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Commentary: "Taliban Destroy Poppy Fields In Surprise Clampdown On Afghan Opium Growers"  "Taliban fighters have destroyed fields of opium poppies in eastern Afghanistan this spring, the first time since 2001 the hardline Islamist group is known to have clamped down on the cultivation of a drug that provides a big part of its funding. While the insurgents appear to have dug up a relatively small area of poppies in a remote area near the border with Pakistan, the move was so unusual it won a chorus of praise from the Afghan government and international organisations, whom the Taliban consider their enemy, as well as senior clerics. "They just did what the constitution ordered," said Wasifullah Wasifi, a spokesman for the provincial governor in Kunar, where the eradication took place. "The provincial governor really appreciates what the insurgents did. From the perspective of Islam it is forbidden and a crime to grow drugs," Wasifi said, adding that nearly a hectare had been destroyed by the Taliban in the province's Manawara district, in addition to a far larger amount eradicated by the government. [...]"  

MSM: "Fourth Mexican General Arrested Over To Drug Cartels" [05/21/12] "Another Mexican general has been arrested on suspicion of having links to the country’s drug cartels, Mexican Defense Department has said. Retired Lt. Col. Silvio Hernandez Soto, who was brought in for questioning, was the fourth high-ranking officer arrested, the department said on Friday. The allegations against Soto have not been announced. None of the officers has yet been charged. Retired Gen. Tomas Angeles Dauahare and Gen. Roberto Dawe Gonzalez were detained on Tuesday. Retired Gen. Ricardo Escorcia was brought in for questioning on Thursday. Angeles Dauahare was appointed as assistant defense secretary in 2006. He left the post in 2008 when he retired. Dawe Gonzalez is currently assigned to a military base in the western state of Colima. Angeles Dauahare and Dawe Gonzalez are suspected of protecting the members of the Beltran Leyva cartel, an official at the Attorney General's Office said. Drug-related violence has left more than 50,000 people dead since President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown on drug cartels in 2006.  [...]"  

Commentary: "U.S. Abandons Afghan Consulate After Spending $80 Million" [05/07/12] "After signing a 10-year lease and spending more than $80 million on a site envisioned as the United States’ diplomatic hub in northern Afghanistan, American officials say they have abandoned their plans, deeming the location for the proposed compound too dangerous. Eager to raise an American flag and open a consulate in a bustling downtown district of the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif, officials in 2009 sought waivers to stringent State Department building rules and overlooked significant security problems at the site, documents show. The problems included relying on local building techniques that made the compound vulnerable to a car bombing, according to an assessment by the U.S. Embassy in Kabul that was obtained by The Washington Post. [...]"  Related: "Poppy Cultivation Flourishes Under The Watchful Eyes Of The Crusaders And Their Lackeys In Afghanistan" | See also, below: Drug War Operation Showcases New Mission For U.S. Military" [05/07/12] ; Canadian Press Tells Us What Really Happened in Cartagena – And It Wasn’t About Prostitutes and Secret Service" [05/06/12] and related stories.

Commentary: "Drug War Operation Showcases New Mission For U.S. Military" [05/07/12] "The U.S. military has brought lessons from the past decade of conflict to the drug war being fought in the wilderness of Miskito Indian country, constructing this remote base camp with little public notice but with the support of the Honduran government. It is one of three new forward bases in Honduras -- one in the rain forest, one on the savanna and one along the coast -- each in a crucial location to interdict smugglers moving cocaine toward the U.S. from South America. Honduras is the latest focal point in America's drug war. As Mexico puts the squeeze on narcotics barons using its territory as a transit hub, more than 90 percent of the cocaine from Colombia and Venezuela bound for the U.S. passes through Central America. More than a third of those narcotics make their way through Honduras, a country with vast ungoverned areas -- and one of the highest per capita homicide rates in the world. This new offensive, emerging just as the U.S. military winds down its conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and is moving to confront emerging threats, also showcases the nation's new way of war: small-footprint missions with limited numbers of troops, partnerships with foreign military and police forces that take the lead in security operations, and narrowly defined goals, whether aimed at insurgents, terrorists or criminal groups that threaten U.S. interests. [...]"  Related: See below. The "War on Drugs" is an essential part of the hegemony extended by Western countries, so they cannot have anything ever 'legalized'. South American countries want to move in that direction.

Commentary: "Canadian Press Tells Us What Really Happened in Cartagena – And It Wasn’t About Prostitutes and Secret Service" [05/06/12] "International Press Inform that the Main Issues Were Cuba, Legalization of Drugs, and the U.S.’s Isolation from South America. Talking to the locals and getting reports via media from other countries such as Japan and Holland, we sensed important changes were occurring in Latin America. Major industrial expansion, improvements to the infra-structure, plus the expansion of the Panama Canal already 70% complete. China is spending billions in grants spread across the region, making friends by building soccer stadiums, schools, roads, and more; gifts, not loans. [...]" 

Commentary: "Border Checks On Drugs And Guns 'Dropped' At Heathrow" [05/06/12] "Labour urges Theresa May to probe claim that long queues and staff shortages have forced customs to drop guard on smuggling. Customs checks aimed at thwarting drugs and arms smugglers have been downgraded in order to deal with the growing queues at Britain's major airports, according to frontline officials. Senior immigration officers and border force unions say staff shortages and growing political pressure to reduce queueing times mean that operations to combat the influx of drugs, guns and other contraband into the UK have, in effect, been placed on hold. [...]"  Note: Nice of them to let everyone know ahead of time, so as to encourage maximum chaos, in order to justify in-place and planned elements of the national security state.

US Politics: "Republicans Prepare Contempt Citation Against Holder Over Fast and Furious Arms Smuggling to Mexico" [04/28/12] " House Republicans investigating the Fast and Furious scandal plan to pursue a contempt citation against Attorney General Eric Holder, senior congressional aides told CBS News. The resolution will accuse Holder and his Justice Department of obstructing the congressional probe into the allegations that the government let thousands of weapons fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. The citation would attempt to force Holder to turn over tens of thousands of pages of documents related to the probe, which has entered its second year. For months, congressional Republicans probing ATF's Fast and Furious "Gunwalker" scandal - led by California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, have been investigating a contempt citation. They've worked quietly behind the scenes to build support among fellow Republicans, since it could ultimately face a full House vote. CBS News has confirmed that House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, was provided a 48-page long draft by Issa, who heads the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. "While there are very legitimate arguments to be made in favor of such an action, no decision has been made to move forward with one by the Speaker or by House Republican leaders," a Republican leadership aide told CBS News.  [...]"  

Commentary: "Mexican Police Seize More Than 250,000 Rifle Bullets On A Trailer Being Driven Across The Border From The US" [04/19/12] "Mexican police say they have seized more than 250,000 bullets that were being smuggled into the country from the US. The ammunition for assault rifles was found on a trailer driven across the border from Texas into Ciudad Juarez. The driver - a 37-year-old man from Dallas, Texas - was detained. Mexico says many of the weapons used by violent drugs gangs come from the US. It wants tighter controls on weapons sales north of the border. The driver told customs officials he had nothing to declare when he arrived at the border, Mexican prosecutors said. But an x-ray inspection of his cargo hold revealed the metal boxes holding the ammunition. In total 268,000 bullets for AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles were seized, Ciudad Juarez border control official Juan Ramon Huerta said. Mexican President Felipe Calderon has repeatedly called for the US to implement stricter firearms laws to cut the supply of weapons to drugs cartels. Around 50,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico since President Calderon began deploying troops to fight the cartels in 2006. [...]"  Note: Sounds like "Fast and Furious" is still going on.

Buffoonery: "U.S. Gives $1 Million To Anti-Drugs Drive In Afghanistan" [03/17/12] "The United States said Thursday it has contributed $1 million to a United Nations program to help probe, arrest and prosecute drug traffickers working in Afghanistan and Central Asia. The United States gave the funds Wednesday in Vienna to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) Regional Program for Promoting Counternarcotics Efforts in Afghanistan and Neighboring Countries, according to the State Department. [...]"  Note: Considering US involvement in drug trafficking in Afghanistan, this a huge, transparent joke. 

MSM: "Mexican Drug Cartels ‘Operating In The UK, France And Netherlands’" [03/11/12] "Mexico’s violent drug cartels have reached the streets of Britain, France and the Netherlands, according to the Cocaine Import Agency (CIA), with undercover British MI6 overlord agents training their emloyees in El Paso how to combat any occuring problem. [...] Three members of Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) met US agents on the Texas-Mexico border this week in a bid to put a stop to cartels taking hold on Britain and Europe. The British agents spoke about surveillance tactics, special operations teams and cybercrime units, according to a US immigration officials. On Thursday, they watched how ICE investigators tore apart a car where a cargo of marijuana was found at the Paso del Norte Bridge in this West Texas city. The agents are expected to head to Miami next week to learn about port operations in the US. “The most important lesson that we have shared with SOCA, is that if they are not prepared to deal with the Mexican cartels, they will spread like a cancer and will entrench themselves in the economy and community in an attempt to ‘legitimise’ their illicit profits.” Oscar Hagelsieb, an agent at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations office, said. “They must also be aware of the violence that will undoubtedly follow.” US authorities believe Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel has drug distribution networks in England and has established footholds in France and the Netherlands, among other places in Europe, he said. [...]" 

MSM: "U.S. Probes Allegations Afghan Air Force Involved In Drug Running" [03/08/12] " U.S. authorities are looking into allegations that some Afghan Air Force (AAF) officials have been using aircraft to transport narcotics and illegal weapons across the country, a U.S. official said on Thursday. [...]" 

MSM: "Cops In Shoot Out With Mexican Drug Gang Across Rio Grande" [03/04/12] "U.S. Border Patrol agents and Mexican drug traffickers fought a gun battle across the Rio Grande river in south Texas, authorities said on Friday, the latest of a spate of cross-border shootings in recent months. The Border Patrol said gunfire erupted on Wednesday after agents confronted a group of smugglers loading bundles of marijuana into two vehicles on the banks of the Rio Grande west of Roma, Texas, a town about 250 miles south of San Antonio. The agents opened fire after smugglers fleeing in a vehicle attempted to run them over. Armed traffickers on the Mexican side of the river then shot at the agents, who returned fire into Mexico, the Border Patrol said in a statement. [...]"  

Mexico: "Prison Guards Allegedly Plotted Mass Killings With Drug Cartel" [02/21/12]   "Members of the Zetas drug cartel plotted with prison guards to orchestrate an elaborate escape and kill 44 of their rivals in one of the worst episodes of prison violence in Mexico, the local state governor said on Monday. [...]"  

Commentary: "Production Of Afghan Heroin Jumps By 61%" [02/18/12] "The latest UN figures indicate that the output of heroin increased by 61 percent in Afghanistan last year despite the Western claims about their will to curb the production of drugs during the invasion of the war-battered country. Opium production by Afghan farmers rose between 2001 and 2011 from just 185 tons to a staggering 5,800 tons. Last year, levels increased by 61 percent, with more than 90 percent of heroin found on British streets being traced back to opiates cultivated in Afghanistan, according to UN figures. The UN figures make grim reading for those who backed the invasion of Afghanistan. [...] " 

MSM: "Governors of Mexican Border States Investigated For Aiding Drug Cartels" [02/03/12] "The real Mexican Drug War is a political war between the federal government, led by the National Action Party (PAN) and the state governments, mostly led by the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI). The most powerful drug cartel in Mexico (the Sinaloa Drug Cartel) has ties to the CIA and corrupt elements of the PAN party. The rest of the cartels are Sinaloa’s competitors that have aligned themselves with the PRI in state and municipal governments throughout Mexico. Calderon’s government is going after Sinaloa’s competitors and PRI governors, knocking two birds with one stone. [...]"  

Trends: "War On Drugs "Transferred" To Private Mercenaries Including Blackwater/Xe" [01/18/12] "Since the drug war has become so unpopular with the electorate, instead of politicians actually changing the drug laws, the Department of Defense seeks to reduce and conceal the real costs by transferring the "dirty work" to private contractors to do what "U.S. military forces are not allowed or not encouraged to do." The BBC (in Spanish) is reporting that the U.S. Department of Defense is delegating the war on drugs to private mercenary companies. Of those companies, the increasingly infamous organization previously known as Blackwater is said to have received several multimillion-dollar government contracts for "providing advice, training and conducting operations in drug producing countries and those with links to so-called "narco-terrorism" including Latin America." The "no bid" contracts, issued under the Counter-Narcoterrorism Technology Program Office's $15 billion dollar budget, are described as "non-specific" and are said to be "juicy" for the private contractors. The Pentagon says "the details of each cost in very general contracts do not go through bidding processes." An unnamed analyst says "the responsibility of the public and national security changing from a state's duty to be a private business...has become the trend of the future." [...]"  

MSM: "Expert Says Beheadings in Arizona and Oklahoma Look Like Work of Cartels" [01/18/12] [2:30] "Three beheadings in two different states and they happened here in the United States, not Mexico. Former DEA supervisor Phil Jordan says all three beheadings have cartel written all over them. They happened in Arizona and Oklahoma in the past year. A murder mystery is now unraveling on a stretch of North Reservation Road in Tucson, Ariz. County workers found a headless man lying on the side of the road Jan. 6. The man's hands and feet were reportedly missing, too. "It would lead me to believe the message wanted to be sent. This is one of the ways they do it in Mexico, Colombia and other places," says Jordan. Jordan says the cartels are getting bolder in carrying out their beheadings across the border. He says we only used to see these crimes in Mexico. "They don't have any borders," says Jordan. More than 600 miles from the border, a 19-year-old human trafficking victim was found beheaded in Oklahoma. Carina Saunders was stuffed into a bag and left in a grocery store parking lot. "People know if they get on the wrong side of the fence, they'll be dealt with," says Jordan. The police chief in the area says two men running the trafficking ring killed Saunders to send a message to the other victims. Jordan says the cartels' calling card is all over this case. Trafficking and smuggling are their top moneymakers. Revenge is the price of doing business. [...]"  

MSM: "U.S. Agents Aided Mexican Drug Trafficker to Infiltrate His Criminal Ring" [01/10/12] "American drug enforcement agents posing as money launderers secretly helped a powerful Mexican drug trafficker and his principal Colombian cocaine supplier move millions in drug proceeds around the world, as part of an effort to infiltrate and dismantle the criminal organizations wreaking havoc south of the border, according to newly obtained Mexican government documents. The documents, part of an extradition order by the Mexican Foreign Ministry against the Colombian supplier, describe American counternarcotics agents, Mexican law enforcement officials and a Colombian informant working undercover together over several months in 2007. Together, they conducted numerous wire transfers of tens of thousands of dollars at a time, smuggled millions of dollars in bulk cash — and escorted at least one large shipment of cocaine from Ecuador to Dallas to Madrid.  [...]"  

MSM: "Gun Makers Baffled By ATF "Secretive System" Criteria" [01/05/12] "The ATF recommends that manufacturers voluntarily submit weapons for case-by-case determination. But those judgments are private and, it turns out, sometimes contradictory. Critics say nearly identical prototypes can be approved for one manufacturer but denied for another. [...]"  Note: Perhaps the end-user, like the cartels, determines what they want, and that's what is accepted. 

MSM: "Fast and Furious’ Linked to Immunity Deal Between U.S. and Sinaloa Cartel, Trafficking Defendant Alleges in Court" [12/30/11] "A Mexican drug trafficker awaiting trial in a Chicago federal court claims that the notorious Sinaloa cartel received weapons from “Operation Fast and Furious” under an alleged immunity agreement that the U.S. government made with cartel leaders, in exchange for information on rival gangs. The defendant in a trafficking case before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Vicente Jesus Zambada-Niebla, also claims the immunity deal allowed the criminal cartel to “continue to smuggle tons of illicit drugs” into the United States. He wants the U.S. government to provide documents relating to the botched gun running sting operation along the southwest border, arguing that it would benefit his defense. [...]"  

Corbett Report: "The Manas Question: Drugs, Revolution & Terrorism on the Road to Afghanistan" [12/22/11] [4:59] "The Manas Air Base, situated near the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, has played a key role in the increasingly important Central Asian region since its inception. First opened in December 2001 to support the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, the Manas Air Base plays host to the US Ninth Air Force and serves primarily as a transit point for US goods and personnel coming and going from Afghanistan. As part of the so-called Northern Distribution Network, a key supply route for NATO troops in Afghanistan that bypasses the now-blockaded Pakistani borders, Manas continues to be a strategically vital asset for the US. At the same time, the base has also been a point of contention with the locals for years, and the controversy doesn’t seem likely to die down any time soon. As important as the base is to the Kyrgyz people, the true nature of Manas remains an open question. For years, it has been at the centre of a string of allegations revolving around drug-running, terrorism and stage-managed revolutions. This is our EyeOpener Report by James Corbett, presenting Kyrgyzstan’s Manas Air Base, and exploring its reported position as a center where the US conducts covert meetings and operations with various militant Islamic groups such as Pakistani Jundullah, its importance as a major transit point for Western controlled and routed Afghan heroin, the true nature of the Tulip Revolution, the incoming Kyrgyz president’s latest threats to close the base, and the nation’s position on a fault line in the tectonics of geopolitics.  [...]"  Note: This a short, preliminary 'eye-opener' report.

MSM: "UK Implicated In Afghanistan Drug Trade" [12/16/11] "A senior Afghan official has accused Britain of involvement in illicit narcotics trade in Afghanistan, Press TV reports. "There are documents and evidence that show that British forces in [Afghanistan's] Helmand Province not only did nothing to prevent the illicit drug trade, but in some cases also took part in it," Yousef-Ali Vaezi, an advisor to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, told Press TV on Thursday. "They cooperated in the cultivation, production, and trafficking of drugs," he added. He also said that the restrictive conditions brought in the declaration of the national gathering of Afghan tribal leaders -- the Loya Jirga -- which was recently held to discuss long-term security agreement with the US, were still valid. Based on the conditions, Vaezi said, the US-led foreign forces in Afghanistan would not be granted immunity from prosecution. On November 19, the assembly of more than 2,000 Afghan tribal elders and dignitaries issued the declaration, endorsing President Hamid Karzai's decision to negotiate the long-term deal. The four-day meeting centered on setting up long-term American bases in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of the US-led troops from the country, which is expected to take place in 2014. Many parts of Afghanistan remain insecure ten years following the US-led invasion of the Asian country and despite the presence there of nearly 150,000 US-led foreign forces. According to some reports, the production of narcotics in Afghanistan have increased nearly 40 times since the US-led forces invaded the country in 2001.  [...]" 

Flashback: "The International: Oil, Drugs, Guns & Kissinger Associates" [12/09/11] "At the nadir of Four Horsemen/Gulf Cooperation Council/CIA petrodollar drugs for guns recycling scheme quietly sit the international banksters. Through every major scandal and behind every despotic regime stands a global financial oligarchy- ultimate beneficiary of the world’s addiction to oil, guns and drugs. The oil wealth generated in the Persian Gulf region is the main source of capital for these bankers. They sell the GCC sheiks 30-year treasury bonds at 5% interest, then loan the sheiks’ oil money out to Third World governments and Western consumers alike at 15-20% interest. In the process these financial overlords- who produce nothing of economic import- use debt as their lever in consolidating control over the global economy. [...] The international bankers oversee Persian Gulf oil wealth generated by their Big Oil tentacles. Chase Manhattan called the shots at Iran’s central Bank Markazi, then looted the Iranian Treasury as insiders Rockefeller, Kissinger and McCloy whisked their Shah puppet into exile. Chase had close ties to the Saudi SAMA central bank and Venezuela’s central bank, where Rockefeller-controlled Exxon Mobil “is the CIA”. Chase launched the Saudi Industrial Development Fund which doled out contracts to Chase-owned multinationals during the Saudi modernization drive, then bought Saudi Investment Banking Corporation, which did exactly the same. [1] World Bank Presidents Eugene Black and John McCloy both came from Chase. Morgan Guaranty Trust presided over the House of Saud oil kitty. SAMA, created as the Kingdom’s Central Bank as the ink was still drying on the US/Saudi Security Agreement, was run by IMF goon Anwar Ali, who was handled by the “Three Wise Men” or “White Fathers”, the most powerful of which was John Meyer, chairman of Morgan Guaranty Trust’s International Division and later chairman of Morgan Guaranty. Meyer funneled SAMA petrodollar royalties into Morgan, which was investment counselor to SAMA. [2] Morgan was banker to Bechtel and ARAMCO. Stephen Bechtel sat on Morgan Guaranty’s board, as did Chevron Texaco CFR insider George Schultz and Sulaiman Olayan, the Bechtel straw man crucial to recycling Persian Gulf petrodollars into international banks. [...]" 

MSM: "Fight On Money Laundering Coordinated With Mexico: US" [12/08/11] Video clip    [1:23]  "The United States insisted Tuesday that operations to combat money laundering are coordinated fully with Mexico, amid controversy over a report that US agents laundered drug proceeds "to see how the system works" ... [...]" 

Exposé: "ATF Wanted to Use “Fast and Furious” to Justify More Gun Control Legislation" [12/08/11] "Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation “Fast and Furious” to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales. In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the “big fish.” But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called “gunwalking,” and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent. ATF officials didn’t intend to publicly disclose their own role in letting Mexican cartels obtain the weapons, but emails show they discussed using the sales, including sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation called “Demand Letter 3″. That would require some U.S. gun shops to report the sale of multiple rifles or “long guns.” Demand Letter 3 was so named because it would be the third ATF program demanding gun dealers report tracing information. On July 14, 2010 after ATF headquarters in Washington D.C. received an update on Fast and Furious, ATF Field Ops Assistant Director Mark Chait emailed Bill Newell, ATF’s Phoenix Special Agent in Charge of Fast and Furious: “Bill – can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same (licensed gun dealer) and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks.” [...]"  Note: More ploys for 'gun control' by creating a problem, eliciting a reaction and then applying a suppressive solution to benefit control dynamics. 

Commentary:  "Walking Guns and Laundering Drug Money – The “War” on Drugs is Doing Just Fine" [12/05/11] "If there is an argument to be made that the United States is the biggest purveyor of terrorist activities across the world which we justify with the endless “Global War on Terror” (and that argument is not hard to make), what does that say about our “War on Drugs”? Look at just a few of the recent stories from the headlines and judge for yourself… The Justice Department lied repeatedly about “gun walking” firearms to Mexican drug cartels – There was a policy in place at the highest levels in the ATF and the Justice Department to ship weapons to Mexican “drug cartels”. This is at a time when violence in Mexico is at it’s highest level since the Spanish landed on their shores. In February the Assistant Attorney General wrote the following to an investigating body of congress; it was a complete fiction… a lie… and congress now has the emails to prove it. [...]" Related: "Fast and Furious" Whistleblowers Struggle Six Months After Testifying Against ATF Program" "Six months ago, several agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives stood before Congress to testify about the details of a U.S. government program that armed Mexico's largest drug cartel with thousands of assault rifles. The administration denied it at the time and questioned the agents' integrity. The men were nervous and scared. They said they feared for their careers, their reputation and their families. [...]" 

MSM: "DEA Launders Mexican Profits Of Drug Cartels" [12/05/11] "Undercover American narcotics agents have laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds as part of Washington’s expanding role in Mexico’s fight against drug cartels, according to current and former federal law enforcement officials. The agents, primarily with the Drug Enforcement Administration, have handled shipments of hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal cash across borders, those officials said, to identify how criminal organizations move their money, where they keep their assets and, most important, who their leaders are. They said agents had deposited the drug proceeds in accounts designated by traffickers, or in shell accounts set up by agents. The officials said that while the D.E.A. conducted such operations in other countries, it began doing so in Mexico only in the past few years. The high-risk activities raise delicate questions about the agency’s effectiveness in bringing down drug kingpins, underscore diplomatic concerns about Mexican sovereignty, and blur the line between surveillance and facilitating crime. As it launders drug money, the agency often allows cartels to continue their operations over months or even years before making seizures or arrests.  [...]"  

Commentary: "Pentagon’s "War On Drugs" Among The Most Lucrative Sources Of Cash For Private Security Contractors" [11/23/11] "An obscure Pentagon office designed to curb the flow of illegal drugs has quietly evolved into a one-stop shop for private security contractors around the world, soliciting deals worth over $3 billion. The sprawling contract, ostensibly designed to stop drug-funded terrorism, seeks security firms for missions like “train[ing] Azerbaijan Naval Commandos.” Other tasks include providing Black Hawk and Kiowa helicopter training “for crew members of the Mexican Secretariat of Public Security.” Still others involve building “anti-terrorism/force protection enhancements” for the Pakistani border force in the tribal areas abutting Afghanistan. The Defense Department’s Counter Narco-Terrorism Program Office has packed all these tasks and more inside a mega-contract for security firms. The office, known as CNTPO, is all but unknown, even to professional Pentagon watchers. It interprets its "counter-narcotics mandate" very, very broadly, leaning heavily on its implied counterterrorism portfolio. And it’s responsible for one of the largest chunks of money provided to mercenaries in the entire federal government. CNTPO quietly solicited an umbrella contract for all the security services listed above — and many, many more — on Nov. 9. It will begin handing out the contract’s cash by August. And there is a lot of cash to disburse.[...] "   Related: Commentary: "US Drug War Construct"  "The "US War on Drugs" is a complex and intricate intelligence construct.  For the intelligence operation to be successful, however, the various drug cartels, US law enforcement agencies and government institutions must remain unaware of the role they are performing on the geopolitical chessboard for the elite within the military intelligence construct. [...]"  

Commentary:  "Gunwalker Scandal Broadens--The FBI Connection" [11/22/11] "Confidential informants who are participating in the Congressional probe of the Project Gunwalker (Operation Fast and Furious) scandal have now zeroed in on the FBI connection. Such a connection has been hinted at in the past, but information relayed today shows that FBI involvement was much deeper than anyone imagined. The investigation into Gunwalker has revealed a scandal involving multiple departments of the Obama Administration--Justice, FBI, ATF, ICE, DEA, DHS, and State. These connections have been verified through previously hidden emails and documents, and sworn testimony of whistleblowers. [...]"  

MSM: "Cartel Plot: Use U.S. Guns for Massive Mexico City Attack" [11/19/11] "In October of 2008, Chicago-based drug trafficker Margarito “Twin” Flores was summoned to the Sinaloa Cartel’s mountaintop compound. The leaders of the Mexican narcotics syndicate were pissed. The brother of a top lieutenant had been arrested by the government and risked being extradited to the United States; the Sinaloans wanted to retaliate — in a massive and deadly way, and in the heart of Mexico City. [...]"  

Commentary: "War, On Drugs: The Military’s Complicated Relationship With Narcotics" [11/02/11] "Just think of them as the secret weapons -- or handicaps -- of soldiers around the world: booze, weed, ecstasy, heroin and a handful of other illicit pills, plants and elixirs. Because whether top brass want to admit it or not, the storied history of global warfare would be way less interesting without them. From some boozy bonding in the barracks or a few uppers to stay alert on an aerial mission, to scoring psychedelics that pass a urine test or experimenting with rave drugs to alleviate trauma, controlled substances are, for better or for worse, surprisingly ubiquitous in military circles. So whatever your vice of choice, light it, pop it or drink it, and then indulge in a little war -- on drugs. [...]"  Related: Commentary: "Oo-rah" Lew Rockwell "I read frequently ... that in an age of moral decomposition only the military adhere to principles, and that our troops in places like Afghanistan nobly make sacrifices to preserve our freedoms and democracy. Is not all of this nonsense? Honor? A soldier is just a nationally certified hit-man, perfectly amoral. When he joins the military he agrees to kill anyone he is told to kill, regardless of whether he has previously heard of the country in which he will kill them or whether the residents pose any threat to him or his. How is this honorable? It is cause for lifelong shame.  [...] The explanation of course lies in the soldier's moral compartmentation. Within his own tribe or pack, these usually being denominated “countries,” he is the soul of moral propriety – doesn't knock over convenience stores, kick his dog, or beat his children; speaks courteously, observes personal hygiene, and works tirelessly for the public good in the event of natural disasters. A steely gaze with little behind it and a firm handshake amplify the appearance of probity. [...]  Sacrifice? GIs do not make sacrifices. They are sacrificed, sacrificed for big egos, big contracts, for the shareholders of military industries, for pasty patriots in salons who never wore boots. They fight not for love of country but to stay alive, and from fear of the punishments meted out to deserters. If you doubt this, tell the men in Afghanistan that they may come home on the next plane without penalty, and see how many stay. Troops are as manipulated as roosters in a cock fight, forced to choose between combat and the pot. [...]"  

MSM: "Anonymous Takes On Zetas Cartel" [11/01/11] "Anonymous is getting truly ambitious: In its latest video, the hacker collective takes on Mexico's Zetas cartel. An Anonymous member wearing a Guy Fawkes mask speaks Spanish and uses Mexican slang in the video, translated by the Houston Chronicle, and threatens to reveal the cartel’s associates and businesses if a recently kidnapped Anonymous member is not released. The member was allegedly abducted during a street protest in Veracruz.  One global intelligence expert worries that if Anonymous does attack the cartel, more deaths will "most certainly" occur. But a retired DEA officer calls it "a gutsy move" on the part of the hacktivists. [...]"  

Corbett Report: "Morbid Addiction: The CIA and the Drug Trade" [10/17/11]   [19:17] "Just as the British Empire was in part financed by their control of the opium trade through the British East India Company, so too has the CIA been found time after time to be at the heart of the modern international drug trade. From its very inception, the CIA has been embroiled in the murky underworld of drug trafficking. There are billions of dollars per year to be made in keeping the drug trade going, and it has long been established that Wall Street and the major American banks rely on drug money as a ready source of liquid capital. With those kinds of funds at stake, it is unsurprising to see a media-government-banking nexus develop around the status quo of a never-ending war on drugs – aided, abetted and facilitated by the modern-day British East India Company, the CIA. This is our EyeOpener Report by James Corbett presenting the history, documented facts, and cases on the CIA’s involvement and operations in the underworld of drug trafficking, from the Corsican Mafia in the 1940s through the 1980s Contras to the recent Zambada Niebla Case today. [...]"  Transcript

MSM: "Mexico Captures Zetas Cartel Leader" [10/16/11] "Mexico’s army on Thursday said it captured a top lieutenant in the infamous and powerful Zetas drug cartel, adding that he is responsible for the casino attack in August in the city of Monterrey that killed 52 people. [...]"  

Commentary: "New Evidence Shows Hillary A Mastermind Behind "Gunwalker" [10/15/11] "Last week it was reported that the State Department and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were deeply involved in the scandal known as Operation Fast and Furious, or Project Gunwalker. Today, however, new evidence has surfaced indicating that not only was Hillary deeply involved in the scandal but was one of the masterminds behind it. According to investigative citizen journalist Mike Vanderboegh, sources close to the development of the Gunwalker scheme state that early on, Hillary and her trusted associated at State, Andrew J. Shapiro, devised at least part of the framework of what would later become Operation Fast and Furious. It was Shapiro who first described the details of the proposed scheme early in 2009 just after the Obama Administration took office. [...]" Related: "More On The Unethical Hillary: Hillary Uncensored" 

MSM: "Congress Issues Subpoena For Holder, Others In 'Fast And Furious' Probe" [10/14/11] "Congressional investigators have issued a subpoena for communications from several top Justice Department officials - including Attorney General Eric Holder - relating to the discredited "Fast and Furious" federal gunrunning operation, according to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California. Operation Fast and Furious involved agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowing illegal sales of guns believed to be destined for Mexican drug cartels to "walk" from Phoenix, Arizona, gun stores into Mexico. [...]"  

MSM: "Iran Seizes 250 Tons Of Narcotics" PressTV [10/15/11] [2:13] "We have seized about 250 tons of traditional narcotics like opium, hashish, morphine and heroin being trafficked from Afghanistan. The amount shows an eight-percent increase compared with last year,” said Ali Mobedi, the head of Iran's Drug Control Headquarters, on Tuesday. He went on to say that the Iranian officials, during the same time interval, have seized 140 percent more crack cocaine, compared with last year. “About 85 percent of the drugs were seized exactly on the border of Iran and Afghanistan,” the official pointed out, stressing that the detained amount is enough to destroy the whole human population. According to the UN Drug Report 2011, Iran, which shares a 936-kilometer border with Afghanistan and a 909-kilometer border with Pakistan, has intercepted 89 percent of all the seized opium worldwide. The Iranian government has set up static defenses such as man power and electronic equipment along its border to maintain more control of the area. Within a span of thirty years, more than 3700 Iranian police officers have been killed and tens of thousands more injured in counter narcotics operations, mostly on Afghan and Pakistan borders.  [...]"  Note:  Another reason why the 'intelligence' community doesn't like Iran - they're cutting into world drug trafficking profits used to fund covert totalitarian operations.

Commentary:  "Putin Versus The American Drug Cartel" [10/13/11] "In several recent communications with US, Ukrainian and Russian friends, about the current set of conditions within the former Soviet Union I have been able to confirm that the CIS Countries are under covert assault by the CIA, Mossad, and Drugs Inc. It appears that the cold war has gone into a new and deadly direction. Currently Russia and the CIS countries are suffering from a new drug epidemic from the vast quantities of cheap, high quality heroin from Afghanistan. Since the US occupation, the Opium production in Afghanistan has increased one hundred thousand fold. The net result is that another generation of young Russian white people is again being destroyed by Zionist interests. Currently 30% of the population under the age of 35 living in Russia and the CIS countries have tried or are using heroin. The heroin is very pure and high quality, it is very cheap and highly addictive. Currently 75% of the opium produced in Afghanistan is destined for Russia and the CIS states. Since the USA controls the source of this cheap high quality heroin, the USA is responsible for this plague upon the people of the Eastern bloc. It is well documented that US soldiers and private contractors are both protecting the poppy fields and safeguarding the cultivation. The USDA is even providing agricultural advice (at US taxpayer expense), to increase the yield per acre of opium poppies. The USA is sponsoring this chemical attack upon the Russian people and their allies. [...]"  Related: See below.

MSM: "Afghanistan's Economy Is Booming Again Thanks To Opium" [10/12/11] "Rising opium prices have upped the ante in Afghanistan, and farmers have responded by posting a 61 percent increase in opium production, compared to 2010, according to BBC News. A year after a plant infection cut yields in half, Afghani farmers -- responsible for 90 percent of the world's opium -- came back strong, producing 5,800 tons of opium, the main ingredient in heroin. While a few areas saw a decrease in cultivation, thanks to government measures, everything else is up: the amount of the plant produced, the provinces in which it is cultivated (from 14 to 17), and the price, which is up 43 percent from a year ago. Despite overtures by NATO to provide development funding to areas that stopped poppy cultivation, the profits of this lucrative industry proved to be a stronger pull. Three provinces that were deemed "poppy-free" are now heroin produces again. The amount of opium produced by Afghanistan is incredible considering that only 12 percent of the country is suitable for growing crops, according to the Strategic Studies Institute. But growing opium has become so prevalent that 70 percent of the population is involved in production.  The southern regions, which have seen the most violence since the start of the war in 2001, produce the vast majority of the country's opium. Since the Taliban reaps much of the profits from Afghanistan's number one industry, it's hard to imagine making a dent in the insurgency without providing a real, profitable alternative for the otherwise economically destitute Afghan people. [...]"  Related: "Afghanistan Opium Production Set To Rise 61%: UN" "Opium production in Afghanistan is set to rise by nearly two-thirds this year, with farmers’ revenues from the crop set to soar compared to last year’s disease-hit harvest, the UN said Tuesday. Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the world’s illegal opiates from its mammoth crop that continues despite an internationally-funded eradication drive and funds much of the Taliban’s insurgent activity. The UN said that cultivation of the poppy crop reached 131,000 hectares in 2011, seven percent higher than in 2010 “due to insecurity and high prices”, in its annual opium survey released by the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). And with the crop yield per hectare up markedly from last year’s blight-hit harvest, overall production would potentially rise by 61 percent on last year, the report said. [...]" | " Afghan Opium Production Rising"  BBC [2:10] 

Commentary: "Fast And Furious: 22 Shocking Facts About The Scandal That Could Bring Down The Obama Administration" [10/11/11]  "U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has been stonewalling all efforts by members of Congress to look into Fast and Furious. A CBS reporter that has been aggressively investigating this story was recently screamed at and cussed at by a high ranking official that works in the White House. It has become abundantly clear that the Obama administration desperately wants to hide what went on during Operation Fast and Furious. So will they succeed or will we eventually find out the truth? What you are about to read should shock the living daylights out of you. The U.S. government purposely armed Mexican drug cartels with thousands of guns and then ordered agents not to follow the weapons across the border. This should be a story that the mainstream media is pounding on every single day. [...]" 

MSM: "Mexican Drug Cartels (Armed By the US Government ) Using Increasingly Brutal Tactics to Shock Rivals and Authorities" [10/10/11] "Masked gunmen dump the bodies of 35 murder victims during rush hour as terrified motorists watch and tweet friends to avoid the avenue in a coastal city. A couple of weeks later, 32 more corpses are found nearby in three houses. A woman's decapitated body [ [...]"    Related: "100+ 'Fast And Furious' Guns Found In Mexico Cartel Home" | "House Committee to Subpoena Holder in 'Fast and Furious' Probe" | "Issa: 'Fast And Furious' Subpoenas Issued Soon"  

Commentary:  "White House ATF Fast and Furious Emails and Documents" [10/09/11] "Emails and documents related to the ongoing investigation of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ “Fast and Furious”/Project Gun Runner program leaked to CBS. Includes a map of distribution routes for weapons involved in the program leading to locations throughout Mexico. [...]"  

MSM: "9 US Sheriffs Announce Press Conference to Call for Holder’s Resignation" [10/08/11] [0:39] "Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu and nine other elected sheriffs will hold a press conference to discuss ATF’s “Operation Fast and Furious.” 11am, Arizona Peace Officers Memorial, Wesley Bolin Plaza, Phoenix. [...]"  

Interview: "CBS Reporter Says White House Screamed at Her Over ' Fast and Furious'" [10/06/11] [9:57] "On The Laura Ingraham Show, CBS News investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson spoke with Laura today about her latest bombshell report on the Obama administration's Operation Fast and Furious scandal. Judging from the White House's reaction to her investigation, it seems officials there know they are in deep, hot water. [...]" Related: "ATF Fast and Furious: New documents show Attorney General Eric Holder was briefed in July 2010"  [10/03/11] CBS [2:36] "New documents obtained by CBS News show Attorney General Eric Holder was sent briefings on the controversial Fast and Furious operation as far back as July 2010. That directly contradicts his statement to Congress. On May 3, 2011, Holder told a Judiciary Committee hearing, "I'm not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks." Yet internal Justice Department documents show that at least ten months before that hearing,  [...]" Note: Other links to documents are on the page.

Exposé:  " U.S. Government Invokes National Security to Conceal Deal Cut with Mexican Drug Cartel" [10/06/11]   "On Saturday, October 1, 2011, investigative journalist Bill Conroy of the Narcosphere reported scandalous and highly troubling new developments in the criminal case against accused Mexican narco-trafficker Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla. The breaking story unravels the U.S. government’s ugly national-security interests in the drug war by exposing a quid pro quo deal between the US government and the most powerful international narco-trafficking organization on the planet- the Sinaloa “Cartel,” and the US government’s recent attempt to cover this up by filing a motion in the case seeking to invoke the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), a measure designed to assure national security information does not become public during court proceedings.  [...]"  Related: "US Government Accused of Seeking to Conceal Deal Cut With Sinaloa “Cartel” [10/05/11]   

Commentary: "Holder’s Hollywood Manqué: About Death" [10/05/11] "Tucson’s “Wide Receiver” is the latest government gun-smuggling code. Hollywood could have invented cute names for ATF agents smuggling guns to criminals. Maybe even introduced a plot twist where a brave Border agent is murdered because of gun smuggling. But even Hollywood would realize Eric Holder’s Project Gunrunner - and all its foul brood - is about Death. The American people are slowly learning about a sinister scheme, concocted in the US Government's Executive Branch, that was then enabled by Chiefs of nearly every Federal Law enforcement Agency. Gunrunner, Fast and Furious and Wide Receiver are all stylized, trivialized names for government agents who helped smuggle American guns to Mexican drug cartels. Playful names mask deadly crimes and deep corruption too serious to invent. ATF agent whistleblowers say that ATF's Operation Fast and Furious (with Justice Department direction) enabled thousands of weapons to be smuggled into Mexico and sold to drug cartels. The smuggling, gun-walking project called Gunrunner (proudly announced in 2009 by Attorney General, Eric Holder in Cuernavaca, Mexico) has cost the lives of Tucson Sector Border Agent, Brian Terry and ICE Agent, Jaime Zapata, along with hundreds of Mexican military and law enforcement. [...]"  

MSM: "Bush-Era Operation Wide Receiver Involved Guns 'Walking'" [10/05/11] "The federal government under the Bush administration ran an operation that allowed hundreds of guns to be transferred to suspected arms traffickers — the same tactic that congressional Republicans have criticized President Barack Obama's administration for using, two federal law enforcement officials said Tuesday. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and other Republicans have been hammering the Obama Justice Department over the practice known as "letting guns walk." The congressional target has been Operation Fast and Furious, which was designed to track small-time gun buyers at several Phoenix-area gun shops up the chain to make cases against major weapons traffickers. In the process, federal agents lost track of many of the more than 2,000 guns linked to the operation.  [...] Last October, Jason Weinstein, deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's criminal division, raised concerns about investigative methods in Operation Wide Receiver and about the timing of announcing indictments in both Wide Receiver and Fast and Furious. "It's a tricky case given the number of guns that have walked, but it is a significant set of prosecutions," Weinstein wrote in a Justice Department email turned over to Congress, which released the document. Weinstein raised the question in asking whether Lanny Breuer, the assistant attorney general who runs the Justice Department's criminal division, should participate in a news conference when indictments in Fast and Furious and the case resulting from Wide Receiver were unsealed."  

Exposé: "France: Top Lyon Cop Arrested For Links With International Drugs Trade" [10/01/11]   [0:00] "Michel Neyret, the second highest ranking police officer in the French city of Lyon, has been arrested for connections to the drugs trade and corruption, reports Euronews. Neyret is one of four high ranking officers arrested in an investigation by the General Inspection Service, known as IGS. Neyret's arrest is likely to prove controversial. The 55-year-old cop, described as "bouffant-haired and charismatic", is a 20 year veteran. He is widely credited with the Lyon police department's successful fight against drug crime and jewelery store heists, reports The Guardian. However, he is reported to have used confiscated drugs to pay off informants, helping them sell the goods. Police have also arrested a man suspected of supplying Neyret with luxury cars, including a Ferrari and a Rolls Royce. The investigation has already spread to Cannes, reports France24. There are allegedly links to South American drugs cartels and a Parisian cocaine ring, and multiple Swiss bank accounts are being investigated. [...]"  

MSM: "U.S. Now Controls More than Half of World Arms Sales" [10/01/11]   "American arms merchants enjoyed a dominant year in 2010 as the United States was responsible for selling more than half of all weapons worldwide. The United States overwhelmingly dominates arms sales to the Near East, with the bulk of sales in the last four years going to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Iraq. [...]"  

MSM: "U.S. Government Used Taxpayer Funds to Buy, Sell Weapons During 'Fast and Furious,' Documents Show" [09/26/11] "Not only did U.S. officials approve, allow and assist in the sale of more than 2,000 guns to the Sinaloa cartel -- the federal government used taxpayer money to buy semi-automatic weapons, sold them to criminals and then watched as the guns disappeared. This disclosure, revealed in documents obtained by Fox News, could undermine the Department of Justice's previous defense that Operation Fast and Furious was a "botched" operation where agents simply "lost track" of weapons as they were transferred from one illegal buyer to another. Instead, it heightens the culpability of the federal government as Mexico, according to sources, has opened two criminal investigations into the operation that flooded their country with illegal weapons. [...]" Related: "Letter Implicates ATF In Committing Straw Purchases For Gunwalker" "A letter forwarded on Friday by a proven reliable source to Gun Rights Examiner and Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars documents Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives management authorizing the sale of firearms, which sources say were intended for delivery to cartel purchasers as part of the “Fast and Furious” / ”Gunwalker” scandal. [...]"

Commentary: "Inside The Gun Smuggling Scandal That Could Take Down Attorney General Eric Holder" [08/19/11] "Investigations into a gunrunning sting gone horribly wrong are creeping closer to the top of the U.S. Justice Department and its head, U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. A congressional report released last month revealed that top DOJ officials knew about the sting, known as Operation Fast and Furious, in which U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) agents allowed more than 2,000 firearms to "walk" across the U.S. border to Mexico and into into the hands of Mexico’s brutal drug cartels. As many as 1,700 of those weapons have since been lost, and more than 100 have been found at bloody crime scenes on both sides of the border, including the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Arizona last December. In a letter obtained by the Los Angeles Times yesterday, Justice Department officials acknowledged that Fast and Furious weapons have been linked to at least 11 other crimes in the U.S.  The gunrunning operation is now the subject of a Congressional investigation, led by U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), to identify who in the DOJ was responsible for or knew about the sting. Issa and Grassley have made it clear that Holder — a confidant of President Barack Obama — is a central focus of their probe. “I do have serious concerns that the attorney general should have known a lot more than he says he knew,” Issa, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told the Washington Post. “In some ways, I’m more disappointed that he’s saying he didn’t know than if he says he was getting briefings and he didn’t understand.” So far, the DOJ has stonewalled the Issa/Grassley probe. But recent testimony from the embattled ATF director made the astounding claim that the cartel leaders targeted by Fast and Furious were allegedly paid informants for the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI. If true, these allegations could taint the entire Justice Department. As the investigation widens, Holder will likely face some tough questions about how an ill-fated operation to actively arm — and perhaps pay — Mexico's brutal drug cartels could have happened under his watch, with or without his knowledge. [...]"  

MSM: "Issa: Obama Admin Intimidating Witnesses In ATF Gun Probe" [07/27/11] "The Obama administration sought to intimidate witnesses into not testifying to Congress on Tuesday about whether ATF knowingly allowed weapons, including assault rifles, to be “walked” into Mexico, the chairman of a House committee investigating the program said in an interview Monday. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell E. Issa, California Republican, said at least two scheduled witnesses expected to be asked about a controversial weapons investigation known as “Fast and Furious” received warning letters from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to limit their testimony. Mr. Issa's committee is set to hear testimony from six current or former ATF employees, including agents and attaches assigned to the bureau’s offices in Mexico, about the operation — in which, federal agents say, they were told to stand down and watch as guns flowed from U.S. dealers in Arizona to violent criminals and drug cartels in Mexico. The six-term lawmaker aired his concerns about the program in a wide-ranging interview with reporters and editors at The Washington Times on Monday. Among other questions, the agents are likely to be asked about a large volume of guns showing up in Mexico that were traced back to the Fast and Furious program; whether ATF officials in that country expressed concerns about the weapons to agency officials in the U.S., only to be brushed aside; and whether ATF officials in Arizona denied ATF personnel in Mexico access to information about the operation. Nearly 50 weapons linked to the Fast and Furious program have been recovered to date in Mexico. Committee investigators said Mexican authorities also were denied information about the operation. [...]" Related: "ATF Chief Says Justice Department Covering Up Gun Smuggling Scandal To Protect Obama Officials" [07/21/11] "The LA Times reports the Director of the ATF is blowing the whistle on a Justice Department cover up of the U.S. government’s guns smuggling operations. As I have previously reported, the U.S. government gun smuggling scandal has grown to include at least two Mexico drug cartels and along with sister operations that involved gun smuggling to Puerto Rico and Honduras with some guns reaching as far as Columbia. [...]" | "U.S. Taxes Bought ATF Guns for Cartels; AG Holder Lied" "As the scandal surrounding the Obama administration’s operation to put high-powered guns in the hands of Mexican drug cartels continues to grow, new revelations suggest that American taxpayers might have actually paid for the weapons through the stimulus bill and multiple agencies. On top of that, Attorney General Eric Holder apparently lied about his knowledge of the scheme. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (still known as ATF) is facing growing pressure after whistleblowers exposed “Project Gunrunner” and “Operation Fast and Furious” to public and congressional scrutiny. It turns out many of the guns shipped to Mexican crime syndicates with ATF permission have ended up at crime scenes on both sides of the border. And at least three of the weapons were involved in the slaying of U.S. federal agents. But despite the Obama administration’s frantic efforts to cover up and minimize the fiasco while demonizing guns, the furor continues to grow. And more federal agencies are now coming under scrutiny for their roles in the plot. Acting ATF boss Kenneth Melson (standing right in picture above), recently threatened with contempt of Congress charges for obstructing the investigation, revealed a startling new twist to investigators late last week. At least some of the criminals supposedly being armed with ATF permission for “investigations” were actually working for the FBI and the DEA — unbeknownst to the ATF. Or so the story goes. [...]" |"DOJ News Release: Obama Admin Approved ATF Mexico Weapons Smuggling"   

"U.S Government Smuggled Missiles, Grenades And Other Military Grade Weapons To Mexico Drug Cartels" [07/24/11]   "The U.S government weapons smuggling scandal grown from a simple gun smuggling scandal into a full blown military grade weapons smuggling scandal following the arrest of a Zetas cartel leader. Law enforcement officials report the U.S government has supplied the Zetas cartel with, among other things, "an array of military grade weapons, grenade and grenade launchers, high-powered rifles, body armor, anti- aircraft missiles, and night vision goggles." [...]"  

Commentary: "Operation Fast and Furious: DOJ Protecting Political Appointees" [07/20/11] "According to Senator Charles Grassley and Representative Darrell Issa, both who have been at the front of the investigation into the Obama Justice Department's Operation Fast and Furious, it appears DOJ is withholding vital information about the lethal operation to protect political appointees. Today, Grassley and Issa asked Attorney General Eric Holder why documentation requested by the Oversight Committee has not been provided, specifically a "smoking gun" report ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson mentioned during closed testimony over two weeks ago. “It was very frustrating to all of us, and it appears thoroughly to us that the Department is really trying to figure out a way to push the information away from their political appointees at the Department,” ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson said of his frustration with the Justice Department’s response to the investigation in a transcribed interview. [...]"  

Commentary: "Another ATF Arms Sales Scandal: "Operation Castaway" [07/20/11]   "The new scandal centering on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) makes it clear that “Operation Fast and Furious” was not the agency’s only program for putting firearms into the hands of foreign criminals. It is becoming clear that a second misguided effort to track arms sales to the Third World — “Operation Castaway” — ended up supplying weapons to criminals in Honduras and Puerto Rico which were used in violent crimes. Operation Castaway — like its sibling, Operation Fast and Furious — began with the purported mission of decreasing the illegal sale of firearms. In the latter operation, the ATF’s Phoenix office used gun stores in the Southwest to track so-called “straw purchases” that placed firearms in the hands of foreign criminals. (In a “straw purchase,” a person, usually an American citizen, buys firearms with the intention of reselling them to individuals who cannot legally own them.) “Operation Castaway” allegedly operated in Florida with a similar mission, and ended in the same way: Rather than the “sting” operation being contained in a way that would have prevented the weapons from getting into the hands of foreign criminals, the firearms purchased in Florida flowed freely into Central America. Members of Congress are calling for further investigation of Operation Castaway. Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) has written to Attorney General Eric Holder and ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson in an attempt to gain more information regarding the operation, only to receive an evasive response similar to that given to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). According to a Fox News story, the guns placed into the hands of criminals through the Florida operation have been traced to several specific crimes: Court documents from the Operation Castaway takedown claim that at least five firearms from the illegal sales of the main suspect ended up later being connected to crimes, several in Puerto Rico. One pistol was recovered in Colombia after being used in a homicide. [...]" 

MSM: "Major Drug Busts Reveal Vast Scope Of Mexico's Cartel Networks" [07/16/11]   "It was a big week in the war on drugs, with three record-breaking drug raids in the U. S. and Mexico. On the surface, the raids look like a "victory" for the U.S. drug war strategy, which has come under fire in light of Mexico's growing drug violence. The reality, however, is that the raids — their disparate locations, the diversity of the criminals involved, and the sheer volume of drugs found — are evidence of the vast web of organized crime networks linked to Mexico's drug cartels. As we have previously written, the cartels are sophisticated, transnational criminal organizations focused on extending their reach far beyond the US-Mexican (and Mexican-Guatemalan) borders. This week's raids offer a view of how extensive cartel operations have become.  [...]"  

MSM: "Justice Department Obstructing ‘Fast and Furious’ Gun Probe, ATF Director Says" [07/07/11] "The Justice Department is obstructing the congressional investigation of a U.S. law enforcement operation intended to crack down on major weapons traffickers on the Southwest border, according to the embattled leader of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Ken Melson, the acting director of the ATF, lobbed the accusation when he sneaked in for an interview with congressional investigators on July 4, two days ahead of his scheduled interview with the inspector general about the operation known as “Fast and Furious,” Fox News has learned. “If his account is accurate, then ATF leadership appears to have been effectively muzzled while the DOJ sent over false denials and buried its head in the sand,” Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Eric Holder. “That approach distorted the truth and obstructed our investigation.” The Justice Department is reportedly looking to oust Melson, who has been acting ATF director since April 2009, as the agency deals with its biggest scandal in nearly two decades. Andrew Traver, who was tapped in November by President Obama to become the permanent ATF director, could be named as acting director until the Senate acts on his nomination, sources have said. [...]"