Part VI--Dean Henderson: Big Oil & Their Bankers in the Persian Gulf. Chapter 4: CIA Escapes Costa Rican Justice

CIA Escapes Costa Rican Justice

Posted on 10/06/2016 | 1 Comment

 (Excerpted from Chapter 4: Nicaraguan Contraband: Big Oil & Their Bankers…)

While the CIA stonewalled US investigations into agent John Hull’s activities, the Company also had fires to put out in Costa Rica, where multiple investigations of Hull were under way.

In 1984 a CIA officer named Dimitrius Papas set up and funded a group of fifteen intelligence agents within the Costa Rican equivalent of the CIA.  The men were ordered to funnel money to Costa Rican officials investigating the Pastora assassination attempt.  All the while Papas and his recruits were spreading disinformation throughout the Costa Rican justice system. [158] It didn’t work.  Costa Rican authorities blew the lid off Hull’s cover in a quite dramatic fashion.

On July 20, 1989 a Costa Rican legislative commission investigating drug smuggling issued an explosive report implicating Hull in cocaine trafficking and first-degree murder.  The report demanded that Hull be stripped of his Costa Rican citizenship and deported immediately.  It also barred Oliver North, Richard Secord, Admiral John Poindexter and CIA San Jose Station Chief Joe Fernandez from ever setting foot on Costa Rican soil again.  One day before the report was issued Hull abandoned his ranch and fled the country.

On December 29, 1989, Costa Rican prosecutor Jorge Chavarria issued a second damning report of Hull and his cohorts.  It may not have been a coincidence that on the very same day, US troops invaded Panama.  Two months later, Costa Rican Judge Maximo Carranza, previously a friend of Hull’s who had made several rulings in his favor, became so overwhelmed by evidence of Hull’s guilt that he issued an extradition order for Hull on a prosecutor’s recommendation that Hull be tried for first-degree murder in the deaths of the four journalists at the Pastora press conference in La Penca. [159]

Within days of the extradition order, the judge received letters from nineteen members of the US Congress on Hull’s behalf.  Hull has never been brought to justice and currently lives a free man in his home state of Indiana.  Hull may be related to the Hullmans, Indianapolis media titans who- according to West Plains, Missouri historian Robert Neathery- have monopolized that city’s radio, TV and newspaper markets since the 1930’s.

In 1982, a year before Hull began transporting Medellin Cartel cocaine, Vice-President George Bush was appointed to head National Narcotics Border Interdiction System (NNBIS), a group which was supposed to intensify the war on drugs by coordinating the activities of DEA, FBI, Coast Guard and other agencies.  While NNBIS made grandiose claims of victories, many experts, such as former DEA Administrator Francis Mullen, said the claims weren’t credible.  Mullen told Attorney General Ed Meese in 1984 that NNBIS was diverting resources away from drug interdiction.

While Bush headed NNBIS, his son Jeb was Secretary of Commerce for the state of Florida, where a cocaine epidemic now darkened the streets of Miami. Across the channel in the Bahamas, the US ambassador shut down an investigation of Prime Minister Lyndon Pindling and other top Bahaman officials suspected of drug trafficking.

Pindling hired Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly (BMSK) to scrub up his image. The huge US public relations firm boasted employees like Lee Atwater, who managed Bush’s successful 1988 Presidential campaign, and Stuart Spencer, a top adviser to Dan Quayle who helped spruce up the images of dictators like Haiti’s Jean Claude “Papa Doc” Duvalier, Nicaragua’s Anastacio Somoza and Panama’s General Noriega.

BMSK was also employed by Philippine strongman Ferdinand Marcos and Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd.  In 1981 the firm was hired to put a positive spin on blood-thirsty Angolan UNITA rebel leader and Reagan White House guest Jonas Savimbi.  Savimbis forces began training in Morocco in 1981 as part of a deal whereby the Saudis received Richard Secord-brokered AWACS in return for Saudi funding of Moroccan Army training of UNITA. [160]

In 1984, with Bush heading the NNBIS, US officials ignored repeated chances to apprehend Escobar and Ochoa, the kingpins of the Medellin Cartel.  The two fled Columbia after ordering the assassination of Columbian Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla.  They took refuge in Panama, where General Noriega offered to protect them for a cool $4.6 million.  From Panama Escobar and Ochoa continued to run their empire, meeting with high-ranking Columbian officials.

On May 6, 1984, just days after entering Panama, they met with former Columbian President Alfonso Lopez Michelson.  On May 26th, they met at the Cesar Park Marriott, which the locals know as the “DEA Hotel”, with Columbian Attorney General Carlos Jimenez Gomez.  That same month CIA coup-master extraordinaire Vernon Walters was secretly meeting with Columbian President Julio Cesar Turbay Ayala to discuss setting up a top-secret US military base on the Columbian island of San Andres. [161]  San Andres soon became the main smuggling route for Columbian cocaine.

Dean Henderson is the author of five books:Big Oil & Their Bankers in the Persian Gulf: Four Horsemen, Eight Families & Their Global Intelligence, Narcotics & Terror Network, The Grateful Unrich: Revolution in 50 Countries, Das Kartell der Federal Reserve, Stickin’ it to the Matrix & The Federal Reserve Cartel.  You can subscribe free to his weekly Left Hook column @www.hendersonlefthook.wordpress.com