Hidden Agendas. Allegations of CIA involvement in the global drug trade have been around since the early 1970s (McCoy 1991). Generally speaking, those who study CIA involvement in the illicit drug trade suggest that intelligence interests often use profits derived from the drug trade to finance their political agendas when more legitimate sources of funding are not available.¹⁷ The best-known example of this was the alleged use of proceeds from the sale of crack cocaine in Los Angeles to support the efforts of the anti-communist “Contras” in Nicaragua in the 1980’s (Webb 1998). Some of the more disturbing allegations made by those who have looked carefully at the CIA’s use of drug money to fund the Contras were validated in 1998 when the CIA's Inspector General, Fred Hitz, told astounded Representatives in the US Congress that the CIA had maintained relationships with companies and individuals that the Agency knew to be involved in the drug business. Fritz also stated that the CIA had received from Reagan's Justice Department clearance not to report any knowledge it might have of drug dealing by CIA assets (Cockburn and St. Clair 1998).

Some of those currently working to uncover the truth about CIA involvement in the global drug trade are ex-law enforcement officers who encountered evidence of such links during their work in domestic drug enforcement. Michael Ruppert is one ex-police officer (LAPD) who has devoted his life to uncovering the truth about the CIA’s involvement in illicit drugs. In recent posts on his website (www.copvcia.com) Ruppert has gone beyond linking the CIA to the illicit drug trade, and is now suggesting that major western politicians, such as Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney, and George W. Bush may be indirectly connected to such activities. For example, in a post entitled: “The Bush-Cheney Drug Empire” Ruppert looks closely at the activities of Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR)¹⁸, a large multinational construction company that is a major subsidiary of Halliburton Inc. where now US Vice-President Cheney was CEO from 1995 to 2000.²⁰ In this article, Ruppert traces the amazingly complex and far reaching activities of KBR that repeatedly link to major underworld crime and drug rings.

I include this discussion of possible links between US political elites and the global drug trade not to assail the sensibilities of my readers, but to attempt to explain why the US continues to so aggressively promote the strict prohibitionist approach to drug control while the rest of the world (including Canada) appears to be moving toward a more rational and balanced approach to this issue. Given the fact that the US conducts some of the best research in the world on illicit drugs, how is it possible that it continues to rely on such outdated and extreme policies? I for one believe that there may be hidden agendas at work behind the scenes here that would go a long way toward explaining this perplexing state of affairs. In thinking through exactly what these agendas might look like, it seems at least possible to me that certain well-placed US political and economic elites continue to support irrational drug policies because they have come to rely upon drug profits as a source of untraceable money that they then use to further their political and economic objectives. If current estimates of the value of the international drug trade are accurate ($200-400B/yr) then there is certainly enough money to line many pockets, some of which may just belong to those in a position to make sure that these profits do not disappear (which is exactly what would happen if we moved away from prohibition).

¹⁷ For an example of academic quality research done to support these allegations see: Scott 1999.
¹⁸ One of the more interesting of his findings is that KBR owns or leases nearly 1 million square feet of warehouse space in Columbia, one of the areas now embroiled in drug related conflict. By way of comparison, KBR reports owning only 30,000 square feet of warehouse space in the US!
¹⁹ Halliburton Inc. is currently under investigation by the SEC for corporate accounting abuses, and has become a major political liability to the Bush/Cheney Administration in the recent spat of major corporate accounting crises.