A different view of Americas War on Drugs.

By Patrick Osio, Jr.

It’s time to take the gloves off and lay the responsibility for the bloodbath taking place on a daily basis in Mexico where it belongs – U.S. drug users. Mexican style Mafiosos are killing each other along with Mexican police officers, judges, prosecutors, journalists and innocent bystanders be they adults or children to gain transportation corridors from which to smuggle illicit drugs into the waiting hands of U.S. drug users.

And how does U.S. media report such events? Report how lawless Mexico is. And, for good measure, most articles insert the note “corrupt Mexican lawmen” in the story. Hardly any report ever mentions the end user in the U.S. as though that’s not the major part of the story unfolding before their very noses, when in fact they are the very reason for the carnage.

"It would stop being a business if the United States didn't want drugs," Benjamin Arellano Felix, one of the most ruthless and merciless drug capos responsible for hundreds of killings, told the Washington Post in a prison interview after Mexican authorities apprehended him.

Corruption in Mexico is no different than it was during the prohibition era in Chicago, New York, New Jersey and most major cities where the Mafia fought for territorial rights to sell liquor smuggled from Canada. And today, is there still one naïve U.S. citizen who believes there is no official corruption in any town USA?

Yes, there is corruption in Mexico, more than a country deserves, but Mexico does not have, or ever had, a monopoly. Like in the U.S. there is a fair share, and steadily growing numbers of honest non corrupt officials throughout Mexico.

During the U.S. prohibition era there were many non corrupt officers throughout the US who valiantly fought to defend law and order; many fell along with numerous innocent victims who were caught in the battles. This is now happening in Mexico.

U.S. news media touches on the administration of President Calderon’s declaration of war against organized crime in Mexico. This war is as real as our war against terrorism, and as all wars, it causes casualties. But instead of celebrating the bravery and ultimate sacrifice by the many that fall in the line of duty to keep drugs away from American families, news reporting marks Mexico as “lawless.” What injustice, what lack of fair reporting.

The recreational use of drugs, marijuana in particular, along with the more dangerous addictive stimulant drugs, has over several decades become entrenched in American culture greatly aided by Hollywood’s glamorizing drug usage in films. Though Marijuana is the most used, in the 1970s, Cocaine became the darling of the “successful” be they in the entertainment, sports or professions. It was the high cost of cocaine that created the link between U.S. users and Latin American producers; who originally used Mexico as a transportation corridor when it became more difficult to use Florida’s coast as entry points. This gave way to the Mexican capos and the beginning of the reign of terror in Mexico – all to satisfy U.S. recreational drug usage, eventually leading to addiction.

There should be no mistake, if Mexico loses the war against the drug trafficking capos, the U.S. is the biggest loser as every year 17,000 American lives are lost to drugs; where over 60 percent of the jail population is due to drug related crimes. And, where the annual cost, not counting what states and municipalities spend, exceeds $200-billion. But the biggest cost is in the lives and families destroyed and continuing fall into an abyss of national decadence.

With “my drug use doesn’t harm anyone but me” users excuse their repugnant behavior. But drug usage creates carnage, real people are being killed, families destroyed, children left orphans, mothers left without children, wives widowed in both Mexico and the U.S.

Pointing the finger at Mexico as the source of our problems has become all too handy an excuse by our government, the news media and by far too many of our citizens to avoid facing problems of our own making.

Modern technology - including violent video games - is changing the way our brains work, says neuroscientist

Human identity, the idea that defines each and every one of us, could be facing an unprecedented crisis.
It is a crisis that would threaten long-held notions of who we are, what we do and how we behave. It goes right to the heart - or the head - of us all.

This crisis could reshape how we interact with each other, alter what makes us happy, and modify our capacity for reaching our full potential as individuals.

And it's caused by one simple fact: the human brain, that most sensitive of organs, is under threat from the modern world.

Unless we wake up to the damage that the gadget-filled, pharmaceutically-enhanced 21st century is doing to our brains, we could be sleepwalking towards a future in which neuro-chip technology blurs the line between living and non-living machines, and between our bodies and the outside world.
It would be a world where such devices could enhance our muscle power, or our senses, beyond the norm, and where we all take a daily cocktail of drugs to control our moods and performance.

Already, an electronic chip is being developed that could allow a paralysed patient to move a robotic limb just by thinking about it.

As for drug manipulated moods, they're already with us - although so far only to a medically prescribed extent.

Increasing numbers of people already take Prozac for depression, Paxil as an antidote for shyness, and give Ritalin to children to improve their concentration.

But what if there were still more pills to enhance or "correct" a range of other specific mental functions?

What would such aspirations to be "perfect" or "better" do to our notions of identity, and what would it do to those who could not get their hands on the pills? Would some finally have become more equal than others, as George Orwell always feared?

Of course, there are benefits from technical progress - but there are great dangers as well, and I believe that we are seeing some of those today.

I'm a neuroscientist and my day-to-day research at Oxford University strives for an ever greater understanding - and therefore maybe, one day, a cure - for Alzheimer's disease.

But one vital fact I have learnt is that the brain is not the unchanging organ that we might imagine.

It not only goes on developing, changing and, in some tragic cases, eventually deteriorating with age, it is also substantially shaped by what we do to it and by the experience of daily life.

When I say "shaped", I'm not talking figuratively or metaphorically; I'm talking literally.

At a microcellular level, the infinitely complex network of nerve cells that make up the constituent parts of the brain actually change in response to certain experiences and stimuli.

The brain, in other words, is malleable - not just in early childhood but right up to early adulthood, and, in certain instances, beyond.

The surrounding environment has a huge impact both on the way our brains develop and how that brain is transformed into a unique human mind.

Of course, there's nothing new about that: human brains have been changing, adapting and developing in response to outside stimuli for centuries.

What prompted me to write my book is that the pace of change in the outside environment and in the development of new technologies has increased dramatically.

This will affect our brains over the next 100 years in ways we might never have imagined.

Our brains are under the influence of an ever- expanding world of new technology: multichannel television, video games, MP3 players, the internet, wireless networks, Bluetooth links - the list goes on and on.

But our modern brains are also having to adapt to other 21st century intrusions, some of which, such as prescribed drugs like Ritalin and Prozac, are supposed to be of benefit, and some of which, such as widelyavailable illegal drugs like cannabis and heroin, are not.

Electronic devices and pharmaceutical drugs all have an impact on the micro- cellular structure and complex biochemistry of our brains. And that, in turn, affects our personality, our behaviour and our characteristics. In short, the modern world could well be altering our human identity.

Three hundred years ago, our notions of human identity were vastly simpler: we were defined by the family we were born into and our position within that family. Social advancement was nigh on impossible and the concept of "individuality" took a back seat.

That only arrived with the Industrial Revolution, which for the first time offered rewards for initiative, ingenuity and ambition.

Suddenly, people had their own life stories - ones which could be shaped by their own thoughts and actions. For the first time, individuals had a real sense of self.

But with our brains now under such widespread attack from the modern world, there's a danger that that cherished sense of self could be diminished or even lost.

Anyone who doubts the malleability of the adult brain should consider a startling piece of research conducted at Harvard Medical School.

There, a group of adult volunteers, none of whom could previously play the piano, were split into three groups.

The first group were taken into a room with a piano and given intensive piano practise for five days. The second group were taken into an identical room with an identical piano - but had nothing to do with the instrument at all.

And the third group were taken into an identical room with an identical piano and were then told that for the next five days they had to just imagine they were practising piano exercises.

The resultant brain scans were extraordinary. Not surprisingly, the brains of those who simply sat in the same room as the piano hadn't changed at all.

Equally unsurprising was the fact that those who had performed the piano exercises saw marked structural changes in the area of the brain associated with finger movement.

But what was truly astonishing was that the group who had merely imagined doing the piano exercises saw changes in brain structure that were almost as pronounced as those that had actually had lessons.

"The power of imagination" is not a metaphor, it seems; it's real, and has a physical basis in your brain.

Alas, no neuroscientist can explain how the sort of changes that the Harvard experimenters reported at the micro-cellular level translate into changes in character, personality or behaviour.

But we don't need to know that to realise that changes in brain structure and our higher thoughts and feelings are incontrovertibly linked.

What worries me is that if something as innocuous as imagining a piano lesson can bring about a visible physical change in brain structure, and therefore some presumably minor change in the way the aspiring player performs, what changes might long stints playing violent computer games bring about?

That eternal teenage protest of 'it's only a game, Mum' certainly begins to ring alarmingly hollow.

Already, it's pretty clear that the screen-based, two dimensional world that so many teenagers - and a growing number of adults - choose to inhabit is producing changes in behaviour.

Attention spans are shorter, personal communication skills are reduced and there's a marked reduction in the ability to think abstractly.

This games-driven generation interpret the world through screen-shaped eyes. It's almost as if something hasn't really happened until it's been posted on Facebook, Bebo or YouTube.

Add that to the huge amount of personal information now stored on the internet - births, marriages, telephone numbers, credit ratings, holiday pictures - and it's sometimes difficult to know where the boundaries of our individuality actually lie.

Only one thing is certain: those boundaries are weakening.

And they could weaken further still if, and when, neurochip technology becomes more widely available.

These tiny devices will take advantage of the discovery that nerve cells and silicon chips can happily co-exist, allowing an interface between the electronic world and the human body.

One of my colleagues recently suggested that someone could be fitted with a cochlear implant (devices that convert sound waves into electronic impulses and enable the deaf to hear) and a skull-mounted micro- chip that converts brain waves into words (a prototype is under research).

Then, if both devices were connected to a wireless network, we really would have arrived at the point which science fiction writers have been getting excited about for years. Mind reading!

He was joking, but for how long the gag remains funny is far from clear.

Today's technology is already producing a marked shift in the way we think and behave, particularly among the young.

I mustn't, however, be too censorious, because what I'm talking about is pleasure. For some, pleasure means wine, women and song; for others, more recently, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll; and for millions today, endless hours at the computer console.

But whatever your particular variety of pleasure (and energetic sport needs to be added to the list), it's long been accepted that 'pure' pleasure - that is to say, activity during which you truly "let yourself go" - was part of the diverse portfolio of normal human life. Until now, that is.

Now, coinciding with the moment when technology and pharmaceutical companies are finding ever more ways to have a direct influence on the human brain, pleasure is becoming the sole be-all and end-all of many lives, especially among the young.

We could be raising a hedonistic generation who live only in the thrill of the computer-generated moment, and are in distinct danger of detaching themselves from what the rest of us would consider the real world.

This is a trend that worries me profoundly. For as any alcoholic or drug addict will tell you, nobody can be trapped in the moment of pleasure forever. Sooner or later, you have to come down.

I'm certainly not saying all video games are addictive (as yet, there is not enough research to back that up), and I genuinely welcome the new generation of "brain-training" computer games aimed at keeping the little grey cells active for longer.

As my Alzheimer's research has shown me, when it comes to higher brain function, it's clear that there is some truth in the adage "use it or lose it".

However, playing certain games can mimic addiction, and that the heaviest users of these games might soon begin to do a pretty good impersonation of an addict.

Throw in circumstantial evidence that links a sharp rise in diagnoses of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and the associated three-fold increase in Ritalin prescriptions over the past ten years with the boom in computer games and you have an immensely worrying scenario.

But we mustn't be too pessimistic about the future.

It may sound frighteningly Orwellian, but there may be some potential advantages to be gained from our growing understanding of the human brain's tremendous plasticity.

What if we could create an environment that would allow the brain to develop in a way that was seen to be of universal benefit?

I'm not convinced that scientists will ever find a way of manipulating the brain to make us all much cleverer (it would probably be cheaper and far more effective to manipulate the education system).

And nor do I believe that we can somehow be made much happier - not, at least, without somehow anaesthetising ourselves against the sadness and misery that is part and parcel of the human condition.

When someone I love dies, I still want to be able to cry.

But I do, paradoxically, see potential in one particular direction.

I think it possible that we might one day be able to harness outside stimuli in such a way that creativity - surely the ultimate expression of individuality - is actually boosted rather than diminished.

I am optimistic and excited by what future research will reveal into the workings of the human brain, and the extraordinary process by which it is translated into a uniquely individual mind.

But I'm also concerned that we seem to be so oblivious to the dangers that are already upon us.

Well, that debate must start now. Identity, the very essence of what it is to be human, is open to change - both good and bad. Our children, and certainly our grandchildren, will not thank us if we put off discussion much longer.

Agent Kolar, Bush’s new hope for destabilizing Cuba

BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD —Granma International staff writer—

• CAUGHT up in a series of scandals that erased what little credibility it had on the Cuba issue, the Bush administration, which until now trusted that its Cuban-American mercenaries would succeed in destabilizing the country, has placed its hopes in the none-too-clean hands of an astute Czech, a fitting student of its spy services.

Selected and recruited by the CIA in the late 1980s, Petr "Peter" Kolar, ambassador of the Czech Republic in Washington, moved in less than three years from a building maintenance employee and mail clerk to chief researcher at the Institute of Strategic Studies attached to the Ministry of Defense in Prague.

This was thanks to a little push forward by his friend Vaclav Havel, also connected to the U.S. intelligence pipelines.

Kolar began his dizzying ascent after the collapse of the socialist state in the former Czechoslovakia, when his masters sent him, overnight, to Washington to begin a training program for his new tasks, according to his official biography. This training program was at the Woodrow Wilson International Center (WWIC), an institution funded and run by the U.S. government.

What his biography doesn’t say is that the WWIC, attached to the University of Princeton, is as closely tied to the CIA as white on rice. So much so, in fact, that the notorious former CIA director, Allen W. Dulles, bequeathed his personal archives to that institute.

James Billington, director of the WWIC from 1973 to 1988, began his career as Dulles’ assistant and ended as advisor to Ronald Reagan. According Dulles’ declassified documents, a large number of professors from that center also worked as "high level" advisors for U.S. spy agencies.

Lee Hamilton, its current director, has an even darker résumé. A former congressman from the state of Indiana, he was a member of the presidential advisory council for domestic security, secretary of the National Security Study Group for the Department of Defense and… secretary of the CIA advisory council on economic intelligence. Even more serious: he was on the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, also known as the 9/11 Commission.

What could agent Kolar have studied in Washington, then?

What is certain is that back in Prague, the Havel connection sent him quickly on the way to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he would rise from one intrigue to the next at rocket speed until becoming a deputy minister.

Now Washington could reap what it had sowed.

ARRIVES WITH MAFIA FIASCO

On December 2, 2005, Doctor Kolar (he was by now called doctor), presented his credentials to George W. Bush. He knew what the priorities were. He waited until after the New Year’s holiday, and on January 17, 2006, he was in Miami, where he met with some of the most recalcitrant mafia elements.

By May, he was ready to come out as the star of the anti-Cuban show.

In a rather crude move, the conspirators chose the offices of the Center for a Free Cuba, of the notorious CIA agent Frank Calzón, to call a press conference. Kolar had invited a number of diplomats from other former Eastern European socialist countries, in order to launch what he called "an initiative to support the internal opposition in Cuba."

Those accompanying him included Congressman Lincoln Díaz-Balart, son of a government minister under the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship; Caleb McCarry, head of the Bush Plan to annex Cuba; Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, a terrorist recruited from the Cuban Democratic Directorate; the heavily-subsidized Sylvia Iriondo, of MAR por Cuba; Angel de Fana, of the group Plantados hasta la Libertad y la Democracia, a counterrevolutionary organization of ex-convicts; and Mauricio Claver Carone, director of the U.S.-Cuba Democracy Political Action Committee, which is dedicated to bribing congress members.

Kolar did not suspect at that moment that before the year was over his troop of conspirators would be dispersed by a hurricane: a report in December from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealing that USAID officials assigned to Cuba concealed the final destination of $65.4 million in grants from this federal agency that went to their friends in Miami and Washington.

The suspects indicated by the GAO report included two of Kolar’s best supporters: Frank Calzón and Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat, who received millions in subsidies.

The blow was too heavy. Days later, Adolfo Franco, administrator of Latin American funds for the US Agency for International Development, immediately resigned his post… and joined the team of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who just so happens to be a director of the International Republican Institute (IRI), one of the great beneficiaries of Franco’s generosity.

The scandal in USAID continued over the following months, with more resignations and a police investigation that recently "blew up" Felipe Sixto, Calzón’s right-hand man, and the mastermind of a profitable embezzlement scheme, who has been hiding for a few months as "special" advisor to the president.

Another activity organized by Kolar’s "advisors" a short while ago at the Coral Gables Biltmore Hotel brought to light the new plan for creating subversion in Cuba as imagined by the masterminds in Langley.

Acknowledging Washington’s isolation in its dirty war against the island, Cuban-American Senator Mel Martinez, who was heading up the unusual meeting, emphasized a need for involving "other countries" in their anti-Cuba operation. This was meant to remind Cubans who "have been trained to hate" the U.S. government that the latter "is not their only ally." José Cárdenas, the "interim" director replacing Franco at USAID, said that USAID would soon begin "following the model established by the Eastern European bloc in the 1990s," thus confirming it as the first to benefit.

The mafioso meeting ended with an eloquent piece of nonsense from U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutiérrez. According to this former multi-million dollar corporate executive, attention must be given to Cuba "as it has been with Tibet and Darfur," thus admitting U.S. intervention in both of those crises.

Meanwhile, the Czech ambassador was sanctioning such absurd instructions, his perspicacious associate Calzón did not waste any time on a useless show. He was waiting at the fittingly-named Dulles Airport in Washington for the next flight to Prague.

He knew that from now on, the Cárdenas substitute would favor the Czech capital for distributing the millions from USAID.

Behind Calzón would follow all of his fellow mercenaries, looking to secure new sources of funding, beginning with Robert Ménard, in a line that also featured Boronat and Iriondo.

Vaclav Havel, for his part, has just inaugurated another organization for "advocating democracy," on April 16 in Brussels, and behind it is the hairy hand of the godfathers of subversion in Cuba… suffice it to say that the coordinator for the "new" program is Czech Kristina Prunerova, of People in Need, a group created in Prague by the CIA and heavily subsidized by the National Endowment for Democracy, another agency attached to U.S. intelligence.

In Miami, various factions that have been feeding for decades from the federal government’s anti-Cuba crusades are now reeling in face of the Kolar Plan, wondering how to link up with that subversive structure that benefits European NGOs and satellites of USAID, NED and other channels.

The GAO audit on USAID’s anti-Cuba activities made headlines with the fancy purchases by the hired "democracy activists" from Miami: cashmere sweaters, Godiva chocolates, Nintendo games and Sony Playstations, supposedly all meant for alleged dissidents.

This is the rotten fruit of the lucubration of Cuban-American congress members Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln and Mario Díaz-Balart, Senator Martínez and the ringleaders of the Cuban Liberty Council. Will the USAID’s millions continue to be reaped in Miami? •

As most days, I have read another horror story American article about Mexico and why not to go there anymore and to look at the country as a threat and undesirable . I have made answer here to the typical comments . These articles flood the news and create a vision that is a lie.


The U.S. State Department in Mexico issued a travel alert
yesterday, prompted by drug violence in the north of Mexico.

[The war on drugs is an American invention and then they complain about the results as though what they have caused is somehow Mexico’s fault.]

"Violent criminal activity fueled by a war between criminal
organizations struggling for control of the lucrative narcotics
trade continues along the U.S.-Mexico border. Attacks are aimed
primarily at members of drug-trafficking organizations, Mexican
police forces, criminal justice officials, and journalists.

[The main criminal organization being American government and its various public and private militaries and law enforcement agencies. And as the article says, Lucrative, meaning fortunes can be made, so of course America is in control of the situation and making the most profit from it, from all directions. It says attacks are aimed, but does not say who is doing the aiming. The article appears to have the legal and illegal organizations here in one category.]

However, foreign visitors and residents, including Americans, have been among the victims of homicides and kidnappings in the border region.

[A distorted truth. If one bothers with the details, they will see these kidnappings are Mexicans who have family and business on both sides of the border, with easy resources to check on before the kidnappers move. It is not random.]

In its effort to combat violence, the government of Mexico has deployed
military troops in various parts of the country

[Mexico has always had its troops all over its country, assuring its safety. A few extra have been sent to the border, at Americas insistence so they can add fuel to the fight to make the situation worse.]

U.S. citizens are urged to cooperate with official checkpoints when traveling on Mexican highways."

[Urged? Yes it would be a good idea to cooperate with officials in other countries, even if you are American.]

American ambassador Antonio Garza said in a statement that the alert
warning reflects the current reality in Mexico: "These conditions
are widely known here in Mexico from watching the news every day,
but many tourists are simply not as aware of what goes on in other
countries as they are in their own."

[Correct, Americans are not aware of others countries, but I am sure they don't know much about their own either. Both situations are buried in lies and illusions for them. Mexicans are very aware that any of their country that touches America is dangerous]

American visitors are advised to stay out of the border region, and
to avoid areas where there are high levels of prostitution and drug
dealing.

[Since that is how visitors get to the border areas is by crossing the border, this is to say, no one go there any more, stop tourism and business . And the advice of staying out of undesirable areas should apply anywhere, since it happens everywhere. If you have to be told that, perhaps you should stay home. ]

Garza's alerts, which in the past have infuriated politicians and
the press in Mexico, appear to be justified. Calderon's military
campaign against the drug lords was launched 15 months ago, and the
violence on the border has increased, especially in recent months.

[Americas War on Drugs has escalated, as planned. Make substances that are in high demand illegal, use another country to get them from, arm the declared enemy to fight those in authority, fund both sides and run your own interference and media propaganda scheme, you will be sure to have the situation get much worse. Especially while nothing is done to stop the American cravingsfor illegal drugs .]

At the time of writing this article, more than 50 people had been
killed in Tijuana since the beginning of the year, and the bodies of
victims of the narcos turn up regularly. Reports such as this,
telling how five youths were tortured, sprayed with bullets and
dumped in an empty lot in Tijuana in March, are unfortunately common.

[There are many reasons why 50 people could be killed in Tijuana, other than drug related. The constant flow of workers from south to north, to seek the promised jobs and high wages and the near impossibility of American laws to come legal causes a back up and a bad situation for one. Of course some of the often told reports are true, but if one checks on the American side of the border, one can find the same kind of gang related violence.]

'The overall death toll associated with drug gangs in Mexico has
rise to more than 720 so far this year, well above the count this
time last year,' reads the report, published at the end of March. Mexico's drug wars killed more than 2,500 people in 2007.

[Any country that America invades, puts down its own laws on, and makes any type of war on will become a dangerous place to be. Feeding the public this image of Mexico is all part of the plan to destabilize the country enough to make it vulnerable for take over and optimum use for Americas own cause. America plays all angles in this game of oppression and destruction. Commerce, Agriculture, Tourism, the right for a country to make their own decisions, all greatly harmed and in danger of totally failing because of America. How evil to cause havoc in another country, and then point the blame at that country, as though America did not cause this step by planned step.]

---
And here copied below is another article, by American people for their own.

The True Price of Adventure in Paradise

Would-be expatriates look for home destinations that appeal to their
individual definition of adventure and paradise. For the first time,
International Living reported Mexico as the worlds top retirement
haven because of its economy, real estate, and quality of life.

[Mexico has always represented freedom and the simple good life to Americans. For many it is their dream or goal to vacation or retire here. How totally hypocritical to warn away tourism while at the same time promote moving here as the ultimate retirement place. Americans think they can build realty any way that suits them, but only the willingly decieved will buy it. The truth still exists and those who see it must fight on to not let it be buried in lies that benefit America and destroy others.]