Danny Benavides

Traces of Reality

 August 13, 2012

“We need to do this everyday of the week and just really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way.” –U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder speaking about anti-gun messages

The month of August brings with it a handful of interestingly juxtaposed “days of infamy.” On August 2, 1937, three-quarters of a century ago, the U.S. Congress passed the Marihuana [sic] Tax Act, requiring any commerce related to cannabis be authorized and registered by government busybodies. The power to tax is the power to destroy, indeed. Speaking of destruction, August 6th and 9th mark the days in 1945, 67 years ago, during which America dropped a pair of nuclear bombs that decimated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By today’s standard, this would likely rank among the most devastating terrorist attacks in history. Though where terrorism is concerned, one cannot be remiss to mention August 20, 1985, merely 27 years ago, when the United States began supplying arms to Iran and funding guerrilla fighters in Nicaragua amid what later became known as the Iran-Contra affair. These three incidents of America’s past share a single crucial aspect, however: lying politicians.

Last week, Traces of Reality reviewed a few examples of so-called foiled terrorist plots in which agents and officials within the United States government trained, funded, supported, and armed enemies in order for other government agents to ultimately entrap and make examples of these patsies. The goal, of course, is to seize upon a good crisis, capitalize on the racket, and assume more robust authority and control, thereby reducing liberty. This is a familiar pattern for any government whose usurpations are unchallenged and whose failures are never held to account. The crackdown is always in the name of National Security.

With regard to the explosion of drug-cartel violence along the U.S.-Mexico border, America’s political “leadership” and law enforcement bodies have guaranteed failure in ways to be elaborated further, yet continue to reap the rewards of expanding power and authority. In similar fashion to each War on Terror “victory”, there are some elements of government setting up the targets, and other elements ready to strike and illustrate to Americans that this is working. But before Laredoans plead for our political rulers to transform this side of the border into that side and surrender to a militarized zone along the Rio Grande, allow Traces of Reality to breakdown this issue piece by piece.

One of the most recent cases of epic hypocrisy involves the above-quoted Department of Justice head, Attorney General Eric Holder. In the past, Holder asserted that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution did not protect an individual’s right to self-defense, but rather applied only to the national defense provided by a State-regulated militia. In some many words, the Attorney General believes that only uniformed government officials should be able to carry firearms and use deadly force. Mere Mundanes have only two options available in this scenario: submit to violent thugs, or attempt to phone the police. Maybe, both simultaneously. Meanwhile, as Holder and his DOJ were agitating for citizen disarmament with one hand, the other hand was authorizing and encouraging the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Exposives (ATF, BATF, or BATFE) to traffick illegal guns to drug cartels in Mexico.

Although Operation Fast and Furious was first put into action in 2009, the first known “gun-walking” Operation was dubbed “Wide Receiver” and began under the previous administration of George W. Bush. Despite that previous effort, Holder continued to deny any knowledge of “gun-walking” within Operation Fast and Furious once Congressional hearings began. Fast and Furious itself received virtually no attention, until the death of Border Patrol Officer Brian Terry on December 14, 2010. Late that evening, Terry and other officers were patrolling a route along the southern edge of the Arizona-Mexico border, when a shootout erupted between Border Patrol agents and suspected illegal immigrants.

Terry was mortally wounded, and two AK-47s found at the scene were traced back to Operation Fast and Furious. Over the next several months, whistleblowers within the ATF expressed grave concerns over arms trafficking operations such as Fast and Furious and its ilk. Of course, Holder denies all knowledge of the circumstances, ignores the political fallout, and moves on to the next coverup, much like he has done in the past. Some wrists are slapped, government Infallibles are placed on paid administrative leave (i.e. vacation), and the affected agencies beg the Congress for more bloated budgets and broader powers to solve their problems. This “Problem-Reaction-Solution” modus operandi should be evident by now.

Among the top beneficiaries of criminal undertakings of Operation Fast and Furious was the Sinaloa cartel, a name that may be familiar to most in the Laredo area. High-ranking members within the Sinaloa cartel have also claimed that the arms-smuggling in which it was abbetted was part of a cooperative arrangement between the DEA and the cartel itself. Guns were crossed over the border, sold for profit, federal agents looked the other way, and were offered information of dubious value in exchange. The entire controversy was “managed” by U.S. agencies, say cartel leaders. In Nixonian style, federal officials assert that if the President holds his hands above any federal agency and wills it so, these acts are not crimes. This same institutionalized criminality pervades deeply into the global financial system, as reports of money-laundering cartels and terrorism financing continue to emerge and be exposed to the light. Consequences are of no consequence in Orwell’s America, apparently.

“I never considered myself a fall guy. I know what I did. I know why I did it. I’m not ashamed of it…. I thought using the Ayatollah’s money to support the Nicaraguan resistance was a neat idea. …. I was authorized to do everything that I did.” –Oliver North

This whole fiasco that has unfolded during the Obama administration harkens back to an equally-sordid period of Ronald Reagan’s second term in office: the Iran-Contra scandal. The ordeal featured a cast of characters of ill repute, some of which still remain in treacherous orbit around the District of Criminals. During this period of gross perversion of American foundational principles, top brass within the Department of Defense (DOD), National Security Council (NSC), Department of Justice (DOJ), State Department, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), U.S. Air Force (USAF), White House Executive Office staff, and a handful of “advisors” and “consultants” conspired jointly to sell armaments to Iran at double the cost (cost-plus-plus, one could say), while funneling a portion of these profits to support Nicaraguan “Contra” rebels against the left-wing Sandinista forces. No different than politicos of today, incredibly stupid but viciously totalitarian figures in positions of power and influence decided all on their own to break U.S. law, violating the Boland Amendment and the Arms Export Control Act. The former forbade the selling of arms to Iran specifically, and the latter to any foreign nations, which could precipitate acts of terrorism, incite an arms race, or increase tensions and conflict.

Criminal actors such as Oliver North, Robert McFarlane, John Poindexter, Caspar Weinberger, George Schultz, Elliott Abrahms, Douglas Feith, Michael Ledeen, William Casey, Alan Fiers, Brent Scowcroft, Clair George, Duane Clarridge, Donald Rumsfeld, Edwin Meese, Stephen Hadley, and others ignored the Law of the Land, the will of the people, and the common sense decency America pretends to espouse at home and abroad. As the Iran-Contra scandal made headlines and elicited investigations, then-President Ronald Reagan denied all knowledge of the operations, while his associates indicated otherwise. Also consider the fact that all parties involved in this diabolical scheme got off scot-free; some were exonerated, some were appealed, some were pardoned (thanks to incoming President George H. W. Bush), and the rest were forgotten as their transgressions were sucked down the grand Memory Hole.

But there was “third secret,” as former DEA special agent Celerino Castillo III called it, to the Iran-Contra boondoggle. That secret escaped the attention of the mainstream press, unsurprisingly, and was largely ignored during the Iran-Contra hearings held by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. That secret involved the trafficking of tons upon tons of cocaine from Contra rebels into the United States using USAF Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft. Journalist Gary Webb reported about these dealings in the mid-1990s, blowing open the entire detestable affair.

The CIA had been importing vast quantities of cocaine from the Contras into California and selling it to Bloods and Crips gang members, including meteoric crack kingpin “Freeway” Ricky Ross. The liaison between the Nicaraguan Contras, the CIA, and Ricky Ross was another one of these so-called informants named Danilo Blandón, who facilitated the high-dollar drug deals. In his busiest days, “Freeway” was banking millions within a 24-hour period. A 2008 documentary by Sacred Cow Productions titled “American Drug War: The Last White Hope” details much of this information and features excellent interviews with government agents and gang members alike. It is most certainly worth two hours of any interested party’s time.

Yet, today it’s déjà vu all over again, as America’s “power elite” turn yesterday’s enemies into allies, and yesterday’s allies into today’s enemies. When the average attention span hardly lasts until the next commercial break, pulling one over on John and Jane Q. Public is an appallingly easy task. The brewing scandal concerning Operation Fast and Furious proves this completely.

But is America prepared to deal with an issue as entrenched and sacred as the War of Drugs in an adult manner? Can our political class own up to past failures (and collusions) which exemplify the root causes of drug-related border violence? Or will overlords in uniform merely ramp up the Police State measures to bludgeon the symptoms as they spring up? When will a solution entail enhancing individual liberty, instead of stamping a boot upon the face of humanity?

The War on Drugs, erroneous in its methodology like other unconstitutional endeavors of its kind, has done nothing to stem the proliferation of illicit substances, but has certainly manufactured a cottage industry of for-profit prison systems, of which the United States can claim preeminence. Combine this with the recent assertions by former CIA Deputy Director William Boykin that deteriorating conditions in America now warrant an Executive decree of martial law, and the fuse has been lit. Within this paradigm of increased centralized control and unquestioned Executive decision-making, little else needs to occur for conditions to decline and accelerate towards despotic rule. Now, any tragedy can unravel the fabric of the United States in double-quick time, and few are likely to resist the clampdown.

Only through the sharing of information can Americans hope to depend. The “Powers That Be” will always apply the lipstick to the Drug War pig, but if citizens can understand the myriad of ways it has failed in its mission, in addition to the chronicle of criminality it has left in its wake, perhaps then can the healing begin. Yesterday’s misadventures in South America and the Middle East mirror today’s conflicts almost exactly, but the lesson must not be forgotten. Traces of Reality urges all of our readers to read the important work of Peter Dale Scott and Narcosphere.com to acquaint oneself with the stories behind the headlines. Also visit Boiling Frogs Post, run by FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, to obtain a more complete analysis of the rogue government as it exists and operates today. If Americans ignore the contraventions of our own government, then there is no chance at all for liberty in our lifetime. Remember that on the Grand Chessboard, it is We The People who are in check. Make your move!

Related:

Lies, Damned Lies and Politics:  Part One