Time for a major history lesson on how the so-called "War on Drugs" has been masqueraded and used as a political and military weapon - and very successfully. As someone forced to go to the clinic every day to deal with drug addiction, I take this very seriously.
I am posting this after the diary Trail of Drug Linked Killings Lead to Washington Cover Up" by CTliberal showed very concerning (to say the least) evidence of a new Washington-Level drug cover-up. Jack Abramoff going to jail only gives this more relevance today.
So, if you don't know, it is time to learn exactly what our country has done behind the scenes: done by the very same men [neocons] that are in power today. The latest below the fold.
Here is the latest from Trail of Drug Linked Killings Lead to Washington Cover Up"
Luis Padilla, 29, father of three, had been kidnapped, driven across the Mexican border from El Paso, Texas, to a house in Ciudad Juarez, the lawless city ruled by drug lords that lies across the Rio Grande. As his wife tried frantically to locate him, he was being stripped, tortured and buried in a mass grave in the garden - what the people of Juarez call a narco-fossa, a narco-smugglers' tomb.
Just another casualty of Mexico's drug wars? Perhaps. But Padilla had no connection with the drugs trade; he seems to have been the victim of a case of mistaken identity. Now, as a result of documents disclosed in three separate court cases, it is becoming clear that his murder, along with at least 11 further brutal killings, at the Juarez 'House of Death', is part of a gruesome scandal, a web of connivance and cover-up stretching from the wild Texas borderland to top Washington officials close to President Bush.
Snip
The US media have virtually ignored this story. The Observer is the first newspaper to have spoken to Janet Padilla, and this is the first narrative account to appear in print. The story turns on one extraordinary fact: playing a central role in the House of Death was a US government informant, Guillermo Ramirez Peyro, known as Lalo, who was paid more than $220,000 (£110,000) by US law enforcement bodies to work as a spy inside the Juarez cartel. In August 2003 Lalo bought the quicklime used to dissolve the flesh of the first victim, Mexican lawyer Fernando Reyes, and then helped to kill him; he recorded the murder secretly with a bug supplied by his handlers - agents from the Immigration and Customs Executive (Ice), part of the Department of Homeland Security. That first killing threw the Ice staff in El Paso into a panic. Their informant had helped to commit first-degree murder, and they feared they would have to end his contract and abort the operations for which he was being used. But the Department of Justice told them to proceed.
Yikes! Please read the rest of it here: Trail of Drug Linked Killings Lead to Washington Cover Up"
Now, back to history. This isn't the first time the media ignored a government involved drug conspiracy before. The Contras anyone? Hell, Vietnam - where many of these people and using drugs as government policy to promote military factions began - but you'll have to read another diary to learn about that.
Now, I give you pieces from my old writings, combined into a form specifically on this topic. It is VERY long, so I suggest you read it in chunks. This is not conspiracy theories - it is some part truth and some part highly likely.
Iran-Contra "Who can compete with the government?" - John Gotti, Jr. on whether he has been dealing drugs.
I gave you a little taste of Iran-Contra, but I will summarize it here. There are two important backdrops to this. The first is our support of Manuel Noriega in Panama, who just so happened to be a drug lord, which started in the 50s and continued on into the Contra scandal. The second is Nixon's "War on Drugs" (better known as the "War on the 60s",) which he fought with due diligence in the 70s (with what appears to be sincerity at least on some level,) but his efforts would fail in the end, in fact they only inflamed the situation in many cases, and he would soon leave the White House in disgrace. Most of what happened at home, and the large farce that it was, is reserved for the third history diary - and I have to say, the "War on Drugs" and 1972 VERY closely resembles the "War on Terror and 2005. Nixon did, however, make a real mess of foreign policy in his efforts (which targetted Turkey, France, Panama, and Mexico, among others,) that's for sure.
Many of the guys who were involved, behind the scenes, in the Secret War in Laos will go on into our next scandal, Iran-Contra. This likely includes John Negroponte, who was involved in the Vietnam/Laos Saga as a political officer in the Vietnam War. Exactly what he did is a total unknown. He did describe that time as a "career defining experience." His role, however, was likely limited to Vietnam - he was a "Vietnam Expert" - not interested in complications like Laos. People who were actually involved in Laos that would go on into the Iran-Contra Scandal include Ted Shackley (CIA Agent), Thomas Clines (CIA Agent), Oliver North (who called the Contras "freedom fighters" and was convicted on three counts only to be overturned on a technicality), and Richard Secord.
Another major figure involved in both scandals was Richard Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State under Powell (is he taking up any other position now?) and a signer of PNAC, the neo-con manifesto (and a terrible piece of writing). In Laos, according to the Christic Institute's affadavit (NOTE: This one piece of evidence has been largely discredited, he was involved in funnelling drug money from Laos and Thailand into assasination programs and other nefarious activities in Vietnam. During Iran-Contra, he was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security, at which time he apparently opposed the arms sales (read on), on the grounds that the Iranians were "sleazebags." What a guy.
The beginnings of Iran-Contra would signal a marked shift in our foreign focus, from East Asia to Central/South America and the Middle East - where it largely remains today.
Let's start by talking about the Contras. They were the militants who opposed the Sandinista Government of Nicaragua (FSLN), who held power beginning in 1979. This government was accused by the Reagan Administration of supporting communism, and joining with Cuba in supporting communist revolutions in Latin America, in countries such as El Salvador. While many members were surely strong communists, I am not sure that has even been verified, but it's not important.
Anyway, the Contras were a group that we created, out of remnants of the opposition (Somoza's National Guard.) The CIA financed them, trained them, and armed them. They operated out of Honduras (where Negroponte was ambassador) and Costa Rica, which both border Niceragua. We also put a full embargo on Niceragua. Guerilla war soon ensued - a really nasty one, might I add - and a topic I am sure you will read plenty about in the coming days if you haven't already. One of the best examples of it's brutality were the death squads that were supported under Negroponte's watch. Needless to say, this was brutal and disgusting, and Reagan's Administration would stop at nothing in it's insane crusade against the Sandinistas.
Eventually Congress would make funding the Contras illegal. Well, since when did that stop the CIA and Pentagon? The Contras needed funding, and the taxpayer lifeline was cut off. So what did they do? They did two things. The first, very commonly known thing they did was illegally sell arms to Iran, and use the money to fund the Contras. This has been widely investigated, yet the results wound up secret and ineffective.
The arms sales were not all by a long shot. Why they call this "Iran-Contra," I know not. I can speculate several reasons, but I will keep them to myself. We will return to Iran when we get to the Middle East, namely Pakistan and Afghanistan (and Iraq for that matter - why we sold arms to Iran when we were, I do believe, simultaneously supporting Saddam Hussein I do not know, but I intend to find out.) Anyway, the second source of funds. A - likely large - amount of Contra funding came from drug money. Yep, the Contras (and many Contra supporters - which we in turn supported) were drug manufacturers and traffickers - in cocaine, this time. Now, that's nothing new for US Policy, as I have made clear. It's almost like "oh, we supported drug dealers [it's almost a requirement], so what?" Well, we did alot more than support them. We directly assisted them selling their drugs on American soil. In fact, the CIA might have been responsible for the whole thing in the first place, if the CIA weren't the drug dealers themselves! Now, we did directly support the drug aspect in Laos before with Vang Pao. He had a heroin lab in a CIA Base, and we financed his smuggling. But in that case, it wasn't (at least in any significant number,) coming home. Sure, much of it was going to our troops in Vietnam, but who cares about them?
That's right, we are talking about finished cocaine - not raw product - providing aircraft, protection as they trafficked into the USA, and protection as they operated on US Soil. It's unfortunate, but we don't know exactly how much cocaine was involved, percentage wise at least. Unless there is a formal investigation, chances of which are moot, it's just not going to be known. And just wait - there's more!
The Kerry Commission (as in John Kerry) would conclude that "There was substantial evidence of drug smuggling through the war zones on the part of individual Contras, Contra suppliers, Contra pilots mercenaries who worked with the Contras, and Contra supporters throughout the region" and that "Senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the Contras' funding problems." Unfortunately, the Kerry Commission didn't even come close to getting to the bottom of the drug issue.
Now, I mentioned Manuel Noriega for a reason other than the fact that he was a drug kingpin. The other reason was that he was directly involved in Iran-Contra. He facilitated "guns-for-drugs" flights for the contras - supplying guns for drugs (which he proceeded to sell, of course.) He also provided protection and pilots, safe havens for drug cartel members, and money laundering. I even mentioned that, despite all this, that many US officials - including CIA Director William Webster and several DEA officials - sent him letters of praise in his fighting drug trafficking. It's too bad his fighting of drug trafficking was only against his competitors. Eventually the US would discover that he was assisting the Cubans and Sandinistas, and they would turn on him and take him down by force - all of a sudden he was the obstacle to a drug free America, according to the Administration. Ironically, drug trafficking through Panama increased afterwards, as he was no longer thwarting his competitors.
Scary shit, huh? Well, it gets much worse:
Meanwhile, in America...
On to America Soil and some developments. First, let's describe the type of protection, exactly, that these drug dealers would recieve in and on the way to America. When you are working with the CIA, you are untouchable. The CIA can show up and end any criminal action in it's tracks. And that they did. There are numerous instances of minor traffickers being arrested (in the USA) for smuggling drugs, and the CIA will go to the local police or courts and get them off because they would often threaten to talk. And that would be the end of that. The DEA has collaborated this, and been complicit in it, and in some instances has even admitted it.
As for the smuggling, at least four transport companies received US government contracts to carry supplies to the contras that were implicated in drug smuggling. Southern Air Transport, which was "formerly" CIA-owned, later under Pentagon contract, was involved in the drug running itself. Cocaine-laden planes flew all over the USA - to Florida, Texas, Louisiana and other locations, even including several military bases. Designated as 'Contra Craft,' these shipments were not to be inspected. As can be expected, when some zealous authority wasn't clued in and made a bust, the CIA or Pentagon would step in and that would be the end of that.
The Crack epidemic not-so-coincidentally occurred right in the middle of all this. While Crack (freebase cocaine, it's a smokable form of cocaine that provides a super-strong but super-short high, and is super-addicting) was discovered in the mid-70s, the epidemic didn't explode until the mid-80s. And it's quite clear that it was caused by the Contra scandal. You see, crack was cheap, potent, and addicting. It was the perfect drug to reap billions from the poor, especially blacks. Essentially you have a tax on poor blacks - who then proceed to suffer even more - to pay for an illegal, secret war. It is disgusting. And not a damn thing has been done about it. What can be done? We are dealing with the untouchable CIA and Pentagon here - as well as the Republican Party (including several idols and people currently in power.)
This whole thing is what started the whole Columbian Drug Lord mess we are now in. The connections set up during the Contra scandal still remain today. The CIA themselves set up the connections, and used the drug money to fund the contras. That's right - the CIA was directly facilitating the sale of cocaine. It's almost mind-boggling. Before the CIA brought wholesale South American Cocaine to LA in the form of crack at rock-bottom prices ($5 a hit - today, at least), both cocaine and crack were both unobtainable in black communities. Now it's a plague.
No newspapers. No story. Squat. EXCEPT this, one reported, who lost his job, was ridiculed by the media that didn't even try to disprove him because the couldn't, and eventually took his own life in tragedy.
This story was broken by the Mercury News of San Jose, by Gary Webb, in a three part special that printed in 1996 - Available free here. I strongly urge you to read them, if you are so inclinded, as well as the other sources I mentioned. You can find them by searching for "Dark Alliance," they were published in three articles, August 18th-20th 1996. You can also find much supporting and background information at Dark Alliance at Lycaeum.
Here is a taste:
'CRACK' PLAGUE'S ROOTS ARE IN NICARAGUA WAR COLOMBIA-BAY AREA DRUG PIPELINE HELPED FINANCE CIA-BACKED CONTRAS '80S EFFORT TO ASSIST GUERRILLAS LEFT LEGACY OF DRUGS, GANGS IN BLACK L.A.
GARY WEBB, Mercury News Staff Writer
For the better part of a decade, a Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, a Mercury News investigation has found.
This drug network opened the first pipeline between Colombia's cocaine cartels and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles, a city now known as the ''crack'' capital of the world. The cocaine that flooded in helped spark a crack explosion in urban America - and provided the cash and connections needed for L.A.'s gangs to buy automatic weapons.
It is one of the most bizarre alliances in modern history: the union of a U.S.-backed army attempting to overthrow a revolutionary socialist government and the Uzi-toting ''gangstas'' of Compton and South-Central Los Angeles.
The army's financiers - who met with CIA agents both before and during the time they were selling the drugs in L.A. - delivered cut-rate cocaine to the gangs through a young South-Central crack dealer named Ricky Donnell Ross.
Unaware of his suppliers' military and political connections, ''Freeway Rick''' - a dope dealer of mythic proportions in the L.A. drug world - turned the cocaine powder into crack and wholesaled it to gangs across the country.
...
Now we move into another diary that is a continuation of the previous one.
War on [X] & The Military-Industrial Complex. (and some important background information.)
In September 1989, 3 months before he went after Noriega and 9 months after he was inaugurated, in his first televised speech to the nation, George H.W. Bush held up a baggie of cocaine, claiming that it was bought in front of the White House (later to be discovered this was only because the DEA lured someone there using their undercover ties.) This was his escalation of the "War on Drugs." It would seem to be a rather strong coincidence that the War on Drugs seemed to coincide with the end of the Cold War (and defense spending faced massive cuts) - and it represents a pattern. Notice, now, that we have our War on Terrorism, the War on Drugs is no longer even mentioned by politicians (yet it is continued at full force - at home, at least.)
The Cold War, the War on Drugs, and the War on Terrorism all present the possibility for an endless threat, constant fear, and an ever-escalating military-industrial apparatus. The warning of Eisenhower about the Military-Industrial Complex has come to fruition, likely beyond his wildest dreams. EX-DEA agent (undercover specialist of 25 years) Michael Levine has commented, "with the fade of communism [the Pentagon and CIA] are building a pretext for maintaining their budgets" (March 1991.) Believe it or not, after Iraq invaded Kuwait (August 1990) the rhetoric of the war on drugs suddenly changed, with the Bush (41) Administration declaring victory in the War on Drugs a few months later. Could this possible be some sort of coincidence, a development we don't know about, or had the Bush Administration now found a more convenient vehicle for the military-industrial complex in the "Madman" Saddam Hussein? With current events adding more meaning to this, things look quite a bit suspicious.
The Cold War and the War on Drugs (while ongoing) have both been widely considered to have been a waste of time, money, and most importantly lives. The War on Terrorism seems to be even worse - it is clearly inflaming terrorism, yet we continue with blind ignorance. When will we stop this nonsense and go after root causes instead of symptoms?
It may come as a surprise to some, but perhaps not to most, that we spend more on our military than any other country by astounding numbers. I am not sure of the exact current numbers, but I do believe it's more than the next 10 top military spending countries combined, and is almost as much as the rest of the world's, once again, combined. It has, after a very small decline under Clinton, gone up 41% under George W. Bush, if you include the special Iraq packages. We have become a Military Nation. With Negroponte's nomination as Intelligence Czar (which, sad to say, he is sure to be confirmed to,) this is even more scary. Our military is out of control. Why should the CIA need to do things like sell drugs and arms to support a war? Shouldn't that be the Pentagon's Job (it should be NO ONE's job)? We don't need someone to coordinate intelligence between some 10 different agencies - we need to combine those agencies. But those agencies have become entities that are beyond American political control.
And then we have black America, the part that is chained to poverty in the slums. While cocaine would lose popularity by the end of the 80s, crack would explode. Many a conspiracy theorist has commented that the CIA specifically used crack as a method to keep down Black America. I am not making that charge (it were the gangs, specifically the infamous Bloods and Crips, that made and sold the crack - any CIA involvement was only in raw cocaine - at least as far as the evidence, that I am aware of at least, shows,) but I have made the charge that they were at least indirectly responsible, it would appear, for this development, and ambivalent about it.
And what would they do for the black community? Instead of helping them or ignoring them, as they have done for the white drug users (the majority of drug users,) they would throw them in prison by the boatload. Police would specifically target them. Crack is a drug that has the stiffest penalties for possessing, yet a drug that has not changed in popularity or availability in any significant degree over the years since it exploded during the Contra affair.
What exactly the government did, let happen, etc., in regards to crack and the black community is an unknown, and it will likely remain as such. What isn't an unknown, however, is that the politicians have been completely ambivalent to the plight of the blacks in poverty and prison - two things that are clearly not mutually exclusive. Is it possible, perhaps, that the Democrats are happy with the situation - as by having poor black people you are more assured their vote?...I truly hope no one is that heinous.
To wrap this up, I deeply fear that the "defense" department of our country has grown out of any sort of control, and will take over the country if it hasn't already. Keep in mind that the neo-cons, writers of PNAC, are now the ones in control of this country. And being "soft on defense" is political suicide.
Tying up Loose Ends (The Contras and Central/South America)
"The Latin American drug cartels have stretched their tentacles much
deeper into our lives than most people believe. It's possible they are
calling the shots at all levels of government."
- William Colby, former CIA Director, 1995
There was a myriad of comments, and I would like to tie up some loose ends as well as address, and incorporate, some of the excellent comments that were made. If I mention your name, and you did not want me to, let me know and I will immediately remove it. Call me paranoid, but I am truly afraid of CIA reprisals. Such a reprisal would be a badge of honor, however.
I want to mention some other figures involved in Iran-Contra, including George H.W. Bush (41). He was certainly a key figure in all of this, and it was quite a mistake to leave him out. He was CIA director from Nov. 1975- Jan. 1977, and while that predates the Contra Scandal, it clearly shows where he was coming from. He then went on to be Vice President to Reagan from 1980-1988, when he then became President himself. He sat as Vice President through the entire debacle, and to claim he knew nothing of it would be to go out on quite a limb indeed. Congressional testimony by George H.W. Bush's NSC advisor Donald Gregg would state that Bush himself met with Noriega in 1976 - which was after he was outed by the DEA as a drug lord. (FYI, Carter (who's hands are far from clean - don't get the wrong idea) stopped the checks to Noriega, and Reagan (Bush VP) resumed them.) NSC memos that the shredder missed revealed that Donald Gregg was aware early on of Contra involvement in the drug trade. Even many conservatives would shockingly all of a sudden urge for drug decriminalization, including Reagan's then-Secretary of State George Schultz, then-UN Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick, economist Milton Friedman, and editor of the National Review William F. Buckley, Jr. Now what would cause them to do such a radical thing?
The first two years of George H.W. Bush's Presidency would see William Bennett, his first Drug Czar, criticized by members of Congress for his indifference to loopholes permitting U.S. companies to export unusual volumes of cocaine processing chemicals to Latin American countries. As he left office, Bush 41 pardoned six members convinced in the Iran-Contra(-Crack) scandal, including Elliott Abrams, and we will now explore some other names involved in Iran-Contra(-Crack.)
Someone I should definitely not have left out was John Poindexter. John Poindexter was convicted of conspiracy, lying to Congress, defrauding the government, and destroying evidence - one of the few to see criminal charges from Iran-Contra - after serving as National Security Advisor under Reagan (and losing his job.) His charges were overturned on appeals, like Oliver North. He, unlike Negroponte, has been personally implicated in the cocaine scandal (a Costa Rican Government Commission accused him personally, for instance.) He was another character from Iran-Contra to be given a position in the Bush Administration - a very scary position. He ran the now defunct, on paper, "Total Information Awareness" program at DARPA (2), an Orwellian Big Brother-esque program. Apparently, he still slips and refers to "TIA" in the present tense.
In fact, Bush (43) seems quite fond of Iran-Contra conspirators, and has nominated John Negroponte (UN Ambassador, nominated Intel Czar), Elliott Abrams (director of the office for democracy, human rights, and international operations for the National Security Council - pleaded guilty two 2 counts of withholding evidence related to Iran-Contra, pardoned by Bush 41,) and Otto Riech (assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.) Richard Armitage is another obvious one, and was mentioned in Part 2. Finally, we come to Dick Cheney. Cheney was an ardent supporter of Oliver North, and even supported his run in 1994!
War crimes? What war crimes? The war criminals (and drug dealers) of Iran-Contra(-Crack) weren't put in jail - they were promoted! It should be stressed that the whole neocon movement is very closely tied to the Iran-Contra debacle. Why is George W. so complicit in all this? Is it a coincidence; he just likes these guys? Fatherly influences? What?..
History consistently proves these people can't see any farther than the hand in front of their face.
[It's interesting to note, but there are (COMPLETELY unsubstantiated, AFAIK,) allegations that George W. Bush both used and sold cocaine]
I just want to quickly say that while I provided many links to sources for what I said in Part II, there are plenty more for those who are interested, many given to me in comments. Please read through those comments! They are great, great stuff!
I want to share with you a post by ben masel, as it's just amazing. Posting it here, however, does not mean I am authenticating it.
In the Spring of 1987, I was field organizer for the Grassroots Impeachment Campaign, seeking to remove Reagan, Meese, and Vice President Bush from office for their Obstruction of Justice in the Contra/cocaine operation. We quickly developed a cluster of local organizations in the usual radical hotspots of the midwest.
In those pre-paypal days, fundraising meant working the streets. We soon raised the cost of a fullpage ad in the Sunday New York Times, I drove to all the organizers and picked up cash, arriving in New York with $37,590, just shy of the $39,000 pricetag, with a promise from Bill Kunstler for the balance.
As I walked up to the Overthrow Magazine office, where I was going to typeset the ad, I was grabbed by 1 DEA and 5 New York State cops, searched, arrested for a reputed 1.4 grams of marijuana, and the ad money siezed.
The State guys were a brand new unit. Previously only City cops worked narcotics in New York, but regular reports of corruption led to the State dispatching a crew. I was their 3d arrest.
While holding me, they read off a boilerplate query: "Can you tell us anything about drug trafficking in New York or anywhere else?"
Me: "Yes, but the guys I know about are too big for you to take down."
This of course got them interested. I proceeded with a half hour discourse on the many tendrils of the Contra Coke operation, touching on such locations as Baton Rouge, Homestead Airforce Base, Mena, Costa Rica, Haiti, Langley, the White house basement, and the Office of the Vice President. After 1/2 hour of rapt attention, one of the officers interjected "You're right. They are too big for us to take down. We're going to release you on a citation, your court date is....."
To the credit of the State boys, every dollar showed up on the receipt, unprecedented for a drug bust in New York.
The possession case fell away when the State Crime lab lost the evidence. Contesting the forfeiture took nearly 3 years. First came a ruling that the search had been illegal. The Govt, by then US Attorney Rudi Giuliani, attested that they had independently derived evidence that the money was tainted. When they failed to produce any evidence at trial, we obtained a ruling that Giuliani had acted in bad faith in his earlier statement to the Court. Because of this bad faith ruling, I was the 1st claimant ever in a Federal Civil Forfeiture to be awarded Attorneys Fees as well as return of property.
For the dramatic conclusion including Haiti and the Middle East you may find it Here.
Also here is The Prequel, including mostly Vietnam (Air America anyone?)