Source: U.S. NARCOTICS CONTROL EFFORTS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
 
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDREDTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION

JUNE 30 AND JULY 15, 1987
 
PREPARED STATEMENT or LT. COL. JAMES Bo Gritz, USA (RET.)

Pages 22-23
 
Khun Sa's secretary then spelled out the name of Theodore Shackley, once the man in charge of all CIA covert operations, and a man who once in fact was considered for the post of Director of the CIA. According to Khun Sa, Shackley was a major player in the opium trade in the years 1965-1975. During part of this time, Shackley was the head CIA man in Vietman and Laos. According to Khun Sa, Shackley was also the head of the US involvement in the narcotics trade in Southeast Asia at this time.

Overseeing the financial side of this participation of our officials in drug smuggling was Richard Armitage. Armitage, who is now Secretary Weinberger‘s assistant for international security, worked in the Defense Attache Office in Saigon in the years 1973-1975. After the war, according to Khun Sa, Armitage became a major trafficker in opium in Bangkok between 1975 and 1979. His smuggling was conducted behind the front of an export company he set up in Bangkok.

Kung Sa‘s man further claimed that Shackley had needed a civilian to handle some of the dirty work and consequently had used Santo Trafficante as an agent. Trafficante was a Mafia boss in Florida and testified before Congress in 1978 concerning involvement in a botched CIA attempt to kill Fidel Castro. Trafficante died a couple of months ago in his sleep, following heart surgery.

Daniel Arnold, former CIA station chief for Thailand and Laos, became involved by using the profits generated by the smuggling to purchase weapons for anti-communist forces in Indochina, according to Khun Sa‘s secretary.

All of these claims, generally backed by a greater degree of detail than I have included here, can be found in the video tapes I have provided of my May 1987 meeting with Khun Sa.