IN HONOR OF EUGENE A.

TAFOYA, UNITED STATES

SPECIAL FORCES RETIRED.

(Reproduced With Permission)

In August of 1991, a friend and fellow investigative reporter, Joseph "Danny"

Casolaro, was executed at the Sheraton Inn in Martinsburg, West Virginia where he

had gone to meet a source in the infamous INSLAW case. Within days I made an

appearance on the television show "Inside Edition" and I was quoted in many

publications. In each and every case, I stated that Casolaro had been murdered

because of the stories he had been investigating.

September and October of 1991 were spent following up the leads Casolaro had

been sharing with me. During the confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas, I

was in Truckee, California meeting with the parents and sister of Fred Alvarez.

Fred Alvarez and two of his friends had been tortured and murdered in 1981

because Alvarez was meeting with the press and distributing documents proving

that the CIA had used the Cabazon Indian Reservation to support black

operations involving what later became known as the Iran Contra fiasco. During

these meetings I was given access to information known only to the CIA

controllers of the reservation revealing horrific details involving drugs for weapons

and money laundering for biological warfare weapons. I stayed at a motel outside

of Reno during the time of these meetings. While at the motel, I received three

death threats that necessitated the motel stationing a security guard outside of my

room.

When I returned home at the end of October 1991, I was still frightened and

nervous about the ongoing investigation. My document stash involving the CIA

operations now numbered in the thousands and increased daily.

Late one night, surrounded by paper, I received a phone call. At the other end of

the line was a male voice unknown to me. The man asked if this was Virginia

McCullough and I said, "Yes." What followed was one of the strangest experiences

of my life. The man began an angry monologue addressing some unidentified third

party. He stated that he was now my protector and if "they" didn't like it "they"

could come and get him and "they" would die like a dog at his feet. He finally

stopped talking and asked me if I knew who he was. I said, "no, I'm sorry I don't,

but are you mad at me too?" He identified himself as Eugene A. Tafoya and told

me to keep a lower profile and he would protect me. We talked for an hour and I

found out that Tafoya had worked as an intelligence agent under the direction of

"ex" CIA operative Edwin Wilson. Tafoya said Wilson had been in jail since 1982

because of lies told in Wilson's trial by CIA officials and federal prosecutors.

Tafoya told me to read the book "Manhunt" written by Peter Maas. He told me

not to believe Maas's conclusion about the events in the book; he stated that Maas

had never interviewed him to confirm the facts.

Tafoya told me the facts were as follows:

He had entered the armed forces as a Marine. He was "seconded" to Korea, and

was among the survivors of the history making, bloody fight at Pork Chop Hill.

After Korea, he decided to make service to his country both his life and career. He

joined the Army.

Tafoya was one of the first to wear the Green Beret, walking through Indochina

before most Americans knew it existed. He was part of the clandestine Phoenix

Project as an operations soldier, and his memories of the undefined final solution

to the Viet Cong initiative would add meat and bone to recently released, and

previously classified, documents regarding the work of American Special Forces in

Vietnam, Thailand and Kampuchea.

However, Tafoya's real ordeal did not begin until he retired from the Army and

became one of about a dozen Special Forces sergeants recruited by two CIA

operatives at Fort Bragg. These same two agents later became key figures in the

Iran Contra Affair, escaping both arrest and prosecution. These two CIA agents

were also responsible for arranging the same scam earlier in Indochina and through

Australia.

Tafoya's code name was "Casper" and he became a messenger and intelligence

operative for acknowledged CIA agent Edwin Paul Wilson, who was putting

together the arms sale later referred to as the "Libyan Affair". Tafoya believed

that this sanctioned CIA flirtation with Muammar Quadaffi was responsible for

putting both Wilson and Tafoya in jail. When the CIA-ordered Libyan Affair

became embarrassing and Wilson was arrested, the government used the Internal

Revenue Service laws to ensnare Tafoya. Wilson would not be the only sacrifice.

Tafoya is the only known Wilson agent to spend time behind bars and he believed

he was working for the CIA. The men who recruited Wilson and Tafoya were

acknowledged agents.

At Tafoya's trial in San Antonio, Texas for income tax evasion, the testimony

centered on a shadowy world of international intrigue that included little or no

testimony regarding unreported income. Tafoya's wife, who later divorced him

because of the trauma of his incarcer- ation and the fear of retribution from some

unknown evil, was

acquitted. He, however, was convicted. The tax returns in question were joint

filings. Tafoya was sentenced to federal prison in the early 1980's and upon his

release was escorted to Colorado to face spurious misdemeanor assault charges. At

this trial the alleged victim, a Libyan student, could not be found to testify. After

conviction and time spent in jail, the next stop for this former hero and CIA

operative was Ontario, Canada for trial in the fire bombing of a Jaguar owned by

an international arms dealer. Even with expert testimony from a former

comrade-in-arms that Tafoya was in Fort Bragg for a Special Forces Association

Convention the day of the bombing, he was still convicted. Tafoya spent almost

ten years in custody in Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Ontario,

Canada.

From 1991 until his death from testicular cancer caused by his four tours in Agent

Orange contaminated Vietnam, Tafoya and I corresponded often and talked by

phone at least two times a week. He was a patriot, a friend, a protector, and a

bona fide American hero who fought for the country whose government set him up

and jailed him for years. [Click here for correspondence in date order. One Two

Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine ]

When I remember my friend Eugene A. Tafoya, I recall the way he wanted to be

memorialized.

"At least, someday,

I will be able to say

I was proud of what I was...

A SOLDIER."

Posted in Honor of Eugene Tafoya.

copyright 2000

Virginia McCullough

http://www.newsmakingnews.com