....
We were training Afghan freedom fighters in the deserts of South
Nevada near where I live and I was proud to do so. In
cooperation with the U.S. State Department Office For Security
Assistance. We finished that mission. A man by the name of Tom
Harvey who is National Security Council Ollie North look-alike.
Ollie comes from Annapolis, Harvey comes from West Point. Tom
Harvey called me and said, "We have information ...", and here is
a copy of the letter that's why I brought all these documents. I
hope some of you challenge them. I hope the White House, the
Pentagon would challenge them. Because if they would publicly
they would have to admit to the truth. This letter was sent to
Vice-President Bush by an American citizen by the name of Arthur
Soucheck, it is dated 29 August 1986. It says that General Khun
Sa has American prisoners of war. It says that Khun Sa tried to
rescue four of them. It says his forces escorted the four to the
Mekong river. While attempting to cross the rain-swollen river,
the four U.S. personnel, three of Khun Sa's soldiers and two
horses were swept away by the raging water and all drowned. It
goes on to say that Khun Sa has repeated intelligence reports of
location of U.S. prisoners being kept in Laos ... that he says
that has seventy prisoners of war. Tom Harvey said, "This is
getting TOP priority."
Now in G. Gordon Liddy's book, "Will", he says, "no American has
ever come out of the Golden Triangle alive." But that's what we
were being asked to do. Tom Harvey said, "Bo, do you think you
would be able to infiltrate into Khun Sa's inner sanctum and
determine if this report is true or not?" Do you think maybe
somebody is trying to get me bumped off? (laughter) It didn't
make any difference. Brothers and sisters, you and I are small
compared to this nation and the risk that we take if there is one
American there is worth it. God's will they'll be home while
they're still alive. I told Harvey, "We didn't fight a war in
Burma, why should there be prisoners of war there?" But you know
a guy like Khun Sa has got connections all over. And I said,
"We'll try."
I speak Chinese. Khun Sa speaks Chinese. He's right along the
southern China border. Surrounded by Communists, he's fighting
the Communists. He has a forty-thousand man army. About eight-
million Shan people that make up the minority Shan state. Burma
is Communist. Every one of his weapons are M-16s and M-60
machine guns. All the latest stuff that we have. I found out
why later. Too make a long story short, we got in to see Khun Sa
and he didn't have any prisoners of war. And let me caveat it by
saying this. We traveled three days going and three days coming
by horse over mountains that were literally vertical up and down.
I made the comment at that time to Scott Weekly (sp?) who was
Ollie North's classmate at Annapolis and went with me. I said,
"I would hate to be an engineer that had to build a highway
through these mountains because they're virgin teak forests ...
rain forests ... tremendously beautiful."
Six days coming and going. Khun Sa didn't have any prisoners of
war. We gave Khun Sa the letter from the White House that I had.
That's the only thing that let me get in there. You don't walk
in because the CIA has a seven digit figure on Khun Sa's head and
they haven't been able to collect. You think they're gonna let
somebody like me in there. Say, "Hi! I wanna go visit Khun Sa!"
Doesn't work! But I guess they thought this guy is crazy enough
because I gave this letter .... I told Harvey, "We got to have a
credential, guy." He said, "We can't do that, Bo. We never do
that." I said, "Harvey, has anyone ever gone to the Golden
Triangle and come out alive? I need something that will convince
Khun Sa were not there to kill him, we're there for humanitarian
purposes." So Harvey said, "Well, this will be the language.
'You are operating in cooperation with the White House ... etc.
etc.'" It worked! Khun Sa didn't have one single prisoner of
war, didn't know anything about prisoners of war.
(switch to a scene with Bo and Khun Sa talking at Khun Sa's camp
with Khun Sa's troops doing practice drills in the background.
Bo is discussing the letter from Soucheck with Khun Sa. It is
nearly impossible to decipher what is specifically being
discussed because Khun Sa's troops are incredibly loud and drown
out the conversation, so I will proceed to the next scene. Don't
worry ... there are more Khun Sa meetings to come. The long and
short of it is Khun Sa says he will decrease or stop the drug
shipments and Gritz gets it on videotape. Now back to Bo at the
luncheon.)
Now with Nancy Reagan saying no to drugs and Judge Ginsberg not
allowed to sit on the Supreme Court because he smoked marijuana
... and you're an accessory to murder if you ever smoke
marijuana, according to Nancy Reagan. I figured we'd get an
'attaboy'. We didn't have prisoners, but we had three video
tapes showing Khun Sa himself. And I thought, "Boy, is George
Bush gonna be thrilled about this!" (much laughter) We
delivered those tapes to Tom Harvey just before Christmas. You
try to call Tom Harvey now, because some news people did, and he
doesn't return your calls. We delivered those tapes just before
Christmas, Tom Harvey called me back and said, "Bo, Fantastic!
You guys actually got in to see Khun Sa. The CIA said he had
been assassinated." Somebody needed some pocket change. "And
there he is talking." And I said, "That's right, Tom. Harvey,
what about the 900 tons?" I figured they were just bubbling
over. They were all right, they were dripping in their knickers.
But it wasn't from joy. Harvey said, "Bo ...", these are quotes
... hand on the square ... he said, "Bo, there's no interest
here in that." You be on the other end of the phone. You've
just come out of Burma. You've brought what you consider to be a
way to stop 900 tons of heroin, not marijuana and get rid of the
cancer that has infected the bureaucracy and there's "no
interest." I challenged Harvey because I'm pretty hard-headed.
I said, "Tom, didn't President Reagan appoint George Bush the
number one cop to stop drugs before they come into the United
States?" I wanted to remind him of these little things. And he
said, "Bo, what can I tell you? There is NO INTEREST here in
doing that." Now that is White-House-ese for saying, "Get off
this subject, leave us alone." I knew that we had trod upon some
very sensitive toes. I still didn't have a clue to what was
going on, but I knew that we were getting close to finding out
and I took off and went to Burma again.
Now I want to show you some things when I got back to Burma. (he
shows some newspaper headlines) The United States government
wanted Khun Sa killed quick and here's how they did it:
U.S. CALLS FOR NO MERCY IN DRUG WAR
These are over-there newspapers ...
AIRSTRIKES AGAINST KHUN SA's HEADQUARTERS
BURMESE AND THAI TROOPS MOVE ON KHUN SA
Finally it says, and there is a picture of Burmese and Thai
troops standing on top of a high mountain top:
KHUN SA'S STRONGHOLD SEIZED
Now many of you are soldiers, airmen, marines, sailors. You know
that airstrikes, troops mean war. There's hair, eyes and teeth
everywhere. When I went back into Burma in May I took two other
Americans with me. It was the most peaceful area. It was
exactly like we left it except for one big change. Remember I
told you it took us three days to ride by horse to get there in
November and come out in December. Well, when we went in May, we
went by pickup truck. Straight from the Thai border all the way
right to the General's front door. And on the other way coming
back there were Thai military 10 ton trucks covered and loaded.
There's only one thing that comes out of the Golden Triangle and
that's heroin.
When we got there General Khun Sa said, "What took you so long?"
I said, "General, I was waiting for the war to die down. I
didn't want to get caught in all of this 26,000 troops and
airstrikes", and he just laughed. He said, "That was a newspaper
war!" I said, "What do you mean newspaper war?" He said, "The
Thai and Burmese came to me and said that if they don't make it
look like there doing something, they stand to lose tens of
millions of dollars this year in drug suppression funds from
American taxpayers." So Khun Sa said, "Make it look like
anything you want to, but I want a road built here." They used
the newspapers and I want to show you something. This one here
says, "U.S. PROVIDES ANOTHER 1.8 MILLION TO FIGHT DRUGS" So it
worked! And this guy is really smiling. This is a Thai
receiving a check from the U.S. Ambassador.
Khun Sa got what he wanted. Now he began to assemble his
officers. It took him a week to get them all together because he
brought them from all over the place. And now I understand why.
I thought I was just going to talk to him, but he said no and put
me off for a week. He assembled officers from the entire Shan
territory from all over the Golden Triangle. They came in. He
sat everybody down. He brought his secretary out. He had his
secretary read from their log.
(Scene switches to Khun Sa's headquarters. All of Khun Sa'
officers are here along with Khun Sa. I'd say around twenty in
all. Bo and his companions are sitting with them. This is where
it gets VERY interesting. The following conversation was in
broken English from Khun Sa's end so some of the syntax may be a
bit weird.)
Bo:
I cannot ask the General to cut your throat by revealing any
contact that would hurt your economy at this moment. But I pray
that he will reveal any connections from the older time or that
will not hurt you now. That if they are still in power, we might
be free of them.
Khun Sa:
Some of the connections I can expose to you. Some were in Burma,
some were in Thailand, some were in America. But I don't
remember all of their names and my secretary remembers them so he
will give you the information.
Secretary:
In 1965 to 1975 there is one CIA in Laos, his name was Shakley.
He was involved the narcotics business. And we know that Shakley
used one civilian to organize trafficking. His civilian name was
Santos Trafficante. He was the organizer of trafficking for
Shakley. This was financed by Richard Armitage who stayed in
Vietnam. After the Vietnam war Richard Armitage was a prominent
trafficker in Bangkok. This was between 1975 to 1979 he was a
very active trafficker in Bangkok. He was one of the embassy
employees. Then after that in 1979 he quit from embassy and then
he established a company name the Far East Trading company. Then
he used the name of his company under the table for drug
trafficking. He then used the drug money to support the Laos
anti-Communist troops.
Bo:
So he used it in arms and munitions.
Secretary:
Yes. This Richard Armitage has a lot of friends in Laos and
Thailand. There is a lot of CIA personnel in Laos. One of the
CIA agents is named Daniel Arnold. This Arnold was a munitions
trafficker. There is another one Jerry Daniels who organized
trafficking for Richard Armitage.
(Now back at the luncheon with Bo)
One of the men named by Khun Sa, this is not me naming him. This
is Khun Sa, the drug overlord reading from his records, named
Richard Armitage as being a chief drug trafficker from 1965
through 1979. You know where Richard Armitage went in 1979? He
went to Dole's staff, then to Reagan's campaign staff and now he
is the Assistant Secretary of Defense right underneath Mr.
Carlucci. Richard Armitage has been responsible for recovery of
U.S. prisoners of war way back before we actually got involved
with H. Ross Perot. He is still responsible for them. What I'm
trying to do is find you Khun Sa's letter because it will say it
best. Here it is. Letter from Khun Sa written to the U.S.
Justice department dated 28 Jun 1987. I just want to read you a
couple sentences. "During the period 1965 to 1975, CIA chief in
Laos Theodore Shakley, was in the Drug Business." Now Theodore
Shakley would have been director of intelligence of the CIA if
George Bush had not been appointed to that post. Theodore
Shakley was then posted as the deputy director for covert
operations. It said, "Santos Trafficante acted as his buying and
transporting agent while Richard Armitage handled the financial
section with banks in Australia."
All of a sudden the words from Jerry King came back, "Too many
bureaucrats don't want to see American prisoners returned alive."
Why? Couldn't figure it out. Gunboat at midnight in the middle
of the Mekong with Voice of America saying we're there to abort
our attack. Walsh and the General recaptured before turnover.
Why? Now I'll tell you why. If this is true it means Richard
Armitage and a lot of other people that are named here are the
least men in the world that want to see Americans come home.
Because when American prisoners of war do come home, whether we
bring them home or they drag themselves across that Mekong river
somehow, and report to the U.S. Embassy and aren't destroyed
there. When they do come home, because they will, there will be
one hell of an investigation as to what took the greatest nation
in the world so long to bring home heroes that have been waiting
for more than fifteen years. When that investigation is
conducted it will show as Khun Sa says that these men, these
bureaucrats, appointed not elected, appointed, have broken the
faith with you and this country and its law. Have used their
office as a cover to run drugs and arms to promote covert
operations that the United States Congress did not approve of.
Its the parallel government. Now that may be alright, but I'll
tell you something. It's not alright to leave hundreds of
Americans to die alone in the hands of the enemy to a bunch of
whimps that were never there.
When I came back here, I thought I was a lone ranger. I said,
"Boy, I've got this information. Somehow we've got to get it to
the proper authorities and I'm all alone. Well, not so. Guess
who shows up in Time Magazine? H. Ross Perot ... and he's on
page 18, May 4th and it says, "Perot's Private Probes." H. Ross
Perot was not in Burma with me, but I know now where he got his
info. Four billion dollars opens a lot of doors for you. It
didn't open a couple of doors, however, as I'll let you in on
this story. H. Ross Perot had gained U.S. agent investigation
reports of Richard Armitage. Perot didn't know I was over in
Burma. He was doing this on his own. This article said he
pinned Richard Armitage. Armitage is a fat broad. Literally.
This is a giant of a man. And demanded that Armitage resign
because it says that H. Ross Perot accused him of being an a drug
smuggler and an arms dealer. That takes pretty big cajones.
(laughter) It says that Perot then went to his friend, George
Bush. It says that he gave evidence of wrong doing by Armitage.
I'm quoting. Bush told Perot to go to the proper authorities.
(sounds of shock and dismay by audience) I'm still reading now.
So the billionaire called on William Webster. He's now head of
the CIA. It says that Perot made at least one visit to the White
House carrying a pile of documents, yet he has received no
support from the Reagan administration. In fact Frank Carlucci
.... Who's he? He's the secretary of defense. And who was he
before? Deputy directory of Central Intelligence. Frank
Carlucci called him in to ask him to stop pursuing Armitage.
Talk about insulation! And when four billion dollars can't even
get your foot in the door even though the man is a good Texan
from Houston. Tell me there's no cover-up here.
Now H. Ross was working on his own. He didn't know what Khun Sa
had told us. Khun Sa doesn't have a television or a telephone.
He doesn't know who Richard Armitage is. He doesn't give a damn.
All he knows is the people who are on his records that he's dealt
with. This affidavit though by a man by the name of Daniel
Sheehan ... and you'll recognize Sheehan's name if you don't
know him already by the Silkwood case. He jumped on Kerr-Magee
(sp?). Kerr-Magee is pretty powerful. But they won the Silkwood
case there in Oklahoma and have done a few other things.
(switch to a talk-show interview with Daniel Sheehan)
Sheehan:
There's little doubt at all that President Reagan was involved in
a conspiracy to violate the Neutrality Act. He's been directly
ordered by the United States Congress not to mount this military
operation against Nicaragua. They've cut off all funds for him
to do so, but he went to Saudi Arabia and various private
citizens to raise the money in total violation of the Federal
Neutrality Act. They're engaged in violations of the arms-export
control act. They're engaged in violations of the Federal
Racketeering Act. There is a whole federal racketeering
syndicate that they like to refer to as The Enterprise. Richard
Secord referred to it as. But what it is in fact, Jim, is the
off-the-shelf, stand-alone, self-financing, covert operations
capacity that Oliver North talked about Bill Casey wanting to set
up. Fact is, that it has been set up. Its been operating for
many years now. Out from under the control of any president.
Out from under the control of the director of central
intelligence. Out from under the supervision of any intelligence
committee. Its run by Theodore Shakley, the former director of
covert operations worldwide by the CIA under George Bush when
George Bush was the director of the Central Intelligence Agency
in 1976. And this crowd has set up the off-the-shelf operation
and is carrying out not only a partnership with the drug dealers
from Central America and from Southeast Asia, but also carrying
out a major political assassination program which was
participated in by William Buckley who was the Beirut section
chief for the CIA who was kidnapped in March of 1984 and who was
the subject of all the real negotiations for the sale of the TOW
missiles to Iran. It was not a sale to open any openings to the
moderates in Iran, nor was it in fact a negotiation to negotiate
for the general release of hostages. It was initiated solely and
exclusively to obtain the release of William Buckley because he
knew about the whereabouts of the off-the-shelf operation. It
was a criminal enterprise and they feared that if the American
people found out about that there would be a huge constitutional
scandal and the President of the United States would be
impeached.
You have ....
/* ---------- "A NATION BETRAYED - PART 3" ---------- */
... to remember that the head of the Justice Department, Edwin
Meese, used to be the chief of staff at the White House that ran
all these meetings where they were setting up these plans. This
was no great surprise to Edwin Meese who came before us on
November 25th, 1986 and said, "Oh my gosh, look at this. There
seems to be some sale of TOW missiles to Iran going on here." He
knew perfectly well what was going on here. And there is a very
technical phrase in the law that refers to what they're doing.
It's called a Big Fat Lie.
(poor edit here going back to Bo at luncheon)
Bo:
(referring to The Christic Institute, I presume. Ed.)
If they're telling the truth in this case, then we should look at
the evidence they have. I've been told by my friends in the
Central Intelligence that they are, "funded by the KGB." Well,
when they tell me that and it's because Christic is talking bad
about the government, it makes me think that maybe somebody
higher up has told them, "Hey ... go tell 'em that they're being
funded by the KGB." I don't know too much more than that, but I
do know ironically enough, can H. Ross Perot, General Khun Sa and
the Christic, three different totally separate entities come up
with the same information if its not true?
This affidavit though by Daniel Sheehan ... there's his
signatures swearing that it is the truth. He has uncovered
information .... I just want to read you a couple of sentences.
Its says here that, "One of the officers in the U.S. embassy in
Thailand, one Mort Abromowitz (he was the Ambassador as a matter
of fact), came to know of Armitage's involvement in the secret
handling of opium funds and called there to be initiated a
internal State Department heroin smuggling investigation directed
against Richard Armitage." It says, "Armitage was a target of
embassy personnel complaints to the effect that he was utterly
failing to perform his duties on behalf of American MIA's." And
Armitage reluctantly resigned as DOD special consultant on MIA's
at the end of 1977. It says, "From 1977 to 1979 Armitage
remained in Bangkok opening and operating a business named the
Far East Trading Company." It says that, "This company was in-
fact merely a front for secret operations conducting opium money
out of Southeast Asia to Tehran, Iran and the Nugan Hand Bank."
It goes on ....
There's three fingers now. One, twelve-thousand miles from here
from an infamous warlord who doesn't even know Armitage, other
than for the fact that he is the bagman. H. Ross Perot gaining
it from government testimony of agents investigating. But have
you ever seen Armitage indicted? But if you look at these
reports the agents have been farmed out. Anyone who comes up
with a report of investigation against Armitage gets reassigned
or retired. You'll recognize some of this. This is back to Khun
Sa's letter:
"After 1979 Richard Armitage resigned from the U.S. embassy's
posting and set up the Far East Trading Company as a front for
his continuation in the drug trade. Soon after Daniel Arnold was
made to handle the drug business as well as the transportation of
arms sales. (Daniel Arnold was a CIA station chief). Jerry
Daniels then took over the drug trade from Richard Armitage."
Jerry Daniels was a CIA member. Jerry Daniels died mysteriously
in Bangkok, Thailand. I wonder why.
(cut to segment from Iran-Contra hearings)
Narrator:
The Christic Institute's charges against The Enterprise were
featured briefly in the Iran-Contra hearings during Jack Brooks'
questioning of Richard Secord.
Brooks:
... vast array of alleged illegal and corrupt practices
beginning as far back as the 1960's. Did you know about that?
Secord: (somewhat nervously)
Of course I know about it.
Brooks:
Well, the allegations include the organization of assassination
programs funded by the drug king-pin in Laos and laundering of
millions of dollars skimmed from the sale of military weapons to
the Shah of Iran, and the provision of military services to
Somosa, and laundering Colombian drug money, but anyhow ....
Narrator:
Secord's response was prophetic. Nearly a year later the cased
would be dismissed in a blatantly political move by Judge
Lawrence King.
Brooks:
Describe your involvement and transactions with them ...
Secord: (nervously and contemptuously)
Can I comment on the suit? The suit, which was filed in May of
last year, is the most outrageous fairy tale anybody has ever
read. Nobody, including the Justice Department, credits it at
all. It's being dealt with. I can only fight on so many fronts
at once. I regard that one as a rather minor threat that will be
tossed out of ....
Narrator:
The congressional committees carefully side-stepped these charges
as well as the issue of massive cocaine smuggling by the Contras.
But the media was quick to notice the striking parallels between
the liberal Christic Institute's allegations and conservative Bo
Gritz's discoveries in Burma. Sharing a commitment to the truth,
both Sheehan and Gritz have been outspoken in their charges that
The Enterprise has engaged in assassinations, drug dealing and
illegal weapons shipments.
Their activities have well been documented in the mainstream
press. The case of Edwin Wilson is a powerful example of The
Enterprise's blatant disregard for law and congressional
restraints. Sentenced to 52 years in prison for providing
weapons and explosives to Libya, the former CIA agent has pointed
out that his more-than-willing partners in those transactions and
others were none other than Richard Secord and Theodore Shakley.
According to Wilson, "If I'm guilty, they're guilty. If I got 52
years for what I shipped, Ollie North ought to get 300 years."
(cut to video clip from BBS NEWSNIGHT. Interview with Edwin
Wilson in prison.)
Wilson:
I would like to have the story get out, which is the truth.
There has been such as massive cover-up on this whole group. The
group that now is running the war for the Contras that I felt
that the only way I could somewhat justify my own actions was to
have the truth come out.
Interviewer:
Are you saying that Iran-Contra is just the tip of the iceberg?
Wilson:
... just the tip of the iceberg.
(cut back to Gritz at luncheon)
I swore to defend this constitution. As a soldier I was
brainwashed. And I wasn't a dumb soldier either. I've got
advanced degrees in college, honors graduating from the Command
and General Staff College of the United States Army, given the
high command, served in the highest level staff positions in the
Pentagon. And yet I thought that as a soldier I was to be
apolitical. I was to never question what our executive branch
civilians told us to do. Just do or die. What an education I
got.
Back in 1975-76 I commanded special forces in Latin America.
Same time George Bush was head of the CIA. We knew that Noriega
was not only a drug smuggler then but we knew that he was a
Communist besides. He was the intelligence officer under Omar
Torrijos (sp?). We, the United States, paid Noriega three times
what we pay our President to be our friend. I recommended more
than ten years ago that we dump him. We didn't and now were
seeing the result of it. My point is George Bush knew what was
going on then. He was head of Central Intelligence. It was his
OK that said pay Noriega hundreds of thousands of dollars every
year. He knew what the intelligence reports were. That Noriega
is a brother to Fidel Castro. Don't ever let him tell you he
didn't know. I think a lot of the truth would come out if we
tried General Noriega because he knows what happened and would be
willing to tell what happened, but there is nobody in the
administration that wants to hear what happened. We know were
not going to try him. That's just a ruse. Read the newspapers
about three months before we indicted him. I saw where Armitage
went down to Panama to warn Noriega, that if he didn't get under
control that we were going to eliminate him. Well, Noriega has
bigger cajones than any bureaucrat that you'll ever meet. He's a
little guy like H. Ross Perot, but he is tougher than Texas
cowhide and he will pull the plug on the Panama Canal if we try
to force him out. I think Noriega is going to come out the
winner (I guess not. Ed.)
And by the way, can you imagine what Armitage did? See, Tom
Harvey and Armitage are best friends. They lift weights everyday
in the Pentagon athletic club. I know when we got back from
Burma that Harvey rubbed his hands together and said, "Hey Dick,
come on over to the White House. Bo Gritz just got back from
Golden Triangle with information on POW's from Khun Sa." Can you
imagine what happened when Khun Sa said, "... and I will
disclose every government official I've dealt with for 20 years
...."? I bet you Dick Armitage involuntarily urinated right
there! (much laughter) And all of a sudden U.S. declares no
mercy. Its a war of words. No president that's ever declared a
war on drugs has ever fought one and I see 'em being fought
today. But there's a way to do it and end-running the
Constitution is not the way. But here's what we've done. You
saw Ollie North stand up and become an acclaimed hero. Now Ollie
North is a Marine that I believe has done everything he thought
was right to stem the rising tide of communism. But I want to
give you some facts and you decide for yourself. I think Ollie
North had good intentions but he was manipulated and used.
Have we won the war in Nicaragua? Has the end justified the
means because the planes carrying arms to the Contras came back
loaded with drugs. I submit to you that we have lost. Did we
ever intend to win?
(cut to a scene with female reporter interviewing Mike Tulliver
(sp?), a former pilot who flew drug runs.)
Reporter:
The government decided to get into the drug business in order to
pay for the Contras? The American government?
Mike Tulliver:
As incredulous as it may sound, I believe that they not only
decided to get into it I think that they orchestrated the whole
thing.
Reporter (narrating):
Mike Tulliver is a pilot who's principle occupation has been
smuggling drugs. He's currently serving a three and one half
year sentence in a federal prison in Miami for a conviction
unrelated to the secret flights he made for the Contras. He says
he was approached in 1985 by long-time CIA operatives to run what
they called "supplies."
Tulliver:
You could bring back their cargo without ever having to worry
about interception, arrest, anything like this. Everything was
taken care of.
Reporter:
What kind of cargo are you talking about?
Tulliver:
Drugs.
Reporter:
And the same people who you believe set you up with the arms also
set you up with 25,000 pounds of pot?
Tulliver:
Sure ... oh yes ... sure ... in change.
Reporter:
So what do you do with that 25,000 pounds of pot?
Tulliver:
We take off out of Honduras and we leave.
Reporter:
To?
Tulliver:
South Florida.
Reporter:
Where in South Florida?
Tulliver:
We landed at Homestead.
Reporter:
Homestead?
Tulliver:
Air Force Base.
Reporter:
With whose clearance?
Tulliver:
I was given a discreet transponder code to squawk about two hours
south of Miami. I received my instructions from the ground for
traffic separation and told them what my destination was.
Reporter:
What did you say?
Tulliver:
I told them we were a non-scheduled military flight into
Homestead Air Force Base.
Reporter:
What happened when you landed?
Tulliver:
We landed about 1:30 - 2:00 in the morning I guess. A little
blue truck came out and met us and it had a little white sign
that said, "FOLLOW ME."
Reporter:
And you did ...
Tulliver:
And we followed it.
Reporter:
To where?
Tulliver:
Some area of the field. I have no idea ... I've never been
there before or since.
Reporter:
Where you surprised that you were going to land all of this pot
at an Air Force base?
Tulliver:
Yeah ... I was a little taken aback to be honest with you. I
was somewhat concerned about it. I figured it was a setup or it
was a DEA bust or a sting or something like that.
Reporter:
And instead nothing happened to you?
Tulliver:
No. A little guy in the pickup truck takes us out and I get in a
taxi cab.
Reporter:
Did you get paid for the flight?
Tulliver:
75,000 dollars.
Reporter narrating with video clip of cargo plane at Homestead:
Tulliver identifies this as the plane he flew. The plane traces
to a company that was hired by the government to fly humanitarian
supplies to the Contras at the same time Tulliver made his
flights.
(cut to clip with George Morales)
Reporter:
Why would the CIA allow drug planes to come into the United
States loaded with coke from (undecipherable).
Morales:
Money.
Reporter Narrating:
George Morales is a world champion boat racer. He is also a
world renowned cocaine trafficker whose empire extended from
Colombia to Miami. Morales was indicted for running cocaine in
1984. He says the CIA used his indictment to pressure him into
providing planes, pilots and three million dollars in cash to the
Contras. He too is in federal prison awaiting sentencing on the
'84 charge.
Reporter:
So you're saying that drug planes were allowed into the states as
long as somebody was kicking money into the Contra coffer.
Morales:
Definitely.
Reporter:
Is this like just a one-time occurrence? Somebody snuck in?
Morales:
No.
Reporter:
Frequent?
Morales:
Yes.
Reporter:
Routine?
Morales:
Yes.
(back to Tulliver)
Believe it or not, the entire business is compartmentalized. I'm
like a Teamster. I'm in transportation. You've got people who
are in loading. You've got people who are in offloading. You've
got people who are in distribution. You've got people who are in
sales. It's like an IBM situation.
Reporter narrating again:
Gary Betzner was one of George Morale's top pilots. He too is in
federal prison in Miami on an unrelated drug conviction. His
sentence is 15 years. Like Morales and Tulliver he has little to
gain from talking about these drug flights.
Betzner:
I took two loads, small aircraft loads of weapons to John Hull's
ranch in Costa Rica and returned back to Florida with
approximately 1000 kilos of cocaine.
Reporter:
What exactly was in the plane that you flew from Fort Lauderdale?
Betzner:
Oh there was some C-4 explosives, M-60 machine guns. It was
stacked all the way to the ceiling.
Reporter:
How many pounds of weaponry?
Betzner:
I would estimated around 2,500 pounds. I understood right away
that it wasn't the private guns that went down that were that
important. It was what was coming back that could buy much
larger and better and more sophisticated weapons. It was
unaccounted for cash.
Reporter narrating:
... near heavy security Ramone Rodriguez was brought to capitol
hill. Ocean Hunter, it appears, is just the beginning (?).
Under oath, he told Senators that the drug connection is much
larger. That he'd handled a direct 10 million dollars in cash
contributions from the Colombian cocaine cartels to the Contras.
Rodriguez:
Outside the United States drug dealers are very powerful people.
They have cash. The CIA deals primarily with items outside of
the U.S.. If they're going to deal in foreign country's policies
and politics they're going to run up against or run with the drug
dealers. It cannot be done any other way.
Reporter:
Do you have any evidence, any proof, any ideas of whether the
large sums of cash you had delivered to the Contras, whether it
actually made it to the Contras?
Rodriguez:
There is no way to trace cash. My guess it that not all of it
got there, but I'm a cynic.
Reporter:
Where would it have ended up?
Rodriguez:
I would say that you're gonna find a lot of it in nest eggs,
foreign accounts, waiting for the day when the Contra issue is no
longer popular, when Congress votes it out of existence and they
have to do something else for a living.
(back to Bo at the luncheon)
Point is there are three sources now all saying one little
bureaucrat. Look how bureaucrats fall! You break wind wrong,
you're out of here in an election year. Why hasn't Mr. Armitage
been investigated? When we came back I was told by telephone in
Bangkok, "Bo, if you don't erase and forget everything that you
have done, you're going to get hurt." I was told, "Everybody
loves you. Nobody wants to hurt you. No one wants to put a war
hero in jail, but if you don't cooperate you're going to hurt the
government." And I said, "Joe, whose government am I gonna
hurt?" (lots of applause)
I am sick and tired of watching the result of poor politics
sending our soldiers overseas to do something that they were not
meant to do. I'm a fighter, but when we fight we ought to fight
to win. And when we send people we ought to be willing to bring
them back again. (much applause)
We did go before congress. You know who runs the drug task force
in the house of representatives? Lawrence Smith. He is a
democrat from "Miami Vice" Florida and his staff told me before I
came up, "Bo, you better be well-heeled-for-bear because the
people who keep the chairman in office are more prone to promote
drugs than they are to fight them." When I got up there Lawrence
Smith would not allow any members of the task force to view the
video tapes that we brought from Khun Sa in Burma. He asked me,
"Colonel, how could a man of your intelligence put any stock at
all in what a drug warlord would say?" I said, "Mr. Chairman,
aren't we dealing with Mikhail Gorbachev and he's a Communist.
But we talk to him because he has the missiles and we want to
reduce them. Khun Sa has all the heroin and if we want to stop
it he's the guy we ought to see." And he says, "What's this
business about a heroin highway? How do we know the Thai's
didn't build that road to attack Khun Sa?" And I said, "Well
Chairman, if they did, they did a heck of a good job because it
goes right straight to his headquarters and nobody is attacking
and he his own little customs houses all along the road where the
little bar comes down." He ended the hearing by saying, "I don't
think there is any substantive evidence here that would indicate
any further investigation need be made." He never called H. Ross
Perot. He never called the Christic Institute. He never allowed
the tapes or the letter that Khun Sa wrote because I found out
that video tapes aren't enough. They said, "Well, he didn't
write anything." Then we had a letter with his signature on it
under the Shan seal.
Point is Ladies and Gentlemen, there is a parallel government
this day that lives within the United States government. It is a
parasite! Personally, I think we may have lost the Executive
Branch.
(cut to clip from Iran-Contra hearings with Jack Brooks
questioning Ollie North about executive order rescinding the
constitution)
I was particularly concerned Mr. Chairman, because I read in
Miami papers and several others that there had been a plan
developed by that same agency, a contingency plan in the event of
an emergency that would suspend the American constitution and I
was deeply concerned about it. I'm wondering if that was the
area in which he had worked.
I believe that he was, but I wanted to get his confirmation.
(Brooks tries to continue here and is interrupted by Daniel
Inouye, chairman of the proceedings and senator from Hawaii)
Inouye:
/* ---------- "A NATION BETRAYED - PART 4" ---------- */
May I most respectfully ask that this matter not be touched upon
at this stage. If we wish to get into this I'm certain
arrangements can be made during executive session.
(cut to Jack Brook's summary)
... involving the U.S. government in military activity in direct
contradiction of the law, diverting public funds into private
pockets in secret unofficial activities, selling access to the
President for thousands of dollars, dispensing cash and foreign
money orders out of a White House safe, accepting gifts and
falsifying papers to cover it up, altering and shredding national
security documents, lying to Congress. Now I believe that the
American people understand that democracy cannot survive that
kind of abuse.
(back to Bo at luncheon)
I don't think it makes a hoot who you vote for President. The
same people are gonna run this country. I stand before you
today. You gotta know who I am. I'm an indicted felon because
part of that phone call in Thailand said, "Bo, if you don't erase
and forget, if you don't come to the apartment (that was a
safehouse in Washington, D.C.), you're gonna be charged with 15
years and your going to serve as a felon and we're going to bring
up aggravated charges and hostile witnesses." That's not my kind
of language. I said, "Friend, that's an insult to you, me and
two hundred years of constitutional government." He said, "Bo,
don't give me that. Bring everything you've got to the
apartment." I said, "Who's going to be there, Joe?" And he said,
"You know me better than that, Bo. It will just be me and Tom
Harvey." I said, "OK, I'll bring this stuff dear citizen. I'll
show it to you then you tell me to erase and forget." When I got
to LA with the tapes he said, "Bo, don't come." He was that much
of a friend. He said, "Don't come. Hide those tapes.
Everybody's laying for you." He said, "But please destroy and
forget. That's all the State Department wants you to do because
otherwise you're going to jail as a felon." You know what they
charged me with? They did charge me. Misuse of a passport. Now
that is a weeny charge for somebody that's been in clandestine
warfare for more than 30 years. That throws me in league with
Jane Fonda. She was cavorting with the enemy and misusing her
passport. Ollie North and Robert McValium went to Iran on Irish
passports so they could do an illegal arms deal, but nobody has
charged them. That's because they're cooperating.
Well, I'm not worried about that. The U.S. attorney doesn't know
how hard to take it because I said, "I don't deny I misused a
passport. I misused it many times. Every time in pursuit of
U.S. prisoners of war." You, dear citizen, see if you would
erase and go back to sleep and forget. I don't think that you
will. In my defense I got a lawyer, he's the former U.S.
attorney for Nevada. He took my case for free other than all the
expenses it cost to bring in witnesses. Were going to use this
court as a forum for prisoners of war and for government in drug
dealing because you know you can't sue the government, but when
the government jumps on you now you can turn it around on them.
That's exactly what were doing. I got a plea the other day
saying, "Bo, just go ahead and cop a plea it'll be a
misdemeanor." No way Jose, were going all the way with this one.
(Narrator)
The American Warrior has traveled a long road from the jungles of
Vietnam to the Pentagon to a hostile federal courtroom in Las
Vegas, but the commitment to God, country, honor and decency have
never wavered. It would be far easier to walk away from this
battle, but to do so would be impossible for this soldier.
Interestingly enough, the U.S. attorney prosecuting this case
against a respected dissenting war hero is himself the former
road manager for a well-known 1960's antiwar rock group. The
irony is not lost on Las Vegans, but the issues behind the trial
demand nationwide attention.
One can only wonder what the charges will be against Oliver
North.
The Christic Institute, on the other hand, is facing an uphill
battle in their current appeal of Judge King's dismissal of their
racketeering lawsuit against The Enterprise last June in Miami.
As Father Bill Davis, their chief investigator explains:
(cut to Father Bill Davis from The Christic Institute)
This is by far the most important case we've ever done. I think
for the kinds of forces that were up against, as well as for the
broader public policy implications. If this crowd can get away
with what they have been getting away with: the arms dealing,
the drug dealing, the assassination programs and sell it under
the guise of some kind of blind anti-communism, having had the
revelations that we've had: the Hasenfuss flight, the Iran arms
deal. If they still get away with it then I think democracy, at
least in this country, is in very very serious condition. I
don't think it will survive. Were either going to win against
these forces, this time or I am not optimistic about the survival
of democracy in this country. I think it's that serious.
(Narrator)
The seriousness of Gritz's discoveries during his first mission
to the Golden Triangle, however was brought home immediately
after his return. Scott Weekly, his Operation Lazarus team
member and veteran of several POW recovery missions, was arrested
and charged with a federal violation resulting from the Afghan
training program he helped Gritz conduct. Weekly was a classmate
of Oliver North's at Annapolis and has a Ph.D. in physics. After
numerous forays into hostile enemy territory neither he nor Gritz
were prepared for the treachery that awaited them at home.
(Bo filmed in Thailand or thereabouts)
The ambassador level person for the U.S. government in charge of
narcotics control made a statement immediately following the
release of this tape to the White House that the United States
would never a agree to talk with General Khun Sa about drug
control because he was such a black-hearted criminal. I believe
that we can show through facts that have already been established
by the U.S. Justice Department and on-going investigations that
there are people currently who saw that tape in the U.S.
government that all that they could to stop this interview right
here for fear they would be exposed. Even to the point where
they arrested Scott Weekly for a minor technicality of
transporting explosives illegally on a commercial airliner.
Very briefly we were training a couple of Afghan freedom fighters
through the knowledge and request of the U.S. State Department
and other official agencies. The explosives were procured for us
from Fort Sill, Oklahoma and were naturally transported, because
we were using them at a remote desert base, by aircraft. There
was no danger to the civilian aircraft. The explosives were C-4,
plastic, frontline safe. You could shoot them with a machine gun
and they wouldn't go off. There were no detonating devices with
us. Federal agents told Scott when he was taken into custody
that it wasn't a technicality and that the real target was me.
They were under pressure by the U.S. attorney's office to find
out whether or not I was in cahoots with North and Poindexter
since I had traveled to Latin America and to the Middle East in
pursuit of various government associated projects. The fact is
and the truth is that I've had nothing to do with North and
Poindexter or any illegal activities either in South America or
the Middle East. Now the truth is that I believe that elements
in the U.S. government are afraid that they will be exposed for
their illegal activities and drug trafficking. Through that
exposure that this will cease and they will lose their power. If
they had tried to put pressure by causing Scott Weekly even to be
adjudged guilty ... because he was told if he would plead guilty
that there would be no problem ... that he would be given
probation ... that there would be no more pursuit ... that it
would be unsupervised probation which would allow him to continue
to travel overseas. In truth, he was sentenced. The fact is
that Scott was told that if he would plead guilty that there
would be no further investigation and that all would go well for
him and that if he did not plead guilty there would be a tether
put on all of us so that we would not be able to travel and at
that time we were very very close to negotiating the release of
American prisoners of war. The only reason that Scott plead
guilty was so that other members of the Operation Lazarus team,
myself included, would be free to continue the mission of
liberating U.S. prisoners of war, which is ongoing now.
(Narrator Discussing Weekly's case)
Scott Weekly was made to serve fourteen months of a five year
sentence before it was demonstrated that the agents had removed
sensitive documents from his pre-sentencing file which would have
exonerated him. The sentence was simply dismissed.
Lance Trimmer, a former Green Beret communications specialist
with the Lazarus team, accompanied Gritz to Burma in Weekly's
place in May, 1987 where he witnessed Khun Sa naming the U.S.
officials involved in drug trafficking. As a professional
private investigator, since returning he has spearheaded the
effort to document and publicize the team's findings and was
instrumental in obtaining Scott Weekly's release from Lompoc
Federal Prison. In the process he has been unjustifiably
arrested and detained three times by the police and federal
authorities.
(Narrator introducing Barry Flinn)
Barry Flinn is the Bangkok station chief for Operation Lazarus.
In May of 1987 he served as the cameraman with Colonel Gritz on
his second trip to visit Khun Sa. Also during this time he has
made other trips into ShanLand. On one occasion he accompanied a
journalist from Australia who filmed the proceedings and made
this the subject of a news program in Australia. Barry himself
was arrested immediately upon his return to Bangkok from ShanLand
on the first trip and has been several times since then as has
been Khun Sa.
(Khun Sa in interview with Australian journalist ... either he
himself or a translator is speaking ... it sounds like Khun Sa
himself)
... even if they kill me the opium will still be there. They
only use me as a money tree. Every time they want money, they
come and shake the tree just like a Christmas tree.
Journalist:
... spraying the opium crop with the poison 24-D (or some such.
Ed.)
(Narrator Again)
One of the problems that Khun Sa pointed out in the news program
in Australia is the extensive use of toxic herbicide spraying
over his territory not to kill the opium plants, but to kill the
food crops which is very very destructive of the culture and the
people and creating a very serious refugee problem.
(Khun Sa again ...)
We have 300 families in the hills now who have no food. The
world body is doing something against humanity in the Shan state
and nobody knows about it.
(Bo talks about Khun Sa's offer)
General Khun Sa has extended an offer in writing to turn over to
the United States Government on March 15, 1988 one ton of refined
Asian heroin, that sells for $250,000 per pound to distributors,
as a show of good faith that he would stop 1,200 tons of heroin
from entering the free world in 1988. The response of the State
Department was, "no interest."
(Bo talking in Southeast Asian Field)
There are personalities within the United States Government who
have, as early as the early 1960's, trafficked in opium and
heroin to finance assassination programs initially approved by
the Central Intelligence Agency, which didn't work then and
aren't working now. If these assassinations programs spread from
Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand to Iran, to Nicaragua, to
Libya and have the potential of continuing to spread unless some
exposure is finally done to eliminate these high officials.
H. Ross Perot has said as a result of his investigation he has
found a, "snake pit without a bottom." He says that the people
involved will do anything to keep their wrongdoings covered up.
He even says that a man that was responsible for the Phoenix
assassination program is now on the personal staff of George
Bush.
(Cut to Barry Flinn in Bangkok discussing his trip with Bo.)
My name is Barry Flinn and I live in Bangkok, Thailand. I have
been in Bangkok now for two years. I am a member of Operation
Lazarus and I am the station chief here in Bangkok. My function
for Operation Lazarus is to collect information from my agents in
Laos and in Vietnam on locating live Americans held captive in
these two countries. This last trip Colonel Gritz had asked me
to go into ShanLand, a territory of Burma, to be a witness and a
cameraman to record the conversation with him and General Khun
Sa. I agreed to go and I did witness, I did record the meeting
with Lt. Colonel James 'Bo' Gritz and General Khun Sa. Another
member of Operation Lazarus by the name of Lance Trimmer also
accompanied us. In Shanland I did record the meeting and the
facts are as follows: General Khun Sa's people, the secretaries
read from a document written in the Shan language about American
officials dealing in heroin from 1965 to the present. Some of
the names he had given us were a man by the name of Shakley, a
man by the name of Armitage and other American officials involved
in drugs. Now my job is strictly locating POW's. I am not
involved with the DEA or any other U.S. Government agency. I am
a private citizen. It makes you angry when you hear of the drug
problems in America. Children taking heroin at twelve and high
officials supplying them the heroin and all the cover-ups they
did in the past, the present and probably in the future. Now as
a witness I definitely believe these men were involved in the
drug trade. General Khun Sa did say that, after giving us the
names, he wouldn't be surprised if B-52 bombers started flying
over Shanland to destroy him and to kill him so that he wouldn't
testify to the other Americans involved in the drug trade.
I am staying in Bangkok, Thailand to locate POW's and if people
are interested in more information about the interview with Khun
Sa and Lt. Colonel James 'Bo' Gritz they know where to find me.
The American embassy knows where to locate me. Lt. Colonel
James 'Bo' Gritz knows where to locate me and I'm sure the
people involved in the drug trade know where to locate me.
Alright. One more thing. I did hear about the Americans
Shakley, Armitage and other Americans being named. it sent a
chill up my spine and down my back. It made me angry. It made
me shocked. I couldn't believe it, but it was there: names,
files of old papers that the Laos agents and the Shan people have
on our Americans. Somebody has to do something. It will
probably all be covered up. I don't know. It's not my business.
I was only a witness and it will stay with me for the rest of my
life about the people in our government dealing drugs. It's nice
to know, isn't it? It's really nice to know ....
(Bo gives summary)
In summary, the reason that American prisoners of war are not at
home as we speak, if what Khun Sa, the Christic Institute, and H.
Ross Perot are saying is true, is because Richard Armitage, the
one man responsible for their recovery is a heroin smuggler and
an arms dealer. He has misused his office in order to promote
covert operations through the sale of heroin and trading in arms
that bypasses the U.S. Congress. When prisoners come home he
will be investigated. His wrongdoings and misuse of office will
be uncovered and exposed and he and the others will fall like a
house of cards.
As an American citizen it is our responsibility to wake up to the
internal threat, the treachery that threatens literally the life
of this nation.
(Bo back at luncheon asks people to swear to do something)
It's time that we just became Americans. Here is what I would
ask you to do, because you can't just go back to sleep on this
thing like we did on 007, the Korean airline. One is, I would
ask that in your mind, if not physically here today, be willing
to raise your hand to the square (?) and swear again before God
and witnesses your allegiance to this heavenly banner (points to
flag) and to the constitution of the United States because it
will die hermetically sealed in the National Archives if we don't
breath some life back into it. It is hanging by a thread. The
righteous people of this country, doesn't mean Democrat,
Republican, right, left, conservative, liberal, the righteous
people of this country need now to stand up and put a shoulder to
it to keep it stable. I want you to commit to yourself that
you're going to do something about it. Demand that an
investigation be made.
(Bo narrating here ...)
Demand a thorough and true investigation of Richard Armitage.
Insist that The Christic Institute's charges go to trial and be
heard by a jury of Americans. That those in our government that
represent sewage, that clog the bureaucracy today might be
cleaned out. That the American way might continue. That our
children might grow up in liberty and freedom with same
opportunities that we have had.
(Gritz apparently is willing to run for Congress on the
Republican ticket. Back to the luncheon)
In the legislature you need to seek out, identify and draft
people that have the guts to stand up, because if you get the
legislature up there it can be through the people. It can be
pulled back from the brink. I think that's our saving grace. I
think that through the legislature we can do what no one else
would have done to Nixon. We can wash him away, we can wash
away, hopefully, it's going to be a hard fight, this cancer. I
stand before you and give you an order. You have got to do
something about this thing. We fought the enemy foreign. Can't
we fight the enemy domestic?
(much applause)
(Ed: If you wish to order the video tape, you can write Bo Gritz
at the address below. I'm not sure how current it is. I highly
recommend that you do order it somehow. Reading about it is one
thing, but it's another thing entirely to see Khun Sa and his men
dictating the names of top U.S. officials to video tape. Many
documents that are on the video are not in my transcription here.
They would be too numerous to transcribe)
Lt. Colonel James 'Bo' Gritz
Box 472-HCR31
Sandy Valley, Nevada
Postal Zone 89019
(Transcribers disclaimer: The views expressed in this document
do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the
transcriber. I am only the messenger. Don't shoot me. Ed.)
--------------------------------------------+---------------------------
Jim Burnes - System Engineer ! When the world is
SouthWestern Bell Advanced Technology Labs ! running down...
Internet: jburnes@swbatl.swbell.com ! Make the best of what's
Ma Bell: (314) 235-7444 (W) ! still around.
(314) 832-0464 (H) ! -Sting
--------------------------------------------+---------------------------
Conf? 20
Topic 20 NATION BETRAYED - feedback 4 responses
peacenet
Drugs and U.S. Foreign Policy 12:44 pm Jun 2, 1991
Written 7:11 pm May 27, 1991 by jburnes in cdp:alt.conspiracy
/* ---------- "NATION BETRAYED - feedback" ---------- */
Well....
There you have it. A Nation Betrayed. Something you probably
won't see on CBS or NBC (or PBS for that matter) any time soon.
Let me know how you liked it and tell me if you have any
opinions.
I'll be glad to rationally discuss this matter with anyone
assuming the "the men in the dark suits" don't take me out first.
Jim
--------------------------------------------+---------------------------
Jim Burnes - System Engineer ! When the world is
SouthWestern Bell Advanced Technology Labs ! running down...
Internet: jburnes@swbatl.swbell.com ! Make the best of what's
Ma Bell: (314) 235-7444 (W) ! still around.
(314) 832-0464 (H) ! -Sting
--------------------------------------------+---------------------------
Conf? 20.1
Topic 20 NATION BETRAYED - feedback Response 1 of 4
peacenet Drugs and U.S. Foreign Policy 12:45 pm Jun 2,
1991
/* Written 7:20 pm May 28, 1991 by benno in cdp:alt.conspiracy
*/
/* ---------- "NATION BETRAYED - feedback" ---------- */
Please, check also "Behold a Pale Horse", by
William Cooper
PO Box 3299
Camp Verde, AZ 86322
Voice: recorded message Hotline:(213)281-8222, BBS:(602)567-6725
This is a most impressive book that collects very significant
reproductions of key government documents and citations of not
so publicly disclosed facts about the real movers and shakers of
world events, their reasoning, and many citations of very hard to
find sources.
This book is an 'All under one cover' power house collection of
facts that the media won't touch, and the government does not
want the public to know.
It exposes all the significant manipulations behind world events
and names the individuals and agencies in the greatest of detail.
It includes documentation of their most closely guarded secrets
to a degree unknown in previous publications to date when one
considers this book is only 500 pgs. It's an excellent starting
point for any person sincerely interested in the insider truth
with documented proof.
This book is a good first book/ref or addition to others.
One other book worth mentioning is: "America's Secret
Establishment," by Antony Sutton, ISBN 0-937765-02-3, is also a
very good book with references that should be mentioned.
He will likely be selling his new book for $22. Otherwise it
should be available from:
William Cooper
19744 Beach Blvd., Suite 301
Huntington Beach, California
Postal Zone 92648
Conf? 20.2
Topic 20 NATION BETRAYED - feedback Response 2 of 4
peacenet Drugs and U.S. Foreign Policy 12:48 pm Jun 2,
1991
Dear PeaceNet readers:
These topics were cross-posted from alt.conspiracy, which is a
Usenet conference that eventually disappears off of our machine.
So to keep this important record, we cross-posted it here, where
it will not disappear.
If you want to give the transcriber direct feedback, you can
reach him by (w)riting a (n)ew message in (m)ail (or shorthand
,wnm) To: jburnes@swbatl.swbell.com
Conf? 20.3
Topic 20 NATION BETRAYED - feedback Response 3 of 4
pinknoise _ Drugs and U.S. Foreign Policy 11:06 pm Jun 4,
1991
My reply got bounced back with Host Unknown, so here it is in
public view ...
Thanks very much for posting this transcript. I will review it
and probably post some name corrections. I've used portions of
the tape in a performance I'm staging regarding conspiracies.
One anecdote: I went up to this guy wearing a POW/MIA jacket and
asked if he had read "Kiss the Boys Goodbye" (which I highly
recommend). He said it was the most amazing thing he had read,
and this guy wasn't no progressive, either. The Senate Foreign
Relations Committee has released a 170+ page report on the
POW/MIA issue and the man in charge of the program has just quit,
he's so disgusted by the lack of progress. And we know why
there's no progress, right?
Conf? 20.4
Topic 20 NATION BETRAYED - feedback Response 4 of 4
pinknoise Drugs and U.S. Foreign Policy 10:30 pm Jun 11,
1991
[ The following is an appendix to the Minority Staff/Senate
Foreign Relations Committee. report on POW's]
EPILOGUE
THE PECK LETTER
DATE: 12 FEB 1991
ATTN: POW-MIA
SUBJECT: Request for Relief
TO: DR
1. PURPOSE: I, hereby, request to resign my position as Chief
of the Special Office for Prisoners of War and Missing in Action
(POW-MIA).
2. BACKGROUND:
a. Motivation. My initial acceptance of this posting was based
upon two primary motives: first, I had heard that the job was
highly contentious and extremely frustrating, that no one would
volunteer for it because of its complex political nature. This,
of course, made it appear challenging. Secondly, since the end
of the Vietnam War, I had heard the persistent rumors of American
Serviceman [sic] having been abandoned in Indochina, and that the
Government was conducting a "cover-up" so as not to be
embarrassed. I was curious about this and thought that serving
as the Chief of POW-MIA would be an opportunity to satisfy my own
interest and help clear the Government's name.
b. The Office's Reputation. It was interesting that my previous
exposure to the POW Office, while assigned to DIA, both as a Duty
Director for Intelligence (DDI) and as the Chief of the Asia
Division for Current Intelligence (JSI-3), was negative. DIA
personnel who worked for me, when dealing with or mentioning the
Office, always spoke about it in deprecating tones, alluding to
the fact that any report which found its way there would quickly
disappear into a "black hole."
c. General Attitudes. Additionally, surveys of active duty
military personnel indicate a high percentage (83%) believed that
there were still live American prisoners in Vietnam. This idea
was further promulgated in a number of legitimate veterans'
periodicals and professional journals, as well as the media in
general, which held that where there was so much smoke, there
must be fire.
d . Cover-up. The dark side of the issue was particularly
unsettling because of the persistent rumors and innuendos of a
Government conspiracy, alleging that U.S. military personnel had
been left behind to the victorious Communist governments in
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, and that for "political reasons" or
running the risk of a second Vietnam War, their existence was
officially denied. Worse yet was the implication that DIA's
Special Office for POW's and MIA's was an integral part of this
effort to cover the entire affair up so as not to embarrass the
Government nor the Defense Establishment.
e. The Crusade. As a Vietnam veteran with a certain amount of
experience in Indochina, I was interested in the entire POW-MIA
question, and willingly volunteered for the job, viewing it as
sort of a holy crusade.
f. The Harsh Reality. Heading up the Office has not been
pleasant. My plan was to be totally honest and forthcoming on
the entire issue and aggressively pursue innovative actions and
concepts to clear up the live sighting business, thereby
refurbishing the image and honor of DIA. I became painfully
aware, however, that I was not really in charge of my own office,
but was merely a figurehead or whipping boy for a larger and
totally Machiavellian group of players outside of DIA. What I
witnessed during my tenure as the cardboard cut-out "Chief" of
POW-MIA could be euphemistically labelled as disillusioning.
3. CURRENT IMPRESSIONS, BASED ON MY EXPERIENCE:
a. Highest National Priority. That National leaders continue to
address the prisoner of war and missing in action issue as the
"highest national priority" is a travesty. From my vantage
point, I observed that the principal government players were
interested primarily in conducting a "damage limitation
exercise", and appeared to knowingly and deliberately generate an
endless succession of manufactured crises and "busy work".
Progress consisted in frenetic activity, with little substance
and no real results.
b. The Mindset to Debunk. The mindset to "debunk" is alive and
well. It is held at all levels, and continues to pervade the
POW-MIA Office, which is not necessarily the fault of DIA.
Practically all analysis is directed to finding fault with the
source. Rarely has there been any effective, active follow
through on any of the sightings, nor is there a responsive
"action arm" to routinely and aggressively pursue leads. The
latter was a moot point, anyway, since the Office was
continuously buried in an avalanche of "ad hoc" taskings from
every quarter, all of which required an immediate response. It
was impossible to plan ahead or prioritize courses of action.
Any real effort to pursue live sighting reports or exercise
initiatives was diminished by the plethora of "busy work"
projects directed by higher authority outside of DIA. A number
of these grandiose endeavors bordered on the ridiculous, and -
quite significantly - there was never an audit trail. None of
these taskings was ever requested formally. There was, and still
is, a refusal by any of the players to follow normal intelligence
channels in dealing with the POW-MIA Office.
c. Duty, Honor and Integrity. It appears that the entire issue
is being manipulated by unscrupulous people in the Government, or
associated with the Government. Some are using the issue for
personal or political advantage and others use it as a forum to
perform and feel important, or worse. The sad fact, however, is
that this issue is being controlled and a cover-up may be in
progress. The entire charade does not appear to be an honest
effort, and may never have been.
d. POW-MIA Officers Abandoned. When I assumed the Office for
the first time, I was somewhat amazed and greatly disturbed by
the fact that I was the only military officer in an organization
of more than 40 people. Since combatants of all Services were
lost in Vietnam, I would have thought there would at least be a
token Service representation for a matter of the "highest
national priority." Since the normal mix of officers from all
Services is not found in my organization it would appear that the
issue, at least at the working level, has, in fact, been
abandoned. Also, the horror stories of the succession of
military officers at the C-5 and C-6 level who have in some
manner "rocked the boat" and quickly come to grief at the hands
of the Government policy makers who direct the issue, lead one to
the conclusion that we are all quite expendable, so by
extrapolation one simply concludes that these same bureaucrats
would "sacrifice" anyone who was troublesome or contentious as
including prisoners of war and missing in action. Not a
comforting thought. Any military officer expected to survive in
this environment would have to be myopic, an accomplished
sycophant, or totally insouciant.
e. The DIA Involvement. DIA's role in the affair is truly
unfortunate. The overall Agency has generally practiced a
"damage limitation drill" on the issue, as well. The POW-MIA
Office has been cloistered for all practical purposes and left to
its own fortunes. The POW Office is the lowest level in the
Government "efforts" to resolve the issue, and oddly for an
intelligence organization, has become the "lightening rod" [sic]
for the entire establishment to the matter. The policy people
manipulating the affair have maintained their distance and
remained hidden in the shadows, while using the Office as a
"toxic waste dump" to bury the whole "mess" out of sight and mind
to a facility with the limited access to public scrutiny.
Whatever happens in the issue, DIA takes the blame, while the
real players remain invisible. The fact that the POW-MIA Office
is always the center of an investigation is no surprise. Many
people suspect that something is rotten about the whole thing,
but they cannot find an audit trail to ascribe blame, so they
attack the DIA/POW-MIA "dump", simply because it has been placed
in the line of fire as a cheap, expendable decoy.
f. "Suppressio Veri, Suggestio Falsi". Many of the puppet
masters play a confusing, murky role. For instance, the Director
of the National League of Families occupies an interesting and
questionable position in the whole process. Although assiduously
"churning" the account to give a tawdry illusion of progress, she
is adamantly opposed to any initiative to actually get to the
heart of the problem, and, more importantly, interferes in or
actively sabotages POW-MIA analyses or investigations. She
insists on rewriting or editing all significant documents
produced by the Office, then touted as the DIA position. She
apparently has access to top secret, codeword message traffic,
for which she is supposedly not cleared, and she receives it well
ahead of the DIA intelligence analysts. Her influence in
"jerking around" everyone and everything involved in the issue
goes far beyond the "war and MIA protestor gone straight"
scenario. She was brought from the "outside", into the center of
the imbroglio, and then, cloaked in a mantle of sanctimony,
routinely impedes real progress and insidiously "muddles up" the
issue. One wonders who she really is and where she came from.
4. CONCLUSIONS:
a. The Stalled Crusade. Unfortunately, what began on such a
high note never succeeded in embarking. In some respects,
however, I have managed to satisfy some of my curiosity.
b. Everyone is Expendable. I have seen firsthand how ready and
willing the policy people are to sacrifice or "abandon" anyone
who might be perceived as a political liability. It is quick and
facile, and can be easily covered.
c. High-Level Knavery. I feel strongly that this issue is being
manipulated and controlled at a higher level, not with the goal
of resolving it, but more to obfuscate the question of live
prisoners, and give the illusion of progress through
hyperactivity.
d. "Smoke and Mirrors". From what I have witnessed, it appears
that any soldier left in Vietnam, even inadvertently, was, in
fact, abandoned years ago, and that the farce that is being
played is no more than political legerdemain done with "smoke and
mirrors", to stall the issue until it dies a natural death.
e. National League of Families. I am convinced that the
Director of this organization is much more than meets the eye.
As the principal actor in the grand show, she is in the perfect
position to clamor for "progress", while really intentionally
impeding the effort. And there are numerous examples of this.
Otherwise it is inconceivable that so many bureaucrats in the
"system" would instantaneously do her bidding and humor her every
whim.
f. DIA's Dilemma. Although greatly saddened by the role
ascribed to the Defense Intelligence Agency, I feel, at least,
that I am dealing with honest men and women who are generally
powerless to make the system work. My appeal and attempt to
amend this role perhaps never had a chance. We all were subject
to control. I particularly salute the personnel in the POW-MIA
Office for their long suffering, which I regrettably was unable
to change. I feel that the Agency and the Office are being used
as the "fall guys" or "patsies" to cover the tracks of others.
5. RECOMMENDATIONS:
a. One Final Vietnam Casualty. So ends the war and my last
grand crusade, like it actually did end, I guess. However, as
they say in the Legion, "je ne regrette rien ..." For all of the
above, I respectfully request to be relieved of my duties as
Chief of the Special Office for Prisoners of War and Missing in
Action.
b. A Farewell to Arms. So as to avoid the annoyance of being
shipped off to some remote corner, out of sight and out of the
way, in my own "bamboo cage" of silence somewhere, I further
request that the Defense Intelligence Agency, which I have
attempted to serve loyally and with honor, assist me in being
retired immediately from active military service.
MILLARD A. PECK
Colonel, Infantry
USA
Note: [sic] is not in original. Some spelling errors have been
corrected.
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