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xxdr_zombiexx

'On Bush, drugs and hypocrisy'
By Bob Fitrakis, | Cleveland Free Press | April 18, 2004

When President George W. Bush signed the Drug-Free Communities Act in 2002, he asserted, "If you quit drugs, you join the fight against terror in America." During the 2002 Superbowl, in the aftermath of 9/11, Bush's Office of National Drug Control Policy aired two TV ads asking the simple question, "Where do terrorists get their money?" The answer: "If you buy drugs, some of it might come from you."

Many marijuana activists have argued that growing your own weed is counterterrorist activity. Still, this line of thinking concedes Bush's simple-minded assertion.

The better response to the terrorist money question should be from Friends and Family of Bush (FOBs). The terrorist network responsible for 9/11 was primarily financed by opium profits from the Golden Crescent where Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran come together. The Reagan and Bush administration policy was to allow the opium lords to launder their drug money through the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) as long as some of the proceeds went to finance the fight against the Soviet Union. Ironically, all of this is documented in a Senate Report, The BCCI Affair," chaired by Senator John Kerry.

[zombienote: At the time the BCCI Scandal was the 'Mother of all Scandals" and was so complex and involved the juries would snooze, the details were so many and boring.

Google search for BCCI Scandal]


The Bush family is close friends with Texas' Bath brothers. James R. Bath was an investor in George W.'s Arbusto Oil Company. Bath was also an investor in BCCI. The Senate Report also documents that Sheikh Abdullah Bahksh of Saudi Arabia not only held 16% of the stock of Harken Energy, a company that later bought up George W.'s Spectrum 7 oil company, but also was a key investor in BCCI. George H.W. Bush, former director of the CIA, maintained ties with BCCI despite its narcotics trafficking during both the 1970s and 80s.

Legal documents show that James Bath served as the U.S. business representative for Salem bin Laden, brother of Osama, beginning in 1976, the same year that George the Elder took over the directorship of the CIA.

So, where did the terrorist money come from? The FOBs. A good book on the subject is False Profits: The Inside Story of BCCI, the World's Most Corrupt Financial Empire, by Peter Truell of the Wall Street Journal, and Larry Gurwin, award-winning business reporter. Another resource is Chapter eleven: "Making Afghanistan Safe for Opium" of Alexander Cockburn's and Jeffrey St. Clair's Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press.

Cynics might sneer that these connections are pre-1991, when Osama bin Laden broke with his CIA allies. Yet, the Bush family's relationship with opium runners remains odd. Initially, Bush the Younger's administration gave Afghanistan's Taliban $43 million to eradicate opium crops. The fact that the Taliban was harboring Osama and were one of the most repressive regimes on Earth did not sit well with critics.

Following September 11, 2001, however, the Bush administration's drug policy toward Afghanistan changed dramatically. The UN issued a report documenting continued opium production in Afghanistan and advised the U.S.-led coalition to act quickly to destroy the bumper crop of opium. The UN report determined that: "Afghanistan has been the main source of illicit opium: 70 percent of global illicit opium production in 2000 and up to 90 percent of heroin in European drug markets originated from Afghanistan."

"The global importance of the ban on opium poppy cultivation and trafficking in Afghanistan is enormous," concluded the UN report.

Charles R. Smith, writing for NewsMax.com, reported the grumblings from anonymous sources on Capitol Hill in late March 2002 when the Bush administration reversed its policy and decided not to push for the destruction of Afghanistan's opium crops. The CIA argued that the destruction of the opium crop might destabilize General Pervez Musharraf's Pakistani government. After all, Americans wouldn't want that.

Musharraf is everything that Saddam longed to be, but could never accomplish. He's a military dictator referred to by the American mainstream press as a "self-appointed" president. He has nuclear weapons; he harbors an effective terrorist network including Osama bin Laden and key Al Qaeda figures; he's responsible for giving North Korea radioactive material to build their nuclear bombs; and despite all of this, he is still a friend of the U.S. and, more importantly, a FOB. By the way, scientists in his government offered Saddam Hussein nuclear material, which the Iraqi leader turned down, according to The New York Times.

Who are we to challenge the CIA? Wasn't it necessary for them to allow their Contra allies to run cocaine into the United States in the 1980s? Wasn't it the height of patriotism when they allowed Air America to transport opium into U.S. military bases in the 1960s and 70s? But all that concerned the Cold War, national security and geopolitical strategy.

But what about the President's own actions in the war against drugs? In 1999, our President has steadfastly maintained that he hadn't done cocaine in the last seven years, no wait, fifteen years, or possibly since 1974, all reported in Time magazine. As Governor of Texas, he announced that people "need to know that drug use has consequences." Apparently, bad memory may be one of those consequences. As governor, Bush signed legislation that authorized judges to sentence first-time offenders with less than a gram of cocaine to a maximum 180 days in jail instead of automatic probation.

During the height of the notorious Blowgate scandal, George W. scrambled back to his ancestral home in Columbus, Ohio to proclaim "I'm going to tell people I made mistakes and that I've learned from my mistakes." His mistakes most likely cost him his flight status in the National Guard when he failed to take a medical exam following the military's adoption of a mandatory drug testing policy.

If hemp activists want to stop the insane and authoritarian War on Drugs, they've got to admit their mistakes. The movement's biggest problem appears to be lack of connections with the CIA, bin Laden, the Bush family and other known terrorists.

Dr. Bob Fitrakis is Senior Editor of The Free Press (http://freepress.org), a political science professor, and author of numerous articles and books.

© 2004 The Columbus Free Press


______Bonus Article____________

Record poppy crop makes mockery of Afghanistan's 'jihad' on opium
By Nick Jackson | Apr 18, 2004, 11:50 | The Independent

Blossoms of ripe opium poppies blanket the valleys of Nangarhar province - colourful proof that another war is not working: Afghanistan's "jihad" against opium production.

President Hamid Karzai's promise that 25 per cent of the opium harvest in Afghanistan would be destroyed is no closer to being realised. Last year, the harvest provided three quarters of the world's heroin, and 95 per cent of Europe's. This year a record harvest is expected. Robert Charles, a narcotics expert from the US State Department, says that 300,000 acres of opium poppies will be harvested, 30 per cent more than the previous highest. Already 10 million people worldwide are addicted to Afghan opiates.

At a conference in Berlin this month, US Secretary of State Colin Powell linked the aid package of $2.3bn pledged to Afghanistan for 2004-05 to the destruction of the opium harvest. It was then that Mr Karzai called on farmers to fight opium production with the same commitment as they would a holy war.

"This is not a real policy," says Haji Din Mohammad, the governor of Nangarhar. "We have only told farmers at the end of the season. It is only now being decided whose fields will be destroyed."

Anger at the destruction of the harvest has led to demonstrations by farmers, including a 3,000-strong street protest in Kama district in Nangarhar last week. The fact that the central government did not work out which plots were to be destroyed earlier has passed control of the destruction to local authorities.

District authorities are responsible for overseeing the destruction of the local harvest. Police chiefs in Behsood district and Kama district have been ordered to destroy 600 acres of opium. The farmer is paid $2,500 for 12kg of opium that each acre of poppies provides. An acre of wheat is worth only $120. Each district of 50 villages faces losing more than $1.5m.

The local authorities do not have the funds to replace the massive revenues from opium farming. Hazrat Ali, the military commander of Nangarhar, admits that they are not doing their job. "Our local administration is lazy and corrupt when destroying opium," he says. "They can be paid off." Bribes of about $100 per half acre are being paid to prevent the destruction of fields, according to reports from Kandahar.

It is only the big landlords who can afford to pay off the police chiefs in this way. All local authorities in Nangarhar province talk of a negotiation with the local elders, the richest landlords. Abdul Rahib, the police chief in Behsood district, says they control the selection of fields to be destroyed. Haji Ajif Khan, District Mayor of Kama, adds: "Some people have 100 or 200 acres of land, and we take money from these people." He claims that it is then distributed to poorer farmers.

When the big landlords who own hundreds of acres of poppies are targeted, the fields have been carefully selected. In Behsood district only half an acre of local landlord Haji Jilal Gul's massive crop was being cut down. It is possible to tell if an opium bud can produce opium or not by the smell of its seeds. Ripe opium buds smell fresh, like wet grass; buds that have gone off have a sickly sweet smell. The field destroyed would have been unable to produce a significant crop. The field next to it, owned by the same man, was ripe and being harvested.

Local worthies use other methods to counter the opium jihad. Many fields targeted had already yielded up to 50 per cent of their opium. Every day the buds are cut with four small slits, the next day or the day after the opium that seeps out is collected and four more slits cut. A small opium bud can be harvested over three days, a large opium bud over eight days.

In Shergar village in Kama the opium buds of a local elder which were being destroyed had been harvested for at least four days. The opium that has been harvested from these fields is not destroyed. Neither are the stockpiles of opium that have been built up over the years, and can still be used to make heroin 10 years after they have been harvested.

One government did cut through the influence of local landlords and the notoriously corrupt Afghan civil service and radically reduce the opium harvest - the Taliban. Between 1999 and 2001 the opium harvest fell from 225,000 acres to 20,000 acres, according to UN estimates. But the executions carried out by the Taliban are not acceptable in the new Afghanistan.

Even imprisonment is considered a draconian measure, even though Hazrat Ali believes it would be the best way to stop the harvest.

This is a dramatic transition from the policy of compensation used in 2002 by the new government, which Hazrat Ali supported, offering $350 per acre destroyed.

With $28bn pledged to Afghanistan for development over the next few years at the Berlin conference, Haji Din Mohammad hopes that development projects and loans for new businesses will provide an alternative income for the country's 1.7 million poppy farmers.

But he presents no plan for displacing the million-dollar opium producers who control the local destruction. "This is a tribal area, you have to be careful when you're doing anything," he says. "Otherwise there will be conflict, security problems, between the government and the people, between the government and the tribes."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...p?story=512488

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Alien Space Signal

There's no money for your issue so long as we're squandering $50 billion a year on the DrugWar. Ben Masel

Fear became the ultimate tool of this government - V.

 

smoking_joe_lee

"Where do terrorists get their money? IF you buy drugs, SOME of it MIGHT come from you." Wow! what a weak statement! True, but weak! Some? Might? If the word heroin is substituted for "drugs" it is certainly more likely to be true. Marijuana is not mentioned in that statement.
The president of Pakistan supports Osama bin Laden? I need some proof before I believe that one. In recent weeks Pakistani troops have been involved in fierce firefights with followers of bin Laden! Some support...
At the same time we are expected to believe that the president of Pakistan is a military dictator and Sadam was not. "Everything Sadam wanted to be but was not..." That wasn't Ghandi who invaded two neighboring countries and used biological weapons against Iran and his own people. Mass graves, torture, rape...He was, and IS evil and should be brought to trial in an international court for crimes against humanity.

TripleD420

to the tv ad saying that "some" of the money comes from us, if we were allowed to grow our own bud at a maximum of 2 plants or even one plant per household we would deffinitly not have a problem with "terrorists" ending up with "some" of peoples money. we should be allowed a certain amount of plants to grow in our house or at least have a minnimum age to smoke at like say 16 haha or even 17 that way its still legal and if kids like most of us nowadays wanna smoke we can. i think this ad is a bunch of bulls**t and until proff of our money going to terrorists is given i sure as hell don't believe president Bush on this one.

TurbulentHigh

You notice they don't use that anti-drug slogan anymore. I can't believe they ever thought that was a clever anti-drug slogan to begin with. It is so ridiculous, it is more anti-prohibition then anti-drug.

- TH421

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Ron Paul will end the "War on Drugs"

gob

"During the height of the notorious Blowgate scandal, George W. scrambled back to his ancestral home in Columbus, Ohio to proclaim "I'm going to tell people I made mistakes and that I've learned from my mistakes." His mistakes most likely cost him his flight status in the National Guard when he failed to take a medical exam following the military's adoption of a mandatory drug testing policy."

I just checked the Bio on G.W.Bush and found no reference to Columbus, Ohio.......Phooey......

 

xxdr_zombiexx

It says "Ancesteral"

The Bush family was in Ohio a long time ago. His grandfather Prescott is from columbus and the Bush's have relatives everywhere.

Mayflower sorts, supposedly.
Ancestry of George W. Bush

Bellatrix

Neither is the word "prohibition." If drugs weren't illegal they wouldn't be worth so much. Where would the CIA and all it's operatives get their money if drugs were legal?

I also think that writer may be off base here, but there is a basis for this conclusion. It's no secret that the ONLY gov't in the entire worldto recognize the Taliban as a legitimate gov't was Mussharef's military junta in Pakistan. The maority of people in Pakistan also support bin Laden. I'm sure that Mussaref wil do whatever is in his best interests at the time. It would actually be more beneficial to him policitcall if bin Laden stays on the loose. He can ask the US for more money, weapons and manpower to go and get him. If they caught him that "aid" would dry up pretty quick.

Well, that's what they SAY. Who knows what they're really doing? The whole thing oculd be a farce to talk the US out of more military aid.

The writer is wrong on only one point - saddam was exactly like Musharref. Remember that when Saddam was gassing his own people his action s were sanctioned by the US (as well as several other major powers). Several of those mass graves they found were fille death Iraqi soldiers killed by Americans in the first Gulf War.

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