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Newsgroups: alt.politics.usa.republican,alt.politics.clinton,alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater,alt.conspiracy
Subject: Re: 26 MILLION $ of YOUR tax dollars
From: lar-jen@interaccess.com (Larry-Jennie)
Date: Wed, 9 Oct 1996 16:55:39 -0600
In article msch19@mail.idt.net (Michael Schneider) writes:
>In article ,
>lar-jen@interaccess.com (Larry-Jennie) wrote:
>> ZB wrote:
>> >If they can't come up with indictments after spending 26 million
>> >dollars, they're either totally incompetent or no evidence for such
>> >indictments exists.
Larry-Jennie wrote:
>> Or an expensive cover up.
>>
>> Consider how Iran-contra OIC Lawrence Walsh spent over $40 million
>> and seven years investigating. In 1987 he had sworn corroborated
>> testimony on the Contra cocaine activities, yet in the end, he
>> claimed he did not have the time to investigate the charges. His
>> was a cover up.
>>
>> Starr's investigation looks like a carbon copy.
Michael Schneider wrote:
> I'm curious what your take on the Christic Institute affair is.
They bit off more than they could true. They tried to prove in
court the entire dirty CIA criminal enterprise from inception
through to the Contra cocaine trafficking.
IMHO, they should have stuck to one provable case. The best would
have been John Hull.
Larry
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SUMMARY: Costa Rican investigators find CIA subversion of their
government; confirm drug-running and gun-running Iran/Contra crimes
largely ignored by Congress; Iran/Contra figures charged with murder;
the costa Rican Cabinet last year declared Owen, former CIA station
Chief Joe Fernandez, former Ambassador Lewis Tambs, North's, and
former National security Advisor John Poindexter *persona non grata*
in Costa Rica.
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Short introductory article...
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============================================================
La Penca's scattered shrapnel beats a path to the CIA's door
============================================================
Six years after the 1984 La Penca bombing, which killed three
journalists and one contra, a new 54-page report illustrates a covert
collaboration between Costa Rican and U.S. agents.
Authored by the Costa-Rican government -- under pressure from the
Costa Rican Journalists Association -- the report charges John Hull, a
resident of Costa Rica for 20 years, with engineering the bombing that
was intended to kill maverick contra leader Eden Pastora. Carlos
Lehder, a Medellin drug lord imprisoned in the U.S. for life plus 135
years, has publicly said that Hull "was pumping about 30 tons of
cocaine into the U.S. a year" from Costa Rica at the time of the
bombing.
Interpol, an international law-enforcement agency, has placed Hull --
who is currently holed up on his Indiana farm -- on its most-wanted
list for homicide charges, and the Costa Rican government is slowly
preparing a request for his extradition. The Bush administration,
however, is taking no steps to detain the "fugitive," nor is it likely
to. (Both Costa Rican and U.S. congressional staff sources claim Drug
Enforcement Agency agent Juan Perez arranged Hull's getaway last year
when Hull jumped bail on Costa Rican drug charges.)
This latest report -- which also charges two Costa Rican official
with taking CIA payoffs to sabotage the initial La Penca investigation
-- lends credence to the 1986 report by U.S. journalists Martha Honey
and Tony Avirgan, who was injured in the bombing.
[The Christic Institute -- see below -- would file a lawsuit ]
[on Avirgan's behalf that year ]
Their 18-month investigation traced the bombing back to CIA
operatives and contra suppliers, naming Hull and Cuban-American Felipe
Vidal as principal engineers.
The new findings have apparently stimulated efforts by the Bush
administration to shut down the investigation. According to Costa
Rican officials, U.S. Embassy "consular officer" Steven Groh recently
confronted Chief Prosecutor Jose Maria Tijerino with a Florida court
ruling that dismissed a case brought against Hull by Honey and
Avirgan. "The matter has already been dealt with," Groh reportedly
said. but, according to Tijerino, the Florida ruling has no
jurisdiction in Costa Rica.
[The Christic Institute's lawsuit was "dismissed" by a ]
[Florida judge (in 1988, around the end of the presidential ]
[campaign or so, at a time when the suit could have been quite]
[embarrassing. The suit is now under appeal, and has been ]
[given a boost by the very similar findings of the 1989/90 ]
[Costa Rican gov't investigation) ]
Costa Rican investigators also must contend with their country's own
right-wing sectors, which have consistently sought to undermine the La
Penca probe. According to Jorge Chaverria, Costa Rican prosecutor, the
rightists Costa Rican Democratic Association fanned rumors that the
Sandinistas or the Basque terrorist group ETA carried out the bombing
and put forth false witnesses "to try to divert the investigation.."
The conservative Costa Rican press has not only failed to support the
new report but also prints blatantly hostile articles against the
investigators to avoid problems with the U.S. Embassy, adds Chaverria.
Even Chaverria's own investigators at first scoffed at the CIA
conspiracy theory, but within three months they confirmed most of the
damning allegations. Nevertheless, Costa Rican government officials --
who peg Tijerino as a Sandinista -- still insist the report merely
reiterates the findings of Honey and Avirgan.
Meanwhile, Hull's fate rests in the hands of U.S. officials, who are
in no particular hurry to investigate or prosecute him. Interpol's
arrest warrant for "hostile acts, drug trafficking [*], and homicide"
can be found in an FBI informational file. If the U.S. does give
permanent refuge to Hull and the dirty secrets he holds, "we can't do
anything," says Chaverria.
[[*]: See following artilce. Several witnesses and former CIA
operatives have testified that Hull's private ranch in Costa
Rica, which came complete with a take-off/landing strip for
airplanes, was used to fly drugs one way (to the U.S.), guns
and other weapons the other way (for the contras)]
[By Karen Brown. From "In Short" in In These Times, Sept. 19-25, 1990]
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. . . M a i n a r t i c l e f o l l o w s . . .
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The CIA and Its "Babies:"
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C o v e r t O p e r a t i o n s i n C o s t a R i c a
=============================================================
by Tony Avirgan (*)
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--> [Send the 1-line message GET CIA BABIES ACTIV-L to ]
[LISTSERV@UMCVMB.BITNET for a copy of this file. ]
--> [Send GET ACTIV-L ARCHIVE ACTIV-L to above address for a ]
[listing with brief descriptions of other files available]
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Costa Rica has charged two CIA operatives with first degree murder for
the 1984 terrorist bombing of a news conference at La Penca,
Nicaragua. A request for the extradition, on murder charges, of
Iran/contra figure John Hull has been forwarded to the Costa Rican
Embassy in Washington and will soon be presented to the State
Department.
Hull, a 20-year resident of Costa Rica, jumped bail last year rather
than face drug and arms trafficking charges and is now living in
Potoka, Indiana. The drug trafficking charges were suspended due to a
technicality, but Hull now faces the murder charge as well.
The other CIA operative charged with murder is Felipe Vidal, who,
since 1983, has clandestinely traveled between Central America and
Miami. One of his pet projects was involving Cuban-Americans in the
contra war so they could gain combat experience in preparation for a
war against Cuba (1).
Several months ago, Jorge Chavarria, a senior prosecutor charged with
overseeing an investigation of La Penca for the Costa Rican Attorney
General, issued a preliminary investigative report exposing a
conspiracy of espionage, drug trafficking, and murder carried out by
U.S., Panamanian, and Costa Rican officials acting for the CIA (2).
The murder charges stem from that carefully footnoted, 54-page report.
Chavarria, working with a special team of agents from the Office of
Judicial Investigations (OIJ) -- roughly equivalent to the FBI -- says
the 1984 La Penca news conference bombing was the work of Nicaraguan
contras, the CIA, and Panamanian General Manual Noriega. The report
recommended that first-degree murder charges be filed against Hull and
Vidal and that charges of "illicit enrichment" be filed against nearly
a score of Costa Rican security officials who were secretly on the CIA
payroll.
Most OIJ agents have been trained by the FBI, the CIA, or right wing
security services in places such as Taiwan, Chile (under Pinochet),
Argentina (during military rule) or Israel (3).
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(*) Tony Avirgan has covered events in Central America for many years
and now lives in San Jose', Costa Rica. For more on his role in the
investigation of the La Penca bombing, see sidebar, this article.
(1) For more on Vidal's role in the contra war, see: Tony Avirgan
and Martha Honey, _La Penca, Reporte de una Investigacion_ (San Jose',
Costa Rica: Editorial Pervenir, 1989); Lindsey Gruson, "Costa Rica is
Asking U.S. to Extradite Rancher," New York Times, March 1, 1990.
(2) Chavarria's information was gathered over a one-year period with
the help of two OIJ agents. Their findings are reported in a document
entitled, "The Public Prosecutor's Investigation of the `La Penca'
Case," San Jose', Costa Rica, December 26, 1989. Copies of this
document have been circulated among journalists in Costa Rica. An
English translation is available from the Christic Institute in
Washington, D.C.
(3) This information is from personal observation and conversations
with OIJ agents. Many OIJ agents wear small Taiwanese flag pins on
their lapels to show that they have received training there.
Graduation certificates on office wall of OIJ agents are from all
the countries mentioned.
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Chavarria and the agents who worked with him have become something of
pariahs within their organization. The agents accused of working for
the CIA have generally not denied the charges, but have argued that
close cooperation with the CIA and the U.S. Embassy has long been the
norm and had the approval of the highest Costa Rican authorities.
The La Penca bombing, at a contra camp just inside Nicaragua, killed
three journalists -- two Costa Ricans and a North American -- and
seriously wounded two dozen more. The intended target, maverick contra
leader Eden Pastora, escaped with serious injuries.
Although the bombing itself took place just inside Nicaragua, all the
planning and preparation took place in Costa Rica, the U.S., Honduras,
and Panama. Costa Rican law allows for prosecution of crimes committed
against Costa Rican nationals outside the country.
Hull has admitted in several interviews to taking orders and money
from the CIA. Pastora says that he was first introduced to Hull by the
the CIA station chief who said "Mr. Hull is your liaison." (4) Hull's
name appeared in diagrams in Oliver North's notebooks showing the
supply chain to contras in Costa Rica.
Felipe Vidal, a shadowy Miami based Cuban-American, who spends much
time in Costa Rica, has identified himself to numerous contras,
including Pastora, as a CIA agent. He constantly carried a .45
caliber pistol in a shoulder holster and is known and feared among
contras as an assassin. He kept a cross bow in a guest room at Hull's
ranch (5).
The Attorney General's report blames Costa Rica's failure to investigate
the crime for the past five years on the fact that police officials in
charge of the investigation were being paid by the CIA. It says the
CIA fed Costa Rican investigators false information.
The report also details the creation, by the CIA, of a special
15-member unit within Costa Rica's Directorate of Intelligence and
Security (DIS). This unit took orders from the U.S. Embassy rather
than from anyone in the Costa Rican government. It had its own
offices, rented by the U.S. Embassy, and took orders from a CIA agent
named Dimitrius Papas, according to the report. Papas, known as
"Papi," called his Costa Rican underlings "The Babies." (6)
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(4) In an interview on CBS's "West 57th Street" in 1987, Eden Pastora
admitted that Hull was his CIA contact person in Costa Rica. Pastora
also admitted this in his deposition for the Christic Institute's
suit. Hull himself, admitted working for the Agency in various
interview including on CBS's "West 57th Street."
(5) On one occasion, Vidal showed his .45 caliber pistol to the
author. Mercenary Peter Glibbery, who was based at Hull's ranch,
related the information about the crossbow.
(6) Op. cit., n. 2, pp. 25-29
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
The CIA cocaine smuggling on behalf of the Contras
through Mena, Arkansas corrupted the Presidencies
of Bill Clinton, George Bush and Ronald Reagan.
For details, see:
ftp://pencil.cs.missouri.edu/pub/mena/
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
