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[an error occurred while processing this directive]August 10–17, 2000
mailbag
Letters to the Editor
by the Readers
Connection Made
I agree for the most part with a previous letter from [Al Giordano] (Mailbag, "Dominican Notes," Aug. 3) regarding the significance of the "Dominican Connection" (Cover Story, July 27 and Aug. 3). I have only one criticism of his assessment of the situation. I don’t think the Dominican connection is "bigger" than the Iran-Contra connection. Mr. Giordano refers to the Iran-Contra event as a "renegade group of CIA agents and other operatives." But, indeed, the links and connections go both forwards and backwards, historically, as a post WWII pattern. Had the Christic Institute, for example, been permitted to continue its lawsuit, these connections stood to be exposed. Indeed, the Christic Institute was bankrupted when it attempted to pursue its case. There exists virtually a small library of independent books researching the extensive ties between drugs, the CIA, our official and unofficial government, etc. One need only go to a few resources to be footnoted to numerous others.
I repeat, any piece of true investigative reporting which exposes even some of the covert actions between our clandestine services and the drug cartels is a welcome breath of fresh air. But it was never and is not now a "renegade group" or "a small group of officials," as Mr. Giordano theorized in his letter. In regard to this "golden triangle" of drugs, covert operations and government officials, let me just add that I’m voting for Ralph Nader BECAUSE he is the ONLY candidate, at the moment, who is not part of this happy family. Everybody else, just about, in HIGH positions, is, in one way or another, compromised by this situation: money, politics, the covert government, not to mention the overt corporations. In those cases, at least, one can discover who’s financing whom. In the other instance, by definition, it’s "covert."
Helen Watt
via Internet
To the editors, thank you very much for having the backbone to run the "Dominican Connection" story. This article is a ray of hope in a year of cover-up and shrouds of secrecy pulled down by the U.S. government. With the May public release of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Report exonerating the CIA of any involvement with, or protecting of, drug trafficking, it is really nice to see that there are still some honest journals and journalists out here who care enough to tell the truth about the supply-side of the War on Some Drugs, and the unbelievable, yet real orruption driving this War. Thanks again.
Preston Peet
Freelance journalist and contributing editor at www.disinfo.com</em>
Convention Watch
The members of the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Philadelphia want to commend Police Commissioner John F. Timoney, Deputy Commissioner Sylvester Johnson, Deputy Commissioner Robert Mitchell, Inspector James Tiano, and the entire Police Department for the professionalism and effective performance that was exhibited by every police officer during the Republican National Convention.
Every member of the Philadelphia Police Department should be recognized and praised for the outstanding service and commitment they provided to the safety to the public and to the properties in our city during the demonstrations.
We applaud the members of the Police Department for showing the nation that Philadelphia has hundreds of dedicated police officers who performed in a outstanding manner under very difficult circumstances
Grace C. Redden
President, BOMA, Philadelphia
I would like to commend the Philadelphia police for the way they stifled dissenting and alternative voices during the Republican National Convention. I would especially like to congratulate them on their proactive tactics in shutting down the menacing puppeteers at 41st and Haverford. In that incident, the police narrowly saved our city and nation from evil, destabilizing, destructive puppets and banners. Such material as cloth, paint, cardboard and papier-mâché obviously pose a clear and present danger to property, life and limb, and civic order. The forces of law further triumphed by detaining 88 subversives for six hours without access to water or to their nefarious allies such as the American Civil Liberties Union. As to the former train shed and its present owner, clearly someone who has spent thousands of dollars and countless hours transforming an abandoned, decrepit hulk in a neighborhood struggling with urban blight into a base for a thriving business is disrupting our carefully established socio-economic order. Thank you for expediently destroying the product of the dark forces’ creative labor before it could be used to threaten us, and for not giving them the chance to prove themselves innocent!
Norman Carter
Philadelphia
Re: "Talking Cure" by Howard Altman (Pretzel Logic, Aug. 3).
Thanks for the article, it’s not too often that guys from Grays Ferry get good press. Billy is a great guy. My friends and I were the guys with the Faulkner T-shirts. We did not want to give the police a bigger problem to deal with, but we did go there with the intention of being noticed, especially by the Jamal supporters. They sure noticed us when we tore down their posters around the Rizzo statue and right out of a few of their hands. It turns out that they are a bunch of cowards whose only shield was the thin material of the rag they held in front of themselves with a cop-killer’s photo on it. Once exposed, they ran back into their crowd to hide and point fingers at us. They actually had the nerve to say to us, "You have to leave, you are causing a disturbance." Now, isn’t that a shame, lady.
Tom Rafferty
Grays Ferry
I agree 100 percent with Mike Kaplan (Mailbag, "Vive La Difference!," Aug. 3). What kind of country do you think we will have under George Bush? I see the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, four Supreme Court Justices appointed by Bush — forming the most conservative court we have ever had — individual rights being eroded, discrimination against gays approved, more blacks in prison for non-violent drug use, the big businesses more heavily in control of Congress, Congress passing laws favoring those big businesses — at the expense of the environment — Roe v. Wade attacked and eventually overturned, less money granted for federal social programs, campaign finance reform proposals buried. I also see a flat tax unfairly favoring the rich, funds for Medicare and Social Security used for other programs and all kinds of favors for those who contributed the most to Bush’s $60-some million campaign financing. Am I overstating the case?
Bob Mezey
Philadelphia
Big Drugs
(Re: Loose Canon, "Are Pharmaceuticals Next?," Bruce Schimmel, July 27.)
There is no question Big Drugs is rife with deals, secrets and a host of other nefarious dealings. Though they claim that they have to charge so much for their products in order to do research on new drugs, the reality is that their really big expense is advertising and promotion and that the federal government funds much of the research via grants to scientists at universities and at private laboratories. And, of course, the REALLY deep pockets of the drug companies make Big Tobacco look like a pauper (the pharmaceutical industry is the most profitable business in the world).
But what’s really ironic is that several of the big pharmaceuticals are major players in and heavy funders of the war on tobacco, which demonized the tobacco companies so much that the Engle jury awarded the record-breaking $145 billion in damages to "punish" Big Tobacco.
Glaxo-Wellcome (makers of Zyban) and Smith-Kline (together with Pharmacia Upjohn) are helping fund the World Health Organization’s global war on the tobacco companies and are acknowledged as full partners in this effort by the WHO.
Domestically, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (which is little other than a PR front group for Johnson & Johnson and gets the vast majority of its $7 billion in funds from J&J stocks) has been heavily involved with the U.S. anti-tobacco effort for years, as a funder and "partner" with both federal agencies and non-governmental organizations, such as the American Cancer Society, the American Lung and Heart Associations and the American Medical Association. A RWJF representative even sits on the federal Interagency Committee on Tobacco Control which oversees federal tobacco control policy and also the various Surgeon General reports. Currently RWJF CEO Steven Schroeder sits on the board of the American Legacy Foundation. Johnson & Johnson is the distributor of Nicotrol and other cessation products. It would be ironic in the extreme if those same companies that helped set up Big Tobacco for a big litigation fall were now themselves to face the same treatment.
Wanda Hamilton
Miami Lakes, FL
Correction
In last week’s cover story, "Shafted: The Dominican Connection part two," it was erroneously reported that Deputy District Attorney Arnold Gordon had used a claim of "prosecutorial immunity" to persuade a court to remove him as a defendant in a civil lawsuit filed by four state narcotics agents. In fact, Gordon never made such a claim, nor did he ever file a response to the claims in the suit. The four plaintiffs voluntarily withdrew their lawsuit against Gordon in January 1998, three months after the suit was filed. City Paper regrets the error.
