Explosive Politico Report: Plan to Indict Afghan Drug Lords Shelved

Posted by Tina

An investgation by Politico has exposed egregiously unethical choices, made during the Obama administration, that compromised the security and health of Americans and others around the world. The political motivation for making these choices is bad enough. But it turns out the deals these choices were meant to protect were also very bad. Lose, lose!

The plan, code-named Operation Reciprocity, was modeled after a legal strategy that the Justice Department began using a decade earlier against the cocaine-funded leftist FARC guerrillas in Colombia, in concert with military and diplomatic efforts. The new operation’s goal was to haul 26 suspects from Afghanistan to the same New York courthouse where FARC leaders were prosecuted, turn them against each other and the broader insurgency, convict them on conspiracy charges and lock them away.

The woman responsible for shutting down the operation, Tina Kaidanow – State Department deputy chief of mission in Afghanistan – said it happened because “…she — as the administration’s “eyes” in Afghanistan — had concerns it would undermine the White House’s broader strategy in Afghanistan, including a drawdown that included the DEA as well as the military.”

The plans authors have another take: “…the real reason it was shut down was fears it would jeopardize the administration’s efforts to engage the Taliban in peace talks and still-secret prisoner swap negotiations involving U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.”

Similar cases were shut down involving drug trafficking by Hezbollah that were “…derailed by the Obama administration’s determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran.”

The politico report also reveals that the opioid crisis going on in America today can be traced to the failure to curtail production of opium: “Taliban commanders and allied drug lords…supplied more than 90 percent of the world’s heroin — including a growing amount fueling the nascent opioid crisis in the United States.”

The Trump administration has appointed a task force review and resurrect Hezbollah drug trafficking cases following the Politico report:

The Afghanistan team members said there are striking parallels between their case and Project Cassandra, the DEA code name for the Hezbollah investigations, as well as nuclear trafficking cases disclosed in another POLITICO report as being derailed because of the Iran deal. Taken together, they said, the cases show a troubling pattern of thwarting international law-enforcement efforts to the overall detriment of U.S. national security.

Now they are hoping the Trump administration will review and revive Operation Reciprocity, too, saying Trump’s Afghanistan strategy cannot succeed without also incorporating an international law enforcement effort targeting the drug trade that helps keep the Taliban in business.

One of Trumps promises during the election was to address the opioid crisis in America. This would be one way to do that.

The decision Obama made in both of these cases were apparently designed to ensure a legacy for him more than provide security and justice for the American people.

I’ve tried to extract the most pertinent information from the linked Politico article, “The secret story of how America lost the drug war with the Taliban.” As always it would be best to read the article in full.

Also, hat tip to Breitbart for their very good article on the Politico report.