WEBVTT 00:00:00.017 --> 00:00:03.737 So, there's a curious story coming out of Afghanistan recently. 00:00:04.177 --> 00:00:08.817 You see, back in the first two decades of this century, you might recall that 00:00:08.817 --> 00:00:11.237 the country was under NATO occupation. 00:00:11.537 --> 00:00:17.517 And during that time, Afghanistan set record after record for opium production. 00:00:17.917 --> 00:00:23.097 But then in 2021, the U.S. hightailed it out of there, the Taliban took back 00:00:23.097 --> 00:00:29.637 over, and wouldn't you know it, opium production in the country has fallen off a cliff. 00:00:30.417 --> 00:00:33.457 Funny that, but don't think about that too much. 00:00:33.697 --> 00:00:37.777 Heroin, that's yesterday's news. No, the new heroin is fentanyl, 00:00:37.877 --> 00:00:43.277 and fentanyl is coming from, let me check my notes, Venezuela? 00:00:44.317 --> 00:00:50.197 Yeah, haven't you heard? There's a new drug cartel in town, and the evil Venezuelan 00:00:50.197 --> 00:00:53.917 mafiosi are protecting them, so the US has got to go in them, 00:00:54.377 --> 00:00:56.237 love bomb them to smithereens. 00:00:56.997 --> 00:01:01.097 Of course, there's only two problems with that story. One is that the cartel 00:01:01.097 --> 00:01:04.717 in question, according to the Venezuelans, no longer exists. 00:01:05.017 --> 00:01:09.637 And two, the historical precedent for that cartel was funded by the CIA. 00:01:10.357 --> 00:01:17.117 Hmm, interesting. So here's the real question. Who really runs the global drug trade? 00:01:17.417 --> 00:01:21.597 Well, I'll give you one guess and we'll find out if you're right. Let's go. 00:01:32.249 --> 00:01:32.529 Report. 00:01:42.049 --> 00:01:45.129 Welcome back, friends. Welcome back to another edition of The Corbett Report. 00:01:45.429 --> 00:01:48.829 I'm your host, James Corbett of CorbettReport.com, coming to you, 00:01:48.969 --> 00:01:53.709 as always, from the sunny climes of Western Japan here in late November of 2025. 00:01:54.149 --> 00:02:01.449 With episode 487 of The Corbett Report podcast, podcast the CIA still ships in the drugs. 00:02:02.209 --> 00:02:08.429 And if the idea of the CIA shipping drugs is news to you then you have some catching up to do. 00:02:08.669 --> 00:02:12.329 But don't worry I have some resources to help you do just that. 00:02:12.569 --> 00:02:18.169 If you type CIA drugs into the search bar on CorbettReport.com you'll find a 00:02:18.169 --> 00:02:22.849 number of reports that I have filed about this documented phenomenon in the 00:02:22.849 --> 00:02:27.729 past including perhaps most notably episode 19 of the Corporate Report podcast, 00:02:27.989 --> 00:02:36.209 The CIA Ships in the Drugs, and a 2011 mini-documentary that I created on the CIA and the drug trade. 00:02:37.789 --> 00:02:43.229 From its very inception, the CIA has been embroiled in the murky underworld of drug trafficking. 00:02:43.769 --> 00:02:49.109 In the late 1940s, the CIA funneled arms and funds to the Corsican Mafia in 00:02:49.109 --> 00:02:52.689 return for their assistance in breaking up widespread labor strikes in France 00:02:52.689 --> 00:02:57.409 that were threatening to establish communist control over the old port of Marseille. 00:02:57.689 --> 00:03:02.749 The Corsican Crime Syndicate, in turn, used the CIA support to set up the trafficking 00:03:02.749 --> 00:03:06.689 network known as the French Connection, which saw heroin smuggled from Turkey 00:03:06.689 --> 00:03:11.189 to France and shipped to the U.S., feeding an American heroin epidemic. 00:03:12.534 --> 00:03:17.334 In Burma in 1950, the CIA regrouped the remnants of the Defeated Nationalist 00:03:17.334 --> 00:03:22.354 Chinese Army, or KMT, to start an invasion of southern China and draw Chinese 00:03:22.354 --> 00:03:23.914 troops away from the Korean front. 00:03:24.714 --> 00:03:28.894 Easily beaten back by Mao's forces, the KMT instead turned their attention to 00:03:28.894 --> 00:03:34.494 occupying Burma, imposing an opium tax on all farmers in the opium-rich Shan highlands. 00:03:35.154 --> 00:03:39.074 Members of the Burmese military claimed that the KMT opium was flown out to 00:03:39.074 --> 00:03:44.514 Thailand and Taiwan on the same unmarked C-47s that the CIA had used to supply 00:03:44.514 --> 00:03:45.774 the group in the first place. 00:03:46.654 --> 00:03:52.654 In the 1960s and early 1970s, the CIA recruited the Laotian Hmong tribe to fight 00:03:52.654 --> 00:03:54.094 communist forces in the region. 00:03:54.594 --> 00:03:56.494 The CIA encouraged the Hmong to 00:03:56.494 --> 00:04:00.794 grow opium instead of rice to make them dependent on CIA airdrops of food. 00:04:01.194 --> 00:04:05.554 The agency could then force their compliance by threatening to withdraw the food aid. 00:04:06.194 --> 00:04:11.634 To make the deal even sweeter, They even located a heroin refinery at CIA headquarters 00:04:11.634 --> 00:04:15.994 in northern Laos and used Air America, a passenger and cargo airline that was 00:04:15.994 --> 00:04:20.554 covertly owned and operated by the CIA, to export the Laotian opium and heroin. 00:04:21.154 --> 00:04:26.194 Much of it ended up in Vietnam, causing an epidemic of heroin addiction amongst U.S. soldiers. 00:04:27.820 --> 00:04:30.780 In the 1980s the locus of opium production shifted 00:04:30.780 --> 00:04:34.420 from the golden triangle where the cia was disengaging to 00:04:34.420 --> 00:04:37.820 the golden crescent where it was engaging with the afghan mujahideen 00:04:37.820 --> 00:04:44.500 in their cia funded struggle against the soviets once again that is just a small 00:04:44.500 --> 00:04:49.800 sampling of my 2011 mini documentary on the cia and the drug trade and i would 00:04:49.800 --> 00:04:54.700 wholeheartedly encourage you to go back and watch or re-watch that particular 00:04:54.700 --> 00:04:56.620 video for its many nuggets, 00:04:56.920 --> 00:05:01.580 including the Dateline report with the infamous, there are no conspiracies in 00:05:01.580 --> 00:05:02.760 this country, quotation, 00:05:03.060 --> 00:05:07.800 as well as a deep dive into the work of Gary Webb, but also an interview that 00:05:07.800 --> 00:05:10.560 I conducted at that time with Peter Dale Scott, 00:05:10.900 --> 00:05:16.280 deep politics pioneer Peter Dale Scott, on his work on oil. 00:05:16.640 --> 00:05:20.500 Drugs, and war, the United States in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina. 00:05:20.620 --> 00:05:26.040 And I also go on to document the phenomenon of all of these CIA drug planes 00:05:26.040 --> 00:05:32.340 that keep crashing all over the place, specifically earlier in the early 2000s. 00:05:32.440 --> 00:05:39.260 I talk, for example, about the 2004 incident involving a Beechcraft King Air 200, 00:05:39.260 --> 00:05:45.780 which happened to be carrying 1,100 kilos of cocaine and was owned by a CIA 00:05:45.780 --> 00:05:50.700 shell company with a tail number that was registered to a CIA aircraft. 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:54.220 Interesting how that happens and how it happened again in 2007, 00:05:54.380 --> 00:06:00.780 the 2007 Yucatan Gulfstream drug crash, in which a CIA-connected Gulfstream 00:06:00.780 --> 00:06:03.980 2 crashed in the Mexican jungle, carrying, 00:06:04.280 --> 00:06:09.060 was it 3 or 6.3, somewhere in there, tons of cocaine. 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:16.100 Again, interesting. Or the 2009 report of the Cessna 402C that was seized near 00:06:16.100 --> 00:06:17.760 Carrepa, Colombia, that was 00:06:17.760 --> 00:06:23.260 carrying 805 kilos of cocaine and you better believe was sporting a U.S. 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:28.260 Tail number and FAA registration history that connected it to a number of other 00:06:28.260 --> 00:06:32.160 cocaine planes that have apparent links to covert U.S. 00:06:32.580 --> 00:06:36.240 Intelligence operations focused at least in part on Venezuela and the government 00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:39.580 of, at that time, Hugo Chavez. put a pin in that. 00:06:39.720 --> 00:06:43.880 We'll come back to that in a little while, but let's continue this exploration. 00:06:44.020 --> 00:06:47.740 If all of that isn't enough, you could, again, look at some of my other work on this subject. 00:06:47.880 --> 00:06:53.720 For example, my 2013 report on Chile contra the CIA's Latin American scandal, 00:06:53.960 --> 00:06:58.980 in which I document Craig Murray's 2012 report on how the CIA was using drug 00:06:58.980 --> 00:07:03.360 money to fund the opposition to President Korea in Chile. 00:07:04.040 --> 00:07:08.600 And you can also check out my 2017 edition of New World Next Week with James 00:07:08.600 --> 00:07:14.740 Impalato of MediaMonarchy.com, in which we discussed the fact that Pablo Escobar's 00:07:14.740 --> 00:07:18.260 son has gone out on the record alleging that his father worked for the CIA. 00:07:18.740 --> 00:07:22.320 So make of all of that information what you will. But yes, suffice it to say, 00:07:22.440 --> 00:07:23.540 there's a lot of history there. 00:07:23.880 --> 00:07:28.280 But it isn't just history. As I talked about in the opening to this podcast, 00:07:28.540 --> 00:07:31.920 yes, It turns out the Taliban has done it again. 00:07:32.220 --> 00:07:35.660 Well, what have they done again? For the details on that, I will ask you to 00:07:35.660 --> 00:07:40.980 consult one of my recent newsletters that I published earlier this month on 00:07:40.980 --> 00:07:42.520 The Taliban Does It Again. 00:07:42.640 --> 00:07:46.860 And of course, it is up at CorbettReport.com for subscribers who log in. 00:07:46.960 --> 00:07:49.580 But if you are not a paid subscriber, you can get it, of course, 00:07:49.760 --> 00:07:54.420 as always, for free from my sub stack, CorbettReport.substack.com. 00:07:54.960 --> 00:07:59.560 And when and if you do, you'll find this story. The United Nations Office on 00:07:59.560 --> 00:08:04.400 Drugs and Crime, UNODC, just came out with their latest survey of opium poppy 00:08:04.400 --> 00:08:07.820 cultivation in Afghanistan, and you'll never guess what it says. 00:08:08.430 --> 00:08:12.410 Oh wait, you totally will. It turns out the Taliban's ban on poppy cultivation 00:08:12.410 --> 00:08:14.750 has been remarkably successful. 00:08:15.430 --> 00:08:20.470 Specifically, the UNODC is estimating the total area in Afghanistan under opium 00:08:20.470 --> 00:08:28.350 poppy cultivation to be 10,200 hectares, down 20% from last year's total of 12,800 hectares. 00:08:28.630 --> 00:08:32.930 While the new total may still sound like a lot, it's a mere fraction of the 00:08:32.930 --> 00:08:38.870 232,000 hectares that were estimated to be cultivated in the year before the U.S. 00:08:39.290 --> 00:08:42.470 Military's spectacular pullout from the country in 2021. 00:08:43.050 --> 00:08:48.930 In other words, the Taliban have somehow or other succeeded in doing what NATO 00:08:48.930 --> 00:08:55.750 was unable to do in two decades of de facto occupation, namely decimate Afghanistan's 00:08:55.750 --> 00:08:57.930 share of the global heroin trade. 00:08:58.590 --> 00:09:02.150 And if you continue reading through this document, you will find all of the 00:09:02.150 --> 00:09:08.150 various links to all of the sort of details of this story of the Afghan opium 00:09:08.150 --> 00:09:11.570 poppy cultivation and the resulting heroin trade. 00:09:11.750 --> 00:09:15.410 But the long story short really is contained in this handy dandy graph, 00:09:15.570 --> 00:09:20.250 which comes from UNODC numbers, in which you can visibly see there were people fretting. 00:09:20.370 --> 00:09:24.810 In fact, the UNODC issued a warning back in 1999 about the record opium cultivation 00:09:24.810 --> 00:09:30.110 that was taking place at that time in the country. but it fell off a cliff in 2001. 00:09:30.570 --> 00:09:35.330 Why specifically in 2001? Oh, that's right, because that is when the Taliban 00:09:35.330 --> 00:09:40.570 eventually seized power in the war-torn, war-ravaged country. 00:09:40.730 --> 00:09:44.390 Where did that war come from? Oh, that's right. Operation Cyclones, 00:09:44.610 --> 00:09:48.690 big new Brzezinski will go in to give the Soviets their Vietnam, 00:09:49.070 --> 00:09:53.990 all of that stuff, the billions of dollars in what was then at least the the 00:09:53.990 --> 00:09:59.070 largest acknowledged covert CIA operation in CIA history to destabilize Afghanistan, 00:09:59.070 --> 00:10:01.510 leading to decades of civil war and strife, 00:10:01.690 --> 00:10:06.070 the resistance and the Taliban and all of these people fighting with each other. 00:10:06.210 --> 00:10:11.210 Well, the Taliban seized power in the late 1990s, early 2000s, 00:10:11.410 --> 00:10:19.290 and instituted the opium cultivation ban, resulting in a record low amount of cultivation in 2001. 00:10:19.917 --> 00:10:25.457 Which then spiked immediately thereafter, not only exceeding the previous record 00:10:25.457 --> 00:10:30.117 amounts of opium cultivation, but far exceeding, hitting record after record, 00:10:30.337 --> 00:10:35.557 incredible amounts of opium being produced with estimates of upwards over 90% 00:10:35.557 --> 00:10:40.637 of the global heroin supply in this time period coming from Afghanistan. Why? 00:10:40.817 --> 00:10:43.677 What changed between 2001 and 2021? 00:10:43.917 --> 00:10:47.017 Oh, that's right. Of course, the invasion and occupation. 00:10:47.317 --> 00:10:54.497 In other words, NATO troops oversaw the cultivation of the opium in Afghanistan. 00:10:54.817 --> 00:11:00.257 And again, this isn't conspiracy theory. No, there were primetime news reports about this. 00:11:00.397 --> 00:11:03.997 Does anyone remember Geraldo Rivera interviewing U.S. 00:11:04.157 --> 00:11:07.557 Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Brian Christmas in Afghanistan, 00:11:07.557 --> 00:11:09.397 talking about how it grinds his gut, 00:11:09.557 --> 00:11:12.417 but they've got to let these farmers do their do their farming 00:11:12.417 --> 00:11:15.197 and they were here to look after them and make sure 00:11:15.197 --> 00:11:17.977 the opium gets cultivated essentially they don't quite 00:11:17.977 --> 00:11:21.117 say that but that is exactly what happened so why 00:11:21.117 --> 00:11:24.157 is this well of course it's because it was never 00:11:24.157 --> 00:11:30.217 about ending the drug trade that is not what the u.s or nato or the uh the empire's 00:11:30.217 --> 00:11:34.217 allies have ever been about no they have been about facilitating that drug trade 00:11:34.217 --> 00:11:39.257 case in point say the golden triangle and the years of what was the vietnam 00:11:39.257 --> 00:11:42.217 more at least partially about what was really happening there. 00:11:42.677 --> 00:11:45.837 Air America and all of that, of course, they were running the drugs. 00:11:46.077 --> 00:11:48.417 And again, this is a well-documented phenomenon. 00:11:48.697 --> 00:11:52.977 But the fact that this was not ever about ending the drug trade, 00:11:52.977 --> 00:11:55.077 well, as I go on to say in this report, 00:11:55.217 --> 00:11:59.597 perhaps no better demonstration of that fact that this was not about ending 00:11:59.597 --> 00:12:03.497 the drug trade is to be found than the way in which the deep state's mockingbird 00:12:03.497 --> 00:12:07.317 mouthpieces have reported on the joyous news that a major global supplier of 00:12:07.317 --> 00:12:09.357 heroin has been removed from the equation. 00:12:09.697 --> 00:12:13.417 So William Byrd of Lawfare Media Limits, the Taliban's drug ban, 00:12:13.657 --> 00:12:17.697 remarkably successful in curbing opium poppy cultivation for three years in 00:12:17.697 --> 00:12:22.237 a row, has devastated poor rural households that depended on opium to make ends meet. 00:12:23.032 --> 00:12:26.992 Rupert Stone of Nikkei Asia, meanwhile, informs us that this successful poppy 00:12:26.992 --> 00:12:31.952 crackdown in Afghanistan is actually expanding the narcotics trade somehow. 00:12:32.452 --> 00:12:36.312 And not to be outdone, the crack journalists at the Washington Democracy Dies 00:12:36.312 --> 00:12:41.112 in Darkness Post, the Bezos Post, have discovered the decline in poppy cultivation 00:12:41.112 --> 00:12:43.552 might not be the doing of the Taliban after all. 00:12:43.732 --> 00:12:47.312 So who was behind it? Well, if you follow that link, you'll find their story, 00:12:47.652 --> 00:12:51.432 their super secret story from the super secret sources that they dug up that 00:12:51.432 --> 00:12:57.812 actually there was this big elaborate CIA plot to ruin the opium poppy cultivation 00:12:57.812 --> 00:13:03.172 in the country in from about 2004 to 2015, something in that time frame. 00:13:03.632 --> 00:13:06.432 Exactly when it was hitting record high after record high. 00:13:06.612 --> 00:13:10.592 Yeah, sure. Washington Post. Anyway, I refute that with some real facts, 00:13:10.752 --> 00:13:14.332 like, of course, citing the seminal work on the subject Alfred W. 00:13:14.472 --> 00:13:18.892 McCoy's The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, talking about how the CIA shipped in the drugs. 00:13:19.952 --> 00:13:23.712 But all of that leads to an interesting phenomenon. Afghanistan, 00:13:24.092 --> 00:13:27.532 opium, heroin, that is so last decade. Who cares? Whatever. 00:13:27.872 --> 00:13:34.092 No, now, now it's all about fentanyl. And we know where the fentanyl is coming from, don't we, guys? 00:13:35.852 --> 00:13:39.752 Tonight, the U.S. has formally marked Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro and 00:13:39.752 --> 00:13:42.952 his government allies as members of a foreign terrorist organization, 00:13:43.132 --> 00:13:46.672 accusing Cartel de los Soles of trafficking drugs into the states. 00:13:47.092 --> 00:13:50.832 On social media, South Florida Representative Maria Salazar said the Cartel 00:13:50.832 --> 00:13:53.692 of the Sons is officially recognized as a terrorist organization, 00:13:53.972 --> 00:13:56.292 exactly what Venezuelans have known for years. 00:13:56.452 --> 00:14:00.652 Adding, for too long, the Maduro regime has financed narco-terrorism and tyranny 00:14:00.652 --> 00:14:02.432 in Venezuela and throughout our hemisphere. 00:14:03.515 --> 00:14:09.135 Tonight, the Pentagon releasing this video of a deadly military airstrike on 00:14:09.135 --> 00:14:13.895 what officials say, without providing evidence, was a drug boat attempting to 00:14:13.895 --> 00:14:16.255 smuggle narcotics into the U.S. 00:14:16.395 --> 00:14:21.815 The massive explosion, sending debris raining down in international waters just 00:14:21.815 --> 00:14:25.675 off the coast of Venezuela, flames shooting from the vessel. 00:14:25.975 --> 00:14:30.655 The U.S. says four people were killed. The president has directed these actions, 00:14:30.835 --> 00:14:33.975 these strikes against Venezuelan drug cartels in these boats, 00:14:34.335 --> 00:14:38.475 consistent with his responsibility to protect the United States' interests abroad. 00:14:38.675 --> 00:14:42.775 Secretary Pete Hegseth saying our intelligence, without a doubt, 00:14:43.055 --> 00:14:45.875 confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics. 00:14:46.015 --> 00:14:48.695 The people on board were narco-terrorists. 00:14:49.195 --> 00:14:53.555 Today's strike is the fourth known U.S. attack on suspected Venezuelan drug 00:14:53.555 --> 00:14:55.395 boats since early September. 00:14:55.675 --> 00:14:59.735 We have proof. All you have to do is look at the cargo. There was like it spattered 00:14:59.735 --> 00:15:04.835 all over the ocean, and big bags of cocaine and fentanyl all over the place. 00:15:05.135 --> 00:15:10.235 Is it about stopping narcotics, or is this about getting rid of President Maduro? 00:15:10.435 --> 00:15:12.755 No, this is about many things. 00:15:13.115 --> 00:15:18.335 On Venezuela in particular, are Maduro's days as president numbered? 00:15:18.395 --> 00:15:19.955 I would say, yeah, I think so, yeah. 00:15:21.699 --> 00:15:26.819 Oh, that's right. Haven't you heard? Yes, Venezuela is the new Afghanistan, 00:15:27.219 --> 00:15:32.299 i.e. the supplier of the world's deadliest chemical weapons, by which I mean drugs. 00:15:32.579 --> 00:15:38.619 So let's see how we piece this puzzle together exactly. And let's take a look at the good old U.S. 00:15:39.019 --> 00:15:43.159 Department of State website where we can get this press release from earlier 00:15:43.159 --> 00:15:49.059 this month from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, terrorist designations of Cartel de los Soles. 00:15:49.059 --> 00:15:53.579 The Department of State intends to designate Cartel de los Soles as a foreign 00:15:53.579 --> 00:15:57.479 terrorist organization, an FTO, if you want to be up on the lingo, 00:15:57.919 --> 00:16:00.239 effective November 24th, 2025. 00:16:00.959 --> 00:16:05.679 Based in Venezuela, the Cartel de los Soles is headed by Nicolas Maduro and 00:16:05.679 --> 00:16:09.179 other high-ranking individuals of the illegitimate Maduro regime, 00:16:09.319 --> 00:16:13.259 to be named later, who have corrupted Venezuela's military, intelligence, 00:16:13.479 --> 00:16:14.859 legislature, and judiciary. 00:16:15.539 --> 00:16:21.239 Neither Maduro nor his cronies represent Venezuela's legitimate government, 00:16:21.239 --> 00:16:24.559 because, as you know from the recent edition of Solutions Watch, 00:16:24.679 --> 00:16:27.259 it always comes back down to the legitimacy, doesn't it? 00:16:27.359 --> 00:16:32.679 But they're happy to delegitimate those particular governments that are in the 00:16:32.679 --> 00:16:33.819 State Department's crosshairs. 00:16:33.879 --> 00:16:37.519 And what better way to do so than by saying, hey, the leader and whoever else 00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:40.359 we say is part of a drug ring. Trust us, guys. 00:16:40.819 --> 00:16:44.919 Anyway, of course, it ends with the important part here. The United States will 00:16:44.919 --> 00:16:49.319 continue using all available tools to protect our national security interests 00:16:49.319 --> 00:16:52.959 and deny funding and resources to narco-terrorists. 00:16:53.079 --> 00:16:57.819 So what is this? What on earth terrorist designation of Cartel de los Soles? 00:16:57.899 --> 00:16:59.679 And what who is this? What does it mean? 00:16:59.899 --> 00:17:03.219 Well, this is a story that the seeds of which were planted years ago, 00:17:03.379 --> 00:17:04.579 although you may not have seen it. 00:17:05.208 --> 00:17:09.188 Maybe you were paying attention. You saw, for example, the Miami Herald reporting 00:17:09.188 --> 00:17:15.508 breathlessly on huge cyber leak offers new proof of how Maduro has turned Venezuela 00:17:15.508 --> 00:17:18.748 into a narco state from back in 2023. 00:17:19.528 --> 00:17:26.568 And you know how the hyperventilators of the Mockingbird media love to mock 00:17:26.568 --> 00:17:29.268 and make fun of the conspiracy realists. 00:17:29.388 --> 00:17:33.228 Oh, they're all a bunch of crazed tinfoil hatters with their crazy cork boards 00:17:33.228 --> 00:17:37.648 filled with pictures of various people and bits of string connecting it all. 00:17:37.808 --> 00:17:41.768 Oh, those crazy conspiracy theories. Well, this is the kind of conspiracy theory 00:17:41.768 --> 00:17:43.368 that the mainstream loves. 00:17:43.728 --> 00:17:46.968 Here we have a conspiracy theory about an enemy of the U.S. 00:17:47.048 --> 00:17:51.148 State Department. So, of course, it's OK, exactly in the same way that any conspiracy 00:17:51.148 --> 00:17:55.708 theory you wanted to come up with about, say, Assad in Syria back in the 2010s, 00:17:55.988 --> 00:17:59.168 anything you wanted to say about what kind of crazy stuff he was doing, 00:17:59.268 --> 00:18:01.828 of course, he's gassing and killing his own citizens wantonly. 00:18:01.828 --> 00:18:03.728 Of course, he's doing that because he's a monster. 00:18:04.308 --> 00:18:08.768 Whatever. In this case, well, of course, yes, there's this gigantic cartel that's 00:18:08.768 --> 00:18:12.788 operating within the Venezuelan government as narco-terrorists. 00:18:12.828 --> 00:18:16.548 And now we can designate them as narco-terrorists and put a big bullseye on their head, right? 00:18:17.108 --> 00:18:19.968 Well, anyway, this comes from the Miami Herald reporting of 2023, 00:18:19.968 --> 00:18:25.808 where they report on a leak of documents from the Colombian prosecutor's office. Okay. 00:18:26.628 --> 00:18:30.448 Which, you know, bada bing, bada boom. The result, Venezuela is now a major 00:18:30.448 --> 00:18:34.608 cocaine transport hub, shipping between 250 and 350 metric tons per year, 00:18:34.748 --> 00:18:38.288 with a street value of between $6.25 billion and $8.75 billion, 00:18:38.968 --> 00:18:40.388 much of it bound for the US. 00:18:41.188 --> 00:18:46.688 And of course, you know, the trend in drug running from Venezuela has not gotten 00:18:46.688 --> 00:18:47.648 unnoticed in Washington. 00:18:47.848 --> 00:18:50.008 Wow, they're paying attention here. I wonder why. 00:18:50.488 --> 00:18:53.228 Of course, it was unnoticed in Afghanistan for 20 years. 00:18:53.388 --> 00:18:57.828 But boy, if it's Venezuela that may be running drugs, well, Washington's all 00:18:57.828 --> 00:18:59.348 over that, like white on rice. 00:18:59.688 --> 00:19:03.028 Three years ago, as in in the first Trump administration. 00:19:03.108 --> 00:19:08.608 Remember, this is an article from 2023. So they're talking about 2020 under Trump one. 00:19:09.376 --> 00:19:13.516 The Department of Justice filed charges against top Maduro regime officials, 00:19:13.736 --> 00:19:17.876 accusing them of heading up the Cartel de los Soles, the Cartel of the Suns, 00:19:18.176 --> 00:19:22.476 so named because of the Sun insignia worn by Venezuelan generals. 00:19:22.896 --> 00:19:28.456 But some harbored suspicions that the charges, which have not led to arrests of those at the very top, 00:19:28.656 --> 00:19:32.576 were done for political effect, especially given that the administration of 00:19:32.576 --> 00:19:36.816 President Donald Trump had rejected Maduro's legitimacy, there's that word again, 00:19:36.816 --> 00:19:40.796 instead recognizing opposition leader Juan Guaido. 00:19:41.416 --> 00:19:45.976 And for people who don't remember the Juan Guaido nonsense, I will throw in 00:19:45.976 --> 00:19:48.176 a link to the conversation that 00:19:48.176 --> 00:19:54.056 I had with Daniel McAdams of the Ron Paul Institute way back at that time. 00:19:54.356 --> 00:19:59.456 The absolute joke of a farce of this opposition leader who no one in Venezuela 00:19:59.456 --> 00:20:03.576 took seriously, who was the real legitimate government according to the Trump administration. 00:20:04.096 --> 00:20:09.616 Anyway, yeah, that story. So don't worry, guys, though, that this isn't a conspiracy theory. 00:20:09.736 --> 00:20:13.016 This isn't some non-existent cartel. This is a real deal thing. 00:20:13.036 --> 00:20:16.456 And these leaked documents from the Colombian prosecutor's office. 00:20:17.334 --> 00:20:20.074 Apparently demonstrate that. Well, of course, the link will be here for you 00:20:20.074 --> 00:20:23.034 to peruse that information at your leisure. 00:20:23.194 --> 00:20:27.494 But fast forwarding back to 2025, what does Venezuela have to say about it? 00:20:27.594 --> 00:20:32.794 Well, Venezuela says Trump has designated the non-existent drug cartel as a 00:20:32.794 --> 00:20:36.914 terrorist organization and U.S. covert ops are believed imminent. 00:20:37.194 --> 00:20:41.094 So this reports that Venezuela has hit back against these charges, 00:20:41.734 --> 00:20:45.634 rejecting the label and going so far as to call the group, the cartel of the 00:20:45.634 --> 00:20:51.694 sons as non-existent Venezuela categorically firmly and absolutely rejects the 00:20:51.694 --> 00:20:54.894 new and ridiculous fabrication by the secretary of the U.S. 00:20:55.214 --> 00:20:59.994 Department of State Marco Rubio which designates the non-existent cartel de 00:20:59.994 --> 00:21:04.614 los soles as a terrorist organization said Venezuelan foreign minister Ivan 00:21:04.614 --> 00:21:09.774 Gill on his telegram account Caracas is dismissing it as an absurd lie. 00:21:10.853 --> 00:21:14.593 End quote. Well, of course, of course they would. What else would they say? 00:21:14.693 --> 00:21:17.973 But it does raise the question, why now? And why in this way? 00:21:18.353 --> 00:21:22.593 And Marco terrorism, that seems like an odd angle to be taking on all of this. 00:21:22.713 --> 00:21:27.273 Why? What is happening here? Oh, well, maybe so we have some idea of that when 00:21:27.273 --> 00:21:28.393 we put it in this context. 00:21:28.593 --> 00:21:32.233 President Maduro has lately compared the situation to the U.S. 00:21:32.333 --> 00:21:37.313 Invasion of Iraq, well known to have been launched on false claims about weapons of mass destruction. 00:21:37.533 --> 00:21:42.493 He accused Washington of crafting a bizarre narrative since it cannot accuse 00:21:42.493 --> 00:21:45.013 Venezuela of hiding chemical or biological weapons. 00:21:45.573 --> 00:21:50.093 But the U.S. has lately linked fentanyl trafficking with chemical weapons, 00:21:50.273 --> 00:21:54.033 given the substances technically classified as a dangerous chemical substance. 00:21:54.373 --> 00:21:59.213 Yeah, sure. Chemical weapon. Why not? Those words, as we know, 00:21:59.393 --> 00:22:04.373 are the magic words to invade a country for free, exactly as happened in Iraq. 00:22:04.593 --> 00:22:10.613 And yeah, WMD 2.0, exactly as in the lead up to the war in Iraq. 00:22:10.893 --> 00:22:16.433 Isn't it funny to think back at that time in 2002, when Bush and Blair were 00:22:16.433 --> 00:22:22.393 getting up and beginning their full court press to begin prepping the public 00:22:22.393 --> 00:22:23.493 for the invasion of Iraq. 00:22:23.873 --> 00:22:27.393 And of course, they were doing the spectacle of calling on Saddam to disarm, 00:22:27.393 --> 00:22:31.653 disarm immediately, unless you completely and utterly disarm your weapons of 00:22:31.653 --> 00:22:33.433 mass destruction, we are going to invade. 00:22:33.873 --> 00:22:36.933 Giving all sorts of ultimatums along the way, which, of course, 00:22:37.173 --> 00:22:40.753 they knew, and anyone who had their head screwed on straight knew, 00:22:40.993 --> 00:22:47.873 but now everyone knows, was a total and utter farce, because what was Saddam supposed to disarm? 00:22:47.973 --> 00:22:50.713 We now know he did not have those weapons of mass destruction, 00:22:50.713 --> 00:22:55.273 so what exactly was he supposed to do in those months when Bush and Blair were 00:22:55.273 --> 00:22:57.373 making their case for war in Iraq. 00:22:57.493 --> 00:23:01.233 Of course, there was nothing he could do because the decision had already been 00:23:01.233 --> 00:23:02.573 made, as we already know. 00:23:02.813 --> 00:23:05.293 And we know about the Downing Street memo and all of that. 00:23:05.731 --> 00:23:10.051 That sort of false flag op stuff that was floating around in the Washington 00:23:10.051 --> 00:23:13.491 circles as they were trying to decide how best to get into Iraq. 00:23:13.651 --> 00:23:20.011 Well, here it is again, WMD 2.0, disarm, divest yourself of all this cocaine 00:23:20.011 --> 00:23:21.971 that we know is going on on these boats. 00:23:22.111 --> 00:23:26.431 And how do we know? Well, you know, we blew them up. They must have been having cocaine. 00:23:27.491 --> 00:23:33.391 All right. So is this even an existing organization? Well, it's not just the 00:23:33.391 --> 00:23:36.691 Venezuelan government that is denying the existence of this cartel. 00:23:36.911 --> 00:23:41.891 There are others, and even mainstream sources are citing some of these people 00:23:41.891 --> 00:23:42.871 who are talking about this. 00:23:42.971 --> 00:23:49.391 For example, a former senior U.S. government official, speaking obviously anonymously 00:23:49.391 --> 00:23:53.331 here, said, Cartel de los Soles was a made-up name used to describe an ad hoc 00:23:53.331 --> 00:23:57.411 group of Venezuelan officials involved in the trafficking of drugs through Venezuela. 00:23:57.411 --> 00:24:01.531 It doesn't have the hierarchy or command and control structure of a traditional cartel. 00:24:01.771 --> 00:24:05.991 Hmm. Sounds a lot like the Al-CiA that was invented in the New York courtroom 00:24:05.991 --> 00:24:09.331 in order to prosecute bin Laden and his associates, right? 00:24:09.691 --> 00:24:14.051 The official said the Trump administration's assertions are based on bad intel, 00:24:14.251 --> 00:24:17.931 likely from the Defense Intelligence Agency or the Drug Enforcement Administration 00:24:17.931 --> 00:24:21.371 that doesn't stand up to scrutiny before the greater intelligence community 00:24:21.371 --> 00:24:24.131 or that it is purely political. Okay. 00:24:24.608 --> 00:24:28.008 And there are others. Phil Gunson, a researcher with the International Crisis 00:24:28.008 --> 00:24:31.368 Group, says the Cartel de los Soles per se doesn't exist. 00:24:31.588 --> 00:24:35.268 It's a journalistic expression created to refer to the involvement of Venezuelan 00:24:35.268 --> 00:24:38.848 authorities in drug trafficking. So it's getting vaguer and vaguer, 00:24:38.968 --> 00:24:42.888 which kind of puts that initial press release into perspective, doesn't it? 00:24:43.008 --> 00:24:46.568 Terrorist designation of Cartel de los Soles, which, you know, 00:24:46.608 --> 00:24:49.108 doesn't actually exist. It's not really a thing. 00:24:49.228 --> 00:24:51.668 It's just something we've kind of made up. It's a label we've applied. 00:24:51.668 --> 00:24:57.548 But what was the time frame in which they're talking about this name, 00:24:57.688 --> 00:24:59.108 this particular name emerging? 00:24:59.308 --> 00:25:04.748 Oh, in the 1990s, after Venezuelan generals and commanders who wore sun insignias 00:25:04.748 --> 00:25:06.608 on their epaulets, hence Cartel 00:25:06.608 --> 00:25:10.588 of the Suns, were investigated for drug trafficking and related crimes. 00:25:10.588 --> 00:25:16.188 And what did we find from those investigations? Oh, that's right. 00:25:16.388 --> 00:25:22.388 Who was helping, actively aiding the Venezuela National Guard at that time in 00:25:22.388 --> 00:25:25.028 the 1990s to traffic drugs? 00:25:26.068 --> 00:25:29.188 Any guesses? Yeah, it was the CIA. 00:25:29.448 --> 00:25:33.088 And don't take it from conspiracy realist James Corbett. 00:25:33.308 --> 00:25:37.628 Take it from those wackadoodles over at 60 Minutes. 00:25:39.108 --> 00:25:44.668 A ton of cocaine, pure cocaine worth hundreds of millions, is smuggled into the United States. 00:25:44.968 --> 00:25:48.308 Sound familiar? Not the way this ton of cocaine got here. 00:25:48.728 --> 00:25:52.268 According to what the former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration told 00:25:52.268 --> 00:25:57.088 Mike Wallace, this drug shipment got here courtesy of what he calls drug trafficking 00:25:57.088 --> 00:26:01.008 by the CIA in partnership with the Venezuelan National Guard. 00:26:01.228 --> 00:26:05.148 And what reason did the CIA have for promoting this drug smuggling? 00:26:05.148 --> 00:26:09.728 Well, the only rationale that's ever been offered is that this would lead to 00:26:09.728 --> 00:26:14.608 some valuable drug intelligence about the Colombian cartels. 00:26:14.748 --> 00:26:19.428 The CIA and the Guardia Nacional wanted to let cocaine go on into the traffic. 00:26:20.324 --> 00:26:23.884 Without doing anything. They wanted to let it come up to the United States, 00:26:24.104 --> 00:26:26.464 no surveillance, no nothing. 00:26:26.764 --> 00:26:29.704 In other words, you weren't going to stop them in Miami or Houston or wherever. 00:26:31.004 --> 00:26:34.204 These drugs were simply going to go to the United States and then go into the 00:26:34.204 --> 00:26:38.264 traffic and eventually reach the streets. That's what they wanted to do, yes. 00:26:38.764 --> 00:26:43.444 And we had very, very lengthy discussions. I told them what the U.S. 00:26:43.484 --> 00:26:46.924 Law was and the fact that we could not do this. 00:26:47.064 --> 00:26:50.044 So here you got Jim Campbell chief of station who knows about this. 00:26:50.324 --> 00:26:56.584 Mark McFarlane, CIA officer, knows about this and are stimulating this business 00:26:56.584 --> 00:27:01.024 of sending what are uncontrolled deliveries of drugs, smuggling drugs into the 00:27:01.024 --> 00:27:02.684 United States, right? Right. 00:27:04.684 --> 00:27:10.324 Yes, exactly as that looked. That was indeed a 60 Minutes report from 1993, 00:27:10.404 --> 00:27:14.884 and not just any 60 Minutes report, but one that was produced by Lowell Bergman, 00:27:15.291 --> 00:27:20.431 of course, you know, of the insider fame portrayed by Russell Crowe. Am I getting that right? 00:27:20.791 --> 00:27:28.351 And also a Peabody award-winning report on how the CIA was credibly accused, 00:27:28.631 --> 00:27:33.531 shall we say, at the very least, of facilitating the drug running of the Venezuelan 00:27:33.531 --> 00:27:36.071 National Guard in the 1990s. 00:27:36.071 --> 00:27:40.871 If there was a cartel of the suns, or if there ever was, the CIA created it 00:27:40.871 --> 00:27:43.851 or fostered it or actively facilitated it. 00:27:43.991 --> 00:27:47.431 Now, I would wholeheartedly exhort you to go and watch that full report, 00:27:47.591 --> 00:27:51.411 which has a lot more details on that operation and what the CIA says it was 00:27:51.411 --> 00:27:55.231 doing and what the various accusers, including the former head of the DEA, 00:27:55.411 --> 00:27:58.811 said the CIA was doing and all of the illegality and shenanigans. 00:27:59.151 --> 00:28:03.891 But hopefully at this point in our exploration, you won't be too surprised to 00:28:03.891 --> 00:28:07.631 learn, wow, the CIA actively aiding drug running? 00:28:07.971 --> 00:28:12.251 Never. Well, actually, a lot. In fact, throughout their history, 00:28:12.251 --> 00:28:14.511 as we have documented here today. 00:28:14.931 --> 00:28:19.651 So again, people can go and follow that particular show note link in the show 00:28:19.651 --> 00:28:24.751 notes at CorbettReport.com to the CIA's cocaine, that 1993 60 Minutes report, 00:28:24.971 --> 00:28:27.231 which talked about this decades ago. 00:28:27.231 --> 00:28:33.591 And here we are today where that that exact activity that the CIA was collaborating, 00:28:33.771 --> 00:28:37.771 colluding, actively facilitating back in the 1990s is now being weaponized, 00:28:38.111 --> 00:28:43.951 demonized so that it can be weaponized against a particular Venezuelan leader that the U.S. 00:28:44.211 --> 00:28:48.311 State Department would like out of the way. And I think that is the insight 00:28:48.311 --> 00:28:52.811 that we should probably be taking away from this, because what am I saying? What am I not saying? 00:28:52.991 --> 00:28:56.651 For the heart of thinking, let's set some things out on the table here. 00:28:56.651 --> 00:29:01.651 First of all, of course, what we have documented, what we have seen today does 00:29:01.651 --> 00:29:06.131 not mean that there is absolutely no drug trafficking that has ever occurred 00:29:06.131 --> 00:29:08.271 from Venezuela or anything of that sort. 00:29:08.471 --> 00:29:12.131 I think that would, of course, be naive in the opposite direction. 00:29:13.111 --> 00:29:15.271 But it also does not mean that. 00:29:15.634 --> 00:29:20.334 Because CIA bad, therefore Maduro good. And he's a brave and valiant freedom 00:29:20.334 --> 00:29:23.094 fighter on the side of free humanity or something. 00:29:23.274 --> 00:29:28.134 No, generally speaking, everyone at those levels is dirty in one way or another. 00:29:28.294 --> 00:29:33.534 So even if Maduro is not actively the leader of some mysterious cartel that may or may not exist, 00:29:33.774 --> 00:29:40.654 well, he certainly has presided over the continued brutal enforcement of his 00:29:40.654 --> 00:29:45.214 socialist regime on that country and inflicting his policies on Venezuela. 00:29:45.214 --> 00:29:50.854 So I, as an anarchist, I am not in favor of Maduro, just in case that needs to be put on the record. 00:29:51.034 --> 00:29:56.554 But again, we have to not fall into the easy binary trap of CIA bad, 00:29:56.674 --> 00:30:00.154 therefore Maduro good or any other such silly binary. 00:30:00.634 --> 00:30:04.714 But again, we should reflect on the fact that, yes, Venezuelan generals engaging 00:30:04.714 --> 00:30:10.414 in drug running were actively facilitated by the CIA, exactly in line with so 00:30:10.414 --> 00:30:15.574 many operations that we have seen in the past. And the question should be, well, why? 00:30:15.854 --> 00:30:20.594 Why are they doing this? Now, if you do go and watch that full 60 Minutes report, 00:30:20.754 --> 00:30:24.314 you'll see that the CIA was saying, well, we were allowing certain shipments 00:30:24.314 --> 00:30:27.034 to get through so that we could gain the trust of the various dealers so that 00:30:27.034 --> 00:30:28.854 we could go after Colombian drug runners. 00:30:29.334 --> 00:30:33.794 And it was all part of this grander operation. And you will also see the dismissal 00:30:33.794 --> 00:30:38.754 of one lower level, I believe, DEA agent in that particular report who was saying, 00:30:38.874 --> 00:30:44.174 if that's what the CIA thinks that the DEA should be doing in these cases, they're wrong. 00:30:44.334 --> 00:30:47.634 That is illegal. We should not be doing that. And senators and others coming 00:30:47.634 --> 00:30:50.194 out against the CIA in making that argument. 00:30:50.314 --> 00:30:54.174 But of course, I think that's the limited hangout argument. What is this really about? 00:30:54.394 --> 00:30:58.494 Well, as has been shown by Alfred McCoy and Peter Dale Scott and pioneering 00:30:58.494 --> 00:31:03.114 researchers like that in decades past, as well as researchers of today. 00:31:03.494 --> 00:31:07.654 Well, one of the primary concerns of this drug running and facilitating the 00:31:07.654 --> 00:31:09.334 drug trade, of course, is money. 00:31:09.837 --> 00:31:14.977 Cash, of course, as is used in the drug trade, which is very handy for black 00:31:14.977 --> 00:31:16.557 operations of various sorts. 00:31:16.817 --> 00:31:20.237 And of course, we can go back to things like Iran-Contra and of course, 00:31:20.437 --> 00:31:24.417 the drug running that we know that the CIA was involved in in that era because 00:31:24.417 --> 00:31:27.997 of the pioneering work of people like Gary Webb, 00:31:28.237 --> 00:31:33.517 may he rest in peace, who laid his life down for that reporting and who demonstrated, 00:31:33.737 --> 00:31:39.157 yes, the CIA was, again, actively facilitating the drug runners in situations like that, because, 00:31:39.537 --> 00:31:43.977 of course, it provides the money for the black ops, the cash that is laundered 00:31:43.977 --> 00:31:48.177 that can be wielded around the globe as necessary, and, of course, 00:31:48.317 --> 00:31:52.157 can fund contras of various sorts, i.e. 00:31:52.737 --> 00:31:57.597 Narco-terror gangs that can be used as convenient pieces on the chessboard to 00:31:57.597 --> 00:31:59.997 overthrow the various... 00:32:01.314 --> 00:32:05.594 Governments that the State Department once targeted. So exactly, 00:32:05.814 --> 00:32:11.914 for example, as I cited earlier, I did that report on Chilean Contra back in 00:32:11.914 --> 00:32:15.694 2012 when they wanted to get rid of Rafael Correa from Chile. 00:32:16.094 --> 00:32:20.874 Well, of course, you can use drug money and drug facilitation for that purpose. 00:32:21.074 --> 00:32:25.894 A secondary effect of drug running, why the CIA might be involved in it, 00:32:26.074 --> 00:32:29.954 exactly as we are seeing playing out today with WMD 2.0. 00:32:30.134 --> 00:32:36.034 The new chemical weapon threat is not nuclear or biological or whatever kind 00:32:36.034 --> 00:32:38.194 of made up terror that they're going to throw at Maduro. 00:32:38.354 --> 00:32:42.094 No, it's chemical weapons as in fentanyl, which is now a chemical weapon that 00:32:42.094 --> 00:32:44.394 must be attacked with the US military. 00:32:44.634 --> 00:32:48.734 So it's a way of building up the very thing that they can later go, 00:32:48.954 --> 00:32:50.574 see, look, they've got drugs. 00:32:50.574 --> 00:32:54.714 So we've got to go after them, which is a convenient way to once you've rounded 00:32:54.714 --> 00:32:58.514 up the whatever your particular piece of that is, then you can throw them, 00:32:58.754 --> 00:33:03.714 the other perpetrators out to dry and use that actually as a type of weaponized 00:33:03.714 --> 00:33:08.634 accusation that can then justify, in the minds of the public anyway, military action. 00:33:08.834 --> 00:33:12.354 And of course, the third effect and one that should not be discounted is the 00:33:12.354 --> 00:33:14.054 general destabilization of society. 00:33:14.234 --> 00:33:20.074 This is going back to the opium wars of way back when and the century of humiliation 00:33:20.074 --> 00:33:24.954 that China talks about that it went through as a result of having been essentially 00:33:24.954 --> 00:33:29.034 hooked on opium by the British East India Company and the various drug runners, 00:33:29.194 --> 00:33:31.594 including, of course, the progenitors of Skull and Bones. 00:33:32.254 --> 00:33:36.754 Those families that founded Skull and Bones were rich from the opium trade. 00:33:36.874 --> 00:33:38.314 That's how they made their fortune. 00:33:38.654 --> 00:33:43.074 And of course, what was the effect of that was to utterly destabilize Chinese 00:33:43.074 --> 00:33:49.634 society and make this once proud empire into a shadow of its former self that 00:33:49.634 --> 00:33:52.954 was basically the world's kicking boy for a number of, 00:33:53.074 --> 00:33:55.474 well, for a century of humiliation. So, 00:33:55.838 --> 00:33:59.578 So China and various East Asian countries have learned that lesson and have 00:33:59.578 --> 00:34:04.958 been very, very, very unbelievably strict on the drug trade since then because 00:34:04.958 --> 00:34:05.858 they've learned that lesson. 00:34:06.018 --> 00:34:08.878 And of course, that is what we are now expected to believe. Well, 00:34:08.938 --> 00:34:12.418 that's why China is engaging in this fentanyl war against the United States 00:34:12.418 --> 00:34:13.618 to destabilize society. 00:34:13.738 --> 00:34:17.578 Well, as it turns out, actually, the CIA was there way before China. 00:34:17.578 --> 00:34:22.918 And that, of course, was a part of the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s that 00:34:22.918 --> 00:34:29.178 was facilitated by that CIA drug run, or at least CIA facilitated cocaine into the U.S. 00:34:29.278 --> 00:34:32.438 In the 1980s that became the crack epidemic in Freeway, Ricky Ross, 00:34:32.558 --> 00:34:36.218 and all of that story that, again, Gary Webb and others have talked about and 00:34:36.218 --> 00:34:37.658 I've covered on this podcast before. 00:34:37.658 --> 00:34:41.658 So ultimately, if you want to destabilize and demoralize a society, 00:34:41.838 --> 00:34:48.418 you get it hooked on heroin, opium, fentanyl, whatever the drug of choice for the era is. 00:34:48.798 --> 00:34:56.158 And a country that is opiate, opiate, opiated is one that is easily conquered. 00:34:56.318 --> 00:34:57.998 So I think we should keep that in mind. 00:34:58.737 --> 00:35:02.657 Anyway, these are some things that we should at least have in mind when we hear 00:35:02.657 --> 00:35:05.937 about stories like what is these Venezuelan drug boats. 00:35:06.097 --> 00:35:08.917 We should be putting it in this context and reflecting on, say, 00:35:09.237 --> 00:35:13.917 oh, the fact that NATO was really trying to end the drug trade for decades there 00:35:13.917 --> 00:35:15.377 in Afghanistan. They just couldn't do it. 00:35:15.437 --> 00:35:19.597 But hey, here comes the Taliban and they did it pretty much overnight. I wonder how that works. 00:35:19.817 --> 00:35:22.017 It's because, of course, they're not trying to end the drug trade. 00:35:22.017 --> 00:35:23.237 They were trying to facilitate it. 00:35:23.397 --> 00:35:28.117 Of course, they like to keep it criminalized so that that way they can control 00:35:28.117 --> 00:35:30.157 it and, of course, profit from it. 00:35:30.337 --> 00:35:33.237 That is part of the way this system functions. 00:35:33.417 --> 00:35:37.077 And until we learn that lesson, well, we'll continue seeing things play out 00:35:37.077 --> 00:35:39.437 like we are seeing currently in Venezuela. 00:35:40.037 --> 00:35:44.417 And so now as the world waits with bated breath for whatever military action 00:35:44.417 --> 00:35:47.457 may or may not come, hey, who knows, maybe Trump will do a deal with Maduro 00:35:47.457 --> 00:35:50.657 and suddenly they'll be best best pals or however that works. 00:35:50.657 --> 00:35:53.537 But surely there are black operations 00:35:53.537 --> 00:35:57.457 and deep state machinations that are taking place, even as we speak. 00:35:57.577 --> 00:36:01.017 We'll see how that plays out geopolitically. But at the very least, 00:36:01.157 --> 00:36:06.077 we shouldn't be wide awake and aware of who is really behind and facilitating 00:36:06.077 --> 00:36:07.717 the international drug trade. 00:36:07.917 --> 00:36:13.257 And it could be stopped if there was an actual impetus to stop it. 00:36:13.417 --> 00:36:18.197 But there is not because there is money to be made for various bad actors. 00:36:18.197 --> 00:36:23.077 There's a lot of information in today's episode and a lot of links to further 00:36:23.077 --> 00:36:24.897 reports that will have much more 00:36:24.897 --> 00:36:27.917 information on each and every one of the things I've touched on today. 00:36:28.057 --> 00:36:32.317 So I hope you will avail yourself of the show notes at CorbettReport.com for that info. 00:36:32.917 --> 00:36:37.217 But that's going to do it for today's exploration. I am James Corbett of CorbettReport.com, 00:36:37.337 --> 00:36:40.977 thanking you for investing your time in this exploration and inviting you to 00:36:40.977 --> 00:36:42.257 join me again in the near future. 00:36:44.937 --> 00:36:48.877 Insane, deranged, crazy. 00:36:49.377 --> 00:36:53.777 The idea that would-be rulers would cynically use the lunatic cudgel against 00:36:53.777 --> 00:36:55.497 their political enemies is bad enough. 00:36:55.857 --> 00:37:00.217 But what if the reality is the complete opposite of what is commonly understood? 00:37:00.817 --> 00:37:04.197 What if the delusions of the dissidents are in fact real? 00:37:04.837 --> 00:37:08.397 What if their inability to fit in is not a sign that they are sick, 00:37:08.617 --> 00:37:13.617 but the society they are protesting against is sick? In Descent into Madness, 00:37:13.837 --> 00:37:18.437 you will learn about the dark history and the disturbing present of political psychopathy. 00:37:20.277 --> 00:37:26.137 Descent into Madness. Watch the documentary for free at corporatereport.com slash madness. 00:37:26.557 --> 00:37:32.157 Or continue your education with the free psychology course at opensourceeducation.online. 00:37:39.937 --> 00:37:44.337 Don't give me the conspiracy bulls**t, come on. You're a more intelligent man 00:37:44.337 --> 00:37:46.957 than that. Come on, come on. I mean, come on. 00:37:48.157 --> 00:37:52.237 There has never been a conspiracy in this country.