FEDERAL AGENTS AND OPERATIVES SENT TO PRISON TO PREVENT EXPOSING CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES BY HIGH-LEVEL GOVERNMENT PERSONNEL AND JUDGES

Although virtually unknown to the average uninformed American citizen, the United States does have its political prisoners. But instead of imprisoning these government agents and citizens for their political belief, they have become prisoners so as to silence their exposing of criminal activities by people holding key government positions.

This would include false charges and prison sentences to silence federal agents, such as FBI, DEA, INS, and others, from reporting their knowledge of drug trafficking by the CIA, DEA, and military, or any of the other scandals described in the author's two books, the third edition of Defrauding America and the third edition of Unfriendly Skies.

These falsely accused people have suffered great harm, as have their families. But also suffering from this standard practice, involving employees of the various divisions of the U.S. Department of Justice and cooperating federal judges and Supreme Court justices, are the American people. Because of these felony retaliation charges and offenses, the American people are kept uninformed of the criminal and subversive acts perpetrated against them, causing them to continue suffering the great harm that accompanies the various criminal activities detailed and documented in the author's two books.

Many of these victims are described in the author's books, and a sampling of these victims will be placed on this and related web sites from time to time. A few of them are listed here at this time, and include, for instance:

• Richard Taus. For ten years Taus was a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, working out of the New York City office. He held a commission in the U.S. Army reserve, and prior to that, he was a helicopter pilot and highly decorated officer in Vietnam. Many people had seen him on television in the mid-1970s as the concerned American who adopted a Vietnamese orphan. While investigating drug trafficking activities in the Pizza Connection drug cases with former U.S. Attorney Louis Freeh, he discovered and reported CIA involvement with organized crime in drug trafficking, and the drug activities that funded terrorist cells in the New Jersey and New York areas. Taus's bosses at the FBI, and Louis Freeh, covered up for these activities, and when Taus persisted in reporting the serious CIA involvement with criminal elements in drug trafficking, the standard procedure of filing false charges against him was put into place. Federal and then cooperating state officials in New York filed false charges against Taus and he was sentenced to 80 years in prison. The terrorist cells that continued functioning after Taus' activities were stopped included the terrorist cells that later bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, that initiated plans to place bombs on 11 U.S. airliners departing Far East locations, and terrorist cells believed involved in the September 11, 2001, terrorist hijackings.  Another web site provides additional information about this courageous person who became a victim of the corruption in government that he sought to expose.

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• Ronald Rewald. Rewald was the head of a large and secret CIA operation based in Honolulu in the 1980s. This is the operation that took over from the infamous CIA operation known as Nugan Hand Bank, which was staffed with many CIA officials and had offices throughout the world, and primarily the Far East. This operation included drug money laundering, helping to hide Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos' assets, setting up and funding secret bank accounts for some very well known U.S. political figures. When the cover was blown on the operation by a Honolulu television reporter, the CIA and Justice Department filed sham charges against the very loyal figure head, Ronald Rewald. Many things were done to make this cover-up succeed, including using the federal judge to block Rewald from having CIA personnel appear as witnesses and baring Rewald from introducing hundreds of documents showing he was a CIA agent. Rewald was then sentenced to 81 years for allegedly making off with large sums of money. This is the money that the CIA moved after its cover was blown. Rewald was involved in negotiations with Afghan Northern Alliance General Rashid Dostum in 1995, who was offering to give several dozen surface-to-air missiles to the United States that were being sought by Afghan terrorists. The refusal by CIA-FBI personnel enabled the terrorists to acquire the missiles several months before the downing of TWA Flight 800.

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• Stephen Crittenden. Crittenden was the head of a secret CIA airline for about 16 years. In the 1998 edition of Defrauding America, Crittenden details and documents how the CIA provided him with planes and money, had him carry drugs to and from various Far East locations in CIA-provided C-123s, and then when he was given C-130s, carrying drugs to the United States. A sworn affidavit given to Rodney Stich by Crittenden was entered in 1995 into a federal court proceeding in Phoenix, which details much of this activity. After Crittenden became concerned about the drug trafficking and shut down the airline, the CIA and Justice Department went after him, using the standard false charge routine, and sentencing him to federal prison.

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• Gunther Russbacher. Russbacher had a very long and colorful history with the CIA and Office of Naval Intelligence, much of it detailed in the 1998 Defrauding America. He was involved in the 1960s and 1970s in various covert activities in Europe and Vietnam, he helped set up the Medellin and Cali Cartels for the CIA, and were involved in many diverse operations in the covert agencies where compartmentalization is more normal.

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• Oswald LeWinter. LeWinter. is another long-time OSS and CIA operative whose covert activities, like Gunther Russbacher, crossed over into many highly sensitive areas. Because of his knowledge of highly sensitive covert activities that at best could be called, criminal, it became necessary to discredit him by falsely charging him with federal offenses and sending him to prison.

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• Lester Coleman. Coleman was a part-time agent for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), working in the Middle East under cover of the Christian Broadcast Network, in Beirut and Nicosia. He speaks many languages, including Arabic, and was especially useful in that area. During this activity, while working out of the DEA office in Nicosia., he discovered a drug pipeline orchestrated by the CIA and DEA, using Pan American aircraft out of Frankfurt. This drug pipeline was also composed of Lebanese and Syrian drug traffickers. It was this drug operation that made possible the placement of the bomb on board Pan Am Flight 103. After Coleman gave a sworn affidavit into the Pan American litigation, which showed that the CIA and DEA drug operation made possible the placement of the bomb on Pan Am Flight 103, the Justice Department gang started their usual sham charges, falsely charging Coleman with a passport violation.

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• John Carman. Former Secret Service and U.S. Customs agent, he was harassed and prosecuted after he persisted in exposing high-level protection of Mexican drug trafficking. He is described in Drugging America book.

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• James Douglas Alexander, attorney in Montana, who was prosecuted by federal and Montana officials after he persisted in reported local, state, and federal government officials involved in drug trafficking from Canada into Montana. He is described in Drugging America book.

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• John "Sparky" McLaughlin, senior agent with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Narcotics, was repeatedly ordered to ignore drug trafficking and eventually suffered retaliation when he continued to carry out his official duties.

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• Joseph Occhipinti, senior agent for U.S. Customs in New York, suffered severe Justice Department retaliation after he continued to report heavy drug trafficking activities in the New York City area involving Dominican crime groups and drug money going to U.S. politicians. Among the people receiving funds from these drug activities were terrorist cells in the New Jersey and New York areas, including the terrorist cells that in 1993 bombed the World Trade Center, who initiated plans to place bombs on 11 U.S. airliners department Far East locations, and who are believed to have funded the September 11, 2001, terrorist hijackings.

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• Darlene Novinger, a beautiful contract agent for the FBI, who discovered links between a major Lebanese drug smuggling family and Vice President George Bush and his son, Jeb Bush, and who suffered retaliation after reporting what she discovered. Earlier, she discovered and reported drug offenses by five prosecutors in Pennsylvania's attorney general office, under Pennsylvania Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, who was later appointed Attorney General of the United States by the senior President George Bush.

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• Bradley Ayers, a veteran of the CIA's Cuba operations and later a contract agent for the DEA, who discovered CIA related drug smuggling and widespread cover-up of drug smuggling by groups working with U.S. government agents, and who suffered the usual retaliation through misuse of government power and government offices when he reported these matters. While working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), his group prepared a report showing that terrorists would probably use hijacked U.S. airliners to ram into prominent buildings. The report was--as is normal in U.S. culture--ignored.

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• George McCullough, a veteran Texas state investigator, who discovered and reported drug smuggling by key officers in the Texas National Guard, reported the cover-ups by U.S. agencies of drug smuggling involving the CIA and major Mexican drug cartels, and who suffered retaliation for making the reports.

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• Basil "Bo" Abbott, a pilot flying arms and drugs for the DEA and CIA during the Contra operation, who exposed intricate details of these matters.

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• James "Taus" Plumlee, who was a CIA asset  from 1956 to 1987, describes the CIA role in drug smuggling.

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• Gene Tatum, a helicopter pilot for the U.S. Army and the CIA, described details of the drug smuggling, the involvement of Oliver North, Arkansas state police, and others. 

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• Rumaldo Salis. Salis was a 15-year-veteran of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), was falsely charged and sent to prison to silence his reporting of the DEA involvement in a major drug smuggling operation along the Texas-Mexican border where a Texas-based DEA officer, allegedly in charge of the smuggling operation, killed a Mexican laborer who had found the DEA officer's wallet and identification. As standard practice, Justice Department and other federal law enforcement personnel, and members of Congress, covered up for these crimes, causing them to become criminally implicated.

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• Michael Riconosciuto. Riconosciuto was a CIA operative working on various deep-cover operations, including those occurring at the Cabazon Indian Reservation in California. He discovered secret and felonious acts by officials in the Reagan Administration, including the Inslaw matter (described in Defrauding America). When he was ordered to give testimony about the Inslaw matter to a closed-door Congressional group, he was threatened with retaliation by a Justice Department official. After giving the testimony, the threats were carried out, and Riconosciuto was falsely charged with drug offenses and is now in federal prison on a long prison sentence. Some of those implicated in the Inslaw matter and false imprisonment of Riconosciuto are now in key judicial and other government positions.

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• Rodney Stich. Former federal air safety inspector, responsible for air safety at United Airlines' most senior program during a period of repeated fatal airline crashes, including a crash into New York City that was the world's worst at that time. His attempts to carry out the federal government's air safety responsibilities in the face of a culture of internal corruption resulted in the usual retaliation. As he sought to report these tragedy-related criminal activities to a federal court, he suffered further retaliation from federal judges and Justice Department prosecutors. This retaliation is detailed in the books, Unfriendly Skies and Defrauding America, and in a federal lawsuit that continues the pattern of judicial obstruction of justice and judicial retaliation. End result: September 11, 2001 terrorist hijackings, prior fatal hijackings, and many other tragic consequences from the corruption and the duplicity of cover-ups by virtually every government and non-government check and balance.

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This is a partial list of the political prisoners who made the mistake of reporting criminal activities implicating key people in government and covert operations that were crimes against the United States and its people. Most of these people have provided years of information and documentation to former federal agent Rodney Stich, which can be found in his various books: Defrauding America, Drugging America, and Unfriendly Skies. More people will be added as time permits. 

This information should be part of a continuing course on the culture of corruption in the U.S. government and how the American people, by their state of denial, have suffered the consequences of this endemic criminality.

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