and I said, because I tried everybody in the U.S. Government
the witness hereinbefore named, having been previously cautioned and sworn, or affirmed, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth testified as follows:
Page 39
1 and I said, because I tried everybody in the U.S. Government
2 first and they sure as hell weren’t going to help.
3 Q. Well, we haven’t asked you about that effort that you are
4 referring to, to try to stop the operation, and I think my
5 associate will ask you about that in a moment.
6 A. Sure
7 Q. I think, finally, I want to ask you if you have any
8 knowledge of the money that you're talking about coming from the
9 Gotti organization being used for any other purposes, other than
10 depositing in the bank accounts for the CIA?
11 A. Sure. We had to run the operations at Nella, for instance.
12 The training facilities at Nella had to be paid for.
13 Q. Now, where is Nella?
14 A. Nella is about 10 miles out of Mena, north.
15 Q. North of the Mena Airport. We've not talked about that, Mr.
16 Brenneke. Can you tell us what you know about Nella; what it
17 is, and for what purposes it was established?
18 A. Sure. Nella was a training base for military and
19 paramilitary folks from south of the border, Mexico, Panama.
20 Q. Who managed the base? Who operated the base?
21 A. Don't know the names of the operators.
22 Q. What agency operated the base?
23 A. Central Intelligence Agency, as far as I knew.
24 Q. Did you know anyone from the agency that was responsible
25 for the operation?
Page 40
1 A. I knew the names of some of the people over there. I
2 didn't spend much time at Mena, so I'd have to answer that by
3 saying, no, I really don't know. I did know one of the folks who
4 was a flight instructor over there, and that was Terry Reed.
5 Q. Terry Reed.
6 A. And on another occasion, I did provide Mr. Reed with a
7 deposition in a case in which he was acquitted.
8 Q. Mr. Brenneke, I have here in my hand a copy of a videotaped
9 deposition which was presented as evidence in the caseUnited States
10 District Court for the District of Kansas in the case United
11 States of America, Plaintiff versus Terry Kent Reed, Defendant.
12 And I will ask you if you can identify this document?
13 A. (Witness viewing document.) Yes, sir. That is the
14 testimony that I gave under oath in Portland, Oregon.
15 Q. This is a transcript of you testimony is that correct?
16 A. That’s correct.
17 Q. This is not a deposition. I’m sorry. This is a transcript
18 of your videotaped testimony?
19 A. That’s correct. I was testifying.
20 Q. And you can identify that?
21 A. Yes, that is correct. I identify it as such and --
22 Q. Then I would like to offer that as an exhibit, number, I
23 suppose this is 1, to your testimony.
24 (Deposition Exhibit 1 was marked.)
25 MR. ALEXANDER: Off the record a second.
Page 41
1 (Off-the-record.)
2 Q. (BY MR. ALEXANDER) Mr. Brenneke, I don't want to dwell on
3 this too much at this point. But I think it's important just to
4 summarize the connection between the Mena CIA operation and the
5 Nella CIA operation. And can you just tell us briefly what
6 distinction there was, if any, and whether or not these
7 operations were one in the same? And let's move onto something
8 else after you have explained that.
9 A. The operations were one in the same. The equipment that
10 was used at Mena would frequently transport people and equipment
11 to the truck, for instance, you know, would drive up to Nella
12 and leave people and equipment there.
13 Q. So, in other words, the CIA had an operation in Mena which
14 included Nella?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. And was that operation given a code name, do you know?
17 A. Not that I’m familiar with right off-hand. I don’t recall
18 one right off-hand.
19 Q. The other thing we may need to do is to pick up on the
20 question of the money laundering. Money was paid to you by the
21 Gotti organization. You took it to Panama. It was deposited.
22 From Panama it was wired to foreign accounts you said in
23 Switzerland and Spain and other countries?
24 A. Correct.
25 Q. Did you establish an account in the United States to get
Page 42
1 that money back into this country?
2 A. Yeah, I did. I established an account at Brown Brothers
3 Harriman in New York City.
4 Q. Brown Brothers Harriman; is that a bank?
5 A. That’s a bank in New York City.
6 Q. And when did you establish that account?
7 A. That one probably goes back to around 1980.
8 Q. I see.
9 A. It’s an old account.
10 Q. How do you know that the money that you picked up and that
11 you received in Mena from the, organization, took to
12 Panama, wired to bank accounts in Europe, came back to the
13 United States?
14 A. I ordered the transfer of funds.
15 Q. And to whom did you report these actions?
16 A. I reported them to Don Gregg, Bob Kerritt, Bob Ellis, and
17 from time-to-time other people that would be serving in --
18 Q. And you’re saying that you have notes of these
19 conversations in your records?
20 A. I not only have notes, I have letters that I wrote to some
21 of these people.
22 MR. ALEXANDER: I see. I think that’s all I
23 have. Thank you very much, Mr. Brenneke. I would now defer to
24 my associate who may wish to ask you some additional questions.
25 FURTHER EXAMINATION
Page 43
1 BY MR. FARRIS:
2 Q. Mr. Brenneke, I’m Chad Farris. We met this morning for the
3 first time. And I just have a few questions based on the
4 testimony you’ve given this morning.
5 You testified that you had complained about the use of
6 drugs in this endeavor you were involved in directly to Mr.
7 Gregg, who was on, at that time, the Vice-President’s staff; is
8 that right?
9 A. That’s correct.
10 Q. Why, in your role -- given your role and participation in
11 this endeavor, would you care about the use of drugs as part of
12 this plan?
13 A. Because when my son was sixteen years old, he -- my wife
14 and I were made aware of the fact that he was a drug user by his
15 -- by virtue of his behavior. We put him through a number of
16 treatment programs. He disappeared, and for three and a half
17 years we didn’t know whether he was dead or alive. He is now
18 twenty-six years old. He’s got the mental and emotional
19 capacity of a thirteen year old, and he’s still a drug user.
20 That’s my only child.
21 Q. So at the time that you learned that drugs were involved in
22 this operation, then that would have already happened to your
23 son; is that right?
24 A. That’s right.? That happened in -- on Halloween night in
25 1980.
Page 44
1 Q. How long after you became aware of the use or involvement
2 of drugs in the operation did you file the complaint or lodge
3 the complaint with Mr. Gregg?
4 A. Immediately.
5 Q. And you testified that Mr. Gregg essentially told you just
6 to do your job and carry on; is that right?
7 A. Carry on, that’s right. Simply carry on and do my job. I
8 wasn’t hired to do anything else.
9 Q. If you were so concerned about the use of drugs in the
10 operation because of -- for the reasons you’ve described, why
11 did you continue to take part in the operation, if you did?
12 A. I took part in it long enough to disassociate myself from
13 it. And I made certain that what I was carrying were not drugs
14 on the aircraft that I was flying, with the exception of one
15 flight which did contain drugs, which I was forced to take in
16 this case at the point of a gun. There was -- to my
17 recollection, there was one other flight that went into Texas
18 that was again directed out of Langley. I had no choice but to
19 fly the mission.
20 Q. What’s the time period we’re talking about, between your
21 first conversation with Mr. Gregg and the time that you stopped
22 participating in this operation?
23 A. I cleaned up my portion of it during late 1984, early 1985,
24 and by mid-1985 I was essentially out of it. I went back and
25 did some work on a hostage negotiation program, spent several
Page 45
1 months at that. By 1986, I was out of it totally.
2 Q. You testified about a trial involving Mr. Rupp, and I
3 believe you stated that you testified in that trial. As a
4 result of your testimony in that trial, did you have any
5 encounters or problems that you can tell us about?
6 A. The testimony in that trial was used to indict me for
7 perjury, and I was -- I’m sorry. The accusation was making
8 false statements before a Federal County. And the false
9 statements were that -- I’ll enumerate them as they were
10 enumerated in the complaint. And it was a grand jury action, in
11 which they said that I lied when I said George was in Paris
12 in 1980 to negotiate a delayed release of the hostages, that Don
13 Gregg and Bill Casey were there for the same purposes. That I
14 lied when I said I worked with CIA as a contractor. And I lied
15 when I said Harry Rupp did the same. A subsequent trial in
16 1990, ended in April, after two weeks of trial I was found not
17 guilty of any of those charges.
18 Q. Did Donald Gregg testify against you at the trial?
19 A. Yes. Don Gregg, currently our Ambassador to -- the
20 American Ambassador to South Korea and residing in Seoul, came
21 back to Portland, Oregon to testify against me. And his
22 testimony was directly related to where he was on the weekend of
23 -- that -- the period of 18, 19 and 20, October, 1980, and he
24 offered photographs in evidence stating that they showed he --
25 -- him to be on a beach at Bethany Beach, Delaware. We submitted
Page 46
1 those photographs to a qualified meteorologist who looked at
2 them and the weather reports for that specific time period, and
3 found that they could not -- the pictures couldn’t have been
4 taken at that time, the weather was wrong.
5 Q. In connection with the charge that you described that was
6 filed against you, were you ever offered a plea bargain or --
7 A. I sure was. They offered me an opportunity to say that I
8 lied on all counts. And if I would do that, there would be a
9 guilty plea but no prison time and no fine. And at that time I
10 was facing five years in prison and a fine that could have gone
11 to $250,000. I had not, too long before that, had to file
12 bankruptcy because of harassment and problems that I had had in
13 this case. I turned the offer down. The offer was actually
14 made to my attorney, who -- Rich Muller, who turned it down on
15 my behalf.
16 Q. Did you serve time in prison?
17 A. I’ve never been prison nor have I been convicted of a
18 crime. And with this exception, I haven’t been charged with a
19 crime.
20 MR. FARRIS: Let’s go off the record just a
21 second.
22 (Off-the-record.)
23 Q. (By MR. FARRIS) Mr. Brenneke, what do you hope to achieve
24 by testifying here today? What’s the purpose of your testimony,
25 to you personally?