New York Times on the Web Forums Science

Missile Defense

Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI all over again?

possumdag - 11:31pm Jun 25, 2001 EST (#6050 of 6056)
Possumdag@excite.com

"In January, 1982, the US attorney-general announced that FBI, instead of DEA, the Drug Enforcement Agency, would henceforth control anti-drug operations inside the United States. This effectively ended the secret operations between the two.

Casey engineered an exemption, exempting CIA from a legal requirement to report on drug smuggling. Attorney Smith granted an exemption on February 11, 1982, in a secret memorandum two months after President Reagan had authorized covert CIA support for the Nicaraguan anti-communist Contra army. The exemption was to avoid legal responsibilities, if federal law continued to require it to report drug smuggling by the CIA. This resulted into a large-scale Cocaine traffic from South America.

Three years after the chief of French intelligence had proposed to President Reagan that drugs be used as a weapon, Casey, for the first time, raised this issue with President Ziaul Haq, who declined the idea considering its possible spread amongst the Afghan Mujahideen. But Casey was determined to make a covert try. Reportedly, a leading Mujahideen leader was contacted through French journalists, and was provided funds, technical know-how and helped in the establishment of heroin factories. Dozens of French and British journalists visited him on one pretext or the other, and in the process he was made a legendary hero. Some local tribal chiefs were also included in the drug war.

The question is: Was there a concerted, US-conceived or supported plan to spread drug addiction into the Soviet army, and from there, into Soviet and post-Soviet Russian society, where it has acquired gigantic proportion at the end of 1990?"

The organisation is set up in such a way .. quite obviously .. that it can do as it likes .. without any regard for common decency -- and in the NAME of the people of the USA. No wonder so many folks there attend church on Sunday .. they have to pray for their country - when the Government has been, and is, and will be ever more (?), one of the world's most incompetent!

possumdag - 11:34pm Jun 25, 2001 EST (#6051 of 6056)
Possumdag@excite.com

Alex:

"With the courtesy of CIA, one of the most tragic scenes in Russia, as in parts of the Western world itself, has been drug use among children, especially young girls. Today, Moscow has become a central point of all drug activities emanating from northern Afghanistan, through central Asian states for onward dispatch to Europe and the US."

possumdag - 11:37pm Jun 25, 2001 EST (#6052 of 6056)
Possumdag@excite.com

Alex:

"Following in the footsteps of CIA, the Russian secret service is believed to supplying heavy weapons, training and logistic support to the foes of the Taliban, grouped loosely in the Northern Alliance, struggling to hold the northernmost tier of Afghanistan's mountain. Since the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, a number of drug mafia have surfaced in Russia with the covert support of the secret service, which is injecting the drugs massively into Western veins for money"

possumdag - 11:46pm Jun 25, 2001 EST (#6053 of 6056)
Possumdag@excite.com

On truth and lies

"It never dawned on me, as a child, that people other than the shepherd lied. Lying is a bad thing; only bad people do it. Once you are caught lying no one is going to believe you anymore, I was told. I often associated lying with naughty children who did something they weren't supposed to do. As I grew up, the world unfolded a more sordid picture. Everyone and anyone would lie and for the smallest thing. It was as common as drinking water.

One by one a lot of older people fell from the pedestals of esteem I, as a child, had placed them on.
Why would they need to lie?
Didn't they have the courage to take responsibility for their actions?
If they had to lie to protect something, why did they do it in the first place?
Why not just tell the truth?

These were some of the things that kept on bugging me. Gradually, I realized that a lot of adults .... "

possumdag - 11:52pm Jun 25, 2001 EST (#6054 of 6056)
Possumdag@excite.com

As one general once said: "The history of failures can be summarized in two words, Too Late. Too late in comprehending the danger, too late in preparedness, too late in action, and too late in admitting a mistake." We have neither the time nor the muscle to be late even by a second this time.

"The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order." see..

(2 following messages)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense