-DOES IT END HERE?TO SEE SOME INTERESTING 1998 REVELATIONS, TAKE A BRIEF SERIES OF SIDESTEPS BEGINNING HERE.
Reuter
WASHINGTON
The United States allowed the war it backed against Nicaragua to obstruct its fight against drugs, a Senate report said yesterday.
The report was released as Congress approved $49.75-million in non-lethal aid to the Nicaraguan contra rebels, implementing President
George Bush's bipartisan accord on using diplomacy to promote democracy in Nicaragua.
The Senate report said U.S. agencies' first priority was to support the rebels, even though that interfered with efforts to halt drug trafficking by them, by Panama's General Manuel Antonio Noriega and by Honduran army elements.
In some cases, the U.S. government blocked law enforcement efforts to stop the drugs, it said.
"U.S. officials involved in Central America
failed to address the drug issue for fear of jeopardizing the
war effort against Nicaragua," said the report by the Senate
subcommittee on narcotics, terrorism and international
operations.
Democratic Senator John Kerry of
Massachusetts, the subcommittee chairman, said at a news
conference that "law enforcement personnel were demoralized.
"Again and again, we found agencies with foreign
policy responsibilities failing to provide law
enforcement...with the support or information they needed to
make arrests."
The report is based on a two-year
investigation that included public hearings.
"Foreign
policy priorities towards the Bahamas, Honduras, Nicaragua and
Panama at times delayed, halted or interfered with U.S. law
enforcement's efforts to keep narcotics out of the United
States," the subcommittee said.
It said the foreign
policy priority in all those countries was the Nicaraguan
effort, except for the Bahamas, where the priority appeared to
be the rights to military bases.
The panel said it
found no evidence that contra leaders were involved in drug
smuggling, but individual rebels, suppliers, pilots and
supporters did smuggle drugs.
The report also said
that U.S. policy makers "were not immune to the idea that drug
money was a perfect solution to the contras' funding problems."
(text of April 14, 1989 Globe and
Mail article)
-DOES IT END HERE?
TO SEE SOME INTERESTING 1998 REVELATIONS, TAKE A BRIEF SERIES OF SIDESTEPS BEGINNING
HERE.
WAIT! THIS WEBSITE HAS SO MUCH TO DO WITH SOUTH AFRICA! SURELY
THESE PEOPLE "LIKE AMERICA'S FOUNDING FATHERS" MUST HAVE PLAYED
SOME ROLE IN RESPONDING TO THE RECENT HISTORY EXAMPLE OF WHAT
COST 40 MILLION LIVES HALF A CENTURY AGO!
YES, INDEED!
TAKE YOUR NEXT FOOTSTEP HERE.