Tale of the Tape... By the 1980s, the Dixie Mafia was at the zenith of its power; its tentacles spread from New Orleans to State Department bureaucrats, Colombian drug cartels and around the world to the men just beginning to invent modern terrorism and trade in nuclear materials. Today's headlines are only now exploring the depth of that corruption. Tale of the Tape takes historical events - CIA-sanctioned drugs-for-guns trade in Central America, a Soviet "sailor" returned by U.S. authorities to the ship from which he had just escaped and intrigue behind the 1988 Republican convention in New Orleans - and embarks on a riveting adventure. From New Orleans to Washington, D.C., South America to Alaska, Tale of the Tape reveals that power-hungry decade. Tale of the Tape is a story of betrayal and redemption, honor and disgrace. It is a story of men who would do anything for power and prestige, and it is the story of the two unlikely heroes who took them down. Alan Ables is a career U.S. Navy officer who served in Asia, the Middle East and South America. He is a print and broadcast journalist and photographer, editor, speechwriter, crisis communication expert and a college English instructor.