Guest Editorial Series by Ernest A. Canning
How does one explain it?
The Eric Holder Department of Justice (DOJ) is faced with massive banking and Wall Street fraud that nearly brought the world’s economic system to its knees, yet no bankers are prosecuted. It is confronted by environmental crimes that have poisoned our air, water and even the food we eat, yet, for the most part, those crimes go unpunished. It has its hands full fending off voter suppression laws concocted by a billionaire-funded, subversive organization, which is also responsible for deadly “stand your ground” laws and an assault on the right of citizens to engage in collective bargaining.
Yet, the DOJ and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) make it a priority to target California medical marijuana dispensaries and to raid Oaksterdam University, a school founded by Richard Lee, a legalization activist who offers training in the cultivation and use of medical marijuana. It does so even though, in 1996, CA voters, by a wide margin, passed an initiative that “allows patients with a valid doctor’s recommendation…to possess and cultivate marijuana for personal medical use.” The raids were also made against the backdrop of polls showing that a majority of Americans support legalization of marijuana.
In this three-part series, we will advance the hypothesis that this seemingly irrational obsession with busting medicinal marijuana dispensaries and fending off legalization of even the most innocuous of drugs, Cannabis, can only be understood in the context of U.S. Empire and the economics of the Prison Industrial Complex.
In this first part of the series, we examine both historical and recent links between the CIA and the illicit drug trade. We touch upon the extent to which the so-called ‘War on Drugs’ has been used as cover for the CIA’s covert import of narcotics, both into the U.S. and other nations, in order to fund the mischief the Agency engages in on behalf of U.S. Empire. That operation, evidence strongly suggests, continues to this day.
At the core of that hypothesis is the question as to whether an end to the phony ‘War on Drugs’ and its replacement by controlled legalization, taxation and medical, educational and psychological assistance in avoiding substance abuse would cut off a key, illicit source of covert CIA funding…
Covert U.S. drug trafficking then and now
As we noted in Part III of our 2009 special series on the long and storied history of torture by American agencies, “History of CIA Torture: Unraveling the Web of Deceit,” torture is but one of the liberally used techniques, over the years, employed to help control populations in the U.S. Corporate Empire’s forward march. Drug trafficking has long been used by the CIA to both control and fund its projects.
In Prelude to Terror: the Rogue CIA and The Legacy of America’s Private Intelligence Network
Trento’s account is similar to that provided by Prof. Alfred McCoy in The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade
At the outset of a 1991 interview, Paul DeRienzo observed that Levine quit the DEA in 1989 and then published, Deep Cover: The Inside Story of How DEA Infighting, Incompetence and Subterfuge Lost Us the Biggest Battle of the Drug War
In the interview, Levine recounts that he first ran into CIA interference while working uncover in Bangkok, Thailand in 1971. He was suddenly pulled off a case in which he was going to expose Chinese drug dealers who were selling heroin to American GI’s in Vietnam and “putting the heroin in dead bodies of GI’s killed in Vietnam.” He was told by his higher-ups at the time “there are other priorities.”
In Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America
Here too, Scott & Marshall’s account is independently supported by Michael Levine who says that while serving as the DEA station chief in Argentina, he targeted “Roberto Suarez who was putting together all the drug producers in Bolivia under one umbrella organization, which later became La Corporación, the General Motors of Cocaine.”
During the interview and in his book, Levine recounts how the CIA and officials at high levels of our government sabotaged his undercover operation. Levine says he “paid $2 million to Jose Roberto Gasser, one of the richest and most powerful Bolivians, from one of the most powerful Bolivian families, a family that had long been linked to the World Anti-Communist League and to the CIA. [Gasser] was arrested leaving the bank with [Levine’s] $2 million…” But, Levine adds, Gasser was promptly released by U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan, the same U.S. Attorney who subsequently prosecuted Manuel Noriega. Gasser returned to Bolivia where, Levine recounts, Gasser, together with Suarez and Gasser’s father, Erwin, took part in a CIA-backed 1980 military coup that amounted to “the first time in history [that] drug dealers…took over their country.”
“During that coup,” Levine adds, “all the people who helped DEA in the sting were either exiled, killed or tortured.”
Levine’s book recounts at length how, in 1987-88, high level officials sabotaged a subsequent effort to shut down La Corporación during “Operation Trifecta,” shielding from prosecution major figures in the Bolivian cartel, a major CIA and Noriega-connected money launderer in Panama, and highly placed individuals in the Mexican government, all the while touting Mexico’s “cooperation” in the so-called ‘War on Drugs.’
By the mid-80’s, President Reagan’s Afghan “freedom fighters,” the same CIA-backed Mujahideen who would eventually morph into al-Qaeda, with the aid of Pakistan’s ISI intelligence agency, turned Afghanistan into the world’s single largest exporter of opium and the source of half the heroin consumed in the US.
Scott & Marshall document how monies from the Afghan opium trade were laundered through BCCI, which, per Trento, was transformed by the former Director of the CIA, George H. W. Bush, and the former head of Saudi intelligence “into a worldwide money-laundering machine…Bush had an account with BCCI…Subsequent Senate and other investigations concluded that the CIA, beginning with Bush, had protected the bank while it took part in illicit activities.”
Afghan opium production would drop off dramatically, especially in 2001 when the Taliban banned cultivation. But it returned with a vengeance following the late 2001 U.S. invasion. By October 2006, Afghanistan produced 87% of the world’s supply of opium.
Cultivation now takes place in the presence of U.S. Marines, who “are reassuring villagers the poppies won’t be touched.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose nation has experienced a “catastrophic rise in drug addiction…accused the coalition forces of ‘sitting back and watching caravans haul drugs across Afghanistan to the former Soviet Union and Europe.'”
“As time went by,” Global Research adds, “Russian suspicions regarding the U.S. role…grew deeper, especially after reports from Iraq said that the cultivation of opium poppies was spreading rapidly there too…A Russian news channel reported that drugs from Afghanistan were hauled by American transport aircraft to the U.S. airbases in Kyrgyzstan and Turkey.”
Opium is not the only Afghan cash crop on the rise. Reuters reported in 2010 that, according to the U.N., “Afghanistan has now become the top supplier of cannabis, with large-scale cultivation in half of its provinces.” This has been accompanied by a 15% increase in marijuana consumption in the U.S. between 2006 and 2012.
So the question remains, why is the DOJ and the DEA so hell-bent on shutting down medical marijuana cultivation in CA? Is it a sincere concern that Cannabis poses a health risk to CA citizens? Or, are the raids the product of an illicit supplier attempting to shut down the competition?
PART 2 of this series will address the enormous cost of the ‘War on Drugs’ to the American people, not only in dollars but in destroyed lives. It will examine the profitability of the Prison Industrial Complex and the extent to which the world’s largest prison population provides a ready source of slave labor for some of the world’s largest corporations. | UPDATE: PART 2 is now here…
PART 3 will address our government’s continuing resistance to domestic and foreign efforts to break free of the phony ‘War on Drugs’ and the organized crime wave that drug prohibition has fostered. Its hypothesis, if accurate, should rock us to our core. | UPDATE: PART 3 is now here…
Ernest A. Canning has been an active member of the California state bar since 1977. Mr. Canning has received both undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science as well as a juris doctor. He is also a Vietnam vet (4th Infantry, Central Highlands 1968). Follow him on Twitter: @Cann4ing.
Thank you so much for this. The very people our Government are poisoning are being refused the natural pain relief provided by Cannabis.
Awesome insightful article Ernie! But to share, its gone all belly up again https://bradblog.com/?p=9238
Thanks Mr.Canning for keeping on this story, it’s a huge white elephant in the room.
It’s almost as corrupting as big oil.
When does the realty of this situation finally reach critical mass to overcome the insanity?
Some politician/political party could campaign on this one issue alone with all the history and documentation. Yeah right, no one politician could ever face the entrenched forces.
hmmm…
Thank you, Ernie and Brad! It’s “high” time this mess was straightened out. And the miscreants who have been incarcerating and torturing us need to be locked away forever and a day!
“And they’ve all gone to look for America …” (Simon & Garfunkel).
At times I have wondered if the America they went looking for really ever did exist at all.
The CIA isn’t the only player in the “drug warsâ€. A cover for the criminal activity (as well as profiting from those criminal acts) has been provided by the DEA, members of Congress, the Justice Department, the media, and many Wall Street players and bankers. There is also evidence of CIA support and cover for drug cartels around the world and assistance in drug transportation.
Normally I discount conspiracy theories as the ranting of nuts; however, the volume of evidence in this case is very difficult to dismiss. But, the degree of involvement by so many government agencies , officials and private organizations very likely precludes any investigation, much less convictions. The difference between us and some corrupt, tinpot 3rd world country is that we are bigger, have more money and the largest military budget on the planet.
Ex-LAPD narc Michael Ruppert’s writings on this matter are pretty interesting, too–he observed the shipment of coke into the country by the CIA firsthand..
http://www.whale.to/b/ruppert1.html
Prior to 9/11, Mike Ruppert’s website URL was copvcia, as his primary focus was on exposing the CIA-backed drug trade to the US public. I know Mike is busy with his newest project, but would likely share much of his knowledge and materials if approached. The late Gary Webb deserves recognition, too. Glenn Greenwald’s latest book describing the two-tiered US (in)Justice System should also be added to the list of sources. Obama’s absolutely absurd comment at the America’s Summit ought to figure prominantly, as FDL’s Walker describes, “The capacity of a large-scale drug trade to dominate certain countries if they were allowed to operate legally without any constraint could be just as corrupting, if not more corrupting, than the status quo.â€
Other actors besides the Prision IC need to be looked at as benefiting from the bogus Drug War, particularly big Pharma. Then there’s the task of fitting this topic into the wider topic of the USA being the planet’s #1 Outlaw Nation.
Aww, lay off poor Eric. He’s busy protecting us from the evil whistleblowers who would cause harm to America by making people angry at all the crimes we are committing as a nation.
Also read “Into the Buzzsaw”.
Kind of late on this story, but at least you are now on it.
People in pain aren’t interested in paraquat Mexican brown weed. They are looking for cancer cures, and chronic pain relief. Put simply the best they can get. The only possible reason for not allowing it is for profit of big drug companies in collusion with the establishment. Which also explains why they always come up with crap like the filtered product called Marinol. Which doesn’t have the same chemicals/elements that raw cannabis does. Such chemicals all work in conjunction with each other in raw cannabis.
The raid on Oaksterdam University, a school. How better/cheaper/easier to keep people dumbed down than to destroy the people who actually know and teach others. Think about it. What if Mexico started sending soldiers of fortune after our nuclear scientists, like we did to five of Iran’s nuclear scientists. It’s terrorism.
Maybe you watch too much TV and don’t get what I am saying. What if your local hospital’s pharmacy got raided the same way? Taking it farther, how about the local drugstore? Further yet, how about stopping the source of mining, agriculture, travel, privacy to get the production stopped from reaching the pharmacy? What if the raid arrested the patients, doctors, and bystanders as well?
What if your doctor faced life in prison?
What if your medicine was taken right out of your hand?
What if the media constantly plays propaganda for decades filled with lies and attacks on how hospitals are too close to schools, or homes, and then your local city council used zoning laws to prevent hospitals from being built literally anywhere?
That same city council each oath breaking members of NADO – National Association of Development Organizations. NADO is an NGO with “consultative status” with the UN.
ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability
EDA – Economic Development Administration
All trying to PACK US TOGETHER IN STACK AND PACK AGENDA 21? Then where do you build? What is private property if you can’t use it or when you do it’s stolen?
I forgot to mention something. It’s not what if, this is actually happening.
DARE ME TO POST LINKS.
Just go look. Try the chicken man or the milk farmer, try the non GMO corn guy. They are killing us, and tying it to this man made global warming nonsense. Yeah man can change the weather. Look at all the ionispheric heater stations! It isn’t carbon causing these problems, it’s lack of public oversight. You pay tax to this fraud, and you might as well volunteer to jump in the Spent Fuel Pools to take the temperature! It’s a full spectrum attack, no more constitution.
I know you hate what I am saying, but I actually love going green. I think the broken bridge here is the connection between affordable tech to counter the TRUE UNSUSTAINABLE PROBLEM big rights crushing government allowing foreign banksters, and local city councils to NULLIFY THE CONSTITUTION.
No more right to seek happiness.
Also there’s a psychological element.
The stigma of smelling burning cannabis. Or using it, even by your own family until the facts come out.
The blacks have had it bad for a long time, but EVERYONE now has it bad. How about Farrakhan? “Farrakhan Warns Whites: ‘Unless You Change, Your End Has Come’…” How is that not domestic terrorism creating fear, uncertainty and doubt and attempting to steer politics? ASK co-op members, you every have problems? They don’t have any problem with ANY RACE, or GENDER! I’ll bet you the $7500 I have in my pocket right now!
The only reason you haven’t connected the dots, is because the hard core programmers don’t work for you, they work for the scumbags doing all this bullshit. I’m pretty sure Brad learned that first hand, up personal.
Corrections will be argued to the end of time.
Forget arguing.
DO SOMETHING.
..now where can I get me some deep cycle batteries, copper wire (yeah my sprinkler wire was LOL), or 4’ 6″ steel pipe on the classified ads?…
..now where can I get me some deep cycle batteries, copper wire (yeah my sprinkler wire was LOL), or 4′ 6″ steel pipe on the bradblog classified ads?… -my bad error corrected.
GoinGreeny @11 & 12.
Take a deep breath & relax, please. No one has attacked you on this site for expressing your honestly held opinion.
As to links, it is not a matter of “daring” you to include them but simply a matter of adding to the point you wish to make.
The BRAD BLOG strives for verifiable truth. A link permits others to verify the accuracy of a contention someone makes in comments.
More Ideas…
Free Concerts for REAL Green School. Not the man made warming COPE XX Agenda 21 Tax.
Teaching For FREE: electronics, physics, agriculture, horticulture, water purification/conversion/exploitation, air filtering, monitoring, emf shielding, or maybe we should just offer class on the constitution @ 1787.
Teachers don’t want to teach for free? Programmers don’t want to help for free?
Then go, get out. We don’t NEED YOU.
We don’t need any of this garbage we got right now. Don’t confuse it with what I suggest. Don’t take what I suggest, and spin it into for profit BS. For god sake, or your pocketbook’s sake, don’t buy those $47 plans for a Stirling engine to power your whole home!
There’s another disconnect. The REAL Stirling engine works, but doesn’t work good enough. There are OTHERS that do work, but the scientists are divided by FOR PROFIT CARBON TAX vs FOR FREE ENERGY.
DO NOT NEED THEM.
MAKE THEM GO AWAY BY MAKING A BRAD BLOG CLASSIFIEDS SECTION.
OR maybe another domain completely new.
http://www.solarclassifiedads.com/
Nice huh?
People before you get mad at me, at least research and think for yourself. I DO.
Eric, awesome article.
As to links, it is not a matter of “daring” you to include them but simply a matter of adding to the point you wish to make.
I don’t care. In that, The links are there if people look. It’s way past my energy level to play scientist and prove everything. I can’t stay up for 4 days at a time like a 24 year old can.
Some of my opinion is wrong at times. So nail them where you want, it’s all good. When I am wrong, great, fix it. But it starts somewhere, and I don’t see anywhere touching the proper things yet. It’s like these dots are just missed instead of connected.
Maybe the universe is DOTS not STRINGS?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/17/us-afghanistan-women-idUSBRE83G0PZ20120417
School Raids to kill off new scientists?
“We are 100 percent sure that the water they drunk inside their classes was poisoned.
What makes that tactic any different than holding cannabis schedule 1 and forcing that opinion on everyone down?
This insanity stops when people a protected US Constitution again.
“people have” GFDI.
Ernest, too bad the comments have been taken over. Nice article!
Ernie, you should write a book. (or 2 or 3…)
Fascinating stuff.
What I found interesting was that when Obama was first elected he did make public statements to the effect of wanting federal law enforcement to lay off going after dispensaries. In ’09 and ’10 this seemed to have some reciprocal effect in relaxing the stringent anti MJ enforcement of the Bush years. But in ’11 it all came back with fury, with feds again cracking down on dispensaries and growers with a vengeance.
I suspected this was due to simple economics. With major spending cuts at the federal level, employees of cash starved federal enforcement agencies saw the busting of marijuana growers with their plethora of expensive equipment and generated wealth as the most expedient way to keep their jobs and budgets. Mark Lindquist, a narcotics prosecutor in Pierce County, Washington and author of genx fiction, mentions that early in the Bush years resources and focus was redirected away from fighting the scourge of meth production and onto marijuana growers for precisely this reason. Whereas busting meth cooks netted 7 broke smurfs currying cold tablets to a cook in a trailer park, busting pot growers allowed the government to confiscate SUV’s, houses, and expensive grow equipment. The cash cow then, and it seems now, was just too lucrative to pass up.
When push came to shove and Obama began adopting the counter intuitive right wing meme that during times of economic hardship, government need also tighten its belt and slash ridiculous amounts of spending, he capitulated to quick and dirty methods used by law enforcement to maintain their budgets.
It seems a savvy politician with some balls would pursue the far more enormous payoff of legalization and taxation, especially during times of economic hardship. Unless there are far larger forces at work which it seems Mr Canning is implying.