[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
information that made such an alternative "less unthinkable." The CIA reported that there were only a handful
of kingpin traffickers in Latin America, who could be eliminated very swiftly. Two new advisors to Krogh, E.
Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, were also pressing for unconventional actions. Liddy told William
Handley, then our ambassador to Turkey, that he was for liquidating top traffickers by any means available. By
mid-May, Ingersoll was asked by the White House to prepare a plan for "clandestine law enforcement"-as if
law enforcement could be clandestine. What Ingersoll suggested was a fund which could be used for various
clandestine activities and "which would be set up along the lines of the CIA," meaning that only a few
Congressmen-the majority and minority members of the appropriate subcommittees-would know the actual
details of the expenditures of this fund. Ingersoll subsequently explained to me that he intended to use this
fund mainly for "disruptive tactics," such as planting misinformation among various drug-dealing factions and
purposely misidentifying informants in the hope of inciting some kind of gang warfare. But at the time, at the
White House, at least, assassination was "a very definite part of the plan," according to Jeffrey Donfeld, who
drew up most of the memoranda concerning the "clandestine law enforcement" program.
The fund also grew in White House planning to assume proportions far beyond the original plans, according to
Ingersoll. A May 27 memorandum for the president from John Ehrlichman (written by Krogh) noted that one
http://www.mega.nu:8080/ampp/epstein/aof16.html (1 of 4) [9/16/2000 16:15:58]
Bureau of Assassinations
decision the president would be required to make would concern -$50 million for overseas operations in the
Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, for such clandestine enforcement." Later that week, John
Ehrlichman met with President Nixon. According to Krogh's detailed "Outline of Discussion with the
President on Drugs," the president agreed to "forceful action in [stopping] international trafficking of heroin at
the host country." Specifically, the memorandum of the meeting noted, "It is anticipated that a material
reduction in the supply of heroin in the U.S. can be accomplished through a $100 million (over three years)
fund which can be used for clandestine law enforcement activities abroad and for which BNDD would not be
accountable. This decisive action is our only hope for destroying or immobilizing the highest level of drug
traffickers." (Emphases added.) Though the word "assassination" was never used by the president, it is clear
from the context of the "Outline of Discussion" that clandestine operations in the host country could
accomplish the destruction of drug traffickers, who were assumed to be under the protection of police and
politicians abroad. As one of Krogh's young assistants facetiously explained when I showed him the outline of
the presidential discussion, "one hundred million dollars would buy a lot of contracts on a lot of major heroin
dealers." Ingersoll doubted that such a "staggering sum" was ever intended to be used for any sort of narcotics
enforcement, but was possibly some sort of clandestine slush fund. In any case, it was clear that this fund was
not meant to be controlled by the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. (indeed, the $100 million
proposed for unaccountable clandestine activities abroad was more than the bureau had received in its entire
budget in 1970 for overt and legal law-enforcement activities.) Ehrlichman suggested that an executive order
be issued establishing a "Domestic Council-National Security Council Joint Action Group" on drugs which,
among other things, would "set policies which relate international considerations to domestic considerations,"
In the accompanying decision paper the president tentatively approved the "flexible law enforcement fund ...
for clandestine activities," for which there would be no accountability. According to Krogh, this would be used
for Underworld contacts and disruptive tactics, with the eventual goal of destroying those deemed to be heroin
traffickers.
Whatever happened to this clandestine fund is not entirely clear. Ingersoll recalls that the amount appropriated
"without accountability" was far less than the $100 million, three-year program, and was used mainly to buy
informants and information abroad. Egli Krogh recalled in 1973 that after the secret fund was approved by the
president, Ingersoll, who by then had lost favor with the White House, was no longer trusted to disburse it.
Krogh claimed that the only narcotics assassinations actually carried out were in Southeast Asia, where the
CIA arranged to have various traffickers lured into traps by their enemies. Krogh's assistants, however,
strongly intimated that a great deal more was done with the program and that it resulted directly in disrupting
the Latin American connection. At the suggestion of Howard Hunt, a part-time consultant to Krogh on
narcotics, Lucien Conein, a CIA colonel of Corsican origin who had been deeply involved in the coup that
resulted in the assassination of Premier Diem of South Vietnam, was brought into the BNDD as the head of its
strategic intelligence.* That fall, Hunt also approached the Cuban exile leader Manuel Artimes in Miami and,
according to Artimes, asked him about the possibility of forming a team Of Cuban exile hit men to assassinate
Latin American traffickers still operating outside the bailiwick of United States law. The idea of assassinations
also became quite popularly applied to the French connection in Marseilles. In September, 1972, for example,
the idea was broached to members of the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse during their
"heroin trip" through Europe. Dr. J. Thomas Ungerleider, a member of that commission, reported in a
memorandum of his conversations with BNDD officials:
There was some talk about establishing hit squads (assassination teams), as they are said to have in a South
American country. It was stated that with 150 key assassinations, the entire heroin refining operation can be
thrown into chaos. "Officials" say it is known exactly who is involved in these operations but can't prove it.
* Ingersoll believed that Conein had access to the files and modus operandi of Corsicans involved in heroin
traffic. At the time he did not suspect that the White House had placed Conein there for a purpose of its
http://www.mega.nu:8080/ampp/epstein/aof16.html (2 of 4) [9/16/2000 16:15:58]
Bureau of Assassinations
own-although he considered this a possibility later.
If "150 key assassinations" were actually being considered by the BNDD or others in the Nixon
administration. then the $100 million fund would be more easily explained. (At the time, Professor
Ungerleider and other members of the commission were being shepherded through Marseilles by BNDD and
embassy officials in what became a regular packaged tour for Congressmen, journalists, and other VIPs
interested in narcotics.)
Meanwhile, back at the BNDD, Colonel Conein was being briefed on assassination equipment. The
now-defunct B. R. Fox Company, which was then incorporated in Virginia and which provided such lethal
equipment, sent a salesman to see Colonel Conein and demonstrate a wide range of devices.* Colonel Conein [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl szkicerysunki.xlx.pl
information that made such an alternative "less unthinkable." The CIA reported that there were only a handful
of kingpin traffickers in Latin America, who could be eliminated very swiftly. Two new advisors to Krogh, E.
Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, were also pressing for unconventional actions. Liddy told William
Handley, then our ambassador to Turkey, that he was for liquidating top traffickers by any means available. By
mid-May, Ingersoll was asked by the White House to prepare a plan for "clandestine law enforcement"-as if
law enforcement could be clandestine. What Ingersoll suggested was a fund which could be used for various
clandestine activities and "which would be set up along the lines of the CIA," meaning that only a few
Congressmen-the majority and minority members of the appropriate subcommittees-would know the actual
details of the expenditures of this fund. Ingersoll subsequently explained to me that he intended to use this
fund mainly for "disruptive tactics," such as planting misinformation among various drug-dealing factions and
purposely misidentifying informants in the hope of inciting some kind of gang warfare. But at the time, at the
White House, at least, assassination was "a very definite part of the plan," according to Jeffrey Donfeld, who
drew up most of the memoranda concerning the "clandestine law enforcement" program.
The fund also grew in White House planning to assume proportions far beyond the original plans, according to
Ingersoll. A May 27 memorandum for the president from John Ehrlichman (written by Krogh) noted that one
http://www.mega.nu:8080/ampp/epstein/aof16.html (1 of 4) [9/16/2000 16:15:58]
Bureau of Assassinations
decision the president would be required to make would concern -$50 million for overseas operations in the
Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, for such clandestine enforcement." Later that week, John
Ehrlichman met with President Nixon. According to Krogh's detailed "Outline of Discussion with the
President on Drugs," the president agreed to "forceful action in [stopping] international trafficking of heroin at
the host country." Specifically, the memorandum of the meeting noted, "It is anticipated that a material
reduction in the supply of heroin in the U.S. can be accomplished through a $100 million (over three years)
fund which can be used for clandestine law enforcement activities abroad and for which BNDD would not be
accountable. This decisive action is our only hope for destroying or immobilizing the highest level of drug
traffickers." (Emphases added.) Though the word "assassination" was never used by the president, it is clear
from the context of the "Outline of Discussion" that clandestine operations in the host country could
accomplish the destruction of drug traffickers, who were assumed to be under the protection of police and
politicians abroad. As one of Krogh's young assistants facetiously explained when I showed him the outline of
the presidential discussion, "one hundred million dollars would buy a lot of contracts on a lot of major heroin
dealers." Ingersoll doubted that such a "staggering sum" was ever intended to be used for any sort of narcotics
enforcement, but was possibly some sort of clandestine slush fund. In any case, it was clear that this fund was
not meant to be controlled by the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. (indeed, the $100 million
proposed for unaccountable clandestine activities abroad was more than the bureau had received in its entire
budget in 1970 for overt and legal law-enforcement activities.) Ehrlichman suggested that an executive order
be issued establishing a "Domestic Council-National Security Council Joint Action Group" on drugs which,
among other things, would "set policies which relate international considerations to domestic considerations,"
In the accompanying decision paper the president tentatively approved the "flexible law enforcement fund ...
for clandestine activities," for which there would be no accountability. According to Krogh, this would be used
for Underworld contacts and disruptive tactics, with the eventual goal of destroying those deemed to be heroin
traffickers.
Whatever happened to this clandestine fund is not entirely clear. Ingersoll recalls that the amount appropriated
"without accountability" was far less than the $100 million, three-year program, and was used mainly to buy
informants and information abroad. Egli Krogh recalled in 1973 that after the secret fund was approved by the
president, Ingersoll, who by then had lost favor with the White House, was no longer trusted to disburse it.
Krogh claimed that the only narcotics assassinations actually carried out were in Southeast Asia, where the
CIA arranged to have various traffickers lured into traps by their enemies. Krogh's assistants, however,
strongly intimated that a great deal more was done with the program and that it resulted directly in disrupting
the Latin American connection. At the suggestion of Howard Hunt, a part-time consultant to Krogh on
narcotics, Lucien Conein, a CIA colonel of Corsican origin who had been deeply involved in the coup that
resulted in the assassination of Premier Diem of South Vietnam, was brought into the BNDD as the head of its
strategic intelligence.* That fall, Hunt also approached the Cuban exile leader Manuel Artimes in Miami and,
according to Artimes, asked him about the possibility of forming a team Of Cuban exile hit men to assassinate
Latin American traffickers still operating outside the bailiwick of United States law. The idea of assassinations
also became quite popularly applied to the French connection in Marseilles. In September, 1972, for example,
the idea was broached to members of the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse during their
"heroin trip" through Europe. Dr. J. Thomas Ungerleider, a member of that commission, reported in a
memorandum of his conversations with BNDD officials:
There was some talk about establishing hit squads (assassination teams), as they are said to have in a South
American country. It was stated that with 150 key assassinations, the entire heroin refining operation can be
thrown into chaos. "Officials" say it is known exactly who is involved in these operations but can't prove it.
* Ingersoll believed that Conein had access to the files and modus operandi of Corsicans involved in heroin
traffic. At the time he did not suspect that the White House had placed Conein there for a purpose of its
http://www.mega.nu:8080/ampp/epstein/aof16.html (2 of 4) [9/16/2000 16:15:58]
Bureau of Assassinations
own-although he considered this a possibility later.
If "150 key assassinations" were actually being considered by the BNDD or others in the Nixon
administration. then the $100 million fund would be more easily explained. (At the time, Professor
Ungerleider and other members of the commission were being shepherded through Marseilles by BNDD and
embassy officials in what became a regular packaged tour for Congressmen, journalists, and other VIPs
interested in narcotics.)
Meanwhile, back at the BNDD, Colonel Conein was being briefed on assassination equipment. The
now-defunct B. R. Fox Company, which was then incorporated in Virginia and which provided such lethal
equipment, sent a salesman to see Colonel Conein and demonstrate a wide range of devices.* Colonel Conein [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]