("Quid coniuratio est?")
OLLIE NORTH UNDER SCRUTINY AGAIN FOR DRUG RUNNING
Feb. 7 (EIRNS) -- Oliver North's deep involvement in illegal drug-smuggling and gun-running -- which was highlighted during last fall's election campaign -- is again drawing attention. Ollie claimed during the Virginia Senatorial campaign that he was the "most investigated man on this planet." So far, he hasn't been, not by a long shot, but it could still happen, if some people get their way.
It is widely known that a major exposure of the 1980s Mena, Ark. gun-running and drug-running operation is in the works {1}, an exposure which will hit Ollie North very hard. The story was, until recently, scheduled to run in the Washington Post, and was reportedly killed {2} after many weeks of review by that newspaper's editors, but informed sources in Washington expect that it will soon be published in another location.
While many want to portray the Mena story as a piece of the Whitewater scandals being run against President Clinton, the truth is that Clinton has little to do with it." {3}.
The real scandal of Mena centers around Ollie North and George Bush. The Mena airfield in western Arkansas was one of many locations used for drug-running operations which involved Ollie North's Contra networks in Central America. North's supervision of a massive drug-smuggling operation run by Contra operatives was exposed during last fall's election campaign by former Drug Enforcement Administration agent Celerino Castillo {4} and others; Castillo showed, for example, that all of North's pilots flying out of the Ilopango military airfield in El Salvador were documented to be drug-traffickers.
One of the key operatives in Arkansas for Ollie North's Contra apparatus was Larry Nichols {5}, who is now going around the country threatening President Clinton {6} and peddling Whitewater stories. {7}. It was because Nichols was spending state time and money working with Oliver North and the Contras, that Clinton fired him from an Arkansas state job in 1988. {8}. Nichols was in regular contact with Nicaraguan Contra leaders such as Mario and Adolpho Calero in New Orleans, and with Gen. Richard Secord, who ran the Contra re-supply operation for North and George Bush.
Yes, George Bush. Contrary to the myths about "Iran-Contra" being run by a lone Lt. Colonel out of the National Security Council, the truth is that these and many other, less well-publicized, dirty and illegal covert operations were run out of the office of Vice President George Bush while Ronald Reagan was President; the "Contra" operation, for example, including especially guns and drugs, was directed from the Vice President's office and was supervised by Bush's national security adviser and former CIA colleague, Donald Gregg.
-+- Ollie's Drug Depot -+-
The controversial Mena article which the Washington Post has refused to run, was co-authored by former National Security Council official Roger Morris and investigative reporter Sally Denton, and is based on more than 2,000 documents concerning Barry Seal, a major drug-runner and DEA/CIA informant who was shot to death in 1986.
Seal operated out of the Mena airfield in western Arkansas from 1981 to 1986, flying guns out and drugs in. The documents utilized by Morris and Denton in their article include Seal's bank records, telephone records, and personal correspondence and diaries, as well as extensive law-enforcement records.
The Seal records confirm what is already well-known: that Mena was being used to fly weapons into Central America, and that drugs were brought back on the return flights. All of the numerous efforts to investigate the Mena operation during the Reagan and Bush administrations were blocked on "national security" grounds.
These dirty operations were run out of Bush's office under the nominal authority of National Security Decision Directives Nos. 2 and 3, issued early in the Reagan administration. Out of these came the Special Situation Group (SSG), headed by the Vice President; and then came the Crisis Pre-Planning Group, an inter- agency coordinating body whose staff coordinator was Oliver North. Under NSDD-2 and NSDD-3, George Bush was in charge of the entire "secret government" apparatus -- which not only ran covert operations overseas, but also against U.S. citizens at home.
This was the true story of "Iran-Contra," which was never investigated either by Congress or by Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh. Now, with new evidence about Mena circulating, and in the aftermath of North's failed Senate campaign, there is a climate building which could finally result in the first full investigation of the crimes of George Bush and his flunky, Oliver North. {9}.
--------------------------<< Notes >>---------------------------- {1} "It is widely known that a major exposure of the 1980s Mena, Ark. gun-running and drug-running operation is in the works..." See, for example, The Spotlight, Feb. 20, 1995, p. 11:
Skolnick said the Clintons are on a collision course with their "upcoming downfall," and cited numerous reasons for it, including the "singing" of Webster Hubbell, prosecutors wanting to open a Vince Foster case and testimony from Chicago about a "missing $47 million" that once belonged to the Resolution Trust Corporation.
{2} "...scheduled to run in the Washington Post, and was reportedly killed..." See, for example, The London Sunday Telegraph, Jan. 29, 1995, "Arkansas Drug Expose Misses the Post".
{3} "...the truth is that Clinton has little to do with it." Relatively little would be more accurate. Clinton and the gang profited enormously, according to Sherman Skolnick and others. For a good look at Clinton's Arkansas, see "The Name of Rose" by L.J. Davis, The New Republic, April 4, 1994.
{4} Expose of drug-smuggling run by Contra operatives. See, for example, Conspiracy Nation, Vol. 2, Num. 53, and Vol. 2, Nums. 63-67.
{5} Regarding the New Federalist allegations on Larry Nichols: unsubstantiated. If New Federalist has evidence, let's see and/or hear it.
{6} Regarding the New Federalist allegations that Nichols is going around the country threatening President Clinton: that is ridiculous. It is against the law to threaten the President (or anyone). If Nichols were doing what New Federalist is saying, he would have long since been visited by the Secret Service.
{7} Regarding the New Federalist allegations that Nichols is "peddling Whitewater stories": Nichols has stated time and again that he makes no profit from his "Whitewater stories". Also, LaRouche, if you're out there and if the Vatican will let you respond, are the following persons also "peddling Whitewater stories"?
{8} Regarding New Federalist's claim that Clinton fired Nichols for working with North and the Contras: that is ridiculous. Nichols, in fact, was threatening to blow the whistle on Clinton and the gang. For further details on the whole rotten mess, see, for example, Compromised by Terry Reed and John Cummings -- a book, by the way, that New Federalist has praised highly.
{9} "...a climate building which could finally result in the first full investigation of the crimes of George Bush, etc." With a Republican Congress, the Republicans are gonna let Bush and his gang get investigated?? I have major doubts.
I encourage distribution of "Conspiracy Nation."
Coming to you from Illinois -- "The Land of Skolnick"