Top U.S. Government Officials Admit that Our Government Has Repeatedly Protected Drug Smugglers

From a 60 Minutes special with Mike Wallace reporting:

Watch the first 3 minute and 20 second segment of the following video:

And see this and this.

It's not just the U.S. Empires commonly fund their covert operations with drugs.

Comments

[The Alarmist]

I knew a guy who was one of the last out of the Saigon embassy.  Never seemed to be wanting for cash, that one.

[rtalcott]

The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia....1972.....Alfred McCoy...

This is yesterday's and today's news.

Governments doing what they have always done.

rt

[tamboo]

The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia

[JustObserving]

Investigative Reporter Gary Webb Who Linked CIA to Crack Sales Found Dead of Apparent Suicide MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2004

Gary Webb, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who wrote a series of stories linking the CIA to crack cocaine trafficking in Los Angeles, is dead at age 49. We hear an 1998 interview with Gary Webb on Democracy Now! and we speak with his colleague, veteran investigative journalist Robert Parry. [includes rush transcript]

Gary Webb, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who wrote a series of stories linking the CIA to crack cocaine trafficking in Los Angeles, is dead at age 49.

Webb was found Friday morning at his home in Sacramento County, dead of an apparent suicide.

http://www.democracynow.org/2004/12/13/investigative_reporter_gary_webb_who_linked

[Normalcy Bias]

Webb "apparently" double-tapped himself in the back of the head to commit suicide...

[Crab Cake]

Thanks George. A poster said this was old news, but it is of the most important variety.

Why is it that a "free citizen" cannot discern and choose what goes into, and what is done with, their very own body? Im not saying the choices are right, wrong, stupid, or smart; but are they not choices to be made by the individual in a "free" society? Does not ones right to do or not do legally end at ones fist and start at anothers nose? Is my very hand my own or not?

Why is it that the land of the "free" has the largest prison population by number and per capita in all the world; let alone the disparities in proportion in ethnicity and wealth?

Why is it that a that a multi billion a year trade industry is allowed to thrive without the taxation that burdens all others, and would supposedly more fully line .gov coffers to be used for the betterment of all (\sarc)?

Most important who benefits, cui bono, from the answers to these questions? That to me is the point, and the answer within, your efforts here in this post George.

Cui fucking bono; because it is sure not the supposed free citizenry and its society?

A free society is one of choice, for good and ill, benefit and gain. Oh but wait, there also seems to be a subset of the population that is free of consequence in what seems all regard.... Hmmmm....

Memorializing the modern day pox blanket jim crow black bag dirty laundry 1984 TBTF god damned Drug War = immensely important and relevant. Thanks again George.

[Gully Foyle]

Crab Cake

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009/dec/13/drug-money-banks-saved-un-c...

Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor

Drugs and crime chief says $352bn in criminal proceeds was effectively laundered by financial institutions

Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations' drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer.

Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result.

This will raise questions about crime's influence on the economic system at times of crisis. It will also prompt further examination of the banking sector as world leaders, including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, call for new International Monetary Fund regulations. Speaking from his office in Vienna, Costa said evidence that illegal money was being absorbed into the financial system was first drawn to his attention by intelligence agencies and prosecutors around 18 months ago. "In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system's main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor," he said.

Some of the evidence put before his office indicated that gang money was used to save some banks from collapse when lending seized up, he said.

"Inter-bank loans were funded by money that originated from the drugs trade and other illegal activities... There were signs that some banks were rescued that way." Costa declined to identify countries or banks that may have received any drugs money, saying that would be inappropriate because his office is supposed to address the problem, not apportion blame. But he said the money is now a part of the official system and had been effectively laundered.

"That was the moment [last year] when the system was basically paralysed because of the unwillingness of banks to lend money to one another. The progressive liquidisation to the system and the progressive improvement by some banks of their share values [has meant that] the problem [of illegal money] has become much less serious than it was," he said.

The IMF estimated that large US and European banks lost more than $1tn on toxic assets and from bad loans from January 2007 to September 2009 and more than 200 mortgage lenders went bankrupt. Many major institutions either failed, were acquired under duress, or were subject to government takeover.

Gangs are now believed to make most of their profits from the drugs trade and are estimated to be worth £352bn, the UN says. They have traditionally kept proceeds in cash or moved it offshore to hide it from the authorities. It is understood that evidence that drug money has flowed into banks came from officials in Britain, Switzerland, Italy and the US.

British bankers would want to see any evidence that Costa has to back his claims. A British Bankers' Association spokesman said: "We have not been party to any regulatory dialogue that would support a theory of this kind. There was clearly a lack of liquidity in the system and to a large degree this was filled by the intervention of central banks."

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2011/09/09/justice-department-reports-d...

Justice Department Reports Drug Seizures Do Little to Stop Cartels

http://www.alternet.org/story/151135/american_banks_%27high%27_on_drug_m...

American Banks 'High' On Drug Money: How a Whistleblower Blew the Lid Off Wachovia-Drug Cartel Money Laundering Scheme

( For an interesting take, not a documentary, watch The Shadow Line http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1701920/. I can't reveal how this relates to the topic, but there is a very interesting aspect.)

[Disenchanted]

They are the drug smugglers in many cases:

I am Bob Kirkconnell, a retired Air Force chief master sergeant.  I spent 27 years on active duty, and now teach high school.  I was involved in an investigation of heroin smuggling into the US using killed-in-action human remains out of Vietnam.  This happened in 1972 or 1973, and since then I have been looking for any information that would explain the whole picture.  Your web site is the first info I have been able to find in over 30 years.

I was an Air Transportation Supervisor in those days stationed at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan.  One day we had an Air Force C-5 come in that was only scheduled for a few hours servicing (intransit), and then to continue on to Travis Air Force Base, California.  This plane contained between 80 and 90 transfer cases (87 is the number I recall) containing human remains, killed-in-action, out of Vietnam.  When it arrived, the plane broke, went into maintenance, and we had to order parts that would take over 24 hours to receive.

On intransit aircraft, Japanese customs did not get involved unless the plane was going to be on the ground more than 24 hours.  This was the case with this C-5.  After the plane was fixed we noticed that the two couriers for the human remains could not be located.  This was highly unusual.  One of the couriers was an Army major and the other was an Army master sergeant.  We started looking for them and notified Japanese customs that something was very suspicious.  We discovered that the master sergeant had take another flight to Hawaii.  The name he was traveling under was Sutherland.  We never did find the major, and I do not recall his name.

Japanese customs opened the transfer cases and found that all of the bodies had had their internal organs removed, and that they were stuffed with bags of pure heroin.  An Air Force Office of Special Investigations, OSI, agent contacted me and told me "not to release any documents pertaining to the incident to anyone but him."  One of my responsibilities was for processing and storage of all cargo and passenger documentation.  He told me that he would let me know what he needed at a later date.  I passed this info on to my people that worked the night shift.  That night an Army investigator from Criminal Investigations Division, CID, came to the records section and demanded these records.  He threatened to put our personnel in jail for obstructing an investigation, etc.  The shift supervisor refused to give him the records, and eventually he went away.

Master Sergeant Sutherland (this was an alias) was apprehended in Hawaii a few days later, and was charged with several offenses.  He was tried in a federal court in Washington, DC, and one of our captains testified at the trial.  The OSI agent in Okinawa came to me before the trial and signed for all related documentation (orders, aircraft manifest, etc.).  He sent this via US registered mail, signature service required, to the federal prosecutor in Washington.

The evidence never got to the court.  I know this because I was concerned that the records needed to be returned to the files, and I inquired about them about once a week.  The OSI agent eventually told me that the records had disappeared and signed a statement that the documentation was missing and could not be returned.  I put this in the files.  He also told me that Sutherland was convicted of only one charge--unauthorized wear of a US military uniform.  None of the other charges were proven because of lack of evidence.  He also told me that Sutherland was not his real name, and that he and the major with him had never been in the Army.

I knew this OSI agent because I had researched several other cases of drug smuggling on military aircraft.  I usually did not ask him questions which I thought he was not at liberty to answer.  He always told me everything that I needed to know to research illegal activities.  Most of the cases were relatively smalltime drug smuggling.  This case was something that was way over-the-top.  All of us that knew the enormity of this case were flabbergasted.  The forged documentation was flawless and had to have been done by experts in the air transportation field.  Also, our people who saw the two impostors said that their uniforms and ID cards were perfect.

more here: http://www.wanttoknow.info/militarysmuggledheroin

[jeff montanye]

this internet is some hot stuff.

[DaveyJones]

enjoy it while it lasts.

[Money 4 Nothing]

Because if the Poppy harvest stops, Banks would collapse.

[Colonel]

Why don't the (banks/government) just legalize it??!! Oh yeah, the banks/government hates competition thing again.

[ZackAttack]

Absolutely. Money-laundering is a major source of liquidity.

Banks love it, for-profit prisons love it, employees of the "justice" system benefit from it. 

History shows us, any time you hear "The War on...", substitute "The Jobs Program based on..."

[Non Passaran]

The scum at the ECB loves it! 

[Widowmaker]

Drugs are big business, without them worldwide enforcement would be gutted.

The war on drugs and the war on terror are just itches that take record bonuses to scratch.

[Dr. Sandi]

Is it a coincidence that George W's daddy Bush, former president and CIA director was nicknamed "Poppy?"

[Al Gorerhythm]

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you.

[knukles]

Round up the ususal suspects

[monad]

Its not a war on drugs, its a war on people and freedom. Nixon started this to crack down on his enemies, namely the American people. All of us.

These are the narco-terrorists you were warned about.

[DavidPierre]

WAR 'AND' DRUGS

WAR 'AND' POVERTY

WAR 'AND' TERROR

[monad]

CIA operator Chip Tatum & FBI Los Angeles Section Chief Ted Gunderson take it from Vietnam to Columbia to Tel Aviv to Tehran

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4217457994226676654

[RockyRacoon]

I think we're related somehow...

[monad]

You support Ron Paul too? We are legion.

Beware. There will be no mercy.

[Hulk]

You are definitely better looking...I'd eat you in a second !!!

[illyia]

Deleted...you know what I mean?

[DavidPierre]

Old News!

Google Gary Webb's work from 20 years ago when he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News. 

He committed suicide ... shot himself twice in the back of his head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2lVddzMpT8

Michael Ruppert was all over this years ago .... archived on http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/10_10_01_heroin.html

...................................................................

"If you can't grasp 9/11, everything else is distortion/distraction."

All this shit pivots on, and came to a open climax, on 9/11.

Other writers on ZH, WAR PIGS all, deny the facts of that day, but...

Like Smokey(Jim)Quinn they fail every time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVY-iQDO8pg

.........................................................................

Take a couple of hours away from your heart attack inducing BBQ this Memorial Day and learn.

Loose Change - 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAmegwUdJdA&feature=related

...........................................................................

Stop aiding and abetting the treasonous Nazi/ameriKlan war criminals!

[my puppy for prez]

 whie you're at it, watch:  http://www.911missinglinks.com/watch-movie/

[monad]

Louis Freeh "investigated" Vince Foster's murder too.

The Mena Connection: Bush Clinton & The CIA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYikJv8uIpw

George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography by Webster Tarpley, who is somehow still alive.

http://tarpley.net/online-books/george-bush-the-unauthorized-biography

In a related story, the Pope's banker Roberto Calvi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Calvi) of the P2 lodge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_Due) allegedly lost most of the Pope's money in Panama doing business with the Colonel and had an unfortunate accident. The Godfather is W's favorite movie...

[FeralSerf]

Louis Freeh knew how to investigate murders ... uh suicides.  That's no doubt one reason he got promoted all the way to the top.

[FeralSerf]

Louis Freeh knew how to investigate murders ... uh suicides.  That's no doubt one reason he got promoted all the way to the top.

[Thunder_Downunder]

Scandalous, fanciful allegations. CIA would surely not do such a thing to support a political agenda... would it?

And Suddam definitely had WMDs.. oh and the US was definitely the victim in that Gulf of Tonkin thing that people don't talk about much.. or that time the US shot down an Iranian passenger jet that was very dangerous and threatening... or all those south american leaders who caught bullets or got sick if they spoke too loudly against their northern neighbours.

Crazyness... the US government doesn't lie. They ALL swear on a bible. The Chinese and the russians dont, so we know who the real liers are... George, you need to get your news from Fox, you're all confused...

<tic>

[VelvetHog]

All true!  AND...now Iran has a huge undergound bunker and 27% enriched uranium.  Oh look, another primate just few out of my lower intensine!