from: Street Roots Vol.2 No.7 July 2000 1231 SW Morrison Portland, OR 97205 503.228.5657 page 5 ----- Drugwar on Display by Rayner Ward A dedicated band of anti-drugwar activists, researchers and whistleblowers met in the Wheeler Pavilion on the Lane County Fair Grounds in Eugene for a grueling 14-hour symposium. Grueling, yet intensely rewarding. My back was sore, my butt was aching, but I wouldn't have missed it for anything. The event, attended by some 120 persons and organized by Kris Millegan and Mike Ruppert, among others, featured two videos and ten speakers, each of whom exemplified a unique perspective on "the war on drugs" declared by Richard Nixon on the American people in 1972. Though the speakers addressed a common subject, their variety of collective experience was remarkable in itself. Among others, the participants included Mike Ruppert, ex-L.A. cop turned whistleblower/researcher; Didon Dinali, former black panther activist; author Rodney Stich; video producer Dan Hoppsicker; ex-DEA whistleblower Celerino Castillo and the dean of drugwar expose, author Prof. Peter Dale Scott. The symposium's leadoff event, Hoppsicker's video, The Secret Heart of America, dealt with the Arkansas "train deaths." After having witnessed a 'cocaine drop' outside of Mena, Arkansas, two hapless teenage boys were murdered and left on the tracks. The perpetrators of this crime were purportedly local county officials who were given ample assistance in the ensuing cover-up by higher-ups, ostensibly by George Bush's Central Intelligence Agency. Hoppsicker's video was followed by Kris Millegan's excellent summary of the history of the drug trade. Millegan recounted how Britishmilitary adventurists and maritime opium traders created the British Empire. The Empire grew and expanded as a result of the efforts of early corporations such the British East India Company, which imported opium from India to China and from China imported tea, silk and other items to England and the American Colonies. In the process, Britain subverted and dominated both of the once healthy and self- sufficient economies of India and China, having defeated their unwilling trading partner (China) in three "opium wars." Until the end of the transatlantic slave trade in 1832, the opium trade occurred in tandem with the slave trade. The dual business, once dominated by British merchants, was eventually appropriated by Yankee clipper ship captains, the clipper ship having become the fastest ocean going vessel of the times. By the end of the nineteenth century, mind- altering substances such as opium, cocaine and hashish were commonly sold and used legally throughout the Europe and the Americas in the form of heavily advertised patent medicine, tonics and soft drinks, including Coca Cola spiced with cocaine until 1903. Millegan asserted that during the nineteenth century, just as in recent times (if one considers, say, the Iran/Contra scandal) sleazy, shadowy operatives plowed back immense pifits o the drug trade into various leverage points of the economy, often changing the course of history itself. Opium profiteers, such as William H. Russell, E. H. Harriman and AIphonse Taft, parlayed drug profits into the establishment of railroad empires on the North American continent. The practices of the railroad barons are well documented: the ruination of farmers, laborers and small businessmen and corruption of local government in the exercise of monopolistic polistic power. The descendents of the railroad barons and opium traders Averell Harriman, William Howard Taft, McGeorge Bundy, William Stimson�are now well known as diplomats, advisors to presidents, Supreme Court judges and senators, scions of erstwhile opium profiteers. These dynasties have endured for generations, exercising corrupt political power hidden within secret societies. Such societies include Delta Kappa Epsilon, Phi Beta Kappa (now an honorary academic society) and the Skull and Bones, whose membership today features both George Bushes. The early opium traders made fortunes legally by selling the perfect product, one that the customer consumed completely and repeatedly. Opium and later morphine, heroin and cocaine became relatively inexpensive self-medicative drugs of choice for common people all throughout the Western World and for awhile were accepted and approved by prevailing medical authorities. But what drove drug profits through the roof was drug prohibition. Drug prohibition began with the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, followed by the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914 and the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, all of which were subsumed and expanded under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act. Under the CSA, it has been almost impossible to conduct scientific research even on marijuana. The concept of recreational drug use, popular in the media in the late 1960s and early '70s, has vanished, along with the quaint notion of victimless crimes, under a barrage of draconian laws and media hysteria. We have been saddled with a one-size-fits-all drug regulation policy buttressed by mandatory minimum sentences and long prison terms. One major result of this myopic policy has been an avalanche of wealth for drug profiteer elites. Another result, according to Peter Dale Scott, is a precipitous increase in drug use. The same phenomenon occurred concomitant to alcohol prohibition. In reference to Richard Nixon's "war on drugs" Prof. Scott notes, "A metaphor can be a dangerous thing." Thus, instead of declaring to the American people that henceforth the government would create a persecuted underclass and expropriate and disenfranchise the working class while enriching a criminal elite, Nixon and his allies declared a "war on drugs." Conditions have deteriorated increasingly since 1972. Property seizure constitutes a salient example of this deterioration. Rodney Stich, one of the speakers, recounted an example from his research: A 67-year-old widow was attempting to sell her house. Two men who expressed interest in buying it answered her ad. During the conversation about the proposed sale, one of the men mentioned in passing that some of the money for the sale might be from a drug sale. For some reason or another, perhaps ignorance, the woman let the remark pass and upon the finalization of the sale, the two men, undercover narcotics agents, arrested her and confiscated her house. She now resides in a state penitentiary though she claims never to have bought, sold or used illegal drugs in her life. According to Stich, there are now so many narcotics agents at all levels of government that some resort to entrapment just in order to keep busy. At present two of every three prison and jail inmates in the U.S. are first time, non-violent drug offenders, and in the State of California, prison unions field the most powerful political lobby in the state. It is difficult to find a family in the U.S. that has not been negatively affected by this situation; especially affected are children of parents who spend years behind bars for minor offenses. But not only individuals and families are impacted by the war on drugs. According to speaker Mike Ruppert, the entire economy from the banks and financial institutions to the stock market, real estate market, law enforcement and government at all levels has been put at risk. When vast illegal profits are made, they need to be laundered, to be brought safely into the mainstream of the economy. "It's not just banks like BCCI, The Bank of Crooks and Criminals International, or obscure banks in the Cayman Islands that are dirty," says Ruppert. Banks all over the U.S. are compromised. You can't bring a trunk full of five dollar bills into a bank anymore, but you still can do that at a large brokerage house." The stock market will be happy to accommodate. Just as the extraordinary profits of the early opium lords helped to create an empire and subvert nations, so do contemporary illegal drug profits help to buy corporations and politicians or undermine savings and loan institutions. The S.& L. debacle cost the taxpayers half a trillion dollars, deficits that shows up as a decrease in public services and impoverishment of schools, hospitals and public institutions. And let us not forget the impact of drug profits on the real estate market. Peter Dale Scott recounted the story of Los Angeles' Freeway Ricky Ross, most preeminent cocaine broker of the Iran/Contra period of he late 1980's. "He found at one point that he had six or seven million dollars that he didn't know what do with. So he mentioned it to Blandon." (his Nicaraguan Contra partner) "You mean you don't know? Real estate, man, buy real estate." Might not the impact of ubiquitous drug money effect the cost of housing for ordinary people whose incomes are not bloated by illegal drug profits? Laundered drug money flooding the economy at all levels might well be considered a significant factor in inflating the prices of goods and services. Ruppert contends that if laundered drug profits were withdrawn from the economy, it is quite likely that financial institutions, certainly the stock market, could not withstand the shock. If the banking system crashed, the government itself would be on very shaky ground. Celerino Castillo, a former DEA agent, was arguably the most poignant speaker at the symposium. He grew up on a ranch in south Texas, joined the army in order "to serve my country" and served with distinction in Viet Nam, having been awarded the silver star. He worked in local law enforcement for five years and then became a Drug Enforcement Administration agent. He had seen the effects of heroin addiction in Viet Nam and wanted to "get the bad guys," as he put it. Instead, in the early '80s he found himself working in Central America as a DEA liaison to the vicious, Guatemalan military. He witnessed corruption, torture and murder of cocaine traffickers, who were targeted only because they were rival drug dealers, as well as innocents who, like the "train deaths" victims of Mena, Arkansas, just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He began to write reports describing mass murders under "slaughterhouse" conditions. He complained that his missions were often trumped by C.I.A. operations, so that time and again he was forced to release arrestees in deference to arbitary orders from superiors. His reports were ignored or elicited reprimands from superiors who formerly praised his work Finally, his career in tatters, his wife having divorced him as a result of the stress of his job, Castillo quit in disgust. "I always wanted to get the bad guys," he said. "And then I found out that the bad guys were us." But Castillo managed to document his career thoroughly. He showed us documents, horrific photos of the work of death squads, and named names of corrupt C.I.A. agents. Today he substitute teaches in a public high school and has written a book recounting his experience as a whistleblower exposing the scam of the war on drugs. Solutions to the problems, as elucidated by the symposium members, are varied. Education is the most common theme. As speaker Didon Dimali, said, "The young are naturally the vanguard of change in society. We must let them know what is happening to our country." The schools, the government institutions, the media, the politicians, it seems, won't do this because they are part of the problem. And as Mike Ruppert said, "It may already be too late." Hopefully not. If you are interested in this subject here are some references: The Politics of Heroin by Alfred W. McCoy The Iran Contra Connection by Peter Dale Scott and Jane Hunter Powderburns by Celerino Castillo Drugging America by Rodney Stich HYPERLINK http://www.ctrl.org ( website of Kris Millegan) HYPERLINK http://www.copvcia.com (website of From the Wilderness Newsletter of Michael Ruppert <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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