
A NATION BETRAYED: CIA Sacrifices American POWs for Drug Profits

Colonel Bo Gritz Addressing the American Liberty Lunch Club:

What I want to tell you very quickly is something that I feel is more
heinous than the Bataan death march. Certainly it is of more concern
to you as Americans than the Watergate. What I'm talking about is
something we found out in Burma - May 1987. We found it out from a man
named Khun Sa. He is the recognized overlord of heroin in the world.
Last year he sent 900 tons of opiates and heroin into the free world.
This year it will be 1200 tons.

(video showing discussion at Khun Sa's headquarters -- some
translation of Burmese to English going on..Bo Gritz still talking to
Lunch club in the foreground)

On video tape he said to us something that was most astounding: that
US government officials have been and are now his biggest customers,
and have been for the last twenty years. I wouldn't believe him. We
fought a war in Laos and Cambodia even as we fought whatever it was in
Vietnam. The point is that there are as many bomb holes in those two
other countries as there are in Vietnam. Five hundred and fifty plus
Americans were lost in Laos. Not one of them ever came home. We heard
a president say, "The war is over, we are out with honor - all of the
prisoners are home." and a few other lies. Now we got rid of that
president, but we didn't get rid of the problem. We ran the war in
Laos and Cambodia through drugs. The money that would not be
appropriated by a liberal congress, was appropriated. And you know who
we used for distribution? Santos Trafficante, old friend of the CIA
and mobster out of Cuba and Florida. We lost the war!

Fifty-eight-thousand Americans were killed. Seventy-thousand became
drug casualties. In the sixties and seventies you saw an infusion of
drugs into America like never was before. Where do you think the Mafia
takes the heroin and opiates that it gets through its arrangement with
the US government? It doesn't distribute them in Africa or Europe.
This is the big money bag here. We're Daddy Warbucks for them. So I
submit to you that the CIA has been pressed for solutions. Each time
they have gone to the sewer to find it. And you can't smell like a
rose when you've been playing in the cesspool. We've been embracing
organized crime. Now you've all looked and heard about Ollie North,
about the Contras, about nobody knowing anything.

(cut to part of Iran Contra hearings with Ollie North explaining the
flow of funds from Iran to the Contras)

North:

And Mr. Gorbanifar suggested several incentives to make that February
transaction work. And the attractive incentive for me was the one he
made that residuals could flow to support the Nicaraguan resistance.

Legislator:

Even Gorbanifar knew that you were supporting the Contras.

North:

Yes he did. Isvestia knew it. The name had been in the papers in
Moscow. It had been all over Danny Ortega's newscasts. Radio Havana
was broadcasting it. It had been in every newspaper in the land.

Legislator:

All our enemies knew it and you wanted to keep it from the United
States Congress.

North:

We wanted to be able to deny a covert operation.

(back to Bo at the Luncheon Club)

We have a constitution that says that the laws will be made by the
Congress, enforced by the executive branch, interpreted by the
judicial branch. But in reality we have an executive branch that has
for more than a twenty years operated in what what Ollie North called
a parallel government. When the Congress says no, it makes no
difference. They're gonna do it anyway. And it is special intelligence
- top secret. Why? Not because the communists don't know what were
doing, it's to keep it a secret from you. You're not capable of making
those kinds of decisions according to those in parallel government.
The reason I know ... I was there. I've been a product of parallel
government myself.

(Narrator)

Lieutenant Colonel James 'Bo' Gritz is the most decorated Green Beret
commander of the Vietnam Era. General William Westmoreland, in writing
his memoirs, singled out Bo Gritz as the "American Soldier" for his
exemplary courage in combat and outstanding ingenuity in recovering a
highly secret black-box the Viet-Cong had taken from a crashed U2 spy
plane. The feature films "Rambo", "Uncommon Valor" and "Missing in
Action" were based in part upon his real-life military experiences.

(Back to Bo)

Dick Secord, General, United States Air Force, a man I know well, said
it best. Before the senate investigating committee Dick Secord was
asked - if we were supporting the Contras, why were we selling them
arms bought from a communist block nation at exorbitant profit rates.

(skip to scene from hearings)

Senator:

If the purpose of the enterprise was to help the contras, why did you
charge Colero a mark-up?

Secord:

We were in business to make a living, Senator. We had to make a
living. I didn't see anything wrong with it at the time. It was a
commercial enterprise.

Senator:

Oh..I thought the purpose of the enterprise was to aid Colero's cause.

Secord:

Can't I have two purposes? I did.

Senator:

Oh..allright.

(back to Bo)

And then Dick Secord said in his playboy interview: "I think I deserve
the eight million that we made from the Iran arms sale for all the
hard work I did." If you've got to pay a patriot, you've got the wrong
guy.

(applause from audience)

These are patriots for profit. There has been a guise of patriotism
that a lot of people have been hiding behind. War is their business.
Business has been good.

(fade to shots of the Vietnam 'conflict' - Narrator takes over again)

Bo Gritz risked his life a thousand times in combat in Vietnam before
he was sent by a national security council staffer Tom Harvey in the
White House to Burma in November of 1986 in search of American
prisoners of war. He discovered instead a heroin highway and a nation
betrayed by high level American officials involved in narcotics
trafficking. Tom Harvey and his superiors in the White House were not
pleased with Bo's report.

(fade to scene of Bo - now with beard in a field obviously somewhere
in Southeast Asia - palm trees and oxen indigenous to the area abound
- I assume its in either Burma or Thailand)

The thing that I was most concerned about was - and I thought was
fantastic - was the general's offer to stop the flow of opium and
heroin into the free world. When I asked him (assume he's talking
about a conversation with Tom Harvey now) he said "that's fantastic".
There was a pause, then he said, "Bo, there's no one here that
supports that." And I said, "What?! Vice-President Bush has been
appointed by president Reagan as the Number One policeman to control
drug entry into the United States. How can you say there's no interest
and no support when we bring back a video tape with a direct interview
with a man who puts 900 tons of opium and heroin across into the free
world every year and is willing to stop it?" And he said, "Bo, what
can I tell you? All I can tell you is there is no interest in doing
that here."

Well that made me wonder. That's because it doesn't sound American and
it doesn't sound right. Thats when we began to do our own
investigation because for about three years people had told me, both
in Washington DC and, interestingly enough, in Oklahoma city that the
whole POW situation was being undermined by US government officials
involved in drug trafficking. I wouldn't believe it. I said, "You guys
aren't playing with a full deck... you've got yourselves strung out
too thin." And they said, "Bo, you better listen, because for three
years we've had prisoners literally within our grasp and something has
happened at the last minute." (I said), "Each time I've made every
effort to cooperate with government officials. I can't believe that
people in the US government would actually, either overtly or
covertly, do anything to undermine a rescue operation. "

Well, we're still without Prisoners of War and there is no interest,
we're told at the White House, in stopping the flow of drugs coming in
from the Golden Triangle into the free world.

(fade to front-page articles about Bo Gritz in Par ade magazine and
Soldier of Fortune...narrator picks up here)

Lieutenant Colonel Bo Gritz is no stranger to controversy. In thirty
years of devoted service to the US Army and to the recovery of
American prisoners of war, he has encountered plenty. The making of
this American warrior began early. He was five years old when his
father, a B-17 pilot, was shot down over Europe during World War II.
His mother, a pilot with the women's Air Force, would later marry a
master sergeant and remain with the occupation forces in Germany after
the war. Raised by his maternal grandparents in Oklahoma, young Bo
Gritz began training at Fort Union Military Academy in Virginia. He
was named Corps Commander in his senior year when he chanced upon a
recruiting poster that changed his life. In short order, Gritz won his
green beret in the Army Special forces by passing all courses in the
unconventional warfare training. After graduating from officer's
candidate school, the newly-commissioned second lieutenant then
insisted on Ranger training.

Assigned to the command of the first mobile South Vietnamese gorilla
forces to be organized, Gritz also operated secretly in Cambodia and
Laos with his force of Cambodian mercenaries, or "Bos", as he called
them. By official body-count, over 450 of the enemy died as a result
of Gritz's actions. His wartime records are replete with examples of
Bo's concern for keeping Americans alive in a war gone mad.

As recon chief of the supersecret delta-force, Bo was cited for Valor
in saving the lives of 30 US Infantrymen from the BigRed-One division.
More often than not, his valor was in placing himself between the
enemy and his men. According to an official military report dated 31
July 1967 submitted on then Major Gritz, "His personal bravery is
legendary exemplified by the fact that he has been awarded five silver
stars and numerous other decorations for valor." In all Bo Gritz was
awarded 62 citations for valor, five silver stars, eight bronze stars,
two purple hearts and a presidential citation.

Bo was ready to sign up for a fifth tour of duty when he had a talk
with General Fred Weiyan (sp?), the "daddy-rabbit" in Vietnam. As
Gritz described it, "I was a major and special operations chief. I'll
never forget that day. I stood there and heard that man say. Bo, your
not going to win the war and neither am I." That was the most
disillusioning moment of my life. It meant that every man who had ever
lost his finger or his life had lost it for nothing. I decided, on the
spot, to leave Vietnam. I would not kill another enemy or risk another
comrade's life."

(back to Bo at the luncheon)

I've had the opportunity to do a lot of things that other officers
have not. I was the first recon chief and intelligence officer for
delta-force. Commanded the first gorilla forces that went behind enemy
lines. When I commanded special forces in Latin America, we did it
exactly right. And we did exactly what men in camoflage are supposed
to do. It was very natural that Harold R. Aaron (sp?) would single me
out because, besides having a sixth-degree black belt in karate, I
have established an ability to operate on my own. And I think when
Aaron said, "Bo, we want you to do this", he understood that I'm also
hard headed enough that I wouldn't cave in. He said, "I want you to
consider retiring. It would only be temporary. We have overwhealming
evidence now that people are still there, being held in communist
prisons." Mr. H. Ross Perot had been asked by Eugene Tighe, director
of the Defense Intelligence Agency, to back a private mission that
would look into the POW situation. Perot said, "Bo, I want you to go
there. I want you to do everything you have to do. You come and tell
me there aren't any prisoners of war left alive."

(narrator) Bo returned from Indo-China with extensive evidence that
there were indeed American prisoners of war in captivity, including a
solid report of 47 at one particular camp. Perot turned the project
back over to General Tighe who wrote to Secretary of Defense, Harold
Brown asking that the source, a Nguyen Dok Jong (sp?) be brought to
the United States for a polygraph test. Brown repeated the request to
Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. One month later, Vance finally
responded that the commissioner of immigration would not permit Jong
into the United States for further questioning. As Bo puts it, "Think
about it. One man, not a thousand and the defense intelligence agency
chief and secretary of state can't get him into the country. That was
a pretty clear signal that the military was politically handcuffed on
the prisoner of war issue."

For eight years Gritz sought to find and free American POW's. He
crossed five times behind enemy lines into communist Laos and Vietnam.
Three times he was within moments of embracing those American heroes
our government had declared dead. Each time something unexplained
caused Gritz and his Operation Lazarus team to fall short with freedom
and victory in sight for the POWs.

There has never been a shortage of criticism from any number of
armchair generals such as Robert K. Brown of "Soldier of Fortune"
magazine who devoted an entire issue to condemning Gritz's efforts.
Even to the extent of publishing documents stolen from Bo while he was
on the mission in Laos. They have even belittled his prayer before
crossing enemy lines. (Gritz is a devout Mormon...Ed) His critics said
he should have looked more like the Rambo in the movies, who actually
avoided the draft in an all-girls school in Switzerland.

More debilitating than the hundreds of miles on foot within enemy
territory has been the disinformation propagated by those within our
government who have covered up the plight of our prisoners of war.
Gritz has been accused of being a media hound. He insists he has never
sought the spotlight, but when confronted has always been a positive
voice for our prisoners of war and will continue to be until they are
home to speak for themselves.

Working as an agent for the Intelligence Support Activity (ISA) in the
CIA, it was fine for Gritz to travel at great peril using false
documents, as Ollie North and Bud McFarland did when they traveled to
Iran on phony Irish passports. On one occasion he was stopped by US
customs at Seattle-Tacoma airport with four separate passports. He was
quickly released when his intelligence contact in Washington confirmed
his mission. It was quite acceptable with the US government for Bo
Gritz to travel at such great peril until he returned from Burma's
infamous Golden Triangle on December of 1986 with information
concerning with involvement of high-level US officials involved in
large-scale drug trafficking in Southeast Asia. His tremendous courage
in refusing to back down to their threats has lead to his current
indictment for misuse of a passport in order to keep him from getting
this information to the American public.

(back to Bo at the luncheon)

There a book out now called Secret Warriors, I think. Its about an
organization called the ISA. Congress never knew about and everybody
gives me credit for exposing it, but that's not true. When I was
called before congress in 1983, they said, "Bo, are you working as an
official agent for the US government?" And I said, "Yes". And they
said, "For what organization?" And I said, "I will not identify that
organization, other than to call it the activity." This is because
even the initials I-S-A were top secret. Because it wasn't an
oversight. It was created by Carter. Can you imagine that? He did one
good thing that I know of. (laughter) But it was parallel government.
He created a secret organization to do things that the CIA could not
do and he didn't dare let congress know about it.

Now ISA got Dosier back, the general that was captured by terrorists
in Italy. And ISA did a lot of other things. You can read about them
now because its in this book by some guy who writes for the Wall
Street Journal. The point is that Jerry King was the head of ISA.
Jerry King called me on the telephone and said, "Bo, we have been
ordered to put operation Grand Eagle...", which was the governments
name for the prisoner of war rescu e mission. It certainly wasn't
grand and it sure wasn't an eagle 'cause it never got off the ground.
But he said, "We've been ordered to put operation Grand Eagle on the
shelf as if it never existed." Hand before God he said, "there are
still too many bureaucrats that don't want to see American prisoners
of war come back alive." Now I didn't know what Jerry King meant then.
I thought he was angry because there was a bureaucratic tug-of-war
going on between ISA, the CIA and defense intelligence and maybe he
was losing. But remember Jerry King's words, 'cause they'll tie in
here. I'm wondering why that the Vietnamese intercept Colonel Richard
Walsh (a POW..Ed) moments before the turnover and capture not only
him, but the General also (unclear who the General is here ... Ed.)
And I knew that we still had him, because in the newspapers it
appeared that, "The Vietnamese and Lao delegations of the United
Nations confirm that they are holding an American citizen in custody."
And I said, "By golly, we in our state department are going to press
for an identity." Because doesn't it say that the president is
required to safegaurd American citizens in hostile hands. And I knew
when when we pressed what would happen? Richard Walsh would be
identified. Who is he? A prisoner of war. Hooray! Now the log jam is
broken. And who can Walsh testify to? The other men he was with. And
they can testify. Were going to get them all out now, even though its
going to cost us something. Did you ever see Richard Walsh's name
identified? I didn't.

Mrs. Walsh showed me a newspaper article that said where an Air Force
casualty officer came to her at this time and said: "Your husband is
alive. He's a prisoner of war. We have high hopes he'll be coming home
soon." They put it in the newspaper there in Minneapolis. She was told
that Air Force Two was spooling up...who's that belong to?..George
Bush...to go get her husband. That's what she told me, but it never
happened and I thought again, "What rotten luck and what a bunch of
wimps in the state department for not going and demanding that they
identify that citizen." They probably did. They found out who he was
and they said, "lets forget it." Because when I walked into the state
department shortly thereafter, a friend of mine said, "Bo, we thought
that you'd been captured. Your passport turned up in a very unlikely
place." And I said, "Yeah, I know all about it." (not sure what he's
referring to here ... Ed.)

Do you think that all of this has just been rotten luck. Well, when
you wear the uniform of the United States you have this faith ... hope
that the system will do it. Just like General Aaron said, "Let the
system do the rest." Now comes truth...

We were training Afghan freedom fighters in the deserts of South
Nevada near where I live and I was proud to do so. In cooperation with
the US State Department Office For Security Assistance. We finished
that mission. A man by the name of Tom Harvey who is National Security
Council Ollie North look-alike. Ollie comes from Annapolis, Harvey
comes from West Point. Tom Harvey called me and said, "We have
information ...", and here is a copy of the letter that's why I
brought all these documents. I hope some of you challenge them. I hope
the White House, the Pentagon would challenge them. Because if they
would publicly they would have to admit to the truth. This letter was
sent to Vice-President Bush by an American citizen by the name of
Aurthur Soucheck, it is dated 29 August 1986. It says that General
Khun Sa has American prisoners of war. It says that Khun Sa tried to
rescue four of them. It says his forces escorted the four to the
Mekong river. While attempting to cross the rain-swollen river, the
four US personnel, three of Khun Sa's soldiers and two horses were
swept away by the raging water and all drowned. It goes on to say that
Khun Sa has repeated intelligence reports of location of US prisoners
being kept in Laos ... that he says that has seventy prisoners of war.
Tom Harvey said, "This is getting TOP priority."

Now in G. Gordon Liddy's book, "Will", he says, "no American has ever
come out of the Golden Triangle alive." But that's what we were being
asked to do. Tom Harvey said, "Bo, do you think you would be able to
infiltrate into Khun Sa's inner sanctum and determine if this report
is true or not?" Do you think maybe somebody is trying to get me
bumped off? (laughter) It didn't make any difference. Brothers and
sisters, you and I are small compared to this nation and the risk that
we take if there is one American there is worth it. God's will they'll
be home while they're still alive. I told Harvey, "We didn't fight a
war in Burma, why should there be prisoners of war there?" But you
know a guy like Khun Sa has got connections all over. And I said,
"We'll try."

I speak Chinese. Khun Sa speaks Chinese. He's right along the southern
China border. Surrounded by communists, he's fighting the communists.
He has a forty-thousand man army. About eight-million Shan people that
make up the minority Shan state. Burma is communist. Every one of his
weapons are M16s and M60 machine guns. All the latest stuff that we
have. I found out why later. Too make a long story short, we got in to
see Khun Sa and he didn't have any prisoners of war. And let me caveat
it by saying this. We traveled three days going and three days coming
by horse over mountains that were literally vertical up and down. I
made the comment at that time to Scott Weekly (sp?) who was Ollie
North's classmate at Annapolis and went with me. I said, "I would hate
to be an engineer that had to build a highway through these mountains
because they're virgin teak forests ... rain forests .. tremendously
beautiful."

Six days coming and going. Khun Sa didn't have any prisoners of war.
We gave Khun Sa the letter from the White House that I had. Thats the
only thing that let me get in there. You don't walk in because the CIA
has a seven digit figure on Khun Sa's head and they haven't been able
to collect. You think they're gonna let somebody like me in there.
Say, "Hi! I wanna go visit Khun Sa!" Doesn't work! But I guess they
thought this guy is crazy enough because I gave this letter ... I told
Harvey, "We got to have a credential, guy." He said, "We can't do
that, Bo. We never do that." I said, "Harvey, has anyone ever gone to
the Golden Triangle and come out alive? I need something that will
convince Khun Sa were not there to kill him, we're there for
humanitarian purposes." So Harvey said, "Well, this will be the
language. 'You are operating in cooperation with the White House ..
etc .. etc.'" It worked! Khun Sa didn't have one single prisoner of
war, didn't know anything about prisoners of war.

(switch to a scene with Bo and Khun Sa talking at Khun Sa's camp with
Khun Sa's troops doing practice drills in the background. Bo is
discussing the letter from Soucheck with Khun Sa. It is nearly
impossible to decipher what is specifically being discussed because
Khun Sa's troops are incredibly loud and drown out the conversation,
so I will proceed to the next scene. Don't worry...there are more Khun
Sa meetings to come. The long and short of it is Khun Sa says he will
decrease or stop the drug shipments and Gritz gets it on videotape.
Now back to Bo at the luncheon.)

Now with Nancy Reagan saying no to drugs and Judge Ginsberg not
allowed to sit on the supreme court because he smoked marijuana .. and
you're an accessory to murder if you ever smoke marijuana, according
to Nancy Reagan. I figured we'd get an 'attaboy'. We didn't have
prisoners, but we had three video tapes showing Khun Sa himself. And I
thought, "Boy, is George Bush gonna be thrilled about this!" (much
laughter) We delivered those tapes to Tom Harvey just before
Christmas. You try to call Tom Harvey now, because some news people
did, and he doesn't return your calls. We delivered those tapes just
before Christmas, Tom Harvey called me back and said, "Bo, Fantastic!
You guys actually got in to see Khun Sa. The CIA said he had been
assasinated." Somebody needed some pocket change. "And there he is
talking." And I said, "That's right, Tom. Harvey, what ab out the 900
tons?" I figured they were just bubbling over. They were all right,
they were dripping in their knickers. But it wasn't from joy. Harvey
said, "Bo..", these are quotes ... hand on the square .. he said, "Bo,
there's no interest here in that." You be on the other end of the
phone. You've just come out of Burma. You've brought what you consider
to be a way to stop 900 tons of heroin, not marijuana and get rid of
the cancer that has infected the bureaucracy and there's "no
interest." I challenged Harvey because I'm pretty hard-headed. I said,
"Tom, didn't President Reagan appoint George Bush the number one cop
to stop drugs before they come into the United States?" I wanted to
remind him of these little things. And he said, "Bo, what can I tell
you? There is NO INTEREST here in doing that." Now that is
White-House-ese for saying, "Get off this subject, leave us alone." I
knew that we had trod upon some very sensitive toes. I still didn't
have a clue to what was going on, but I knew that we were getting
close to finding out and I took off and went to Burma again.

Now I want to show you some things when I got back to Burma. (he shows
some newspaper headlines) The United States government wanted Khun Sa
killed quick and here's how they did it:

US CALLS FOR NO MERCY IN DRUG WAR

These are over-there newspapers...

AIRSTRIKES AGAINST KHUN SA's HEADQUARTERS BURMESE AND THAI TROOPS MOVE
ON KHUN SA

Finally it says, and there is a picture of Burmese and Thai troops
standing on top of a high mountain top:

KHUN SA'S STRONGHOLD SEIZED

Now many of you are soldiers, airmen, marines, sailors. You know that
airstrikes, troops mean war. There's hair, eyes and teeth everywhere.
When I went back into Burma in May I took two other Americans with me.
It was the most peaceful area. It was exactly like we left it except
for one big change. Remember I told you it took us three days to ride
by horse to get there in November and come out in December. Well, when
we went in May, we went by pickup truck. Straight from the Thai border
all the way right to the General's front door. And on the other way
coming back there were Thai military 10 ton trucks covered and loaded.
There's only one thing that comes out of the Golden Triangle and
that's heroin.

When we got there General Khun Sa said, "What took you so long?" I
said, "General, I was waiting for the war to die down. I didn't want
to get caught in all of this 26,000 troops and airstrikes", and he
just laughed. He said, "That was a newspaper war!" I said, "What do
you mean newspaper war?" He said, "The Thai and Burmese came to me and
said that if they don't make it look like there doing something, they
stand to lose tens of millions of dollars this year in drug supression
funds from American taxpayers." So Kuhn Sa said, "Make it look like
anything you want to, but I want a rode built here." They used the
newspapers and I want to show you something. This one here says, "US
PROVIDES ANOTHER 1.8 MILLION TO FIGHT DRUGS" So it worked! And this
guy is really smiling. This is a Thai receiving a check from the US
Ambassador.

Khun Sa got what he wanted. Now he began to assemble his officers. It
took him a week to get them all together because he brought them from
all over the place. And now I understand why. I thought I was just
going to talk to him, but he said no and put me off for a week. He
assembled officers from the entire Shan territory from all over the
Golden Triangle. They came in. He sat everybody down. He brought his
secretary out. He had his secretary read from their log.

(Scene switches to Khun Sa's headquarters. All of Khun Sa' officers
are here along with Khun Sa. I'd say around twenty in all. Bo and his
companions are sitting with them. This is where it gets VERY
interesting. The following conversation was in broken english from
Khun Sa's end so some of the syntax may be a bit wierd.)

Bo:

I cannot ask the General to cut your throat by revealing any contact
that would hurt your economy at this moment. But I pray that he will
reveal any connections from the older time or that will not hurt you
now. That if they are still in power, we might be free of them.

Khun Sa:

Some of the connections I can expose to you. Some were in Burma, some
were in Thailand, some were in America. But I don't remember all of
their names and my secretary remembers them so he will give you the
information.

Secretary:

In 1965 to 1975 there is one CIA in Laos, his name was Shackley. He
was involved the narcotics business. And we know that Shackley used
one civilian to organize trafficking. His civilian name was Santos
Trafficante. He was the organizer of trafficking for Shackley. This
was financed by Richard Armitage who stayed in Vietnam. After the
Vietnam war Richard Armitage was a prominent trafficker in Bangkok.
This was between 1975 to 1979 he was a very active trafficker in
Bangkok. He was one of the embassy employees. Then after that in 1979
he quit from embassy and then he established a company name the Far
East Trading company. Then he used the name of his company under the
table for drug trafficking. He then used the drug money to support the
Lao anti-communist troops.

Bo:

So he used it in arms and munitions.

Secretary:

Yes. This Richard Armitage has a lot of friends in Laos and Thailand.
There is a lot of CIA personnel in Laos. One of the CIA agents is
named Daniel Arnold. This Arnold was a munitions trafficker. There is
another one Jerry Daniels who organized trafficking for Richard
Armitage.

(Now back at the luncheon with Bo)

One of the men named by Khun Sa, this is not me naming him. This is
Khun Sa, the drug overlord reading from his records, named Richard
Armitage as being a chief drug trafficker from 1965 through 1979. You
know where Richard Armitage went in 1979? He went to Dole's staff,
then to Reagan's campaign staff and now he is the Assistant Secretary
of Defense right underneath Mr. Carlucci. Richard Armitage has been
responsible for recovery of US prisoners of war way back before we
actually got involved with H. Ross Perot. He is still responsible for
them. What I'm trying to do is find you Khun Sa's letter because it
will say it best. Here it is. Letter from Khun Sa written to the US
Justice department dated 28 Jun 1987. I just want to read you a couple
sentences. "During the period 1965 to 1975, CIA chief in Laos Theodore
Shackley, was in the Drug Business." Now Theodore Shackley would have
been director of intelligence of the CIA if George Bush had not been
appointed to that post. Theodore Shackley was then posted as the
deputy director for covert operations. It said, "Santos Trafficante
acted as his buying and transporting agent while Richard Armitage
handled the financial section with banks in Australia."

All of a sudden the words from Jerry King came back, "Too many
bureaucrats don't want to see American prisoners returned alive." Why?
Couldn't figure it out. Gunboat at midnight in the middle of the
Mekong with Voice of America saying we're there to abort our attack.
Walsh and the General recaptured before turnover. Why? Now I'll tell
you why. If this is true it means Richard Armitage and a lot of other
people that are named here are the least men in the world that want to
see Americans come home. Because when American prisoners of war do
come home, whether we bring them home or they drag themselves across
that Mekong river somehow, and report to the US Embassy and aren't
destroyed there. When they do come home, because they will, there will
be one hell of an investigation as to what took the greatest nation in
the world so long to bring home heroes that have been waiting for more
than fifteen years. When that investigation is conducted it will show
as Khun Sa says that these men, these bureaucrats, appointed not
elected, appointed, have broken the faith with you and this country
and its law. Have used their office as a cover to run drugs and arms
to promote covert operations that the United States Congress didnot
approve of. Its the parallel government. Now that may be allright, but
I'll tell you something. It's not allright to leave hundreds of
Americans to die alone in the hands of the enemy to a bunch of wimps
that were never there.

When I came back here, I thought I was a lone ranger. I said, "Boy,
I've got this information. Somehow we've got to get it to the proper
authorities and I'm all alone. Well, not so. Guess who shows up in
Time Magazine? H. Ross Perot ... and he's on page 18, May 4th and it
says, "Perot's Private Probes." H. Ross Perot was not in Burma with
me, but I know now where he got his info. Four billion dollars opens a
lot of doors for you. It didn't open a couple of doors, however, as
I'll let you in on this story. H. Ross Perot had gained US agent
investigation reports of Richard Armitage. Perot didn't know I was
over in Burma. He was doing this on his own. This article said he
pinned Richard Armitage. Armitage is a fat broad. Literally. This is a
giant of a man. And demanded that Armitage resign because it says that
H. Ross Perot accused him of being an a drug smuggler and an arms
dealer. That takes pretty big cajones. (laughter) It says that Perot
then went to his friend, George Bush. It says that he gave evidence of
wrong doing by Armitage. I'm quoting. Bush told Perot to go to the
proper authorities. (sounds of shock and dismay by audience) I'm still
reading now. So the billionaire called on William Webster. He's now
head of the CIA. It says that Perot made at least one visit to the
White House carrying a pile of documents, yet he has received no
support from the Reagan administration. In fact Frank Carlucci...
Who's he? He's the secretary of defense. And who was he before? Deputy
directory of Central Intelligence. Frank Carlucci called him in to ask
him to stop pursuing Armitage. Talk about insulation! And when four
billion dollars can't even get your foot in the door even though the
man is a good Texan from Houston. Tell me there's no cover-up here.

Now H. Ross was working on his own. He didn't know what Khun Sa had
told us. Khun Sa doesn't have a television or a telephone. He doesn't
know who Richard Armitage is. He doesn't give a damn. All he knows is
the people who are on his records that he's dealt with. This affadavit
though by a man by the name of Daniel Sheehan ... and you'll recognize
Sheehan's name if you don't know him already by the Silkwood case. He
jumped on Kerr-Magee (sp?). Kerr-Magee is pretty powerful. But they
won the Silkwood case there in Oklahoma and have done a few other
things.

(switch to a talk-show interview with Daniel Sheehan, lead attorney
for the Christic Institute)

Sheehan:

There's little doubt at all that President Reagan was involved in a
conspiracy to violate the Neutrality Act. He's been directly ordered
by the United States Congress not to mount this military operation
against Nicaragua. They've cut off all funds for him to do so, but he
went to Saudi Arabia and various private citizens to raise the money
in total violation of the Federal Neutrality Act. They're engaged in
violations of the arms-export control act. They're engaged in
violations of the Federal Racketeering Act. There is a whole federal
racketeering syndicate that they like to refer to as The Enterprise.
Richard Secord referred to it as. But what it is in fact, Jim, is the
off-the-shelf, stand-alone, self-financing, covert operations capacity
that Oliver North talked about Bill Casey wanting to set up. Fact is,
that it has been set up. Its been operating for many years now. Out
from under the control of any president. Out from under the control of
the director of central intelligence. Out from under the supervision
of any intelligence committee. Its run by Theodore Shakley, the former
director of covert operations worldwide by the CIA under George Bush
when George Bush was the director of the Central Intelligence Agency
in 1976. And this crowd has set up the off-the-shelf operation and is
carrying out not only a partnership with the drug dealers from Central
America and from Southeast Asia, but also carrying out a major
political assasination program which was participated in by William
Buckley who was the Beirut section chief for the CIA who was kidnapped
in March of 1984 and who was the subject of all the real negotiations
for the sale of the TOW missiles to Iran. It was not a sale to open
any openings to the moderates in Iran, nor was it in fact a
negotiation to negotiate for the general release of hostages. It was
initiated solely and exclusively to obtain the release of William
Buckley because he knew about the whereabouts of the off-the-shelf
operation. It was a criminal enterprise and they feared that if the
American people found out about that there would be a huge
constitutional scandal and the President of the United States would be
impeached.

May I most respectfully ask that this matter not be touched upon at
this stage. If we wish to get into this I'm certain arrangements can
be made during executive session.

(cut to Jack Brook's summary)

.. involving the US government in military activity in direct
contradiction of the law, diverting public funds into private pockets
in secret unofficial activities, selling access to the President for
thousands of dollars, dispensing cash and foreign money orders out of
a White House safe, accepting gifts and falsifying papers to cover it
up, altering and shredding national security documents, lying to
Congress. Now I believe that the American people understand that
democracy cannot survive that kind of abuse.

(back to Bo at luncheon)

I don't think it makes a hoot who you vote for for President. The same
people are gonna run this country. I stand before you today. You gotta
know who I am. I'm an indicted felon because part of that phone call
in Thailand said, "Bo, if you don't erase and forget, if you don't
come to the apartment (that was a safehouse in Washington, DC), you're
gonna be charged with 15 years and your going to serve as a felon and
we're going to bring up aggravated charges and hostile witnesses."
That's not my kind of language. I said, "Friend, that's an insult to
you, me and two hundred years of constitutional government." He said,
"Bo, don't give me that. Bring everything you've got to the
apartment." I said, "Who's going to be there, Joe?" And he said, "You
know me better than that, Bo. It will just be me and Tom Harvey." I
said, "OK, I'll bring this stuff dear citizen. I'll show it to you
then you tell me to erase and forget." When I got to LA with the tapes
he said, "Bo, don't come." He was that much of a friend. He said,
"Don't come. Hide those tapes. Everybody's laying for you." He said,
"But please destroy and forget. That's all the state department wants
you to do because otherwise you're going to jail as a felon." You know
what they charged me with? They did charge me. Misuse of a passport.
Now that is a weeny charge for somebody thats been in clandestine
warfare for more than 30 years. That throws me in league with Jane
Fonda. She was cavorting with the enemy and misusing her passport.
Ollie North and Robert McValium went to Iran on Irish passports so
they could do an illegal arms deal, but nobody has charged them. Thats
because they're cooperating.

Well, I'm not worried about that. The US attorney doesn't know how
hard to take it because I said, "I don't deny I misused a passport. I
misused it many times. Every time in pursuit of US prisoners of war."
You dear citizen, see if you would erase and go back to sleep and
forget. I don't think that you will. In my defense I got a lawyer,
he's the former US attorney for Nevada. He took my case for free other
than all the expenses it cost to bring in witnesses. Were going to use
this court as a forum for prisoners of war and for government in drug
dealing because you know you can't sue the government, but when the
government jumps on you now you can turn it around on them. Thats
exactly what were doing. I got a plea the other day saying, "Bo, just
go ahead and cop a plea it'll be a misdemeanor." No way Jose, were
going all the way with this one.

(Narrator)

The American Warrior has traveled a long road from the jungles of
Vietnam to the Pentagon to a hostile federal courtroom in Las Vegas,
but the commitment to God, country, honor and decency have never
wavered. It would be far easier to walk away from this battle, but to
do so would be impossible for this soldier.

Interestingly enough, the US attorney prosecuting this case against a
respected dissenting war hero is himself the former road manager for a
well-known 1960's antiwar rock group. The irony is not lost on Las
Vegans, but the issues behind the trial demand nationwide attention.

One can only wonder what the charges will be against Oliver North.

The Christic Institue, on the other hand, is facing an uphill battle
in their current appeal of Judge King's dismissal of their
racketeering lawsuit against The Enterprise last June in Miami. As
Father Bill Davis, their chief investigator explains:

(cut to Fr. Bill Davis from The Christic Institute)

This is by far the most important case we've ever done. I think for
the kinds of forces that we're up against, as well as for the broader
public policy implications. If this crowd can get away with what they
have been getting away with: the arms dealing, the drug dealing, the
assasination programs and sell it under the guise of some kind of
blind anti-communism, having had the revelations that we've had: the
Hasenfus flight, the Iran arms deal. If they still get away with it
then I think democracy, at least in this country, is in very very
serious condition. I don't think it will survive. We're either going
to win against these forces, this time or I am not optimistic about
the survival of democracy in this country. I think it's that serious.

(Narrator)

The seriousness of Gritz's discoveries during his first mission to the
Golden Triangle, however was brought home immediately after his
return. Scott Weekly, his Operation Lazarus team member and veteran of
several POW recovery missions, was arrested and charged with a federal
violation resulting from the Afghan training program he helped Gritz
conduct. Weekly was a classmate of Oliver North's at Annapolis and has
a PhD in physics. After numerous forays into hostile enemy territory
neither he nor Gritz were prepared for the treachery that awaited them
at home.

(Bo filmed in Thailand or thereabouts)

The ambassador level person for the US government in charge of
narcotics control made a statement immediately following the release
of this tape to the White House that the United States would never a
agree to talk with General Khun Sa about drug control because he was
such a black-hearted criminal. I believe that we can show through
facts that have already been established by the US Justice Department
and on-going investigations that there are people currently who saw
that tape in the US government that all that they could to stop this
interview right here for fear they would be exposed. Even to the point
where they arrested Scott Weekly for a minor technicality of
transporting explosives illegally on a commercial airliner.

Very briefly we were training a couple of Afghan freedom fighters
through the knowledge and request of the US state department and other
official agencies. The explosives were procurred for us from Fort
Sill, Oklahoma and were naturally transported, because we were using
them at a remote desert base, by aircraft. There was no danger to the
civilian aircraft. The explosives were C4, plastic, frontline safe.
You could shoot them with a machine gun and they wouldn't go off.
There were no detonating devices with us. Federal agents told Scott
when he was taken into custody that it wasn't a technicality and that
the real target was me. They were under pressure by the US attorney's
office to find out whether or not I was in kahoots with North and
Poindexter since I had traveled to Latin America and to the Middle
East in pursuit of various government associated projects. The fact is
and the truth is that I've had nothing to do with North and Poindexter
or any illegal activities either in South America or the Middle East.
Now the truth is that I believe that elements in the US government are
afraid that they will be exposed for their illegal activities and drug
trafficking. Through that exposure that this will cease and they will
lose their power.

If they had tried to put pressure by causing Scott Weekly even to be
adjudged guilty ... because he was told if he would plead guilty that
there would be no problem... that he would be given probation... that
there would be no more pursuit... that it would be unsupervised
probation which would allow him to continue to travel overseas. In
truth, he was sentenced. The fact is that Scott was told that if he
would plead guilty that there would be no further investigation and
that all would go well for him and that if he did not plead guilty
there would be a tether put on all of us so that we would not be able
to travel and at that time we were very very close to negotiating the
release of American prisoners of war. The only reason that Scott plead
guilty was so that other members of the Operation Lazarus team, myself
included, would be free to continue the mission of liberating US
prisoners of war, which is ongoing now.

(Narrator Discussing Weekly's case)

Scott Weekly was made to serve fourteen months of a five year sentence
before it was demonstrated that the agents had removed sensitive
documents from his pre-sentencing file which would have exonerated
him. The sentence was simply dismissed.

Lance Trimmer, a former Green Beret communications specialist with the
Lazarus team, accompanied Gritz to Burma in Weekly's place in May,
1987 where he witnessed Khun Sa naming the US officials involved in
drug trafficking. As a professional private investigator, since
returning he has spearheaded the effort to document and publicize the
team's findings and was instrumental in obtaining Scott Weekly's
release from LongPoke Federal Prison. In the process he has been
unjustifiably arrested and detained three times by the police and
federal authorities.

(Narrator introducing Barry Flinn)

Barry Flinn is the Bangkok station chief for Operation Lazarus. In May
of 1987 he served as the cameraman with Colonel Gritz on his second
trip to visit Khun Sa. Also during this time he has made other trips
into ShanLand. On one occasion he accompanied a journalist from
Australia who filmed the proceedings and made this the subject of a
news program in Australia. Barry himself was arrested immediatly upon
his return to Bangkok from ShanLand on the first trip and has been
several times since then as has been Khun Sa.

(Khun Sa in interview with Australian journalist .. either he himself
or a translator is speaking... it sounds like Khun Sa himself)

.. even if they kill me the opium will still be there. They only use
me as a money tree. Every time they want money, they come and shake
the tree just like a Christmas tree.

Journalist:

..spraying the opium crop with the poison 24-D (or somesuch...Ed.)

(Narrator Again)

One of the problems that Khun Sa pointed out in the news program in
Australia is the extensive use of toxic herbicide spraying over his
territory not to kill the opium plants, but to kill the food crops
which is very very destructive of the culture and the people and
creating a very serious refugee problem.

(Khun Sa again...)

We have 300 families in the hills now who have no food. The world body
is doing something against humanity in the Shan state and nobody knows
about it.

(Bo talks about Khun Sa's offer)

General Khun Sa has extended an offer in writing to turn over to the
United States Government on March 15, 1988 one ton of refined Asian
heroin, that sells for $250,000 per pound to distributors, as a show
of good faith that he would stop 1200 tons of heroin from entering the
free world in 1988. The response of the State Department was, "no
interest."

(Bo talking in Southeast Asian Field)

There are personalities within the United States Government who have,
as early as the early 1960's, trafficked in opium and heroin to
finance assasination programs initially approved by the Central
Intelligence Agency, which didn't work then and aren't working now. If
these assasinations programs spread from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and
Thailand to Iran, to Nicaragua, to Libya and have the poten tial of
continuing to spread unless some exposure is finally done to eliminate
these high officials.

H. Ross Perot has said as a result of his investigation he has found
a, "snake pit without a bottom." He says that the people involved will
do anything to keep their wrongdoings covered up. He even says that a
man that was responsible for the Phoenix assasination program is now
on the personal staff of George Bush.

(Cut to Barry Flinn in Bangkok discussing his trip with Bo.)

My name is Barry Flinn and I live in Bangkok, Thailand. I have been in
Bangkok now for two years. I am a member of Operation Lazarus and I am
the station chief here in Bangkok. My function for Operation Lazarus
is to collect information from my agents in Laos and in Vietnam on
locating live Americans held captive in these two countries. This last
trip Colonel Gritz had asked me to go into ShanLand, a territory of
Burma, to be a witness and a cameraman to record the conversation with
him and General Khun Sa. I agreed to go and I did witness, I did
record the meeting with Lt. Colonel James 'Bo' Gritz and General Khun
Sa. Another member of Operation Lazarus by the name of Lance Trimmer
also accompanied us. In Shanland I did record the meeting and the
facts are as follows: General Khun Sa's people, the secretaries read
from a document written in the Shan language about American officials
dealing in heroin from 1965 to the present. Some of the names he had
given us were a man by the name of Shackley, a man by the name of
Armitage and other American officials involved in drugs. Now my job is
strictly locating POWS. I am not involved with the DEA or any other US
Government agency. I am a private citizen. It makes you angry when you
hear of the drug problems in America. Children taking heroin at twelve
and high officials supplying them the heroin and all the cover-ups
they did in the past, the present and probably in the future. Now as a
witness I definitely believe these men were involved in the drug
trade. General Khun Sa did say that, after giving us the names, he
wouldn't be surprised if B52 bombers started flying over Shanland to
destroy him and to kill him so that he wouldn't testify to the other
Americans involved in the drug trade.

I am staying in Bangkok, Thailand to locate POWs and if people are
interested in more information about the interview with Khun Sa and
Lt. Colonel James 'Bo' Gritz they know were to find me. The American
embassy knows were to locate me. Lt. Colonel James 'Bo' Gritz knows
were to locate me and I'm sure the people involved in the drug trade
know where to locate me.

Alright. One more thing. I did here about the Americans Shackley,
Armitage and other Americans being named it sent a chill up my spine
and down my back. It made me angry. It made me shocked. I couldn't
believe it, but it was there: names, files of old papers that the Lao
agents and the Shan people have on our Americans. Somebody has to do
something. It will probably all be covered up. I don't know. It's not
my business. I was only a witness and it will stay with me for the
rest of my life about the people in our government dealing drugs. It's
nice to know, isn't it? It's really nice to know...

(Bo gives summary)

In summary, the reason that American prisoners of war are not at home
as we speak, if what Khun Sa, the Christic Institute, and H. Ross
Perot are saying is true, is because Richard Armitage, the one man
responsible for their recovery is a heroin smuggler and an arms
dealer. He has misused his office in order to promote covert
operations through the sale of heroin and trading in arms that
bypasses the US Congress. When prisoners come home he will be
investigated. His wrongdoings and misuse of office will be uncovered
and exposed and he and the others will fall like a house of cards.

As an American citizen it is our responsibility to wake up to the
internal threat, the treachery that threatens literally the life of
this nation.

(Bo back at luncheon asks people to swear to do something)

It's time that we just became Americans. Here is what I would ask you
to do, because you can't just go back to sleep on this thing like we
did on 007, the Korean airline. One is, I would ask that in your mind,
if not physically here today be willing to raise you hand to the
square (?) and swear again before God and witnesses your allegiance to
this heavenly banner (points to flag) and to the constitution of the
United States because it will die hermetically sealed in the National
Archives if we don't breath some life back into it. It is hanging by a
thread. The righteous people of this country, doesn't mean Democrat,
Republican, right, left, conservative, liberal, the righteous people
of this country need now to stand up and put a shoulder to it to keep
it stable. I want you to commit to yourself that you're going to do
something about it. Demand that an investigation be made.

(Bo narrating here...)

Demand a thorough and true investigation of Richard Armitage. Insist
that The Christic Institute's charges go to trial and be heard by a
jury of Americans. That those in our government that represent sewage,
that clog the bureaucracy today might be cleaned out. That the
American way might continue. That our children might grow up in
liberty and freedom with same opportunities that we have had.

(Gritz apparently is willing to run for Congress on the Republican
ticket. Back to the luncheon)

In the legislature you need to seek out, identify and draft people
that have the guts to stand up, because if you get the legislature up
there it can be through the people. It can be pulled back from the
brink. I think thats our saving grace. I think that through the
legislature we can do what no one else would have done to Nixon. We
can wash him away, we can wash away, hopefully, it's going to be a
hard fight, this cancer. I stand before you and give you an order. You
have got to do something about this thing. We fought the enemy
foreign. Can't we fight the enemy domestic?

(much applause)

(Ed: If you wish to order the video tape, you can write Bo Gritz at
the address below. I'm not sure how current it is. I highly recommend
that you do order it somehow. Reading about it is one thing, but it's
another thing entirely to see Khun Sa and his men dictating the names
of top US officials to video tape. Many documents that are on the
video are not in my transcription here. They would be too numerous to
transcribe)

Lt. Colonel James 'Bo' Gritz Box 472-HCR31 Sandy Valley, NV. 89019

(Transcribers disclaimer: The views expressed in this document do not
necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the transcriber. I am
only the messenger. Don't shoot me. ) Jim Burnes


------------------------------------------------
(This file was found elsewhere on the Internet and uploaded to the
Patriot FTP site by S.P.I.R.A.L., the Society for the Protection of Individual Rights and Liberties. E-mail alex@spiral.org)
