The Politics of Heroin in Afghanistan

[David Guyatt]

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c...a&aid=8180

Narco Aggression: Russia accuses the U.S. military of involvement in drug trafficking out of Afghanistan

by Vladimir Radyuhin

Global Research, February 24, 2008

Global Research Editor's Note

The global proceeds of the Afghan drug trade is in excess of 150 billion dollars a year. There is mounting evidence that this illicit trade is protected by the US military.

Historically, starting in the early 1980s, the Afghan drug trade was used to finance CIA covert support of the Islamic brigades. The 2003 war on Afghanistan was launched following the Taliban government's 2000-2001 drug eradication program which led to a collapse in opium production in excess of 90 percent.

The following report, which accuses the United States of using military transport planes to ship narcotics out of Afghanistan confirms what is already known and documented regarding the Golden Crescent Drug Trade and its insiduous relationship to US intelligence.

February 23, 2008

Russia, facing a catastrophic rise in drug addiction, accuses the U.S. military of involvement in drug trafficking from Afghanistan.

JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP

Afghanistan produced 8,200 tonnes of opium last year, enough to make 93 per cent of the world’s heroin supply.

Could it be that the American military in Afghanistan is involved in drug trafficking? Yes, it is quite possible, according to Russia’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov.

Commenting on reports that the United States military transport aviation is used for shipping narcotics out of Afghanistan, the Russian envoy said there was no smoke without fire.

“If such actions do take place they cannot be undertaken without contact with Afghans, and if one Afghan man knows this, at least a half of Afghanistan will know about this sooner or later,” Kabulov told Vesti, Russia’s 24-hour news channel. “That is why I think this is possible, but cannot prove it.”

Afghan narcotics are an extremely painful issue for Russia. They first hit the Russian market during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s when Russian soldiers developed a taste for Afghan heroin and smuggled it back to Russia.

The disintegration of the Soviet Union in December 1991 threw open the floodgates of drug trafficking from Afghanistan across Central Asia to Russia and further west to Europe. Afghanistan’s narcotics struck Russia like a tsunami, threatening to decimate its already shrinking population. According to the Federal Drug Control Service, 90 per cent of all heroin sold in Russia comes from Afghanistan. Russia today has about six million drug-users – a 20-fold increase since the collapse of the Soviet Union and a huge figure for a country of 142 million people.

The Federal Drug Control Service said earlier in January that as many as 30 to 40 million people in Russia may have tried drugs at least once. Annually, some 80,000 Russians die of drug-related causes. One in five crimes committed in Russia is related to drugs. The illegal drug turnover in Russia is estimated at between $10 and $15 billion, discounting transit trafficking.

Narcotics have become an integral part of the youth subculture in Russia. In Moscow alone narcotics are sold at about 100 discotheques and cafes frequented by young people, the city drug control service reported in December. About 45 per cent of Russian university students use drugs, according to Russian Minister for Education and Science Andrei Fursenko. He described the situation as “critical”. The Moscow city government plans to introduce mandatory drug tests for all students in the Russian capital this year. Schoolchildren may be next in line for screening: some surveys indicate that four out of five young Russians are familiar with drugs. The Russian Parliament is planning to discuss a law to allow compulsory treatment of drug and alcohol addicts.

President Vladimir Putin has described the drug abuse problem as a “national calamity”. The catastrophic rise in drug addiction in Russia has been spurred by the painful transition from socialism to capitalism that Russia has been going through since 1991. Millions lost their jobs and were reduced to abject poverty during Russia’s worst-ever economic meltdown in the 1990s. But external factors have played a crucial role in the spread of drugs. Last year Putin bluntly stated that Russia and Europe had been victims of “narco-aggression”.

When the Soviet Union broke up into 15 independent states, Moscow overnight lost control of nearly 5,000 kilometres of former Soviet borders in Central Asia and the Caucasus. At the same time, nearly 8,000 km of what used to be internal nominal boundaries between ex-Soviet republics became Russia’s new state borders.

In 1993, Russian border guards returned to Tajikistan in an effort to contain the flow of drugs from opium-producing Afghanistan. In 2002 alone they intercepted 6.7 tonnes of drugs, half of them heroin. However, in 2005 Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon, hoping to win financial aid from the U.S., asked the Russian border guards to leave, saying Tajikistan had recovered enough from a five-year civil war (from 1992-97) to shoulder the task. Within months of the Russian withdrawal, cross-border drug trafficking increased manifold.

Turkmenistan, another major opium route from Afghanistan, threw out Russian border guards in 1999. Since 2000, Turkmenistan has reported no drug seizures to international organisations. President Saparmurat Niyazov, who died last year, claimed his country had no drug problem. However, independent surveys indicate that up to half of Turkmenistan’s male population use drugs. In 2002, the country’s Prosecutor-General Kurbanbibi Atadzhanova was arrested for operating a drug-trafficking ring.

Seventeen years after the break-up of the Soviet Union, borders between the newly independent states are still porous and travel is visa-free. Air passengers arriving from Central Asia are routinely screened for drugs in Russian airports, but if drugs are shipped by land, there is only a remote chance that they get intercepted.

Afghanistan under the U.S.
When Russia backed the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan to crush the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the post-9/11 scenario, the last thing it expected to happen was that drug trafficking from Afghanistan would assume gargantuan proportions under the U.S. military. Since 2001, poppy fields, once banned by the Taliban, have mushroomed again. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Afghanistan produced 8,200 tonnes of opium last year, enough to make 93 per cent of the world’s heroin supply.

The U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation [NATO] forces in the country have not only failed to eliminate the terrorist threat from the Taliban, but also presided over a spectacular rise in opium production. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Afghanistan was on the brink of becoming a “narco state”.

Narco business has emerged as virtually the only economy of Afghanistan and is valued at some $10 billion a year. Opium trade is estimated by the U.N. to be equivalent to 53 per cent of the country’s official economy and is helping to finance the Taliban.

“Unfortunately, they [NATO] are doing nothing to reduce the narcotic threat from Afghanistan even a tiny bit,” Putin angrily remarked three years ago. He accused the coalition forces of “sitting back and watching caravans haul drugs across Afghanistan to the former Soviet Union and Europe.” As time went by, Russian suspicions regarding the U.S. role in the rise of a narco state in Afghanistan grew deeper, especially after reports from Iraq said that the cultivation of opium poppies was spreading rapidly there too.

“The Americans are working hard to keep narco business flourishing in both countries,” says Mikhail Khazin, president of the consultancy firm Niakon. “They consistently destroy the local infrastructure, pushing the local population to look for illegal means of subsistence. And the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] provides protection to drug trafficking.”

U.S. freelance writer Dave Gibson recalled in an article published in American Chronicle in December what a U.S. foreign intelligence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told NewsMax.com in March 2002 of the CIA’s record of involvement with the international drug trade. The official said: “The CIA did almost the identical thing during the Vietnam War, which had catastrophic consequences – the increase in the heroin trade in the USA beginning in the 1970s is directly attributable to the CIA. The CIA has been complicit in the global drug trade for years, so I guess they just want to carry on their favourite business.”

A Russian news channel reported that drugs from Afghanistan were hauled
by American transport aircraft to the U.S. airbases in Kyrgyzstan and Turkey.

Now Russia has joined the fray accusing the U.S. military of involvement in the heroin trafficking from Afghanistan to Europe. The Vesti channel’s report from Afghanistan said that drugs from Afghanistan were hauled by American transport aircraft to the U.S. airbases Ganci in Kyrgyzstan and Incirlik in Turkey.

The Ganci Air Force base at the Manas international airport in Kyrgyzstan was set up in late 2001 as a staging post for military operations inside Afghanistan. The Kyrgyz government threatened to close the base after neighbouring Uzbekistan shut down a similar U.S. airbase on its territory in 2005, but relented after Washington agreed to make a one-off payment of $150 million in the form of an assistance package and to pay $15 million a year for the use of the base.

One of the best-informed Russian journalists on Central Asia, Arkady Dubnov, recently quoted anonymous Afghan sources as saying that “85 per cent of all drugs produced in southern and southeastern provinces are shipped abroad by U.S. aviation.”

A well-informed source in Afghanistan’s security services told the Russian journalist that the American military acquired drugs through local Afghan officials who dealt with field commanders in charge of drug production.

Writing in the Vremya Novostei daily, Dubnov claimed that the pro-Western administration of President Hamid Karzai, including his two brothers, Kajum Karzai and Akhmed Vali Karzai, are head-to-heels involved in the narcotics trade.

The article quoted a leading U.S. expert on Afghanistan, Barnett Rubin, as telling an anti-narcotics conference in Kabul last October that “drug dealers had infiltrated Afghani state structures to the extent where they could easily paralyse the work of the government if decision to arrest one of them was ever made.”

Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Richard Holbrooke said in January that “government officials, including some with close ties to the presidency, are protecting the drug trade and profiting from it.”

In an article carried by Washington Post, the diplomat described the $1-billion-a-year U.S. counter-narcotics effort in Afghanistan as “the single most ineffective programme in the history of American foreign policy.”

“It’s not just a waste of money. It actually strengthens the Taliban and Al Qaeda, as well as criminal elements within Afghanistan,” Holbrooke wrote in the The Washington Post in early January.

It is an open question whether the Russian charges of U.S. complicity in drug trafficking are based on hard evidence or have been prompted by Moscow’s frustration at Washington’s failure to address the opium problem in Afghanistan. But it is a fact that the U.S. and NATO have stonewalled numerous offers of cooperation from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a defence pact of six former Soviet republics.

Nikolai Bordyuzha, CSTO Secretary-General, quoted a Pentagon general as telling him: “We are not fighting narcotics because this is not our task in Afghanistan.”

Instead of joining hands with the SCO and the CSTO in combating the narcotics threat, the CSTO chief said, the U.S. was working to set up rival security structures in the region. Washington is working to “drive a geopolitical wedge between Central Asian countries and Russia and to reorient the region towards the U.S.”, Bordyuzha said last year.

With the U.S. and NATO rebuffing their cooperation offers, Russia, China and the Central Asian states have to rely on their own forces in combating the narcotics threat from Afghanistan. The CSTO has been running a wide-ranging aid and military assistance programme for Afghanistan, which includes training Afghan anti-narcotic police.

Last year, the SCO joined in signing a cooperation protocol with the CSTO, which is aimed, above all, at curbing drug trafficking. At its summit in Bishkek, the Kyrgyzstan capital, last August, the SCO decided to set up jointly with the CSTO an “anti-narcotics belt” around Afghanistan.

Global Research Articles by Vladimir Radyuhin

[Keith Millea]

I must say that I'm NOT sold on the MILITARY transporting drugs out of Afghanistan,at least not knowingly.CIA involvement is pretty much a given considering it's past history.

[Magda Hassan]

Well, the military just follow their orders. A questioning attitude is a definite career blocker in that job. The CIA use the military personnel and equipment all the time for various operations and for cover. Not everyone needs to know everything so not everyone knows but that they are involved is a given knowing their track record. Iran-Contra for one. That was mostly cocaine. Much of the Afghan produce refining is done in Kosovo/Camp Bondsteel.

[David Guyatt]

The joint military and CIA involvement in running drugs is pretty well established. The so called "long silver train" set up by the late DCI William Colby placing heroin in the body cavities of dead GI's being shipped home in metal caskets from Vietnam is a case in point.

Tosh Plumlee can probably add a lot more detail and colour on this subject also, and it is a pity he is not a member here yet.

A very telling story regarding the involvement of the military in running drugs (and by no means an isolated one) is Operation Watchtower.

I have a lot of documentation on this -- albeit in storage now -- and was in regular contact with Bill Tyree (who is still in prison) who provided a lot more, including his own supporting affidavit of Watchtower.

The Cutolo affidavit is an interesting read:

AFFIDAVIT OF EDWARD P. CUTOLO

I, Edward P. Cutolo, having been duly sworn, do state under oath;
1. I am currently the Commanding Officer of the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces, Fort Devens, Massachusetts.

2. I swear affirmation to the contents of this affidavit freely and without coercion or threat to my person.

3.In Dec., 1975, I spoke with Col. "Bo" Baker concerning a classified mission he commanded during that month, inside Colombia. The mission was known as Watch Tower.

4. Following a lengthy discussion with Col. Baker, I was introduced to Mr. Edwin Wilson and Mr. Frank Terpil. Both Wilson and Terpil were in the employ of the Central Intelligence Agency. Both Wilson and Terpil inquired if I was interested in working for short periods of time in Colombia and I acknowledged that I was.

5. In Feb., 1976, I commanded the second Watch Tower Mission into Columbia.

6. The purpose of Operation Watch Tower was to establish a series of three electronic beacon towers beginning outside of Bogota, Colombia and running northeast to the border of Panama. Once the Watch Tower teams (Special Action Teams) were in place, the beacon was activated to emit a signal that aircraft could fix on and fly undetected from Bogota into Panama, then land at Albrook Air Station.

7. During the Feb., 1976, Watch Tower Mission, 30 high performance aircraft landed safely at Albrook Air Station where the planes were met by Col. Tony Noriega, who is a Panama Defence Force Officer currently assigned to the Customs and Intelligence Section. Noriega normally was in the company of other PDF officers known to me as Major Diaz Herrera, Major Luis del Cid, Major Ramirez. Also present at most of the arrivals, was Edwin Wilson, and an unidentified male Israeli national.

8. The cargo flown from Colombia into Panama was cocaine.

9. The male Israeli national was identified and known to members of the 570th Military Intelligence Group in Panama who only specified that this individual had the authority from the U.S. Army Southern Command in Panama to be in the A.O.

10. In March, 1976, a third Watch Tower Mission was implemented and I was in command of that mission which lasted 29 days and engaged in the same tactics used in the Feb., 1976, mission. The March mission encountered a serious accident and resulted in several SAT members being injured from wounds suffered while attempting to exfiltrate from Colombia across the border into Panama where helicopters were waiting to extract them.

11. The March, 1976 mission incident occurred as the SAT that was on station at Turbo, Colombia, encountered 40 to 50 armed men. Action Intelligence reports identified the armed men as local bandits. In regards to this incident the helicopters waiting in Panama, to extract the SAT, entered Colombian air space without authorization and successfully extracted the SAT, after an estimated six or seven minute fire fight.

12. During the March, 1976, Watch Tower Mission, 40 high proformance aircraft landed safely at Albrook Air Station where they were met in previously related fashion by those named.

13. After the Watch Tower Mission in March, 1976, I lost touch with several of the men who had served on the SATs, but made no attempt to locate them.

14. In 1978, I assumed command of the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort. Devens and recognized two soldiers.

15. The two soldiers I recognized were assigned to 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne). One was assigned to a Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha in the 3rd Battalion, Sgt. John Newby. The other had just been reassigned off an Operational Detachment Alpha following a criminal Investigation Division matter being levied against him. PFC William Tyree. Tyree was reassigned to a Forward Support Team but had been carried for the preceding month on 2nd Battalion's roster.

16. Upon the assumption of command, I created and implemented 12 separate SATs. Their mission was to implement Army Regulation 340-18-5 (file number 503-05). My authority for this action came directly from FORSCOM through Edwin Wilson who appeared before me in my office at 10th Special Forces Group Headquarters. This action was taken to develop surveillance of politicians, judicial figures, law enforcement agencies at the state level, and of religious figures.

17. Mr. Edwin Wilson explained that it was considered that Operation Watch Tower might be compromised and become known if politicians, judicial figures, police and religious entities were approached or received word that U.S. Troops had aided in delivering narcotics from Columbia into Panama. Based on that possibility, intense surveillance was undertaken by my office to ensure if Watch Tower became known of, the U.S. government and the Army would have advance warning and could prepare a defense.

18. I was under orders not to inform Col. Forrest Rittgers, Commanding Officer of Ft. Devens. The reason for this order I was told, is that in the event Ft. Devens personnel are caught in the act of implementing the surveillance, Col. Rittger will have a margin of plausible deniability on which he may be able to downplay and defend against injuries.

19. The surveillance was unofficially dubbed Operation George Orwell.

20. I instituted surveillance against Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Edward King, Michael Dukakis, Levin H. Campbell, Andrew A. Caffey, Fred Johnston, Kenneth A. Chandler, Thomas P. O'Neill to name a few of the targets. Surveillance at my orders was instituted at the Governors' residences of Massachusetts, Maine, New York, and New Hampshire. The Catholic cathedrals of New York and Boston were placed under electronic surveillance also. In the area of Ft. Devens, all local police and politicians were under some sort of surveillance at various times.

21. I specifically used individuals from the 441st Military Intelligence Detachment and 402 Army Security Agency Detachment assigned to the 10th Special Forces Group to supplement the SATs tasked with carrying out Operation Orwell.

22. I also recruited a number of local state employees who worked within the ranks of local police and as court personnel to assist in this Operation. They were veterans and had previous security clearances. They were told at the outset that if they were caught they were on their own.

23. Among the SAT personnel was (then) SP4 William Tyree. Tyree had learned of the Operation and requested in person to be part of it. Tyree was used in less than a dozen surveillances.

24. In Oct., 1978, it became known to me that SP4 Tyree was receiving telephone threats to his wife and himself. He made that fact known to his First Sergeant, Fredrick Henry and then approached me. Following our discussion, I considered placing Tyree under surveillance to arrive at who was behind the threats and whether or not the threats had the potential of inspiring or compromising Operation Orwell.

25. On 26 Dec. 1978 I began a file on SP4 Tyree and assigned a three man surveillance SAT to the multi-dwelling apartment complex SP4 Tyree shared with his wife. That unit was in place from that date until 14 Feb. 1979.

26. On 5 Jan. 1979, Tyree appeared before me to receive a Field Grade Article 15 (non-judicial punishment) for his part in the theft and sale of military property. I had to make an example out of Tyree and instituted the most severe punishment possible. I concluded that with pending congressional inquiries, the Post Commander (Col. Rittgers) would reverse my decision on appeal, in Pvt. Tyree's favor. As reason to support this conclusion, in addition to pending congressional inquiries, was the fact that the proceedings against Pvt. Tyree were flawed from the outset of the investigation with a number of discrepancies.

27. I was told and understood that the main reason for seeking the Article 15 against him was to make an example of him. To show others that cooperation with the Command law enforcement agencies was mandatory.

28. On 26 Jan. 1979, Pvt. Tyree tendered his Appeal of my sanction. The appeal is attached. It is the best example of what proof existed against Pvt. Tyree when he came before me on 5 Jan. 1979. It also names the characters in another matter that was unfolding as of 26 Jan. 1979.

29. By 29 Jan. 1979, Senator Garn's office had contacted the Army Liaison Office in Washington D.C., on the behalf of Pvt. Tyree who referred the matter to my office, as I was Pvt. Tyree's commanding officer. I then notified Sgt. Doucette in Washington D.C., that it would be approximately two weeks before further action could be taken in regards to the threats Pvt. Tyree was receiving. At that point I knew the threats were taking place, but had not ascertained from whence they originated.

30. At approx. 0945 hours on 30 Jan. 1979 Pvt. Tyree reported to my office at 10th Special Forces Group Headquarters per my instructions. Pvt. Tyree reported that between 2400 hours and 0100 hours of the previous night that his wife had received another threatening phone call. I was notified of the call by the SAT in place at the Tyree residence prior to speaking with Pvt. Tyree. I ordered Tyree to keep this matter to himself as it was being investigated. I notified Pvt. Tyree I would contact him between 1200 and 1300 hours at his duty station as soon as I could look into a matter that pertained to the threats. This meeting lasted until 1019 hours.

31. On 30 Jan. 1979, at approx. 1147 hours, two men were dropped in the parking area of the apt. complex that Pvt. Tyree resided within. One man was identified as Erik Aarhus. The second man due to his face being covered could not be identified as the two men entered the apartment building that the Tyree family resided within. Surveillance indicates that at least one of the two men entered the Tyree apt. and left prior to the arrival of Pvt. tyree and his wife at noon.

32. On 30 Jan 1979, at noon Pvt. Tyree and his wife were seen arriving at the apartment complex they resided in. Pvt. Tyree never exited his truck and Mrs. Tyree entered the building where thier apt. was located. After she disappeared, a car almost ran into Pvt. Tyree as he was leaving the complex parking lot. Mrs. Tyree was stabbed to death in their apt. shortly thereafter.

33. Following a scream, local police were notified (this was not known to the SAT involved in the surveillance however.) The first police car responded quickly and a single officer entered the building where the Tyree family resided. After the officer entered one of the two men exited from a window on the ground floor of the building. This window was identified as the Tyree bedroom window. The man seen leaving this window was identified as SP4 Earl M. Peters. Peters exited the window wearing blue denim, with a red hood sticking out of the rear neck area of the blue denim jacket. He was carrying a box, green and white in color and described by the SAT a long and flat in appearance. Peters then walked from the building to the driveway entrance of the apt. complex and walked in the general direction of the main street in Ayer, Massachusetts. Within 5 or 6 minutes after the first police officer arrived a second officer identified as the police chief arrived.

34. After the police chief arrived a third vehicle arrived. This was 10 to 15 minutes later. That vehicle carried an unknown man in his late 30s. He was later identified as the landlord of the Tyree apt.

35. Upon knowledge that Mrs. Tyree was dead the SAT did notify me of this fact and I did place Pvt. Tyree under intense surveillance. In addition I placed SP4 Peters under surveillance and at approx. 1405 hours on the afternoon of the murder Sp4 Peters signed a weapon (12 gauge shotgun, Remington 1100) into the Service Company. The weapon was in a long, flat green and white box bearing the name "Remington" across the front and back sides.

36. Pvt. Tyree was questioned and cooperated in a limited fashion. He was then taken to the 441 Military Intelligence Detachment where he slept on the Commanding officers couch, under guard. The following morning, I spoke to him in my office at 10th Special Forces Group Headquarters. I informed him of the surveillance and of what I knew had occurred to his wife. He knew at that point that SP4 Peters and Pvt. Aarhus had been involved in the murder and he began to talk to me.

37. Pvt. Tyree admitted, on 31 Jan. 1979 in my office to me, that his wife had been killed, he felt, because of a set of diaries she kept. Tyree explained that SP4 Peters and Sp4 Rosario were named throughout the books as being involved in illegal matters.

38. Upon Pvt. Tyree leaving my office, I initiated contact with Mass. State Police Lieutenant J. Dwyer, of the Middlesex District Attorneys Office. Lt. Dwyer had cooperated previously on Operation Orwell and understood the urgency of the situation and Lt. Dwyer notified me that during a search of the Tyree apt. he discovered the diaries behind the refrigerator with a note to the family of Elaine Tyree. He did not disclose the contents of the note.

39. Shortly before noon on 2 Feb. 1979, I received a telephone call from Lt. Dwyer indicating he would drop off the diaries belonging to Elaine Tyree at my office. Upon receipt of the diaries I reviewed them, noting much of Operation Watch Tower and Orwell was written about throughout the many pages of the diaries.

40. After my review, I contacted Col. Moore of the U.S. Army Liaison in Washington D.C., and notified him of the scope of the issues involved in the murder of Elaine Tyree. I did notify him at that time of the possibility that arms and narcotics trafficking played a role in her murder. Due to security issues surrounding Operation Watch Tower and Orwell, I did not indicate how the arms and narcotics trafficking figured in the murder of Elaine Tyree, however.

41. Despite repeated warnings to stay out of the investigation and to remain silent, Tyree was arrested on 13 Feb. 1979, after attempting to bring about the arrest of Pvt. Aarhus The surveillance SAT reported that an armed confrontation between Pvt. Tyree and SP4 Peters occurred prior to the arrest of Tyree.

42. During Feb. 1979, Pvt. Tyree was arraigned on the pending civilian criminal charges. It was too risky to allow a military court to review the charges against Pvt. Tyree with Operation Orwell still ongoing and Senator Garn's office requesting a full investigation. Pvt. Tyree therefore had to stand before a civilian court of law on the criminal charges.

43.Prior to the arrest of Pvt. Tyree, Lt. Dwyer approached me and insisted on knowing whether or not Tyree had ever served in Vietnam. I suspect Lt. Dwyer was attempting to learn if Tyree's involvement in the military operations elsewhere were being covered up the way Operation Watch Tower was. I replied in the negative, that Tyree had never been in the Republic of South Vietnam. I then contemplated for the first time that Tyree might go public on Operation Watch Tower and Orwell because I had not come forward. Based on that conclusion, I gave orders to erase certain parts of his military records.

44. Actual information erased included the attendance of Pvt. Tyree at certain service schools and references to overseas service. I ordered all records to be erased that linked Pvt. Tyree to Operation Watch Tower or Orwell. Service schools and badges I know were erased were " Paper Flash Special Forces Qualification," "Crewman's Aviator Wings," " Canadian Airborne Badge," and "Master Parachute Badge." I also gave orders to disenfranchise Pvt. Tyree from Special Forces. I wanted no one standing up for him and in the process dragging the information concerning Operation Watch Tower into the public eye.

45. Unbeknownst to him, Pvt. Tyree underwent a hearing on the criminal charges in a local courthouse, under surveillance of Operation Orwell. I learned through transmissions that Tyree only spoke of defense issues with his attorney, but never mentioned Operation Watch Tower or Orwell. In the process of Pvt. Tyree's hearing, a state police officer from Lt. Dwyer's office discovered the state courthouse was under surveillance. This led to the arrest of the senior Court Officer Ira Kiezer, who took full responsibility and never mentioned my office.

46. After the hearing concluded, the presiding judge in the Tyree matter found no reason to bind Tyree over for the trial on the murder of his wife. I found myself faced with the possibility that Pvt. Tyree, upon release, would become angered at my decision to disfranchise him. So I approached Lt. Dwyer who informed me that an indictment had already been secured for Tyree and that he would stand trial for the charge of murder. Lt. Dwyer expressed concern that there would not be enough evidence to warrant a guilty finding against Tyree. Lt Dwyer indicated that the only person with enough credibility was SP4 Peters. I could not inform Lt. Dwyer that Peters had been the person responsible for Elaine Tyree's murder.

47. After weeks of consideration, I concluded that the security of Operation Watch Tower and Orwell came first and AR 340 185 strictly prohibited the disclosure of intelligence gathered pursuant to that regulation.

48. On 29 Feb. 1980, Pvt. Tyree was convicted of murder and will spend the duration of his life incarcerated. I could not disseminate intelligence gathered under Operation Orwell to notify civilian authorities who actually killed Elaine Tyree.

49. The current intelligence on Archbishop Romero (El Salvador) indicates he is in receipt of physical evidence supporting several allegations that the U.S. is currently with Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Panama covertly training and sponsoring freedom fighters attempting to overthrow the current regime in Nicaragua; that these freedom fighters are also being supported from funds arising from Operation Watch Tower in part; that Mr. Robert D`Aubuisson (El Salvador) secretly aided the freedom fighters by allowing U.S. Advisors to train the freedom fighters inside El Salvador, that D`Aubuisson was contacted by Edwin Wilson and Frank Terpil prior to the freedom fighters being trained inside El Salvador. This information made it necessary to protect Operation Watch Tower and Orwell regardless of the costs.

50. I have been in communication with Lt. Dwyer. In Nov. 1979, after some prodding, Lt. Dwyer and the Middlesex District Attorney went to the Mass. Supreme Court and attained a ruling that prohibits any court but the Mass. Supreme Court from ordering the arrest of suspects in the Tyree murder. I am told that this is without precedent and that normally any court can issue arrest warrants for suspects in a murder. This will ensure that only Tyree and Aarhus are arrested for the murder and that SP4 Peters will not have to be subjected to having to defend himself on the witness stand. That also could bring the about the entire matter being made public as by this time, I'm sure SP4 Peters is acutely aware that something is afoot, or he would have been arrested when the hearing in the local courthouse was held.

51. I mailed the diaries of Elaine Tyree to a post office box number in Langley, Virginia, per instructions of Edwin Wilson who contacted me by telephone concerning the diaries. Wilson also notified me of the intelligence on Archbishop Romero.

52. I reviewed the diaries prior to mailing them. The diaries contained most of the information on SP4 Peters, as Pvt. Tyree indicated they did. I suspect that this was the motive for Peters' killing Elaine Tyree. The diaries contained no mention of Pvt. Tyree or his alleged illegal dealings. I suspect that Elaine Tyree only wrote in the diaries relating to soldiers other than her husband, who were involved in illegal activities in and around Ft. Devens.

53. The diaries kept by Elaine Tyree mentioned certain personal entries that can corroborate the fact that I saw the diaries, that they exist, and that the information contained within them is accurate. There were numerous entries relating to Elaine Hebb Tyree's family in Maryland and her friends in the army.

54. Jan. 1978 entry: "Rosemary got a job with the FBI and has to be in Washington D.C. by Jan. 31, 1978. Cindy and Edie got out of the hospital today (Thursday)."

55. From reading the entry on Cindy and Edie I suspect the actual date of their release from the hospital was 12 Jan. 1978. But no specific date was given, nor was the hospital named that they were admitted to.

56. Jan. 1978 entry: "Rosemary will be leaving for Wash. D.C., on Sunday. I may ride back with her."

57. From reading the entry on Rosemary driving to Washington, I suspect the actual date Rosemary left the Hebb family home in Cumberland, Maryland to travel to Washington, possibly with Elaine Tyree, was 29 Jan. 1978. No actual date was given in the diaries, nor was there further mention whether or not Elaine Tyree actually rode `back with her.'

58. Nov 1978 entry: "SP5 Scott had a little baby girl. She was due in July. I remember her back before she came to Ft. Devens."

59. From reading the entries on SP5 Scott which begin to appear in the diaries around April 1978, I suspect this female was a member of a unit Elaine Tyree was assigned to either at Ft. Lee, Virginia, or at Ft. Mc Clellan, Alabama. In either case, this is an intimate fact obviously known only to Elaine Tyree, as no one else would need or knowledge about when another female friend gave birth, and the gender of the baby born to that female friend.

60. Jan., Feb. 1978 entries. "I've been running around with Heidi Urban. We go all over together when I don't have duty. Oh, yeah, Diary, Pat Imbu left in mid-January."

61. From reading the entries on Heidi Urban the main fact appears obvious is that Elaine Tyree is then at Ft. Lee, Virginia. That Pvt. William Tyree is not present as he is at Ft. Devens. Mass. Other that Elaine and Heidi, no one, specifically not Pvt. Tyree or myself could know that Elaine and Heidi are 'running around together' at that time, unless these facts are represented in the diaries maintained by Elaine Tyree in her own handwriting. Elaine Tyree was assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, Quartermaster School.

62. Nov. 1978 entry: "Dear Diary, my brother Steven who has been stationed in England for a over a year, is coming home on the 20th for good."

63. From reading the entries on Steven, I learned that he is currently assigned to an Air Force Base in England and that Elaine Tyree got along well with him.

64. From further consideration and reading entries on SP5 Scott., I conclude that Elaine Tyree knew this female at Ft. Lee, Virginia, in the sense that both Scott and Elaine Tyree underwent the same training there. I don't gather from the entries that SP5 Scott married or had a name change between her duty at Ft. Lee, Virginia, and Ft. Devens, Mass., but I could be forgetting of overlooking the numerous personal entries in the diaries in an attempt only to view data pertinent to Operation Watch Tower or Orwell.

65. Nov. 1978 entry: "Peters came by the apartment today. Bill spoke with him in the front room while I was washing dishes. Peters is thinking about buying a new truck. Bill asked Peters if he was going to have Dennis Testagrossa steal this new truck and burn it so Peters could collect the insurance the way Peters had the last time? Peters laughed and said the payments are better on this truck than the one he had Testagrossa steal from the parking lot of Carlin's Bar. This was the first I knew that Peters was involved in the stealing of his own truck. Peters told me Bill was not involved because at the time Bill was under too much attention."

66. To date, I have not actually seen proof that Pvt. Tyree was involved in illegal activities. I have seen ample proof that he is foolish and eager to do things his way, since Pvt. Tyree's involvement in the March 1976 Watch Tower incident with the 40-50 armed Colombians.

67. I have detailed pertinent events in this affidavit should something happen to me. The lug nuts have been loosened on my car tires twice in the past week. I have had someone tamper with my car once and I have received telephone calls at my home where no one answered at the other end. I have seen other men involved in Operation Watch Tower meet accidental deaths after they were also threatened.

68. Sgt. John Newby reported that he had received threats just prior to the parachuting accident that claimed his life in Oct. 1978. It was at that time that (then) SP4 Tyree began to report threatening phone calls. I saw a pattern and still believe that a pattern exists.

69. I gave Col. Baker the original copy of this affidavit. I gave true copies to Hugh B. Pearce, and to Paul Neri of the National Security Agency and instructed each person to deliver this affidavit to the authorities in the event something occurs to me.

70. I believe the friends I have entrusted with the original and copies of this affidavit will place the National Security of the United States and American interests in Latin America first, and if circumstances allow, will bring this affidavit to the attention of the authorities in the event something occurs to me.

71. During the conversation with Edwin Wilson I was informed of the sensitive data related to Archbishop Romero. He also spoke to me concerning operation Watch Tower and the geopolitical climate in Latin America and the need to maintain security. I notified him that I had requested to release intelligence gathered from Operation Orwell to civilian police authorities involved in the Elaine Tyree murder and that the Staff Judge Advocate's Office had denied the request.

72. Edwin Wilson explained that Operation Watch Tower had to remain secret and gave these reasons: (1) If it became public knowledge it would undermine present governmental interests as well as those in the future. (2) There are similar operations being implemented elsewhere in the world. Wilson named the "Golden Triangle" of Southeast Asia and Pakistan. Wilson stated in both areas of the world the CIA and other intelligence agencies are using the illegal narcotics flow to support forces fighting to overthrow communist governments, or governments that are not friendly towards the U.S.. Wilson named several recognized officials of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Burma, Korea, Thailand and Cambodia as being aware and consenting to these arrangements, similar to the ones in Panama. (3) Wilson cited the military coup in Argentina in 1976, the coup in Peru in 1976, the fall of the Somoza Government in Nicaragua in 1979, and the growing civil war in El Salvador as examples of the need for operations like Watch Tower. As these operations funded the ongoing effort to combat communism and defeat actions directed against the United States or matters concerning the U.S.

73. Edwin Wilson explained that the profit from the sale of narcotics was laundered through a series of banks. Wilson stated that over 70% of the profits were laundered through the banks in Panama. The remaining percentage was funneled through Swiss banks with a small remainder being handled by banks within the U.S. Wilson indicated that a large portion of the profits are brought into the banks of Panama without being checked. I understood that some of the profits in Panamanian banks arrived through Israeli couriers. I became aware of that fact from normal conversations with some of the Embassy personnel assigned to the Embassy in Panama. Wilson also stated that an associate whom I don't know also aided in over seeing the laundering of funds, which was then used to purchase weapons to arm the various factions that the CIA saw as friendly towards the U. S. The associates name is Tom Clines. Wilson indicated that most of Operation Watch Tower was implemented on the authority of Clines.

74. I was notified by Edwin Wilson that the information forwarded to Wash. D.C., was disseminated to private corporations who were developing weapons for the Dept. of Defense. Those private corporations were encouraged to use the sensitive information gathered from surveillance on U.S. Senators and Representatives as leverage to manipulate those Congressmen into approving whatever costs the weapons systems incurred.

75. Edwin Wilson named three weapons systems when he spoke of private corporations receiving information from Operation Orwell. (1) An armored vehicle. (2) An aircraft that is invisible to radar. (3) A weapons system that utilizes kinetic energy. I got the impression this weapon was being developed either for use by Nasa or for CBR purposes. I wrote down what I recalled at the time and it is attached.

76. Edwin Wilson indicated to me during our conversation while entailed the dissemination of Operation Orwell information and the identification of the three weapons systems, that Operation Orwell would be implemented nationwide by 4 July 1980.

77. As of the date of this affidavit, 8,400 police departments, 1,370 churches, and approx. 17,900 citizens have been monitored under Operation Orwell. The major churches targeted have been Catholic and Latter Day Saints. I have stored certain information gathered by Operation Orwell on Ft. Devens, and pursuant to instructions from Edwin Wilson have forwarded additional information gathered to Wash. D.C.

78. Per orders from Edwin Wilson, I did not discuss the implementation of Operation Orwell with my staff or others outside of the personnel assigned to surveillance. The only matter discussed with Operation Orwell personnel was what the SATs needed to know in order to carry out their mission. Certain information was collected on suspected members of the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg group. Among those that information was collected on were Gerald Ford and President Jimmy Carter. Edwin Wilson indicated that additional surveillance was implemented against former CIA director George Bush, who Wilson named as a member of the Trilateral Commission. I do not have personal knowledge that Ford, Carter, or Bush were under surveillance.

79. I spoke to Col. James N. Rowe on 5 March 1980. I specifically requested that Col. Rowe communicate with several contacts he has within the CIA. I asked Col. Rowe to check out Edwin Wilson. I had two concerns. The first was that Edwin Wilson may pose a threat to National Security by disseminating classified information on the CIA's activities to personnel without a clearance or a need to know that information. Edwin Wilson, during his conversations with me, outlined information that was classified and to which I had no need to know. Information that pertained to the activities of the CIA in the U.S. and Latin America. I've related such conversations with Wilson herein. The second concern I had was the issue of his authority and connection to Thomas Clines. I was told repeatedly that Clines was the agent in charge and that Wilson worked with Clines. Col. Rowe indicated that he would make inquiries I requested and would contact me with that information as soon as he had something. Col. Rowe indicated that it would be 60 to 90 days before he would speak to the CIA contact that was most apt to have knowledge of the information I requested. I agreed to meet Col. Rowe on Ft. Bragg the next week in June in the event Col. Rose received documentation relating to the information I sought.

80. On 7 March 1980 Col. Rowe contacted me. During the course of our conversation Col. Rowe informed me that his initial inquiries with CIA contacts confirmed that Edwin Wilson was working for Thomas Clines at the times in question. Col. Rowe indicated that Edwin Wilson was under scrutiny by the CIA at that time but had not been given the details of the circumstances surrounding the events of that matter. Col. Rowe also indicated that there was an Israeli aspect to the matter involving Edwin Wilson and Col. Rowe provided the name of David Kimche as being the Israeli most likely to be involved with Edwin Wilson. In regards to my concerns that Edwin Wilson posed a possible threat to national security or to the inner working of the CIA, Col. Rowe indicated that off the record, that was a concern of several people to whom he had spoken. Col. Rowe also indicated that he would be in receipt of documentation by the first week of June which listed Edwin Wilson's involvement in several operations. I specifically asked Col. Rowe if he had the names of any of those operations at this time and his reply was in the negative. Col. Rowe did indicate that it was his understanding that each operation had basically the same characters involved and Col. Rowe named two other individuals involved with Edwin Wilson. Col. Rowe named Robert Gates and William J. Casey as officials who had been named in the documentation he would acquire prior to our scheduled meeting on June 1980.

81. On 7 March 1980 after my conversation with Col. Rowe, I made inquiries through Paul Neri and Pentagon contacts and was informed that David Kimche had ties with the Israeli Intelligence Agency known as "The Mossad." I also asked that I be provided a photograph, if any existed, of David Kimche. I requested such a photograph to determine if Kimche was the unidentified male Israeli national who met the aircraft fling into Albrook Air Station during Operation Watch Tower. In addition, I sought whatever photographs existed on those who were known associates of David Kimche for the same reason.

82. In March 1980 I received three photographs from Army Intelligence contacts at the Pentagon. Amongst the three photographs were two individuals I recognized. David Kimche's photograph had been shown to me by a friend, Col. Robert Bayard just prior to his murder in Atlanta, Georgia in 1977. According to Bayard, Kimche was due to meet with him later. Shortly thereafter, I was informed through the normal lines of communication that Col. Bayard was murdered. As of this date his murder remains unsolved. The photograph of Kimche that Col. Bayard had appeared to be a surveillance photo. There is no doubt that Kimche was the person Bayard named as being in the photograph. According to Col. Bayard, Kimche was due to meet with him to discuss a matter that related to Col. Bayard's previous duty in the U.S. Army and assignment in the CIA.

83. Thee second individual I recognized from the three photographs I received, was listed as Michael Harari. I was informed that Michael Harari is listed as a senior Mossad agent. Harari was the un identified male Israeli national that met the aircraft which flew into Albrook Air Station during Operation Watch Tower. He was the one who gave Edwin Wilson two briefcases full of U.S. currency in various denominations. The briefcases were given to Edwin Wilson at the end of operations in March and Feb. 1976. It is my understanding from Pentagon contacts, that Harari's activities in Latin America are well known, including his drug trafficking endeavors. I was also informed from those same contacts that the Pentagon on the orders of several Washington VIPs have gone to great lengths to keep the activities of Harari a secret. I have begun preparations to meet with David Kimche or Michael Harari while in Europe on annual NATO exercises. I intend to verify that Harari was the individual who was the individual who gave Edwin Wilson the briefcases while at Albrook Air Station during Operation Watch Tower.

84. I was told from Pentagon contacts, off the record, that CIA Director Stansfield Turner and former CIA Director George Bush are among the VIPs that shield Harari from public scrutiny. Those Pentagon contacts further indicated to me their knowledge that Operation Watch Tower was implemented and of my involvement in that operation. This was the first time that U.S. military authorities confirmed to me that the Operation occurred and gave their approval. I also learned that Harari was a known middleman for matters involving the U.S. in Latin America. Harari acted with the support of a network of Mossad personnel throughout Latin America and worked mainly in the import and export of arms and drug trafficking.

85. As further means to corroborate this affidavit, on 9 Feb. 1979 , I spoke to Col. Rittgers concerning the release of Pvt. Tyree from Walter Reed Medical Center in Wash. D.C., where he had been admitted on 5 Feb. 1979. Col. Rittgers notified me that Pvt. Tyree had fully recovered from the depression which was brought about by the murder of Elaine Tyree. Col. Rittgers indicated that upon arrival at Ft. Devens later that day, he would interview Pvt. Tyree to determine for himself if Pvt. Tyree felt he was in any real danger.

86. I also spoke to Captain Gruden who was the Commanding Officer of the 409th Army Security Agency Company, Augsberg, Germany. The telephone call was brief and I inquired into what information PFC Tina Gregory might be expected to give in support of Pvt. Tyree's trial defense. The surveillance of the civilian court house in the early stages of the criminal proceedings against Pvt. Tyree indicated PFC Gregory could have knowledge of Operation Watch Tower since PFC Gregory and Elaine Tyree were very close friends. I was not able to learn much from Cpt. Gruden who was leaving his office when I called. In order not to attract attention to the value of the information PFC Gregory may or may not have, I passed the entire phone call off as being interested on the part of Pvt. Tyree who was in my command.

SIGNED UNDER THE PAINS AND PENATIES OF PERJURY

ON THIS 11TH DAY OF MARCH 1980

Edward P. Cutolo, Colonel, Infantry Commanding

[Keith Millea]

Magda,David,
I was a soldier once(no Glory Boy).My answer doubting the Military role in the drug trade was more of a knee jerk reaction.I have great respect for our Military as a whole.I can tell you,the soldiers that I served with would not tolerate any heroin-opium transport.We were just soldiers though,and commanded by a rather famous third generation Military General(then a Colonel).Of course, my problem was not thinking in a Deep Politics manner.There is a secret world out there,and I know little of that.I appreciate your articles.

[Magda Hassan]

Keith,
I recognise your response as being a common one and particularly so from persons who have been involved in the military. There are many good people in the military who have signed up with the best of intentions to do their duty even putting their lives on the line. For the most part there is no reason that the average grunt should ever knowingly come into contact with these sorts of black operations. I was in the military myself and I did meet many fine people there. True warriors in the best sense of the word. Unfortunately they are not all like that. Some are just there because it has more interest or perks than other parts of the Public Service. Like any other institution there is also corruption and criminal behaviour by some persons. Others are there because they have deep seated psychological issues. What would be personal flaws and short comings in the wider society can often be useful in the military. Some of the oddest people I ever met there were in Psychology Corps. All the tests they do during induction they have a pretty good idea of everyone's strengths and weaknesses and they deploy you accordingly.

I'm not sure of the US military law but the very little bit of military law I remember being taught (Australia) we were told that even if we think (or knew) something was wrong we had to carry out our order or we would be arrested and end up in the brig. We could take the issue up with another authority later and then maybe the person who gave us that wrong order would be made to account for it but it was really stressed that orders must be followed. Like the Nuremberg trails never happened and there is no Geneva convention. They seem to matter for nothing. Also, the hierarchical and clearly power based structure and culture of obedience in the military inhibits a questioning mind and action. "Ours is not to reason why ours is but to do or die". Plus "That is on a need to know basis". I used to hear that all the time there. For many in the military they live eat and sleep there. It is not just a job but a whole life. An institution that goes to every corner of your life if you want it to. Bonds are strong. To think that people you know and live with and work with, who have been approved by the higher ups might be involved in something that you personally find morally reprehensible may never cross your mind. If the shadow of a thought manages to enter your mind there are many reasons and incentives to rationalise it away.
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[Paul Rigby]

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c...a&aid=8180

Narco Aggression: Russia accuses the U.S. military of involvement in drug trafficking out of Afghanistan

by Vladimir Radyuhin

Global Research, February 24, 2008

Look on the “bright” side – US “failure” in Afghanistan is at least allowing the CIA to flood neighbouring Iran with drugs, with all the “advantages” to the Western way that routinely follow:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep...fghanistan

Julian Borger, “Failed Afghan drug policy harming us, says Iran,” The Guardian, 11 September 2008, p.21

British diplomats acknowledge, however, that Iran has borne the brunt of the Afghan drug trade, and has played a significant role in attempting to close the smuggling routes across its borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The flow of Afghan drugs through Iran has created a serious social problem. Estimates of the number of addicts range from 1 million to 10 million. Four years ago most Iranian addicts used opium, but now a majority use heroin or "crystal".

In London yesterday Safari said: "Iran has a very young generation and you know what effect such drugs have on our population. So this is a big headache for us."

[David Guyatt]

What never ceases to amaze me is the curiousity that where America goes to war, there regularly follows a marked leap in the narcotics trade.

Must be coincidence...