Who Is Arming the Mexican Drug Cartels?
by Michael Gaddy
by Michael Gaddy
The state, Mexican authorities and their US propaganda arm, known in most circles as the Mainstream Media, have recently embarked on a huge disinformation campaign to demonize the American gun owner as the supplier of weapons to the Mexican drug cartels. Everyone in the media, with the possible exception of Lou Dobbs, has joined in the campaign of lies.
Shown here, on a CBS special, is video proof of the lies and disinformation by CBS, US and Mexican authorities. Anderson Cooper and Janet Napolitano are either ignorant or complicit in the myth that M-203s, RPGs and hand grenades are readily available to the American gun consumer. Most intelligent folks, and those without a state sponsored agenda, realize these weapons are usually only available to the military.
This week, Secretary of Homeland Defense, Janet Napolitano, announced a new plan to curb the alleged flow of weapons from the US into Mexico. This program, which will cost the overwhelmed US Taxpayer another 700 million dollars plus, includes machines that employ what is referred to as "virtual strip search." This plan will supposedly slow down the number of guns traveling south from the US to the drug cartels in Mexico. If this program has the same success rate as the government’s efforts at stopping the flow of contraband north into the US, the Mexican drug cartels will have nuclear weapons by the end of April!
While not stated as such, I am sure this will eventually morph into "the war on guns." Funny, is it not, every time our government "declares war" on something, it always increases exponentially! Whether it is poverty, drugs, terrorism or guns, when the state declares war, rapid growth and expansion of that which is the object of that war is inevitable.
Napolitano stated, "70% of the weapons in the hands of the drug cartels are coming from the US." The implication is obvious she is referring to private gun owners. The MSM sucks up this propaganda like a large-mouth bass takes a worm, and regurgitates it to Boobus without ever questioning the truthfulness behind the claim. Neither Mexican, nor US officials, has ever produced an ounce of proof to back up these wild accusations.
Wednesday, on MSNBC, in an interview by Andrea Mitchell, New York Congressional Representative, Nita Lowey stated 97% of the guns in the hands of the Mexican drug cartels originated in the US. Representative Lowey, in her support for a new Assault Weapons Ban, alleges these firearms are coming from the American gun owner. She is correct in her assertion many of the firearms being used by the cartels are coming from Americans. They are, but, from the American taxpayer, not the American gun owner!
The fact is: the Mexican authorities have refused to release the serial numbers of weapons confiscated from drug cartel members. Releasing the serial numbers would implicate the corrupt governments of the US and Mexico and their involvement in arming the drug cartels.
Considering the above, it is my belief the Mexican drug cartels are procuring a large percentage of weapons from the world’s largest supplier of these weapons: the United States government!
The type of weapons confiscated and the unwillingness of those involved to supply weapon serial numbers is a clear indicator.
Because of the "narco-wars," the US government supplies the Mexican military with arms and training. The Mexican military has trained at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, and the arms budget from the US to Mexico is in the billions.
Drug profits realized from the sale of drugs in the US by Mexico’s violent drug cartels are estimated to be as high as 40 billion dollars per year. With that amount of money, is there any question as to the ability of the cartels to purchase military weapons provided by the United States government from corrupt Mexican government officials and members of their military?
In the mid 1990s, U.S. government statistics revealed at least six billion dollars a year was spent by the cartels in bribes and payoffs to officials in the Mexican government and military.
In February of 1997, the Clinton Administration announced it was certifying the Mexican government as a "full ally" in the war on drugs. Clinton’s Drug Czar, Army General Barry McCaffrey, described Mexican General Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, who headed up the Mexican National Institute to Combat Drugs (INCD) as a "man of absolute unquestioned character."(Emphasis added) Shortly after McCaffrey’s statement, Rebollo was arrested for taking bribes from one of the largest drug cartels in Mexico. Rebollo had been present at secret meetings involving the White House, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Drug Enforcement Agency.
When speaking of drug cartels and military weapons, one would be remiss in not covering the involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and their decades-long involvement in worldwide drug trafficking. The evidence produced at the Iran Contra hearings proved the CIA was involved with smuggling cocaine in order to fund the Nicaraguan Contra Army. Is there any question they are involved with the Mexican drug cartels and perhaps facilitating their procurement of military weapons, or better yet, trading arms for drugs?
In 2007, then President George W. Bush, with help from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, was able to get legislation passed that would provide Mexico with at least 1.4 billion dollars for Mexican military and police forces.
In May of 2008, Kristen Bricker wrote of Plan Mexico, "Plan Mexico will provide resources, equipment, and training to the Mexican government, police, and military. It will not give Mexico liquid funds. The US military, government agencies such as USAID, and US defense contractors such as mercenary firms and weapons manufacturers will receive funding to carry out Plan Mexico. Plan Mexico is yet another bill to line the pockets of the military industrial complex."
Our government is certainly aware of the rampant corruption within the Mexican government and military, yet we continue to provide them with money, military weapons and training, including all of the military weapons mentioned earlier in this article and shown in film clips by the mainstream media as proof positive we need a new Assault Weapons Ban. (AWB)
Our corrupt government, cooperating with Mexico’s equally corrupt government, has embarked on a campaign to deprive American citizens of the means to defend ourselves from tyranny, screening their own involvement in arming violent criminal drug cartels. We can weakly submit, or stand for truth and liberty; the choice is ours.
March 27, 2009
Michael Gaddy [send him mail], an Army veteran of Vietnam, Grenada, and Beirut, lives in the Four Corners area of the American Southwest.
Copyright © 2009 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.
Michael Gaddy Archives
Plan Mexico sure sounds a lot like U.S. foreign policy in El Salvador in the 1980s, doesn't it? Yeah, we all know what a huge success that turned out to be. And didn't the Reagan administration claim to have "evidence" that the Nicaraguans (after they ousted the U.S. backed Somoza family) were supplying El Salvadorean rebels with arms? It never materialized, but the reactionary plan did. Whatever happened to all the Death Squads and their leaders? If I recall correctly, 1984 was the green light year for the "secret" CIA mines in the harbor and Ollie's "secret" drugs-for-Israeli gun running operations, "secret" mercenary Contra training camps in Florida, illegal permanent air strips built in Guatemala, and oh yeah, who can forget the CIA's revolutionary training manual (in Spanish) that included such innovative ideas as "how to murder elected public officials."
And in other news which is in no way connected to CIA coups, what can we possibly hope to expect from the Czech Republic's upcoming vote on the "failed" Lisbon Treaty? I need to find the time to study what just happened there. When I read the government fell after a no-confidence vote, I assumed Klaus had been fired too. But noooo, he's still their President and he's still the President of the EU. The only national president in the world who has spoken out against the EU's communitarian legal system is still in office, and now the U.S. has to find someplace else to put their Radar. Maybe Mexico will let us put it down there.
