“You want to know what this was really all about?” he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
Furthermore, have you ever wondered what the biggest drug running organization has been for fifty or sixty years? Do they even keep track of it? Perhaps not, but if you watch the mainstream media over the years they strongly imply that one drug cartel is bigger than almost all the other ones at any given time; however after a decade or so, if not less, the DEA busts one after another and they're replaced by a new drug cartel demonized by the media.
There's only one drug running organization that never gets taken down, and many of these cartels have allied themselves with this organization for years at a time, which is what enables them to get so big.
That organization is the CIA!
That's right the biggest drug running organization for decades has been the CIA, although they don't always run the drugs themselves; in many cases they recruit allies that run them and help provide cover for them. In most cases the organizations allied with the CIA probably aren't the ones demonized the most by traditional media; although at times they have had dealings with them as well. If you get your media from mainstream outlets you will probably rarely hear about this, and when they do mention CIA ties to drug running, they keep it to a minimum.
(Update 09/13/2020: In most cases the drug running by the CIA or it's allies is usually not reported credibly for months if not years; however some recent disclosures have come out indicating that it continues in Honduras, which had a coup in 2009 and additional rigged elections for puppet leaders of the United States government. Additional details were added at the end of this article.)
However, there are some good researchers on the subject that the mainstream media practically never mentions. When they do mention them they often try to smear them as conspiracy theorists, even if they do a much better job citing sources, often from court records, police, whistle blowers or other other credible sources. One of the best is Alfred McCoy, who's been researching drug running since the early seventies when he published the first edition of The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade 2003, he followed this up with two additional editions reporting on ongoing drug running of heroin since then and provides very good sources for his work. The CIA attempted to censor his book and prevent it from being published in the first place, but failed. However, he wasn't able to get much if any media attention to his book; on the rare occasions they do cover researchers into CIA drug running they try to smear them as conspiracy theorists, but those of us who read the book and noticed they don't try to discredit his sources, which are often very good, know better.
But even if you do doubt many of these investigators, dismissing them as conspiracy theories, and many in the government and the media want you to, the government itself has investigated it and found that there's a lot of truth to it, although the most prominent report on it was rarely mentioned by traditional media, even when it was first released. In the mid to late eighties John Kerry conducted an investigation into drug running to finance the Contras and Joe Biden was part of the Committee investigating it. They found that there was a significant amount of drug running done with approval of the CIA to finance the Contras among other things, as their report released in 1989 indicates:
Kerry Committee report 1989
While the contra/drug question was not the primary focus of the investigation, the Subcommittee uncovered considerable evidence relating to the Contra network which substantiated many of the initial allegations laid out before the Committee in the Spring of 1986. On the basis of this evidence, it is clear that individuals who provided support for the Contras were involved in drug trafficking, the supply network of the Contras was used by drug trafficking organizations, and elements of the Contras themselves knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers. In each case, one or another agency of the U.S. government had information regarding the involvement either while it was occurring, or immediately thereafter.
The Subcommittee found that the Contra drug links included:
— Involvement in narcotics trafficking by individuals associated with the Contra movement.
— Participation of narcotics traffickers in Contra supply operations through business relationships with Contra organizations.
—Provision of assistance to the Contras by narcotics traffickers, including cash, weapons, planes, pilots, air supply services and other materials, on a voluntary basis by the traffickers.
— Payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to the Contras, in some cases after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges, in others while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies. .......
The CIA's Chief of the Central American Task Force went on to say:
We knew that everybody around Pastora was involved in. cocaine . , . His staff and friends (redacted) they were drug smugglers or involved in drug smuggling. 6
The Justice Department was slow to respond to ,the ; allegations regarding links between drug traffickers and the Contras. In the spring of 1986, even after the State Department was acknowledging there were problems with drug trafficking in association with Contra activities bn the Southern Front, the Justice Department was adamantly denying that there was any substance to the narcotics allegations. At the time, the FBI had significant information regarding the involvement of narcotics traffickers in Contra operations and Neutrality 7 Act violations. 7
The failure of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies to respond properly to allegations concerning criminal activity relating to the Contras was demonstrated 1 by the handling of the Com- mittee’s own investigation by 1 the "Justice Department and the CIA in the spring of 1986. ........
The logic of having drug money pay for the pressing needs of the Contras appealed to a number of people who became involved in the covert war. Indeed, senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the Contra’s funding problems.
As DEA officials testified last July before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Lt. Col. Oliver North suggested to the DEA in June 1985 that $1.5 million in drug money carried aboard a plane piloted by DEA informant Barry Seal and generated in a sting of the Medellin Cartel and Sandinista officials, be provided to the Contras. 25 While the suggestion was rejected by the DEA, the fact that it was made highlights the potential appeal of drug prof- its for persons engaged in covert activity.
Lotz said that Contra operations on the Southern Front were in- fact funded by drug operations. He testified that weapons for the Contras came from Panama on. small planes carrying mixed loads which included drugs. The pilots unloaded the weapons, refueled, and headed north toward the U.S. with drugs. 26 The photos included Americans, Panamanians, and Colombians, and occasionally, uniformed members of the Panamanian Defense Forces. 37 Drug pilots soon began to use the Contra airstrips to refuel even when there were no weapons to unload. They knew that the authorities would not check the airstrips because the war was “protected”. 28
The problem of., drug traffickers using the airstrips also used to supply the Contras persisted through 1985 and 1986. By the summer of 1986, it became of significant concern to the U.S. Government officials who were involved in the covert Contra supply operations undertaken during the Boland Amendment period. As then-CIA. Station Chief “Thomas .Castillo” testified to the Iran/ Contra Committees, U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica Lewis Tambs Wanted to place guards on the secret Contra supply airstrip at Santa Elena in Costa Rica, to avoid:
having drug traffickers use that site, and this was a continuing concern during the period of June, July and August. 29 Complete Report
Wikipedia: Kerry Committee report
While the contra/drug question was not the primary focus of the investigation, the Subcommittee uncovered considerable evidence relating to the Contra network which substantiated many of the initial allegations laid out before the Committee in the Spring of 1986. On the basis of this evidence, it is clear that individuals who provided support for the Contras were involved in drug trafficking, the supply network of the Contras was used by drug trafficking organizations, and elements of the Contras themselves knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers. In each case, one or another agency of the U.S. government had information regarding the involvement either while it was occurring, or immediately thereafter.
The Subcommittee found that the Contra drug links included:
— Involvement in narcotics trafficking by individuals associated with the Contra movement.
— Participation of narcotics traffickers in Contra supply operations through business relationships with Contra organizations.
—Provision of assistance to the Contras by narcotics traffickers, including cash, weapons, planes, pilots, air supply services and other materials, on a voluntary basis by the traffickers.
— Payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to the Contras, in some cases after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges, in others while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies. .......
The CIA's Chief of the Central American Task Force went on to say:
We knew that everybody around Pastora was involved in. cocaine . , . His staff and friends (redacted) they were drug smugglers or involved in drug smuggling. 6
The Justice Department was slow to respond to ,the ; allegations regarding links between drug traffickers and the Contras. In the spring of 1986, even after the State Department was acknowledging there were problems with drug trafficking in association with Contra activities bn the Southern Front, the Justice Department was adamantly denying that there was any substance to the narcotics allegations. At the time, the FBI had significant information regarding the involvement of narcotics traffickers in Contra operations and Neutrality 7 Act violations. 7
The failure of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies to respond properly to allegations concerning criminal activity relating to the Contras was demonstrated 1 by the handling of the Com- mittee’s own investigation by 1 the "Justice Department and the CIA in the spring of 1986. ........
The logic of having drug money pay for the pressing needs of the Contras appealed to a number of people who became involved in the covert war. Indeed, senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the Contra’s funding problems.
As DEA officials testified last July before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Lt. Col. Oliver North suggested to the DEA in June 1985 that $1.5 million in drug money carried aboard a plane piloted by DEA informant Barry Seal and generated in a sting of the Medellin Cartel and Sandinista officials, be provided to the Contras. 25 While the suggestion was rejected by the DEA, the fact that it was made highlights the potential appeal of drug prof- its for persons engaged in covert activity.
Lotz said that Contra operations on the Southern Front were in- fact funded by drug operations. He testified that weapons for the Contras came from Panama on. small planes carrying mixed loads which included drugs. The pilots unloaded the weapons, refueled, and headed north toward the U.S. with drugs. 26 The photos included Americans, Panamanians, and Colombians, and occasionally, uniformed members of the Panamanian Defense Forces. 37 Drug pilots soon began to use the Contra airstrips to refuel even when there were no weapons to unload. They knew that the authorities would not check the airstrips because the war was “protected”. 28
The problem of., drug traffickers using the airstrips also used to supply the Contras persisted through 1985 and 1986. By the summer of 1986, it became of significant concern to the U.S. Government officials who were involved in the covert Contra supply operations undertaken during the Boland Amendment period. As then-CIA. Station Chief “Thomas .Castillo” testified to the Iran/ Contra Committees, U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica Lewis Tambs Wanted to place guards on the secret Contra supply airstrip at Santa Elena in Costa Rica, to avoid:
having drug traffickers use that site, and this was a continuing concern during the period of June, July and August. 29 Complete Report
Wikipedia: Kerry Committee report
When this report first came out, it hardly got any media coverage. it became much more famous about six years later when Gary Webb reported on it in the San Jose Mercury News, and it went viral on the internet, for people that were accustomed to getting their news from the internet at that time. However, the majority of the public still wasn't accustomed to getting their news from the internet, including me, and the mass media hardly paid attention to it at first. When they did they made a massive effort to smear Gary Webb, led by the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and Washington Post, without covering the fact that his investigation included a major congressional report, and if you look at the source notes of his book, which came out a few years later, it's clear that he got a large portion of his information from court documents, police testimony, and yes, some testimony from drug dealers, but he admitted that they may have credibility problems and often provided corroboration.
Under an enormous amount of political pressure the San Jose Mercury News recanted the story and took it down from the internet; however, Narco News reposted the original three part story, Gary Webb the investigative reporter who wrote “Dark Alliance” and he followed it up with a full length book that went into even more details in 1998, which was followed up by several more editions, Gary Webb Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Cocaine Explosion 2005 There's no doubt, that with a story like this, there are going to be some unreliable witnesses; however, he presented them along with their flaws so the reader can judge for himself; and large portions of his reporting was confirmed by many other sources over the years. Two of the leading suppliers that had ties to the Nicaraguan Contras since they began were let off extremely easy, Norwin Meneses, who was never charged in the United States, and only got six years in jail in Nicaragua, and Oscar Danilo Blandon, who only got four years and jail, and may not have completed that, because he helped testify against drug kingpin "Freeway" Rick Ross, as part of a plea bargain.
"Freeway" Rick Ross is the only one that got a long prison sentence, life in jail; however, even that was overturned, and he was released in 2009, due to a "legal loophole" after serving only thirteen years. But, the fact that Danilo Blandon was able to negotiate a four year sentence for helping testify against Ricky Ross makes no sense, since he was the supplier, not a lower ranking dealer! Ricky Ross did become a dealer that was selling a lot of drugs before he met Blandon, but when his other supplier was shot, he went to another supplier who was getting drugs from Blandon and eventually backed out and let Blandon sell directly to Ross. Ross never could have sold so many drugs without help from Blandon and other dealers with ties to the Contras, including Meneses. This is the opposite of what we're told plea bargaining is supposed to accomplish; and while these three high ranking drug dealers
This may be the biggest story about CIA connections to drug running reported, but it's not the only one by far, and the vast majority of them didn't get nearly as much attention including whistle-blowers Terry Reed, a former CIA agent, "Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA" 1994, Celerino III Castillo, a former DEA agent "Powderburns: Cocaine, Contras & the Drug War" 2010, Michael Levine, another ex-DEA agent "The Big White Lie: The Deep Cover Operation That Exposed the CIA Sabotage of the Drug War 2012, and many other whistle-blowers or researchers some of which are listed below and more that can be found by Googling drug running and the CIA, including checking books.
In many cases it takes months if not years for drug running connections to the CIA to be reported to the public; and even when it is the traditional media pays very little attention to it. We ahve no way of knowing how many drug running operations were never exposed over the decades; but there's little or no reason to believe they've stopped. This may even include Pablo Escobar who according to his Son Reveals His Dad “Worked for the CIA Selling Cocaine” — Media Silent 05/03/2018 and there were rumors from other sources, although some might not consider them the most reliable sources. Some of Alfred McCoy's updates reported additional running of heroin from Afghanistan after the U.S. invasion; and more recently during Obama's term there was the Wikipedia: ATF fictional sting operations when fabricated sting operations enticed people they thought might be inclined to commit crimes were lured into "made up" crimes from 2011-14, which critics and eventually judges claimed was entrapment.
This has been semi-common practice for years, sometimes even for outrageous political reasons to make the drug problems seem worse than it was, including a Drug Buy Set Up For Bush Speech DEA Lured Seller to Lafayette Park 09/22/1989 when George H.W. Bush wanted a photo-op with drugs that were bough across the street form the White House, so orders went down and arrangements were made to lure someone there for a buy since it wasn't a drug trafficking area. "Any possibility of you moving it down to the White House?" Millford asked, according to McMullan. "Evidently, the president wants to show it could be bought anywhere."
It's virtually guaranteed that these stings weren't designed to lure in wealthy people with access to lawyers, or even many middle class people. Mostly they target poor people, especially minorities.
They certainly don't target politicians; even when they do catch well connected people, there's little or no chance that they'll be charged with high level crimes, including relatives of the people that created get tough on crime laws that target minorities that have little or no educational or economic opportunities. Barack Obama admitted to "a little blow when you could afford it," Sarah Palin also allegedly did cocaine, George W. Bush was asked repeatedly in the 2000 campaign if he had ever done drugs and he declined to deny it, instead repeatedly saying “When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible.” Blow by Blow: 10 Politicians Linked to Cocaine 11/22/2013 Most of us assumed that, if George W. Bush hadn't ever done any drugs, that he would simply deny it. Furthermore, the claim that we should dismiss "Youthful indiscretions" is applied much differently to well connected politicians, often even when they continue much later in life, than it is for poor people who often have those same "youthful indiscretions" described as part of an extensive record.
On at least one occasion George Bush claimed that he hadn't done any drugs in the past 25 years, and didn't want to talk about earlier years to either confirm or deny rumors; however according to at least one source 'Bush snorted cocaine at Camp David' 09/08/2004 "while his father was present, his former sister-in-law Sharon Bush alleges in a new book." by Kitty Kelley "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty, according to a report in Britain's Daily Mirror." But, even if this is true, it's not nearly as bad as the things his father ahs done, including his participation in both the Iran Contra controversy and efforts to run drugs to arm the Contras, as well as arming both sides of the Iran/Iraq war, the mujaheddin, and Manuel Noriega, who was also selling drugs, sometimes to support the Contras at the request of the Bush and Reagan presidency. We had to fight several wars as a result of his arming numerous future enemies, which is common for many politicians, who are often portrayed as tough on foreign policy.
But this didn't stop his son from getting obsessive media coverage in 1999 declaring him to be the inevitable nominee, before he even declared his candidacy. After rigging the 2000 election they went on to start more wars based on lies about weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist costing thousands of lives, yet he wasn't held accountable any more than his father. Nor did it stop the media from portraying Joe Biden as the front runner, even though it obviously wasn't true, and providing him with enough media coverage to help cover for efforts to rig the primary for a second time in a row. But Joe Biden was one of the leading architects of drug laws that were designed to to target poor people especially minorities.
While he was just starting as a member of Kerry's Committee to investigate the drug running connection to the Contras, he sponsored the bill that created a 100 to 1 disparity for crack cocaine, which was used mostly by blacks, compared to powdered cocaine, which was more expensive and used mostly by whites. If he wanted to know how much this targeted minorities before passing the law he could have; but it became even clearer while investigating drug running by the CIA showing that this was a massive set up, yet he didn't fight to revers the convictions of low level drug dealers, instead, in 1994 he sponsored another bill getting tough on crime, but mostly for African Americans. His own son tested positive for cocaine, which is why they threw him out of the military, after using his political connections to be fast tracked to become a a direct commission officer despite his age and a previous drug related incident; his father, as Vice President, administered his commissioning oath in a White House ceremony and his positive test for cocaine was only a month later.
Biden's other son was supposed to be the tough ion crime politician like his dad, only less corrupt, according to some sources, but not when it came to well connected families. Being above the law isn't limited to drug dealing; according to Report: Judge said du Pont heir wouldn't "fare well" in prison 03/31/2014 Beau Biden negotiated a probation deal, for molesting his three year old daughter, for Robert Richards IV, which is something no working class person, especially minorities could ever negotiate for a crime like this. Can you imagine any judge saying a poor African American wouldn't fare well in jail for a drug charge, or any other charge?
How obvious can this double standard be? And yet they gave Biden the obsession coverage he needed to help rig the nomination just like Bush, and he also has a long history of supporting wars based on lies and corruption!
There are many other examples where people from the ruling class get treated far differently from those of the working class including the Kids-for-cash judge being released from prison over virus concerns 06/23/2020 and various police forces around the country getting caught planting drugs or entrapping people including Police in Alabama planted drugs and guns on over 1,000 innocent Black men 11/21/2019 and a search of the internet will turn up many other examples. On top of that, the Prison industrial complex is also taking advantage of the loophole in the thirteenth amendment that allows people convicted of crimes to be subject to slavery as reported in NAACP Lawsuit: Arizona Prisons Are Practicing Slavery 06/23/2020; A search of the internet will turn up far more detailed stories about how prisons are being used for legalized slavery.
Multi-national corporations have a financial incentive to encourage large prison populations, since they can take advantage of slave labor and even use this to suppress wages for those not in jail as part of their efforts to rig the economy for the oligarchs. Furthermore, even though there's an enormous amount of evidence to show that police are entrapping people across the country, and that prisons are profiting off of slave labor, presumably in many cases by those people being entrapped, there's little or no effort to research the victims, either because of the Coronavirus pandemic, because they're innocent, or any other reason that might increase fairness or help reduce crime!
 |
| This quote is an accurate description of the incentives for private prisons, even if it's not sourced. |
Laws don't apply to politicians or their family the same way they do to the rest of us.
Fifty years ago, one of the leading reasons why we should stand up to the Soviet Union many of us were taught was that they had the highest incarceration rates in the world and that they were oppressing their own people. Many of us didn't seem to realize that Nixon's get tough on crime and war on drugs approach was beginning to change that, but when Biden started passing his get tough on crime laws, with the help of the rest of Congress, Reagan, Bush and Clinton our incarceration rat skyrocketed past theirs and everyone else's and it wasn't based on good science to understand the leading cause of violence. Furthermore, mass incarceration continued to escalate, when rates of violence dropped.
When Kennedy was president, and he was concerned about addressing the root causes of crime and violence, Homicide Rates, 1950–2014 were fairly low, below 5 per 100,000 people; they began to rise during the Johnson administration, and after about five years of Nixon's "get tough on crime" and "war on drugs" policies they climbed to 9.8, peaking at 10.2 in 1980, fluctuating before hitting 9.8 again in 1991, three years before Biden's crime bill passed, and has been steadily dropping until it reached a low of 4.5 in 2013 and 2014.
Did Nixon's war on drugs cause the spike in murder rates? If so what caused the decline after 1991?
Well, of course, there's no one simple answer, even if the media and political establish often say or imply there is. There are many contributing causes of violence, all of which have to be addressed, but in most cases looking at one set of statistics won't be enough to figure out the most important cause. However, in at least on of the leading contributing causes, we do have strong evidence showing that early child abuse, including corporal punishment is a major contributing factor. In Research On Preventing Violence Absent From National Media I pointed out that the nineteen states that still allow corporal punishment in schools and use it more at home have had between 22% and 32% higher murder rates than those that don't allow it in school for the past ten to twelve years, and this difference is growing. Furthermore, twenty-two of the states banning corporal punishment in schools did so between 1983 and 1994, with the majority of them banning it in the late eighties or early nineties.
Since child abuse teaches violence later in life there's good reason to assume that it has a long term impact on violence, including murder; therefore the longer after it's prevented the less likely abused children growing to adulthood are likely to respond with violence. These statistics, along with a lot of other good research on the subject shows that one major reason for the steady decline in murder rates since 1991, is that we're no longer teaching nearly as many people to respond with violence.
There are many other contributing causes which all have to be addressed, including abandoned inner cities with little or no educational or economic opportunities, often except drugs. There's little or no doubt that increasing funding for child care, education, social workers to teach at risk parents about the impacts of child abuse and better methods of child rearing, will help reduce violence, especially in abandoned inner cities. We also need more jobs and a reduction of income inequality, ensuring that working class people can earn a fair wage. I went into a lot of these contributing causes of violence in a series of articles ending with Politicians increase crime; Grass roots efforts reduce crime; Politicians steal the credit, which includes links to articles for each contributing cause that I covered, and each of those provides additional sources from other researchers, often good peer reviewed studies.
We have good research on the leading contributing causes of violence that can show how to reduce it like many other developed countries have already done. We could also compare what these less violent countries are doing to understand how we can improve our political and economic system. If more people were familiar with the best research then many solutions would be very obvious. However, contrary to an enormous amount of propaganda, we don't live in a democratic country where politicians respond to the will of the people, or base policy decisions on good research in the best interest of the public.
We live in an oligarchy system, masquerading as a Democracy.
In a Democracy the public has to have access to diverse views, including the best research on any given subject; and they have to have the opportunity to hear from all candidates running for office. This requires diverse media, which we don't have; instead we have six corporations controlling over 95% of national media and the next half a dozen or so independent media outlets are also controlled by billionaires. These oligarchs don't provide coverage for the best research on any given subject, including the most effective way to reduce violence; nor do the cover diverse candidates for office, ensuring that only the ones they support can get name recognition needed to be elected. This is why politicians don're respond to the will of the people or base decisions on good science.
Income inequality is a contributing factor to violence, but the oligarchs profit from it, so nothing is done to reduce it. Oligarchs profit when minorities are entrapped and made available for slave labor, they profit when jobs are shipped overseas, it's easier to control the public when they're ignorant, so the fight to suppress education, which also contributes to violence. And one issue after another, when the most effective solution for the majority of the public contradicts the best interests and profits of the oligarchs solutions are suppressed.
The Drug War has been a very effective excuse to take away people rights, but it does nothing to make the public safer; if anything it does far more to put us all at risk!
Update 09/13/2020: The following article shows how the United States Government has been supporting the tyrannical leader, who has been implicated in drug running operations and is responsible for creating a mass exodus causing our current immigration crisis. Both Obama and Trump are responsible for this in a massive case of entrapment, both for drug runners, and a worse case of entrapment for refugees, forced out by a violent regime then labeled as "illegal immigrants" by the same people that caused their plight.
Star investigation: US supports Honduran government that forces many to migrate as it protects drug trafficking 09/12/2020
If you spoke with any of the thousands of Honduran asylum seekers who passed through Tucson last year, you heard common reasons for their flight to the United States: violence, poverty, extortion.
If you listened carefully, you might also have heard an unfamiliar phrase: “JOH.” In Spanish it’s pronounced, more or less, “Ho,” and refers to a man’s initials.
The man is Juan Orlando Hernandez, the president of Honduras.
What Hondurans long suspected and Americans later found out was that the president of Honduras, who has functional control of all branches of government, is also deeply implicated in drug trafficking to the United States.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan revealed that in court filings against the president’s brother, Tony Hernandez, in August 2019, and witnesses testified to it in Tony Hernandez’s October 2019 trial. The president’s brother was found guilty of four crimes, including conspiring to import about 220 tons of cocaine to the United States.
Honduras had plenty of problems before Hernandez first took power in 2014, of course. But some Honduran migrants say the destruction of social protections that drove them out occurred under his watch, even as the Obama administration aided him and Trump tightened the American embrace.
Not surprisingly, a country run by organized crime became consumed by it from top to bottom. What has been surprising is the U.S. role in supporting the same government that, according to many Honduran migrants and experts, caused them to flee to the United States.
Hernandez was first sworn in as president in January 2014. Months later, a surge of Honduran children fled to the United States.
When he ran for re-election in November 2017, dubious vote-counting put Hernandez ahead again. Despite deep suspicions of fraud, the United States recognized him as the victor in December of that year. Complete article
If you spoke with any of the thousands of Honduran asylum seekers who passed through Tucson last year, you heard common reasons for their flight to the United States: violence, poverty, extortion.
If you listened carefully, you might also have heard an unfamiliar phrase: “JOH.” In Spanish it’s pronounced, more or less, “Ho,” and refers to a man’s initials.
The man is Juan Orlando Hernandez, the president of Honduras.
What Hondurans long suspected and Americans later found out was that the president of Honduras, who has functional control of all branches of government, is also deeply implicated in drug trafficking to the United States.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan revealed that in court filings against the president’s brother, Tony Hernandez, in August 2019, and witnesses testified to it in Tony Hernandez’s October 2019 trial. The president’s brother was found guilty of four crimes, including conspiring to import about 220 tons of cocaine to the United States.
Honduras had plenty of problems before Hernandez first took power in 2014, of course. But some Honduran migrants say the destruction of social protections that drove them out occurred under his watch, even as the Obama administration aided him and Trump tightened the American embrace.
Not surprisingly, a country run by organized crime became consumed by it from top to bottom. What has been surprising is the U.S. role in supporting the same government that, according to many Honduran migrants and experts, caused them to flee to the United States.
Hernandez was first sworn in as president in January 2014. Months later, a surge of Honduran children fled to the United States.
When he ran for re-election in November 2017, dubious vote-counting put Hernandez ahead again. Despite deep suspicions of fraud, the United States recognized him as the victor in December of that year. Complete article
The following are some additional sources or related articles:
Austin’s Police Chief Says Pot Arrests Will Continue Despite Decriminalization 01/27/2020
The ‘Warrior Cop’ Is a Toxic Mentality. And a Lucrative Industry. 06/19/2020
Watchdog report slams DEA's money-laundering operations 06/17/2020
Policing For Profit: The Drug War's Hidden Economic Agenda 03/01/1998 Abstract: During the 25 years of its existence, the "War on Drugs" has transformed the criminal justice system, to the point where the imperatives of drug law enforcement now drive many of the broader legislative, law enforcement, and corrections policies in counterproductive ways. One significant impetus for this transformation has been the enactment of forfeiture laws which allow law enforcement agencies to keep the lion's share of the drug-related assets they seize. Another has been the federal law enforcement aid program, revised a decade ago to focus on assisting state anti-drug efforts. Collectively these financial incentives have left many law enforcement agencies dependent on drug law enforcement to meet their budgetary requirements, at the expense of alternative goals such as the investigation and prosecution of non-drug crimes, crime prevention strategies, and drug education and treatment. In this article we present a legal and empirical analysis of these laws and their consequences. In so doing, we seek to explain why the drug war continues with such heavy emphasis on law enforcement and incarceration, and show the way to more rational policies.
Outrageous Conduct: Feds Using Reverse Stings,Entrapment in War on Drugs 11/02/2013
The twisted financial incentives behind the war on drugs 04/14/2015
Oliver North Worked With Cocaine Traffickers to Arm Terrorists 05/12/2018
The Oliver North File: His Diaries, E-Mail, and Memos on the Kerry Report, Contras and Drugs 02/26/2005
Joe Biden’s long record supporting the war on drugs and mass incarceration, explained 07/91/2019 Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986: This law, sponsored and partly written by Biden, ratcheted up penalties for drug crimes. It also created a big sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine; even though the drugs are pharmacologically similar, the law made it so someone would need to possess 100 times the amount of powder cocaine to be eligible for the same mandatory minimum sentence for crack. Since crack is more commonly used by black Americans, this sentencing disparity helped fuel big racial disparities in incarceration.
Air Cocaine: the Wild, True Story of Drug-Running, Arms Smuggling and Contras at a Backwoods Airstrip in the Clintons’ Arkansas 11/04/2016 As that Time magazine editor told his reporter Lawrence Zuckerman, this was precisely the kind of drug story that would end up on the front pages of American newspapers. But it turned out to be a setup, part of an elaborate sting operation concocted by Oliver North, the CIA, George Bush’s drug task force and a convicted drug runner named Barriman Alder Seal. It was Seal who had piloted the plane, equipped with CIA-installed cameras, to that Nicaraguan airstrip and brought the cocaine back to Homestead Air Force Base in Florida. In return for his services, Seal received more than $700,000 and a reduced sentence on pending drug convictions. Years later the DEA admitted that Seal’s CIA-sponsored mission was the only drug flight involving the Sandinistas it had any information about. .... Seal lost his job at TWA but escaped prosecution when the CIA intervened. .... Seal was convicted in February 1984 and faced the possibility of spending the next ten years in federal prison. Desperate to retain his freedom, Seal, apparently on the advice of his contacts in the CIA, made one last call, this time to Vice President George Bush’s drug task force. .... After this meeting, Seal was officially signed up as a confidential informant for the DEA: his DEA ID number was SGI-84-0028. The DEA agreed to pay him $800,000 a year for his services and postponed his sentencing on the Quaalude-smuggling conviction. ..... Seal arrived back in Miami
Wikipedia: Air America (airline) Drug smuggling
Wikipedia: Allegations of CIA drug trafficking
THE COCAINE EXPRESS 03/27/1988
Kings of Cocaine: Inside the Medellín Cartel - An Astonishing True Story of ... By Guy Gugliotta, Jeff Leen: Barry Seal murdered while reporting to his probation officer 06/1/2020 "And as a further condition of probation the defendant shall reside at the Salvation Army Community Treatment Center, 7361, Airline Highway, Baton Rouge, for a period of six months." ... The judge might as well have ordered a target on Barry Seal's back.
IG: "Serious Risks" Within DEA Undercover Money Laundering Operations 06/20/2020
Pablo Escobar’s Son Reveals His Dad “Worked for the CIA Selling Cocaine” — Media Silent 05/03/2018
‘Are You Sure You Want to Ruin Your Career?’ 03/01/1998
How the CIA Watched Over the Destruction of Gary Webb 09/25/2014
Susan Bell: a shameful secret history 10/09/2005 Webb's reports prompted three official investigations, including one by the CIA itself which - astonishingly for an organisation rarely praised for its transparency - confirmed the substance of his findings (published at length in Webb's 1998 book, also entitled Dark Alliance). "Because of Gary Webb's work," said Senator John Kerry, "the CIA launched an investigation that found dozens of connections to drug runners. That wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been willing to stand up and risk it all."
Crack and the Contras: How the CIA, Mainstream Media Propaganda and the Contras Fueled the Crack Cocaine Epidemic 02/21/2018
Drug Buy Set Up For Bush Speech DEA Lured Seller to Lafayette Park 09/22/1989 "Any possibility of you moving it down to the White House?" Millford asked, according to McMullan. "Evidently, the president wants to show it could be bought anywhere."
Blow by Blow: 10 Politicians Linked to Cocaine 11/22/2013
Bush faces new round of drug questions 08/20/1999
'Bush snorted cocaine at Camp David' 09/08/2004 President George W. Bush snorted cocaine at the presidential retreat Camp David while his father was present, his former sister-in-law Sharon Bush alleges in a new book. Ms Bush is quoted as saying: 'Bush did coke at Camp David when his father was president, and not just once either.' The allegation is made in Kitty Kelley's new biography The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty, according to a report in Britain's Daily Mirror.
Incarceration Rates By Country 2020 1. United States (737) 2. Russia (615) 3. Ukraine (350)
Wikipedia: List of countries by incarceration rate 1. United States of America (655) 2. El Salvador (590) 3. Turkmenistan (552) ...... 27. Nicaragua (332) ..... 55. Israel (234) ...... 73. New Zealand (201) ....... 209 Iceland (37)
Wikipedia: List of U.S. states and territories by incarceration and correctional supervision rate
Wikipedia: United States incarceration rate
America’s incarceration rate is at a two-decade low 05/02/2018
The U.S. Prison Population is Shrinking 04/24/2019
How Private Prisons Are Profiting Under the Trump Administration 08/30/2019 A report on the findings indicated that private prisons had a 28 percent6 higher rate of inmate-on-inmate assaults and more than twice as many inmate-on-staff assaults compared with federally run or operated prisons. Furthermore, the report found that for-profit prisons in the United States were more likely to endanger inmates’ security and rights. These problems were so significant that in August 2016, the Obama administration announced that it would begin to phase out private prisons.7
Distorted Priorities: Drug Offenders in State Prisons September 2002 "A later analysis by the U.S. Sentencing Commission found that only 11% of federal drug defendants could be classified as high-level dealers, while 55% were street-level dealers or mules, and 34% were mid-level dealers."
Gary Webb the investigative reporter who wrote “Dark Alliance”
Office of Inspector General Special Report: Chapter I: Introduction A. The San Jose Mercury News Articles
Office of Inspector General Special Report: Chapter I: E. Previous Investigations Concerning Allegations of Contra Drug Trafficking
Office of Inspector General Special Report: Chapter II P.1: Oscar Danilo Blandon
Office of Inspector General Special Report: Chapter II P.2: Oscar Danilo Blandon
Office of Inspector General Special Report: Chapter II P.3: Oscar Danilo Blandon
Office of Inspector General Special Report: Chapter II P.4: Oscar Danilo Blandon
Office of Inspector General Special Report: Chapter II P.5: Oscar Danilo Blandon
Office of Inspector General Special Report: Chapter II P.6: Oscar Danilo Blandon
Office of Inspector General Special Report: Chapter II P.7: Oscar Danilo Blandon
Office of Inspector General Special Report: Chapter III P.1: Norwin Meneses He was convicted on this charge and began serving a 25-year sentence in a Nicaraguan prison. The U.S. Embassy in Nicaragua has informed the OIG that Meneses was released from prison on November 14, 1997.
Office of Inspector General Special Report: Chapter III P.2: Norwin Meneses
Office of Inspector General Special Report: Chapter III P.3: Norwin Meneses
Office of Inspector General Special Report: Chapter III P.4: Norwin Meneses
Gary Webb Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Cocaine Explosion 2005
Terry Reed, John Cummings Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA 1994
Celerino III Castillo and Dave Harmon Powderburns: Cocaine, Contras & the Drug War 2010
Alfred W. McCoy The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade 2003
Michael Levine The Big White Lie: The Deep Cover Operation That Exposed the CIA Sabotage of the Drug War 2012
Peter Dale Scott, Jonathan Marshall Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America 1998
Freeway Rick Ross: The Untold Autobiography 2014
Alexander Cockburn, Jeffrey St. Clair Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press 2014
Leslie Cockburn Out of Control: The Story of the Reagan Administration's Secret War in Nicaragua, the Illegal Arms Pipeline & the Contra Drug Connection 1988
Daniel Hopsicker Barry 'the Boys': The CIA, the Mob and America's Secret History 2001
Wikipedia: Bo Gritz U.S. government involvement in drug trafficking
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| Actually Hunter only dated Beau's widow, until he got caught cheating on her; but he did refuse to pay child support, until the court ordered it after a paternity test proved he was the father., but the basic idea is right and it's a small fraction of the Biden family scandals and corruption! |
