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The bottom line is that thanks to the Obama administration, Hezbollah still to this day has its cocaine network fully functioning in the United States

Drugs Used as Political Warfare


James A. Lyons, Jr. Admiral, USN (ret) image

By —— Bio and Archives May 20, 2018

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Drugs Used as Political Warfare There is no question we have a national opioid (drug) epidemic.  The genesis of this national tragedy goes back many generations and administrations.  Dr. Joseph D. Douglass, Jr. in his well-researched book, “Red Cocaine,” discusses in detail how our historical enemies, primarily Beijing and Moscow, made it official state policy to use drugs as a form of political warfare to bring about the decay and destruction of Western societies, particularly the United States.  One of the main sources of Dr. Douglass’ research is former General Jan Sejna, a high-level Czechoslovakian military official who defected in the 1960s, and who was deeply involved in the Soviet Union’s overall use of drugs as a key element in their political warfare strategy. Actually, the Chinese were ahead of the Soviets in trafficking drugs as a tool in their political warfare arsenal.  There is no question that it was official Chinese state policy.  During the Korean War, our POWs were subjected to various drug-induced experiments to determine effects, tolerance and reaction.  I can only imagine the suffering those POWs endured.  As an aside, we should never forget that there were 17 POWs from Vietnam sent to Cuba for further experimentation.  We have never received an accounting on what happened to those 17 POWs.
In the 1950s and 1960s the most important official exercising day-to-day control over Chinese narcotics operations was Premier Chou En-lai.  His strategy was quite simple: “to disarm the capitalists with the things they like to taste (meaning drugs).”  While the production and distribution of drugs was a valuable source of income and a “powerful weapon of subversion,” the main target was to destroy the morale of the U.S. military fighting in Southeast Asia.  While the Chinese initiated the use of drugs as political warfare, it was the Soviets who made drug trafficking the effective political warfare and intelligence weapon it has become.  The potential physical debilitating effects of drugs on the military captured the imagination of Nikita Khrushchev as a way to weaken his enemies, particularly the United States.  Consequently, he ordered a study to examine the total effects of drugs/narcotics trafficking on Western societies to include labor production and as a way to weaken and destroy their militaries and societies.  Of course, America was always the main target.  Their plan was to institute a long-range strategic operation to affect several generations.  I am sure Vladimir Putin has not overlooked this weapon, with Russia’s deep roots into Cuba and the rest of Latin America.  Regretfully, Soviet efforts were extremely effective.  The Soviet strategy included how to penetrate organized crime.  Their objective was not to take over the crime families or drug cartels, but more to control the flow of drugs and information with the objective of identifying which officials could be corrupted.  The two-prong attack consisted of drugs to destroy our society and terrorism to destabilize the country.  With those objectives it is easy to connect the dots on why leftists today have joined forces with the Muslim Brotherhood.  The use of “crack” cocaine had become an epidemic by 1989.  The question that always comes up is why we didn’t take more aggressive action.  The answer is shocking, but should not be surprising.  Politics came into play.  Far too few of our elected officials were prepared to disturb “détente” or “peaceful co-existence” with the Soviet Union.  They were content to expose millions of Americans, including our school children, to the debilitating effects of drugs in order to keep up the facade with the Soviet Union.  Of course, I am sure undercover agents were most helpful.

The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) made many attempts to shut down Hezbollah’s criminal activity, but were blocked by the Obama administration

Not surprisingly, this official condoning of criminal action still goes on today.   We know how the Obama administration turned a blind eye to the Iranian terrorist proxy organization Hezbollah trafficking cocaine and laundering money in the United States so as not to disrupt the flawed nuclear weapons non-signed agreement with Iran.  The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) made many attempts to shut down Hezbollah’s criminal activity, but were blocked by the Obama administration. In 2008, the DEA launched a campaign against the Hezbollah cocaine network.  It was called Project Cassandra.  The DEA had confirmed that Hezbollah had transformed itself from a Middle East terrorist organization into an international crime syndicate, apparently collecting over one billion dollars a year.  In an article by Josh Meyer in Politico, he points out how over the next eight years DEA agents working out of a Top-Secret counter Narco-Terrorism Center in Chantilly, Virginia, used all methods at their disposal, including key informants, to chart Hezbollah criminal networks with the help of 30 U.S. and foreign security agencies.  They were able to track not only the drugs but the money laundering network, including the purchase of used cars from 30 U.S. car dealers to cover their tracks. As DEA agents tried to obtain approval for arrests, prosecutions and financial sanctions, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Treasury officials either delayed, blocked or rejected their requests.  Further, DOJ declined requests by DEA agents to file criminal charges against major players such as Hezbollah’s envoy to Tehran and a Lebanese Canadian bank that allegedly laundered billions in drug profits.  The bottom line is that thanks to the Obama administration, Hezbollah still to this day has its cocaine network fully functioning in the United States.  Clearly Project Cassandra must be revived even with all the difficulties involved in reestablishing undercover contacts and other sources.  Further, we must acknowledge the infiltration of drugs as political warfare.  It is stunning to realize that with all of the tens of millions of taxpayer dollars the government has spent on the “war on drugs,” the government also has not investigated the deployment of drugs as a weapon of war on the United States.



James A. Lyons, Jr. Admiral, USN (ret) -- Bio and Archives | Comments

James A. Lyons, a retired U.S. Navy admiral, was commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and senior U.S. military representative to the United Nations.


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