CIA drug trafficking

It has been alleged [ [http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/MENA/mena.html MENA ] ] that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved in drug smuggling in three significant periods.

Vietnam Era

Western Vietnam and Eastern Cambodia had some opium fields. It was widely alleged among various veterans that the Central Intelligence Agency was involved in smuggling this opium to heroin producers in the United States at considerable profit. In the book "The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia", Alfred W. McCoy, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides evidence of the use of opium by agents of the U.S. Government to fund covert operations in Vietnam. McCoy discusses the use of opium to fund covert operations done by the CIA in Vietnam and provides prolific testimony from interviews with many of the principles involved. [Alfred W. McCoy, "The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia"] According to Dr. McCoy, the agency intimidated his sources and tried to keep the book from being published. [Alfred W. McCoy, " [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=10079 A Correspondence with the CIA] , "New York Review of Books" 19:4 (21 September 1972).]

There is also an article in Peace Magazine containing similar allegations. [ [http://archive.peacemagazine.org/v04n3p10.htm "The Secret Team, Part IV: Visiting Vietnam", John Bacher, Peace Magazine Jun-Jul 1988, page 10] ]

Speculation on this matter played a role in the Steven Seagal film "Above the Law", as well as in the fictional Mel Gibson film, "Air America" with a strong focus on drug trafficking. "Air America" was loosely based upon the Christopher Robbins nonfiction, "Air America", which chronicled the history of CIA proprietary airlines in Southeast Asia.

Soviet Afghanistan

It was alleged by the Soviets on multiple occasionsFact|date=April 2008 that American CIA agents were helping smuggle opium out of Afghanistan, either into the West, in order to raise money for the Afghan resistance or into the Soviet Union in order to weaken it through drug addiction.

According to historian Alfred W. McCoy, the CIA supported various Afghan drug lords, for instance Gulbuddin Hekmatyar . [ [http://www.bearcave.com/bookrev/nugan_hand.html 9 November 1991 interview] with Alfred McCoy, by Paul DeRienzo ] In particular, McCoy stated that: [p. 385 of "", by McCoy, with Cathleen B. Read and Leonard P. Adams II, 2003, ISBN 1-55652-483-8]

Iran Contra Affair

Released on April 13, 1989, the Kerry Committee report concluded that members of the U.S. State Department "who provided support for the Contras were involved in drug trafficking...and elements of the Contras themselves knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers."

In 1996 Gary Webb wrote a series of articles published in the San Jose Mercury News, which investigated Nicaraguans linked to the CIA-backed Contras who had allegedly smuggled cocaine into the U.S. which was then distributed as crack cocaine into Los Angeles and funneled profits to the Contras. According to Webb, the CIA was aware of the cocaine transactions and the large shipments of drugs into the U.S. by the Contra personnel and directly aided drug dealers to raise money for the Contras.

In 1996 CIA Director John M. Deutch went to Los Angeles to refute the allegations raised by the Gary Webb articles, and was famously confronted by former LAPD officer Michael Ruppert, who said he had witnessed it occurring. [ [http://www.gnn.tv/videos/video.php?id=1 "Crack the CIA"] , winner of the 2003 Sundance Online Film Festival ]

Venezuelan National Guard Affair

In November 1993, Judge Robert C. Bonner, the former head of the DEA, appeared on 60 Minutes and alleged that the CIA had permitted literally a ton of cocaine to enter the United States. [ [http://www.csun.edu/coms/ben/news/cia/ven/60m.html Untitled ] at www.csun.edu]

The "New York Times" reported:cquote
The CIA - over the objections of the Drug Enforcement Administration, a branch of the Justice Department - approved the shipment of at least one ton of nearly pure cocaine to Miami International Airport as a way of gathering information about the Colombian drug cartels. But the cocaine ended up on the street because of "poor judgment and management on the part of several CIA officers," the intelligence agency said. [New York Times Service, "Venezuelan general who led CIA program indicted," "Dallas Morning News" (26 November 1996) p. 6A.]

In November 1996 a Miami jury indicted former Venezuelan anti-narcotics chief and CIA asset, General Ramon Guillen Davila, who "led a CIA counter-narcotics program that put a ton of cocaine on U.S. streets in 1990."

Reading list

*cite book | author=Cockburn, Alexander St. Clair, Jeffrey | title=White-out: CIA, Drugs and the Press | publisher=Verso Books | year=1999 | id=ISBN 1-85984-258-5
*cite book | author=Dale-Scott, Peter Marshall, Jonathan | title=Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America | publisher=University of California Press | year=1998 | id=ISBN 0-520-21449-8
*cite book | author=McCoy, Alfred W. | title=The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, Central America, Columbia | publisher=Lawrence Hill & Co. | year=2003 | id=ISBN 1-55652-483-8
*cite book | author=Webb, Gary | title=Dark Alliance: CIA, the Contras and the Crack Cocaine Explosion | publisher=Seven Stories Press,U.S. | year=1999 | id=ISBN 1-888363-93-2
*cite book | author=Ruppert, Michael | title=Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil | publisher=New Society Publishers | year=2004 | id=ISBN 0-86571-540-8
*cite book | author=Kruger, Henrik. | title=The Great Heroin Coup: Drugs, Intelligence, and International Fascism. | publisher=South End Press | year=1980| id=ISBN 0-89608-031-5

ee also

*Allegations of state terrorism by United States of America
*CIA and Contras cocaine trafficking in the US
*Gary Webb
*United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances
*War on Drugs

External links

* [http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/MENA/TATUM/tatum.html Chip Tatum - Assassin For The Whitehouse]
* [http://www.serendipity.li/cia.html The CIA - America's Premier International Terrorist Organization]
* [http://www.ciadrugs.com/ CIA Drugs - Defrauding America]
* [http://www.consortiumnews.com/2000/060800a.html Consortium News - CIA Admits Tolerating Contra- Cocaine Trafficking in 1980s] - 08/06/00
* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/archive/gunsdrugscia.html Frontline: Guns, Drugs, and the CIA]
* [http://www.sonic.net/~doretk/Issues/97-08%20AUG/ciacovert.html North Coast Express - CIA Covert Actions and Drug Trafficking]
* [http://www.rationalrevolution.net/war/cia_drug_connection_under_reagan.htm Rational Revolution - The CIA Drug connection under Reagan]
* [http://www.salon.com/news/1999/03/05news.html Salon.com - Genocide, and drug-trafficking too] - 05/03/99
* [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/06/19/ED58466.DTL San Francisco Chronicle - What Will Congress Do About New CIA-Drug Revelations?] - 19/06/00
* [http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/CIA/CIADrugConfession.html Third World Traveller - CIA's Drug Confession] - 15/10/98
* [http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/CIA/CIAdrug_fallout.html Third World Traveller - Drug Fallout] - August 97
* [http://www.wethepeople.la/ciadrugs.htm We The People - CIA Drugs]

References

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