Lothar121

Cannabis New Drug of Choice to Finance Al Qaida
World Tribune.com | 09/26/2005

ABU DHABI — Saudi security sources said Sunni insurgents have been smuggling illegal drugs from Iraq to Saudi Arabia to finance insurgency attacks against coalition forces.

The sources said the drugs being smuggling now tend to be cannabis.

"In the space of one year, border police intercepted 10 tons of cannabis coming from Iraq," a Saudi source said. "In the past, the [smuggled] merchandise used to consist of alcoholic beverages and prohibited drugs."
Saudi officials said that from February through August 2005, Saudi authorities captured 682 infiltrators, Middle East Newsline reported. They said that Riyad, which deploys 35,000 troops, has spent more than $1 billion to improve security along the Iraqi border and closed 27 smuggling routes.

The sources said revenues from the smuggling were being shared by Al Qaida operatives in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. They said the money has been used to purchase weapons and finance attacks in both countries.

"We have reason to believe that profits from drug smuggling has been financing militants who are fighting Iraqi and coalition forces and facilitating the illegal entry of people into the country," a Saudi security source told the London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat daily. "It also supports Al Qaida's terrorist activities inside the kingdom."

"Since March 2004, we have given special training to officers to monitor the Iraqi border," a Saudi security source told the Riyad-based Al Watan daily. "There are 34 fixed units and 37 mobile units monitoring the Iraqi border."

The sources said Al Qaida has turned to drug smuggling after Saudi authorities decreased the flow of contributions from the kingdom. They said that over the last year Saudi intelligence has been monitoring the flow of funds to Al Qaida.

The sources said Al Qaida's network in Iraq has sought Saudi volunteers, largely for their willingness to transfer money to the insurgency. They said hundreds of Saudis who infiltrated to Iraq were believed to have brought in up to $15,000 each.

Many of the Saudis have arrived in Iraq via Syria. The sources said Saudis sought by authorities left the kingdom for Yemen and then made their way to Syria. Still others entered Iraq from neighboring Iran.

A senior Saudi official said up to 3,000 Saudis were said to be fighting the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. The official told a briefing to Saudi journalists in mid-2005 that the volunteers joined the Al Qaida network led by Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi.

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Higher Logic

So, in essence, America (and any government who makes marijuana illegal, but since America started the whole global drug war...) is funding Al-Quada by not making marijuana legal. Illegal = Profits...

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Lothar121

I think it's worth checking out Libby's article over at Last One Speaks:

Prohibitionists still looking for pot-terrorism connection

Pete at DrugWarRant points us to
an article I missed. The Saudis are claiming that marijuana is the new source of drug money to finance terrorism.

"In the space of one year, border police intercepted 10 tons of cannabis coming from Iraq," a Saudi source said. "In the past, the [smuggled] merchandise used to consist of alcoholic beverages and prohibited drugs."

One assumes the prohibited drug they reference is probably heroin. If it's true that smugglers have given up dealing in alcohol and smack, they should be happy about it. Marijuana is the least harmful intoxicant available to mankind and their population will be the healthier for it. But with only ten tons of cannabis being intercepted, it seems unlikely that this is true.

It may sound like a lot of pot, but you have to keep in mind that cannabis is a bulky item and a pound of it is worth much less a pound of heroin or cocaine since you use more weight of the product "per dose" if you will. Ten tons seized in a year is almost meaningless.

To put it into context, our government seized almost 36 tons of cocaine in one week in Sept of '89. In 2000, 500 tons of marijuana were seized by the just by the Border Patrol (not the DEA or customs) at the Mexican border and 192 tons (I assume domestically grown) were seized in California alone. The data suggests that the cannabis coming into Saudi Arabia is small time dealing to a domestic cannabis consuming market.

But even taking it at face value, and believing that the cannabis market is now financing terrorist cells, this is simply another argument to end prohibition. Illegal drugs are still the commodity that offers the best return on an investment and will remain so, as long as prohibition supports artificially high profits. If anyone could grow it, legal market competition would force out the illegal dealers and the government would be getting the money in taxes and regulatory fees, instead having the profits circulate uncounted and untaxed in the underground economy.

And it doesn't say much for the effect our foreign policy of "democracy intervention" is having on these countries either. As Pete said,

So let's see, we go to Afghanistan and it becomes the largest source of opium in that part of the world. We go to Iraq, and it becomes the supplier of marijuana to Saudi Arabia.

Not to mention we've spent billions in Colombia fighting coca plants and cocaine has never been purer or more available despite the government's declarations of victory in the fight. A cynical person might think the war on some drugs is only meant to be waged but never really "won."

ssj3gotenks

You know HL when i first read this article i thought that mj involving terrorism was supporting this but now after realizing what you've said it makes sooo much sense to me! I mean, crime in GENERAL would be less if mj was legal. But on the other hand, if our country did make cannabis legal, terrorists would know this and switch from cannabis to more harder, dangerous off-topic drugs. In other words, the government might view your arguement as irrelevant because if one drug was made legal (cannabis in this case), the government might start hearing, "Legalize [insert serious off-topic drug here]! so terrorists won't make money off of that either!"