CIA "rendition" flights cover for drug smuggling: Did the IG discover the Agency's dirtiest secret?

[babylonsister]

http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2007/10/unprecedented.html

CIA "rendition" flights as cover for drug smuggling: Did the Inspector General discover the Agency's dirtiest secret?

Anyone who has followed CIA scandals will find no historical parallel to this story. CIA Director Michael Hayden wants to inspect his Inspector General, John L. Helgerson. Helgerson has been looking rather too closely at the CIA's rendition programs.

The Inspector General (or IG) runs the Agency's "internal affairs" department -- in other words, he polices the CIA. Usually, the IG is one of the "old boys," but ocasionally the gig to someone who plays hardball.

In the current case, it appears that Hayden has asked his close aide Robert Deitz (a man who plays Tonto to Hayden's Lone Ranger) to investigate John Helgerson. The IG has been a thorn in Hayden's side for quite some time...

The inspector general’s office also rankled agency officials when it completed a withering report about the C.I.A’s missteps before the Sept. 11 attack — a report that recommended “accountability boards” to consider disciplinary action against a handful of senior officials.

Did the IG uncover the drug connection?

The argument I'm about to make is, in part, speculative. Each reader must judge whether the speculative sections constitute well-grounded deduction or irresponsible conjecture. (For reasons of brevity, this post will rely heavily on previous articles, which contain the off-site links.)

Let's begin with a simple question. Why is CIA Director Hayden taking unprecedented action? What can the IG reveal about the rendition flights that could possibly be worse than what we already know?

Not just prisoners: In the past, I have argued that the program did not simply transfer prisoners to torture-friendly nations. The flights may also have been used for smuggling. I base that claim on three factors:

1. The sheer number of rendition flights.
2. The odd places visited during those flights.
3. A rather large collection of books, available at any university library, documenting the overlap between spies and the drug trade.

Naturally, any such "rogue" use of CIA-controlled aircraft would have to be kept hidden from the Inspector General -- and, in all likelihood, from the owners of record.

Before you dismiss the idea, please read my earlier piece, "The CIA's airlines: What's in the baggage compartment?"
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2007/01/cias-airlines-whats-in-baggage.html
As that article notes, just one Gulfstream IV used by the CIA made 488 flights between 2001 and 2005. That single plane can carry twenty passengers. Many other jets were used in this program.

more...

http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2007/10/unprecedented.html

[seemslikeadream]

1. so much heroin so little time

oh that Madcowmorningnews guy, what did he know and when did he know it?

[Hydra]

2. There's certainly a precedent

The CIA had often had it's hands dirty with drugs, weapons and people smuggling, so to see them doing it again while transporting people to be tortured would certainly not be outside the realm.

Interesting that Hayden is trying to get his oversight dept off his shoulder.

[Truth2Tell]

3. K & R

Deserves more investigation.

[democrank]

4. K & R.

Little Friday night reading material for the "we don`t torture" folks.

[AntiFascist]

5. K&R, I hope people are aware of this....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1992516&mesg_id=1999342

coming from no less than a British ambassador in the region. The Afghanistan war may be largely about the drugs.

[Usrename]

28. Holy crap!

Any ideas why that thread was locked? There does seem to be ample reliable sources linked. WTF?

[AntiFascist]

29. Sometimes threads like that get disappeared altogether....

the information is out there and gaining traction, but this is the type of thing the CIA "black hats" try desparately to sweep under the rug.

[KamaAina]

6. Could Ciara Durkin have stumbled onto this??

Afghanistan = opium poppies

:scared:

edit: presumably not the rendition flights, but perhaps the whole long-rumored *cough*Poppy Bush*cough* CIA drug ring

[babylonsister]

10. And another young man from the same camp who got shot in the

head, who worked in payroll? I have no idea but I hope someone can connect the dots on this.

[Chemical Bill]

21. Long rumored...

it's not. Make that long confirmed. Have you read Robert Parry or Gary Webb? Hell, when the CIA admitted to drug running from South and Central America, Poppy was running the country (Reagan was napping), and Ollie North was bragging about drugs in his diary.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/1990s/consor29.html

[KamaAina]

30. And to think, all this time, I thought "Poppy" was a nickname for "Daddy"

not a description of what he was so busy importing in his spare time :P

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

7. Maybe this is why Blackwater just got the huge contract to "fight" the "war on drugs"? nt

[babylonsister]

12. Do tell! That's the first I've heard of this; I did hear they're now into aviation,

but is that the reason why?

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

20. Here you go!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1890685

[mod mom]

19. wouldn't that be just great- raiding our taxpayer trained special forces for drug

smuggling activities.

[Eric J in MN]

8. If this isn't about drugs, and just about torture, would that be better?

Either way, it's slimy to try to railroad an investigator who is properly doing his job.

[babylonsister]

11. As you said, either way, it stinks to high heaven. nt

[lovuian]

9. I think the IG found out about the drugs torture and prisons

the shadow government uses our money

[Rex]

13. The Bush Family, CIA, drugs and weapons

Meet the current 'political capital' George likes to talk about.

[L. Coyote]

14. The NEW Politics by RUMORS. What do you think about rumors becoming news?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2026479

[babylonsister]

16. OK. But! when we hear no rumors, we cannot react and try to put pressure

on whatever the next issue is. You have to stay a step ahead, or news will get buried.

[kineneb]

15. drug traffic funds CIA black-ops, no oversight, no accountability

Gary Webb stumbled on to part of the puzzle in Dark Alliance...

Can we say "Iran-Contra" or why it was never satisfactorily investigated?

[L. Coyote]

17. CIA IG Dispute: Legal official quit in protest over “enhanced interrogations” = torture

CIA IG Dispute: Legal official quit in protest over “enhanced interrogations” = torture
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2036040

“There’s an SS group within the agency..."

=======================
Sources: CIA legal official quit in protest over “enhanced interrogations”
BY Ken Silverstein - Oct 12, 2007
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/10/hbc-90001403

Well over a year ago I reported (http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/04/sb-cia-wehrmacht ) on a brewing revolt within the CIA over the Bush Administration’s use of renditions, “enhanced interrogation” techniques (otherwise known as torture) and other tough tactics employed in the “war on terrorism.” One former official with whom I spoke at the time told me, “There are people who fear that indictments and subpoenas could be coming down, and they don’t want to get caught up in it.” This person went on to describe a split at the CIA, saying, “There’s an SS group within the agency that’s willing to do anything and there’s a Wehrmacht group that is saying, ‘I’m not gonna touch this stuff’.”

Since then, it’s become clear that dissent within the agency on these matters has become even more intense. .

[AntiFascist]

27. I assume that SS does not refer to Secret Service?

In a way this is even worse than Hitler's regime, people are not driven by an ideology but rather by criminal greed.

[Oldenuff]

18. Makes good sense to me...

But it's been my contention that my government has been in kahoots with the Big Money people for quite awhile now,:) and drug smuggling makes a pretty fair profit.It wouldn't surprise me at all to see the CIA in the middle of it.I suppose we can look forward to Blackwater replacing the CIA and DEA?

Ran across this little "article" the other day.It doesn't have much in the way of facts,but It did raise the same question.

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/10/09/crashed-drug-plane-o.html

[Skidmore]

22. And now we know why the poppy fields of Afghanistan have not been

eliminated. How do you get funds to operate an illegal war when the tap runs dry at home? Start your own business.

[JackRiddler]

31. Let's keep in mind one reason the poppy fields have not been eliminated...

Is that this would be impossible, short of decriminalization or buying up the poppy crop. Even if there were no interest on the intel side in profiting from "the inevitable," which historically there has been. There's nothing unprecedented in these flights, if they're carrying drugs.

[bklyncowgirl]

23. Just read a book with the same premise--of course it's fiction

"Simple Genius" by David Baldacci. Pretty good book.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

24. Kick! eom

[dkofos]

25. How long before this guy shows up DEAD??

[eppur_se_muova]

26. Um, this is still regarded as a secret ??

:shrug:

Reminds me of the "Doonesbury" cartoon in which a CIA agent ("Havoc") cautions one of the Guatemalans not to blow his cover. The Guatemalan asks a companion (in Spanish, which the blond, blue-eyed Havoc evidently does not understand) "His what?". The companion then says something like "Just play along. You'll hurt his feelings." (That's as close as I can recall, anyway.)