Drug Trafficking & State Support

October, 2009

Le secret de Guantánamo  10/28/2009 VoltaireNet: "Si l’on additionne la totalité des personnes qui ont été faites prisonnières en zone de conflit ou enlevées n’importe où dans le monde et transférées dans cet ensemble de prisons au cours des huit dernières années, ce sont au total 80 000 personnes qui auraient transité dans le système, dont moins d’un millier auraient été poussées vers les stades ultimes du processus de Biderman. Dès lors le problème de l’administration Obama se résume ainsi : il ne sera pas possible de fermer Guantánamo sans révéler ce qui y a été fait. Et il ne sera pas possible de reconnaître ce qui y a été fait, sans admettre que tous les aveux recueillis sont faux et ont été délibérément inculqués sous la torture, avec les conséquences politiques que cela implique."

Brought to You by the CIA - America's Drug Crisis  10/28/2009 Counterpunch

The Education of Bob Baer - Unlearning the CIA  10/25/2009 Counterpunch: "So here was Baer among Jordanian princes, rogue oil traders in Iraq. Here he was in 1993 stealing a kilo of cocaine from the airplane of Morocco’s King Hasan, simply to prove that one of our allies in the Middle East was a drug runner (“I wanted to rub Washington’s nose in it.”). In Sarajevo he posed as an arms dealer, in Iraq he was an assassin, in Paris a pimp."

DEA Agents Accused in Court Pleadings of Dealing Heroin As Part of 1990s Pakistan Connection  10/20/2009 NarcoNews

Man killed by HPD no agent, CIA insists  10/7/2009 Houston Chronicle: "The CIA said it had conducted the searches under a provision of federal law, however, that “exempts CIA operational files from the search, review, publication and disclosure requirements” of the Freedom of Information Act."

AFFIDAVIT OF EDWARD P. CUTOLO  10/1/2009 We The People: "73. Edwin Wilson explained that the profit from the sale of narcotics was laundered through a series of banks. Wilson stated that over 70% of the profits were laundered through the banks in Panama. The remaining percentage was funneled through Swiss banks with a small remainder being handled by banks within the U.S. Wilson indicated that a large portion of the profits are brought into the banks of Panama without being checked. I understood that some of the profits in Panamanian banks arrived through Israeli couriers. I became aware of that fact from normal conversations with some of the Embassy personnel assigned to the Embassy in Panama. Wilson also stated that an associate whom I don't know also aided in over seeing the laundering of funds, which was then used to purchase weapons to arm the various factions that the CIA saw as friendly towards the U. S. The associates name is Tom Clines. Wilson indicated that most of Operation Watch Tower was implemented on the authority of Clines."

Noam Chomsky: Coups, UNASUR, and the U.S. From a talk given in Caracas, Venezuela on August 29  10/1/2009 Zmag: "Abroad, the "supply-side approach" has been the basis for U.S.-backed counterinsurgency strategy in Colombia and elsewhere, with a fearful toll among victims of chemical warfare and militarization of conflicts, but enormous profits for domestic and foreign elites. Colombia has a shocking record of human rights violations, by far the worst in the hemisphere since the end of Reagan's Central American terror wars in the 1980s, and also the second-largest internal displacement of populations in the world, after Sudan. Meanwhile, domestic elites and multinationals profit from the forced displacement of peasants and indigenous people, which clears land for mining, agribusiness production and ranching, infrastructure development for industry, and much else. There is a great deal more to say about this, but I will put it aside. At home, the drug war coincided with the initiation of neoliberal programs, the financialization of the economy, and the attack on government social welfare systems, real, even though limited by international standards. One immediate consequence of the war on drugs has been the extraordinary growth in scale and severity of incarceration in the past 30 years, placing the U.S. far in the lead worldwide. The victims are overwhelmingly African-American males and other minorities, a great many of them sentenced on victimless drug charges. Drug use is about the same as in privileged white sectors, which are mostly immune."

September, 2009

More questions on 9/11 by Pepe Escobar  9/18/2009 Asia Times

Venezuela cataloga como cínico e hipócrita informe de EE UU sobre narcotráfico mundial  9/17/2009 Aporrea: "El ministro venezolano del Interior, Tarek El Aissami, rechazó y catalogó de cínico e hipócrita, este jueves, el informe estadounidense que "descertifica" a Venezuela, junto a Bolivia y Birmania en la lucha contra el tráfico de drogas. "Rechazamos ese informe que raya lo inmoral, es cínico e hipócrita, y lo condenamos", sentenció El Aissami en una rueda de prensa donde también expresó su opinión respecto al incremento que Estados Unidos ha tenido en la producción, tráfico y consumo de estupefacientes, por lo que consideró que deberían revisar las políticas que les "han impulsado a ese fracaso".

CIA DRUG TRAFFICKING By David Guyatt  9/15/2009 Deep Black Lies

Honduras: Narcotráfico e imperio converge  9/11/2009 CubaDebate: "En Honduras la actividad de los carteles de la droga, el lavado de dinero, el surgimiento de numerosas fortunas sin explicación, intensa actividad en la construcción, infraestructuras innecesarias, no son actividades nuevas. De hecho ya durante esta década incluso un diputado del derechista Partido Nacional fue capturado mientras peleaba por recuperar un cargamento d droga de una avioneta que aterrizo clandestinamente en una carretera sin pavimentar en el despoblado departamento de Olancho (http://www.elsalvador.com/noticias/2003/07/08/internacionales/inter2.html) . Este diputado fue puesto en la cárcel, y antes de que se esclareciera nada fue ejecutado en la penitenciaria. El caso se cerró pero la conexión entre los fondos de la droga y los políticos hizo aparición por primera vez. Resulta sorprendente la efectividad policial desde entonces para ignorar evidencias, pistas o indicios racionales sobre este tipo de casos."

Links between Colombian Intelligence Organisation and Venezuelan Opposition Uncovered  9/10/2009 Trinicenter: "The AUC were a phenomenon that was changed by drug-smuggling....so they looked for cultivation and smuggling zones, so this is what permeated the [border] zone, including today [the phenomenon] is still present in [Venezulean border state] Tachira with [paramilitary group] the Black Eagles."

August, 2009

Honduras Reports Lack of Towns Named for Oliver North  8/23/2009 NarcoNews: "Last Thursday night in the northeastern Honduran port of Trujillo, Al Giordano and I visited the Bahia Bar, past clients of which had allegedly included Marine Corps officer Oliver North in the 1980s. North’s patronage was presumably an effect of the bar’s proximity to the Trujillo airfield, which functioned as a transit point for Colombian cocaine en route to the United States."

US military base plan fuels Latin American tensions  8/11/2009 VoltaireNet: "Washington and Bogota have cast the agreement as a response to the shutdown of the US air base in Manta, Ecuador by the government of President Rafael Correa. That facility was ostensibly dedicated to anti-drug trafficking operations. The scope of the US-Colombian pact and both the number and location of the bases involved, however, indicate that Washington is pursuing far wider regional objectives. The Bogota daily El Tiempo, pointed out, “The absence of an airfield close to the Pacific, through which the principal drug-trafficking routes pass is noteworthy.” The Manta base was on the Pacific coast of Ecuador."

July, 2009

Las relaciones de los militares hondureños con el narcotráfico  7/19/2009 El Liberador: "El hondureño defensor de los Derechos Humanos, Andrés Pavón, afirmó que el general Vázquez Velázquez, jefe del Estado Mayor hondureño, tiene conocidos lazos con el narcotráfico. "Él es un hombre de la comunidad de inteligencia de América Latina, cercana a las estructuras de la DEA y la CIA", explica."

Micheletti, vinculado al cartel de Cali, en una lista de narcos del ministerio de la Defensa  7/17/2009 CubaDebate: "El nombre del cabecilla golpista hondureño Roberto Micheletti aparece en una larga lista de narcotraficantes redactada, en una fecha no precisada, por un alto oficial del Ministerio de la Defensa y Seguridad Pública de Honduras que lo relaciona con el Cartel de Cali, la red colombiana de narcotráfico. El documento firmado por el Coronel de infantería René Adalberto Paz Alfaro y llevando el membrete del ministerio, señala en el número SN-FF. AA. 060, a ROBERTO MICHELLETI BAIN – con el error de ortógrafo en Micheletti – con la “CONEXIÓN” Cartel de Cali y bajo la mención “LUGAR” la palabra “Yoro”. Las notas biográficas de Micheletti precisan que empezó su carrera política en los años 80, cuando ocupaba el cargo de presidente del Consejo Local en Yoro donde siempre se hizo elegir de diputado al Congreso Nacional… Llama la atención que, hace unos días, un grupo de congresistas norteamericanos de extrema derecha encabezados por los representantes de la Florida, Mario y Lincoln Díaz-Balart, intentaron ensuciar el nombre del presidente constitucional Manuel Zelaya al solicitar del presidente Barack Obama que investigue su supuesta “vinculación con el narcotráfico”, a través de la DEA. Obama ni constestó. Los Díaz-Balart tienen un viejo expediente de relaciones turbias con los círculos colombianos afiliados al narcotráfico."

The JFK Assassination: Defending the Gangster State  7/17/2009 Michael Parenti

The CIA's Ghosts of Tegucigalpa  7/14/2009 Consortium News: "The DEA agent in charge of its recently opened Tegucigalpa office, Thomas Zepeda, had documented the complicity of Col. Torres Arias and other high-ranking Honduran officers in Matta Ballesteros’s drug operations. But DEA needed the Honduran military’s assistance to arrest Torres and his cronies, and the CIA needed them to support the contras. To avoid a showdown with the CIA, the DEA’s Zepeda proposed that a grand jury be empanelled to investigate corruption in the Honduran armed forces. But the CIA nixed the idea, no doubt to protect its collaborators. As one high-level diplomat later noted: “Without the support of the Honduran military there would have been no such thing as the contras. It’s that simple … So they got rid of the DEA station.”"

Cele Castillo ordered to report to federal prison  7/12/2009 NarcoNews: "Castillo, as well as other law enforcers who spoke with Narco News, contend the federal prosecutor in the case turned Castillo’s paperwork violation (selling legally purchased weapons without a firearms-dealer permit) into a federal arms-trafficking case as payback for his whistleblowing activity — for exposing the CIA and White House’s complicity in arms- and narco-trafficking as part of the Iran/Contra scandal that played out during the administration of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush."

Diputado habría peleado por droga  7/8/2009 ElSavador.com

June, 2009

Key Figures in Global Battle Against Illegal Arms Trade Lost in Air France Crash  6/7/2009 Sunday Herald, Scotland: "Dreyfus was an advocate of the stringent labelling of ammunition by weapons firms, arguing that by clearly identifying ammunition not only by its producer but also its purchaser, the likelihood of weapons being sourced by criminals from corrupt police or armed forces personnel is greatly reduced."

May, 2009

The Democratic State v. The Deep State  5/14/2009 Deep Politics: "Later, Carlo Digilio, who had worked with the CIA in Italy, would recount in court hearings how he had collaborated with activists from Ordine Nuovo and how the bombing campaign had been linked to a US plan to introduce a state of emergency in Italy in order to exclude the political left from government. The same view was presented by Italian Chief of Counter-Intelligence, General Gianadelio Maletti, who confirmed in court that US intelligence had provided Ordine Nuovo with explosives for the first major Italian bomb attack (Milan in 1969). Digilio also described how he passed on details of planned bomb attacks to his CIA contact, Captain David Carrett, who had also told him that the bombing campaign was part of a US plan to establish a state of emergency in order to control Italian domestic politics."

Stanford drug informer role claim  5/9/2009 BBC

April, 2009

Over 10,000 Dead: Is Mexican Drug War Violence Ebbing?  4/17/2009 NarcoNews: "Statistical Slights-of-Hand and Temporary Lulls Have Obscured the Drug War's Rising Costs"

Late Guinean leader's son charged with drug trafficking  4/15/2009 AFP: "The eldest son of late Guinean president Lansana Conte was put in jail Tuesday pending a trial on charges of cocaine trafficking, police sources told AFP. Ousmane Conte, whose father died in December after leading the west African nation with an iron fist for 24 years, was transferred from a military hospital to the Conakry prison, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity."

March, 2009

Help Force Congress To Observe the Law on National Emergencies!!!  3/27/2009 911 Truth: "On 9/11 the Bush administration declared a State of Emergency (SOE), which was formally proclaimed on September 14, 2001, and extended by Bush repeatedly thereafter, most recently on August 28, 2008.1 Under cover of this SOE, Bush secretly enacted many extreme measures, ranging from suspension of habeas corpus to preparations for martial law in America; all these were undertaken as part of secret so-called "Continuity of Government" (COG) procedures associated with the SOE, and first instituted on 9/11.2 and 3 The National Emergencies Act, one of the post-Watergate reforms so detested by Vice-President Cheney, requires specifically that Not later than six months after a national emergency is declared, and not later than the end of each six-month period thereafter that such emergency continues, each House of Congress shall meet to consider a vote on a joint resolution to determine whether that emergency shall be terminated. (50 U.S.C. 1622 (2002)4"

Thousands march against mafia in Naples  3/21/2009 AFP: "Thousands of people, including the acclaimed author of mafia expose "Gomorrah," marched in southern Italy's Naples Saturday against decades of mafia violence that has killed some 900 people. "The mafia and the Camorra (the Naples-area mafia) are not eternal. They can be beaten," Antonio Bassolino, president of the Compania region that includes the city, told the crowd marking a remembrance day for victims of organised crime."

Spy Minister’s Wife and the Drug Bust  3/15/2009 The Times, South Africa: "Intelligence boss’s spouse linked to international cocaine ring. The wife of South Africa’s newly appointed intelligence boss is under investigation for international drug trafficking."

Questions Surround the the Sarkozys’ Private Visit to Mexico  3/12/2009 Le Monde

Questions autour du voyage privé du couple Sarkozy au Mexique  3/12/2009 Le Monde: "Le site Rue89 cite un article du journaliste américain Al Giordano, qui citait lui-même l'enquête d'un journal local mexicain, accusant Hernandez d'avoir participé activement au trafic de cocaïne au Mexique dans les années 1980 et 1990. Giordano, dont le site Narco News couvre exhaustivement la question de la drogue en Amérique latine et aux Etats-Unis, a été poursuivi à plusieurs reprises par Roberto Hernandez Ramirez pour ces accusations, sans jamais être condamné."

Mexique : Sarkozy a-t-il séjourné chez un narco présumé ?  3/11/2009 Rue89: "Ce qui est certain à en croire nos confrères, c'est que le couple Sarkozy a séjourné dans un hôtel appartenant au milliardaire en question, Roberto Hernandez Ramirez, une des plus grosses fortunes du Mexique. L'hôtel, El Tamarindo Beach and Golf Resort, abrite une suite présidentielle à 3500 dollars la nuit, où aurait dormi le couple, selon Mediapart (sur abonnement). Interrogé par RTL, un conseiller de l'Elysée n'a pas démenti, mais n'a pas confirmé non plus. Dans un autre genre, le site Purepeople.com l'affirmait aussi, dès dimanche soir. Mais personne n'a relevé que le banquier Roberto Hernandez Ramirez, ancien PDG de la banque Banamex et membre du conseil d'administration de Citigroup (une des plus grandes institutions financières de la planète), souffre d'une réputation pour le moins sulfureuse. Dans les années 1990, il a été soupçonné au Mexique de faire transiter par ses propriétés de la cocaïne sud-américaine et de participer au blanchiment de l'argent de la drogue."

Twin assassinations leave Guinea-Bissau in turmoil  3/2/2009 AP: "Although numerous country experts stressed that the twin assassinations were not linked to drugs, Mazzitelli also points out that the method used to kill Waie — a bomb — is highly unusual. Coup d'etats and assassinations are common throughout the region, but they are typically carried out with kalashnikovs — not explosives. The sophistication of the bomb, which most likely was detonated from afar, raises the question of whether the killers of the army chief received expert help. Colombian cartels, for example, are known for using car bombs in their own turf wars."

Guinea-Bissau president killed  3/2/2009 Al Jazeera: "Analysts say instability has been worsened by the presence of international drug trafficking organisations which use the country as a staging post for smuggling cocaine into Europe."

February, 2009

Prosecutor claims Iran/Contra whistleblower is a "danger" to society  2/22/2009 Narco News: "Iran/Contra whistleblower Celerino “Cele” Castillo III was scheduled to report to prison on March 5, but the power of justice has intervened on his behalf. A federal judge in San Antonio, at a hearing held late last week, ruled that Castillo's report date to prison should be extended until July 20. The judge, W. Royal Furgeson Jr., issued his ruling over the objections of a federal prosecutor, who argued that Castillo should be sent to prison because he was a “danger to the community.” The hearing was called by the judge to consider a motion to allow Castillo to remain free on bail through his appeal. The motion was filed by Castillo's current attorney, public defender Judy Fulmer Madewell."

Cooperation between Cuba and the United States Enables Drug Seizure  2/13/2009 Cuba Now

THE STORY THE MEDIA WON'T TOUCH  2/5/2009 Progressive Review

January, 2009

Ex-Mossad agent said among suspects in 420m pound fraud  1/29/2009 Haaretz

The Male Sibel Edmonds  1/24/2009 Pottersville: "By the time Tice had appeared on Olbermann's Countdown on January 21 and 22, he had made some troubling but hardly shocking revelations: That the NSA, for purely political motivations and contrary to what Bush had told the nation when the NY Times story had broken, every American in the country was being spied on regardless of any credible suspicion of terrorist activity or lack thereof. In fact, Tice was being lied to. While collecting data with the vaguest of parameters (since terrorists make one to two minute phone calls, then all 60-120 second phone calls made by Americans were fair game), Tice was told the information he'd been collecting were for purely exclusionary purposes. In fact, everything Tice was collecting, all the raw data he'd been told would be thrown out, was actually an all-inclusive "save" pile."

Evidence Begins To Indicate Gary Webb Was Murdered  1/23/2009 Prison Planet: published 12/04 - "Credible sources who were close to Gary Webb have stated that he was receiving death threats, being regularly followed, and that he was concerned about strange individuals who were seen on multiple occasions breaking into and leaving his house before his apparent 'suicide' on Friday morning. Webb, a Pullitzer prize winning journalist, exposed CIA drug trafficking operations in a series of books and reports for the San Jose Mercury News. He was found dead on Friday morning in what the police said was an apparent suicide. Webb's 1996 series in the Mercury News alleged that Nicaraguan drug traffickers had sold tons of crack cocaine in Los Angeles and funneled millions of dollars in profits to the CIA-supported Nicaraguan Contras during the 1980s."

U.S. military report warns 'sudden collapse' of Mexico is possible  1/13/2009 El Paso Times: "The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and press by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state. Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone."

Cocaine plane trail is open challenge for Obama administration  1/11/2009 NarcoNews: "Attorney Mark Conrad, a former high-level supervisory U.S. Customs agent who has an extensive background in the intelligence world, offered the following insight into the cocaine planes saga in a prior interview with Narco News: Even though it looks as if you are unraveling odd connections you may be only seeing a small part of what is going on — or you may be seeing what you are expected to see, missing something else. My guess — and that is all that it is — is that this has something to do with operations in Venezuela — either to finance ops, or to divert attention from Agency ops in Venezuela to destabilize Chávez. … It is not in the U.S. interests for Chávez to create another Cuba on some of the largest oil field reserves in the world."

December, 2008

Watergate and the Future: News for 2009  12/22/2008 Raw Story: "In sum, I found that the very people who created Nixon and used him to advance their own political interests ended up destroying him. Nixon's famous paranoia, in other words, had a basis in reality."

Why the CIA does not want Dawood in Indian hands  12/22/2008 Foreign Policy Journal: "At the same time Ibrahim's role is being downplayed, Lakhvi's known role is being exaggerated. Initial reports described him as the training specialist for LeT, but the major media outlets like the New York Times and the London [Images] Times, citing government sources, have since promoted his status to that of commander of operations for the group. The only terrorist from the Mumbai attacks to be captured alive, Ajmal Amir Kasab [Images], characterised Ibrahim, not Lakhvi, as the mastermind of those attacks, according to earlier press accounts."

General George S. Patton was assassinated to silence his criticism of allied war leaders claims new book  12/21/2008 Telegraph: "But after a decade-long investigation, military historian Robert Wilcox claims that OSS head General "Wild Bill" Donovan ordered a highly decorated marksman called Douglas Bazata to silence Patton, who gloried in the nickname "Old Blood and Guts". His book, "Target Patton", contains interviews with Mr Bazata, who died in 1999, and extracts from his diaries, detailing how he staged the car crash by getting a troop truck to plough into Patton's Cadillac and then shot the general with a low-velocity projectile, which broke his neck while his fellow passengers escaped without a scratch. Mr Bazata also suggested that when Patton began to recover from his injuries, US officials turned a blind eye as agents of the NKVD, the forerunner of the KGB, poisoned the general."

Australia target of Israeli ecstasy  12/13/2008 The Age, Australia: "Israeli crime syndicates control a significant share of the global ecstasy trade and have a long history of supplying the Australian market."

Castillo: the “missing link” in the Cubana airliner sabotage  12/12/2008 Granma: "You have spent a number of years researching the plots of anti-Cuba terrorists who wanted to blow up planes in mid-flight. What did you discover in relation to tolerance of these criminal activities on the part of the CIA and FBI? -- Yes, I’ve been investigating the subject for years and the most surprising thing that I’ve discovered is that U.S. agencies like the CIA and FBI had prior knowledge of their plans and intentions and did nothing to stop them. It is a complicity that goes beyond impunity. From the time that George Bush Sr. was a CIA officer in charge of anti-Cuba plans and then went on to become director of the Agency, then vice president and finally, president – that is, for more than 40 years – the Bush clan has protected the terrorists in Miami. "

Patrick Fitzgerald and Bin Laden’s Agent  12/10/2008 Never Yet Melted: "In Triple Cross, the third volume of his investigative trilogy on federal mishandling of the World Trade Center bombing investigation, Peter Lance identifies none other than Plame Game prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald as the FBI official most responsible for allowing a senior Al Qaeda operative closely tied to Bin Laden himself to remain operational and at-large under the protection of the US Government."

Juarez murders shine light on an emerging 'Military Cartel'  12/6/2008 NarcoNews: "Castillo’s charge that “Iraq veterans” are on the payroll of the DTOs, acting as enforcers and helping to fuel the violence in Juarez by moving weapons — including U.S.-issued munitions — from the U.S. into Mexico (which has very restrictive gun laws) might seem over the top at first glance. But as Narco News checked into the allegation, federal agents directed us to another law-enforcement-sensitive report that apparently was not well received by the U.S. Department of Defense. The law enforcers indicate that the report sheds some light on Castillo’s allegations concerning the Mexican DTOs’ reach into the U.S. military itself. The report [link here] was issued last year by the National Gang Intelligence Center, which serves as an intelligence bank for local, state and federal law enforcement agencies in the U.S."

India has ‘proof of ISI involvement’  12/5/2008 The Hindu: "The Pakistani Army would very much like a military crisis on the border with India because that would relieve the pressures it was facing on the Afghan front. “Our dilemma is that we don’t want to play their game — we want them to continue being engaged in the fight against terrorism in the west because that’s also our war. But we can’t give them a pass either. The perpetrators have to be fixed.”"

‘It’s gotta be Dawood’  12/5/2008 DNA India: "The police suspect that the gangsters in-charge of the fugitive don’s Mumbai operations, including those languishing in jails, knew in advance about the unprecedented terror attacks. The cops have fanned out in the city, searching for Dawood aides. They are also interrogating the jailed D-Company men. Sleuths from Mumbai crime branch visited Arthur Road jail on Wednesday to question gangsters like Mustafa Dossa and Salim Fruit, and former Dawood aide Abu Salem. On Thursday, the police went to Thane central prison where quite a few aides of Dawood’s arch-rival, Chhota Rajan, are lodged."

The Mumbai Attacks: More Than Meets The Eye  12/4/2008 Countercurrents: "As noted, Ibrahim is among Interpol’s most wanted. The U.S. designated him as a global terrorist in 2003, stating that he had ties to al Qaeda and that he funded attacks by militant groups, including LeT, aimed at destabilizing the Indian government. Ibrahim’s organization is known as the D-Company and is known to be heavily involved in drug trafficking. According to the U.S. government, D-Company is involved in large-scale shipment of narcotics into the U.K. and Western Europe. He is also alleged to have ties to the CIA through casino operations in Nepal."

Reputed mobster: 'Usual suspect' or supporter of the Mumbai attacks?  12/3/2008 NBC: "Ibrahim's international crime ring has been dubbed the "D-Gang" by the Indian press. In Mumbai, police have said for years that political and religious terrorism have been interwoven with crimes such as drugs, prostitution, gambling and contract hits. Indian newspapers ascribe legendary feats of criminality to the group. Marie-Lou Fernandes was a Mumbai Deputy Police Commissioner until 2005, and tells NBC News that Dawood Ibrahim may not have been the instigator, but must have helped. Although there's no evidence he was involved, Fernandes said," It appears to me there is only one person who could orchestrate that: Dawood Ibrahim. Everything is pointing to Dawood Ibrahim. He has the expertise and the resources."

More evidence of CIA-backed syndicate involvement in Mumbai attacks  12/2/2008 Wayne Madsen: "Under pressure from Washington, this past May Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani cut a secret deal with the United States and India to turn over to Delhi a number of residents of Pakistan wanted by India for terrorism. One of those included in the deal was the CIA’s erstwhile asset, Mumbai-born Dawood Ibrahim, a veteran of CIA operations in Afghanistan during the mujahedin war against the Soviets. Ibrahim, according to our sources, has been under the protection of Pakistan’s Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) intelligence agency since June. He is being protected in Quetta, near the Waziristan tribal region. The CIA is fearful that if Ibrahim is deported to India, RAW and Russia’s Vladimir Putin will obtain the entire dossier on the CIA’s sponsorship of criminal activities and terrorist attacks. ISI would prefer Ibrahim to move to the United Arab Emirates, perhaps Dubai, where he has extensive financial interests. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is a business rival of Ibrahim and the ISI would like Ibrahim to be at a distance from Pakistan’s president and “settle scores” with his old “allies” and new enemies in Langley from outside Pakistani territory."

November, 2008

Mumbai terror attacks: Who could be behind them?  11/27/2008 Guardian, UK: "But if Ibrahim is involved, his gang members are suspected of having played a local, supportive role in the terror strike. "The latest attack on Mumbai has the stamp of Dawood Ibrahim," said a Delhi-based security expert who did not want to be identified. "Definitely the people who hit Mumbai were a mixture of local guys who know the city very well, and trained, hardcore fighters who came by sea.""

The Activities at Mena  11/16/2008 What Really Happened: Mena, Clinton, and Bush

Alex Jones Interviews Terry Reed About Drug Trafficking  11/16/2008 YouTube: Mena, Clinton, and Bush

STATEMENT OF PLAINTIFF TERRY K. REED  11/16/2008 Conspiracy Nation: published 6/96 - "Some of the CIA's activities which took place at Bill Clinton's Mena, Arkansas were patriotically driven and justified. Other activities, however, those which included the importation of cocaine and money laundering, can never be justified in the domain of the public. For this reason, there has been a concerted and bi-partisan effort to keep the subject matter known as MENA from becoming legitimized through the court process."

DEA complicit in drug trade, says Morales  11/6/2008 AFP: ""The worst thing is, it did not fight drug trafficking; It encouraged it," the Bolivian leader said, adding that he had "quite a bit of evidence" backing up his charges. Presidential Minister Juan Ramon Quintana presented a series of documents and press clippings at a news conference, which he described as "object data" that had influenced Morales' decision to suspend DEA activities last week."

U.S. government finally exacts revenge on Iran/Contra whistleblower Cele Castillo  11/1/2008 NarcoNews: "Celerino “Cele” Castillo III, a former DEA agent who played a key role in exposing the U.S. government’s role in narco-trafficking as part of the Iran/Contra scandal, is now a discredited man. At least that is what the office of U.S. Attorney Johnny “House of Death” Sutton in San Antonio, Texas, who is a “dear friend” of President George W. Bush, would like us to believe… "… As time went on I started to collect Vietnam vintage surplus to sell. But before long, I began to do what most of the vendors were doing at the gun show, selling and buying both used and new guns without a license. Over half of the gun show vendors are still doing what I got charged with. However, I strongly believe that because of my involvement as an "expert witness" and an activist against certain actions of our government, I obviously had become a target. After all, I had been forewarned by a defense attorney, that an AUSA Federal prosecutor had advised him to instruct me that in some way, shape or form, they were going to target me until they got me. And that they did."

October, 2008

Bachmann's pardon request reversed  10/26/2008 SC Times, MN: "U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann wrote a letter last year recommending a federal pardon for a major campaign contributor who was once convicted of felony money laundering, firearm and drug charges on the basis he had reformed. This month, she withdrew that recommendation on behalf of Frank E. Vennes Jr., eight days after the FBI searched his Shorewood home and office and confiscated documents, money, art, coins and jewels that agents think may be related to a $3 billion investment fraud scheme in which Minnesota business mogul Tom Petters has been charged."

None Dare Call It Murder  10/22/2008 Capitol Hill Blue: "Make no mistake - whatever they may call Cele Castillo's sentence for buying and selling guns without a license at a Texas gun show (which, folks, happens to be completely legal), any prison sentence at all for this man is a sentence of death just as surely as if the judge had sentenced Castillo to the needle. So what is Castillo's real crime? He has the goods - documentary evidence - to put the sitting president's father away for a long, long time for his illegal smuggling activities during Iran Contra. Unfortunately, Castillo also has a sense of honor - he just won't keep his mouth shut."

The Assassinations of the 1960s as "Deep Events"  10/17/2008 History Matters: [by Peter Dale Scott, brilliant as always] - "In writing this paper I have been helped immeasurably by the Mary Ferrell Foundation website, http://www.maryferrell.org. This comparative approach is now made much easier by the addition of MLK and RFK files to the existing JFK collection. As there is far more research to be done, I am hoping that some younger resercher will take advantage of this new opportunity."

As the Violence Soars, Mexico Signals It's Had Enough of America's Stupid War on Drugs  10/14/2008 Alternet: "The U.S.-financed War on Drugs has had savage results in Mexico, and now its president wants to decriminalize pot, cocaine and heroin possession."

Secret Bush Administration Plan to Suspend US Constitution - "Continuity of Government" (COG) Provisions activated in 2001  10/6/2008 Global Research: "Vogler's greatest moment of glory was to be his 1993 appearance before the United Nations to denounce United States "tyranny" before the entire world and to demand Alaska's freedom. The Alaska secessionist had persuaded the government of Iran to sponsor his anti-American harangue. That's right ... Iran. The Islamic dictatorship. The taker of American hostages. The rogue nation that McCain and Palin have excoriated Obama for suggesting we diplomatically engage. That Iran. AIP leaders allege that Vogler, who was murdered that year by a fellow secessionist, was taken out by powerful forces in the U.S. before he could reach his U.N. platform. "The United States government would have been deeply embarrassed," by Vogler's U.N. speech, darkly suggests Clark. "And we can't have that, can we?" "

Hallazgo de drogas en buque petrolero podría ser parte de un plan contra Venezuela  10/3/2008 ABN: "El elemento que resulta más sospechoso para las autoridades venezolanas, agregó Reverol, es que los dos ciudadanos de nacionalidad colombiana, que fueron detenidos mientras trataban de ocultar la droga en el buque, obtuvieron sus respectivos pasaportes en el consulado neogranadino de Houston, Texas, Estados Unidos. “No descartamos la posibilidad de que todo esto se trate de un plan orquestado para decir que Venezuela sí es cómplice del narcotráfico como lo han manifestado ellos (EEUU); que incluso estamos usando el transporte petrolero para llevar droga a ese país. No nos extrañaría, pero queremos enfatizar que investigaremos este caso hasta los últimos detalles”, dijo."

September, 2008

The Facts Speak For Themselves  9/26/2008 OpEd News: 23 facts on 9/11

Bin Ladin's Istanbul journey revealed  9/23/2008 Turkish Daily News: "During my stay in Istanbul, I got acquainted with many Iranian merchants who had escaped from Iran at the outbreak of the Iraq-Iran war. During that time, Arab mujahidin started going to Afghanistan with the help of the U.S. CIA, which set up a transit camp in Istanbul. Volunteers stayed in the camp and were then dispatched to Afghanistan," the al-Qaeda leader said."

The Destabilization of Bolivia and the "Kosovo Option"  9/21/2008 Global Research: "The secession of Bolivia's Eastern provinces is part of a US sponsored covert operation, coordinated out of the US State Department, in liaison with US intelligence. The death squads armed with automatic weapons responsible for killing supporters of Evo Morales in El Porvenir are supported covertly by the US. According to one report, "USAID has an "Office of Transition Initiatives" operating in Bolivia, funneling millions of dollars of training and support to right-wing opposition regional governments and movements."(The Center for Economic and Policy Research, September 2008). The US also provides support to various opposition groups through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The expelled US Ambassador Philip S. Goldberg worked under the helm of Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who directly oversees the various "activities" of US embassies around the World. In this regard Negroponte plays a far more important role, acting behind the scenes, than Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. He is also known as one of the main architects of regime change and covert support to paramilitary death squads both in Central America and Iraq."

Deep Events and the CIA’s Global Drug Connection  9/19/2008 Global Research: "Since at least 1950 there has been a global CIA-drug connection operating more or less continuously. Especially with the passage of time, this connection has contributed to unexplained deep events and the consolidation of the global dominance mentality, at home as well as abroad. More specifically, the global drug connection is a factor underlying such unexplained deep events as the JFK assassination, the second Tonkin Gulf incident of 1964, and Iran-Contra. The global drug connection is not just a lateral connection between CIA field operatives and their drug-trafficking contacts. It is more significantly a global financial complex of hot money uniting prominent business, financial and government as well as underworld figures. It maintains its own political influence by the systematic supply of illicit finances, favors and even sex to politicians around the world, including leaders of both parties in the United States. The result is a system that might be called indirect empire, one that, in its search for foreign markets and resources, is satisfied to subvert existing governance without imposing a progressive alternative."

Paul Lional Edward Helliwell  9/18/2008 Spartacus: "Helliwell's main job was to help Chaing Kai-shek to prepare for a future invasion of Communist China. The CIA created a pair of front companies to supply and finance the surviving forces of Chaing's KMT. Paul Helliwell was put in charge of this operation. This included establishing Civil Air Transport (CAT), a Taiwan-based airline, and the Sea Supply Corporation, a shipping company in Bangkok. It was Helliwell's idea to use these CIA fronted companies to raise money to help support Chaing Kai-shek. According to Joseph Trento (Prelude to Terror): "Through Sea Supply, Helliwell imported large amounts of arms for the KMT soldiers to keep the Burmese military from throwing them out of the country. The arms were ferried into Burma on CAT airplanes. CAT then used the "empty" planes to fly drugs from Burma to Taiwan, Bangkok, and Saigon. There the drugs were processed for the benefit of the KMT and Chiang Kai-shek's corrupt government on Taiwan." Civil Air Transport (CAT), later renamed Air America, provided the CIA with the air power needed to sustain its covert operations for the next twenty-five years. Helliwell was to play an important role in running these covert, and often illegal operations."

The Strength of the Wolf: The Secret History of America’s War On Drugs  9/18/2008 Author's Guild: "“To cover a fraction of the costs of this massive enterprise, former spymaster Paul L. E. Helliwell established and directed a string of drug money laundering banks for the CIA. At the time, Helliwell was general counsel for the Thai consulate in Miami, an active leader in the Republican Party, and a friend of Nixon’s cohort, Bebe Rebozo. Among his drug smuggling credentials, Helliwell had worked with Chiang Kai-Shek’s intelligence chief, General Tai Li, and had set up the CIA’s drug smuggling air force, CAT [Civil Air Transport](later Air America), as well as the Bangkok trading company Sea Supply, which provided cover for CIA officers advising the drug-smuggling Thai border police.”"

The Golden Triangle Opium Trade: An Overview  9/18/2008 Asia Pacific Media Services: published 3/00

All is Clouded by Desire  9/18/2008 Google Books: Covers Paul Helliwell's career.

The New Pearl Harbor Revisited: The Definitive Treatment of 9/11: A Review of David Ray Griffin's book  9/12/2008 Global Research

EU Officials: Investigate CIA Plane Used in Renditions Caught with 4 Tons of Cocaine  9/10/2008 Mad Cow Morning News: "The CIA Drug Plane Scandal grew exponentially last week when European Union officials broke an official 40-year-long silence on the previously-taboo subject of the CIA’s worldwide involvement in drug trafficking. Last week Mexico City newspaper El Universal reported that The European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation has begun an investigation one of the planes, the cocaine-laden Gulfstream II business jet (N987SA), for suspected use in CIA "rendition" flights in which prisoners are covertly transferred to a third country or US-run detention centers."

August, 2008

The Real Drug Lords: A brief history of CIA involvement in the Drug Trade  8/31/2008 Global Research

Bush wants to impose Posada Carriles on Honduras  8/29/2008 Granma: [History of the Bin Laden of the Americas]

The Bush Administration, ABC News and the Scare Tactics That Lead the US to War - The Anthrax Cover-Up  8/7/2008 Counterpunch: "Of course, ABC News knows the identity of the "well-placed sources" who fed this false information to them and, through them, to the American public. I'll leave it to Greenwald to explain the implications: And yet, unbelievably, they are keeping the story to themselves, refusing to disclose who did all of this. They're allegedly a news organization, in possession of one of the most significant news stories of the last decade, and they are concealing it from the public, even years later. They're not protecting "sources." The people who fed them the bentonite story aren't "sources." They're fabricators and liars who purposely used ABC News to disseminate to the American public an extremely consequential and damaging falsehood."

Three More Questions for ABC News - Getting to the bottom of the bentonite sourcing story  8/5/2008 Colombia Journalism Review

Book says White House ordered forgery  8/5/2008 Politico: “The White House had concocted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001,” Suskind writes. “It said that 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta had actually trained for his mission in Iraq – thus showing, finally, that there was an operational link between Saddam and al Qaeda, something the Vice President’s Office had been pressing CIA to prove since 9/11 as a justification to invade Iraq. There is no link.”

The role of Corsican mafias in trafficking heroin in Vietnam, and U.S. military involvement  8/4/2008 Hongpong: extracted from "The Mafia Comes to Asia"

Private Spies: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing  8/2/2008 Global Research

Vital Unresolved Anthrax Questions and ABC News  8/1/2008 Salon: "During the last week of October, 2001, ABC News, led by Brian Ross, continuously trumpeted the claim as their top news story that government tests conducted on the anthrax — tests conducted at Ft. Detrick — revealed that the anthrax sent to Daschele contained the chemical additive known as bentonite. ABC News, including Peter Jennings, repeatedly claimed that the presence of bentonite in the anthrax was compelling evidence that Iraq was responsible for the attacks, since — as ABC variously claimed — bentonite “is a trademark of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s biological weapons program” and “only one country, Iraq, has used bentonite to produce biological weapons.” ABC News’ claim — which they said came at first from “three well-placed but separate sources,” followed by “four well-placed and separate sources” — was completely false from the beginning. There never was any bentonite detected in the anthrax (a fact ABC News acknowledged for the first time in 2007 only as a result of my badgering them about this issue). It’s critical to note that it isn’t the case that preliminary tests really did detect bentonite and then subsequent tests found there was none. No tests ever found or even suggested the presence bentonite. The claim was just concocted from the start. It just never happened."

July, 2008

To Provoke War, Cheney Considered Proposal To Dress Up Navy Seals As Iranians And Shoot At Them  7/31/2008 ThinkProgress: "HERSH: There was a dozen ideas proffered about how to trigger a war. The one that interested me the most was why don’t we build — we in our shipyard — build four or five boats that look like Iranian PT boats. Put Navy seals on them with a lot of arms. And next time one of our boats goes to the Straits of Hormuz, start a shoot-up."

THE MISTAKE DEPARTMENT - One Example of Why American Foreign Policy is a Disaster  7/26/2008 Op Ed News: "The Los Angeles Times reported that 15 of the 19 alleged hijackers got their U.S. visas from the American Consulate General at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, a consulate where I had served as chief of the Visa Section. What The Los Angeles Times did not report was what I had told their Washington, D.C. bureau after reading the story: (1) that the Jeddah Consulate was not a State Department post but an intelligence services operation; (2) that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) routinely demanded (and got) visas for sleazy characters with no ties to either their home country or Saudi Arabia; (3) that these vile people were terrorists recruited by U.S. intelligence officers along with Osama bin Laden, then a CIA asset. With the help of non-State Department officials… they were sent to America for training in blowing things up and shooting things down. Afterwards, they were sent on to Afghanistan to murder Soviet soldiers. It seems pretty clear that they and people that they had trained are now pursuing their own goals (and most likely U.S. foreign policy interests) in helping destabilize Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Their next target may be Iran."

From the Rivers of Babylon to the Whangpoo: A Century of Sephardi Jewish Life in Shanghai  7/23/2008 Sino Judaic Institute: "While at an early stage in the book Meyer mentions Baghdad's long-serving [1859-1909] ecclesiastical authority Hacham Yoseph Hayim, she does not involve him in her discussion of Shanghai Zionism [pp. 171-90]. She sees that phenomenon as largely the creation of N.E.B. Ezra between 1903 and 1936, when Ezra led the Shanghai Zionist Association [SZA] and edited Israel's Messenger. However, prior to Ezra, Hayyim was a powerful force inculcating pre-Herzlian Zionism among Baghdadis in India, Burma, the Straits Settlements, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and elsewhere. He urged his brethren to visit and settle the Land of Israel long before Herzl's establishment of the World Zionist Organization [WZO] in 1896, with which the SZA affiliated, and even before the founding of the WZO's predecessor organizations, Hovevei Zion and BILU. [See David Sassoon, History of the Jews in Baghdad (1949)]."

From the Rivers of Babylon to the Whangpoo: A Century of Sephardi Jewish Life in Shanghai  7/23/2008 Sino Judaic Institute: "Meyer's study of Baghdadi Jewish merchants who made the basis of their fortunes in the opium trade is welcome in that she confronts the moral issue head-on and advances the discourse pioneered by Fairbank and Downs. She builds on the scholarship of Joan Roland, Chiara Betta, Stanley Jackson, and others to delineate the Baghdadis' involvement in the exportation of Indian opium to China, beginning with David Sassoon's arrival in Bombay in 1833. Sassoon's second son Elias opened branches of the family firm in Guangzhou in 1844 and in Hong Kong and Shanghai in 1845. Meyer delineates how other Baghdadi families followed the Sassoon example and, from a base in Shanghai, won fortunes in the trade: Abraham, Benjamin, Elias, Ezra, Hardoon, Kadoorie, Raphael, Silas, Solomon, and Toeg."

Opium, Streets of Shanghai - A guide to Shanghai in the 1920s  7/23/2008 Streets of Shanghai: "This consortium obtained its opium from four foreign merchant houses: David Sassoon & Co., E.D. Sassoon, S.J. David, and Edward Ezra."

'Opium financed British rule in India'  7/23/2008 BBC: "Is it the fact that the British were the world's biggest opium suppliers two centuries ago that led you into this story? I should correct you. It was not two centuries ago. Under the British Raj, an enormous amount of opium was being exported out of India until the 1920s."

Mr Sarkozy and the CIA. Based on Thierry Meyssan's "Operation Sarkozy"  7/18/2008 Axis of Logic: "His mother became the Secretary of Achille Peretti. After having co-founded the SAC, De Gaulle's body-guard had pursued a brilliant political career. He was elected D?put? and Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, the richest suburb of the capital, then President of the National Assembly. Unhappily, in 1972, Achille Peretti was subject to serious accusations. In the United States, the magazine Time revealed the existence of a secret Corsican criminal organisation the 'Union corse ' which was said to control a large share of the traffic in drugs between Europe and America, the famous "French connection" which Hollywood brought to the screen. Based on parliamentary hearings and its own investigations, Time quoted the name of a Mafia boss, Jean Venturi, arrested some years earlier in Canada, who was no other than the commercial representative of Charles Pasqua for the drinks company Ricard. The names of several families were mentioned who were said to run the "Union corse", including the Perettis. Achille denied this, but had to resign from the presidency of the National Assembly and even escaped from a "suicide". In 1977, Pal Sarkozy separated from his second wife, Christine de Ganay, who then linked herself with the number two of the central administration of the Department of State in the United States. She married him and set up home with him in America. The world being small, as is well known, her husband was no other than Frank Wisner Jr., the son of the previous one. The functions of Junior at the CIA are not known, but it was clear that he had an important role there. Nicolas, who remained close to his step-mother, his half-brother and his half-sister, began to turn towards the United States where he "benefitted" from training programmes in the Department of State."

Operation Gladio: CIA Network of "Stay Behind" Secret Armies - The "Sacrifice" of Aldo Moro  7/17/2008 Global Research

DEA Reports show that Mexican Cartel “Thugs” are receiving training from Iranian Revolutionary Guard  7/17/2008 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS

Seymour Hersh: US Training Jondollah and MEK for Bombing preparation  7/9/2008 Prison Planet: "He explains how the Bush Administration’s policy of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” has led the US to support the Baluchi organisation Jondollah and the MEK (Mujahideen-e-Khalq a.k.a PMOI), both of which have clear track records of terrorist activities including against the US. He reiterates that the US has been giving arms and cash to the terrorists in the MEK for years and reveals that “most of the [MEK] leaders have been taking our money and cashing it in an awful lot of bank accounts in London.” He also reveals for the first time that the US has trained MEK teams in the state of Nevada and that “they do a lot of crazy stuff inside Iran”. Hersh warns that “we have been moving cruise missiles there for a few months now”, and that the US military is ready. “Our submarines are there, our destroyers are there with cruise missiles aboard, our aircrafts are there, our soldiers are there” to attack Iran within “10 to 12 hours” of the go-ahead order by President Bush, he says, stressing that troops have to go on the ground in Iran in order to destroy Iran’s defensive systems."

The JFK Assassination and 9/11: the Designated Suspects in Both Cases  7/5/2008 Global Research: by Peter Dale Scott

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