Bibliography: Peter Dale Scott. Drugs, Oil, and War. Rowan and Littlefield Publishers: Oxford. 2003

Biography: Dale Scott is a former Canadian diplomat and English professor at UC Berkley. His research focuses on US covert operations and includes analyses of the Kennedy assassination and the global drug trade. He is also the author of poetry.

Research Question/Hypothesis: In Drugs, Oil, and War Peter Dale Scott expands the thesis of his 1972 book, War Conspiracy, which argued that the war crises in Laos was created by elements of the political and military institutions of the US in an effort to reorganize the opium trade through the region. In the 2003 edition of this thesis Dale Scott argues that the military intervention in Columbia, Afghanistan, and Indochina were spurred by efforts to reorganize the drug trade and secure drug operations in the regions. The influence of oil companies in lobbying for the military intervention that allowed for the reorganization of the drug trade is also discussed.

Findings:

In a book written by Michael Tanzer it is observed that the majority of CIA supported coups target Governments that threaten to nationalize their oil industries. (xiv)

A major factor of political corruption in US Asian Policy in the late ‘60s and ‘70s was the contribution of drug money to politicians’ campaigns from foreign governments through lobbyists and PR firms. The China lobby was a huge contributor to the campaign of Nixon. (p.4)

Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church, an offspring of the Korean CIA and the related Asian People’s Anti-Communist League (APACL later WACL) subsidized the Washington Times. There have been recurring allegations that APACL, the China lobby, and the Unification Church derive their budgets from drug money. (p.4)

Socony Mobil in Vietnam and Foreign Oil Companies Group in Afghanistan sponsored the lobby groups American Friends of Vietnam in the 1950s and 60s and the Committee for a Free Afghanistan that called for a heightened military commitment in the areas. The US-Columbia Business partnership lobbies for military intervention in Colombia. (p.4)

The US sold the Mujahedeen Stinger anti-aircraft missiles in 1985-6 to fight the Soviet air campaign. In 1989-1990 millions of dollars was allocated from the defense budget to buy them back. They were not totally successful and the 2001 US air campaigns were conducted at high altitudes due to fear that the Taliban possessed nearly 300. (p.5)

Farhad Azima, owner of RACE Aviation, founded Global International Airways, an airline linked to a network of CIA contracted cargo firms such as Air America and SAT, in 1978. Richard Secourd’s EASTCO and Farhad Azima’s Global International grossed millions from contracts to deliver arms to Egypt. Secord and David Kimche, an Israeli Mossad agent, arranged arms deals related to the Iran-Contra scandal and used RACE Aviation to fly shipments. Global International was involved in the US arms pipeline to Afghanistan in the 1980s. Farhad Azima has been implicated repeated times in drug trafficking. (p.6-8)

In 1992 Secord was involved in arms deals to Azerbaijan. 1 month later the Mujahedeen began recruitment of mercenaries to fight in Azerbaijan. Since 1994 Azerbaijan’s state oil company has held a contract with BP, Unocal, and Exxon worth $8 billion and extended over 30 years to develop the oil fields of the Caspian Basin, one of the largest remaining oil reserves. This contract has created a massive amount of pressure on the US Government to secure the area and the pipelines necessary for a financial return. (p.7-8)

There have been repeated allegations that US oil companies engage in covert operations. In Colombia, a US security firm working for Occidental Petroleum took part in a military operation that killed 18 civilians. (p.8)

Oil company lobbyists target the State Dept, the National Security Council, and the CIA. (p.8)

The US has historically trained, armed, financed, and protected drug traffickers in exchange for help securing territory of major interest to oil companies. Government support of drug traffickers has been a major factor in the dramatic increase of global trafficking since WWII. (p.27)

In 1998 the US militarily intervened in Kosovo on behalf of the Kosovo Liberation Army, a group previously described by the State Department as drug-financed terrorist. The intervention followed talk of an oil pipeline from the oil fields of Central Asia. (p.31)

In 1971 the CIA and Saudi intelligence backed the Muslim Brotherhood and allies in the campaign against communism. Osama Bin Laden became financier and logistics expert in the proxy war in Afghanistan for the Saudi financed Makhtab al-Khidamat, the office of services responsible for the international recruitment of militant in the 1980s. There are allegations that the CIA helped with recruitment and helped to facilitate a connection between Bin Laden and the Russian mafia. (p.?)

Right wing paramilitary groups and allies control 40% of Columbia’s cocaine export. The FARC can only be held accountable for 25%(2.5%?) of it. (p.39)

The US military began to have a presence in Columbia in 1984 due to the narco-terrorist propaganda campaign that connected the Sandinistas, the FARC, and the Medellin Cartel. Occidental Oil initiated this campaign after the 1983 discovery of the billion-barrel oil field of Cano Limon. (p.39)

Since US intervention in Columbia coca production has risen from 3.8 hectares in 1991 to 12.3 hectares in 1999 (p.41)

BCCI was the chief paymaster to the Mujahedeen in the 1980s and were implicated in direct arms transfers. (p.42)

From 1960-80 the per capita income grew 73% in Latin America and 34% in Africa. Since the enactment of neo-liberal policies the per capita income between 1980-2000 grew less then 6% in Latin America and declined 23% in Africa. (p.42)

The Nugan Hand Bank of Australia organized the 1^st major drug imports from Laos. Money from drugs and arms deal was used to finance covert operations around the world. (p.40)

In the 1980s heroin controlled by the Mujahedeen was transferred to Sicilian syndicates via the Turkish Gray Wolves, a paramilitary operation that worked in conjunction with the Turkish Army and had connections to the CIA. (p.?)

The opium crop produced in N. Afghan and controlled by the Northern Alliance was flown into Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan where it was sold to finance radical Islamic groups like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). (p.45)

Pakistani assets such as the Gulf Group and BCCI were an integral part of the Afghan arms pipeline. The Gulf Group shipping line the Gokal Bros. was a firm contracted to ship goods for various US aid programs. BCCI was the largest financier of the Gulf Group. Founder and Chairman of BCCI, Agha Hasan Abedi, had long standing links to the intelligence community that was strengthened under George Bush’s leadership of the CIA. It is alleged in 1976 Bush, British Intelligence, and William Casey helped set up a BCCI branch in the Cayman Islands. Syrian drug and arms dealer Manzeer al-Kassar convinced all right wing and left-wing terrorists to open accounts at BCCI's Cayman Islands branch. BCCI financed Global International. (p.47)

The CIA paid Afghan operatives with currency supplied by the Swiss firm Shakira Trading, a company implicated in laundering profits from Afghan heroin and Colombian cocaine. (p.47-8)

KMT forces in Burma began to relocate to NW Laos and were supplied by CAT airlifts. CAT was owned 40% by the CIA and 60% by KMT bankers. CAT planes supplied KMT opium bases since 1951. (p.51)

AGHA Hasan Abedi and BCCI were close friends of both the Carter and Reagan Administrations, Pakistani president Zia ul-Haq, and CIA asset and military leader of Afghanistan’s NW Frontier, Fazle-Haq. (p.48)

On April 10 1950 the Joint Chief of Staff proposed a program to rejuvenate the KMT. The Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) supplied the KMT forces of Gen. Li Mi in Burma. Gen. Claire Chennault organized a pipeline between the OPC and Li Mi using CAT aircraft. (p.59)

Sea Supply Inc. supplied both the KMT and the Thai border police. (p.60)

Paul Helliwell, counsel to Meyer Lansky’s bank Miami, helped establish Castle Bank in the Bahamas to launder funds for the CIA and the mafia. Castle Bank and Paul Helliwell were linked to Nugan Hand Bank in Australia and Washington banker George Olmsted whose firm Financial General Bank was taken over by BCCI. (p.61-2)

Chinese secret societies are responsible for a major portion of the international opium trade. In the mid 1930s China produced 7/8 of the world opium supply. Chiang Kai-Shek and KMT control of China was obtained and secured through a partnership with the secret society, the Green Gang, leader Tu Yueh-Sheng. Opium was flown into the US where it was distributed by Chinese tongs in partnership with Luciano and Lansky. The Green Gang link to the Sicilian and Jewish mafia was renewed after the 1949 Maoist revolution and secret society exodus to Hong Kong. (p.62)

The Hip Sing tong, the On Leong tong, and the King Kung tong are the main groups in charge of organized crime in Chinatown. The drug connections of the tongs were established, “thanks largely to the OPC in 1949-51”. (p.63)

It has been alleged that the privatization of the oil industry in Uzbekistan and Russia was in part financed with drug money. The Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policies estimated in 1996 $180 million of drug profits helped to privatize the energy and telecommunications industries. (p.65)

90% of military aid allocated under Clinton’s Plan Columbia was to be complimented with EU aid but EU withdrew its support due to criticism. In 2001 the Bush Administration supplemented Plan Columbia with the Andean Regional Initiative, an $882 million plan for military and economic aid ½ of which was devoted to Columbia. Lucrative contracts were signed with DynCorp, MRPI, and Sikorsky Aircraft to supply munitions, herbicides, and helicopters. (p.73-4)

In 1998 a Columbian Air force plane was caught at the Ft. Lauderdale Airport with 1600lbs coke. (p.74)

Paramilitary death squads working with the Colombian military were responsible for 70-80% of non-combat murders in Colombia and controlled a major portion of the drug trade. Carlos Castano, a Colombian paramilitary leader, was from a major drug trafficking family and linked to the Henao-Montoya drug trafficking network (p.74-5)

Plan Colombia’s eradication program focuses on the Amazon region controlled by the FARC. (p. 75)

In 1962 a US special warfare team, trained in Kennedy’s Counterinsurgency doctrine, and headed by Gen. William Yarborough, arrived in Columbia. A series of special warfare teams arrived in Colombia between 1962-5 to train in counterinsurgency operation. In 1964 the FARC and the ELN were organized. (p.76-7)

In the 1970s the CIA trained Colombian and other Latin American police officers at a bomb school in Los Fresnos, TX. (p.77)

Trained paramilitaries are assets of the Columbian security apparatus and are used by US corporations to protect their workplace and their suppliers from unionization. (p.77)

In 1981 Colombia traffickers and the Columbian army collaborated to form Muerte a Sequestadores (MAS). The traffickers financed the group and the army contracted British and Israeli mercenaries to run a training school from which Carlos Castano was a graduate. (p.77)

Paramilitaries were outlawed in Colombia between 1989-91. The CIA and US military collaborated with the Columbian Army to create a new system of civilian intelligence units to act as paramilitaries. (p. 78)

In a program called “legalization” paramilitaries in Colombia were encouraged to bring civilian corpses to the army barracks in exchange for weapons. (p.78)

The CIA endorsed the alliance of Colombian traffickers and the army in MAS. (p.86)

In the 1980s, with the encouragement of CIA director William Casey, Colombian cocaine entered the Soviet Union through the Mujahedeen in Afghan. This arrangement was the precursor to the trade link between Colombian cartels and Russia’s Red Mafiya. (p.86)

The prosecution of the Medellin cartel, the Sandinistas, and the FARC due to the narco-terrorist theory gave further protection to the CIA supported right wing Colombian paramilitaries and the Cali cartel. (p.87)

Leading figures in the Medellin cartel were hunted and killed by Carlos Castano’s death squad, Los Pepes, that was created by the Cali cartel and worked with the CIA and the Colombian National Police. (p.88)

In 1995 3 major leaders of the Cali cartel were imprisoned and Colombian coke exports fell under the control of Mexican cartels principally the Henao-Montoya organization. (p.89)

Drug profits were responsible for more than ½ of the foreign exchange earnings in Mexico needed to repay foreign debts. (p.89)

Eagle Aviation Services (EAST Inc) was subcontracted by DynCorp, a corporation that received an $170 million State Department contract and a portion of a $30 million DOD contract for work in Colombia, to conduct herbicide spraying for the crop eradication program in Colombia. EAST Inc, founded in 1982 by Richard Gadd, was involved with Southern Air Transport (SAT) in the Contra war effort and received $550,000 for aid to the Contra army. EAST Inc was accused of participation in smuggling operations. (p.90)

In 1989, after proposal of the Andean Initiative, Colombian oil production rose 80% and the majority of exports were sent to the US. Colombia is the 8^th largest supplier to the US. (p.100)

BP, Amoco, Occidental, and Enron formed the US-Colombia Business Partnership, a lobby group for increasing aid to Colombia. (p.100)

DynCorp and the Military Professional Resources Inc (MPRI) have performed contract work in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. Personnel for DynCorp and MPRI are often drawn from the US armed services and time spent with the private corporations are counted towards seniority in Government positions. (p.101)

In 1959 Pan Am, a major airline to the Far East, threatened to scale back its international operation if “traffic other then normal civil traffic doesn’t become available”. (p.101)

Charles M. Cooke, a member of the China Lobby, was involved in unauthorized covert activity in 1950 in Taiwan. Commerce International, a subsidiary of William Commerce Corporation, a Nelson Rockefeller corporation, and run by S.G. Fassoulis, was created to aid in the operation. (p.109-110)

In 1954 American involvement in the 1^st Indochina war consisted of a few dozed USAF planes on loan from CAT and 200 service technicians. Increased military intervention was requested and under Dulles the SE Asian Treaty Organization was created to mask US limited war game taking place in SE Asia. Covert involvement in Laos in 1959 and became the impetus for the start of the 2^nd Indochina war. (p.110)

The private law firm of Thomas G. Corcoran had long standing ties to intelligence agencies and covert operations. Chennault’s Flying Tigers and CAT were clients of Corcoran’s law firm in the early 1950s. Corcoran had major insurance interests in Asia through a partnership with CV Starr and Co., owned by Campagnie Franco-Americaine d’Assurances of Saigon, the principal US financial interest in Indochina. (CV Starr and Co. former OSS and United Fruit-American Intl. Underwriters Corp. a part?) When United Fruit was expelled from Guatemala Corcoran’s firm. the CIA, and United Fruit officials helped organize a coup to replace Pres. Arbenz with Castillo Armas. Armas successor, Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes, was told by a Washington law firm that they had financed the coup and Armas’ successor was responsible for repaying the $1,800,000 still owed to them. Corcoran represented oil companies’ interests in offshore drilling operations in the S. China Sea. The Tenneco Company held 2 concessions in the Gulf of Siam between Thailand and Cambodia and was a client of Corcoran. (p.113-4)

Robert Lehmen was the director of both United Fruit and Pan Am Airlines. (p.114)

Itek (?), a CIA electronics firm, and Ling-Temco-Vought supplied electronics equip for electronic intelligence operations like Maddox and Pueblo. Intelligence technology in air transport became a major priority in the 1960s to help cover covert action. (p.115)

Nelson Rockefeller helped to sound the alarm of scarce raw materials in 1951. (p.115)

Air America, based in Taiwan, was a subsidiary firm of Air Asia and the chief airline serving the CIA. (p.123)

Claire Chennault’s Flying Tigers, or American Volunteer Group (AVG), was a private air force formed to support Chiang Kai-shek against the Japanese during WWII. Chennault recruited pilots for Central Aircraft Manufacturing Co Federal Inc (CAMCO), owned by William Pawley, a former salesman for Curtis-Wright Inc, an aircraft manufacturer, and head of Pan Am’s Subsidiary in China. The contract was held with China but was paid for by funds supplied by the US Gov. through lend-lease programs. Curtis-Wright was able to unload 100 P-40 pursuit planes considered obsolete. CAT was formed through airlifting relief supplies to China. The relief agency that supplied Chennault’s contracts and planes, UNRRA, is rumored to be funded by drug money supplied by Madame Chiang and brother TV Soong. In 1950-1 CAT was contracted to airlift supplies to Korea. (p.125-6)

Union Oil, now Unocal, held joint concessions with the Japanese Mitsui Oil Exploration Co. in an overlapping area in the gulf of Thailand and Cambodia. (p.167)

In a 1970 coup Lon Nol took power from Sihanouk in Cambodia. The new government led by Lon Nol and Sirik Matak began an immediate persecution of the Khmer Rouge and NLF troops. (p.168)

Chinese geologists conducted the 1st offshore geological survey for oil fields in Cambodia in the 1950s. The unresolved border disputes between Thailand and Cambodia that prevented leasing to foreign corporations for offshore drilling were resolved by the Lon Nol Government. (p.169)

The US Navy sponsorship of hydrographic and geomagnetic surveys in Indochina dates back to 1957. In Nov. and Dec. 1968 a seismic refraction oil exploration survey conducted around the S. Vietnamese island Poulo Panjang, south of Cambodia, was highly successful and generated a series of surveys conducted by the UN Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE). The majority of technical assistance for these surveys came from the US Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO). (p.169)

In 1970 Union Oil of CA took over many of the on-shore and offshore oil concession in Cambodia from the French. (p.170)

Between April-May 1969 US planes flown from S. Vietnam systematically defoliated 1/3 of Cambodia. The French owned rubber plantations were the hardest hit by the defoliation program. Rubber was the chief source of export revenue for Cambodia and pushed the country into an economic crisis that weakened the Sihanouk Government and forced it to accept US aid. The defoliation project was organized as early as 1964. (p.171)

In 1958-9 the CIA financed, equipped, and directed the military uprising of the Khmer Serei and Son Ngoc Thanh in Cambodia. During the 1960s Son Ngoc served as a contact for special operations and recruitment of paramilitary forces from the Khmer minority to be trained by the US Special Forces and later by Thai officers in Thailand. Tony Poe who spearheaded guerilla operations against Tibet and China 1958-70 also helped organize the Khmer Serie insurgents. The Khmer forces became a part of the CIDG or Mike force of ethnic minorities controlled by the Saigon based Studies and Operations Group (SOG or MACSOG) established by the CIA. The Khmer Serie coup involved members of Japanese secret societies in contact with the CIA. Joint oil concessions to US and Japanese oil companies were granted after the coup. (p.172-4)

In 1965 Sukarno was removed from power in Indonesia by a military coup after the announcement of a plan to nationalize the Indonesian oil industry. (p.175)

In 1964 Standard Oil of CA was held one of the largest interests of US oil firms in Indonesia and SE Asia. Standard Oil’s subsidiary Caltex accounted for 70% of Sumatran oil production. John A McCone held $1million of stock in Standard. (p.175)

Roosevelt’s 1903 order to the Navy to support the Panamanian revolution and succession from Colombia led to the implementation of the Canal Zone treaty. Panamanian businessmen, the French Panama Canal Co who worked with the NY investment banker firm J&W Seligman, and Washington lobbyists developed the treaty plan. Bunau-Varilla organized and financed the revolution and pressured Roosevelt to involve the Navy. (p.186)

The majority of deputy directors and directors of the CIA have come from NY legal and financial firms due to their expertise and ability to set up proprietaries and front companies for CIA operations. (p.187)

William Ray Peers, an OSS officer active in Burma and China, directed the front corporation Western Enterprise Inc in Taiwan to mask the launching of the KMT troops raids of Quemoy and Marsu. (p.187)

The CAT Delaware base, through its holding company Airdale Corporation and OPC funds, supplied Taiwan Commercial Airline CAT Co. Ltd (CATL) with pilots and personnel but CATL. CATL was organized by Claire Chennault in 1946 and incorporated in 1950 by US aviation law firm Pogue and Neal with KMT owners. CATL held accounts at the Kincheng Bank in Shanghai, an alleged money-laundering front for TV Soong. The Airdale Corporation, renamed Pacific Corp. in 1957, owned CAT/Air America and CAT’s subsidiary Asiatic Aeronautical Co. later renamed Air Asia. (p.189)

KMT Gen. Li Mi is the only major opium trafficker to be honored with a US Legion of Merit and Medal of Freedom. (p.191)

The Chinese Wa Kei secret society has a controlling interest in opium and gambling rackets. Chinese owners of tin mines in Malaysia contracted the Wa Kei triad army and the supporting KMT to restore security in the Malayan tin industry in 1954. The relationship of the KMT and Chinese secret societies dates back to 1927 when Chiang Kai-Shek was encouraged by foreign bankers to use the Green Gang break the communist insurrection in Shanghai. (p.193)

The Hip Sings and the Bing Kongs are Chinese secret societies or tongs that are extremely influential in the drug trade in the US and have international mafia connections. (p.193)

In 1950 Citibank was the largest shareholder of the Transamerica Corporation represented in the WCC. That year the WCC was involved in a soybean operation suspected of serving as a cover for sponsorship of unauthorized military activity in Taiwan in support of Chiang Kai-Shek. (p.197)

Many war lobbyists are intimately connected to a network of CIA proprietaries and organized crime. (p.198)

The Miami National Bank was identified in 1969 as conduit for black market money exported to Meyer Lansky’s Exchange and Investment Bank Geneva. (p.198)

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