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Daylife/AP Photo used by permission
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| Admiral Mike Mullen, Richard Holbrooke, FM Shah Mahmood Qureshi |
ISLAMABAD: The United States has said that Afghan drug trade was not a major source of funding for militancy and extremism in Pakistan. The financing came from extremists’ patrons in Gulf countries — an aspect now being scrutinised, the statement added.
‘Private individuals who support extremists bring money in through illegal means … hawala system and the area focussed is the Gulf Cooperation Council countries,’ US Special Envoy…Richard Holbrooke told a media briefing at the American Embassy.
Mr Holbrooke…said it was ‘a very big issue’ and ‘the most troubling aspect of the entire situation.’
The US, he said, had started looking into the source of financing for the extremists and would be devoting more time to investigate it. He admitted that not much work was done in the past to explore this aspect.
However, he said the much-touted drug trade was not the main financing source for extremism. ‘Even if the drug trade stops it won’t have any significant impact.’
Holbrooke is being careful, precise enough in his choice of words to confine his statement to “private individuals” being responsible for the flow of gold to the insurgency. Though, I doubt that any significant traffic through the wahala banking system goes unscrutinized by Saudi royals or UAE sheikhs..
Let’s see- 8 of 9 hijackers were from Saudi, Bin Laden is a member of a large, wealthy family from Saudi- the financing must be from IRAN. Rrright.
The Saudis are not our pals, or has everyone forgotten the oil crunch in the 70s and the rise of OPEC? Not to mention much more recently- Bush asked them to increase production during the huge runup in gas prices last year, and the answer was ‘no thanks’. (and everyone gets worked up about the French- Gulf War 1 was less than 20 years ago).
#1- they will behead anyone threatening the Saudi Royal Family- and keeping the lid on internally is proving increasingly difficult. Focusing on a national actor re: funding is a mistake. Look for money coming from rich, religiously conservative Saudi families. The Saudi government can’t track the money any better than we can.
As Chris says, the Iranians aren’t crazy- they were locked in a stalemate with Saddam (the 8 year Iran-Iraq war), and saw the results of both Gulf wars. They may maneuver around the edges, but they don’t want a direct confrontation any more than we do. The Iranian public views American people pretty favorably. And Iranians do see themselves as inheritors of a long history- a Persian history, distinct from the Arabs.
The drug trade bankrolls the northern alliance, our allies.
The taliban in 2001, a few months before 9/11 destroyed 98% of the Opium crop and began arresting and jailing opium farmers. The UN oddly enough blamed this action as the cause of the economic collapse of Afghanistan.
# 21 I have to agree with you. The Arabs have been fighting a proxy war with us using OPEC, religious fanatics and lobbyist since the Arab-Israeli wars.
It would be great if we ramped up our nuclear power and electrical vehicle production to finally get out from under the thumb of these annoying non-democratic unenlightened and ignorant human beings.
#19 – Patrick – The facts are that Obama took millions in foreign financing and he has yet to disclose who those people are.
If someone knows that he took foreign donations… why is it so hard to prove who he got it from? Follow the money trail… it’s not that hard.
Holebrook looks rather defensive/insecure..
if gold is involved, i’d guess banking/finance types or Moussad being the supplier with the rest of the “intelligentsia” community playing the area doing distribution through their usual channels.
timing of the story is interesting.
we have the Canadian Mint reporting its “missing some gold” a few days ago along with multiple countries from Dubai to Germany asking for their custodial gold back. (which has the Fed’s PlungeProtectionTeam in a major panic no doubt)
the story may have been just a ruse to see if it creates any “unusual” activity..
-or, as usual, its just another “Hey, look over here” story to distract us away from the “real” news of the day..
lastly, somebody knocked the server down. i pinged dawn.com and got a “host not found”
whats that about? (hey, now look over here..) (?) -lol
-s
#21 – badtimes
Liar. I got photos that show you how much Saudis love America!
# 24 Jägermeister said, “If someone knows that he took foreign donations… why is it so hard to prove who he got it from?”
Because O’Mama & his campaign won’t give the data. Any other questions?
#8 I see he paid you off already, That’s why yo’ve been behaving as a very good lapdog. Keep it up.
BTW, you do realize you’re a gringo who are the very reason why latin america is poor, dontcha? You and your ilk should be vanished from the land. Don’t worry, we all make good use of your money.
#27 – Patrick
Contact FBI if you think there’s a case. They’ll get the data.
#29 As I thought. No refutation of facts, just useless quips. Ah, the lot of the lib.
#28 – conFusion is a canuk. That’s is why he knows nothing about the U.S. and why most of his posts are nonsensical…
#28 – pedro – BTW, you do realize you’re a gringo who are the very reason why latin america is poor, dontcha? You and your ilk should be vanished from the land. Don’t worry, we all make good use of your money.
Wow… do you wear starched pants? You’re so macho, hombre.
#30 – Patrick – As I thought. No refutation of facts, just useless quips
The burden of proof is on your and your fellow conspiracy theorists shoulders. I’m not the one who make claims.
# 33 Jägermeister said, “The burden of proof”
Has already been met. Download the data from the FEC…
Fail.
#34 – Patrick
Then you may start building your case.
#32 Defending your lover? I can respect that. Otherwise…
Don’t believe it for a second — the drug trade finances the Taliban.
(Yes, funding comes from donors in the Gulf and funds from radical mosques in Pakistan and Afghanistan.)
But, as it’s been explained to me, the funding from drugs does not always come directly from raising the drugs. (this person said that very little of it comes that way — I forget the percent.)
The way drugs fund the Taliban (and other radicals) is that they control a region and charge a “tax” to allow the drugs to travel through their control. I assume they extort a fee from farms and warehouses on their turf too.
The feudal lords don’t mind paying because the Taliban also protect the cargo from seizure from the government. (who would demand a bribe, too.)
I’ve personally seen this smuggling trade and it’s kind of amazing. I accidentally got caught after-dark in an extremely rural territory not controlled by the Pakistani government. Roads nearly empty during he day became almost crowded by trucks after dark and “check points” sprung up, manned by armed youth.
Hugh Ripper,
Perhaps you mis-understand the relationship between the CIA and the Taliban. It is well documented that the CIA under Reagan funded and armed what would become Al Qaeda. Classic blowback.
But I’ve never heard any serous person say we are STILL funding them.
Greg
#38 I guess I’m only half serious. Nothing would surprise me though. The law and order and arms industries benefit greatly from having an Al-Quaeda boogyman about (if not Al Quaeda, then Russians, Venezuelan, Pakistanis, Eskimos etc).
To all the pointy heads who think Obama’s funding terrorists, you may be right. Just like every president before him.
#39 Having them as boogiemen? They ARE the bussiness for the arms industry. Venezuela has spent billions of dollars in arms lately. As an example, there was a single order that was known and advertised of 100.000 AK’s.
Russia has made a lot of dough from venezuela these years, selling all kind of old crap. It’s funny to see all those Russian choppers fall down in venezuela. Five have gone down already: 4 in venezuela and one in bolivia (sent there by the venezuelan army).
It’s a win/win for the industry. They arm the boogiemen and then tell the kids to buy guns.