Just how corrupt has our government become?

(7:30PM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

In September 2007, a story hit the internet; that a plane used by the CIA had crashed carrying 3.3 tons of cocaine.

Well, evidence now suggests that the CIA was, indeed, helping out the drug cartels.

This “conspiracy theory”, that the CIA is involved in drug-trafficking, goes back many decades.  I remember hearing how the CIA was supposedly running drugs out of Laos and Cambodia during the Vietnam War.  But, that was all it was, a conspiracy theory, until now.

MEXICO CITY (AFP) – A private jet that crash-landed almost one year ago in eastern Mexico carrying 3.3 tons of cocaine had previously been used for CIA “rendition” flights, a newspaper report said here Thursday, citing documents from the United States and the European Parliament.

The plane was carrying Colombian drugs for the fugitive leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman, when it crash-landed in the Yucatan peninsula on September 24 (2007), El Universal reported.

Let that sink in for a moment.  A plane that had been used by the CIA to perform extraordinary rendition flights crashed in Mexico carrying 3.3 tons of cocaine for a fugitive drug cartel leader.

This isn’t the first time that the CIA has been linked to drug cartels in Latin and South America.  Democracy Now! aired a documentary entitled “The Panama Deception” which looked at then President Bush Sr. and the invasion of Panama.  During the documentary, it notes that Manual Noreiga was a “CIA asset” while being a drug lord before being installed as leader of Panama, with the help of the CIA, only to be removed from power for “being a drug lord”.  The documentary also noted that as a “CIA asset” the CIA had access to the drug routes used in Latin and South America.

I highly suggest that the reader take the hour or so to watch the video linked at the Democracy Now! website before reading further, or, at the least, watch it after you finish.

We now have evidence, however slight, that CIA assets were, in fact, used in the transportation of drugs.  The question now is; just how corrupt has our government become?

Anyone who has basic knowledge of Afghanistan knows that its principle crop is opium.  So, you’d think that, being a nation that has a “war on drugs”, we’d be setting those fields ablaze.  Right?  How then do we explain that since the United States attack and invasion of Afghanistan opium production has reached record levels?

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 27 – Opium cultivation in Afghanistan grew by 17 percent in 2007, reaching record levels for the second straight year, according to a United Nations report released Monday.

Despite a $600 million American counternarcotics effort and an increase in the number of poppy-free provinces to 13 from 6, the report found that the amount of land in Afghanistan used for opium production is now larger than amount of land used for coca cultivation in all of Latin America.

I’ll let that sink in as well.  The United States is spending $600 million dollars and opium production in Afghanistan has reached record levels.  Even though the number of opium-free provinces has been (supposedly) by half, the amount of land used in Afghanistan for opium is now larger than the amount of land used for coca in all of Latin America.  Does that sound right to you?  It doesn’t to me.

Mr. Costa described a “divided” Afghanistan, with opium production dropping in the relatively stable north, and growing in the south, the center of an insurgency. There, Taliban militants control large areas and have encouraged farmers to grow opium. Production in the south has also become more sophisticated, with the number of labs processing opium into heroin growing to 50 from 30 in Helmand Province, local officials said.

That explains it then, doesn’t it?  

It might if not for this; as of May 2008, Marines were ignoring opium fields.

GARMSER, Afghanistan – The Marines of Bravo Company’s 1st Platoon sleep beside a grove of poppies. Troops in the 2nd Platoon playfully swat at the heavy opium bulbs while walking through the fields. Afghan laborers scraping the plant’s gooey resin smile and wave.

Last week, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit moved into southern Helmand province, the world’s largest opium poppy-growing region, and now find themselves surrounded by green fields of the illegal plants that produce the main ingredient of heroin.

The Taliban, whose fighters are exchanging daily fire with the Marines in Garmser, derives up to $100 million a year from the poppy harvest by taxing farmers and charging safe passage fees – money that will buy weapons for use against U.S., NATO and Afghan troops.

Ok.  Let’s sort this out.  We have a “divided” Afghanistan.  The Taliban insurgents are growing opium at record levels to finance their war against us.  NATO is talking about spraying the opium fields.  But, our soldiers, who are in the southern regions, are simply ignoring the fields and workers?  The answer to this riddle may be that the very warlords who control regions where opium is grown were supported by our government and helped into power when we overthrew the Taliban.  Now that they are firmly entrenched in power in Afghanistan, we are finding it difficult to undo what we did, lest, we lose the political backing of the Afghanistan rulers and get ousted.

While all of this is extrapolation based on what we do know, there are those who know more, and, may very well blackmail the government with that knowledge.  Enter into the picture Dusty Foggo.  We know that Foggo was the former CIA executive director who was indicted on corruption charges.  Now, Foggo is threatening to expose secrets during his trial.

Foggo’s desire portray himself to the public as a patriotic hero stands in stark contrast to his Section 5 Notice, in which he expresses (albeit in a sealed filing) a desire to expose the cover of virtually every CIA employee with whom he interacted and to divulge to the world some of our country’s most sensitive programs – even though this information has absolutely nothing to do with the charges he faces.

This is something we need to watch carefully as we already know that Bush officials have no problem outing CIA operatives for their own gain.

As for the CIA, it portends that there is no evidence that it trafficks in drugs.

Concluding its investigation into allegations of CIA complicity in drug trafficking to the United states during the 1980’s, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) today released a detailed report which concludes that evidence does not support those allegations, made initially in a newspaper series entitled “Dark Alliance.”

While this isn’t new “news”, the evidence is starting to mount along with all the books written on this subject.  Even PBS got into the action.  But, despite trying to debunk the accusation, it actually ended up fueling it:

As with Burma, Laos and Afghanistan before it — where the U.S. had helped fight wars — Nicaragua had a narcotics trade–a fact which was brought to the CIA’s attention while the Contra effort was barely off the ground. In 1981 members of the Nicaraguan Revolutionary Democratic Alliance (ADREN) were working alongside CIA officers to overthrow the new Sandinista government.. As noted in the Hitz report, a cable to CIA headquarters stated that ADREN leadership had decided to “engage in drug smuggling to the United States in order to finance its anti-Sandinista operations.” The cable stated that an “initial trial run” had taken place in July 1981, when drugs were transported via plane to Miami.

In what would prove common during the Contra war, the CIA never followed up on the allegations, or bothered to verify whether the “initial run” had taken place, according to the Hitz report. ADREN disbanded in 1982. But some members joined the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN), which worked with the CIA.

In other words, CIA HQ was told that a drug run had taken place, and, it did nothing.  In addition, people who were involved with the ADREN later joined FDN which worked with the CIA.

In another instance, the CIA received allegations that five members of the Democratic Revolutionary Alliance (ADREN) — those fighting along the border of Nicaragua and Costa Rica – were involved in drug trafficking. The five were allegedly working with known drug trafficker Jorge Morales.

Although the CIA broke off contact with the ARDE in 1984, it continued to have contact with four of the five members who associated with Sr. Morales until 1987.

“In the context of this struggle between the Contras and the Sandinistas, there were accusations flying left and right, some of which were probably meritorious, and a good many of which were part of the battle they were involved in,” Hitz said. The question for the CIA officer in the field was, how do you deal with those accusations?

So, the CIA was working with drug traffickers in the early 1980’s, and, in 2007 a CIA plane crashes carrying 3.3 tons of cocaine.  How do you deal with that when in the field indeed.

It’s also amazing that the same names keep popping up over and over.  Enter Oliver North.

The story of Ilopango air base in San Salvador has become a favorite anecdote among those backing the claim that the CIA protected Contras neck-deep in the drug trade. The Hitz report states that by 1985, the DEA was watching Carlos Albert Amador. He was a former pilot for the Southern Front Contras, a group that operated along the northern border of Costa Rica and in the southern regions of Nicaragua. Carlos Alberto Amador had previously flown secret Contra missions out of the airfield. But, in 1985 , he came under suspicion for transporting drugs from Costa Rica to Miami. The CIA cable noted that Amador “had access to Hanger 4 at Ilopango air base.”

The cable quoted a DEA source who “stated that Amador was probably picking up cocaine in San Salvador to fly to Grand Caymen [sic] and then to south Florida,” adding that the DEA was going to ask San Salvadorian police to investigate Amador and anyone associated with Hanger 4.

But Hanger 4 — as the author of the cable would later tell CIA investigators — was also thought to be associated with Oliver North, who was under commission from the White House to secretly carry out aid to the Contras.

Remember Iran-Contra?  Well, seems there might have been even more hanky-panky going on as well.

When CIA headquarters responded to the cable, it told its local station that it “would appreciate Station advising DEA not to make any inquiries to anyone re Hanger [sic] no. 4 at Ilopango since only legitimate….supported operations were conducted from this facility.”

So, you tell me.  Just how corrupt has our government become?