Here's an example of how to read between the lines of MSM:
Could somebody explain to me exactly which country needs to be crossed for drugs to get from Afghanistan to Iraq?
It's also interesting that the article provides no proof whatsoever that Iraq is a transit point, - merely "anecdotal evidence" from a "UN" bureaucrat in Vienna (who, at the bottom of the article, turns out not to be a UN official, after all).
Amazing.
Could somebody explain to me exactly which country needs to be crossed for drugs to get from Afghanistan to Iraq?
It's also interesting that the article provides no proof whatsoever that Iraq is a transit point, - merely "anecdotal evidence" from a "UN" bureaucrat in Vienna (who, at the bottom of the article, turns out not to be a UN official, after all).
Amazing.
posted by Finnpundit at 2:35 PM
8 Comments:
Errm, the article you linked to actually says: Drug traffickers from
Afghanistan have begun crossing Iraq to get to Jordan, the exit point for Asia and Europe, said Hamid Ghodse, the president of the International Narcotics Control Board.
What then does your comment "Could somebody explain to me exactly which country needs to be crossed for drugs to get from Afghanistan to Iraq?" mean?
Surely what is being suggested is that Iraq needs to be crossed in order to get drugs from Afghanistan to Jordan.
Fact before fiction, except after beer :)
Now, go look at a map, and tell me what you see.
Gee, how did that country get between Iraq and Afghanistan?
An article on Iran's failed attempts at stopping drug smuggling from Afghan./Pak. http://mondediplo.com/2002/03/13drug
"Forty-two thousand soldiers, police and militia, a tenth of Iran’s armed forces, are deployed along the eastern border, 1,950 kilometres from Turkmenistan, in the north, down to the Indian Ocean. The border has more than 200 observation posts, dozens of walls blocking mountain passes and hundreds of kilometres of trenches and barbed wire, an investment of $1bn, plus upkeep. Iran’s majlis (parliament) allocated $25m to improve border fortifications in 2000: 3,140 members of the security forces, including two generals, have been killed in skirmishes with smugglers since 1979, a rate of three a day"
The article was from just before the Iraq war and it seems most drugs went via Turkey then.
I guess if it wasn't for the European welfare states, none of those Euro-druggies would be able to afford their smack. Quite clearly European taxpayers are subsidising this trade.
If there is a drug route, it does have to go through Iran, though. And with all those border controls, it just seems that the organized crime rings must have official Iranian connivance. What should be asked, though, is how much of the trade through Iraq is intentional on the part of Iran.
I'm sure there is some official connivance or corruption although the numbers of police and soldiers killed trying to secure the Eastern border suggests some within the Iranian govt. take stopping smuggling very seriously. What would they gain in diverting the smuggling through Iraq though? I can't imagine the US Army will make the same mistake as in Vietnam and allow lots of soldier to start using. Its hardly like the US soldiers can exactly wonder off their bases for some R&R at the moment either. One would imagine that if there is significant smuggling going on through Iraq, it is just because it is safer and cheaper for the drugs smugglers than old route through Turkey.
Puntti, here's some not-so-good views of US involvement in Iraq.
Well, bigot, no surprise there, if you choose to cite the L.A. Times as a news source.
"Could somebody explain to me exactly which country needs to be crossed for drugs to get from Afghanistan to Iraq?"
You have to go through Iran.
And you need a buyer, or at least a middleman, in American-controlled Iraq.
Some job the Americans are doing. They can't suppress drug production in occupied Afghanistan, they can't stop trafikking to occupied Iraq... so wtf CAN they do.
Blame everyone else?
Post a Comment
<< Home