US WAR OF DRUGS IN CENTRAL ASIA

Amir Zada Asad*& Arbab Khan Afridi**

Abstract

During 2007, Afghanistan cultivated 193,000 hectares of opium poppies, which posed an increase of 17% over last year. It produced an extraordinary 8,200 metric tons of opium (34% more than 2006) becoming practically the exclusive supplier of the world’s deadliest drug (93% of the opiate market). Leaving behind the 19th century China, that had at that time a population 15 times larger than today’s Afghanistan; no other country in the world has ever produced narcotics at such a deadly scale. Helmand province in Afghanistan alone produces about half of the national output of heroin. The report further says that Afghanistan's export of drugs to the West was fuelling the insurgency in Afghanistan and it is no more associated with poverty–quite on the contrary. The report further apprehends another massive Afghan opium crop in 2008.1 This process of drugs increase will go unabated in the future as the UNO lacks authority as well as the ability to control the drug problem. Unless the real-politics of some advanced countries are realized to occupy the strategically and economically important parts of the Central and south Asia, this problem will grow exponentially. Let us hope for the best.  But every indicator shows that the world community should expect the worst in the years to come. Instead of a decline in the production of the deadliest narcotics, there is an upward trend in its production.

Introduction

Writing about the main causative factors of drug industry, seventeen years ago, A. Jamieson wrote “Political instability is a major factor in the growth of the illicit drugs trade and is one of the biggest obstacles in combating it. In the last twenty years the drug producing countries of Latin America and of Southern Asia have all experienced one or more of the following Coup d’état, revolution, tribal tensions, violent ethnic or religious protests, invasions, intensive Guerilla warfare. In materially impoverished, politically turbulent parts of the world, drug have become the principal currency for the purchase of weapons and as has been proved, the human and organizational structure for the one illicit trade has come to overlap or coincide with the other2 and Afghanistan is a living example of all these causes.
In November 2006 in a joint report titled ‘Afghanistan Drug Industry: Structure, functioning, Dynamics, and Implications for Counter-Narcotics Policy" by the World Bank and the United Nation Office on Drug and Crime3 said "Efforts to combat opium production in Afghanistan have been marred by corruption and have failed to prevent the consolidation of the drugs trade in the hands of fewer powerful players with strong political connections”. The report says that efforts to combat opium have achieved only limited success and have lacked sustainability. Strong enforcement efforts against farmers are often ineffective in remote areas, with limited resources, assets and markets. The impact of eradication of opium poppy fields, and of reductions in cultivation resulting from the threat of eradication, tends to be felt most by poor farmers and rural wage laborers, who lack political support, are unable to pay bribes and cannot otherwise protect themselves.
These and many other concerns voiced by the world leading organization call for an immediate solution of the problem but the real-politics of a couple of super powers is the main hindrance in the way of success. Not only a hindrance but the main cause of its boom and future growth.

Discussion
 
Chronologically speaking, the history of Narco-politics in this region started in late seventies, and the development of Narco-business in the south and Central parts of Asia is the result of the US intelligence agency, CIA’s covert activities. Before the Soviet- Afghanistan war, narcotics (opium only) production in Pakistan and Afghanistan was meant mostly for domestic uses, which served the traditional Greek Medicinal system or the Unani medicines practiced by the local herbal doctors called Unani Hakeems. There was no local production of heroin4 till late seventies.
The first attempt of US war of drugs in the area started in April, 1978 when in a pro-communist coup led by Brigadier Abdul Qadir, the then king Sardar Daud Khan’s government was toppled and the king was replaced with a pro-Moscow regime. In the same year, US ambassador to Afghanistan was killed in doubtful circumstances. Americans were watching the situation carefully and created anti-communist resurgence groups inside Afghanistan, master minded from Peshawar Pakistan.5 Americans knew the strategic importance of Pakistan and Afghanistan for anti-communist activities and were creating financial resources for a long expected anti-communist war. The actual drama started, when in April 1979 CIA and the Afghan resistance groups started working together, eight months before soviet troops entered Afghanistan.6
 According to a western expert on drug and terrorism, although the drug epidemic of the 1980s had many international causes, the development of global heroin trafficking could be attributed, paradoxically, to two key aspects of US policy: the failure of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (herein after DEA) control efforts and the CIA’s covert operations. By attacking Narco-trafficking haphazardly in parts of Asia’s opium zones, the DEA simply sidetracked heroin exports from USA to Europe and succeeded in shifting opium production from south-western Asia to South-east Asia and back again—leading to an exponential growth both in international drug demand and supply.7 Moreover, the growing opium cultivation in Burma, and Afghanistan _ America’s major suppliers_ was largely the product of CIA’s own doings.8
 During 1980s, the CIA’s two main covert operations were inter-woven with the global narcotics trade. The agency’s support for Afghan guerillas through Pakistan coincided with the emergence of Southern and Central Asia as a major heroin supplier for European and American markets. Although US maintained a substantial force of DEA agents in Islamabad during 1980s, the unit was restrained by US national security imperatives and did almost nothing.9  In fact, the CIA and the DEA officials were in effect, against each other in this region, as in Central America.10
The details are startling According to Cooley, soon after his inauguration in January 1981, President Reagan met Count Alexander de Marenches, the head of the French Secret Foreign Intelligence Service the SDEC, in the Oval office. The Count had suggestion for a Franco-American venture to counter the Soviet threat in Afghanistan. “Operation Mosquito “entailed using confiscated drugs precisely as the Vietcong did with the US army in Vietnam: secretly, supplying the Soviet forces with illicit drugs in order to demoralize them and dissipate their fighting ability.11
 The Count claimed to be in contact with ‘bright young journalists who could facilitate this at a cost of just $1 million. The President agreed, and instructed the head of CIA to pursue the idea. Two days later the Count met Casey, who ‘loved’ this idea and sought France’s assistance in return for the Agency putting up the cash. The Count agreed but only on the condition that Casey would guarantee that his own name and that of France would not be mentioned in published articles. Casey could not guarantee it because Washington ‘leaked like a sieve’. France, having provided the original idea, withdrew.12
Three years later, Casey raised the issue with Pakistan President, General Zia-ul-Haq, who was hesitant. He (Casey) then reportedly contacted a leading Mujahideen leader (probably Ahmad Shah Masud) through the office of the French journalist where he received a more enthusiastic response, as a result of which funds and technical expertise were provided to facilitate the establishment of heroin factories.13
It is worth mentioning that USA, before these activities, had waged three ‘Wars on Drugs’ in 1972, by President Nixon, in 1986 by President Reagan, and then by President George Bush in 1991.Since then, direct US intervention in foreign countries had been predicated on controlling narcotics supply. ‘The successive wars on drug’ did not reduce the overall production rather proved a catalyst in ensuring supply of narcotics for purposes suiting their political agendas.
US denial and confessions have created a confusing situation the world over which is a deliberate effort on the part of the US. The denial of the US and its hollowness can be understood from the statements of CIA and State department; Mark Mansfield, the CIA spokesman said twenty years back that The CIA neither engages in nor condones drug trafficking14. But the State Department official said “we are not going to let a little thing like drugs get in the way of political situation.”15
In 2001, before the occupation of Afghanistan by US-led NATO forces, following a single verdict of the Taliban not to cultivate opium, production declined by 95%16. Consequently, in 2001 harvest season, only 185 metric tons of raw opium was produced. After 2001, particularly after the US occupation of Afghanistan, opium production has increased from 185 metric tons, to 8,200 metric tons in 2007. Under the US installed Karzai and the known US backed warlords, cultivated areas have increased to 193,000 acres.17
Drug development has three dimensions: financing, logistics and political patronage.18 In Afghanistan as well as in the entire Southern and Central Asia all three have been and are still available – the political patronage of the CIA during the Afghanistan – Russia war, and of the known warlords like Rashid Dustam, General Daud, President Hamid Karzai as protectors of the trade, the logistic support of the Dustam’s Ministry, and the interior ministry, as well as ISAF19 after the 9/11, and the finances and money laundering by banks in the west.20 The involvement of Rashid Dustam, in particular has been known to the western intelligence and media since his association with Russia  during Russia-Afghanistan war. The northern alliance then supported by Russia and now by many western countries, notably the USA, produces drugs to procure arms to aid in its armed struggle against the then Taliban, and now in the name of Al-Qaida. Northern Alliance poppy cultivation was admitted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s Asa Hutchinson, who conceded that “we are not naïve (in thinking) that the Northern Alliance does not have their own interests and history of poppy cultivation and trafficking.”21 The involvement of Rashid Dustam and his cartel in the drug trade was reported by a German journalist in 2001 when he was visiting the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border area in connection with his professional responsibilities. He had reported that widespread drug smuggling among named Northern Alliance and Russian personnel, claiming that helicopters were making daily sorties carrying huge quantities of narcotics destined for European markets. 22 
Despite the international efforts and notably the US efforts, the drug trade has continued to flourish during the post-Cold war era. Afghanistan became the major producer of opiates narcotics to the global markets, particularly the western markets. It is believed that Afghanistan is the sole major producer and supplier of the deadly heroin to the global market and more than 90 % of the heroin sold anywhere in the world, is originated in Afghanistan…23 The political analysts are of the opinion that the main objective of the 2001 occupation of Afghanistan by US led western forces was not only to restore the drug trade but also perpetuate it and CIA continues to protect the Golden Crescent drug boom. Despite the tall claims of the Afghan President Hamid Karzai to eradicate the narcotic boom in Afghanistan, opium production and heroin processing has skyrocketed.24 Exploiting this bewildered situation, the Americans are making the situation more perplex through confessions and denials on state level. For example a US high official for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Robert Charles said that the drug problem in Afghanistan is largely a result of the "post-war environment" when U.S. firepower defeated Taliban in 2001.25The same person, the same day, in a twist, said that People needed to survive… poppy eradication is physically as well as politically difficult for a nascent government recovering from the consequences of a civil war of a quarter-century and economic chaos. Some media reports have also cited United States as a major source of essential chemicals used for heroin processing.”26
It is pertinent to note that US has waged three so-called wars on drug globally but when it came to Afghanistan, immediate after US attack, the white-house ordered that opium harvest may not be destroyed as that would weaken the military government of Pervez Musharraf, a US ally on the war on terror. Many insiders of Capitol Hill believe that the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI is also a beneficiary of the lucrative drug trade and the CIA opposed the destruction of the Afghan opium supply on the grounds it might destabilize the government of General Pervez Musharraf. It is also reported by the insiders that ISI had threatened to cause a downfall to President Musharraf if the crops were destroyed.27
The Daily Mail, London, detailed the drug trade by the war lords of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan by reporting that they (the Northern Alliance war lords)exports not opium but heroin. They convert opium into heroin on a very large scale which is not processed in the old kitchen bath tubs but in proper factories. The bulk of chemicals needed for processing heroinare shipped into Afghanistan through road transport; the roads which were constructed by American and the NATO troops. This would have never happened on such a large scale if the four largest players in the heroin business were not involved. These four players are no less than the senior members of the Afghan government---the government which is installed by our soldiers and for whom they die and fight to protect. 28
The British Ambassador to Uzbekistan during 2002-2004 reported the involvement of the Northern Alliance, and reported his experience of the drug trafficking in the following words:
“I stood at the ‘Friendship Bridge at Termez’ in 2003 and watched the jeeps with black-out windows bringing heroin through from Afghanistan, en route to Europe. I watched tankers of chemicals roaring into Afghanistan.29

Some US classified reports also mention of a few senior officials in the Afghan government   to be drug barons.  The lords of the ring who are termed as “The Tier One Warlords” include Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek Commander–in–Chief of the army, and Gen. Mohammad Daud, the Minister responsible for Counter-narcotics and the younger brother of the Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Ahmed Wali Karzai.”30 In early 2006, Newsweek also reported that the major drug traffickers included past and present government officials and termed Hamid Kerzai’s brother as the de facto lord of southern Afghanistan who leads the whole trafficking structure. The same report added that, one-quarter of the new Parliament’s 249 elected members are Narco- barons.31
Not only the Afghan Narco-elites, the Narco-elites in the central Asian states and even in Russia, are also reported to be involved in the lucrative drug business. Confirming the British Ambassador’s statement, the Daily Mail further quotes an ex-KGB (now FSB) agent named Alexander Letveninko, who was poisoned with polonium210, last November in London, (probably he was killed because he knew much about the heroin business by top Uzbek and Russian officials) that “The jeeps loaded with heroin run from one Uzbek to another i.e. from General Dustam to President Islam karimove.”32
It is interesting to know that the UK, United States and Germany, all have helped the Uzbek Customs Centre at Termez in installing the most sophisticated detection and screening equipments but the convoys of jeeps running between the Two Uzbeks (Dustam and Karimove) simply bypass the screening equipment. The heroin trafficked to Uzbekistan is shipped to St. Petersburg and Riga once it enters Uzbekistan.33
The United Nations and other western media reports see Helmand Province of Afghanistan inhabited by the Pushtoons (Pushto speakers) as the major opium producing area but the facts are different than what is being projected. Confronting and contradicting the UNODC report, another report says that opium is produced throughout Afghanistan, and the north and north-east (Dustam’s territory) is no exception. The insiders know that the south is the most barren and deserted infertile rocky area where production of opium in bulk is difficult if not impossible.34
The continuous presence of US and allied troops in Afghanistan is viewed from another angle by many analysts who question the objective of attacking Afghanistan and believe that the operation against Bin Laden has nothing to do with the occupation of Afghanistan.35  

Conclusion

The very term ‘drugs’ connotes and denotes very high politics and is the worst possible propaganda tool against any nation of the world to be blackmailed by the only Super power. The world community should realize that drug trafficking and production would never come to an end unless the Real politics of the only super power come to an end. The war on drugs is indeed, a war of drugs and a ploy to trap poor and backward countries and to get desired political and economic results.

Bibliography

Books

Asad, A. Z. Asad & Harris, J. Robert, 2003. The Politics and Economics of Drug Production on the Pakistan-Afghanistan Border. (Aldershot Hamshire; Ashgate Publishing Company).
Cooley, J. 1999. Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism (London: Pluto Press).
Ikramul Haq, 1991. From Hashish to Heroin (Lahore; Al-Noor Publications).
Lausanne, C. 1991. Pipe Dream Blues; Racism and the War on Drugs. (Boston:  South End Press). p. 116.
McCoy,  A. W. McCoy, 1991, The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global drug Trade.  (New York: Lawrence Hill Books).
______________, 1994. The Politics of Heroin: CA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade (2nd. Edn). (New York: Harper & Row).

Journals
Jamieson, A.  1990. Global Drug Trafficking: Conflict Studies 234. London: Institute for the Study of Conflict and Terrorism.
McCoy, A. W., 1997. “Drug Fall out: the CIA’s forty Year complicity in the Narcotics Trade” in the Progressive, 1 August, 1997.
Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research.Montreal: April 29, 2007.
 __________________, the Global Research Montreal: January, 8, 2008.
Murray Craig, the Global Research, 24, July 2007. 

Newspapers/Magazines
The New York Time, 10th April, 1988.
The Dawn .Karachi, 24 June 2001.
The Frontier post, Peshawar; August, 1, 2001.
The Frontier Post .Peshawar: 28 November 2001.
The Newsweek .London: 1.2.2006.
The Daily Independent .London: April 13, 2006.
The Daily Mail, London, Jul7, 21, 2007.

World Bank/UN Reports
The World Bank, News Release dated Nov. 28, 2006, Washington DC.
United Nations, Afghanistan Opium poppy Survey 2007. Vienna: UNODCC, 2007.
Interviews
Khan.  Interview on 12.2.2005.

TV/Electronic Media Reports
Labott, Elise, CNN Washington Bureau Monday, March 1, 2004 Posted: 6:00 PM EST (2300 GMT).