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A Sordid History - The CIA And The 'War Against Drugs' (ANTIFA,
An Anti-Fascist Group, Posts A Collection Of Four Documents - The Article,
'Colombia's Blowback - Former CIA-Backed Paramilitaries
Are Major Drug Traffickers Now,' By Frank Smyth; 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,'
By Martha Honey From 'In These Times'; 1982 Correspondence
Between US Attorney General William French Smith And CIA Director
William Casey; And 'A Tangled Web - A History Of CIA Complicity
In Drug International Trafficking,' From The Institute For Policy Studies)
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 03:50:26 -0700
To: "Chuck's List" (cpconrad@twow.com)
From: "Charles P. Conrad" (cpconrad@twow.com)
Subject: [AFIB] A Sordid History: The CIA & the `War Against Drugs'
ANTIFA
INFO - BULLETIN
News * Analysis * Research * Action
***
SPECIAL - June 10, 1998 - EDITION
***
* SPECIAL EDITION *
***
A SORDID HISTORY:
THE CIA & THE `WAR AGAINST DRUGS'
***
CONTENTS
***
1. (TI/AA) TRANSNATIONAL INSTITUTE/ACCION ANDINA:
Colombia's Blowback - Former CIA-Backed
Paramilitaries Are Major Drug Traffickers Now,
by Frank Smyth
2. (ITT) IN THESE TIMES: US - Don't Ask, Don't Tell, by
Martha Honey [1982 `Memorandum of Understanding]
3. (PNS) PINK NOISE STUDIOS: 1982 Correspondence Between
US Attorney General William French Smith & CIA
Director William Casey
4. (IPS) INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES: A Tangled Web - A
History of CIA Complicity in Drug International
Trafficking
***
AFIB EDITOR'S NOTE: The article below by investigative
journalist Frank Smyth was published last Fall by the
Transnational Institute (Amsterdam) and Accion Andina
(Cochabomba, Bolivia) as a chapter titled, "La Mano Blanca
en Colombia," in the book "Crimen Uniformado [Crime in
Uniform]: entre la corrupcion y la impunidad," 1997. It
appears in Antifa Info-Bulletin with the author's
permission.
***
COLOMBIA'S BLOWBACK:
FORMER CIA-BACKED PARAMILITARIES ARE MAJOR DRUG TRAFFICKERS NOW
***
By Frank Smyth
The CIA has long backed anti-communist allies who, either
during their relationship with the agency or later, ran drugs.
This comes as no surprise. As early as 1960, U.S. military
manuals encouraged intelligence operatives to ally themselves
with "smugglers" and "black market operators to defeat communist
insurgents, as reported by Michael McClintock in his seminal book
_Instruments of Statecraft_. In fact, the CIA did just that. Take
Southeast Asia. Later in the that same decade the agency allied
itself with, among others, the Hmong in Laos, who, according to
historian Alfred W. McCoy in his book _The Politics of Heroin:
CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade_, were trafficking opium.
Or Afghanistan. There in the 1980s the CIA backed the Mujahedeen
against the Soviet Union. In the 1990s, according to Tim Weiner
of the New York Times, the same Mujahedeen have controlled up to
one third of the opium (used to make heroin) reaching the United
States.
Colombia is an even better example today.
In addition to suffering from rampant common crime, Colombia
is a country crippled by two ongoing political campaigns. One is
a three-decade war pitching the CIA-backed Colombian military and
allied rightist paramilitaries against formerly pro-Moscow and
pro-Havana, leftist guerrilla groups. The other campaign is the
drug war, where the battle lines are far less clear. Elements of
all these sides are involved in Colombia's drug trade, which
includes the processing of about 80 percent of the world's
cocaine, the base substance of crack.
The CIA is no exception. Since 1995, an elite CIA counter-
drug team commanded by, progressively enough, a woman, and
staffed mainly by young, competent technocrats, has been
instrumental in apprehending all top seven leaders of Colombia's
Cali cartel. But back in 1991, another CIA team played a
different role. More interested in supporting Colombia's dirty
counter-insurgency than its counter-drug efforts, this team
helped forge and finance a secret anti-communist alliance between
the Colombian military and illegal paramilitary groups, many of
whom are running drugs today.
Why was this alliance made secret? Colombia had outlawed all
such paramilitary groups two years before in 1989. Why did
Colombia do that? A Colombian government investigation had found
that these same paramilitaries had been taken over by the
Medellin drug cartel led by the late Pablo Escobar. At the time,
Escobar and his associates were fiercely resisting U.S.-backed
pressure for Colombia to pass extradition laws intended to make
them stand trial in the United States on drug trafficking
charges. So they took control of Colombia's strongest
paramilitaries, using them to wage a terrorist campaign against
the state. These same paramilitaries, based in the Middle
Magdalena valley, were behind a wave of violent crimes, including
the 1989 bombing of Avianca flight HK-1803, which killed 111
passengers. Investigators concluded that the bomb was detonated
by an altimeter, and that the perpetrators had been trained in
such techniques by Israeli, British and other mercenaries led by
an Israeli Reserved Army Lieutenant Colonel, Yair Klein. The
Colombian military had helped protect this training, to the point
of even being in radio contact with the paramilitaries' training
base, while Escobar had paid the mercenaries' fees.
The CIA, however, ignored these facts when it decided two
years later to help renew -- in secret -- the alliance between
the Colombian military and paramilitary groups. By then, even
though the cold war was over and Eastern bloc aid had long since
dried up, Colombia's leftist insurgents were still relatively
strong. And many trade union, student and peasant groups, among
others, provided them with political and sometimes even
logistical forms of support. CIA officers knew that
paramilitaries -- civilians usually led by retired military
officers -- could provide the Colombian military with plausible
deniability for assassinations of suspected leftists and similar
crimes. "A vast network of armed civilians began to replace, at
least in part, soldiers and policemen who could be easily
identified," writes Javier Giraldo, a Jesuit priest and founder
of Colombia's Inter-Congregational Commission for Justice and
Peace. "They also started to employ methods that had been
carefully designed to ensure secrecy and generate confusion."
But neither the CIA nor any other U.S. agency admitted that
it was still backing Colombia's counter-insurgency campaign.
Instead U.S. officials claim that all U.S. support to Colombia,
since 1989, has been designed to further the drug war. "There was
a very big debate going on [about how to best allocate] money for
counter-narcotics operations in Colombia," said retired U.S. Army
Colonel James S. Roach, Jr., who was then the top U.S. military
attache in Bogota as well as the Pentagon's ranking Defense
Intelligence Agency (DIA) liaison there. "The U.S. was looking
for a way to try to help. But if you're not going to be
combatants [yourselves], you have to find something to do."
Do, they did. First an inter-agency team including
representatives of the U.S. embassy's Military Advisory Group in
Bogota, the U.S. Southern Command in Panama, the DIA in
Washington and the CIA in Langley made recommendations to
completely overhaul Colombia's military intelligence networks.
Then The CIA independently provided funds to incorporate
paramilitary forces into them. It didn't matter that these
paramilitary forces were illegal in Colombia at the time. Nor did
it matter that they had been outlawed explicitly over the growing
influence of the late Pablo Escobar and his Medellin drug cartel
in directing them.
In addition to drug trafficking, Colombia's nefarious
paramilitaries had already been implicated in widespread human
rights abuses. This led the Defense Department, for one, to
discourage the Colombian military from incorporating them into
these new intelligence networks. "The intent was not to be
associated with paramilitaries," said Colonel Roach, who was also
in regular contact with CIA officers in Bogota. He says they had
another approach. "The CIA set up clandestine nets of their own.
They had a lot of money. It was kind of like Santa Claus had
arrived." CIA spokesman Mike Mansfield declined to comment.
News of these clandestine intelligence networks was first
brought to light by Human Rights Watch, in November 1996 released
U.S. and Colombian military documents, as well as oral testimony,
to show that both the Defense Department and the CIA, in late
1990, encouraged Colombia to reorganize its entire military
intelligence system. In may 1991, Colombia formed 41 new
intelligence networks nationwide "based on the recommendations
made by the commission of U.S. military advisors," according to
the original Colombian order which established them. Later, four
former Colombian operatives from one of network in central
Colombia's Magdalena valley testified that it incorporated
illegal paramilitary groups, paying them to both gather
intelligence and assassinate suspected leftists. Though U.S.
officials still maintain that they supported this intelligence
reorganization as part of their drug war efforts, the same
Colombian order quoted above instructs these new intelligence
networks to fight only "the armed subversion" or leftist
guerrillas.
Indeed most of Colombia's leftist guerrillas, especially
among the formerly pro-Moscow FARC, are also involved with drugs.
But a U.S. interagency study recently ordered by the Clinton
administration's former ambassador in Bogota, Myles Frechette,
found the guerrillas' role to be limited to mostly protecting
drug crops, and, to a lesser degree, processing operations.
Meanwhile, rightist paramilitaries allied with the military
protect far more drug laboratories and internal transit routes,
according to both U.S. intelligence and Colombian law enforcement
authorities. In fact, according to one Colombian law enforcement
report, drug trafficking today is -- again -- the paramilitaries'
"central axis" of funding.
Similarly, according to another report from a different law
enforcement entity, this one about the Magdalena valley in 1995
by top detectives from Colombia's Judicial and Investigative
Police, the military and paramilitaries there are allied "not
only for the anti-subversive struggle, but also to profit and
open the way for drug traffickers." One paramilitary suspect it
names is "the well-known narco-trafficker Victor Carranza." A
contemporary of Medellin's Escobar, Carranza first established
himself by rising to the top of Colombia's lucrative emerald
trade among the Bo-yaca mountains, and by wiping out a large
guerrilla front there at the same time. Soon Carranza also became
a major landowner, buying large swaths of it in the eastern
plains of Meta, a province choked with drug crops as well as
laboratories. Today Colombian police identify Carranza as both a
multi-ton level drug trafficker, and one of the key leaders of
Colombia's many illegal paramilitary groups like, in Meta, the
infamous "Black Snake." Human rights groups have accused Carranza
of engineering assassinations as well as massacres.
There is no evidence that Carranza has ever been either a
CIA asset or informant. But his anti-communist credentials are
unquestionable. And he runs frequently in military crowds.
Military eyewitnesses say that military officers in
Villavicencio, Meta have even met him inside the Los Llanos hotel
there which he owns. U.S. officials too know a lot about him.
"Carranza comes up constantly in intelligence reporting," one
such expert says. An old-fashioned gangster, "Don Victor," as he
is respectfully called by his men, still frequents the emerald
mines and likes to be the first to pick out the largest stones
from the best veins uncovered. Yet, Carranza remains untouchable,
even though one of his purported lieutenants, Arnulfo Castillo
Agudelo, also known as "Scratch," was arrested in 1995 implicated
Carranza in circumstances involving over 40 corpses which had
been exhumed -- six years before -- on one of Carranza's Meta
ranches. "Scratch" declined to be interviewed in Modelo prison in
Bogota. Carranza, who avoids publicity, was also unavailable for
comment.
In recent years, Carranza has been expanding his operations
in central Colombia throughout the Magdalena valley. The above
police report notes: "Carranza is planning to acquire Hacienda
Bella Cruz [there] to use as a base for his activities, [and]
bring in 200 paramilitary operatives from Meta." Witnesses say
that it is now teeming with armed men, who have displaced
hundreds of local peasants. In total, Carranza and other drug
suspects have bought about 45,000 acres of land throughout the
Magdalena valley, according to Jamie Prieto Amaya, the Catholic
bishop there, quoted in the Bogota news-weekly Cambio 16.
Still another suspect is Henry Loaiza, also known as "The
Scorpion." Demonstrating the importance of paramilitaries to the
overall drug trade, he was one of the top seven Cali cartel
suspects arrested with CIA help since 1995. Like Carranza, "The
Scorpion" is also implicated in several specific civilian
massacres of suspected leftists carried out jointly by military
and paramilitary forces, including the 1989 Trujillo massacres
(involving chainsaws) near Cali. Other drug suspects identified
by the Colombian police include military officers like Major
Jorge Alberto Lazaro, a former Army commander also accused of
ordering paramilitaries to commit massacres in the Magdalena
valley. Today this same central Colombian valley, which runs
about 400 miles north toward Caribbean ports, is a major corridor
for both processed drugs and precursor chemicals.
The CIA helped enable Colombia's military and paramilitaries
to collaborate in the dark -- more than a year after the Berlin
Wall fell. By doing so, the CIA has facilitated crimes involving
both human rights and drug trafficking. Such behavior was
reprehensible during the cold war. It is completely indefensible
now.
Frank Smyth is a freelance journalist who has written about
drug trafficking in The Village Voice, The New Republic, The
Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. He is co-author
with Winifred Tate of "Colombia's Gringo Invasion," _Covert
Action Quarterly_, Number 60, Spring 1997. The article above
was reprinted in _Colombia Bulletin: A Human Rights
Quarterly_.
For more information on U.S. intervention in Colombia, or to
subscribe to _Colombia Bulletin_, please contact:
COLOMBIA SUPPORT NETWORK
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI 53701
Tel: (608) 257-8753
Fax: (608) 255-6621
E-Mail: csn@igc.org
Web: http://www.igc.apc.org/csn
Subscriptions - 1 year $25; low income $12.50
***
IN THESE TIMES
E-mail: itt@inthesetimes.com
Web: http://www.inthesetimes.com
- May 1998 -
***
US: DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL
***
By Martha Honey
In testimony before the House Select Committee on
Intelligence on March 16, the Central Intelligence Agency once
again suffered a blow to its reputation. This time the injury was
self-inflicted. The CIA's own top watchdog, Inspector General
Frederick P. Hitz, admitted that although "dozens of individuals
and a number of companies" involved in the agency's covert war
against Nicaragua during the '80s were suspected drug
traffickers, the CIA had legal authority to ignore their crimes
as long as they were helping contra rebels fight the left-wing
Sandinista government.
Hitz revealed that between 1982 and 1995 the spy agency had
an agreement with the Justice Department, allowing it to ignore
drug trafficking by its "agents, assets and non-staff employees."
The directive, known as a "Memorandum of Understanding" (MOU),
did not exempt the agency's full-time, career employees, who are
known as CIA "officials." However, the agency did not have to
tell the Justice Department about the criminal activities of
"agents" or "assets" -- terms used interchangeably to refer to
its paid and unpaid spies. Also exempt were CIA contractors, such
as pilots, accountants and military trainers, who supplied the
agency with specific goods and services rather than intelligence.
"There was no official requirement to report on allegations of
drug trafficking with respect to non-employees of the agency,"
Hitz told the committee.
Hitz said this agreement, which he termed "a rather odd
history," has since been changed. But it was not until 1995 --
five years after the end of the war in Nicaragua and three years
into Clinton's first term -- that the agreement was revised to
include agents, assets and contractors as "employees" whose
suspected criminal activities, such as drug trafficking, must be
reported to the Justice Department.
Disclosure of this agreement is another black eye for the
CIA at a time when the agency is trying to distance itself from
persistent allegations of drug trafficking, including the
provocative August 1996 "Dark Alliance" series in the San Jose
Mercury News. Veteran journalists, investigators, policy analysts
and members of Congress interviewed by In These Times all say
they were unaware of the directive. "This previously unknown
agreement enabled the CIA to keep known drug smugglers out of
jail and on the payroll of the American taxpayer," says Peter
Kornbluh, a senior analyst with the National Security Archive,
who has written extensively on the CIA and the war in Nicaragua.
"CIA officials realized collaborating with pro-contra drug
smugglers was important to the goal of overthrowing the
Sandinistas and it sought protection from the Justice
Department."
In 1982, when the MOU was implemented, the United States was
gearing up for a covert war in Central America aimed at toppling
the Sandinistas. Over the next eight years, the CIA hired scores
of Latin American, Cuban and American spies, as well as dozens of
aviation, fishing and real estate companies, to support the
contras. Simultaneously, cocaine began flooding into the United
States, fueling the crack epidemic that has devastated Los
Angeles, Baltimore and other cities.
David MacMichael, who was a senior CIA officer in the early
'80s, says that while he was not aware of this MOU, he does
recall that "in 1981, [CIA Director William] Casey went to
attorney general [William French] Smith looking for a blanket
exemption from prosecution for CIA officers for crimes committed
in the line of duty." Smith demurred, he says.
Since the mid-'80s, a spate of media reports, congressional
inquiries, and court cases in the United States and Central
America have linked contra officials and collaborators with
cocaine traffickers, money launderers and various front
companies. Many of those implicated also claimed or were alleged
to be working for the CIA. In 1996, the accusations erupted anew
with the publication of Gary Webb's Mercury News series, which
detailed how a Nicaraguan drug ring used black street gangs to
sell crack cocaine in Los Angeles. Over the years, the CIA has
repeatedly denied allegations that it dealt with drug dealers.
Those denials have been championed by Washington Post
reporter Walter Pincus, a specialist in national security affairs
and a leading critic of the Mercury News series. Pincus, who has
yet to report on Hitz's testimony, says he had not been
previously aware the directive. "I am still trying to get a
clarification of it," he says, adding that it may not be very
significant. "All it admits is that what they were doing was
legal. On occasion they were dealing with people who may or may
not have been dealing in drugs."
In December 1985, reporters Robert Parry and Brian Barger
wrote the first story tying the CIA's contra operation to cocaine
smuggling. The piece for The Associated Press angered Reagan
administration officials, who tried unsuccessfully to block its
publication. During the contra war, most of the media either
ignored or discredited the drug trafficking reports. Parry
maintains that his pursuit of this story helped cost him jobs at
AP and Newsweek. "Historically we were correct," Parry says. "We
pointed to a serious problem in a timely fashion, and we were all
punished and ridiculed. The reporters who put this story down
have gone on to fame and fortune."
Parry calls Hitz's disclosure "extremely significant." "It
amounts to a blank check for dealing with drug traffickers," he
says. "The agency is admitting that it engaged in covering up
drug crimes by the contras and that this was legal."
Major media also ignored the 1989 findings of Sen. John
Kerry's (D-Mass.) Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and
International Operations. The Kerry committee's two-year
investigation turned up substantial evidence of cocaine smuggling
and money laundering by persons connected to the contras and the
CIA. Among the conclusions of its 1,166-page report:
* "Drug traffickers used the contra war and their ties to the
contras as a cover for their criminal enterprises in
Honduras and Costa Rica. Assistance from the drug lords was
crucial to the contras, and the traffickers in turn promoted
and protected their operations by associating with the
contra movement."
* "Drug traffickers provided support to the contras and used
the supply network of the contras. Contras knowingly
received both financial and material assistance from the
drug traffickers."
* "Drug traffickers contributed cash, weapons, planes, pilots,
air supply services and other materials to the contras."
* "In each case, one or another U.S. government agency had
information regarding these matters either while they were
occurring, or immediately thereafter."
The report was all but ignored by the three major networks
and buried in the back pages of the major newspapers. Combined,
the stories in the Washington Post, New York Times and Los
Angeles Times totalled less than 2,000 words.
At the March congressional hearing, Hitz explained that the
MOU between the agency and the Justice Department was modified
slightly in 1986, prohibiting the CIA from paying those suspected
of involvement in drug trafficking. The CIA, however, could
legally continue to use suspected drug smugglers and not report
their activities, as long as they received no money from the
agency.
But for major drug traffickers, being allowed to operate
under the CIA's umbrella was payment enough. The Kerry
committee's report, along with most press accounts of the
CIA-cocaine connection, alleges that the contras accepted money
and supplies from drug smugglers and money launderers -- not the
other way around.
John Mattes, a young public defender in Miami in the
mid-80s, stumbled upon the allegations of drug trafficking by
Cuban-Americans working with the contras. Mattes, who represented
several cocaine traffickers and soldiers-of-fortune who testified
before the Kerry committee, says traffickers were seeking
protection, not money, from the CIA. "There was a marriage of
convenience between the contras and the coke smugglers," he says.
The smugglers had cash, planes and pilots, while the Contras had
intelligence, airstrips and, most importantly, unimpeded access
to the United States. "And that, to a drug smuggler," he says,
"is worth all the tea in China."
During the '80s, the CIA conducted several internal
inquiries and announced it found no substantial evidence that
contra leaders and other persons working for the CIA had
connections to cocaine traffickers. Then, the "Dark Alliance"
series touched off a volatile, nationwide controversy over the
agency's role in introducing crack to Southern California street
gangs. To help quell public and congressional anger, both the CIA
and Justice Department launched separate internal investigations.
Both reports were scheduled to be released last December, but
were withheld at the last minute without explanation.
Attorney General Janet Reno subsequently announced that she
had blocked the release of the Justice Department report (rumored
to be the more substantial and significant of the two) for
unspecified "law enforcement reasons." Justice Department sources
told in These Times that one of the people named in the report is
a government witness in an ongoing criminal case, whose identity
must be protected. However, Jack Blum, a Washington attorney and
investigator for the Kerry committee, doubts that the Justice
Department will ever release its report. Blum says law
enforcement officials often claim disclosures will jeopardize
ongoing cases, and he wonders why the report was not simply
edited to protect the informant's identity.
In late January, the CIA released a declassified version of
volume one of its two-part report. Entitled "The California
Story," this 149-page report focuses on the cocaine network
described in the "Dark Alliance" series, which detailed the
activities of two Nicaraguan drug smugglers, Danilo Blandon and
Juan Norwin Meneses. In the early '80s, Meneses and Blandon
supplied large quantities of powder cocaine to Ricky Ross, an
African-American drug dealer, who then turned it into crack for
sale to two Los Angeles gangs. Webb alleges that the Nicaraguans
gave some of their drug profits to top contra officials who were
working with the CIA.
Hitz called the CIA's 18-month investigation "the most
comprehensive and exhaustive ever conducted" by the agency. He
told the congressional committee: "We found absolutely no
evidence to indicate that the CIA as an organization or its
employees were involved in any conspiracy to bring drugs into the
United States," But, taken in conjunction with what Hitz said
about the MOU, "employees" here may pertain only to CIA career
officials -- not agents, assets or contractors.
Webb, whose reporting touched off the controversy, describes
the report as "schizophrenic." "The Executive Summary says
there's no CIA involvement," says Webb. "The actual report shows
there are CIA fingerprints all over this drug operation."
For example, upon the release of volume one, CIA Director
George Tenet proclaimed that the Agency "left no stone unturned"
in reaching its conclusion that the CIA had "no direct or
indirect" ties to Blandon and Meneses. Yet, the report contains a
compendium of indirect links between the CIA's contra army and
drug traffickers. The most obvious admissions contained in the
report include:
* An October 22, 1982, cable from the CIA's Directorate of
Operations that reports, "There are indications of links
between (a U.S. religious organization) and two Nicaraguan
counter-revolutionary groups...These links involve an
exchange in (the United States) of narcotics for arms." The
report goes on to say that there was to be a meeting in
Costa Rica of contras, several U.S. citizens and Renato
Pena, a convicted drug dealer who was part of Meneses'
operation. Astonishingly, a November 3, 1982, cable from CIA
headquarters says that the agency decided "not to pursue the
matter further" because of "the apparent participation of
U.S. persons throughout."
* The CIA directly intervened in the 1983 "Frogman Case," in
which San Francisco police seized 430 pounds of cocaine and
arrested 50 individuals, including a number of Nicaraguans.
Because the CIA feared the agency's connections to some of
the contras involved had "potential for disaster," an
unidentified CIA lawyer convinced the U.S. Attorney in San
Francisco and Justice Department officials to cancel plans
to take depositions from contra leaders in Costa Rica and to
return $36,800 seized in the drug raid to one of the contra
factions. "There are sufficient factual details which would
cause certain damage to our image and program in Central
America," CIA assistant general counsel Lee Strickland wrote
in a August 22, 1984, memo quoted in the report.
* Blandon and Meneses met on various occasions with the
contras' military commander, Enrique Bermudez, who worked
for the CIA. At one meeting in Honduras in 1982, Bermudez,
arguing that "the ends justify the means," asked the pair
for help "in raising funds and obtaining equipment" and arms
for the contras. After the meeting, a group of contras
escorted Blandon and Meneses to the Tegucigalpa airport,
where the pair was arrested by Honduran authorities because
they were carrying $100,000 in cash, profits from a Bolivian
drug deal. The contras intervened and the money was returned
to Blandon and Meneses. The report inexplicably concludes
that there is no evidence that Bermudez knew the duo were
drug traffickers, even though CIA cables show the agency was
aware that Meneses had been a "drug king-pin" since the
'70s.
At the congressional hearings, lawmakers cited these and
other portions of the report, questioning the agency's capacity
to investigate itself. Among the most vocal critics were Los
Angeles Democratic Reps. Maxine Waters and Juanita Millender-
McDonald, whose districts have been the epicenter of the crack
epidemic. Waters charged that the report was "fraught with
contradictions and illogical conclusions," saying that the CIA's
cleverly worded denials of links to drug traffickers in Southern
California "defies the evidence."
Volume two of the report, which covers the entire Nicaraguan
war, was scheduled to be turned over to the House and Senate
intelligence committees in late March. But, as of mid-April, CIA
officials told In These Times, the report had not been released
to Congress. In his congressional testimony, Hitz said that
volume two will contain "a detailed treatment of what was known
to CIA regarding dozens of people and a number of companies
connected in some fashion to the contra program or the contra
movement, that were the subject of any sort of drug trafficking
allegations."
Previewing the report, Hitz admitted: "There are instances
where the CIA did not, in an expeditious or consistent fashion,
cut off relationships with individuals supporting the contra
program, who are alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking
activity or take action to resolve the allegation." Several
congressional sources say that they suspect the report will never
be released. While the precise wording of the MOU has not been
made public, some say the directive may be considerably broader
than implied at the hearing. At one point in his testimony, Hitz
said the MOU applied to "intelligence agencies," indicating that
it also may include the dozen or so U.S. agencies involved in
intelligence work, not just the CIA. Hitz declined requests for
an interview.
But the CIA may not be able to get away without further
disclosures. The National Security Archive and other public
interest groups, as well as Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and
Waters, are mounting a campaign for the declassification and
release of the text of the MOU, the Justice Department report,
volume two of the CIA report, tens of thousands of pages of
documents and hundreds of interviews compiled by the two agencies
in the course of their internal investigations. Attorney Blum
warns that CIA officials who testified before the Kerry committee
may have perjured themselves in denying they knew of any links
between the CIA, the contras and cocaine traffickers. And
investigative journalists Parry and Webb, among others, say
Hitz's admission may be the smoking gun that conclusively proves
that the CIA colluded with and then concealed its involvement
with cocaine traffickers.
Martha Honey is director of the Peace and Security program
at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.
During the '80s, she covered the war in Nicaragua as a
journalist in Costa Rica.
Article Courtesy of Paul Wolf, paulwolf@icdc.com
***
AFIB EDITOR'S NOTE: The 1982 correspondence below from US
Attorney General William French Smith and CIA Director
William Casey is a section from a large file posted on the
Pink Noise Studios web page: "Intelligence Authorization Act
1999, House of Representatives, May 7, 1998." Portions of
those hearings, including the complete 1982 and 1995 CIA/DoJ
Memorandum of Understanding, comments by Reps. Millender-
McDonald, John Conyers and Maxine Waters and a chronological
history of CIA complicity with global narco-trafficking
compiled by the Institute for Policy Studies [see below],
has been catalogued by Pink Noise Studios Research Director
Bob Gonsalves.
See: http://www.pinknoiz.com/covert/MOU.html
PINK NOISE STUDIOS
Art - Technology - Politics
E-mail: pinknoiz@ncal.verio.com
Web: http://www.pinknoiz.com/
- Wednesday, 3 June 1998 -
***
1982 CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN US ATTORNEY GENERAL
WILLIAM FRENCH SMITH & CIA DIRECTOR WILLIAM CASEY
***
Office of the Attorney General,
Washington, DC, February 11, 1982.
Hon. William J. Casey,
Director, Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, DC.
Dear Bill: Thank you for your letter regarding the
procedures governing the reporting and use of information
concerning federal crimes. I have reviewed the draft of the
procedures that accompanied your letter and, in particular, the
minor changes made in the draft that I had previously sent to
you. These proposed changes are acceptable and, therefore, I have
signed the procedures.
I have been advised that a question arose regarding the need
to add narcotics violations to the list of reportable
non-employee crimes (Section IV). 21 U.S.C. 874(h) provides that
`[w]hen requested by the Attorney General, it shall be the duty
of any agency or instrumentality of the Federal Government to
furnish assistance to him for carrying out his functions under
[the Controlled Substances Act] . . .' Section 1.8(b) of
Executive Order 12333 tasks the Central Intelligence Agency to
`collect, produce and disseminate intelligence on foreign aspects
of narcotics production and trafficking.' Moreover, authorization
for the dissemination of information concerning narcotics
violations to law enforcement agencies, including the Department
of Justice, is provided by sections 2.3(c) and (i) and 2.6(b) of
the Order. In light of these provisions, and in view of the fine
cooperation the Drug Enforcement Administration has received from
CIA, no formal requirement regarding the reporting of narcotics
violations has been included in these procedures. We look forward
to the CIA's continuing cooperation with the Department of
Justice in this area.
In view of our agreement regarding the procedure, I have
instructed my Counsel for Intelligence Policy to circulate a copy
which I have executed to each of the other agencies covered by
the procedures in order that they may be signed by the head of
each such agency.
Sincerely,
William French Smith,
Attorney General
***
The Director of Central Intelligence,
Washington, DC, March 2, 1982.
Hon. William French Smith,
Attorney General, Department of Justice, Washington, DC.
Dear Bill: Thank you for your letter of 11 February
regarding the procedures on reporting of crimes to the Department
of Justice, which are being adopted under Section 1-7(a) of
Executive Order 12333. I have signed the procedures, and am
returning the original to you for retention at the Department.
I am pleased that these procedures, which I believe strike
the proper balance between enforcement of the law and protection
of intelligence sources and methods, will now be forwarded to
other agencies covered by them for signing by the heads of those
agencies.
With best regards,
Yours,
William J. Casey.
***
A TANGLED WEB:
A HISTORY OF CIA COMPLICITY IN DRUG INTERNATIONAL TRAFFICKING
***
Prepared by the Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, D.C.
***
WORLD WAR II
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the Office of
Naval Intelligence (ONI), the CIA's parent and sister
organizations, cultivate relations with the leaders of the
Italian Mafia, recruiting heavily from the New York and Chicago
underworlds, whose members, including Charles `Lucky' Luciano,
Meyer Lansky, Joe Adonis, and Frank Costello, help the agencies
keep in touch with Sicilian Mafia leaders exiled by Italian
dictator Benito Mussolini. Domestically, the aim is to prevent
sabotage on East Coast ports, while in Italy the goal is to gain
intelligence on Sicily prior to the allied invasions and to
suppress the burgeoning Italian Communist Party. Imprisoned in
New York, Luciano earns a pardon for his wartime service and is
deported to Italy, where he proceeds to build his heroin empire,
first by diverting supplies from the legal market, before
developing connections in Lebanon and Turkey that supply morphine
base to labs in Sicily. The OSS and ONI also work closely with
Chinese gangsters who control vast supplies of opium, morphine
and heroin, helping to establish the third pillar of the
post-world War II heroin trade in the Golden Triangle, the border
region of Thailand, Burma, Laos and China's Yunnan Province.
1947
In its first year of existence, the CIA continues U.S.
intelligence community's anti-communist drive. Agency operatives
help the Mafia seize total power in Sicily and it sends money to
heroin-smuggling Corsican mobsters in Marseille to assist in
their battle with Communist unions for control of the city's
docks. By 1951, Luciano and the Corsicans have pooled their
resources, giving rise to the notorious `French Connection' which
would dominate the world heroin trade until the early 1970s. The
CIA also recruits members of organized crime gangs in Japan to
help ensure that the country stays in the non-communist world.
Several years later, the Japanese Yakuza emerges as a major
source of methamphetamine in Hawaii.
1949
Chinese Communist revolution causes collapse of drug empire
allied with U.S. intelligence community, but a new one quickly
emerges under the command of Nationalist (KMT) General Li Mi, who
flees Yunnan into eastern Burma. Seeking to rekindle
anticommunist resistance in China, the CIA provides arms,
ammunition and other supplies to the KMT. After being repelled
from China with heavy losses, the KMT settles down with local
population and organizes and expands the opium trade from Burma
and Northern Thailand. By 1972, the KMT controls 80 percent of
the Golden Triangle's opium trade.
1950
The CIA launches Project Bluebird to determine whether
certain drugs might improve its interrogation methods. This
eventually leads CIA head Allen Dulles, in April 1953, to
institute a program for `covert use of biological and chemical
materials' as part of the agency's continuing efforts to control
behavior. With benign names such as Project Artichoke and Project
Chatter, these projects continue through the 1960s, with hundreds
of unwitting test subjects given various drugs, including LSD.
1960
In support of the U.S. war in Vietnam, the CIA renews old
and cultivates new relations with Laotian, Burmese and Thai drug
merchants, as well as corrupt military and political leaders in
Southeast Asia. Despite the dramatic rise of heroin production,
the agency's relations with these figures attracts little
attention until the early 1970s.
1967
Manuel Antonio Noriega goes on the CIA payroll. First
recruited by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency in 1959,
Noriega becomes an invaluable asset for the CIA when he takes
charge of Panama's intelligence service after the 1968 military
coup, providing services for U.S. covert operations and
facilitating the use of Panama as the center of U.S. intelligence
gathering in Latin America. In 1976, CIA Director George Bush
pays Noriega $110,000 for his services, even though as early as
1971 U.S. officials agents had evidence that he was deeply
involved in drug trafficking. Although the Carter administration
suspends payments to Noriega, he returns to the U.S. payroll when
President Reagan takes office in 1981. The general is rewarded
handsomely for his services in support of Contras forces in
Nicaragua during the 1980s, collecting $200,000 from the CIA in
1986 alone.
MAY 1970
A Christian Science Monitor correspondent reports that the
CIA `is cognizant of, if not party to, the extensive movement of
opium out of Laos,' quoting one charter pilot who claims that
`opium shipments get special CIA clearance and monitoring on
their flights southward out of the country.' At the time, some
30,000 U.S. service men in Vietnam are addicted to heroin.
1972
The full story of how Cold War politics and U.S. covert
operations fueled a heroin boom in the Golden Triangle breaks
when Yale University doctoral student Alfred McCoy publishes his
ground-breaking study, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia.
The CIA attempts to quash the book.
1973
Thai national Puttapron Khramkhruan is arrested in
connection with the seizure of 59 pounds of opium in Chicago. A
CIA informant on narcotics trafficking in northern Thailand, he
claims that agency had full knowledge of his actions. According
to the U.S. Justice Department, the CIA quashed the case because
it may `prove embarrassing because of Mr. Khramkhruans's
involvement with CIA activities in Thailand, Burma, and
elsewhere.'
JUNE 1975
Mexican police, assisted by U.S. drug agents, arrest Alberto
Sicilia Falcon, whose Tijuana-based operation was reportedly
generating $3.6 million a week from the sale of cocaine and
marijuana in the United States. The Cuban exile claims he was a
CIA protege, trained as part of the agency's anti-Castro efforts,
and in exchange for his help in moving weapons to certain groups
in Central America, the CIA facilitated his movement of drugs. In
1974, Sicilia's top aide, Jose Egozi, a CIA-trained intelligence
officer and Bay of Pigs veteran, reportedly lined up agency
support for a right-wing plot to overthrow the Portuguese
government. Among the top Mexican politicians, law enforcement
and intelligence officials from whom Sicilia enjoyed support was
Miguel Nazar Haro, head of the Direccion Federal de Seguridad
(DFS), who the CIA admits was its `most important source in
Mexico and Central America.' When Nazar was linked to a multi-
million-dollar stolen car ring several years later, the CIA
intervenes to prevent his indictment in the United States.
APRIL 1978
Soviet-backed coup in Afghanistan sets stage for explosive
growth in Southwest Asian heroin trade. New Marxist regime
undertakes vigorous anti-narcotics campaign aimed at suppressing
poppy production, triggering a revolt by semi-autonomous tribal
groups that traditionally raised opium for export. The CIA-
supported rebel Mujahedeen begins expanding production to finance
their insurgency. Between 1982 and 1989, during which time the
CIA ships billions of dollars in weapons and other aid to
guerrilla forces, annual opium production in Afghanistan
increases to about 800 tons from 250 tons. By 1986, the State
Department admits that Afghanistan is `probably the world's
largest producer of opium for export' and `the poppy source for a
majority of the Southwest Asian heroin found in the United
States.' U.S. officials, however, fail to take action to curb
production. Their silence not only serves to maintain public
support for the Mujahedeen, it also smooths relations with
Pakistan, whose leaders, deeply implicated in the heroin trade,
help channel CIA support to the Afghan rebels.
JUNE 1980
Despite advance knowledge, the CIA fails to halt members of
the Bolivian militaries, aide by the Argentine counterparts, from
staging the so-called `Cocaine Coup,' according to former DEA
agent Michael Levine. In fact, the 25-year DEA veteran maintains
the agency actively abetted cocaine trafficking in Bolivia, where
government official who sought to combat traffickers faced
`torture and death at the hands of CIA-sponsored paramilitary
terrorists under the command of fugitive Nazi war criminal (also
protected by the CIA) Klaus Barbie.
FEBRUARY 1985
DEA agent Enrique `Kiki' Camerena is kidnapped and murder in
Mexico. DEA, FBI and U.S. Customs Service investigators accuse
the CIA of stonewalling during their investigation. U.S.
authorities claim the CIA is more interested in protecting its
assets, including top drug trafficker and kidnapping principal
Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo. (In 1982, the DEA learned that Felix
Gallardo was moving $20 million a month through a single Bank of
America account, but it could not get the CIA to cooperate with
its investigation.) Felix Gallardo's main partner is Honduran
drug lord Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros, who began amassing his
$2-billion fortune as a cocaine supplier to Alberto Sicilia
Falcon. (see June 1985) Matta's air transport firm, SETCO,
receives $186,000 from the U.S. State Department to fly
`humanitarian supplies' to the Nicaraguan Contras from 1983 to
1985. Accusations that the CIA protected some of Mexico's leading
drug traffickers in exchange for their financial support of the
Contras are leveled by government witnesses at the trials of
Camarena's accused killers.
JANUARY 1988
Deciding that he has outlived his usefulness to the Contra
cause, the Reagan Administration approves an indictment of
Noriega on drug charges. By this time, U.S. Senate investigators
had found that `the United States had received substantial
information about criminal involvement of top Panamanian
officials for nearly twenty years and done little to respond.'
APRIL 1989
The Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and
International Communications, headed by Sen. John Kerry of
Massachusetts, issues its 1,166-page report on drug corruption in
Central America and the Caribbean. The subcommittee found that
`there was substantial evidence of drug smuggling through the war
zone on the part of individuals Contras, Contra suppliers, Contra
pilots, mercenaries who worked with the Contras supporters
throughout the region.' U.S. officials, the subcommittee said,
`failed to address the drug issue for fear of jeopardizing the
war efforts against Nicaragua.' The investigation also reveals
that some `senior policy makers' believed that the use of drug
money was `a perfect solution to the Contras' funding problems.'
JANUARY 1993
Honduran businessman Eugenio Molina Osorio is arrested in
Lubbock Texas for supplying $90,000 worth of cocaine to DEA
agents. Molina told judge he is working for CIA to whom he
provides political intelligence. Shortly after, a letter from CIA
headquarters is sent to the judge, and the case is dismissed. `I
guess we're all aware that they [the CIA] do business in a
different way than everybody else,' the judge notes. Molina later
admits his drug involvement was not a CIA operation, explaining
that the agency protected him because of his value as a source
for political intelligence in Honduras.
NOVEMBER 1996
Former head of the Venezuelan National Guard and CIA
operative Gen. Ramon Gullien Davila is indicted in Miami on
charges of smuggling as much as 22 tons of cocaine into the
United States. More than a ton of cocaine was shipped into the
country with the CIA's approval as part of an undercover program
aimed at catching drug smugglers, an operation kept secret from
other U.S. agencies.
***
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E-Mail: tburghardt@igc.org
***
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-------------------------------------------------------------------
DrugSense Weekly, Number 50 (Summary Of Drug Policy News
For Activists, From DrugSense)
Date: Wed, 10 Jun 1998 12:30:26 -0700
To: mgreer@mapinc.org
From: Mark Greer (MGreer@mapinc.org)
Subject: DrugSense Weekly, June 10, 1998 No. 50
***
DRUGSENSE WEEKLY
***
DrugSense Weekly
June 10, 1998, No. 50
A DrugSense publication
http://www.drugsense.org/
***
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
* Feature Article
Book Review : Drug Crazy
By Dr. Tom O'Connell
* Weekly News in Review
Drug War Policy-
House Panel Approves Bill Extending Reach of US Authorities
Coast Guard 'We Need More Money For Drug War'
AIDS Activists Hold Protest Funeral
United Nations-
Wire - Leaders Ask UN for New Drug Policy
Canada-GE - Leaders Attack UN War On Drugs
U.N. Wants Worldwide Effort To Eradicate Drug Crops
Mexico-
Undercover Anti-Drug Operation Strains U.S. Ties With Mexico
The U.S. at Odds with itself on Mexico
Drug Cartel Smashed, Mexicans Say
Mexican Heroin on Rise in U.S
Latin America-
U.S. To Increase Support For Colombian Army
Peru, U.S. Building Anti-Drug Military Training Center
Medical Marijuana-
UK - Jury Clears Man Who Used Cannabis As Pain Killer
US CA - Patient May Sue Police For Pot Arrest
UK-OPED - Cannabis Campaign - Hope for those in pain
Tobacco-
Senate Tobacco Bill Yanked in all Directions
Tobacco Tax Talk Brings Cheers To The Black Market
* Hot Off The 'Net
UN Drug Summit info
"Drug Crazy" info
* DrugSense Tip Of The Week
Drug War Fact book
* Quote of the Week
Will Rogers
***
FEATURE ARTICLE
Book Review : Drug Crazy by Mike Gray
(Random House, N.Y., 1988) ISBN
0-679-43533-6
America's War on Drugs, declared originally by Richard Nixon and waged
with varying degrees of enthusiasm by every President since, has become
a nearly invulnerable monster, thriving on its own failures and
seemingly capable of destroying anyone reckless enough to speak out
against it. Its simplistic central premise- drugs pose unthinkable
dangers to our children, and therefore must be prohibited- has helped
elect legions of politicians who then cite the latest drug scare as
reason for tougher crack-downs, harsher laws, and more prisons. So
completely has this idea of "illicit drugs" become society's default
setting, and so beholden are politicians and others to it, the policy
itself receives no critical scrutiny from government or from academics
largely dependent of federal funding. "Legalization" is a deadly
brickbat hurled indiscriminately at all critics without thought that in
a society based on capitalism, it is the illegal markets which are
abnormal.
Although several scholarly, historically accurate books have pointed
out shortcomings of this policy since the late Sixties, not one author
has effectively attacked drug prohibition as a policy based on a
completely false premise, incapable of preventing substance abuse
problems; indeed, certain to make them worse. None, that is, until Mike
Gray. A professional from the film world, Gray may have written the
book no one else has yet been able to: a concise, readable,
historically accurate, and well documented indictment of our drug
policy. Very few reading his book all the way through will see the drug
war the same way they did before. A major question then becomes: how
many people will read it? Will it sink without a trace, overlooked like
so many earlier criticisms of official policy- or will it be discovered
by a public growing increasingly disillusioned by a perennial policy
failure which is jamming prisons, impoverishing schools and colleges
and effectively canceling many Constitutional guarantees of personal
freedom? Read by enough people, "Drug Crazy" could do for drug reform
what "Silent Spring" did for the environment in 1962.
Like the film maker he is, Gray opens with a tight close up: Chicago
police on a drug stake-out. The view quickly expands to the futility of
enforcement against Chicago's massive illegal market from the
perspectives of an elite narcotics detective and a dedicated public
defender. A comparison with Chicago seventy years ago during
Prohibition reveals that police and the courts were equally unable to
suppress the illegal liquor industry for exactly the same reason: the
overwhelming size and wealth of the criminal market created by
prohibition law. This beginning leaves the reader intrigued and eager
to learn more; he's not disappointed.
The rest of the book traces the history of our drug crusade from its
idealistic populist origins, starting in 1901 when McKinley's
assassination thrust a youthful TR into the White House. The 1914
Harrison Act, purportedly a regulatory and tax law, was transformed by
enforcement practice into federal drug prohibition with the assistance
of the Supreme Court. Drug prohibition not only survived the demise of
Prohibition, but emerged with its bogus mandate strengthened.
Thirty years of determined and unscrupulous management by Harry
Anslinger, the J. Edgar Hoover of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics
shaped drug prohibition into what would eventually become a punitive
global policy. Anslinger was dismissed by JFK in 1960, but not before
politicians had discovered the power of the drug menace to garner both
votes and media attention.
Illegal drug markets have since thrived on the free advertising of
their products which inevitably accompanies intense press coverage of
the futile suppression effort and dire official warnings over the
latest drug scare. This expansion was accelerated when Nixon declared
the drug war in 1972. Gray covers that expansion beyond our borders in
Colombia ("River of Money"), in Mexico (Montezuma's Revenge"), and at
home ("Reefer Madness"). He also describes how some European countries
have blunted the most destructive effects of an American domestic
policy forced on them by the UN Single Convention Treaty ("Lessons from
the Old Country").
In his final chapter, Gray opines that the push to legitimize marijuana
for medical use may have exposed a chink in the heretofore impregnable
armor of drug prohibition. Beyond that, he believes that the policy,
having thrived on relentless intensification, can't allow relaxation
without risking the sort of scrutiny which might reveal its intrinsic
lack of substance, therefore, any change must come from outside
government. He doesn't offer a detailed recipe for a regulatory policy
to replace drug prohibition; rather he suggests that it will be very
similar to that which replaced alcohol Prohibition after Repeal in
1933- a collection of state based programs, sensitive to local needs
and beliefs.
There is a desperate need for this book to be read and discussed by
hundreds of thousands of thinking citizens. The pied piper of drug
prohibition has beguiled our politicians and led us dangerously close
to the edge of an abyss. Mike Gray's warning has hopefully come just in
time and could itself be a major factor in initiating a much needed
change of direction toward sanity.
Thomas J. O'Connell, MD,
***
WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW
COMMENT:
This week, an increased international flavor occasioned by events in
Mexico, the UN General Assembly special session on drugs, and a
relative dearth of important domestic news, has led us to abandon the
usual "Domestic" and " International" groupings in favor of lumping
the two news sources under various topics.
***
Drug Policy-
***
COMMENT:
The House can usually be counted on for the most radical knee-jerk
response to drug-related news. Last week, oblivious to the
ramifications of further insulting Mexico, they responded to Operation
Casablanca with a flourish.
The complaint of the outgoing commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard is
eminently predictable and typical those who have become addicted to
the annual largesse bestowed on newly conscripted drug warriors.
Finally, a sad note; Steve Michael, AIDS activist and campaigner for
medical marijuana passed away recently. He remained contentious, even
in death, as the third news article in this cluster attests. He will
definitely be missed.
***
HOUSE PANEL APPROVES BILL EXTENDING REACH OF U.S. AUTHORITIES
WASHINGTON ( AP) Seeking to stem the global growth of money
laundering, a House panel approved legislation Friday that would
extend the reach of U.S. law enforcement authorities fighting drug
traffickers.
The bill whisked through the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime
by voice vote, sending it to the full Judiciary panel.
The move came about a week after U.S. authorities carried out a
major money-laundering sting. They arrested 160 people, including
about two dozen Mexican bankers, and seized $87 million, two tons
of cocaine and four tons of marijuana.
[snip]
Pubdate: Tue, 02 Jun 1998
Source: Washington Post
Contact: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Authors: Molly Moore and Douglas Farah Washington Post Foreign Service
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n409.a05.html
***
COAST GUARD "WE NEED MORE MONEY FOR DRUG WAR"
Drug War Leader Is Frustrated Kramek Says Politics Hamper Coast
Guard
As commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard for the last four years, Adm.
Robert E. Kramek played a key role in the war on drugs, serving as
coordinator for U.S. interdiction efforts.
But in leaving the post last week after 41 years in the service,
the 58-year-old admiral could not hide a sense of frustration and
dismay about what he described as partisan bickering and
pork-barrel politics that have hamstrung the United States in its
fight against illegal narcotics.
"If we want to win the war on drugs, we've got to have the will to
win," Kramek said in an interview before turning over his command
Friday to Adm. James M. Loy. "I don't think we have the will yet.
We don't have the will, between the administration and Congress, to
win this thing."
[snip]
Pubdate: Tue, 02 Jun 1998
Source: Washington Post
Page: A11
Contact: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Author: William Branigin Washington Post Staff Writer
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n409.a04.html
***
AIDS ACTIVISTS HOLD PROTEST FUNERAL
WASHINGTON ( AP) - Friends of a local AIDS activist marched his
body along Pennsylvania Avenue on Thursday before coming to a stop
outside the White House to accuse President Clinton of being a
`murdering liar.''
About 100 people participated in the half-mile procession for Steve
Michael, founder of the Washington chapter of ACT UP, the AIDS
Coalition To Unleash Power. Organizers said Michael, who died May
25 of AIDS, requested the ``political funeral'' to protest the
Clinton administration's AIDS-related policies.
[snip]
Source: Associated Press
Pubdate: Thu, 4 Jun 1998
Author: Eun-Kyung Kim
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n420.a02.html
***
United Nations-
***
COMMENT:
The UN General Assembly session on drug problems had been targeted by
reform groups as an opportunity to voice opposition to drug
prohibition as policy. It's interesting to compare the more complete
and intelligent coverage of this effort in Canada with the sketchy
wire story published by most American dailies.
The other aspect of the UN session which received media attention was
the hare-brained scheme of UN drug czar Pino Arlacchi to resurrect the
idea of crop substitution in producer nations. This proved a tough
concept for the US to endorse, even though they might approve of
Arlacchi's gung-ho general approach to drug enforcement.
***
LEADERS ATTACK UN WAR ON DRUGS
Host Of Dignitaries Hope To Nip Campaign In Bud
Days before the United Nations is to announce its most ambitious
anti-drug program ever, hundreds of world leaders, including 80
Canadians, have signed a ground-breaking petition asking the UN to
support the liberalization of drug laws instead.
The petition, a rough draft of which has been obtained by the Citizen,
will be presented to the UN General Assembly when it convenes Monday
for what are expected to be hard-nosed discussions on how to crack down
on trade in illegal drugs.
[snip]
The petition is just the latest volley in what has become an
increasingly spectacular debate on whether drugs should be
decriminalized. Proponents of decriminalization point to the excessive
costs of policing and punishing drug offenders, and the crime cartels
that thrive on the prohibited drug trade. Opponents of drug
decriminalization argue that easier access to drugs would lead to
greater rates of addiction and to the erosion of society's morals.
[snip]
Source: Ottawa Citizen (Canada)
Contact: letters@thecitizen.southam.ca
Website: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
Pubdate: Saturday 6 June 1998
Author: Jeremy Mercer, The Ottawa Citizen
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n420.a13.html
***
LEADERS ASK UN FOR NEW DRUG POLICY
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Saying the drug war has caused more harm than
drug abuse itself, prominent world figures are calling for ``a truly
open dialogue'' to shift drug control policies from punishment to
public health issues.
The call is being made in a letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan
from the Lindesmith Center, a private institute which conducts drug
research, in advance of the U.N. General Assembly special session
on drugs, which opens Monday.
[snip]
Source: Associated Press
Pubdate: Fri, 05 Jun 1998
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n419.a11.html
***
U.N. WANTS WORLDWIDE EFFORT TO ERADICATE DRUG CROPS
The United Nations plans to seek new international backing for the most
ambitious counter-narcotics effort in its history.
But the United States and other wealthy nations are resisting pleas to
fund the program partly because it would spend billions of dollars in
some of the world's most corrupt or repressive nations, such as
Afghanistan, Myanmar and Colombia, according to U.S. and U.N. officials.
[snip]
But President Clinton's top drug-policy aides have advised U.N.
officials that Washington is unwilling to commit substantial new money
to the effort because the program remains unformed, has yet to attract
support from key European and Middle Eastern donors and would probably
provoke political opposition at home from human-rights activists and
critics of the United Nations.
[snip]
Source: Seattle-Times (WA)
Pubdate: Wednesday 03 June 1998
Contact: opinion@seatimes.com
Website: http://seattletimes.com/
Author: R. Jeffrey Smith and Douglas Farah, The Washington Post
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n413.a07.html
***
Mexico
***
COMMENT:
Mexico remains very much on the front burner, thanks to
still-increasing Mexican outrage over Operation Casablanca.
Beyond that, Mexico's announcement of a major Methamphetamine bust
could be regarded by cynics as an attempt to improve its image at the
UN drug summit. The article on heroin indicates that the
Colombian-Mexican cooperation in the marketing of cocaine has been
extended to heroin.
***
UNDERCOVER ANTI-DRUG OPERATION STRAINS U.S. TIES WITH MEXICO
MEXICO CITY -- A flap over an undercover money-laundering operation by
American customs agents has escalated into a full-scale diplomatic
altercation that has strained the close ties between the United States
and Mexico.
[snip]
The feud took a new turn Friday with the publication here of a letter
from Sen. Trent Lott, the Senate majority leader, to President Ernesto
Zedillo.
[snip]
Top Mexican officials were infuriated by the letter. Jesus Reyes
Heroles, Mexico's ambassador in Washington, blasted back on May 29 with
a five-page response defending Mexico's anti-drug record and renewing
the attack on the undercover operation, which was code-named Casablanca.
[snip]
Source: New York Times ( NY)
Author: Julia Preston
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Pubdate: Sat, 06 Jun 1998
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n421.a04.html
***
THE U.S. AT ODDS WITH ITSELF ON MEXICO
Mexican government officials weren't the only ones caught by surprise
by the recent announcement of a massive sting operation ("Casablanca")
against Mexican bank officials for money laundering. Most of the
American government, at the highest levels, also was in the dark about
the operation.
[snip]
The lesson of Casablanca is that when American foreign policy toward
Mexico is dictated by law enforcement, the consequences cascade
throughout the whole bilateral relationship in a dangerously accidental
way.
[snip]
Pubdate: Mon, 01 Jun 1998
Source: Washington Post
Section: A17
Contact: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Author: M. Delal Baer
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n411.a01.html
***
DRUG CARTEL SMASHED, MEXICANS SAY
Crime: Authorities Capture Two Brothers Who Allegedly Ran Main
Methamphetamine Ring.
MEXICO CITY--Mexican authorities said Tuesday that they had smashed
the country's main synthetic drug cartel, dealing a powerful blow
to methamphetamine trafficking into California and other American
states.
Mexico's top anti-drug official, Mariano Herran Salvatti, told
reporters that police arrested the suspected cartel leaders, Luis
and Jesus Amezcua-Contreras, and seized 125 properties and
businesses that were being used to smuggle the drugs and launder
the profits.
[snip]
Source: Los Angeles Times
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Fax: 213-237-4712
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Pubdate: June 3, 1998
Author: James F. Smith, Times Staff Writer
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n413.a09.html
***
MEXICAN HEROIN ON RISE IN U.S.
Mexican drug cartels, long regarded as peddlers of cheap, low-grade
heroin that accounted for only a tiny portion of the U.S. market,
are now producing some of the world's most potent heroin and are
seizing control of a rapidly growing share of the U.S. heroin
business, according to Mexican and U.S. law enforcement officials.
Mexico has become the second-largest source of heroin used in the
United States, and the purity of the Mexican-produced drug has
increased sixfold in the past two years in what U.S. law enforcement
and health authorities describe as alarming trends.
[snip]
In a dramatic shift in global heroin trafficking patterns, Colombian
and Mexican drug cartels largely have taken over distribution in the
United States from Asian organizations, whose share of the American
market-- based on seizures by law enforcement authorities -- has
plunged from 90 percent to 28 percent since 1992.
[snip]
Pubdate: Tue, 02 Jun 1998
Source: Washington Post
Contact: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Authors: Molly Moore and Douglas Farah Washington Post Foreign Service
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n409.a05.html
***
Latin America
***
COMMENT:
Elsewhere in the Hemisphere, the US remained true to its commitment to
all-out drug war by underwriting further militarization in two nations
with serious internal problems of corruption and armed resistance.
***
U.S. TO INCREASE SUPPORT FOR COLOMBIAN ARMY
WASHINGTON -- Concerned about the growing power of leftist rebels in
Colombia, the Clinton administration is expanding its support for
government forces fighting in the hemisphere's longest-running
guerrilla war.
U.S. officials say the aid is aimed at stanching the flow of illegal
drugs from Colombia, and will target the insurgents only where they
protect the production of heroin and cocaine. The officials say they
have no intention of getting mired in Colombia's internal conflict.
But government documents and interviews with dozens of officials here
indicate that the separation Washington has tried to make between those
two campaigns -- one against drug trafficking, the other against the
guerrillas - -- is increasingly breaking down.
[snip]
***
Pubdate: Tue, 02 Jun 1998
Source: New York Times
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Authors: Diana Jean Schemo And Tim Golden
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n409.a06.html
PERU, U.S. BUILDING ANTI-DRUG MILITARY TRAINING CENTER
LIMA ( May 29) XINHUA - Peru and the United States are building an
anti-drug military training center in northwestern Peru to combat drug
traffickers using jungle waterways, press reports said Friday.
Located in the Amazon jungle of Iquitos, Loreto Department, the center
will offer training to Peruvian police forces and marine infantry
troops.
Training will focus on controlling waterways as more drug traffickers
resort to the use of a complicated network of jungle rivers after
effective interdiction in the air by the Peruvian Air Force.
[snip]
Source: CNN
Contact: cnn.feedback@cnn.com
Website: http://www.cnn.com/
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n407.a05.html
***
Medical Marijuana
***
COMMENT:
Two news articles highlight differing attitudes toward medical use of
marijuana: a jury in England, where medical use isn't recognized by
law, acquitted a man who openly admitted such use. In California, a
man who went to the police to avoid harassment was arrested.
The comments of authorities in the California case show clearly that
they don't recognize any uncontested right of patients to use
marijuana for medical purposes, an attitude which is almost universal
within the State. The California man will be arraigned next month.
The editorial comment in the Independent on Sunday raises hope that
Britain, where the medical establishment has gone on record with more
courage than the AMA, may represent the best hope for national
reclassification of marijuana as a useful therapeutic agent.
***
JURY CLEARS MAN WHO USED CANNABIS AS PAIN KILLER
Verdict 'brings closer' legalisation of drug for medical purposes
By David Ward
A man who smoked four cannabis joints a day to relieve pain caused
by a broken back vowed yesterday to continue rolling them after a
jury cleared him of drugs charges brought following a police raid
on his home.
"I will carry on smoking cannabis," said Colin Davies, of
Stockport, Greater Manchester. "It helps the terrible pain I get
from my injuries. I feel vindicated that the jury has listened to
me."
The eight women and four men at Manchester Crown Court took just 40
minutes to clear Mr Davies of cultivating cannabis contrary to the
1971 Misuse of Drugs Act
[snip]
Source: The Guardian, UK
Pubdate: Sat, 06 Jun 1998
Contact: letters@guardian.co.uk
Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Author: David Ward
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n423.a01.html
***
PATIENT MAY SUE POLICE FOR POT ARREST
Law; Military veteran with doctor's prescription for medical marijuana
says he was within his Prop. 215 rights in growing cannabis plants for
own use.
SIMI VALLEY--The latest test of California's medical marijuana law is
shaping up in Simi Valley, where a man arrested last month for
cultivating more than a dozen pot plants said he will sue police for
violating his rights as a patient.
[snip]
Despite Jones' prescription and official card that identifies him a
user of medicinal marijuana, authorities maintain that in this instance
he does not qualify for the exemption.
"There are a lot of questionable issues involved with this particular
case and one of those deals with quantity," Rein said. "The law allows
for personal use and we understand that, but, again, there are some
questions in that regard."
[snip]
Pubdate: Tue, 02 Jun 1998
Source: Los Angeles Times ( CA)
Section: Ventura County
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Author: Coll Metcalfe, Times Staff Writer
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n411.a03.html
***
CANNABIS CAMPAIGN - HOPE FOR THOSE IN PAIN
THE growing consensus about the merits of cannabis in the alleviation
of pain was strengthened last week when it emerged that a
government-commissioned report backs its therapeutic use, writes
Vanessa Thorpe.
The Independent on Sunday campaign to decriminalise cannabis won a
second significant boost last week when a jury in the north of
England cleared a man who admitted to smoking the drug to alleviate
his chronic back pain.
[snip]
Source: Independent on Sunday
Pubdate: Sun, 07 Jun 1998
Contact: sundayletters@independent.co.uk
Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/
Author: Vanessa Thorpe
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n423.a02.html
***
Tobacco
***
COMMENT:
The Senate, at cross purposes from the beginning, became more bogged
down than ever in its debate over pending tobacco legislation. As this
newsletter is being prepared, Trent Lott has stated that the bill is
dead and Tom Daschle is claiming it can be saved.
With the Big Tobacco under the gun, some of the best editorials
attacking the logic of drug prohibition are being written by
apologists for the tobacco industry. No need to ask where they were
when legal tobacco was an accepted fact.
***
SENATE TOBACCO BILL YANKED IN ALL DIRECTIONS
WASHINGTON, June 6 (Reuters) - The Senate tobacco bill has been pulled
to the left, yanked to the right, and dragged into parliamentary
quicksand.
After two weeks of meandering but acrimonious debate, the only thing
certain is that the Senate is stuck and a lot of people are mad at each
other.
[snip]
Source: Reuters
Pubdate: Sat, 06 Jun 1998
Author: Joanne Kenen
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n423.a02.html
***
TOBACCO TAX TALK BRINGS CHEERS TO THE BLACK MARKET
TAX tobacco like crazy, squeeze billions of dollars out of the tobacco
companies and save a generation of kids from smoking.
That's the formula government and anti-tobacco activists are pushing
these days. If the government cracks down enough, some believe, tobacco
use might dwindle to nothing in our lifetime.
[snip]
But politicians would do well to heed the recent experience of other
countries that have tried such measures in attempting to reduce tobacco
consumption.
Take Canada. Under similar pressures from the anti-smoking lobby, the
Canadian government cranked up tobacco taxes in the early 1990s. The
result was predictable: a black market.
[snip]
Today, it is U.S. legislators who appear to be blinded by the prospect
of filling government coffers with easy tobacco bucks while getting the
political fix that comes from appearing to be on the right side of a
public health issue. But to be truly responsible, they should consider
the probable consequences of their actions. If they don't, they might
be remembered as the architects of the worst social experiment since
Prohibition.
[snip]
Source: San Jose Mercury News
Contact: letters@sjmercury.com
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/
Pubdate: Thu, 04 Jun 1998
Author: Anne Macdiarmid
Note: The author is a member of FORCES Canada, a non-profit
Note: organization for smokers' rights.
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n417.a02.html
***
HOT OFF THE 'NET
***
For an excellent rundown on all the latest on the UN General Assembly
"Drug Summit" please visit:
http://www.drugsense.org/ungass.htm
A full rundown on the newly released "Drug Crazy" Can be found at:
http://www.drugsense.org/crazy.htm
***
TIP OF THE WEEK
***
Need a great collection of facts to bolster your arguments? Check out the
Drug War Fact Book at:
http://www.drugsense.org/factbook.htm
It is chock full of facts, references, and information sorted by subject.
Use this valuable resource to professionalize your letters and debates on
drug policy issues.
compiled by Kendra E. Wright and Paul M. Lewin
Common Sense for Drug Policy
for the Drug Policy Information Service
June 1998
***
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
***
"Instead of giving money to found colleges to promote learning, why don't
they pass a Constitutional Amendment prohibiting anybody from learning
anything? If it works as good as Prohibition, why, in five years we will
have the smartest race of people on earth." -- Will Rogers
***
DS Weekly is one of the many free educational services DrugSense offers
our members. Watch this feature to learn more about what DrugSense can
do for you.
News/COMMENTS-Editor: Tom O'Connell (tjeffoc@drugsense.org)
Senior-Editor: Mark Greer (mgreer@drugsense.org)
We wish to thank all our contributors and Newshawks.
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REMINDER:
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[End]
to 1998 Daily News index for June 4-10