Retired FBI sources have told FBI that the Central Intelligence Agency's involvement with drug smuggling was such a lucrative operation for the spy agency that it once threatened the life of a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, one of the two congressional oversight committees for the CIA. Arizona's Democratic senator Dennis DeConcini also feared for the lives of his family members, according to the FBI sources. DeConcini served on the Senate intelligence committee from 1987 to his retirement in 1995. President Bill Clinton reportedly offered DeConcini the job of White House drug czar but he turned down the position because of threats received against him and his family.
As chairman of the Senate intelligence committee from 1993 to 1995, DeConcini attempted to slash the intelligence community's budget in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet bloc but was constantly rebuffed by CIA director James Woolsey and the Republicans.
DeConcini incurred the ire of the CIA because he discovered how deeply the agency was involved in the smuggling of drugs into the United States, particularly during the Iran-contra scandal.
The FBI sources, who worked closely with President Ronald Reagan's task force on drug smuggling, chaired by then-Vice President George H. W. Bush, claim that Bush actually used his position to open up certain air routes into the United States from Latin America to pre-approved drug flights connected to the CIA's contra supply operation in Central America.
The major drug routes from Central America, primarily Panama, to the United States saw CIA contract flights operated by such proprietary firms as Southern Air Transport and Evergreen Aviation fly fully-loaded planes with weapons and ammunition for the Nicaraguan contras from the United States, air drop them over contra bases in Central America, land in Panama and load up with narcotics supplied by Colombia's Medellin cartel, fly through pre-approved air routes on the U.S.-Mexican border, and air drop the drugs on designated cattle ranches in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The Evergreen flights, according to WMR's FBI sources, were based out of the firm's facility at Pinal Air Park in Marana, Arizona. Southern Air Transport flights were based out of Mena, Arkansas and other airfields in the Florida panhandle, Alabama, and Louisiana.
Once the drugs from the Medellin cartel were dropped on the cattle ranches, they would be loaded on trailer trucks and hauled to distribution points around the United States. Our FBI sources stated that the smuggling and distribution was aided and abetted by some of the wealthiest cattle ranchers and trucking industry executives in the United States, all of whom were large political contributors to the Republican Party and the Bush family.
DeConcini was acutely aware of the operations and how they involved his home state of Arizona. After he and his family were threatened by the CIA, through the Medellin cartel, with assassination, DeConcini, according to our well-placed sources, wore body armor when appearing in public and succeeded in being named a U.S. sky-marshal so he could carry a .357 magnum on commercial aircraft between Washington, DC and Phoenix.
Not succeeding in eliminating DeConcini physically, the CIA arranged for him to be tainted with dirty political money. DeConcini was named as one of the "Keating Five" senators who accepted cash from the owner of the failed Lincoln Savings & Loan, Charles H. Keating, Jr. Although the Senate Ethics Committee's special counsel and CIA's "clean-up man" Robert Bennett, tried to pin DeConcini on his knowledge of deals between him and Keating, WMR learned from the FBI that the Justice Department found no evidence that DeConcini was involved in anything criminal. One of our FBI sources contacted Ethics Committee chairman Senator Howell Heflin (D-AL) and told him about DeConcini's campaign against the CIA and its drug trade.
Heflin suspended the hearings after being informed of DeConcini's unique situation and only resumed them after the Justice Departmentassured Heflin that it had no plans to indict DeConcini. In fact, DeConcini was implicated in the Keating Five scandal because three of his close aides -- his chief fund raiser Earl Katz, his campaign manage Ron Ober, and his administrative assistant Gene Karp -- agreed to make favorable deals for Keating and thus enmeshed DeConcini in the scandal. Our FBI sources revealed the three aides were all "deeply involved" with Keating and when the scandal broke they helped in falsely implicating DeConcini in the scandal.
However, the Keating Five scandal resulted in DeConcini deciding not to seek another term in 1994. DeConcini's colleague from Arizona, Republican Senator John McCain, also one of the Keating Five, was, according to our FBI sources, involved deeply in not only the Keating Five scandal but the CIA's drug smuggling operations.
WMR's FBI sources also confirmed that the senior CIA officer officially vested with the job of countering the international narcotics trade was actively involved in promoting the CIA's own drug smuggling operations. The individual also served in the Treasury Department where he ensured that the surveillance databases of suspicious money flows by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) were scrubbed of any information that would point to the CIA's involvement in drug money laundering.
We have also learned that the nephew of the CIA official, who discovered his uncle's involvement in the narcotics and drug money laundering business, was recently arrested in Arizona and incarcerated in the Florence federal penitentiary for allegedly threatening the lives of federal agents, a serious crime under the new anti-terrorism laws. Although, the individual in question has been diagnosed as "delusional" by a court-appointed psychatrist, federal prosecutors are seeking a plea deal that would ensure that no mention is ever made of the uncle [who is now a well-known supporter of Israel], the CIA, FBI, or the Bush family. The jailed whistleblower also alleged that the CIA's drug trade continues to flourish and that it involves Latin American Jews, Mossad agents and fabric and window covering warehouses in Florida, Georgia, and Texas that are used to store drugs from Latin America prior to distribution.
WMR has also learned that the Republican Congressman who represents Midland and Odessa, Texas in the U.S. House of Representative, Mike Conaway, has expressed a recent interest in the laundering of CIA drug money over the years. It is estimated that between $4 and 6 trillion has been made by the CIA in the drug smuggling business and related money laundering. Although Conaway, who succeeded 11th District congressman [and House Intelligence Committee chairman] Larry Combest in 2003 after he suddenly resigned after winning his tenth term, is a friend of the Bush family, he is now faced with the possibility of a challenger in the GOP primary, either Jason or Jesse Waters, Iraq war veteran brothers who control Waters & Waters Services, an oilfield services firm. The potential challengers are also closely tied to the Bush family. Conaway served as chief financial officer for George W. Bush's failed Arbusto Energy Inc. Conaway, an accountant, also discovered that hundreds of thousands of dollars were missing from the bank accounts of the National Republican Congressional Committee after he conducted an audit of the accounts.
Conaway's potential challenge likely has resulted from asking too many questions -- the answers for which could prove highly embarrassing for his old friends, the Bushes.
WMR has learned from a Delta Force veteran that when units of the elite military force were sent into Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, their first order from the CIA was to protect Afghan poppy fields. WMR's FBI sources confirmed that Afghanistan has replaced Khun Sa's poppy production operations in Burma's "Golden Triangle" as the main source of opium and heroin for the CIA's narcotics trade.
George H. W. Bush and his son, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. recently paid a "courtesy call" of President Barack Obama at the White House. WMR's FBI sources believe that Obama was "deep selected" at a young age by the CIA to eventually be installed as President of the United States.
Im Tirtzu, the New Israel Fund, the Palestinian-led non-violent protest movement against the Wall, and the launch of our newest blog,