WEEKLY NEWS PACKAGE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Politics
========
Lahu:
U Lwin:
NLD to Continue with Changes despite no Meeting with Suu Kyi
(Mizzima
News)
Drugs
====
One Win could be
losing (S.H.A.N)
Border
=====
News)
Tension on
Burma-Bangladesh Border (Kaladan
News)
Nasaka Abduct Bangladeshi Fisherman (Kaladan News)
Inside
============
One captured and
eight arrested on suspicion of supporting rebels
(Independent Mon News
Agency)
International
=============
Indian Army Chief Visits
Northeast (Mizzima
News)
French judge refuses
to stop Total case (Kao Wao News Group)
Burmese Migrants kill
Thai employers (Kao Wao News Group)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Politics
========
Lahu:
Lahu "spokespeople" who
recently crossed the border into
S.H.A.N. the majority of their people who had been resettled in
southern Shan State 5 years earlier had ‘had enough of’ the Burmese
military authorities' broken promises, reports Hawkeye from Chiangrai:
"Before we moved down from the north," said Joseph (not his real
name), 25, a high school graduate from Lashio, "we were given three
promises by the colonel from Kunhing, who said he represented Maj-Gen
Maung Bo, Commander of the (Taunggyi-based) Eastern Region Command."
They were the right to establish their own local government, freedom
from forced labor and exemption from the draft. "These assurances were
given to us at a meeting in October 1999 in Tangyan," said Joseph.
Altogether, 700 families with a total population of 4,000 people from
Tangyan, Mawfah
(across the
Hsenwi had agreed to resettle in the Wanzing area in Kehsi township,
Loilem district. Since then, the population in the area (now
designated as Wanzing sub-township) has more than doubled, 90% of them
Lahu and the remainder comprising Shan and Palaung respectively.
This is still less than half of the original population, according to
the Shan Human Rights Foundation, who reported on the forced
relocation of 300,000 people and extra judicial killings (664
documented in total) during the Burmese Army's three year campaign
against the
"Now they have broken every promise they gave to us five years ago,"
lamented Joseph. "Our leaders cannot do anything without authorization
from Infantry Battalion 287, a unit that was created on our arrival.
We have to take turns and work in their paddy fields confiscated from
the locals. And now they are forcibly recruiting us to serve in their
army units."
In 2002, a month-long battle broke out between the Burmese Army and
the Shan State Army, and all Lahus who had received a 6-month training
in Panglawng, 80-miles southwest of Taunggyi, were required to
participate in the fight. "Most of us fled on the first night on our
way to the border," he said, "because we knew they wanted us to be in
the vanguard."
The Lahu, of Tibeto-Burman stock, are distributed widely in northern
and eastern
to some Lahu sources. During the 1990 elections, one Lahu, Daniel
Aung, was elected as Member of Parliament for Mongpiang township.
Related report: Lahu relocations escape rights advocates' notice,
S.H.A.N.,
***********************************************
U Lwin:
NLD to Continue with Changes despite no Meeting with Suu Kyi
responded to the National League for Democracy (NLD) demand to meet
with Aung San Suu Kyi, they will continue with their activities, NLD
spokesman, U Lwin, said yesterday.
To address Aung San Suu Kyi’s proposal to expand the NLDs Central
Executive Committee (CEC) and Central Committee (CC), party leaders
demanded a meeting with Suu Kyi, who is still under house arrest.
“We are only seven people here, we cannot work effectively. We have
five Central Committee members and nine CEC members. As the nine-
member CEC is to do the work, we need to meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi”,
said U Lwin.
“We will write everything in detail to Daw Suu and present it to her,
even though we cannot meet her in person. We will also give a copy to
U Tin Oo. And if we find any response favorable to reducing the 9-
member committee to 7 members, then we will continue as we have
agreed. For now that is what we will be doing”, U Lwin continued.
Changes to and expansion of the party were proposed as most agreed to
include younger members in the decision-making bodies, including the
CEC. The Central Committee will be reformed and placed under the
administration of the CEC and is likely to include over a dozen
members, including women and younger members.
To discuss changes within the party, the NLD earlier held a meeting
with women’s groups, youth groups and 13 groups from states and
divisions and alliance groups such as the National Democratic Party,
said a source from the NLD.
A veteran politician from
the NLD gaining political momentum may be the main reason for not
allowing NLD leaders to meet with Suu Kyi to discuss party affairs.
The NLD leaders had their last meeting in May and announced their
rejection of the military junta's invitation to attend the national
convention. The regime has been ruling the country since the 1962
coup, and said that the convention was the first step to democracy,
but the opposition and international community has dismissed it as
undemocratic and a sham.
Nobel laureate Suu Kyi and her deputy Tin Oo have been detained since
the May 30 Depayin massacre last year when her convoy was attacked by
a junta-backed mob in northern
trip. The Military junta ignored the NLD's landslide victory result in
the 1990 elections, which the international community considered free
and fair.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Drug
====
Reports: One Win
could be losing
weeks of unconfirmed reports, it now appears that one of the generals
in
connection with the seizure of an unprecedented amount of heroin in
southern
Maesai:
"We heard that it was definitely (Maj Gen) Kyaw Win who had been
acting chief of National Intelligence since Gen Khin Nyunt was
appointed prime minister (
recently in
Shwe was already considering a transfer order for him when he handed
in his resignation."
There are four generals each of whom answers to the name of Kyaw Win,
according to an opposition directory:
Brig-Gen Kyaw Win - Deputy Minister, Ministry of Industry #1
Maj-Gen Kyaw Win - Deputy Chief of Logistics
Maj-Gen Kyaw Win - Acting Chief of Military Intelligence Directorate
Lt-Gen Kyaw Win - Chief of Armed Forces Training
She said the surprise move originated in the 500-kg (some reports say
600 kg) drug haul on 9 July in a fishing village in Ye township,
Tenasserim Division, 600-km
southeast of
other officers were said to be implicated in the scandal," she added.
Meanwhile S.H.A.N. sources who are based in Tachilek say two men, Ai
Ti and Ai Yi, who are brothers and natives of Kengtung, had been
arrested in
law of
for Tachilek (since April 2003)," an ex-Khun Sa follower and "chemist"
said. "
name was on the Thai blacklist (of drug suspects)."
Another source told S.H.A.N. he was invited to the home of one of the
brothers last year when he was informed they had "a very good pawliang
(employer)" in
Both sources maintained that the actual amount of drugs seized in
southern
one. "Can you imagine a
consignment that big coming from
reaching
authorization? Can you also imagine an individual operator trying to
smuggle out a payload of that size? Even Khun Sa, during his prime,
never shipped out more than 200 kg on each delivery. Only a big, big
organization can afford to run an operation this big."
The two believed it was a joint effort by
officers and the United Wa State Army that somehow came to grief.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Border
======
Teknaf, September 07: Kaladan News
point with
frontier points after 14 days of closure following hot tempers in
Teknaf by telephone.
Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) officials say
reopened the trading point without prior notice.
Hearing the news, people from the Bangladeshi side are preparing to go
to
and other points have been closed since
BDR official of 23rd Rifles Battalion in Teknaf
says today,
border security forces (Nasaka) did not make any explanation on the
move.
Nasaka officials posted a letter to the Teknaf BDR saying that they
had directives from headquarters to reopen the Burmese border from
A border trader from Teknaf, who declined to mention his name and
formerly participated many times in Burma-Bangladesh flag meetings,
said, “ Burmese authorities, mostly Nasaka, never give direct answers
to the Bangladeshi authorities but they usually say that they wil
submit the proposals to the higher authorities.”
An agreement between
residing within 8 kilometers of the border of the two countries to
travel on special transit pass. Businesspeople can also use the route
only for business purpose.
Officials also said they have repeatedly asked Nasaka to join in a
flag meeting at the commander level to talk about the issue, but the
Burmese border forces didn’t show interest.
On
flag meeting where Bangladeshi officials asked for implementation of
the 1988 agreement and the immediate opening of the transit point. But
Burmese officials said that they would convey the proposal to the
higher officials.
************************************
Nasaka Abducts Bangladeshi Fisherman
Cox’s Bazar, September 04: Kaladan News : A Bangladeshi fisherman was
abducted by Burmese-Border Security
Forces (Nasaka) from the
while he was fishing, according to our correspondent.
On
Meah of Ullo
Bonia
district, was abducted by Nasaka forces while fishing in the
beyond the Bangladeshi water territorial boundary, according to the
victim’s wife.
Afterwards, he was taken to the Nasaka camp and detained there the
whole night. The next day, on being informed, a relative of the
fisherman went to the Nasaka camp and the victim was released after
paying a Taka 1,000 bribe. While in custody, he was severely tortured,
said the victim.
He was in Cox’s
a critical condition.
At present, hundreds of fishermen do not dare to go to fishing in the
Hence, the fishermen across the
Security Forces of
for trouble-free fishing in the
“Frequently, fishermen are abducted by Nasaka while they are fishing
in the
situation, they pay no attention”, said a fisherman who preferred not
to mention his name.
*******************************
Tension on
Burma-Bangladesh Border
Cox’s Bazar, 3 September.: Kaladan News : The Burma-Bangladesh Border
became tense after eight Bangladeshi businessmen were sent back to the
Bangladeshi border by Burmese authorities, according to our
correspondent.
According to local people from Teknaf, the said businessmen took
necessary documents from the immigration department of Teknaf and went
to
day, they were sent back by Burmese authorities. Since then, a tense
situation has prevailed at the Burma-Bangladesh border.
Police from the Teknaf border in
Rohingyas, including women and children. They were undocumented
refugees from Teknaf makeshift camps and some were from rented houses
in Teknaf,
said the Daily Cox’s Bazar of
But local people in Teknaf said that about 300 Rohingyas were
arrested, including some that hold border passes and came to
Some people of Tekanf border belt said, “ Some Burmese border pass
passport holders’ arrests provoked the Burmese authorities. So they
pushed back Bangladeshi businessmen without any reason.”
Some people in the border area said that the incident was related to
the grenade explosion in
Police lodged cases against all the arrestees at Teknaf police Station
and they were sent to Cox’s Bazar jail.
On
Rohingya people living in Teknaf. They were gathered by police in
front of the Teknaf upazila and have been living as undocumented
refugees at makeshift camps.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Inside
============
One captured and
eight arrested on suspicion of supporting rebels
captured and eight other villagers were arrested on suspicion of
supporting a Mon rebel group by the local Burmese Army battalion in
“Killing and arresting villagers then applying inhumane torture is a
common habit of the Burmese Army,” said Mr. Nai Pan Nyunt, a Mon rebel
leader from the Hongsarwatoi Restoration Party.
“It is so cruel and inhumane to our people. They (the Burmese Army)
took the headmen from Magyi and Mi-htaw-hla villages and killed them.
And they lied to the villagers that headmen were killed while fighting
with our HRP,” he added.
A train ticket seller, Mr. Nai Chit Htwe, 35 years old from Pauk-pin-
gwin village, southern Ye township, was killed by Burmese Army’s
Infantry Battalion No.273,” said Mon splinter armed group leader Nai
Pan Nyunt.
Nai Chit Htwe
was killed on
htaw-hlar-kalay were arrested after fighting between Mon rebels broke
out on August 29. The fighting killed 4 Burmese soldiers and a 14 year-
old schoolboy.
Eight villagers under the suspicion of supporting rebels were accused
of keeping the rebels in the villages and providing food for them.
Mon people have been supporting the rebels for years and currently the
Burmese military government SPDC, have launched military offensives
against the Mon rebels in order to take control of the whole area.
“In the area, the Burmese soldiers have often and regularly arrested
villagers and punished them in order to prevent them from supporting
the rebels. Early this year, from January to March, No. 3 Tactical
Command in the area killed over 10 villagers on a similar suspicion,”
said Nai Kasauh of the Mon Human Rights Foundation of Monland.
“There has been 15 times more fighting in the area between the Burmese
Army and the HRP,” Nai Pan Nyaut confirmed.
Because of the recent offensives launched by the Burmese Army in the
area, about 20% of the estimated over 50, 000 local population have
been displaced and many of them have fled to the border areas with
kanya village headman.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
International
=============
French judge refuses
to stop Total case
Taramon/ Sangkhlaburi ( Kao Wao News Group)
A spokesperson for French Government lawyer Le Procureur Bernard asked
the judge to stop the case against Total, but the judge, Katherine
Cornier, has not accepted the request, according to the Le Point
weekly on August 19.
“The judge has strong evidence in the case, which is why she refused
to stop the case, “ Mr, Htoo Chit, the coordinator of the Grass Roots
Human Rights Education and Development Committee based on the Thai-
The local Burmese NGO based on the southern
accused Total company of human rights abuses while constructing the
Yadana gas pipeline in southern
of the group said.
“ Eight forced-laborers and four perpetrators, three soldiers and one
servant were involved in the cases,” said Mr, Htoo Chit.
“ Total has 12 lawyers but we have two,” Chit said. He discussed the
cases with Total’s lawyers while in
reached as he does not represent all the forced-laborers working on
the pipeline.
The French lawyers came to the Thai- Burma border three times to take
testimonies and collect information about the cases, Chit said.
He said that he had networked with a French NGO to accuse Total. “ We
are confident of winning the cases, even though we are a local NGO,
because we have strong evidence and testimonies of the cases.”
The group is happy that French embassy in BKK cooperated on traveling
arrangements to get the French to give testimony before the judges,
Chit said.
He criticized the two French journalists who interviewed him about the
cases last year and wrote the wrong information which tended to favor
to the company.
Some ministers in the cabinet of
company, Chit said.
************************************
Indian Army Chief
Visits Northeast
General NC Vij visited some areas
of
visit takes place at a time when
the Chief Minister of
demanding the sealing of the Indo-Burma border to control insurgents
attacking
During his two-day visit, the general also visited Nagaland and the
bordering states of
held a series of discussions with senior army officials.
Though the Indian army describes the visit as routine, political
circles say the visit comes at a crucial time.
Sources say the army chief held a marathon discussion with the third
corps General officer in Command (GoC), who is monitoring the Burmese
border, and met Manipur Chief Minister Ibobi Singh.
Recently, the Assam CM met Home Minister Sivraj Patil and requested
that he put diplomatic pressure on
official sources said.
General NC Vij was informed of the prevailing military situation and
assured that forces would increase patrols along the Indo-Burma
border, he added.
The sources said the Indian government is seeking help from the
Burmese military junta to contain the insurgency problem in Northeast
rebel camps in
************************************
Tarun Gogoi
has requested that
apply diplomatic pressure on the Burmese government in a bid to drive
Burmese militants out of the country.
Mr Patil arrived in Shillong, the capital of Meghalya in north-east
social stability of the region.
Mr Gogoi and Mr Patil held a 30-minute private meeting in Shillong on
Sunday to discuss the increased activity of the United Liberation
Front of
has been labelled a terrorist organisation.
During the discussion, Mr Gogoi asked Mr Patil to intensify patrols
along the Indo-Burma and Indo-Bangladesh border in a bid to contain
the activities of the militant group.
Mr Patil
reportedly agreed to approach the subject with both
Mr Gogoi had repeatedly asked Mr Patil to seal the Indo-Burma border
following movements by the ULFA.
The official press release stated the Indian Home Ministry had agreed
to send more troops to the border areas as a means of containing the
group.
Mr Patil visited Manipur, a notorious trouble spot on the Burmese
border on Monday, where he held discussions with Manipur chief
minister Ibobi Singh, and met with senior military and security
officials.
A high-ranking official from the Manipur government said Mr Patil
also met with senior military and Assam Rifles officials stationed on
the border and asked them to intensify their patrols.
*******************************
Burmese Migrants kill
Thai employers
last week when they were refused to register for work permits and got
disappointed with their Thai employers, a source from the Mon
community in Mahar
chai province,
No fishing boat had landed at the harbor for over two months and the
migrants were getting upset as they had lost the chance of applying
for work permits, the source said. They were also tortured by their
Thai bosses.
About 60 migrant fishermen, most of them Mon nationals from Kaw Paline
village,Kyaik Mayaw township, Mon state, killed their seven Thai
employers on the boat then headed for Indonesian waters, the source
said.
Some of their families have moved to other places for security and
some of them have tried to go back
to
Burmese migrants in the province are not happy with Thai media
coverage that favored the Thai employers, another Mon migrant worker
said on condition of anonymity.
Now they have been captured by Indonesian policemen.
In the past Burmese migrants in fishing boats have been involved in
murder, especially when they were mistreated by their Thai captains, a
Mon migrant from the area said. They sometimes kill each other, too.
Some Mon nationalists in the area killed Thai citizens when Mon women
were harassed, Nai Lawi Mon, a Mon migrant worker said.
Most of the migrants in this area are Mon.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEA Agent’s
Whistleblower Case Exposes “War on Drugs” as “War of
Pretense”
Agent’s Sealed Legal Case Dismissed on National Security Grounds;
Details Leaked to Narco News
By Bill Conroy
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
Former DEA agent Richard Horn has been fighting the
for the past 10 years trying to prove the CIA illegally spied on him
as part of an effort to thwart his mission in the Southeast Asian
country of
After being removed from his post in
federal court in
the CIA and State Department in
Amendment rights.
After languishing in the federal court system for some 10 years,
Horn’s case was dismissed in late July of this year after crucial
evidence in the case was suppressed on national security grounds.
Because the entire court record had been sealed by the judge, no one
would have even known that Horn’s case was torpedoed, if it were not
for the fact that an anonymous source leaked the judge’s ruling to
Narco News.
Horn served in the early 1990s as the DEA country attaché to
which ranks as one of the top opium poppy producing countries in the
world.
As the highest-ranking in-country DEA representative in
known as
mission in that country of eradicating the opium poppy, which is used
to produce heroin.
Form the start, Horn ran into problems with the top U.S. State
Department official in
and the CIA chief of station in
Horn’s attorney, Brian Leighton, describes what Horn was up against in
In the letter, Leighton claims Huddle and Brown were bent on
portraying the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) the
oppressive military junta ruling
However, Horn, according to the letter to
gaining the assistance of the SLORC in working toward opium poppy
eradication in
and clandestine efforts on the part of Huddle and Brown to undermine
DEA efforts in the region, Leighton alleges.
The reason, Leighton claimed in a recent phone interview, was that if
Horn’s strategy proved successful, it would have undercut the State
Department’s goal of vilifying the SLORC in the eyes of Congress and
the public at large.
Sources within the intelligence community, however, tell Narco News
that the CIA’s motivations in the region are likely far more complex,
and that Horn simply found himself in the path of the Agency’s buzz
saw.
In the end, Huddle managed to get Horn run out of
machinations of the State Department, Leighton contends, but only
after Horn discovered that the CIA had planted eavesdropping equipment
in his private quarters in
Horn’s attorney claims the bug was planted by Brown or one of his
cronies as part of an effort to set up Horn and to undermine the DEA’s
mission in
dirt that could be used against Horn, but it was a clear violation of
his civil rights, according to Leighton.
Sources within the DEA contend that Horn’s claims against the CIA and
State Department are on target, adding that the Department of Justice
went as far as to claim that no
eavesdropping by its government when overseas.
“Horn’s whole story is true,” contends one DEA source. “They spied on
his home, and the Department of Justice defended the CIA’s actions.”
Horn’s attorney, in his letter to Sen. Shelby, contends that the CIA’s
net is far wider than
DEA agents overseas:
… My client has learned that many DEA agents have been the subject of
electronic eavesdropping by the State
Department and our
intelligence agencies.
… There are, no doubt, countless times when DEA’s operation plans have
been foiled by “the listeners,” without DEA even knowing what happened.
What really happened in the Horn case, though, was not supposed to
come out, if the government had its way. From the start, Horn’s
litigation was sealed and critical evidence that could have supported
his claims censored by the court.
Specifically, the evidence two federal Inspector General (IG)
reports that centered on Horn’s accusations was determined by the
court to be protected from disclosure based on something called state
secrets privilege. The privilege, which was established as part of a
1953 Supreme Court ruling known as the Reynolds case, allows the
government to deep-six information if it is deemed a threat to
national security.
“Having determined that state secrets privilege bars disclosure of the
IG Reports and certain attachments … the case cannot continue and must
be dismissed,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth in his
secrets privilege, a plaintiff cannot make out a … case, defendants
cannot present facts necessary to their defense and the very subject
matter at the heart of this case is protected from disclosure as a
state secret.”
Leighton says he plans to appeal against the judge’s ruling in the
case.
Horn’s Charges
So what are these terrible state secrets that must be protected at all
costs even at the expense of Horn’s constitutional rights? Well, we
may never know given how Horn’s case has been swept up into the world
of cloak and dagger secrecy. Even in the sealed court ruling leaked to
Narco News, all references to the alleged “state secrets” have been
redacted.
However, it is clear that some of these state secrets are not really
so secret. For example, in the sealed Lamberth ruling, among the
material redacted is the name of
the CIA chief of station in
is one of the defendants in Horn’s lawsuit.
Horn’s attorney told Narco News that he would be subject to criminal
prosecution for disclosing the name. However, the individual’s name,
Arthur Brown, has been published numerous times in past media stories
about the CIA’s operations in
Leighton sent to Sen. Shelby. So it’s really not so secret after all,
except when it comes to the peculiar rules of the U.S. Justice system.
Even though we cannot know for certain what the
to be “state secrets privilege” material in Horn’s case, we can assume
that not everything is as it appears on the surface. An examination of
Horn’s specific charges against Huddle and Brown offers additional
insight as well.
For starters, Horn’s attorney claims Huddle and Brown used the
resources of the State Department and CIA to sabotage a DEA plan to
gain the government of
yield study in the region. Leighton also claims that Huddle undermined
Horn’s efforts to provide
assistance in implementing the country’s drug laws.
“In stark contrast,” Leighton points out in his letter to Shelby, “Mr.
Huddle allowed the CIA to send Burmese military officers to
Horn also claims, according to assertions outlined in Judge Lamberth’s
July 28 ruling in his case, that Brown compromised a DEA informant.
“… (Brown) turned over a copy of a DEA document that included the name
of a confidential DEA informant to certain persons within the Burmese
government without DEA permission,” the ruling states.
Leighton, in his 1997 letter to Sen. Shelby, describes the same event
as follows:
The DEA’s well-placed contact from the largest opium producing area in
production. The document was even signed by the DEA’s informant. … If
released, its contents would be highly inflammatory to the Central
Government of
… Brown chose to deliver a signed copy of this document (which he
surreptitiously obtained without Horn’s permission or knowledge) to a
ranking figure of the Central Government of Burma knowing full well
the outcome would be disastrous. It held the overall potential of
causing the death of the informant, depreciating the DEA’s credibility
with the GOB and derailing the entire project all at once.
… It seemed a near miracle that Brown’s plan failed. Horn and his
agents still managed (after much work) to convince the Central
Government of
crop substitution program a chance to succeed.
Huddle was finally able, through the clout of the State department, to
get Horn run out of
year after Horn had arrived in
country. But about a month before his departure, Horn discovered that
his home in
Leighton describes how Horn discovered the bug in his letter to Sen.
Before leaving
quotes, ellipses and a summary of a private telephone conversation
Horn had from the telephone in his living room. This cable clearly
demonstrates that an electronic intercept had been planted probably
by Brown.
… As if that is not enough, Mr. Horn then learned about the technology
used to conduct the intercept. … My client learned from a friend in
the intelligence community (now
retired) who served with him in
how the intercept was likely accomplished and where the transmitter
and receiver were likely located.
… Meanwhile, my client and I were threatened with prosecution if we
told anyone details about this technology (designed specifically for
use against other American diplomats) while at the same time, the
government claimed it did not eavesdrop on my client.
In addition to the compromising of the DEA informant in
alleged illegal monitoring of Horn’s private residence is also
referenced in Judge Lamberth’s sealed ruling. In fact, the ruling
states that they were the subjects of the two Inspector General
reports that have since been cloaked under state secrets privilege.
From Lamberth’s ruling:
(Horn’s) allegations regarding the handling of the DEA document was
the subject of an Inspector General report that the court determined
on
privilege. (Horn) further argues that the purpose of the phone tap was
to assist (Huddle) in obtaining information that would justify
(Huddle) demanding (Horn’s) removal from
expelling him directly. (Horn) alleges that (Huddle) sought (his)
removal from
congressmen that conflicted with State Department reports prepared by
(Huddle).
(Horn) supports his accusations of wire tapping with the contents of a
cable sent by (Huddle) on or about
the State Department that contained allegedly verbatim quotations from
the
incident is the subject of a second Inspector General Report that the
Court determined on
the state secrets privilege.
To understand the context of Horn’s incredible story, we have to
explore the background of
brutal regime with a horrendous civil rights record that came into
power through a military coup in 1988. That junta is now known as the
State Peace and Development Council, or SPDC.
However, today, as was the case in the early 1990s, the ruling junta
of
control various regions of the country. This holds true in particular
in the Golden Triangle region of the nation an area that borders
opium poppy production.
The narco-trade in the Golden Triangle region is controlled by
warlords who are able to field large armies that are funded with the
proceeds of their illicit trade, according to sources in the
intelligence community. In some
cases,
struck bargains with these powerful factions, such as the United Wa
State Army, which has had a ceasefire in effect with the government of
The relationship between the powerful warlords who control the
lucrative narco-trade in
controls the government is very complex and layered. Sources in the
intelligence community say that relationship is similar to two
parasites, each sucking the blood out of the other, in a symbiotic
union. As a result, drug money often finds its way into government
coffers and personal accounts through agreements of convenience
between corrupt government officials and the narco-traffickers.
The intelligence game in the region, then, according to sources,
involves penetrating both worlds, and using information gained to
manipulate the politics and forces in the region. As a result, the CIA
would have assets planted inside both the government and the major
trafficking organizations with some of those assets likely working
both sides of that fence. The CIA officials handling these human
assets have built their careers on the information obtained from this
spying game, and in some cases may have become corruptly involved in
the system itself, according to sources in the intelligence community.
“If you want to cultivate assets in the drug trade to get information,
then you have to let the drug trade continue, and that’s why you don’t
want a noisy DEA agent getting in the way,” explains one source who
does consulting work in the intelligence field. “The reason the opium
economy will not stop is that the CIA does not see a value in stopping
it when they want intelligence. … We don’t have a drug policy, we have
a drug pretense.”
Former FBI agent Lok Lau says the Horn case is a perfect illustration
of how there “is no coordination at all” between the intelligence
community and other federal law enforcement agencies. Lau drew
national attention last year after
revealing he spied on
late 1980s and early 1990s for the Bureau.
Although Lau is prohibited from discussing the specifics of his spying
mission due to national security concerns, his assignment did provide
him with the expertise to brief CIA agents on the topics of “Chinese
alien smuggling, Asian organized crime and Asian cultural issues in
general,” according to government documents.
Like Horn, certain pleadings in an employment discrimination case Lau
brought against the government were later stricken from the public
record under the cloak of national security. Documents filed in Lau’s
case show that he was successful in penetrating the Chinese diplomatic
community as well as organized crime organizations that had strong
links to the Chinese government.
A partially classified brief filed by the League of Untied Latin
American Citizens in support of Lau’s legal claims offers a glimpse of
the nature of Lau’s spying assignment:
“From a reading of the record, it is not difficult to discern that Lau
was involved in espionage activities, kidnappings, trading in human
slavery, illegal immigration, murder, torture, extortion, hostage-
taking and any number of other criminal activities that involved
crimes against humanity. Lau penetrated the Chinese Triads, the Tong,
and other Chinese Organized Crime Organizations that trade in all of
these things as a way of life … For six years Lau had to be on his
guard and had to participate in whatever these hostile forces demanded
of him.”
Lau explains that if the U.S. Government was really serious about
eradicating the drug trade, “they would have done it. But they do not
really want to.”
“Let’s say the DEA was successful in eradicating all drug
trafficking,” Lau adds. “What would be left to prop up pro-U.S.
regimes that rely on the drug trade? … The CIA can use the proceeds of
the drug trade to pay for armies to support a friendly government.”
Lau also says a lot of careers in the intelligence community have been
built around human assets who have been planted within the ranks of
the narco-trafficking organizations. If you take down the drug trade,
you take down the very assets that are helping to make careers and
at times, corrupt fortunes within the intelligence community, Lau
points out.
In fact, Lau alleges in his lawsuit against the FBI, which was
dismissed in late 2003 and is currently on appeal, that on the eve of
one of his overseas spying trips, he learned that one of the
Bureau’s “highly placed assets had betrayed him.”
“I did not cancel my trip for it would confirm the asset’s
allegation,” Lau contends in his court pleadings.
Lau says no effort was ever made by the FBI “to flush the asset out,
because some (FBI) agent had made his career running that asset.”
“So they sold me out so that agent wouldn’t have to give him up,” Lau
adds. “… Nothing ever happened to that informant….”
“War of Pretense”
Given that backdrop, it doesn’t take much of a leap of imagination to
conclude that the intelligence community has a lot of motivation to
keep a lid on the Horn case. Because the DEA agent actually wanted to
do his job and take down the
narco-trafficking trade in
in fact likely threatening the opposing mission of the State
Department and CIA in the region. Their mission was to maintain the
status quo so that the information pipeline could continue to prop up
careers and
with eradication of the opium market.
Clearly, the game as it is played is reprehensible in the eyes of most
decent people, but it’s an old game that is not likely to end without
a major reshuffling of the status quo. However, when that game starts
to reach into this country’s courts
and subverts the ultimate
interest, the Constitution, it may be time to start drawing some lines.
The use of the state secrets privilege in the Horn case is
the “government’s nuclear option when it comes to litigation,”
explains Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government
Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists. “By claiming state
security issues, the government can effectively shut down a lawsuit.
“It used to be a fairly rare procedure, but its use is on the rise in
recent years, and based on perception at least, there is a question
about the government’s good faith in citing the privilege.”
Mark Zaid, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney who has represented a
number of high-profile government whistleblowers, says often the use
of state secrets privilege “is an abuse, a way for the government to
cover up wrongdoing or incompetence, and the judiciary goes along with
it because they are intimidated.”
Zaid is the attorney representing former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds,
who claims she was fired from the FBI for blowing the whistle on
serious security and management dysfunction within the FBI’s
translator program.
Department of Justice in 2002 claiming the government violated her
civil rights.
However, this past July, a judge threw her case out of court after
ruling evidence
state secrets privilege. As in the
Horn and Lau cases,
prevented from exposing alleged government corruption and
mismanagement because of the
national security trump card.
case is currently on appeal.
Zaid points out that the Horn case has particularly serious
implications for open government, because not only was state secrets
privilege invoked, but the case itself was sealed, which meant no one
would even know that national security had been used to torpedo the
case if the judge’s order had not been leaked to Narco News.
“The CIA will do what it needs to do to suit its interests,” Zaid
says. “If that means taking steps against another agency employee,
they will do it.
“… But there is a double tragedy in the use of the state secrets
privilege (in the Horn case) in that because the case is sealed, no
one would even know the government invoked the privilege. … The
ridiculous thing is that (Horn’s) case is still under seal. There is
very little classified information involved in the case (and what is
there has already been redacted from the record).
“So why is this case being covered up by the government?” Zaid asks.
That is a question that goes to the heart of our Constitution, and
whether the document still has any meaning. Ironically, Horn could not
be reached for comment on this story because, according to sources, he
fears the government will retaliate against him if he exercises his
First Amendment right to discuss his case.
Phone calls to the CIA and State Department were never returned.
Their silence, like the pall that the national security trump card
lays over the truth, only contributes to the “war of pretense” being
waged against the civil rights of people around the globe.
One DEA source summed up the danger of the government’s continued
expansion of that pretense as follows:
Illegal eavesdropping, the centerpiece of Horn’s civil case, is also a
criminal offense. An analogy of the government’s position is this: If
a CIA chief of station had stabbed Horn with a butcher knife in the
American Embassy, he could not be prosecuted because the very
existence, location and name of chiefs of station are considered
classified and cannot be disclosed. Moreover, the chief of station
would not be able to defend himself without using classified
information. Therefore, the state secrets privilege kicks in and the
case disappears. This theoretical “stretch” of the privilege is not
unlike what was done in Horn’s civil action.
In practice, both cases could move forward, but only if fair treatment
is accorded by the court.
It is apparent that the state secrets privilege has expanded and
evolved in such a way that it effectively immunizes persons and
agencies of crimes and other misconduct. It no longer just protects
troop movements, satellite imagery, etc. It now seems to include
everything the intelligence community does. The intelligence agencies
are no longer held accountable for wrongdoing. They have the all-
inclusive trump card.
… In the Horn case, the state secrets privilege has been used to
immunize people and agencies from wrongdoing a far cry from what the
United States Constitution intended.
*** End ***
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