NATO to Kill All Opium Dealers

[BATMAN]

US Commander Orders NATO to Kill All Opium Dealers -- NATO Balks

According to the German news magazine Der Spiegel, top NATO commander in Afghanistan, US Gen. John Craddock, has issued a "guidance" allowing NATO troops "to attack directly drug producers and facilities throughout Afghanistan." But other NATO commanders do not want to follow that order, leading to a rift at the top of the allied war machine over who is a legitimate military target.

NATO has reluctantly embraced an expansion of its mission from fighting the Taliban and related insurgents to going after drug trade participants linked to the insurgents. But Gen. Craddock's directive broadens the mission to include any drug traffickers or drug production facilities.

According to the document, a copy of which Der Spiegel says it has, NATO troops can now use deadly force against drug traffickers even when there is no proof they are engaged in armed resistance to NATO/US troops or their Afghan government allies. But that's not what NATO countries bargained for in October, when they agreed to allow NATO soldiers to attack opium traffickers linked to the Taliban.

It is "no longer necessary to produce intelligence or other evidence that each particular drug trafficker or narcotics facility in Afghanistan meets the criteria of being a military objective," Craddock wrote. The alliance "has decided that [drug traffickers and narcotics facilities] are inextricably linked to the Opposing Military Forces, and thus may be attacked."

Gen. Craddock sent his directive on January 5 to Egon Ramms, the German leader at NATO command in the Netherlands, and David McKiernan, commander of the NATO peacekeeping force in Afghanistan. But both commanders rejected it, arguing that the order is illegitimate and violates the laws of war. McKiernan sent a classified letter from Kabul claiming that Craddock was trying to create "a new category" in the rules of engagement that would "seriously undermine the commitment ISAF has made to the Afghan people and the international community... to restrain our use of force and avoid civilian casualties to the greatest degree predictable."

The topic of civilian deaths at the hands of NATO and US troops in Afghanistan is an increasingly prickly one with the people and government of Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai has complained loudly and frequently about repeated US air strikes killing civilians. NATO was forced this week to defend itself by arguing that it had only killed 97 civilians last year, compared to nearly 10 times that by the Taliban.

It is unclear how the conflict between the NATO allies will be resolved. But if Craddock has his way and NATO declares open season on the drug trade, there will be a true drug war in Afghanistan. In a country where the drug trade accounts for around half the gross national product and where members of the government and independent warlords as well as the Taliban have a hand in the trade, it is difficult to see how that will help win hearts and minds.

 

[BATMAN]

This sound like shooting down whole afghan parliament! incl. Karazi's brother.
Pakistan's foreign ministry must not take any sides over this row.
Just watch the developments from distance.

 

[Luftwaffe]

First they said Taliban almost destroyed these Opium fields when they came into power now they says its Talibans..
We all know too well whose fields are these not Taliban but Northern Alliances and their pro govt..another justification to kill Pushtoons and civilians in the name of opium business...

 

[Zovc]

US wont let them do it. It's one of their main interests in Afghanistan, Opium.

 

[Pashtun]

Absolutely, CIA is heavily involved in drug trade. Not just in Afghanistan, but around the globe. I wrote a paper for one of my online american friends for her Uni. If you want, I can post it up here.

This NATO order to me seems like a crock. A different justification for expanding the hostilities and legitimising the murders they are committing in Afghansitan. If you guys have noticed, the usual statement after murdering a few innocent civilians goes like "Suspected Militants" - "suspected Talibans" - "Suspected Insurgents" killed by ISAF.

The term "suspected" disgusts me. It's a clear farce to dupe people into believing that some bad guys are killed, while being political correct that they were "suspected", not confirmed militants.

And that statement kind of now worn out since a lot of investigative journalists are questioning the motives behind bombing wedding parties, killing people while they are sleeping, blowing up busses with warplanes, etc. etc., so I guess they had to come up with a new strategy to legitimise/justify their murders in Afghanistan, hence "shoot that drug dealer" term is coined.

Apparently for past couple of years the issue of drugs was connected with insurgency and propogated left n right to make sure people understand after a while that yes, drug dealers are the problem. So when they need to use them as a scapegoat, they can simply coin a new term. So we can see the result now, shoot the drug dealers (suspected perhaps will also go with it).

 

[TruthSeeker]

Absolutely, CIA is heavily involved in drug trade. Not just in Afghanistan, but around the globe. I wrote a paper for one of my online american friends for her Uni. If you want, I can post it up here.

Yeah, please post it. I bet there isn't a single fact in it except maybe some speculation about the Vietnam War Era 35 or 40 years ago. Your hatred of all things US and your constant spreading of your anti-US crap is getting old...

 

[Zovc]

Yeah, please post it. I bet there isn't a single fact in it except maybe some speculation about the Vietnam War Era 35 or 40 years ago. Your hatred of all things US and your constant spreading of your anti-US crap is getting old...

Vietnam War Era drug smuggling wasn't really speculation. People were caught smuggling it in coffins of the dead US soldiers.

 

[TruthSeeker]

Vietnam War Era drug smuggling wasn't really speculation. People were caught smuggling it in coffins of the dead US soldiers.

That doesn't mean it was a US government (including the CIA) sanctioned activity as Pashtun proclaims ^. Greedy people exist in any situation. Just because some Pakistanis, even a PA member here or there, traffic in opium from Afghanistan, doesn't mean that the GoP sanctions opium trafficking.

 

[Pashtun]

Yeah, please post it. I bet there isn't a single fact in it except maybe some speculation about the Vietnam War Era 35 or 40 years ago. Your hatred of all things US and your constant spreading of your anti-US crap is getting old...

In fact it is the pro-fascist defence, that is kind of annoying already when we see people start talking out of no where, just to defend what they like. The world would be much better if we call wrong, wrong.

It's no secret that, the occupation forces in Afghanistan are supporting the drug trade. Again, the scarecrow 'Talebans' is very handy here for the occupying forces to getaway by labeling everything on them, while it is no secret that how the occupying forces are protecting poppy fields in Afghanistan and how US army is involved in traffiking billions of dollars worth of Heroin out. Allow me to explain...

It is so convenient for you guys to beleive the mainstream media that talebans are cultivating poppy at an scale that 92% of world opium is produced by Afghanistan, while at the same time saying that they (coalition) don't want to kill/destroy talebans (well they are cultivating it right?) because it will increase insurgency? Hello!

Afghanistan is the currently largest opium producer in the world under British and American Troops. As a matter of fact the poppy cultivation was banned in Taleban era. Shocked? What can we do, truth speaks. It is no secret that talebans eradicated over 90% of poppy. The UN officers said the talibans nearly wiped out opium production in Afghanistan.

"A 12-member team from the U.N. Drug Control Program spent two weeks searching most of the nation's largest opium-producing areas and found so few poppies that they do not expect any opium to come out of Afghanistan this year."
Afghanistan, Opium and the Taliban

Dozens of more news agencies along with UN reported all that all along. In case you want to do a research.

And all of a sudden, right after invasion of Afghanistan, the poppy cultivation rose to record levels. How very interesting.

Let me borrow the words of Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, who correctly said in his article Heroin is "Good for Your Health": Occupation Forces support Afghan Narcotics Trade Multibillion dollar earnings for organized crime and Western financial Institutions:

"The occupation forces in Afghanistan are supporting the drug trade, which brings between 120 and 194 billion dollars of revenues to organized crime, intelligence agencies and Western financial institutions. The proceeds of this lucrative multibllion dollar contraband are deposited in Western banks. Almost the totality of revenues accrue to corporate interests and criminal syndicates outside Afghanistan.

The Golden Crescent drug trade, launched by the CIA in the early 1980s, continues to be protected by US intelligence, in liason with NATO occupation forces and the British military. In recent developments, British occupation forces have promoted opium cultivation through paid radio advertisements."
Read complete details: Heroin is "Good for Your Health": Occupation Forces support Afghan Narcotics Trade

According to the US media and ofcourse their pets around the world, this lucrative contraband is protected by Osama, the Taliban, not to mention, of course, the regional warlords, in defiance of the "international community". The heroin business is said to be "filling the coffers of the Taliban". In the words of the US State Department. Wow.

Prof. Michel further argues: In the wake of the 2001 US bombing of Afghanistan, the UK sponsored crop eradication program is an obvious smokescreen. Since October 2001, opium poppy cultivation has skyrocketed. The presence of occupation forces in Afghanistan did not result in the eradication of poppy cultivation. Quite the opposite.

The Taliban prohibition had indeed caused "the beginning of a heroin shortage in Europe by the end of 2001", as acknowledged by the UNODC.

Heroin is a multibillion dollar business supported by powerful interests, which requires a steady and secure commodity flow. One of the "hidden" objectives of the war was precisely to restore the CIA sponsored drug trade to its historical levels and exert direct control over the drug routes.

Immediately following the October 2001 invasion, opium markets were restored. Opium prices spiraled. By early 2002, the opium price (in dollars/kg) was almost 10 times higher than in 2000.

In 2001, under the Taliban opiate production stood at 185 tons, increasing to 3400 tons in 2002 under the US sponsored puppet regime of President Hamid Karzai.

While highlighting Karzai's patriotic struggle against the Taliban, the media fails to mention that Karzai collaborated with the Taliban. He had also been on the payroll of a major US oil company, UNOCAL. In fact, since the mid-1990s, Hamid Karzai had acted as a consultant and lobbyist for UNOCAL in negotiations with the Taliban. According to the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan:

"Karzai has been a Central Intelligence Agency covert operator since the 1980s. He collaborated with the CIA in funneling U.S. aid to the Taliban as of 1994 when the Americans had secretly and through the Pakistanis [specifically the ISI] supported the Taliban's assumption of power."
(quoted in Karen Talbot, U.S. Energy Giant Unocal Appoints Interim Government in Kabul, Global Outlook, No. 1, Spring 2002. p. 70. See also BBC Monitoring Service, 15 December 2001)"

And that also explains how America supported the Talibans back then, covertly, through Pakistan, and directly gifting them millions of dollars (43m if I am not mistaken) as gift, and invited their delegation to Washington to to approve their regime and get their agreement for the UNOCOL pipeline. And if you remember, Talibans did go to Washington.

As a matter of fact, US use this drug money for its covert operations and fiancing wars around the world as well as for other personal gains. They also supported mujahideen with this money:

"As revealed in the Iran-Contra and Bank of Commerce and Credit International (BCCI) scandals, CIA covert operations in support of the Afghan Mujahideen had been funded through the laundering of drug money. "Dirty money" was recycled --through a number of banking institutions (in the Middle East) as well as through anonymous CIA shell companies--, into "covert money," used to finance various insurgent groups during the Soviet-Afghan war, and its aftermath:

"Because the US wanted to supply the Mujahideen rebels in Afghanistan with stinger missiles and other military hardware it needed the full cooperation of Pakistan. By the mid-1980s, the CIA operation in Islamabad was one of the largest US intelligence stations in the World. `If BCCI is such an embarrassment to the US that forthright investigations are not being pursued it has a lot to do with the blind eye the US turned to the heroin trafficking in Pakistan', said a US intelligence officer. ("The Dirtiest Bank of All," Time, July 29, 1991, p. 22.)"
Read more about Anglo-American involvement in the drug trade of Afghanistan here: The Spoils of War:Afghanistan's Multibillion Dollar Heroin Trade  by Michel Chossudovsky

Not just Afghanistan, but U.S. is also involved heavily in the drug traffiking from Latin America. Michael Webster, America's leading authority on Venture Capital/Equity Funding. A trustee on some of the nations largest trade Union funds. A noted Author, Lecturer, Educator, Emergency Manager, Counter-Terrorist, War on Drugs, War on Terrorist Specialist and an investigative reporter documented in his article dated May 2008: DEA, FBI and CIA are all operating covertly in Mexico´s narco-trafficking underworld Many U.S. Agent:

"The Laguna Journal reported following last September´s crash of a Gulfstream jet operated by the CIA allegedly for torture flights to Guantanamo and to other countries with loose torture laws. That particular aircraft it was found by rescue workers to have contained 4 tons of high grade Columbian cocaine."

He further provides the details about other american agencies in this drug business:

"Customs supervisor Walter Golembiowski and Officer John Ajello face narcotics, bribery and conspiracy charges after they were arrested for helping smuggle drugs and contraband through New York´s John F. Kennedy International Airport."

Furthermore: Kevin Booth´s underground hit documentary American Drug War features footage of former DEA head Robert Bonner admitting that the CIA was involved in cocaine smuggling operations.

Investigative reporter Gary Webb was instrumental in exposing CIA cocaine trafficking operations before his alleged suicide in 2004. In the You Tube clip below, Webb traces the history of Agency involvement in drug smuggling and its links to financing wars in Central America.
h-ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oszATUJ4IRE

He further explains: Judicial Watch reports that corruption among federal officers guarding the U.S.-Mexico border is so rampant that the government created an internal web site devoted to recently convicted border agents and lie detector tests will be administered to ensure future applicants don´t already work for smuggling org.

"According to Paul Joseph Watson of Prison Planet the corporate media will report on lesser drug smuggling scandals involving cops and customs agents, but when it comes to the gargantuan sprawling U.S. Government agencies like the CIA drug smuggling racket, the silence is deafening.

Read his full invastigative report here: American Chronicle | DEA, FBI and CIA are all operating covertly in Mexico´s narco-trafficking underworld Many U.S. Agent

Even now if you have problems understanding American CIA connection with Drugs trafiking, read this extra detailed: The CIA & Drugs ( CIA Narco-colonialism in the 20th Century )

And now comes the final testimony. Michael Ruppert, an ex-LAPD DEA agent, who was shot and poisoned by CIA many times, claimed CIA's involvement in drug trade and proved every single thing he said!

He has a reward of $1000 for proving any evidence, he provided, wrong.

Truth & Lies - USA
THE TRUTH & LIES OF 9/11