NoCalMike

I don't know. The Washington line was terrible last season and they've done nothing to improve it. How's Portis supposed to do anything when guys are already on him by the time he has the ball. I mean Ramsey got absolutely killed last year due to this line. They haven't? Obviously you didn't know Joe Bugel is now the Offensive line coach, who took a bunch of average players in the 80's and made them the Hogs, which was arguably the most dominating offensive line ever. I would say that is an improvement. Also, how do you keep your offensive line from sucking under Steve Spurrier when the Defense just sends 8 guys on a blitz every play cause they are anticipating the pass? Different coaches will make a huge difference.

I don't mind participating in the wave once it is going, but being in the section trying to get the wave started is horrible because it will start with about 1-5 people doing it over and over, at least 10 times, before the group climbs to 10, then 20 and so on. It's just like I wish people would notice the wave starting and just be like, "alright time for the wave, lets do it and get it over with"

It isn't even questionable that barring injury, Portis, under Gibbs will get 25-30+ touches a game and will be the horse of the offense. Gibbs is all about running the ball to set up the playaction pass. That is his bread and butter and it is what brought 3 Superbowl Trophies to DC. Portis will be a pick well worth it, and seeing as I am sitting at #4, There is a very good chance I will get to pick Portis.

Well the more interesting part is that they aren't releasing the criticisms and errornous ways of the Bush administration until AFTER the elections. How convenient.....but not suprising.

Well I am pretty sure I have posted about the Trash Film Orgy events that they have here various times throughout the year. Well 2 weeks ago they showed Return of the living dead, and this week it is Bava's DEMONI(DEMONS).....Plus a "make yer own zombie mask and other festivities before the show" Whooo.........this should be fun. Anyone else have any re-occurring themed film festival type things?

Bush's daughter's behavior is a matter of public record. Accusing Chelsea Clinton of this is unfounded gossip. (Not that I'm saying its Bush's fault. Those girls are old enough to make their own choices, and by all accounts Bush did his best to keep his family together by cleaning up and getting his life back on track. Its too bad his daughters didn't learn from his mistakes, but that's no indication he was a bad parent. Attacking Bush's family is out of line.) Riiiight. Can't wait to see how you spin Bush's upcoming intellectual spanking in the presidential debates. Based on the performances Kerry's had during his Senate campaigns (thanks CSPAN!), Bush is fucking toast. I really hope Nader by some miracle can get into the debates this year, and make both candidates look foolish. He has nothing to lose, and will go after both candidates and bring up topics I am sure both would want to steer clear of. Imagine Bush's puzzled look when an audience actually expects him to answer a tough,question all by himself, or when Kerry is confronted with the fact that he voted in favor of pretty much all the bills he is now voicing his disapproval of. For anyone interested, Friday on CSPAN Howard Dean vs. Ralph Nader Debate: I think it comes on at 3pm eastern, but usually with stuff like this it gets replayed throughout the day and night and weekend. Should be fun........

well that's Drudge for ya.

If I had a friend that ripped off hundreds of people and covered it up to line his own pockets with Cash, I don't think I could EVER call that person a friend again. And as far "my assinine" comments, so far in that thread you seem to be the only one that has expressed that opinion, so drop the "anyone who" Good lord, I'm speaking for people who think. Jesus, haven't your asinine conspiracy theories been debunked ENOUGH? So a few yahoos on a wrestling message board still believe them --- that PROVES something? We discussed this same crap YEARS ago --- and it was laughed at back then, too. That you put ANY stock in this only shows how intellectually deficient the left has become. I have a family friend who's a doctor. Been a terrific guy to my family and me for years. Even helped me get into college. He recently lost his medical license because he was giving out prescriptions to people simply for money. I'm supposed to disavow him as a friend because of that? -=Mike Of course not, there is always reasonable discretion in every situation, however since I think anyone should be able to ingest anything they want to into their bodies, it would make me an automatic sympathizer to your friend, LOL. I also don't believe what he did was nearly on the level of Kenneth Lay. Secondly, you haven't done anything to debunk any theory besides say, "omg that is so stupid, I don't believe it" Maybe he didn't answer because he was a close friend, but now that he's done what he's done Bush himself doesn't like him anymore, which is why he doesn't like talking about it. *GASP* He may actually be SENSITIVE to the subject of a friend possibly betraying his trust. that, OR, he can't answer tough questions without a script...

If I had a friend that ripped off hundreds of people and covered it up to line his own pockets with Cash, I don't think I could EVER call that person a friend again. And as far "my assinine" comments, so far in that thread you seem to be the only one that has expressed that opinion, so drop the "anyone who" Good lord, I'm speaking for people who think. Jesus, haven't your asinine conspiracy theories been debunked ENOUGH? So a few yahoos on a wrestling message board still believe them --- that PROVES something? We discussed this same crap YEARS ago --- and it was laughed at back then, too. That you put ANY stock in this only shows how intellectually deficient the left has become. I have a family friend who's a doctor. Been a terrific guy to my family and me for years. Even helped me get into college. He recently lost his medical license because he was giving out prescriptions to people simply for money. I'm supposed to disavow him as a friend because of that? -=Mike Of course not, there is always reasonable discretion in every situation, however since I think anyone should be able to ingest anything they want to into their bodies, it would make me an automatic sympathizer to your friend, LOL. I also don't believe what he did was nearly on the level of Kenneth Lay. Secondly, you haven't done anything to debunk any theory besides say, "omg that is so stupid, I don't believe it"

If I had a friend that ripped off hundreds of people and covered it up to line his own pockets with Cash, I don't think I could EVER call that person a friend again. And as far "my assinine" comments, so far in that thread you seem to be the only one that has expressed that opinion, so drop the "anyone who"

So, do you believe any racism still does exist? I mean to say "ASIANS figured it out" is absurd. Once again, you are just ignoring the differences attributed to the class structure. Go to any bad neighborhood whether it is in LA, or Kentucky, or Brooklyn, and it is riddled with Crime, and it has NOTHING TO DO with that race is living there. Crime is definately attributed to Poverty because it is seen as survival basically. Obviously you don't know very much about the Asian street gangs in the poorer neighborhoods. No, because the typical asian stereotype is a guy sitting behind a computer creating some software.

Shall we get into Clinton's Asian fund-raising buddies? You made a point to try and slam Bush and are flustered when the same point can be used, extensively, against people you're more politically agreeable with. But, no, just like when somebody questions your "CIA brought crack to the inner cities" theory, it's just "silliness". The Clintons were friends with Jim McDougal. Care to go into HIS track record? Do you think Kerry's "friends" are clean? -=Mike What the hell do I care about you pointing out Clinton's "friends" or even Kerry's for that matter. I am not trying to say they are clean in ANY WAY SHAPE or form, but heaven forbid I suggest the same about your Hero, George Bush. Secondly, how in the hell did Bill Clinton come up, and why is he a nice safe exit for you and the like everytime someone talks about Bush, can you do everyone a favor and never bring up Clinton again, please? Just STFU about Clinton, and I bet you are the first to criticize the media the next time a Clinton Story is aired, even though you yourself can never shut up about him. I don't need a "lets compare him to Clinton" game everytime I bring up Bush.

LOL.....He must not have liked answering spoNtaneous questions about a subject he hasn't been fed answers for. Ken Lay, in the end, is a friend of his and Lay did wrong. I'm sure Bush isn't thrilled that a friend has to be punished. Why should people expect him to be anything but upset that a friend of his is being punished? It's not like you can say he HELPED him at any point, because he did not. -=Mike Well you usually carry characterisitics of those you are in company with. My cousin went to Juve. He was there maybe a year or so, and he's only 17. He failed a grade of H.S. because he skipped too much class, and he's a selfish overconfident ass. Even though I'm related to him and occasionally do stuff with him, I don't think his actions at all reflect mine. Same way: Do you know anyone who has served criminal time? Does that somehow make you a criminal? Ok now YOU are being silly. All I am saying is that IN GENERAL, you tend to keep company that is similar to yourself, whether it is social status, common interests, hobbies etc......

Al Gore's father was a virulent segregationist. I suppose Gore is a total racist. Bill Clinton's mentor was a virulent segregationist. I suppose Clinton is a total racist. -=Mike "usually" and I didn't say you carry EVERY SINGLE characteristic, but I would leave it up to you to say something as silly as you did.

LOL.....He must not have liked answering spoNtaneous questions about a subject he hasn't been fed answers for. Ken Lay, in the end, is a friend of his and Lay did wrong. I'm sure Bush isn't thrilled that a friend has to be punished. Why should people expect him to be anything but upset that a friend of his is being punished? It's not like you can say he HELPED him at any point, because he did not. -=Mike Well you usually carry characterisitics of those you are in company with. The only sad thing is, Ken Lay may possibly get approx as much jail time as a black guy who steals a tv.

LOL.....He must not have liked answering spoNtaneous questions about a subject he hasn't been fed answers for.

I agree for the most part, but I do also think that Cosby was addressing "his people" because he had the attitude that african american folks should take care of the problems that are IN THEIR CONTROL, before worrying about those problems that are outside of their control. Remember, it is not like the entire convention was aired, and everything was put into context, the media decided just to air the juiciest soundbytes from the entire speech/convention for the shock factor and to create reaction and a backlash. I don't doubt Cosby recognizes the problems of social inequality and racism etc....but I think his point was that before someone could blame something on someone else, they have to make themself the best person they can be.....FIRST.

That was quality. Agreed.

I would just leave the law alone.

well that response certainly wasn't suprising.......

http://www.articles.freewebsitehosting.com...0and%20cia.html Bush, Clinton, and the CIA - By Paul DeRienzo ARKANSAS GOVERNOR BILL CLINTON PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH CIA DRUGS FOR GUNS CONNECTION By Paul DeRienzo An independent group of researchers in Arkansas are charging that Governor Bill Clinton is covering up an airport used by the CIA and major cocaine smugglers in a remote corner of the Ozark mountains. According to Deborah Robinson of In These Times, the Intermountain Regional Airport in Mena, Arkansas continues to be the hub of operations for people like assassinated cocaine kingpin Barry Seal as well as government intelligence operations linked to arms and drug smuggling. In the 1980's, the Mena airport became one of the world's largest aircraft refurbishing centers, providing services to planes from many countries. Researchers claim that the largest consumers of aircraft refurbishing services are drug smugglers and intelligence agencies involved in covert activities. In fact, residents of Mena, Arkansas, have told reporters that former marine Lt. Colonel Oliver North was a frequent visitor during the 1980's. Eugene Hasenfus, a pilot who was shot down in a Contra supply plane over Nicaragua in 1986, was also seen in town renting cargo vehicles. A federal Grand Jury looking into activities at the Mena airport refused to hand down any indictments after drug-running charges were made public. Deborah Robinson says that Clinton had "ignored the situation" until he began his presidential campaign." Clinton then said he would provide money for a state run investigation of the Mena airport. But according to Robinson, the promise of an investigation was never followed up by Clinton's staff. In fact, a local Arkansas state prosecutor blasted Clinton's promise of an investigation, comparing it to "spitting on a forest fire." Clinton's involvement in the drug and arms running goes even further than a mere cover up of the deplorable activities that went on, and are still going on, at the airport in Mena. A federal mail fraud case against an Arkansas pilot-trainer who participated in illegal arms exports to Central America relied on a key Clinton staffer as a chief witness. The case was dismissed for lack of evidence when the CIA refused to allow the discussion of top secret information about the arms transfers. Terry Reed, a former employee of the CIA's Air America operation in Laos during the Indochina war, claims to have been recruited as a pilot trainer into the Iran operation by Oliver North. In an article written by David Gallis and published last year by Covert Action Information Bulletin, Reed said that in 1983 he had agreed to supply North's operatives with "certain items." In pursuit of the Reagan administration's contra war against the Sandinistas, the CIA had planted mines in Nicaragua's harbors. In 1984, Congress passed the Boland Amendment, which cut off US aid to the Contras. According to Reed, it was during this period that North aided him to become involved in a covert operation called "Project Donation". Reed was told he would be reimbursed for supplying the Contras by insurance companies that were linked to North's operation. Shortly afterwards, Reed reported the "theft" of Piper turbo-prop aircraft and he filed a $33,000 claim on which he eventually collected almost $7,000. In late 1985, Red received a phone call from an Air America buddy, William Cooper, a pilot working with Southern Air Transport, another CIA front company. Cooper also was working with soon to be murdered drug kingpin Barry Seal at the same time he was flying re-supply missions for the contras. In 1986, he was shot down and killed over Nicaragua along with co-pilot Wallace Sawyer. The plane's cargo-kicker, Eugene Hasenfus, parachuted into the arms of waiting Sandinista soldiers. Video images of his capture spanned the world and forced an airing of a tiny part of US covert operations. Sandinistas who recovered the downed cargo plane searched Cooper's pockets and found phone numbers linking the re-supply operation with Felix Rodriguez, an associate of George Bush, best known for murdering Che Guevara after his capture in Bolivia. To this day, Rodriguez, who works for the CIA, wears Che's watch as a trophy. Reed says that Cooper told him that the stolen Piper would soon be returned and that he should store it in a hanger at Mena until the Hasenfus mess blew over. "There was a lot of contra stuff going on in Arkansas." said Reed, "it was the hub." Meanwhile, Reed went into business in Mexico with the blessing of Rodriguez, who was overseeing the contra air re-supply operation in El Salvador. Reed's company used Mexico to export arms to the contras, in violation of the Boland Amendment. Reed went down to Mexico and his operation continued for a year after the Iran-Contra story broke. According to Arkansas Committee researcher Mark Swaney, in the summer of 1987, even as the ContraGate hearings were going on in Congress, Terry Reed began to suspect they were using his front company for something other than snuggling weapons. One day, he was looking for a lathe in one of his warehouses near the airport in Guadalajara and he opened up one of the very large air freight shipping containers (they are about 28' long, about 7' high and about 8' wide), and he found it packed full of cocaine. Swaney reports that Reed realized he was in a very precarious situation because he was the only person on paper who had anything to do with the company set up to run guns to the Contras in Nicaragua out of Mexico and there was nobody to say that he did not know anything about what was going on. Reed decided he wasn't going to play the part of a patsy. Swaney says that Reed's contact man for the CIA in Mexico was Felix Rodriguez, whom Reed confronted. Reed said that he hadn't bargained for getting into narcotics smuggling and that he was dropping out all together. Soon afterward, his legal problems began. In a series of mysterious events, Reed was charged with mail fraud for claiming insurance for an aircraft that was used by North's network under Operation Donation. Reed, who was eventually acquitted of the charges, was picked up by the FBI after the missing plane was discovered in the Mena hanger where Reed had put the plane at Cooper's suggestion. The discovery was made by Clinton's security chief Buddy Young. Young testified that his discovery of the stolen plane was coincidental, an assertion federal Judge Frank Thiel said was unsupported by the facts. Reed was charged with mail fraud for collecting insurance on the plane, but the CIA prevented prosecutors from releasing information they called "top, top secret," about the Rodriguez-North, Southern Air Transport connection. In November 1990, the prosecution admitted they couldn't prosecute Reed without the secret documents and Judge Thiel ordered Reed acquitted on all of the charges. Allegations of Governor Bill Clinton's extra-marital sexual exploits originated with a 1990 lawsuit by Larry Nichols, a former Arkansas state employee. Nichols was fired by Clinton in 1988 after reporters discovered Nichols had been lobbying on behalf of the Contras from his office as head of the Arkansas Development Finance Authority. The suit claimed that Clinton had lied when he said Nichols was fired because he was phoning the Contras directly from his state office. Nichols claimed he only called Washington to lobby on behalf of the Contras. In the suit, Nichols also revealed the affair between Clinton and office secretary Gennifer Flowers. The suit was dropped by Nichols on January 25, 1992, after Gennifer Flowers went public with her story of the affair. Nichols told reporters that he decided to drop the suit after meeting with Clinton security chief Buddy Young, the same man who found Terry Reed's missing Piper aircraft at the Mena airport. According to Arkansas Committee researcher Mark Swaney, Nichols said that Young had told him he was a "dead man." prompting Nichols to drop the suit. In public, Nichols says he dropped the suit because "the media have made a circus out of this thing and it's gone way too far." In court documents recently released by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, it has been revealed that Jackson Stephens, a billionaire banker in Little Rock, Arkansas, and one of presidential candidate Bill Clinton's main supporters, may have played a key role in setting up the illegal purchase by the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) of two American banks. Both First American National Bank, the largest bank in Washington DC, and Georgia National Bank, were purchased by BCCI front man and Stephens business associate Gaith Pharon. Stephens' family bank, the Worthern National Bank, recently extended a two million dollar loan to the Clinton campaign. Stephens, who is an avid golfer and chairman of the prestigious Masters Tournament Committee, is named in the court records as having brought Pharon together with Stephens' close friend Bert Lance. Lance was a former cabinet official under President Jimmy Carter who was forced to resign due to a banking scandal. According to newspaper reports, BCCI founder Agha Hasan Abedi was introduced to Lance by Stephens. Stephens, Lance, and First American Bank director and longtime Democratic party power broker Clark Clifford all maintain that they did not know the group of Pakinstani and Saudi investors headed by Pharon, which they were dealing with, were actually fronting for BCCI. Clinton's staff has refused to comment. Bill Clinton's environmental record has been as dismal as his record in the Iran-Contra scandal. He has supported the incineration of extremely toxic chemicals at a site in the city of Jacksonville, 20 miles from Little Rock, that is reputed to be the most polluted spot in the United States. Jacksonville was the site of Hercules Inc., a company that produced the two components of Agent Orange, 2,4 D, which is still used in agriculture and 2,4,5,T, which was banned by the federal government in 1983 as a carcinogen. Agent Orange was used to defoliate Vietnamese forests during the Indochina war and its production yields the by-product dioxin, the most toxic chemical known on earth. Hercules sold the operation in 1976 to Vertac Inc., which closed the plant in 1987, leaving behind 20,000 barrels of the chemicals. Gov. Bill Clinton supports a plan to incinerate the waste, a plan that is being vigorously opposed by the residents of Jacksonville. In These Times reporter Deborah Robinson says that Clinton has allowed Arkansas to become a dumping ground. "Arkansas" she says, "is still kind of a backwoods state and there's a lot of room for someone to set up whatever they want to set up and Arkansas has been exploited by people who have things they want to do that they might no get away with somewhere else." Robinson adds, "there are a lot of questions about what somebody like Clinton would do for a country when he couldn't do anything for his own state."

But if you insist......... http://www.arrtus.co.uk/drug.htm THE CIA AND DRUGS Just say "Why not?" "In my 30-year history in the Drug Enforcement Administration and related agencies, the major targets of my investigations almost invariably turned out to be working for the CIA." Dennis Dayle, former chief of an elite DEA enforcement unit.{1} On August 18, 1996, the San Jose Mercury initiated an extended series of articles about the CIA connection to the crack epidemic in Los Angeles. Though the CIA and influential media like The Washington Post , The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times went out of their way to belittle the significance of the articles, the basic ingredients of the story were not really new -- the CIA's Contra army, fighting the leftist government of Nicaragua, turning to smuggling cocaine into the U.S., under CIA protection, to raise money for their military and personal use. What was unique about the articles was (A) they appeared in a "respectable" daily newspaper and not an "alternative" publication, which could have and would have been completely ignored by the powers that be; and (B) they followed the cocaine into Los Angeles' inner city, into the hands of the Crips and the Bloods, at the time that street-level drug users were figuring out how to make cocaine affordable: by changing the costly white powder into powerful little nuggets of crack that could be smoked cheaply. The Contra dealers, principally Nicaraguans Oscar Danilo Blandon and his boss, Juan Norwin Meneses, operated out of the San Francisco Bay Area and sold tons of cocaine -- a drug that was virtually unobtainable in black neighborhoods before -- to Los Angeles street gangs. They then funneled a portion of their drug profits to the Contra cause, while helping to fuel a disastrous crack explosion in L.A. and other cities, and enabling the gangs to buy automatic weapons, sometimes from Blandon himself. The principal objection raised by the establishment critics to this scenario was that, even if correct, it didn't prove that the CIA was complicit, or even had any knowledge of it. However, to arrive at this conclusion, they had to ignore things like the following from the SJM series: a) Cocaine flights from Central America landed with impunity in various spots in the United States, including a U.S. Air Force base in Texas. In 1985, a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent assigned to El Salvador reported to headquarters the details on cocaine flights from El Salvador to the U.S. The DEA did nothing but force him out of the agency{2}. b) When Blandon was finally arrested in October 1986, after congress resumed funding for the Contras, and he admitted to crimes that have sent others away for life, the Justice Department turned him loose on unsupervised probation after only 28 months behind bars and has paid him more than $166,000 since. c) According to a legal motion filed in a 1990 police corruption trial: In the 1986 raid on Blandon's money-launderer, the police carted away numerous documents purportedly linking the U.S. government to cocaine trafficking and money-laundering on behalf of the Contras. CIA personnel appeared at the sheriff's department within 48 hours of the raid and removed the seized files from the evidence room. This motion drew media coverage in 1990 but, at the request of the Justice Department, a federal judge issued a gag order barring any discussion of the matter. d) Blandon subsequently became a full-time informant for the DEA. When he testified in 1996 as a prosecution witness, the federal prosecutors obtained a court order preventing defense lawyers from delving into Blandon's ties to the CIA. e) Though Meneses is listed in the DEA's computers as a major international drug smuggler and was implicated in 45 separate federal investigations since 1974, he lived openly and conspicuously in California until 1989 and never spent a day in a U.S. prison. The DEA, U.S. Customs, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement have complained that a number of the probes of Meneses were stymied by the CIA or unnamed "national security" interests. f) The U.S. Attorney in San Francisco gave back to an arrested Nicaraguan drug dealer the $36,000 found in his possession. The money was returned after two Contra leaders sent letters to the court swearing that the drug dealer had been given the cash to buy supplies "for the reinstatement of democracy in Nicaragua". The letters were hurriedly sealed after prosecutors invoked the Classified Information Procedures Act, a law designed to keep national security secrets from leaking out during trials. When a U.S. Senate subcommittee later inquired of the Justice Department the reason for this unusual turn of events, they ran into a wall of secrecy. "The Justice Department flipped out to prevent us from getting access to people, records -- finding anything out about it," recalled Jack Blum, former chief counsel to the Senate subcommittee that investigated allegations of Contra cocaine trafficking. "It was one of the most frustrating exercises that I can ever recall." A Brief History of CIA Involvement in Drug Trafficking 1947 to 1951, France CIA arms, money, and disinformation enabled Corsican criminal syndicates in Marseille to wrestle control of labor unions from the Communist Party. The Corsicans gained political influence and control over the docks -- ideal conditions for cementing a long-term partnership with mafia drug distributors, which turned Marseille into the postwar heroin capital of the Western world. Marseille's first heroin laboratories were opened in 1951, only months after the Corsicans took over the waterfront.{3} Early 1950s, Southeast Asia The Nationalist Chinese army, organized by the CIA to wage war against Communist China, became the opium barons of The Golden Triangle (parts of Burma, Thailand and Laos), the world's largest source of opium and heroin. Air America, the CIA's principal airline proprietary, flew the drugs all over Southeast Asia.{4} 1950s to early 1970s, Indochina During U.S. military involvement in Laos and other parts of Indochina, Air America flew opium and heroin throughout the area. Many GI's in Vietnam became addicts. A laboratory built at CIA headquarters in northern Laos was used to refine heroin. After a decade of American military intervention, Southeast Asia had become the source of 70 percent of the world's illicit opium and the major supplier of raw materials for America's booming heroin market.{5} 1973-80, Australia The Nugan Hand Bank of Sydney was a CIA bank in all but name. Among its officers were a network of US generals, admirals and CIA men, including former CIA Director William Colby, who was also one of its lawyers. With branches in Saudi Arabia, Europe, Southeast Asia, South America and the U.S., Nugan Hand Bank financed drug trafficking, money laundering and international arms dealings. In 1980, amidst several mysterious deaths, the bank collapsed, $50 million in debt.{6} 1970s and 1980s, Panama For more than a decade, Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega was a highly paid CIA asset and collaborator, despite knowledge by U.S. drug authorities as early as 1971 that the general was heavily involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. Noriega facilitated "guns-for-drugs" flights for the Contras, providing protection and pilots, as well as safe havens for drug cartel officials, and discreet banking facilities. U.S. officials, including then-CIA Director William Webster and several DEA officers, sent Noriega letters of praise for efforts to thwart drug trafficking (albeit only against competitors of his Medellin Cartel patrons). When a confluence of circumstances led to Noriega's political luck running out, the Bush administration was reluctantly obliged to turn against him, invading Panama in December 1989, kidnapping the general, and falsely ascribing the invasion to the war on drugs. Ironically, drug trafficking through Panama was not abated after the US invasion.{7} 1980s, Central America Obsessed with overthrowing the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua, Reagan administration officials tolerated drug trafficking as long as the traffickers gave support to the Contras. In 1989, the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations (the Kerry committee) concluded a three-year investigation by stating: "There was substantial evidence of drug smuggling through the war zones on the part of individual Contras, Contra suppliers, Contra pilots, mercenaries who worked with the Contras, and Contra supporters throughout the region. ... U.S. officials involved in Central America failed to address the drug issue for fear of jeopardizing the war efforts against Nicaragua. ... 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. ... Senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the Contras' funding problems."{8} In Costa Rica, which served as the "Southern Front" for the Contras (Honduras being the Northern Front), there were several different CIA-Contra networks involved in drug trafficking, including that of CIA operative John Hull, whose farms along Costa Rica's border with Nicaragua were the main staging area for the Contras. Hull and other CIA-connected Contra supporters and pilots teamed up with George Morales, a major Miami-based Colombian drug trafficker who later admitted to giving $3 million in cash and several planes to Contra leaders.{9} In 1989, after the Costa Rica government indicted Hull for drug trafficking, a DEA-hired plane clandestinely and illegally flew him to Miami, via Haiti. The US repeatedly thwarted Costa Rican efforts to extradite Hull back to Costa Rica to stand trial.{10} Another Costa Rican-based drug ring involved a group of Cuban Americans whom the CIA had hired as military trainers for the Contras. Many had long been involved with the CIA and drug trafficking. They used Contra planes and a Costa Rican-based shrimp company, which laundered money for the CIA, to move cocaine to the U.S.{11} Costa Rica was not the only route. Other way stations along the cocaine highway -- and closely associated with the CIA -- were the Guatemalan military intelligence service, which harbored many drug traffickers, and Ilopango Air Force Base in El Salvador, a key component of the U.S. military intervention against the country's guerrillas.{12} The Contras provided both protection and infrastructure (planes, pilots, airstrips, warehouses, front companies and banks) to these CIA-linked drug networks. At least four transport companies under investigation for drug trafficking received US government contracts to carry non-lethal supplies to the Contras.{13} Southern Air Transport, "formerly" CIA-owned, and later under Pentagon contract, was involved in the drug running as well.{14} Cocaine-laden planes flew to Florida, Texas, Louisiana and other locations, including several military bases. Designated as "Contra Craft," these shipments were not to be inspected. When some authority wasn't clued in and made an arrest, powerful strings were pulled on behalf of dropping the case, acquittal, reduced sentence, or deportation.{15} 1980s to early 1990s, Afghanistan CIA-supported Moujahedeen rebels engaged heavily in drug trafficking while fighting against the Soviet-supported government and its plans to reform the very backward Afghan society. The Agency's principal client was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, one of the leading druglords and leading heroin refiner. CIA-supplied trucks and mules, which had carried arms into Afghanistan, were used to transport opium to laboratories along the Afghan-Pakistan border. The output provided up to one half of the heroin used annually in the United States and three-quarters of that used in Western Europe. US officials admitted in 1990 that they had failed to investigate or take action against the drug operation because of a desire not to offend their Pakistani and Afghan allies.{16} In 1993, an official of the DEA called Afghanistan the new Colombia of the drug world.{17} Mid-1980s to early 1990s, Haiti While working to keep key Haitian military and political leaders in power, the CIA turned a blind eye to their clients' drug trafficking. In 1986, the Agency added some more names to its payroll by creating a new Haitian organization, the National Intelligence Service (SIN). SIN was purportedly created to fight the cocaine trade, though SIN officers themselves engaged in the trafficking, a trade aided and abetted by some of the Haitian military and political leaders.{18} NOTES 1. Peter Dale Scott & Jonathan Marshall, Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America, Berkeley: U. of CA Press, 1991, pp. x-xi. 2. Celerino Castillo, Powder Burns: Cocaine, Contras and the Drug War, Mosaic Press, 1994, passim. 3. Alfred W. McCoy, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, New York: Harper & Row, 1972, chapter 2. 4. Christopher Robbins, Air America, New York: Avon Books, 1985, chapter 9; McCoy, passim 5. McCoy, chapter 7; Robbins, p. 128 and chapter 9 6. Jonathan Kwitny, The Crimes of Patriots: A True Tale of Dope, Dirty Money and the CIA, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1987, passim; William Blum, Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1995, p. 420, note 33. 7. a) Scott & Marshall, passim b) John Dinges, Our Man in Panama, New York: Random House, 1991, passim c) Murray Waas, "Cocaine and the White House Connection", Los Angeles Weekly, Sept. 30-Oct. 6 and Oct. 7-13, 1988, passim d) National Security Archive Documentation Packet: "The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations" (Washington, D.C.), passim 8. "Kerry Report": Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy, a Report of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, 1989, pp. 2, 36, 41 9. Martha Honey, Hostile Acts: U.S. Policy in Costa Rica in the 1980s, Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1994. 10. Martha Honey and David Myers, "U.S. Probing Drug Agent's Activities in Costa Rica," San Francisco Chronicle, August 14, 1991. 11. Honey, Hostile Acts. 12. Frank Smyth, "In Guatemala, The DEA Fights the CIA", New Republic, June 5, 1995; Martha Honey, "Cocaine's Certified Public Accountant," two-part series, The Source, August and September, 1994; Blum, p. 239. 13. Kerry report, passim. 14. Scott & Marshall, pp. 17-18 15. Scott & Marshall, passim; Waas, passim; NSA, passim. 16. Blum, p. 351; Tim Weiner, Blank Check: The Pentagon's Black Budget, New York: Warner Books, 1990, pp. 151-2 17. Los Angeles Times, Aug. 22, 1993 18. New York Times, Nov. 14, 1993; The Nation, Oct. 3, 1994, p. 346 Written by William Blum, author of Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II; email:[email protected]

I don't need to "back it up" by pasting stuff here. You know damn well the information is out there, a mouse click away, whether you belive it, well that is where we differ I guess, but don't play this game like there is "nothing out there" to support my opinion. Also, I rarely question anyone's credibility on this board, only some questionable sources.

Conspiracy theory? Is that like your defense to every criticism of the government? Sorry but it isn't a "conspiracy theory" BWA HA HA HA HA! "The man" giving cracks to inner cities ISN'T a conspiracy theory? If you're going to attempt to claim it's a fact, you really should, in the future, avoid questioning ANYBODY'S sanity, logic, or credibility. BTW, I noticed you have still not provided the first sliver of evidence to back up this whackjob conspiracy theory of yours. -=Mike Wow, your argument just got STRONGER because you went from, "conspiracy theory" to "whackjob conspiracy" I see your thinking skills are highly at work. Hmm, do I see any evidence to back your whackjob conspiracy theory up? Still no? -=Mike ...Who'd be embarrassed to actually support so absurd a theory... Once again, go read for yourself, then come back to me. For whatever reason, it looks like you haven't ever heard this theory talked about before, or you tuned out way too soon to take in any of the information. If you are that out of the loop, go find some literature for yourself. I don't need to waste my team on search engines finding you articles, just so you can read them and then say, "oh that is just bullshit our government would never do that, where's the benefit, the benefit dammit"

Conspiracy theory? Is that like your defense to every criticism of the government? Sorry but it isn't a "conspiracy theory" BWA HA HA HA HA! "The man" giving cracks to inner cities ISN'T a conspiracy theory? If you're going to attempt to claim it's a fact, you really should, in the future, avoid questioning ANYBODY'S sanity, logic, or credibility. BTW, I noticed you have still not provided the first sliver of evidence to back up this whackjob conspiracy theory of yours. -=Mike Wow, your argument just got STRONGER because you went from, "conspiracy theory" to "whackjob conspiracy" I see your thinking skills are highly at work.