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Nearly every night that “Freeway” Rick Ross spent in prison, the same nightmare filled his head:

He and his crew are sitting around a table piled high with hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and more money than they could count. His Nicaraguan supplier is there, too. Everyone’s smiling and laughing as they wait for a big shipment. Then there’s banging at the door. Everything goes in slow motion. A wave of big guns and masks and bulletproof vests floods the place.

“It’s the DEA,” Ross recalled. “And I know it’s all over.”

In many ways, that replaying loop of a nightmare mirrors Ross’ real-life rise and fall as one of the most powerful drug kingpins America has ever seen.

Ross was the head of a vast cocaine empire emanating from Los Angles across the country. Prosecutors said that in less than a decade from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, Ross’ operation made at least $600 million. Then a Nicaraguan cocaine supplier and informant, Oscar Danilo Blandon, served him up on a silver platter to the feds.

In 1996, Ross was given a life sentence after being convicted of trying to buy 100 kilos of cocaine from a federal agent. His relationship and dealings with Blandon is a story in itself, rife with geopolitical intrigue, alleged CIA-backed Latin American drug warlords and rebel armies, state-sanctioned arms-for-drugs deals and ultimately ending with Ross as an unwitting pawn in a game much bigger than himself.

 
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By Associated Press, Published: January 31

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MEXICO CITY — Mexican federal prosecutors said Tuesday they have launched an investigation of former officials from the violence-wracked northern border state of Tamaulipas, and three ex-governors say they are the among those being probed.

Tamaulipas has been plagued by drug cartel violence and is the home base of two warring cartels, the Gulf and Zetas drug gangs. There have long been suspicions that state officials may have favored the once-dominant Gulf cartel, but that has never been proven.

In a statement issued early Tuesday, the Attorney General’s Office has not said why the former officials are being investigated, but by necessity it would involve federal crimes. Organized crime, drug trafficking and money laundering are all considered federal offenses in Mexico.

The statement did not name the officials, but three former Tamaulipas governors confirmed that they had been targeted in the probe. Eugenio Hernandez, who left office in 2010, told local media he did not know why he was under investigation, and denied any links to organized crime.

Tomas Yarrington, whose term ended in 2004, wrote in a Twitter account linked to his website that he had learned he had been named in the case, and said he hoped authorities would explain why.

Manuel Cavazos, who left office in 1999, called the investigation “suspicious … coming in an election campaign,” and suggested it might have political overtones. He denied any wrongdoing.

All the former governors are members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which held Mexico’s presidency for 71 years until President Felipe Calderon’s National Action Party won the 2000 presidential elections.

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EL CERCADO, Mexico – (AP) — The bodies of John and Wanda Casias came one last time to the Baptist church they founded in a violence-plagued region of northern Mexico as mourners paid homage Thursday to the Texas couple who were discovered strangled in their home.

More than a dozen mourners passed to view the open caskets, one an American who came from Texas because John Casias officiated at his wedding. He did not want to give his name for security reasons.

Shawn Casias said he discovered the body of his mother at about 4 p.m. Tuesday when he went to their home in the town of Santiago to pick up a trailer.

He said she was lying on the floor with an electrical cord around her neck and a gash from a blunt object on her head.

The house had been ransacked and was missing a couple of computers, a plasma television and a safe that had been chiseled out of the wall.

The couple’s Chevrolet Suburban was also missing, and Casias said he initially thought his father had been kidnapped.

But about four or five hours later, he said, a forensic investigator informed him that the body of his father had been found in a storage room of a small building on the property. His father also had an electrical cord around his neck.

 
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Israeli sailors onboard a Dolphin class submarine.

By Mario Andrade
DeadlineLive.info
January 31, 2012

Note: The purpose of this never-before-published information in this article is to describe a possible scenario involving a false flag attack that may trigger a war with Iran. We are not in the business of predicting events; therefore, this is not a prediction. However, if an event like this were to happen, this information may help readers understand how it may have been carried out.

The German-made Dolphin class submarines acquired by Israel in 2006 are fully capable of creating a false flag attack in the Strait of Hormuz. Despite the fact that these are diesel subs, they are currently being upgraded with what is known as air-independent propulsion systems or AIP, which can allow them to remain submerged for a lot longer periods. The Dolphin class submarines can also run on battery mode (also known as diesel electric mode) and be virtually noise-free and undetectable.

According to Naval-Technology.com, the Dolphin class subs can accomplish a great variety of missions. Each one can carry up to 16 torpedoes or surface-to-surface missiles. Particularly, the torpedoes carried by these subs are called Harpoons, which can deliver a massive 227kg warhead that can hit any particular target up to a range of 130km at subsonic speeds.

Harpoon torpedoes are mostly known for striking ships in the keel or lower hull areas, particularly near the propeller shafts, resulting in flooding of the main machinery rooms. One hit by a Harpoon torpedo can sink a small or mid-size surface ship.

Below is a video of a naval exercise showing a helicopter carrier, the USS Guam (LPH-9), being sinked by 10 Harpoon torpedoes in coordination with air support strikes.

Furthermore, four of the Israeli Dolphin class submarines’ torpedo-launching tubes have been modified to have capabilities of launching swimmer delivery vehicles or SDVs carrying special operations forces. These commandos can carry out acts of sabotage, like placing explosives under a ship’s keel.

However there is a much easier and stealthier way of carrying out a false flag attack and start a war with Iran. These Israeli subs are also capable of mine-launching or mine-laying. Since they have been upgraded to launch underwater vehicles, these launching tubes can also be used to deploy mines.

Depending on how many of these Dolphin class submarines are currently in the Indian Ocean, one submarine can lay up to 16 deep-water MK-60 mines in the Gulf of Oman. The MK-60 (or Mark 60) mine is basically a capsule with an anchor sitting at the bottom. The capsule has a modified MK-48 torpedo inside designed to hit submarines (like the submarine escort currently guarding the USS Enterprise). Once it detects a submarine passing by, the capsule opens and the torpedo is launched. If the submarine somehow survives the attack, the crew and officers will think that it was a torpedo attack by the Iranians.

How a MK-60 Captor mine works

Near the Strait of Hormuz, two or three of these subs can lay shallow water mines blocking both the inbound and outbound ship channel. Mine warfare has improved a lot since World War II. Some mines are made of fiberglass and are undetectable by sonar. Today, mines can be programmed to let a certain number of ships pass into a mine field, then striking the fifth or sixth ship that passes. This way, the ships that already passed will be trapped and contained in the mine field.

Another known fact is that most of these mines are sold by defense contractors to virtually any country that has a navy, including Iran. Therefore, the mines can be made to look like the Iranians laid them in the Strait of Hormuz.

Finally, the false flag attack that would trigger the war against Iran may not necessarily be carried out against a navy ship. Any commercial vessel, like an oiler or a container ship can be hit to make it look like the Iranians started it. The Israeli Dolphin subs are already carrying out exercises in the Indian Ocean. Earlier this month, one of these subs demonstrated that it was able to launch a warhead 1,000 miles away.

* Mario Andrade is a U.S. Navy veteran who served in the first Gulf War. His specialization was mine warfare, mine clearance maneuvers, navigation, shipboard damage control and underwater explosives detection and neutralization, among many other duties. In the early part of his enlistment, he graduated among the top of his class as a sonar tech at the Fleet Anti-Submarine Warfare Training Center in San Diego, CA.

By Mario Andrade
DeadlineLive.info
January 29, 2012

The USS Enterprise -perhaps one of the most well-known aircraft carriers in modern naval history- is scheduled to be decommissioned in one year. Nevertheless, it is still being deployed to the Persian Gulf, which has caused a lot of speculation about how the U.S. Government might provoke an attack (whether real or manufactured) to sink it and blame Iran to start a war. The possibility of this event was first discussed a few days ago by talkshow host Mike Rivero.

Given the long track record of false flag attacks throughout U.S. Naval History, this is a scenario that cannot and should not be ruled out. It is a well-known fact that the U.S. Government blew up the USS Maine in 1898 in order to blame Spain during the Cuban revolt, which led to the Spanish-American War. On June 8 of 1967, Israeli aircraft bombed the USS Liberty so the U.S. Government could blame the attack on Egypt. More recently, journalist and writer Seymour Hersh stated in public that during the Bush administration, Vice President Dick Cheney wanted to ‘trigger’ a war against Iran by using Navy SEALs disguised as Iranians attacking one of our own ships. These are only a few examples.

Possible scenarios for the false flag attack on the USS Enterprise…

An aircraft carrier is very difficult, but not impossible, to sink. An attack on the USS Enterprise can be coordinated so surface-to-surface missiles, combined with torpedo-attacks possibly launched from submarines as Rivero’s video suggests, and perhaps mine warfare would cause significant damage for it to sink. If a submarine is involved in the attack, then this scenario would likely occur in the Gulf of Oman because the water there is deep enough to conduct submarine warfare.

The possible sinking scenario can also be achieved by using saboteurs or traitors among the crew to inflict damage to one or more of the EIGHT nuclear reactors onboard the Enterprise. Unfortunately, the possibilities of this scenario to happen are very likely, given how easy it is to have access to the nuclear propulsion machinery rooms.

The nuclear reactor sabotage, along with bombing from an outside vessel or aircraft could inflict enough damage in which nuclear radiation can be released to the crew’s living and working compartments. The nuclear contamination and the damage to the ship’s structure could very well force the captain to issue the order to abandon ship.

A sabotage can also be coordinated and carried out by intelligence assets and special operations forces. One can only read one of Richard Marcinko’s book to realize how easy it would be for one or two Navy SEAL teams to take over an aircraft carrier. The Dick Cheney scenario also comes to mind, in which special forces (disguised as Iranians) can use one or more gun boats, or torpedo boats to attack the carrier, while getting air support bombing, or placing high grade explosives under the ship’s keel. After all, that’s one of the Navy SEAL’s main specialty –underwater demolition operations.

One last possible scenario would actually involve the Iranian navy. The U.S. Government might provoke the Iranians in order for them to attack the USS Enterprise. The Enterprise’s battlegroup, which may include a submarine, two frigates (now being replaced with Littoral Combat Ships), two destroyers and one guided missile cruiser may (intentionally or unintentionally) leave the carrier vulnerable to an attack.

To sink, or not to sink…

The possible false flag attack on the USS Enterprise may not necessarily be significant enough for the ship to sink. It can be engineered to cause a spectacular –made for television- explosion or hull damage like the attack on the USS Cole. The ship can sustain significant damage and casualties and still stay afloat, which in fact can be spinned as a symbol of endurance or survival by the government and the media.

The Persian Gulf has very shallow water, with an average of 70 or 80 feet in depth. Therefore, a large aircraft carrier like the USS Enterprise would not fully sink. However, in the Gulf of Oman (which is where most carriers operate), the depth can reach over one thousand feet. This would be the ideal area for a ship this size to sink.

Possible area where the water would be deep enough for an aircraft carrier to sink.

However, the possibility for an aircraft carrier like the USS Enterprise to sink is still remote, given its massive size and how well the damage control teams can isolate the affected compartments. Nevertheless, an attack that involves significant amount of damage can be sufficient enough to cause a psychological reaction that may change public opinion to favor a war against Iran. One can only visualize the images on television of a damaged aircraft carrier being towed to a shipyard to be decommissioned because of the ‘evil-doers’ in Iran.

The irony of an attack on the USS Enterprise would be that this was the first U.S. Navy aircraft carrier that began using nuclear propulsion, and the false flag attack would be made to look like it was carried out by Iran – a country which is trying to develop nuclear reactors for the first time. Undoubtedly, this would also be reported by the media if the attack takes place.

*  Mario Andrade is a U.S. Navy veteran who served in the first Gulf War. His specialization was mine warfare, mine clearance maneuvers, navigation, shipboard damage control and underwater explosives detection and neutralization, among many other duties.

Ginger Thompson
The New York Times

WASHINGTON — American drug enforcement agents posing as money launderers secretly helped a powerful Mexican drug trafficker and his principal Colombian cocaine supplier move millions in drug proceeds around the world, as part of an effort to infiltrate and dismantle the criminal organizations wreaking havoc south of the border, according to newly obtained Mexican government documents.

The documents, part of an extradition order by the Mexican Foreign Ministry against the Colombian supplier, describe American counternarcotics agents, Mexican law enforcement officials and a Colombian informant working undercover together over several months in 2007. Together, they conducted numerous wire transfers of tens of thousands of dollars at a time, smuggled millions of dollars in bulk cash — and escorted at least one large shipment of cocaine from Ecuador to Dallas to Madrid.

The extradition order — obtained by the Mexican magazine emeequis and shared with The New York Times — includes testimony by a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent who oversaw a covert money laundering investigation against a Colombian trafficker named Harold Mauricio Poveda-Ortega, also known as “The Rabbit.” He is accused of having sent some 150 tons of cocaine to Mexico between 2000 and 2010. Much of that cocaine, the authorities said, was destined for the United States.

Last month, The Times reported that these kinds of operations had begun in Mexico as part of the drug agency’s expanding role in that country’s fight against organized crime. The newly obtained documents provide rare details of the extent of that cooperation and the ways that it blurs the lines between fighting and facilitating crime.

Morris Panner, a former assistant United States attorney who is an adviser at the Center for International Criminal Justice at Harvard, said there were inherent risks in international law enforcement operations. “The same rules required domestically do not apply when agencies are operating overseas,” he said, “so the agencies can be forced to make up the rules as they go along.” Speaking about the Drug Enforcement Agency’s money laundering activities, he said: “It’s a slippery slope. If it’s not careful, the United States could end up helping the bad guys more than hurting them.”

Shown copies of the documents, a Justice Department spokesman did not dispute their authenticity, but declined to make an official available to speak about them. But in a written statement, the D.E.A. strongly defended its activities, saying that they had allowed the authorities in Mexico to kill or capture dozens of high-ranking and midlevel traffickers.

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By Mario Casasús
El Clarín, Chile
Translated by Mario Andrade
DeadlineLive.info

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Oaxaca, Mexico – In an interview with Clarin.cl, Rafael Barajas (1956) talks about his new books Drug trafficking for the naive, and Drug trafficking in Mexico and who USA’s it (‘uses it’ in Spanish –ed). He states that in the same way people become addicted to drugs, the global economy is addicted to drug money. “Mexico is suffering from a deep addiction to drug money. Here, $45 billion are laundered annually, which is the equivalent of 12.5% of the world’s total drug-related profits. Felipe Calderon’s war has not failed; it has accomplished its objectives, which are to consolidate the drug smuggling routes to the United States, and the containment of a social unrest by means of militarizing the country. I don’t believe that Mexico is a failed state; it is however, a state that colludes with organized crime, and it has been infiltrated by drug traffickers,” he said.

Barajas is the author of many books like How to survive neoliberalism* and still be Mexican (1996), History of a cartoon nation (2000), The dirty tricks of impeachment for beginners (2005), The Land of the Ahuizote** (FCE, 2005), The Independence Crowd (2007), The land of the Icamole wailer*** (2008), I only laugh when it hurts (2008), Sweet Revenge (2009), How Pemex does it (2010), Little Felipe de Jesús (2010), Drug trafficking for the naive (2010), Drug trafficking in Mexico and who USA’s it, among other political humor books. In 2010, he was awarded the literature award known as La Catrina at the International Book Fair of Guadalajara, and since 2006 he co-directs the magazine El Chamuco.

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He jokingly told el Clarin: “If I had named my book ‘Drug Trafficking for beginners,’ many people would’ve been interested in buying it so they could start their own business, like the other books for beginners. But really, organized crime has not been seriously pursued because the economic resources continue to flow. Organized crime will always have money to buy drugs, guns, to corrupt politicians and officials or to buy assassins. The militarization allows for the control the population. Here, it was predicted that a powerful social unrest was going to take place in response to neoliberal* reforms, resulting in the election fraud of 2006. However, the militarization neutralized the social movement. Militarization prevents any social rebellion. It is an extreme measure used by governments,” he said.

Casasús .- Why did you publish Drug Trafficking for the naive with El Chamuco Publishing? Were you trying to avoid censorship?

Barajas .-  We launched El Chamuco Publishing because it is always better to have total control of your projects from start to finish, and to be able to track the production and sale of your books. We believe that the publishing world has changed. We have a direct relationship with our readers, and with El Chamuco, we can write or draw whatever we want.

Casasús .- What is your hypothesis behind your cartoons and documentation in the book Drug trafficking for the naive?

Barajas .- My book seeks to explain, from raw data, the logic behind the drug war and Calderon. The hypothesis is based on of Galileo’s ideas: “Everything is easy to understand, you just have to know what are the mechanisms that move these things.” In my book, I discuss what strings are pulled behind the trafficking of drugs. It is a book of great revelations; I will not tell you that Chapo Guzman is actually Batman, but what the book does is gather information scattered from public domains. I ask the fundamental questions: Who is behind the drug war? Who benefits? And what about the drug money being laundered in Mexico? These are fundamental questions that are answered somehow in the press, but with information that is still unorganized. Most of the information is obtained from academic research, some classic books like The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia by Alfred McCoy, the U.S. Congressional reports and highly accredited journalistic work, like Anabel Hernández’s book The drug lords – I attempt to put the pieces of the puzzle together because they are scattered.

Casasús .- Rius, the cartoonist launched the humoristic self-improvement book series For Beginners, so is your book Drug trafficking for the naive, or for beginners?

Barajas .- If I had titled my book Drug Trafficking for Beginners, surely there would’ve been many people interested in buying it to start their own business. They would’ve thought it was an entrepreneurship manual (laughs). That is not the intention of the book. Obviously, I named it Drug Trafficking for the naive. Just like Drug trafficking in Mexico and who USA’s it, these are books for people like us, who are not in the drug dealing business.

Casasús .- What are the benchmarks used in Felipe Calderon’s war?

Barajas .- The first record dates back to the Opium War between China and England (1839-1842), and the latest information coming from the Internet via WikiLeaks is that we now have confirmation of how it operates out of the U.S. Embassy. One of the WikiLeaks cables (folio: 06México4937) states that in September 1, 2006, Calderon went to the U.S. Embassy to seek help because he was in a precarious situation, from the political standpoint. According to the cable, Ambassador Carlos Pascual assessed that Calderon was indeed in a state of vulnerability and the U.S. decided to shore it up, creating a mission for the Embassy personnel to work with Calderon in issues that were a  priority for the U.S. (WikiLeaks cable published by La Jornada 21/02/2011). We don’t really know who put this team together or how it worked in detail, but the priority for the United States is the “drug war.” In my book, I explain the U.S. role in drug wars throughout history.

Casasús .- Let’s go over this. How did the United States participate in the opium war?

Barajas .- In the war of England against China, involving American businesses, the great promoter of the war was William Jardine, owner of the U.S.-based Jardine-Matheson company and its operator was Warren Delano, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s grandfather. If you do a thorough research of the drug wars, you will notice that in all those wars, the United States was a participant: in China, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Japan, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand, and Indochina. Also, there was the “French Connection” between Corsican and the Sicilian Mafia, and of course in South America with Plan Colombia, Central America with the Nicaraguan Contras and the Guatemalan Kaibiles. The question is: Are we going to think that Mexico is the only exception? History confirms that Mexico is no exception to the rule.

Casasús .- How did the U.S. intervene? What is their modus operandi?

Barajas .- The U.S. Congress and scholars have documented that U.S. intelligence agencies organized many of the networks and drug trafficking routes for past 60 years. This is nothing new as we all know now. In Mexico, the Americans are involved at all levels, from Washington to the CIA and the Pentagon. The Fast and Furious program was no accident. It was not just about weapons that slipped out of their control; it is the norm, and it is a well organized and deliberate effort. The biggest operator in the networks responsible for the sale of cocaine between Mexico and the United States was a gentleman named Alfredo Sicilia Falcone and when they arrested him, he said: “I am a CIA informant and they are aware of my activities. The CIA helped me establish the business in order to help the Nicaraguan Contras.” When reviewing the U.S. Congressional documents on the Iran-Contra case, you can find ample evidence of how Colombia’s drug cartels, like the Medellin Cartel and the Mexican Guadalajara (Jalisco) Drug Cartel, were backed by the CIA in exchange for control of the territory, with weapons and funding to support the Nicaraguan Contras. The list of American interventionism is endless.

Casasús .- What is the role of the United States in laundering Mexican drug money?

Barajas .- Just like people become addicted to drugs, the global economy is addicted to drug money. Mexico suffers from a profound addiction to drug money. When analyzing the data, here in this country, they launder over $40 billion per year, which is 12.5% of the global drug money. But where is that money handled? A bi-national U.S.-Mexico customs and border protection study indicates that 90% of the drug money comes from the U.S. and 50% reaches the Mexican financial system. In 2001, a Florida judge fined Wachovia Bank with $110 million for laundering $378 million of drug money from the Sinaloa Cartel between 2004 and 2007. Ed Woods, the investigator in charge of the Wachovia case, quoted by Ed Vuillamy, said, “the money laundering contacts are Citigroup and Wall Street,” (The Observer 3/4/2011). So how do these criminals get away with moving all these amounts of cash? The bottom line is: if they were to suddenly withdraw all the drug money in the Mexican financial system, the macro-economy would suffer a total collapse. That explains why they don’t really go after money laundering crimes; it is all a joke because they never arrest the white collar criminals. Here, the intelligence services only arrest women who carry a purse full of Dollar bills. The truth is that drug money is one the single and most significant factors that provides stability for the financial system.

Casasús .- Is the “war on drugs” an excuse to militarize the country?

Barajas .- What I am telling you about money laundering forces me to think that they are not seriously pursuing organized crime, because the economic resources continue to flow. Organized crime will always have money to buy drugs, guns, to corrupt politicians, or to hire gunmen. The militarization to control the population here created a powerful social unrest in response to neoliberal* reforms and the election fraud of 2006. However, the militarization put a stop to that social movement. Militarization prevents any social rebellion. It is an extreme measure used by the government.

Casasús .- Felipe Calderon’s regime criminalizes human rights advocates. You are one of the biggest promoters to have Calderon prosecuted before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Have you been persecuted for your research and your political opinion in your cartoons?

Barajas .- Society itself is criminalized in general. Cartoonists are not particularly singled out. It is true that the cartoonists do not enjoy the affections of the government; I have no doubt about that. However, when the authorities criminalize society, when young people are arrested for using Twitter (warning other citizens about possible drug cartel shootings) in Veracruz, there is a systematic persecution against people who are dissidents. I recall the case of the Reyes Salazar family, the murders of Nepomuceno Moreno, Marisela Escobedo, and Josefina Reyes who were documenting abuses by the army, as well as the investigations that indicated the involvement of the military. Marisela Escobedo was shot in front of the Government Palace of Chihuahua. These crimes went unpunished, and that’s how they inhibit social dissent. The Moreno Nepomuceno case was astounding because the first public official line of defense was to smear him, inventing alleged links with drug traffickers in Sonora. It’s the oldest trick in the book used by governments, which is to criminalize the victims.

Casasús .- Finally, are we survivors in the midst of a failed state?

Barajas .- Felipe Calderon’s war has not failed; it has accomplished its objectives, which are to consolidate the drug smuggling routes to the United States, and the containment of a social unrest by means of militarizing the country. I don’t believe that Mexico is a failed state; it is however, a state that colludes with organized crime, and it has been infiltrated by drug traffickers.

* Neoliberalism – In Latin American politics, the word liberalism is associated with globalism and internationalism.

** Ahuizote – In Aztec mythology, an Ahuizote was a devil-like water dog creature similar to an otter, but with bat-like wings. This devil-like creature ruled the Aztec empire for a period of time. During its rule, many disasters, plagues, tragedies and calamities took place.

*** Icamole wailer – Reference made to the battle of Icamole, state of Nuevo Leon, where Mexican military factions tried to start a revolution against the federal government in 1876. After the bloody battle, a soldier sat down and watched the destruction and cried. He was then known as the Icamole wailer.

The Pentagon strategy review announced by President Barack Obama leaves behind nearly as many questions as answers about what the US military footprint will actually look like in years to come.

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Even though the direct budget consequences will not be forthcoming for another month, it is possible to predict who will be on the ground where in the months ahead.
The stated US intention to move away from counter-insurgency theory, land invasions and ground occupations is real.

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After 9/11, the US military grew by over 100,000, chiefly in the Army and Marines, to manage the rigours of two Middle East occupations and the theory – advanced by so-called counter-insurgency experts – that very high ratios of US troops to occupied populations would be necessary.

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But the sobering modesty of results on the ground, and the exhausting of US resources, have put an end to that. Then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told the 2011 graduating class at West Point, the country’s oldest military academy, that any future leader who contemplates sending young men and women to occupy a Middle Eastern society “should have his head examined”.

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The Pentagon’s proposal thus far cuts ground troop levels back to 520,000. Others have proposed going further, back to the level of 10 September 2001. As Charles Knight, of the Project on Defense Alternatives, has noted, at those levels a large occupation requires activating the National Guard and Reserves – and demands a higher level of societal commitment, even from an all-volunteer force.

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The trend toward irregular operations featuring special forces, drones and state-of-the-art surveillance technology will accelerate.

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By William Fisher
The Public Record

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Two of Europe’s most respected human rights organizations are accusing a little-known European Union agency of paying “lip service to transparency” while “covering up crucial evidence on the CIA rendition program.”

Crofton Black, an investigator for the charity, Reprieve, said the agency, called “EUROCONTROL, has the necessary information and it is able to disclose it.” He asked, “Will it step up and do the right thing? The clock is ticking.”

The requests for information have come from Reprieve and its partners, Access Info Europe. They have written to the Director General of EUROCONTROL, asking him to reconsider his denial of access to flight planning information vital to renditions accountability.

So far, EUROCONTROL is refusing to release crucial evidence relating to the CIA’s illegal renditions program, despite requests to do so by Reprieve and Access Info Europe.

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This week, a secret meeting is being held in Washington between the head of Mexico’s Public Safety Office (the equivalent of DHS in the U.S.), the U.S. Attorney General, the DEA, and the FBI, DeadlineLive.info has learned.

The head of the Mexican Public Safety Department, Genaro García Luna will brief U.S. Officials on progresses and challenges in the Mexican drug war, as well as the option for the legalization of marijuana.

Mexican Public Safety Secretary Genaro García Luna has written a new book called “Understanding Mexico’s new security model.” In the book, García Luna states that from a public safety perspective, it is important to include the issue of legalizing marijuana in the fight against the drug cartels.

García Luna believes that it’s worth exploring the legalization issue, especially since many states in the U.S. are currently debating the legalization of marijuana for medical use.

Many Mexican officials like García Luna believe that if the larger states in the U.S., like California, marijuana is legalized, then there will be a huge market for the drug cartels when targeting that geographical area, resulting in violent acts as they fight for the territory. Therefore, it would be better to either legalize it or de-criminalize it across the board.

During his visit in the U.S., García Luna will present his book in a conference at the Woodrow Wilson Center today at 6:PM.

Developing…