Dan Arnold aka Daniel C. Arnold
Ex-CIA Chief of Station in Thailand
Lobbyist for Burma
&
Strange Bedfellow of S. P. and Hin Chew Chung
Dan Arnold
(His photo in the book is clear)
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We were able to track down only one photograph of Dan Arnold, which is reproduced in Escape from Paradise, under license from the Associated Press, but for print, only.
The press service caption for that photograph reads, "Daniel Arnold, former Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Bangkok, answers questions at a news conference in Bangkok on Thursday, January 25, 1996. Arnold and two other former U.S. government officials came to the defense of a Thai politician who has been denied a visa to the U.S. because he is suspected of drug trafficking."
Dan Arnold, Rescue by Helicopter?
Shortly after May Chu's husband, Hin Chew, and his brother, Jim, were detained in Brunei, Jim's wife fled to Singapore. There, Lynn was summoned to the apartment of a third Chung brother, Peter, to meet with the shady and sinister ex-CIA agent, Dan Arnold
From the book:
At Peter’s apartment, Lynn was surprised to find that a meeting with a third person had been arranged for her. It was someone she knew, an American named Dan Arnold.
Lynn was alarmed over the presence of this outsider, as Jim had confided to her previously that Dan Arnold was in the CIA, and that he was a business associate of the Chungs.
As though they had never met, Dan Arnold introduced himself to Lynn explaining that he was an American, and further established his credentials by saying that he was an ex-CIA employee. All this Dan Arnold conveyed in somber tones to emphasize his importance and credibility.
Lynn went along with Dan Arnold’s act, pretending herself that this was their first meeting.
Dan Arnold explained to Lynn, in even tones, that everything would be all right, and that “things were being done, including the possibility of a helicopter rescue” to get her husband and Hin Chew out of Brunei.
Lynn was already unsettled by the police raid of the night before. But now, Dan Arnold, the CIA, a helicopter rescue—and why?
Dan Arnold, Consigliere or Boss?
Immediately, after their release from their one year's incarceration in Brunei, Hin Chew, Jim, and Peter were summoned to meet with Dan Arnold in Hong Kong. S. P. Chung, who was on the run, came out of hiding for this meeting. The arrangements were cozy, as all but S. P. stayed on the 18th floor of the Lee Garden Hotel, with Dan Arnold in room 1801.
From the authors’ files:
Dan Arnold, the Lobbyist?
Dan Arnold is now a Board Member of Jefferson Waterman International, a Washington lobbying firm said to be paid by Burmese companies, which US officials say have business ties to the military regime. Dan Arnold has also been mentioned in conjunction with the arms and drug trade in Asia, and an alleged cocaine bust in northern California. There's more, but it's from the book:
Was the shabby little Chinaman from Mumong with US$48 million in liquid assets far fetched? Was Anna Plains, larger than the state of Rhode Island far-fetched? Hin Chew’s detention in Brunei with his “life in danger.” Was that far-fetched? Was Alexander Irvine a mirage? Were Dan Arnold’s helicopters a fib?
For me, this was all much more than far-fetched—it was a nightmare.
Could S. P.’s connections, his world whatever it was, cause problems for me, if I tried to leave Hin Chew? Life with the Chungs was making me ever more isolated and alone, devoid of friends or allies.
How could I escape from a family like the Chungs?
United States Senate
Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs
DEPOSITION OF SCOTT TRACY BARNES
Q. Did he say anything about a drug connection between CIA Agent Daniel Arnold and General Vang Pao during that first conversation?
Quotes from Bohica, by Scott Barnes
Much of the information be;pw is included in Barmes' testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Veteran Affairs, Senate Hearing on POW/MIAs on 20 September 1985
Dan Arnold’s testimony before this committeeremains classified.
- Bob Dorf of Beverly Hills, who was looking into a case regarding the use of yellow rain in Southeast Asia, called me to discuss the Robert Kelly case, a cocaine bust in northern California which also implicated Daniel Arnold, CIA, and Vang Pao, the Laotian general now living in the States. While we were agreeing that we both disliked the fact that certain members of the CIA were selling drugs in order to finance some of their operations without having to report to Congressional and Agency officials, someone broke in on our conversation. “You’re not supposed to discuss matters like that on the telephone,” the voice warned.
- After dividing the more than 400 exposures taken of these presumed POWs, Jerry Daniels left to hand-deliver his to the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok. Six months later, he died mysteriously in Thailand of carbon monoxide poisoning in his apartment there. Scott mailed his, as he was directed, to Daniel C. Arnold, CIA. He was later told that all the negatives had accidentally been destroyed in processing.
- Also, the new ambassador to Thailand had discovered Vang Pao’s involvement with agent Daniel C. Arnold in dealings with drugs, guns and guerrilla warfare.
- I can't help but wonder if Daniels, a CIA career man, hadn’t squaled too loudly about our orders to liquidate rather than rescue the Americans we had seen when he returned to Bangkok after our mission. Perhaps someone had decided to quiet him. He was intimately involved in the secret drug laundering team which included Armitager Jenkins, yang Pao, Arnold, Moberg, Secord, Singlaub and many others. “Now he’s dead,” Jenkins told me in a recent phone conversation, “and dead people don’t talk.”
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