Drug War Chronicle, Issue #597 -(urls + editorial)- 8/13/09
B Sellers
Drug War Chronicle, Issue #597 -- 8/13/09
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psm...@drcnet.org
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/597
A Publication of Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
David Borden, Executive Director, bor...@drcnet.org
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"
Table of Contents:
1. FEATURE: HIT LIST -- US TARGETS 50 TALIBAN-LINKED DRUG
TRAFFICKERS TO CAPTURE OR KILL
The US is employing a new tactic in Afghanistan: Killing or
capturing drug traffickers linked to the Taliban (though not
those linked to the Karzai government). Is that even legal under
international law? The US military says it is, but not everyone
agrees.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/597/US_military_afghanistan_drug_trafficker_hit_list
2. DRUG WAR CHRONICLE BOOK REVIEW ESSAY: "RIGHTEOUS DOPEFIEND"
AND "THIS IS FOR THE MARA SALVATRUCHA: INSIDE THE MS-13,
AMERICA'S MOST VIOLENT GANG"
The Chronicle reviews a journalistic treatment of the Mara
Salvatrucha gang and an anthropological treatment of a group of
homeless middle-aged heroin addicts. We found one much more
satisfying than the other.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/597/book_review_logan_mara_salvatrucha_bourgois_righteous_dopefiend
3. BOOK OFFER: THIS IS YOUR COUNTRY ON DRUGS
As part of our summer fundraising drive, DRCNet is pleased to
offer Ryan Grim's exciting new book, "This Is Your Country on
Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America," as our
latest membership premium. Things are happening, and the
importance of your support at this time could not be greater.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/597/book_offer_this_is_your_country_on_drugs
4. ANNOUNCEMENT: THE 2009 INTERNATIONAL DRUG POLICY REFORM
CONFERENCE, ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, NOVEMBER 12-14
Every two years drug policy reformers from across the United
States and around the world come to the International Drug
Policy Reform Conference to listen, learn, network and
strategize together for change. This year the conference is in
Albuquerque, in November, and StoptheDrugWar.org is a partner.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/597/2009_international_drug_policy_reform_conference_albuquerque_new_mexico
5. LATIN AMERICA: MEXICAN DRUG WAR WEEK IN REVIEW
It's been another bloody couple of weeks of prohibition-related
violence in Mexico. Here's the latest on that and other drug war
developments south of the border.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/597/mexico_drug_war_update
6. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
The Chronicle may have taken a week off, but corrupted law
enforcers didn't take time off from their illicit enterprises,
and there was no letup in corrupt cops stories. Here's this
week's motley crew.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/597/police_drug_corruption
7. MARIJUANA: HAWAII INSURER DENIES WOMAN TRANSPLANT BECAUSE OF
POT USE
Does taking a hit off a joint merit a death sentence? A Hawaii
insurance carrier thinks so, and it's not alone.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/597/kimberly_reyes_denied_liver_transplant_marijuana
8. HEMP: OREGON GOVERNOR SIGNS FARMING BILL INTO LAW
Oregon has become the latest state to pass legislation enabling
the farming of industrial hemp and, like North Dakota, they
don't need no stinking federal licenses. But the DEA tends to
disagree about that.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/597/oregon_passes_hemp_cultivation_bill
9. HEMP: INDUSTRY GROUP SEEKS "BEER SUMMIT" ON CAPITOL HILL
FOLLOWING SEIZURE OF LEGAL DEMONSTRATION FIBERS
This press release from the group Vote Hemp describes an absurd
situation in which confused Capitol Hill police seized legal
hemp fibers that a lobbyist had planned to use to help alleviate
such confusion.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/597/capitol_police_seize_lobbyists_legal_hemp_fiber_samples
10. SALVIA DIVINORUM: NORTH CAROLINA LATEST STATE TO BAN OR
REGULATE SALLY D
North Carolina is about to join the ranks of states and
localities that have banned salvia divinorum. A bill has passed
the legislature and awaits the governor's signature.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/597/north_carolina_salvia_divinorum_ban
11. MARIJUANA: CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATES NOT HIGH ON
LEGALIZATION
Talk of marijuana legalization is definitely in the air in
California, but none of the announced major party gubernatorial
candidates want to add to it. Yet.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/597/california_governor_candidates_no_marijuana_legalization
12. MIDDLE EAST: DUBAI COURT SENTENCES WOMAN TO LIFE FOR SELLING
A JOINT
We knew Dubai was tough on drugs; we've seen the horror stories
about unwary travelers busted for microscopic amounts of dope
and routinely sent off to prison for four years. But this is
ridiculous.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/597/dubai_court_life_sentence_one_marijuana_joint
13. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of
years past.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/597/drug_war_history
14. FEEDBACK: DO YOU READ DRUG WAR CHRONICLE?
Do you read Drug War Chronicle? If so, we need your feedback to
evaluate our work and make the case for Drug War Chronicle to
funders. We need donations too.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/597/do_you_read_drug_war_chronicle
15. STUDENTS: INTERN AT STOPTHEDRUGWAR.ORG (DRCNET) AND HELP
STOP THE DRUG WAR!
Apply for an internship at DRCNet and you could spend a semester
fighting the good fight!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/597/drcnet_internships_to_stop_the_drug_war
16. WEEKLY: BLOGGING @ THE SPEAKEASY
"What Will the Cartels Do After Drugs Are Legal?," "The Drug
Cartels Have Their Own (Stolen) Oil Company," "Drug Traffickers
Plot to Kill Mexico's President," "Police Will Do Anything to
Arrest People for Marijuana, Part II," more...
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/597/blogging_at_the_speakeasy
(Not subscribed? Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org to sign up
today!)
================
1. Feature: Hit List -- US Targets 50 Taliban-Linked Drug
Traffickers to Capture or Kill
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/597/US_military_afghanistan_drug_trafficker_hit_list
A congressional study released Tuesday reveals that US military
forces occupying Afghanistan have placed 50 drug traffickers on
a "capture or kill" list. The list of those targeted for arrest
or assassination had previously been reserved for leaders of the
insurgency aimed at driving Western forces from Afghanistan and
restoring Taliban rule. The addition of drug traffickers to the
hit list means the US military will now be capturing or killing
criminal -- not political or military -- foes without benefit of
warrant or trial.
The policy was announced earlier this year
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/592/afghanistan_US_stops_opium_poppy_eradication),
when the US persuaded reluctant NATO allies to come on board as
it began shifting its Afghan drug policy from eradication of
peasant poppy fields to trying to interdict opium and heroin in
transit out from the country. But it is receiving renewed
attention as the fight heats up this summer, and the release of
the report from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has
brought the policy under the spotlight.
The report, Afghanistan's Narco War: Breaking the Link between
Drug Traffickers and Insurgents
(http://www.foreign.senate.gov/afghan.pdf), includes the
following highlights:
* Senior military and civilian officials now believe the
Taliban cannot be defeated and good government in Afghanistan
cannot be established without cutting off the money generated by
Afghanistan's opium industry, which supplies more than 90
percent of the world's heroin and generates an estimated $3
billion a year in profits.
* As part of the US military expansion in Afghanistan, the
Obama administration has assigned US troops a lead role in
trying to stop the flow of illicit drug profits that are
bankrolling the Taliban and fueling the corruption that
undermines the Afghan government. Simultaneously, the United
States has set up an intelligence center to analyze the flow of
drug money to the Taliban and corrupt Afghan officials, and a
task force combining military, intelligence and law enforcement
resources from several countries to pursue drug networks linked
to the Taliban in southern Afghanistan awaits formal approval.
* On the civilian side, the administration is dramatically
shifting gears on counternarcotics by phasing out eradication
efforts in favor of promoting alternative crops and agriculture
development. For the first time, the United States will have an
agriculture strategy for Afghanistan. While this new strategy is
still being finalized, it will focus on efforts to increase
agricultural productivity, regenerate the agribusiness sector,
rehabilitate watersheds and irrigation systems, and build
capacity in the Afghan Ministry of Agriculture Irrigation and
Livestock.
While it didn't make the highlights, the following passage
bluntly spells out the lengths to which the military is prepared
to go to complete its new anti-drug mission: "In a dramatic
illustration of the new policy, major drug traffickers who help
finance the insurgency are likely to find themselves in the
crosshairs of the military. Some 50 of them are now officially
on the target list to be killed or captured."
Or, as one US military officer told the committee staff: "We
have a list of 367 'kill or capture' targets, including 50 nexus
targets who link drugs and insurgency."
US military commanders argue that the killing of civilian drug
trafficking suspects is legal under their rules of engagement
and the international law. While the exact rules of engagement
are classified, the generals said "the ROE and the
internationally recognized Law of War have been interpreted to
allow them to put drug traffickers with proven links to the
insurgency on a kill list, called the joint integrated
prioritized target list."
Not everyone agrees that killing civilian drug traffickers in a
foreign country is legal. The UN General Assembly has called for
a moratorium on the use of the death penalty. In a 2007 report
(http://www.ihra.net/DeathPenalty), the International Harm
Reduction Association identified the resort to the death penalty
for drug offenses as a violation of the UN Charter and Universal
Declaration on Human Rights.
"What was striking about the news coverage of this this week was
that the culture of US impunity is so entrenched that nobody
questioned or even mentioned the fact that extrajudicial murder
is illegal under international law, and presumably under US law
as well," said Steve Rolles of the British drug reform group
Transform (http://www.tdpf.org.uk). "The UK government could
never get away with an assassination list like this, and even
when countries like Israel do it, there is widespread
condemnation. Imagine the uproar if the Afghans had produced a
list of US assassination targets on the basis that US forces in
Afghanistan were responsible for thousands of civilian
casualties."
Rolles noted that while international law condemns the death
penalty for drug offenses, the US policy of "capture or kill"
doesn't even necessarily contemplate trying offenders before
executing them. "This hit list is something different," he
argued. "They are specifically calling for executions without
any recourse to trial, prosecution, or legal norms. Whilst a
'war' can arguably create exceptions in terms of targeting
'enemy combatants,' the war on terror and war on drugs are
amorphous concepts apparently being used to create a blanket
exemption under which almost any actions are justified, whether
conventionally viewed as legal or not -- as recent controversies
over torture have all too clearly demonstrated."
But observers on this side of the water were more sanguine.
"This is arguably no different from US forces trying to capture
or kill Taliban leaders," said Vanda Felbab-Brown, an expert on
drugs, security, and insurgencies at the Brookings Institution.
"As long as you are in a war context and part of your policy is
to immobilize the insurgency, this is no different," she said.
"This supposedly focuses on major traffickers closely aligned to
the Taliban and Al Qaeda," said Ted Galen Carpenter, a foreign
policy analyst for the Cato Institute. "That at least is
preferable to going around destroying the opium crops of Afghan
farmers, but it is still a questionable strategy," he said.
But even if they can live with hit-listing drug traffickers,
both analysts said the success of the policy would depend on how
it is implemented. "The major weakness of this new initiative is
that it is subject to manipulation -- it creates a huge
incentive for rival traffickers or people who simply have a
quarrel with someone to finger that person and get US and NATO
forces to take him out," said Carpenter, noting that Western
forces had been similarly played in the recent past in
Afghanistan. "You'll no doubt be amazed by the number of
traffickers who are going to be identified as Taliban-linked.
Other traffickers will have a vested interest in eliminating the
competition."
"This is better than eradication," agreed Felbab-Brown, "but how
effective it will be depends to a large extent on how it's
implemented. There are potential pitfalls. One is that you send
a signal that the best way to be a drug trafficker is to be part
of the government. There needs to be a parallel effort to go
after traffickers aligned with the government," she said.
"A second pitfall is with deciding the purpose of interdiction,"
Felbab-Brown continued. "This is being billed as a way to
bankrupt the Taliban, but I am skeptical about that, and there
is the danger that expectations will not be met. Perhaps this
should be focused on limiting the traffickers' power to corrupt
and coerce the state."
Another danger, said Felbab-Brown, is if the policy is
implemented too broadly. "If the policy targets low-level
traders even if they are aligned with the Taliban or targets
extensive networks of trafficking organizations and ends up
arresting thousands of people, its disruptive effects may be
indistinguishable from eradication at the local level. That
would be economically hurting populations the international
community is trying to court."
Felbab-Brown pointed to the Colombian and Mexican examples to
highlight another potential pitfall for the policy of targeting
Taliban-linked traffickers. "Such operations could end up
allowing the Taliban to take more control over trafficking, as
in Colombia after the Medellin and Cali cartels were destroyed,
where the FARC and the paramilitaries ended up becoming major
players," she warned. "Or like Mexico, where the traffickers
have responded by fighting back against the state. This could
add another dimension to the conflict and increase the levels of
violence."
The level of violence is already at its highest level since the
US invasion and occupation nearly eight years ago. Last month
was the bloodiest month of the war for Western troops, with 76
US and NATO soldiers killed. As of Wednesday, another 28 have
been killed this month.
================
...
___________________
It's time to correct the mistake:
truth:the Anti-drugwar
<http://www.briancbennett.com>
Cops say legalize drugs--find out why:
<http://www.leap.cc>
Stoners are people too:
<http://www.cannabisconsumers.org>
___________________
later
bliss -- Cacoa Powered... (at sfo dot com)
--
bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco
"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of cacoa that the thoughts acquire speed,
the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
--from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.