Marine Veteran, Journalist Robert O’Dowd: Murder, Corruption CIA Drug Running

Richie Allen is a London journalist and broadcaster with a background in commercial radio, alternative media TV and now a fast-emerging global radio show exposing the truth about world events and reality that you will not get in the corporate-controlled mainstream media.

Richie Allen interviewed Robert O’Dowd, former El Toro Marine earlier in 2014 on the murder, corruption & CIA drug running at former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro US military bases as written about in BETRAYAL:  Toxic Exposure of US Marines, Murder and Government Cover-up.

Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, NC, and former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, CA, are two of the over 130 military installations listed by EPA in a group of the most environmentally hazardous sites in the US.

None of the veterans that served aboard these two bases were notified of their exposure to deadly contaminants when it was discovered resulting in both bases earning EPA Superfund status.

Many veterans, dependents and civilian workers have died without ‘connecting the dots’ between their killing diseases and military service.

The trichloroethylene (TCE) plume at El Toro spreads miles off the former base into Orange County. TCE (a carcinogen) was used at El Toro for decades and contaminated the soil, groundwater and aquifer, cutting a path right through the base wells. The Marine Corps denied ownership of El Toro’s TCE plume for sixteen years until a lawsuit forced them to accept responsibility.

The documentation of the contaminated base wells at Camp Lejeune and persistence by Marine veterans and their dependents and several Congressmen resulted in the passage of the Janey Ensminger Act in August 2012, covering the cost of medical care by the VA for a number of medical conditions.

Camp Lejeune Marines veterans have to fight for VA disability compensation benefits; most of the claims are denied by the VA and many die before their appeals can be heard.  Veterans can’t file tort suits for injuries on active duty.  There only recourse is to file a VA disability claim.

Camp Lejeune dependent toxic tort claims gather dust in the Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s office files with no interest in processing them.

The murder (officially a suicide) of Marine Colonel James E. Sabow and other Marines are tied to the use of El Toro’s assets to ferry weapons and supplies to the Contra rebel faction in Nicaragua and cocaine into the U.S. to fund an undeclared war in Nicaragua.   Relieved from his position pending an investigation of personal misuse of government aircraft, Colonel Sabow demanded a court martial to clear his name of false charges. Until the day before his murder, he had no idea that civilian aircraft used in an NSC covert operation were involved in narcotrafficking.

Colonel Sabow had a reputation as a straight arrow Marine and was threat to blow the whistle on those involved in narcotrafficking. The circumstances surrounding his death and the forensic evidence from the crime scene support murder by a government assassination team, crime scene tampering and government cover-up at the highest levels, including a ‘doctored autopsy photograph’ submitted to a federal district court and in a Defense Department report to Congress to support suicide. There’s no statute of limitations on murder and a formal inquest and reversal of the manner of death to homicide is a threat to the ‘shadow government’ and powerful individuals who operate outside the rule of law.

The Marine Corps has long been the country’s premier fighting force. Marines have a long history of service to the country and loyalty to each other. They can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Marines who served honorably and met violent deaths because they knew too much deserved better treatment from a government intent on burying its misdeeds.

Robert O'Dowd

Robert O’Dowd served in the 1st, 3rd and 4th Marine Aircraft Wings during 52 months of active duty in the 1960s. While at MCAS El Toro for two years, O’Dowd worked and slept in a Radium 226 contaminated work space in Hangar 296 in MWSG-37, the most industrialized and contaminated acreage on the base.

Robert is a two time cancer survivor and disabled veteran. Robert graduated from Temple University in 1973 with a bachelor’s of business administration, majoring in accounting, and worked with a number of federal agencies, including the EPA Office of Inspector General and the Defense Logistics Agency.

After retiring from the Department of Defense, he teamed up with Tim King of Salem-News.com to write about the environmental contamination at two Marine Corps bases (MCAS El Toro and MCB Camp Lejeune), the use of El Toro to ship weapons to the Contras and cocaine into the US on CIA proprietary aircraft, and the murder of Marine Colonel James E. Sabow and others who were a threat to blow the whistle on the illegal narcotrafficking activity. O’Dowd and King co-authored BETRAYAL: Toxic Exposure of U.S. Marines, Murder and Government Cover-Up. The book is available as a soft cover copy and eBook from Amazon.com. See: http://www.amazon.com/Betrayal-Exposure-Marines-Government-Cover-Up/dp/1502340003.