Nexus - 0220 - New Times Magazine-pages

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L: Right. US GOVERNMENT RUNNING HEROIN G: I mean, you went in naive and you came out... L: Right. So one of my friends, a very close friend, ‘got it’ and I had to go G: ...with a road map of how the Military works? out and identify him, to see if I could help him. There was no way L: Well, what happened then was that at that point I just didn't I could help him—he was really gone. And it tums out he was in understand what was going on. Why didn't they give these kids Laos, that he was running gun support and got hit, and Air the M-14 rifle? And I was the only doctor there that was process- America was running heroin, and I didn't know that. Everyone ing the bodies. I mean, there was no medicine at all. You just was laughing, and one said: "What do you think that Lady Bird gave morphine to the guys who couldn't make it, or, you know, —_ Johnson does for a living?" just pronounced guys dead. You stuck them at the side of the run- One of the guys, an older guy, said: “We're running heroin. way and left them there, because you had to get the wounded out Our government." You know, he looked at me and said: "Kid, of there as fast as you could—the ones that were salvageable. So America was based on England, right? What the hell do you think there was no real medicine there. that England did to build its empire? It sold opium. Why is that And the first doctor that was there went goofy, and actually he's _ surprising to you?” I said: "Oh, okay." still—he's a urologist, interestingly enough, in the East Bay—but Yeah, so we were running heroin. At that point I went absolute- he went kind of bonkers, so they ly bonkers because we were just getting shipped me in and | went bonkers, done over. On top of it, my first-wife was but he was smart and I wasn't. He not writing me letters—it was pretty bad. kinda got shipped out of the country So I volunteered for Operation Phoenix. and spent the rest of his time out of 4 . * G: Where was the heroin produced combat, and I just went in deeper The primary difference between and where was it sent to? because basically I wanted to get England and America is that L: The only problem is, don't talk in ls . . «. n q mi 7 a America sells its drugs to its own naa ws ore L: No, I'm not kidding. I did. children, whereas England sold G: I mean, in the Iran-Contra thing, it G: Because you were bonkers you . f i was arms one way and drugs the other, wanted to get killed, because it was its drugs to other people Ss according to a lot of people. so horrible? children." L: What do you mean, according to a L: Most guys will tell you that lot of people? exactly. The biggest tragedy of the G: Well, I mean it is not the official Viemam vet is surviving. No ques- view. tion, no doubt. es L: Cee, whiz. Oh! Well, basically the In any case, I ran up to this colonel, heroin is grown in Burma and the prima- and, you know, this was absolute chaos. You can't even begin to _ry resource, 60% of it, is Kuhmsah, who still continues, I believe, conceive of what it was like. to run the operation. His facility was set up by George Bush, just G: No. like Noriega's was. L: I mean, youre talking about arms and legs and guts and shit G: I've never heard anyone connect Bush to the drugs, but I on the floor and you're sloshing through clots of blood, and bodies _ thought he was connected. coming in and out, and everybody is upset, and, you know, the L: Of course he is! Again, why would you be surprised when biggest issue was that the weapon didn't work. And you're ina America built its empire based upon how England built its bunker, and there's shooting going on, and it stinks like hell, and empire? The primary difference between England and America is you're in there for thirty hours, you know, non-stop. You don't that America sells its drugs to its own children, whereas England piss, you don't shit, you don't eat, you don't drink water. You just _ sold its drugs to other people's children. keep on going from one body to another. G: But this is done privately. So, anyway, in the midst of this, I ran out to this colonel and I L: No! It’s done by the federal government. It's part of “the said: “Look, you gotta give these guys their M-14s back. The M- _ black budget". 16s are not working." So he looks at me and says, “Doc, you are G: I understand that. That's what I mean, it's not part of the too close to this." He says, “I'm a Colonel, the Marine Corps is _ public record. But I thought the money went into the politicians’... my life, I'm an Academy graduate, I'm up for General, I don't give L: That's absolute bullshit, because if a thirteen-year-old can a shit about these kids." So I saluted and said: "God bless _ find cocaine in high school, I think the sheriff can find it, I'm not America and f— you," and ran back again. sure. The average adult American knows full well its government I did that. Okay. Well, that got me crazy, obviously, Butthen, is 100% into drugs—it's just that they won't admit it. after that, about three or four months later, we were operating, and G: No, they don't know that. at that point I didn't know where we were operating. 1 knew we L: Bullshit, they don't. If they can find out who sells their kids were operating out in the boonies, and who in the hell knows _lollipops, they should be able to find out who sells their kids hero- where Laos starts and Vietnam ends. One of our operations was __ in and cocaine, right. I mean, it's absolutely bizarre for Americans to cover this—"Air America"—and they were flying these helo _to say they don't know where the drugs are coming from, or they couriers in and out of these remote patches. don't know if their child is on drugs. I don’t have kids, but I have Actually, these airplanes would land and take off in twenty dogs, and I know when my dog has a stomach ache. yards. They were amazing machines. Our squadron would fly G: So tell me what happened when you found out our govern- gun support for them, killing those who tried to kill the guys that = ment was in the drug business. You went bonkers. were flying, and nobody really paid a heck of a lot of attention to L: So I went bonkers, yeah. So, I volunteered for this what was going on. Operation Phoenix, which was a psychological operation. To cut JUNE - JULY 1994 NEXUS¢31 US GOVERNMENT RUNNING HEROIN