Clear and Present Danger

Clear and Present Danger
By: Tom Clancy
Published: 1989
Follows: The Cardinal of the Kremlin
Followed By: The Sum of All Fears

The Cold War is coming to a close. Winds of change starting too blow across the globe. The old rules are slowely swept aside as new players appear on the global stage, players such as the Colombian Drug Cartels. In Washington, a looming election causes the President to take stronger action against the flow of illeagal narcotics into the country, primarily cocaine. When fate allows the FBI to seize several hundred million dollars worth of laundered money belonging to the Medellin Cartel, retaliaton is inevatable. Acting on information obtained by Felix Cortes, an ex-Cuban intelligeance officer, cartel head Ernesto Escobeado orders the assannation of the heads of the FBI, DEA and the American ambassador to Colombia. Enraged the President orders the gloves to come off, light infantry is deployed to target Cartel processing sites, and the CIA's deadliest operative, John Clark, is unleashed, sparking a chain of events that will make CIA Acting Deputy Director (Intelligence) Jack Ryan question his superiors, and racing against time to prevent the troops deployed against the Cartel from being sacrificed by an ambitious National Security Advisor.

In Clear and Present Danger Tom Clancy exams the morality behind covert operations (especially in friendly nations) and the role played by elections on political figures. The novel also provides his thoughts on the War on Drugs (something he fealt was primeraly a matter for the FBI and the like). If you like Clancy, or are interested in the "War on Drugs", check this out.

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Ernesto Escobedo is based on real life Drug Lord Pablo Escobar

For more information on the rise and fall of the Medellin Cartel
Wikipedia: Medellin Cartel
The Columbian Cartels
Los Extraditables
DEA: The Decline of the Medellin Cartel and the Rise of the Cali Mafia

For information on cocain
Erowid Cocaine Vault
DEA: Cocaine
Wikipedia: Cocaine

My 2 cents. The War on Drugs is pointless. Cocaine is a product consumers want, if an adult decides he/she wants to do cocaine (or any other drug) then let them. The Government has no right to tell us what we can or can not put into our bodies of our own free will. Legalize cocaine, regulate it's production and tax the hell out of it like you do my booze.