Briefing:

There is a country south of the United States called Nicaragua. The United States has been involved there for decades. In the early part of this century, a General Sandino down there fought against the United Fruit Company (if my memory serves me correctly.) So that is where the name "Sandinistas" comes from: it is derived from the name of the Nicaraguan hero (to some) General Sandino.

There was a dictator down there named Somoza. FDR said once that "Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's *our* son of a bitch." Somoza had a son who also became a dictator in Nicaragua, and the U.S. owned him just like we owned his father. [Source: *The CIA's Greatest Hits* by Mark Zepezauer]

The people (or the commies) overthrew the second Somoza in 1979. In the 1980s, Reagan-Bush wanted to go to war down there so we could get control of Nicaragua back from the commies (or the people). But the Congress, which had some balls in those days, wouldn't allow it.

So what happened? Reagan-Bush went around the law and funded a "covert" war against the people (or the commies) who controlled Nicaragua. (They should have consulted with bold-as-brass Bill Clinton, who just "do as he please" in such matters.) One way they funded their illegal war was, after the planes flew the weapons down there, they had the planes fly back with drugs. Readers of Conspiracy Nation know the pattern: guns get traded for drugs and the banks get a piece of the action.

But the CIA, who helped run this illegal war of the 1980s, are big-time drug dealers: they are worldwide. To paraphrase Meyer Lansky, drug kings CIA are "bigger than U.S. Steel."

Ever on the alert for ways to fund their operations, the CIA got into a separate deal, according to a private-investigation firm called Interfor Inc. Juval Aviv, head of the firm, helped Pan Am with its own investigation of the crash of flight 103 near Lockerbie, Scotland. Here is what seems to have happened, based on Aviv's report:

Monzer Al-Kassar, a Syrian drugs and arms smuggler, had started a heroin-smuggling operation at the Frankfurt, Germany airport. Al- Kassar "reportedly received $1.2 million from a Swiss company controlled by Albert A. Hakim and retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord." These folks, in turn, were part of the Iran- Contra network. So it seems that this Al-Kassar is not just your average drug smuggler.

Back around this time, some U.S. citizens were being held hostage in Lebanon. A deal seems to have been struck: Al-Kassar gets to keep smuggling heroin into the United States if he will use his influence to help get the American hostages released.

Al-Kassar was big-time: not so big as CIA, but still having an impressive underground network of his own. "Al-Kassar also used his drug-arms routes to purchase and convey arms to the Nicaraguan Contras." (The Contras were the "secret" army being funded and supplied by Reagan-Bush with the help of Oliver North.)

The Interfor Report spells it out like this: "[T]ons of heroin [flowed] into the arms of U.S. citizens... in the hopes that these terrorists might repay the favor by releasing six hostages [in Lebanon]."

So to help fund an illegal war in Nicaragua, Al-Kassar got himself a sweet deal. He seems to have been in a similar position to that of the late Barry Seal, who also got a sweet deal thanks to CIA. In fact, many drug smugglers apparently can say a big "thank you" to CIA for lending them a hand. The CIA employs criminals, and these criminals get a "perk" -- if they get caught, they can often just say to DEA, "Hey. I'm CIA, baby."

Ahmed Jibril is the head of the Syrian-sponsored Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command. In Conspiracy Nation, Vol. 6 Num. 69 was mentioned "...an Iranian Airbus, with 290 people on board, was shot down by an American warship in the Gulf in the summer of 1988." Jibril was under pressure to avenge the downing of that aircraft.

Jibril, it is alleged, persuaded Al-Kassar to substitute a bomb for the usual heroin. "The Samsonite case was then substituted for one of the checked suitcases..."

You will recall that, in CN 6.69, the London Telegraph reported that

Within hours of Pan Am flight 103 devastating the Scottish border village of Lockerbie in December 1988, a team of American secret agents was methodically working its way through the crash site.

By the following morning a small area on the outskirts of the town had been sealed off. The Americans removed a suitcase full of heroin and some incriminating documents from a U.S. undercover agent, who died in the crash, and was taking part in a "sting" drug smuggling operation in Lebanon.

This seems to confirm the heroin-link in the Lockerbie tragedy.

CIA veteran Victor Marchetti favors the conclusions of the Interfor Report: "I have always thought the essence of the Interfor Report was true," he is quoted as saying.

(Continued to next page)

Likings

• The previous information is from:

  Barron's, 12/17/90, "Unwitting
  Accomplices?" by Maggie Mahar.

And was obteined from

Conspiracy Nation Vol. 6 Num. 70.

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