This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, January 10th, 2011.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The size and scope of the DEA's operations internationally are coming into clearer focus thanks to WikiLeaks, and the picture is not a promising one for U.S. efforts to get along with much of the rest of the world.

Ted Galen Carpenter, Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, offers his thoughts.

This is from the New York Times. The Drug Enforcement Administration has been transformed into a global intelligence organization with a reach that

extends far beyond narcotics and eavesdropping operations so expansive it has to

fend off foreign politicians who want to use it against their political enemies and that is all just

from WikiLeaks cables.

What specifically do we know now about the International War on Drugs through these cables.

A couple of major items.

First of all, the Drug Enforcement Administration

is now involved in more than twice as many countries

as it was at the beginning of this century.

Secondly, a lot of DEA agents have become essentially paramilitary forces.

They're out in the field with U.S. Marine and Army units and at times one could

not tell which personnel is which except for the patches on their uniforms. So it really

has become a militarized agency. Internationally.

Internationally. The DEA has now established a major presence in more than 80 countries around the world.

And that's a rather extensive reach.

Well, what does that mean for the countries

that we want to have dealings with

to have this agency that's so expansive?

...