Abbreviated transcript of Gene Tatumīs appearance on the Rob Lorei radio show, "Radio Activity" on WMNF, out of Tampa, Florida.

ROBERT LOREI: Good afternoon. This is " Radio Activity".
Iīm Robert Lorei. In the Hillsboro(sp?) County jail right now is a man who says heīs been involved in covert operations since the mid-1970s; that he has knowledge of drug smuggling by employees of the U.S. governement; and that he was once assigned the task of assassinating politicl figures, "including", he says, orders to assassinate Ross Perot in 1992. Weīre joined now by Gene Tatum, whoīs speaking to us from the Morgan Street jail in Hillsboro County. Gene Tatum, welcome to WMNF.
GENE TATUM: Good adternoon.
RL: Good afternoon. Was I accurante in the introduction?
GT: Yeah, I would say so. I would like to qualify the Ross Perot portion of it. The unit that I was working with is code named "Pegasus". By the time a mission comes to us, weīre ordered to "neutralize". Now we can neutralize in any of three methods: trough intimidation, blackmail, or "termination".
RL: Was it clear what method they were advocating?
GT: They pretty well leave it upp to us.
RL: Letīs start with the first thing: youīre in Hillsboro County jail. Youīre awating sentencing of federal charges. What were the the charges?
GT: In 1991, I was approached by a person, who Iīd had previous dealings with, to manage a golf course for the federal governement. I guess it had gone into receivership and the bank had gone under, and the FDIC had taken that property over, in Hutchin(?), Florida. I managed the property. I guess I stayed at the property for about nine months. But through the management portion… I think early in the program (if anyone heard "Democracy Now"), I had to chuckle a little bit because the CEO of Bell Industries talked about governement contracts and the difficulty in dealing with the governement. One of the prime difficulties is getting the governement to pay their bills on time. I was there four month and they hadnīt paid a bill yet. So I began taking the monies out of the cash register - paying the bills on behalf of the governement, that the governement had accrued to small contractors, small equipment rental places and so forth, that canīt afford to go unpaid for four months. So what I did is, I began paying them. That was contrary to the contract, so by doing that I "defrauded the goernement of the use of those funds" - is the way the statement was written.

RL: I see. So instead of sending the money back to Uncle Sam, you were paying the local suppliers, local businesses, that your golf course relied on.
GT: Correct.
RL: And what about pocketing any money: were you convicted of taking anny money for your personal use?
GT: No. We (Tatum and his wife) werenīt convicted of embezzling at all. We were convicted of whatīs called "conspiring to embezzle".
RK: How much money are we talking about?
GT: Of "conspiring to embezzle"? Actually I ended upp paying $20,000 of my own money.
RL: I mean, how much money did you divert from cash register to local businesses? What was the amount that you were convicted on?
GT: I think around $40,000.
RL: When does your sentencing come upp?
GT: August 28th (1996).
RL: And how much time "could" you spend in prison if your sentence is harsh?
GT: My maximum sentences is 30 years.
RL: Do you feel like this (charge) was in relation for anyting that youīve done in the past?
GT: Absolutely. In 1994 I received a phone call from Oliver North, Felix Rodriguez and William Colby, telling me to turn over certain documents that I had recorded yers ago - "or else," is the way it was put. I refused to do that, knowing that turning those documents over would probably result in the "termination" of me.
RL: "Termination" in the most extreme way?
GT: In the absolutely way.
We moved 2 tons of cocaine
RL: What were these documents that they wanted?
GT: We have (I say "we" because itīs documents held by the flight crews who were involved in this) documents showing the movement of cocaine, the manufacturing of cocaine, by Oliver North and a company called "Enterprise" that he headed up. We moved, probably, about 2 tons of cocaine out of Nicaragua and Honduras, to Panama, on board military aircraft - being told the whole time that these were "fruits of war" that were confiscated from the Sandinistas. (Itīs interesting that just recently Costa Rica has issued a "persona non grata" against Oliver North for the trafficking of cocaine. If he shows up in that country, heīll be arrested).
RL: How do you know cocaine was on board? Did you actually "see" the cocaine?
GT: I was tasked on February 26th, 1958, to fly… I was a Special Operations pilot out of the 160th Aviation Group, Fort Campbell, Kentucky. I was sent to Fort Stuart, Georgia, to infiltrate the MEDEVAC unit and work directly for my handlers, the CIA handlers, wich were Amiram Nir and Felix Rodriguez and Oliver North. On February 26th I picked up two passengers, "Buzz" Sawyer and Bill Cooper, and I flew them to a Contra camp, under the MEDEVAC disguise. We had to use MEDEVAC because the Boland Amendment came out in the mid-80s that didnīt allow the United States to participate in any way, other than humanitarian, to support the Contras.
Under the MEDEVAC flag, we would fly many, many - hundreds of hours of - missions: intelligence gathering, delivering arms, and so forth. On this particular day I flew "Buzz" Sawyer and Bill Cooper. And these are the two gentlemen who crashed in 1986 - in October of 1986 - that started the Iran-Contra scandal. I flew them. They were arranging for air drops of arms into Nicaragua. When we "left" the camp, we picked upp two coolers, two large, white coolers. (These coolers are the same kind of coolers that, by the way, I delivered to several sites in Arkansas. Large, white coolers, the same as these, weighing about 200 pounds.)
When we landed, after we picked up these particular coolers from a Contra camp and landed in La Mesa, Honduras, to drop off our passangers and to give these coolers to a C-130 bound for Panama, we picked the coolers up out of the aircraft and we dropped one and the seal came loose. The coolers were marked "vaccine". However inside there were over 100 keys of cocaine.
RL: What happened to the coolers once you dropped them on the ground? Where did the go?
GT: They got re-sealed real quick after we saw what they were. We gave them to the C-130 pilot. I asked him what his destination was and who intended on passing these off to. He told me that this manifest showed that the coolers went to a "Dr. Harari" in Panama. Now "Dr. Harari" is Mike Harari. Heīs a Moassad agent who was assigned to General Manuel Noriegas as one of his counselors.
We have video tapes of Mr. North
RL: But the drugs were headed northward, werenīt they? From Nicaragua to the U.S.?
GT: No, they were headed initially to Panama. From Panama they were distributed throughout the United States and to other destinations.
RL: So you had documentation. Does that documentation still exist somewhere?
GT: It does. We also have video tapes of Mr. North and others standing in the middle of a "cocain kitchen" while the cocaine is being packaged.
RL: And why was Mr. North there?
GT: During the Iran-Contras era there were many camps known as "the North camps". People think that that means they were in the northern part of Nicaragua and Honduras. Thatīs not true. Those were the camps built by Oliver North. They were built primarily to manufacture drugs.
RL: So tell us more about these Oliver North "camps". It seems pretty hard to imagine that Oliver North, who was a White House aide, had the time to go down and do all this: to set up these camps and to be so involved in what you say is cocaine smuggling when, I think it was the Kerry Commission looked into this, and others, and nobodyīs found the hard proof. Thereīs been some witnesses who had come forward to make these allegations in the past. But nobody has come upp with a video tape or anything like that.
GT: Thatīs interesting. And let me qualify that Commissions task: those commissions were tasked with looking at the arms sale and the illegal cover up of information on that. They were not tasked to look into drug activity.
RL: So if these video tapes exist and if the flight records exist, why not just release them and make them public?
GT: Because the video tapes exist showing other people, along with Mr. North. If I were to release those tapes - the 1994 call to me threated my children. (I have four children, who live with their mom). I will not allow that to happen. I donīt mind exposing Mr. North, Mr. Rodriguez. Mr. Nir can no longer be exposed because I was tasked with eliminating him in 1988.
RL: Okay, letīs talk about that. Amiram Nir is an Israeli intelligence person. And Iīm not sure whether he worked for the governement or not. Tell me more about Amiram Nir.
GT: He was the Prime Minister of Israelīs primary consultant on terrorism. He was associated with Israeli intelligence. Iīm not going to say it was Mossad. It was Israeli intelligence of some sort - because of his knowledge.
And when you say "Mr. Northīs time to build these camps". He designated that to General Alvarez of Honduras - he was the army Chief of Staff - and to Enrique Bermudez(sp?), the commander of those North camps. "They" actually built those camps.I think I saw Mr. North one time in Honduras - no, twice. Iīm sorry.
RL: So in terms of "taking out"Amiram Nir, what was your role in that?
GT: I was to fly a 4-man team to a southern Mexico town, outside of Morelia. Mr. Nir was involved in an avocado packing plant which, I donīt know if it did or didnīt package avocados, or packaged something else. I was not involved in that. I "was" involved in eliminating him before he could appear before the commissions to testify in 1989.
I flew a 4-man team in. There was a radio beacon put in, with frequency given to us, put on Mr. Nir. We triangulated the position. The 4-man team went to that position to eliminat Mr. Nir. However apparentley there were two signals, and one was in an aircraft, a small aircraft. I think it was a Cessna T-210, a small, charter aircraft.
When I fly a mission as a combat helicopter pilot, into foreign country, we normally fly in whatīs called "the Archer Mode", wich is an armed mode. We would fly an aircraft with full Stingers on one side of the pod, and we would fly a, about a one-quarter to one-third charged missiles on the right side of the aircraft, so that we could scare away base aircraft based in the country that we were in, rather than shoot them down. We would rather scare them away than shoot them down. Unfortunately, this missile, the proximity missile that I fired, took down the aircraft and killed two people on board.
He was prepared to implicate the Vice-President
RL: And one of them was Amiram Nir?
GT: Thatīs correct.
RL: The shoot-down took place at a time when the Iran-Contra scandal was on the front pages of Americas newspapers, right?
GT: Thatīs right.
RL: So whatīs your theory about why your superiors wanted him "taken out"?
GT: I belive that he could have provided embarrassing information about the involvment of Mr. Harari, directly linking, probably, Israel, to the manufacturing and trafficking of cocaine. I belive that he could implicate the Vice-President of the United States, George Bush, in the trafficking of cocaine. And I belive he could implicate serveral others, including Mr. North. And I belive that he was prepared to implicate them.
RL: Who ordered you to "take out" Amiram Nir?
GT: It came through Major Rodriguez, who actually ended up being Felix Rodriguez. Most of the orders that we would receive would come through that particular mode. Now this, you have to understand, was after Iran-Contra. So the order came from Rodriguez, but it was actually from George Bush.
RL: Now how do you know it was from George Bush?
GT: Because I spoke to Mr. Bush concerning it.
RL: And how did you speak to him? Did you speak to him face-to-face?
GT: Via land line.
RL: And what did he tell you?
GT: He explained to me that Mr. Nir was a threat, that he was trying to expose the movement and the trafficking, and that needed to be "taken out". And he told me to pick upp my Archer Team, relocate to El Salvador, that tactical fuel (unclear) and tactical beacons would be set up. I was to move my aircraft to those beacons for re-fueling, and eliminate Mr. Nir.
RL: Now what was your frame of mind, as…
GT: Let me qualify that: I was also told that this was an approved mission by the Mossad and that it was primarily for the Mossad that we were doing this.
RL: So the Mossad viewed Amiram Nir as a renegade agent, and they wanted him "taken out" as well.
GT: Thatīs the understanding that was given to me, yes.
RL: What was your frame of mind? Did you have any compunction about carrying out the killing if people?
GT: No. Let me qualify how many people Iīve had to kill in my life: within 5 feet of me, probably about 30; within 200 feet, about 80, and beyond that, I donīt know, because - probably thousands, with missiles and so forth.
RL: So you were pretty gung-ho, U.S. Military.
GT: Absolutely.
RL: I mean, you followed orders. And when somebody said, "Do this", you did it. Because you belive in your country and you belived in what your leaders were telling you.
GT: Thatīs correct.
RL: Letīs back up for just a moment, and talk about the very first covert operation that you say you were involved in. You were involved in Southeast Asia, in a covert operation, during the Vietnamn War. Tell us about that covert operation.

(CN as was behind this transcript in a note: Tatum told how he joined the Air Force in the late ī60s/70sī, was trained as an traffic controller, and went on to advanced schooling: Army jump school; escape and evasion school, with jungle training; sea survival school; diving school. He said he was sent to temporary duty into Thailand to help set up a communications center. Task Force Alpha, a large intelligence force, was also there. Tatum said he was then "voluntered" into an assignment which apparently is how he got involved with covert operations. From there, according to Tatum, he worked with succesive White House administrations.)

GT: Our missions in "Pegasus" was to align foreign leaders, foreign financiers, and foreign countries with the policies of the United States, using first diplomacy. If diplomacy did not work, then it was turned over to the Pegasus unit to work in one of the three arenas that we were professionals at working at. (CN: i.e., blackmail, intimidation, and murder).
RL: Letīs talk about this "Operation Pegasus". How old is Pegasus?
GT: Iīm told, by various intelligence sources around the world, that Pegasus is an operation thatīs been in place since probably the ī50s. It was originally designed to spy on spies. In other words, to look at the CIA and the National Security Agency to see who is loyal, who is doing what. (CN: Tatumīs info on Pegasus is corroborated by Trenton Parker, who appared on Tom Valentineīs "Radio Free America" show 1993. Parker has talked about this "Pegasus" unit, saying that it was secretly set up by Harry Truman to keep an eye on the CIA). And that "was" a portion of Pegasusīs duties; there was a section… "My" duties included simply flying - "fancy taxi driver", I should put it, sometimes armed.
RL: Letīs talk about some of the other people that you say youīve killed. You say you were ordered to assassinate several people. We talked about Amiram Nir. You say you were ordered to assassinate the president of a Third World country. Who was that?
GT: Neutralize.
RL: Okay, neutralize. Iīm sorry.
GT: We chose intimidation in that. In 1989, the United States was working in the Nicaraquan arena very heavily, to get free elections in place. Daniel Ortega would not allow the free elections. After the negotiations and the diplomacy failed, Ortega was given to us. We decided that we would try to align him. Because of his position it would be a little too much to go in and assassinate him. The way we decided to align him is, we chose a second cousin of Mr. Ortega. Our diplomates went to Mr. Ortega. We told him that we intended on assassinating that cousin. We told him on what "day" we would assassinate that cousin and "how" we would assassinate that cousin, and told him to protect him as best he could - īcause he would be next. On that day, in that mode, we assassinated his cousin.
RL: What was the name of this person?
GT: I have no idea. I only flew the 4-man team in.
RL: How was the assassination accomplished?
GT: Rocket fire. In the home.
RL: In what way? Was that in Managua?
GT: Outside of Managua.
RL: And how did you determine that this person… Did somebody tell you that this person would be the way to get to Daniel Ortega?
GT: We carry information files. Another part of what Pegasus has done through the years is, theyīve also spied om political leaders and financiers around the world. And thereīs huge database on everyone. If, during our active time, a member of Pegasus was intimidated or placed before a Senate committee or something like that, they could simply pull out this file and intimidate that politician into backing off. And that "was" done.
RL: Iīm wondering, as you tell this: Could you prove to anybody that you were actually involved in this assassination of the cousin of Ortega? Do you have anything physical that you could bring to the world, to say: "Hereīs my proof that we did it?"
GT: Other than a few photographs, no.
RL: I guess this sounds pretty amazing. But also, I think that itīs hard to document. If we were to say, "Gene Tatum: "How could you prove to us that you actually were flying along and ītook outīAmiram Nir? Is there any way you could prove that?
I started planning
GT: Yes. In 1958, after finding what I did on my aircraft on that February 26th mission, and 50 or so missions after that, I had decided to start planning for my retirement.
And I understood what happened to most "assets" after they became a liability. So I started planning, and documenting. In addition to the planning and documenting, my flight crews would carry small video cameras. The medic would carry a video camera in his medic bag on many occasions. My crew chief would video any air attacks that we hade accomplished. So yes, we have some proof.
RL: So youīve got video tapes of that.
GT: Absolutely.
RL: In 1992, you were still involved with Pegasus, you hadnīt left that operation by then, and you were ordered to neutralize Ross Perot. Is that correct?
GT: At a meeting in southeast Florida, at the home of a prominent political leader (and I choose not to use his name at this time), that political leader tasked me with eliminating the leader of a new party which, in his own words, "could tear apart the Constitution of the United States".
RL: Why wonīt you tell us the name of this political leader?
GT: Because itīs not worth what repercussions can come back on my family, to involve him. Heīs bigger than the President, belive it or not.
RL: Heīs bigger than the President. Who could be bigger than the President?
GT: Thereīs several people in this country who are bigger than the President, Rob. And I would rather not delve into that section of it right now.
RL: Okay. So what was your understanding that you should do about Ross Perot when you get this order? And why would you take orders from this person if this person was not part of the … Was this person part of the government in 1992?
GT: Yes, he was.
RL: What was your understanding that you ought to do, in regard to Ross Perot?
GT: We were told to neutralize him. But I belive that, there again, having the ability to choose how we would do that. One way we worked in the past was by blackmail. And had I gone forward with it (however I didnīt), I probably would have used that method. We used a drug, made in Columbia (let me see if I can remember the name of it), "Escopalamina" (sp?). They call it "the voodo drug", which puts a person completely under your control. I mean "completely" under your control. You can have them do anything that you would want them to do. You could video tape the actions of that person, and then you could hold that video tape as blackmail against them. And they would never remember what they did or who had them under their control. Itīs a very powerful drug and we used it on serveral occasions.
RL: And tell me about one of those occasions. How was it used?
GT: One of the people we used that drug on was… Gee. He was one of the Contra leaders… I think his name was Adolfo Calero (sp?). We used it on him to keep him in line, because he wanted… Enrique Bermudez, along with Adolfo Calero, wanted political positions in Nicaragua when the Chamorro government took itīs place, replacing Ortega. Bermudez we couldnīt align. So we eliminated him.
RL: You mean "you" were responsible for his killing.
GT: Thatīs correct. I didnīt directly. A 4-man team was flown in, outside Managua, and killed him. However Calero we were able to blackmail, using this drug. We took Calero. We put him in a hotel room with another man. We put them into (sex) acts together, and filmed it. Now they have a high-ranking official in the Chamorro Nicaraguan government under their control.
RL: You have been handed lots of assignments over the years and you always took part in them - including the killing of people. But this assignment, to netralize Ross Perot, you backed away from and you quit Pegasus. Why?
GT: In 1989 I backed away from my first assignment to "take someone out".
RL: What was the assignment?
GT: That was an assignment to "take out" a man who helped fund some of the Nicaraguan aircraft, a man by the name William Kennedy, whoīs now in Lompaw(?) Prison. I will not participate in assassinations of any sort, character assassination or anything, of Amercian citizens. That, to me, is not furthering the cause of America.
(Tatum then discussed a video tape). It shows other political leaders involved, and financial leaders from the world. Itīs a video tape of particular meetings, where assignments were given, including assignments against that (sic) financial leaders. And I wonīt give you the names of those, but itīs enough to keep anyone alive that "I" want to keep alive.
RL: So can you tell us whether or not George Bush or anybody of that stature is in these video tapes?
GT: Yes, he is.
RL: When you told these folks that you werenīt going to carry out this mission against Ross Perot, what was their response?
GT: Director Colby told me that you canīt just walk away from black operations. Thatīs when I pulled the tapes out of my briefcase and I said: "I understand that, Mr. Colby. However, Iīm walking away." And I gave him a copy of the tapes and told him what the repercussions would be.
RL: Did you contact Ross Perot, subsequent to your quitting Pegasus?
GT: Yes, Mr. Perot was advised. As a matter of fact, two weeks ago, I interviewed with Texas News ( I think thatīs CBS out of Dallas) concerning a copy of the letter, that they hade been able to get from the Perot people.
Bush-brev till Tatum inkl Perotbrev
RL: And what did Mr. Perot have to say about what you told him? About this effort to neutralize him?
GT: I belive that he went public with that, in 1992. He made the alligation, to the public, that this was happening. I think a lot of people pooh-poohed it. But he was serious.
RL: I think a lot of people were skeptical. Did you contact Ross Perot in 1992?
GT: Yes.
RL: And you told him that there was going to be this effort to neutralize him.
GT: Yes.
RL: Do you have any proof that people told you to neutralize Ross Perot? Do you have any video or were there any written orders?
GT: We have a tape. A cassette tape.
End of interview and the transcription.

But not the story about Gene Tatum. When he resigned his OSG/Pegasus command, he had volunteered to plead guilty on a felony charge in order to discredit himself. This was part of Tatums startegy of survival, as he was aware that one didnīt resign this particular team and remain alive for long. The fact that he had collected a body of evidence (including video and audio tapes and other related documentation) as "life insurance" - deposed in six countries - gave muscle to his negotiation. At the time he had not planned to reveal any of the details that he has now provided. In the event, his offer was taken up and he served a prison sentence of just one year. However, having served his sentence-thus complying with his part of the agreement-both Tatum and his wife Nancy were subsequently arrested and charged with another misdemenour. Tatum got angry. He started to publish much of his story in two books, "The Tatum Cronicles".
We publish this story on Leopold Report because we belive that Mr Tatum has the key to the Palmemurder. He and his wife are disappeard from there home in Florida since two years. Anyone who knows a possible way to get incontact with Gene Tatum, please mail us!
Editor of Leopold Report
Anders leopold

To the Ross Perot letter

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