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CIA Using Viagra to Bribe Afghan Warlords
Friday, December 26, 2008 2:17 PM
By: Dave Eberhart
The CIA has developed a novel incentive to gain cooperation and support in Taliban-plagued Afghanistan - handing out libido-enhancing Viagra pills to targeted village patriarchs, according to a report in the Washington Post.
“Whatever it takes to make friends and influence people - whether it’s building a school or handing out Viagra,” said one agency operative with multiple tours in that war torn country.
Standard incentives - such as money, jewelry and cars - are too ostentatious, noted another operative to the Post.
“If you give an asset $1,000, he’ll go out and buy the shiniest junk he can find, and it will be apparent that he has suddenly come into a lot of money from someone,” said Jamie Smith, a veteran of CIA covert operations in Afghanistan. “Even if he doesn’t get killed, he becomes ineffective as an informant because everyone knows where he got it.”
The key, Smith said, is to find a way to meet the informant’s personal needs in a way that keeps him firmly on your side but leaves little or no visible trace.
“You’re trying to bridge a gap between people living in the 18th century and people coming in from the 21st century,” Smith said, “so you look for those common things in the form of material aid that motivate people everywhere.”
Enter Viagra.
Sexual performance drugs are generally unavailable in the remote areas where the agency’s teams operate. Viagra, however, has been available in Kabul markets for a number of years and enjoys a relatively wide reputation.
“You didn’t hand it out to younger guys, but it could be a silver bullet to make connections to the older ones,” said one retired operative familiar with the drug’s use in Afghanistan.
Not everyone in the deep Afghanistan outback, however, is intimate with the little blue pill. According to the report, this has led to some inspired educational talks with the target - taking pains not to offend their hosts’ religious sensitivities.
But once the ground is broken, the results have been surprising.
One operative told the Post of a very satisfied customer who subsequently “allowed us to do whatever we wanted in his area.”
© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
Is there no end to the arrogance of our elected officials? Having assisted in foisting Rod Blagojevich on the voters of Illinois, the Democrats in Springfield have refused to strip him of the power to appoint a new Senator for fear that they might lose a special election, as voters seethe over Blagojevich's corruption. Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan refused to allow passage of legislation mandating a special election, insisting that Obama's replacement be chosen by the governor — however corrupt he may be.
Dec 23, 9:25 PM (ET)Click here.
HONOLULU (AP) - President-elect Barack Obama gathered with family and friends on Tuesday for a private memorial service for the beloved grandmother who helped raise him.
Madelyn Payne Dunham, known to her friends as “Toot”, died Nov. 2, two days before Obama won election to become the nation’s first African-American president. She was 86.
Obama did not speak to reporters at the small home that had been converted into the First Unitarian Church in the neighborhood of Nuuanu. Aides said Obama’s half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, and her husband, Konrad Ng, also were present.
Following the ceremony, Obama drove to cliffs east of Hononulu. He and about 20 members of his family climbed over a stone wall and down onto rocky ledges to scatter Dunham’s ashes at Lanai Lookout.
Obama earlier this year left flowers at the same cliffs, in memory of his mother.
| Nancy's Jet... Nancy Pelosi wasn't happy with the small private jet that comes with the House Speaker job, oh no; Madame Pelosi was aggravated that this little jet had to stop to refuel, so she ordered a Big Fat 200-seat jet that could get her back to California without stopping! Many, many legislators walked by and grinned with glee as Joe the Plumber informed everyone that Nancy's Big Fat Jet costs us, the hard working American taxpayers, thousands of dollars' worth of fuel every week. Since she only works three days a week, this gas-guzzling jet gets fueled and she flies home to California every week (to her palatial vineyard "cottage" in St. Helena, Napa Valley), costing the taxpayers about $60,000, one way! As Joe put it, 'Unfortunately we have to pay to bring her back on Monday night.' Cost to us: another $60,000. Folks, that is $480,000 per month and that is an annual cost to the taxpayers of $5,760,000. No wonder she complains about the cost of this war, It might cramp her style and she is stylin', on my back and yours. She has a lot of room to talk about the CEOs of the auto industry, don't you think? They certainly were wrong to demand such salaries, but look what she is costing the taxpayers (you and me)! I think of the military families in this country doing without, and this woman, who heads up the most do-nothing Congress in the history of this country, keeps fueling that jet while doing nothing. Madame Pelosi wants you and me to conserve our carbon footprint. She wants us to buy smaller cars and Obama wants us to get a bicycle pump and air up our tires. And they want to talk about Sarah Palin's rented campaign clothes....? Tax-paying Americans!............ Are you out there? My website at mynsp. Health analysis: Click here. Messageboard: http://s10.invisionfree.com/Friends3/index.php My new store: http://Favorite01Estore.com | |||
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| Subject: In God We Trust - Vote NBC was surprised? Here's your chance to let the media know where the people stand on our faith in God, as a nation. NBC is taking a poll on 'In God We Trust' to stay on our American currency. Please send this to every Christian you know so they can vote on this important subject. Please do it right away, before NBC takes this off the web page. Poll is still open so you can vote. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10103521/ This is not sent for discussion, if you agree forward it, if you don't, delete it. By me forwarding it, you know how I feel. I'll bet this was a surprise to NBC.
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – A pediatric neurosurgeon says a tumor he removed from the brain of a Colorado Springs infant contained a tiny foot and other partially formed body parts.
Dr. Paul Grabb said he operated on Sam Esquibel at Memorial Hospital for Children after an MRI showed a microscopic tumor on the newborn's brain. Sam was 3 days old and otherwise healthy.
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