From: aq817@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steve Crocker)
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy
Subject: Re: Apology for Chip Berlet
Date: 9 Jan 1993 11:47:46 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


NLG Civil Liberties Committee <cberlet@igc.apc.org> (Chip Berlet) writes:


>I have several concerns regarding Gritz. He is a self-promoting 
>huckster. He peddles theories that promote anti-Jewish bigotry 
>and create fear of immigrants. He misrepresents his ties to 
>fascist and race-hate groups and his support for Christian 
>Identity. He promotes lunatic theories about government 
                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>misconduct which undermine and discredit serious research and 
 ^^^^^^^^^
>criticism of government misconduct.


The following excerpt is from a transcript of Bo Gritz's video "A Nation
Betrayed". To the best of my understanding it was originally transcribed
by Jim Burnes and posted to usenet by John DiNardo.

<begin reposted excerpt - Bo Gritz is speaking>

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 wierd.)

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 Lao 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 he 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 US 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 US 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, "Santo Trafficante acted as his
buying and transporting agent while Richard Armitage handled the financial
section with banks in Australia."

<end excerpt>

Well, my question for Chip is this: Is this what you're calling "lunatic
theories of government misconduct"? From where I sit it looks a LOT like
a smoking gun. Do you have any reason to think the information presented
here is inaccurate? If so, please share. If you agree that this information
is or is likely to be accurate, then why not suspend your ideological 
purity for long enough to help bring this bastard Shackley to justice.

(P.S. If you have any lingering doubts about Shackley, I recommend you 
read his book "The Third Option". It is blatant and committed advocacy of 
counterinsurgency and covert warfare in the service of U.S. "projection 
of power" around the world. Arguably, this makes Shackley not simply an
(alleged) CIA heroin trafficker but a RIGHT-WING (alleged) CIA heroin
trafficker. Thus, it should be permissible for you to oppose his 
activities even though he is also opposed by the "right-wing" Col.
Gritz.)

Of course, I suppose there is a frame of reference within which Col.
Gritz appears as the greater threat than Mr. Shackley. I just can't 
quite imagine what frame of reference that might be. Silly me.

-Steve Crocker
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy,alt.revisionism