Subtitled, The CIA and the Cocaine/Crack Epidemic, this expose’ by former DEA agent Michael Levine reveals a shocking glimpse at the corruption (as well as actual criminal complicity) evident in the activities of the agency’s upper echelons. Not only does Mister Levine clearly detail many instances of how the agency has: declined to prosecute the world’s biggest drug traffickers, turned a blind eye to huge shipments of cocaine and heroin being smuggled into the United States by CIA "assets," improperly diverted millions of dollars intended for "fighting the war on drugs" to directly benefit certain unscrupulous individuals, and then blatantly lied to the American people about how much "progress" is being made — but he actually goes so far as to name names! Any agent fool enough to unknowingly jeopardize the profits/secrecy of this malevolent cabal is quickly "put in his place" by the mechanizations of the "suits" (i.e., through: petty harassment, stalking, logistical vendettas, deliberate sabotage of crucial operations, humiliating and threatening loyal agents with punitive interrogations, transferring or demoting or firing troublesome agents, and even going to the extent of threatening agents with federal prison for the crime of doing "too good a job."). After being subjected to unfair treatment by his superiors, Mister Levine left the DEA after 25 years to become the Drug Bureau Director of Cape Cod, MA., and has written several bestselling books about his experiences. This is considered to be his best work.

Mister Levine is not some mentally-disturbed "crank" who can easily be dismissed — his testimonial is credible, and what he’s said has been confirmed (and documented) by numerous unrelated sources. While back in the 80s, anyone who claimed that the government was working with foreign interests to flood this country with illicit drugs was looked upon with disdain as a "paranoid whacko," the "Iran/Contra/Mena" hearings pretty much confirmed it, and the fact that Ollie North was trafficking drugs in order to raise funds for unapproved Black Operations (as well as the "side-benefit" of poisoning, imprisoning, and exterminating those whom he viewed as "society’s rejects") is generally accepted by most scholars. The "War on Drugs" is simply an excuse for the ruling elites to justify their premeditated decimation of the underclasses (after all, they could’ve "just said NO" instead of voluntarily breaking the law!) in order to eventually bring about their vision of a "Perfect Society."

Yes, our government has deliberately flooded this country with illegal drugs — while simultaneously throwing billions of taxpayer dollars into a program to create legions of domestic stormtroopers intended to attack those citizens daring to "sample the goods" (i.e., taking away everything they own, destroying their families, and locking them away {for a profit!} till the end of their days.), thus practicing a "socially acceptable" form of ethnic cleansing. A few significant quotes from this work follow:

"It was a sobering experience listening to myself manipulate these people, getting them to trust me while planning to use that trust to destroy them. What is sleazier than that kind of treachery? Informants who do this are called ‘stool pigeons,’ ‘rats,’ and ‘snitches.’ Most street cops and agents who work with informants at best tolerate them and at worst loathe them — but always mistrust them.

The undercover agent hangs carrots before his target’s noses — the money, power, or revenge they hunger for, or the terrors they most fear. He maneuvers his targets into saying the things he wants them to say for secret recorders, doing the things he wants them to do, and then, in their most vulnerable moment, revealing his badge and his treachery so devastating the target that the final surrender in court is but an afterthought, like the dagger thrust that kills the fighting bull as he lies defenseless, bleeding from a hundred wounds.

Undercover agents are always surprised to learn that in most civilized countries around the world, their work is considered illegal and immoral. We’re also surprised when we learn that our own bosses don’t trust us. This knowledge astounds us because most of us believe that our professional immorality has nothing to do with our own moral values. We are comfortable with our actions because we believe in the rightness of what we’ve been asked to do and in the virtue of those who have asked us to do it — for the most part, the bureaucrats and politicians who trust us the least." (p. 295)

"What is it about cops and street agents that makes us face blazing guns without hesitation but quake in our boots before a suit with the power to take our jobs away? Why are grown men and women so intimidated that the suits count on their silence and complicity in whatever lie they utter or fraud they perpetrate?" (pp. 266-267)

"DEA street agents are administratively vulnerable to being fired at almost any time. Their lives are governed by three manuals, each the size of the Manhattan telephone directory, that include some of the most ridiculous, unrealistic, and oppressive regulations the suits have invented since the Internal Revenue Code — regulations that are clearly intended to cover the bureaucrats’ asses and keep the street agents silenced, fearful for their jobs, and under absolute control. A street agent might suddenly be charged with ‘unlawful use of a government car’ for stopping for groceries on the way home, or ‘unauthorized enforcement activity’ for meeting with an informer at 3 A.M. without calling a superior, or ‘falsifying government reports’ for reporting 117 hours on the time sheet when the inspectors say they have been following the agent and counted only 115 hours. In these cases, the agent has been stepping on the wrong toes — the agent is a ‘target.’

And DEA street agents are the easiest victims in the world. They are more terrified of losing their jobs than of charging through the barricaded doors of crack dens into blazing gunfire. For a lot of them the gun and badge become their identity — what they are instead of what they do. Perhaps the agency becomes the mother or father some agents never had, or the reason for being that many of us spend our lives hungering after. Whatever the reason, a lot of agents would rather die than have their ties to the DEA cut.

The misuse of Internal Security, thought to have contributed to the suicides of several DEA employees, eventually caused the agency to completely revamp the system and put the investigations of corruption and misconduct more in the hands of field supervisors and the street agents themselves." (p. 107)

"Expense vouchers are the detailed accounting of every penny a government employee spends on official business, from telephone calls to airline tickets to undercover meals. After one year of undercover work, the average agent can end up with several hundred pages of vouchers. If an inspector can find one single item claimed that wasn’t actually paid for, or was not for official business purposes, the agent may be prosecuted for fraud and falsifying government reports — federal felonies punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Can you imagine if our elected officials had to fill these out?" (p. 113)

"He could battle incompetent and sinister bosses, lie to them, work around them, and do the best possible job in spite of them while risking their wrath — being investigated, getting shit details, being passed over for promotions and awards, being fired or jailed for some infraction of the Manual, or, as some feared, dying a mysterious death. . . . Or he could decide to accept what the system gave him, stay out of the line of fire, and not be perceived as a threat to the public images and fragile egos of the suits, or to special interests like the CIA." (p. 323)

" The drug war . . . is bigger and healthier than ever. It seems like every department in the federal government has a part in it — DEA, FBI, CIA, NSA, IRS, DIA, ATF, State Department, Pentagon, Customs, Coast Guard, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines — and each one is fighting for more turf and a bigger chunk of the drug war budget. When I started out as an agent in 1965, there were two federal agencies enforcing the drug laws, and the budget was less than $10 million. Today there are 54 agencies involved and the budget is $13 million. Orchestrating the whole mess is a Drug Czar who is generally a political appointee with no specific qualifications for the job. . . .

Perhaps the biggest problem facing the Drug Czar is that some of the agencies supposedly fighting the drug war are schizophrenic about their loyalty. For decades, the CIA, the Pentagon, and secret organizations like Oliver North’s Enterprise have been supporting and protecting the world’s biggest drug dealers. Those brave freedom fighters in Afghanistan, the Mujahedin, supply a major portion of the heroin used in the United States. The Contras and some of their Central American allies like Honduras have been documented by DEA as supplying us with at least 50 percent of our national cocaine consumption. They were the main conduit to the United States for Columbian cocaine during the 1980s. The rest of the drug supply for the American habit came from other CIA-supported groups, such as DFS (the Mexican equivalent of the CIA), the Shan United Army in the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia, or any of a score of other groups and/or individuals like Manuel Noriega. Support of these people has been secretly deemed more important than getting drugs off our streets. . . .

. . . after almost three decades of international cooperation and statistic-spouting politicians who tell us again and again how we are now ‘turning the corner in the drug war,’ drugs keep pouring across our borders at an ever-increasing rate." (pp. 463-464)