U.S. Official Predicts Drop in Colombian Cocaine |
Posted by FoM on February 22, 2002 at 16:14:31 PT By Tim Weiner Source: New York Times High- level arrests and huge drug seizures in Mexico have had no effect on the quantity of Colombian cocaine entering the United States, the American drug-enforcement chief, Asa Hutchinson, said here today. But Mr. Hutchinson said the offensive opened today by the Colombian military against guerrillas, whom he called "narco-terrorists," could be a significant turn in the war on drugs. "I cannot make the case" that Mexico's recent arrests of suspected drug kingpins and seizures of multi- ton drug shipments have lessened the seemingly limitless supply of Colombian cocaine that Mexican cartels ship to the United States, said Mr. Hutchinson, chief of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration. Still, he repeatedly praised the government of President Vicente Fox for "vigorously rooting out corruption in government and going after the cartels that operate so openly in Mexico." "We're beyond litmus tests" for Mexico's government in the drug war, he said. "We have full confidence that they're working aggressively." So are the cartels. A senior Mexican drug-enforcement official was assassinated in his car this morning in Mexico City, eyewitnesses said. The official was identified as Mario Roldán Quirino, a leader of a special counternarcotics unit under Mexico's attorney general, Rafael Macedo. As Mr. Hutchinson spoke to reporters in Mexico City, Colombia's military was attacking territory held by guerrillas who hijacked a domestic airliner and kidnapped a senator on Wednesday. Mr. Hutchinson said the United States would welcome an assault on the guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, whom he called "narco-terrorists" working in league with Colombia's drug lords. He predicted an intelligence windfall if Colombia's military and police forces seized drug labs in the guerrillas' domain. That could "strengthen what we're trying to do to reduce that supply of cocaine that is funding that organization," he said. The drug war in the Andes suffered a setback in April when an American missionary and her baby were shot down over Peru in a plane that Central Intelligence Agency contractors first noticed on radar and Peruvian pilots misidentified as a drug flight. Mr. Hutchinson said he hoped the aerial drug patrols would resume with new procedures "to avoid this type of catastrophe." Mr. Hutchinson became the drug- enforcement chief in August. While the United States government has been focused on fighting in Afghanistan and running counterterrorism operations, he said, the drug war goes on. In Afghanistan, the source of most of the world's heroin, the planting of opium poppies, from which heroin is derived, resumed in full force in November, after the fall of the Taliban, which had almost completely eradicated opium cultivation the preceding year. The Drug Enforcement Administration is "working aggressively to develop a plan" to stop the resurgence of Afghanistan's drug culture, Mr. Hutchinson said, calling the present situation there "a unique opportunity in history." Source: New York Times (NY) Related Articles & Web Site: Colombia Drug War News U.S. Considers Helping Colombia DEA Chief Says Crackdown Could Help US Seeks To Help Colombia Defend Pipeline Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
Comment #9 posted by Jose Melendez on February 24, 2002 at 05:29:21 PT:
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from: http://www.janes.com/regional_news/americas/news/fr/fr010329_1_n.shtml Secrecy
in Colombia |
Comment #8 posted by unknown pleasures on February 23, 2002 at 13:06:40 PT |
'Narco-terrorists'?
yeah man, I see 'em ALL the time...
usually they're driving around in armoured vans, brandishing assult rifles, terrorising people's homes... Yeah man, they call themselves the SWAT team. [ Post Comment ] |
Comment #7 posted by DdC on February 23, 2002 at 00:08:49 PT |
A Few Buzzwords By Dave Neal (Good Read) http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionstuff.showMessage?topicID=131.topic Human rights: This means "anything that fits in with America's foreign policy agenda of the time." The US shows a lot of concern for human rights in China and Cuba, but in places like El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Haiti, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Peru, Liberia, etc., etc. the human rights issues are examples of "extremism". The US considers itself a champion of human rights, Despite the reality of American foreign policy. School of the America's Graduates in the News 2000/2001 If, as the "Argentine connection" suggests, the vast drug trafficking network has served to finance undercover operations and is intimately linked to military intelligence agencies, the current proposals to militarize the war on drugs are seriously flawed because of the links and commitments between drug traffickers, intelligence agencies and paramilitary groups over the years. Drugs to Replace Commies as Enemy of USA History has a way of "forgetting." This article begins with a story about how the Zapatistas were originally the target of a so-called drugs purge by right wing paramilitaries financed by the US Government. The article underlines the "usefulness" of alleged drugs crack-downs as a way of eliminating any political opposition to the American Empire. In order to fill the post-cold war vacuum, drug-trafficking when viewed as a threat to the democratic processes on the grounds that it leads to political corruption and social disintegration, can replace the role that "communism" played during the 1960s and 1970s to justify a policy of military intervention and economic hegemony. Spraying Misery Agent Orange, All Over Again By James Ridgeway So far, the attack hasn't worked. Over 38,000 hectares have been sprayed since this year alone, but coca production is shifting to other parts of Colombia and spreading into Ecuador. U.S. Special Forces, who are doing the training, are kept out of the fighting, but U.S. civilian contractors who fly the spray planes have been reported in the thick of firefights. Meanwhile, the peasantry are getting drenched with Roundup Ultra. In one EPA study published in 1993, California doctors reported that the herbicide's active ingredient, glyphosate, ranked third out of 25 chemicals that caused harm to humans. Defoliation merely sends production elsewhere. Successful eradication programs in Bolivia and Peru in the 1990s led to a sharp rise in production in Colombia. "The pattern has been that fumigation 'chases' coca cultivation from one area to another, while overall cultivation levels rise," Copter Stoppers "To say that our sending military aid to Colombia is not promoting these massacres is fantasy," Colville declared. [ Post Comment ] |
Comment #6 posted by goneposthole on February 22, 2002 at 20:56:14 PT |
I have my doubts that US military personnel are going to plan an eradication program Of the Afghani Poppy Fields.
______________________________________________________________________________________ the US gov't doesn't what FARC 'narco-terrorists' funded by cocaine sales. There is no mention of right wing groups being funded by the cocaine they sell. There are more cocaine processors, FARC is not alone. If the US gov't would just legalize cocaine, we would not have these problems. Good Gawd Almighty. It was legal at one time, it can be legal again. I don't use cocaine. It is high on my list of things that I can do without. However, I am not opposed to anyone wishing to use it. It is their life and what they choose to do is their business and not mine. After all, Sigmund Freud did not write "The Cocaine Papers" because he had a great distaste for cocaine. ___________________________________________________________________________________ I digress. Why do the Afghanis plant poppy fields? Certainly not to be destroyed by the US military. Any attempt at destruction, the poppy growers of Afghanistan will see to it that it doesn't. More ravages elsewhere, there are easier pickings. [ Post Comment ] |
Comment #5 posted by E_Johnson on February 22, 2002 at 20:10:51 PT |
Snake oil salesman. [ Post Comment ] |
Comment #4 posted by MikeEEEEE on February 22, 2002 at 18:11:30 PT |
Years ago they said that they would reduce drug use by what percentage? Ha, ha, they have to justify what they're doing. [ Post Comment ] |
Comment #3 posted by FoM on February 22, 2002 at 18:10:06 PT |
They changed it. I know programs get bumped from time to time but the program they put it it's place wasn't more important that what we wanted to see by any means. http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread11936.shtml#7 [ Post Comment ] |
Comment #2 posted by mayan on February 22, 2002 at 18:02:15 PT |
Don't these idiots realize that coca production is simply shifting to Columbia's neighbors? They can't be that dumb,can they? The only other explanation I can think of is that they are trying to drive up the price because they are dealing in cocaine themselves. Either they are totally stupid or they are cocaine traffickers themselves - or both! [ Post Comment ] |
Comment #1 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on February 22, 2002 at 17:34:52 PT |
Wasn't it 48 Hours tonight that was supposed to have the spot about the Placer County mom? I'm not seeing it, the show is all about sleep. Or was it supposed to be on another newsmagazine type show? [ Post Comment ] |
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