[NOISE]CIA Contra Crack and LA Gangs (fwd)

[Rich Graves]

On Tue, 20 Aug 1996, Jim Ray wrote:

> OK, Rich cites a loon, but the fact is that Southern Air Transport 
> right here in Miami was in there early in the contraarms-coke 
> trade.

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). 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.)
2. Clinton was a CIA agent involved in the Contra drug-smuggling CaBaL. He
   was involved in anti-war protests only as a CIA informant. (This is the
   suggestion of the Morris book.)
3. Anything involving the Kennedy assassination, Donna Rice, or Elvis.

> 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).

-rich