The blog has seen periodic rants on the CIA involvement in drug trafficking and that typically is blown off as the raving of someone who wears aluminum hats. For this one I'm pulling in some backup from Abby Martin who has researched the matter in considerably more depth than I ever did. (Media Roots: How Opium is Keeping US in Afghanistan: CIA’s Shady History of Drug Trafficking)
That the CIA is involved in trafficking isn't even that interesting in discussion as we've seen it so many times that there isn't even any controversy in it. What is interesting to me is who is pulling the strings. Enormous amounts of undocumented money are generated by it and there are so many places to launder money that there's no chance anyone will ever see it.
The NSA has to be in on it too as they're the only ones who would be able to track the CIA activity. Unless someone has a better answer, I'm assuming the reason the NSA wants a computer capable of cracking bank security is to ensure it's calling the deals on trafficking. If that's not true, why wasn't the NSA the mechanism by which HSBC was busted for its multi-billion dollar deals with Iran during the sanctions. That's precisely what they're supposed to be able to detect with all their intrusion but you never hear anything from them but crickets.
My biggest problem with this is of a different nature. The Taliban had largely wiped out opium cultivation in Afghanistan. After the US invasion, opium cultivation soared and Afghanistan is now producing ninety percent of the world's heroin. OK, that's bad but there's a bigger matter than that. How in the span of only about ten years did the world's demand for heroin increase by ninety percent.
Assume there were 'x' number of junkies prior to the Taliban bringing down heroin production. That number is going to drop to x - y when the heroin dries up. Probably many will die, others will get straight, etc, etc. So 'y' junkies drop out of your junkie population and, after years, it's not likely they will be back. Then the invasion happens and the heroin supply immediately skyrockets. Your remaining 'x' population is happy because prices come down but you still need to increase 'x' by ninety percent to consume the now greatly-increased heroin supplies.
Where did they get these junkies so quickly. Bounce the numbers around yourself if you like. I'm not trying to jiggle them for effect but rather for understanding. Something smells like fish to me.
That the CIA is involved in trafficking isn't even that interesting in discussion as we've seen it so many times that there isn't even any controversy in it. What is interesting to me is who is pulling the strings. Enormous amounts of undocumented money are generated by it and there are so many places to launder money that there's no chance anyone will ever see it.
The NSA has to be in on it too as they're the only ones who would be able to track the CIA activity. Unless someone has a better answer, I'm assuming the reason the NSA wants a computer capable of cracking bank security is to ensure it's calling the deals on trafficking. If that's not true, why wasn't the NSA the mechanism by which HSBC was busted for its multi-billion dollar deals with Iran during the sanctions. That's precisely what they're supposed to be able to detect with all their intrusion but you never hear anything from them but crickets.
My biggest problem with this is of a different nature. The Taliban had largely wiped out opium cultivation in Afghanistan. After the US invasion, opium cultivation soared and Afghanistan is now producing ninety percent of the world's heroin. OK, that's bad but there's a bigger matter than that. How in the span of only about ten years did the world's demand for heroin increase by ninety percent.
Assume there were 'x' number of junkies prior to the Taliban bringing down heroin production. That number is going to drop to x - y when the heroin dries up. Probably many will die, others will get straight, etc, etc. So 'y' junkies drop out of your junkie population and, after years, it's not likely they will be back. Then the invasion happens and the heroin supply immediately skyrockets. Your remaining 'x' population is happy because prices come down but you still need to increase 'x' by ninety percent to consume the now greatly-increased heroin supplies.
Where did they get these junkies so quickly. Bounce the numbers around yourself if you like. I'm not trying to jiggle them for effect but rather for understanding. Something smells like fish to me.
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