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John Kerry

Senator from Massachusetts who chaired the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations, investigating both BCCI and links between the Contras and cocaine trafficking with findings that were systematically suppressed.

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John Kerry is a former Democratic Senator from Massachusetts who chaired the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.1

BCCI Investigation

Kerry's subcommittee spearheaded probes of drug trafficking and money laundering, which veered into Manuel Noriega's financial dealings.2 He proposed a serious investigation of BCCI, but his efforts were initially brushed aside, leading him to believe there was a high-level cover-up.2

He was a key figure in pushing for investigations into BCCI's activities, despite resistance from government agencies. Kerry's subcommittee issued subpoenas for BCCI records and investigated the bank's secret ownership of First American Bank.3 He also questioned Richard J. Kerr, Acting Central Intelligence Agency Director, about the agency's knowledge of BCCI's operations.4

Kerry received money from Clark Clifford and Robert Altman, members of their law firm, during the same month that Jack Blum's contract with his subcommittee was terminated.5 He introduced a bill that would allow the government to revoke the license of any bank whose officials had been convicted of money laundering, known as the "death penalty bill," which was opposed by BCCI's lawyers.6

Contra Drug Trafficking Investigation

In 1987 and 1988, Kerry's subcommittee investigated links between the Contras and cocaine trafficking, with chief investigator Jack Blum uncovering direct connections.7 The committee took videotaped depositions from Contra leaders who acknowledged receiving drug profits with the apparent knowledge of the CIA. Drug dealers admitted under oath to giving money to the Contras and passed polygraph tests. Pilots admitted flying weapons south and cocaine and marijuana north.7

Norwin Meneses was an early target of the investigation, but the Justice Department stonewalled the committee's requests for information. Blum told Webb that he eventually gave up trying to obtain the records.7

Wanda Palacios and William Weld

In 1986, Kerry's staff interviewed Wanda Palacios, a Miami FBI informant who reported witnessing Southern Air Transport planes being loaded with cocaine and unloading guns in Barranquilla, Colombia. Kerry and an aide took her eleven-page statement to the Justice Department and met with William Weld, one of Attorney General Edwin Meese's top assistants. Weld "read about a half a page and chuckled" and said "this isn't the first time today I've seen allegations about CIA agent involvement in drugs." Weld stated that "while he couldn't vouch for every line in it, there was nothing in it which didn't appear true to him." When Palacios's allegations leaked, she was publicly dismissed as a crank.8

Suppression of Findings

Blum described how the investigation was systematically undermined: "We laid it all out, and we were trashed. We were totally hit by the leadership of the administration and much of the congressional leadership. They simply turned around and said, 'These people are crazy.' And they dumped all over us." The major newspapers largely ignored the committee's findings.7

Sources

  1. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 9. ↩
  2. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank. Random House, 1993, p. 26. ↩
  3. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank. Random House, 1993, p. 30. ↩
  4. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank. Random House, 1993, p. 89. ↩
  5. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank. Random House, 1993, p. 65. ↩
  6. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank. Random House, 1993, p. 370. ↩
  7. Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998. Prologue: "It was like they didn't want to know" ↩
  8. Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 13: "The wrong kind of friends" ↩

Connected to

Organization
Bank of Credit and Commerce International
The Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was a Pakistani-founded offshore bank that operated across 78 countries before its 1991 collapse exposed a decade-long conspiracy involving money laundering for drug cartels and intelligence agencies, illegal acquisition of U.S. banks, bribery, fraud, and arms trafficking, in what regulators called the largest bank fraud in history.
6 shared pages
viaWilliam von Raab · Robert Altman · Jack Blum · Richard J. Kerr · David L. Paul

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