The September 11, 2001 attacks, according to Taliban leaders cited in outlets like Al Jazeera, were partly motivated by Israel’s colonial dispossession of Palestinians, perceived as an affront backed by the United States.

This global connection illustrates how the Zionist occupation not only impacts Palestine but has fueled resentment across the Muslim world, contributing to conflicts that the West exploits to justify its militarism. The complicity of the United States and Great Britain, which shield Israel at the UN Security Council, has allowed these policies to persist without consequences, entrenching a global order that prioritizes imperial dominance over justice.

The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, under the auspices of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, marked the onset of a colonial Zionist project that, backed by the United States and Great Britain, has unleashed a campaign of dispossession, violence, and structural racism against the Palestinian people and others in the Middle East. This foundational act, which promised a Jewish “national home” in Palestine without consulting its Arab inhabitants, was an imposition of the British mandate that disregarded Palestinian self-determination. Supported by Western powers, this project laid the groundwork for an occupation that has perpetuated the suffering of millions, with Israel serving as a strategic outpost for Western geopolitical control in the region.

John Mearsheimer, in The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, details how the United States has sustained Israel through billions in military aid and unconditional political support, establishing it as an instrument of dominance in the Middle East. This alliance has enabled Israel to perpetrate acts of state terrorism, such as the 1948 Deir Yassin massacre, where Zionist paramilitary groups murdered hundreds of Palestinian civilians to instill terror and force the Nakba, the mass exodus of over 700,000 Palestinians. British complicity, which armed and trained these militias during the Mandate, was critical, but U.S. corruption fully manifested in wars like the 2003 Iraq invasion, designed to destabilize the region and bolster Israel’s hegemony by eliminating a key adversary, Saddam Hussein, under false pretexts of weapons of mass destruction.

Israeli society, steeped in a Zionist ideology that promotes Jewish supremacy, is not a passive actor but a fundamental pillar of this oppression. Laws like the 2018 Jewish Nation-State Law institutionalize discrimination, relegating Arab citizens to second-class status and justifying the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. This racist mindset drives the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank, where armed settlers, protected by the military, burn olive groves, destroy villages, and attack civilians with impunity. Israeli media and education reinforce narratives that dehumanize Arabs, framing their suffering as a necessary sacrifice for Jewish “security,” perpetuating a cycle of structural violence.

Benjamin Netanyahu, while central to escalating aggression, is not the sole architect of this crisis. His predecessors, from David Ben-Gurion to Ariel Sharon, laid the foundations for the “Greater Israel” project, an expansionist vision seeking to annex Palestinian, Syrian, Lebanese, and Jordanian territories. Netanyahu, plagued by corruption charges, has exploited war and the “national security” narrative to consolidate power, but his leadership reflects the continuity of a Zionist policy rooted in Israeli society. The massive bombings in Gaza, which have killed tens of thousands of civilians since 2008 according to Amnesty International, are merely a recent manifestation of this terror strategy, backed by U.S. weaponry.

U.S. corruption extends beyond military aid to Israel and is evident in its global war agenda, designed to serve Zionist interests. The 2003 Iraq invasion, driven by neoconservatives with strong ties to the Israel lobby, destabilized the Middle East, creating chaos that strengthened Israel’s strategic position by neutralizing a hostile regime. This war, based on fabricated claims of chemical weapons, cost millions of Iraqi lives and unleashed regional instability that Israel has exploited to justify its expansion. Mearsheimer argues that the Israel lobby in Washington has shaped U.S. foreign policy, ensuring that regional wars advance Tel Aviv’s objectives.

Arab states like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the signatories of the 2020 Abraham Accords have betrayed the Palestinian cause by prioritizing alliances with Israel and the United States. These Washington-brokered accords normalized relations with Israel, allowing it to act without fear of regional repercussions. This complicity has facilitated the occupation and ethnic cleansing, while corrupt Arab governments, driven by economic and political interests, ignore Palestinian suffering. This elite betrayal contrasts with the solidarity of Arab peoples, who continue to support Palestinian resistance.

The Palestinian suffering lies at the heart of this tragedy. Since the Nakba, over 700,000 Palestinians were displaced, and their descendants live as refugees in dire poverty. In Gaza, Israel’s blockade since 2006 has created a humanitarian crisis, with restricted access to food, water, and medicine. Air and ground attacks, framed as “defense,” have destroyed essential infrastructure, leaving the population in despair. Organizations like Human Rights Watch have documented these violations as war crimes, yet Israel’s impunity persists due to Western support.

Israeli terrorism extends beyond Palestine, impacting the peoples of Lebanon, Syria, and beyond. The 1982 Lebanon invasion, supported by the United States, left thousands of civilians dead, including the Sabra and Shatila massacres, where Israel-allied militias killed hundreds of Palestinians under the Israeli army’s supervision. Recent bombings in Syria and the occupation of the Golan reflect the “Greater Israel” ambition, executed with U.S. weaponry and Britain’s complicit silence. These regional aggressions position Israel as a threat not only to Palestinians but to global stability.

The international community has failed to hold Israel accountable, reflecting the systemic corruption of a U.S.- and British-led world order. Israeli society, far from being a victim, is an active accomplice in these policies, fueled by a racist ideology that justifies genocide and expansion. The suffering of Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians, and other peoples victimized by Zionism demands a global response to dismantle this apartheid regime and its imperial backers, prioritizing justice and liberation.

The Trump administration labeled drug cartels as terrorists while cutting deals with their leaders (El Mayo, El Chapo, and his sons) to snitch on corrupt Mexican politicians—especially from Morena. But the truth is, the idea of Mexican cartels was cooked up by the U.S. government in the 1980s to cover up its deliberate promotion of Mexican drug trafficking. Operators tied to Mexico’s Federal Security Directorate (like Juan Esparragoza, “El Azul”) worked with the CIA to fund Nicaragua’s Contras. Now, a new book reveals that global drug trafficking is controlled at an even higher level by America’s elite Delta Force.

In December 2020, a deer hunter stumbled upon two bullet-riddled bodies in a wooded corner of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the U.S.’s largest military base and home to the secretive Delta Force. The dead were Master Sergeant William “Billy” Lavigne, a Delta Force operator with over a dozen classified missions, and Chief Warrant Officer Timothy Dumas, a Special Forces logistics guy. Both were neck-deep in drug trafficking, according to The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces by Seth Harp, an Iraq War vet and investigative journalist. Backed by interviews, declassified documents, police records, and court transcripts, the book exposes a scandal that shakes the core of America’s narrative about its elite military and the so-called “war on drugs.” Through a critical look at Harp’s public interviews, news reports, and available records, this essay uncovers Delta Force’s role in global drug trafficking, its ties to Mexican cartels, and the CIA’s murky role in this criminal scheme, questioning the legitimacy of U.S. drug policy.

Delta Force and Drug Trafficking: A Criminal Network at the Heart of the Military

Delta Force, the U.S. Army’s most elite special operations unit, is known for covert assassinations and secret missions in war zones. But The Fort Bragg Cartel reveals that some of its members have used their skills, contacts, and military resources to dive into large-scale drug trafficking. Harp documents at least 14 cases in the past five years of Fort Bragg-trained soldiers, including Delta Force operators, who were arrested, caught, or killed in drug-related activities, often working with Mexican cartels like Los Zetas.

The case of Billy Lavigne is a prime example. A traumatized vet with multiple deployments, Lavigne wasn’t just using crack—he was trafficking cocaine and meth at Fort Bragg. His death, alongside Timothy Dumas, who smuggled drugs and weapons from overseas during covert missions, points to a broader web of corruption. Harp describes how Dumas wrote a blackmail letter threatening to expose criminality in the Special Forces in Afghanistan, suggesting drug trafficking wasn’t just a side hustle but part of a systemic structure—maybe even a core function of Delta Force. This network included ex-DEA agents like Freddie Wayne Huff, who became a key cocaine trafficker in the southeastern U.S., linking Fort Bragg to Los Zetas.

In an August 14, 2025, Democracy Now! interview, Harp said, “This isn’t about a few bad apples. We’re talking about a culture of impunity in the Special Forces, where no oversight and the trauma of endless wars create a breeding ground for organized crime.” This culture is worsened by the routine use of amphetamines, opioids, and anti-anxiety meds prescribed to soldiers to keep them battle-ready, fueling addiction and easing their slide into the drug trade.

Ties to Mexican Cartels: Los Zetas and Fort Bragg Training

One of Harp’s most disturbing findings is the link between Fort Bragg and Los Zetas, a notoriously brutal Mexican cartel. Los Zetas started as an elite Mexican army unit, the Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales (GAFE), trained at Fort Bragg and Fort Benning in the 1990s as part of a U.S.-Mexico program to fight drug trafficking. But by the early 2000s, many deserted to form Los Zetas, first as the Gulf Cartel’s enforcers, then as an independent cartel.

Harp details how this relationship didn’t end with their desertion. Fort Bragg soldiers, including Delta Force members, kept buying drugs directly from Los Zetas, maintaining military ties and communication. Sharon Shivley, a local loan shark, told Harp, “They were buying drugs from the cartel. People tied to Mexicans who’ll kill you if you don’t pay.” This wasn’t just about rogue soldiers—it involved Fort Bragg’s entire military apparatus. The U.S. training created Los Zetas to supply drugs to its own elite forces. In a Lawfare interview on August 12, 2025, Harp noted, “It’s ironic that while Trump’s government talks about sending special forces to Mexico to fight cartels, some of those same soldiers are working with them.”

This symbiotic relationship between Fort Bragg and Los Zetas isn’t a one-off—it’s a reflection of the contradictions in U.S. drug policy. While the DEA and other agencies spend billions intercepting shipments, Special Forces, trained to operate in the shadows, have found convenient partners in the cartels for their illegal activities.

The CIA’s Shadow: Complicity and Cover-Up

The CIA’s ties to drug trafficking aren’t new. Since the 1970s, works like Alfred McCoy’s The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia and the 1989 Kerry Report have shown how the agency has tolerated or even enabled drug trafficking by allies in proxy wars, from Vietnam to Nicaragua. The Fort Bragg Cartel adds a new chapter, suggesting the CIA, working alongside Delta Force in the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), has turned a blind eye to drug trafficking to prioritize geopolitical goals.

Harp cites the case of Freddie Huff, a former DEA agent at the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC), who befriended a CIA analyst, Karl Culberson. Before dying of cancer, Culberson told Huff, “What you’re doing is noble, but they want the drugs here. You’re a pawn.” This suggests the flow of drugs into the U.S. isn’t just a policy failure but a deliberate outcome of high-level decisions. According to Harp, the CIA has prioritized intelligence-gathering and covert ops over stopping drug trafficking, especially in Afghanistan, where the U.S.-backed Hamid Karzai government ran a “massive cartel” producing most of the world’s illicit opium.

In a New America interview on August 12, 2025, Harp explained, “The CIA and JSOC operate with so little oversight they’ve become a state within a state. This lets activities like drug trafficking thrive under the guise of national security.” The lack of transparency makes it hard to pin down the CIA’s exact complicity, but historical patterns and Harp’s evidence point to a tacit tolerance of drug trafficking as a lesser evil for strategic aims.

The Farce of the War on Drugs

Harp’s investigation doesn’t just expose corruption within Delta Force and its ties to cartels and the CIA—it questions the legitimacy of the U.S. “war on drugs.” Launched in the 1970s, this policy has burned through over a trillion dollars, jailed millions, and fueled untold violence in Latin America, without significantly cutting drug use or trafficking. Meanwhile, evidence suggests the U.S. government, through its elite forces and intelligence agencies, has fueled the very problem it claims to fight.

Harp argues that America’s endless wars, especially in Afghanistan, have worsened drug trafficking. During the 20-year occupation, Afghanistan became the world’s biggest narco-state, with warlords and corrupt officials on the U.S. payroll overseeing opium production. Delta Force soldiers, returning home, brought not just trauma but connections to overseas trafficking networks. This “blowback” from endless wars reminds us that U.S. military and drug policies are deeply intertwined—and deeply flawed.

In The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (July 22, 2025), Harp described the psychological toll: “The trauma of Delta operators, combined with massive prescriptions of narcotics for pain and PTSD, created a perfect storm for addiction and crime.” This doesn’t just hit soldiers—it devastates nearby communities like Fayetteville, where overdoses and drug-related killings have skyrocketed.

Conclusion: A Call for Transparency and Reform

The Fort Bragg Cartel isn’t just a tale of individual crimes—it’s a takedown of a system that allows impunity in the name of national security. Delta Force’s role in drug trafficking, its collaboration with cartels like Los Zetas, and the CIA’s quiet complicity reveal an ugly truth: the war on drugs is, in many ways, a sham. While the U.S. pours resources into military and anti-drug operations, its own institutions feed the problem they claim to solve.

Harp, in his Lawfare interview, called for action: “We need more transparency in JSOC and the CIA. Without accountability, these units will keep being a breeding ground for corruption.” This essay joins that call, urging a critical rethink of U.S. drug policy. Instead of sending special forces to fight cartels abroad, the government should look inward, tackle corruption in its ranks, and prioritize rehab for veterans like Lavigne, broken by endless wars.

The Fort Bragg story reminds us that wars—whether on terror or drugs—always come home. As Harp said on Democracy Now!, “The human cost of these policies isn’t just overseas—it’s in American communities ravaged by addiction and violence.” It’s time for the U.S. to face this truth and dismantle the structures perpetuating this cycle of hypocrisy and destruction.

Sources:

• Harp, Seth. The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces. Viking, 2025.
• “The Fort Bragg Cartel: Book Exposes U.S. Special Forces’ Involvement in Drug Trafficking & Murder.” Democracy Now!, August 14, 2025.
• “How Fort Bragg special operations troops created a drug cartel.” Reason, August 12, 2025.
• “Inside Fort Bragg’s drug crisis.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 22, 2025.
• “Lawfare Daily: ‘The Fort Bragg Cartel’ with Seth Harp.” Lawfare, August 12, 2025.
• “The Fort Bragg Cartel: How Seth Harp Uncovered Drug Trafficking in the U.S. Military.” New America, August 12, 2025.
• “Inside Fort Bragg’s Secret Cartel and Unsolved Murders: Book Excerpt.” Rolling Stone, July 28, 2025.

Mexico is experiencing a disturbing contradiction: intentional homicides have decreased, but forced disappearances are increasing.

Official data confirm a reduction in violent deaths of up to 25.8% between 2024 and 2025, falling from 86.9 to 64.5 victims per day. However, disappearances have increased by 9% over the same period, with 125,803 cases recorded through March 2025, according to the National Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons (RNPDNO). This disparity raises questions about the true nature of violence in the country.

Civil organizations such as Causa en Común warn that the drop in homicides could be misleading. The reclassification of crimes, such as registering intentional homicides as negligent homicides or “other crimes against life,” inflates the statistics on disappearances. In Mexico City, for example, homicides fell 40% between 2019 and 2024, but disappearances increased by an alarming 200%.

The hypothesis that cartels hide murders through cremations or drug graves is gaining strength. Since the bodies are not found, the deaths are not registered as homicides, but as disappearances, which could explain the discrepancy. This practice, although not quantified for 2024-2025, is a well-known method used by criminal groups to evade justice.

The arrival of Donald Trump to the US presidency in 2025 has added a new factor. His declaration of Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations and his crackdown on fentanyl have put pressure on these groups, who may be turning to more discreet methods, such as disappearances, to maintain control without attracting attention.

Trump’s “America First” policy, with 25% tariffs and the “Remain in Mexico” program, strains relations with Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration, which insists on cooperation without interference. Although Mexico has intensified drug seizures, the flow of weapons from the United States continues to fuel cartel violence.

This trend suggests that the reduction in homicides does not necessarily reflect a safer country. The disappearances, which are growing at a rate of 57.6 cases per day, are a reminder that violence transforms, not disappears. The families of the victims, trapped in uncertainty, are the human face of this crisis.

International pressure from the United States may be pushing the cartels toward more covert practices, but the underlying problem persists: drug demand in the north and arms trafficking to the south. Without addressing these causes, the disappearances will continue to be the shadow of a supposed improvement in security.