The real news behind South America's latest border fracas is Colombia's looming victory in its own narcotics-powered civil war.
This is a victory Colombia's chief international antagonist, Venezuelan caudillo Hugo Chavez, fears -- for several calculating reasons.
Let's start with Colombia's slow and grueling democratic accomplishment. On Feb. 5, hundreds of thousands of Colombian citizens marched in the capital, Bogota, in a mass protest against crime and terrorism. Their anger had an explicit political target: the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known by its Spanish acronym, FARC.
The jam-packed demonstrations impressed reporters and correspondents who have followed Colombia's brutal two decades of "The New Violence." The protests provided in-your-face media evidence that security in Bogota had indeed improved dramatically and that public confidence in local and national institutions had revived.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/05/2008 11:02 ||
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petty ante dictators like Chavez will usually fold when challenged by a credible force. They rise to power on intimidation and fear. But the fact is that when a real force fights back, few have what it takes to maintain their illusion of power.
#2
Hopefully we can have a che-like picture of oogoo's bullet riddled corpse on a slab just in time for the US election...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/05/2008 12:13 Comments ||
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#3
I read a suggestion yesterday that I liked. The US should plan joint exercises with the Colombia airforce and send out top of the line fighters there. If Chavez messes around we take out his airforce.
#5
Looks like SOUTHCOM = AFRICOM will have several big jobs/agendums after all.
My biggest worry is that Moud, Radical Islamism, North Korea, African Wars-Crises, and now South Amer will explode in the Year 2000 POTUS Campaign known as the Year 2008 POTUS Campaign, VV AMERICA'S ALREADY OVERBURDENED ALL-VOLUNTEER ARMY, + OSAMA's US-SPECIFIC "ECONOMIC/NATIONAL BANKRUPTCY" SPEECH-VIDEO???
#8
I think Yugo is going to do _something_ stupid. Columbia is in a position to put a really big dent into FARC and he's gonna have to act fast before his window of opportunity closes. So he's going to go ahead and do something stupid so he can lose a big war (or win it at ruinous cost) rather than risk losing the Cold Peace.
In what could be the biggest State Department scandal since State Department official and United Nations founder Alger Hiss was exposed as a Soviet spy, a top Clinton State Department official and former Time magazine journalist has been identified as having been a trusted contact of the Russian intelligence service.
The sensational charge against Strobe Talbott is made in a new book based on interviews with a Russian defector. The book, Comrade J, by veteran author and reporter Pete Earley, identifies Talbott as having been manipulated by a Russian official working for Russian intelligence in order to get information about U.S. foreign policy. The same book describes the United Nations as a major base of espionage operations for Russia in the U.S.
But the story gets much more scandalous than that because Talbott himself has just written a book, The Great Experiment, describing his own background in the pro-world government World Federalist Movement and naming a network of friends and close associates that includes former President Bill Clinton and billionaire leftist George Soros. Curiously, the book calls for expanding the authority of the U.N. but completely ignores the role of Soviet spy Alger Hiss, himself a top State Department official, in founding the United Nations.
Continued on Page 49
#4
It's been a predictable pattern for some time now. If only there was an intelligence agency that put American intrests first, it'd be almost too easy to predict who to follow around to observe this bullshit in progress...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/05/2008 0:37 Comments ||
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#5
Good thing is it looks like McCain saw through him even back then.
In the future, Talbott says the U.N. will need to be "incorporated into an increasingly variegated network of structures and arrangements, some functional in focus, others geographic; some intergovernmental, others based on systematic collaboration with the private sector, civil society, and NGOs [non-governmental organizations]. Only if the larger enterprise of global governance has that kind of breadth and depth will it be able to supplement what the U.N. does well, compensate for what it does badly, and provide capabilities that it lacks."
the guy made my skin crawl back when he was a talking head on one of the Washington TV shows in the 80s 90/91.
#9
Only if the larger enterprise of global governance has that kind of breadth and depth will it be able to supplement what the U.N. does well, compensate for what it does badly, and provide capabilities that it lacks."
From someone whom has had some working knowledge.... what exactly is it the UN "does well?"
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/05/2008 13:53 Comments ||
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#16
I used to admire Richard Lugar. No more. The older he gets the more RINO he becomes. It is time for him to leave the Senate and perhaps in so doing, the party as well.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/05/2008 21:05 Comments ||
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#18
Redneck Jim, "Strobe" the name says it all.
Does it boil yer blood that we have Americans plotting to subvert sovereign America underneath the mantle of a World Wide Supra State?
For the presumed sake of "World Peace", "Fixing Global Warming", "A World free from US torture", "Equitable Distribution of..." ..
Well folks, in plain sight, but controlled by the KGB, Strobe Talbott plots and lays plans for the demise of America as we know it for a Supra State, and gets paid for it.
Strobeie's parents were dyed in the wool members of the United World Federalists, in fact opened a chapter in Daton Ohio.
can you imagine the conversation between his parents to come up with Strobe's name?
Video: February 7, 2008, selling his book
The Great Experiment: The Story of Ancient Empires, Modern States, and the Quest for a Global Nation
[bla bla "I shall rule the Vorld!]
At the end of this video Strobe compliments the success of the European Union. no shiite!
#2
Yes, it is creepy--like a cast of evil characters in a James Bond movie. Heard Gloria Steinem commenting that McCain was not qualified to be commander in chief. Hmmm, like she would know. Wesley Clark is the smartest commander that ever lived; if you don't believe it just ask him. Clark will probably buck for VP or State or Defense.
Mr. Hanson has a $5 bet on the Dem primaries with another National Review regular.
"Yes, She Can" and "Tested and Ready" is trumping "Hope and Change" The race surely goes on, or as Hillary just put it "Counted Out, But Not Knocked Out," "As Ohio Goes, So Goes the Nation," "We're Going On, We're Going Strong," etc. etc. etc. And as she reminded us again, no one has won the presidency without winning Ohio, and she just did. As a good Clintonite, just reflect: Hillary wins Texas and Ohio, reminding us that she wins the big states in play every time (CA, FL, MASS, MI, NJ, NY, OH, TXand soon PA), and as we wind down the final stretch, she clearly has the momentum, as serious voters reflect on her long service versus the Obama fad. Surely in Clinton logic spring's verdict should not count more than the stale tallies of winter. Or as Hillary's spokesman just cried in anguish on behalf of voters in the primaries to come, "Let us go on, let the people speak!" Peter! Mere "rules" should not trump fairness, technicalities should not be used to disenfranchise thousands in Florida still smarting over the trauma of 2000. Nor would you wish to disenfranchise millions in Michigan whose votes we must also count, befitting the party of the people. Moreover, the purpose of the superdelegates is to ensure sober, experienced men and women factor in the necessary intangibles, weighing "caucus" state delegates versus the more important big "in-play" state plebescite delegates that better reflect the will of the people and the party's interests in November. No, I think the Clintons are just getting warmed up, reminding us that millions in the upcoming primaries like Pennsylvania wait "wanting their turn" to vote for the Clintons. And I suggest Clinton, Inc. is already sending out amnesty forms to turncoat superdelegates who leaped too soon, offering them a no-grudges-held offer to get back in lineor else.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/05/2008 00:10 ||
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REDDIT > NEWSWEEK MAGZ - argues that even iff HILLARY wins the next 16 State Primaries, she'll still lose the Dem nomination. OTHER REDDIT POLITICS - Hillary won't have enuff delegates despite victories.
Hillary has already said she's gonna stay, which reflects well on her credibility-prestige as a DEM national candidate + politician.
#2
I think the Hildabeast has always known that she would get the superdelagate votes even if she lost the state races. Probably Obama knew this too, but figured he could force them into giving him the nomination if he won the state races since he's black. They're just making a lively show of it.
#3
Well, looks like she won TX & OH. Split VT & RI w/obama. She was behind by like 150 delegates yesterday morning and as of today might be up by 150. I heard the dem nominee needs approx 2,025 delegates to be solid. As of today I thinks she's at about 1,400; I heard also that there are only 700 more delegates to fight for in the upcoming primaries so it's theoretical she can get to 2,025 but he may not be able to.
My math could be off but in any case get your jiffy-pop ready ladies & gents this could get amusing.
#5
I'm really displeased that Limbaugh, et al, are urging republicans to vote for Hillary - to assist in giving her ANY chance at securing the nomination is highly irresponsible. The last thing in the world we need is to somehow allow that despicable human being to get seated in the Oval Office. Prolonging the infighting btw BO and HRC is entertaining and somewhat helpful for McCain, but it's not worth it if it means Hillary Clinton has increased prospects of becoming POTUS.
#6
It's too late to consider that gb.
The vampiress just pulled the stake out of her heart and has reawoken. I called on this very board last week the "SS Clinton would be going props up in the next 10 days". I alos picked Ohio State to win the NC the last 2 years running...
Ms Inevitable was "hit and run" by Obamamania, whose now been tackled from behind by the Hildebeast. People whose opinion I trust say this is a good thing having the battle extend for the next six (expensive) weeks. I would have prefered reading the obits on the Clinton dynasty.
WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton, fresh off a campaign-saving comeback, hinted Wednesday at the possibility of sharing the Democratic presidential ticket with Barack Obama with her at the top. Obama played down his losses, stressing that he still holds the lead in number of delegates.
On a night that failed to clarify the Democratic race, John McCain Tuesday clinched the Republican nomination. Clinton won primaries in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island, halting Obama's winning streak. Obama won in Vermont.
Both Democrats insisted on Wednesday they had the best credentials to go head to head or as Clinton put it "toe to toe" against McCain.
Asked on CBS's "The Early Show" whether she and Obama should be on the same ticket, Clinton said: "That may be where this is headed, but of course we have to decide who is on the top of ticket. I think the people of Ohio very clearly said that it should be me."
#9
If conservatives had anything to do with pulling her chestnuts out of the fire, shame on them. Shame on Rush. Although he is beloved by many on the right, I have always found him not to be NASA material. He's all "alligator mouth and hummin'bird ass!"
What is with Pakistanis and the Americans? Despite over sixty-one years of independence; despite our successful struggle to acquire nuclear capability in the face of massive hurdles put in our way by these folk, despite the dismal record of our past military alliance with the US and its allies; despite the constant abuse being hurled at us Pakistanis in particular and Muslims in general, by them, post-9/11, we have continued to sustain the imperialists and neo imperialists in their misplaced assumption of the "White Man's Burden".
How else can we explain our continuing tolerance of the abuse a form of psychological terrorisation being meted out to us by the US? Their Administration continues with its mantra of "do more", and continues to scamper to build new political favourites as old ones lose domestic currency. Their politicians in and out of Congress hysterically threaten us with dire aid cut-offs if we do not deliver although the only delivery they will ever be satisfied with is the handing over of our nuclear assets, Dr Khan and at least an Osama look-alike to appease their populace. As for the US media, we are definitely their bete noir, not least because our leadership is so readily accessible and prone to erring on the side of indiscretion including our leadership-in-waiting. All and sundry make pronouncements on sensitive foreign policy issues with no thought to the implications and unintended consequences.
As for the US military, it is playing an interesting double game at the moment. The command in Washington critiques us, while at the operational level on the ground in the Trilateral Commission, they feign an atmosphere of camaraderie and goodwill which makes our local commanders adopt an unnecessarily accommodative approach towards them.
It is in this bizarre environment that our own security situation has been vitiated even as we have sought to please the US ad nauseum. Certainly, we have had a terrorist problem even before 9/11, but the US-led war on terror in Afghanistan has distorted our indigenous terrorist problem as well as aggravating it. To make matters worse, the US has adopted a duplicitous and treacherous strategy vis a vis the Pakistani state. On the one hand, it wants us to fight its designed war against terror, but it is itself supporting Baloch terrorist groups with the aim of destabilising both Iran's Sistan and Pakistan's Balochistan. The use of terror group Jundullah by the US against the Iranian state has been discussed in the US media. Additionally, the US has done nothing to push the Karzai government to close the offices of Pakistani terrorist groups like the BLA now renamed the Baloch Republican Army, after the UK declared BLA a terrorist organisation.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. US citizens joined some Baloch expats in 2006 to launch the so-called "American friends of Balochistan" (AFB) in Washington DC with Robert Selle, apparently a journalist, as its chairman. The aim of the group is to separate Balochistan from Pakistan and its level of funding tends to show more than a passive acceptance by the US establishment. Interestingly, the group was formed a year after French diplomat Frederic Grare went to Washington and began claiming expertise on Balochistan.
Then there is the Baloch Society of North America, established in 2005, which is active against both the Pakistani and Iranian states and has access also in Canada and the UK, post the BLA ban. There is also a big question mark over the diversion of funds received from international donors by the World Sindhi Congress (WSC) and World Sindh Institute (WSI), to terrorists in Pakistan rather than for the philanthropic purposes for which the funding was given. Both these organisations have given financial support to the Sindh Liberation Army which has claimed responsibility for a number of bomb blasts in Sindh. To make matters worse, US officials even maintain contact with members of these groups in Pakistan.
The issue is why America has failed to monitor or curtail such activities emanating from its territory. After all, we all know that terrorist organisations have to have their political wings to raise funds and the US has attacked many religious groups on this count in Pakistan. We also know how Washington has emphasised the issue of terrorist financing and many Muslim charities have suffered on this count. Are we not interested in some level of reciprocity from the US?
With all these shenanigans which directly undermine our security, we have allowed US bases in the sensitive province of Balochistan, as well as in Sindh, and there is now evidence that they are also using a short refurbished runway near Tarbela for launching Predator flights. With all this logistical support offered by Pakistan, where is the US reciprocity on anti-terrorism? Of course, if we Pakistanis had even an iota of dignity, we would stop all logistical support and let Congress do its worst. What will that be? US marines coming into Pakistan? They can barely manage Iraq and Afghanistan at the moment.
Unfortunately, despite being abused all around, we continue to do US bidding much against our own long term interests. Now we hear US military personnel are coming in to not only train our paramilitary forces but also to accompany them on missions within Pakistan. There has also been talk of the US "training" our military in counter-insurgency. What absurdities are we reducing ourselves to? Has no one studied the US's dismal record in this field both in Vietnam and Iraq, not to mention in our own neighbourhood in Afghanistan? All that will happen with the additional influx of US military personnel in Pakistan is more acts of terror against our own security forces.
The only way to fight a successful war on terror against our own indigenous terrorist problem is to begin thinning out US personnel from Pakistan and adopting a holistic approach in dealing with the tribals. To make it a perceptually credible national effort we have to create space between ourselves and the Americans so that our security forces can become more effective with local support. Unless the locals flush out the terrorists, the state will see no success in this war. This is where the ANP victory can play a crucial role in a two-pronged strategy of dialogue, development and establishment of law and order. We have to overcome the psychological confidence deficit that prevents us from creating the necessary distance between ourselves and the US.
Is it not interesting that post the ANP victory in NWFP, when it was seen that the local people had rejected the extremists and elections had been conducted more or less peacefully in that province, and there was hope of the new political leadership using a policy of dialogue to isolate the militants and terrorists something that went against the US policy suddenly we have been hit with a spate of suicide attacks with even funerals being targeted something that has not happened before.
Unfortunately, so far our ruling elite seem unable or unwilling to see the US design for what it is: a weakening of the Pakistani state and nation with perhaps a long term goal of balkanisation. After all, US scholars with close links to the establishment are referring increasingly to this end goal. Yet even here we seem to retain a strange subservience and continue to give academic space to perennial Pakistan-bashers, especially in terms of access to data and information. Such is our continuing hangover of kowtowing to old and new imperialist powers. No wonder we Pakistanis today face a double-headed terrorist threat: psychological terrorisation of the state by the US, and the physical home grown militant terrorism. One feeds on the other.
The writer is director general of the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad. Email: smnews80@hotmail.com
Posted by: john frum ||
03/05/2008 00:00 ||
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More blather about Pakiwakiland taking a place at the adult table of world strategic powers. Other than smuggling out a nuke they can't deliver one anywhere except India, and they'd get their asses preempted further back into the stone age than they already are, if they tried it.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/05/2008 0:33 Comments ||
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#2
Compare wid REDDIT/TOPIX > GLOBALRESEWARCH.CA/
COUNTERPUNCH.ORG > TOP BIOWEAPONS EXPERT [Navy]: US GOVT BEHIND ANTHRAX ATTACKS. Article - US Army Maryland Lab produced it, US CIA mailed 'em out.
HMMMMMM, TEST BED > PENN STATE community, in the late 1980's and early 1990's??? ALL THATS MISSING ARE MAFIAS + BROWN GUY SOLDIERS-INTEL OPERATIVES FROM GUAM.
D *** NG IT, SO MUCH ANTHRAX, OTHER GERMS-VIRUSES, AND US MAIL; SO MANY STATUTES OF LIMITATIONS [theme from DRAGNET here]. Time to light up a cigarette like PEPE LE PEU, or the RUSS MAFIA BABE on THE SOPRANOS.
#3
How about quit harboring terrorists, quit selling nuclear equipment to any madman that wants it, quit oppressing women, raping goats, circumcising little girls, raising money for militants, supplying arms and money to the taliwhackers and being a general pain in the ass to the entire world.
That would get us off your back, but since that is not possible in your "culture" we'll just keep leaning on you.
#6
FREEREPUBLIC/TOPIX > US CTIES AT HIGH RISK FOR TERROR ATTACKS IDENTIFIED. Color Coded profiles -RED [highest], YELLOW [medium], GREEN [low risk], and WHITE[ No Risk]]. RED clusters are predomin on mid-central US East Coast, TO INCLUDE IN OR NEAR WASHINGTON DC.
* Considering the COLD WAR Commie, Marxist-Anarchist, etc. strategy of "HUGGING THE ENEMY'S WAIST/BELT" + "HITTING WHERE THEY AIN'T", which many Radical Islamists-Terrorists also adhere to, I'M MORE CONCERNED ABOUT "WHITE" THAN I AM ABOUT "RED". "WHITE" > 2/3's of CONUS = OPEN LAND SPACES + PUBLIC AUTHOR IS WEAK OR SPREAD OUT VV MAJOR URBAN CITIES.
#1
On Sunday, Barak said the Israeli military tried to avoid civilians in its attacks, but called civilian deaths "the price of war." He said: "When we are identifying people on the way to launch a rocket against our own civilians, we have to attack them. We try to see what extent the area is empty from innocent people, but sometimes it doesn't work."
#3
ION, TOPIX > CANADA.com > ANALYSTS FEAR WAR OVER ARCTIC WEALTH, + QUEBEC SEPARATISTS TRY TO SOFTEN AGENDA OF [immediate] BREAK FROM CANADA. Leader of PARTI QUEBECOIS desires to build the Vote first, then break off after popular referendum is won - NO PROMISES, THOUGH.
CONDI = US STATE DEPT. ignoring the NORAM backyard???
On February the 2nd, 2008, the National Lebanese News Agency has reported the following: An FPM (Free Patriotic Movement) student committee delegation from French St. Joseph's University in Beirut laid a wreath of flowers at the tomb of the martyr Imad Mughniyah in Ghobeiri (Beirut), in a salute to his sacrifices and accomplishments in regard the sovereignty and liberation of the nation, then they stood one minute in silence for his soul.
On January 30, 2008, news agency and Lebanese newspapers published the following statement that was made by Sheik Naim Kassem, Hezbollahs VP: The Paper Memorandum of Understanding between Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement is not an understanding on subjects, not one constrained by a specific time, rather it is a strategic understanding, steadfast as the mountains, and whoever approaches it we will shatter his head, and the understanding shall remain.
On February 28, 2008, in an interview with the Lebanese LBC TV, MP. Michele Aoun stated openly that Imad Mughniyah is a martyr and made his alleged martyrdom equal to that of Lebanon's assassinated late PM, Rafic Hariri. At the same time Aoun okayed what he termed Hezbollah's legitimate right to retaliate for Mughniyahi's killing. Although he had no legal or substantial proof to blame Israel for this killing that took place in the Syrian Capital Damascus, Aoun agreed with Hezbollah's anti-Israeli rhetoric and allegations. Meanwhile Aoun did not see any wrongdoing in Hezbollah's resorting to its huge piled Iranian-Syrian weapons against the Lebanese themselves if they try, to in any way, disarm it. Aoun in the same interview used Hezbollah's weapons to threaten the Lebanese ruling majority when he said : "Those who are capable of igniting a civil war and winning it don't want to resort to that choice," Aoun added without giving any detailed explanations.
Based on the above sad, nauseating and disappointing Aoun overt stances, we send a thousand congratulations to the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM-Aounist Movement), and to MP. General Michele Aoun himself, its leader, the derailed deluded and day dreaming self acclaimed Lebanons Napoleon, and sole representative for Lebanon's Christian rights. This camouflaging, Judastic, demagogic, ungrateful man who was strongly behind the well known Pro-Lebanese American Act: "Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003", that aimed to: Halt Syrian support for terrorism, end its occupation of Lebanon, stop its development of weapons of mass destruction, cease its illegal importation of Iraqi oil, and hold Syria accountable for its role in the Middle East, and for other purposes.
Michele Aoun, who was tagged for 18 years as the champion of freedoms and the number one anti Syrian Lebanese Christian politician, has sadly changed his skin, abandoned all his promises to the Lebanese people, sold his country's independence cause for thirty pieces of silver, betrayed all his sovereignty platforms, turned his back to the USA, European and moderate Arab countries, as well as to other free world nations who supported Lebanon to restore its confiscated independence and force the Syrian occupation army to withdraw in 2005. Aoun actually has joined the Hezbollah-Syrian-Iranian Axis of Evil.
Why would a man with this patriotic magnitude take such a bizarre, treacherous and hazardous shift? Simply because his lust for power and longing for the presidential post has overcome his patriotic stances. His mean succumbing to a personal selfish agenda on the account of Lebanon's future is so disgraceful and so disappointing, but what is more disappointing and saddening is indeed the status of many of his supporters who have turned a blind eye to all his Axis of Evil transformation and despite all odd still stand behind him and defend his derailed and anti Lebanese-anti Christian stances.
Aoun actually had adopted Hezbollah's Godly strategies which have now become in materiel reality his own too. And as declared by Sheik Hassan Nasrallah following the assassination of Imad Mughniyah., this strategy calls for the elimination of Israel from existence, and for the declaring of an open global war against it and against all the arrogant whether American or mercenary Arabs and others as Nasrallah stated verbatim in his speech.
We Lebanese waited with anticipation to hear a reply and explanation from General Michele Aoun on the statements of his ally Sheik Kassem regarding their strategic understanding, and the reply came so clear-cut through the FPM students' laying of the wreath of flowers on Imad Mughniyah's tomb in salute to his sacrifices and accomplishments in regard the sovereignty and liberation of the nation. The picture became even more crystal clear in the Aoun's LBC interview.
So that Aoun and his FPM party share now and adopt Hezbollah's strategy, let us see what are the implications of such a shift, and what is actually Hezbollah's strategy?
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2008 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The real news behind South America's latest border fracas is Colombia's looming victory in its own narcotics-powered civil war.
In what could be the biggest State Department scandal since State Department official and United Nations founder Alger Hiss was exposed as a Soviet spy, a top Clinton State Department official and former Time magazine journalist has been identified as having been a trusted contact of the Russian intelligence service.
