The CIA drug lords

For years Black activists, progressive leaders and everyday people have questioned the easy availability of drugs and weapons, in particular crack cocaine, that have flooded Black neighborhoods since the 1980s.

Now the hidden hand of the U.S. government, in the form of the Central Intelligence Agency, has again been shown as a leading contributor to the crisis that has engulfed many inner city communities. In this case an investigation by the San Jose Mercury News found that CIA and Drug Enforcement Agency operatives sold tons of cocaine to Los Angeles street gangs in the 1980s.

The cocaine, sold to finance the covert war against the leftist Sandanistas by CIA-spawned Contra armies. The powder cocaine--a highly addictive and cheap drug--by a high school drop out with street smarts, gang connections and an endless supply of coke at rock-bottom prices. He was able, thanks to his CIA-linked suppliers, to sell the cocaine at low prices and wholesale the drug to gang members.

The increase in cocaine that hit L.A. was so great that police officials didn't believe reports from narcotics cops about the increase in cocaine in ghettos. The police higher ups had a simple reason for their skepticism: Blacks couldn't afford high-priced cocaine. But the Contra-connection and the creation of crack had changed all that--highly addictive crack was cheaper than powder cocaine.

What followed was an explosion of violence , crack addicts, stiff drug laws, incarceration and the image of young Black males as predators.

Though the Contra-Sandanista war "is barley a memory today, black America is still dealing with its poisonous side effects. ...Thousands of young men are serving long prison sentences for selling cocaine--a drug that was virtually unobtainable in black neighborhoods before members of the CIA's army started bringing it to Los Angeles in the 1980s at bargain basement prices," said the Mercury News.

But the CIA role was kept hidden and the San Jose Mercury News series, based on a year-long investigation combined with court records, declassified documents and interviews with some of the major players, has yet to make a big splash nationally.

The CIA-link surfaces when the high school drop out went to trial in a drug case. His supplier was a Nicaraguan Contra leader with a master's degree in marketing, who sold thousands of tons of cocaine yet lives in "a spacious new home in Nicaragua" and has a wood export business courtesy of the U.S. government, according to the newspaper expose.

The latest revelations are another reason why Black distrust of government and belief that there is a conspiracy to destroy the race is a very wise concern and one that should never be ridiculed.

Though "accepted" Black leaders may want to ignore reality, the truth is the U.S. government has never been a friend to Black people.

What would be happening if these same revelations has surfaced about crack spreading in a white community? Most surely the Republicans would be shouting about the need to reign in government that has become too intrusive and out of control. Democrats would be screaming that the fiasco occurred during a Republican administration. In any case, the revelations would be big news and all of America would know it.

But because crack is seen as a Black problem and because the drug was marketed, marketed to poor Black neighborhoods, the media cares little about following or exposing the story.

It is time for Black America to wake up, stand up and clean up. No calvary is coming from the outside, no army is coming to save the day and no benevolent white man in the White House can save us. We must save ourselves and work on our own behalf. It is clear, once again, that we cannot depend on others to do what we must do for ourselves.