OT: To Mister Soul, John Kerry led the investigation on cocaine read it all
Question:
How John Kerry Exposed the Contra-Cocaine Scandal By Robert Parry Salon.com Monday 25 October 2004 Derided by the mainstream press and taking on Reagan at the height of his popularity, the freshman senator battled to reveal one of America’s ugliest foreign policy secrets. In December 1985, when Brian Barger and I wrote a groundbreaking story for the Associated Press about Nicaraguan Contra rebels smuggling cocaine into the United States, one U.S. senator put his political career on the line to follow up on our disturbing findings. His name was John Kerry. Yet, over the past year, even as Kerry’s heroism as a young Navy officer in Vietnam has become a point of controversy, this act of political courage by a freshman senator has gone virtually unmentioned, even though – or perhaps because – it marked Kerry’s first challenge to the Bush family. In early 1986, the 42-year-old Massachusetts Democrat stood almost alone in the U.S. Senate demanding answers about the emerging evidence that CIA-backed Contras were filling their coffers by collaborating with drug traffickers then flooding U.S. borders with cocaine from South America. Kerry assigned members of his personal Senate staff to pursue the allegations. He also persuaded the Republican majority on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to request information from the Reagan-Bush administration about the alleged Contra drug traffickers. In taking on the inquiry, Kerry challenged President Ronald Reagan at the height of his power, at a time he was calling the Contras the "moral equals of the Founding Fathers." Kerry’s questions represented a particular embarrassment to Vice President George H.W. Bush, whose responsibilities included overseeing U.S. drug-interdiction policies. Kerry took on the investigation though he didn’t have much support within his own party. By 1986, congressional Democrats had little stomach left for challenging the Reagan-Bush Contra war. Not only had Reagan won a historic landslide in 1984, amassing a record 54 million votes, but his conservative allies were targeting individual Democrats viewed as critical of the Contras fighting to oust Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista government. Most Washington journalists were backing off, too, for fear of getting labeled "Sandinista apologists" or worse. Kerry’s probe infuriated Reagan’s White House, which was pushing Congress to restore military funding for the Contras. Some in the administration also saw Kerry’s investigation as a threat to the secrecy surrounding the Contra supply operation, which was being run illegally by White House aide Oliver North and members of Bush’s vice presidential staff. Through most of 1986, Kerry’s staff inquiry advanced against withering political fire. His investigators interviewed witnesses in Washington, contacted Contra sources in Miami and Costa Rica, and tried to make sense of sometimes convoluted stories of intrigue from the shadowy worlds of covert warfare and the drug trade. Kerry’s chief Senate staff investigators were Ron Rosenblith, Jonathan Winer and Dick McCall. Rosenblith, a Massachusetts political strategist from Kerry’s victorious 1984 campaign, braved both political and personal risks as he traveled to Central America for face-to-face meetings with witnesses. Winer, a lawyer also from Massachusetts, charted the inquiry’s legal framework and mastered its complex details. McCall, an experienced congressional staffer, brought Capitol Hill savvy to the investigation. Behind it all was Kerry, who combined a prosecutor’s sense for sniffing out criminality and a politician’s instinct for pushing the limits. The Kerry whom I met during this period was a complex man who balanced a rebellious idealism with a determination not to burn his bridges to the political establishment. The Reagan administration did everything it could to thwart Kerry’s investigation, including attempting to discredit witnesses, stonewalling the Senate when it requested evidence and assigning the CIA to monitor Kerry’s probe. But it couldn’t stop Kerry and his investigators from discovering the explosive truth: that the Contra war was permeated with drug traffickers who gave the Contras money, weapons and equipment in exchange for help in smuggling cocaine into the United States. Even more damningly, Kerry found that U.S. government agencies knew about the Contra-drug connection, but turned a blind eye to the evidence in order to avoid undermining a top Reagan-Bush foreign policy initiative. The Reagan administration’s tolerance and protection of this dark underbelly of the Contra war represented one of the most sordid scandals in the history of U.S. foreign policy. Yet when Kerry’s bombshell findings were released in 1989, they were greeted by the mainstream press with disdain and disinterest. The New York Times, which had long denigrated the Contra-drug allegations, buried the story of Kerry’s report on its inside pages, as did the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. For his tireless efforts, Kerry earned a reputation as a reckless investigator. Newsweek’s Conventional Wisdom Watch dubbed Kerry a "randy conspiracy buff." But almost a decade later, in 1998, Kerry’s trailblazing investigation was vindicated by the CIA’s own inspector general, who found that scores of Contra operatives were implicated in the cocaine trade and that U.S. agencies had looked the other way rather than reveal information that could have embarrassed the Reagan-Bush administration. Even after the CIA’s admissions, the national press corps never fully corrected its earlier dismissive treatment. That would have meant the New York Times and other leading publications admitting they had bungled their coverage of one of the worst scandals of the Reagan-Bush era. The warm and fuzzy glow that surrounded Ronald Reagan after he left office also discouraged clarification of the historical record. Taking a clear-eyed look at crimes inside Reagan’s Central American policies would have required a tough reassessment of the 40th president, which to this day the media has been unwilling to do. So this formative period of Kerry’s political evolution has remained nearly unknown to the American electorate. Two decades later, it’s hard to recall the intensity of the administration’s support for the Contras. They were hailed as courageous front-line fighters, like the Mujahedin in Afghanistan, defending the free world from the Soviet empire. Reagan famously warned that Nicaragua was only "two days’ driving time from Harlingen, Texas." Yet, for years, Contra units had gone on bloody rampages through Nicaraguan border towns, raping women, torturing captives and executing civilian officials of the Sandinista government. In private, Reagan referred to the Contras as "vandals," according to Duane Clarridge, the CIA officer in charge of the operation, in his memoir, "A Spy for All Seasons." But in public, the Reagan administration attacked anyone who pointed out the Contras’ corruption and brutality. The Contras also proved militarily inept, causing the CIA to intervene directly and engage in warlike acts, such as mining Nicaragua’s harbors. In 1984, these controversies caused the Congress to forbid U.S. military assistance to the Contras – the Boland Amendment – forcing the rebels to search for new funding sources. Drug money became the easiest way to fill the depleted Contra coffers. The documentary evidence is now irrefutable that a number of Contra units both in Costa Rica and Honduras opened or deepened ties to Colombian cartels and other regional drug traffickers. The White House also scrambled to find other ways to keep the Contras afloat, turning to third countries, such as Saudi Arabia, and eventually to profits from clandestine arms sales to Iran. The secrets began to seep out in the mid-1980s. In June 1985, as a reporter for the Associated Press, I wrote the first story mentioning Oliver North’s secret Contra supply operation. By that fall, my AP colleague Brian Barger and I stumbled onto evidence that some of the Contras were supplementing their income by helping traffickers transship cocaine through Central America. As we dug deeper, it became clear that the drug connection implicated nearly all the major Contra organizations. The AP published our story about the Contra-cocaine evidence on Dec. 20, 1985, describing Contra units "engaged in cocaine smuggling, using some of the profits to finance their war against Nicaragua’s leftist government." The story provoked little coverage elsewhere in the U.S. national press corps. But it pricked the interest of a newly elected U.S. senator, John Kerry. A former prosecutor, Kerry also heard about Contra law violations from a Miami-based federal public defender named John Mattes, who had been assigned a case that touched on Contra gunrunning. Mattes’ sister had worked for Kerry in Massachusetts. By spring 1986, Kerry had begun a limited investigation deploying some of his personal staff in Washington. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry managed to gain some cooperation from the panel’s Republican leadership, partly because the "war on drugs" was then a major political issue. Besides looking into Contra drug trafficking, Kerry launched the first investigation into the allegations of weapons smuggling and misappropriation of U.S. government funds that were later exposed as part of North’s illegal operation to supply the Contras. Kerry’s staff soon took an interest in a federal probe in Miami headed by assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Feldman. Talking to some of the same Contra supporters whom we had interviewed for the AP’s Contra-cocaine story, Feldman had pieced together the outlines of North’s secret network.
… read more »
Response:
Hey thanks but I already know about the Iran-contra scandal. This was a Reagan scandal, another one of your Republican friends. But what does this have to do with anything? The cocaine stuff I’m talking about in Arkansas is not related to Iran-Contra (as far as I know). Mr Soul
Response:
That WAS THE COCAINE SCANDAL BILL CLINTON WAS GOVERNOR OF ARKANSAS. Look at the dates. Bill knew what was going on. They had a protection by the Arkansas law enforcement. Jeeezzeee are you still smoking pot? If you will just type in, senate investigate c.i.a. cocaine reagan administration, in to your browser, you will find out about the c.i.a. information I posted, that you disputed. Do you live near a nuclear reactor?
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hey thanks but I already know about the Iran-contra scandal. This was a Reagan scandal, another one of your Republican friends. But what does this have to do with anything? The cocaine stuff I’m talking about in Arkansas is not related to Iran-Contra (as far as I know). Mr Soul
Response:
I can play along with this one. Imagine yourself the Governor of Arkansas & you discover the CIA is bringing cocaine into the US using an airstrip in your own state. What you do think you would do? Call the President or the FBI & report it. I don’t have a clue if the CIA was smuggling cocaine into the US to pay for the contra’s but I seriosly doubt if they were. Clinton was not involved in this & the other reports about him & secret runaways in Arkansas are BS. Mr Soul
Response:
I can play along with this one. Imagine yourself the Governor of Arkansas & you discover the CIA is bringing cocaine into the US using an airstrip in your own state. What you do think you would do? Call the President or the FBI & report it.
Send the State Police, and if needed, the National Guard since the Governor is their commander whish is why Governors even used the NG to put down violent demonstrations before.
Response:
The "FACTS" make you wrong. Your life is a lie. There is nothing to play along with. This info is all documented. I guess you weren’t around when the National Black leaders demanded the C.I.A. drug operation supplying drugs to gangs in L.A. be stopped??? This was all over the news. The drugs came from Mena, Arkansas. If you actually believe reagan, bush 1, clinton & the c.i.a. were not involved in drug, gun running & money laundering allot of which was done in Arkansas, then you really know nothing & your living in a dream world. You are right about 1 thing though, on most issues you don’t have a clue. Even when you are presented with evidence, you refuse to accept it. Oh well, another waste of my time.
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -I can play along with this one. Imagine yourself the Governor of Arkansas & you discover the CIA is bringing cocaine into the US using an airstrip in your own state. What you do think you would do? Call the President or the FBI & report it. I don’t have a clue if the CIA was smuggling cocaine into the US to pay for the contra’s but I seriosly doubt if they were. Clinton was not involved in this & the other reports about him & secret runaways in Arkansas are BS. Mr Soul
Response:
You are such a joke, this is all the response needed.
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – That WAS THE COCAINE SCANDAL BILL CLINTON WAS GOVERNOR OF ARKANSAS. Look at the dates. Bill knew what was going on. They had a protection by the Arkansas law enforcement. Jeeezzeee are you still smoking pot? Do you still wear your tinfoil beanie with the little propeller on the top?
Response:
You are as worthless as soul.
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I don’t have a clue if the CIA was smuggling cocaine into the US to pay for the contra’s but I seriosly doubt if they were. I don’t.
Response:
John – surely you don’t believe any of this crap? There’s no conclusive proof the CIA or Clinton was smuggling cocaine into the US. Mr Soul
Response:
Proof below, just the tip of the iceburg, I’ll post more if that is what it takes. That’s from the Congreesional Record. Can’t spin that can you. I have the Arkansas college students<<all liberal, that found the clinton money operation. Funny, when you get to be president, then have your attorney general fire all the federal prosecutors and then seal all records, how you can get away with most anything.
John – surely you don’t believe any of this crap? There’s no conclusive proof the CIA or Clinton was smuggling cocaine into the US. Mr Soul
In this article the c.i.a. had to admit to drug activity. There are volumes on this. Shake your world and read this. CIA ADMITS TIES TO CONTRA DRUG DEALERS (House of Representatives – July 17, 1998) [Page: H5847]The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) is recognized for 5 minutes. Ms. WATERS. Today I renew my call on CIA Director George Tenant to immediately release the CIA Inspector General’s classified report on the allegations of CIA involvement with Contra drug trafficking. I also call, once again, on the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Porter Goss), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, to hold prompt public hearings on the findings of these reports. Today’s New York Times, front page, put it bluntly. `CIA says it used Nicaraguan rebels accused of drug tie.’ The times reported that, and I quote again, `The Central Intelligence Agency continued to work with about two dozen Nicaraguan rebels and their supporters during the 1980s despite allegations that they were trafficking in drugs.’ The Times finally reported the explosive truth that the Senate investigators and investigative journalists alike have been telling the American people for nearly 15 years. This front page confirmation of CIA involvement with Contra drug traffickers evidently came from a leak of the still classified CIA review of the allegations stemming from Gary Webb’s 1996 Dark Alliance series. Webb’s series and his recent book details the CIA’s involvement with Contra drug trafficking, including ties to south central Los Angeles’ largest crack cocaine network. Until today, the CIA has vehemently denied the charges. But, apparently, even the CIA is having trouble hiding the truth from the American people. The leaked CIA report remains classified, sitting at the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, because the CIA refuses to declassify a report full of what are being described as devastating revelations of CIA involvement with known Contra drug traffickers. I have repeatedly called for the public release of these CIA reports, and I applaud Senator Kerry in calling for the immediate public release of the CIA Inspector General’s reports. Senator Kerry has worked for 15 years to bring truth, having chaired the Senate investigation that first uncovered the sordid details of Contra drug trafficking in the 1980s. There is no conceivable reason to keep this report classified. It is tantamount to protecting drug dealers. This administration should call on the CIA to immediately release the report of the Contra drug network. The Contras were a creation of the Reagan-Bush administration and run by Reagan’s CIA and Oliver North. This administration can and should reveal the truth and put an end to this terrible affair. I cannot understand why a CIA report which details the illegal efforts of Reagan-Bush administration officials to protect the involvement of top-level Contras in drug trafficking should continue to be protected. Although today’s New York Times story is somewhat confusing to follow, the story includes some explosive details. Perhaps the most amazing revelation from these leaks is the admission that the CIA knew of drug trafficking allegations against the infamous Legion of September 15 Contra organization. This group included the key Contra military commanders, including the Contra’s top military commander Enrique Bermudez, and was the core of the most famous of the Contra armies, the FDN. They were comprised of a group of violent ex-bodyguards of Nicaraguan dictator Somoza. And they had proven themselves among the worst human rights violators in the entire Contra-era war. The Times somewhat inaccurately reported this organization was disbanded, they said, in 1982. Of course, the Legion of September 15 had, by then, been merged into the FDN. That is the Contra army. So we now know that the CIA knowingly worked with Contra rebels involved in drug dealing, including the core of the FDN. We also know that the CIA and Attorney General had a secret Memorandum of Understanding that allowed drug trafficking by CIA assets to go unreported to law enforcement. This, of course, was confirmed in documents I submitted for the Record in May. And we know that CIA officials at the highest levels knew of the Contra drug trafficking activities. What we do not know yet are the many damaging details of the 500-plus-page CIA report. The American people must be able to see this report for themselves. We forced these investigations. A lot of people said, oh, there was nothing to it. The first half of the CIA reports were unleashed, and that is when we determined the Memorandum of Understanding existed that they did not have to report drug trafficking. [Page: H5848]
Response:
That WAS THE COCAINE SCANDAL BILL CLINTON WAS GOVERNOR OF ARKANSAS
And there was no connection between the Reagan cocaine scandal and Clinton.
Response:
John – surely you don’t believe any of this crap? There’s no conclusive proof the CIA or Clinton was smuggling cocaine into the US.
I have read accounts of Arkansas State Police verifying Clinton & his brother used cocaine, there rest, I have not read enough about to take any stand.
Response:
I suppose it’s possible that the CIA was involved, which I doubt, but Clinton wasn’t involved. This was a Reagan/Oliver North deal & Clinton was not involved. END OF STORY. Mr Soul
Response:
A lot of baby boomers used drugs, including George Bush, so this is no surprise. We know Clinton’s brother had problems. I haven’t read Clinton’s memoir – perhaps he talks about drugs in it. However, there’s no real information verifying any of this, including the Arkansas State Police accounts. Mr Soul
Response:
Evidence already posted. Thank you
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – That WAS THE COCAINE SCANDAL BILL CLINTON WAS GOVERNOR OF ARKANSAS And there was no connection between the Reagan cocaine scandal and Clinton.
Response:
It’s possible? I gave you a page from the House Committee. It clearly said they were. I gave you a few other pages that show how clinton was involved. You just refuse to believe anything, except clinton is god. I did make a mistake on one of them, it was 92 federal prosecutors that were fired. Sorry for the bad info. Thank you
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -I suppose it’s possible that the CIA was involved, which I doubt, but Clinton wasn’t involved. This was a Reagan/Oliver North deal & Clinton was not involved. END OF STORY. Mr Soul
Response:
His own brother verified this. Thank you
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -A lot of baby boomers used drugs, including George Bush, so this is no surprise. We know Clinton’s brother had problems. I haven’t read Clinton’s memoir – perhaps he talks about drugs in it. However, there’s no real information verifying any of this, including the Arkansas State Police accounts. Mr Soul
Response:
Just because something gets said on the House floor don’t mean it’s true. I don’t believe any of this crap because it’s all from the right-wing (and it’s crap). Mr Soul
Response:
THE C.I.A. themselves said it. It was in the committee hearing of Maxine Waters.<<< liberal democrat But you believe what you want. This all way over your head anyway. You obviously can’t read. You have been given proof of your questions. You still come back with nothing. Now a "legal" document from the House Intelligence Committee is right wing crap. Stay fat, dumb, and happy. You have no credibility anyway. You can’t even stay on topic in an amp post. It had to be pointed out to you, the poster was not even talking about the amp you were giving advise on. Live long. Thank you
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Just because something gets said on the House floor don’t mean it’s true. I don’t believe any of this crap because it’s all from the right-wing (and it’s crap). Mr Soul
Response:
Filed under: Human Rights
Leave a Comment
XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
TrackBack URL | RSS feed for comments on this post.