Posted on 07/29/2012 12:19:13 PM PDT by AuntB
The Central Intelligence Agency’s involvement in drug trafficking is back in the media spotlight after a spokesman for the violence-plagued Mexican state of Chihuahua became the latest high-profile individual to accuse the CIA, which has been linked to narcotics trafficking for decades, of ongoing efforts to “manage the drug trade.” The infamous American spy agency refused to comment.
In a recent interview, Chihuahua state spokesman Guillermo Terrazas Villanueva told Al Jazeera that the CIA and other international “security” outfits "don't fight drug traffickers." Instead, Villanueva argued, they try to control and manage the illegal drug market for their own benefit.
"It's like pest control companies, they only control," Villanueva told the Qatar-based media outlet last month at his office in Juarez. "If you finish off the pests, you are out of a job. If they finish the drug business, they finish their jobs."
Another Mexican official, apparently a mid-level officer with Mexico’s equivalent of the U.S. Department of “Homeland Security,” echoed those remarks, saying he knew that the allegations against the CIA were correct based on talks with American agents in Mexico. "It's true, they want to control it," the official told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.
Credibility issues with employees of the notoriously corrupt Mexican government aside, the latest accusations were hardly earth shattering — the American espionage agency has been implicated in drug trafficking from Afghanistan to Vietnam to Latin America and everywhere in between. Similar allegations of drug running have been made against the CIA for decades by former agents, American officials, lawmakers, investigators, and even drug traffickers themselves.
Some of the most prominent officials to level charges of CIA drug trafficking include the former head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Robert Bonner. During an interview with CBS, Bonner accused the American “intelligence” outfit of unlawfully importing a ton of cocaine into the U.S. in collaboration with the Venezuelan government.
Even the New York Times eventually covered part of the scandal in a piece entitled "Anti-Drug Unit of C.I.A. Sent Ton of Cocaine to U.S. in 1990." And the agency’s Inspector General, Frederick Hitz, was eventually forced to concede to a congressional committee that the CIA has indeed worked with drug traffickers and obtained a waiver from the Department of Justice in the 1980s allowing it to conceal its contractors’ illicit dealings.
An explosive investigation by reporter Gary Webb dubbed the “Dark Alliance” also uncovered a vast CIA machine to ship illegal drugs into the U.S. to fund clandestine and unconstitutional activities abroad, including the financing of armed groups. Webb eventually died under highly suspicious circumstances — two gunshots to the head, officially ruled a “suicide.”
Responding to Webb’s discoveries, top officials and even lawmakers eventually acknowledged that the CIA almost certainly had a role in illegal drug trafficking. "There is no question in my mind that people affiliated with, or on the payroll of, the CIA were involved in drug trafficking," explained U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) after the Dark Alliance series.
Top-level Mexican officials have suggested complicity by U.S. officials in drug trafficking as well — even recently. “It is impossible to pass tons of drugs or cocaine to U.S. without some grade of complicity of some American authorities,” observed Mexican President Felipe Calderon in a 2009 interview with the BBC.
Last year, an explosive report in the Washington Times, citing a CIA source, speculated that the agency may be deliberately helping certain Mexican cartels to beat out others for geopolitical purposes. According to the sources, the intelligence outfit might have also played a key role in the now-infamous Fast and Furious scandal, which saw the federal government providing thousands of high-powered weapons to Mexican cartels.
Shortly before that, The New American reported on federal court filings by a top Sinaloa Cartel operative that shed even more insight on the U.S. government’s role in drug trafficking. The accused “logistical coordinator” for the cartel, Jesus Vicente “El Vicentillo” Zambada-Niebla, claimed that he had an agreement with top American officials: In exchange for information on rival cartels, the deal supposedly gave him and his associates immunity to import multi-ton quantities of drugs across the border.
“Indeed, United States government agents aided the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel,” the court filing states. Zambada-Niebla is currently being held in federal prison, but he argues that he is innocent because he had approval from — and collaborated with — U.S. agencies in his illegal drug-trafficking operations.
Another expert who spoke with Al Jazeera, a university professor, also indicated that the American federal government was deeply involved in the drug trafficking business. He said the drug war was an “illusion" aimed at justifying control of populations and intervention in Latin America. As evidence, he pointed to the fact that one of the top drug kingpins in the world — billionaire “El Chapo” of the Sinaloa cartel — operates openly and with impunity.
Numerous drug bosses and American officials have made similar claims, alleging that the U.S. government in essence controls at least some of the cartels. According to former DEA operative and whistleblower Celerino Castillo, American federal authorities have even been training members of the brutal Los Zetas cartel in Texas.
CIA and DEA insider Phil Jordan, meanwhile, publicly claimed last year that the Obama administration was selling military-grade weaponry to the deadly organization through a front company in Mexico. And with the Fast and Furious scandal, it emerged that the Obama administration was using tax money to arm Mexican cartels, then exploiting the ensuing violence to attack the Second Amendment.
The President and his Department of Justice have been engaged in a cover-up since whistleblowers first exposed the scheme more than a year ago, leading Congress to hold disgraced Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt. Another congressional investigation being obstructed by the Justice Department surrounds DEA drug-money laundering operations revealed in an explosive New York Times article late last year.
"While the quality of the involvement of the CIA and other security agencies may be debatable, it is impossible to excise the blame from America," noted an analysis about the latest allegations published by Catholic Online. "If the CIA is part of the problem, then it will only be one more sign of the corruption and evil that pervades American and Mexican politics and holds hostage millions of innocents."
Some 50,000 people have died just in recent years as part of Mexico’s U.S. government-backed “war on drugs,” and anger south of the border continues to build. But even as Latin American leaders openly debate legalization and threaten to defect from the controversial “war,” the Obama administration has promised to continue showering taxpayer money on regimes that expand the battle.
Meanwhile, as the bloodshed continues to spiral out of control, the U.S. border remains virtually wide open on purpose, according to experts. And despite tens of billions spent on the endless “war,” numerous analyses indicate that the flow of illegal drugs into America is actually growing — not to mention consumption. By contrast, Portugal, which legalized all drugs about a decade ago, has seen declining rates of addiction, drug abuse, and crime.
In the United States, pressure is still growing on both sides of the aisle to reform or end the unconstitutional federal drug war once and for all, with polls showing rapidly declining support among voters. Over a dozen states have already nullified some unconstitutional federal statutes on marijuana as well. How long the "war" will go on, however, may depend on the federal government’s ability to continue borrowing funds to wage it.
It wouldn’t surprise me if this had a measure of truth.
Nobody likes to work themselves out of a job.
NOW, that is a reliable source for news? /sarcasm
The profits from drugs (tobacco, alcohol, opium, hashish, marijuana, etc.) has shaped our geopolitical history for centuries.
Why do you think they never close the border?
There is also speculation US military action in Afghanistan is directly related to CIA’s battle for control of the heroin traffic.
What do you think?
“I’ve always believed that they all do it, even the Bush’s.
The profits from drugs (tobacco, alcohol, opium, hashish, marijuana, etc.) has shaped our geopolitical history for centuries.
Why do you think they never close the border? “
No better way to control a ‘ free’ population than to drug the natives into complacency and then import millions of foreigners who care nothing about our freedom in the first place.
There are two ways to conquer a nation, the other one is just blow them to hell.
THIS is what I have been saying all along.
They don’t want to ‘close’ the border, they want it ‘selectively’ open so they can ‘control’ it. That is why they have invaded Arizona and declared it an ‘illegals and drug smuggling corridor’.
Well, Bush Sr was DCI, so it’s next to impossible he didn’t know.
Elements in our government (both parties) are not only profiting from the billions spent in the "war" but also many times more from their cut on drugs allowed to enter the USA. The open border situation is not a fluke. The entrenched politicos who profit the most are fighting harder to keep the borders open than to close or control.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, our government is in the hands of a political crime syndicate with Democrat and Republican parties as a front. Our treasury has been looted and now they are looting money that is being borrowed in our name, semi trucks loaded with drugs roll freely across our borders, more and more rights taken away on a regular basis and the citizens don't even stir................WTF is wrong with people???
Why did the Opium Wars occur between the UK and China?
Because the Brits were smuggling in drugs into China. The Feds do the same with importing the crap into our country. The UK leads and the US follows.
The CIA became chumy with nazis like Rheinhard Gehlen. They did LSD tests on unwitting people. Our government has admits to allowing in tons of cocaine while they investigate a cartel. Clinton and his Arkansas airport smuggling connection stinks to high heaven. HSBC bank admitted that they were a laundering operation. Other banks are happy to slop up the brug billions.
Now we have Fast and Furious that was DESIGNED to cause misery n Mexico that could be layed at the doorstep of US gun laws.
And right now, in the heroin growing center of the world, our troops are strictly forbidden from doing anything that could damage the poppy crop. Photos abound of them walking through immense fields of pot and poppy bulbs.
Nawwww,,, the CIA would NEVER see the Cartels as something to control to their own purposes, rather than as something to destroy.
Then maybe the stories of Bill Clinton, and those CIA drug flights in to Mena Arkansas full of coke are true.
No wonder they turned a blind eye towards all his illegalities.
Bill couldn’t afford a pay toilet prior to those flights.
I heard a police officer once on the radio who had studied the illicit drug trade. He was of the opinion that the Feds import about 70% it into the US.
When Zelaya was driven out of power in Honduras, there were some Colombian officials who spoke of American transport planes that make stops at jungle airfields in the Honduran jungle.
Portugal didn't legalize drugs, they decriminalized it. There is a big difference. In Portugal you still have to go to court, and can be ordered into drug treatment, but you don't go to jail. This would never work in the U.S. because drug users would consider frequent visits from a drug aversion social worker a form of harassment. The ACLU would file a lawsuit on their behalf.
No mention of Air America (not the movie or radio network) in the article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_America_(airline)
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