-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- To: cypherpunks@toad.com Date: Wed Aug 21 08:35:15 1996 Rich Graves wrote:
On Tue, 20 Aug 1996, Jim Ray wrote:
...
Oh, I don't think it's impossible or even unlikely that at least some of the groups lumped together as "contras" were involved in drug smuggling, and I think it's reasonable to have different views regarding how much money was involved and who knew what when (my view is very little, and medium).
Anyone who says "very little" money is involved in any aspect of the cocaine importation trade definitely doesn't live in Miami.
What I object to are conspiracy theories along the lines of:
1. The Reagan Administration used the Contras to smuggle crack to the US in a deliberate attempt at genocide against Black people. (I heard this a lot, though seldom in so many words, on KPFK in the mid-80's; the SJ Merc series certainly has this as a subtext.)
I never said that, and I object to calling something a "conspiracy theory" just because it's politically inconvenient. People in power conspire to get rich and stay in power. Sometimes they use laws they write and sometimes they break laws they wrote. This is a fact of life, not a conspiracy theory.
2. Clinton was a CIA agent involved in the Contra drug-smuggling CaBaL.
He was governor of Arkansas when Reagan was President of the United States. Do the search I already gave you, and read the articles. mena /p cocaine ...
It is a major, bipartisan, Watergate-style but bigger scandal, and the strange bedfellows in the media who were doing a halfway decent job of covering it [The Wall Street Journal and "High Times" magazine(!)] have fallen strangely silent on the subject as the election approaches. Hmmmmm.
4. Anything where vague unsupported asserions are thrown out, followed by a Hmmmmm (sorry).
OK, looks like I have to say it again, and remember this is NOT me, it's those conspiracy theorists at CBS News, printed in that radical purveyor of vague unsupported asserions...The Wall Street Journal: "The FAA, FBI, Customs, CIA, Justice, DEA and the IRS were all involved in Mena. They won't say how they were involved, but they will tell you there is nothing there." -- Bill Plante, CBS News Correspondent, & Michael Singer, Producer, CBS News, New York. [In Tuesday, May 3, 1994's Wall Street Journal letters to the editor section.] Look it up. I am not a journalist, but it sometimes seems I have a better institutional memory than they do. This story was covered poorly, even though there was/is plenty there, because of politics and power masquerading as "national security." The story is there for journalists who want to risk covering it, but the trail is getting cold, and yes, some loons have latched onto it, due in part to the vacuum in "legitimate" media coverage. [This will be my final word on this subject in this forum.] <sound of Perry cheering> JMR Regards, Jim Ray -- DNRC Minister of Encryption Advocacy "'Filegate' is starting to make _Ed_ _Meese_ look ethical." -- me Defeat the Duopoly! Vote "NOTA," not Slick/Dull in November. Harry Browne for President. Jo Jorgensen for Vice-president. http://www.HarryBrowne96.org/ ___________________________________________________________________ PGP id.E9BD6D35 51 5D A2 C3 92 2C 56 BE 53 2D 9C A1 B3 50 C9 C8 <mailto:liberty@gate.net> http://www.shopmiami.com/prs/jimray Coming soon, the "Pennies For Perot" page. Keep billionaires off welfare! -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMhsCim1lp8bpvW01AQHsYQP+JeN4t0Cd/d+Woy0eyvvVtCHy//RoSWJI K3gWOAHTMB71xZDKu7qbuUMRBs1nsFv2dlvYlKMIJLxn9Bl2H+13IpOsYTtPntg+ r+YOPazgwVVm8wNICEekdKjki9MaiTj1AFIX2P2LbVp7EZkmQIwxJfkYZituWNIy LNFZyOGhVaQ= =b3jZ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----