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Mike Bonventre came through the oddest of circumstances to become an undercover crime fighter…and eventually, it led him to be a champion for communities wanting to rid their streets of drug activity and the violence and social ills that accompany it – and into the drug testing industry as well. Tonight, we speak with Mike about his story, and about the drug testing industry…how the system gets used and abused by those who manipulate it for their own profit.
 Drug Testing Exposed (click to order) About the guest:
 When his family’s business was sold in 1982, Mike Bonventre became an organized crime and drug consultant for Federal, State and County law enforcement agencies. In an effort to fight crime and drugs that plagued his and other community businesses, schools and families, he volunteered to act in the capacity of an undercover organized crime and narcotics operative from 1982 through 1985.
Mr. Bonventre’s three years as an undercover operative working with State Attorney’s, County Sheriff’s and the FBI from coast to coast resulted in many felony convictions and gave him a unique insight into the uses and effects of drugs and crime in the workplace, schools, family and community. Working with repeat offenders has provided Mr. Bonventre with knowledge of rehabilitation failures not seen from within the industry.
Today Mr. Bonventre is a nationally recognized certification trainer / drug consultant, expert witness for family court, probation, unenployment etc. and educational speaker. Mr. Bonventre has certified and consulted drug and alcohol collection providers ranging from small occupational health clinics, large metropolitan health centers to some of the nations largest Drug Free Corporations.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition is an international organization of criminal justice professionals who bear personal witness to the wasteful futility and harms of our current drug policies. Their experience on the front lines of the “war on drugs” has led them to call for a repeal of prohibition and its replacement with a tight system of legalized regulation, which will effectively cripple the violent cartels and street dealers who control the current illegal market.
Tonight, Mike and Mark have a thorough discussion with two seasoned law enforcement and intelligence professionals about the war on drugs and what its’ cost us. You do NOT want to miss this one.
About the guests:
From 1998 to 2011, Sean Dunagan served as an intelligence research specialist for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration. Over the course of his career within the DEA, he participated in dozens of federal drug investigations during tours of duty in Florida and Pennsylvania as well as internationally in Mexico and Guatemala.
From a law enforcement family where his father was the town police chief, Sean always knew he wanted to go into public service and to make a positive contribution to people’s lives. Within his first few years with the DEA, however, he began to doubt the efficacy of the drug war. It was during his time in Guatemala that he truly started to understand the grave effects of prohibition.
Sean holds a B.A. in philosophy and religion from Flagler College and a Master of Public Administration from Valdosta State University. He lives with his wife and four children in Washington, DC and works at a government accountability organization.
Russ Jones has been involved in the “War on Drugs” on various fronts for 30 years. For 10 of those years Russ worked as a San Jose, California narcotics detective. Later he was assigned to a DEA-run task force. As a government intelligence agent, Russ worked in Latin America observing narcotics trafficking during the Nicaragua-Contra conflict. In academia, he conducted studies of the impact of drug abuse on the crime index, wrote training programs for identifying the psychological and physiological symptoms of narcotics use, and developed rehabilitation programs designed specifically for the court-mandated client. He has traveled throughout the former Soviet Union and China to study their drug problems and policies. In the field of drug rehabilitation, Russ implemented and taught courses for various California and Texas counties, as well as for privately run programs. Russ is a court-recognized expert (on both the federal and state levels) in the field of narcotics enforcement.
His journey to the Soviet Union made it clear to Russ that the “War on Drugs” cannot be won. “Drugs were prevalent even behind the Iron Curtain,” he reports. “If a country, as controlling of its citizens as the Soviet Union was, still had such a large a problem – drug-dealing on Moscow street corners, meth labs in Leningrad – how could a free society such as ours handle the problem from a law-enforcement perspective?”
Show links:
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
From Narco News: “The fingerprints of the CIA have surfaced in a controversial federal criminal case pending in Chicago against Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla, an alleged kingpin in the Sinaloa “drug cartel.”
US government prosecutors filed pleadings in the case late last week seeking to invoke the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), a measure designed to assure national security information does not surface in public court proceedings.”
Tonight, Mike and Mark speak with Bill Conroy – author of this Narco News article – about this, Fast and Furious “firings” and much much more… plus, we wrap the show with a little of Mark singing.
About the Guest:
 Bill Conroy has worked as a reporter or editor for the past eighteen years at newspapers in Wisconsin, Arizona, Minnesota and Texas.
His investigative reporting over the past five years has focused on corruption and discrimination within federal law enforcement agencies.
He is also a journalist for Narco News. His investigative pieces, particularly those on the House of Death, have made him our most-favored guest.
Show links:
Court Pleadings Point to CIA Role in Alleged “Cartel” Immunity Deal
US Government Informant Helped Sinaloa Narcos Stay Out of Jail
Fast and Furious “lateral transference” http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-atf-guns-20110816,0,7676977.story
Fast and Furious tied to second violent crime
ATF Chief removed over border gun scandal
Delayed Justice – Inside Stories from America’s Best Cold Case Investigators.
“Delayed Justice belongs on the bookshelf of every criminal investigator and all those who enjoy reading the true crime genre. The authors have managed to present a fascinating array of ‘cold cases’ while at the same time providing the reader with a step-by-step methodology on how to solve them. It is indeed rare for one book to entertain and educate. Delayed Justice succeeds at both.”
—ROY HAZELWOOD
FBI (Ret.), Academy Group, Inc.
Tonight, Mike and Mark are joined by authors Jack and Mary Branson, who have put together this brilliant book on Cold Cases. Forget what you see on TV – this here is the real deal. PLUS: Mike Levine’s official theory on why ex-wives are more effective than profilers.
About the guests:
Jack Branson, a retired special agent with the US Department of the Treasury, is now the head of Branson & Associates, a private investigation firm. He has also written a novel, Terminal Justice.
Mary Branson is a freelance writer and the president of AptWord, Inc., a literary agency. She is the author of many books, including (with Jack Branson) Murder in Mayberry and Cutting Myself in Half.
In light of the now decade-long war in Afghanistan, and the rapid-fire political and societal changes sweeping through the world, it helps to understand how we got here… what forces played a part in setting it up – and continue to exert their influence to this day.
 Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald have been writing and researching the subject for over 30 years. Their valuable insight – not just with regard to the situation on the ground, but the political machinations and power players behind the scenes – sheds a sorely-needed light on these subjects.
Tonight, Mike and Mark talk with them about this, propaganda, the media and more.
About the guests:
Gould & Fitzgerald have been involved in the Afghan debate for over thirty years. Their books, Invisible History: Afghanistan’s Untold Story (2009) and Crossing Zero – The AfPak War at the Turning Point of American Empire (2011) have been praised internationally by numerous news, foreign policy and military experts.
Their involvement in Afghanistan began in 1981 when they were the first journalists to gain access through diplomatic channels at the United Nations following the expulsion of 1135 western journalists one month after the Soviet invasion. Contracted to CBS news, they found a stark contrast to the picture that was playing on the evening news. In 1983 they invited Roger Fisher, director of the Harvard Negotiation Project to return with them to assess the chances of getting the Soviets to leave Afghanistan. Contracted to ABC Nightline, Roger was told by the Soviets that they wanted to go home. Nightline skewed the story away from negotiation. Over the years they saw efforts to negotiate a resolution in Afghanistan consistently overruled by forces who always managed to undermine peaceful solutions. Cold War journalism still haunts the Afghan story to this day.
You can read a whole bunch of their brilliant work at their website – http://invisiblehistory.com/
 During its long withdrawal from South Vietnam, the U.S. military experienced a serious crisis in morale. Chronic indiscipline, illegal drug use, and racial militancy all contributed to trouble within the ranks. But most chilling of all was the advent of a new phenomenon: large numbers of young enlisted men turning their weapons on their superiors. The practice was known as ”fragging,” a reference to the fragmentation hand grenades often used in these assaults.
Between 1968 and 1973, dozens of Americans and Vietnamese were murdered in fragging incidents, but only a handful of their killers were ever brought to justice.
Tonight, Mike and Mark speak with author George Lepre about this incredibly well-researched book.
PLUS
The Raw Story recently published a story about a NJ study that showed that “The use of confidential informants by New Jersey police leads to violations of civilians’ rights and botched investigations thanks to inconsistent polices and insufficient oversight.” As regular listeners know – this topic is a show favorite.
About the guest:
After several years in the U.S. Army, George Lepre is currently pursuing a graduate degree at the New School for Social Research. His first book, Himmler’s Bosnian Division, was the recipient of the Sydney Zebel History Award from Rutgers University.
As we said in the show – THANK YOU to those of you who supported WBAI and the Expert Witness Radio Show during the last fundraiser. If you didn’t – you still can by going here:
Support WBAI
How liberal IS the media? When does the press really fight for the truth? The answers, from someone who has been deep inside mainstream media – are “not” and “rarely”. His latest article, “The NYT’s Favor and Fear” – gives just one glaring example.
Tonight, Mike and Mark speak with Robert Parry about this and much much more. A conversation that covers deep history right up to the present – and gives a sobering look into how politics reaches deeper than just electioneering and rhetoric – but into the intelligence community itself.
About the guest:
 Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, was written with two of his sons, Sam and Nat, and can be ordered at neckdeepbook.com.
His two previous books, Secrecy & Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq and Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & ‘Project Truth’ are also available there.
His investigative journalism website, consortiumnews.com, is an incredibly important resource. Please visit the site, and support them any way you can.
The Consortium News stories we cover tonight:
“The NYT’s Favor and Fear”
From the archives: Interview with Judge Lawrence Walsh (mp3)
After 16 years on the lam, James “Whitey” Bulger – a notorious Irish mobster from Boston, who was number 2 on the FBI’s most-wanted list for over 14 years – has finally been captured by the FBI.
Tonight, Mike and Mark speak with noted author Richard Stratton, who has not only researched and written about Bulger, but actually met the man face-to-face when Bulger acted to save Richard from a Mafia hit contract. We’ll talk about Bulger’s history, his turning of FBI agents, the methods used to bring him in, whether or not he’s responsible for a whole string of armed robberies as the infamous “geezer bandit” in Orange County, California…and what secrets he still may have to tell about a thoroughly corrupt FBI that aided him in murdering his rivals.
About the guest:
Richard Stratton is the author of the underground cult classic novel, Smack Goddess. He was a writing fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 1970.
In 1982 he was convicted of conspiracy to import marijuana and hashish and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. He wrote Smack Goddess while incarcerated. He also became a jailhouse lawyer, had his sentence vacated and was released after serving eight years.
In 1989 he was awarded first prize for short fiction in the PEN American Prison Writing contest.
His work has been published in Story Magazine, Rolling Stone, High Times, Spin, Newsweek, Penthouse, Esquire and a number of literary quarterlies. He formerly edited Fortune News, the newspaper of the Fortune Society, a non-profit organization which aids prisoners and ex-offenders and advocates for criminal justice reform.
He worked as a producer and creative consultant on a number of HBO productions including Prisoners of the War on Drugs, The Execution Machine: Texas Death Row, Thug Life in D.C. and the dramatic prison series, Oz. He is qualified as an expert witness in state and federal courts in the areas of prison violence and prison culture, and has testified in capital prison murder cases in Texas, Oklahoma, Utah and California. He co-wrote and produced Slam, the movie, and co-edited Slam, the book. He is co-producer and co-writer of the feature film Whiteboys, and Executive Producer and show runner for Street Time, a dramatic television series.
Richard’s most recent novel is “Altered States of America.”, and his Piece “Super Rat” – about Whitey Bulger, was featured in the February 2009 issue of Playboy magazine. He has many works on his slate at the present time. One of which is the film Dog Eat Dog based on the novel by Eddie Bunker. Richard is the director and the screenplay writer. He resides in New York with his wife Antoinette and their son Ivan and his stepdaughter, Bianca. He has three children from a former marriage, Maxx, Dash and Sasha.
Tonight, we have an in-depth discussion about intelligence, training and recruitment of intelligence agents – in both analysis and operations – and the crucial subject of human intelligence.
Joining Mike and Mark is Dr. Mark Lowenthal – someone who has not only worked in the intelligence community, but in the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the 104th Congress (1995-97).
 Dr. Lowenthal is the author of Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy – which details how the intelligence community’s history, structure, procedures, and functions affect policy decisions. With his friendly prose, he demystifies a complicated and complex process. Rich with examples and anecdotes, Intelligence also includes bolded key terms, an acronym list, suggested readings and websites, and a list of major intelligence reviews or proposals.
The fourth edition highlights many crucial recent developments in reforms, ethics, and transnational issues, including:
-the actual implementation of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) reforms and their successes and strains;
-the ongoing legal, operational, and ethical issues raised by the war against terrorism;
-the growth of transnational issues, such as WMD;
-fresh coverage of analytic standards and analytic transformation;
-more in-depth explanation of geospatial, signal, and human intelligence;
-a new discussion of the lessons of 9/11;
- and, the growing politicization of intelligence in the United States, specifically through the declassified use of National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs).
It’s a fascinating conversation about where we’ve been, where we are and where we’re going.
About the guest:
 Dr. Mark M. Lowenthal, an internationally recognized expert on intelligence, is the President and CEO of the Intelligence & Security Academy, LLC, a national security education, training and consulting company.
From 2002-2005, Dr. Lowenthal served as the Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis and Production and also as the Vice Chairman for Evaluation on the National Intelligence Council. Prior to these duties, he served as Counselor to the Director of Central Intelligence. Dr. Lowenthal was the staff director of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the 104th Congress (1995-97), where he directed the committee’s study on the future of the Intelligence Community, IC21: The Intelligence Community in the 21st Century. He also served in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), as both an office director and a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, and has been the Senior Specialist in U.S. Foreign Policy at the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress.
Dr. Lowenthal has written extensively on intelligence and national security issues, including five books and over 90 articles or studies. His most recent book, Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy (Congressional Quarterly Press, 4th ed., 2009), has become the standard college and graduate school textbook on the subject. He has also written a fantasy novel, Crispan Magicker, published in 1978. Dr. Lowenthal is a frequent public commentator on intelligence issues. He has appeared on each of the major networks, the Lehrer Newshour and Charlie Rose; his op-eds have appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Dr. Lowenthal received his B.A. from Brooklyn College and his Ph.D. in history from Harvard University. He joined the adjunct faculty of the Johns Hopkins University in 2008, after 14 years as an adjunct at Columbia University. He is the Executive Director of the International Association for Intelligence Education and a Chairman Emeritus of the Intelligence Committee for AFCEA.
In 2005, Dr. Lowenthal was awarded the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the Intelligence Community’s highest award. In 2006, he received AFCEA’s Distinguished Service Award for service to the Intelligence Community. In 1988, Dr. Lowenthal was the Grand Champion on Jeopardy!, the television quiz show.
Links:
 “A Secret Life” – book referred to by Dr. Lowenthal in the broadcast.
Dr. Lowenthal’s appearances on Charlie Rose
 If you listen regularly, you know we’ve spent a great deal of time covering Mexico and the U.S. Border.
The killing along the northern border of Mexico now rivals the statistics in any war. Our leaders have decided on the building of a wall, almost 2,000 miles long, that has already cost our taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars (and still climbing.)
The border patrol –a no win brutal job–is our largest federal law enforcement agency with over 22,000 officers in the field.
All signs indicate that none of this is making any difference – nor will it ever.
Tonight, Mike and Mark speak with author and professor Lee Maril about the fence we’ve been building – both physical and virtual, along that border… its’ history, its’ effect (and lack thereof), and its’ future. Lee brings a wealth of both life experience and heavy-duty research to the subject.
Lee’s blog – leemaril.com – is a great resource for more information on the subject.
About the guest:
Lee Maril has been studying the U.S.-Mexico borderlands since moving there in 1975. His focus is the people who live along the border, their history, and the public problems they face on a daily basis. Most recently he is the author of The Fence: National Security, Public Safety, and Illegal Immigration along the U.S.-Mexico Border (Texas Tech University Press).  He is also the author of Patrolling Chaos: The U.S. Border Patrol in Deep South Texas , a related examination of the Border Patrol based upon two years of access to this federal law enforcement organization. He has authored six other books, all of which focus on some aspect of inequality, including race, class, and gender in the Southwest and the borderlands.
Lee has testified three times before the United States Congress. Most recently he testified at the Immigration field hearings in Dubuque, Iowa, based upon his border research. His research to date has been reflected in two bills initiated in the House of Representatives and one in the Senate. He has been interviewed on national television, on major market radio stations throughout the country, and his work has been cited in a variety of publications including The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Christian Science Monitor. Lee has also served as a consultant in both the public and the private sector.
Born and raised in Oklahoma, Lee Maril received a B.A. from Grinnell College, his M.A. at Indiana Univeristy-Bloomington, and his Ph.D. from Washington University (St. Louis). He taught at two borderland public universities and a borderland public vocational school for a total of 17 years. He currently is the Founding Director of the Center for Diversity and Inequality Research and Professor of Sociology at the Thomas Hariott School of Arts and Sciences, East Carolina University.
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Some Prior Guests David Moorhouse
Ray McGovern
Dr. Rick Nuccio
Renee Boje
Daniel Ellsberg
Richard Stratton
Gerard Colby
Greg Palast
Dennis Dayle
Ralph McGeehee
Stan Goff
Mark Levine
Vincent Bugliosi
J.H. Hatfield
Siobhan Reynolds
Charles Bowden
Katherine Gun
Bob Parry
Sandy Gonzalez
Sibel Edmonds
Ellen Mariani
Peter Lance
Senator Bob Graham
Cele Castillo
Tosh Plumlee
Donald Bains
Will Northrop
Aukai Collin
John Loftus
Joyce Reilly Von Kliest
Kelly O' Meara
John P. Flannery
Bill Conroy
Sander Hicks
Paul Williams
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