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Sep
19
2007BUSH AND KARZAI FAIL TO KICK THEIR AFGHAN HEROIN HABITS
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Leaders Hooked On The Usual Suspect Language
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A booming trade: traffickers challenged only to keep product moving faster and farther
With his latest “Presidential Determination” on global drug trafficking, released by the White House this week, George W. Bush stands shoulder-to-shoulder with his Afghan client and counterpart, Hamid Karzai.
He waxes long and lyrical about the evils of the poppy trade, while paying only lip service to the urgent need to take effective action against Afghanistan’s opium Khans - the big traffickers and their stooges in government and the police.
The US president states: “The (Karzai) government at all levels must be held accountable to deter and eradicate poppy cultivation, remove and prosecute corrupt officials, and investigate and prosecute or extradite narcotraffickers and those financing their activities.”
Really?
The text reads as though the Bush administration and its many and varied appendages reaching into Afghanistan – the Drug Enforcement Agency, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the State Department, to name just a few – haven’t a clue as to the identities of the drug Khans. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Khans are infamous in Afghanistan: they’re the militia commanders, druglords and regime appointees who’ve built the world’s biggest heroin industry in only five years – right under their American overlords’ noses.
Funny thing, though. Take a look at the D.E.A.’s list of most wanted international traffickers at: http://www.dea.gov/fugitives/internl/internllist.htm
There’s a noticeable absence of Afghan faces. Are we to believe that Columbian gangs are a cinch to penetrate, but that the Afghan variety are just too tough to crack – despite the presence, in theatre, of the Bush administration’s massive manpower and resources?
The truth is that Bush’s and Karzai’s people can rhyme off the names of specific culprits, who freely cruise the streets of Kabul, concealed by nothing more than the smoked glass of their 4x4’s. Gangsters like Baryalai Shahrarah. Militia leaders and alleged land-grabbers like Abdul Sayyaf, an MP and head of the parliamentary minority.
As reported here previously, Sayyaf has used his wealth and influence to install cronies in key counter-narcotics posts in both the Ministry of Interior and the Attorney General’s office. Why would an MP want to do that?
Attorney General Sabet’s involvement in the Afghan capital’s most shameful heroin scam is detailed in our AFGHAN HEROIN series of film reports and articles in Recent Stories. President Karzai has decided to remove both Sabet and Interior Minister Zarar from their posts, though vested interests – including Sabet’s “angel” Sayyaf – are said by sources close to the Presidential Palace to have delayed the appointment of honest successors.
All this leaves President Karzai in a quandary. He knows the drug Khans, since he relies on many of them for political support. Yet he recognizes the damage the heroin trade is inflicting on his country and his people.
So much refined heroin is being produced, says the UN, that Afghanistan could meet the world’s demand and still have 3,000 tons of opium left over.
Not surprisingly, more Afghans have started using. Regime officials estimate the user population at one million and growing. Seven per cent are children.
Their plight moved Karzai to speak at length, and no doubt from the heart, at the latest Convention on Counter-Narcotics in Kabul Sept. 6th. We conclude this dispatch with President Karzai’s words – and an appeal.
Hamid, you’re the president. Don’t just weep for your wounded countrymen and women – do something for them. Name and shame the drug Khans. Otherwise, chances are that your forceful, heartfelt speech will become just another addendum to your political obituary.
PRESIDENT HAMID KARZAI
Address to the 3rd National Conference on Counter-Narcotics
“And so it is that this disease (drugs) is spreading and reaching into our homes, ruining our lives just like a cancer that stops the body from functioning. This menace not only hurts the economy and our security, it fuels and supports terrorism, and defames Afghanistan. It also endangers the lives of the people of Afghanistan. This is causing the nation to face a gradual death and most of the families where opium is grown have a loved one suffering from addiction.
“There is a senior Afghan official in one of the western provinces who wanted to hire bodyguards from his own village, but there were no healthy young men in the whole village who could do the job because an absolute majority of the youths in his village were addicted. So here is the issue: if you are not able to find a single person in the entire village who is physically and mentally capable and healthy, then we can conclude that Afghanistan is the first victim of a menace that is produced here. Undoubtedly, young people in other countries are affected by the drugs grown in Afghanistan.
“The opium and drugs produced here hurt the youth in Afghanistan, in the neighboring countries, in the Arabic countries, the European, Western, American and African countries. We are all part of humanity and want to be happy but families there are suffering from the opium produced here. For example, two years ago when I went to attend a conference in Britain organized by its Labor Party, one of its officials came up to me and wept as he told me that his daughter had died of heroin.
“Today however, not only the international community is suffering, but our own families are also burning in the flames of this menace. All those who grow or sell or traffic opium, know that the money they make is a poison that goes into the blood of their own children and that poison is taking these people’s lives…
“We can’t forever keep asking for international community to help us fight this. This is an Afghan problem, sisters and brothers. If the world stops helping and tells us it is our (Afghans) job, will we ruin ourselves? Shall we let our country be destroyed by this scourge? Shall we let our lives be ruined? Shall we let mafia run this country? Shall we let our country once again be destroyed by our neighbor’s mafia? Shall we let our country once again be trampled by the Al-Qaeda and terrorists?”
Sorry about my familiarity on my last post. I think I was just trying to remind you that you aren't alone when it comes to being marginalized for speaking the truth.
why should this era be any different, eh?
Progress would be a lot more likely if occupation wasn't in the best interests of the true seat of power. I can't believe its taken so long for me to hear that particular penny drop.
No problem, Brian. Point taken yesterday, and appreciated. Fortunately, a growing number of people are seeing through the official guff and recognize Afghanistan for the human tragedy - v 4.2 - that it has become.
The Afghan people have been betrayed by the 'big men' of power, money and influence, both homegrown and foreign. The situation's not hopeless, as long as we in the West wake up to our elected representatives' considerable shortcomings, and do something about it.
Otherwise, the Afghan public will see us in the same light as the two posturing figures profiled above - a curse upon their houses.
It's interesting that Bush is telling the Karzai government to be accountable.Does he mean the drug lords in that government be accountable for themselves?Does Bush think this heroin trade is going to evaporate overnight?
If these guys are serious about killing the heroin trade.Then they should wipe out the poppy fields.No fields no heroin.Seems like a simple enough solution.
But they are not serious.I believe Afghanistan for Bush right now is a backburner issue as Iran is on the front burner.
Imagine, Bush telling any government to be accountable at all levels.He must think we're all addicted to heroin.Jeeeeez,will it ever end.
I find it interesting that bush's "Presidential Determination" is released shortly after this year's poppies have been harvested. I'm with Ted. Spray the fields
Hi Bonny.Here's one for ya.Bush telling people in Iraq he wishes he were on the front lines.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/09/17...
Either he thinks we're all delusional or he is.
Actually, spraying is the Bush administration's favoured path. Farmers would certainly hurt, but I'm afraid the traffickers will always find an alternate, if limited, source of supply. The fastest, fairest and most effective way to interrupt the heroin trade is through its central nervous system, the refiners and traffickers, the big guys. Determined police action, together with crop replacement and controlled opium production - I think these are the most workable options before us right now.
"Actually, spraying is the Bush administration's favoured path"
Of course it is. Capital intensive service bound to be monopolized by the military, materials undoubtedly supplied by a $ingle vendor, keeps a lid on Turkey's concerns about the oligarchy-induced opium derivatives manufacturer bottleneck and avoids the nasty business actually having to deal with the commoners.
What more could any empire's CEO ask for?
Hey Ted. I think bush thinks we're all stupid. The delusional citizens of my country are those who voted for the idiot.
Arthur, how about an agressive plan to wipe out the fields that are under Taliban control. I agree, somewhat, with your viewpoint for the fields that are controlled by the corrupt members of the Karzai regime. We have an immediate need to keep the profits from heroin out of the hands of the Taliban and al Queda. As far as the farmers are concerned, they are responsible for their choices. If I decide to grow a crop of pot in my back yard, then there is a huge chance that I'm gonna go to jail. So, I'll grow vegetables instead.
Hi Bonny Jean, trouble is most farmers have been left little in the way of choice. Wheat is more difficult to grow in drought-prone areas, and earns only a tenth of what opium resin can bring. When your government offers no substitute and private industry, too, is crippled by war, I'm afraid the hungry mouths of the children dictate pragmatism.
That said, many farmers have told us they'd gladly turn away from poppies. Re the Taliban, it's the West's incompetence and half-heartedness that has helped drive the militia's resurgence. Seems a shame to sacrifice turf to those no-hopers, and opt for an Agent Orange approach - just because our own efforts have been so ineffective.
This is so frustrating. Is there really any solution? Heroin on one hand, children starving on the other. There has to be a middle ground somewhere. Ok, maybe my naive Pollyanna side is coming out.
Arthur, this is a little off topic but have you heard anymore about General Amerkel, who seemed to be very effective in stopping smugglers at the airport but was forced to flee? Is Sabat's order for the General to be arrested still in effect? Is there any chance he would be able to reassume his previous post or is it too dangerous for him? If not, has he been able to find work to support his family?
From what I remember about the Ollie North scandal and things I've read since, it seems that the CIA, DEA and others probably wouldn't be much help regarding the heroin problem as they were, and according to some reports, still are either running drugs or are behind some who are, for money to run their some of their operations. Do you have any information on this and whether this is happening in Afghanistan? I certainly hope not.
Helen, yes there's much more news about Gen. Amerkhel, which we'll be bringing to you next week. The soon-to-be Ex-Attorney General Sabet is in office on borrowed time, hanging grimly on through the efforts of characters like Sayyaf. No other case illustrates so clearly President Karzai's failure to get to grips with corruption.
Regarding the possible involvement of foreigners in the Afghan drug trade, nothing can be ruled out. The money at stake is just so huge, the West's efforts to intrerrupt the traffickers so pathetically ineffectual.
Arthur, thank you for answering my post and I look forward to hearing more about General Amerkhel.