U.S. Drug War Expands to Africa, a Newer Hub for Cartels
Source: New York Times
U.S. Drug War Expands to Africa, a Newer Hub for Cartels
By CHARLIE SAVAGE and THOM SHANKER
Published: July 21, 2012
WASHINGTON In a significant expansion of the war on drugs, the United States has begun training an elite unit of counternarcotics police in Ghana and planning similar units in Nigeria and Kenya as part of an effort to combat the Latin American cartels that are increasingly using Africa to smuggle cocaine into Europe.
The growing American involvement in Africa follows an earlier escalation of antidrug efforts in Central America, according to documents, Congressional testimony and interviews with a range of officials at the State Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Pentagon.
In both regions, American officials are responding to fears that crackdowns in more direct staging points for smuggling like Mexico and Spain have prompted traffickers to move into smaller and weakly governed states, further corrupting and destabilizing them.
The aggressive response by the United States is also a sign of how greater attention and resources have turned to efforts to fight drugs as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have wound down.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/world/africa/us-expands-drug-fight-in-africa.html?_r=1&ref=world
Citizen Worker
(1,785 posts)DCKit
(18,541 posts)rks306
(116 posts)The drug war has been a failure. One more thing GOP has push on us.
lib2DaBone
(8,124 posts)Need Oil? Need a means to over-throw a leader and install a U.S. backed dictator?
The War on Drugs is the perfect vehicle. In existence even before the War On Terror and way before 911... the WOD gives the Camel a way to get its nose "under the tent" of anything the CIA and Bankers want.
Need a few tons of Cocaine? The CIA/DEA... a perfect marriage in the war on drugs.
Judi Lynn
(160,516 posts)in the eyes of the right wing.
Now the same people they want to intimidate, to silence, to paralyze with fear are called "terrorists," or "narcotraffickers". Same methods, poor native people get slaughtered, and tortured, and the game remains the same.
KakistocracyHater
(1,843 posts)what the HELL does the US Gov think it's doing?! American taxpayers are tapped out already, they seem oblivious to this fact. They'll create a Great Depression if they do this, too many spending US taxpayers dollars like water
Ashgrey77
(236 posts)"America (Fuck Yeah)".............