American Made-Up: photos that prove that Barry Seal was with the CIA in the 1950s and 1960s
CANNABIS CULTURE – The new Tom Cruise action film has been released: American Made.
That last statement was quite the understatement. When you see the photos, you will understand why.
Photo 1: This is a photo taken July 23, 1955. Sixteen year-old Baton Rouge Civil Air Patrol cadet Barry Seal boards a U.S. Air Force plane on July 23, 1955 to fly to a two week training camp at Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he will meet fellow cadet Lee Harvey Oswald and Capt. David Ferrie.
Photo 2: This is a photo taken August 7, 1955. It is a photo of the Civil Air Patrol Seal joined. Captain of the CAP was CIA agent David Ferrie (second from the left) and fellow cadet Lee Harvey Oswald (far right). The photo was taken at Abita Springs, Louisiana.
Photo 3: This is a photo taken January 22nd, 1963. This is a group of assassins, gun runners and drug smugglers known as “Operation 40” – a special assassination squad originally formed to kill Fidel Castro. It is taken in the Mexico City nightclub, La Reforma.
Leaning over the table in the left front is long time CIA agent Felix Rodriguez. Rodriguez helped the CIA capture and kill Che Guevara, flew guns and drugs with Seal in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, and (like Seal himself) has ties to Iran Contra and Bush Sr.. Behind Rodriguez is Porter Goss – head of the CIA under George W. Bush. Behind him is Barry Seal.
Two back from Seal is Juan Restoy, a man who organized some of his fellow Bay of Pigs veterans into a drug smuggling operation responsible for a large percentage of cocaine and the lion’s share of the heroin coming into the U.S. The 1970 bust of this operation – known as “Operation Eagle” – was the biggest drug bust in history. On the other side of the table in the front sits CIA agent William Seymour and either CIA agent Tosh Plumlee or CIA agent Frank Sturgis, it’s hard to tell because his face is partially covered.
The main source of information about Seal’s life would be the book “Barry and the Boys” by Daniel Hopsicker. In it you can find an comprehensive overview of Barry’s life, including this summation of it’s relevance to American history:
“…Seal participated in many of the signal events in America During the second half of the 20th Century… Running guns to Fidel Castro in the mountains of Cuba … flying at the Bay of Pigs invasion … piloting a get-away plane after the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy … fling into the Golden Triangle during America’s Secret War in Laos … Barry Seal even had a cameo role in the Watergate Scandal.” Barry And The Boys, p. 19
I highly recommend picking up the book – it’s way, way more interesting than the “American Made” Tom Cruise film. Barry’s life was interesting, important, and revealing – his new biopic is not.
