Corruption
and the crisis of credibility: DEA, ATF, Secret
Service scandals badly undermine Washington's standing.
DEA Scandal:
Drugs, Prostitutes and 'Grotesque' U.S. Double Standards (La Jornada, Mexico)
"U.S.
government agencies like the ATF and DEA have shown no compunction about
breaking national laws, smuggling weapons to criminal groups involved in the
drugs trade, laundering their money and even participating in parties paid for
by drug traffickers, all of which has been made clear by various investigations
conducted in our neighbor country. Under such circumstances, it is grotesque
that U.S. politicians and media appear restless over the alleged unreliability
of security organs in countries like Mexico and Colombia and use such concerns
as a pretext for operations of their own troops on foreign territory."
The director of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA for
its English acronym) Michele Leonhartresigned
yesterday following a scandal involving DEA agents partying with
prostitutes in Colombia - and after lawmakers in our neighboring country's
House of Representatives issued
a statement of no confidence in respect to her performance on the issue.
It should be recalled that last month, the U.S. Department
of Justice released an internal
report which revealed the involvement of some DEA officers at parties with
prostitutes funded by drug cartels in Cartagena, Colombia, which was part of a broader
investigation into another scandal in which Secret Service members in 2012 were
involved with sex workers in that city as President Barack Obama participated
in the Summit of the Americas.
Dania Londoño Suare: The Woman Who Rocked the U.S. Secret Service (El Espectador, Colombia)
Beyond the sex scandal, its moral implications and the U.S.
government's image, the episode highlights the fuzzy dividing line between the
drug fighting and security agencies in our neighbor country and the criminal
organizations they claim to pursue. The incident referred to is just a sampling
of the hypocrisy and double standards practiced by the U.S. political class on
the issue of combating drugs: While countries like Mexico and Colombia have
suffered the ravages a drug-fighting policy that was imposed and designed in
Washington, U.S. government officials have been involved in episodes in which
they supplied weapons to the cartels, as occurred in our country [Operation Fast
and Furious] - and at the behest of the U.S. government agency responsible
for monitoring drugs, alcohol and firearms (the ATF).
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Over the last three years it has been documented and become
widely understood that the DEA itself has been involved in laundering the money of
drug traffickers south of the Rio Grande; weapons traders in the southern
United States have profited handsomely from selling guns bereft of official
control and in full knowledge that many are destined for Mexico's organized
crime syndicates; and there remains no sign that the U.S. government plans to undertake
any significant police effort to halt the introduction of illegal drugs across
our common frontier nor is it striving to dismantle the distribution networks for
narcotics on its own territory.
As you can see, U.S. government agencies like the ATF and
DEA have shown no compunction about breaking national laws, smuggling weapons
to criminal groups involved in the drugs trade, laundering their money and even
participating in parties paid for by drug traffickers, all of which has been
made clear by various investigations conducted in our neighbor country. Under
such circumstances, it is grotesque that U.S. politicians and media appear
restless over the alleged unreliability of security organs in countries like Mexico and Colombia and use such concerns as a pretext for operations of their own troops on foreign territory.
