CIA "rendition" flights as cover for drug smuggling: Did the Inspector General discover the Agency's dirtiest secret?
fc
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2007/10/unprecedented.html
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JFK employees accused of trafficking drugs through airport
cocaine & heroin
New York - WABC, October 16, 2007
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=local&id=5709784
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Narcotics and politics, an untold story?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/14/11471/036
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CIA "rendition" flights as cover for drug smuggling: Did the Inspector
General discover the Agency's dirtiest secret? Thursday, October 11,
2007
CIA "rendition" flights as cover for drug smuggling: Did the Inspector
General discover the Agency's dirtiest secret?
Anyone who has followed CIA scandals will find no historical parallel
to this story. CIA Director Michael Hayden wants to inspect his
Inspector General, John L. Helgerson. Helgerson has been looking
rather too closely at the CIA's rendition programs.
The Inspector General (or IG) runs the Agency's "internal affairs"
department -- in other words, he polices the CIA. Usually, the IG is
one of the "old boys," but occasionally the gig goes to someone who
plays hardball.
In the current case, it appears that Hayden has asked his close aide
Robert Deitz (a man who plays Tonto to Hayden's Lone Ranger) to
investigate John Helgerson. The IG has been a thorn in Hayden's side
for quite some time...
The inspector general's office also rankled agency officials when
it completed a withering report about the C.I.A's missteps before the
Sept. 11 attack - a report that recommended "accountability boards" to
consider disciplinary action against a handful of senior officials.
Did the IG uncover the drug connection?
The argument I'm about to make is, in part, speculative. Each reader
must judge whether the speculative sections constitute well-grounded
deduction or irresponsible conjecture. (For reasons of brevity, this
post will rely heavily on previous articles, which contain the off-
site links.)
Let's begin with a simple question. Why is CIA Director Hayden taking
unprecedented action? What can the IG reveal about the rendition
flights that could possibly be worse than what we already know?
Not just prisoners: In the past, I have argued that the program did
not simply transfer prisoners to torture-friendly nations. The flights
may also have been used for smuggling. I base that claim on three
factors:
1. The sheer number of rendition flights.
2. The odd places visited during those flights.
3. A rather large collection of books, available at any university
library, documenting the overlap between spies and the drug trade.
Naturally, any such "rogue" use of CIA-controlled aircraft would have
to be kept hidden from the Inspector General -- and, in all
likelihood, from the owners of record.
Before you dismiss the idea, please read my earlier piece, "The CIA's
airlines: What's in the baggage compartment?" As that article notes,
just one Gulfstream IV used by the CIA made 488 flights between 2001
and 2005. That single plane can carry twenty passengers. Many other
jets were used in this program.
How many "prisoners" could there have been?
CIA rendition flights have taken off and landed in Spain, the
U.K., Switzerland, Norway, Portugal, France, the Czech Republic,
Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Thailand, Uzbekistan and other
nations. Although officially civilian, the jets are allowed to land at
American military bases. Virtually anything could be shipped without
detection on those flights.
We now have no fewer than three major episodes linking CIA aircraft to
the drug trade.
(To read the rest, click "Permalink" below)
The crashed coke jet. The most recent incident involved a Gulfstream
II that went down mysteriously in Mexico, after the pilot and
passengers had bailed out. Authorities found over three tons of
cocaine on board. (See here and here.)
In the 2003-2005 period, that same aircraft was under the control of
-- though not technically owned by -- the CIA-linked firm Richmor
aviation. During that time, the jet made a series of "rendition"
flights.
Just before the recent coke transport flight, the plane was
transferred from one mysterious "owner" to another at a dizzying clip.
(This is common. When attempting to track the history of CIA aircraft,
one should expect to encounter confusing ownership flips and an
endless number of on-paper front companies.)
I would ask readers to note the chronology. Richmor's routine use of
the jet for "prisoner" flights stopped after 2005 -- when IG John
Helgerson started to look into renditions.
The captured Skyway coke jet. This blog has devoted quite a few posts
to last year's remarkable capture, on a Mexican tarmac, of a jet laden
with five tons of coke. (Here and here and here, and that's for
starters.) Although the plane was surrounded by police, the pilot
somehow "got away."
(Compare his fate to that of the Gulfstream II pilot: He bailed, was
captured, and then tried to bribe his way out of custody. I don't know
if the bribe worked; no further news reports have mentioned him.)
The Skyway jet was owned by a noted con artist who, in exchange for
protection, allowed "his" plane to be used for various nefarious
activities. Although this aircraft underwent the usual rapid ownership
transfers just before the bust in Mexico, it still bore the Skyway
logo, which strongly resembles the Homeland Security logo.
Skyway was a fake firm associated with In-Q-Tel, a shadowy investment
group begun by CIA personnel. Although Skyway head Brent Kovar was a
notorious scamster, he has never faced a judge, and his aviation
undertaking somehow attracted investment from two very real
corporations: The defense giant Titan and Argyll Equities of Boerne,
Texas. According to investigator Daniel Hopsicker,
Argyll previously arranged for a $17 million loan to a Mexican
businessman, who in turn provided "significant capital" to a
"Chilean narcotics trafficker" named Manuel Vicente Losada,
arrested in the Chilean capital of Santiago after being "linked to a
shipment of five tons of cocaine which U.S. drug enforcement officials
in Miami intercepted over six years ago on the vessel Harbour, as it
headed toward Guantanamo Bay."
"Guantanamo Bay"? asks Hopsicker. The implications hang in the
air.
Hopsicker lists a few other indicators that Argyll may have a
shady history. No less a figure than Patrick Fitzgerald investigated
allegations that Argyll played a role in a scheme to defraud a hedge
fund administered by the mother of actor Vince Vaughn.
That, I fear, is a tale for another time. Right now, let us stay
focused on the eye-popping allegation that cocaine headed toward
Gitmo.
Is Guantanamo being used as a drug transshipment point?
Consider: The recently-crashed Gulfstream II made a number of trips to
Gitmo. Why? To transport prisoners? No: News accounts have made clear
that the prisoners there were brought in via military craft.
Evergreen. Evergreen airlines is the most famous CIA-linked aviation
company; indeed, it is difficult to say where Evergreen stops and the
Agency begins. Oddly enough, Evergreen had employed Russell DeFreitas,
who was arrested last June for an alleged attempt to blow up JFK
airport.
In an earlier post, I argued that DeFreitas was involved with a drug
ring while he worked at JFK airport. News accounts link him with the
Triniad-based nationalist organization Jamaat Al Muslimeen, which
controls much of the organized crime in that part of the world.
Do you believe that Evergreen -- which is to say, the CIA -- would
accidentally hire a man connected to a criminal syndicate?
Evergreen is a major player in the "rendition" scandal. Evergreen
aircraft were used to transport "prisoners."
And perhaps not just prisoners.
Based on the above, I posit -- but cannot prove -- that Inspector
General John Helgerson has been looking into the links between
"renditions" and smuggling.
The pattern is difficult to explain away: In each of the three
episodes listed above, the scenarios changed after 2005 -- after the
IG began to investigate renditions. After 2005, the Gulfstream II
underwent a series of weird and hard-to-follow ownership transfers. So
did the Skyway jet. DeFreitas left Evergreen to work as a "baggage
handler" at JFK (where Evergreen has a presence) -- an interesting gig
for someone associated with drug thugs and spooks.
Never before has a CIA Director investigated an Inspector General. Why
now?
(Note: I've substantially rewritten this piece since original
publication.)
# posted by Joseph : 10:37 PM 12 comments
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I'm home/No Habeas Corpus for "Any Person"/Bush Moves Toward Martial
Law
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.royalty/browse_frm/thread/02362338c9ef20f1
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Drug lord 'waged jihad'
http://www.hfxnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=69150&sc=89
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Afghanistan 'is going down fast'
http://afghan.cc/blogs/afghan/archive/2007/10/13/2004.aspx
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Canada, Afghanistan, and the poppy explosion
http://the-reaction.blogspot.com/2007/08/canada-afghanistan-and-poppy-explosion.html
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