Washington D.C., 26 February 2004 - Diaries, e-mail, and
memos of Iran-contra figure Oliver North, posted today on the Web
by the National Security Archive, directly contradict his criticisms
yesterday of Sen. John Kerry's 1988 Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee
report on the ways that covert support for the Nicaraguan contras
in the 1980s undermined the U.S. war on drugs.
Mr. North claimed to talk show hosts Hannity & Colmes that the
Kerry report was "wrong," that Sen. Kerry "makes this
stuff up and then he can't justify it," and that "The fact
is nobody in the government of the United States, going all the way
back to the earliest days of this under Jimmy Carter, ever had anything
to do with running drugs to support the Nicaraguan resistance. Nobody
in the government of the United States. I will stand on that to my
grave."
The Kerry subcommittee
did not report that U.S. government officials ran drugs, but rather,
that Mr. North, then on the National Security Council staff at the
White House, and other senior officials created a privatized contra
network that attracted drug traffickers looking for cover for their
operations, then turned a blind eye to repeated reports of drug smuggling
related to the contras, and actively worked with known drug smugglers
such as Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega
to assist the contras. The report cited former Drug Enforcement Administration
head John Lawn testifying that Mr. North himself had prematurely leaked
a DEA undercover operation, jeopardizing agents' lives, for political
advantage in an upcoming Congressional vote on aid to the contras
(p.121).
Among the documents posted today are:
- Mr. North's diary entries,
from the reporter's notebooks he kept in those years, noting multiple
reports of drug smuggling among the contras. A Washington Post
investigation published on 22 October 1994 found no evidence he
had relayed these reports to the DEA or other law enforcement authorities.
- Memos from North aide Robert Owen to Mr. North recounting drug-running
"indiscretions" among the contras, warning
that a known drug-smuggling airplane was delivering
taxpayer-funded "humanitarian aid" overseen by Mr. North.
- Mr. North's White House e-mails recounting his efforts to spring
from prison a Honduran general
who could "spill the beans" on the secret contra war,
even though the Justice Department termed the Honduran a "narcoterrorist"
for his involvement in cocaine smuggling and an assassination plot.
Also in the posting is
Peter Kornbluh's detailed critique - the January/February 1997 cover
story in the Columbia Journalism Review - of news coverage
of the contra-drug allegations, including the controversial San
Jose Mercury News series.
Note: The following documents are in PDF format.
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Read
the Documents
Documentation
of Official U.S. Knowledge of Drug Trafficking and the Contras
Evidence
that NSC Staff Supported Using Drug Money to Fund the Contras
U.S.
Officials and Major Traffickers
Kerry
Report - Iran/Contra North Notebook Citation Bibliography
Documentation
of Official U.S. Knowledge of Drug Trafficking and the Contras
The
National Security Archive obtained the hand-written notebooks of
Oliver North, the National Security Council aide who helped run
the contra war and other Reagan administration covert operations,
through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed in 1989 with
Public Citizen Litigation Group. The notebooks, as well as declassified
memos sent to North, record that North was repeatedly informed of
contra ties to drug trafficking.
Document
1
In his entry for August 9, 1985, North summarizes a meeting with
Robert Owen ("Rob"), his liaison with the contras. They discuss
a plane used by Mario Calero, brother of Adolfo Calero, head of
the FDN, to transport supplies from New Orleans to contras in Honduras.
North writes: "Honduran DC-6 which is being used for runs out of
New Orleans is probably being used for drug runs into U.S." As Lorraine
Adams reported in the October 22, 1994 Washington Post, there
are no records that corroborate North's later assertion that he
passed this intelligence on drug trafficking to the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration.
Document
2
In a July 12, 1985 entry, North noted a call from retired Air Force
general Richard Secord in which the two discussed a Honduran arms
warehouse from which the contras planned to purchase weapons. (The
contras did eventually buy the arms, using money the Reagan administration
secretly raised from Saudi Arabia.) According to the notebook, Secord
told North that "14 M to finance [the arms in the warehouse] came
from drugs."
Document
3
An April 1, 1985 memo from Robert Owen (code-name: "T.C." for "The
Courier") to Oliver North (code-name: "The Hammer") describes contra
operations on the Southern Front. Owen tells North that FDN leader
Adolfo Calero (code-name: "Sparkplug") has picked a new Southern
Front commander, one of the former captains to Eden Pastora who
has been paid to defect to the FDN. Owen reports that the officials
in the new Southern Front FDN units include "people who are questionable
because of past indiscretions," such as José Robelo, who
is believed to have "potential involvement with drug running" and
Sebastian Gonzalez, who is "now involved in drug running out of
Panama."
Document
4
On February 10, 1986, Owen ("TC") wrote North (this time as "BG,"
for "Blood and Guts") regarding a plane being used to carry "humanitarian
aid" to the contras that was previously used to transport drugs.
The plane belongs to the Miami-based company Vortex, which is run
by Michael Palmer, one of the largest marijuana traffickers in the
United States. Despite Palmer's long history of drug smuggling,
which would soon lead to a Michigan indictment on drug charges,
Palmer receives over $300,000.00 from the Nicaraguan Humanitarian
Aid Office (NHAO) -- an office overseen by Oliver North, Assistant
Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Elliott Abrams, and
CIA officer Alan Fiers -- to ferry supplies to the contras.
Document
5a and Document 5b
State Department contracts from February 1986 detail Palmer's work
to transport material to the contras on behalf of the NHAO.
Evidence
that NSC Staff Supported Using Drug Money to Fund the Contras
In
1987, the Senate Subcommittee on Narcotics, Terrorism and International
Operations, led by Senator John Kerry, launched an investigation
of allegations arising from reports of contra-drug links. One of
the incidents examined by the "Kerry Committee" was an effort to
divert drug money from a counternarcotics operation to the contra
war.
On
July 28, 1988, two DEA agents testified before the House Subcommittee
on Crime regarding a sting operation conducted against the Medellin
Cartel. The two agents said that in 1985 Oliver North had wanted
to take $1.5 million in Cartel bribe money that was carried by a
DEA informant and give it to the contras. DEA officials rejected
the idea.
Document
6 [90 pp. / 9.47 MB - For best results, Right click
and select "Save Target As..."]
Drugs,
Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy,
A Report Prepared by the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and
International Operations of the Committtee on Foreign Relations,
100th Congress, 2d Session
The Kerry Committee report concluded that "senior U.S. policy makers
were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution
to the Contras' funding problems." (See page 41)
U.S.
Officials and Major Traffickers
Manuel
Noriega
In
June, 1986, the New York Times published articles detailing years
of Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega's collaboration with Colombian
drug traffickers. Reporter Seymour Hersh wrote that Noriega "is
extensively involved in illicit money laundering and drug activities,"
and that an unnamed White House official "said the most significant
drug running in Panama was being directed by General Noriega." In
August, Noriega, a long-standing U.S. intelligence asset, sent an
emissary to Washington to seek assistance from the Reagan administration
in rehabilitating his drug-stained reputation.
Document
7
Oliver North, who met with Noriega's representative, described the
meeting in an August 23, 1986 e-mail message to Reagan national
security advisor John Poindexter. "You will recall that over the
years Manuel Noriega in Panama and I have developed a fairly good
relationship," North writes before explaining Noriega's proposal.
If U.S. officials can "help clean up his image" and lift the ban
on arms sales to the Panamanian Defense Force, Noriega will "'take
care of' the Sandinista leadership for us."
North tells Poindexter that Noriega can assist with sabotage against
the Sandinistas, and suggests paying Noriega a million dollars --
from "Project Democracy" funds raised from the sale of U.S. arms
to Iran -- for the Panamanian leader's help in destroying Nicaraguan
economic installations.
Document
8
The same day Poindexter responds with an e-mail message authorizing
North to meet secretly with Noriega. "I have nothing against him
other than his illegal activities," Poindexter writes.
Document
9
On the following day, August 24, North's notebook records a meeting
with CIA official Duane "Dewey" Clarridge on Noriega's overture.
They decided, according to this entry, to "send word back to Noriega
to meet in Europe or Israel."
Document
10
The CIA's Alan Fiers later recalls North's involvement with the
Noriega sabotage proposal. In testimony at the 1992 trial of former
CIA official Clair George, Fiers describes North's plan as it was
discussed at a meeting of the Reagan administration's Restricted
Interagency Group: "[North] made a very strong suggestion that .
. . there needed to be a resistance presence in the western part
of Nicaragua, where the resistance did not operate. And he said,
'I can arrange to have General Noriega execute some insurgent --
some operations there -- sabotage operations in that area. It will
cost us about $1 million. Do we want to do it?' And there was significant
silence at the table. And then I recall I said, 'No. We don't want
to do that.'"
Document
11
Senior officials ignored Fiers' opinion. On September 20, North
informed Poindexter via e-mail that "Noriega wants to meet me in
London" and that both Elliott Abrams and Secretary of State George
Shultz support the initiative. Two days later, Poindexter authorized
the North/Noriega meeting.
Document
12
North's notebook lists details of his meeting with Noriega, which
took place in a London hotel on September 22. According to the notes,
the two discussed developing a commando training program in Panama,
with Israeli support, for the contras and Afghani rebels. They also
spoke of sabotaging major economic targets in the Managua area,
including an airport, an oil refinery, and electric and telephone
systems. (These plans were apparently aborted when the Iran-Contra
scandal broke in November 1986.)
José
Bueso Rosa
Reagan
administration officials interceded on behalf of José Bueso
Rosa, a Honduran general who was heavily involved with the CIA's
contra operations and faced trial for his role in a massive drug
shipment to the United States. In 1984 Bueso and co-conspirators
hatched a plan to assassinate Honduran President Roberto Suazo Córdoba;
the plot was to be financed with a $40 million cocaine shipment
to the United States, which the FBI intercepted in Florida.
Document
13
Declassified e-mail messages indicate that Oliver North led the
behind-the-scenes effort to seek leniency for Bueso . The messages
record the efforts of U.S. officials to "cabal quietly" to get Bueso
off the hook, be it by "pardon, clemency, deportation, [or] reduced
sentence." Eventually they succeeded in getting Bueso a short sentence
in "Club Fed," a white collar prison in Florida.
Document
14
(See page 76 of Document 6, the Kerry
Report)
The Kerry Committee report reviewed the case, and noted that the
man Reagan officials aided was involved in a conspiracy that the
Justice Department deemed the "most significant case of narco-terrorism
yet discovered."
Kerry
Report - Iran/Contra North Notebook Citation Bibliography
The
text below is taken from page 146 of the Drugs,
Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy report
prepared by the Senate Subcommittee on Narcotics, Terrorism and
International Operations ("Kerry Committee"). Click on
the links to view the relevant passages from Oliver North's notebooks.
Case
Study: The Drug-Related Entries
...
Among the entries in the North Notebooks which discernably concern
narcotics or terrorism are:
May 12, 1984…contract
indicates that Gustavo is involved w/ drugs. (Q0266)
June 26, 1984.
DEA- (followed by two blocks of text deleted by North) (Q0349)
June 27, 1984.
Drug Case - DEA program on controlling cocaine- Ether cutoff-
Colombians readjusting- possible negotiations to move on refining
effort to Nicaragua- Pablo Escobar-Colombian drug czar- Informant
(Pilot) is indicted criminal- Carlos Ledher- Freddy Vaughn (Q0354)
July 9, 1984.
[NOTE:
Portions transcribed in Kerry Report but deleted from declassified
version] Call from Clarridge- Call Michel re Narco
Issue- RIG at 1000 Tomorrow (Q0384)- DEA Miami- Pilot went talked
to Vaughn- wanted A/C to go to Bolivia to p/u paste- want A/C
to p/u 1500 kilos- Bud to meet w/ Group (Q0385)
July 12, 1984.
[NOTE:
Portions transcribed in Kerry Report but deleted from declassified
version] Gen. Gorman-*Include Drug Case (Q0400)
Call from Johnstone- (White House deletion) leak on Drug (0402)
July 17, 1984.
Call to Frank M- Bud Mullins Re- leak on DEA piece- Carlton Turner
(Q0418) Call from Johnstone- McManus, LA Times-says/NSC source
claims W.H. has pictures of Borge loading cocaine in Nic. (Q0416)
July 20, 1984.
Call from Clarridge:-Alfredo Cesar Re Drugs-Borge/Owen leave Hull
alone (Deletions)/Los Brasiles Air Field-Owen off Hull (Q0426)
July 27, 1984.
Clarridge:-(Block of White House deleted text follows)-Arturo
Cruz, Jr.-Get Alfredo Cesar on Drugs (Q0450)
July 31, 1984.
-Finance: Libya- Cuba/Bloc Countries-Drugs. . . Pablo Escobar/Federic
Vaughn (Q0460)
July 31, 1984.
[NOTE:
Portions transcribed in Kerry Report but deleted from declassified
version] Staff queries re (White House deletion)
role in DEA operations in Nicaragua (Q0461)
December 21, 1984.
Call from Clarridge: Ferch (White House deletion)- Tambs- Costa
Rica- Felix Rodriguez close to (White House deletion)- not assoc.
W/Villoldo- Bay of Pigs- No drugs (Q0922)
January 14, 1985.
$14 million to finance came from drugs (Q1039)
July 12, 1985.
$14 million to finance came from drugs
August 10, 1985.
Mtg w/ A.C.- name of DEA person in New Orleans re Bust on Mario/
DC-6 (Q1140)
February 27, 1986.
Mtg w/ Lew Tambs- DEA Auction A/C seized as drug runners.- $250-260K
fee (Q2027)
Numerous other entries contain references to individuals or events
whoch Subcommittee staff has determined have relevance to narcotics,
terrorism, or international operations, but whose ambiguities
cannot be resolved without the production of the deleted materials
by North and his attorneys.
