"In March 1985, President Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 166, ...[which] authorize[d] stepped-up covert military aid to the mujahideen, and it made clear that the secret Afghan war had a new goal: to defeat Soviet troops in Afghanistan through covert action and encourage a Soviet withdrawal. The new covert U.S. assistance began with a dramatic increase in arms supplies ? a steady rise to 65,000 tons annually by 1987, ... as well as a "ceaseless stream" of CIA and Pentagon specialists who traveled to the secret headquarters of Pakistan's ISI on the main road near Rawalpindi, Pakistan. There the CIA specialists met with Pakistani intelligence officers to help plan operations for the Afghan rebels."4
The history of the drug trade in Central Asia is intimately related to the CIA's covert operations. Prior to the Soviet-Afghan war, opium production in Afghanistan and Pakistan was directed to small regional markets. There was no local production of heroin.11 In this regard, Alfred McCoy's study confirms that within two years of the onslaught of the CIA operation in Afghanistan, "the Pakistan-Afghanistan borderlands became the world's top heroin producer, supplying 60 percent of US demand. In Pakistan, the heroin-addict population went from near zero in 1979... to 1.2 million by 1985 ? a much steeper rise than in any other nation":12
According to the person heading the efforts, the money went into things like 65 tons of wheat, money to UN, money to CARE, etc.
I often oppose foreign aid. But these accusations brought by Robert Scheer are offered without proof.
Bring facts and convince me. Stuff from 1985 not relevant.
Otherwise, I'll believe Powell over Scheer.
Do you actually believe Scheer over Powell? You can't be serious. Do you believe everything Scheer writes? Do you understand his reputation and past history praising the likes of the progressive North Korean leadership? Have you read the article by his former buddies at Ramparts? Read it at frontpagemag.com.
If you want to ally yourself with Scheer, take yourself to motherjones.com or thenation.com.