America's Mexican Border Wars

[Peter Lemkin]

I believe the first part of the interview with Castillo is archived here, The second part with Tosh on too I'll find the url to and post, it should be on that page somewhere - sometimes it takes about 24 hours after it was live. It can also be found here just after broadcast. Best would be to listen live via the WBAI website at Monday 5PM EST - and record it - but it will be available as streaming or for download afterwards, as well.

Expert Witness Show - WBAI New York
Mondays, 5:00-6:00 p.m. EST
Michael Levine: host
Kristina Borgesson: producer
Website: http://www.expertwitnessradio.org
For copies of the show: 212-209-2970
Email Address: expert53@aol.com
The Expert Witness - Interviews and commentary on the news.
Michael Levine is a 25-year veteran of DEA, Customs, IRS, and BATF. Author of NY Times Bestseller Deep Cover, The Big White Lie, Triangle of Death. 35-year court-qualified expert in "use of force," "covert operations," "narcotics trafficking," "human intelligence," "criminal informants" and more.

Past [I think 5 part] interview with Tosh Plumlee on Mike Levine's show here.

Tosh Plumlee Interview - Part V - Broadcast September 14, 2003
MP3 (For Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player)


Tosh Plumlee Interview - Part IV - Broadcast September 13, 2003
MP3 (For Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player)


Tosh Plumlee Interview - Part III - Broadcast September 12, 2003
MP3 (For Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player)


Tosh Plumlee Interview - Part II - Broadcast September 11, 2003
MP3 (For Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player)


Tosh Plumlee Interview - Part I - Broadcast September 10, 2003
MP3 (For Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player)

[you have to scroll down about 80% of the way for these]

[Peter Lemkin]

This leaves out some of the most important info Levine has made public - but read his books and listen to his archived shows if you want the 'real deal'. Plumlee and Levine [and a few others] are on the same 'page' singing their 'hymns' about a phoney and misleading and misled 'War On Drugs'!

Michael Levine (DEA)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Levine_(DEA)
Michael Levine is a former senior United States law enforcement agent and has been called "America's top undercover cop for 25 years" by 60 Minutes. A 25 year veteran of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) he has gained much attention for his criticisms of the CIA and the influence it has played on DEA operations. He has even gone as far as claiming the CIA was instrumental in the creation La Corporacion, the "General Motors of cocaine".

Levine has testified as an expert witness in 500 civil and criminal trials internationally and domestically and has lectured on Undercover Operations and Human Intelligence for a wide range of professional audiences ranging from the Defense Intelligence Agency and the FBI advanced undercover seminar to the New York State Department of Justice Services and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Levine's career as an undercover agent first became public with the publication of his DEA authorized biography in March, 1988 "Undercover" ISBN 0-8129-1220-9.

In March of 1988 Levine caused a controversy when he wrote a letter to the New York Daily News about how he wanted to arrest Howard Stern after Stern had been joking on the radio about drugs being used backstage before his PPV show Howard Stern's Negligeé and Underpants Party. Special Agent in Charge for the New York City office of the Drug Enforcement Administration Robert Stutman denied any investigation into Stern and said "Levine's letter was written without the agency's knowledge."[1] However, in Levine's followup book, the New York Times best seller "Deep Cover"[2], it was revealed that the letter to "Daily News" as well as the Stern investigation had not only been authorized by DEA and the Department of Justice, but that Stern's media clout had in fact caused DEA to back down from the investigation.

In "Deep Cover" now in the top fifty "Project Censored" archives of Bill Moyers,[3], Levine revealed that Edwin Meese, the then Attorney General of the United States, had blown the cover of a DEA undercover team, posing as a Mafia family, that had penetrated the office of the President of Mexico and was "buying" Mexican military protection for the transportation of 15 tons of cocaine through Mexico into the United States.

Since 1995, he has hosted "The Expert Witness Radio Show" on the flagship station of the Pacifica Radio Network, WBAI-FM in New York. http://www.expertwitnessradio.org [4]

On August 11, 2008, Levine was featured on The Colbert Report in a segment entitled "Nailed 'Em," which pokes fun at the American justice system for law enforcement activity that some would consider trivial or frivolous. This episode focused on a medical marijuana patient who was denied a job for failing a drug test.[5]

Levine has also been featured as an expert commentator on more than 100 nationally and internationally broadcast TV news and current events shows, including but not limited to NBC Dateline, the Macneil Lehrer News hour, Inside Edition, 60 Minutes, Crier Report, Geraldo Rivera Show, Crossfire, Good Morning America, NBC and CBS Morning shows, Cold Blood, The Donnie Deutch Show, Charlie Rose, Bill Moyers' "Project Censored," and "Contrapunto" (Cross Fire;s Spanish language version).Contents [hide]
1 Bibliography
1.1 Fiction Based Works
2 References
3 External links


[edit]
Bibliography
The Big White Lie: The Deep Cover Operation That Exposed the CIA Sabotage of the Drug War. ISBN-10: 1560250844; ISBN-13: 978-1560250845
Deep Cover: The Inside Story of How DEA Infighting, Incompetence and Subterfuge Lost Us the Biggest Battle of the Drug War. ISBN-10: 0595092640; ISBN-13: 978-0595092642
Fight Back; How to Take Back Your Neighborhood, Schools And Families From the Drug Dealer. ISBN-13: 978-0-595-41834-3; ISBN-10: 0-595-41834-1

[edit]
Fiction Based Works
Triangle of Death. ISBN: 0-440-22367-9
Technical consultant to the NBC miniseries Kingpin.[6]
Actor and Technical Consutant to the Showtime series (Cable TV Series) Street Time

[edit]
References
^ New York Daily News March 10th, 1988
^ Levine, Michael (1990). Deep Cover: The Inside Story of How DEA Infighting, Incompetence and Subterfuge Lost Us the Biggest Battle of the Drug War, Delacorte Press, New York. ISBN-10: 0595092640; ISBN-13: 978-0595092642.
^ http://www.projectcensored.org/static/19...story5.htm
^ Biography of Michael Levine, Expert Witness Radio, http://www.expertwitnessradio.org/bio/
^ http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertrepo...oId=179077
^ IMDB, Kingpin, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1362783/

[edit]
External links
Michael Levine at Lawsonline
Michael Levine's professional site
Michael Levine's Radio Show

[Peter Lemkin]

5. CONTINUED MEDIA BLACKOUT OF DRUG WAR FRAUD

While the fire and brimstone of drug war rhetoric continues to saturate the mainstream press, high-ranking drug war insiders continue to come forward in attempts to expose the "war" for what it really is: a battle for the hearts, minds, and tax dollars of the American public. And the media continue to be the government's apparently willing ally in this war.

The latest to "go public" is Michael Levine, who recently retired from the DEA after 25 years as a leading undercover agent for various law enforcement agencies. Over the course of his career, Levine has personally accounted for at least 3,000 people serving a total of 15,000 years in jail, as well as several tons of various illegal substances seized. Upon his retirement Levine published a critical expose of the DEA in which he thoroughly documents his journey from true believer to drug war heretic.

Levine documents numerous instances of CIA involvement in the drug trade, State Department intervention, and DEA cooperation with both parties. Levine's story closely parallels that of Richard Gregorie whose defection from the Attorney General's office was the fourth ranked "censored" story of 1989.

According to Levine, "the only thing we know with certainty is that the drug war is not for real. The drug economy in the United States is as much as $200 billion a year, and it is being used to finance political operations, pay international debts -- all sorts of things." While not being completely frozen out by the media, not one DEA or other government official would appear to respond to his charges.

Levine's appearance on The MacNeil/Lehrer show was significant because Terrence Burke (the acting DEA chief), when asked by Lehrer, agreed with Levine that "we (the U.S.), have consistently chosen drugs over communism," but Burke only agreed to appear on the show after the Levine interview (which was taped) and with the proviso that he would not discuss any of the charges made in the book.

Another strange media non-event was the proposed "60 Minutes" segment on "the drug war fraud". On January 24, "60 Minutes" producer Gail Eisen called Levine and explained that executive producer Don Hewitt had ordered a "crash production" for a segment on his experience with the DEA. Levine gave "60 Minutes" extensive documentation and he was instructed to get his passport in order to do on location shooting in Panama. He then received a phone call informing him that "60 Minutes" had suddenly and inexplicably dropped the piece.

"The whole drug war is a media war," says Levine, "It's a psychological war, aimed at convincing America through the press that our government is seriously trying to deal with the drug problem when they're not."

SSU CENSORED RESEARCHER: DENISE MUSSETTER

SOURCE: EXTRA!, 130 West 25th St., New York, NY 10001
DATE: July/August 1990
TITLE: "Ex-DEA Agent Calls Drug War a Fraud"
AUTHOR: Martin A. Lee

SOURCE: THE HUMANIST, 7 Harwood Drive, PO Box 146, Amherst, NY 14226-0146
DATE: September/October 1990
TITLE: "A Funny, Dirty Little Drug War"
AUTHOR: Rick Szykowny

COMMENTS: Investigative journalist Martin A. Lee, co-author of "Unreliable Sources: A Guide to Detecting Bias in News Media," felt the "drug war" issue received minimal exposure. "Charges by Michael Levine, a 25-year veteran of the Drug Enforcement Administration, that the drug war is a fraud, got very little coverage in mainstream U.S. news media -- this at a time when the so-called drug war was perhaps the biggest ongoing news story in the U.S. press." Lee said that his interview with Levine was reprinted in a handful of alternative weeklies, but no mainstream news outlet picked up his charges and explored the serious issues he raised. Rick Szykowny, author of the article in The Humanist, said that the media coverage of the drug war amounted to a propaganda exercise, as the media focused on the Bush Administration's self-serving pronouncement and rigorously avoided any analysis of either the systemic social and cultural causes of drug use (and abuse) in this country or the political aspects of the "war on drugs". Szykowny also suggested that "The Bush Administration is the most obvious beneficiary of the mass-media's uncritical coverage of the drug war -- as were the Reagan and Nixon administrations before it. The Drug War is the kind of issue that lends itself quite handily to cynical political manipulation. By declaring "war" on drug abuse -- essentially a thorny social (non-military) problem -- the Bush administration was able to achieve a number of things. It could foment a kind of crisis mentality in the general public, to the point where the average American supported the suspension of constitu-tionally protected civil liberties in order to wage that war. It could divert the attention of the American public (and mass media) from far more substantial political issues -- and from the fact that the United States government has cynically colluded with international drug traffickers when it has served the interests of 'national security.' The Bush Administration was also able to intervene in the internal affairs of South American nations under the pretext of 'going to the source,' and even invaded Panama to (allegedly) bring Manuel Noriega to trial on drug trafficking charges."

From Project Censored

[David Guyatt]

According to Levine, "the only thing we know with certainty is that the drug war is not for real. The drug economy in the United States is as much as $200 billion a year, and it is being used to finance political operations, pay international debts -- all sorts of things." While not being completely frozen out by the media, not one DEA or other government official would appear to respond to his charges.

The global figure is in excess of $1 trillion. That was the case over a decade ago now. Combine that with the illicit weapons trade - the ugly sister of narcotics, gambling and other profitable but illegal activites and we're talking serious money. So serious that banks and Wall Street and governments are now a major part of what was once called The Octopus.

[Magda Hassan]

I think the octopus deserves its own thread.

[Tosh Plumlee]

In case you missed this. For those who may be interested in the current events unfolding in our border towns and spilling over into the major cities of the United States. I see this as a National Security matter and I'm happy to see our president addressing this problem:

"...
Obama, Mullen discuss violence in Mexico

• <LI class=cnnHiliteHeader _extended="true">Story Highlights <LI _extended="true">NEW: Obama expresses interest in intelligence, surveillance technology, official says
  <LI _extended="true">NEW: Talks highlight growing concern as drug-related violence continues in Mexico
  <LI _extended="true">Body of Jorge Natividad Norman Harrison one of three found in Tijuana on Tuesday
  <LI _extended="true">Mexican officials said they found firearms, Valium pills in search of his business
  
• Next Article in World »
  

(CNN) -- President Obama and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Adm. Michael Mullen on Saturday discussed how the U.S. military can assist Mexico in addressing growing violence from drug cartels, according to a military official.
Mexican authorities discovered three headless bodies in Tijuana on Tuesday.





The conversation, which Obama initiated within hours of Mullen's return to the United States from a visit to Mexico City, underscores the growing concern with which the United States views the situation.
"The president was eager to get the chairman's observations on what he found out," the official told CNN.
The president expressed interest in military capabilities that the U.S. has that could help Mexican forces, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance technology, the official said.
Mexico's military and police have been embroiled in increasingly violent clashes with cartels, which are battling among themselves for control over an ever-growing market in the United States.
This week, a U.S. citizen was among the three decapitated bodies found in Tijuana, Mexican authorities said Saturday. Growing drug violence has made beheadings in Tijuana, Juarez and other Mexican towns more commonplace over the past year.
Don't Miss

• Mexico pours troops into border city
  

The Tijuana attorney general's office identified the man as Jorge Natividad Norman Harrison, 45, who ran a pizzeria in El Mirador, in Tijuana. The bodies were found Tuesday.
In a written statement, Mexican officials said they found firearms and more than 100 Valium pills in a search of Harrison's business.
The statement also noted that he had a criminal history in the United States for drugs and conspiracy.

[David Guyatt]

I wonder what Obama's motives are -- any thoughts Tosh?

I noticed the bit about the body of an headless American, Jorge Natividad Norman Harrison, which was one of those found. This seems to be the same Jorge Natividad Norman Harrison who's real name is Jaime Ramos Herrera. I also noticed that the three were killed and beheaded apparently for squealing:

The bodies were accompanied by a threatening handwritten message that referred to "blabbermouths." Authorities are attributing the deaths to organized crime.

http://weblog.signonsandiego.com/news/br...zen_w.html

[Tosh Plumlee]

I wonder what Obama's motives are -- any thoughts Tosh?

I noticed the bit about the body of an headless American, Jorge Natividad Norman Harrison, which was one of those found. This seems to be the same Jorge Natividad Norman Harrison who's real name is Jaime Ramos Herrera. I also noticed that the three were killed and beheaded apparently for squealing:

The bodies were accompanied by a threatening handwritten message that referred to "blabbermouths." Authorities are attributing the deaths to organized crime.

http://weblog.signonsandiego.com/news/br...zen_w.html

I understand that U.S. troop will be moved into some of the border towns to show the Mexican government that the United States supports the Mexican War on Drugs... (I wonder where the State Department and H. Clinton is on this as well as our Mexico Ambs. )

Also some of my "contact", sources have told me that the American was a UC operative working contract for the ATF and DEA.... (it seems someone, or some, inside the Mexican Army Intell are working for the Cartel's gangs and releasing classified US Intell to them and also giving or selling them US military hardware.

[David Guyatt]

Thanks for that. I thought the American death whiffed a bit.

[Tosh Plumlee]

Thanks for that. I thought the American death whiffed a bit.

The Mexican Drug War
Tanks rolling up Broadway?

listen (coming tonight)
Tonight - two legendary intel pros join us in a freewheeling conversation about the Mexican Drug war - its' history - where it is now - and what ISN'T being done about it.
About the Guests:
Robert Tosh Plumlee was born in 1937. He joined the United States Army in April 1954 and was assigned to the Texas 49th Armored Division. Later he was transferred to Dallas and assigned to the 4th Army Reserve Military Intelligence Unit, commanding officer Captain Edward G Seiwell.
While he was in the Army he also workedt as an aircraft mechanic before obtaining his pilot's license in 1956. Soon afterwards (1957-64) he began work as a pilot for a Military INTEL, Special Operations Group out of the Pentagon assigned to covert and clandestine CIA flights. Some of his case officers (or handlers) included; William Harvey, Tracy Barnes, Rip Robertson, Tony Bender, and others. In those capacities, Plumlee transported arms to Cuba before Castro took power. Plumlee was also associated with Operation 40, the infamous special attack task force of the CIA's Covert Operational Group.(COG)
In 1962 Plumlee was assigned to Task Force W which operated at the time from the JM/WAVE,OMC also known as the CIA's secret WAVE Station in Miami.
Plumlee also worked many classified operations most as an undercover operative and contract pilot for the federal government during the "Drug War" during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, Bush one, Clinton, and Bush two.
In 1977 Plumlee testified before Frank Church and his Select Committee on Intelligence Activities. He also testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1990 and 1991. and Senator John Kerry's Sub Committee on Narcotics, Terrorism.
Celerino "Cele" Castillo, III, is a 20-year veteran of both state and federal law enforcement with 12-year service in the U. S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration. Mr. Castillo is a highly decorated DEA agent for his undercover operations in Central and South America. For several years, he was also placed in major cities like San Francisco and New York City for deep cover operations. He is an author of "Powderburns" Cocaine, Contras And The Drug War, and is an acclaimed public speaker and educator.
COURT QUALIFIED EXPERT WITNESS: For 20 years Mr. Castillo has qualified as an "expert witness" in criminal and civil trials, both for and against various state and federal law enforcement agencies, in the following subjects: Undercover tactics, entrapment, informant handling practices and procedures, all subjects related to drugs trafficking, money laundering, and international narcotics investigations, police profiling, research on federal documentation for the defense. (Bates)
MR. CASTILLO has written several internationally known articles against federal law enforcement corruption: "Written Statement of Celerino Castillo III, for The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence" 1998. He was mentioned in several articles on Informant Handling for The National Law Journal. ABC's Primetime Live, Dateline NBC, Discovery Channel and other numerous news magazines have done exclusive interviews on Mr. Castillo pertaining to "Outrageous Conduct" by the U.S. Government.
Links: