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CIA drug-running and Clinton

As the powerful Western countries grapple with the extradition of two
suspected bombers from Libya another extradition re-quest has gone almost
entirely without notice in the press. Costa Rica is attempting to bring
back a naturalised citizen of their cou ntry to face justice following a
governmental report into his activities. The man in question, John Hull,
is accused by Costa Rica of murder, drug trafficking and hostile acts
against Nicaragua in violation of their countrys neutrality. John Hull
was a major contra supporter during the U.S.s war against Nicaragua and
is believed to have engineered the bombing of the La Penca press
conference given by Eden Pastora, the only contra leader who had refused
to work under the C.I.A. Five were
 killed in the explosion and twenty injured (though marginally higher and
lower figures have also been put for-ward). Hull was even accused by
Colombian drug kingpin Carlos Lehder on an ABC news program of pumping
about 30 tons of cocaine into the United
 States a year from his ranch in Costa Rica.  It included an airstrip:
just one link in the contra resupply network.  Cocaine-funded covert
operations have a pedigree: the C.I.A. support for opium-growing Chinese
nationalists in the Golden Triangle set the scene for the 60s heroin
plague in the U.S.  As far back as the 50s the C.I.A. had found it
expedient to ally with the Corsican syndicates smuggling drugs through
Marseilles who were able to break the power of the communist dockworkers
there. Further examples would include the Mujaheedin guerrillas, for
instance, and Manuel Noriega, who himself helped organise the rou ting of
drugs to the U.S. and guns to the contras. Since jumping bail in Costa
Rica, Hull has found sanctuary in the U.S., the country where he was born
and also a country professing zero tolerance for drug smugglers. And
even, we are told, a whole war on drugs along with its 'abhorrence of
terrorism' . Hull has told journalists that he will return to Costa Rica
to clear his name and has even been in touch with Amnesty Internation=
al
to protest about harassment. A number of U.S. Congressmen quickly got in
touch with the Costa Rican President to ask th at he handle Hull's case
"in a manner that will not complicate U.S.-Costa Rican relations." Can we
expect Hull to return to Costa Rica to prove his innocence soon? Not
according to Susie Morgan, a British journalist badly injured in the La
Penca blast: the C.I.A. cannot afford Hull taking the witness stand,
theyd have to kill him. She herself
 gave up chasing Hull after four arduous years of investigation. Others
have tried too and faced blockages and death threats; one
insider-turned-informant was killed on Hulls ranch.=20


The Christic Institute: under attack

The one organisation which looked as if it might be able to put some
pressure on Hull was the Christic Institute - a liberal public interest
law firm which made Hull a defendant, along with twenty-eight others, in a
lawsuit brought by two of the American journalists injured in the La Penca
explosion. The lawsuit charges that a criminal racketeering enterprise
smuggled narcotics and arms through contra bases in Central America,
supplying much of the North American drug market. In the event the
Christic Institute was given the runaround by the judicial system, which
denied them a jury trial, and with the unprecedented -
politically-motivated - removal of their tax-exempt status looming as well
as awards of huge costs and fines totalling $1.7 million against them,
they may soon lie in financial ruins. Leonard Schroeter, chair of the
Association of Trial Lawyers of America, has called the various judicial
sanctions against the Christic Institute the single most unspeakable
attac k on dissent Ive ever seen... It was judicial tyranny. Schroete=
r,
like others, is terrified at the implications: Corporate America is
deter-mined to convert judges into ideo-logues, who follow the
corpor-ations agenda. And part of that agenda is minim ising peoples
capability to have access to justice. Corporate America wants to reduce
the number of lawsuits challenging their practices and abuses by the
federal government... If youre challenging something major, youre
subjecting yourself to severe r isk. The risk of personal bankruptcy. The
risk of being forced out of your profession. Thats the kind of terror
this case has created. Some sympathisers say that the Institute itself
may be partially to blame for casting its net too wide and bringing in so
much insufficiently well-prepared evidence along with superfluous and
sometimes unsourced conspiracy theory that their case became
 too cumbersome.  The Christic Institute has a praiseworthy record of
legal actions in the public interest: it helped with the successful Karen
Silkwood case against Kerr McGee Nuclear Corporation and with a number of
important civil rights cases in southern black communi ties. Now, however,
it may finally have bitten off more than it can chew: the White House, the
C.I.A. and even the Justice Department (who halted the F.B.I.
investigation of contra-linked heroin trafficking). It looks as if it may
fail to live up to the high hopes of its supporters - who include Jesse
Jackson and Bruce Springsteen - through a mixture of inexperience as well
as a generous dose of governmental maliciousness. Hull apparently remains
in hiding in the U.S. - still a free man. The Christic In stitute has
managed, until now at least, to survive after drastic cuts in staff and
activities and the selling-off of buildings, and even then only after a
large donation towards the $1.7 million in fines. There has still been no
direct refusal by the U.S. government to allow the extradition but neither
has there been any sign that Clinton favours extradition; his past
behaviour may give little cause for optimism.=20

Clinton's cocaine cover-up?=20

A small dirt airstrip at Mena, Arkansas, was a major North American focus
for the Contra drug and gun-running network, apparently handling a
night-flight every five minutes, without lights, at the height of the
activities. Democrat Congressman for Arkans as, Bill Alexander, has stated
that activities at Mena have been responsible for large volumes of drugs
coming into his state. In spite of mounting evidence, however, Clinton, as
Governor of the state, appears to have made no attempt to help with
investig ations by local prosecutors into the illegal activities there; he
may even have sat on important evidence which could have helped to bring
into the open these activities, as we shall see. In his defense Clinton
has claimed that he did in fact authorise $2 5,000 for an investigation,
but no trace of such a payment has yet been found. Clinton's behaviour has
led to suspicion in some quarters that he may even have been linked to the
C.I.A. in the past, perhaps receiving their help in obtaining his Rhodes
scholarship as has happened with others. One fellow scholar at the time,
Lt.Col. Ro bert Earl, curiously enough went on to become an assistant to
Oliver North. Clinton is well-known too for sending his state's National
Guard to Honduras for training in what amounted in effect to
Contra-supporting activities. He has honoured prominent con tras, like
Adolfo Calero and his brother as well as a notorious American supporter
Major-General John Singlaub, with "Arkansas Traveller" awards. Clinton had
also employed, in the Arkansas Development and Finance Administration, a
contra-supporter named L arry Nichols, who almost torpedoed his candidacy
later by exposing his affair with Gennifer Flowers during a court case
following Nichols' dismissal from his job. Clinton's brother - who has
been convicted of cocaine possession - is also involved, as a 'hanger-on'
of Barry Seal who was a major organiser of the contra resupply network and
one-time pilot for the Medellin cocaine cartel. An investigation in the
newsletter "Washington Report" concluded that "There is ample evidence
that Bush, Clinton, Pryo r (Senator David Pryor, Democrat-Arkansas),
Bumpers (Senator Dale Bumpers D-AR), Hammerschmidt, various U.S.
attorneys, Arkansas state officials and Arkansas financial institutions
knew plenty about the illegal activities at Mena but permitted these to pr
oceed."=20

The Deniable Link

One episode which ought to have brought the Mena activites to the
attention of the public involves Arkansas resident and C.I.A. 'asset'
Terry Reed who found himself framed by Arkansas state officials, including
Clinton's state security chief, Buddy Young,
 when he tried to end his role in assisting covert operations from Mena.
He is currently suing these police officials.  Reed had once worked for
the C.I.A.'s 'Air America' and later, as a family man, still happily
became involved in helping the contra resupply network: he refitted planes
and trained contra pilots at the Mena airstrip. Later he became involved
with Oliver N orth who asked Reed to allow a small plane he owned to be
taken in a faked "theft" so that it could be used by the contra resupply
network. This scam of North's - named "Operation Donation" - enabled him
to circumvent Congressional clampdowns on aid to th e contras whilst plane
and boat-owners would claim the insurance money and lose nothing
themselves. Reed was unhappy about lending the plane, perhaps permanently,
as it was needed for his work and he declined to help. A few weeks later
it was stolen anywa y. Reed says it was a couple of years later, in 1985,
that a friend from his days with Air America - C.I.A. pilot William Cooper
- told him that the plane had actually been taken for Oliver North and
"Project Donation". In mid-1986 Reed accepted the C.I.A.'s offer of a
business opportunity in Mexico in exchange for further help in providing
cover for a Mexican leg of the resupply operation. However, several months
later Reed began to get cold feet after his old friend Wi lliam Cooper was
shot down and killed over Nicaragua. The sole survivor, cargo-kicker
Eugene Hasenfus, was propelled into the media spotlight sparking off the
Iran-Contra investigation. "I told them that this was a grandiose, fun
scheme but I am not going
 to do this anymore... we don't want to hurt you - we just want out. (But)
once you've seen it, you're in", as Reed puts it. It is suggested that he
also stumbled upon a tonne of cocaine in a hanger he used.  His bosses,
then including hardline anti-Castro Cuban Felix Rodriguez, were not
pleased by his refusal to continue his work in Mexico. Before he knew what
had hit him Reed found that his "stolen" plane had been secretly returned
to its hanger and a passin g private investigator just happened to be
walking by this hanger as the wind blew the door open to show the plane.
He soon found himself in court, along with his wife, charged with
insurance fraud. His F.B.I. file now inexplicably described him as "arme d
and dangerous". The initially skeptical Public Defenders appointed to the
case soon changed their minds when they and the Reeds suffered what under
normal circumstances would have been an inexplicable series of violent
incidents including break-ins, fir e-bombing and an apparently deliberate
hit-and-run attack when one of the Defenders' cars was rammed. In the
event Reed was aquitted of insurance fraud perhaps because he had
expressed his wish to sub-poena North and Rodriguez.  Reports on the case
by Buddy Young, Clin-ton's security chief, had been dictated in 1988 and
backdated by a year; the Judge conclud-ed that Young and the private
investigator both had a "reckless dis-regard for the truth". Vital
evidence supporting Reed's
 claims remained in Clinton's mansion way after it should have been handed
over to the court. Reed is currently prosecuting the Arkansas officials
who he believes tried - unsuccessfully - to frame him.=20

Pictures courtesy of Christic Institute: 8733 Venice Boulevard, Los
Angeles, CA 90034 Tel. 010 1 310 287 1556 SELECTED SOURCES: Covert Action
37, The Realist 122, Unclassified Vol. IV No. I, Christic Institute -
Convergence, Summer/Fall/Winter 1991.=20