WAR ON DRUGS: IMPACT ON NATIONAL SECURITY

 

 

 

By Frosty Wooldridge
August 27, 2007
NewsWithViews.com

Which proves more worthless? The �War on Terror� for the past five years or the �War on Drugs� for the past 35 years?

When you realize that our borders remain open 24/7 to smugglers who traffic in drugs, little wonder that America�s 35 year drug war proves inane, insane and useless.

I took time to interview retired police officer and detective Howard Wooldridge at www.leap.cc for an update in this third part of our series dealing with the futile �War on Drugs.�

�Smuggling of illegal drugs and people along our nation�s borders surpasses epidemic proportions,� Wooldridge said. �Our coast guard spends more time intercepting boat loads of Columbian cocaine than detecting and stopping those entering our country illegally. The United Nations reported that since 1994, the sales of illegal drugs has been the number one revenue source for terrorists all over the world. Experts testifying before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in the spring of 2007 reported that Al-Qaeda will earn some $3 billion dollars selling Afghanistan�s heroin and opium. Thousands of dedicated federal agents are pursuing marijuana and coca patches instead of people who fly airplanes into buildings. Such are the unintended consequences of our nation�s policy of drug prohibition and its strategy of War on Drugs.�

Wooldridge continued, �Smuggling routes for illegal drugs were established decades ago to move tons of mostly marijuana from Mexico into the United States. Today we know those routes transport tons of other drugs like cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. We don�t know how many people are smuggled in that may have ideas other than honest work. Smugglers of drugs continuously probe the border for weaknesses of manpower, technology or physical barriers. For the right price nobody doubts these vicious criminals would smuggle terrorists into the US. Or has it already happened? By the time we find out, it will be too late. It is not just the infamous, porous border with Mexico of which I speak. Several would be terrorists have been captured on the border of Canada. We in law enforcement know that tons of high priced �BC Bud� cross from Canada daily into Washington, Idaho and Montana. The Hell�s Angels have largely taken over the management of this operation. For a price they would no doubt smuggle the wrong people across the border, using routes they established via the marijuana trade.�

All this continues under the noses of drug enforcement officials that spend $70 billion annually of your tax dollars, year after year, decade after decade. No one takes accountability for the gross lack of success. Drug enforcement exists to exist! In other words, it�s a paycheck for a lot of folks doing a lot of nothing. Year after year, $130 billion in drugs crosses into the USA. You can hardly call DEA a success.

�According to an FBI agent I spoke to three years ago, on 9/11 the FBI had about 1100 agents looking for terrorists,� Wooldridge said. �They had 2,400 agents helping the DEA bust drug dealers and their labs. Had those numbers been reversed, maybe the dots would have been connected in time to save the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Immediately after 9/11 Director Mueller directed that most of his drug agents direct their efforts towards the obvious national threat of radical, Muslim extremists. However, in speaking last year with an FBI employee, the agency still has many hundreds looking for drugs dealers and marijuana patches. What is wrong with this picture in the century of 9/11?�

Few doubt we are locked into a long, life and death struggle with Al Qaeda. Despite the knowledge that these terrorists make billions off the drug trade which finances weapons� purchases to kill our troops, the Drug Czar�s response has been to launch a scorched earth policy of destroying the poppy plants. It has worked �so well� in Columbia. This despite the testimony that this action will drive the farmers into the arms of the Taliban! Al Qaeda tells the farmers, �These guys are here to destroy your livelihood, so let's take up arms against them.�

�And they have,� Wooldridge said. �The public relations nightmare means our NATO troops are losing. But at least the policy is working, right? Not quite. Two years of efforts and the production of opium rose a staggering 57 percent last year according to published reports in the Washington Post. Our troops are being shot with AK-47s and blown up by RPGs purchased from the fantastic profits derived from selling opium and heroin. As reported by Misha Glenny in the Washington Post, the �War on Drugs� is defeating the �War on Terror.��

Every speech you hear from Bush on Iraq or the drug war illustrates a horrific disconnect from reality.

�Since 1971 my profession (law enforcement) has spent a trillion tax dollars and has nothing positive to show for it,� Wooldridge said. �Even after the arrest of 38 million Americans and the seizure of thousands of tons of narcotics, drugs are cheaper, stronger and readily available to our teens. In the century of 9/11 we divert precious resources away from protecting our country and wasting them chasing drugs. Wasted because most of my colleagues now admit publicly that every drug dealer arrested is quickly replaced and criminals over-ship enough to cover any drugs seized by police. Will we ever become as wise as our grandparents and end this New Prohibition?�

For further information: Today, my brother Howard heads up a task force in Washington, DC to educate and enlighten congressmen at the highest levels. He works for a better future for all Americans. He can be reached at: Education Specialist, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, www.leap.cc, Washington, DC. He speaks at colleges, Rotary, Kiwanis and Lions Clubs across America. He presents at political conferences in Washington.

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The mission of LEAP is to reduce the multitude of unintended harmful consequences resulting from fighting the war on drugs and to lessen the incidence of death, disease, crime, and addiction by ultimately ending drug prohibition.

� 2007 Frosty Wooldridge - All Rights Reserved

 

 

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