Drug smuggling made easy: Why GWB wants to sell America's ports to his...

[norml]

Drug smuggling made easy: Why GWB wants to sell America's ports to his friends?
by Jane Stillwater


http://www.opednews.com

Profits from the heroin trade are astronomical. Those of us who work for a living just to keep on top of paying the rent can't even grasp the amount of money involved. It's a lot. In 2004, Prof. Michel Chossudovsky of the University of Ottawa stated that, "The Afghan trade in opiates constitutes a large share of the worldwide annual turnover of narcotics, which was estimated by the United Nations to be of the order of $400-500 billion."

Prof. Chossudovsky goes on to state that, aside from oil production and weapons sales, the sale of opiates is the largest producer of revenue in the world.

And everybody who listens to KPFA or even reads the New York Times knows that 85% of the world's heroin supply now comes from American-occupied Afghanistan. Just Google "Heroin/Afghanistan" and see what shows up. This is NOT a closely-guarded secret.

Okay. We now understand that the heroin drug trade represents big bucks. And we also understand that most of the world's heroin supply is coming from American-occupied Afghanistan. But what we don't understand is, with all those drug-sniffing dogs poking around American airports, how can all these billions of dollars worth of heroin sneak their way into our country?

Through the ports!

And now George W. Bush is insisting that our ports are to be handed over to his friends. Think about it. Now George and his friends -- the very same people who control the country where the heroin is being produced -- are now in control of the ports where heroin enters America. How convenient for them. Now they have a monopoly on the production AND the distribution of drugs.


snip


http://opednews.com/articles/opedne_jane_sti_060222_drug_smuggling_made_.htm?PHPSESSID=76eff4d80f1622074678d8353fdc25a4

[Webster Green]

1. Hmmm......perhaps I'll re-consider my opposition to the deal....

I've been wanting to sample some of that good Afghani opium I've been hearing so much about.

[The Doctor.]

3. Now that you mention it...

It's been a loooong time.

Maybe when the wife and I go on vacation away from the kids....

[Webster Green]

9. Yeah, it's quite relaxing...

Only known adverse side-effect is constipation, provided you don't run out of the darn stuff, of course.

[norml]

5. It might make hash more available in the midwest.

Still, I'm opposed to the deal.

Better to put an end to the drug war cons.

[fiveleafclover]

13. I haven't seen hash in my town in over 10 years

I mean, not that I'm looking or anything. That's just what my friends tell me...

[EstimatedProphet]

14. If it comes in AS opium

Heroin is not something I would ever want to try, thank you.

[The Doctor.]

2. That just makes too much sense...

The money to be made is just too good.

Once they have a deal with controlling the ports, their only problem will be how to launder all that money.

[MADem]

4. What else can go through ports?? Think about this

You can take a container and set it up very nicely with minimal fuss and put people in it. The Chinese have been smuggling people this way for years, as have the Russkies (prostitutes from eastern Europe, mostly). Some make it, others don't.

Imagine how much easier it would be if you could actually use state of the art air handling equipment, purpose-build the container to minimize noise and make it truly a self-contained area with all the bells and whistles, be able to assure yourself of the placement of the container, and not have any issues about how the container would be handled at the points of embarkation and disembarkation.

With planespotters outing rendition flights all over the globe, hey, it may take a bit longer, but you can spend the time on the open seas gaining information or freaking out your hapless captive, so the time ain't wasted. And no one's the wiser, because no one sees nuthin'.

[RufusEarl]

6. The CIA did this in the 70's with cocaine

And made enough money to keep the economy running, until the mid 90's. When Afghanistan was run by the taliban, they cut the opiate crop. Now that US is running Afghanistan poppy crops or booming once again. Go figure!!

[ThomCat]

7. With Poppie Bush's connections to the CIA

and all of their experience shipping and selling drugs, is it any surprise that Junior might be involved in opening up the US to a massive invasion of imported heroin?

[Mythsaje]

8. Misses the last point to it though...

She says "they have a monopoly on the production AND the distribution of drugs" but fails to mention the other side of it. They've also got the HUGE money-making apparatus of the Drug War here and abroad to rake in even more cash from the deal. That, and the penal industry, which has been growing in leaps and bounds for the better part of the span of the drug war, which, in turn, has prompted concerted attacks against the 1st, 4th, and 5th Amendments--whenever convenient.

It's a triangle of corruption and it's been going on for a LONG time.

[norml]

10. That's what I meant by "Better to put an end to the drug war cons."

Thank you for posting such an articulate description of the situation.

[Mythsaje]

11. I thought it was the primary weakness

of the original article, not to mention the last side of the triangle.

:)

[earth mom]

12. I've been thinking this was one of the many reasons * wants the port deal

so bad.

[norml]

17. Port sale: It's all about dope.

Port sale: It's all about dope.
by ben masel
Wed Feb 22, 2006 at 09:20:49 AM PDT

Long before oil money, Dubai and Abu Dhabi were wealthy smuggling ports, with close ties to the ports of what's now Pakistan.

The player behind Dubai Ports World, UAE President and Emir of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan, is the son of the guy behind Bank of Commrce and Credit International, which expedited the heroin shipments, and return money flows of the US first Afghan War in the '80s. the Kerry Committee BCCI report issued in 1992.

ben masel's diary :: ::

From Section 14 of the report
Abu Dhabi was present at BCCI's creation as one of two providers of BCCI's capital. It was BCCI's largest depositor, and its largest borrower, and for most of BCCI's existence, its largest shareholder. The relationship between the two entities was, as Price Waterhouse told the Bank of England days before BCCI's closure, "very close," with BCCI providing services to the ruling family of Abu Dhabi far beyond the ordinary relationship of a bank to either its shareholders or depositors...

As Abu Dhabi's representative, Ahmed Al Sayegh, testified, "in excess of $2 billion was entrusted to Abedi and Naqvi for investment by Their Highnesses Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Khalifa under a power of attorney between 1980 and 1990."(32) Al Sayegh did not identify how much in excess of $2 billion was entrusted to BCCI, but given Abu Dhabi's testimony that it lost $6 billion in all in BCCI's collapse, the amount must have been considerable.


snip


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/2/22/112049/866

[High Plains]

15. Afghan heroin mainly goes to Central Asia, South Asia & Europe

It supplies junkies in Pakistan, Iran, and Central Asia

It supplies junkies in Russia and Western Europe.

Maybe 5% of US heroin is from Afghanistan. Most of ours comes from Colombia and Mexico.

[norml]

16. Then America would be the land of opportunity

for them.

[Solomon]

18. Exactly. Think of the market share.