HI Everyone,
Again, I must take a moment to suggest looking for the book, "Capital
Crimes," by George Winslow. (1999, Monthly Review Press, NYC, 122 West 27th
Street).
"Despite massive dam projects, the heavy use of water in industry and in
government promoted agribusiness projects with major multinational
corporations had reduced teh amount of drinking water available for
Thailand's rapidly growing population, and electricity needs were increasing
at about 1,000 megawatts per year. Thailand was desperate for ways to build
new dams for energy and water, reported the Nation, a Thai paper, in 1994."
Does the above remind anyone else of Bolivia, and Becthel?
"In 1989, as the (Burmese) junta was jailing and torturing thousands of
dissidents, 8 major oil companies signed agreements with SLORC to explore for
natural gas and oil, deals that gave the cash strapped junta $40 million to
buy arms to repress the democratic opposition."
"US Intelligence Agencies spent $35 million to establish Sea Spray, which
ferried guns and supplies to KMT rebels in Burma. Sea Supply trained 300
members of Thailand's Police Aerial Unti and worked closely with the BPP,
which had grown to 4,230 members by late 1953. By the mid-50s there were 76
covert US intelligence advisors and perhaps as many as 300 American spies
working at Sea Spray."
Does Sea Spray sound anything like Sea Crest to anyone else?
"But Khun Sa's real role in the heroin trade is harder to define than his
legend. He is half-Chinese by birth, but near the end of his career he was
trying to pass himself off as a Shan nationalist who was simply protecting
that minority from massive human rights violations of the Burmese military.
The US has described him as the mastermind of a sophisticated multinational
empire that produced $100 to $200 million in annual revenues, yet Khun Sa
was, by all accounts, virtually illiterate until very late in life. He was
supposedly responsible for much of the heroin that reached the United States,
yet he had little control over the crime syndicates that imported the drug,
and he lacked the education and financial expertise to launder his huge
profits. For most of his career he was heavilly backed by both the Burmese
and Thai military, both of whom recieved large bribes from his operations.
Yet in 1993 the Burmese launched a massive military campaign against him and
his longtime supporters in Thailand suddenly cut off the supplies of food and
weapons that he had once easily purchased there.
There answer to many of these riddles can be found in the working of the
global economy. After the Second World War, American corporations were able
to expand their operations by working closely with local dictatorships, many
of whom used US aid and military support to saty in power. Unfortunately,
some of these dictatorships were also heavily involved in a variety of
criminal activities, which US officials, more interested in fighting
Communism than corruption and crime, ignroed.
The subsequent alliance of political leaders, legitiamate capital,a nd
criminal money is a crucial feature of the political economy of crime."
ON the Philipines: "Rather than turn the country over to the rebels, who
planned to set up a US-style democracy- The US embarked on a brutal campaign
of repression that featured concentration camps and mass murder. 'Kill and
burn, kill and burn,' General Jacob F Smith told his troops. 'the more you
burn, the more you please me. This is no time to take prisoners.' Historian
D.R. SarDesai estimates that a million people, about 1/7th of the population,
died before the country was 'pacified.'"
And for this note's finale:
"Contrary to the usual explainations, the modern heroin trade illustrates
some basic political and economic problems: Abusive corporate power, unequal
distribution of wealth, corrupt local elites who have close ties to organized
crime groups, and right-wing American politicians who have protected the
power of these various interests. The connections can be seen by simply
taking a look at the flow of drugs from places like Burma to heroin addicts
in the United States. At the bottom of the trade, organized crime lords, like
Khun Sa, require a large pool of impoverished peasants who are willing to
work for extremely low wages. Not surprisingly, the drug trade has taken root
in countries such as Burma, Colombia, Peru, Boliva, and Mexico where economic
conditions have produced massive poverty. Once harvested and processed,
however, the narcotics must be transported across borders, which reqires the
help of local elites who can protect the cartels from prosecution and launder
their revenues. Then the cartels must find another group of impoverished
people to sell the drugs once they reach the US- a labor pool created by
rapid changes in the global economy and the movement of low-skill
manufacturing jobs out of the country- a process that has been aided by the
rise of a deregulated global financial system- in order to expand their
operations further. THIS ENTIRE SYSTEM WAS SET IN PLACE BY ECONOMIC INTERESTS
THAT CREATED THE DRUG TRADE PRIOR TO 1945."
I'm telling you folks, this guy is good, so is his book, and I am only on
page 69. I haven't even gotten to the corporate stuff yet, and there is lots
more besides. Again I highly recommend this book, although for some it may be
a lot of old news. But for the rest of us who are still picking up tidbits
here and there, Winslow uses all kinds of sources, and amply credits them
with tons of footnotes. Look for this book.
Peace,
Preston
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