Wednesday, May 27, 2015

2015-05-27 US: Memorial Day blues... State of War by James Risen

State of War - James Risen

Highly recommend the book for anybody who wishes to get depressed over Memorial Day weekend... see how US military lives are disposed... jz

1) Cute point:
In the chapter about Saudi Arabia and 9/11, he finally says, that if the US policy went by true intelligence data, acting against the perps of 9/11, it should have invaded and occupied Saudi Arabia, as the nation most directly tied to the 9/11 attacks.
Instead, the US engaged in fabricating non-existent intelligence about a link between Iraq and 9/11, Iraq and WMD, and then invaded Iraq in collaboration with Saudi Arabia...
He gives detailed account of the efforts to hide from the public and prevent any real investigation of the links between Saudi Arabia and 9/11. The extreme: Deliberate failure to investigate bank accounts in Saudi Arabia, used by top Al-Qaeda officers...

2) Strange point:
In the chapter about Afghanistan, he gets into an issue, the magnitude of which I have never realized:
Over 1-2 years since the US took over Afghanistan, opium production grew about 100-fold!!!  Rumsfeld et al had very strange relationships, which he documents in details, with the key figures in the Afghan drug biz.  And the worth of this was many many billions of dollars per year, part of which went to sponsoring anti-US terror... (the usual doctrine of clear and effective policy).
Then he raises the the question: Was the CIA in the opium biz?  He concludes that there is no direct evidence.
But what is most disturbing is the side comment (free style quote):
For years, conspiracy theorists have claimed, without definitive proof, that CIA was involved in cocaine trade in Latin America...
There is plenty of definitive proof regarding CIA cocaine trading as part of Iran-Contra, including a 1997 US DOJ Inspector General ~400 page report on the CIA wholesale drug trafficking to LA under Reagan (where Rumsfeld et al had their elementary school education). [2]
It blows my mind: James Risen is one of the most important journalists in the US today, 2x Pulitzer prize winner, CIA expert. How could he write that there is no proof of CIA involvement in cocaine trade in Latin America? How could he call it "conspiracy theory"?  Is he in fact working for CIA? Trying to please his numerous sources at CIA?
 
The book in general appears to be supportive of CIA, present DOD and NSA as the real bad guys, and George Tenet, CIA Director, as just incompetent, but not intent on wrong-doing... In contrast, Rumsfeld/Cheney are represented as engaged in high crimes...
jz

2013-12-02 US: CIA's Contra-Cocaine denial cult?

I thought that the Iran-Contra-Cocaine affair was so well documented, among others, by the Special Report by Inspector General of the US Department f Justice, that there would not be deniers left.  Apparently that is not the case.  I have long stopped using the word "conspiracy", instead referring to "official narrative" and "alternative narrative/s".  All the fun was taken out of "conspiracies" with the avalanche of revelations of recent years from banks to NSA; they have become a routine :) jz
LINKS:
[1] 00-00-01 96-08-18 CIA Drug Trafficking of Crack Cocaine to Los Angeles County, By Gary Webb, San Jose Mercury News
[2] 00-00-01 97-12-00 US Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General, December 1997 Special Report: CIA Drug Trafficking to Los Angeles, California s
[3] 07-09-24 ?Cocaine One? and ?Cocaine Two? ? ongoing CIA wholesale drug trafficking?
[4] 09-09-24 More on CIA Drug Trafficking ? Venice, Florida, Municipal Airport
[5] 10-10-13 Extra Constitutional Zones ? Excerpts From Discussion on the OAK Board
[6] 11-02-14 Ongoing CIA wholesale drug trafficking? Argentinean report
[7] 11-04-27 ?I Trafficked Cocaine For The U.S. Government? _ Inforwars
[8] 11-08-01 Zernik, J: Los Angeles Superior Court ? widespread corruption and refusal of US government to take action, 16th World Criminology Congress presentation
[9] 10-10-15 Proposed Organizational Chart of the LA-JR (Los Angeles Judiciary Racket)
[10] 11-08-29 Corruption of the Los Angeles Superior Court, Its Causes and History
[11] 11-08-01 Zernik, J: Fraud and corruption in the US courts is tightly linked to failing banking regulation and the financial crisis, 16th World Criminology Congress presentation
[12] 12-04-28 Drug Money Laundering by Major US and International Banks ? Compilation of Reports
Inline image 1
CIA plane crash site in Mexico
OpEdNews Op Eds 12/2/2013 at 11:43:09

Contra-Cocaine Was a Real Conspiracy

In the insular world of Manhattan media, there's much handwringing over the latest blow to print publications as New York Magazine scales back from a weekly to a biweekly. But the real lesson might be the commercial failure of snarky writing, the kind that New York demonstrated in its recent hit piece on "conspiracy theories."
What was most stunning to me about the article, pegged to the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination, was that it began by ridiculing what is actually one of the best-documented real conspiracies of recent decades, the CIA's tolerance and even protection of cocaine trafficking by the Nicaraguan Contra rebels in the 1980s.

13-12-13 US: US: Reagan-CIA-cocaine

Inline image 2 Inline image 1
Nancy, and a CIA plane that crashed in Mexico with 4 tons of cocaine on board...

The Iran-Contra-Cocaine to LA story just came up in a previous discussion, as fundamental to understanding corruption in LA County.
And today I got by mail the reminder below. 
The timing of this piece is a bit contrived, published for 9th anniversary of journalist Webb's death...
There is no need for corroborating evidence in this matter either - we've got the 300+ page US DOJ Inspector General report on the issue. [1]
If anything, the important reminder is regarding the fate of whistleblowers and journalists, who expose corruption...  already a decade ago.
Anyway, I like the story: Nancy in the White House in her little red dress preaching "Say No to Drugs", while her husband runs the business that caused the crack epidemic and filled the prisons with drug offenders...
In short:
Reagan has his place secure in the Hall of Infamy of Corruption...
LINKS:
[1] 00-00-01 97-12-00 US Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General, December 1997 Special Report: CIA Drug Trafficking to Los Angeles, California s
[2] 00-00-01 96-08-18 CIA Drug Trafficking of Crack Cocaine to Los Angeles County, By Gary Webb, San Jose Mercury News
[3] 07-09-24 "Cocaine One" and "Cocaine Two" – ongoing CIA wholesale drug trafficking…
[4] 09-09-24 More on CIA Drug Trafficking - Venice, Florida, Municipal Airport
[5] 10-10-13 Extra Constitutional Zones ? Excerpts From Discussion on the OAK Board
[6] 10-10-15 Proposed Organizational Chart of the LA-JR (Los Angeles Judiciary Racket)
[7] 11-02-14 Ongoing CIA wholesale drug trafficking…  Argentinian report
[8] 11-04-27 "I Trafficked Cocaine For The U.S. Government" _ Inforwars
[9] 11-08-01 Zernik, J: Los Angeles Superior Court ? widespread corruption and refusal of US government to take action, 16th World Criminology Congress presentation
[10] 11-08-29 Corruption of the Los Angeles Superior Court, Its Causes and History
[11] 11-08-01 Zernik, J: Fraud and corruption in the US courts is tightly linked to failing banking regulation and the financial crisis, 16th World Criminology Congress presentation
[12] 12-04-28 Drug Money Laundering by Major US and International Banks ? Compilation of Reports
+++
By Robert Parry
 
Special Report: Since journalist Gary Webb died in 2004, the story that destroyed his life has slowly come into clearer focus, revealing how President Reagan's beloved Contras really were enmeshed in cocaine trafficking. On this ninth anniversary of Webb's suicide, new corroboration has emerged.
 
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