In July 2013 an article appeared on line in TomDispatch that gave an up to date and chilling analysis of the unprecedented powers of the US Surveillance state. Itâs author, University of Wisconsin, Madison, professor of history Alfred McCoy, credits Edward Snowden for having revealed todayâs reality. And McCoy adds his perspective of the intriguing history that led up to this point - and he makes a few predictions as to what to expect in the near future. That article in TomDispatch caught the attention of radio host, writer and Middle East expert Jeff Blankfort who allows me to broadcast the highlights of his interview with Professor McCoy.
McCoy studied Southeast Asian history at Yale University before coming to Madison. In 1971 he was commissioned to write a book on the opium trade in Laos and discovered that the French equivalent to the CIA had financed its covert operations from the control of the Indochina drug trade. He also found evidence that after the US replaced the French the CIA took over the drug trade. Not surprisingly the CIA tried to block publication of the book The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia. But after three English editions and translation into nine foreign languages, this study is now regarded as the âclassicâ work on the global drug traffic.
Excerpts of a program produced by Jeff Blankfort, Takes On The World. (Also on this site)
Professor Alfred W. McCoy is the author of: The Politics Of Heroin (in 1972) and A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation from the Cold War to the War on Terror (published in 2006) A film based in part on that book, "Taxi to the Darkside," won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 2008. McCoyâs latest study of this topic, Torture and Impunity (Madison, 2012), explores the political and cultural dynamics of Americaâs post 9/11 debate over interrogation.
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