[PEN-L:238] Re: Stoned birdie

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

CIA reports (or rumors of such reports, etc) of course have to be taken
with several pounds of salt, but over the years such reports have
sometimes been quite accurate. They just need to be filtered through a
number of brains looking at them from different perspectives to make the
best judgment we can.

One of the important aspects of such estimates (assuming some degree of
dependability) is that they provide one benchmark to what is the total
loot a state may have to take its cut from. The drug traffic has always
been pretty dependent on cooperation of state authorities at all levels.
(That is a polite way to speak of bribery, noting that the total size of
the bribes is some proportion of the total take being protected by those
bribes.)

Carrol





valis wrote:
>
> Quoth Chairman Mark:
>
> > PS the CIA say that 25% of the Turkish GDP is drugs related.
>
> Here in the belly of the beast, most of us know better than to incorporate
> the stats of security scumbucket agencies into our mental architecture!
>
>                                                        valis
>
>                                                      Despite my heresy,
>                                                      still lurking for
>                                                      the larger good