PEROFF. In other words, if you go-I know in places like that how to do it. You know what I mean-I made my living like that for a long time, babe. BOUCHARD. Yeah. PEROFF. So when I come up there then I turn around you. When it comes to your part, then I'll do what you tell me. BOUCHARD. Okay, so I'm going to get news from these peo- PEROFF. All right, I'll call you again tomorrow night. PEROFF. Late? BOUCHARD. About the same time. PEROFF. All right. BOUCHARD. Okay? PEROFF. Bye-bye. BOUCHARD. What time is it where you are now? PEROFF. An hour different from you, an hour later. BOUCHARD. You're an hour later? PEROFF. Yeah, it's 12 o'clock. BOUCHARD. Yeah. PEROFF. Yeah. BOUCHARD. How's the weather? PEROFF. Oh, not bad, you know, a lot of rain, you know, on and off. BOUCHARD. A lot of rain? PEROFF. Yeah. BOUCHARD. We've got beautiful weather down here. PEROFF. Maybe I'll come up there. BOUCHARD. Okay. PEROFF. All right, I'll see you-I'll talk to you tomorrow night. BOUCHARD. Okay. PEROFF. Goodbye. BOUCHARD. Goodbye (pp. 52-68). Peroff testified that DEA Agent Octavio Pinol listened to the conversation and was writing him notes instructing him to say certain things and was also signalling him with gestures. This accounts. Peroff said, for the somewhat fractured syntax of the conversation (p. 69). While Peroff had brought his own recorder to Customs in the paper hag, the call was taped on a DEA machine, Peroff said, adding that Pinol asked to have the tape itself. Peroff said he refused. Pinol insisted, saying Dos Santos wanted him to have it. Peroff said he reached into his bag and came out with a blank cassette that looked just like the one he had just used. He gave Pinol the blank, Peroff said, and Pinol didn't notice the difference (p. 70). O'NEILL PROPOSES COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT The next day-Monday, July 9-Peroff and Dos Santos talked about the case and the conversations with Bouchard. Peroff said they discussed "every aspect" of the Bouchard investigation (p. 70). On Tuesday, July 10, Peroff said, they had a three-way conversation, Peroff, Dos Santos and John J. O'Neill. Peroff said O'Neill raised the possibility that Peroff travel to Costa Rica, as Bouchard had directed, but that he go commercial and not in a private jet (p. 70). O'Neill's suggestion made him "very surprised and very confused,” Peroff, said (p. 70), because the entire effort to penetrate the Bouchard group had been based on his ability to provide an executive jet. Angrily Peroff told O'Neill that if he showed up in Costa Rica in a commercial aircraft he would be branded a fool or a government agent, or both, and he would probably be killed. In any event, Peroff said, the transaction would never be consummated. In his testimony, Peroff listed four arguments he presented to O'Neill. Peroff said: (1) In all my conversations with Bouchard, which incidentally, O'Neill and Dos Santos were aware of and understood very well-it was understood that I was to use a private jet in whatever narcotics transaction was to occur; this was really the basic reason the investigation was started in the first place. (2) My chief value to Bouchard in any narcotics deal was Bouchard's belief, based on well-conceived cover stories and actual experiences I had with him, that I had, in fact, a private jet for my use. (3) Whoever was to expect me in Costa Rica, whether it be Vesco or LeBlanc or one of their other representatives, would be expecting me to arrive by private jet and that to do otherwise would immediately raise suspicions that I was a government agent or an incompetent. (4) Because of Vesco and LeBlanc's obvious connections in Costa Rica, a private jet rather than commercial transportation was absolutely necessary to avoid Customs requirements in carrying large amounts of cash out of that country or into my next destination (p. 71). These four assertions, coupled with his suspicion that he might be killed, led Peroff to tell O'Neill that he positively would not fly into Costa Rica by commercial aircraft (p. 72). O'Neill had not yet ruled out the possibility of a private jet, Peroff said, because there were also discussions about having two DEA agents pilot the executive aircraft and be on hand for protection. But O'Neill continued to return to the commercial airplane suggestion. Peroff said he kept replying that it was a "completely unworkable" alternative. The more O'Neill proposed commercial travel, the more Peroff came to question the man's competence. Peroff testified: The whole question of the possible use of commercial transportation in this venture raised serious doubts in my mind as to whether John O'Neill, whom I had never met at this point, really knew what he was doing (p. 72). The three men had other phone conversations July 10, Peroff said. They talked a total of three to four hours and most of the time was spent debating the commercial vs. private aircraft question, Peroff testified. The discussion became quite spirited and, Peroff said, virtually shattered his trust in federal agents directing the Bouchard case. In all his informant work, going back to early 1973, Peroff had been willing to do what agents told him to do because he believed they knew best. But now, with O'Neill unyielding on the airplane issue, his confidence in government officials was "practically gone," Peroff testified (p. 72). THE JULY 10 CONVERSATION WITH BOUCHARD Following the heated July 10 three-way phone discussions between Peroff, Dos Santos and O'Neill, Peroff called Bouchard again. In this conversation, which Peroff said he taped and identified as No. 5 of the five-part series, Bouchard told him that Giuseppe Cotroni-"or Pep, as he called him"-was the "mastermind" behind the heroin transaction (p. 73). Peroff said Bouchard explained that Norman LeBlanc and Pepe Cotroni had been associates for many years and "a strong relationship existed between them." Bouchard went on to say, Peroff testified, that Cotroni would be going to Costa Rica "sometime that week" to arrange the $300,000 pickup (p. 73). In his side of the conversation, Peroff said, he reminded Bouchard that he was short on cash and that he had to have some money to fix up the executive jet. Peroff pointed out that the Canadian mobsters were not completely satisfied with the Lear jet he had flown into Montreal the previous March. They felt it should have more compartments to hide heroin in, Peroff said (pp. 73, 74). ARGUMENT OVER AIRPLANE GROWS Peroff said another three-way telephone discussion with John J. O'Neill, Richard Dos Santos and himself took place Wednesday, July 11. Peroff said he could not remember if he played the Bouchard July 10 tape for the DEA men but he was certain that he did explain to them the substance of his previous day's talk with Bouchard (p. 74). Now O'Neill was adamant that he should go to Costa Rica in a commercial airline, Peroff said. Peroff relented, offering a compromise. He said he proposed to O'Neill that he would fly commercial if DEA would report the entire Bouchard episode to another federal agency with an interest in Robert Vesco. Peroff said O'Neill, outraged, rejected the proposal angrily. Peroff said O'Neill "flatly ordered me not to have any contact with any other agency." (P. 74.) Money problems were also discussed. Peroff said he explained to O'Neill and Dos Santos that according to the April 11 agreement arrived at in Customs headquarters in Washington he was to receive per diem expense money and would not have to spend any of his money. But, he said, money received from Customs, and now DEA, had been too little and now he was nearly broke and his rent on the condominium was due. Peroff said O'Neill and Dos Santos assured him they were "taking care of it" but, he noted, "things were never taken care of." (Pp. 74, 75.) CONFLICT OVER WHEN AIRPLANE ROW BEGAN Peroff said it was as early as July 9 when O'Neill first began proposing that he fly into Costa Rica aboard a commercial airline. Peroff said the issue was raised again July 10 and this time the discussion turned into a heated debate that lasted some three hours (p. 72). Dos Santos testified similarly. He said that on or about July 10 O'Neill, trying to save money, proposed the idea of commercial travel by Peroff to Costa Rica. O'Neill made the proposal in a three-way conversation with Peroff and Dos Santos, Dos Santos said (p. 418). O'Neill testified differently. He said he had no conversation with Peroff on July 10 (p. 538). O'Neill said the first time he discussed the idea of commercial air travel to Costa Rica was July 16, the day before Peroff left Puerto Rico for New York (p. 538). O'Neill said that Peroff objected "very, very vigorously" to the commercial aircraft proposal on July 16 but that was the first time he and Peroff ever discussed the issue (p. 539). O'Neill said he talked with Peroff on the phone three times-on July 6 when he heard the Bouchard tape mentioning Vesco; on July 16 when the airplane issue was discussed; and July 17 when Peroff and he spoke about Peroff's being in New York with his family (pp. 603, 604). O'Neill said he could not remember if there were any other phone calls between him and Peroff but if there were they were of a "very, very fast nature" and had to do with expense money Peroff was demanding. O'Neill said nothing about the Vesco-LeBlanc lead was discussed; and in any event, O'Neill said, he had no recollection of any of these "very, very fast" calls ever taking place anyway (p. 604). In his sworn statement for the joint DEA-Customs inquiry, O'Neill said he first heard the July 6 tape of the Peroff-Bouchard talk on July 10. "I first heard the tape sometime in mid-July, I think the date would be on a Friday, July 10, 1973," O'Neill said. This assertion differed from his testimony before the Subcommittee when he said he did not talk to Peroff on July 10 and that the first he heard the July 6 tape was on July 6 (p. 604). O'Neill testified categorically that he had no conversation with Peroff July 10. But then O'Neill said maybe he did. Then he said he wasn't sure (p. 603). O'NEILL DESCRIBES AIRPLANE DISPUTE John J. O'Neill summed up the differences he had with Peroff regarding the Costa Rica trip this way: He told us first he didn't want to go to Costa Rica. On that score, we started out. He said, "I will go to Costa Rica only with my jet and nobody else and I will let you know what happens." I said, "Ridiculous. You will go, if you do go, you go with, start on a commercial airline." (Pp. 628, 629.) O'Neill went on to testify that Peroff wanted to fly into Costa Rica, pick up the $300,000 and fly out "without notifying the Costa Rica Government that that money was to be used to purchase narcotics." (P. 629.) O'Neill said Peroff did not want to bring the Costa Rican Government into it because, according to Peroff, "Robert Vesco owned the Costa Rican Government." (P. 629.) O'Neill testified: My reaction to that is it is absolutely impossible to do something like that (pp. 629,630). O'Neill said he had this discussion with Peroff on the telephone July 16. It was in this same three-way conversation-Dos Santos was participating, too-when Peroff was told to come to New York for further talks (pp. 630,631). However, further on in his testimony, O'Neill provided more facts about the Costa Rica airplane disagreement he was having at the time with Peroff. O'Neill said Peroff actually did not refuse to go to Costa Rica initially, but he refused only when he was told he had to go commercial. O'Neill made the acknowledgement in this exchange with Subcommittee Investigator Philip Manuel during the hearings: MANUEL. In other words, he wanted to go his own way but he didn't in the first instance refuse to go. Is that correct? O'NEILL. That is correct (p. 631). But then O'Neill seemed to change his recollection again. This discussion ensued: MANUEL. At what point did he refuse to go? O'NEILL. On the 17th when he said that we were all crazy. that he didn't want to cooperate with us at all. MANUEL. You mean he didn't refuse to go to Costa Rica before the 17th of July? Is that your testimony? O'NEILL. He refused to go on the 16th by commercial jet or by any way we were talking about. On the 17th is when he told us, the 16th he said he wouldn't go either. He stated that he would go, if he could go his way. We said, "It can't be done that way, Frank." Then on the 17th, when he terminated his cooperation is when the second and final refusal was (pp. 631, 632). In his sworn statement for the joint DEA-Customs inquiry into the Peroff controversy, O'Neill gave an explanation of the airplane dispute. The explanation was not clear on the question of whether or not Peroff ever agreed to go to Costa Rica in a private jet. O'Neill referred to a telephone conversation he and Dos Santos had with Peroff about the Costa Rica trip. O'Neill said it was proposed that Peroff fly to Costa Rica by commercial aircraft and that a DEA agent be with him for protection. O'Neill then asserted: Peroff said that that was absolutely out of the question and that he would not travel to Costa Rica with another agent from the Drug Enforcement Administration; that if he did go, which he would not, he would go by himself and would have to rent another jet to fly to Costa Rica, however, upon thinking the proposition over again, he said that Vesco had too much money, was too powerful and too influential, that he owned the government in Costa Rica and that under no circumstances would Peroff go to Costa Rica to get money back from Vesco. That sentence, owing to its imprecise syntax, is unclear as to whether O'Neill meant Peroff rejected the idea of going to Costa Rica out of hand; or whether Peroff rejected the idea of going by commercial |