Reply #15: RICO orgs sell dope to make money.

[Octafish]

Here's a great overview from way back when...

Total Coverage: The CIA, Contras, and Drugs

News: The CIA-coke connection was detailed long before Dark Alliance -- and the evidence keeps coming

By Eric Umansky
August 25, 1998
Mother Jones

You may have seen the headline last month on the front page of the NEW YORK TIMES. (Then again, you may not have, since it ran in a small box on the bottom-left corner.) It announced, "CIA Says It Used Nicaraguan Rebels Accused of Drug Tie." The beginning of that story read:

"The CIA continued to work with about two dozen Nicaraguan rebels and their supporters during the 1980s despite allegations they were trafficking in drugs.... he agency's decision to keep those paid agents, or to continue dealing with them in some less formal relationship, was made by top officials at headquarters in Langley, Va."

In other words, top officials at the CIA knew the agency was working with Contra drug traffickers and didn't do anything about it. But the story, even with that shocking headline, quickly disappeared. None of the other major papers, news magazines, or TV networks reported the NEW YORK TIMES' findings.

SNIP...

But the story of the CIA-funded Contras trafficking coke isn't new. And neither is the surprising lack of media interest in getting to the bottom of it:

* Contra supporters dealing cocaine to fund their army was actually first reported in 1985, in an article by Robert Parry and Brian Barger of the ASSOCIATED PRESS. After interviewing DEA, Customs, and FBI officials, the article said there was evidence the Contras were importing drugs into the U.S. to support their war effort. No other newspapers followed up on the story. As would be the case in the future, though the press ignored the allegations, the Reagan administration didn't. The Justice Department contacted the editors at the AP and politely asked them to remove references in that story that connected Contra drug-smuggling to John Hull, a CIA "asset" in Costa Rica.

SNIP...
But if the media weren't biting, the Reagan administration was keenly interested in the committee findings. Jack Blum, the lead investigator for the committee, complained that the administration obstructed the investigation. The report itself complains of pressure from the executive branch: "...officials in the Justice Department sought to undermine attempts by Senator Kerry to have hearings held on the allegations."

* Oliver North's diary contained at least two extraordinary entries:

From a July 12, 1985, meeting with Richard Secord, North's boss in the Reagan administration:

"$14M to finance came from drugs."
This entry, which was given in part to the Kerry Committee, was first reported in NEWSWEEK. North claimed he did nothing wrong and said the Kerry Committee was "just playing politics and dragging out wild charges."

And this entry on Aug. 9, 1985, which was submitted as part of the Iran-Contra special prosecutor report:

"Honduran DC-6 which is being used for runs out of New Orleans is probably being used for drug runs into U.S."

North claimed he told the DEA about this plane. In 1994, the WASHINGTON POST decided to verify North's claim. The POST interviewed top law officials, from the DEA, Customs, State Department, CIA, and White House, including some who had meetings with North at the time of the diary entry. Each one said that North did not pass the information on to them.

CONTINUED...

http://www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/total_coverage/coke.html