NARCO-POLITIK: The Mafia, CIA, and Mena – Richard Brenneke’s Sworn Deposition

Source – performancetwo.com

– Richard Brenneke’s testimony is interesting in that it dovetails with what Georgia Durante has stated in The Company She Keeps, that her courier activities relating to money laundering for the Mafia [Mafia money from the Mafia to the CIA for laundering] transpired at Kennedy Airport in New York, and that some of that money originated at Mena. This historic testimony is presented here to answer those who blindly bash and trash the facts that Georgia Durante has told in her book. You can read the truth yourself here and in The Company She Keeps.

What follows is a transcript of Brenneke’s 21 June 1991 sworn deposition before Congressman William Alexander, Jr., and Chad Farris, chief deputy attorney general of Arkansas.

Mr. Alexander did the direct questioning and Bushman Court Reporting, Inc., did the recording.

“Joint Investigation by the Arkansas State Attorney General’s Office and the United States Congress:”

Q. And when you landed at Mena, what would be the disposition of the cargo?

A. On one or two occasions the cargo was taken off by people who were not residents of the Mena area and put into other aircraft which departed from there. However, the most frequent activity was that the aircraft would be unloaded in front of [deleted]’s hangers and it would be stored in the back of the hanger….

Q. And go back in your mind to the first trip you took and describe to me the disposition of the cargo; that is, the cocaine, once it returned to Arkansas, once it was delivered to Arkansas? And I am especially — I am particularly interested in the identification of persons other than [deleted]. You’ve talked about [deleted]. You’ve identified him. Can you identify other people who might have received this cocaine?

A. Yes. I can identify people who in fact received the cocaine, not “might have.” And —

Q. Can you tell us who they were?

A. I can tell you that they were members of John Gotti’s family in New York. One of them was an individual know[n] to me by the name of Sal Reale.

Q. Could you spell that name for us?

A. R-E-A-L-E. . . .

Q. Salvatore Reale?

A. Correct.

Q. And how did you know Mr. Reale?

A. Mr. Reale at that time was the Director of — I believe it was that time, was the Director of Security of Kennedy International in New York City.

Q. . . . Speak to the subject of your knowledge of Mr. Reale and his activities as the head of security at Kennedy? Tell us what you know about him and what he did?

A. Okay. Mr. Reale was a — was one of Mr. Gotti’s lieutenants. I watched the two of them interact. Mr. Gotti would provide directions, Mr. Reale would carry them out. It was his job to make sure that cargo being shipped through Kennedy was not lost, but properly located, and in some cases avoiding . . . the customs procedures.

Q. Are you saying that you saw Mr. John Gotti, the famous head of the organized crime syndicates, in New York together with Mr. Reale?

A. Yes, sir, I did.

Q. Where did you see them?

A. That was in New York City.

Q. . . . What was the occasion that permitted you to see them together, do you recall? A. I don’t recall the nature of it. I do recall that it was a private club that I was taken to, and I had an opportunity to meet with them at that time.

Q. And so — okay. Do you remember when it was you saw them together?

A. It was either late ’84 or early 1985. But in that three-or-four-month time span, it would have had to have been one or the other.

Q. Was your notice of Mr. Gotti and Mr. Reale in any way connected with your contractual job with the Central Intelligence Agency?

A. Yes. As far back as 1968 and early ’69, we had begun to launder money from organized crime families in New York. At that time, Mr. Gotti was an up-and-coming member of the families. I got to know them at that time. We used to wash their money out overseas and put it in Switzerland in nice, safe places for them.

Q. So you worked for Mr. Gotti as well as for the CIA?

A. Actually the CIA told me to do that on his behalf.

Q. So the CIA was in, would you say, partnership or association with Mr. Gotti?

A. Yes, sir. I would say a partnership.

Q. And can you describe the nature of that partnership?

A. Sure. The organized crime members had a need for two things: they needed drugs brought into the country on a reliable, safe basis; they needed people taken out of the country or people brought into the country without alerting customs or INS to the fact that they were being brought into the country; they also needed their money taken offshore so that it would not be subject to United States tax where they might have to declare its source. And so we performed these kinds of functions for them.

Q. Mr. Brenneke, are you saying that the CIA was in the business of bringing drugs into the United States?

A. Yes, sir. That’s exactly what I’m saying.

Q. And that they were in partnership with Mr. Gotti in this operation?

A. I would say that they worked with Mr. Gotti and his organization very closely. Whether it was a formal partnership, I don’t know. But there certainly was a close alliance between the two.

Q. All right. Now let’s go back to the Mena Airport in Arkansas for a moment. At a time when you saw Mr. Reale there, did he receive any of the shipment, the cargo of the drugs that you brought back from Panama?

A. He did not personally take any of the drugs. He did, however, see that they were transferred into aircraft and vehicles so that they could be moved off the field, and that was his function. His function was not to load the vehicles, but to see that nothing got lost on transit.

Q. Are you saying that drugs that you brought back from Central America to Mena were for the purpose of delivery to Mr. Reale, who was in the employ of Mr. John Gotti, the New York crime syndicate boss?

A. Yes, sir. I would say that.

Q. And Mr. Reale was there to manage the transshipment of those drugs?

A. From time to time there were other people from the family down there.

Q. Did you have any conversations with him about where he intended to take those drugs?

A. Yes, sir. I asked on more than one occasion where the drugs would be taken, and I was told the New York City area, specifically Kennedy International Airport.

Q. Now, do you have any knowledge of the CIA, quote, “black bag,” operations at Rich Mountain Aviation? . . . And maybe a more interesting way to ask that question would be, you knew that you were dealing with criminals; is that correct?

A. That’s correct, sir.

Q. You were dealing with criminals that were transporting and selling cocaine in the United States? . . .

Q. Now, did the Gotti organization, through Reale, pay money to the CIA for the drugs?

A. Yes, they did.

Q. Do you know how much money?

A. Firsthand knowledge, somewhere in the $50,000,000 bracket.

Q. How do you know how much money?

A. Because I banked that money for them in Panama City, and ultimately transferred it to other locations in Europe….

Q. Can you recall any conversations you had with any of the CIA agents about the money, and tell us the nature of that conversation, the scope of it?

A. Sure. When I found that we were bringing drugs into the United States, and that we were receiving money which was being put into accounts which I knew to belong to the United States Government, as I’d set them up specifically for that purpose, I called Mr. Don Gregg, who was a CIA officer with whom I was acquainted, and complained about the nature of what we were doing.

Q. Now, who is Mr. Don Gregg?

A. At that time, he was . . . Vice-President George Bush’s National Security Advisor. . . .

Q. And can you tell us what you remember about that conversation?

A. I surely can. I was told that it was not my business, what I was flying in and out of the country. That I was hired to do specific things, and if I would do those things and not pay any attention to anything else, we would all be very happy. I didn’t like that.

Q. Well, what else did he say?

A. Shut up and do your job.

http://www.performancetwo.com/testimony.htm

Related…

ARKANSAS GOVERNOR BILL CLINTON
PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH
CIA DRUGS FOR GUNS CONNECTION

By
Paul DeRienzo

An independent group of researchers in Arkansas are charging that Governor Bill Clinton is covering up an airport used by the CIA and major cocaine smugglers in a remote corner of the Ozark mountains. According to Deborah Robinson of In These Times, the Inter mountain Regional Airport in Mena,Arkansas continues to be the hub of operations for people like assassinated cocaine kingpin Barry Seal as well as government intelligence operations linked to arms and drug smuggling.

In the 1980’s, the Mena airport became one of the world’s largest aircraft refurbishing centers, providing services to planes from many countries.Researchers claim that the largest consumers of aircraft refurbishing services are drug smugglers and intelligence agencies involved in covert activities.In fact, residents of Mena, Arkansas, have told reporters that former marine Lt. Colonel Oliver North was a frequent visitor during the 1980’s. Eugene Hasenfus, a pilot who was shot down in a Contra supply plane over Nicaragua in 1986, was also seen in town renting cargo vehicles.

A federal Grand Jury looking into activities at the Mena airport refused to hand down any indictments after drug running charges were made public.Deborah Robinson says that Clinton had “ignored the situation” until he began his presidential campaign.” Clinton then said he would provide money for a state run investigation of the Mena airport. But according to Robinson, the promise of an investigation was never followed up by Clinton’s staff. In fact, a local Arkansas state prosecutor blasted Clinton’s promise of an investigation, comparing it to “spitting on a forest fire.”

Clinton’s involvement in the drug and arms running goes even further than a mere cover-up of the deplorable activities that went on, and are still going on, at the airport in Mena. A federal mail fraud case against an Arkansas pilot-trainer who participated in illegal arms exports to Central Americarelied on a key Clinton staffer as a chief witness. The case was dismissedfor lack of evidence when the CIA refused to allow the discussion of top secret information about the arms transfers.

Terry Reed, a former employee of the CIA’s Air America operation in Laos during the Indochina war, claims to have been recruited as a pilot trainer into the Iran operation by Oliver North. In an article written by David Gallis and published last year by Covert Action Information Bulletin, Reed said that in 1983 he had agreed to supply North’s operatives with “certain items.”

In pursuit of the Reagan administration’s Contra war against the Sandinistas, the CIA had planted mines in Nicaragua’s harbors. In 1984, Congress passed the Boland Amendment, which cut off US aid to the Contras. According to Reed, it was during this period that North aided him to become involved in a covert operation called “Project Donation”. Reed was told he would be reimbursed for supplying the Contras by insurance companies that were linked to North’s operation.,

Shortly afterwards, Reed reported the “theft” of Piper turbo-prop aircraft and he filed a $33,000 claim on which he eventually collected almost $7,000.

http://www.ncoic.com/clinton.htm