The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 18

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Transcript

0:00 Good afternoon, Colonel. Good afternoon, SR. Afternoon, Miss Bridget. How are you today? Good, good. And how are you? Oh, I'm doing well. Thank you very much. I'm in the process of putting up another PC, so things may be a little hectic here for a bit, but we're getting there. I totally relate. It's funny, Bridget. As soon as you talked, it dumped me out of the space.

0:44 Well, we can't coexist together, apparently. Apparently. All right. Let me go live over here on Rumble. And we're going to go ahead and get started. Oh, just in time for taps. Can y'all hear that? I don't see you live on Rumble at all yet, girl. Yeah, I just went live. They're playing taps on the bass. Oh, that's funny. What state are you in at the moment? Georgia.

1:26 And now the national anthem. Can you hear it? Nope. So they're playing it earlier because usually it doesn't play until four 30 or five at the end of the duty day. And they played Reveille at eight instead of seven or seven 30. So evidently the duty day shorter around here. Okay. As you guys know, we're on chapter 18.

2:04 And it starts off in October of 1986 with the Sergeant Tom Gordon, who was the major, the squad or the team that was working the crack cocaine out in L.A. He was one of the lead guys.

2:29 It says that he did exactly what the Costa Rican DEA agent Sandy Gonzalez said not to do. He drove down to the L.A. County Municipal Court before a judge and applied for a warrant to search all of the Nicaraguan drug operation that was going on in Los Angeles. His 21 page sworn statement described a large scale cocaine.

2:55 distributing organization made up of over 100 people transporting and distributing cocaine for Daniello Blanton. And if you recall, the 100 people that were listed on here came from informants, primarily from the Torres brothers. Gordon linked Blanton with Freeway Rick's first major drug supplier.

3:25 Ivan Argelis, exposing the Contra drug pipeline into South Central. He wrote on the application, Blanton, quote, has up to 220 kilos of cocaine per week delivered through Argelis, who sells mainly to blacks living in South Central Los Angeles, unquote. Another South Central distribution point was a bar.

3:58 which Blanton uses to distribute as much as 10 kilos of cocaine per week. And the detective didn't pull any punches when it came to the Contras. Quote, Daniela Blanton is from Nicaragua, a South, a Central American country, which has been at civil war for several years. One side of the civil war is the Contra Army. Informant.

4:28 Number two, stated in your affiant that Blanton is a Contra sympathizer and founder of the FDN, an organization that assists the Contra movement with arms and money. The money and arms generated by this organization comes through the cell of cocaine.

4:55 Gordon listed more than a dozen locations across Southern California where Blanton and his cohorts were storing drugs and cash. He traced the money trail from Los Angeles across the country, writing that the, quote, monies gained from the sales of cocaine are transported to Florida and laundered through Orlando Morello, who is a high ranking officer of a chain of banks in Florida.

5:22 named Government Securities Corporation. From this bank, the monies are filtered to the Contra Rebels to buy arms for the war in Nicaragua. Gordon's sworn statement would prove to be a remarkably accurate portrait of the drug ring. A decade later, Blanton would admit under oath that he was one of the founders of the FDN.

5:50 and that nearly all of the people and locations Gordon named in his warrant were part of his drug operation. Blanton would also admit sending money to Orlando Morella, who did in fact work for Government Securities Corporation, a chain of security brokerages in southern Florida, that went bankrupt in 1987 amid federal allegations of fraud. The one accusation Blanton denied was that his father

6:20 Julio Blanton, the ex-slumlord, stored cocaine in his apartment. Gordon's affidavit was pure political dynamite. At the time, the Contras were the hottest story in the country. Less than three weeks earlier, drug smuggler Barry Seal and his C-135K cargo plane had been shot down in Nicaragua with a full load of weapons on it.

6:52 Since then, new revelations about illegal U.S. government involvement in the Contra War had been appearing in the media almost daily. The White House, the State Department, and the CIA had immediately denied that the cargo plane, which was part of Oliver North's resupply operation, had any connection to the U.S. government. But those lies began unraveling the moment Sandinista patrols got back from the site of the

7:20 aircraft wreck. The Sandinistas announced that the flight crew had not been flying with what we call in the business clean pockets. And that came from the CIA officer that was in charge of the Contra program. Quote, they had all sorts of pocket litter that identified and connected them with Ilopango. That's the airport that was the main hub of the operation down there.

7:54 They had the cards of some of the employees. They had flight logs, essentially enough information so that the Sandinistas could put together and in fact did a lot of information relative to the connections of that particular flight. If that wasn't enough, the Sandinistas also had one slightly battered cargo kicker named Eugene Hasenfuss.

8:24 H-A-S-E-N-F-U-S. He was the lone survivor of the plane crash. Hasenfus, who'd worked for the CIA's Air America airline during the agency's secret war in Laos, told the press that he was again working for the CIA at a time when the agency was allegedly not involved with the Contras, which proved that to be a lie. Hasenfus

8:54 identified his CIA handler as Ramon Medina, the alias of the Cuban terrorist and suspected drug trafficker. Also was Luis Posada, Carrillas, and Max Gomez. And remember, Max Gomez is Felix Rodriguez. That was his code name for the operation.

9:24 Hasenfus also exposed the secret Contra airbase of El Pango. Aside from the legal problems Hasenfus presented for the administration, he was an even bigger political headache, living proof that the CIA and the White House had been lying about the U.S. involvement with the Contras. The scandal threatened to derail the administration's hard-fought efforts.

9:53 to win congressional approval for the $100 million the CIA needed to put us in the hot seats, taxpayers funding their Contra war. When the cargo plane went down, the new aid bill was in the final stages of passage in Congress. The Reagan administration officials scrambled to keep a lid on the incident, sending out false press releases.

10:20 booking administration spokesmen on political talk shows to spread the official lie, and sending CIA officials to Capitol Hill to give false testimony to congressional committees. The disinformation campaign that the CIA launched inside the United States, combined with a strange reluctance,

10:49 by the Congressional Intelligence Committees to ask any questions worked long enough to get the bill passed. They all knew, to include the Congressional Intelligence Committees, that what was being printed was true. And yet, they gave the CIA $100 million of our money to continue it. With the legislation sitting on Ronald Reagan's desk, excuse me,

11:22 Awaiting signature, a respected Los Angeles narcotics detective was formally accusing the Contras in court of raising money by selling cocaine to black Americans. It is not difficult to imagine what would have happened to the Contra project had the information gotten out. Unlike earlier allegations of Contra drug dealing that had appeared sporadically in the press over the past 10 months.

11:52 Gordon's charges would not be easy for the law and order Reagan administration to dismiss as the fantasies of a Sandinista sympathizer or a convicted drug dealer. This time, the accusations were coming from the police under oath. Gordon's affidavit was persuasive enough for the municipal court judge Gwinnett Blackwell. She gave the detectives his search warrant.

12:22 The next day, October 24th, Gordon conducted a lengthy pre-raid briefing in the Sheriff's Training Center, handing out the raid plan, briefing booklets, and raid assignments to include radio frequencies and establishing command centers. As drug raids went, this was going to be a big one.

12:52 There was going to be basically a 30-day prep culminating in executing the search warrants that were going to be served at 14 locations in Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Bernardino counties. The briefing books outlined the entire plan. It would involve more than 45 agents from the majors.

13:19 The DEA, the IRF, the ATF, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's and Bell Police. Gordon split the officers into seven groups, each responsible for searching two different locations. Gordon's briefing left no doubt about who and what the police were up against. The investigation centers around a male Nicaraguan named Danielle Blanton. The Blanton organization.

13:49 is believed to be moving hundreds of kilos of cocaine a month in the Southern California area and money laundering through various business fronts, then sending the money to Florida, where it goes to purchase weapons to aid the Contras. Gordon also mentioned that the drug ring involved a crooked ex-cop from Laguna Beach, Ronald Lister, who was known to have access to large quantities of heavy weapons.

14:16 He was considered to be extremely dangerous. Several of the officers distinctly recall being warned that the federal government was unhappy that the Majors was going ahead with the raids. Deputy Wolfbrand said Gordon reported that he had been contacted by someone from the government who told him not to follow up on the warrant. I thought it was pretty bitching just because just going out and doing it anyhow.

14:48 One of the lieutenants, Mike Fossey, the major's intelligence officer, said it was before the warrant was served that we were forewarned that there may be a CIA link. Information had filtered down that the CIA and the Contras were dealing in arms and cocaine for Nicaragua. According to one of the deputies, Virgil Bartlett, the general belief among the police that day was that the U.S. government backed the operation.

15:17 The government was bringing drugs into the country and shipping weapons back out, Bartlett said. He also said that he was informed that Ronald Lister had done jobs for the federal government and we weren't so sure he hadn't done hit jobs for them. Jerry Guzetta, who had been assigned to search Blanton's mountain cabin at Big Bear Ski Resort, glanced around the briefing room to see the federal agents that were there to his surprise.

15:48 They were not the ones he'd been working with during the investigation. Grisetta thought it strange that federal agents from Riverside DEA and FBI offices initially worked with the L.A. Sheriff's Narcotics Investigators on the Blanton case, but the L.A. DEA and FBI agents that were present at the briefing and later during the raid execution were not necessarily the same.

16:13 Around 7 a.m. on October 27, the raid teams gathered in their designated staging areas, taking their last few drinks of coffee, putting on bulletproof vests. As they methodically went through their final preps, coincidentally, another kind of ritual was unfolding back in Washington. That day, Ronald Reagan had triumphantly signed his name to give.

16:41 $100 million of our tax dollars to the CIA. It was now official. After two years absence, the CIA would be back in business officially. We know that they were in business the entire time unofficially. Daniel Blanton's neighbors stepped onto their porches to retrieve their morning LA Times, and the front page was Contra's quick result on two fronts.

17:11 Four big cars roared up to Blanton's elegant home, and 11 heavily armed men wearing flak jackets bailed out. They quickly surrounded the house and banged on the front door, telling the occupant that they had a search warrant. We'd certainly never seen anything like that, said one of the elderly neighbors. It was the talk of the neighborhood for quite some time. Chapita Blanton, wearing a pink house coat,

17:43 answered the door. Deputy Dan Garner of Majors 2 showed her the search warrant. The raid team shouldered her aside and spanned the house, emptying drawers and closets. Blanton and their 10-year-old daughter watched the agents rummage around. The maid was holding the youngest daughter. Jerry Gusetta brought in a drug-sniffing dog.

18:14 They alerted on the master bedroom and the rec room. A search of the bedroom turned up an envelope with cocaine and a maroon briefcase with cocaine, as well as an AR-15 assault rifle with five magazines full of ammunition, a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun, and other assorted papers. Out in the detached rec room, which had a full bar,

18:43 and pool table overlooking the golf course, deputies found an envelope that had money in it. The money contained cocaine. There was also records there that was his ledger for keeping track of his transactions. Not a lot of cocaine, but definitely a lot of information.

19:16 They slapped handcuffs on both Blanton and his wife, read them the rights, and marched them out. As the suspects were being taken from the location to be booked, suspect number one, Daniello Blanton, spontaneously stated, the cocaine is mine, the cocaine is mine. Now the cops had a confession to the cocaine. Across town, however, the other raid teams were not doing so well.

19:45 Location after location coming up dry. Some of the houses looked as if they'd been scrubbed clean. One officer reported finding an empty safe with a garden hose running to it. In other words, it was a cocaine stash that had been cleaned out. DEA agent Hector Varelas, who would later discover evidence of CIA drug trafficking in Mexico,

20:14 was one of the L.A. agents assigned to Blanton's raid. He accompanied the team that hit Roberto Aguilar's house, who was the chemist that Blanton used. There was a safe at the house which the occupants were told to open. Bareilles told the Justice Department inspectors inside was a box containing photographs and ledgers that

20:43 big drug dealers kept. The photographs were of men in military uniforms and conducting military operations. The agent specifically recalled seeing a photograph of a man in an aviator's flight suit standing in front of a warplane holding an automatic weapon. Varela said the people in Aguilar's house told the police they knew the search was coming and had expected the raid team.

21:10 They didn't say how they knew, Barilla said, but he'd heard the CIA may have monitored the Blanton's case through the DEA's office, from which the CIA, among other agencies, had access. The word started circulating among the raiders. Something was effed. We've just gone through the motions, one of the officers griped. Down the coast in Orange County, Detective Bobby Juarez.

21:42 and his team were banging on Ron Lister's door in Mission Viejo. Receiving no reply, they kicked the door open. The house was empty, as far as occupants go. The detectives came out carrying bags of records, card files, video monitors, and photographs. A neighbor wandered over and told them that the Listers didn't live there anymore. They'd moved recently to an even bigger house a couple of miles away.

22:14 Male and female Latin Americans were now living in the house. Some of the seized paperwork showed the neighbor was right. There were letters, video rental receipts, and bank records for someone named Arpaccio Marino and his wife Aurora. The discovery of these documents corroborated another accusation that the DEA informant inside of Blanton's ring had made.

22:44 The RCO Marino, a Colombian, oh, there's that one again, was involved in the Contra drug operation. The informant described Marino as a cocaine supplier and money launderer to both Norwin Menendez and Blanton, and said that Marino's wife and his family had hauled millions of dollars to Miami for the Nicaraguans, hidden in the motorhomes.

23:16 Blanton would later admit that Marino had supplied him with so many thousands of kilos of cocaine in 1984 and 85 that he couldn't put an exact number on them. He said he was introduced to Marino by Norwin Menendez and worked with the Colombians until 1987. It is likely that Menendez turned Blanton over to Marino when the Menendez moved back to Costa Rica.

23:45 Ron Lister would tell police in 1996 that Marino was affiliated with the FDN as well, which is the Contras. And Blanton said the same thing during his interviews with the CIA IG. Blanton claimed that Marino arranged at least one, one ton delivery that was delivered by air to Oklahoma. A summary of his CIA interview revealed that.

24:17 Lantin said he and his associates thought the plane might be connected to the CIA because someone had placed a small FDN sticker on the aircraft. It was also said that the CIA IG apparently never bothered to investigate any of that. By considering what else is known about the mysterious Columbian, the omission is not surprising. Marino had an affinity for dealing in dope.

24:53 to people with CIA connections. Records showed that the DEA agent Solerino Castillo III ran across Moreno's trail in Guatemala in 1988 while investigating allegations of drug trafficking by a Guatemalan CIA agent by the name of Julio Roberto Alparez, a high-ranking officer.

25:20 in the Guatemalan military and a fixture on the CIA's payroll. Colonel Alparez was accused by the President's Foreign Intelligence Oversight Board in 1996 of covering up the murder of an American innkeeper in Guatemala by the name of Michael Devin. Castillo said he discovered that Marino was both supplying Colonel Alparez

25:50 with cocaine and selling drugs for Al Perez that had been seized by the Guatemalan military. Castillo believes that Dabin was killed by the Guatemalan soldiers after he discovered that the military was moving cocaine. DEA files obtained under the FOIA confirmed that Castillo reported Marino's activity to the Guatemalan DEA office.

26:18 but the agency censored all of the information in his reports. From the records, it appears Marino was also working as a DEA informant in addition to his other activities. So remember, in all of these instances, the CIA protects their drug traffickers by putting them in the DEA as an informant or the FBI as an informant. After securing Marino's resident,

26:49 Juarez and his crew went to Lister's new house and performed a soft knock. Since they didn't have a warrant for that particular address, they needed Lister's permission to search it. Lister answers the door. He was told, if you don't give me permission to come in, I'm going to stand out here until we get the warrant. Lister said, Juarez told him, so that's your choice. What's it going to be?

27:19 Lister said he was living in a nice neighborhood and didn't want anyone to know about it, so he let them in. According to Juarez, he told Lister they were executing a search warrant for drugs and asked him to sign a consent form. Lister's response brought the deputy up short. Here's what he said, quote, I know why you're here, but why are you here? Mr. Weekly knows what I'm doing, and you're not supposed to be here.

27:50 Unquote. Lister went on to say he told me that he was dealing. This is what Lister said, told me that he was dealing with South America and worked for the CIA and added that his friends in Washington weren't going to like what was going on. Whereas this report of the search stated, quote, I told Mr. Lister that we were not interested in his business in South America.

28:21 Mr. Lister replied that he would call Mr. Weekly of the CIA and report me, unquote. Juarez decided to call Lister's bluff. I don't know who Mr. Weekly is, the detective said. Let me talk to him. If I find out I'm not supposed to be here, I'll leave. Juarez silently urged Lister to make the call so I could get a phone trace and find out who he was talking to.

28:51 Lister walked over to the phone and started to dial a number. He looked at me and smiled and then put it back down. He figured out what I was up to. Never mind, Lister told him. I'll talk to him later. Lister claimed later he was planning to call his attorney and decided not to antagonize Juarez by doing so, even after he said that he was calling the CIA. He denied telling anyone later that he was calling the CIA.

29:20 But of course, there's multiple cop witnesses listening to him say this. Sergeant Art Franson said Lister erupted into a tirade and began shouting. You guys don't know what you're doing. Oh, you don't know what you're dealing with. I deal with the CIA. I've got power. Deputy Richard Love said Lister warned them, quote, you don't know what you're doing. There's a big picture here. I'm working for the CIA.

29:50 I know the director of the CIA in Los Angeles. The government is allowing drug sales to go on in the United States, unquote. Now, again, this is three different cops' story, all of these in sworn statements. Love said Lister also seemed to have some intimate details about a plane load with guns that crashed in Nicaragua and about the pilot. Lister said that

30:20 He had been on one of those planes before and had actually been down there on a gun run. Sergeant Franson, an ex-marine, poked around in a file cabinet in Lister's garage and said he found, quote, stuff that a civilian shouldn't have privy to. Paperwork, pamphlets, and manuals relating to armaments. Lister would later say that the cops may have gotten the wrong idea about him because he had been...

30:49 He was involved in legal arms sales. The deputy saw various weapons, scopes, pictures, literature, and paperwork on arms and items tagged not for sale in the U.S. In Lister's account, members of the raid team, quote, became fascinated with what they found. And Sergeant Franson walked by him and said, man, you've got to be CIA. No drugs were found and Lister was not arrested.

31:21 The Raiders packed the paperwork up and hauled it back to the sheriff's station, where it was logged into a master narcotics evidence control ledger as miscellaneous CIA info. That was the label. Another report noted that there was a lot of contra rebel correspondence found. As the raid team straggled back to the headquarters.

31:46 Throughout the afternoon, the deputies compared notes and concluded that they had been had. Someone burned us. After the search warrants had been served, the word among the investigators was the operation had been compromised. It appeared to have been a snitched off by somebody in another agency, which is probably not a local agency, but one of the feds. No kidding. Guzetta was convinced.

32:18 Federal agents had burned the investigation, pointing out that previous raids they had conducted on the basis of Torres Brother information always produced large amounts of cocaine and money. The only difference between this raid and those is that they had involved the DEA and the FBI. Deputy Love said, quote, it was mutually agreed upon between narcotics investigators that the suspects had been tipped off.

32:49 Unquote. In a case chronology prepared in late 1986, Majors II supervisor Sergeant Ed Hoffman noted that the item seized, such as the scales, weights, cocaine cutting agents, indicated cocaine activity. The small amount of cocaine seized is in contrast to the investigation indicators, i.e. their surveillance operations and all of those. Did a burn occur? Probably.

33:20 The Torres brothers would claim that the investigation was uncovered by Lister, who spotted police surveillance teams outside of Blanton's car lot and near his old home in Mission Viejo. Lister told the police that the CIA was involved and said he informed Blanton about it two weeks before the raid. Lister states that Blanton simply smiled but did not comment. However, a distant U.S. attorney.

33:53 I.J. O'Neill, who investigated Lister and Blanton for several years, said the sheriff's probe was compromised by an FBI agent who did a clumsy investigation and contacted someone who knew Blanton, and they told Blanton about it. In an interview with the CIA, Blanton said he suspected these would be searches after the FBI agent provided that information.

34:23 The deputies' suspicions of federal interference grew even stronger once they began examining the paperwork that they had captured in the houses. These people weren't just dope dealers. They were dope dealers that were dealing with the Contras and apparently the U.S. government. Deputy Bartlett recalled seeing pictures of Lister in a Contra military compound, standing with the general and in the background.

34:51 were tents, munitions, and automatic weapons. He also saw U.S. Army training manuals and videotapes concerning deployments, supply, bombs, and ordinance. There were telephone records showing Nicaraguan communication, letters bearing Nicaraguan postmarks, and one document which had an FBI letterhead on it. Some of the paperwork contained

35:21 what he recognized from his military career as Department of Defense codes. Other papers contained some type of reference to the CIA. The prior military guy believed that some of the papers had CIA handwritten or typed on them. He also recalled a notepad was written in what he described as some type of DOD code.

35:54 Sergeant Question Raid Leader Tom Gordon, Gordon told him they had gotten involved in something way over their head. Deputy Dan Garner saw a handwritten list of weapons, specifically AR-15s, and papers that involved transporting weapons from one location to another. He also recalled,

36:18 There were manuals on various weapons, military training films, and photographs of military bases. The manuals and films seemed to have been standard U.S. government military issue. They also involved high-tech equipment such as ground-to-air missiles. That was unusual to have been recovered in a drug search warrant.

36:45 Deputy Juarez described some of the paperwork as containing references about a Mr. Weakley and his contact in Iran relating to hostages. He saw training manuals and training films for state-of-the-art weapons like Stinger missiles, tanks, and other armed vehicles. Lieutenant Fossey said,

37:15 On the paperwork, it's still interesting that we had a drug investigation going on. What was even more interesting were some of the files the cops had found in Blanton's house, a big stack of bank records showing deposits in seven different bank accounts. Some of the deposits were marked U.S. Treasury and totaled approximately $9 million. The Justice Department, IG,

37:44 later revealed this. Other deposits were marked Cayman Islands and totaled almost a million dollars. Stuck amongst the bank records was a note in Spanish from Blanton's sister, an FDN member, who did Contra fundraising in San Francisco. It wrote, it said, little brother, there are bank statements of suppliers of the Contras. They have issued checks to different

38:15 people, and companies. The same to the Cayman Islands. These are just one part and is a continuation of the report you have. I'll later send you the rest so you can laugh. One of the cops told the Justice Department investigators that she got the documents from a contra official shortly before he was killed in Honduras and said they were

38:44 they documented how the Contra officials were stealing money and perhaps laundering it through the Cayman Islands. She had sent, the sister had sent Daniello copies because she thought it would amuse him at the level of corruption of the Contras. The documents partly solved one of the day's mystery, the identity of Lister's purported CIA contact, Mr. Weakley.

39:14 Weekly's name was found on a sheet of handwritten paper dealing with weapons and equipment sales. The documents involved a list of armaments, anti-aircraft weapons, firebombs, a thousand AR-15s, air-to-sea torpedoes, and napalm bombs. The next page bore a list of names and phone numbers. Near the name...

39:49 Arpasio, Lister had written FDN coordinator. Another list of names included Bill Nelson, the CIA former deputy director of operations, Salvadoran politician Roberto de Albruson, that's the guy that was basically functioning as their president, and Ray Prandes, and someone named

40:17 Scott Weakley. In another document Lister had written, I had a regular meeting with DIA subcontractor Scott Weakley. Scott had worked in El Salvador for us. That was what was written on the note. Meeting concern my relationship with Contra Group in Central America. The DIA is the Pentagon's version of the CIA.

40:48 responsible for collecting military-related foreign intelligence. It was heavily involved in the Contra War and in the Civil War in El Salvador. The detectives were confused. DIA? Had Lister said Weakley was with the CIA? What the hell was the DIA? When the detectives read the confidential security proposal that Lister's Pyramid International Security Company

41:16 made to the government of El Salvador in 1982, they knew they were in unfamiliar territory. They'd never ran into drug dealers who did business with heads of state. Detective Juarez, who also translated the bulky document from Spanish to English, was flabbergasted. He said that he had become concerned that the records would not remain in the evidence for very long because of how sensitive the subject matter was.

41:48 He made a copy of the Pyramid International proposal and took it home with him. That decision, Juarez suspects, probably cost his brother-in-law, Manuel Gomez, a 32-year-old Salvadoran jeweler, his life. Juarez took the author, told Jack Webb that in 1993, he gave Gomez a copy of Lister's security proposal. His brother-in-law sympathized with the leftist rebels.

42:16 in El Salvador and was active in the Salvadoran solidarity movement in Los Angeles. And by the way, for you guys who are not familiar with El Salvador, the CIA had basically installed the Abruzan guy, he was a death squad leader, into the head of state position. The El Salvadorans people were fighting back.

42:46 And this cop's relative was helping the rebels try to get the CIA-installed death squad out of El Salvador. Gomez was going to get the documents to an underground radio station in El Salvador in hopes of publicizing the U.S. government's involvement in the Salvadoran internal affairs.

43:14 Two weeks after the document made its way to the underground radio station in February of 1993, Manuel Gomez was found murdered in his car. Juarez told police investigators. He said Gomez had apparently been tortured and strangled with a wire. His body was found wrapped in a blanket. When the police checked out Juarez's claims, they found that Manuel Gomez had indeed been strangled in 93.

43:41 His body dumped in the trunk of a car in South Central L.A. They also found a note in the homicide case files reporting that Deputy Juarez had called the police five days after the murder to tell him that his brother-in-law had government documents in his possession that may have provided a motive for his murder. But the homicide investigators decided politics had little to do with the killing.

44:07 Picking up rumors that Gomez was dealing in drugs in South Central, they wrote the death off to a drug-related incident, and no killer was ever found. Juarez sat down at a computer terminal and entered Ron Lister's name in the Narcotics Information Network database to make sure that any other narcotics agent who had encountered him knew what they were dealing with. He reported that Lister had been searched in connection with narcotics investigations.

44:36 and locations were cleaned out. Documents recovered indicate that suspect Lister is involved in buying and selling police and government radio equipment and heavy-duty weapons. Suspect possibly FBI informant and private detective, unquote. Other deputies also began copying some of Lister's paperwork. Deputy Garner grabbed a handful of records, including Lister's handwritten notes, as did Lieutenant Fossey.

45:06 Bothy and Garner took copies home with them to safeguard them from theft. Now imagine that. You're cops and you can't trust the evidence custodian in the cop station to protect the evidence. These guys are making copies, taking them home because they know somebody's going to come in and take them. That's crazy. A few hours after the raid, Blanton's lawyer, Bradley Brunin.

45:39 called the sheriff's station to ask where his client was and how he could bail him out. He said Tom Gordon answered the phone and tore him a new asshole. He was a vile, vicious son of a bitch, Brennan said. He said Gordon screamed, I'm not telling you anything. You're worse than they are. The attorney said, I just called up to find out where my client was. And the detective screamed in the phone, F you. I don't have to tell you anything.

46:11 I mean, just boom, off the wall. So Brunin called Gordon's supervisor. Hoffman took notes of the odd conversation, which he later passed along to the FBI. Hoffman had suspected all along that there was something creepy about the Blanton's case, and the phone call from Brunin sensed it in his mind. Quote, thought you knew CIA kind of winks at this activity, unquote.

46:41 is what Brunin told the astonished detective. Quote, now that U.S. Congress had voted funds for the Nicaraguan Contra movement, the U.S. government now appears to be turning against the organization like this. Unquote. The detective was like blown away. Here's the attorney just blatantly admitting that it's a CIA network. So what are you doing involved in it?

47:10 In an interview, Brunin confirmed that as not very far off from what he actually said. According to the former Narcotics Bureau Captain Robert Wilber, Sergeant Hoffman came to see him afterwards and remarked, We bust our ass and the government's involved. The deputies were upset about the incident, Wilber said. If the majors needed any more excuses, they got another one quickly.

47:42 According to Deputy Bartlett, two federal agents came into the office very angry. With the agents were a zone lieutenant and a narcotics bureau lieutenant, both of whom also appeared very mad. The agents put some of the evidence into boxes and then walked out of the office. Sergeant Hoffman, daily diaries, and other records recently found in the sheriff's office

48:11 archives confirmed that agents from the DEA, FBI, and IRS arrived at the office and for two days poured through the seized files, making copies of everything. Later that night, a cable from the CIA's LA office marked immediate director was sent via teletype to CIA headquarters in Langley.

48:38 entitled, Three Persons Claiming CIA Affiliation. Quote, Three individuals claiming CIA affiliation has been arrested in LA County Sheriff's Department on narcotics-related charges. Details received via FBI are sketchy. However, request preliminary traces to determine if any of the three listed have CIA connections. Unquote. The first person named was Ronald Lister.

49:07 who claims to have worked for the CIA for many years and has insisted in supplying small arms and helicopters to CIA contacts in Latin and Central America. The CIA also named Daniel O'Blanton, identified as an accomplice of Lister's. Curiously, it also asked for a trace on Norman Menendez, who was identified as another accomplice as Lister's. Why the L.A.?

49:37 CIA was asking about Menendez in connection with the Blanton raid was unclear since he was never arrested nor named in the search warrants. Please respond. This is the cable went on. Please respond immediately indicating what portions of response may be passed to local law enforcement. Langley cabled back the next day. There were no headquarter traces on Blanton and Lister, but Menendez was apparently.

50:08 well known as the Nicaraguan Mafia, dealing in drugs, weapons, smuggling, and laundering of counterfeit money. That's what the CIA cabled back. What happened next is still in dispute. After the raids, Sergeant Gordon and Deputy Juarez said they took a couple of days off. When they returned to work, Gordon said he was told by Deputy Dan Garner that the CIA had come into the offices and taken

50:38 all of the records seized in the raid. Gordon didn't believe it and went to the evidence room to check it. Everything was gone. According to Garner, Gordon walked back into the squad room and announced the evidence is gone. Juarez said he ran over to the evidence lockup just to confirm. Nothing was left. Both Juarez and Gordon claimed they never saw the documents again. In addition to seized documents,

51:08 said Bland's attorney, Bland Brunnen. The official police records of the raid seemed to disappear also. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to come up with more than an informal note about the pre-raid briefing, and that only by accident a couple of years later, quote, a long time, they, the sheriff's office, never acknowledged the existence of this warrant. I mean, the whole thing was quite mysterious. Boom.

51:38 They did a 15 location raid. Nothing turned up. Nobody got busted. There was a little tiny bit of cocaine found at one location. Nobody got filed on. They gave all of the stuff back. The whole thing was very strange, Brunin said. I'd never had a case where all of the reports disappeared. I mean, early on, the only theory I had was the CIA was involved, unquote.

52:07 An investigation by the L.A. County Sheriff's Department in late 1996, this was like 10 years later, strongly disputed the idea that mysterious federal agents swooped down and stole away the documents relating to this case. Investigators have determined that this allegation was apparently spread through secondhand rumors and innuendo. In other words, they're cleaning it up. The paper trail, however, raises more suspicions than it quiets.

52:35 If the sheriff's office files are accurate, nearly all of the seized evidence was given back to Blanton and Lister within days of the raid, and apparently no copies were retained by the department, even for intelligence purposes. The sheriff's 1996 investigation failed to find a single document that had been seized during the raid. As for the piles of copies made,

53:02 By the federal agents in the days following the raid, nearly all of those have been disappeared as well. According to the Justice Department IG, neither the DEA nor the FBI or the U.S. Attorney Office was able to locate a single one of over a thousand pages copied. The IRS still had some of them stashed away.

53:27 All of the property that wasn't claimed, including the cocaine and weapons manual, was allegedly destroyed six months later. That destruction occurred while the investigation was still open. As Jerry Gussetta had done earlier, the L.A. Sheriff's Office soon concluded that Blanton's case was just too big for it to handle alone. Sergeant Hoffman did not believe it was the proper responsibility of the L.A. Sheriff's Department.

53:56 to investigate the activities of the CIA. He said, and his superior officers, quote, felt it would be more appropriate handled by federal agencies from that point because of the evidence that was continuing about the narcotics trafficking organization and the large geographical area, unquote. When the U.S. Department of Justice stepped in and offered to adopt the investigation, the majors had no objections.

54:26 Sergeant Gordon, in fact, was no longer even around. He had been promoted. According to Sergeant Hoffman's note, one of the first things the federal agents did was to put Gordon's bombshell search warrant affidavit under seal, which kept it from becoming public. The affidavit was disappeared from the sheriff's office key file and never found again. In 1996, Sheriff Sherman Block sheepishly admitted,

54:56 that his investigators were unable to locate a copy of the affidavit in the department files and had to use the author's, meaning Gary Webb's copy, which had been posted by the San Jose Mercury News on its website. And again, the only reason that copy existed was because an officer took it home. Hoffman was then informed that no charges would be filed against Blanton.

55:24 To protect the ongoing investigation and informants, he was told. Despite being caught red-handed with cocaine and admitting it was his, he was set free. Federal prosecutors interviewed called that a stunning decision, given Blanton's statute in the L.A.'s biggest trafficking network and the fact that he was in the U.S. seeking political asylum at the time.

55:52 The mere fact of the arrest should have been enough to deport him, his wife, and every other Nicaraguan implicated. If he was a major trafficker and we got him with even a tiny bit of cocaine, he should have been immediately deported. But he wasn't. Blanton was not merely turned loose. On December 10, 1986, he has said he was formally notified that the case against him had been dropped.

56:24 and that there was no charges filed. That day, records show he drove to LA, hired an attorney, filed an application for permanent residency with Immigration and Naturalization Service, which would make it much more difficult to deport him in the future. Blanton's choice of attorneys was interesting. He hired a man who was then under federal indictment for immigration fraud and a cocaine addict.

56:53 probably one of his clients. Just a week before Blanton retained him, attorney John Garisi, G-A-R-R-I-S-I, had been charged with illegally smuggling Iranian scientists into the U.S. Garisi's lawyer, Ron Koletsky,

57:17 said Gorizzi had a pipeline into the Iranian community and had been bringing Iranians into the States since around the time the Shah was deposed. He had a number of Iranians working in his office and spoke Farsi. At Gorizzi's disbarment hearing, it was alleged that he had been crisscrossing the globe in his quest to get Iranians into the United States, creating phony immigration records with apparently

57:45 a genuine stamp from the Iranian Ministry of Justice and referring clients to an expert document forger. He was also accused of cheating clients out of their money. Goritsky repeatedly stated he believed he had a duty to bring these people in to the United States.

58:12 Had no idea what duty Garusti was talking about, he said, and Garusti did not respond to interview requests. After one mistrial, he was convicted in 1987 of making false statements and sent to federal prison for a year. Now, I want to stop here for just a second so you guys can get the whole picture. So, you know about the October surprise in 1980s election where...

58:41 Supposedly, Vice President Bush had a secret meeting in Europe and promised the Iranian government, who is supposedly the radical Islamic Ayatollah Khomeini that had just overthrown our embassy and supposedly hostile force, that they would give them a shipment of missiles if they held the hostages past Election Day.

59:10 We know that happened. We also know that there was an initial missile shipment given to them. Now, fast forward. That's in 1980. If you fast forward to the late 80s in the Iran-Contra, the whole reason it's called Iran-Contra is not just because it was the Contra, but there was also a second shipment of missiles given to Iran.

59:38 Oliver North was going to take, because they sold it to him at inflated prices, was going to take that excess money to fund the Contras as well. And there was supposedly an agreement that Iran would intervene in Lebanon where they were holding Americans hostage. So it was Iran-Contra hostage for the all-inclusive names because it dealt with not just the Contras, but Iran.

1:00:08 and Lebanon. So it was kind of a three-part arrangement. And so what's really interesting to me about this part of the book is that you have someone who is bringing with official stamps out of Iran into America with fraudulent documentation to get them here. And

1:00:35 I think that's so interesting just because it looks so much like what was done in the earlier days of Operation Gladio with what we were looking at with a genter press in Portugal and those people using the printing press to create fake paperwork for their operatives to move around the world and conduct operations.

1:01:01 And sneaking them into countries, because this looks exactly like that. Okay, Blanton's application for permanent residency, which disclosed his membership in an unnamed quote-unquote anti-communist organization, meaning the FDN and the Contra operation, reported that he had been arrested for possession of drugs and weapons in October 1986. But it added the statement, they didn't.

1:01:32 find anything under outcome of the case, which isn't true. They found drugs and weapons. Blanton wrote that there had been no complaint filed and that they exonerated him on December 10th, 1986. On December 11th, one day after Blanton says he was exonerated, the director of the FBI sent a lawnmower

1:02:00 Long teletyped the CIA deputy director for operations and director of the DIA. The teletype said the FBI was doing an investigation focused on cocaine distribution operations principally comprised of Nicaraguan nationals. Significant quantities of cocaine are reportedly distributed throughout the West Coast. That was actually put on the teletype. Furthermore, quote,

1:02:30 Information provided to FBI Los Angeles indicates the subject, Ronald J. Lister, had made statements concerning his CIA contact, identified Mr. Lister also was Mr. Weekly. Investigations has also identified documents indicating that Lister had been in contact with Scott Weekly of the DIA, unquote. The CIA replied that it had information.

1:03:00 only on Menendez and Morella. The DEA claimed it didn't know anything at all. But that didn't stop the Riverside FBI agent, Doug Auckland, from digging a little further. He decided to do some checking on Mr. Weakley, Ron Lister's alleged CIA contact. Scott Weakley is an arms dealer. This was what he wrote down. Scott Weakley is an arms dealer in San Diego.

1:03:30 The agent told Sergeant Hoffman in mid-January 1987, can't confirm weekly is or isn't CIA connected, unquote. But that was only because Auckland wasn't asking the right people, his own bosses in Washington. By then, record show senior officials at the DOJ had weekly under investigation and were intimately familiar with him because they had been,

1:04:01 reading transcripts of his telephone conversations. Those transcripts said that Scott Weakley was connected not only to the CIA, but to the NSC and the State Department as well, because he was dealing with this Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, who, remember, had the guy working Owens at the State Department doing the operation as the quote-unquote NGO.

1:04:32 directly tied to the CIA and Oliver North out of the national security. So they have all of this information and they literally are doing nothing with it. And that's the chapter. Evil people doing evil things. They need to be stomped out. I agree. Yeah, that's crazy. Absolutely crazy. So anyway, we're almost done with the book.

1:05:19 It gets a little bit more dicey, but yeah, it's crazy. Hopefully, within the next week, we'll have this book finished up. Because after they decide that they're not going to do anything with the bigwigs, they start, and we'll get to that in the next couple of chapters, they go out with a vengeance to get...

1:05:49 And that's almost like kind of the frustration that the L.A. people were having with trying to get the suppliers. They end up going down the chain and all hell breaks loose on the street vendors to include Freeway Ricky.

1:06:18 They decide basically if we can't get the suppliers that we can try to get the people. But of course, that's like chasing your tail, because as soon as you take one down, there's going to be another one pop up if you can't get the supply. And that's my frustration with what we see going on today. You're, you know, hopping these little boats when we know.

1:06:44 based on what we've already learned from this book, but from everything else we've learned. They're bringing the shit in by the plane loads. We're not knocking any airplanes out of the sky. They had entire shrimp trawlers full of cocaine. Tons and tons of cocaine. Why aren't we taking those out? We're getting these little fish boats going to an island, making a small run.

1:07:13 For some reason, we keep focusing on Venezuela when we know that the actual source is Colombia. It's a narco state. Go ahead, SR. Thank you, Colonel, and thank everyone for attending today. Eugene Hasenfuss, when you were talking about him, I was looking at that, and he was sentenced to 30 years for terrorism and related charges, but he was pardoned and released in December of 86 after two months.

1:07:53 Partly due to international pressure in Nicaragua and President Daniel Ortega's decision to use this case for diplomatic leverage. I don't quite understand what diplomatic leverage Ortega was expecting to get out of this. So, very interesting observation. Okay, so he was, because he was the lone survivor of the plane crash, right?

1:08:20 So he gets convicted in Nicaragua and Daniel Ortega was under constant pressure by the U.S. government because of, you know, he he's in power. The entire Contra operation was to overthrow his government. He had been under he was Maduro back in the day.

1:08:50 Everything that has been done to Maduro, the economic isolation, the constant coups through USAID, the isolation, all of the current day operations to attack Maduro, whether you agree with him or not, I'm not even getting into that. That's what they had been doing to Ortega because they wanted Somoza.

1:09:17 and the corrupt family back in charge of Nicaragua. And he stood in the way. And so he used the release of Hasenfus as a diplomatic overture to the U.S. to say, you know, I'm not that bad guy. I don't want to be your enemy. And obviously, it did absolutely no good at all.

1:09:45 because the CIA continued to attack Nicaragua, simply because they didn't control Ortega. Well, it seems to me they got more hot water out of letting him go and sending him back to the United States, because Hossenfuss, when he got back to the States, he filed a lawsuit against the CIA operative Richard Secord over unpaid wages from the flights.

1:10:14 Of course, he lost that. Yeah, you can't sue the CIA. I mean, it seems to me that the CIA wouldn't have wanted him back. Well, but they didn't have any control over Ortega. And it's likely that Ortega thought that he'd be a bigger thorn in their side if he did let him go. That may have been his tit for tat. But he couched it as a diplomatic overture.

1:10:48 To the United States as a peace offering. I'm not saying that's the only reason he did it. But great observation, SR. OK, well, I don't see any other hands. So that's the lesson for today. I, again, apologize just for the sporadic scheduling. But I know you guys have been with me on trips before, so you understand that.

1:11:23 Probably what I will do tomorrow is have an early show like early in the morning. We are going to leave late tomorrow afternoon and go about halfway home from where we're at. So but we will be home Friday with everything normal again. So on Thursday, I did want to let you guys know I will have a late show probably around eight o'clock at three o'clock.

1:11:53 I am going to be on Keith's show again, covering the second half of PatCon and some current events. He's the guy that works for Stu at The Blaze. And I'll give you guys, as soon as he sends me the link to that show, I will give you guys. That's why we're going to go ahead and leave tomorrow night so that I can be home Thursday in time to do his show.

1:12:20 Again, I'll put that all out in writing. You don't have to remember any of that. But tomorrow's show will be early, probably around 8 o'clock in the morning. And then next week we'll be back on our normal schedule again. So we'll finish up this book next week, probably by Friday. And we'll jump into another one. I do have to share something with you guys since we have a few minutes.

1:12:50 I don't know where the book is. I was reading, here it is. Was this it? No. I was reading this book that's actually from a CIA officer. And I've got a few things that I highlighted. I'm not going to go into depth in the book. But I am going to spend, after we finish this book, one show. Because there are several things in the book.

1:13:21 that I want to highlight as to how you know whether or not they're telling the truth. And it's very interesting, just as kind of a book to have in my pocket for information on how they tell you things without telling you things. But one of the interesting things is he actually mentions the use of stay-behind units.

1:13:51 In a very interesting way. So you have an actual CIA agent talking about Operation Gladio without using the term. And I just found that fascinating. It's buried in the middle of the book and people, except for our audience, would never even pick up on it reading the book. So I will spend one show going through it.

1:14:19 um more in an open format than we normally do um just because it's hysterical to be when you open the somebody had recommended that i read it and i had bought it and had it laying around i brought it on the trip with me the very first page of the book said it was cleared by the cia so you know it's not going to tell you anything but again there's little hidden gems in there that i have um

1:14:47 highlighted that I want to share with you so that when you do get one of these books, you know how to read between the lines. It's just hilarious. And I think you guys will get a kick out of it. But anyway, with that, I'm going to close and I will see you tomorrow morning. Take care, everybody. Thank you, Colonel. Thanks, Bridget. Thanks, SR.

Entities here

Daniel Blanton37 Contras25 Ron Lister24 CIA19 Tom Gordon18 Nicaragua17 Los Angeles15 Blanton Raid15 United States14 Riverside County Sheriff's Department9 Scott Weakley9 FBI9 Arpaccio Marino9 Iran8 Sergeant Hoffman8 Deputy Juarez8 Bobby Juarez7 Eugene Hassenfuss7 Bradley Brunin6 El Salvador6 Daniel Ortega6 Manuel Gomez6 John Garisi5 Majors5 Norwin Menendez5 Richard Love4 Celerino Castillo III4 Barry Seal plane crash4 Iran-Contra affair4 Danielle Ganser4 Unnamed CIA Officer Book4 U.S. Department of Justice4 Hector Varelas4 Jerry Gazzetta4 Cayman Islands3 Ronald Reagan3 Torres Brothers3 Orlando Morello3 Guatemala3 Julio Roberto Alparez3

Claims made here

Tom Gordon carried_out_attack Daniel Blanton documented ▶ 2:29

“It says that he did exactly what the Costa Rican DEA agent Sandy Gonzalez said not to do. He drove down to the L.A. County Municipal Court before a judge and applied for a warrant to search all of the…”

Daniel Blanton funded Contras documented ▶ 4:28

“Number two, stated in your affiant that Blanton is a Contra sympathizer and founder of the FDN, an organization that assists the Contra movement with arms and money. The money and arms generated by th…”

Daniel Blanton laundered_money_for Contras documented ▶ 4:55

“Gordon listed more than a dozen locations across Southern California where Blanton and his cohorts were storing drugs and cash. He traced the money trail from Los Angeles across the country, writing t…”

Orlando Morello member_of Government Securities Corporation documented ▶ 4:55

Daniel Blanton founded Contras documented ▶ 5:22

“named Government Securities Corporation. From this bank, the monies are filtered to the Contra Rebels to buy arms for the war in Nicaragua. Gordon's sworn statement would prove to be a remarkably accu…”

Eugene Hassenfuss member_of Air America documented ▶ 8:24

“H-A-S-E-N-F-U-S. He was the lone survivor of the plane crash. Hasenfus, who'd worked for the CIA's Air America airline during the agency's secret war in Laos, told the press that he was again working …”

Gwinnett Blackwell appointed Tom Gordon documented ▶ 11:52

“Gordon's charges would not be easy for the law and order Reagan administration to dismiss as the fantasies of a Sandinista sympathizer or a convicted drug dealer. This time, the accusations were comin…”

Arpaccio Marino laundered_money_for Contras documented ▶ 22:44

“The RCO Marino, a Colombian, oh, there's that one again, was involved in the Contra drug operation. The informant described Marino as a cocaine supplier and money launderer to both Norwin Menendez and…”

Arpaccio Marino supplied_arms_to Daniel Blanton documented ▶ 23:16

“Blanton would later admit that Marino had supplied him with so many thousands of kilos of cocaine in 1984 and 85 that he couldn't put an exact number on them. He said he was introduced to Marino by No…”

Arpaccio Marino member_of Contras documented ▶ 23:45

“Ron Lister would tell police in 1996 that Marino was affiliated with the FDN as well, which is the Contras. And Blanton said the same thing during his interviews with the CIA IG. Blanton claimed that …”

Julio Roberto Alparez covered_up Michael Devine documented ▶ 25:20

“in the Guatemalan military and a fixture on the CIA's payroll. Colonel Alparez was accused by the President's Foreign Intelligence Oversight Board in 1996 of covering up the murder of an American innk…”

Arpaccio Marino trafficked Julio Roberto Alparez documented ▶ 25:20

Ron Lister exposed Daniel Blanton guest_asserted ▶ 33:20

“The Torres brothers would claim that the investigation was uncovered by Lister, who spotted police surveillance teams outside of Blanton's car lot and near his old home in Mission Viejo. Lister told t…”

Daniel Blanton laundered_money_for Contras host_asserted ▶ 38:44

“they documented how the Contra officials were stealing money and perhaps laundering it through the Cayman Islands. She had sent, the sister had sent Daniello copies because she thought it would amuse …”

Ron Lister member_of Pyramid International documented ▶ 40:48

“responsible for collecting military-related foreign intelligence. It was heavily involved in the Contra War and in the Civil War in El Salvador. The detectives were confused. DIA? Had Lister said Weak…”

Pyramid International supplied_arms_to El Salvador documented ▶ 40:48

CIA installed Roberto de Albruson host_asserted ▶ 42:16

“in El Salvador and was active in the Salvadoran solidarity movement in Los Angeles. And by the way, for you guys who are not familiar with El Salvador, the CIA had basically installed the Abruzan guy,…”

Deputy Juarez covered_up Murder of Manuel Gomez host_asserted ▶ 43:41

“His body dumped in the trunk of a car in South Central L.A. They also found a note in the homicide case files reporting that Deputy Juarez had called the police five days after the murder to tell him …”

Ron Lister supplied_arms_to Contras documented ▶ 44:36

“and locations were cleaned out. Documents recovered indicate that suspect Lister is involved in buying and selling police and government radio equipment and heavy-duty weapons. Suspect possibly FBI in…”

Ron Lister supplied_arms_to Contras host_asserted ▶ 49:07

“who claims to have worked for the CIA for many years and has insisted in supplying small arms and helicopters to CIA contacts in Latin and Central America. The CIA also named Daniel O'Blanton, identif…”

Norwin Menendez trafficked Nicaragua documented ▶ 50:08

“well known as the Nicaraguan Mafia, dealing in drugs, weapons, smuggling, and laundering of counterfeit money. That's what the CIA cabled back. What happened next is still in dispute. After the raids,…”

CIA covered_up Ron Lister host_asserted ▶ 50:38

“all of the records seized in the raid. Gordon didn't believe it and went to the evidence room to check it. Everything was gone. According to Garner, Gordon walked back into the squad room and announce…”

Riverside County Sheriff's Department covered_up Ron Lister documented ▶ 52:35

“If the sheriff's office files are accurate, nearly all of the seized evidence was given back to Blanton and Lister within days of the raid, and apparently no copies were retained by the department, ev…”

U.S. Department of Justice pardoned Daniel Blanton documented ▶ 54:56

“that his investigators were unable to locate a copy of the affidavit in the department files and had to use the author's, meaning Gary Webb's copy, which had been posted by the San Jose Mercury News o…”

John Garisi trafficked Iran documented ▶ 57:17

“said Gorizzi had a pipeline into the Iranian community and had been bringing Iranians into the States since around the time the Shah was deposed. He had a number of Iranians working in his office and …”

George H.W. Bush supplied_arms_to Iran host_asserted ▶ 58:41

“Supposedly, Vice President Bush had a secret meeting in Europe and promised the Iranian government, who is supposedly the radical Islamic Ayatollah Khomeini that had just overthrown our embassy and su…”

Iran targeted_for_regime_change Lebanon host_asserted ▶ 59:38

“Oliver North was going to take, because they sold it to him at inflated prices, was going to take that excess money to fund the Contras as well. And there was supposedly an agreement that Iran would i…”

Oliver North funded Contras host_asserted ▶ 59:38

Aginter Press front_for Operation Gladio host_asserted ▶ 1:00:35

“I think that's so interesting just because it looks so much like what was done in the earlier days of Operation Gladio with what we were looking at with a genter press in Portugal and those people usi…”

Daniel Blanton member_of FDN documented ▶ 1:01:01

“And sneaking them into countries, because this looks exactly like that. Okay, Blanton's application for permanent residency, which disclosed his membership in an unnamed quote-unquote anti-communist o…”

Scott Weakley member_of CIA documented ▶ 1:04:01

“reading transcripts of his telephone conversations. Those transcripts said that Scott Weakley was connected not only to the CIA, but to the NSC and the State Department as well, because he was dealing…”

Scott Weakley member_of U.S. State Department documented ▶ 1:04:01

Scott Weakley member_of National Security Council documented ▶ 1:04:01

Oliver North member_of National Security Council host_asserted ▶ 1:04:32

“directly tied to the CIA and Oliver North out of the national security. So they have all of this information and they literally are doing nothing with it. And that's the chapter. Evil people doing evi…”

Eugene Hassenfuss pardoned Daniel Ortega documented ▶ 1:07:13

“For some reason, we keep focusing on Venezuela when we know that the actual source is Colombia. It's a narco state. Go ahead, SR. Thank you, Colonel, and thank everyone for attending today. Eugene Has…”

Daniel Ortega pardoned Eugene Hassenfuss host_asserted ▶ 1:07:53

“Partly due to international pressure in Nicaragua and President Daniel Ortega's decision to use this case for diplomatic leverage. I don't quite understand what diplomatic leverage Ortega was expectin…”

United States targeted_for_regime_change Daniel Ortega host_asserted ▶ 1:08:20

“So he gets convicted in Nicaragua and Daniel Ortega was under constant pressure by the U.S. government because of, you know, he he's in power. The entire Contra operation was to overthrow his governme…”

Daniel Ortega released Eugene Hassenfuss host_asserted ▶ 1:09:17

“and the corrupt family back in charge of Nicaragua. And he stood in the way. And so he used the release of Hasenfus as a diplomatic overture to the U.S. to say, you know, I'm not that bad guy. I don't…”

Eugene Hassenfuss filed_lawsuit_against Richard Secord host_asserted ▶ 1:09:45

“because the CIA continued to attack Nicaragua, simply because they didn't control Ortega. Well, it seems to me they got more hot water out of letting him go and sending him back to the United States, …”

Unnamed CIA Officer Book mentions Operation Gladio host_asserted ▶ 1:13:51

“In a very interesting way. So you have an actual CIA agent talking about Operation Gladio without using the term. And I just found that fascinating. It's buried in the middle of the book and people, e…”