The Franklin Files

by John W. DeCamp

Selected excerpts from

The Franklin Cover-Up, Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska
by Senator John W. DeCamp

[editorial notes from Ken Adachi in brackets]

CHAPTER 21

Drugs and The Monarch Project
On August 18-20, 1996, a California newspaper, the San Jose Mercury, published a series of articles implicating elements of the U.S. government in running tons of cocaine into U.S. cities during the 1980s. Based upon recently declassified government documents, eyewitness reports, and court records, Mercury reporter Gary Webb provided a detailed account of how the Contras financed their war against the Sandinista regime of Nicaragua by flying tons of cocaine into the West Coast, where it would be turned into the deadly, instantly addictive "crack," and sold to such street gangs as the Cryps and the Bloods.

All of this began after the U.S. Congress in the early 1980s passed the Boland Amendment, which stopped all official financing for U.S. intelligence's "covert war" in Nicaragua. The whole project was taken "off-line," and financed by drug sales-the subject of Webb's articles.

Indignation exploded when Mercury series hit the streets. Maxine Waters, Congresswoman for South-Central Los Angeles, one of the areas hardest hit by crack and drug-related violence, sent a letter to Central Intelligence Agency chief John Deutsch demanding an investigation of the Agency, in which she said, "As someone who has seen how the crack cocaine trade has devastated the South-Central Los Angeles community, I cannot exaggerate my feelings of dismay that my own government may have played a part in the origins and history of this problem. . . . The impact and the implications of the Meneses/Blandon/Roiss Contra CIA crack cocaine connection cannot be understated. We all have an obligation to get to the very bottom of the origin, development, and implementation of this seedy enterprise."

While many were shocked at the news of apparent U.S. government drug-pushing, to me it was one more confirmation of a key aspect of the Franklin case. As I had discovered early on (as had Gary Caradori), the sexual abuse of children was only one part of the Franklin story. During the 1980s, many of the children, such as Alisha Owen and Paul Bonacci, said that they had been used as drug couriers to bring cocaine in from the West Coast for Alan Baer, Larry King [not Larry King of CNN talk radio fame; this Larry King is a black man who ran the Franklin Credit Union], and others.

Then, on September 11, 1996, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Representative Harold James, chairman of Pennsylvania's Legislative Black Caucus, and a former undercover narcotics cop himself, also put out a call for an investigation. In the course of that press conference another name popped up, that I knew well from the Franklin investigation: George Bush.

Flanked by political leaders of both the city and the state, James declared: "As a retired undercover Philadelphia police officer who worked on narcotics cases, I know we can better impact the flow of drugs if we stop drugs from coming into this country, arrest those at the top levels of control, and punish the white-collar dealers who try to keep their hands clean while they run the entire operation. On this occasion, we must not allow anyone to use the 'pretext of national security to accomplish another cover-up. We need an investigation that goes right to the top."

As to where the "top" might be, James charged, in his release to the press, "previous investigations of the Iran-Contra scandal, particularly the U.S. House and Senate joint hearings in 1987, revealed the central role played by then Vice-President George Bush in covert intelligence operations. . . . One of Bush's key lieutenants was Lt. Col. Oliver North. Bush was also appointed by Reagan to run the National Narcotics Border Interdiction Sys- tem, which supposedly coordinated efforts of all federal, state and local anti-drug agencies, especially along the south Florida coast. Bush was responsible for the White House anti-drug effort while, at the same time, according to the recent newspaper reports, tons of cocaine were allegedly supplied to street gangs by CIA-related networks."

Concluded James, "There's something wrong with this picture." In response to a question from one of the ten reporters in attendance about the role of Bush, Philadelphia City Council President John Street replied, "If George Bush is involved in it, someone should find it out. This kind of activity has been going on for well over a decade."