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ick here for Full Issue of EIR Volume 21, Number 27, July 1, 1994

© 1994 EIR News Service Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited.

Oliver No's dg smuli

points fnger at George Bush A

A foer high ocial of U. S. anti-drug law enforcement hascome forward with evidence of Virginia Republican candidate for goveor Oliver North's deep involvement in smuggling narcotics into the United States. Celerino ("Cele ) Castillo, the Drg Enforcement Administration (DEA)supervisor for several Central American countries from

to gave interviews in midJune to the Tx magazine and the national wire sevices, saying that Norhbelongs not in the goveor's mansion, but in prison.

Castillo detailed the drug smuggling of the mercenaypilots who worked for Oliver North and Cuban exile FelixRodriguez under the pretext of aiding the "Conas to ghtagainst Nicaragua's communist Sandinista regime. The veteran antidug executive's charges dovetail closely with evidence published by and others. The evidence in thepubli domain increasingly indicates:

• that the Contra enterprise was managed as a criminalapparatus used for geopolitical aims, including the destruc

tion of beroAmerican nations' sovereignty, rather han asan effor to defeat communism (the communists' drugrnning having been supplied by the same cartel); and

• that thenVice President George Bush was the directorof the apparatus, and was the employer of North, Rodriguez,and their dg smugglers.

beroAmerica is now enduring the bitter results of howBush and his criminal enterprises sold out and sabotaged theanticommunists and nationalists. Today, the entire regionsands on the brink of falling under the control of New Age,satanic narcoterrorists (see June 44p. 0)

D "They were rnning large quantities of cocaine to theUnited States via lopango Air Force base in EI Salvador,Castillo told the Associated Press on June He said shipments were own to Florida, Texas, and Califoia. "OliverNorh was running the operation. His pilots wer known drugtafckers listed in govement les and these people werebeing given U. S. visas.

Castillo told the Tx that the drugs were owninto lopang Air Base, stored in Hangars 4 and ther, andwere then smuggled norhward for sale in the United States.

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"Hangar 4 was owned and opeated by the CA, and te ohehangar was run by Felix Rodrguez, [alias] Max Goez' fthe Contra operation (directed y Norh), basicaly they werrnning cocaine frm South meica to the U. S. via Salvador. That was the only way the Conras were abe o getnancial help. By ging to slep with the enemy dow here

He said that North's agents and the Cenral tellgeceAgency were at the two hanars overseeing the oros"at all times.

Castillo told reporers tha the DEA suppresse hs cial repors, and that he repoted the cocaine smuggig George Bush in person and o the U. S. ambassa I Salvador.

On Jan. 4 Castll says, he met Vice rsieBush at a ccktail ary at the house of he U. S. ambssato Guatemala. Castillo descri�ed o Bush his jb as chief the U. S. drug law enforcemet in he regin. When he tBush details of Norh's criinal activities, Castil sys,

Bush gave him the brushoff; "he just smiled and he aeaway from me, according to he Associated Press.Castillo's allegations of Cnra drug smugglig e sb

stantiated in the December rpor of the Cogss Subcommittee on Terrorism, arcotics and neai 0erations (the Kerry Cmmitte), but action was bocke the operation continued.

n a Feb. 4 memto U. S. aach Rober S Guatemala, Castillo identie more than to ze drug smugglers frequening angars 4 and amg epilots hired by Oliver Norh. "Now all these contrac piswere documented [in DEA es] tackers, Class caie

violators that were being hir by he CA and he Cnrs.And the U. S. embassy in E Salvador was givig vss tthese people even though the were documented in cmputers as being narcotics trafckers.

 The identied smugglers ncluded Carlos Abero dor, a Nicaraguan mentined in six DEA les. The C assaid to have obtained a visa fo him. Amador kep four plsat lopango, where Amador's !equent cmpain as ZgeZarcovick ( DEA les), ho was arrese i e U States for largescale ccaine smuggling.

Pilot Walter Grasheim seven DEA les) as d

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mented as a cocaine smuggler into the United States viaIlopango Airpot. "Wally Grasheim was an American working hand-in-hand with Col. Oliver Noth, Castillo charged.Grasheim was alleged to have died when his plane was shotdown over Nicaragua on Oct. 5, 1986. Pilot Eugene Hasenfus parachuted safely from the plane, and was captured bythe Sandinistas. Hasenfus's disclosure of the roles of Bush,

North, and Rodriguez began a public scandal which, aer itwas diveted from Bush, became known as "Iran-Contra.

When Castillo's anti-drug agents raided Grasheim'shouse in El Salvador, they found explosives and war matriel. The Pentagon told Castillo to drop the investigation.

Castillo was transferred out of Central America. Later,while pursuing drug trafckers in Miami, Texas, and SanFrancisco, Castilo arrested the wife of Nicaraguan CarlosCabeza for selling cocaine. Attempting to deal or his wife'sfreedom, Cabezas said he was one of the pilots working or

Noth, smuggling large quantities of cocaine into the UnitedStates from Ilopango. Cabezas identied many of his fellow

smugglers, corroborating the dug trafckers' roster alreadyknown to Castillo and his agents.

How Bs s i p: a ooogThe Ilopango Air Base ring, described by Celerino Castil

lo as pouring cocaine into the United States, came abouthrough arrangements made by George Bush, centering onthe activities of Bush' agent Felix Rodriguez. Many of thedetails of this operation were given in ' s 659-page book,Grg Bush: Th Unuthrizd Bigrphy by WebsterGrifn Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin (Washington, D.C.: Executive Intelligence Review, 1992).

As a CIA veteran, Rodriguez had previously worked inthe assassination and narcotics business which Cuban exilemanager Theodore Shackley and hi colleagues ran duringthe Indochina war. This grouping became the heart of "theEnterprise that went into action 15-20 years later in IranContra. Shackley sponsored opium-growing Meo tribesmen,and used the dope proceeds to fund his hit squads. He formedthe Military Assistance Group-Special Operations Group political murder unit, of which Gen. John K. Singlaub was acommander. Oliver North and Richard Secord were ofcersof the unit. By 1971, the Shackley group had killed about100,000 civilians in Southeast Asia as pat of the CIA's

Operation Phoenix.Aer Vietnam, Rodriguez went back to Ibero-American

CIA operations, while other pats of the Shackley organization went on to sell drugs and guns in the Middle East.

By 983, both the Shackley group and Felix Rodriguezwere attached to an extra-constitutional national securityower structure under its shadow commander, George Bush.

On Nov 4 Federal Bureau ofnvestigation agentsarrested Felix Rodriguez's business partner Gerard Latchinian for his role in a bizarre Central Amerian plot. atchinian,co-owner of Rodriguez's Florida-based Giro Aviation Corp. ,

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had smuggled $0.3 milion wor of cocaine ito Foi.The dope was to be part of the payent to an aas fothe murder of the President of onduras, Roeo oCrdova. Arrested along with Latcinian ere eie oras Gen. Jos Bueso Rosa and two oter odura.

At issue was the continued full paticiaio of oa

in the U.S. Contra enterprise. Natioaist iiy oewere putting up some resistance, an tey ha reae President Suazo to purge Bueo and few oter o U.S. assets rom the Honduran ilita.

As the Florida trial proeeded, Roige' eLatchinian apparently felt he had been "set u. e eiein declaring that the plot had been soore te ..govement, according to cout records. erhas a et,he was sentenced to 30 or more years in prison enealBueso, backed by vigorous interventio fro Oie oand U.S. Gen. Paul Goran, kept quie. e a eaewith a shot stay at the miniu secu�ty faciity at i

Force Base (known as "Club Fed becaue of its cofeaccomodations), and then retired to oduas.

The Honduran President was stil aive, tha o eFBI. But would he get the essage of o luck e , how much he owed or hi ife?

Rodigz ooks p wi NoOn Dec 50 days aer is ane's aest

Felix Rodriguez met in the oce of Vice esiet with Donald Gregg, Vice President s's natioa seadviser. Gregg had been Rodriguez's CA boss in ie.

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Rodriguez wrote in his book S W that he rstmet Col.Oliver Norh immediately aer this paicular visitto the Bush oce.

On Jan. 18, 1985, Rodriguez met in prison with Ram6nMilin Rodrguez, accountant and money launderer for Colombia's Medelln cocaine cartel.Milin, an important Republican Party contribtor, later testied to a U.S. Senate

investigation that he granted Felix Rodriguez's request, andgave $0 million om the cocaine cartel to Rodriguez for theContras. The m exposed the prison rendezvostwo years later, aer Felix Rodrigez had become notoriousin the ran-Contra affair.Felix Rodrigez at rst denied evermeeting with Milin, bt eventally remembered it, claimingthat he had informed the FB and CA about the meeting justaftewards.

Four days later, on Jan. 22, 1985, Bush met with Rodriguez in the Exective Oce Building. Rodriguez's bookreported only that "Mr.Bush was easy to talk to, and he wasinterested in my stories. 

During late January 1985, George Bush's ofce ofcially organized contacts through the State Department forRodriguez to operate in Central America om the lopangoAir Base in EI Salvador, in a false "private citizen capacity.Rodriguez later described these arrangements in his book.

 The U.S.ambassador t EI Salvador, Thomas Pickering,cabled to Gen. Paul F. Gorman, commander of the U.S.Army Southe Command: "Rodriguez has high-level contacts at the White House, DO S [ State Department and DOD[Defense Department, some of whom are strongly spporting his se in EI Salvador.

"t would be in our best interests that Mr. Rodrigez

confer with you personally prior to coming to EI Salvador.have some obvious conces about this arrangement.Rodriguez ew om Panama to EI Salvador on General

Gormans personal airplane. General Gorman sent acondential cable to Ambassador Pickering and Col.James Steele, U.S. military liaison man with the Contra respplyoperation in EI Salvador: " have just met here with FelixRodriguez....He is operating as a private citizen, but hisacquaintanceship with the VP [Vice President Bsh is realenough, going back to the latter's days as DC, referring toBush's tenure as Director of Central ntelligence in 747

 The next two items in or chronology were the admissions of the United States govement in the OliverNorth trial, among the stipulations given to the cort in orderto avoid being ordered to release classied docments.

On Feb. 7, 1985, the strange new sborganism of theExective branch known as the Crisis Pre-Planning Group(CPPG), subordinate to the Bsh-caired Specia SitationGroup, met to discss means to circmvent the U.S. Congress's ban on aid to the Contras. They agreed on a letter tobe sent to the recently saved Hondran President Sazo, "to

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provide several enticements o Hondras in exchange forits continued support f the icaraguan Resistance. Theseenticements inclded expeditd delivery of military suppliesordered by Hndras, a phase� release of withheld economicassistance ...funds, and othr support.

On Feb. 12, 1985, "Noh proposed that [the United States shold send a memo [�o top ocials on] the rcom

mendation of the CPPG [whi was often chaired by DonaldGregg.... The memo state that this part of the message[to the Hondran President shoul not be contained in awritten docment but should e delivered verbally by a discreet emissary. 

George Bush later delived the message in person, andHonduras was given "increaed aid, to be diverted to theBush Contra apparatus.

On Feb. 15, 1985, after! Rodriguez had arrived in EI Salvador and had begun settin up the Contra resupply depotat lopango Air Base, Ambasdor Thomas Pickering sent an"eyes only cable to the State epartment on his conversation

with Rodriguez. Pickering cable bore the postscript,"Please brief Dn Gregg in th V.P.'s oce for me. 

On Feb. 19, 1985, Feli Rodrigez met with Bush'sstaff in the vice-presidential ces in the Executive OceBuilding, brieng them on th¢ progress of his mission.Overthe next two year, Rodrigez met frequently with Bushstaff members in Washingto and in Central America, oenjointly with CA and other 1 ocials, and conferred withBushs staff by teleponeery day, in some accounts ofthe matter.

On March 15-16, 1985, eorge Bush and Felix Rodrigez were in Central Americ on their common project.On

March Rodriguez superised delivery in Honduras ofmilitary supplies for the Nicaaguan Democratic Force Contras whose main base was thre in Hondras. The next day,Bsh met with President Suo, telling him that the ReaganBush administration was exediting delivery of mor than$0 million in economic an military aid "to Suazo's govement. The Congress had rohibited the U. S.govementfrom providing military suppies to the Contas.

DEA executve Celerino astillo met several times during with U.S.Ambassaor to EI Salvador Edwin Corr,seeking a crackdown against he lopango drug ring.Castillogot a chilling response."His words to me were that it was a

cove White House operatio rn by Col.Oliver Norh andfor s to stay away from the peration. The June 7 4Tx aricle qued Corrs response: " denyCeles allegations that told im to back off on the basis ofWhite Hose pressure.

On May 1, 1986, Vice esident Bush and his staff metin the White House with Flix Rodriguez, Oliver North,nancier Nicholas Brady, ad the new U.S.ambassador toEI Salvador, Edwin Corr.Acording to Rodriguez's book, itwas decided there that "prate citizen Felix Rodriguezwould contine his work in entral America.

EK July 4