Walking Guns and Laundering Drug Money – The “War” on Drugs is Doing Just Fine (archived)

Scott Creighton (archived from Dec. 2011)

If there is an argument to be made that the United States is the biggest purveyor of terrorist activities across the world which we justify with the endless “Global War on Terror” (and that argument is not hard to make), what does that say about our “War on Drugs”? Look at just a few of the recent stories from the headlines and judge for yourself…

The Justice Department lied repeatedly about “gun walking” firearms to Mexican drug cartels – There was a policy in place at the highest levels in the ATF and the Justice Department to ship weapons to Mexican “drug cartels”.  This is at a time when violence in Mexico is at it’s highest level since the Spanish landed on their shores. In February the Assistant Attorney General wrote the following to an investigating body of congress; it was a complete fiction… a lie… and congress now has the emails to prove it.

“”ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation into Mexico,” wrote Ronald Weich, assistant attorney general.” the Hill

Darrell Issa has backed off his calls for Eric Holder’s resignation. He basically states that since the program is institutional in the Department of Justice and has been since the Bush administration (yes, yet another Bush program the administration of CHANGE kept), holding Holder responsible would be pointless. If corruption existed before the new head took over and the new head of the department continues the same corruption and illegality, I guess he gets a pass. That’s what passes for logic these days.

“This isn’t the first time the FBI and other agencies have been involved in investigations in which bad people are allowed to continue doing bad things in the name of going after bad people,” Issa said” CSM

In that vein, we take a look at another developing story, this one deals with the money made by the so-called “drug cartels” in Mexico.

Apparently, while the ATF was shipping weapons to the drug cartels, the DEA was helping them launder their cash. I shit you not.

“Undercover American narcotics agents have laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds as part of Washington’s expanding role in Mexico’s fight against drug cartels, according to current and former federal law enforcement officials.

… Another former agency official, who asked not to be identified speaking publicly about delicate operations, said, “My rule was that if we are going to launder money, we better show results. Otherwise, the D.E.A. could wind up being the largest money launderer in the business, and that money results in violence and deaths.”” New York Times

According to officials who are only speaking out about this because the plan was exposed, the idea was much like the one they claimed when Fast and Furious came out… they were laundering the money so they could catch the bad guys. But as the NYT article pointed out, they have been doing it for a couple of the drug cartels “for years“

In Washington these days when you get caught doing something illegal and definitely immoral (like morality factors into any equation in DC anymore) all you have to do is say you were doing it to catch the bad guys. Arming thugs in Mexico to destabilize the country? Just say you did it to “catch the bad guys”. Laundering massive amounts of drug money for off the books financing of your destabilization teams? Just say you were doing it to “catch the bad guys”. Get caught fabricating “terrorist” plots to divert public attention from you SS style crackdown on legitimate protests in New York? Just say you did it to “catch the bad guys”

Seems pretty simple doesn’t it? And as long as you have over-paid stenographers posing as journalists in the MSM, it’ll work.

Here’s an interesting point brought up in the Times piece:

“The laundering operations that the United States conducts elsewhere — about 50 so-called Attorney General Exempt Operations are under way around the world…” New York Times

“About 50” drug money laundering programs “around the world“? What? And the AG is “exempt” from U.S. law while running them? Really? Really? That’s a lot of drug money. That’s a lot of drugs and ruined lives and crime and murder. And the AG is “exempt”?

Let’s take a trip back in the not-so-way-back machine to 2009 because remember, both Fast and Furious and apparently the drug money laundering program existed back then and god knows how many of the 50 other exempt operations did too. It was revealed by an Afghani counter narcotics official that U.S. and NATO forces were taxing the poppy growers and actually protecting their crops. (go to the link for an endless selection of photos of U.S. and NATO troops protecting the poppy fields)

“In November 2009, the Afghan Minister of Counter Narcotics General Khodaidad Khodaidad stated that the majority of drugs are stockpiled in two provinces controlled by troops from the US, the UK, and Canada. He also said that NATO forces are taxing the production of opium in the regions under their control and that foreign troops are earning money from drug production in Afghanistan.” Public Intelligence

His statement dovetails perfectly with something else we know about Afghanistan: 1. Afghanistan’s installed puppet president has a brother Wali, who is a notorious drug dealer with ties to the CIA and 2. the Taliban had nearly wiped out the poppy production in that country (drug dealing is a death sentence according to Sharia Law) until Baby Bush invaded in 2003 and got things going again.

Yes, you can go back to Iran Contra when it’s known that the CIA was shipping in cocaine and shipping out guns for another fascist coup.

Yes, you can go back to Mena Arkansas and the start of the Clinton rise to power.

Yes, you can go back to Ricky Freeway Ross and Gary Webb who showed that the CIA created crack cocaine and conspired to market it to the West coast of the U.S.  Gary Webb wrote “Dark Alliances” exposing all of this shit and when he turned up dead with two bullets in his head, they called it a suicide.

Yes, you can go back to Frank Lucas, that’s the New York heroin dealer made famous by a Hollywood movie recently. He became the drug kingpin of the 60s and 70s because during the Vietnam War, for some reason, he was able to have loads of smack shipped right along on Army transport planes with no one supposedly the wiser. For years his shipments came in regularly and he moved tons and tons of Asian heroin into New York and other cities without anyone ever getting to wise, that is until the end of the Vietnam War.

Hell, for that matter you can go back to the Opium Wars when Britain was shipping the shit from India to China. The Chinese government didn’t like it too much. Go figure. I guess back then they hadn’t invented the Attorney General Exempt Operation. That makes it all ok.

You can go back to all of those things and see a pattern of hypocrisy, corruption, and the vile institutionalized exploitation of the human condition if you want to, or you can just read today’s paper and connect the dots yourselves. Or you can get drunk and watch a football game and thank god they haven’t kicked in your door… yet.