Robbins Pond is located on Superior St. as well as Superior Ave. and Samulson Rd. in Portage, Indiana. It contains largemouth bass, bluegill, crappie, other panfish, and bullhead catfish. The lake contains many turtles including snapping turtles, making it a profound fishing site. It also has a small drainage pond, which has most of the above mentioned wildlife. The drainage pond links to Kevins Creek, which then runs to Salt Creek and out to Lake Michigan. A waste line of some kind runs under the drainage pond which, when broken, may cause it to fill with human waste. To see Robbins Pond on Google Earth type these coordinates in your Fly To bar 41degrees31'56.93"N 87degrees08'55.07"W
Operation Pseudo Miranda is a CIA covert operation fashioned by CIA Director Bill Casey in the early 1980’s as an instrument in the purported “War on Drugs.” This highly secretive, extremely compartmentalized operation would have been executed by the Directorate of Operations beginning in 1984. The operation was allegedly designed to stem the tide of cocaine coming into the United States by half vis-à-vis a cooperative agreement with the Colombian drug lords of the day; Don Fabio Ochoa, Pablo Escobar, Jose O’Campo, Carlos Lehder, et al. Kenneth C. Bucchi has described the Operation in Operation Pseudo Miranda: A Veteran of the CIA Drug Wars Tells All (2000), and writes that he was recruited by the CIA for this program in 1984 while attending Murray State University in Kentucky. It seems the CIA has denied that Bucchi was a former CIA agent, although the DEA remitted documents under the Freedom of Information Act which listed Operation Pseudo Miranda and Bucchi's involvement therein as a Top Secret program protected from public disclosure.
Description of the Operation
Ingenious in its design and simplistic in its execution, Pseudo Miranda (PM) sought to control the lion’s share of the cocaine market into a select cache of drug trafficker’s hands and, by design and agreement, get them to surrender half to the United States government without resistance. Before PM, the Colombian drug trade was decentralized and too unwieldy to control...anyone with a Cessna and a pint of chutzpa could fly a ton of coke across the U.S. southern border without fear of detection or retribution.
But PM changed all that. Using military intelligence and weapons, the US (CIA) was able to dissuade or eradicate the numerically larger number of smaller drug traffickers and place 95% of the market into the hands of these select drug lords...asking in return only that they allow the US to take up to 50% of their new market share. Having parlayed their previous market share tenfold via PM, the surrender of half still represented a significant increase in business. But more importantly, it also considerably limited the possibility that they and their families would ever face extradition to the US during this operation.
Long Range Navigation (LORaN) systems were placed in Panama’s Darien Region and at key locations on our southern border to facilitate long-distance, low-flying drug transports from Colombia to the US. Once inside this country, these planes were either forced by military aircraft flying scheduled sorties to drop their cargo along the glideslope signal created by mobile Instrument Landing Systems, where CIA contract agents were awaiting pickup; or to follow the military “shadow” aircraft to Mena, Arkansas, where the drug lord’s mules would ship the cargo to parts unknown.
The shadow aircraft that were flying a scheduled sortie would not draw any unwanted attention as it was handed off from airport tower to airport tower, and the drug plane would stay close enough to the military craft to avoid radar detection. The cargo that the planes were forced to drop represented a portion of the 50% owed to the US government, while those flights shadowed to Mena represented the 50% protected and escorted into the US by the US government at the behest of the Colombian drug lords. These operations were termed “interceptions” by the CIA, but it was another compartment of this operation, called “Interdictions,” that would lead to such unintended consequences as “Iran-Contra,” the rise of Manuel Antonio Noriega, and the ushering in of Crack cocaine (because there was less cocaine streaming across our borders as a result of this operation, the street dealers needed a way to curtail rising costs).
This compartment of PM was so treacherous, it was enforced by CIA Contract Agents euphemistically termed “Dixie Cups™.” These contract agents were protected by Non-official covers (NOC) and, because they were not “official,” it was said that the CIA considered them as disposable as Dixie Cups™.
Interdictions involved ferreting out coke labs in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, etc. and disposing of half the cocaine found on the premises, so to speak. The ground rules for PM expressly prohibited retaliation for these interventions and, even though these hand-selected members were given highly classified, experimental training in Tonopah, NV and Harvey Point, NC, several would not return to the US.
Although there are plenty of references made to this operation on the internet and in non-fiction books within the genre, little is actually known about who the real players were and whether the program still exists today.
One of the rather fascinating stories connected to this operation that has circulated on many a conspiracy theory website is that two well-respected journalists, Danny Casolaro and Scott Shuger, were both said to be working on this story at the time of their mysterious and untimely deaths. What's even more fascinating is that both are reported to have been in close contact with Mr. Bucchi and on the precipice of breaking the story, just before their respective untimely demises. Carl Berstein and Sam Donaldson also investigated this mysterious operation, but were thwarted by the CIA at every turn.
Description of the Operation
Ingenious in its design and simplistic in its execution, Pseudo Miranda (PM) sought to control the lion’s share of the cocaine market into a select cache of drug trafficker’s hands and, by design and agreement, get them to surrender half to the United States government without resistance. Before PM, the Colombian drug trade was decentralized and too unwieldy to control...anyone with a Cessna and a pint of chutzpa could fly a ton of coke across the U.S. southern border without fear of detection or retribution.
But PM changed all that. Using military intelligence and weapons, the US (CIA) was able to dissuade or eradicate the numerically larger number of smaller drug traffickers and place 95% of the market into the hands of these select drug lords...asking in return only that they allow the US to take up to 50% of their new market share. Having parlayed their previous market share tenfold via PM, the surrender of half still represented a significant increase in business. But more importantly, it also considerably limited the possibility that they and their families would ever face extradition to the US during this operation.
Long Range Navigation (LORaN) systems were placed in Panama’s Darien Region and at key locations on our southern border to facilitate long-distance, low-flying drug transports from Colombia to the US. Once inside this country, these planes were either forced by military aircraft flying scheduled sorties to drop their cargo along the glideslope signal created by mobile Instrument Landing Systems, where CIA contract agents were awaiting pickup; or to follow the military “shadow” aircraft to Mena, Arkansas, where the drug lord’s mules would ship the cargo to parts unknown.
The shadow aircraft that were flying a scheduled sortie would not draw any unwanted attention as it was handed off from airport tower to airport tower, and the drug plane would stay close enough to the military craft to avoid radar detection. The cargo that the planes were forced to drop represented a portion of the 50% owed to the US government, while those flights shadowed to Mena represented the 50% protected and escorted into the US by the US government at the behest of the Colombian drug lords. These operations were termed “interceptions” by the CIA, but it was another compartment of this operation, called “Interdictions,” that would lead to such unintended consequences as “Iran-Contra,” the rise of Manuel Antonio Noriega, and the ushering in of Crack cocaine (because there was less cocaine streaming across our borders as a result of this operation, the street dealers needed a way to curtail rising costs).
This compartment of PM was so treacherous, it was enforced by CIA Contract Agents euphemistically termed “Dixie Cups™.” These contract agents were protected by Non-official covers (NOC) and, because they were not “official,” it was said that the CIA considered them as disposable as Dixie Cups™.
Interdictions involved ferreting out coke labs in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, etc. and disposing of half the cocaine found on the premises, so to speak. The ground rules for PM expressly prohibited retaliation for these interventions and, even though these hand-selected members were given highly classified, experimental training in Tonopah, NV and Harvey Point, NC, several would not return to the US.
Although there are plenty of references made to this operation on the internet and in non-fiction books within the genre, little is actually known about who the real players were and whether the program still exists today.
One of the rather fascinating stories connected to this operation that has circulated on many a conspiracy theory website is that two well-respected journalists, Danny Casolaro and Scott Shuger, were both said to be working on this story at the time of their mysterious and untimely deaths. What's even more fascinating is that both are reported to have been in close contact with Mr. Bucchi and on the precipice of breaking the story, just before their respective untimely demises. Carl Berstein and Sam Donaldson also investigated this mysterious operation, but were thwarted by the CIA at every turn.
Rick Draughon is an American TV writer.
Positions Held
*Days of our Lives (Writer, 2008 - present)
*Coastal Dreams (Executive Producer/Series Creator, 2007)
*The Young and the Restless (Breakdown Writer, Dec. 4, 2006 - 2007)
*Party of Five (Assistant to Executive Producer) (1994-1996)
*Days Of Our Lives (Writer, 2000-2006)
*Sunset Beach (Writer, 1997-1999)
*Loving (Writer)
*Another World (Writer)
Positions Held
*Days of our Lives (Writer, 2008 - present)
*Coastal Dreams (Executive Producer/Series Creator, 2007)
*The Young and the Restless (Breakdown Writer, Dec. 4, 2006 - 2007)
*Party of Five (Assistant to Executive Producer) (1994-1996)
*Days Of Our Lives (Writer, 2000-2006)
*Sunset Beach (Writer, 1997-1999)
*Loving (Writer)
*Another World (Writer)
Alki Steriopoulos (born July 13, 1953 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a concert pianist, singer/songwriter, musical director, and musician. The third of five children to immigrant parents, Theresa Lucia Benvenuto from Italy and Phillip Alkiviades Steriopoulo from Greece, and raised on Pittsburgh’s notorious “North Side,” Alki discovered early on that music would be his ticket out of poverty.
Learning young
At the age of nine, he began the piano, and was quickly asked to play at a grade commencement where a visiting public school official singled out his performance of George M. Cohan’s You’re a Grand Old Flag as exemplary.
Alki quickly moved into the professional arena, playing for everything from strippers to comics to tap-dance classes, at the same time delivering newspapers, morning and evening editions, while running numbers between businesses on his paper routes for local bookies. Even though his mother hoped her son would become a “normal adult,” she wrote local piano celebrity Johnny Costa asking that her son be allowed to play for him. Costa, recognizing his talent, sent him to the legendary piano teacher, Bill Chrystal.
When Alki was thirteen, his parents divorced, causing him to become the “man of the house,” responsible for raising his younger brother and sister and helping to support his family.
A Musician’s Life
In an attempt to become a music teacher, he attended Duquesne University, but found academia wasn’t for him. In the 1970’s, Steriopoulos began work as a traveling musician, playing for his supper, finally ending up in New York City and Broadway’s musical theater.
Beginning in the orchestra, he became the musical director of dozens of shows. One of his first excursions into musicals introduced him to a young Michael Giacchino at the Fashion Institute of Technology’s production of Grease. Through Giacchino’s influence, Alki wrote, arranged, and recorded music for The Muppets, the DreamWorks Interactive Medal of Honor series, and LucasArts. He also conducted the double-Tony Award nominated musical, Those Were The Days, and national tours of Five Guys Named Moe and On Second Avenue (starring Paul Dimeo). He directed Jacques Brel is Alive and Well at the Village Gate during its twenty-fifth year revivial, Daisy Egan in the off-Broadway adaptation of The Little Prince, and the perennial Christmas hit, The Gifts of the Magi. He lived, and served, as in-house composer for one year at the world renowned La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in the East Village, creating music for The Dark and Mr. Stone trilogy by Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Foster. Alki served as Assistant Musical Director at Carnegie Hall for their star-studded celebration of Ira Gershwin’s Centennial, filmed as part of PBS’ Great Performances series.
His European tours include A Chorus Line and
several tours with step-dancer, Ira Bernstein. He also musically directed the multi-celebrity benefit gala concert, A Call for Bread, at Madison Square Garden.
As a performer
Steriopoulos is a frequent mainstay of the Off-Stage Piano Festival in Luzern, Switzerland, and in Portugal has shared a bill with Brazilian, Milton Nascimento. Another Brazilian musical legend, Hermeto Pascoal, wrote and dedicated a piece to him. Alki toured Africa as a member of the Friends Across Borders project; a multi-cultural collaboration that saw members of formerly warring tribes coming together to celebrate the end of the brutal sixteen year long civil war in Mozambique, culminating in a concert in South Africa’s Sudwala Cave.
He has played and recorded with Joel Gray, Bruce Adler, Richie Havens, and The Band. In the field of jazz, he’s performed with jazz-legend Bob Dorough, cellist Eugene Friesen of the Paul Winter Consort, and does several concerts a year at the Omega Institute.
Alki has three recordings of his own music, Philately, Music for Sentient Beings, and the soon to be released As. Is.
In 2007, he married his long time partner, the Broadway dancer, Shannon McGough.
Learning young
At the age of nine, he began the piano, and was quickly asked to play at a grade commencement where a visiting public school official singled out his performance of George M. Cohan’s You’re a Grand Old Flag as exemplary.
Alki quickly moved into the professional arena, playing for everything from strippers to comics to tap-dance classes, at the same time delivering newspapers, morning and evening editions, while running numbers between businesses on his paper routes for local bookies. Even though his mother hoped her son would become a “normal adult,” she wrote local piano celebrity Johnny Costa asking that her son be allowed to play for him. Costa, recognizing his talent, sent him to the legendary piano teacher, Bill Chrystal.
When Alki was thirteen, his parents divorced, causing him to become the “man of the house,” responsible for raising his younger brother and sister and helping to support his family.
A Musician’s Life
In an attempt to become a music teacher, he attended Duquesne University, but found academia wasn’t for him. In the 1970’s, Steriopoulos began work as a traveling musician, playing for his supper, finally ending up in New York City and Broadway’s musical theater.
Beginning in the orchestra, he became the musical director of dozens of shows. One of his first excursions into musicals introduced him to a young Michael Giacchino at the Fashion Institute of Technology’s production of Grease. Through Giacchino’s influence, Alki wrote, arranged, and recorded music for The Muppets, the DreamWorks Interactive Medal of Honor series, and LucasArts. He also conducted the double-Tony Award nominated musical, Those Were The Days, and national tours of Five Guys Named Moe and On Second Avenue (starring Paul Dimeo). He directed Jacques Brel is Alive and Well at the Village Gate during its twenty-fifth year revivial, Daisy Egan in the off-Broadway adaptation of The Little Prince, and the perennial Christmas hit, The Gifts of the Magi. He lived, and served, as in-house composer for one year at the world renowned La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in the East Village, creating music for The Dark and Mr. Stone trilogy by Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Foster. Alki served as Assistant Musical Director at Carnegie Hall for their star-studded celebration of Ira Gershwin’s Centennial, filmed as part of PBS’ Great Performances series.
His European tours include A Chorus Line and
several tours with step-dancer, Ira Bernstein. He also musically directed the multi-celebrity benefit gala concert, A Call for Bread, at Madison Square Garden.
As a performer
Steriopoulos is a frequent mainstay of the Off-Stage Piano Festival in Luzern, Switzerland, and in Portugal has shared a bill with Brazilian, Milton Nascimento. Another Brazilian musical legend, Hermeto Pascoal, wrote and dedicated a piece to him. Alki toured Africa as a member of the Friends Across Borders project; a multi-cultural collaboration that saw members of formerly warring tribes coming together to celebrate the end of the brutal sixteen year long civil war in Mozambique, culminating in a concert in South Africa’s Sudwala Cave.
He has played and recorded with Joel Gray, Bruce Adler, Richie Havens, and The Band. In the field of jazz, he’s performed with jazz-legend Bob Dorough, cellist Eugene Friesen of the Paul Winter Consort, and does several concerts a year at the Omega Institute.
Alki has three recordings of his own music, Philately, Music for Sentient Beings, and the soon to be released As. Is.
In 2007, he married his long time partner, the Broadway dancer, Shannon McGough.