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Narcoterrorism
Discusses how governments from around the world, including Bulgaria, Cuba, Nicaragua, Syria and others, have, over the last 25 years, initiated, developed and in some cases virtually dominated the drug business to finance terrorist activities. The author of this book bases her research and findings around the point that unless we recognise the geo-political aspects of the situation, the drug problem will be fought on the wrong fronts in the wrong way and with little chance of victory.
225 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1990
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July 13, 2021
One of my friends has a virtual bookshelf labeled "Yuuuck" or something to that effect. That is where this book belongs. It boggles the mind how an academician affiliated with NYU's School of Law could write such a disjointed, biased, and rambling political treatise. Political polarization took off in the 1990s; but this 1990 book reads like an opening salvo of right-wing talking points.
The subtitle is: "How governments around the world have used the drug trade to finance and further terrorist activities." In her introduction she reinforces the connection between established governments, narcotics trafficking, and terrorism. Readers interested in the infamous narcoterrorism of Colombia will be surprised to see that the first chapter is on Bulgaria.
Yup, Bulgaria is a spring board to blame narcotics trafficking on Soviet Russia and Marxist-Leninist Ideology. As any law or criminology professor should know, this would require some re-defining of government, narcotics trafficking, terrorism, and narcoterrorism. Instead, definitions are left up to the reader. Corruption in government is nothing new nor limited to Soviet Block countries. The story of KINTEX, a quasi government entity that trafficked in guns and drugs is not so surprising. Ehrenfeld hints they trafficked in other commodities as well....all nefarious. Terrorism? Apparently, there were some contacts between KINTEX and the PLO. Also, the Bulgarians were clearly behind the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II because he was undermining the Communist government of Catholic Poland. Since 1983 there have been a lot of rumors but no firm evidence that Bulgaria was supporting the gunman.
Ehrenfeld then moves on to Cuba. Yup, another Communist country. She notes that Communists, like Castro, who survived alleged CIA assassination plots and an armed invasion from the US, inexplicably hated America. It must be something to do with the Marxist-Leninist Ideaology. Anyhow, repeating any rumor that Castro's communists were involved in drugs or supporting terrorism is happily thrown into this chaotic chapter. For good measure, also thrown in are bits and pieces of Noriega's Panama and Sandinista Nicaragua, the later would probably fit Ehrenfeld's nexus of government, drugs, and terrorism better than any other example.
By the time the reader reaches the third chapter on Colombia, they should be able to see that her writing style is one of throwing a lot of mud around and blaming Communists. The chapter on Colombia weaves in and around rebel groups like FARC and the drug cartels that it becomes nearly impossible to disentangle the the narrative in this chapter. That is intentional. Ehrenfeld tries to blur the lines between communist rebel and cartel trafficker. They are both monsters. They are working together. Never mind that the drug barons are the epitome of capitalism, and are solidly against the rebels in terms of ideology.
The fourth and fifth chapters do some solid reporting. Granted, the source material for the bulk of the book are the NY Times, the NY Post, and Readers Digest, Ehrenfeld does make a solid attempt to lay out the layers of conflict and antagonism afflicting Lebanon (Chapter 4). It is unfortunate that at the end, she snaps back into blaming the Soviets for supporting the PLO....Chapter 5 offers a fascinating look at Peru. She undoubtedly exaggerates the violence of the Shining Path (Communist) guerillas and their hold on the mountain valleys growing cocoa. But the chapter is brief and seems somewhat shallow. This chapter is why I awarded the book a second star.
The last chapter is the longest and most bizarre: The United States. It appears that she equates the violence of the inner cities with terrorism. That is the only way the chapter could make sense. However, the violence of the inner city drug gangs and addicts just one tangent in this confusing chapter. Also included are tirades against hippies, recreational drug users, the "dark days" of the Carter Administration, and circular logic (or non sequitur - pick your interpretation) on what to do about....what?
The last chapter is so bonkers that I actually laughed out loud with one passage: "Crack, in addition to sudden death, causes pathological levels of sexual activity and violence that stimulates the addict's brain. The combination of crack, the AIDS virus, and a sharp rise in the syphilis rate and other sexually transmitted diseases (in the U.S.) is leading experts to fear that AIDS increasingly is spreading through heterosexual contact. Violence pales in comparison (p. 170)." That is a lot to unpackage. However, a couple of pages later she offers a quote from George H.W. Bush's drug czar, William Bennett...."the far right has a tendency to assert that the drug problem is essentially a problem of the inner city....if those people want to kill themselves off with drugs, let them kill themselves off....On the left, it is something else [the problem] is poverty, racism, or some other equally large and intractable social phenomenon (p. 173)." Guess where Ehrenfeld fits on that spectrum?
Overall, the book is rubbish. As a form of scholarship by an academician at a prestigious institution it is extremely poor quality. The writing is far too sensational and emotional-based to offer a balanced or systematic examination of the topic or any sub-topic (country). The book reads like the words spewing from a wild-eyed guest on Tucker Carlson's television show: The Communists have a plan to turn inner city residents into enraged AND diseased (sexually-transmitted) assailants bringing down our country - and there is nothing you can do to stop them!
Post script: one year after this book was published, the Soviet Union collapsed.
The subtitle is: "How governments around the world have used the drug trade to finance and further terrorist activities." In her introduction she reinforces the connection between established governments, narcotics trafficking, and terrorism. Readers interested in the infamous narcoterrorism of Colombia will be surprised to see that the first chapter is on Bulgaria.
Yup, Bulgaria is a spring board to blame narcotics trafficking on Soviet Russia and Marxist-Leninist Ideology. As any law or criminology professor should know, this would require some re-defining of government, narcotics trafficking, terrorism, and narcoterrorism. Instead, definitions are left up to the reader. Corruption in government is nothing new nor limited to Soviet Block countries. The story of KINTEX, a quasi government entity that trafficked in guns and drugs is not so surprising. Ehrenfeld hints they trafficked in other commodities as well....all nefarious. Terrorism? Apparently, there were some contacts between KINTEX and the PLO. Also, the Bulgarians were clearly behind the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II because he was undermining the Communist government of Catholic Poland. Since 1983 there have been a lot of rumors but no firm evidence that Bulgaria was supporting the gunman.
Ehrenfeld then moves on to Cuba. Yup, another Communist country. She notes that Communists, like Castro, who survived alleged CIA assassination plots and an armed invasion from the US, inexplicably hated America. It must be something to do with the Marxist-Leninist Ideaology. Anyhow, repeating any rumor that Castro's communists were involved in drugs or supporting terrorism is happily thrown into this chaotic chapter. For good measure, also thrown in are bits and pieces of Noriega's Panama and Sandinista Nicaragua, the later would probably fit Ehrenfeld's nexus of government, drugs, and terrorism better than any other example.
By the time the reader reaches the third chapter on Colombia, they should be able to see that her writing style is one of throwing a lot of mud around and blaming Communists. The chapter on Colombia weaves in and around rebel groups like FARC and the drug cartels that it becomes nearly impossible to disentangle the the narrative in this chapter. That is intentional. Ehrenfeld tries to blur the lines between communist rebel and cartel trafficker. They are both monsters. They are working together. Never mind that the drug barons are the epitome of capitalism, and are solidly against the rebels in terms of ideology.
The fourth and fifth chapters do some solid reporting. Granted, the source material for the bulk of the book are the NY Times, the NY Post, and Readers Digest, Ehrenfeld does make a solid attempt to lay out the layers of conflict and antagonism afflicting Lebanon (Chapter 4). It is unfortunate that at the end, she snaps back into blaming the Soviets for supporting the PLO....Chapter 5 offers a fascinating look at Peru. She undoubtedly exaggerates the violence of the Shining Path (Communist) guerillas and their hold on the mountain valleys growing cocoa. But the chapter is brief and seems somewhat shallow. This chapter is why I awarded the book a second star.
The last chapter is the longest and most bizarre: The United States. It appears that she equates the violence of the inner cities with terrorism. That is the only way the chapter could make sense. However, the violence of the inner city drug gangs and addicts just one tangent in this confusing chapter. Also included are tirades against hippies, recreational drug users, the "dark days" of the Carter Administration, and circular logic (or non sequitur - pick your interpretation) on what to do about....what?
The last chapter is so bonkers that I actually laughed out loud with one passage: "Crack, in addition to sudden death, causes pathological levels of sexual activity and violence that stimulates the addict's brain. The combination of crack, the AIDS virus, and a sharp rise in the syphilis rate and other sexually transmitted diseases (in the U.S.) is leading experts to fear that AIDS increasingly is spreading through heterosexual contact. Violence pales in comparison (p. 170)." That is a lot to unpackage. However, a couple of pages later she offers a quote from George H.W. Bush's drug czar, William Bennett...."the far right has a tendency to assert that the drug problem is essentially a problem of the inner city....if those people want to kill themselves off with drugs, let them kill themselves off....On the left, it is something else [the problem] is poverty, racism, or some other equally large and intractable social phenomenon (p. 173)." Guess where Ehrenfeld fits on that spectrum?
Overall, the book is rubbish. As a form of scholarship by an academician at a prestigious institution it is extremely poor quality. The writing is far too sensational and emotional-based to offer a balanced or systematic examination of the topic or any sub-topic (country). The book reads like the words spewing from a wild-eyed guest on Tucker Carlson's television show: The Communists have a plan to turn inner city residents into enraged AND diseased (sexually-transmitted) assailants bringing down our country - and there is nothing you can do to stop them!
Post script: one year after this book was published, the Soviet Union collapsed.
April 15, 2023
NARCO TERRORISM – How governments around the world have used the drug trade to finance and further terrorist activities – by Rachel Ehrenfeld – read in April 2023
I used this book for research for the novel I am currently writing. This means I have not read it in its integrity but grabbed pages in chapters I needed. I checked on Cuban trafficking, Columbian trafficking, some Eastern European trafficking, and what is happening to the U.S. as a result. Do you remember the “four legs good, two legs bad” in George Orwell’s Animal Farm? Although containing some useful information, the book comes with “right wing good, left wing bad.” Without giving any sort of explanation, Rachel Ehrenfeld states that that the way it is. Voilà. The book was published in 1990, and I don’t remember if the approach to studies was partisan back then, but it is less the case now, no matter the political preference of the author.
Narco Terrorism is based on the premise that terrorists, all left wingers as mentioned, are in to destroy the United States and, to do so, they export drugs to the country in order to transform it into a nation of disabled drug addicts. There may be truth to that. But how much truth is there when the book is so biased? And with Europe as a powerful ally to the United States, and drug dependents scattered all over the world (not only in the US), how can Ehrenfeld be taken seriously?
I have ordered Gary Webb’s Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. I will see what the book says, but it looks like the CIA is not innocent there, and that the “left wing bad, right wind good” theory won’t hold.
Till later, when I’ll let you know.
I used this book for research for the novel I am currently writing. This means I have not read it in its integrity but grabbed pages in chapters I needed. I checked on Cuban trafficking, Columbian trafficking, some Eastern European trafficking, and what is happening to the U.S. as a result. Do you remember the “four legs good, two legs bad” in George Orwell’s Animal Farm? Although containing some useful information, the book comes with “right wing good, left wing bad.” Without giving any sort of explanation, Rachel Ehrenfeld states that that the way it is. Voilà. The book was published in 1990, and I don’t remember if the approach to studies was partisan back then, but it is less the case now, no matter the political preference of the author.
Narco Terrorism is based on the premise that terrorists, all left wingers as mentioned, are in to destroy the United States and, to do so, they export drugs to the country in order to transform it into a nation of disabled drug addicts. There may be truth to that. But how much truth is there when the book is so biased? And with Europe as a powerful ally to the United States, and drug dependents scattered all over the world (not only in the US), how can Ehrenfeld be taken seriously?
I have ordered Gary Webb’s Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. I will see what the book says, but it looks like the CIA is not innocent there, and that the “left wing bad, right wind good” theory won’t hold.
Till later, when I’ll let you know.
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