From: Dann Sklarew <[d s klarew] at [osf1.gmu.edu]>
Newsgroups: alt.politics.usa.misc,alt.politics.bush,talk.politics.drugs,va.general,gmu.local
Subject: FYI: North and Drug-running in the News (fwd)
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 1994 20:22:16 -0400
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 1994 07:56:05 +0000
Subject: North and Drug-running in the News (fwd)

Excerpted from "North's Notes Suggest He Knew of Drug-running by Contras"
by Warren Fiske
Knight-Ridder Tribune News Service
Sunday, October 23, 1994

   Norfolk, VA.-- For years, Senate candidate Oliver North has dismissed
allegations that anti-communist Contra insurgents in Nicaragua smuggled
drugs into the United States.
   [...]
   North jotted down a series of notes in the mid-1980s that indicate
knowledge of possible drug-running into the United States while directing
the White House's covert effort to arm the Contras.
   On July 9, 1984, North wrote in his notes that Contra leader Federico
Vaughan "wanted aircraft to go to Bolivia to pick up paste, want aircraft
to pick up 1,500 kilos."
   On Aug. 9, 1985, North noted: "DC-6 which is being used for runs (to
supply the Contras) out of New Orleans is probably being used for drug
runs into the U.S."
   On July 12, 1985, North wrote: "$14 million to finance Supermarket
came from drugs."  The Supermarket was a warehouse in Honduras where
weapons dealers stored arms that Contras bought.
   [...]
   North testified before a congressional panel in 1987 that he just 
jotted down "allegations" he heard and, in most cases, turned the 
information over to the Drug Enforcement Agency or the CIA.
   But the DEA issued a statement Friday saying, "There's no evidence
he talked to anyone.  We can't find the person he talked to, if he did
talk to them.  There's no record of the person he talked to."
   CIA officials, a bipartisan Senate investigative committee and many
Contra leaders have acknowledged that drug-running into the United 
States was rampant during the rebel supply effort of the mid-1980s.
   [...]  Contrary to North's denials, a review of thousands of pages
of testimony and documents from congressional investigations indicate
that cocaine trafficking was a staple for the right-wing Contras.
   "I'm not proud of it, but we didn't have any choice," Contra leader
Octaviano Cesar told the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics
and International Operations in April 1988. [...]
   The subcommittee, led by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., concluded in 
December 1988: "It is clear that individuals who provided support
for the Contras were involved in drug trafficking, the supply network
of the Contras was used by drug trafficking connections, and elements
of the Contras themselves knowingly received financial and material
assistance from drug traffickers."
   The CIA Central American Task Force chief in 1987 told Congress:
"With respect to (Contra drug traffickers)...it is not a couple of
people.  It is a lot of people."
   [...] "North had to know about it," said Jack Blum, lead 
investigator of a late 1980s investigation by the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee.  "I'm unshakeable about this.  He viewed the
drug problem as something secondary to his mission.  He believed
he was on a mission from God to stamp out communism." [...]
-----------------------------------------------------------

Excerpted from The New York Times, October 25, 1994, p.A1,A13,
"...Assertions About Oliver North" by Michael Janofsky

   Arlington, VA, Oct.24 -- [...]  A report in the Saturday issue
of the Washington Post quoted officials of the Drug Enforcement
Administration as saying that Mr. North never notified the agency
that illegal drugs were being flown into the United States on a
contra supply plane, despite entries in Mr. North's diaries that
he had.
   Mr. Robb said that if Mr. North had not reported evidence of
the trafficking "then he is guilty of perjury."
   Mr. North, who is running even with Mr. Robb in polls, called
the article "hogwash." 
   [...]
   Leonard Downie Jr., executive editor of the Washington Post, 
said through a spokeswoman: "The Robb campaign had nothing to do 
with our story.  We have been working on it for a long time."
-------------------------------------------------------------
[Remember, the Washington Post is beneficiary of Sec.801 of 
 CLINTON'S GATT enabling legislation.]
-------------------------------------------------------------

Excerpted from "Is North Today's Benedict Arnold?" 
by Ret.Army Col.David Hackworth (syndicated columnist)
Friday, October 21, 1994

   [...]  North was later convicted on charges of deceiving 
Congress...North was a big buddy of Panama dictator Manuel Noriega, 
a known cocaine dealer...While playing footsie with Noriega, North
directed the CIA to provide arms to the drug-dealing Nicaraguan
Contra leaders while at the same time enriching the arms merchants
who profiteered from illegal arms sales by North's misguided law-
unto-himself style. 
   [...]  Like Benedict Arnold, who sold out to the British during
the Revolutionary War, North is faithful only to himself.
---------------------------------------------------------

Lastly, for now, on NBC's Sunday morning (10/23/94) news program 
with Tim Russert, a frantic James Carville twice referred to 
drug-running Contras under Oliver North.  As Carville should know 
by now, North wasn't the only high public official involved with 
drug-running into the U.S. during the mid-1980s.--BJP