By Luis R. Miranda
Have you heard the rumors that the U.S. is the main carrier of drugs around the world? How about the one that tells how the former New York Stock Exchange boss went to Colombia to ask the Narcos to invest in the NYSE? All rumors, right? Nope. There are enough trails to know that indeed the United States is not only the largest carrier and co-grower of drugs in the world. There is also enough proof that Richard Grasso, the former NYSE’s head traveled to Colombia to meet with local narcotrafficking bosses to offer ‘his exchange’ to hide their money.
The U.S. military closely guards the largest poppy plantation in the world.
Currently, the United States guards and aids in the growth of poppies in Afghanistan, -as reported by Fox News’s Geraldo Rivera. There is of course a good explanation for the double standard. If the U.S. does not help President Karzai’s brother to make a living of it, then terrorists would grow it and use the money to attack the ‘free world.’ Coincidentally, this is exactly what happens in Colombia. As reported by the Washington Post, Colombian president’s brother, Santiado Uribe, was the head of an infamous death squad in the northern part of the country, right out of a estate that belonged to the Uribe family. Santiago, also known for his ties to drug cartels, took it upon himself to murder petty thieves, guerrilla sympathizers and suspected subversives.
But negotiating with Narcos is not limited to Colombia or Afghanistan. The ‘glorious’ war on drugs reaches the highest heads of the current Obama administration. Obama’s advisor George Soros is a known narco businessman too. Soros is one of the most vocal people who want all illegal drugs to be legalized. As part of the drug war, Colombia surrendered part of a mountainous territory to the FARC, a paramilitary group which was then allegedly dismantled as part of the negotiating process to end the war trade.
NYSE Richard Grasso embracing FARC leader Raul Reyes in 1999.
As the documentary American Drug War exposes, the U.S. has a long history of running drugs across the continents, especially from South America to the North, and more recently from Asia to America. Since President Nixon legalized the trafficking of drugs by the U.S. government through the establishment of the war on drugs, the business of dealing and transporting drugs has grown exponentially and the result has been the laundering of billions of dollars by Wall Street banks which is then used to finance illegal intelligence secret operations around the globe. Such operations are carried out to capture non collaborating countries, using guerrilla forces and special-ops military contractors.
Former Los Angeles Police Narcotics Detective Mike Ruppert sent shockwaves around the United States when he told CIA Director John Deutch and a room full of reporters that the organization he headed had been running drugs for a while. Amadeus, Pegasus and Watch Tower are the names of three operations the CIA used to run drugs around the United States. He himself had been recruited to help protect the agency’s dealing of drugs. Ruppert challenged Deutch to investigate classified operations and to tell the truth to the public.
Catherine Austin-Fitts, a former Assistant Secretary of Housing-Federal Housing Commissioner in the first Bush Administration, says of Grasso’s visit to Colombia:
I presume Grasso’s trip was not successful in turning the cash flow tide. Hence, Plan Colombia is proceeding apace to try to move narco deposits out of FARC’s control and back to the control of our traditional allies and, even if that does not work, to move Citibank’s market share and that of the other large US banks and financial institutions steadily up in Latin America.
In her essay Narco Dollars for Dummies, Fitts exposes how the money works in the illicit drug trade. According to Fitts, the power of Narco Dollars comes when you combine drug trafficking with the Stock Market. She points out that drugs are not always a commodity, but sometimes it becomes a currency. When the military industry sells weapons to a terrorist group, for example, they may or may not pay in dollars. When the green back is scarce, there is the option of paying with drugs. That is why the CIA brings drugs into the U.S. as payment for the secret sale of arms to Colombia and other puppet governments in Latin America.
We all remember the Iran-Contra scandal. The heart of the scandal was the fact that Oliver North and the White House (National Security Council) dealt drugs through Mena, Arkansas to facilitate arms shipments. Mena was of course a large contributor to Bill and Hillary Clinton’s multiple campaigns at the local regional and national levels. Other examples of the drugs for arms trade are the conflicts in Vietnam, Kosovo, Mexico, and so on. In all these cases, drugs, oil, gas and arms are the currencies used to deal. ”Add gold, currency and bank market share and you have the top of my checklist for understanding how the money works on any war or “low intensity conflict” around the globe,” says Fitts.
Along with Bill Clinton, the Bushes are some of the most corrupt elements of the American elites.
On the other side of the coin we have the Bushes. George H.W. Bush was CIA director and U.S. President. His sons Jeb and George W. were the governors of two of the largest drug markets in the United States: Texas and Florida. The other two states are New York and California. Later, George W. Bush became president of Unites States. Can it be a coincidence that the sons of a former CIA Mafia boss successfully held office during one of the most intense drug trafficking period in the history of the country?
Why are people who used drugs put in jail then? Well, drug trafficking is a round business. The same corporations who benefit of the drug trade also run the prison system. Take for example the CCA, or Corrections Corporation of America. On its website they label their work as a service to build and run prisons. ”Our approach to public-private partnership in corrections combines the cost savings and innovation of business with the strict guidelines and consistent oversight of government.” From the more than 2 million people in prison in the United States, more than 80 percent are non-violent offenders, who are in jail for smoking, selling or buying marihuana, for example. The drug trade business simply collects profits from every possible point. It plants the drugs, harvests them, transports them, sells them and imprisons those who use them. Of course it is not enough with sending people to prison. While innocent or non-violent offenders are inside the gulags, they are also obligated to work in slavery camps in order to multiple the profits for the prison industrial complex. Is that a monopoly or what?
