The last two days, I’ve been writing about allegations made by Representative Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania. His allegations have now been largely confirmed. The 9/11 Commission now admits that they were told about a secretive military intelligence unit called Able Danger, and that they were told that this unit had identified Mohammed Atta as a “potential danger” in 2000.
I don’t know why Weldon is a making such a stink about this right now. I’ve heard a lot of theories about why he is spotlighting this information. But, there is one thing that should be obvious to any observer, and that is that Curt Weldon has a raging hard-on for the CIA. I’m not sure how these latest revelations are embarrassing to the CIA. They tend to be embarrassing to the 9/11 Commission and the Pentagon, while leaving the CIA seemingly unscathed.
In any case, I thought you might want to know why Weldon hates the CIA so much. I think he blames them for his nephew’s death in Angola.
:::flip:::
If you are not familiar with the CIA’s efforts in Angola during the 1970’s and 1980’s, you can read a highly unsympathetic history here.
In June 1991, a C-130 on a CIA mission in Angola crashed, killing Curt Weldon’s nephew. The problem was that the plane belonged to the Department of Forestry, and was prohibited by law from operating outside our borders, unless the Pentagon specifically granted authorization for the flight.
A sitting member of Congress might reasonably expect to get some answers about whom his nephew was flying for. But, Weldon got stonewalled.
I don’t think he has been quite right in the head, ever since.
You can read about the astonishing story of Roy Reagan and his scam to enrich himself through a little noticed program called the Historical Aircraft Exchange Program.
February 24, 1997 Monday
Pg. B1
AIRCRAFT PROBE REVIVES MYSTERY OF CIA IN STATE
By Paul Brinkley-Rogers
A lawsuit and a federal investigation have breathed new life into a lingering mystery: Has the CIA been using Arizona aviation firms as fronts to conduct illegal operations in foreign countries? A Washington state lawyer who claims he flew for the CIA says so, as do two congressmen. Now, a Peoria man and a former U.S. Forest Service official are to go on trial in Tucson in April in connection with a plane-swapping scheme, which the congressmen claim was a ploy to aid the CIA. Federal prosecutors make no mention of the CIA in the case. But the Peoria man, Roy Douglas Reagan, asserts that the U.S. government is making him and co-defendant Fred Fuchs scapegoats to hide the CIA connections.
The case involves 28 military transport planes, 27 of which were overhauled during the swap at a Marana air park that contracts with the CIA to store andrepair planes. The air park, formerly owned by the CIA, now is owned by Oregon-based Evergreen International Aviation Inc. CIA officials will not comment. “I had no problem flying for the CIA, but I had a lot of problems breaking federal law to fly for the CIA,” says Gary Eitel, the Washington lawyer, adding that he flew CIA missions in the late 1980s.
The illegal actions alleged by Eitel involve plane swaps from 1988 to 1991,in which the federal government gave old military planes to private air-tanker firms in return for antique aircraft. The antique planes were valued at far less than the military ones, however, so the deal cost the U.S. government tens of millions of dollars, Eitel and others maintain. Eitel and two congressmen also allege that the CIA arranged to have the air-tanker firms’ planes flown on covert missions overseas, which would violate a law that prohibits ex-military planes from leaving the country without approval from the Pentagon.
One of the planes, a C-130, “ended up in the possession of drug runners,”states an internal government memo filed in the Tucson case. Eitel’s suit against operators of the swapped planes prompted the government’s criminal case in Tucson, Assistant U.S. Attorney Claire Lefkowitz said.
CASE BEGAN IN 1987
The roots of the case date back to June 1987, when Reagan first proposed to a Southern California air-tanker operator that it upgrade its fleet of dangerous old planes used to fight forest fires. Reagan, 56, specializes in helping private companies acquire surplus military aircraft. It was a time of crisis for the air-tanker industry, which every year contracts with the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to fight forest fires. Many of the firms were still using old ex-military C-119s, flying boxcars, that were crashing so often the government said it would no longer hire them, both sides in the lawsuit agree.
TIME OF FRUSTRATION
It was also a time of frustration for the CIA which, deprived of its wholly owned airlines like Air America and Southern Air Transport in 1975, wanted access to aircraft for ferrying troops and munitions to small wars around theworld, according to Eitel. Many pilots and owners in the air-tanker industry are former military aviators or had flown for the CIA during the Vietnam War. They are the typesthat the CIA often uses for covert gun-running missions, Eitel says. Court documents show that Reagan persuaded Fuchs, 57, a former Forest Service assistant director, to go along with a novel plan in 1987 that wouldrelease to private firms 28 planes — 23 Air Force C-130 Hercules and five Navy P-3A Orion anti-submarine aircraft.
In December 1987, the Forest Service told the Pentagon that there was areal need to upgrade its contractors’ air-tanker fleets. Reagan, who the government says posed as a Forest Service employee or consultant, proposed tothe Air Force and the Navy that they swap old military planes for historic planes suitable for museums. The plan called for the Department of Defense to release the airplanes to the Forest Service, which in turn would transfer ownership to the air-tanker firms. But the military, the government maintains, did not know the titles would be transferred to the civilian firms. And it didn’t know that Reagan himself would get cash and some C-130s from these companies for his services,the government says.
Six months later, Hemet Valley Aviation, based near Riverside, Calif., obtained the first of the aircraft, seven C-130s worth at least $2 million each, from Davis Monthan Air Force base near Tucson. Some had flown spy missions for the Air Force and were still equipped with electronic warfare gear, such as eaves dropping and radar-jamming equipment. In return, Hemet gave the Air Force six C-119s, worth $10,000 each, and oneAT-11, according to prosecutors. Five other firms made similar exchanges. Arizona firm wanted in A lone Arizona company, T&G Aviation, which flies from a strip on the Gila River Indian Community near Chandler, was not included in the deal by Reagan and Fuchs. However, its owner, Woody Grantham, heard about the swaps, and lobbied the Arizona congressional delegation hard to be included. Former U.S. Rep. John Jay Rhodes said he made calls to the Forest Service in Grantham’s behalf. Grantham ended up swapping two helicopters and two planes for three C-130s in 1991, and in a private deal paid Reagan $688,000 for two C-130s.
In April 1989, Eitel began flying DC-9s and Boeing 727s for Evergreen as an employee. But when he found out about the swapped planes, he says he refused to fly the missions. Evergreen declined to comment. Eitel contacted a Defense Department investigator and alleged that his employers and the air-tanker firms were flying C-130s out of Marana and other bases for the CIA under the guise of Forest Service contracts. The Defense Department began an investigation. More airplane swaps took place, but it is uncertain where all the planes ended up. A memo from a Department of Agriculture lawyer to a Forest Service official says that one of the C-130s “ended up in the possession of drugrunners.”
MUSEUM SHUNNED SWAPS
Problems with the exchanges eventually arose. The director of the Air Force Museum in Ohio shunned the swaps, declaring that they were illegal. In December 1989, the Agriculture Department’s Office of General Counsel issued an opinion saying the Forest Service lacked the authority to facilitate such swaps. Then, in May 1991, the National Air Carrier Association complained to the Forest Service that two of T&G Aviation’s C-130s had been spotted in Kuwait transporting equipment. T&G, which is mentioned in the Tucson case and is a defendant in an Eitel lawsuit in Oregon, did not return phone calls seeking comment. That complaint rang alarm bells because the law requires that ex-military planes like C-130s cannot leave the United States without the approval of the Pentagon.
The June 1991 crash in Angola of a C-130 that had been obtained by Reagansoured the deal further. Killed in the crash was ex-Navy flier Rob Weldon, a nephew of U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., a member of the House National Security Committee. The congressman soon maintained that the ill-fated flight and the aircraft swaps had all the hallmarks of a CIA scheme. He says he hopes the Tucson case explores that issue and sheds light on the death of his nephew.
Eitel, a former combat pilot in Vietnam who became a Texas lawman and anaviation lawyer, already was busy researching the plane swaps. In December 1991, he filed a complaint with the Inspector General maintaining that Reagan and Fuchs were conspiring to steal the C-130s and P-3As. In March 1992, the Inspector General began a formal probe into the Forest Service’s role in the exchange.
MCCAIN ALSO APPROACHED
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who like Rhodes had been approached by T&G to help it acquire planes, also was having doubts. An aide to McCain said the senator did not lobby for the Chandler company and that in October 1992 he wrote a letter to then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney urging a halt to C-130 transfers. In a court filing, however, T&G says McCain’s office did go to bat for the Chandler company and “the Forest Service then had a change of heart and suddenly found planes.” It was not until March 1994, according to court documents, that the Pentagon made a move, the same month the Inspector General asked for a probe of the scheme. Federal investigators were suddenly everywhere, interviewing Reagan, Fuchs, Eitel and scores of others, even a Saudi Arabian prince. In April 1994, in a rarely used legal procedure, Eitel filed the suit in Portland on behalf of the U.S. government seeking the civil prosecution of the air-tanker firms and Reagan and Fuchs. He sought the return of all the C-130s and P-3As, whose value he estimated at $80 million. His suit maintains that the CIA blessed the transfers. The General Services Administration declared in September 1995 that the swaps were illegal and told the Forest Service to recover all the aircraft, but it has not done so.
INDICTMENT RETURNED
Reagan and Fuchs were indicted by a federal grand jury in Tucson last June on charges that they conspired to steal government property. Reagan profited to the tune of $1 million, prosecutors claimed, and Fuchs improperly upgraded his pilot’s license to be able to fly certain planes. The two men pleaded innocent. Their trial is scheduled to begin this fall. Neither Reagan nor Fuchs will comment. But in a December hearing, Reagan testified that he was told by an investigator that Reagan and Fuchs would be scapegoats for the illegal swaps. Former Arizona U.S. Attorney A. Melvin McDonald, Reagan’s attorney, said he believes his client is merely a fall guy. The real intent of the airplane exchanges was to help the nation with its chronic shortage of first-rate firefighting aircraft, McDonald says.
The allegation that the CIA was involved is “laughable,” McDonald says. But recent developments have added fuel to Eitel’s argument. Rep. Charles Rose, D-N.C., has said in congressional hearings that he believes the “footprint” of the CIA was stamped on the deal so the agency could gain access to aircraft useful in the Middle East and Latin America. And on Dec. 29, the Justice Department lent credibility to Eitel’s civil suit by intervening. T&G has not been charged with any crime, although it also was sued by Eitel. It has argued in court filings that although it paid Reagan $688,000 for two C-130s, it was convinced he had proper title. It acknowledges that federal law restricted the use of former military planes to fight domestic forest fires. But it says its use of C-130s in places like Kuwait and France had State Department approval. The government since has moved to make it easier for air-tanker companies to acquire surplus military aircraft. In September, President Clinton signed into law a bill giving the Defense Department authority to transfer title of such aircraft to private firms. The stipulation would be that they remain in the United States to fight forest fires.
You can read more about this case here: