Nexus - 0208 - New Times Magazine-pages

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DRUGS, Inc. there. Say, “Hi! I wanna go visit Khun Sa!” Doesn’t work! out and I took off and went to Burma again. But I guess they thought this guy is crazy enough because Now I want to show you some things when I got back to I gave him this letter ... I told Harvey, “We got to have a Bunma. (he shows some newspaper headlines) The United credential, guy.” He said, “We can’t do that, Bo. Wenever _ States government wanted Khun Sa killed quick and here’s do that.” I said, “Harvey, has anyone ever gone to the _—how they did it: These are over-there newspaper headlines. Golden Triangle and come out alive? I need something that "US CALLS FOR NO MERCY IN DRUG WAR” will convince Khun Sa were not there to kill him, we're "AIRSTRIKES AGAINST KHUN SA’s HEADQUARTERS " there for humanitarian purposes.” So Harvey said, “Well, —uguyrmfesE AND THAI TROOPS MOVE ON KHUN SA" this will be the language - “You are operating in cooperation . ‘ , with the White House, etc .. etc.’” It worked! Finally it says, and there is a picture of Burmese and Thai Khun Sa didn’t have one single prisoner of war, didn’t "OPS standing on top of a high mountain top: know anything about any prisoners of war. "KHUN SA‘S STRONGHOLD SEIZED" Now with Nancy Reagan saying no to drugs and Judge Now many of you are soldiers, airmen, marines, sailors? Ginsberg not allowed to sit on the supreme court because he © You know that airstrikes, troops mean war. There’s hair, smoked marijuana, and you're an accessory to murder if you —-&yes and teeth everywhere. ever smoke marijuana, according to Nancy Reagan - I fig- When I went back into Burma in May I took two other ured we'd get an ‘attaboy’. Americans with me. It was the most peaceful area. It was We didn’t have prisoners, but we had three video tapes _€xactly like we left it except for one big change. Remember showing Khun Sa himself. And I thought, “Boy, is George _! told you it took us three days to ride by horse to get there Bush gonna be thrilled about this!” (much laughter) in November and come out in December. Well, when we We delivered those tapes to Tom Harvey just before | Wentin May, we went by pickup truck. ; Christmas. You try to call Tom Harvey now, because some Straight from the Thai border all the way right to the General’s front door. And on the . other way coming back there were We delivered those tapes just before You be on the other end of the Thai military 10 ton trucks covered Christmas. Tom Harvey called me J OA ReOUC em and loaded. There’s only one thing back and said, “Bo, Fantastic! You M/UGIEAACUACE RU aCuEiayetmes wat comes out of the Golden Triangle guys actually got in to see Khun Sa. Rane Om One RTENACNS CR TIRCnEe ond at's heroin. The CIA said he had been assasinat- Wyo nme eae Mey aa Wipe ws gh bes Guped Tan fa ed.” Somebody needed some pocket i: said, “What took you so long?” I said, change. “And there be in wiking.” RUC mUL COM e CORUM “General, | was waiting for the war to And I said, “That’s right, Tom, what bureaucracy and there’s “no die down. I didn’t want to get caught about the 900 tons?” I figured they interest?” in all of this 26,000 troops and were just bubbling over. They were airstrikes”, and he just laughed. He all right, they were dripping in their said, “That was a newspaper war!” I knickers. But it wasn’t from joy. Harvey said, “Bo..”, these Said, “What do you mean newspaper war?” He said, “The are quotes - hand on the square - he said, “Bo, there’s no Thai and Burmese came to me and said that if they don’t interest here in that.” make it look like there doing something, they stand to lose tens of millions of dollars this year in drug suppression out of Burma. You've brought what you consider to be a ‘funds from American taxpayers.” So Khun Sa said, “Make way to stop 900 tons of heroin, not marijuana, and get rid of look like anything you want to, but I want a road built the cancer that has infected the bureaucracy and there’s “no here. news people did, and he doesn’t return your calls. You be on the other end of the phone. You’ve just come out and I took off and went to Burma again. Now I want to show you some things when I got back to Burma. (he shows some newspaper headlines) The United States government wanted Khun Sa killed quick and here’s how they did it: These are over-there newspaper headlines. "US CALLS | FOR NO. MERC) ¥ IN DRUG WAR" "AIRSTRIKES AGAINST KHUN SA’s HEADQUARTERS " mae AND aa Boos MOVE ON KHUN wll. You be on the other end of the phone. You’ve just come out of Burma. You’ve brought what you consider to be a way to stop 900 tons of heroin, not marijuana, and get rid of the cancer that has infected the bureaucracy and there’s “no interest?” They used the newspapers and I want to show you some- thing. This one here says, “US PROVIDES ANOTHER 1.8 MILLION TO FIGHT DRUGS” I challenged Harvey because I’m pretty hard-headed. I said, “Tom, didn’t President Reagan appoint George Bush the number one cop to stop drugs before they come into the United States?” So it worked! And this guy is really smiling. This is a Thai receiving a check from the US Ambassador. Khun Sa got what he wanted. Now he began to assemble his officers. It took him a week to get them all together because he brought them from all over the place. And now I understand why. I thought I was just going to talk to him, but he said no and put me off for a week. He assembled officers from the entire Shan ter- I wanted to remind him of these little things. And he said, “Bo, what can I tell you? There is NO INTEREST here in doing that.” Now that is White-House-ese for saying, “Get off this sub- ject, leave us alone.” I knew that we had trod upon some very sensitive toes. I still didn’t have a clue to what was going on, but I knew that we were getting close to finding 44eNEXUS JUNE-JULY 1992