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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..
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.
>> Hugh Ripper said,
>> To all the pointy heads who think Obama’s funding terrorists, you may be right. Just like every president before him.
Probably you are right but I doubt that it’s all equal.
We know that Reagan financed and armed the Mujahideen (who became the Taliban and Al Qaeda) but I doubt that Clinton did that, since the Russian had left by the time he took office.
We know that Reagan secretly sold arms to our sworn-enemy the Iranians. I’ve never heard that Carter or Clinton did that.
So which terrorists do you think Carter or Clinton financed and armed?
As for Obama — if it’s happening now, it’s still a legacy of Bush. But time will tell.
It’s a serious question — I don’t doubt that a Democratic president might do this. But I don’t buy into this “they are all the same” argument people give.
Did Carter or Clinton REALLY do something as stupid as illegally send weapons to the very same people who were having “death to America” rallies every day?
#41 If they did indeed fund terrorists (or freedom fighters – depends on which side of the fence you are on), they sure as hell wont tell us.