General Nov 18, 2010 at 4:00 am

One Man's Deadly Adventures in the Cocaine Manufacturing Camps

Comments

1
Cocaine consumption in the US went from 80 metric tons in 1979, to 600 metric tons in 1987. Most of the cocaine is facilitated into this country by via the CIA. Access to the 700 billion annual drug profits is a critical source of liquidity for wall street, and the US economy is utterly dependent on it.
2
So, let me get this straight...not only does the Mercury have to resort to a re-hash of a weeks-old Stranger article, but they can't even run the entire series?

This paper is truly pitiful.
4
Oh please Spindles...
These conspiracy theories are plain silly. Aliens and Bigfoot help out in the coke industry too, right?

Coke can be a fun high, sure. But what happens to get it here is crazy, and I am to blame for it too.
Good article.
5
Geez Spindles... it seems you haven't met a conspiracy theory you didn't like, or I mean - fall for.
I do agree with some of your other views though.
Conspiracy theories flourish in times of public mistrust. Be cautious of them all.
6
frankieb how about some Conspiracy Facts? I wonder if you'll bother to read even one word of any of this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_drug_traf…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_and_Contr…

1988-08-26: Ron Paul on CIA Drug Trafficking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBh_hzU-jdI

1996-11-15: Former LA Police Officer Mike Ruppert Confronts CIA Director John Deutch on Drug Trafficking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT5MY3C86bk

1999-01-28: Blacks Were Targeted for CIA Cocaine - It Can Be Proven by Michael C. Ruppert
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/pand…

2000 September: Wall Street, CIA and the Global Drug Trade
http://www.whale.to/b/ruppert1.html

This may be the single most amazing, informative, and scary interview I've ever read. Of course the predictions about Columbia didn't happen but that's because this was one year before 9/11 and the "war on terror" when the focus shifted to the Middle East, especially the Afghan poppy fields. But there's still time for South America ... oh yes there's still time ...

It's a long read so here are some excerpts to demonstrate that it's worth the time:

It wasn't just CIA dealing some drugs to fund covert operations. It is that drug money is an inherent part of the American economy.

Joseph McNamara, a former chief of San Jose from the Hoover Institute at Stanford University, published some really telling figures. In 1972, when Richard Nixon started the War on Drugs, the annual federal budget allocation was 110 million dollars a year for enforcement. In fiscal year 2000, 28 years later, the budget allocation was 17 billion dollars a year, and yet, in the year 2000, there are more drugs in this country, they are cheaper, and they are more potent than they were in 1972. That has to tell you that there's some other agenda going on here.

The National Security Act that created the CIA in '47 was written by a guy called Clark Clifford, who was a Wall Street banker and lawyer. He's the guy that brought us BCCI. The job of writing the outline for CIA, the design for the Agency, was given to Clark Clifford by John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles--both law partners in the Wall Street law firm of Sullivan and Cromwell. In '69 after Nixon came in, the Chairman of SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] was William Casey--the same guy who was Ronald Reagan's Director of Central Intelligence. And the current Vice President in charge of enforcement for the New York Stock Exchange, Dave Dougherty, is a retired CIA General Counsel. The CIA is Wall Street, and vice versa. When you understand that, and that money is the primary objective, everything else just falls into place.

Organized crime is probably the lubricating force for the entire world economy right now. There's a trillion dollars a year in organised crime money. That trillion dollars a year is liquid, and if you think of money--criminal money, drug money--as water, which is thin, it can flow very quickly from point A to point B. And in the world markets, where you apply money is where you control business. You control markets. You control banks. You control interest rates. Drug money flows fastest. Money that is not criminal money has to go through regulations and banking systems. It has to go through taxations. It's tracked. The lawyers follow it. That money moves like molasses.

So those who have access to the cheapest capital always win. That's why if you don't play with drug money in the world economy today, you can't play at all. That's why, as we have documented, drug money was going directly into Al Gore's presidential campaign. Why? Because the Republicans, going as far back as Reagan, were using drug money, and that's how they put Reagan into office--with Bill Casey. If you don't play in that mode, you can't play at all. But the analogy I use is that it's like a snake eating its own tail: it's got to stop sooner or later.

2001-10-10: The Lies About Taliban Heroin
Russia and Oil the Real Objectives With Heroin As A Weapon of War
A Replay of CIA's Vietnam-era Drug Dealing by Michael C. Ruppert
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/…

2004-02-25: Haitiā€™s Nightmare: The Cocaine Coup & The CIA Connection by Paul DeRienzo
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/RIE4…

C.I.A (Cocaine.Import.Agency) ...The Drug Affair
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ9fgi7IZSk

"There has never been a conspiracy in this country!" - Dewey Clarridge

CIA Cocaine - Then and now
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/245.html

"In 2004, Webb who remained active as an independent journalist reportedly, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head - twice."

Gary Webb on C.I.A. Trafficking of Cocaine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6dHqP9wc3k

2007-12-19: Cocaine Jet That Crashed in Mexico Part of Cowboy Government Operation, DEA Sources Claim by Bill Conroy
http://www.narconews.com/Issue48/article29…

"The Gulfstream II jet that crash landed in the Mexican Yucatan in late September carrying close to four tons of cocaine was part of an operation being carried out by a Department of Homeland Security agency, DEA sources have revealed to Narco News."

CIA Torture Jet crashed with 4 Tons of COCAINE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oszATUJ4IRE

2008-09-13: Crashed Jet Carrying Cocaine Linked to CIA
http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/09/crashed-…

2009-05-21: Kerry: CIA Lied About Contra-Cocaine Connections
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/21/k…

2009-08-17: Cocaine on 90% of US Dollar Bills
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/cocaine-90-…

"They say the rise observed in the US may be due to increased drug use caused by higher stress levels linked to the global economic downturn." Right, OR it could be because the state-sponsored drug trafficking had to be increased to prevent an economic meltdown. Which came first? Probably both are true, i.e. another case of the chicken AND the egg.

2010-03-03: Colonel James Sabow (potential witness to Iran-Contra and military/govt drug trafficking)
MURDERED IN HIS OWN QUARTERS ON MARINE CORPS BASE
http://current.com/items/92266363_forensic…

Mounting evidence strongly indicates that ā€œThou shall not killā€ was ignored to support the Contra War in Nicaragua and to protect the ā€œbuttsā€ of those involved in bringing cocaine into the U.S. on former military aircraft. The overwhelming forensic evidence supports murder of a senior Marine Officer to prevent him from ā€˜telling allā€™ at a courts martial.

2010-04-21: The Afghan War: "No Blood for Opium"
The Hidden Military Agenda is to Protect the Drug Trade
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?con…

2010-07-20: All in the "Family." Global Drug Trade Fueled by Capitalist Elites
http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/20…

One former U.S. government official told investigative journalist Bill Conroy, "'Black operations have been going on forever. The recent [mainstream] media reports about those operations under the Obama administration make it sound like it's a big scoop, but it's nothing new for those who understand how things really work'."

The cozy relations among the world's biggest banks, drug trafficking organizations and the U.S. military-intelligence apparatus is not a new phenomenon. What is different today is the scale and sheer scope of the corruption involved.

2010-09-05: The Imperial Anatomy of Al-Qaeda.
The CIAā€™s Drug-Running Terrorists and the ā€œArc of Crisisā€
Part I by Andrew Gavin Marshall
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?con…

2010-09-09: 9/11 ANALYSIS: From Ronald Reagan and the Soviet-Afghan War to George W Bush and September 11, 2001
by Michel Chossudovsky
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?con…

A major and unexpected turnaround in the CIA sponsored drug trade occurred in 2000. The Taliban government which came to power in 1996 with Washington's support, implemented in 2000-2001 a far-reaching opium eradication program with the support of the United Nations which served to undermine a multibillion dollar trade. (For further details see, Michel Chossudovsky, America's War on Terrorism, Global Research, 2005). In 2001 prior to the US-led invasion, opium production under the Taliban eradication program declined by more than 90 percent. In the immediate wake of the US led invasion, the Bush administration ordered that the opium harvest not be destroyed on the fabricated pretext that this would undermine the military government of Pervez Musharraf.

Since the US led invasion, opium production has increased 33 fold from 185 tons in 2001 under the Taliban to 6100 tons in 2006. Cultivated areas have increased 21 fold since the 2001 US-led invasion. In 2007, Afghanistan supplied approximately 93% of the global supply of heroin. The proceeds (in terms of retail value) of the Afghanistan drug trade are estimated (2006) to be in excess of 190 billion dollars a year, representing a significant fraction of the global trade in narcotics. The proceeds of this lucrative multibillion dollar contraband are deposited in Western banks. Almost the totality of the revenues accrue to corporate interests and criminal syndicates outside Afghanistan. The laundering of drug money constitutes a multibillion dollar activity, which continues to be protected by the CIA and the ISI. In the wake of the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan.

In retrospect, one of the major objectives of the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan was to restore the drug trade.
7
OK, obviously you have given me alot of material to ponder - more than I could quickly read, even just half.
I'll check some of this out and get back to you.
However, my first thought is that there has also been a wealth of material written on the belief in Bigfoot.
But, I promise to read some with as much an open mind as I can muster, OK?
9
So, I'm maybe halfway through your suggestions, and I see that you put one heck of alot of stock into this Mike Ruppert joker.
There is also many things you can find on-line refuting him, if you wanted to look.
I found his testimony on the youtube clips completely unbelievable.
I also wonder if you are to believe him, as well as 99% of other conspiracy theories, why isn't so many others that are part of the CIA, etc, coming forword to fight this blatant injustice? People are notoriously bad at keeping secrets.
And, do you choose to believe the one or few holding such beliefs, or should you believe the many others that disagree completely?
Think about the Global Warming 'debate' in that context, even if it doesn't exactly qualify as a conspiracy theory.
People have extremely subjective memories too...
check out that documentary "Capturing the Friedmans". It not only shows how police can abuse their power, to tragic ends - but also how public hysteria is easily manipulated into crazy beliefs.
Also, why wouldn't the 'mainstream media' been jumping all over these stories too? Man, they love to exploit just about anything they can get their hands on, right? They must be part of the cover-up too then, right? Valerie Plame, CIA operative -- doesn't that story illistrate some of my points here?
JFK asassination by the mafia, moon landing being faked, the hit list on the Clinton cabinet members cover-up deal, Air Force hiding aliens down in New Mexico, etc etc etc...
The list is becoming endless, especially with the internet allowing any crack-pot idea to gain interest. Obama is a muslim..... Bush was responsible for 9/11... etc etc
There is also a wealth of material on-line discussing the phenomena of Conspiracy Theories, from many different academic disciplines and viewpoints.
People want to believe in some funny shit sometimes.
OK, I gotta say it knowing it will offend some - friggin' Astrology. Many many folks put some level of belief in this shit, regardless of the scientific proof that refutes it quite easily.
I could go on and on about that. Life is this mysterious thing, and folks want to find some reason and order in it where there is none. I think religion is a way of coping with the fear of death as well... alot of Japanese are into the belief that ones' charachter is determined by blood-type....
However, I am told that I don't believe in anything, so there you go.

I remain unconvinced by what you have presented me, though appreciate the civility you showed presenting it. Uncommon these days, unfortunetly.
10
Dang, I had some links to post, but I think Kenric Ashe beat me to it. Nice work. Frankeib, whistle blowers do come forward (Gary Webb, Barry Seal), and sometimes the level of corruption has to be addressed by the media for damage control purposes (Iran-contra). By the way, I love me some conspiracy, but aliens, or faked moon landings, or any of type of thing I don't touch. I won't throw out any more links into the mix, save one. I would urge anyone interested in these topics, skeptic or not, to read this story by Catherine Austin Fitts. The former assistant Secretary of Housing under Bush the first, Managing Director and member of the board of Wall Street firm Dillon, Read & Co.http://solari.com/assets/PDFs/myth_of_the_rule_of_law.pdf
11
What the hell, these are good too...
CIA Drug Running Judge Bonner 11 19 1993 CBS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q28NagfegJY…

Excellent documentary on how Bush and Clinton were complicit in CIA drug running in the 80s. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8…
q=mena+connection&total=20&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=2#

CIA Drug Running DEA Agent Celerino Castillo Whistleblower 9 23 1996 CBS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBYz8Fk0sk0…

CIA Drug Running Rep Maxine Waters 10 23 1996 ABC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK21ITFf5Sc…

Dateline report on CIA drug trafficking http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=57…

CIA Drug Trafficking Allegations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92KlBZQd4p4

12
@ frankieb
if you don't like mike Rupert or whoever check out Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981ā€“1987 by Bob Woodward. Despite his recent tomfoolery I think he's still viewed as a non-tinfoil hat journalist.

13
Aside from the open-ended closure which left many unanswered questions, there are several things through-out this artical that just don't make any sense.

The guy "Diego" went through all that just for $600 bucks a month?! I don't get it. If he were some poor villager/local who lived in rural Columbia, i suppose $600 would be alot of change. But the guy was living in CA & there $600 ain't shit! I don't see how "Diego" couldn't have gotten a job as a dish-washer making easily twice that much. Then the article says that [now] lives in a [different] Latin American country. So like, was he even living in CA or not.

And the right-wing paramilitaries are mentioned as a "third party" apart from FARC & govt. soldiers. But i thought the paramilitaries WERE working for the [extremely right-wing] govt. of Columbia.

How did the Merc. even get ahold of this guy?
14
@DamosA Santiago de Cali simply referred to as Cali, is a city in western Colombia and the capital of the Valle del Cauca Department. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cali
16
Ahhh, 90mph for 7 hours = 630miles. You know, the entire length of Columbia. Sounds like half the guys you meet at a bar bragging how tough the shit is that they came from.

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.