Bill Cosby lays the smack down

[Guest MikeSC]

I can get a job without a problem, I know how to conduct myself when I go to an interview. I never beat up on women while I was unemployed like Coz says. The Man set up "institutional racism" by having projects and poor schools in the community. Yes, I know some blame should be on poor blacks/latinos that are not trying better themselves. Thats how I see it.

And Coz wasn't talking about YOU. He can criticize elements of the black community without criticizing ALL blacks. Just as people can criticize segments of the white community and not criticize ALL whites.

 

Did "the man" also cause the total breakdown of the family?

-=Mike

[NoCalMike 0]

I can get a job without a problem, I know how to conduct myself when I go to an interview. I never beat up on women while I was unemployed like Coz says. The Man set up "institutional racism" by having projects and poor schools in the community. Yes, I know some blame should be on poor blacks/latinos that are not trying better themselves.  Thats how I see it.

And Coz wasn't talking about YOU. He can criticize elements of the black community without criticizing ALL blacks. Just as people can criticize segments of the white community and not criticize ALL whites.

 

Did "the man" also cause the total breakdown of the family?

-=Mike

well "the man" certainly brought crack-cocaine into this country.

[Guest MikeSC]

I can get a job without a problem, I know how to conduct myself when I go to an interview. I never beat up on women while I was unemployed like Coz says. The Man set up "institutional racism" by having projects and poor schools in the community. Yes, I know some blame should be on poor blacks/latinos that are not trying better themselves.  Thats how I see it.

And Coz wasn't talking about YOU. He can criticize elements of the black community without criticizing ALL blacks. Just as people can criticize segments of the white community and not criticize ALL whites.

 

Did "the man" also cause the total breakdown of the family?

-=Mike

well "the man" certainly brought crack-cocaine into this country.

Do I dare ask who "the man" you're referring to is?

-=Mike

[Vyce 0]

I can get a job without a problem, I know how to conduct myself when I go to an interview. I never beat up on women while I was unemployed like Coz says. The Man set up "institutional racism" by having projects and poor schools in the community. Yes, I know some blame should be on poor blacks/latinos that are not trying better themselves.  Thats how I see it.

And Coz wasn't talking about YOU. He can criticize elements of the black community without criticizing ALL blacks. Just as people can criticize segments of the white community and not criticize ALL whites.

 

Did "the man" also cause the total breakdown of the family?

-=Mike

well "the man" certainly brought crack-cocaine into this country.

Do you have anything even remotely resembling proof of this claim?

 

This has been an urban legend (key word "urban") for years now, and I don't recall anyone ever having any documentable proof whatsoever to back it up.

[Hogan Made Wrestling 0]

Cosby foots college bills for top grads

 

SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts (AP) -- Comedian Bill Cosby, who recently said black children are "going nowhere" because they don't know how to read and write, is paying for the college education of two top high school graduates who support themselves.

 

Cosby, who lives in Shelburne, read a story in The Republican of Springfield about Loren M. Wilder and Jimmy L. Hester, who are also black. They went to three colleges in a tour arranged by Cosby, and selected Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia after visiting the campus on Tuesday.

 

"This is all about your careers, your lives," Cosby told the teenagers, who are black, as they traveled with him on his private jet, The Republican reported for Thursday editions. "The more you study, the better you do now, the more will open up to you later."

 

Wilder was 14 when his mother was jailed for dealing drugs, and Hester left home at 15 after years of moving around and fighting with his mother.

 

Both moved from place to place before getting an apartment together this winter with another student from Putnam Vocational Technical High School.

 

Cosby was scheduled to honor a dozen high school students and graduates, including Hester and Wilder, on Thursday at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

 

"Fifty percent of African-American males drop out of high school. We're talking epidemic here," said Cosby, who has recently drawn both praise and criticism for his strongly-worded comments. "You've got kids who never get told how important it is to study. They've got the designer shirt, but no one's telling them to study. People have to start seeing the light."

 

"So to find two young men whose values are on the right side, it's refreshing," he added.

 

The teenagers said they were impressed by Cosby's generosity and the attention he paid to their story.

 

"Experiencing this with Mr. Cosby has been great," Wilder said. "Here's a guy who has millions of dollars and he's focusing in on the two of us. It's a good feeling."

 

Cosby made headlines in May when he upbraided some blacks for their grammar and accused them of squandering opportunities the civil rights movement gave them. He shot back Thursday, saying his detractors were trying in vain to hide the black community's "dirty laundry."

 

Before Cosby stepped forward to pay their college bill, Wilder had planned to attend Westfield State, while Hester was headed to American International in Springfield.

 

Nice to see that Cosby isn't just a bunch of empty talk and is actually trying to make a difference.

[Guest MikeSC]

Cosby's always been pretty good about putting his money where his mouth is when it comes to education. I know all of the kids who starred on his TV shows admit openly that he constantly endorsed college for all of them.

-=Mike

[NoCalMike 0]

I can get a job without a problem, I know how to conduct myself when I go to an interview. I never beat up on women while I was unemployed like Coz says. The Man set up "institutional racism" by having projects and poor schools in the community. Yes, I know some blame should be on poor blacks/latinos that are not trying better themselves.  Thats how I see it.

And Coz wasn't talking about YOU. He can criticize elements of the black community without criticizing ALL blacks. Just as people can criticize segments of the white community and not criticize ALL whites.

 

Did "the man" also cause the total breakdown of the family?

-=Mike

well "the man" certainly brought crack-cocaine into this country.

Do you have anything even remotely resembling proof of this claim?

 

This has been an urban legend (key word "urban") for years now, and I don't recall anyone ever having any documentable proof whatsoever to back it up.

Wait, so you honestly believe the government doesn't funnel drugs into this country?

[Hogan Made Wrestling 0]

I can get a job without a problem, I know how to conduct myself when I go to an interview. I never beat up on women while I was unemployed like Coz says. The Man set up "institutional racism" by having projects and poor schools in the community. Yes, I know some blame should be on poor blacks/latinos that are not trying better themselves.  Thats how I see it.

And Coz wasn't talking about YOU. He can criticize elements of the black community without criticizing ALL blacks. Just as people can criticize segments of the white community and not criticize ALL whites.

 

Did "the man" also cause the total breakdown of the family?

-=Mike

well "the man" certainly brought crack-cocaine into this country.

Do you have anything even remotely resembling proof of this claim?

 

This has been an urban legend (key word "urban") for years now, and I don't recall anyone ever having any documentable proof whatsoever to back it up.

Wait, so you honestly believe the government doesn't funnel drugs into this country?

Nowadays, certainly not. Back in the 70s and 80s when the US government was supporting drug dealers like Noriega to fight communism, they probably weren't explicitly allowing it, but more likely turning a blind eye.

[Guest MikeSC]

Wait, so you honestly believe the government doesn't funnel drugs into this country?

The better question: You honestly believe they do?

-=Mike

[NoCalMike 0]

Wait, so you honestly believe the government doesn't funnel drugs into this country?

The better question: You honestly believe they do?

-=Mike

Actually no that isn't the "better" question. That is the "i have my head in the sand" question.

[NoCalMike 0]

Nowadays, certainly not. Back in the 70s and 80s when the US government was supporting drug dealers like Noriega to fight communism, they probably weren't explicitly allowing it, but more likely turning a blind eye.

Well if they were willing to do it once with "justification" then is it really that odd to believe they could be doing it again?

[Guest MikeSC]

Wait, so you honestly believe the government doesn't funnel drugs into this country?

The better question: You honestly believe they do?

-=Mike

Actually no that isn't the "better" question. That is the "i have my head in the sand" question.

Oh, I forgot. Those who don't buy into insane conspiracy theories are just "denying reality". I guess JFK WAS killed the mafia AND LBJ.

-=Mike

...I suppose asking for even the tiniest sliver of evidence will again lead to you providing none...

[nl5xsk1 0]

I always felt the "the government sends crack into the ghetto to keep blacks down" conspiracy carried as much weight as "the government created AIDS to kill blacks and gays". Neither makes any sense, and yet there seems to be those that continue to argue both points.

 

Let's say the government DID send crack into the ghetto to get poor people hooked on it; how did they start? Was there an undercover agent posing as a dealer? Was a dealer in on the conspiracy? How'd they know what would happen once the drug was introduced to the ghetto? Too many questions that can't be answered.

[NoCalMike 0]

Wait, so you honestly believe the government doesn't funnel drugs into this country?

The better question: You honestly believe they do?

-=Mike

Actually no that isn't the "better" question. That is the "i have my head in the sand" question.

Oh, I forgot. Those who don't buy into insane conspiracy theories are just "denying reality". I guess JFK WAS killed the mafia AND LBJ.

-=Mike

...I suppose asking for even the tiniest sliver of evidence will again lead to you providing none...

Conspiracy theory? Is that like your defense to every criticism of the government? Sorry but it isn't a "conspiracy theory" If you want proof go look it up yourself, there is plenty documented on it. The theory has just been thrown out there, now it is up to you to do your own research to come to a conclusion, or you can simply say, "no no no it isn't true"

[NoCalMike 0]

I always felt the "the government sends crack into the ghetto to keep blacks down" conspiracy carried as much weight as "the government created AIDS to kill blacks and gays". Neither makes any sense, and yet there seems to be those that continue to argue both points.

 

Let's say the government DID send crack into the ghetto to get poor people hooked on it; how did they start? Was there an undercover agent posing as a dealer? Was a dealer in on the conspiracy? How'd they know what would happen once the drug was introduced to the ghetto? Too many questions that can't be answered.

Well I never said it was specifically sent into the ghetto exclusively to kill poor people. All I said is that our government plays a hand in a lot of the stuff getting into the country.

[Guest MikeSC]

Oh, I forgot. Those who don't buy into insane conspiracy theories are just "denying reality". I guess JFK WAS killed the mafia AND LBJ.

-=Mike

...I suppose asking for even the tiniest sliver of evidence will again lead to you providing none...

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

[NoCalMike 0]

Oh, I forgot. Those who don't buy into insane conspiracy theories are just "denying reality". I guess JFK WAS killed the mafia AND LBJ.

-=Mike

...I suppose asking for even the tiniest sliver of evidence will again lead to you providing none...

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.

[Guest MikeSC]

I always felt the "the government sends crack into the ghetto to keep blacks down" conspiracy carried as much weight as "the government created AIDS to kill blacks and gays".  Neither makes any sense, and yet there seems to be those that continue to argue both points.

 

Let's say the government DID send crack into the ghetto to get poor people hooked on it; how did they start?  Was there an undercover agent posing as a dealer?  Was a dealer in on the conspiracy?  How'd they know what would happen once the drug was introduced to the ghetto?  Too many questions that can't be answered.

Well I never said it was specifically sent into the ghetto exclusively to kill poor people. All I said is that our government plays a hand in a lot of the stuff getting into the country.

And, again, you base this on WHAT? Where is the BENEFIT to the gov't in bringing crack into inner cities?

 

If you don't recognize the blatant insanity of this theory of yours, I feel for you.

-=Mike

[Guest MikeSC]

Oh, I forgot. Those who don't buy into insane conspiracy theories are just "denying reality". I guess JFK WAS killed the mafia AND LBJ.

-=Mike

...I suppose asking for even the tiniest sliver of evidence will again lead to you providing none...

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...

[NoCalMike 0]

Oh, I forgot. Those who don't buy into insane conspiracy theories are just "denying reality". I guess JFK WAS killed the mafia AND LBJ.

-=Mike

...I suppose asking for even the tiniest sliver of evidence will again lead to you providing none...

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"

[Guest MikeSC]

So, NO evidence whatsoever? Figured. Yes, I have heard this theory before and, guess what --- NOBODY BACKED IT UP THEN, EITHER. Just because you're reciting the same lie you heard doesn't mean the lie has suddenly become the truth.

 

If YOU are incapable of backing ANY of this crap up, don't bitch when somebody calls you on it. YOU made the charge --- YOU back it up with something.

 

And don't ever question ANYBODY'S credibility here as your posts here have done more to discredit you than anything else.

-=Mike

[NoCalMike 0]

So, NO evidence whatsoever? Figured. Yes, I have heard this theory before and, guess what --- NOBODY BACKED IT UP THEN, EITHER. Just because you're reciting the same lie you heard doesn't mean the lie has suddenly become the truth.

 

If YOU are incapable of backing ANY of this crap up, don't bitch when somebody calls you on it. YOU made the charge --- YOU back it up with something.

 

And don't ever question ANYBODY'S credibility here as your posts here have done more to discredit you than anything else.

                                -=Mike

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.

[NoCalMike 0]

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]

[Guest MikeSC]

So, NO evidence whatsoever? Figured. Yes, I have heard this theory before and, guess what --- NOBODY BACKED IT UP THEN, EITHER. Just because you're reciting the same lie you heard doesn't mean the lie has suddenly become the truth.

 

If YOU are incapable of backing ANY of this crap up, don't bitch when somebody calls you on it. YOU made the charge --- YOU back it up with something.

 

And don't ever question ANYBODY'S credibility here as your posts here have done more to discredit you than anything else.

                                -=Mike

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.

Nice try.

 

http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/9712/ch05p3.htm

 

http://www.mediaresearch.org/BozellColumns...col19970522.asp (mentioning the editor of the paper that the story "broke" in admitting that the story lacks journalistic merit)

 

http://www.salon.com/news/news961031.html

 

http://reason.com/9901/bk.gg.hookedon.shtml

 

http://www.deanesmay.com/archives/004625.html

 

http://windsofchange.net/archives/003377.php

[NoCalMike 0]

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."

[Guest MikeSC]

Just out of curiosity, are you attempting to refute logic by posting even MORE absurd crap? Is that the gameplan here?

-=Mike

[NoCalMike 0]

Just out of curiosity, are you attempting to refute logic by posting even MORE absurd crap? Is that the gameplan here?

-=Mike

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

[Guest DubWiser]

Excuse me for interrupting your riveting exchange of information, but concerning the original topic of discussion...

 

It's amazing how some people can turn a blind eye to documented history. Anyone who argues that blacks (in this instance, but also women, or minorities) have been afforded a fair shake over the course of our nation's history is either uninformed, delusional, or is full of shit.

 

This isn't rocket science:

 

More than two hundred years ago, we had a government made up exclusively of rich white landowners.

 

They drafted our constitution under the guise of representing "the people", but unless my knowledge of history is way off, the only people who had a hand in drafting it were a few dozen...rich white people.

 

They proceeded to conduct business in a manner which suited their own best interests; Only other rich white land owners were allowed to vote, meaning no women, poor whites, free blacks (most were SLAVES), or indigenous people had representation.

 

The foundation is the most important part of any construction, and ours was deeply flawed.

 

Now clearly, times have changed (except for that little nugget concerning the government being made up of what is now almost exclusively rich white people). There is no more slavery, we've progressed past the point of having segregated bathrooms, segregated blood banks for black and white soldiers, we even have some black influence in government, business, and the media. But to argue that the institutional racism on which our country was founded has absolutely no long reaching effects is as preposterous as insinuating that the slaughter/herding onto reservations of Native Americans under the guise of "expansion" has none either.

 

A kid growing up in the projects of Roxbury, Massachusetts simply does not have the same chance of procuring a solid education or a good job as a kid growing up in Lexington.

 

A chance? Yes. But not the same.

 

Cosby is attacking symptoms, which is always simpler than attacking cause.

[NoCalMike 0]

Excuse me for interrupting your riveting exchange of information, but concerning the original topic of discussion...

 

It's amazing how some people can turn a blind eye to documented history. Anyone who argues that blacks (in this instance, but also women, or minorities) have been afforded a fair shake over the course of our nation's history is either uninformed, delusional, or is full of shit.

 

This isn't rocket science:

 

More than two hundred years ago, we had a government made up exclusively of rich white landowners.

 

They drafted our constitution under the guise of representing "the people", but unless my knowledge of history is way off, the only people who had a hand in drafting it were a few dozen...rich white people.

 

They proceeded to conduct business in a manner which suited their own best interests; Only other rich white land owners were allowed to vote, meaning no women, poor whites, free blacks (most were SLAVES), or indigenous people had representation.

 

The foundation is the most important part of any construction, and ours was deeply flawed.

 

Now clearly, times have changed (except for that little nugget concerning the government being made up of what is now almost exclusively rich white people). There is no more slavery, we've progressed past the point of having segregated bathrooms, segregated blood banks for black and white soldiers, we even have some black influence in government, business, and the media. But to argue that the institutional racism on which our country was founded has absolutely no long reaching effects is as preposterous as insinuating that the slaughter/herding onto reservations of Native Americans under the guise of "expansion" has none either.

 

A kid growing up in the projects of Roxbury, Massachusetts simply does not have the same chance of procuring a solid education or a good job as a kid growing up in Lexington.

 

A chance? Yes. But not the same.

 

Cosby is attacking symptoms, which is always simpler than attacking cause.

That was quality. Agreed.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Wait, so you honestly believe the government doesn't funnel drugs into this country?

The better question: You honestly believe they do?

-=Mike

Seems pretty elementary to me. You wouldn't be suprised how much more power enforcement can exercise when there's drugs involved.