(Two 30minute segments)

In this pro­gram, for­mer LAPD nar­cotics detec­tive Mike Rup­pert brings the audi­ence up to date on a num­ber of dif­fer­ent sto­ries relat­ing to the intel­li­gence community’s involve­ment in the nar­cotics traf­fic. Much of the first half of the pro­gram con­sists of review and analy­sis of the case of Bill Tyree, a for­mer Spe­cial Forces trooper serv­ing time for the mur­der of his wife. (For a com­plete analy­sis of the Tyree case, see FTRs 106, 110, 111, 112, 115, 116, 137.) Tyree was allegedly framed for his wife’s mur­der because he (and his wife) attempted to expose his involve­ment in two oper­a­tions code-named Watch­tower and Orwell. Oper­a­tion Watch­tower allegedly involved the plac­ing of elec­tronic bea­cons in the Cen­tral Amer­i­can jun­gle for the pur­pose of guid­ing CIA drug planes into Panama. Oper­a­tion Orwell entailed the sur­veil­lance and har­rass­ment of civic and gov­ern­men­tal insti­tu­tions and indi­vid­u­als that were attempt­ing to inter­dict the Watchtower-related drug traf­fic. Tyree has filed suit against a num­ber of indi­vid­u­als and agen­cies includ­ing for­mer Pres­i­dent George Bush, Pres­i­dent Clin­ton, Oliver North and the CIA in an attempt to win his free­dom. The inves­ti­ga­tion into Tyree’s case has turned up con­nec­tions to numer­ous inves­ti­ga­tions, includ­ing the assas­si­na­tion of Pres­i­dent Kennedy. In this update on Tyree’s case, Mr. Rup­pert relates cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing Mass­a­chu­setts Sen­a­tor John Kerry’s con­nec­tions to the case. (Kerry was involved with the orig­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion of Tyree’s case.) In a dra­matic devel­op­ment, a let­ter allegedly writ­ten by for­mer CIA Direc­tor William Casey admits to and attempts to jus­tify decades-long CIA involve­ment in drug traf­fick­ing as a com­po­nent of the war against com­mu­nism. (When the let­ter was shown to for­mer CIA offi­cial Theodore Shack­ley, Shack­ley emphat­i­cally stated his belief that the let­ter was gen­uine.) The let­ter was sent to Dee Carone Fer­di­nand, the daugh­ter of Colonel Albert Vin­cent Carone. Work­ing var­i­ously (and some­times simul­ta­ne­ously) for the U.S. Army, the OSS (America’s World War II intel­li­gence ser­vice and the pre­de­ces­sor of the CIA), the CIA, the New York City Police depart­ment and the Mafia, Carone was a good friend of Casey. The story of his remark­able career is one of the most impor­tant aspects of the Tyree inves­ti­ga­tion. Mike informs us that, after nine months, George Bush’s coun­sel has failed to respond to the suit. Fol­low­ing the update of the Tyree suit, Mike dis­cusses the pre­cip­i­tous deci­sion by Con­gress to hold secret, closed-door hear­ings on Vol­ume II of the CIA’s inter­nal inves­ti­ga­tion into alle­ga­tions of Agency com­plic­ity in the Contra-related drug traf­fic. Vol­ume II directly impli­cates some of the defen­dants in the Tyree suit in the Cen­tral Amer­i­can cocaine traf­fic and Con­gress had stated its intent to hold pub­lic hear­ings into the mat­ter. Obvi­ously, that state­ment was less than sin­cere. Next, the dis­cus­sion turns to alle­ga­tions made by for­mer HUD offi­cial Cather­ine Austin Fitts, who believes that the crack-cocaine epi­demic of the 1980’s was delib­er­ately intended as a device to effect “eth­nic cleans­ing” in neigh­bor­hoods that had received HUD loans. Rav­aged by the effects of the crack epi­demic, these areas were soon aban­doned by many home­own­ers who had received loans. This flight shat­tered the eth­nic sol­i­dar­ity of the neigh­bor­hoods and left the real estate to be bought up at pen­nies on the dol­lar. Another ele­ment of analy­sis con­cerned the rela­tion­ship between the “under­world” drug econ­omy and the “over­world” of Wall Street invest­ment. Mr. Rup­pert con­cludes the inter­view by dis­cussing sev­eral class-action suits that have been filed against the CIA in con­nec­tion with the Con­tra cocaine traf­fic and its rela­tion­ship to the crack epi­demic of the 1980s (See also: RFAs 20, 24–30 and 32 –35, as well as Mis­cel­la­neous Shows M39, M40, M41, M43, M44 and M47, and FTRs 01, 02, 41, 43 and 109.) (Recorded on 7/11/99.)