What the press didn’t learn from the last drug panic
An interesting read from Jack Shafer.

Link
Good stuff — also includes transcripts from the hearings this week.

[Thanks to Dan]

Among the DEA’s many faults is the extensive use of questionable or downright dishonest informants. (See my report on Bad Girl Michele Leonhart and the use of informant Andrew Chambers, who regularly lied on the witness stand.)
Here’s the latest.

The DEA first recruited [Essam] Magid as an informant in 1999 after an arrest on drug [...]

After only reporting the press release put out by the Sheriff yesterday (and getting some heat for it), Utah papers are starting to explore the other side:
In the Salt Lake Tribune:

Partygoers at a rave in Spanish Fork Canyon that was busted by police Saturday night say officers used brutal and excessive force to clear the [...]

So after Chavez kicked out the DEA from Venezuela (accusing them of spying and running drugs), the U.S. government retaliated by revoking Visas and threatening their “rating” with the U.S.
Now so-called religious leader Pat Robertson has weighed in to give the “Christian” solution:

“We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time [...]