The online racing simulator
Probe into Afghanistan troops' heroin trafficking claims
Looks like any troops trying to get a cut of the big boys game will be jumped on. They REALLY don't like competition.

Perhaps a short primer may be needed. For those who struggle with the fact it's me posting this some individual research on Air America may prove educational.
During U.S. military involvement in Laos and other parts of Indochina, Air America flew opium and heroin throughout the area. Many GI's in Vietnam became addicts. A laboratory built at CIA headquarters in northern Laos was used to refine heroin. After a decade of American military intervention, Southeast Asia had become the source of 70 percent of the world's illicit opium and the major supplier of raw materials for America's booming heroin market.
http://www.serendipity.li/cia/blum1.html

History
Under the Taliban, and no, I'm not a supporter, opium production was nearly eliminated.

"In 2000 the Taliban banned opium production, a first[citation needed] in Afghan history. That year Afghanistan's opium production still accounted for 75% of the world's supply. On July 27, 2000, the Taliban again issued a decree banning cultivation.[117] By February 2001, production had been reduced from 12,600 acres (51 km2) to only 17 acres (7 ha).[118] When the Taliban entered North Waziristan in 2003 they immediately banned cultivation and punished those who sold it.[citation needed]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban

However since the West's war of 'Freedom'

"
Afghanistan is, as of March, 2008, the greatest illicit opium producer in the world, ahead of Burma (Myanmar) and the "Golden Triangle". Afghanistan is the main producer of opium in "Golden Crescent". Opium production in Afghanistan has been on the rise since the downfall of the Taliban in 2001. Based on UNODC data, there has been more opium poppy cultivation in each of the past four growing seasons (2004–2007) than in any one year during Taliban rule. Also, more land is now used for opium in Afghanistan than for coca cultivation in Latin America. In 2007, 93% of the opiates on the world market originated in Afghanistan.[1] This amounts to an export value of about $64 billion, with a quarter being earned by opium farmers and the rest going to district officials, insurgents, warlords and drug traffickers.[2] In the seven years (1994–2000) prior to a Taliban opium ban, the Afghan farmers' share of gross income from opium was divided among 200,000 families.[3] In addition to opiates, Afghanistan is also the largest producer of hashish in the world.[4][5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanistan

The Golden Crescent drug trade, launched by the CIA in the early 1980s, continues to be protected by US intelligence, in liaison with NATO occupation forces and the British military. In recent developments, British occupation forces have promoted opium cultivation through paid radio advertisements,” Michel Chossudovsky wrote in 2007. “Respected people of Helmand. The soldiers of ISAF and ANA do not destroy poppy fields,” the radio promo said. “They know that many people of Afghanistan have no choice but to grow poppy. ISAF and the ANA do not want to stop people from earning their livelihoods.” This is basically the same excuse used by the soldier interviewed by Geraldo.
“Senior Bush Administration officials had displayed a complete lack of interest in the Afghan opium problem ever since 9/11,” James Risen writes in State of War. “In fact, the White House and Pentagon went out of their way to avoid taking on the Afghan drug lords from the very outset of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan.” Not mentioned is the fact that more than 95 percent of the revenue generated by opium production is siphoned off to business syndicates, organized crime and banking and financial institutions.
http://stevenjohnhibbs.wordpre ... fghani-opium-cultivation/


Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, wrote in a 2007 article in the UK Daily Mail, that what has been achieved in Afghanistan is “the highest harvests of opium the world has ever seen.”[19] Murray elaborated that, “Our economic achievement in Afghanistan goes well beyond the simple production of raw opium. In fact Afghanistan no longer exports much raw opium at all. It has succeeded in what our international aid efforts urge every developing country to do. Afghanistan has gone into manufacturing and 'value-added' operations.” This means that Afghanistan “now exports not opium, but heroin. Opium is converted into heroin on an industrial scale, not in kitchens but in factories. Millions of gallons of the chemicals needed for this process are shipped into Afghanistan by tanker. The tankers and bulk opium lorries on the way to the factories share the roads, improved by American aid, with NATO troops.” Murray explains that this was able to happen because “the four largest players in the heroin business are all senior members of the Afghan government.” Murray stated that, “Our only real achievement to date is falling street prices for heroin in London.”[20]
http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/afghan-heroin-the-cia
After seeing your sig, It's hard to believe that you aren't biased just a little bit.
I'm quoting a US Ambassador in my sig.

In the article I quote a UK ambassador.

Damn, you've spotted my right wing leanings.

I must learn to stop quoting such biased right wing sources................
-
(Scott Mckenzie) DELETED by Scott Mckenzie : double post
The fact that the country with the highest amount of users of heroin actually shares a border with the country we are talking about seems to have slipped your mind.
Actually, no it hadn't.

I'm just suggesting that Western Powers seem to encourage increased drug production, based solely on production figures and Govt statements.
Also, history such as Air America, Vietnam, Iran Contra, etc does suggest a level of complicity in the international drug trade by various Intelligence Agencies.

"Russia's drug-control chief, Viktor Ivanov, and other Russians castigated the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan for failing to curb that country's exploding opium production. Since the coalition invaded Afghanistan in late 2001, opium cultivation has increased by 40,000 percent, according to Ivanov's slide briefing. Russian officials argue that by occupying the country, NATO has assumed responsibility for countering narcotics trafficking and other transnational crime based in Afghanistan. Although some Russians acknowledge NATO concerns that attacking drug production directly could temporarily increase the number of Afghan insurgents, Russian officials maintain that the problems of crime and insurgency are interrelated and that NATO can never defeat the Taliban as long as the movement can finance its operations through the millions of dollars the UNDOC estimates the Taliban earns through participation in the Afghan drug trade. Ivanov also presented his government-backed "Rainbow-2" plan for solving the Afghan narcotics problem."
http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com ... /21/russias_dangerous_fix
#7 - 5haz
Individual research? What did you do it yourself? No you just copied it from blogs, zero points.

Lets remember that Opium demand and production is only so high because people continue to be stupid enough to get hooked on it.
The Taliban is great. We should use their method of getting rid of heroin users and producers world wide. The only problem is where to bury all the bodies. hmmm...

Any big conspiracies happening down there in New Zealand? I hear the sheeps are CIA plants to keep tabs on you.
Quote :"The sheep are vital to US intelligence in New Zealand."
~PRESIDENT BUSH

Quote from flymike91 :The Taliban is great. We should use their method of getting rid of heroin users and producers world wide. The only problem is where to bury all the bodies. hmmm...

Any big conspiracies happening down there in New Zealand? I hear the sheeps are CIA plants to keep tabs on you.

One conspiracy theorist attacking the other... gotta love it.
#10 - 5haz
Right or left, the popular attitude seems to be 'don't believe anything you see or hear, unless it appears on the internet'.

There are probrably very few people who know the full truth and nothing but the truth about the whole state of affairs, and none of them are us, some of them are probrably dead or hidden from the public eye or twist their account of the events for various reasons. Still, being mislead up dubious paths while believing you're on to something must be more entertaining than being totally ignorant, some conspiracy theories do turn out to have truth behind them after all. But to really get a true grasp of events I suppose, you have to be there in the backroom when its all happening. This is why historians can make a living out of disputing controversial historical events even up to now with all our communication technology and relative freedom of information, because the reporting still goes like Chinese whispers no matter which path the news spreads by. Think of all those hundreds or even thousands of people who recieved and reported the information before it reaches you, with all their personal agendas and beliefs and tendancies. The undiluted truth nearly always only exists on the consciences of those who were there, and the smallest unaltered detail can make a huge difference.

And so I reckon we're so far out of 'the loop', that none of us really have much right to pretend we're really onto something or talk down to others who we think aren't from such a great hight, for all we know we could all be well off the mark, and it'll be a long time before anybody can say that something is 'undoubtable' or that the case is closed, as many conspiracy theorists and politicians like to put it.

By all means read your news and be clued up on how current events are being reported from a variety of sources, but just because someone presents a wildly alternative view to what the mainstream are reporting dosen't mean you should blindly follow.

I only do this through boredom.
Heroin is nothing new. Us Brits were actually at war with China 150 odd years ago in the 'Opium Wars'.

Production in Afghan has gone up for the simple fact that we (the coalition) need support of the warlords who hold overwhelming control of the country. Sometimes you have to do bad things to create good. So we turn a blind eye to the production and inturn get the warlords on our side.

FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG