money laundering | PROBABLE CAUSE

As was doing research for the fifth book in my mystery series featuring Homicide Detective John Santana, I came across some interesting facts, which reinforced my believe that drugs have as much chance of being legalized as I do of becoming president. But my skepticism is based on something quite different than you might think.

Whenever those opposed to legalizing drugs are asked to defend their position, they often cite health concerns and moral, spiritual, and political reasons for their opposition. In some instances they’ll cite economic concerns, arguing that when compared to the social costs of drug abuse and addiction, government spending on drug control is minimal.

But there’s one economic argument for keeping drugs illegal that is rarely mentioned, and it has to do with the billions of dollars that are laundered through the global banking system every year.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates the amount of money laundered globally in one year to be 2 – 5% of global GDP, or $800 billion – $2 trillion US dollars. Senator Carl Levin estimates that “$500 billion to $1 trillion of international criminal proceeds are moved internationally and deposited into bank accounts annually.” Estimates place the dirty money flowing into U.S. coffers during the 1990s amounted at $3-$5.5 trillion.

According to a report prepared by James Petras, Professor of Sociology at Binghamton University, the dirty money flowing through the major U.S. banks far exceeds the net revenues of all the IT companies in the U.S. The yearly inflows also surpass all the net transfers by the major U.S. oil producers, military industries and airplane manufacturers.

The bottom line is that “without dirty money the U.S. economy would be totally unsustainable, living standards would plummet, the dollar would weaken, the available investment and loan capital would shrink and Washington would not be able to sustain its global empire.”

And here’s the bad news. Petras believes the amount and importance of laundered money is increasing.

Conservative economist Milton Friedman once said that, “if you look at the drug war from a purely economic point of view, the role of the government is to protect the drug cartel,”––and, I would add, by extension the banks that illegally launder their drug money.

So the next time someone asks you why we can’t legalize drugs forget the traditional arguments and tell them the truth. The world and U.S. economy and banking systems are dependent on keeping drugs illegal.

According to the law of karma, every human action––in thought, word, or deed––inevitably leads to results or consequences, positive or negative, depending upon the quality of the action. Karma is considered the means by which everyone becomes the architect of their own destiny.

When a Texas jury convicted former House Majority Leader Tom Delay Wednesday of money laundering, it was the first nail in the coffin of a political career marked by bullying and unethical behavior––bad karma.

Prosecutors accused DeLay of conspiring with two associates, John Colyandro and Jim Ellis, to use his Texas-based PAC to send $190,000 in corporate money to an arm of the Washington-based Republican National Committee. The RNC then sent the same amount to seven Texas House candidates.

Under Texas law, corporate money can’t go directly to political campaigns. Prosecutors claim the money helped Republicans take control of the Texas House. That enabled the GOP majority to push through a Delay-engineered congressional redistricting plan that sent more Texas Republicans to Congress in 2004––and strengthened DeLay’s political power.

The man once known as “Hot Tub Tom” because of his drinking and partying–– before his “born-again Christian conversion”––helped Newt Gingrich lead the 1994 Republican Revolution, which swept Democrats from power in both houses of Congress, and put Republicans in control of the House of Representatives for the first time in forty years.

Once in control, DeLay, Gingrich, and conservative activist Grover Norquist founded the infamous K Street Project in an effort to pressure Washington lobbying firms to hire only Republicans in top positions, and to reward loyal GOP lobbyists with access to influential officials. Delay earned his nickname, “The Hammer,” for his enforcement of party discipline and retribution against those who didn’t support the legislative agenda of President George W. Bush. All sounds pretty Christian to me.

DeLay faces up to life in prison on the money laundering conviction, and two to twenty years for the charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering. He resigned from Congress in 2006 due to the indictment and a separate federal investigation into his ties to former disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a probe that ended without any charges.

Of course, Tom Delay’s conviction just marks the beginning of an appeals process that will seek to clear his name. One can only hope that the process takes years and whatever is left of his money and reputation.