Honest Agents

Narcs on the Web.

It's no shock to stumble on an Internet forum devoted to uncovering government conspiracies, but you don't generally expect to find that the contributors are actual agents of the government. At DEA Watch (members.aol.com/deawatch/daily.htm), anonymous narcs gather to share rather disturbing musings on politics and public policy. Typical fare includes suggestions for solving the U.S. Army's recruitment problems ("there are a lot of black street preachers who can be commissioned Major or Lieutenant Colonel Chaplains") and allegations about secret deals between the World Bank and illegal Israeli settlers.

What sets DEA Watch apart from the average crackpot site is the insight it offers into the minds of some of the officials commissioned to protect us from the scourge of drugs. Posters don't even make a perfunctory effort to conceal or deny the fact that the drug war as an industry depends upon a robust black market in drugs. One contributor writes: "Should cocaine and all of its related narcotics disappear, our nation, and others, could suffer a serious economic recession." Another responds: "we need to get behind President Bush's goal of outlawing all, repeat all, forms and reasons for abortion….The illegal abortion industry will do for DEA what cocaine and heroin never could."

When not arguing about what to prohibit next, the site's contributors often ponder life after the DEA. Though some ex-agents are now considered fugitives--their dossiers are compiled at dea.gov/fugitives/fuglist.htm--most apparently settle into mundane careers as privately employed snitches and invigilators. "The great majority of our retirees," a contributor reports, "continue…doing PI work following wayward husbands, snooping on insurance scammers, and driving limos on grad night for concerned parents."?