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How the government set up a fake bank to launder drug money (2012)

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Re: How the government set up a fake bank to launder drug money (2012)

#81

Post by [deleted] »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #54
reedjosh wrote: post #30

Everyone is surprised to find the government does shady stuff, but many of these operations are even acknowledged like Iran-Contra where the government sold arms to the embargoed Khomeini government to generate black money to fund the Contras. > Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to the Khomeini government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo.[2]…

> Everyone is surprised to find the government does shady stuff, but many of these operations are even acknowledged like Iran-Contra where the government sold arms to the embargoed Khomeini government to generate black money to fund the Contras. Another one, maybe the biggest known one, is when the US sent 12 bn to 14 bn in the form of 100 bills (yup, in bills) using a military plane to Iraq and these bills mostly al…

[deleted]

Re: How the government set up a fake bank to launder drug money (2012)

#83

Post by quickthrowman »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #54
reedjosh wrote: post #30

Everyone is surprised to find the government does shady stuff, but many of these operations are even acknowledged like Iran-Contra where the government sold arms to the embargoed Khomeini government to generate black money to fund the Contras. > Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to the Khomeini government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo.[2]…

> Everyone is surprised to find the government does shady stuff, but many of these operations are even acknowledged like Iran-Contra where the government sold arms to the embargoed Khomeini government to generate black money to fund the Contras. Another one, maybe the biggest known one, is when the US sent 12 bn to 14 bn in the form of 100 bills (yup, in bills) using a military plane to Iraq and these bills mostly al…

> However, evidence before the committee suggests that senior American officials were unconcerned about the situation because the billions were not US taxpayers' money. Paul Bremer, the head of the CPA, reminded the committee that "the subject of today's hearing is the CPA's use and accounting for funds belonging to the Iraqi people held in the so-called Development Fund for Iraq. These are not appropriated American funds. They are Iraqi funds. I believe the CPA discharged its responsibilities to manage these Iraqi funds on behalf of the Iraqi people."

You left out something pretty damn important, it was Iraqi money to begin with. Maybe they requested large pallets of cash, it shouldn’t matter since it’s their (Iraq’s) money!

I don’t doubt the government has had a hand in shady stuff (US history from 1946-now in particular proves this), but this isn’t what it seems. We didn’t just break off $12B of US treasury money and send it off to Iraq with no oversight.

> EDIT: like Iran-Contra, I'm pretty sure in the future movies are going to be made about these $100 bills.

I highly doubt it, unless it is what Iraq did with its own money after they received it from the Fed, what would the movie be about even? Iraq requests it’s money and receives it is a pretty boring plot

Re: How the government set up a fake bank to launder drug money (2012)

#84

Post by quickthrowman »

elefanten wrote: post #57
kayodelycaon wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of decriminalizing personal amounts of drugs is to change police behavior because they are doing more harm than good in this area. You want to arrest the people who are dealing drugs or causing other crimes, not permanently ruining the lives of people who are doing no harm to society.

It's not strictly true that they do no harm to society. A lot of deeply addicted people are still objectively a blight on their surroundings, even if you view it as a health issue that calls for help rather than a moral issue that calls for punishment. Let's not underplay that damage drugs and addicts do. They're not the source of the problem, they shouldn't be the focus of the solution but let's be honest.

Prosecute the addicts for the crimes they commit instead of criminalizing addiction.

Re: How the government set up a fake bank to launder drug money (2012)

#85

Post by [deleted] »

quickthrowman wrote: post #83
TacticalCoder wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everyone is surprised to find the government does shady stuff, but many of these operations are even acknowledged like Iran-Contra where the government sold arms to the embargoed Khomeini government to generate black money to fund the Contras. Another one, maybe the biggest known one, is when the US sent 12 bn to 14 bn in the form of 100 bills (yup, in bills) using a military plane to Iraq and these bills mostly al…

> However, evidence before the committee suggests that senior American officials were unconcerned about the situation because the billions were not US taxpayers' money. Paul Bremer, the head of the CPA, reminded the committee that "the subject of today's hearing is the CPA's use and accounting for funds belonging to the Iraqi people held in the so-called Development Fund for Iraq. These are not appropriated American…

[deleted]

Re: How the government set up a fake bank to launder drug money (2012)

#86

Post by rincebrain »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #40
Consultant32452 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s bold to assume the government even wants to nab the big guys. One example is fentanyl is killing us by the thousands every year. We know who the guy is who owns the factor that’s providing most of the fentanyl and precursors to the cartels. He lives in China and runs an also legit chemical factory. He commits the crime right in the main factory in the open. We politely asked China to arrest him, but they…

In response to the Fentanyl/heroin issue, State govs clamp down on legit opioid Rx, leaving Dr's too wary to Rx any effective pain meds at all. People in chronic pain now get to live their lives without any relief at all. They get ignored my news orgs who are obsessed with amplifying an opioid hysteria narrative. Go Gov.

I think it depends on your location and situation.

A couple months ago, I had minor (in absolute terms) surgery which resulted in a good deal of pain; the doctor asked if I wanted a prescription for opioids, I said yes, it was sent in, no further questions.

Am I saying people in chronic pain don't now have issues? No, I have no direct experience with that situation.

But it's still quite possible for people to get opioids sometimes.

Re: How the government set up a fake bank to launder drug money (2012)

#87

Post by rincebrain »

paulpauper wrote: post #59
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In response to the Fentanyl/heroin issue, State govs clamp down on legit opioid Rx, leaving Dr's too wary to Rx any effective pain meds at all. People in chronic pain now get to live their lives without any relief at all. They get ignored my news orgs who are obsessed with amplifying an opioid hysteria narrative. Go Gov.

Agree. The opiod epidemic is just the latest moral panic used to justify limitng people's rights.if you want to o.d., that's your right and your fault. OTC pain medication useless for serious chronic pain and a bigger ripoff than prescription drug companies. Opiods are safe when taken under doc guidelines. This notion that otc drugs are safe is wrong too: Otc drugs are known to cause liver and kidney problems too.

I agree with a bunch of your point, but I want to contest one thing - opioids are not necessarily safe by following your doctor's guidelines.

There's not (as far as I've found) currently any consistent threshold for how much of a given opioid you have to take for how long to develop an addiction. Some people might be able to take a high dose for an extended interval and not blink. Some people might take a much lower dose and have a very bad time indeed. (For that matter, I've known some people who got IV opioids with no effect. Biochemistry is wild.)

So I don't think it's reasonable to argue "opioids are safe if you follow the guidelines" and "OTC pain meds are unsafe [if you ignore the guidelines]" - both have risks that you can try to mitigate by following the guidelines given, but unknown factors can result in it still having negative outcomes.

Re: How the government set up a fake bank to launder drug money (2012)

#88

Post by gscott »

croes wrote: post #76
Quenty wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From another perspective, consider it probably did not cost $90 million to execute this plan. So overall, this is a net profit, and most likely cost effective.

Was the plan to make profit or to reduce drug trafficking? Maybe they should reevaluate their goals.

The agency that seizes the money gets to keep it.

This person had his motel all paid off. So the Government decided to size it because they could sell it. He fought them off, barely:

https://www.wbur.org/news/2012/11/14/tewksbury-motel-owner-f...

Re: How the government set up a fake bank to launder drug money (2012)

#89

Post by reillyse »

capitol_ wrote: post #32
542458 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“ It would only be entrapment if they were soliciting the illegal activity.” I’d like to note that this isn’t how entrapment works in the US (or many other places). If I’m an investigator, it is not entrapment for me to go to government employees and say “Hey, I’ll give you $100 in exchange for state secrets. You in?”. Covertly soliciting illegal activity to try to catch criminals is not entrapment. It only rises to…

This makes no sense to me, why is $100 different than a threat to the wife? Is it because the amount of money is too low?

Yes, if the money was higher, then it is entrapment. E.g. 100k for a secret. The question is “did the police agent catch a crime or cause a crime to happen” of course where it becomes entrapment is a grey area.

Re: How the government set up a fake bank to launder drug money (2012)

#90

Post by l33t2328 »

ljf wrote: post #69
guerrilla wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everyone is surprised to find the government does shady stuff I really don't understand how this is still possible with everyone having access to the Internet. They're pretty consistent [1]. It must be a bubble thing. 1. https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/us_atrociti...

Man that has taken my breath away. I'm pretty aware of how terrible the west can be (and how we can lie about it) but the sheer volume there is immense.

Why would you assume the west is perfect? This list contains things from the 1700’s. Any country will have a laundry list of atrocities if we start that far back.
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