[cia-drugs] Fwd: Mike Trace: The global drug charade | Comment is free | The Guardian
Begin forwarded message: From: "Sardar" Date: March 12, 2009 6:31:00 PM PDT To: "Sardar" Subject: Mike Trace: The global drug charade | Comment is free | The Guardian The global drug charade Flying in the face of all the evidence, the UN is about to recommit to the tried and failed approach Comments (133) a.. b.. a.. Mike Trace b.. The Guardian, Wednesday 11 March 2009 c.. Article history Ten years ago, I represented Britain at a UN general assembly special session in New York, where political leaders reviewed progress in tackling the illegal drug market, and set out a 10-year plan to eliminate the illicit production and use of drugs such as cannabis, heroin and cocaine. Fast forward to this week in Vienna - where a similar gathering is tasked with reviewing progress and setting out a framework for international drug controls for the decade to come - and the lack of headway is striking. Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So far in Vienna, the meeting appears to have been struck by a similar affliction. Yes, it is every politician's nightmare: a controversial subject that the electorate cares about and that the media write about (some might say) obsessively. But evidence of the failure of policy is overwhelming. All credible studies conclude that there has been no overall reduction in the scale of production or use, and that in many parts of the world the problem has got significantly worse. There are at least 200 million users of controlled drugs. The illegal market generates an estimated $300bn turnover for organised crime. Overall rates of addiction are probably rising, as is transmission of the Aids virus through shared needles. States as diverse as Mexico, Afghanistan and Guinea-Bissau struggle to maintain control as profits from trafficking foment violence and disorder. Thirty countries still have the death penalty for drug offences and many continue to use it despite clear advice that this breaches the UN charter.. The forced eradication of crops in countries such as Colombia condemns whole communities to poverty and ill health. Legal clampdowns increase drug users' marginalisation, and the social and health risks of their behaviour. Perhaps all this "collateral damage" would be justified if the drug market was being reduced. The inconvenient truth is, it is not. How will the international community respond? Well, the head of the UN drugs agency, Antonio Maria Costa, has issued a report claiming "undeniable success", and governments are on the verge of signing a political declaration that meekly reports: "Some progress has been made." The declaration is essentially a reiteration of the objectives and activities agreed in 1998 - no recognition of a decade's evidence; no new ideas or initiatives. Privately, delegates are acutely aware of the weaknesses and divisions, but have no answers to offer. Some countries have tried to push for a more honest assessment. Britain is one - we may still be prone to rhetorical posturing and have tied ourselves in legislative knots over cannabis classification, but we do not send lots of people to prison for using drugs. We prioritise treatment for addiction and promote harm reduction approaches to improve the life chances of drug users and to prevent the spread of blood-borne viruses. We also accept that our law enforcement agencies cannot save the country from drugs. This is modern, pragmatic thinking. It will be drowned out in Vienna by a series of exhortations for tougher action in the "war on drugs". Tomorrow, representatives of all UN member states will adopt a declaration that commits them to another decade of the same strategy, in the hope of achieving different results. Einstein's definition seems to ring true. We're about to witness another walk up the political and diplomatic path of least resistance. It will do nothing to help the millions whose lives are destroyed by drug markets and drug use - and, depressingly, we can all book our seats for 2019, to go through this charade again. ... Mike Trace is the chairman of the International Drug Policy Consortium and the former deputy UK drug tsar Idpc.info a.. Printable version b.. Send to a friend c.. Share d.. Clip e.. Contact us f.. larger | smaller Email Close Recipient's email address Your first name Your surname Add a note (optional) Your IP address will be logged Share Close a.. Digg b.. reddit c.. Google Bookmarks d.. Yahoo! My Web e.. del.icio.us f.. StumbleUpon g.. Newsvine h.. livejournal i.. Facebook j.. BlinkList Contact us Close a.. Report errors or inaccuracies: rea...@guardian.co.uk b.. Letters for publication should be sent to: lett...@guardian.co.uk a.. If you need help using the site: userh...@guardian.co.uk b.. Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard: +44 (0)20 7278 2332
[cia-drugs] Fwd: [ctrl] The Raw Story | Hersh: 'Executive assassination ring' reported directly to Cheney
Begin forwarded message: From: Alamaine Date: March 11, 2009 4:42:42 PM PDT To: CTRL Subject: [ctrl] The Raw Story | Hersh: 'Executive assassination ring' reported directly to Cheney Reply-To: c...@yahoogroups.com [Several hot linques @ site. R] Hersh: 'Executive assassination ring' reported directly to CheneyMuriel Kane Published: Wednesday March 11, 2009 http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Hersh_US_has_been_running_executive_0311.html Print This Email This Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh dropped a bombshell on Tuesday when he told an audience at the University of Minnesota that the military was running an "executive assassination ring" throughout the Bush years which reported directly to former Vice President Dick Cheney. The remark came out seemingly inadvertently when Hersh was asked by the moderator of a public discussion of "America's Constitutional Crisis" whether abuses of executive power, like those which occurred under Richard Nixon, continue to this day. Hersh replied, "After 9/11, I haven’t written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven’t been called on it yet." Hersh then went on to describe a second area of extra-legal operations: the Joint Special Operations Command. "It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently," he explained. "They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. ... Congress has no oversight of it." "It’s an executive assassination ring essentially, and it’s been going on and on and on," Hersh stated. "Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That’s been going on, in the name of all of us." Hersh told MinnPost.com blogger Eric Black in an email exchange after the event that the subject was "not something I wanted to dwell about in public." He is looking into it for a book, but he believes it may be a year or two before he has enough evidence "for even the most skeptical." Stories have been coming out about covert Pentagon assassination squads for the last several years. In 2003, Hersh himself reported on Task Force 121, which operated chiefly out of the Joint Special Operations Command. Others stories spoke of a proposed Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group. As Hersh noted in Minnesota, the New York Times on Monday described the Joint Special Operations Command as overseeing the secret commando units in Afghanistan whose missions were temporarily ordered halted last month because of growing concerns over excessive civilian deaths. However, it appears that Hersh is now on the trail of some fresh revelation about these squads and their connection to Vice-President Cheney that goes well beyond anything that has previously been reported. Eric Black's blog posting, which includes an hour-long audio recording of the full University of Minnesota colloquy, is available here. http://www.minnpost.com/ericblackblog/2009/03/11/7310/investigative_reporter_seymour_hersh_describes_executive_assassination_ring -- ... . . . . . . . . . . . . Alamaine, IVe "The irrationality of a thing is no argument against its existence, rather a condition of it." Friedrich Nietzsche ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . In accordance with Title 17 USC Section 107, the material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER == ctrl is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half- truths, mis-directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, ctrl gives 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. There are two list running, c...@yahoogroups and c...@listserv.aol.com, c...@yahoogroups has unlimited posting and is more for discussion. c...@listserv.aol.com is more for informational exchange and has limited posting abilities. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Omimited posting abilities. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. OmYahoo! Groups Links
