Kerry's Probe
When Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts conducted a Senate probe and uncovered additional evidence of contra drug trafficking, The Washington Times denounced him, too. The newspaper first published articles depicting Kerry's probe as a wasteful political witch hunt. "Kerry's anti-contra efforts extensive, expensive, in vain," announced the headline of one Times article.
But when Kerry exposed more contra wrongdoing, The Washington Timesshifted tactics. In 1987 in front-page articles, it began accusing Kerry's staff of obstructing justice because their investigation was supposedly interfering with Reagan-Bush administration efforts to get at the truth. "Kerry staffers damaged FBIprobe," said one Times article that opened with the assertion: "Congressional investigators for Sen. John Kerry severely damaged a federal drug investigation last summer by interfering with a witness while pursuing allegations of drug smuggling by the Nicaraguan resistance, federal law enforcement officials said."
Despite the attacks from The Washington Timesand pressure from the Reagan-Bush administration to back off, Kerry's contra-drug investigation eventually concluded that a number of contra units - both in Costa Rica and Honduras - were implicated in the cocaine trade.
"It is clear that individuals who provided support for the contras were involved in drug trafficking, the supply network of the contraswas used by drug trafficking organizations, and elements of the contrasthemselves knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers," Kerry's investigation stated in a report issued April 13, 1989. "In each case, one or another agency of the U.S. government had information regarding the involvement either while it was occurring or immediately thereafter."
Kerry's probe also found that Honduras had become an important way station for cocaine shipments heading north during the contra war. "Elements of the Honduran military were involved ... in the protection of drug traffickers from 1980 on," the report said. "These activities were reported to appropriate U.S. government officials throughout the period. Instead of moving decisively to close down the drug trafficking by stepping up the DEA presence in the country and using the foreign assistance the United States was extending to the Hondurans as a lever, the United States closed the DEA office in Tegucigalpa and appears to have ignored the issue."
Drug Evidence
The available evidence now shows that there was much more to the contra drug issue than either the Reagan-Bush administration or Moon's organization wanted the American people to know in the 1980s. The evidence - assembled over the years by inspectors general at the CIA, the Justice Department and other federal agencies - indicates that Bolivia's Cocaine Coupgovernment was only the first in a line of drug enterprises that tried to squeeze under the protective umbrella of Ronald Reagan's favorite covert operation, the contra war.
Other cocaine smugglers soon followed, cozying up to the contrasand sharing some of the profits as a way to minimize investigative interest by the Reagan-Bush law enforcement agencies. The contra-connected smugglers included the Medellin cartel, the Panamanian government of Manuel Noriega, the Honduran military, the Honduran-Mexican smuggling ring of Ramon Matta Ballesteros, and the Miami-based anti-Castro Cubans with their connections to Mafia operations throughout the United States.
As Moon continued to expand his influence in American politics, some Republicans began to raise red flags. In 1983, the GOP's moderate Ripon Society charged that the New Right had entered "an alliance of expediency" with Moon's church. Ripon's chairman, Representative Jim Leach of Iowa, released a study which alleged that the College Republican National Committee "solicited and received" money from Moon's Unification Churchin 1981. The study also accused Reed Irvine's Accuracy in Media of benefiting from low-cost or volunteer workers supplied by Moon.
Leachsaid the Unification Church has "infiltrated the New Right and the party it wants to control, the Republican Party, and infiltrated the media as well." Leach's news conference was disrupted when then-college GOP leader Grover Norquist accused Leach of lying. (Norquist is now a prominent conservative leader in Washington with close ties to the highest levels of George W. Bush's administration.) The Washington Times dismissed Leach's charges as "flummeries" and mocked the Ripon Societyas a "discredited and insignificant left-wing offshoot of the Republican Party."
Despite periodic fretting over Moon's influence, conservatives continued to accept his deep-pocket assistance. When White House aide Oliver North was scratching for support for the Nicaraguan contras, for instance, The Washington Times established a contra fund-raising operation. By the mid-1980s, Moon's Unification Churchhad carved out a niche as an acceptable part of the American Right. In one speech to his followers, Moon boasted that "without knowing it, even President Reaganis being guided by Father [Moon]."
George H.W. Bush's Praise
By the late 1980s and early 1990s, The Washington Times was the daily billboard where conservatives placed their messages to each other and to the outside world.
In 1991, when conservative commentator Wesley Pruden was named the new editor of The Washington Times, President George H.W. Bush invited Prudento a private White House lunch. The purpose, Bush explained, was "just to tell you how valuable the Times has become in Washington, where we read it every day."
While the Moon organization was promoting the interests of the Reagan-Bush team, the administration was shielding Moon's operations from federal probes into its finances and possible intelligence role, U.S. government documents show. According to Justice Department documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, administration officials were rebuffing hundreds of requests - many from common U.S. citizens - for examination of Moon's foreign ties and money sources.
Typical of the responses was a May 18, 1989, letter from Assistant Attorney General Carol T. Crawford rejecting the possibility that Moon's organization be required to divulge its foreign-funded propaganda under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA). "With respect to FARA, the Department is faced with First Amendment considerations involving the free exercise of religion," Crawford said. "As you know, the First Amendment's protection of religious freedom is not limited to the traditional, well-established religions."
A 1992 PBSdocumentary about Moon's political empire and its free-spending habits started another flurry of citizen demands for an investigation, according to Justice Department files. One letter from a private citizen to the Justice Department stated, "I write in consternation and disgust at the apparent support, or at least the sheltering, of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, a foreign agent ... who has subverted the American political system for the past 20 years. ... Did Reagan and/or Bush receive financial support from Moon or his agents during any of their election campaigns in violation of federal law?"
However, all these U.S. citizen complaints were rebuffed.
South American Money
In the mid-1990s, more evidence surfaced about Moon's alleged South American money laundry.
In 1996, the Uruguayan bank employees union blew the whistle on one scheme in which some 4,200 female Japanese followers of Moon allegedly walked into the Moon-controlled Banco de Credito in Montevideo and deposited as much as $25,000 each. By the time the parade of women ended, the total had swelled to about $80 million. Authorities did not push the money-laundering investigation, apparently out of deference to Moon's political influence and fear of disrupting Uruguay's secretive banking industry.
Some Uruguayan politicians did protest, however. "The first thing we ought to do is clarify to the people [of Uruguay] that Moon's sect is a type of modern pirate that came to the country to perform obscure money operations, such as money laundering," said Jorge Zabalza, a leader of the Movimiento de Participacion Popular, part of Montevideo's ruling left-of-center political coalition. "This sect is a kind of religious mob that is trying to get public support to pursue its business."
Back in the United States, some of Moon's confidantes supplied more evidence of money laundering.
In the Shadow of the Moonsraised anew the question of whether Moon's money laundering - from mysterious sources in both Asia and South America - has made him a conduit for illicit foreign money influencing the U.S. government and American politics. Moon's spokesmen have denied that he launders drug money or moves money from other criminal enterprises. They attribute his wealth to donations and business profits, but have refused to open Moon's records for public inspection.
Given Moon's influence over the Republican Party - and The Washington Times' impact on U.S. national politics - House Speaker Hastert might want to investigate where Moon's money originates, assuming that Hastert is truly concerned about illicit foreign money entering the U.S. political process. It may be more likely, however, that Hastert simply wants to smear a liberal adversary.
This story was adapted from Robert Parry's forthcoming book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq. A 27-year veteran of Washington journalism, Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra scandal stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
