Posted on 12/25/2010 6:58:55 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Cables Portray Expanded Reach of Drug Agency By GINGER THOMPSON and SCOTT SHANE
WASHINGTON — The Drug Enforcement Administration has been transformed into a global intelligence organization with a reach that extends far beyond narcotics, and an eavesdropping operation so expansive it has to fend off foreign politicians who want to use it against their political enemies, according to secret diplomatic cables.
In far greater detail than previously seen, the cables, from the cache obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to some news organizations, offer glimpses of drug agents balancing diplomacy and law enforcement in places where it can be hard to tell the politicians from the traffickers, and where drug rings are themselves mini-states whose wealth and violence permit them to run roughshod over struggling governments.
Diplomats recorded unforgettable vignettes from the largely unseen war on drugs:
¶In Panama, an urgent BlackBerry message from the president to the American ambassador demanded that the D.E.A. go after his political enemies: “I need help with tapping phones.”
¶In Sierra Leone, a major cocaine-trafficking prosecution was almost upended by the attorney general’s attempt to solicit $2.5 million in bribes.
¶In Guinea, the country’s biggest narcotics kingpin turned out to be the president’s son, and diplomats discovered that before the police destroyed a huge narcotics seizure, the drugs had been replaced by flour.
¶Leaders of Mexico’s beleaguered military issued private pleas for closer collaboration with the drug agency, confessing that they had little faith in their own country’s police forces.
¶Cables from Myanmar, the target of strict United States sanctions, describe the drug agency informants’ reporting both on how the military junta enriches itself with drug money and on the political activities of the junta’s opponents.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
>In Sierra Leone, a major cocaine-trafficking prosecution was almost upended by the attorney general’s attempt to solicit $2.5 million in bribes.
Are we caring about crackheads in that half a**ed 5th world country?
No but it just goes to show how far the DEA’s tentacles have reached.
Legalize, tax at 5% and defund
There would be fewer causalities, more liberty and fewer SWAT teams.
All of this over one group of people who become personally offended at the idea of another group of people ingesting a chemical to ‘feel different’.
We are seeing a replay of the 1920s right before our very eyes, only this time it’s worse. Our inability to LEARN FROM HISTORY is just STUPID!!!
One thing is certain. The least effective a policy/program/agency of the government is, the longer we can be assured of it’s existence. Even worse, the more we see something isn’t working, we double down on what we are doing wrong. It’s as if people can’t just ‘let go’ when it’s clear that something isn’t working....
Anyone could make a big list:...
Social Security
The War on Drugs
Public Education
Medicare/Medicaid
War on Poverty
I could literally type all night, so I’ll stop now....
What passes for “logic” regarding policy in the year 2010:
“Hey, this isn’t working”... “We obviously haven’t spent enough money on it” (the question of whether or not we should even be doing it in the first place is never raised)
To all of you ‘drug warriors’ out there, what do you propose we try next? What we’ve done thus far has been a failure. You must realize we are broke, our Constitution has been shredded, and even if we weren’t broke, we would sure as hell go broke building enough prisons to incarcerate everyone that takes a puff from a ‘joint’. Are you willing to destroy what’s left of our country in this failed idealistic pursuit?
I agree, whole heartedly with your comments. Yet, we have “conservatives” on FR that think drug users should be executed. And don’t any one on here try to tell me different. I’m not bothering to go back and search old threads for proof. You know who you are.
You have said it well:
“one group of people who become personally offended at the idea of another group of people ingesting a chemical to ‘feel different’.
Legalize drugs, tax them, and criminalize driving a car or doing anything else hazardous to others while under the influence. I don’t care what witless things people do to themselves unless they put others at risk.
No..just people who sell drugs for a profit should be executed. The Singapore solution.
I don’t think Sierra Leone grows cocaine- nor is it the likely end destination- apparently it is a connection between some South American cocaine-growing country such as Venezuela and other places, such as Europe, where the crackheads are. Sierra Leone is a diamond source though. What is likely going on is we have gotten so good at tracing money that terrorists and criminals are more dependent than ever on laundering their finds using drugs and diamonds as “money.”
“people who sell drugs for a profit should be executed”
That include your local pharmacist?
You do know that persciption drugs are the most widely abused dont you?
And has the death penalty stopped the drug trade in Singapore?
No?
Hrm.....there’s your sign...
They dont call it a black market for nothing...
I wish the NY Times would source its info to the actual cable so we could check to see if its interpretation of what the cables say is actually what the cables say.
A certain US politician whose name shall not be mentioned lest it draw paroxysms of rage has suggested that elements of aggressive US foreign policy might draw the ire of some foreigners. Can we ask the question of exactly how much did the DEA respect the constitutions and legal systems of foreign states in these operation? Did the close relations between the DEA and certain corrupt foreign political leaders damage the image of the US abroad?
Nice to know that wikipedia is better edited than the NYT.
including holding elected or appointed positions in government.
Because we all know how evil making a profit is. It seems I’ve heard this sort of argument somewhere else before.
You don't trust the New York Times ?????
: )
Can’t wait for that reading of the ol’ Constitution.
Ha. How much do they respect ours?
Trivia bump
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