From Acres USA, August 1990, p 41. (c) 1990 by Charles Walters, Jr. Reprinted with permission from Acres USA, POB 8800, Metairie, LA 70011 (504)889-2100 Subscriptions: $20/yr. acresusa@aol.com Mini-Editorial THE RECORD The following is a chronology of events which demonstrates the intimate connection between CIA and the drug dealing of the Contras. 1959: Felix Rodriguez, a Cuban refugee, hired to be a member of a special assassination team, works under Theodore Shackley of the CIA in Miami, Florida. 1970: Felix Rodriguez works under Donald Gregg in the CIA operation in Vietnam. Gregg reports to Shackley. 1976: George Bush succeeded William Colby as the head of the CIA under Gerald Ford. Bush appoints Ted Shackley to be his Chief of Covert Operations Worldwide. 12/1/81: Bush meets with the National Security Planning Group in the White House. They discuss and approve a $19 million expenditure to Argentina for the creation of a 500 man anti-Sandinista Contra force. 4/82: Bush meets with Australian Labor leader Hayden to discuss the CIA's involvement with the Nugan Hand bank in Australia. Nugan Hand was [a] money-laundering machine for the southeast Asia heroin operation that began during the Vietnam war. Defense Department spokesman Richard Armitage acted as bagman, carrying cash from Bangkok, Thailand, to Australia. 11/82: $3,690,000 payment made to the Contras by Ramon Milan Rodriguez, the bookkeeper of the Columbian Cocaine Cartel, at the request of Felix Rodriguez, in exchange for protection from prosecution. 1983: Gustave Villolda gets a letter of recommendation from Donald Gregg as "combat advisor" to the Contras. Villolda was with Felix Rodriguez during the Bay of Pigs invasion and the CIA trackdown and execution of Che Guevara in Bolivia. 10/84: Gerald Latchinian, co-director with Felix Rodriguez of Giro Aviation, a CIA proprietary airline, arrested for smuggling $10,300,000 in cocaine to finance the assassination of Honduran President Roberto Suazo Cordova. Latchinian maintains that this was a CIA operation. 12/84: Felix Rodriguez meets with Donald Gregg, who is now George Bush's National Security advisor. Gregg has an autographed photo of Rodriguez on his desk. He gets Gregg to call other high-ranking officials for help in getting a job in El Salvador as a Contra military advisor. 1/85: Felix Rodriguez meets with George Bush to discuss the Contra job, less than two months after the Latchinian indictment. 6/85: Felix Rodriguez meets in Washington, D.C. with Donald Gregg and Colonel Steele of the Salvador Milgroup that works with the Contra supply network. Steele was given one of the super-secret KL-43 encryption devices for secure telephone conversations. 8/5/85: Bush's office is the first place notified when the C-123 carrying Eugene Hassenfus is shot down. Buzz Sawyer, the pilot of the plane, has the private White House phone number of George Bush in his pocket when his body is recovered from the plane. Hassenfus testifies that he worked for the CIA under Max Gomez (alias Felix Rodriguez) and Ramon Medina (alias Luis Posada Carriles) with the knowledge and approval of George Bush. Telephone logs from the phone company in El Salvador for the "safe houses" used by the plane crew show many calls to North's White House office. 12/85: Felix Rodriguez attends the Christmas party at George Bush's White House office, and is introduced to the staff as as old friend of Donald Gregg and Bush. 1/86: Felix Rodriguez meets in Bush's office with Colonel Sam Watson, Gregg's deputy in Salvador, and Colonel Steele to discuss counter-insurgency. 5/86: Felix Rodriguez meets with Bush, Gregg and North in Bush's office. 6/86: Felix Rodriguez is called to Washington to meet with North to explain phone calls to Tony Avirgan and Martha Honey (U.S. journalists in Costa Rica), which North has taped. 8/86: Felix Rodriguez meets with Bush and Donald Gregg to complain about the quality of arms shipments from Richard Secord's arms supply operation. Later that same month, Donald Gregg meets with Alan Friers, the Central American Task Force chief, to support the purchase of military equipment from Felix Rodriguez rather than Secord. Friers is told by Gregg, "Don't buy any of those damned airplanes from Secord." 9/86: General Singlaub sends memo to North expressing concern about Felix Rodriguez's daily contact with the Bush office, warning of "damage to President Reagan and the Republican Party." The above information was compiled from The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia by McCoy (1972), Price of Power by Seymor Hersch (1983), Endless Enemies by Jonathan Kwitny (1984), Veil by Bob Woodward (1987, Out of Control by Leslie Cockburn (1987), Crimes of Patriots by Jon Kwitny (1987), as well as the affidavit submitted to the Federal Court in Miami, Florida, in the RICO (Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act) suit filed by Tony Avirgan against those who bombed the press conference at La Ponca [sic] in 1984, and the "Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy" statement issued by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in December 1988.
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