MEXICO CITY (AFP) - A private jet that crash-landed almost one year ago in eastern Mexico carrying 3.3 tons of cocaine had previously been used for CIA "rendition" flights, a newspaper report said here Thursday, citing documents from the United States and the European Parliament.To give credit where it's due, the Fort Worth Star Telegram's Jay Root first broke the story last year (reporting with Kevin Hall of McClatchy News), and the web-based Mad Cow News was all over the case after it came out. According to MCN reports, this plane is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of US-registered planes smuggling dope for Mexican cartels. Even so, the story almost immediately died down here in the States, though obviously the Mexican press continues to investigate.
The plane was carrying Colombian drugs for the fugitive leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman, when it crash-landed in the Yucatan peninsula on September 24, El Universal reported.
The daily said it had obtained documents from the United States and the European Parliament which "show that that plane flew several times to Guantanamo, Cuba, presumably to transfer terrorism suspects."
It said the European Parliament was investigating the private Grumman Gulfstream II, registered by the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation, for suspected use in CIA "rendition" flights in which prisoners are covertly transferred to a third country or US-run detention centers.
It also said the US Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) logbook registered that the plane had traveled between US territory and the US military base in Guantanamo.
There can be few explanations beyond straight up corruption, it seems to me, for why the DEA or FBI has not followed up on this major lead. After all, the downed plane represents a concrete link between Mexican drug runners and American spooks. If an American using planes for US government rendition then sold one (or more) to the Sinaloa drug cartel, that should be easy for investigators to track. So where are the US-side arrests?
There is an old adage, 'Our Government does things that you thought only other governments do'.. That about fits this whole thing.
ReplyDeleteThe FBI wants less accountability and more money. Do you think the FBI is jealous of the CIA and wants their own torture and execution camps, their own drug smuggling business, and their own run the government FBI brass?
ReplyDeleteI ask Senator Leahy and others to do something about the failing US Judicial System and the lack of accountability of the CIA and FBI
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How do you think the CIA pays for all those expensive satelites and cool Unmaned Attack Vehicles. I'm having flashbacks to the early 70's. At least they can balance their budget this way.
ReplyDeleteI would recommend that you read "Dark Alliance" by Gary Webb. He spent years investigating the drug smuggling by the CIA and Contras. Just another reason the war on drugs is a joke
ReplyDeleteI'm familiar with Webb's work and his untimely demise. Similar stories and couple of books on the topic came out in the late '80s in the wake of exposing the Iran-Contra scandal.
ReplyDeleteFor that matter, this isn't the first time US agency aircraft were used to smuggle drugs. According to the National Security Archives:
"On February 10, 1986, Owen ... wrote [Oliver] North ... regarding a plane being used to carry 'humanitarian aid' to the contras that was previously used to transport drugs. The plane belongs to the Miami-based company Vortex, which is run by Michael Palmer, one of the largest marijuana traffickers in the United States."
That's why I'm willing to go so far as saying "corruption" must be the reason these things aren't investigated. These are hot trails being ignored by experienced investigators, both 20 years ago and today. That can only be because they don't want to discover (or at least, expose) what truth really lies at the end of that dark path.
Whoops, should have said it "isn't the first time that US agency-related aircraft were used to smuggle drugs."
ReplyDeleteThis kind of thing goes waaaaaay back, literally to the days of Lucky Luciano and his dealings with the Office of Naval Intelligence during WW2. Although it's quite dated, readers should go to their local libraries and check out "The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia" by Professor Alfred McCoy. You'll realize that this latest curious 'coincidence' is nothing new...
ReplyDeleteWhen I recently made a post about NWO and the BS War on Drugs I got labeled a conspiracy theory nut. North and Bush Sr. have been named by past CIA operatives as being deeply involved in the drug traffic out of Central and South America. The drugs on CIA planes has been going on for decades. Everyone who tried to blow the whistle on the NWO/CIA drug and gun running operation has killed themselves, been killed in an accident or just disappeared from the face of the earth. If the people of the US do not wake up and realize evil people are running this country into the ground it will be too late in the near future. There is no difference between the two political parties, they are bought and financed by the NWO so they always win. There will never be any investigation of the drug and arms business by our own Federal Government because they are the criminals. The fox is guarding the hen house folks!
ReplyDeleteI know your thinking this is a conspiracy theory so go have another beer and turn on ESPN or some other mindless media event and ignore your future demise. Forget the Patriot Act stripping your Constitutional Rights and shredding the Bill of Rights all in the name of making you safe from some supposed terrorist enemy. Turn off NAS Car and put down your beer and do a little investigation on what has happened to you and your family in the past twenty years at the hands of our government. Or Not; I am sure there is some "Reality Show" to watch on Dumb Down TV in HD.
NO NWO
Alot of good information on the state of the drug war can be found at the "Connon Sense for Drug Policy" web site.
ReplyDeleteThats Common Sense for drug policy. Sorry about the spelling.
ReplyDeleteOh great, now those planes doing the extrodinary rendition flights are normally flying out suspects from Afghanistan too, I bet they get checked real well by the ICE people when they arrive in US territory (snark)anything worth bringing out of Afghanistan? Mind you is there any precident? I recall seeing this on the BBC News.
ReplyDeletehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4444285.stm
I'm one hundred percent with you,
ReplyDeleteNO NWO
9/09/2008 03:00:00 PM
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Also read Cele Castillo's Powder Burns and Rodney's Stich's Defrauding America.
The fact that the CIA has been bringing in the drugs for decades has an all-encompassing effect on the entire criminal justice system. It has gone on so long in such a big way that it is now almost impossible to say that there are some good honest people working in the lower levels of the system who really do not know about this.
Also, this gross corruption at the very top of course profoundly affects our money and banking system. What percentage of funds in the New York Banks is drug money and laundered money? The answer has to be in the billions.
People blame U.S as the main consumers of drugs, Mexico to allow Central America to cross with those loads of drugs, but at the end no one touches the source of the product.
ReplyDeleteNo one would be able to sleep if we would know all the practices and things our governments do underwater. Actually it is better not to know them.
ReplyDelete