Monthly Archives: July 2015

07/6/15

The Double-Edged Sword of Narco-Terrorism

© chelovek | 123RF.com

© chelovek | 123RF.com

When I began my first counseling job in the 1980s working at an out patient drug and alcohol center, I didn’t realize I would eventually be on the front line in the war against terrorism. I’ve never been in the military or the CIA. I’ve consistently worked in some capacity with people struggling with drug and alcohol-related problems. But the drug trade and terrorism have merged in a way that is truly disturbing. In effect, the drug trade has become both a weapon and a funding source for terrorists.

The term “narco-terrorism” has a surprisingly long history. It was coined back in 1983 by Peru’s then president Belaunde Terry to describe attacks by cocaine traffickers aligned with the Maoist rebel group the Shining Path against Peruvian police. These days it has a much broader application. Hamas, the Taliban, and even ISIS/ISIL have been implicated in either direct activity with the drug trade or in working with drug cartels by using their distribution routes to move people and weapons.

Alex Perry, writing for Newsweek, described several incidents in West Africa that involved cocaine being smuggled into Europe. In November of 2009 a Boeing 727 landed in eastern Mali with 10 tons of cocaine. After the cocaine was unloaded, the plane was torched.  There’s a photo of the burned plane in his article. He described an apparent cocaine smuggling operation that has a connection with the Guinea-Bissau military.  A colonel in the Malian secret service was quoted as saying there were convoys every Friday. Half the vehicles carried drugs and half provided security. “Assuming a light load of half a ton per truck, and a minimal schedule of one convoy a month, that’s still 48 tons of cocaine a year – worth around $1.8 billion in Europe.”

Perry commented that the story of cocaine helps to explain how Islamist groups in the Middle East and Africa earn billions of dollars each year. It also described how Europe’s appetite for cocaine disrupted the lives of hundreds of millions of others living in West Africa. He quoted a Western diplomat as saying: “This is about financing terrorism on Europe’s southern border, about drug money from Guinea-Bissau and Mali being used for a bomb in London.”

West Africa was rotten with drugs, its governments corrupt, unstable and unpopular, and much of this shaky edifice was supported by Western aid – a perfect environment for a purifying Islamist revolution. Mali was all the proof anyone needed that Africa’s nationalist leaders and their Western humanitarian backers were false prophets. The democracy held up by foreigners as an example to others was hollow, a narco state with a criminal kingpin in charge. And al-Qaida just happened to have a branch in northern Mali.

FARC, the Revolutionary Armed forces of Columbia, has been involved in the cocaine trade for decades. A paper by John Otis of the Wilson Center described how FARC grew from a rural-based rebel movement to one of the major players in the Columbian cocaine trade. “Massive drug profits help the FARC to buy weapons, uniforms, and supplies and to recruit fresh troops.” U.S. aid  to Columbia has contributed to success against FARC, but at least one official with Columbia’s national police estimated FARC still earns about $1 billion from the cocaine trade. Others dispute this figure as too high, yet still acknowledge that FARC is “one of the most powerful drug trafficking syndicates in Columbia, and perhaps the world.”

In 2013, The Mirror reported that FARC sold a large quantity of cocaine to al Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI) in North Africa. They were paid in cash and weapons looted in Libya. This branch of al Qaeda has a long history of involvement with cocaine traffickers, particularly in the protection racket described above that enabled drug runners to safely cross the Algerian Sahara. A recent sting operation led to the arrest of the former head of the navy in Guinea-Bissau. Believing he was talking with members, of FARC, he agreed to supply ground-to-air missiles, AK-47 rifles and grenade launchers for four tons of cocaine with a street value of £168 million ($260.2 million).

The Daily Star said in December of 2014 that the DEA has been recording meetings between AQMI and FARC to agree on prices and negotiate fees since 2010. Certain parts of AQMI have pledged allegiance to ISIS, “forming an Islamic terror network spreading through the Middle East into Europe.”  The African trafficking route typically starts in Guinea-Bissau, traveling north through the Sahara desert to Morocco, Algeria and Libya. Cocaine that reaches Morocco goes on to Spain. The Algerian shipments are split between Spain and France. The drug shipments passing through Libya go to the Cammora mafia in Naples and to Malta.

In January of 2015 a reporter for Vice News in Syria was shown some of the personal belongings taken from a ISIS leader who was shot and killed in a firefight.  Along with a military-styled Dell laptop was a bag of cocaine. The Kurdish militia commander suggested the dead ISIS commander was distributing small amount to his fighters. If true, this presents the first concrete evidence of drug use among ISIS fighters.

There have been persistent rumors and accusations of drug use in the ranks of Islamic State fighters. Leaders in the group have been said to drug their militants to give them greater courage as they go into battle. This has led to both successful, but also reckless and ineffective suicide attacks by fighters who can easily be shot down. Certain IS militants have been described as “drug-crazed,” and Kurds report having found mysterious pills, capsules, and syringes on living and dead IS fighters. And the slurred speech of the murderer behind the infamous beheadings of kidnapped Westerners, the man dubbed “Jihadi John,” has been explained as him being high on khat.

Paul Shinkman reported for U.S. News in  April of 2015 that FARC has developed disposable submarines, so-called “naro-submarines,” that can transport 8 tons of cargo more than 1,000 miles underwater. When the subs reach their destination, they are scuttled and sunk, making it almost impossible to identify and stop them. An admiral in the Columbian navy said: “These kind of artifacts can be used for whoever knows – weapons of mass destruction, illegal trafficking of migration, et cetera.” A report from a U.S. Army research office said the drug smugglers have invested millions of dollars to improve the quality of these submarines, even to the point of hiring Russian naval engineers. Top leaders in the U.S. military believe extremists groups like ISIS have plans to capitalize on these routes.

U.S. Coast Guard Vice Admiral Charles Michel has been warning about the threat posed by these submarines for several years. One of his concerns is whether FARC teams up with extremist group to transport money, drugs, weapons or even people. He said: “You can’t wait for this stuff to come to the United States. . . . Not only is that damaging our system, it gives away the tactical advantage that we have.”

07/3/15

Temptation Prevention

© Ion Chiosea | 123RF.com

© Ion Chiosea | 123RF.com

John Owen has been peeling back the layers of what Jesus meant in Matthew 26:41 when he cautioned us to not enter into temptation. Here he unpacks three things in what Jesus meant by the command to “watch and pray” that we don’t enter into temptation. We need to be aware of the dangers of temptation. We must realize we are powerless to keep ourselves from temptation; we cannot save ourselves. We have to have faith in God that he will preserve us.

“Always bear in mind the great danger that it is for any soul to enter into temptation.” Owen commented how it was regrettable how little regard many people have for their need to avoid temptation. If they can keep themselves from open sin, they are content. Yet they will regularly put themselves in the way of temptation. He said that someone who keeps bad company, will eventually become bad company! First such a person will abhor the thoughts and practices of those around them, ignoring the warnings to avoid such persons.

They argue they should be free to try everything—whether it comes from God or not. What was been the result of such an approach? Owen said he didn’t know anyone who had not suffered some consequence; even including the downfall of his or her faith. No one should pretend to fear sin if they don’t fear temptation. The two cannot be separated. Remember: “He hates not the fruit [of sin] who delights in the root [of temptation].”

“Sin will not seem great or heavy to someone who thinks the temptation is light or small.” When an individual decides to dabble in a temptation, sin is at the door. Rationalizing why they must enter into temptation has ruined innumerable believers. Owen said he did not have any hope for a more fruitful profession of faith among believers until there was a greater fear of temptation. Therefore, “the daily exercise of our thoughts with an apprehension of the great danger that lies in entering into temptation, is required of us.”

Secondly, we must keep in mind that we are powerless to keep and preserve ourselves from entering into temptation. So we must pray that we are kept from it, because we cannot rescue ourselves. There are so many ways we can enter into temptation—“the means of it so efficacious and powerful,—the entrances of it so deceitful, subtle, insensible, and plausible,”—that we cannot prevent or preserve ourselves from it. We must realize we are so weak and Satan so cunning and powerful, that if left to ourselves, we will not know that we are ensnared until it is too late—until “sin hath got ground in my heart.”

In God alone can we trust for our preservation and to him must we constantly turn. This will make us aware of our need to always commit ourselves to the care of God; to do nothing without asking God’s counsel. There is a double advantage to following this advice. The first is engaging the grace and compassion of God, who has called the fatherless and helpless to rest upon him. The second is its usefulness for preservation. The person who looks to God for help is both sensible of their danger and conscientious in the use of the means to preserve themselves.

The third thing meant by Christ in his admonition to watch and pray is that we must believe he will preserve us. “To believe that he will preserve us is a means of preservation.” We must come to believe that if we fall into temptation, that God will provide a means of escape. We should pray for what God has promised. James 1:5-7 says that God gives generously to all without reproach. “Let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose he will receive anything from the Lord.” This is also what Christ meant in telling us to watch and pray. If we act in faith on the promises of God for our preservation out of temptation, he will keep us and deliver us from the evil one.

If we separate these two commands, to watch and pray, we should first of all take prayer into consideration. “To pray that we enter not into temptation is a means to preserve us from it.” If we want to be minimally involved with temptation, we should pray continually to avoid it. As Paul encourages us in Ephesians 6:18 to pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication, let us keep watch so that we aren’t diverted by anything whatsoever.

Abide in prayer, and that expressly to this purpose, that we “enter not into temptation.” Let this be one part of our daily contending with God—that he would preserve our souls, and keep our hearts and our ways, that we be not entangled; that his good and wise providence will order our ways and affairs, that no pressing temptation befall us; that he would give us diligence, carefulness, and watchfulness over our own ways. So shall we be delivered when others are held with the cords of their own folly.

Once again as I read Owen’s thoughts here in chapter five from Of Temptation, I was reminded of the suggestions in Twelve Step recovery for coping with addiction. Minimizing the dangers of potential addiction triggers or avoiding people, places and things seems to correspond to the first point. The next two contain echoes of Steps One through Three. The parallels don’t equate his views on temptation and recovery, but they demonstrate the compatibility of the principles of recovery with Christian spirituality.

A digital copy of Owen’s work, Of Temptation, is available here.

07/1/15

A Childish Parlor Game

© Christophe Jossic | 123RF.com

© Christophe Jossic | 123RF.com

I’ve been uneasy with the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI) for a long time, especially after I read a few biographies about Carl Jung. Simply put, I find the man’s psychological theories bizarre and his lifestyle unethical. The Myers-Briggs is based upon Jung’s work on personality types, so my uneasiness with it stems from that association. However, the MBTI is so pervasive, I’ve found myself in circumstances over the years where I completed it once or twice. Sorry, I can’t tell you what my type was. But my astrological sign is Gemini. And from what I’ve come to learn, they both mean about the same thing—nothing much.

In The Cult of Personality Testing, Annie Murphy Paul said: “Perhaps no other personality test has achieved the cult status of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.” An article on Vox by Joseph Stromberg titled: Why the Myers-Briggs test is meaningless and one by Drake Baer for Business Insider noted how the Myers-Briggs has become entrenched within the business culture. Almost 90 Fortune 100 companies use it; over 2.5 million people a year take it. MBTI: Roots Unearthed said over 10,000 companies, 2,500 colleges and 200 USA government agencies (including the State Department, the CIA and the military) use the MBTI. Its been estimated to have been administered to 50 million people since the 1960s.

Murphy Paul noted that scientific psychology has taken issue with the Myers-Briggs from its beginning in the 1940s. And that skepticism has only grown stronger since then. She reported that one study, conducted by pro-MBTI supporters, found that more than half of individuals who took the Myers-Briggs were given a different type when they took the test a short while later. Another study discovered that individuals’ types could change even according to the time of day it was.

Even when an individual consistently attains the same type, that designation may not mean much. While there is limited scientific support for some of Myer’s basic dimensions (people do seem to differ in their relative levels of introversion or extroversion, for example), there is no evidence that her sixteen distinct types have any more validity than the twelve signs of the zodiac. And research has found little connection between Indicator types and real-life outcomes. There is scant evidence that MBTI results are useful in determining managerial effectiveness, helping to build teams, providing career counseling, enhancing insight into self or others, or any other of the myriad uses for which it is promoted.

Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, is concerned with “the cultlike devotion of many consultants and practitioners to it without [examining] the evidence.” In “Say Goodbye to MBTI, the Fad that Won’t Die,” he noted the MBTI test wasn’t reliable, valid or independent; nor was it comprehensive. These four standards are used in social sciences to assess whether the categories of the MBTI, and other social science assessment tools, are meaningful. He quoted Murphy Paul as saying that “the sixteen distinct types described by the Myers-Briggs have no scientific basis whatsoever.”

Drake Baer reported that Gardner and Martinko found few consistent relationships between type and managerial effectiveness. In “The Utility of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator,” David Pittenger did a review of the available literature on the MBTI and concluded: “it suggests that there is insufficient evidence to support the tenets of and claims about the utility of the test.” There are studies supporting the reliability and usefulness of the MBTI. But as Murphy Paul pointed out, many of these were published in specialty journals about the MBTI or Jung’s psychological types.

Many others appear in books produced by CPP, the Indicator’s distributor. And most research on the Myers-Briggs is concerned with exploring applications for the test — not with proving or refuting its basic legitimacy.

Anna North reported for The New York Times, that CPP makes $20 million annually on the Myers-Briggs and related products. She said part of the test’s influence comes from how it is marketed. Once someone becomes a certified test administrator (after paying $1,700 for a four-day training), they can promote themselves as a career coach to both individuals looking for work and companies that use the test. It then costs between $15 and $40 to take the test. And the only way to take the test is through a certified administrator. “In short, CPP makes money off the test taker and the test giver.” Lillian Cunningham reported for The Washington Post that in 2011, 2,500 Americans became certified to administer the Myers-Briggs.

When Jung published his book, Psychological Types, in 1921, he suggested that people fell roughly into two main types: perceivers and judgers. Perceivers could be further split into sensors or intuitors. Judgers could be separated into thinkers or feelers. All four types could then be further divided on attitudes into introverts and extraverts. Jung’s work on personality types was adapted into a test by Katherine Myers and her daughter Isabel Briggs, two Americans with no formal training in psychology. Briggs was a housewife with a deep interest in Jung. Myers wrote mystery novels before developing the prototype for the Myers-Briggs. They began testing their “Type Indicator” in 1942.

One of the major problems with the MBTI is that it uses behavioral binaries for its categories: extraverted or introverted; sensing or intuiting; thinking or feeling; and judging or perceiving. Additionally, its items are similarly constructed. For example, one item says: “You tend to sympathize with other people,” to which you answer either “yes” or “no.” Adam Grant was quoted in Vox as saying: These categories all create dichotomies, but the characteristics on either end are either independent from each other, or sometimes even go hand-in-hand.” David Pittenger showed that even data from the Myers-Briggs itself indicated most people were in the middle for any given category, but become pigeonholed in one or the others by the forced choice items.

Fittingly, the last word here on the Myers-Briggs comes from Jung himself, who said: “Every individual is an exception to the rule.” So trying to fit individuals into a rigid system was futile, according to Jung. Sticking labels on people at first sight, as is done with the MBTI, is “nothing but a childish parlor game.”