OBAMA’S SEQUESTER FAVORS COCAINE DRUG LORDS AND DECIMATES AMERICAN INTERDICTION EFFOR

OBAMA’S SEQUESTER FAVORS COCAINE DRUG LORDS AND DECIMATES AMERICAN INTERDICTION EFFORTS

By JOE CALANDRA JR.
Published: May 24, 2013 | 1 Comment

http://www.libertynews.com/wp-conten...on-300x199.jpgThis week, the American Forces Press Service, one of the Pentagon’s many DOD news agencies, reported that Sequestration is absolutelydecimating American cocaine interdiction efforts.
Coast Guard Rear Adm. Charles D. Michel commands Joint Interagency Task Force South. His responsibility is to oversee Atlantic Ocean drug interdiction efforts. His USCG forces work with American naval and air force units as well as counterparts from South America and the U.K. He told DOD reporters that Sequestration cuts have reduced his ability to seize known shipments of cocaine at sea and in the air.
http://www.libertynews.com/wp-conten...el-300x214.jpgAdmiral Michel said that thirty eight more metric tons of cocaine will be sold on U.S. streets this year due to the Sequestration spending cuts.
The admiral said, “Last year, the command interdicted or disrupted about a third of cocaine shipments to the United States. This year…cocaine interdiction [will] drop between 20 and 25 percent.”
Armed Forces Press Service said:
http://www.libertynews.com/wp-conten...ER-300x164.jpg“Michel’s task force targets cocaine — an $85 billion-a-year malevolent industry. The drug is made in only three countries — Colombia, Peru and Bolivia — and the United States is its biggest market. The three countries produce about 1,200 metric tons of cocaine a year, with roughly 500 metric tons going to the United States.”
The DOD also said, “The scope of the area and mission are daunting” because, “The area…is 12 times the size of the continental United States.”
http://www.libertynews.com/wp-conten...ON-300x225.jpgFor obvious reasons of basic operational security and common sense intelligence practices, the admiral did not say how many USCG assets were at his disposal, but he did say that he now only has three or four U.S. warships (capitol ships like cruisers, destroyers, etc.) and only three or four military reconnaissance aircraft to use for all his Atlantic efforts.
The admiral said:
“It is difficult to resource this mission set, and sequestration has been devastating to it…At one point, it looked like the mission would receive no Navy ships.”
He continued, saying:
http://www.libertynews.com/wp-conten...87-300x220.jpg“There is more intelligence out there on the movement of cocaine than there are surface vessels to interdict this product…The primary reason for the decreased interdiction is a lack of capabilities…
It breaks my heart to see multi-metric-ton cocaine shipments go by that we know are there and we don’t have a ship to target it. Once it gets on land, it becomes almost impossible to police up.”
Here’s the bottom line. It seems that Sequestration only affects that which Obama has no problem letting it affect.
http://www.libertynews.com/wp-conten...-4-300x212.jpgThere is apparently a spare fifty million dollars lying around to give to Kenya, the nation of the President’s father’s birth, but apparently, there isn’t any spare American cash lying around Capitol Hill to help Admiral Michel catch drug lords and cocaine smugglers who are polluting American streets with drugs that kill American children.
Why doesn’t Barack Obama step in to give American drug interdiction teams millions more dollars to make America better, but is more than willing to get involved to fund a program that his own advisers tell him stands a good chance of making Kenya worse?


http://www.libertynews.com/2013/05/o...ction-efforts/