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Will the US Labor Movement Rise Again in Chicago? Or is this just a power play at the top? JoAnn Wypijewski details what's really at stake in the great showdown as some of labor's most powerful bosses threaten to quit the AFL-CIO. No-holds-barred profiles of the SIEU's Andy Stern, Hoffa of the Teamsters and the other "insurgents". Jeffrey St Clair tells the incredible saga of the $30 billion bailout of Boeing. How the scandal reached the White House and Don Rumsfeld screamed, Let the woman take the fall. Plus Alexander Cockburn on the Judy Miller story. Get the answers you're looking for in the latest subscriber-only edition of CounterPunch ... CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558 |
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Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by Kathy Kelly  Today's Stories July 15 / 17, 2005 Fred
Gardner Col.
Dan Smith Jason
Leopold Jack
Random Norman
Solomon George
Ochenski
July 14, 2005 Jeffrey
St. Clair Subcomandante
Marcos Dave
Lindorff Joshua
Frank Jude
Wanniski Dave
Zirin Kevin
Zeese Robert
Jensen Reza
Fiyouzat Carol
Norris Website
of the Day
July 13, 2005 Brian
Cloughley George
Galloway Carlos
Fierro Sarah
Knopp Norman
Solomon Mickey
Z. Jim
Minick Pat
Williams Andrew
N. Rubin Website
of the Day
July 12, 2005 Laith
al-Saud Kara
N. Tina William
A. Cook Jack
Bratich Amina
Mire Dick
J. Reavis Kevin
Zeese Paul
Craig Roberts Website
of the Day
July 9 / 11, 2005 Alexander
Cockburn Uri
Avnery Sheldon
Rampton Bill
Christison Robert
Fisk Stephen
Winspear Saul
Landau Behrooz
Ghamari Karl
Beitel Brian
Concannon, Jr. Fred
Gardner John
Whitlow Niranjan
Ramakrishnan Lila
Rajiva Laura
Carlsen Jackie
Corr Dave
Lindorff N.
D. Jayaprakash Seth
Sandronsky Norman
Madarasz Ben
Tripp Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
July 8, 2005 Paul
Craig Roberts Tariq
Ali Monica
Benderman Rick
Jahnkow Christopher
Brauchli Kim
Peterson Joshua
Frank Norman
Solomon Website
of the Day
July 7, 2005 Cockburn
/ St. Clair John
Walsh Mike
Marqusee Gilad
Atzmon Nicole
Colson Jack
Random Norman
Solomon Len
Colodny Cockburn
/ St. Clair
July 6, 2005 Elaine
Cassel Sean
Donahue Jeremy
R. Hammond Joshua
Frank Ali
Khan Michael
Dickinson Norman
Solomon Dave
Zirin Gary
Leupp Website
of the Day
July 5, 2005 Behrooz
Ghamari Elaine
Cassel Ron
Jacobs Bob
Libal Dr.
Peter Rost Mark
Engler Gideon
Levy Dave
Zirin Sameer
Dossani
July 2 / 4, 2005 Alexander
Cockburn Lenni
Brenner Laura
Carlsen James
Petras William
A. Cook Brian
Cloughley Saul
Landau Tom
Crumpacker Greg
Moses Dr.
Susan Block Fran
Shor Fred
Gardner Moshe
Adler David
Model Seth
Sandronsky Ramzy
Baroud Suzan
Mazur Ben
Tripp Justin
Taylor Brendan
Bailey Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
July 1, 2005 Christopher
Brauchli Pat
Williams Gary
Leupp John
Stauber John
Chuckman Justicia
y Paz Cockburn
/ St. Clair
June 30, 2005 Kathy
Kelly John
Stauber Virginia
Rodino Jason
Leopold Dave
Lindorff Greg
Moses Norman
Solomon Joshua
Frank Alexander
Cockburn
June 29, 2005 Mike
Schaefer Roger
Burbach / Paul Cantor Sharon
Smith Sam
Husseini John
Stauber Ahmad
Faruqui Linda
S. Heard Stew
Albert Ray
McGovern
June 28, 2005 Paul
Craig Roberts Landau
/ Hassen John
A. Murphy Mike
Whitney CounterPunch
News Service Dave
Zirin Dave
Lindorff Patrick
Cockburn
June 27, 2005 Paul
Craig Roberts Mike
Marqusee Mark
Scaramella Leigh
Saavedra Kathy
Kelly
June 25 / 26, 2005 Alexander
Cockburn Jennifer
Van Bergen George
Corsetti Mark
Chmiel / Andrew Wimmer Kevin
Zeese P.
Sainath John
Stauber Scott
Handleman Tom
Barry John
Walsh Justin
E.H. Smith Alan
Wallis Ben
Tripp Frederick
B. Hudson Poets'
Basement
June 24, 2005 Ray
McGovern Jorge
Mariscal Desiree
Hellegers Zeynep
Toufe Joshua
Frank David
Lindorff Michael
Neumann Website
of the Day
June 23, 2005 Christopher
Brauchli Clay
Conrad Standard
Schaefer P.
Sainath Mark
Engler Norman
Solomon Cockburn
/ St. Clair Kathy
Kelly
June 22, 2005 Kevin
Zeese William
S. Lind Arsalan
Iftikhar Dan
Nagengast David
Krieger Kathleen
& Bill Christison
June 21, 2005 Brian Cloughley Mike Whitney Dave Lindorff Mark Weisbrot Matthew R.
Simmons Dave Zirin Virginia Rodino Paul Craig
Roberts
June 20, 2005 Alan Maass Tariq Ali Mickey Z. William Blum Gary Leupp Jason Leopold Dave Lindorff Alan Maass Uri Avnery Website of
the Day
Hot Stories Alexander Cockburn Subcomandante
Marcos Norman Finkelstein Steve Niva Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams Steve
J.B. Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber Wendell
Berry CounterPunch
Wire Cindy
Corrie Gore Vidal Francis Boyle
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Weekend Edition Pot ShotsA Professional BustBy FRED GARDNER It was one of those stories that makes a big splash in the local media and then disappears. A warehouse in Hunters Point had been raided by the DEA in late March, "a sophisticated marijuana cultivation site" dismantled, 406 plants removed. There was no follow-up story because nobody ever got charged. The 67-year-old man who had leased the warehouse and was indeed growing marijuana there -Fred Demchuk- showed me around the denuded interior about a week after the bust and described what had gone down. Reporting the story could only go against his interests, I figured, so I didn't. I'd first met Fred in '96 at Prop 215 campaign headquarters (Dennis Peron's fabulous club on Market Street). We both used to come by around 5 p.m. on Fridays to hear Mike Mack play the piano and enjoy the end-of-the-work-week vibes. In recent years Fred and Mike were involved in a patients' union whose members are mostly low-income folks. The founders had given thought to launching a dispensary but lacked the necessary capital. Their Plan B was to rely on competent Fred Demchuk and other volunteers to grow or otherwise obtain cannabis for union members at the lowest possible price. Fred leased the small warehouse in April 2001. He cleaned and painted, then hired an experienced indoor grower to install lights, ballasts, an irrigation system, etc., and to oversee production. Fred handled security himself by moving into a small trailer outside the warehouse. On week-ends he'd visit his wife and family in San Jose. In due course Fred and the grower had a falling out. Allegations of theft were made, but not to the police. The grower departed and Fred took over the operation. He had never grown indoors before (and only once outdoors, in 1976, on a very small scale) but he'd been looking over the grower's shoulder and learned about pH and what goes into the nutrient solution. "He was doing things wrong," Fred said in retrospect. "I took over in the midst of a dying crop and somehow turned it around. We've been able to sell everything that we grow. Everything. Everything we grew was sticky. Even the cops, when they were taking the stuff out, said man this stuff is really sticky." You know how growers talk... "They were beautiful. It broke my heart to see 'em go... Some were ready to harvest, some were three weeks into bloom.. We used two lights per table. That was our secret of success: photosynthesis you couldn't believe! This whole room was up to here, almost ready to be harvested..." The confiscated crop was the one the union was counting on to repay their loans and come out ahead for once. "We've never been able to make a profit at this place," according Fred. "It costs $3500 a month to rent and another $2000 at least for the electricity." Fred expected to get one ounce per plant -a pound to a pound and a half per table. There were 12 tables. He was growing on a 90-day cycle -a month of vegetative growth followed by two months of blooming. "We'd run out of money at the end of the cycle," said Fred. "It might be a month before we could afford to buy clones again." The buds were dried and sold to union members for $200/ounce at twice-monthly meetings called "jubilees." Fred described the members as "basically people who can't afford $400 at a club. I can honestly say we provided it at cost because we didn't make a friggin' dime. If I had I wouldn't be living in a trailer and I wouldn't have 240,000 miles on the car I'm driving. This is a break-even operation." The raiders had taken lights and ballasts (32 each at $300/pair = $90,000 worth of equipment, according to Fred). They left the tables, each containing 25 one-gallon pots with cleanly lopped-off stumps about four inches high. Each plant had received water and nutrients via thin black tubing from sprinkler heads coming off a 2-ich riser from a 1-inch PVC pipe. The growing medium was rock wool. Netting strung above the table had supported buds that, at the time of the raid, had been forming for three weeks. "Some people use a spring attached to a device up here to hold the branch up," said Fred. "Trellis works just as well... We had a system where you could irrigate all the plants from one pump system. They didn't take the pumps." Busted along with Fred, was a 31-year old Navy vet disabled by severe migraines. Fred estimated the raiding party at "twenty or more -state, county, there must have been four or five agencies, led by four DEA agents. They came in with guns drawn, but they didn't put them to our heads or throw us to the floor. They handcuffed us but they didn't curse at us. They were professionals. In fact, I give them an outstanding. I've done enough of these operations myself in the military to know that when you go through the door you've got to have absolute fire control because somebody could pull off a stray round and hit a friendly or hit a civilian. Two: you've got to have flawless intelligence going in. And number three, execution has to be flawless as well. When you come in and take somebody down you don't have to shout at them, you don't have to push them to the ground. A gun in the face is plenty, believe me. They didn't even do that, they were professional enough to lower them." Fred said the turning point came when quickly. "They asked me if I had a weapon on the site and I said, 'Oh yes, I do, I have my navy officer's dress sword.'" From the time they saw the sword, Fred said, "the officers treated us even less unfriendly." The sword had been awarded to him at Annapolis for excellence in engineering. He got it out, inspected the blade, twirled it snappily, and sheathed it. Fred entered the Navy in 1956 as an enlisted man, then aspired to become an officer. Rep. John Conyers backed him and in 1957 he entered the Naval Academy. Because he read, spoke, and wrote Russian (as the son of Ukranian immigrants from Detroit) and already had experience in submarines, Fred "got asked to participate in some special activities," and didn't graduate with the class of '61. He retired in 1972. "All my friends and all my operations have been with submarines and SEALs," he says. "Matter of fact, one of my best friends, George Worthington, is head of worldwide operations for the SEALs." Fred said he'd recently called Worthington seeking "help for one of our brethren who'd got in trouble with his CO -a SEAL. But George didn't want me to get involved with it and I said 'okay.'" Fred said he knew several other admirals and politically powerful men from his Navy days. "John McCain and Chuck Poindexter were in the class of '58, and I got to know them by accident. Stepping on their shoes. I had to polish McCain's shoes for three weeks and Poindexter's for a month. Never thought I would ever hear from those two guys again, to be honest with you. I've got Poindexter's signature somewhere -they put me on report and it's his signature on the report." Fred resumed his favorable review of his own bust. "In a military take down I don't even ask for them to open the door. I just give the order 'Open fire' and we just hit this place with guns that can shoot 6,000 rounds a minute. Fuel-air grenades that when they go off they kill everybody in the building. And then we follow that up with some stun grenades and thermite grenades and make it really hot inside in case someone did survive. And then we come in. "A paramilitary takedown is one step down, without all that ordnance but still pushing people down when they catch 'em and putting guns to their head. A paramilitary bust leaves you with the feeling that you've just been assaulted by storm troopers and everyone's pissed off, including the media. "When it's a professional bust, the only thing you get pissed off about is that they took your weed. I'm pissed off that we don't have any medicine to provide to over 100 people. I'm not pissed off at the DEA officers. In fact, it's a pleasure to watch professionals in action. They had some kind of cutters, several boxes of tools in plastic carryalls, and investigation kits, fingerprinting kits. They fingerprinted the place and maybe even left audio devices and video devices behind." Fred said the DEA agents "got chairs for us to sit down in. They loosened my handcuffs when they realized I had arthritis. They let us go to the bathroom. They didn't browbeat us or attempt to shout at us and make disparaging remarks. One of them asked me if I'd done any intelligence work and I told him yes, I'd worked with Admiral Worthington and so forth. He asked me my rank and I told him that was classified. He said he'd never heard of a classified rank and I said that under the new anti-terrorist rules you're not allowed to reveal it. "They attempted to find out how much business we were doing here. They came in with the impression that this was a big moneymaking operation. They didn't realize the problem we had with crops. They didn't realize that growing in rock wool is very demanding, you make one mistake and you lose a crop... The cost of hydroponic nutrients is quite high. The really good ones are from Canada, and because of the trade imbalance, the cost is going up... We had a problem with mites that almost destroyed an entire crop. I mean, at first we just stood there and watched the little bastards at work. But we got smart about it. Between each crop we had sufficient time here to bomb the room but not the crop with insecticide bomb, a special cytotoxin that kills them. You don't see them for months. You don't want to use it when the plants are in bloom... "We've had problems and overcome them. We've learned so much, this crop would have been the pinnacle of our expertise. We were finally at the point where we're producing a reasonable crop. I pointed out to these officers that really what they were taking away was medicine for Iraqi war veterans, Vietnam War veterans, and disabled people. I said, 'you know, you don't realize what harm you're doing.' "The agent in charge was named Brian Casey. He pointed out that while we legitimate patients might constitute three percent, the total market out there was 97 percent people who were abusing it. I said, 'Well go after the 97 percent.' Fred laughed at his own opportunism, said he didn't tell Casey that the numbers seemed like the reverse of reality -97 percent of cannabis users have valid medical reasons. "Casey said there was nothing under federal law that legitimized medicinal marijuana and he advised people to use Marinol. I laughed and Eric gave him the scientific reasons." The DEA agents seemed "vastly uninformed with respect to medicinal cannabis," said Fred. There are 11 Vietnam and Persian Gulf vets in Fred's union. He had been trying to organize a support group for Iraq war vets who needed more help than the VA could provide, and said he'd been in touch with eight men who were interested. "Veterans have been through gamut of having been subjected to almost every medication out there. Cannabis does the job so much more efficiently with less problems, societal effects, nausea, vomiting and so forth. But I do not think the DEA agents are cognizant of that." Fred said that Agent Casey's line about three percent of patients being legitimate seemed like disinformation disseminated at a training.
Fred acknowledged having sold part of his crop to a dispensary when the union had fewer members.
A Ukranian mormon?
Fred said he wished there were more cannabis-friendly meetings.
What happens next? The DEA gave Fred reason to hope that no indictment will come down. "One of the things they told me was, 'You want to save yourself some money, don't bother getting an attorney because this is going to go away.' I don't think they want to arrest a guy with an honorable discharge who's going to bring in some admirals as character witnesses. I told them, I fought for this country and I bled for this country. I spent 93 days in Bethesda Navy Hospital. They put me back together so they could send me back into submarines. That's how desperate they were for people. They may have had manpower but not enough skilled manpower, and there's a difference. The entire class of 1980 had to go into submarines. "I said I'd be willing to help them with anybody who's a crook in this business. But I'm not going to turn in a fellow veteran and they recognized that right off the bat. There are some thieves in this business and they'll get taken down sooner or later. But most of the people in the medical cannabis movement are pretty much straight arrows and honest. There's a few crooks. I know em, I've met 'em, I've been on the losing end a few times. But they're few and far between and that's why it's a good movement to be in as far as I'm concerned. To be able to be of service to other people. That's where I've derived most of my satisfaction over the last few years. Seeing people all of a sudden be happy. Seeing people who when they walked in the door were pissed off, angry about the world, sit down and socialize with you and their attitude changes completely. I also see it with the people coming back from Iraq. I didn't get into this too much with Agent Casey because I didn't want to give him names but there's a lot of people who come back from the Iraqi war who are really bitter. Some of these people will never get the psychiatric help that they really need. The rules are that you get 90 days of psychiatric help and if you qualify for longer you have to show reason. The point is, without some sort of support group other than the VA system these people are gonna be handled the same way we handled the Vietnam veterans and we're going to have another horde of homeless people out on the streets." Veterans hook up with Fred through mutual friends, word of mouth, the AA grapevine. "They go to the VA and they run into someone who knows me. Or they run into Paul at the Divisadero club, he's a Vietnam veteran. Word of mouth is how I like it. The veterans have been prescribed drugs like morphine sulfate, Vicodin. Our first grower was a perfect example. He was misdiagnosed by the VA. They fed him a whole bunch of drugs that damn near destroyed his pancreas. Then they discovered that he really had pancreatitis all along! They told him well, you've got so many years to live, and they gave him a bunch of new drugs. With pancreatitis one of the symptoms is severe back pain. He treated that with Vicodin, when that ran out he tried to get Oxycontin on the street. Cannabis wasn't strong enough for him. As a consequence he became more and more strung out on these other drugs and it affected his personality. One day after we'd raised some financial questions he just walked out, left us with a dying crop. I was thumbing through the book real quick. The thing to do with mites is just get rid of the plant entirely and hope that it's only on that one plant. To get rid of them entirely, if you could afford it, you put in huge air conditioners and grow your plants at about 60 degrees. At the same time you heat the nutrient solution. That way you have where they call it 'the feet is warm and the shoulders is cold.' The mites can't take the cold. They head for Florida, man. So that was our plan. The feds were half-right when they called this 'a sophisticated operation.' But we had nowhere near the money for a really sophisticated operation. If we had, we could have brought the price down to about 100 bucks. And made enough to get by on." The raid listed till about 4 p.m. "The TV cameramen came, the sheriff's deputies, a woman from the DA's office, just like checking it out. 'What should we do today?' 'Let's go to the bust...' The only agent I had any trouble with," Fred said, "was one who kept trying to put words in my mouth. Like he says, 'How long you been selling marijuana to the clubs?' I sez, 'The reason we're here is because we don't want to deal with the clubs. We want to deal with the patients directly. The clubs would only pay us a certain amount of dollars and the patients will pay us an equivalent amount. But the clubs will mark that up and the patients will have to pay it." Fred said he had notified the landlord. "We need a month to get out. I'm going to get a team of people in here and move stuff out and then we're going to have a going away party... We had just upgraded the electricity, that's what pisses me off. We'd been blowing fuses all the time. One of our friends is a master electrician and a good one. Now it's upgraded and we gotta leave" When he drove home to San Jose after the bust, Fred said, "My wife told me, 'I'm glad you're out of the business.' My sister said the same thing. The tension had been so dramatic... My wife is a live-in babysitter for my two grandsons, two wonderful boys. They just love grandma and we love them. I get down to see grandma on the weekends and my son-in-law and my daughter take off for Crescent City. Last night the youngest got up at 9 o'clock and headed for grandma's bedroom just as I was heading for grandma's bedroom. Well, guess who got to sleep with grandma last night?" This boy is just beautiful. He has the Russian features, steel blue gray eyes... And so, these kids and my wife made me think: 'What am I doing? Where are my priorities?' "It could be that this is a blessing in disguise. Not that I'm going to stop doing what I was doing, but it can be done on a smaller scale. Within reason. Like agent Casey said, 'This guy Larry's on my radar screen.' I said 'How did I get on your radar screen?' He didn't answer that question. I said 'I'm gonna stay off your radar screen.' I asked him, 'if I had grown less than a hundred plants would you be here?' He went like this [makes a dismissive non-verbal gesture with hand]. He didn't come out and say 'No, absolutely not,' but... Fred estimates the cost of prosecuting him would be well over a quarter of a million dollars. "For what?" he asks rhetorically. "'This guy's got zero assets, we're not gonna take his trailer. His navy dress sword?' Come on The DEA is going to have to start diverting their resources to some important stuff. If they don't they're gonna catch hell from the citizens who are gonna wake up and say 'Wait a minute, you busted these legitimate cannabis guys and these guys are walking around free making meth in my neighborhood?' 'Keeping medical cannabis illegal costs too damn much. Society may not be that rational, but that's our job, to explain that when you really boil it down, does it make any sense to prosecute anybody who's growing for legitimate patients? We could have music programs back in our schools" Fred related his thoughts about the bust in early April. On June 18, according to Mike Mack, Fred was rear-ended by a big-rig in San Jose and died in the hospital the next day. Fred Gardner can be reached at journal@ccrmg.org
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