"America is an oligarchy ruled by corporations. It is not a democracy. The corporations buy politicians from both parties, who in turn select DEA bosses based on their ability to lie, steal and cheat in order to maintain the Establishment's class and race prerogatives."
- Douglas Valentine, p 408
It's book review time here at Fousesquawk. While taking advantage of Border's close out sale, I recently came across a thick book (500 pages) about the history of DEA by one Douglas Valentine. I had no knowledge of the book, the author or the publisher (Trineday). Thus, I picked up this work and just finished reading it.
By way of background, Valentine is a freelance writer whose previous books usually have a theme of government misdeeds. He previously wrote a book about the early history of the old Federal Bureau of Narcotics, one of DEA's predecessor agencies. This latest book begins in 1968 with the creation of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) and leads into the creation of DEA in 1973 continuing into the recent years. (I joined DEA in 1973 at its creation in a government re-organization and retired in 1995.)
Trineday, based in Oregon, is an alternative publisher specializing in themes of US Government scandals and other misdeeds. They are a conspiracy lover's dream come true.
In this book, Valentine interviewed numerous former DEA agents as well as other sources. It was an interesting read for me since I knew many of the agents mentioned in the book. In fact, much of the book is devoted to relating relationships between agents and other agencies. It smacks of many a barroom conversation between off-duty agents speculating about who will be the next agent-in-charge of some office or who will take over some HQs position.
Yet, it is Valentine's mission-and theme- to portray DEA as a corrupt agency filled with careerists who have allowed themselves and their agency to become subservient to the CIA and various (Republican) administrations and presidents who used the agency to strip away our rights as American citizens and to turn their backs as the evil CIA flooded heroin and cocaine into the US. The quote below the photo above gives you an idea of the flavor of the book. The author clearly lets us know in his conclusion that he does not support drug enforcement. In addition, Valentine ascribes several demeaning adjectives to describe certain individuals. They serve to give away his politically-driven agenda.
Valentine describes certain FBN and BNDD agents who played fast and loose with the rules as they made cases and in some instances were corrupt. I admit that DEA abounded with stories about certain older agents who did outrageous things, but that was not the DEA that I worked in. Yes, we had cases of corruption, and I myself worked with a handful of agents in LA who eventually went to prison-put there by DEA itself.
In addition, there is an obvious political message in this book. Presidents Nixon, Reagan, and both George Bushs' come in for severe criticism as deliberately allowing drug trades to flourish overseas in the name of fighting the Cold War or War on Terror. No Democratic president is criticized, in fact, none is hardly mentioned. This book is pure MSNBC material.
The CIA especially comes in for attack. They are basically presented as a major drug trafficking conglomerate. Valentine accuses the CIA of assassinating Medellin cartel member Jose Rodrigues Gacha in Colombia. (Gacha was killed by Colombian police.) He asserts that it was the CIA who assassinated Pablo Escobar in Medellin. (Escobar was also killed in a shootout with Colombian cops.) Valentine also goes over that old story about the CIA using the Contras to smuggle cocaine into the inner cities like LA. (Maxine Waters still believes that.) He also accuses them of shipping a huge load of cocaine into Miami. Manuel Noriega? He was a victim of the vicious George HW Bush (who really gets scorched by Valentine.)
Valentine also got a couple of more facts wrong that I can testify to. He refers to Bangkok-based DEA agent "Billy Lightfoot" as a CIA "shoofly" in reporting Lightfoot's death from the accidental discharge of his own firearm (1977). First of all, I worked with Lightfoot in Bangkok. I was also present when he was killed. His name was not Billy rather Robert. I don't know why Valentine refers to him as a "shoofly". In slang, it can refer to an undercover agent tasked with rooting out corruption. I find the reference to Bob Lightfoot as a CIA shoofly offensive. Secondly, Valentine refers to the murder of agent Mike Power's wife in 1980 as occurring in Bangkok. It happened in Chiang Mai. One wonders what other facts Valentine got wrong in his book.
Back to Trineday. In the back of the book, they have a selection of other books to choose from, most all of which portray the US Government in some conspiratorial light. Here's my favorite.
Mary's Mosaic by Peter Janney
"Challenging the conventional wisdom surrounding the murder of Mary Pinchot Meyer, this expos offers new information and evidence that individuals within the upper echelons of the CIA were not only involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, but her demise as well. Written by the son of a CIA lifer and a college classmate of Mary Pinchot Meyer, this insiders story examines how Mary used events and circumstances in her personal life to become an acolyte for world peace. The most famous convert to her philosophy was reportedly President John F. Kennedy, with whom she was said to have begun a serious love relationship in January 1962. Offering an insightful look into the era and its culture, the narrative sheds light on how in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis, she helped the president realize that a Cold War mentality was of no use and that the province of world peace was the only worthwhile calling. Details on her experiences with LSD, its influences on her and Kennedy's thinking, his attempts to negotiate a limited nuclear test ban treaty with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, and to find lasting peace with Fidel Castro are also included."
Coming back to earth, here is Meyer's Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Pinchot_Meyer
(Apparently, the source of much of this "information" was none of than Timothy Leary.)
When I retired, I was still a journeyman agent-not a supervisor and I cannot speak about so many of the policy decisions that Valentine writes about. I was just an honest agent who tried to do his job in an ethical way and realized that he was controlled by strict rules of agent conduct. I don't know if the former agents who were interviewed by Valentine knew what his agenda was. The final product is an agenda-driven book with wild accusations that demean the thousands of agents who have worked with DEA and the CIA.
Valentine doesn't sound like the most careful author with getting his facts straight, nor the most effective advocate for his point of view.
ReplyDeleteIF you are going to dispense with anyone who has an ideological ax to grind, we would have to ignore Fox News, even if they do happen to get their facts straight sometimes (and they do).
This review sounds like an honest agent who tried to do his job rejecting the murky possibilities that him trying to do an honest job was merely a piece in a more nefarious scheme on the part of the insiders up the chain of command.
I discount about half of that, but I do believe that the drug enforcement establishments, like the California correctional officers union, has gotten to the point where its first priority is to sustain its own existence, and justify a huge budget for that purpose, whether or not it still justifies the public policy purposes that were hopefully offered at the time it was created.