Ever wonder why there is a direct, near seamless relationship between U.S. military interventions and the proliferation of the narcotics trade? You should!
Writing in Thursday's Independent, award-winning Middle East correspondent Patrick Cockburn informs us:
The cultivation of opium poppies whose product is turned into heroin is spreading rapidly across Iraq as farmers find they can no longer make a living through growing traditional crops.The destruction of the Iraqi economy, fueled by a decade of U.S.-imposed sanctions in the wake of Gulf War I and now, the current U.S. invasion and occupation, has resulted in a near total collapse of Iraq's once-prosperous society. Into this social void, criminal gangs, terrorist outfits and various American "allies" linked to this or that "Coalition" faction rush in, a plague of locusts ravaging Mesopotamia.
Afghans with experience in planting poppies have been helping farmers switch to producing opium in fertile parts of Diyala province, once famous for its oranges and pomegranates...
Cockburn continues:
The growing and smuggling of opium will be difficult to stop in Iraq because much of the country is controlled by criminalised militias. American successes in Iraq over the past year have been largely through encouraging the development of a 70,000-strong Sunni Arab militia, many of whose members are former insurgents linked to protection rackets, kidnapping and crime. Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the powerful Shia militia, the Mehdi Army, says that criminals have infiltrated its ranks.As in Turkey, Afghanistan, Colombia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Burma, on and on, "freedom on the march" is accompanied by the custom official's greased palm, the covert operator's blind eye and the ever-inventive "sources and methods" of the narco-trafficker.
6 comments:
"As in Turkey, Afghanistan, Colombia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Burma, on and on,"
Don't forget the Golden Triangle! ...Wasn't their heroin good enough to stuff into dead U.S. GI caskets during 'Nam? It's just like the Grateful Dead sang, man; "Shipping powders back and forth, black go south, white come north.."
(and in case anyone wants to read that Cockburn article you can find a cached version here)
Yes drugs and wars seem to be more closely linked than people want to admit. Its just way to easy to blame the addict, you know, Bad crackhead! (no mention of a covert op, not even when people are yelling "Tell us about the cocaine, Olli!" at the Iran Contra I-don't-remember hearings)No. Much easier to blame the boogie-man crackhead..
But is this new? David Sassoon (after fleeing Baghdad of all places) got the British to fight two wars for him so he could continue to sell his junk to the Chinese (and thus somehow balance the British trade deficit?) He becomes a British citizen... after all it was good business for the British East India Co. right?
And I don't mean to bring up good 'ol Skull and Bones (at least its not S&B + Kerry = Bush) but speaking of the devil: wasn't S&B founder Willie Russel's cousin Samuel the world's richest opium dealer? and didn't his company flourish specifically during the opium war years? I mean sure S&B may be fodder for lots of conspiracy theories and such, but you can't ignore the fact that a lot of military and intelligence people come from there, and their founder --who's daddy died when he was 19-- yet managed to go to Yale anyway, just when his cousin was making bales of cash off addicts in Asia...
seems like wars and drugs really do go hand in hand.. but don't ask me, ask KBR they seem to be more knowledgeable than anyone about that particular subject...
...and speaking of disinfo
whoever is scrubbing wikipedia is sure doing a good job of blaming Iran for all our heroin woes now and always...
With all respect to Cockburn, blaming Iraqi gangs for the heroin trade is far too kind to the US.
There is a direct line which starts with the OSS in China during World War II, bringing in arms for the local resistance and using heroin to pay the bills. A few years later, the same operation got revved up again to support the remnants of Chiang Kai-shek's armies in Southeast Asia -- with the CIA moving the heroin by way of Marseilles and Cuba, in cooperation with the Mafia.
Castro pulled the plug on the Cuban end of things, and the Golden Triangle was never the same after the Vietnam War ended. But the CIA created the Afghan opium trade out of nothing in the 80's to finance its counter-Soviet operations, and cocaine served the same role for Latin America.
And it was all the same people running things -- a direct line of transmission that goes from Helliwell and Singlaub to Shackley and Clines. These days, it's less clear who's calling the shots, but the basic motivation is still that drugs are by far the simplest way to fund massive off-the-book covert operations. The fact that those covert operations themselves create the desperate farmers and local gangs who do the grunt work is merely a convenient side effect.
lee writes:
"Don't forget the Golden Triangle!"
I didn't. Burma was/is part of the Golden triangle. But the purpose of the CIA's complicity with various drug-smuggling gangs in Southeast Asia, wasn't, as you assert, to use their heroin, "to stuff into dead U.S. GI caskets during 'Nam?" but to finance their proxy armies in Laos and Vietnam. If individual operators made money from the trade, it was a "side benefit," not a primary motivation for state planners. To believe otherwise, distorts the actual facts of the operation.
Nor was the purpose of my post to recapitulate every dirty relationship forged over decades amongst operators working for the U.S. national security state and organized crime.
It was, however, to signal the repetition of long-established patterns of connivance among U.S. ruling class elites (as in, capitalist ruling class elites) and what Peter Dale Scott refers to as "deep politics." Personally, I prefer the more theoretically precise term advanced by Turkish researchers, "the deep state," when describing the phenomenon.
While you're correct to point to the dodgy history of Skull & Bones, the same can also be said of other, less well-known shadowy outfits such as The Knights of Malta, to which, if I'm not mistaken, Bill Casey belonged.
In my opinion however, such relationships are tangential at best, and at worst, lend themselves to all manner of dead ends and proverbial red herrings when dealing with clearly identifiable patterns related to the execution of state policy.
In truth, the CIA and other intelligence agencies could care less where the heroin or coke goes or what devastating effects the "product" has on vulnerable communities. Does it advance the strategic, geopolitical goals of the United States? Control of Middle East/Central Asia oil, construction of a string of bases to keep the competition at bay (Russia, China, Japan, EU, etc)? If it does, then they'll employ narco-traffickers as assets. If it doesn't, then they'll just as quickly kick them to the curb. Can you say Manuel Noriega and Pablo Escobar?
There certainly is a lot of history buried within the drug problem. Plus you can also view it more as a relationship although having said that, it might be considered somewhat confusing to many. But the point is very true as the reason is a big part of the drug problem is with WHOM is involved.
When I mention the word “Mafia”, what comes to mind for many are memories of the Valentines Day Massacre in Chicago. This among other brut force thugery situations as low mentality crooks worked together quickly to resolve criminal disagreements and setup other work related situations. However “The Mob” changed back in the 70s to steer away from a show of violence to more acceptable means of control.
BUT when I mentioned the words “Political Mafia”, people don’t have any association with that phrase and more consider it similar to how Mafia is understood. But from what I understand from living in a family for more than 26 years who’s deeply involved in the criminal system behind the Drug Planes, we had better understand what Political Mafia really means.
Unlike how the Mafia works, this group employs “Mind Control”. And why not, since most are linked to our Political system through out the US and beyond. To me, the word Political within the phrase Political Mafia explains well the use of social mass control using methods found in other areas used by the CIA and NAZI’s and others. These areas where Mind Control methods were developed are what help’s the Political Mafia crime system advance. It’s a very slow advance as it’s been going on for decades.
Another point that needs to be made is that all this marvelous detail is starting to explain that there is a mysterious control element throughout. Gee, why should that be of any surprise? While I was married, the family’s position within the crime system was to launder drug and gun running money straight into property. There has been a few issues surfaced explaining in part, how they launder. But over all they are using big Banks (who knowingly are involved) to move cash straight into property. The reason why the family uses only banks is because they feel the "Recorder of Deeds" Department’s are so corrupt they would take a fall faster than the banks. They feel that since the Banks are involved is a huge reason why the drug system exists as they will do what ever is necessary to insure they don’t fall. I can explain more about this another time.
The last part is the answer to “Why this huge Drug System exists?”
Regarding an earlier comment I made with “relationships” we have a relationship with our Federal Government which also entertains a lot of history. It goes way back! It’s important to realize that OLD PROBLEMS never seem to go away. They tend to hide themselves and wait for another opportunity to surface later. This behavior exists with everyone even with our relationships with our spouses and family members. The ONLY way to resolve OLD PROBLEMS is to face them head on and take care of it once and for all. Otherwise as I mentioned, later when we aren’t looking, here it is again. Only this time it's going to be much worse.
The Drug system is the CASH COW for those involved in a US Coup! Bush’s Grandfather was directly involved in a White House Coup back in 1933. While married, the family often talked about the Coup attempts that failed. There have been some that didn’t quiet make it as obvious as in 1933. See, they know as an organization when to pull in the reins and hide away again for later. But now their plan has advanced to a level where they can try it again. Even though the Coup has been ongoing for decades with slow changes here and there to shape our system(s) to allow the Treasonous criminals to get their way, they are happily faced with opposition.
The family often talked about a day called “The Change”. This is when that point is reached within this Coup to take over. This is also when the Camps are setup and those “Who are not with them” are moved to new living quarters. As they often said, you’re either with us OR you’re not! Those who aren’t, move into the Camps. This also has a deeper history as it was used in Europe by Hitler.
By reading the history of how Hitler came to power and who supported him, you’ll learn more about Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott Bush and others involved. The banks are in there too. Plus it’s also interesting that those who financially supported Hitler never had their Manufacturing Plants destroyed by the Allies or anyone! That means that even the Allies during WWII abided to strict rules when they shouldn’t. Who was giving the orders here?
Finally after the ending of WWII, this group of criminals plus others, who are back again as a different people with the same agenda only they learned from past failures. MicroSoft is involved in this among many others so when you look at the many questions about Vista and why the massive virus problem, try thinking more about who is involved in the Coup. Another mute point that isn’t well known is the lawmakers when composing “Bills” on Capital Hill are having their work modified by professional hackers. Evidence exists of a Bill that is different from what was passed around and accepted by our Lawmakers to the one Bush signed!
As mentioned many times in the past, the huge Drug system proceeds from drug sales are being used in large part to fund the Coup! What they are funding as I understand it to be are all the Black Ops supporting the Coup.
This is a difficult system to visually see. I’ve been in it for so many years it may be easier for me than you. There may be criticism regarding the existence of a huge Political Mafia. Even talking about it for many is way beyond their comprehension. It does require a deep understanding of history and other issues. But it exists never the less and they are really good at playing Mind Games and manipulating us. Remember, what I’ve said is what the family has told other members of the family that included me.
Marty Didier
Northbrook, IL
Sorry for the long post but I felt it necessary to explain this.
Gotta wonder about the role of the 'Independent' newspaper in the UK. It's by far the most leftwing of the major national daily papers. It criticises the Iraq war and even the banks - and on its front page too. And yet government sources chose this outlet as their preferred conduit for an 'unattributable briefing' about how the UK Ministry of Justice is hoping to introduce forcible microchip implantation for offenders.
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