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We may also pose a related chain of thought in this respect. If biggest dope peddler in the world. Meanwhile, some believe this military men are "dumb, stupid animals" to be used and abused as has already occurred and was always part of the long-term plans "pawns for foreign policy", are ordinary taxpaying citizens drawn up by covert policy makers as they cast jealous eyes viewed any differently when it comes to the wholesale supply of toward the planet's raw materials—narcotics being one of the heroin to America's cities? An addicted population arguably most profitable. caters more than adequately to one of the requirements of NSC Heroin entering the United States was produced by two princi- 68: to establish "domestic tranquillity".’ pal opium monopolies: those controlled by the CIA in South-East In any event, the proceeds from dope sales were laundered Asia, and those from Turkey, a close US ally. When US through the Nugan Hand Bank in Australia and used to finance President Richard Nixon declared his "War on Drugs" in 1973, the CIA's secret war throughout the region. this closed the Turkish connection that flowed through Marseille Following the US-backed invasion of Cambodia in May 1970, under the control of the Corsican crime syndicates. This created another heroin pipeline was established. Previously inaccessible an ever greater demand for heroin produced in the Golden regions of Cambodia which were ideal for opium cultivation were Triangle region of South-East Asia, especially Burma. immediately brought on-line. The smuggling pipeline was operat- Earlier, in 1949, this region had become an armed redoubt for ed by the Vietnamese Navy which had established bases at Phnom fleeing Chinese nationalist forces under the command of Chiang Penh and throughout the Mekong River. Within a week of the Kai-shek, following their rout by Mao's Red Army. The CIA Cambodian incursion, an armada of 140 Vietnamese and US established a massive support operation that used these former Navy craft, under the command of Captain Nyugen Thaanh Chau, Chinese forces to collect intelligence inside China, engage in crossed into Cambodia. This was "hailed as a'tactical coup' anda _ pitched battles with communist forces and act as a "trip-wire" to a great ‘military humanitarian fleet'". The feared communist invasion of South-East armada immediately went to work smuggling Asia. To finance this secret little war, the "vast quantities of opium and heroin into CIA required the type of black funds that South Vietnam" ’ come from the large-scale sale of narcotics. After the US withdrawal from South . It was there that the old OSS "China hands" Vietnam, General Quang, said to be the Following the did their duty by turning the region into the iggest pusher in South Vietnam, quietly | i i largest single opium producer in the world, relocated to Montreal, Canada, via the US US backed Invasion of accounting for close to 1,000 tons by 1961. Army's military base, Fort Chaffee, in Cambodia in May 1970, Today, the Burmese "growing fields" remain Arkansas. Quang's entry to Canada is said to under the watchful control of the CIA- ave resulted from quiet but intense pressure another heroin pipeline backed warlord, Khun Sa. from the United States Government. i “ue established. KHUN SA'S HEROIN PIPELINE BUILDING MARKETS: Previously inaccessible It is here that our story comes full circle. ERADICATING COMPETITION regions of Cambodia In Part One we revealed the contents of The apparent face-value dichotomy an affidavit signed by Colonel Edward which were ideal for etween the CIA's international, P. Cutolo regarding his direct knowl- decades-long dope trade and the Drug . . . edge of and involvement in US mili- opium cultivation were immediately brought Enforcement Administration's (DEA) tary-sanctioned cocaine trafficking on-line. "War on Drugs" is illusory. During a from Bogota, Colombia, to Panama. radio interview in 1991, Prof. Alfred The senior US Special Forces com- McCoy outlined what he called "the manding officer of the entire Southern institutional relationship between the Command region at that time was Lt DEA and the CIA". Back in the 1930s Colonel James "Bo" Gritz. the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN), Bo Gritz was one of those who qui- the forerunner of the DEA, was estab- etly involved himself in the investiga- lished to curtail the use and sale of nar- tion of Cutolo's death and those of cotics. The FBN was the only US other officers, and was also a long-time agency that had agents working in campaigner for US Missing-in-Action/ covert roles prior to WWII. With the arrival of WWII, key agents Prisoners of War (MIA/POWs) from the Vietnam era. from the FBN were transferred to the newly established Office of Gritz was informed by Ross Perot that three American POWs Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA, to teach OSS were being held by Khun Sa and that the warlord had agreed to personnel the "clandestine arts". This relationship continues to hand them over. Via high-level contacts in the Chinese present times, McCoy states. The result is that where the CIA is Government, Perot made arrangements for gaining access to running drug operations in various parts of the world, the DEA Khun Sa's headquarters in the remote hills of Shanland. But officially goes to sleep.’ Gritz, knowing he could get in and out a lot faster by utilising his This has led to the realisation that the DEA is principally tasked network of contacts in the region, set off in November 1986 with with prohibiting the flow of drugs from other than "CIA- a few hand-picked ex-Special Forces men. approved" sources, and that successive US "War on Drugs" pro- It took Gritz and his team three days to negotiate their way grams are, de facto, engaged in killing off the competition. through the wild and remote territory of Shanland. Eventually Whether this is purposeful policy or not, the result is clearly the | Gritz met with a bewildered Khun Sa who told him there had same. Taken to its logical conclusion, CIA-approved and protect- never been any US POWs. However, during their conversation ed traffickers will increasingly gain greater and greater control Gritz asked why Khun Sa was so heavily involved in opium, over the global dope business, making the US Government the pointing out how many problems this ultimately caused in NEXUS - 29 FEBRUARY - MARCH 1998