From: Christic Institute <christic@igc.org>
Subject: CAUSES & CURES: COVERT OPS, DRUGS
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: University of Missouri
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 03:18:22 GMT

/* Written 12:45 pm  Apr  8, 1992 by christic in cdp:christic.news */
/* ---------- "CAUSES & CURES: COVERT OPS, DRUGS" ---------- */
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CAUSES AND CURES: U.S. COVERT OPERATIONS AND THE DRUG TRADE

The Ven. MICHAEL S. KENDALL

[Father Kendall is archdeacon of New York City for the Episcopal
Diocese of New York. His address at the Causes and Cures National
Teleconference summarized the report of the Task Force on
International Drug Trafficking, Money Laundering and Covert
Operations. The full text of this report is available from the
Christic Institute. See the note at the end of this file for more
details.]

The Bush Administration's tough rhetoric of uncompromising struggle
against the drug cartels obscures a 40-year record of appeasement.
The Causes and Cures Task Force on International Drug Trafficking,
Money Laundering and Covert Operations discovered that in case
after case, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal
agencies were unable to investigate and prosecute drug lords
because they were ``freedom fighters'' or ``intelligence assets''
protected by their relationship with the United States government.

The Task Force's report points to one conclusion: During covert
wars in Asia and Central America, the Central Intelligence Agency
and its private contract agents recruited drug lords for covert
operations and provided logistical support for drug traffickers.
The Task Force also found evidence that officials in the executive
branch interfered with criminal investigations of drug syndicates.

One of the courageous drug enforcement officials who has spoken out
on this issue is Dennis Dayle, a member of the Task Force and
formerly head of foreign intelligence operations for the Drug
Enforcement Administration. ``In my 30-year history in the D.E.A.
and related agencies,'' he says, ``the major targets of my
investigations almost inevitably turned out to be working for the
C.I.A.''

The Task Force examined evidence that the C.I.A.'s complicity in
international drug trade dates back to the first covert wars fought
by the United States against communist governments.

Most of you probably know that opium is the raw material for
heroin. It was also the chief cash crop for the Hmong tribe of the
Laotian highlands, organized in the 1960s into a guerrilla army by
the C.I.A. The Task Force discovered that C.I.A. operatives and
other officials of the United States government provided logistical
support for Laotian drug traffickers, and that C.I.A. planes used
to transport weapons to Hmong bases were also used to transport
opium to heroin processing factories.

Heroin produced by the Hmong guerilla army eventually was sold to
American servicemen in South Vietnam. By the end of 1970, 30,000
soldiers were heroin addicts. In 1975 the Government Accounting
Office estimated that 70 percent of all heroin smuggled into the
United States originated from areas ``controlled by C.I.A.
mercenaries.''

Clearly, the cynical use of drug lords and their armies as
``freedom fighters'' against communist governments or leftist
insurgencies was a habit the C.I.A. was unwilling to break. In
Afghanistan the agency decided to back Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an
anti-communist tribal leader and his country's most powerful drug
lord, as the leader of the Afghan ``resistance'' to the leftist
government. Hekmatyar and other guerrilla chieftains forced Afghan
peasants in ``liberated zones'' to cultivate opium poppies for the
United States market. In 1991 the New York Times reported that an
estimated one in three heroin deals in the United States originates
in opium produced in regions controlled by Afghan guerrilla armies.

In April 1989 the narcotics subcommittee of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee reported that there was ``substantial
evidence'' of cocaine trafficking by the contras--the guerrillas
trained by the C.I.A. and armed by Oliver North. The committee went
on to say that there was evidence of ``drug smuggling through the
war zones on the part of individual contras, contra suppliers,
contra pilots, mercenaries who worked with the contras and contra
supporters throughout the region.''

The public record shows that Oliver North knew that the contras
were smuggling cocaine into the United States, but took no action
to shut down their operations. The record also shows that in a
number of cases North and other officials interfered with drug
enforcement investigations of drug traffickers and drug lords who
were working for our government in Central America.

There are some who say because the Cold War has ended, our
government will never again enlist and protect drug traffickers in
the Third World. Don't believe it! The Justice Department has
failed to investigate or prosecute a single government official
responsible for the relationship between covert operations and the
drug trade. No law prohibits the C.I.A. from forming alliances with
drug traffickers. The congressional committees responsible for
regulating the C.I.A. have never taken an interest in this scandal,
and in the past year voted to _strengthen_ the President's power to
conduct covert operations without the consent of Congress.

Based on the work of the Task Force, the Causes and Cures National
Coalition believes that a radical reform of covert operations must
be enacted to guarantee that never again will drugs cross our
borders because our government's foreign policy prohibits
aggressive action against the drug lords of Asia and South America.

                            *    *    *

Our _Policy Report_ on the drug crisis includes the final report of
the Task Force on International Drug Trafficking, Money Laundering
and Covert Operations. Copies are $7 each, and full citations are
included. For a complete catalogue of books, magazines and videos
on covert operations, drug trafficking, addiction and treatment,
please use one of the e-mail addresses posted below or write us at
the following address:

                     Causes and Cures Campaign
                        Christic Institute
                  1324 North Capitol Street, N.W.
                      Washington, D.C. 20002
                          (202) 797-8106

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