So it looks like Michele Leonhart is finally going to be leaving the DEA.
Michele Leonhard, Head of D.E.A., to Retire Over Handling of Sex Scandal
Ms. Leonhart’s impending departure after eight years in the top job follows a hearing last week in which lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee expressed outrage about her handling of reports that D.E.A. agents in Colombia had participated in sex parties with prostitutes paid for by drug cartels.
Before we go any further, let’s make a couple of things crystal clear:
1. Michele Leonhart leaving is only part of the solution.
The entire agency is corrupt and needs to be dismantled.
2. Sex parties aren’t the problem. They’re just a symptom.
The scandal only demonstrates the obscene level to which the agency considers itself above the law and responsible to no ethical or legal code, while at the same time using violence against citizens to enforce arbitrary laws that they help create.
So Michele is going to retire. She’s not being fired, or put in jail, but will retire after 35 years in the DEA, with a fine pension. That’s the penalty for what she and the DEA have done to this country?
Sigh.
Meanwhile, good citizens have lost their jobs, their homes, their families, their freedom — all because of her and her mercenary army.
I started writing about Michele way back in 2003 when she was nominated as deputy administrator.
(I’ve got to admit that I got some pleasure out of the fact that for several years, when the head of the DEA put her own name in Google, this was the first thing to show up. So I’m guessing she knows who I am.)
In that article, I talked about her relationship with supersnitch Andrew Chambers and her lack of concern about lying.
The most startling statement in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch investigation of Andrew Chambers was from Michele Leonhart:
“The only criticism (of Chambers) I’ve ever heard is what defense attorneys will characterize as perjury or a lie on the stand.â€
She continued by saying that once prosecutors check him out, they’ll agree with his admirers in DEA that he’s “an outstanding testifier.â€
That’s the key. To an agent like Leonhart, getting the bust and getting the conviction is all that matters. The testimony is good if it leads to a successful conclusion (from her perspective). Why nitpick about the truth?
Truth has never been important to Leonhart during her entire career with the DEA.
Yes, I’m glad to see her go, but not optimistic about the possibility of getting anyone in that position to replace her that would actually do what’s needed — dismantle the very agency they’ve been tasked to lead.
About the best we can hope for is for someone to be put in place that will be asked to follow a watered-down version of the slogan that comes from the Hippocratic school…
First, do less harm.
All the news stories about her refer to the prostitution dealio. None mention her shameful time as head of DEA. It takes hookers ‘n orgasms to get ActionNewsTeam’s attention.
No mention of the DEA laundering millions of dollars for the cartels,,or a report on how much money taxpayers made off the deal,,no mention of the Sinola cartel being allowed to ship tons of cocaine,marijuana and meth into the US,,no mention of the DEA’s part in Fast and Furious,,but screwing prostitutes is as said above “getting the bust and getting the conviction is all that matters”
If you dance with the devil you are the devil.
Imagine being forced to work for Michele Leonhart for the last ten years. DEA agents are probably crying with joy that she’s leaving. Mommy dearest is gone, boo hoo, ha ha, boo hoo.
Had the DEA funded the sex parties instead of the illicit drug businesses, expenses could have been listed as recreational therapy in the agency’s budget. Likely no one would have noticed. Instead, Director Leonhart spent taxpayer dollars teaching thousands of DEA agents knife and fork etiquette. Clearly, Ms. Leonhart’s priorities are deeply confused, and her reign at DEA has contributed to its eventual demise.
Another incompetent jerk is needed to run the DEA—someone who can implode the agency from within. Conveniently, US government recruiting is in a position identical to that of the Third Reich. Like fascism, the drug laws always enable recruiters to find some authoritarian nutball willing to officiate over rotten and despicable policies that target one’s own citizens. There’s no limit to such people: Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Chris Christie, Joe Arpaio, Mike Huckabee, Melinda Haag, Kevin Sabet, along with so many other socially challenged frontrunners we could name. Drug war policies must go, because jerks are never going to disappear.
As one side in a conflict loses, and loses badly, the leadership on the losing side tends to become ever more fanatical. We can and will see something very similar take place regarding the prohib camp.
I fully expect a raving, foaming loon of a prohib to be installed in her stead for as long as said prohib takes to reveal his/her Inner Whacko in an even more embarrassing public display than her inability to distinguish the difference between cannabis and heroin.
Like toothpaste, the more the prohibs get squeezed by reform’s progress, the more the crazy inside will ooze out. Real dangerous stuff, that prohib kind of crazy. Green-glowing, Geiger-counter crazy. HAZMAT-level crazy.
And we’re all ringside at the circus, waiting for the next insane act to begin. Better wear some raingear, though; with all the mad-dog foaming, it could get messier than a Gallagher concert.
I got this from a commenter on another site and wish I’d said it:
Big Pharma directs DEA more than WH. Ask the makers of Oxycontin who they want on the short list.
Frank, that is so sad because it seems so plausible. I can hear it now.. “Mr. Holder, has Purdue Pharma gotten back to you on who will head DEA now? No, waiting to hear from Endo Pharmaceuticals first.” I mean of course, the hydra needs a head right?
I guess this will be their chance to finally cut that crazy uncle loose that they have been keeping safely chained in the attic.
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Purdue Pharmaceuticals patented Oxycontin. Are you sure they’re buddy buddy with the Feds? The company itself got a felony conviction for promoting off label Oxycontin use. 3 of their executives also got tagged with a felony. All told Purdue Pharma was fined $634.5 million. This would have been done under Ms. Lyinheart’s reign of terror.
In Guilty Plea, OxyContin Maker to Pay $600 Million
May 10, 2007
If the Feds are in bed with the pharmaceutical industry then it has to be an abusive relationship and the Feds are the ones wearing the wife beaters t-shirts.
Cost of doing business. +$600M might not be so much considering sales don’t you think?
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No I don’t think that $600 million isn’t a lot of money. That’s just a pile of utter horse shit. Feel free to believe any nonsense conspiracy theories you like but don’t ever expect me to validate your fantasies.
“Truth has never been important to Leonhart during her entire career with the DEA.” -Pete Guither
“The Drug Enforcement Administration was created by President Richard Nixon through an Executive Order in July 1973 in order to establish a single unified command to combat “an all-out global war on the drug menace.” …” http://www.dea.gov/about/history.shtml
When you fight a war the end often justifies the means. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are extreme examples of that philosophy.
When you fight a drug war and you are the DEA, the truth and the bill of rights are sacrificed as a “means” that justifies quite nicely when your founding charter says you are purposed by “an all-out global war”. Deceit is a part of war, Sun-szu spelled it out long ago. So the DEA is deceitful in carrying out its mandate. Its part of war, and its always been a part of the DEA.
The illegality of cannabis is part of war. Slanted and biased studies that bear no resemblance to reality are part of that deceit which is felt as a necessity to winning a war. Lying to children and adults when it comes to drugs is a noble cause, all part of “the art of war”.
Michele Leonhart is a product of that system, one that will soon have another warrior running it in her place, to grab the torch from where Michele left off.
Prohibition is deadly to a country and its inhabitants. We need to realize that the DEA is a systemic disease that can only be rooted out through honesty, common sense, and science based on truth.
The DEA is a product of war. Nixon’s war. To end the “drug war” it takes more that rhetoric. It takes getting rid of the DEA and the drug war mentality that spawned it.
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The truth is very rarely a welcome visitor in the home of a prohibitionist. I’m willing to bet dollars to dirt that if the truth were to politely knock on Ms. Lyinheart’s front door that she would dial 911 and demand that it be arrested for trespassing. What in the world did the poor little truth ever do to her to earn such animus? Too bad Ms. L, but the truth doesn’t give a damn what you believe.
I’m really glad that she’s leaving. I can’t get the image of her decked out in the finest Corinthian leather and whipping the Governator without mercy at the sex orgy. Sheesh, talk about cruel and unusual. The less I see of her face the better.
“I can’t get the image of her decked out in the finest Corinthian leather and whipping the Governator without mercy at the sex orgy.”
My first dose of DWR in the morning, I turn to this thread, and my eyes and mind are assaulted by this.
(Sounds of violent retching, wiping mouth) You just had to do that, didn’t you? You just had to. Lost my appetite.
(Facepalm) (Shudders) Deity, what a horrible image! Next she’ll be riding Kevvie, crop in her hand, bit in his mouth.
Na na na na, na na na na
Hey hey hey. Goodbye.
(HA!)
I think the only way to dismantle this terrible agency is via a long con to the top tier position.
D.E.A.th
here is an interesting page: http://www.projectcbd.org/news/
all fucking USA government is corrupted and it spreads his wings everywhere just one punch of motherfuckers
The drug war marches on http://tinyurl.com/qhdg9gd
Botched drug raid involving the use of incendiaries against a child is settled for ~$1 million:
“The family of Bou Bou Phonesavanh will get nearly $1 million for injuries the 19-month-old sustained when a flash-bang grenade went off inside his crib during the raid.â€
Secrets of Mexico’s Drug War http://tinyurl.com/pyp2l8s
DEA=Tricky Dick Nixon’s revenge on those damn long haired
maggot infested doper hippies. (sarc)
I would love to see the original budget of the DEA versus the current budget.
All those making big bucks don’t view the drug war as an EPIC failure or the foundation for a fascist police surveillance state.
And the drug war gravy train keeps on rolling no matter which DEA puppet figurehead gets canned or who the replacement is.
http://www.justice.gov/dea/about/history.shtml
“At its outset, DEA had 1,470 Special Agents and a budget of less than $75 million. Today, the DEA has nearly 5,000 Special Agents and a budget of $2.02 billion.â€
About that new AG, here’s a quote from NYT:
“Ms. Lynch is not expected to push for changing marijuana laws. Under Mr. Holder, the Justice Department did not stand in the way of states that legalized marijuana. And in his final months in office, he questioned whether the government should keep marijuana on the list of the most serious drugs, in the same category as heroin. Ms. Lynch, who told aides during the confirmation process that she had never smoked marijuana, does not share that view. She told the Senate that she did not support legalization and did not agree with Mr. Obama that marijuana may not be more dangerous than alcohol.”
Hope she only lied to get confirmed.
I wouldn’t hold onto that hope too tightly. She’s more Law-n-Order than anything, so I wouldn’t expect her to evolve on this issue during her tenure.
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OT: More new reefer-madness “science” that doesn’t address how criminalization is helping/hurting the situation: Marijuana users may have false memories
Still attacking the “potheads say it’s harmless” strawman.
I’m still waiting for the resurrection of the hoary old (shrieked frenetically, hands shaking in air) “Pot makes men grow boobs! Boo-oo-obs!” hysteria.
I know they have it in the bottom of the barrel, they’ve scraped the rest of their recycled dreck out and flung it, splattering, on their pages. Just a matter of time…
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kaptin, at some point you’re just going to have accept the reality that they lied about this and that it just isn’t going to happen. Sure it’s unfair but we should have known that they were lying and as soon as we got to the front of the line we’d hear them hoot, “No boobs for you!” and leave us there wallowing in our shattered hopes and dreams. Prohibitionists just aren’t very nice people you know.
Oh but cannabis does create boobs.
It’s just that they all work for the ONDCP.
Perhaps some hard truth and an epiphany might fix Ms. Lynch up and make her wiser for the job.
“What the members of the oversight committee fail to understand is that Leonhart is simply doing her job. What appears to be gross incompetence from the outside is actually standard operating procedure for the DEA. Contrary to popular belief, it is not the DEA’s job to prevent the flow of drugs into the country: the DEA’s primary (albeit unacknowledged) mission is to ensure the safe importation and distribution of illegal drugs on behalf of the CIA.
Whenever you hear about a major drug bust somewhere in the world, the DEA is simply eliminating the competition — not saving American lives. Profits from drug sales are the primary source of funding for the covert activities of U.S. intelligence agencies around the world, and the CIA is largely responsible for creating this market.”
http://www.dailylobo.com/article/2015/04/24-darensburg-column
You are right. Secrecy is big business, meaning its none of your business as a citizen.
Senate Republicans seek to preserve NSA power to collect phone data http://tinyurl.com/nhnfd5e
Rand Paul Is Suddenly Quiet About Ending the NSA’s Domestic Surveillance http://tinyurl.com/pfk5yln
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Synthetic cannabis users are dropping like flies on the eastern seaboard to the northern gulf coast. Of course it’s hard to know how much is real vs how much is hysterical rhetoric but there are death certificates being issued.
What does it mean? I have no clue. This particular branch of the war on (some) drugs has left me completely baffled.
We just need too keep reminding America that NIDA created the drug and now they want a bigger budget too fight it,
I expect these police officers and other unspecified “officials” are emphasizing the dangers of so called legal highs so that they can then say that legalizing cannabis won’t change anything. Once again our medical policies are being dictated by quacks with no medical training, not to mention a direct financial interest in the outcome.
DEMOCRACY IS IN GREAT DANGER
(House of Representatives – April 23, 2015)
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher – excerpt from Congressional Record
http://tinyurl.com/kt3clxp
http://tinyurl.com/k96fkhn
…”Our Founding Fathers wanted local people to control their communities and wanted criminal justice to be a State issue. They didn’t want to have the Federal Government to have such control over our lives. And to show you how heinous this is, we passed that law here in this Congress–it won by a solid majority–that we would not supersede State law when it came to medical marijuana. Yet we have prosecutors in the United States who are still moving forward, filing charges, bringing people to court, even though the States in which they are in have agreed to legalize the medical use of marijuana. These rogue prosecutors are thumbing their noses at the law.”
“This is what happens when government gets out of line, gets away from the Constitution.” …
…”To say that this is arrogance and a threat to our freedom is an understatement.” …
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