Posts Tagged ‘drugs’
Book Review: “The Marseille Connection”
By Kenneth Foard McCallion to be published by Bryant Park Press in May of 2023
Hardback ISBN: 978-1-7371492-9-3 US$29.95
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-7371492-8-6 US$18.98
236 pages
I was very pleased to be offered an advanced reader copy of this book. It is engrossing and covers a lot of material. There are extensive footnotes and citations – a chronology, appendix and endnotes as well as a lengthy cast of characters. Many of the people in the Cast of Characters are familiar, and there are references to “The French Connection” and “All the President’s Men”.
The book is written very well indeed and has an air of authority and is very credible. But the fact remains that the truth of these events remains under a “code of silence” that has yet to be broken. In fact after a while I started getting a bit worried by the idea that this review might draw me to the attention of some very unpleasant people who still want to make sure that this story remains hidden. There were public hearings conducted by the New York State Select Committee on crime. The archives and other public resources “do not have copies of the hearing records or the final report.” Also “The National Archive records relating to … critical players in this drama had also gone missing, although some filing cards … had been overlooked and were still available”.
Briefly then the book starts with strikes in the port of Marseille in the aftermath of WWII that were threatening recovery efforts by the United States that was sending food and other essential supplies. The Communist Party in France after the war was very strong, and controlled by Moscow. Stalin was keen to extend his influence beyond Eastern Europe. The OSS (precursor to the CIA) cut a deal with the Unione Corse (the Corsican equivalent of the Mafia) that there would be no interference with their drug smuggling (mostly heroin sourced from poppies in Turkey) if they broke the strike. This agreement was never recorded in writing and has persisted to this day. Most of the misguided “War on Drugs” was directed at latin America, with most of the emphasis on cocaine and marijuana. It is also clear that the CIA was directly involved in drug smuggling as a source of revenue for operations that were never authorised. While drug dealers and other small fry were picked up and prosecuted, the people who organised the smuggling remained untouched.
Drugs are, of course, exceedingly profitable and generated a considerable flow of funds and all of it in cash and thus untraceable. The funds found their way into all kinds of activities through money laundering and bribery of officials. Some of it, apparently, to CREEP to help the re-election of Richard Nixon.
Rather than attempt to summarise more of the book I am simply going to cut and paste the material I was sent which convinced me I should read the book. I trust that you will also be impressed and accept my assurance that you will not only enjoy reading the book but will also be convinced that there has been yet another cover-up of evil doing at the highest levels of government. Canadian readers also need to be aware that one of the most profitable routes for the heroin from Marseille into New York state and beyond was through Montreal.
Just out of curiosity I just Googled one of the main characters in the book. Originally all I could find was about the actress who played Mrs Tim Taylor in “Home Improvement”. This is not that Patricia Richardson.
The following is the text I got from the PR people for the book, Smith Publicity
The Marseille Connection reveals never-before disclosed details of one of the most successful, yet largely unknown, criminal organizations of the 20th century, Unione Corse, which had a virtual monopoly on the distribution of heroin in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world, and which helped to fund President Nixon’s successful presidential campaign.
Using his decades of legal knowledge, background as a historical researcher, and personal experience prosecuting the mob, McCallion is available for interviews and commentary to answer fascinating questions related to this case including:
- Who were the masterminds of the French-Corsican Crime Organization that was shipping heroin into the U.S. in the French Connection case – whose identities have been kept a secret for 60 years?
- Who financed Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign with $2 million in cash given to Nixon’s “bagman” – Bebe Rebozo?
- Why was a narcotics organization based in Marseille, France given a “free pass” by the French and U.S. governments in 1947 to distribute heroin in the U.S. and worldwide? The answer is hard to believe – but true.
- Why were high level criminals and ex-Nazis given free rein in the Nixon White House and throughout the Nixon Administration?
- What were the Watergate “Plumbers” really looking for when they broke into the Democratic national headquarters at the Watergate Complex?
- Why are the transcripts and evidence introduced at Congressional and New York State Senate hearings missing, and who “cleaned out” the National Archives files relating to the kingpins of the French-Corsican mob?
- How did a beautiful model from the island of St. Martin rise to become one of the highest-ranking members of an international crime organization?
- How did a French war hero and captain of industry hide for so long the fact that he was also the chief financier of the shadowy French-Corsican mob organization?
Vancouver’s safe injection site can operate indefinitely
Supreme Court Judge Ian Pitfield has ruled that Vancouver’s supervised-injection site can operate indefinitely and that it is not bound by Canada’s narcotics laws.
This is an important victory. However, just because it can does not mean it will. That is because it has to secure adequate funding, and that is the issue over which we can expect the political games to continue.
The judge also makes it clear that Insite is part of the health care of drug addicts, and that clearly if people are going to inject it is better that they do it in a safe environment than an unsafe one. You would have thought that such a common sense approach need not require a major court case to be established, but that is the result of both politicians and police officers weighing in on issues that they have pre-judged, and who prefer to either ignore evidence that does not support them or carefully distort it. Insite has been the subject of far more uncertainty and spin than any other service I can recall. Though no doubt some moral dogmatists will also object to the service that provides sandwiches to the street prostitutes.
No-one has ever suggested that Insite was of itself the solution to a multifaceted problem – or even that “harm reduction” can stand alone. In fact all the advocacy that I have seen has been about living up to our commitments to a four legged stool – or whatever that homely metaphor was. But Mr Harper is much keener on the condemnation of sin (and punishment of the wicked) than he is on helping the sinners. I do not share his faith – or indeed any – but I cannot help but think he seems to have got the essential bit of the message twisted around.
Am I being overly optimistic in hoping that another judgment will also remove all the vagary around medical marijuana?
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