tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4284893230469697578.post8760382687310791556..comments2024-03-29T12:05:09.910+07:00Comments on <b>Postcards from the End of [the] America[n Empire]</b>: Doped Up NationLinh Dinhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00328959360983573810noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4284893230469697578.post-67834839916658088982017-07-04T01:26:14.119+07:002017-07-04T01:26:14.119+07:00Rudy I could use the Dewey Decimal System here too...Rudy I could use the Dewey Decimal System here too. Blessings of joy and longevity!Ian Keenanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16596558654735506132noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4284893230469697578.post-422118278138967882017-07-03T22:12:10.977+07:002017-07-03T22:12:10.977+07:00Ian,
McCoy’s Politics of Heroin:
I read that in ...Ian,<br /><br />McCoy’s Politics of Heroin:<br /><br />I read that in the 90s. It’s probably still around here somewhere, but it would take more time than I’ve got left to find it. In any case…<br /><br />Reading it completely gob-smacked me, but still didn’t bring me to my senses. It seemed like a malignant aberration – something local in both time and space – a secret that had been exposed but would be remedied now that it had been revealed. 9/11, especially bringing down the WTC, was what finally removed those barriers.<br />Rudyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03449122628917135438noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4284893230469697578.post-48881937906404346912017-07-03T10:20:53.073+07:002017-07-03T10:20:53.073+07:00Regarding Rudy's account, I must add that my s...Regarding Rudy's account, I must add that my stepfather, whom I was never close to, was the head of drug enforcement for South Vietnam. Now, his job was a joke because high ranking members of the South Vietnamese government, as well as the American military and the CIA, were all involved with drug trafficking. Linh Dinhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00328959360983573810noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4284893230469697578.post-4322083764838273542017-07-03T01:04:17.310+07:002017-07-03T01:04:17.310+07:00Paragraph 2 "unpublished DISPATCHES from Time...Paragraph 2 "unpublished DISPATCHES from Time-Life"Ian Keenanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16596558654735506132noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4284893230469697578.post-76730639850336526352017-07-03T01:01:23.033+07:002017-07-03T01:01:23.033+07:00(General Maurice) Belleux explained in detail how ...(General Maurice) Belleux explained in detail how his agency had controlled Indochina’s illicit drug trade.. The general added “your CIA” had inherited the network.. when the French quit Vietnam in 1954.. Other French veterans .. confirmed both the general’s information and his suggestions. (x)<br /><br />I met the beat poet Allen Ginsberg, who insisted that the CIA was deeply involved in the Southeast Asian opium trade. To back his claims and aid my research, he mailed me a carton containing years’ worth of unpublished lo from Time-Life correspondents that documented the involvement of America’s Asian allies in the opium traffic. (x)<br /><br />Shortly after (Politics of Heroin, 1972 edition) was published, New York congressman Ogden Reid, a ranking member of the House Foreign Relations Committee, telephoned me to say that he was sending investigators to look into the opium situation. By the time they arrived, the CIA had silenced my sources, and the investigators returned to Congress with the agency’s sanitized story.. Senator Frank Church’s committee accepted the results of the agency’s own internal investigation, which had found, not surprisingly, that none of its operatives had ever been in any way involved in the drug trade. (xviii)<br /><br />From 1934 to 1970, the slow pressure of.. diplomacy had forced a gradual reduction in global opium production from 7,600 tons to only 1,000. In the following twenty years, however, the failure of the DEA’s suppression efforts combined with CIA complicity in global traffic allowed world opium production to multiply fourfold to 4,200 tons by 1989. Significantly, some 3,000 tons, or 73 percent of the 1989 total, came from Southeast Asia, where the CIA had worked with the region’s drug lords for twenty-four years. Most of the balance comes from southern Asian opium hills and heroin laboratories controlled by the CIA’s Afghan guerrilla clients. (19)<br /><br />When President Carter reacted to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 by shipping arms to the mujaheddin guerrillas, (Dr. David) Musto’s disquiet grew. “I told the council,” he recalled, “that we were going into Afghanistan to support the opium growers in their rebellion against the Soviets. Shouldn’t we try to avoid what we had done in Laos? Shouldn’t we try to pay the growers if they will eradicate their opium production? There was silence.” As heroin from Afghanistan and Pakistan poured in to America throughout 1979, Musto noted that the number of drug-related deaths in New York City rose by 77 percent. (436-7)<br /><br />McCoy’s Politics of Heroin 1991 editionIan Keenanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16596558654735506132noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4284893230469697578.post-41025642564129034212017-07-02T21:31:28.276+07:002017-07-02T21:31:28.276+07:00One of my friends who fought in Viet Nam during th...One of my friends who fought in Viet Nam during the 60s told me that he was ordered to fill steel containers with heroin and then weld them up. The containers were originally intended to transport bodies. He was told that the orders came down from Westmoreland. Rudyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03449122628917135438noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4284893230469697578.post-11285306675439436042017-07-02T20:54:40.350+07:002017-07-02T20:54:40.350+07:00In sections of Baltimore police officers--current ...In sections of Baltimore police officers--current and retired--have and do run segments of the heroin trade.<br />I have spoken to returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who told me that they were made offers to haul kilos home, since they will not be searched coming through customs like a civilian.<br /><br />Is it a function of the state, of state functionaries getting in on the action or both?<br /><br />Great article. james lafondhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02030244687676471117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4284893230469697578.post-22373344614421347502017-07-01T03:45:05.746+07:002017-07-01T03:45:05.746+07:00The CIA admits to selling crack in South Central L...The CIA admits to selling crack in South Central LA during the 80s.. I overheard two women who both agreed passionately that their childhood in Camden was modest but fun, a good community, but crack not poverty ruined everything. Alfred McCoy wrote about the CIA and heroin during the Vietnam War and since the Afghan war started opium production and export has skyrocketed. The function of the DEA is to eliminate the competition to the ruling mob. The media chimes in to say that it's all Venezuala's fault, even though the coke's coming through Mexico from Colombia and Peru. During the 80s it was blamed on the Sandinistas by the same news outlets.<br /><br />When you realize how much the Feds fought the civil rights movement over voting, how close the elections are, and the recent turning back the clock on voting rights, it is very convenient to be able to have a felony crack rap on so many black men.<br /><br />About hiring contractors, the Federal Reserve is concerned that too many people have jobs and are talking rate hike. As Engdahl notes that's not as bad as the Volcker era that helped get Reagan elected.<br /><br />"Television and drugs define happiness for too many Americans. Those, and spewing venom online pseudonymously." I thought this was Unz Commenters Appreciation Week.<br /><br />everyone and everything adores you Linh!Ian Keenanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16596558654735506132noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4284893230469697578.post-67605436634313200242017-07-01T02:57:49.471+07:002017-07-01T02:57:49.471+07:00Hi Anonymous,
It's one objective, along with ...Hi Anonymous,<br /><br />It's one objective, along with making the pharmaceuticals, CIA and Wall Street a lot of money. Drugs also make make people stupid and helpless, which helps the state.<br /><br />China was destroyed by drugs, which allowed it to be raped by all these Western countries, plus Japan. Americans are being drugged mostly by their own government, however.<br /><br /><br />LinhLinh Dinhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00328959360983573810noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4284893230469697578.post-45386275805280616412017-07-01T02:22:41.586+07:002017-07-01T02:22:41.586+07:00Linh, do you think that there is a deliberate atte...Linh, do you think that there is a deliberate attempt to eliminate members of the lower class by opiate overdoses? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4284893230469697578.post-83989295971528828542017-06-30T06:21:35.010+07:002017-06-30T06:21:35.010+07:00Hi Rudy,
It is grim. I texted Lisa yesterday to s...Hi Rudy,<br /><br />It is grim. I texted Lisa yesterday to say how sorry I was she was fired.<br /><br /><br />LinhLinh Dinhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00328959360983573810noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4284893230469697578.post-58474000381722734142017-06-30T06:18:23.155+07:002017-06-30T06:18:23.155+07:00Well, Linh, that was a heavy read. Well, Linh, that was a heavy read. Rudyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03449122628917135438noreply@blogger.com