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Everyone is surprised to find the government does shady stuff, but many of these operations are even acknowledged like Iran-Contra where the government sold arm

Everyone is surprised to find the government does shady stuff, but many of these operations are even acknowledged like Iran-Contra where the government sold arms to the embargoed Khomeini government to generate black money to fund the Contras. > Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to the Khomeini government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo.[2] The administration hoped to use the proceeds of the arms sale to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair It's also discussed that the CIA does similar things with poppies to generate black money to fund regime changey activities. Here's one such article which is a weird source, but points to more mainstream sources for evidence. https://www.thelibertybeacon.com/a-conspiracy-theory-that-became-a-conspiracy-fact-the-cia-afghanistans-poppy-fields-and-americas-growing-heroin-epidemic/ https://www.thelibertybeacon.com/a-conspiracy-theory-that-be...

et2o 5y ago
This wasn’t “shady,” this was essentially a sting operation where they eventually seized 90 million dollars in cash and arrested over 100 people. Not bad. The bigger result was that it poisoned trust of banks by there kinds of criminals.
- croes 5y ago
  Professionals already have banks for that. 90 million dollars? These are small fishes. They only helped the bigger ones go get rid of the competition and the effect on drug trafficking is near zero.
  - Quenty 5y ago
    From another perspective, consider it probably did not cost $90 million to execute this plan. So overall, this is a net profit, and most likely cost effective.
    - rahilb 5y ago
      It was a top secret plan spanning multiple countries likely run by corrupt officials, I think it probably cost more than 90 million!
    - croes 5y ago
      Was the plan to make profit or to reduce drug trafficking? Maybe they should reevaluate their goals.
      - gscott 5y ago
        The agency that seizes the money gets to keep it. This person had his motel all paid off. So the Government decided to size it because they could sell it. He fought them off, barely: https://www.wbur.org/news/2012/11/14/tewksbury-motel-owner-fights-property-seizure https://www.wbur.org/news/2012/11/14/tewksbury-motel-owner-f...
haltingproblem 5y ago
NPR is using a clickbait headline. I fell for it just like you did. This conveys the opposite of what it actually is - "Govt Agents setup a fake bank in a sting to attract drug traffickers to launder money netting $90mm in cash and over 100 arrests".
- reedjosh 5y ago
  No, I'm of the same opinion of croes and saul_goodman. > they didn't nab any of the big players in the operation. So effectively they helped the biggest players by making it harder for the small to mid-tier drug cartels do conduct business.
TacticalCoder 5y ago
> Everyone is surprised to find the government does shady stuff, but many of these operations are even acknowledged like Iran-Contra where the government sold arms to the embargoed Khomeini government to generate black money to fund the Contras. Another one, maybe the biggest known one, is when the US sent 12 bn to 14 bn in the form of 100 bills (yup, in bills) using a military plane to Iraq and these bills mostly all mysteriously vanished. 12 to 14... billions. At least 1.4 bn was found to have been stolen and stored in a bunker in... Lebanon (I don't remember if it was just located or seized). Overall an estimated 9 bn are unaccounted for I think. (trying to insert the wikipedia and NY Times link to the story/stories but I get a "we have trouble processing your request, sorry" from HN) There were wire transfer to the tune of billions too. But the 100 bills shrink-wrapped and flew in a military plane: you cannot make that up. Shady stuff if any... EDIT: like Iran-Contra, I'm pretty sure in the future movies are going to be made about these $100 bills.
- elefanten 5y ago
  This comment begs for some sources and citations. Edit: I have a recollection of this incident but certainly not as mysteriously inexplicable and shady as you make it out. There was some context I've forgotten. Your story rings false.
  - nsp 5y ago
    googling "US plane 100 dollar bills iraq" returns a plethora of news sources that corroborate https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/feb/08/usa.iraq1 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/feb/08/usa.iraq1
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- tigerBL00D 5y ago
  To think that this money didn't end up financing insurgency is to be naive.
  - 5y ago
guerrilla 5y ago
> Everyone is surprised to find the government does shady stuff I really don't understand how this is still possible with everyone having access to the Internet. They're pretty consistent [1]. It must be a bubble thing. 1. https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/us_atrocities.md https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/us_atrociti...
- reedjosh 5y ago
  Wow, thanks for that link.
- ljf 5y ago
  Man that has taken my breath away. I'm pretty aware of how terrible the west can be (and how we can lie about it) but the sheer volume there is immense.
  - hnbad 5y ago
    Worth emphasizing, this isn't "the West", this is just the US. Not that other parts of "the West" don't warrant their own lists, but framing it this way unnecessarily cushions the blow.
    - ljf 5y ago
      True true, I'm from the UK and so I see us as complicit in some of this but yes the US seems to have a pretty good go at being awful to fellow humans.
      - l33t2328 5y ago
        You realize that list has events going back to the 1700’s, right? If you want to talk about countries that have a pretty good go at being awful to fellow humans and we get to go that far back, I don’t think the UK would have an insignificant list.
        guerrilla 5y ago

et2o 5y ago

This wasn’t “shady,” this was essentially a sting operation where they eventually seized 90 million dollars in cash and arrested over 100 people. Not bad. The bigger result was that it poisoned trust of banks by there kinds of criminals.

croes 5y ago
Professionals already have banks for that. 90 million dollars? These are small fishes. They only helped the bigger ones go get rid of the competition and the effect on drug trafficking is near zero.
- Quenty 5y ago
  From another perspective, consider it probably did not cost $90 million to execute this plan. So overall, this is a net profit, and most likely cost effective.
  - rahilb 5y ago
    It was a top secret plan spanning multiple countries likely run by corrupt officials, I think it probably cost more than 90 million!
  - croes 5y ago
    Was the plan to make profit or to reduce drug trafficking? Maybe they should reevaluate their goals.
    - gscott 5y ago
      The agency that seizes the money gets to keep it. This person had his motel all paid off. So the Government decided to size it because they could sell it. He fought them off, barely: https://www.wbur.org/news/2012/11/14/tewksbury-motel-owner-fights-property-seizure https://www.wbur.org/news/2012/11/14/tewksbury-motel-owner-f...

haltingproblem 5y ago

NPR is using a clickbait headline. I fell for it just like you did. This conveys the opposite of what it actually is - "Govt Agents setup a fake bank in a sting to attract drug traffickers to launder money netting $90mm in cash and over 100 arrests".

reedjosh 5y ago
No, I'm of the same opinion of croes and saul_goodman. > they didn't nab any of the big players in the operation. So effectively they helped the biggest players by making it harder for the small to mid-tier drug cartels do conduct business.

TacticalCoder 5y ago

> Everyone is surprised to find the government does shady stuff, but many of these operations are even acknowledged like Iran-Contra where the government sold arms to the embargoed Khomeini government to generate black money to fund the Contras. Another one, maybe the biggest known one, is when the US sent 12 bn to 14 bn in the form of 100 bills (yup, in bills) using a military plane to Iraq and these bills mostly all mysteriously vanished. 12 to 14... billions. At least 1.4 bn was found to have been stolen and stored in a bunker in... Lebanon (I don't remember if it was just located or seized). Overall an estimated 9 bn are unaccounted for I think. (trying to insert the wikipedia and NY Times link to the story/stories but I get a "we have trouble processing your request, sorry" from HN) There were wire transfer to the tune of billions too. But the 100 bills shrink-wrapped and flew in a military plane: you cannot make that up. Shady stuff if any... EDIT: like Iran-Contra, I'm pretty sure in the future movies are going to be made about these $100 bills.

elefanten 5y ago
This comment begs for some sources and citations. Edit: I have a recollection of this incident but certainly not as mysteriously inexplicable and shady as you make it out. There was some context I've forgotten. Your story rings false.
- nsp 5y ago
  googling "US plane 100 dollar bills iraq" returns a plethora of news sources that corroborate https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/feb/08/usa.iraq1 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/feb/08/usa.iraq1
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
tigerBL00D 5y ago
To think that this money didn't end up financing insurgency is to be naive.
- 5y ago

guerrilla 5y ago

> Everyone is surprised to find the government does shady stuff I really don't understand how this is still possible with everyone having access to the Internet. They're pretty consistent [1]. It must be a bubble thing. 1. https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/us_atrocities.md https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/us_atrociti...

reedjosh 5y ago
Wow, thanks for that link.
ljf 5y ago
Man that has taken my breath away. I'm pretty aware of how terrible the west can be (and how we can lie about it) but the sheer volume there is immense.
- hnbad 5y ago
  Worth emphasizing, this isn't "the West", this is just the US. Not that other parts of "the West" don't warrant their own lists, but framing it this way unnecessarily cushions the blow.
  - ljf 5y ago
    True true, I'm from the UK and so I see us as complicit in some of this but yes the US seems to have a pretty good go at being awful to fellow humans.
    - l33t2328 5y ago
      You realize that list has events going back to the 1700’s, right? If you want to talk about countries that have a pretty good go at being awful to fellow humans and we get to go that far back, I don’t think the UK would have an insignificant list.
      - guerrilla 5y ago