Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy

In 1987 John Kerry chaired three days of subcommittee hearings on drug trafficking.

...the panel heard evidence of official corruption in Central America, South America, the Caribbean, and the United States. The next year, the government published the transcripts in a 4-volume set that has remained a touchstone for anyone interested in narco-corruption, particularly as it involves US intelligence agencies.

Thanks to Russ Kick at The Memory Hole, they are now available on line. Russ obtained the entire four volume series by sheer luck.

The trouble is, this 1,800-page goldmine of information has been incredibly hard to find. The Memory Hole's copy was given to me by a friend of the family; Lorenzo Hagerty; who told me an interesting story. As soon as the Kerry Report was published in 1988, Lorenzo ordered a copy from the Government Printing Office. When it arrived, he began reading it and realized how important it was. He immediately called the GPO to order another set. He was told that the report was already out of print and would not be published again. It had been available to the public for one single week.

The Memory Hole will be posting the transcripts in their entirety, 20 pages at a time. Part One is available now at the site. The front page and the email updates will contain notifications when new portions are posted.

Russ has also posted a link to another volume published in 1988, that was based on the same hearings. It's available in PDF format here.

It's quite fascinating. Here's an excerpt from the page one.

I think all of us know that the effort to stem the illicit flow of drugs into the United States has become an insurmountable problem.

Law enforcement officials across our country and elsewhere have become increasingly frustrated over the seeming inability to be able to stop the flow of drugs or to deal effectively with what is essentially a war that is being waged against the citizens of this country.

From page two:

Among the issues which we want to address in these hearings is not only our own policy but the extent to which our Government ranks the drug problem in the overall scheme of a relationship with other countries. Do we on any occasion overlook a drug law enforcement problem that develops in our relationship with a foreign government in order to protect perceived national or international security or political concerns?

If so, what are the political and national security objectives, which take precedence over the responsibility to our citizens to stop the flow of drugs. This subcommittee will also attempt to evaluate the impact of the drug industry on countries where narcotics have become an integral part of their economies. Only by doing that can we make judgments about what our relationship with those countries ought to be.

Are we facing a situation where the economies of some countries are becoming reliant on revenues generated by narcotics trafficking? Are the actions of drug traffickers increasingly destabilizing the institutions of those countries which succumb to the temptation to permit traffickers to operate in them? Is drug money being used to support political parties, incumbent governments, or even revolutionary movements?

Hours of reading pleasure here.