US GENERAL TO SENATE: TERROR GROUPS BENEFITING FROM LATIN AMERICAN DRUG TRADE

US GENERAL TO SENATE: TERROR GROUPS BENEFITING FROM LATIN AMERICAN DRUG TRADEAP Photo

by EDWIN MORA26 Mar 201535

WASHINGTON, DC — The Iran-backed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah is among the terrorist organizations that are benefiting from the illegal drug trade in Latin America, Lt. Gen. Kenneth Tovo, deputy commander of the U.S. Southern Command (Southcom), told lawmakers.

Illegal drug trafficking in Latin American generates at least “tens of millions” for Hezbollah, which uses the funds to fuel its operations in the Middle East, explained the Southcom general.

During a hearing this afternoon held by the Senate Homeland Security & Government Affairs Committee, Ron Johnson (R-WI), the panel’s chairman, asked the general to comment on the nexus between drug traffickers and terrorist organizations in Latin America.

“Mr. Chairman certainly in a classified setting we can give you a lot more detail. Suffice it to say from open source, I think we know that in at least several occasions over the past decade and a half, terrorists have attempted to use our borders, our open borders, to do us harm,” Gen. Tovo testified before the panel.

“On a broader scale, we know that some of these [terrorist] organizations do receive financial benefit from the drug trade — a topic of much discussion amongst the intel community about how much cooperation and convergence, as we call it, there really is,” he added. “There is dispute about that, but I think it’s fair to say that there is a good amount of profit that Lebanese Hezbollah makes off of illicit trafficking writ large on at least the order of tens of millions and much of it is funneled through the money laundering system and fuels their operations back in the Middle East.”

Besides Hezbollah, Lt. Gen. Tovo did not identify other terrorist organizations benefiting from the illegal drug trafficking in Latin America.

<span style="font-family: inherit"><font color="#111111"><span style="font-family: Georgia">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5udehIfwG0

Last week, Southcom Commander Gen. John Kelly expressed concern about Iran’s presence in Latin America and warned that Sunni extremists are radicalizing coverts and other Muslims in the region.

He also warned that terrorist groups like the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) may exploit the knowledge of smugglers in Latin America to infiltrate the United States.

Breitbart News reported that Hezbollah operates across Latin America.

Experts said the Shiite movement organization, which is officially listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, generates millions of dollars through drug trafficking, money laundering, and other criminal activities in the Americas.
Southcom’s area of responsibility covers 31 countries and 15 areas of special sovereignty in Latin America and the Caribbean.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...an-drug-trade/

When did we declare war on drugs? In the 80's? Another war that we did not take seriously enough to win! This and these reports to Congress might indicate that If the drug war had been given serious resistance and effort, we may have impacted negatively the income of terrorist organizations in the middle east who fully intend to destroy us?

As a matter of fact, this indicates that had we secured our borders to prevent aliens and drugs from crossing our border, we might have done a good
humanitarian deed.

When are we going to recognize as a people, the American people, that these combat efforts that we have expended blood and treasury in for nearly 15 years are diversions so that we, the people, ignore the invasions of America from the south? I strongly suggest that if we haven't recognized that yet then it is past time again to come to grips with reality. That means we have to quit being drawn into believing Washington's half-truths and bald faced lies by both parties' leaders and candidates!!

We must see the trees as well as the forest!

You know, I looked into this War on Drugs a few years ago and what I found made me sick, but what it showed was that the only way to stop a foreign black market taking advantage of our country in so many ways from its open border to its drug running illegal aliens to buying up our politicians to expanding their business into human smuggling which ensures they get the drugs in and the people to run their operations here and haul the money out.

There's a great group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition who believes after all they've seen and done that we should end the War on Drugs, and after studying it myself, I totally agree with them. What I would do is legalize the drug trade in the US, regulate it by age, quality and quantity, under a civil code, not a criminal code.

Limit it to a domestic-only trade, no imports or exports, owned and operated by US citizens only, from A to Z, Top to Bottom, field, greenhouse to processing to distribution and final sales. Regulate the age like we do cigarettes and tobacco.

Tax it under the FairTax, use a portion of the taxes only drug users pay to cover the cost of regulation, better education of the risks and consequences, and free rehab on demand for anyone who wants or needs it, then stop worrying about it.

That stops the illegal drug trade, stops the vast majority of illegal immigration and human smuggling, protects our citizens who use drugs, restores the $300 billion industry to the US economy, helps those who are addicted, provides truthful facts about the risks and consequences of using drugs to discourage use, and removes police and prisons from the whole affair.

We've lost enough of our money and ruined enough lives trying to work against nature. The fact is that humans like different kinds of stuff, for lack of a better word, some like sugar, some like coffee, some like alcohol, some like cigarettes, some like drugs, some like to ski off trails and get buried in an avalanche, some like to climb mountains and freeze to death, some like to sail and get accosted by pirates, some like paid sex, and on and on and on.

We can't clone an American. Americans are unique individuals and what works for one may not work for another. It's just a fact of life and a simple law of the universe. We can't save everyone from themselves, the best we can do is educate, make it as safe as possible, get them help they paid for, and end the age of criminalizing activities just because it's not something we do or are interested in.

And for the rest of US who don't use drugs or care anything about it, we get our country back from the cartels and illegal aliens running a $300 billion a year industry in our country at our expense. It's a win, win, win, win deal. And shutting down funding for terrorists organizations is but icing on the cake.

For more information on LEAP, go here:

www.leap.cc

Judy. when I got to the word educate in your post, I had an aha moment because I was thinking based upon my experience in school, drugs were not a problem. There was a small problem with cigarettes, and once in a great while alcohol, but never at the school. Somewhere maybe 15-20 years later I began hearing drugs were becoming a problem.

When I went to school, you could and like did face double jeopardy. The school would discipline, likely suspension for a period of days, but parents were called, too. Parents disciplined with no fear of the supreme court. I never heard of anything that I or my parents considered cruel, I did not experience any discipline that seemed cruel.

We all had guns as far as I know. There were no murders or unexplainable shootings any closer than 50 miles. Doors were unlocked, no home burglaries that involved any of my schools families. That, too, started changing as drugs were introduced to the public as illegal but became acceptable.

Before we attempt more things that do not work as amnesties did snot work, etc. we need to restore things that did work. What is wrong by learning from history? (I learned as a child two wrong does not make a right. Our government often attempts that. It hasn't been working. So, they taught me that what I learned as a child was correct. lol)

I take that from the General's testimony, too. "Hey, we made a mistake. We need to correct it."

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Originally Posted by Judy

There's a great group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition who believes after all they've seen and done that we should end the War on Drugs, and after studying it myself, I totally agree with them. What I would do is legalize the drug trade in the US, regulate it by age, quality and quantity, under a civil code, not a criminal code.

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+1

We tried Prohibition here at home. The result was rival drug gangs - now sometimes romanticized - and massive corruption. We tried interdiction in Columbia. The result was rival drug gangs - which became militias - and massive corruption. We're trying interdiction now in Mexico. The result is rival drug gangs - and private security forces for the rich - and massive corruption.

One definition of insanity is, Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

The only policy which will actually work long term is, Legalization, regulation, taxation, and education. Anything else is a delusion. This policy is essentially what we do now with alcohol. It's not a perfect system, but it's better than the delusional alternatives.
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Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Wee have not tried war upon the country that harbors drug gangs. In Columbia attacks were upon the gangs,

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Originally Posted by kevinssdad

Wee have not tried war upon the country that harbors drug gangs. In Columbia attacks were upon the gangs,

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Nor should we in my opinion. What they do in their countries is their business. What we want to do or should do is use our own free domestic market to shut them down by supplying our own drug market, do so with legalization, regulations, education and taxation under the FairTax and use a portion only drug users pay to fund free rehab on demand for anyone who wants or needs it.

This would remove the cost of treatment for addiction from insurance companies and lower health insurance rates for everyone.

I have read many reports that Colorado is not sure that legalizing marijuana was a great decision. then we add a menu of drugs, I so not this sure it can be that well regulated. Treatment for addicts has not impressed me either, I have met many, I mean many, that just keep doing it after treatment, many times after multiple treatments. They are a drag on the economy as well as on treatment and enforcement. We must eliminate either the suppliers or we never control drugs. And Drugs are a larger challenge to treat, and is not highly successful.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kevinssdad

I have read many reports that Colorado is not sure that legalizing marijuana was a great decision. then we add a menu of drugs, I so not this sure it can be that well regulated. Treatment for addicts has not impressed me either, I have met many, I mean many, that just keep doing it after treatment, many times after multiple treatments. They are a drag on the economy as well as on treatment and enforcement. We must eliminate either the suppliers or we never control drugs. And Drugs are a larger challenge to treat, and is not highly successful.

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The reports from Colorado are driven by disgruntled law enforcement that liked the War on Drugs, it added cause to expanding their ranks, gave them confiscations that lined their pockets, funded part of their agencies, filled up private prisons otherwise empty and not earning income, funded District Attorneys and defense lawyers, all the gravy of locking up pot smokers and other drug users and drug offenders. Addiction is a disease, and some people have to deal with this, whether it's addiction to recreational drugs, pharmaceuticals, alcohol, sex, etc. whatever it is, is a problem for these people.

Prohibition laws haven't stopped any of it, ever, nor have they cured anyone yet. Rehab does help people, but usually not forever, and it takes repeated visits over many years. But it helps them for awhile. Like illegal immigration that has all its sponsors lining their pockets off of it, and the income tax with its tax industry earning billions filling out tax forms for the government, the War on Drugs that started out with the real but misguided intention of helping people, became a nightmare of special interests padding their wallets by destroying people.

Most people who use recreational drugs of one sort or another are not addicts, live pretty normal lives, and I know this from friends of mine who used drugs in the past, they all went to college, they all graduated, they all worked hard good jobs, they got married, had kids, and are some of the finest and nicest ordinary people you'd ever want to know, to be friends with or to work with or for. So there's no reason for what they did or perhaps still from time to time do to be a crime. If someone becomes an addict because of their psychology or biology, then that's just the hard breaks of life and something they need help with. But is it or should it be a crime? No, because it isn't a crime.

We can't stop drug use. That's a fact. No different than stopping people who have diabetes from eating sugar, or overweight people from eating candy bars, or anything else that humans like to do that may not be good for them from one perspective or another. And the only reason that I believe we should include free rehab on demand as part of the legalization process, is because it's just common sense.

If drug users are buying drugs and paying a Fairtax on it, a tax that only they are paying because non-users aren't buying these items, then they should receive a rehab benefit in return, which allows those who use or are involved with drugs users who get wild and crazy and some do, to have a place to go or be taken for help and treatment. It may not be a cure, but it's a legitimate medical facility that specializes in dealing with excess intake, withdrawal, calming down, getting right, and this will help them, it could even save their lives or the lives of someone else in those rare instances of violence.

Rehab under this plan needs to be a free rehab on demand without stigma, no different than going to a hospital, but with more privacy. Unfortunately, hospitals aren't the right place for people suffering from drug addiction, these treatment centers are better equipped for dealing with substance abuse, and much less expensive.

As to drug users being a drain on our economy, they're really no more a drain on our economy because they use drugs than anyone else. Most drug users are high performance people. I know all my friends who used drugs are, and they've never been a drain on anyone.

One of the interesting facts about drug addiction is reported in one of the videos on the LEAP website that ist in the United States, before the War on Drugs that started in its infancy during the Democrats Year of Infamy as I'm now going to call it, 1913, the year they passed the income tax, the year they reduced tariffs on imports, the year they established the Federal Reserve, and the year they passed the Harrison Act and made marijuana a "narcotic" which is how the war on drugs began, the addiction rate was 2% of our population.

After over 102 years of a constantly escalating and proliferated War on Drugs, the addiction rate in the US is still only 2%. It's just a fact that 2% of our human population in the United States has the psychology and/or biology that leads them to addiction. So, for this 2%, we should provide the rehab through Fairtaxes only drug users pay to help anyone who wants or needs it, and stop worrying about it.

-Back when our country was more sane than it is today, there was a nice TV show called the Andy Griffith Show, and some will remember the drunk that would come into Andy's jail, lock himself up and sleep it off, the character's name was Otis. We should treat all people with addiction the same way the writers of that show treated their character, Otis, with a safe place to go or be taken, whenever they want or need it.

In the FBI statistics on number of persons arrested per year, there are 1.5 million Americans arrested every year for drug charges of one type or another. We need to stop that, right here, right now. We have the highest incarceration rate per capita of any nation in the world, and that's because of the War on Drugs. We need to change that, right here, right now.

There's another fact that needs to be reported on and that's one I found doing research on the War on Drugs and its consequences, and that's the role of drugs in the work place that led to drug testing in the name of work place safety. There was no significant difference after 20 years of drug testing in the work place in worker safety records between companies who tested and those who didn't.

We have eliminated the suppliers in America through the War on Drugs. There are no legal suppliers, except in those states who legalized under state laws but who are still in violation of federal law. All we did with the federal drug laws was create a Monster that's ruined or diminished the lives of every American, opened our borders to a foreign criminal-backed illegal and unsafe drug trade, imprisoned tens of millions of Americans for no valid reason at all, and violated the privacy and security of millions of others through drug raids. If our homes aren't the ones attacked and invaded, our pets or family members shot by SWAT teams on no-knock warrants looking for "marijuana growing in the home", we're still diminished by the costs and consequences of such actions, because we paid for it and wear that wrong because it was our laws that created this Monster.

We have to stop the War on Drugs to end both its financial costs to our society and the human costs to our people.

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Originally Posted by Judy

The reports from Colorado are driven by disgruntled law enforcement that liked the War on Drugs, it added cause to expanding their ranks, gave them confiscations that lined their pockets, funded part of their agencies, filled up private prisons otherwise empty and not earning income, funded District Attorneys and defense lawyers, all the gravy of locking up pot smokers and other drug users and drug offenders. Addiction is a disease, and some people have to deal with this, whether it's addiction to recreational drugs, pharmaceuticals, alcohol, sex, etc. whatever it is, is a problem for these people.

Prohibition laws haven't stopped any of it, ever, nor have they cured anyone yet.

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As you said, confiscations generate revenue. And when the confiscations don't solve the problem, law enforcement says Give us more resources. And when we give them more resources, the problem continues. And on and on and on.

We can like illegal substances - and let's remember that alcohol is a drug - or not like them, but liking or not liking them will not actually solve any problems. Addictive personalities are a long term problem. For some, they are a life long problem. We can like that or not like it, but liking or not liking it will not cure anybody's addiction.

Life is not perfect. We have to cope with the bad, even while we rejoice in the good.
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Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

More confirmation that terrorist groups are working with the illegal alien and drug importing Mexican cartel terrorist groups.

W