Drug trafficking, an instrument of imperial rule

Salvador Capote

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After several decades of “drug war”, accompanied by a huge cost in human lives and material resources, drug traffickers are now stronger than ever and control a larger territory than ever before.

 

In the past six years, occurred in Mexico more than 47,000 murders related to drug trafficking. Of 2.119 in 2006 rose to nearly 17,000 in 2011. In 2008, the U.S. Justice Department warned that the DTOs (Drug Trafficking Organizations), linked to Mexican cartels, were active in all U.S. regions. Mafias operating in Florida associated with the Gulf Cartel, Los Zetas and the Sinaloa Federation. Miami is one of the main reception and distribution of drugs. Besides those mentioned, other cartels, such as Juarez and Tijuana, operating in the U.S..

Cartels in Mexico took on greater force after replaced the Colombian Cali and Medellin in the 90′s and now control 90% of the cocaine entering the United States. The greatest stimulus to drug trafficking is the high U.S. consumption. In 2010, a national survey of the Department of Health revealed that approximately 22 million Americans over age 12 use some type of drug.

These, which are just some of the most disturbing statistics, let question the effectiveness of the “war on drugs”. It is impossible to believe that there is really a political will to end this scourge universal when we look at the role played by the drug trade in the counterinsurgency, the expansion of transnational and geopolitical ambitions of the United States and other powers.

Consider, in brief, recent history (1). The administration of Richard Nixon, to start the “war on drugs” (1971), developed at the same time the heroin trade in Southeast Asia in order to finance their military operations in that region. Heroin produced in the Golden Triangle (where they join the mountainous areas of Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar) was transported in planes “Air America”, owned by the CIA (2) (3). In a televised press conference on June 1971, a reporter asked Nixon: “Mr. President, what will you do with the tens of thousands of American soldiers returning to heroin addicts?” (4)

The operations of “Air America” continued until the fall of Saigon in 1975. While the CIA was trafficking opium and heroin in Southeast Asia, trafficking and consumption of narcotics in the United States became a national tragedy. President Gerald Ford asked Congress in 1976 the passage of legislation instructed to substitute the probation to prison, to establish mandatory minimum sentences and refuse bail for certain drug offenses. The result was an exponential increase in the number of convictions for offenses related to trafficking and drug use and subsequent conversion of the United States has the largest prison population in the world. The brunt of this punitive policy fell on blacks and other minorities.

U.S. administrations during the 80 and 90 South American governments supported directly involved in cocaine trafficking. During the Carter administration, the CIA intervened to prevent two of the cartel leaders Roberto Suarez (King of Cocaine) were brought to trial in the United States. To be free, able to return to Bolivia and play starring roles in the coup (“Cocaine Coup”) of July 17, 1980, financed by drug barons. The bloody dictatorship of General Luis Garcia Meza was supported by the administration of Ronald Reagan.

The most conspicuous involvement of the Reagan administration in the drug trade was the scandal known as “Iran-Contra” whose axis was publicized fund raising to finance the Nicaraguan Contras through the illegal sale of arms to Iran, but is well documented, In addition, Reagan’s support, for this same purpose, trafficking in cocaine within and outside the United States.
. These connections the journalist William Blum explains in his book “Rogue State” (5). In Costa Rica, which served as the Southern Front contras (Honduras was the Northern Front) operated various CIA-Contra networks involved in drug trafficking. These networks were associated with Jorge Morales, Colombian drug lord lives in Miami. Morales planes were loaded with weapons in Florida, flew to Central America and returned laden with cocaine. Another network based in Costa Rica was operated by anti-Castro Cubans employed by the CIA and military instructors. This network used contra planes and a company selling shrimp that laundered money for the CIA in the transfer of drugs into the U.S..

In Honduras, the CIA hired Alan Hyde, the leading dealer in the country (“the godfather of all criminal activities,” according to reports from the U.S. government) in their boats to transport supplies to the contras. The CIA, in turn, would prevent any action against Hyde counternarcotics agencies.

The paths of cocaine had important stations like Ilopango airbase in El Salvador. A former CIA officer, Celerino Castillo, described as flying planeloads of cocaine north, landed with impunity in several U.S. locations, including the Air Force base in Texas, and returned with plenty of money to finance the war . “All under the protective umbrella of the United States government.” Resume operation was performed under the direction of Felix Rodriguez (alias Max Gomez) in connection with the then Vice President George HW Bush and Oliver North, who was on the staff of the National Security Council under Reagan.

In 1982, CIA Director William Casey negotiated a “memorandum of understanding” with the Attorney General, William French Smith, who exempted the CIA from any liability related to drug trafficking operations conducted by its agents. This agreement was in force until 1995.

Reagan and his successor, George HW Bush, sponsored the “man of the CIA in Panama,” Manuel Noriega, linked to the Medellin cartel and laundering large amounts of money from the drug. When Noriega ceased to be useful and became a nuisance, the U.S. invaded Panama (December 20, 1989) in an unprecedented barbaric act against international law and sovereignty of a small country.

Michael Ruppert, a journalist and former narcotics officer, presented a long statement in 1997, accompanied by documentary evidence, to the intelligence committees (“Select Intelligence Committees”) of both houses of Congress. In one paragraph it states:

“The CIA trafficked in drugs not only during the Iran-Contra, it has for all fifty-year history. Today I will present evidence to demonstrate that the CIA, and many figures which became famous during the Iran-Contra affair, as Richard Secord, Ted Shackley, Tom Clines, Felix Rodriguez and George HW Bush (6) have been selling drugs to Americans since the Vietnam era. “(7)

In 1999 the Clinton administration bombed mercilessly Yugoslav people for 78 days and nights. Here again, the drug appears in the background of motivations. The intelligence services of the United States and their counterparts in Germany and Britain used the heroin trade to finance the building and equipping the Kosovo Liberation Army. The heroin from Turkey and Central Asia passed through the Black Sea, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania (Balkan Route) to Italy. With the destruction of Serbia and the strengthening-wanted or not-of the Albanian mafia, the Clinton administration left the way clear of drugs from Afghanistan to Western Europe (8). According to reports from the DEA and the Department of Justice of the United States, 80% of the heroin that enters Europe passes through Kosovo.

Several U.S. administrations, particularly that of George W. Bush have been complicit in the genocide in Colombia. The “war on drugs” held by U.S. billionaire financial resources, technical assistance and substantial military aid, has failed to stop the flow of cocaine and, conversely, has been instrumental in the emergence and development of paramilitary groups to narcoterratenientes service and as a pretext to maintain control over workers and the peasant population. Plan Colombia was a complete failure but served as a cover for U.S. interference in the country and clearly showed their true objective, the counterinsurgency.

It is often forgotten that the drug is probably the most lucrative of the capitalists. With the war in Colombia profit companies that produce chemical herbicides, the aerospace industry that provides helicopters and aircraft, weapons manufacturers, and generally, the whole military-industrial complex. The billions of dollars generated by illegal drugs increase the financial power of transnational corporations and the local oligarchy.

The recent statement of the Central Secretariat of the FARC-EP (9), during the forty-eighth anniversary of the armed struggle rebellious, drug-complaint capital this link:

“… Drug money become land, flooding the banking, finance, productive and speculative investment, hospitality, construction and procurement, resulting in functional and even necessary in the game of capture and movement of large capital characterized neoliberal capitalism today. The same happens in Central America and Mexico. “

The Free Trade Agreement US-Mexico (NAFTA) has forced many farmers to competition from U.S. agricultural products, to cultivate their lands poppy and marijuana. Others, against the alternative of slave labor in the maquiladoras, they prefer to enter the drug mafia networks. The large increase in freight traffic through the border and banking controls to combat terrorism have shifted money laundering banks to commercial corporations. The complexity and volume of financial transactions and instant and constant flow of capital “on line”, make it extremely difficult to trace illicit transactions.

One consequence of NAFTA is the almost total impunity that accompanies the flow of drug money to both sides of the border. As in Mexico, Free Trade Agreement recently entered into force in Colombia stimulate violence, drug trafficking and the repression of workers and peasants. The “Merida Initiative”, in turn, is only the Mexico-Central American version of Plan Colombia.

We must meditate on the fact that in all scenarios where the U.S. has intervened militarily, especially in those where he has held with fire and sword the country, drug trafficking, far from diminishing, as expected, has increased and strengthened. In Afghanistan, poppy cultivation declined during the Taliban government to then reach under the U.S. occupation, accelerated growth. Afghanistan is currently the largest producer of opium in the world but also not just export it as a paste for processing in other countries but that makes the heroin and morphine is its own territory.

If you stick to historical facts, could argue that U.S. policy has been to “war on drugs” but of “drugs war”.

Notes:

1) could start very early date, for example at the time of the “Opium Wars” of the British Empire to strengthen its hold on China, but not necessary for the purposes of this article.

2) Alfred McCoy: “The Politics of Heroin: The Complicity of the CIA in the Global Drug Trade”, New York, Lawrence Hill and Co., 2003.

3) Prior, “Air America” had helped the Kuomintang forces loyal to Chiang Kai-shek, to transport opium from China and Burma to Bangkok in Thailand. The French intelligence services also used the heroin trade to finance its covert operations in Indochina.

4) Rick Perlstein, “Nixonland”, Scribner, 2008, p. 567.

5) William Blum, “Rogue State”, Common Courage Press, 2005, p. 294-297.

6) Richard Secord: Major General of the United States Air Force, convicted for his role in the Iran-Contra, exonerated in 1990 by decision of the Supreme Court. Ted Shackley, “the blond ghost”, head of the CIA station in Miami during the October Crisis (“Cuban Missile Crisis”) and during Operation Mongoose (“Mongoose”) directed against Cuba, Director of Operation Phoenix ( “Phoenix Program”) during which they were killed over a hundred thousand Vietnamese directed many covert CIA operations, died of cancer in 2002. Tom Clines: one of the leading figures in the Iran-Contra scandal, between 1961 and 1962 participated in CIA covert operations against Cuba under the command of Ted Shackley was in charge of the secret war in Laos and participated in Operation Mongoose; among other misdeeds was in charge of the CIA operation in Chile that overthrew President Allende. Felix Rodriguez: Cuban-American, was one of the leaders of “Operation 40″ or “40 Murderers” and the mercenary invasion of Cuba in 1961. Participated in the murder of Che in Bolivia. George HW Bush, former CIA Director (1976-1977) and former U.S. president (1989-1993).

7) Quoted by Daniel Estulin: “Shadow Masters”, Trine Day, LLC, 2010.

8) Michael Ruppert, “Crossing the Rubicon”, New Society Publishers, 2004.

9) FARC-EP: “48 years of rebel armed struggle.” Of the Central Secretariat of the FARC-EP Mountains of Colombia, May 27, 2012.

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Pakistan, The Republic Of Fear

The Republic Of Fear

July 15, 2012: Pakistan is pressuring NATO to clear out hundreds of Pakistani Taliban who have taken sanctuary in the eastern Afghan provinces of Nuristan and Kunar. NATO and the Afghans are reluctant to do this while Pakistan maintains a terrorist sanctuary on their side of the border (North Waziristan) and refuses to shut that place down. The Islamic terrorists in North Waziristan have long made attacks into Afghanistan, something Pakistani simply denies. This Pakistani hypocrisy has been going on for decades and the Afghans, Indians and Western nations, who are on the receiving end of Islamic terrorism from Pakistan, are beyond the end of their patience over the issue. Frustrated by this refusal of the victims to go along with Pakistani delusions, the Pakistanis have been firing rockets and artillery into Afghanistan, where they believe Pakistani Taliban bases are. This has killed a lot of Afghan civilians and caused more anger at the Pakistanis. Efforts to negotiate some kind of compromise keep tripping over Pakistani refusal to admit that they are providing sanctuary for Islamic terrorists. Meanwhile, Pakistan is having growing problems with Islamic terrorists who used to be under the control of the military (and the ISI intelligence agency). That meant that these groups did not attack Pakistani targets. That has changed in the last decade, and many Islamic terror groups have gone to war against Pakistan. This would seem stupid, as Pakistan offers sanctuary for Islamic terrorists, but the point of Islamic radicalism is to be righteous and kill those who are not sufficiently Islamic.

Once the Pakistani government agreed in 2001 to support the American campaign against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan Islamic terror groups in Pakistan came under increasing pressure by their more radical (and less rational) members to declare war on Pakistan. That trend continues, as does Pakistani support (by the military, ISI, many politicians and their followers) for Islamic terrorism. Pakistani Islamic radicals run several large political parties and have lots of allies in the military and ISI. The main reason for this is that many Pakistanis still believe that Islamic radicalism (as in a religious dictatorship to run the country) would deal with the corruption and misrule that have created so much misery and poverty in the country. Those who oppose this are considered enemies of Islam and subject to attack. Even senior (and incorrupt) leaders who speak out against Islamic radicalism are murdered, and the killers are praised, not punished. Most Pakistanis are either believers, or too terrified to object. Pakistan has become the Republic Of Fear that has turned meaningful reform into a capital crime. The military, which has frequently mutinied and taken control of the government, is no longer seen as a viable solution to Pakistan’s problems. For half the time since Pakistan was created in 1947, the army has been in charge. Pakistanis have noted that the military was as corrupt and inept (although more disciplined) than the elected politicians. The result is growing popularity for a religious dictatorship. But many Pakistanis have noted that this form of government has not worked in Iran or Sudan, and was a disaster in Afghanistan during the 1990s. The country remains politically divided, corrupt, mismanaged and violent. The outlook is not good.

An example of how religious intolerance works in Pakistan can be seen in the treatment of Abdus Salam (Pakistan’s only winner of the Nobel Prize). Salam won the prize in 1979 for physics. His work made possible the current search for the Higgs Boson, a particle that, when better understood, will explain much more about how the universe actually operates. But Abdus Salam is virtually ignored, and often maligned, in Pakistan. That’s because he belonged to the Ahmadi (Ahmadiyya) sect of Islam. To Islamic radicals, the Ahmadi are considered heretics and are often attacked and even killed in Pakistan because of their beliefs. There are four million Ahmadi in Pakistan, and there has been sporadic violence against the Ahmadi for over a century, and groups like al Qaeda encourage even more killings. Abdus Salam moved to Britain to continue his research in the 1950s, but returned to Pakistan in the 1960s to establish Pakistan’s nuclear power and weapons program. Although Salam left Pakistan in 1974 when Ahmadi Islam was outlawed, he continued working on the Pakistani nuclear program. He returned to Pakistan in 1979 to receive praise for being the nation’s first Nobel Prize winner. But he had to leave quickly. In the 1970s Islamic radicalism was given massive government support, and with that came more violence against Amadi Pakistanis. When Salam died in 1996, his body was brought from Britain to be buried in Pakistan. But shortly thereafter a judge ordered that “Moslem” be removed from his gravestone. Despite his scientific prominence, Islamic radicals have seen to it that Salam’s name is rarely mentioned in Pakistani textbooks or the media in general. Pakistanis have to consult non-Pakistani media to find out about the accomplishments of Abdus Salam. Amadi Moslems are still murdered for their beliefs in Pakistan, and the government does little to stop it.

Although Pakistan has reopened its border for NATO supply trucks headed for Afghanistan, the majority of NATO supplies will continue to come from the north. That’s more expensive, but NATO does not trust Pakistan to keep the border open, and Islamic radical politicians in Pakistan are calling for demonstrations to close the border again. This might happen despite the fact that the United States made it clear that as long as the border is closed, American aid to Pakistan will be halted as well. By opening the border, Pakistan is now receiving $1.1 billion in blocked aid. Pakistan insists it should receive even more money, but the U.S. refuses to pay those funds which are based on corrupt practices. Much of the aid (military and economic) given to Pakistan is stolen by senior military and government officials. American attempts to stop the stealing have angered the Pakistanis, who deny any such crimes.

Military Operation In Tremseh Targeting Defectors and “Activists,” Not A Massacre

Syria: Military operation in Tremseh not a massacre

(CBS/AP) The International Committee of the Red Cross said it now considers the conflict in Syria a civil war, meaning international humanitarian law applies throughout the country.

The Geneva-based group’s assessment is an important reference that helps parties in a conflict determine how much and what type of force they can or cannot use.

ICRC spokesman Hicham Hassan said Sunday that the humanitarian law now applies wherever hostilities are taking place in Syria, where fighting has spread beyond the hotspots of Idlib, Homs and Hama.

International humanitarian law grants parties to a conflict the right to use appropriate force to achieve their aims. But attacks on civilians and abuse or killing of detainees can constitute war crimes.

On Sunday Syria denied claims by U.N. observers that government forces used heavy weapons during a military operation in Tremseh.

Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said the violence Thursday was not a massacre, but a military operation targeting armed fighters who had taken control of the village.

“What happened wasn’t an attack on civilians,” Makdissi told reporters in Damascus. “What has been said about the use of heavy weapons is baseless.”

But the United Nations has already implicated President Bashar Assad’s forces in the assault. The head of the U.N. observer mission said Friday that monitors stationed near Tremseh saw the army using heavy weaponry and attack helicopters.

On Saturday, U.N. observers investigating the killings found pools of blood in homes and spent bullets, mortars and artillery shells, adding details to the emerging picture of what anti-regime activists have called one of the deadliest events of Syria’s uprising. The observers were expected to return to Tremseh on Sunday.

Dozens of people have already been buried in a mass grave, and activists are still struggling to determine the total number of people killed in what they say was a bombardment by government tanks and helicopters on Thursday.

Some of the emerging details suggested that, rather than the outright shelling of civilians that the opposition has depicted, the violence in Tremseh may have been a lopsided fight between the army pursuing the opposition and activists and locals trying to defend the village. Nearly all of the dead are men, including dozens of armed rebels. The U.N. observers said the assault appeared to target specific homes of army defectors or opposition figures.

Running tolls ranged from around 100 to 152, including dozens of bodies buried in neighboring villages or burned beyond recognition. The activists expected the number to rise since hundreds of residents remain unaccounted for, and locals believe bodies remained in nearby fields or were dumped into the Orontes River.

Independent verification of the events is nearly impossible in Syria, one of the Middle East’s strictest police states, which bars most media from working in the country. The observers are in the country as part of an all but mordant peace plan by U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan, who has been trying for months to negotiate a solution to Syria’s crisis.

The Tremseh violence was the latest in a string of bloody attacks in the now 16-month-old uprising against Assad, in which activists say more than 17,000 people have been killed. The new deaths brought intensified international condemnation of his regime, and the Turkish prime minister added his voice to the chorus Saturday.

“These vicious massacres, these attempts at genocide, these inhuman savageries are nothing but the footsteps of a regime that is on its way out,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. “Sooner or later, these tyrants with blood on their hands will go and the people of Syria will in the end make them pay.”

On Saturday, an 11-vehicle team of U.N. observers entered Tremseh, home to between 6,000-10,000 residents and one of a string of small farming villages along the Orontes River northwest of the city of Hama.

Based on its investigation, the team said in a statement that “an attack” took place on July 12. It said the violence seemed to target the homes of army defectors and activists, some of which were burned or damaged and had pooled or splattered blood and bullet casings inside.

Russian For. Min. Expresses Concern Over Rights Abuse In Wahabbi Kingdom

[Russia should take up the cause of Shia abuse in Saudi Arabia in a similar manner to Wahabbis giving support to Sunnis in Syria.]

“The Saudi interior ministry has said there were no clashes but that two people were killed by unknown assailants last Sunday in the east.”

S Arabia surprised with statement by Dolgov on Eastern Province

www.itar-tass.com

 

BEIRUT, July 15 (Itar-Tass) —— Saudi Arabia is surprised with the statement made by Konstantin Dolgov, Russian MFA Representative on Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, which refers to the situation in the Eastern Province of that country.

"The Government of the Kingdom sees this statement as hostile and would like to remind to the Russian representative, that the Saudi authorities have always respected and tend to respect international rules, sovereignty and independence of states, and also have refrained and desist from interfering with their internal affairs, including those of Russia," the SAP quotes a high-ranking source at the Foreign Ministry of Saudi Arabia as saying.

The statement of the Russian Ombudsman for Human Rights, according to Riyadh, "contradicts diplomatic norms and is an outspoken and unwarranted interference in internal affairs." "The Kingdom hopes that the appearance of this strange statement is not intended to divert attention from the barbaric massacre of the Syrian regime of its own people, which it does with the support of well-known parties, preventing the sincere efforts to stop the bloodshed in Syria," the comment reads.

On July 12, Konstantin Dolgov expressed concern about the situation in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. He gave the information according to which on July 9 at the administrative centre of El Katif there were clashes between security forces and a group of peaceful demonstrators who were protesting against the taking place, in their opinion, cases of infringement of rights of the Shia community by the authorities of the kingdom. "The incidents seem to risk a negative impact on stability and harmony of civil society in Saudi Arabia," the Russian diplomat said.

In El Katif, died two demonstrators, more than 20 protesters were injured. Among the victims of a Shiite religious leaders was Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who was arrested by the police. Shiites make ten percent of the population of Saudi Arabia and live in the east of the country, where the main oil reserves and industrial facilities are concentrated.

Moscow hopes that "the government of the Kingdom will undertake all measures to normalise the situation in its eastern regions, to prevent conflict, including those on the inter-faith basis, and to provide a guaranteed universally of accepted human rights, including rights for freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and freedom of associations, as provided by law," Dolgov said.

President Assad Names State Sponsors of Terrorists In Syria

Bashar al-Assad told who and how intrigues against Syria

 

President Bashar Assad believes peace plan to resolve the situation in Syria, proposed by the special envoy of the United Nations and the League of Arab States, Kofi Annan, "very good". The President noted that the plan diplomat faced many obstacles, but we can not allow it to fail, reports Reuters.

The Syrian leader elaborated on the question of who and how to prevent the implementation of the Annan plan. According to al-Assad, the biggest obstacle to success are some states that have terrorists in Syria’s political, financial and other support.

The president of Syria has accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar to supply arms of opposition. In addition, Turkey has the rebels’ logistical support and helped smuggle weapons across the border, "the President assured. Finally, the United States have a "gang insurgents" strong political support and "total protection", and it can not but cause concern. For this reason, Washington is also responsible for the deaths of civilians in Syria, Bashar al-Assad assured.

Recall that in Syria, 2011. continued opposition to the authorities and armed insurgents. The Syrian opposition is demanding the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad, accusing government forces of mass atrocities against the civilian population. Official Damascus argues that under the guise of democratic slogans are operating in the country of the "gang of armed terrorists" supported by foreign radical Islamist groups. Victims of armed conflict began more than 12 thousand people.

Today, the Syrian leader said that most of those killed in armed clashes that have occurred over the past 16 months, were civilians who supported the government official.

Recall Kofi Annan’s peace plan seeks to ensure humanitarian access to needy Syrians, the establishment of safe corridors for the passage of civilians, the cessation of the use of official Damascus heavy military equipment and other items.