Drugs trade thriving in Iraq

[leftchick]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C7A50208-6B7A-46C3-817E-7F600E637373.htm

<snip>
Cocaine smuggling from Iran to Iraq is spiralling, with Iraqi police and occupation forces apparently unable to stop it.

A leading Iraqi police officer, Munim Abd al-Razaq, has urged officers from the disbanded Iraqi army to join the police to help counter the increasing problem of cocaine trafficking.

Polish and Ukrainian forces stationed near Badra and Zurbatia, the most active trafficking points on the 1200km Iraq-Iran border, have so far failed to ebb the flow.

Now, according to police sources, 1200 extra Iraqi policemen will be deployed in the area from April.

[jimshoes]

1. How much more f_ck'ed up

can things get over there. This was a very big problem in Viet Nam if you all remember. Many GI's developed habbits while over there. Is this something else we have to look forward to chimpy?

[AJ BENDER]

2. Finally Some Good News !

Well Done Mr. President

:hippie: :smoke: :silly: :freak:

We Salute You !


ps.- Love to Condi

[Career Prole]

3. What the heck. It's a job, at least.

Bush* can't expect them go on indefinitely without an income.

[smartass]

4. Iraq is looking more and more like New York.

I bet they're dealing hashish.

[Neecy]

5. reminds me...

Of something that I read in the new House of Saud/House of Bush book - how the CIA supported the heroin trade during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the hope that the Red Army would become addicts (typical CIA "brilliance").

I wonder if the Iranians aren't attempting to flood Iraq with cocaine hoping it'll end up being blow for our troops. I doubt the average Iraqi can afford cocaine.

[whistle]

10. Iranians?....

...How about the CIA? These are the same people who brought crack into the US ghettos.:wtf:

[Neecy]

12. but...

Why would the CIA want *our* troops out there doing coke? I'm curious as to what purpose would be served (to them) by that --

[seventhson]

13. $$$ for covert political ops off the shelf

here and there and everywhere

[havocmom]

20. $ for covert ops at a time when neocons are trying to preempt democracy

in Latin America... deja vue.

Remember Iran/Contra? Basically, the same 'grown ups' are in power again. Can you say Iraq/Contra?

[AtTheEndOfTheDay]

22. To make money,

and keep the troops energized. The usual.

[Columbia]

14. Everything is cheaper in Iraq

And I'm sure drugs are priced affordably for the average Iraqi as well.

[Az_lefty]

6. Nothing new....

when I was in Iraq kids were selling cheap beer and Hashish on the sides of the roads.

[Columbia]

7. Ditto

[Gin]

9. Thomas Freidman wrote..he wondered if Iraq was the way it was because of

Saddam...or if Saddam was the way he was because of Iraq.

Just what they need...along with unemployment..no money..foreign invaders..now drugs.

[daleo]

18. I am curious when and where this was

Was this before or after the invasion, and if before was it in a part of the country controlled by the Hussein regime?

[Emboldened Chimp]

8. First we trigger a heroin boom in Afghanistan

and now we give rise to the cocaine trade in Iraq. Can't these bozos do anything right?

[orwell]

11. No Accident

This is no accident. It is standard operating procedure for the Bush Cartel. Check out the flourishing heroin trade in post invasion Afghanistan.

O

[Zan_of_Texas]

17. Yep, we should be raht proud of what we dun in Afghanistan

‘Afghanistan at risk of becoming a failed, narco state’
* Produces three-quarters of global opium, warns a UN report

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_30-10-2003_pg4_15
Daily Times from Pakistan Nov 3 2003

KABUL: Afghanistan, the world’s leading producer of opium, risks becoming a failed state once again in the hands of drugs cartels and narco-terrorists, the United Nations warned Wednesday. Opium cultivation was virtually eradicated in 2001 by the hard-line Taliban regime, but since it was forced from power two years ago, Afghanistan has massively resumed harvesting and now accounts for three-quarters of global opium production, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said in its latest annual report.



“There is a palpable risk that Afghanistan will again turn into a failed state, this time in the hands of drugs cartels and narco-terrorists,” he added. In the war-ravaged country, this year the area under opium poppy cultivation increased by eight percent, from 74,000 hectares in 2002 to 80,000 in 2003, the Vienna-based body said in its report, due to be presented in Moscow on Wednesday.

Opium production went up by six percent, from 3,400 to 3,600 tonnes. Even more alarmingly, 28 out of 32 provinces in Afghanistan now harvest the drug crop, up from 18 provinces in 1999, as cultivation spreads outside the traditional eastern and southern producing areas.

The total revenues earned by poppy farmers and traffickers amounted to more than half of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product of 4.4 billion dollars. “The income of Afghan opium farmers and traffickers was about 2.3 billion dollars, a sum equivalent to half the legitimate GDP of the country,” the report said. With up to 90 percent of heroin on the streets of Europe derived from Afghan opium, the international trafficking chain from Afghanistan to Western Europe has an estimated annual turnover of 30 billion dollars and involves half a million people.

[tom_paine]

15. Actually, I'm guessing that a good bit of Bushevik Black Ops Money

comes from such sources...as it always has.

16. Why is it that every US military adventure brings drugs with it

Vietnam, Colombia, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and now Iraq. What's really behind the drug trade? There seems to be a pretty obvious connection between US foreign policy and trafficking.

Notice how it doesn't matter whether it's Clinton in office or Bush, drugs still follow the US military.

[Snow]

19. Any DU agronomists? Or maybe just a drug farmer?

does coca plant even grow in that area? Where are they getting the stuff from?

[havocmom]

21. amid all the equipment/supplies moving about there and general chaos

it might just be easier to get the stuff on military planes and disbursed. Not necessary to grow it, just use the place as a transport hub.

[Chicago Democrat]

23. Soon they can be just like the US!

:(