The One Armed Bandit Goes To His Grave
By Thomas Mountain
23 December, 2012
Countercurrents.org
A Look Back at Contras, Crack and Sen. Inouye
The USA’s longest serving and reputably most powerful Senator, Daniel
“The One Armed Bandit” Inouye has died in a hospital outside of
Washington D.C. at the age of 88, bringing an end to the career of one
of the most loyal, and criminal, careers in service to Pax Americana.
Dan “the One Armed Bandit” Inouye was christened such by his comrades
in arms in the US Army’s legendary 442nd outfit made up almost
exclusively of Japanese Americans during W.W.II for stealing a wedding
ring off a dead woman civilian and subsequently having the arm
allegedly bearing the stolen ring blown off by a German artillery
shell.
This marked the beginning of a long, sordid career in service to the
USA that reached its peak when he almost single handedly covered up
the role of the CIA in starting what went on to become the global
pandemic known as the Crack Cocaine holocaust (see Gary Webb’s “Dark
Alliance” or “White Out” by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St.
Clair).
Back in the beginnings of the 1980’s the CIA under President Reagan
was carrying out a particularly murderous “contra-revolution” against
the then revolutionary Sandanista lead government of Nicaragua in an
attempt to destroy the first successful armed overthrow of a client
regime of the USA in Central America.
The murder and mayhem carried out by the CIA proxies known as the
Nicaraguan “Contras” proved to be very unpopular amongst the American
people, then still able to remember the disastrous USA intervention in
Vietnam and the US Congress passed a law supposedly cutting off
funding for the Contras.
The CIA quickly moved to repair its cash flow problem by arranging for
Nicaraguan Contra supporters in the USA to begin importing large
amounts of cheap cocaine supplied by the narcotrafficking Colombian
regime. Eventually these CIA backed drug dealers linked up with an
enterprising black American nicknamed “Freeway Rick” who took powdered
cocaine and cooked up into “rocks” what became known as “crack” and
the subsequent epidemic that metastasized into a global pandemic was
born.
That's right, before the CIA got involved cocaine was a rich mans
drug, expensive, only mildly addictive and mainly taken orally by
snorting up ones nose.
Thanks to “The Man”, in this case a light bird colonel named Oliver
North working out of the White House with the CIA, cocaine quickly
became a drug cheap enough for the masses, and when it is smoked
rather than sniffed half of all those who smoke it only twice become
addicted.
This sordid tale became part of what was dubbed “The Iran Contra
Scandal” and resulted in hearings held by the US Congress that were
supposed to get to the bottom of all this rottenness. Chaired by Sen.
Inouye, of Watergate fame, the hearings instead became a massive
coverup, with Sen. Inouye repeatedly having to intervene and shut down
any public discussion of the CIA’s role in cocaine trafficking.
For this service to Pax Americana Dan Inouye was eventually awarded
the Congressional Medal of Honor, supposedly for his heroism some 50
years previously when he gained his “One Armed Bandit” sobriquet.
“The One Armed Bandit” was one of the most prominent proponents of
what is known as the Military-Industrial Complex and brought home the
bacon for his home state of Hawaii for over half a century, keeping
defense industry dollars and its related employment pouring into
Hawaii via the Pearl Harbor Naval Base and other massive US military
installations across the state, and was the real “Godfather” of
politics in Hawaii. When he died he was said to be 3rd in line for
the Presidency, though he was known as “the Senator who never asked
for a favor.’
Dan Inouye was a true “American Liberal”, and truly dangerous as such.
Rather than remembering him for his supposedly liberal bent, the world
must see him for what he really was, a particularly evil proponent of
American Imperialism, willing and able to even cover up a drug
epidemic that went on to become a global pandemic, Crack Cocaine, back
at a time when a real investigation and subsequent prosecution may
have been able to prevent millions of deaths and tens of millions
destroyed lives.
Thomas C. Mountain is the most widely distributed independent
journalist in Africa, living and reporting from Eritrea since 2006. He
can be reached at thomascmountain_at_yahoo_dot_com.
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