British Army investigated for heroin smuggling

[David Rose]

Mike Ruppert has been reporting this for years ...... but good to see
MSM are finally catching up?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11277466

12 September 2010 Last updated at 20:38

British troops investigated for heroin smuggling

Afghanistan is the source of 90% of the world's opium

Military police are investigating claims that British soldiers may
have trafficked heroin from Afghanistan.

The Ministry of Defence said they were aware of "unsubstantiated"
claims that troops were using military aircraft to ship the drug out
of the country.

The inquiry is focusing on service personnel at airports in Camp
Bastion and Kandahar.

Security has been tightened, with additional sniffer dogs being used
as part of the crackdown at the bases.

An MoD spokeswoman said: "We are aware of these allegations.

"Although they are unsubstantiated, we take any such reports very
seriously and we have already tightened our existing procedures both
in Afghanistan and in the UK, including through increasing the use of
trained sniffer dogs.

"We regret any inconvenience this causes to our service personnel. Any
of our people found to be engaged in trafficking of illegal narcotics
will feel the full weight of the law."

Drugs and weapons

BBC Defence Correspondent Jonathan Beale said the Royal Military
Police's Special Investigation Branch launched their investigation
before the allegations were reported in the press.

Our correspondent added the increased security measures - such as the
use of sniffer dogs at Afghan and British airbases - were introduced
last month.

Afghanistan is the source of 90% of the world's opium.

The multimillion dollar trade in poppy production is used to fuel the
insurgency.

It allow militants to purchase weapons with which they then attack the
Afghan government and international forces, destabilising the region.

[Wakeymedia]

And here's a coincidence - Just look at that headline -

"[Iraq] could become a major Heroin supplier".

Murder, theft, smack dealing - these b**tards have quite a charge sheet building up



.
Link to story - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/opium-iraqs-deadly -new-export-449962.html

.

[Mark Gobell]

Poppies in Iraq ???

That'll be the "civilising democracy" at work no doubt.

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

I've heard on the bin-vine that Army Intelligence have been interviewing MI6 and vice-versa.
Still only the cannon fodder operational chaps will get the blame, and only one or two soldier grunts you see.
The order had come down from on high-as-a-kite, don't mention ANY intelligence or officer involvement in the press, could be bad for morale...

[TonyGosling]

some interesting drug stats here in this reuters piece on today's deliberate disaster of an election in Afghanistan.

Factbox: Key facts and figures about Afghanistan
KABUL | Sat Sep 18, 2010 2:24am EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68F2OG20100918
(Reuters) - Afghans voted in parliamentary elections on Saturday for 249 seats in the country's wolesi jirga, or lower house of parliament.
Following are key facts and figures about Afghanistan:

PROFILE

* Afghanistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia which shares borders with Iran, Pakistan, China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

* Hamid Karzai has led the country since 2001, when U.S.-backed Afghan militia ended the five-year rule of the austere Islamist Taliban movement. He was re-elected for a second term in October 2009 after a highly contested vote which was mired in allegations of fraud.

* Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world. Its population is almost 30 million. Life expectancy for both men and women is about 45 years.

* Some 42 percent of Afghans are Pashtun and 27 percent are Tajik. Hazaras and Uzbeks each account for 9 percent.

* There are two national languages, Pashto and Dari. Pashto, the language of the Pashtuns, is spoken in many parts of the south and east. Dari, a Persian language, is spoken mainly in the north and center.

* Only 28 percent of Afghans are literate.

SECURITY AND VIOLENCE

* Violence has surged to the highest levels since U.S. and Afghan forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001, as tens of thousands of additional foreign troops, mainly Americans, have been deployed in response to an escalating Taliban insurgency.

* So far this year, more than 500 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan, compared with 521 in the whole of 2009, the deadliest year of the war so far.

* Last month a United Nations report said the number of civilians killed in the war rose by 31 percent in the first half of 2010, with 1,271 civilians killed in conflict-related incidents.

* The violence, which was previously concentrated in Taliban strongholds in southern and eastern Afghanistan, has since spread to the north and west of the country.

* A total of 2,072 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan since the war started in November 2001.

* The United States has lost 1,278 service members, Britain 335 and other NATO contributors 459, according to the iCasualties website (www.iCasualties.org).

INTERNATIONAL FORCES

* There are nearly 150,000 foreign troops from 47 countries working under the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), established in December 2001.

* The United States has by far the most troops, with about 100,000 of the total, triple the number when U.S. President Barack Obama took office last year.

* Other NATO allies have about 50,000 troops. Some are withdrawing, including the Netherlands and Canada with about 3,200 troops.

* Britain, with 9,500 troops, is the second-largest ISAF contributor. Germany is next with 4,590 and France with 3,750, according to the most recent NATO figures.

* Obama will conduct a war strategy review in December. He plans to begin a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops from July 2011 if conditions at the time allow.

ECONOMY

* According to the United Nations Human Development rankings for 2009, Afghanistan is ranked 181st out of 182 countries.

* Devastated by 30 years of conflict, Afghanistan's economy is dependent on foreign aid. International donors contribute seventy percent of the government's operating budget, which itself has been dwarfed by billions in aid spent directly by the donor states.

* Afghanistan's economic growth has also been stunted by high levels of corruption, which prevents aid from reaching ordinary Afghans.

* Public sector corruption in Afghanistan is seen as more rampant than any other country except Somalia, according to Transparency International.

DRUGS

* Afghanistan produces 92 percent of the world's opium, a thick paste from poppy used to make heroin, according to the latest U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime report.

* Helmand province in southern Afghanistan produces most of Afghanistan's opium poppy crop.

* About two thirds of the opium is turned into heroin before it leaves Afghanistan and goes on to feed some 15 million addicts, mainly in Russia, Iran and Europe.

* Opium cultivation in Afghanistan is directly linked to the Taliban insurgency. Since 2005, the Taliban have made up to $160 million a year from taxing cultivation and trade of the crop.