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Heroin Trafficking in Afghanistan is a Really Big Deal, Unless the President’s Brother Does It

Rumors that the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai may be involved in drug trafficking have not been investigated. Why?

The assertions about the involvement of the president’s brother in the incidents were never investigated, according to American and Afghan officials, even though allegations that he has benefited from narcotics trafficking have circulated widely in Afghanistan.

Several American investigators said senior officials at the D.E.A. and the office of the Director of National Intelligence complained to them that the White House favored a hands-off approach toward Ahmed Wali Karzai because of the political delicacy of the matter. But White House officials dispute that, instead citing limited D.E.A. resources in Kandahar and southern Afghanistan and the absence of political will in the Afghan government to go after major drug suspects as the reasons for the lack of an inquiry. [NYT]

The whole thing reeks and this "limited resources" excuse sounds dubious at best. Ahmed Wali Karzai is chief of the Kandahar Provincial Council. If he’s a drug trafficker, that’s kind of a big deal, isn’t it? Our inability/unwillingness to even explore such a possibility just shows once again that our supply reduction efforts in Afghanistan are a total joke.
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It wasn't a big deal when the Afghan Northern Alliance did it...

Drug war ends where the overriding national security interests begin. Always has and always will. We had no problem funding terrorists to fight the drug traffickers before 9/11. Now we have no problem funding drug traffickers who fight the terrorists.

Isn't it odd..

The DEA can find a dozen pot plants in somebodys backyard, here in the states,but somehow, "they" can't find 40 thousand acres of poppies over there.

afghan opium

    consfearacy

Poppy production has been given a blank check since the U.S. invasion. The numbers don`t lie. Humans killing each other over plants is only feasible to a certain point. The 2009 U.S. troop surge into Afghanistan will put the Drug War front and center .Casualties will escalate. God created plants before Humans. Humans waging war over plants does not set a good example of our existence. Spirits laugh at the folly of Human behavior.

Déjà Vu All Over Again

This sounds a lot like the politics of opium production in the Golden Triangle (Thailand, Burma, Laos) during the Viet Nam War.  Intrigue of this sort is exactly how the French lost their colonial dominance of Southeast Asia—a heroin deal gone bad.  I kid you not.  Hell’s insanity pales when compared to what we’ll see when the black market drug schemes coordinated by America’s intelligence agencies in Afghanistan ultimately hit the fan.

So Ahmed Wali Karzai is the president’s brother, eh?  Good gig.  It’s always the brother.  Think Jimmy Carter and his brother Billy’s beverage product: Billy Beer.  Same thing.  It’s just jazzed up a bit because other drugs are illegal.

Ahmed Wali Karzai may or may not be involved in drug smuggling, but it’s of little importance to the ground war as long as Ahmed provides good intelligence to the U.S. on any terrorist involvement in drug smuggling and profiteering.  Under these helpful circumstances, the spies don’t care how Ahmed makes his money.  This scenario assumes terrorists, and not just the CIA, are involved in heroin smuggling—a big assumption in many people’s minds.

These leaked reports may also serve to consolidate Ahmed’s credibility in the Afghani and worldwide drug underground. Or they may be part of a power struggle among rival drug cartels to oust Ahmed and take control of his opium markets.

The latest calls for U.S. support to battle the Afghani drug market supports the likelihood that any such military attacks on drug producers and sellers will be diverted against Ahmed’s business rivals.  This is why having a brother who happens to be the president of your country is such a good thing if you’re in the illicit drug business.

Giordano

anyone else see the report

anyone else see the report by Hunter Thompson on when he met Geo Bush and the decider passed out in the tub all whacked on coke? these drug warriors are such scummy frauds that to let them even touch the law enforcement is to reduce our respect for them.

bye bye republicans drug warriors, first both houses of congress,now the presidency.

oh, and kiss my ass on your way out!

GIORDANO!

You have got to be kidding..... Comparing Billy Carter, the lackluster, doofus, Good Old Boy from Americus Georia... to arguably the third most powerful person in Afganistan, Ahmed Karzai? Too bad those kinds of opium poppies won't grow well here in the Northern USA//

If we regulated these drug markets properly....

If we regulated these drug markets properly, we wouldn't have to place the fate of our children in the hands of Afghanistan and numerous other countries.

The REAL poppy

Does the D.E.A really want to put a dent in the drug trafficking? Nab the big poppy......"Poppy" Bush, and the rest of his crime family.

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