Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 3 Num. 18

("Quid coniuratio est?")

CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING THE DEATH OF COLONEL JIMMY SABO

Tom Valentine's guest on Radio Free America (Shortwave, 5.065 MHz, mon-fri, 9 pm cst) on November 14, 1994 was private investigator Gene Wheaton. Mr. Wheaton has been looking into the suspicious death of the late Colonel Jimmy Sabo. Following is my transcription of that interview.

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[...continued...]

TOM VALENTINE:
Now who are his superiors, then? These guys have to be under suspicion.

GENE WHEATON:
Well they were. The commanding general and the chief of staff were both forced into retirement over this thing. And...

VALENTINE

That's a pretty easy way out!

WHEATON

Oh yeah. Well it had to go quietly because there was such a scandal involved in this whole operation.

VALENTINE

Yeah, but you see what a strange country we have? We get a huge media coverage over some females complaining about being manhandled in a hotel with a bunch of Navy fliers, and it covers the media for months and years; we get some men who are killers and murderers and dope peddlers and everything else, with a Marine Corps uniform, and we don't get any coverage.

WHEATON

Well that's the, the turning the American public's brain to cottage cheese so they don't look at the big issues. One of the major covert operations these guys in Washington had going (and again, this is sort of the "lunatic fringe"; it's not the mainstream people. Because the mainstream CIA and Pentagon people do not agree with what's going on.) They set up an operation called "Operation Screw Worm", built this secret airbase down on the Mexican-Guatemalan border and were moving weaponry down to Peru, and being... ostensibly to furnish to the Peruvian government to fight "Shining Path" revolutionaries and the drug smugglers. But in fact, when the consignments would get down there, the covert operators would break 'em up, sell to both sides to keep agitation going and to keep the business of covert operations and weapons movements viable. It's the entire covert operations sub-culture, and the movement of weapons around the world. And these paramilitary, low-intensity conflict operations are strictly business with these men. It's...

VALENTINE

...I...

WHEATON

They don't want to go back home and run a 7-11 store.

VALENTINE

I've heard that story so many times. And it's so true, I believe.

My guest is Gene Wheaton. The subject: the death of Colonel Jimmy Sabo, and the Marine Corps base at El Toro being involved, and this kind of drug smuggling operation. I'm Tom Valentine, this is Radio Free America.

[...break...]

We are back, live. We're talking with Gene Wheaton, [an] investigator that's been a guest on this show before and probably the most credible of among all the investigators into the corruption that we've found in this country. Gene, I have to say that, personally, I find you one of the most credible in the country. And I certainly respect what you are doing.

WHEATON

...I appreciate that.

VALENTINE

Now. If anybody wants to join us out there, you can call in -- questions, comments -- 1-800-878-8255. You don't have to, but if you'd like to, you may. 1-800-878-8255.

Before I go any further: 32 C-130 planes. That's a lot of big planes. And how big is a C-130?

WHEATON

Well it's the huge, 4-engine, turbo-prop that you see, painted olive-green, that goes into war zones all over the world. It's the work horse of the U.S. military.

VALENTINE

Yes, and it carries an awful lot of cargo.

WHEATON

It can haul tanks. It can haul, I don't know, 50, 60, 80 thousand pounds of cargo. It's the real work horse, going clear back to the Vietnam War.

VALENTINE

And they cost a lot of money to build.

WHEATON

They cost over $10 million to build. And even these used ones were worth well over 5, 6, 7 million dollars apiece. And they, they... The covert operators laundered these through the Department of Agriculture with phony papers showing that they were gonna be water droppers for the forestry service. And then they wrote them off as scrap metal at $15,000 apiece and gave 'em to the covert operators.

VALENTINE

Was that ever investigated in Congress? The fact that somebody laundered this much hardware through the Agriculture Department?

WHEATON

Yes. Congress... While I was in the middle of the Sabo investigation, congressman Charlie Rose of North Carolina contacted me, and asked me to assist his office in looking into these claims, and sent me the files on them -- which I researched. And that's how we tracked some of these airplanes back to the Marine Corps air station at El Toro, and down to the Gulf War. I've photographed half a dozen of 'em out here on the west coast for the congressman.

VALENTINE

Was Mr. Hasenfus in one of them?

WHEATON

No, Hasenfus was in a C-123 that...

VALENTINE

...Oh.

WHEATON

...came out of the same group. But that was years before. These all were stolen between 1988 and 1991.

VALENTINE

Oh, these came in the Bush watch.

WHEATON

Yeah. And there's a whistle blower pilot up in Oregon, who has filed a whistle blower lawsuit, who can, you know, recover a certain amount if he discloses corruption and loss of funds for the government. That case has been in federal court under seal, and it was just unsealed in the federal court in Portland, Oregon, Friday, November the 4th. And he and I have been sharing information on this case. And he's testified before the congressional committees on them.

VALENTINE

I'd love very much to have him come aboard as a guest, because this show is heard in Portland, Oregon.

WHEATON

I think that he would be willing to do it. And his name is Gary Eitel -- E-i-t-e-l.

VALENTINE

Well I will get that contact from you, off the air. I appreciate it very much.

So. We know that Jimmy Sabo was murdered. Are we going to be able to level any murder charges?

WHEATON

Well, the... After I went back to Washington the second or third time and briefed the Department of Defense, Criminal Investigation Service, and the inspector-general's office, they re-opened the case. But it appears, on the surface, that they're more interested in, I guess you might call it "damage control" or limiting the embarrassment to the government. Because the last time they were out here, two or three weeks ago, they sent a team out to interview me, they interviewed people here in southern California. They went up to South Dakota and interviewed Colonel Sabo's brother, Dr. David Sabo, who is a world famous neurologist (and he's my client). And they refused to discuss the circumstances of the murder, for 2 days interviewing him, and a day interviewing me, stating that all they were interested in was what we knew about covert operations and who our sources were.

VALENTINE

Well that, that is a real tip-off! Isn't it?

WHEATON

Yes, it is. The sad thing is, the head of that team is a 30-year friend of mine who served with me in C.I.D. [Army, Criminal Investigations Division], and now he's a civilian in D.O.D. [Department of Defense] that has to serve his civilian masters. So he's...

VALENTINE

He's not very happy with what's going on, is he?

WHEATON

No, he's not. But he's limited in what he can do.

VALENTINE

Gene, I understand (and you're a fellow that's close to this), I understand that there is a great deal of "resentment" (for want of a better word) among truly patriotic, hard-working Americans, who have been watching this kind of thing for years and years in the government.

WHEATON

That's absolutely true. In fact, when I first got involved in the investigation of the Iran-Contra affair, it was because a group of very dissatisfied Pentagon officials and CIA officers came to me (as I was already retired from military), and they were in the service of the government and they said, "We can't do anything or we will destroy our careers and hurt our families. But will you do it for us?" And that's where I networked in and started my investigations of all this stuff.

VALENTINE

Yes, you have been in it a long time.

All right! My guest is Gene Wheaton, an investigator extraordinaire, if the truth be known. Probably knows much more than he can tell. 1-800-878-8255, if you'd like to join us. I'm Tom Valentine, this is Radio Free America.

[...commercial break...]

O.K. We are back, live. My guest is Gene Wheaton. He is an investigator. He has had many, many years of experience, and plenty of credentials to do what he does.

And you actually got recruited by military buddies of yours when you were out of the military. And [you] started lookin', back in the days of Iran-Contra.

WHEATON

That's correct.

VALENTINE

I remember the last time you were on. You said something about helping "The Opponents for Ollie North". Well Ollie North got beat. Can you take any credit?

WHEATON

I certainly sit back here very pleased that he got beat. I... The man is part of that "lunatic fringe". I equate him to corporal Adolph Hitler, before the German government was taken over. They really want a secret police state! He and his little fringe group that he runs with. And I, I did what I could. They started a disinformation program about 30 days before the election, to try to get the national media to stop talking to me. But I was in there working, to the last day.

[...to be continued...]

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Brian Francis Redman bigxc@prairienet.org "The Big C"

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