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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..
You bet your ass the Kingdoms would lop the head off anyone funding fundamentalist. Now what country has the most to gain by keeping the West tied down in Afghanistan, Iraq in turmoil, and moving Pakistan more to the extremist side. Less face it, W got the last letter wrong in his invasion.
the only way they could make this statement would be if they controlled the entire drug trade in afghanistan or at least were aware of all activity. in which case you would ask yourself why they arnt stopping it.
Everyone knows its the US thats bankrolling the ‘insurgents’, it sure as hell aint Iranian corporations profiting from all of this. COUGH HALIBURTON COUGH.
#3 Basically correct.
It’s simple:
1. Get the names of the people financing the Talibans.
2. Ask the government of the country they reside in to deal with them.
If they’re not doing it:
3. Bomb the financiers houses when they’re home.
#5, Jag,
Only one problem with that plan. The wing nuts (as exemplified by Alphie and Cow-Patty) would cry we are invading or interfering in another country’s internal affairs.
Oh ya, and Cow-Patty would claim it is unconstitutional. And he knows. He’s an expert. He knows these things. He does. Just ask him.
#6, ‘dro,
#1 And what has Obama done right so far?
The first thing he did was NOT invite you to his inauguration. It’s been uphill from that.
It must really bite to wake up one morning and find you aren’t as privileged as you were the day before. Did you cry hen the country took back all the wealth your daddy and his daddy stole from the people and you were left with what the poor people have?
#8 – Mr. Fusion – The first thing he did was NOT invite you to his inauguration. It’s been uphill from that.
LMAO!!
I always thought the CIA was funding Islamic militants, and Al-Quaeda in particular, in some kinda Orwellian conspiracy to keep a war ticking over somewhere. Bet you the ‘source of the funding’ is never found.
The Iranians do not have an interest in a destabilized Iraq and Afghanistan. They understand that whatever the outcome of either war, eventually the Americans will go home and Iran will be the preeminent regional power.
Contrary to popular belief the Iranians are not crazy. If they just sit back and do nothing their status as a regional power will continue to grow enormously.
They have attacked us in Iraq using proxies, but mostly because we attack them using Kurdish proxies. Neither the U.S. or Iran is really all that interested in a head on confrontation.
The Iranians see themselves as the culmination of thousands of years of Persian history. That sort of frame allows you to think in the longer term.
If the U.S. was interested in marginalizing Iran we would make dramatic efforts to wean ourselves off of oil and natural gas. ANY other action will benefit Iran in the long run.
It may well be that there isn’t enough money in that part of the drug trade controlled by the Taliban to cover the bill. They can make some sort of rough guess as to what that is. The drug lords are at best only getting a small cut of the final retail price.
The Taliban is more or less at war with the sect running Iran so that leaves oil money from the faithful elsewhere. That mainly means the money is coming from the Princes of the Gulf Coast States.
Every dollar you spend on gasoline is some fraction of a penny for the Taliban.
The Royal Families are leery of starting a fight inside their own families. Best to let sleeping dowgs lay because kicking them might get you bit so I’m not sure how much help we can hope to get.
I wouldn’t be surprised if those same people who funded terrorists also gave handsomely to Barack Obama, the president that terrorists love.
Following the money is always a fruitful but politically costly avenue to stopping any organized criminal effort.
#14 The Obama campaign has about $38 million where the source still isn’t known. Some did come come from foreign sources according to the FEC database records…
#16 – Patrick
And your theory is that he’s funded by terrorists?
It is obvious to anyone that the people funding them are the Saudis and others in their region.
They were the hijackers in 9/11. Not Iraqia, Iranians or Taliban.
Cursor_
# 17 Jägermeister said, “And your theory is that he’s funded by terrorists?”
I have no theory. The facts are that Obama took millions in foreign financing and he has yet to disclose who those people are. Why won’t he disclose the identity of the illegal donors?
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?
#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.