Article

2021-06-28 Afghanistan

Politics, Profit, & Poppies: How The CIA Turned Afghanistan Into A Failed Narco-State

[Mint Press News] AFGHANISTAN — The COVID-19 pandemic has been a death knell to so many industries in Afghanistan. Charities and aid agencies have even warned that the economic dislocation could spark widespread famine. But one sector is still booming: the illicit opium trade. Last year saw Afghan opium poppy cultivation grow by over a third while counter-narcotics operations dropped off a cliff. The country is said to be the source of over 90% of all the world’s illicit opium, from which heroin and other opioids are made. More land is under cultivation for opium in Afghanistan than is used for coca production across all of Latin America, with the creation of the drug said to directly employ around half a million people.

This is a far cry from the 1970s, when poppy production was minimal, and largely for domestic consumption. But this changed in 1979 when the CIA launched Operation Cyclone, the widespread funding of Afghan Mujahideen militias in an attempt to bleed dry the then-recent Soviet invasion. Over the next decade, the CIA worked closely with its Pakistani counterpart, the ISI, to funnel $2 billion worth of arms and assistance to these groups, including the now infamous Osama Bin Laden and other warlords known for such atrocities as throwing acid in the faces of unveiled women.

"From statements by U.S. Ambassador [to Iran] Richard Helms, there was little heroin production in Central Asia by the mid 1970s," Professor Alfred McCoy, author of "The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade," told MintPress. But with the start of the CIA secret war, opium production along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border surged and refineries soon dotted the landscape. Trucks loaded with U.S. taxpayer-funded weapons would travel from Pakistan into its neighbor to the west, returning filled to the brim with opium for the new refineries, their deadly product ending up on streets worldwide. With the influx of Afghan opium in the 1980s — Jeffrey St. Clair, co-author of "Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press," alleges — heroin addiction more than doubled in the United States.

"In order to finance the resistance for a protracted period, the Mujahideen had to come up with a livelihood beyond the weapons that the CIA was providing," McCoy said, noting that the weapons issued could not feed the fighters’ families, nor reimburse them for lost labor:

Posted by Besoeker 2021-06-28 00:20|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top
File under: Narcos

#1 An interesting site that certainly digs deeper than most. Odd that this comes from a site that describes itself as follows

We focus our coverage on issues relating to the effects of special interest groups, big business and lobbying efforts and how they shape policies at home and abroad, including American foreign policy. Through the lens of social justice and human rights, we report on how these dynamics drive our foreign affairs and impact the world, and examine the effects they have on our democracy and freedoms as defined by the constitution.

Posted by trailing wife 2021-06-28 01:16|| 2021-06-28 01:16|| Front Page Top

#2 Simplistic. Afghanistan and Pakistan were THE major suppliers of opiates to Western Europe and North America in the mid-1970s. They took over from Burma/Laos because political and military instability and a long drought reduced movement of opium from the Golden Triangle. Myriad news reports in the nineteen seventies tied Pakistan military to the poppy trade in Afghanistan. There was Pak military operations all along the Northwest Frontier. They have not ceased to this day.

Posted by Gerthudion Whomoper3485 2021-06-28 09:08|| 2021-06-28 09:08|| Front Page Top

#3 The opioid epidemic that's destroying Americans has to come from somewhere. That's the real goal here.

US Army could have put a stop to poppy production long ago. Trump tried and was overruled, as he was in so many other decisions.

Posted by Jiggs Trotsky5854 2021-06-28 16:26|| 2021-06-28 16:26|| Front Page Top

#4 The campaign against Paraquat goes back at least to New York Times, "POISONOUS FALLOUT FROM THE WAR ON MARIJUANA", By Jesse Kornbluth, Nov. 19, 1978.

Posted by Gerthudion Whomoper3485 2021-06-28 17:20|| 2021-06-28 17:20|| Front Page Top

20:19 AlmostAnonymous5839
20:09 AlmostAnonymous5839
20:07 Cured Romantic
19:59 Cured Romantic
19:57 Glenmore
19:56 Glenmore
19:56 jpal
19:46 Frank G
18:40 Clolumble Omack5869
18:33 Ebbuger Whuque4103
18:16 Procopius2k
18:16 Menhadden Sheatle7781
18:09 Procopius2k
17:55 James
17:30 Richard+Aubrey
17:26 swksvolFF
17:07 swksvolFF
16:59 ed in texas
16:57 ed in texas
16:32 NoMoreBS
16:13 M. Murcek
16:09 Raj
15:58 Super Hose
15:56 Super Hose