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Did Trump’s New Anti-Drug Policy Prompt the CIA to Move Against Him?

By Mark H. Gaffney

February 23, 2017 "Information Clearing House" -  In recent days, we have witnessed the disturbing spectacle of open warfare between the newly elected president and the intelligence community. Former congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) described the situation as “unprecedented. Whether you are for Trump or against Trump,” Kucinich told FOX News, “the White House is under attack from elements inside the intelligence community, which are trying to elevate tensions between Russia and the US.” Kucinich continued: “At the bottom of that is money, an agenda for someone to cash in on conflict between the US and Russia.”

Kucinich was spot on. The military industrial complex and their media pawns clearly do not want improved relations with Russia and are using their considerable power to prevent it, for the reason cited. Untold billions in military contracts are at stake. War and the preparations for war are extremely profitable; at any rate, for a privileged few.

During the last few days, Trump and his inner circle made statements about Crimea indicating the immense pressure had the intended effect. Trump appears to have backed away from improved relations with Russia, at least for the present. Other writers have commented at length about this, so I won’t discuss it further here, except to point out that the pressure shows no sign of relenting, and may even be increasing. A former NSA official, John Schindler, told Raw Story that “Now we [the intelligence community] will go nuclear. He [Trump] will die in jail…”

It’s as if, having smelled blood in the water the intelligence community is circling for the kill. But given that Trump has been made to recant on Russia, the question is why? What is going on? The answer is that the sharp dispute over US policy vis a vis Russia is not the only point of contention. Other issues are also at play. A tell-tale clue in this regard was the timing of the felonious leak that led to the resignation of General Mike Flynn for misleading Vice President Pence about his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The leak reportedly occurred on the evening of Thursday February 9th, a few hours after Trump signed three new executive orders, which FOX News first reported at 4 p.m. Although the source of the leak has not been disclosed, I suspect the CIA for reasons that I will now explain.

In my opinion, the timing was no coincidence. As we ought to know from long experience, there are few coincidences in the world of intelligence. Therefore, it behooves us to examine Trump’s latest executive orders which so far have attracted scant attention.

A new anti-drug policy

The orders that Trump signed on February 9th, just before the leak occurred, are about reducing crime in America. The first would create a presidential task force to develop strategies toward this end.[1] A second more detailed order would “strengthen enforcement of Federal law….to thwart transnational criminal organizations and subsidiary organizations, including criminal gangs, cartels, racketeering organizations and other groups engaged in….the illegal smuggling and trafficking of humans, drugs, or other substances…” [my italics].[2]

I was amazed when I first read this. Trump’s executive orders would launch a new war on drugs! Evidently, president Trump idealistically (or naively) has decided to accomplish what no president before him was able (or willing) to do, namely, eradicate the double scourge of drug and human trafficking which have destroyed so many young lives. Certainly it is a goal worthy of our support. However, there is a hitch, namely, the collision of such a policy with the status quo. This needs clarification: If Trump’s new anti-drug-trafficking policy is carried out it will place drug enforcement agencies in direct opposition to CIA officers who for many years have “managed” the flow of cocaine and heroin into the United States. In fact, “dismantling the transnational criminal organizations” responsible for the drug trade will ultimately require nothing less than the dismantling of the CIA itself. The wording of Trump’s executive orders leaves no doubt about his intent. The president is not proposing half measures.

Officials at the CIA no doubt grasped the significance of this at a glance, and concluded correctly that the president himself, every bit as much as his new executive orders, must henceforth be viewed as a threat to the Agency’s power and covert prerogatives. The scary part, from the CIA standpoint, is that Trump really means it. This is in sharp contrast with Ronald Reagan, whose 1980s-era war on drugs was nothing but a charade. One can well imagine the brief but intense moment of panic at Langley when CIA officials first learned about the orders. Their signing by Trump created an immediate compelling reason for the CIA to move against the president, and to do so without delay. This, very likely, explains the classified leak on February 9th about Gen. Flynn.

I do not mean to suggest that CIA officers themselves smuggle drugs into the US. The actual smuggling is almost always done by professional traffickers who are treated as national security assets because they also provide various kinds of support for covert CIA operations. In return, the “blessed” traffickers are allowed to ply their illicit trade without interference from US Customs, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), even local police. The CIA oversees the trade which is largely about market share, and also receives a cut of the action, which it uses to fund black-budget operations. Competitors who refuse to cooperate are fair game, and are periodically rounded up and prosecuted to show that the government is seriously waging the war on drugs. Of course, despite the occasional high profile arrests and convictions, somehow the drugs are always readily available on the street. The supply seldom fails, an inconvenient truth never mentioned by the media nor acknowledged by government officials.

Abroad, the CIA’s control system is more complex, as in the case of Mexico where the CIA often plays one cartel off against another to destabilize the country and prevent the emergence of a strong central government. Keeping Mexico perennially weak (and violent) evidently serves the foreign policy objectives of empire.[3]

Despite the American public’s sorry state of denial, complacency and/or apathy on the drug trade issue, the evidence for the US government’s criminal involvement is voluminous and incontrovertible.[4] The sordid history is a long one, and dates back decades before the CIA was created to the 1920s, when the US supported Chinese nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, who maintained his army with profits from the opium trade. I refer the reader to the notes.

Trump’s new policy of eradicating human and sex trafficking would likewise require US law enforcement to investigate shady contractors like Dyncorp, which, although a private company, is for all practical purposes a CIA subsidiary. Dyncorp’s longstanding involvement in human trafficking dates back at least to the 1990s war in Bosnia.[5] Obviously, a real investigation would be extremely embarrassing. Over the years, Dyncorp has received billions in Defense Department contracts, which is serious money but small potatoes compared with the hundreds of billions in laundered drug money that annually lubricates the bottom line of the too-big-to-fail US banks. No one knows the actual figure, but reputable sources estimate the total at between $300-500 billion.[6]

At war with the CIA

It would be hard to overestimate the present-day importance of this laundered drug money to the big banks, most of which are seriously over-leveraged. According to the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, the liquidity provided by an estimated $352 billion in laundered drug profits in 2008 saved a number of large banks from collapse as result of the 2007 financial meltdown.[7] Incidentally, this is also why, 16 years after the 9/11 attacks, the US military is still deployed in Afghanistan. Our troops are there because that is where the poppies are grown, the feedstock for the global heroin trade. This is the reason for the longest war in US history. The plain truth is that our troops are not defending freedom and democracy, but the bottom line of the too-big-to-fail banks.

And all of this would be seriously disrupted if Trump’s new anti-drug-trafficking policy is implemented. Needless to say, Wall Street and the US intelligence community (which are one and the same) will do everything in their power to prevent this from happening; and the CIA, which is the operational arm of the banksters who rule the United States, will undoubtedly serve as the enforcer.

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Donald Trump’s strong position against drug and human trafficking has placed him in the cross-hairs. Is he aware of the powerful forces arrayed against him? It is by no means clear that he fully understands the CIA’s role in the drug trade, or why his executive orders have stirred up such a hornet’s nest. For Trump’s sake, I hope he understands; because, henceforth, his only chance to survive is to go on the offensive, and to actually become the unlikely American hero that he obviously aspires to be. How? By effecting a top-down revolution in the interests of the American people. But time is short and the critical path to success is extremely narrow, with little margin for error. Can Trump outmaneuver the CIA even as it plots his downfall? Can he rise above himself?

A second American revolution

Here are a few of the steps (in no particular order) that Trump should immediately take to regain the initiative, set his enemies back on their heels, and buy the time that is desperately needed to jump-start the second American revolution:

Empower the FBI. Trump should instruct Attorney General Sessions to clear out the dead wood at the Department of Justice. FBI Director James Comey and his deputy Andrew McCabe have a history of blocking and/or slow-footing investigations. They must go. Their replacements should be drawn from within the agency, ambitious young men with hunger in their eyes and fire in the belly. Unleash the idealistic young investigators!

Release the 650,000 emails. I am referring to the mother lode found on former congressman Anthony Weiner’s server. We are very lucky this electronic paper trail exists! Last November, NYPD chief detective Robert K. Boyce, who has seen the emails, told the press they contain evidence linking Hillary Clinton and her associates to money laundering, child exploitation, sex crimes with minors, perjury, pay to play, obstruction of justice and other crimes.[8] Apparently, the key piece of evidence is a list of secret donors to the Clinton Foundation. Everything we have learned to date indicates the foundation was a private investors’ club for the purpose of overthrowing and looting third world nations. All Trump needs to do is to let the sun shine in, then step aside and allow the system to serve up the impartial wrath of justice. And woe to the guilty!

Audit the Fed. Trump supporters should move quickly to guide legislation through Congress requiring an audit of the Federal Reserve. Given a Republican majority in both houses, the bill should pass easily. If the Fed refuses to admit auditors (and it will), Trump should send in US marshals and nationalize the bank. A subsequent honest audit will expose the Fed’s many crimes against the American people. A reorganized and possibly renamed Fed should be made to serve Main Street, not Wall Street.

Get control at the CIA and NSA. This is critical. Trump’s newly appointed directors must take a firm hand in identifying and prosecuting leakers in both agencies while supporting whistleblowers who have exposed illegal activities. Trump should also give the order to fire all neoconservatives, and their ilk. Ultimately, Trump will need to dismantle the CIA and the most objectionable parts of the NSA surveillance regime.

Break up the media conglomerates. Paul Craig Roberts has suggested that Trump use anti-trust law to accomplish this and I agree. The US corporate media has long since abandoned its original function, which is to inform the citizenry, and unfortunately has become an instrument for fake news and propaganda. Press diversity must be restored.

The above short list is only a start, and is by no means complete. There are undoubtedly other steps that Trump should also take.

Finally, I need to say that as a long-time radical Leftie I am very displeased that so many liberals and progressives have allied with the globalists and the Deep State to destroy what remains of our precious democracy. Liberals and progressives need to wake up. Trump’s enemies are also our enemies. If the CIA succeeds in bringing him down, Trump’s replacement will be much worse. I have always opposed US presidents when they were wrong and supported them when they were right. The same principle should hold with Trump. Oppose him when he’s wrong, but support him when he’s right. We can and must do both, at the same time.

Many people have underestimated Donald Trump. Be assured, no one at CIA headquarters is underestimating him any longer. Although Trump has serious issues, he also has the potential to achieve great things, in part, because he thinks big and is capable of bold action. If Trump acts decisively in the coming days to restore our country, we should rally to his defense. If he falters, Trump will be remembered as just another failed wannabe.

Mark H. Gaffney’s latest book is Black 9/11 (2nd edition, 2016). His next, Never Summer, a novel, will be released in April 2017.

A special thank you to George Webb, whose ongoing open sourced people’s investigation at Youtube has been a great help in connecting the dots!

References

[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/02/09/presidential-executive-order-task-force-crime-reduction-and-public

[2] https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/02/09/presidential-executive-order-enforcing-federal-law-respect-transnational

[3] Chris Arsenault, “Mexican official: CIA ‘manages’ drug trade”, Aljazeera, July 24, 2012, posted at http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/07/2012721152715628181.html

[4] Alfred W. McCoy, The Politics of Heroin (Chicago: Lawrence Hill, 2003 revised edition); Doug Valentine, The CIA as Organized Crime (Atlanta: Clarity Press, 2017) see especially chapters 12-14; Peter Dale Scott, Cocaine Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991).

[5] Kathryn Bolkovac, The Whistleblower (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011). Also: don’t miss the movie with the same name based on the book starring Rachel Weisz.

[6] Raymond W. Baker, “The Biggest Loophole in the Free Market System,” Washington

Quarterly, Autumn 1999, p. 29, posted at (see p. 1061) http://frwebgate.access.

gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=106_senate_hearings&docid=f:61699.pdf. Also see The CIA as Organized Crime, p. 214.

[7] Rajeev Syal, “Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor”, the Guardian, December 12, 2009.

[8] http://truepundit.com/breaking-bombshell-nypd-blows-whistle-on-new-hillary-emails-money-laundering-sex-crimes-with-children-child-exploitation-pay-to-play-perjury/

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.

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