Drug money may finance Taliban-U.N. sanctions chief

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL33788.htm

KABUL, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan appear to be financing themselves through the drugs trade and might also receive funds from some Middle Eastern countries, a U.N. official said on Tuesday.

Heraldo Munoz, head of the U.N. Security Council committee responsible for sanctions on the Taliban and al Qaeda, said it was targeting about 150 members of the Taliban and an associated group and about 150 al Qaeda members, as well as about 100 organisations linked to al Qaeda.

Asked at a news conference in Kabul how the Taliban was financing its recent spate of attacks, he replied:

"There is a strong suspicion of a linkage between drug trafficking and the increased Taliban activity."

"The information that we have right now -- and it is perhaps more of an hypothesis than very strong information -- is that this money may come from drugs."

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[realFedUp]

1. ahhhh, yeah....

do we have intelligence in this country?

[MSchreader]

2. Ya think?

I mean, since they are no longer supplying opiates to the U.S., and receiving millions in return as "aid", I guess they've had to reach out, and do more multi-level marketing and diversification of clientelle.

Martin

[trotsky]

3. How timely

I'm sure we'll see another round of "If you buy drugs, you're helping the terrorists" commercials.

[bif]

4. Ya think?

Hmmm...Afghanistan is the leading producer of opium. I wonder if there's a connection? And the numbnut in the White House gave the Taliban $62 million in the summer of '01 because the cut down some of the poppies. Smart move George. Why doesn't this ever get any press?

[ze_dscherman]

6. Giving Afghanistan money to cut drug trade worked

IIRC, the taliban severely curbed the opium production. This probably helped the U.S. to gain the help of the warlords, since they must have missed much of their income ...

[LoneStarLiberal]

5. The More Things Change...

...the more they stay the same.

Considering we (we being the coalition in Afghanistan and the Kabul government) don't control most of the country, this isn't surprising in the least. The Taliban protected and profited from Afghanis (particularly Pashtuns though it can be found in both northern and southern Afghanistan) growing some of the world's best smack base (opium) before we ran them back into the hills. Considering I never heard much about the coalition implementing programs to help farmers move from profit farming (opium and ganja) back to subsistence farming (which certainly doesn't provide as well as opium did/does!), this isn't too terribly shocking to hear.

Or to put it in terms all good Cold Warriors will understand, we control Afghanistan about like the Russians controlled it. We sit in the cities (and not that much outside Kabul) occasionally making forays in force into the disputed areas to roust the Taliban and their allies.

That's only a marginal improvement from what the Russians did, which was sit in the cities, build fortified positions, stick to the roads, and let the muj control the remainder of the country.

Unless we have a serious "Come-To-Jesus" policy moment and change what we are doing, we're going to be about as successful as the Russians at the end of all this.

[cthrumatrix]

7. Taliban burned down the crops....US rule crops thrives....fact

Isn't that funny how that works....in fact go do some research with Mike Ruppert on fromthewilderness.com ....you'll learn quite a bit about the drug trade

I guess the Taliban was quite strict in this area....pre US occupation

[mmm]

8. very true

perhaps some of that opium cash will help buy a nuke
from North Korea. Maybe an early Christmas present
for someone. The mother of all 'suicide' bombs, perhaps.