Subject: CIA/cocaine (Was: New anti-CIA urban legend gains speed)
From: jimh@wwa.com (Jim Hargrove)
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1996 18:02:10 GMT

joebuck@ix.netcom.com wrote:

>  How unfortunate that a recent series in The San Jose Mercury News
>newspaper is now cynically being used as ammunition by some who
>apparently don't adequately value the national security of the U.S.

How fortunate that "joebuck" started this lame spam to nine newsgroups in a
hapless attempt to defend CIA efforts to facilitate and protect the National
Security efforts of hard-working, Commie-hating cocaine dealers throughout the
Americas.

>  As quick as they are to believe every questionable claim made
>against the entire American Central Intelligence Agency, such
>indivduals are quite opportunistically using the possibility that some
>people who the Agency had contact with in the past *may* have been
>involved in drug trafficking.

>  Obviously, the charge has NOT proven anywhere -- but that doesn't
>make a bit of difference to those who are jumping on the allegations
>to further their own political agendas.

Oh, really?

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------------------------------------------
The Oral Deposition of Richard J. Brenneke
------------------------------------------
Joint Investigation by the
Arkansas State Attorney General's Office
and the U.S. Congress, June 21, 1991.
------------------------------------------

The following deposition was taken from Richard J. Brenneke at the Office of
the Attorney General, 323 Center Street, Little Rock, Arkansas on June 21, 
1991 at 10:10 a.m.

EXAMINATION

BY MR. ALEXANDER:

Q. Would you state your name, age and residence?
A. Okay. The name is Richard J. Brenneke, B-R-E-N-N-E-K-E. My home 
address is [deleted] Street in [deleted], and that's [deleted]....

[. . . .]

Q. So you were an independent contractor with the Central Intelligence 
Agency?
A. That's correct.
Q. Beginning when and through what years?
A. 1968 through about 1986, somewhere in 1985, '86 is when I called it off.
Q. So what services did you perform for the Central Intelligence Agency?
A. Specialized in two activities; I handled money for them, I handled 
East Bloc weapons purchases primarily made in Yugoslavia and 
Czechoslovakia....

Q. And you were a pilot for the CIA?
A. That's correct.
Q. During what period?
A. During the whole period I worked for them.

[....]

Q. What did you discover the cargo to be?
A. I found the cargo to be cocaine, in some cases marijuana.
Q. How, would you describe what you saw when you opened the boxes?
A. What I saw when I opened the boxes were plastic bags filled with a 
white powdery substance. On one occasion I wanted to know more about what 
it was, so I cut one of them open and tasted it; and I have tasted cocaine 
in a controlled  environment before at the request of law enforcement 
officials, so this --
Q. So you positively identified the substances that you were carrying as 
cocaine?
A. Yes, sir, I did.
Q. How much cocaine would you judge that you were carrying?
A. In the course of time there?
Q. Well, in each load?
A. In each load, 4 to 600 pounds.
Q. 4 to 600 pounds. And did you see people loading this cargo onto the 
airplane?
A. Yes, sir, I did.
Q. And who -- can you identify those people?
A. Those were Panamanian Defense Force soldiers. They were in military 
uniform and easily identifiable as such.
Q. The same people that took the guns off, put the cocaine on?
A. Absolutely.
Q. Is that right?
A. That's correct.
Q. Now, what would you do with the load of cocaine once it was loaded 
onto your C-130; where would you go with it?
A. We would bring it to Mena, Arkansas.
Q. And how long would it take you to fly to Mena?
A. Four to six hours, depending on the wind.
Q. And you have a flight log that would identify this flight?
A. Yes, sir, I do.
Q. Each one of the flights?
A. Yes, sir, I do.
Q. And when you landed at Mena, what would be the disposition of the cargo?
A. On one or two occasions the cargo was taken off by people who were not 
residents of the Mena area and put into other aircraft which departed 
from there. However, the most frequent activity was that the aircraft 
would be unloaded in front of [deleted]'s hangers and it would be stored 
in the back of the hanger....

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For a far more complete version of the above, as well as other examples of
sworn testimony by additional witnesses of CIA-backed cocaine importations
into the United States, see numerous posts by Duane Roberts on the Usenet
newsgroup alt.politics.org.cia.

How about some unsworn testimony by a former DEA agent?

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                  Los Angeles Times - 9-24-96, page A23

               Ex-DEA Agent Ties Contras to U.S.Drug Flights
                     
                          By Robert L. Jackson
                         L.A.Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON - A former federal drug agent said Monday that while stationed
in El Salvador in the mid-1980s, he came across evidence that members of
the CIA-backed rebel forces in Nicaragua were smuggling cocaine into the
United States for profit.
  Celerino Castillo III, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent,
said at a news conference that he sent reports to his agency about Contra
drug flights in 1985 and 1986 and even spoke to U.S. Embassy officials
about them. But he was told they were sanctioned by the White House, he
said.

[. . . .]

  Castillo, who retired from the DEA in 1992 because of a physical
disability, told reporters that he sent cables to Washington listing dates
and plane numbers of drug flights out of Ilo Pango, a U.S. air base in El
Salvador that CIA officials used for logistics support of the Contras. Many
of the flights were flown by American pilots hired by Contra leaders, he
said.
   Castillo accused then-U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador Edwin G. Corr of
ignoring the flights. The former agent said Corr told him: "My hands are
tied because these are Contra operations being run by the White House."
   Other officials told him, "Your career is going to end in Central
America if you keep this up," Castillo said, adding that "my reports went
into the black hole at DEA."
  Corr did not return calls left Monday  (9-23-96) at his office at the
University of Oklahoma, where he is a faculty member.
  Civil rights activist Dick Gregory, who accompanied Castillo to the news
conference, said he is prepared to take legal action to get the government
to release Castillo's reports, which he said are identifiable by case
numbers.
   DEA officials acknowledged that Castillo had worked for the agency, but
they had no comment on his statements because they said the matter is under
federal investigation. They said the reports Castillo filed with the agency
would only be released if ordered by a court under the Freedom of
Information Act.
   Castillo said he first disclosed what he knew about the drug flights in
1994 when former Ronald Reagan White House aide Oliver L. North was seeking
election to the U.S. Senate from Virginia. Castillo said he strongly
opposed the candidacy of North, who lost the race, because he understood
North had sanctioned the flights. North, however, has denied these charges.

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>  Equally unacceptable, IMO, is the mindset of those who now so
>opportunistically seek to paint the ENTIRE Agency as culpable in the
>matter.

Ah, so just PART of the Agency apparently is guilty of importing tons of
cocaine into the U.S.  That's a relief!

--Jim Hargrove