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Cia Snuffs Heroin Probe

Cia Snuffs Heroin Probe image
Parent Issue
Day
18
Month
August
Year
1972
OCR Text

The New York Publishing firm of Harper and Rowe will publish a book on the heroin and opium trafficking in Southeast Asia–over the strong objections of the CIA.

THE POLITICS OF HEROIN IN SOUTHEAST ASIA was written by researcher Alfred McCoy. The ClA's General Counsel Lawrence Houston contacted Harper and Kowe last month to obtain a copy of the work. And then, on July 28th, Houston wrote to the publishers, urging them not to publish the book, which implicates CIA operatives in opium-smuggling activities. Houston insisted that publication of McCoy's work would (quote) "Do a vice in the fight against narcotics trafficking in southeast Asia."

Author McCoy has charged that CIA agents have "harassed" both the publishers and him personally with a series of visits, phone calls and letters. The author said his book documents the movement of opium from the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia with the use of CIA equipment and men. He said the agency admitted in its criticism of the book that one of its mercenary army commanders, Laotian General Chao La, had maintained a heroin laboratory in Northwest Thailand between 1966 and 1971–with a full knowledge of CIA officials.