THE EXPERT WITNESS
CIA Admits Deal with Justice Dep't to Obstruct Justice
AS AN EX-D. E.A AGENT, I found the complete lack of coverage by mainstream media of what I saw last night during the congressional hearings into CIA Drug Trafficking on CNN both depressing and frightening.
I sat gape-mouthed as I heard the CIA Inspector General testify that a secret agreement between CIA and the Justice Department has existed wherein "during the years 1982 to 1995, CIA did not have to report the drug trafficking of its assets to the Justice Department." (This is the agreement, by the way, that led directly to events described in our non-fiction books, "The Big White Lie" and "Deep Cover." Those who have read the books will know instantly what I am talking about.
To a trained DEA agent, this literally means that the CIA had been granted a license to obstruct justice in our so-called war on drugs; a license that lasted--so CIA claims--from 1982 to 1995, a time during which Americans paid almost $150 billion in taxes to "fight" drugs. (If you add Federal and state budgets, the total is more like $1/2 trillion spent by American taxpayers to fight drugs while the CIA looked the other way.) Of course, the evidence indicates that they did not stop obstructing justice in 1995 either, but that, I suppose, is going to be another congressional hearing.
As far as the current hearings go, this Catch-22 "revelation" means that all the present hearings are for nothing, that if they are caught violating the drug laws, they had been given "secret" license to do so by our Justice Dep't. This might also explain Janet Reno's recent and unprecedented move in blocking the release of a Justice Dep't investigation into CIA drug trafficking.
God, with friends like these, who needs enemies?
It is now clear that this agreement began with the events described in The Big White Lie: the top drug traffickers in Bolivia, then supplying virtually all the world's cocaine--including Sonia Atala--were CIA assets that had to be protected from our deep cover probe. Laura and I still have the proof of this that we used to back up our books.
Our evidence--which congress has been craning its neck not to see--shows clearly, for instance, that during Operation Hun (the story in The Big White Lie), secret meetings were held with CIA and Justice Department wherein all indictments of top government officials in Bolivia were blocked. We now believe this agreement began because of Operation Hun. CIA had to hide the fact that they were supporting the people manufacturing virtually all the cocaine being produced in the world at that time.
In "Deep Cover" we showed that during Operation Trifecta--a highly successful deep cover probe into the top of the drug world in three countries (Panama, Bolivia and Mexico)--Attorney General of the U.S. Ed Meese found it necessary to warn the Attorney General of Mexico about DEA's case. We undercover DEA agents and Customs agents found links between top U.S. government officials and the people who murdered DEA agent Kiki Camarena, links that to this day go unexamined by our Congress or anyone else.
In "Triangle of Death" a work of "faction," we showed the CIA's real-life involvement in the protection and creation of one of the most murderous criminal organizations to ever plague America, an organization created by escaped Nazi fugitives under CIA protection--events occurring long before this alleged CIA-Justice agreement.
Anyone who watched the CNN show cannot have helped but notice the snickering on the part of Congressional chairman, Porter Goss (an ex-CIA officer), as congresswoman Maxine Waters spoke. Here's the reason why: Sources of mine who speak to me from inside this veil of secrecy out of conscience and because I am cheaper and more reliable than a psychiatrist, have told me the following:
1. There is secret communication between CIA and members of the Congressional staff. Keep in mind that Porter Goss, the chairman, is an ex-CIA official, indicating that the whole hearing is just a smoke and mirror show so that the American people--particularly the Black community--can "blow off some steam" without doing any damage to the CIA. The CIA has been assured that nothing real will be done other than some embarrassing questions being asked.
2. The hearings will result in the CIA receiving an even larger budget than the current $26 billion that they admit to.
One of the most distressing things for me to listen to was Congesswoman Waters saying that the hearings were not about CIA officers being indicted and going to jail. "That is not going to happen," she said. Almost in the same breath, she spoke of a recent case in Miami wherein a Venezuelan National Guard general was caught by Customs agents smuggling more than a ton of cocaine into the U.S. Despite named CIA officers being involved in the plot, Congresswoman Waters stated that the Justice Department will not tell her anything about the case because of "secrecy laws."
No wonder chairman Goss was snickering. Waters could not have played more neatly into CIA hands than to surrender before the battle was engaged.
For the entire existence of the CIA, they have gotten away with doing more damage to the American people than all our traditional enemies combined, precisely because no one was ever prosecuted. From the CIA protection of Nazi criminals from war crimes prosecution as they set up criminal organizations that preyed on America ("Triangle of Death"), to their lies to President Kennedy that dragged us into the Bay of Pigs, to their lies to President Johnson that dragged us into the Vietnam War, to their creation of a pan-Arab army of American-hating, drug-trafficking terrorists during the Afghan War, to the Church Commission hearings, to MK-Ultra, to the Bolivian Cocaine Coup ("The Big White Lie"), to their protection of the world's top cocaine traffickers as they laid waste to American streets ("Deep Cover")--the CIA has acted exactly as Senator Frank Church once described them: "a runaway rogue elephant ... completely unresponsive to Congress ... they [the CIA] have not only been unproductive, they have been contrap;productive ... they have brought great shame on America." And the dance continues.
The CIA Finds Itself Innocent
The timing of the release of the results of the CIA's alleged self-investigation that found the CIA "innocent" of links to Nicaraguan cocaine trafficking is about as insulting to the American intelligence as it gets. It's yet another example of the CIA counting on both an inept mainstream media that is as easily distracted as a college fraternity in a topless bar, and a frightened, impotent congressional oversight committee that the CIA agents themselves call "the oversight."
To give just one illustration (out of dozens) of how ludicrous this finding is, the following is a direct quote from Oliver North's personal diary, taken from the National Security Archives, Washington, DC (and available to all):
"9 July 84 Call from Clarridge" [This refers to Duane Dewey Clarridge, CIA official assigned by CIA to support the Nicaraguan contras; the same man pardoned by President Bush on charges of lying to congress and perjury]
"Called Calero" [this refers to Adolfo Calero, Nicaraguan contra leader, and means to a court qualified expert like myself that either North and/or Clarridge received a call from Calero and were discussing that call].
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"1. Wanted [aircraft] to go to Bolivia to p/u [cocaine] paste"
"2. Wanted a/c to [pick up] 1500 kilos."
Last year on the "Crier Report" (Fox News channel show hosted by Katherine Crier), I confronted Clarridge with this actual page on camera. Those who saw the show know that he went apoplectic. He ranted and raved, preventing anyone else from talking for most of the show. He did, however, make some incriminating statements: "... everything that goes weighed in kilos," making no mention of the next notation that referred to "paste." Could he have meant 1500 kilos of Crazy Glue? He said that it could have been shoes or something else. Shoes from Bolivia? I think I heard precisely that story when I was arresting Bolivian and Colombian cocaine traffickers. Clarridge also stated, on camera, that North was a tiny insignificant minor player in the [Contra supply] operation. In essence, Clarridge not only unwittingly attested--on national TV--to the authenticity of North's diary notations, but added that the CIA was actually running the show. CIA agent Clarridge might have had to tell that incredible story to a jury of Americans had not ex-President Bush-currently employed by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon as the world's highest paid Moony--pardoned him.
And to add insult to the gang-that-can't-spy-straight's self examination, last month an AP news release indicated that Clarridge had refused to be questioned by CIA investigators during their so-called "investigation." He boasted that the CIA had "no leverage." Clarridge, being retired (and already pardoned by Bush), did not have to answer any questions. As an ex federal agent, I would have suggested that the CIA investigators put Clarridge before a grand jury--Bush had only pardoned him for Perjury and Lying to Congress--not for conspiracy to traffic in cocaine. But I don't think the CIA really wanted to hear what Duane "Dewey" Clarridge had to say. Instead, they simply pretended that he never happened and cleared themselves.
And with a mainstream media more obsessed with Monica Lewinsky than CIA drug-dealing, the timing of the CIA "clearing" themselves could not have been better. During my 25-year career as a federal agent, I have put thousands of Americans in jail for much less evidence than that. Where are Woodward and Bernstein when you need them the most?
Michael Levine is Host of THE EXPERT WITNESS radio show (WBAI, NY 99.5FM, Tuesdays 7-8pm) and author, with Laura Kavanau, of "Deep Cover," "The Big White Lie," and "Triangle of Death" (a fact-based thriller, based on the CIA's mind control experimentation and support of escaped Nazis).