The Murder of Marine Col James Sabow

[Magda Hassan]

New book on Col Sabow and El Toro base coming out

AFEW GOOD MEN also includes the story of the death and suspected murder of Marine Colonel James E. Sabow whose death has been tied to use of El Toro assets during the 1980s and
1990s to import South American cocaine into the U.S and to export guns to the Contra Rebel
faction of Nicaragua. Colonel Sabow was found dead in his quarters by his wife on January 22,
1991. The circumstances surrounding his death and the forensic evidence from the crime scene
support murder. His family has waged a 20-year war to correct the record.

"We're the veterans of contaminated land,
No mama, no poppa, no Uncle Sam.
No aunts, no uncles, no nephews, no nieces.
No rifles, no planes, or artillery pieces. And nobody gives a damn."


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CHAPTER : EL TORO'S SPOOK CORNER'
The black painted, unmarked C-130 slowly turned off of El Toro's Runway 7L and
headed for the two twin hangars
in the MWSG-37 area. Its arrival
didn't go unnoticed.
A Marine MP in a pick-up truck
sat with lights less than 100 yards
from the two huge maintenance
hangars. He looked at his watch.
It read 0300.
With a full moon and his
binoculars, he could easily see
the large, lumbering, four engine
turboprops come to a full stop
next to the North hangar bay of
Bldg. 296. Anyone on duty watch
had to be awakened by the sound coming from the engines. The Lockheed C-130 had
no markings. Looks like another spook delivery, he thought.
Within minutes the back ramp came down. He couldn't make out the faces of the men
unloading the heavy transport. But, they were definitely not Marines. The cargo was
unloaded by long-haired civilians in jeans. No sense in putting this in the log. His orders
were to stay away from "spook corner." (i)
The use of Marine Corps Air Stations El Toro to ship guns to Central and South America
using unmarked former military aircraft and return with cocaine to fund the Contra War
is not somebody's imagination running wild. Civilian pilots like Tosh Plumlee put their
lives on the line to tell government officials about the wrong doing. Some listened;
others didn't. Tosh's Colorado home was burned to the ground, he's was shot at while
driving his pick-up and beaten-up with a warning to keep quite or else.
Shipments of drugs from South America were being funneled through the base as part
of a weapons for drugs program to aid Contra rebels.
GUNS AND DRUGS INTO EL TORO
As one of the civilian pilots who ran guns for the U.S. government in the 1980s, Tosh
Plumlee explains that he made numerous operationally approved trips to Latin America;
trips that were described as "sanctioned drug interdiction operations."
"These trips were approved by military intelligence personnel attached to the Pentagon,
with CIA logistical support. They were made in total secrecy to the extent that other
government agencies were not aware of the existence of these flights, or of the
Figure 1: Robert "Tosh" Plumlee in the 1980s
operation. The pilots were given a specific coded transponder number to squawk so
their aircraft would not be challenged by U.S. Customs aircraft when patrolling the U.S.
border."
He says it began in the 1980s, when the U.S. Army's 82nd and 101st Airborne were
sent to Costa Rica for maneuvers. A large number of weapons were sent with them.
"However, some of the weapons did not return to the United States and were later taken
off the books by the military, marked as either lost or destroyed and reported to the
Government Accounting Office as such".
Plumlee and other pilots have testified to Congress that they were working for a secret
U.S. military intelligence operation that clandestinely sent them from the United States
to bring back the so-called damaged and disappeared weapons for retrofitting and
repair.
"When the weapons were repaired and tested at China Lake and Twentynine Palms, in
California, they were staged and once again flown back from El Toro Marine Air Base to
Latin America, via Mexico, to be supplied to the Contras, the American-financed rebel
group seeking to overthrow the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua".
Plumlee says the aircraft used by this group were designated as "cutouts" and certified
as belonging to the U.S. Forest Service's aircraft fleet. They were, however, controlled
by U.S. military intelligence, and contracted by civilian operators for whom Plumlee and
other pilots worked.
These pilots used secret air bases in Costa Rica, as well as on the notorious John Hall
Ranch, Plumlee says, as unloading and staging areas for the illegal weapons. They also
used hidden runways in Costa Rica and El Salvador, controlled by the drug cartel,
which then allowed them to bring drugs into the United States on the return trips.
"These flyways and airstrips were secretly recorded by undercover flight crews and
reported to various government interdiction agencies in the United States. In 1986, an
early operation known by the code name, 'Penetrate,' was shut down because of the
politically explosive Iran-Contra matter."
Plumlee goes on to say that in 1990, there was still a covert weapons operation
continuing to fly weapons to Latin America, mostly to Bogota, Columbia, which allowed
the group to bring back illegal drugs into the United States via Mexico.
"These flyways and staging areas in Mexico were duly noted by undercover pilots and
passed on to CIA and DEA personnel."
According to Plumlee, an American DEA agent from Guadalajara, Mexico, by the name
of Kiki Camarena, was killed because of his knowledge concerning the "CIA-Mexico"
thing, as it was widely known among the covert civilian pilots.
Tosh Plumlee emailed a copy of a February 1991 letter from former Senator Gary Hart
to Senator John Kerry, Chairman, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and
International Communications and a redacted summary transcript of his testimony
before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from August 1991. The Senate
report shows that Plumlee was a "former deep-cover military and CIA asset from 1956
to 1987 with a long history of CIA activities in Central America, Cuba, and Mexico."
Gary Hart served as a
Democratic Senator
representing Colorado
(19751987), and ran in the
U.S. presidential elections in
1984 and again in 1988. An
extramarital affair reported
by the media ended his bid
for the Democratic
nomination for President in
1988.
In his letter to Senator John
Kerry, Hart noted that Robert
"Tosh" Plumlee met with his Denver Senate staff during the period 1983 through 1985.
Plumlee provided Hart's staff with maps and names of covert landing strips in Mexico,
Costa Rica, Louisiana, Arizona, Florida, and California.
Plumlee said he was involved in covert military activities in Central and South American
starting in February 1978. He "had personally flown U.S. sponsored covert missions into
Nicaragua… that Nicaragua was receiving assistance from Cuba with nearly 6,000
Cuban military advisors and large quantities of military supplies were being stockpiled at
various staging areas inside Nicaragua and the Costa Rica border."
In contacting Senator Hart in 1983, Plumlee's purpose was to initiate a congressional
investigation on illegal arms and narcotic shipments "which were not being acted upon
by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies."
According to Plumlee, these operations were not under the control of the CIA but were
directed by the White House, Pentagon, and NSC.
Gary Hart in 1991 noted that Plumlee's allegations were brought "to the attention of the
Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time
[1983], but no action was initiated by either committee."
Who were the Contras? In essence, they represented the interests of the people and
businesses with deep pockets. The Sandinista movement was for the poor people.
Today the man who runs that country was the leader of the Sandinistas. It looks like


the choices by public officials to fund that war, like so many others, were not only in
vain, but they led to the loss of many human lives and also a great deal of suffering.
Today the base at El Toro is mostly torn down and the flightline is used to store motor
homes. It is now a ghost town, and the base is horribly contaminated with chemical
degreasers that were poured into the ground, and consequently the groundwater, after
use. The two worst organic solvents are TCE (trichloroethylene) and PCE
(perchloroethylene).
Marines and former Marines write to Salem-News almost every day because of our
stories on El Toro, numbering several dozen now, authored by several writers, all
former El Toro Marines. El Toro is a deathtrap; it is for so many today who suffer from
numerous types of cancer all almost certainly contracted at the base.



i
Nich Shou reported in the Orange County Weekly that Marine Sergeant Randy Robinson also told OIG
investigators in 1996 that because of his often late-night schedule, "sometimes he would see an aircraft
taking off at 4 a.m. He told us the aircraft were C-130s that were painted black with no markings on the
tail, wings, fuselage, or anywhere else. He stated that, through binoculars, the crew appeared to have
shoulder-length hair and that he assumed they were civilians. The flights began about four to six months
prior to Colonel Sabow's death. Mr. Robinson stated that prior to that, he had worked regular daytime
hours and may not have noticed the aircraft since they operated only at night. He told us that junior troops
had told him they saw aircraft landing at night, parking at the end of the runway and taking off shortly after


they arrived." ..... more....