Posted on 06/14/2014 9:45:59 AM PDT by mgist
In the four months to date for 2014, warships from the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) Task Force 150 (CTF 150) have seized in excess of 2,000 kg of heroin being trafficked in dhows via the Indian Ocean. The most recent seizure was of 1,032 kg by an Australian warship on 26 April - African’s highest drug seizure ever – and 130kg by a Canadian warship on 7 April. In 2013, warships operating with CTF 150 seized more than 2,000 kg of heroin being shipped via the Indian Ocean. The heroin appears to be of Afghan origin, and is generally of high purity.
One major route appear to be via dhow from the Makran Coast into East Africa – Tanzania, for example, is clearly a point of entry, and the Tanzanian authorities have also made a number of major seizures over the past year. There are also other Indian Ocean routes – into South East Asia, for example, and via containers as well – Sri Lanka seized 36 kg of heroin hidden in a shipping container on 7 March this year.
As the land trafficking routes out of Afghanistan become more difficult, it is likely that the maritime route will continue to grow. This is a concern for a range of reasons, not least of which is that the Taliban is assessed to have derived around US$133 million from the narcotics trade in 2011 – approximately one-third of its funding. This funding source is expected to increase as the Afghan opium crop has grown in 2012 and 2013. The likelihood of increased traffic by sea is thus very high, and carries with it a number of complications – ranging from the link to terrorist financing, through to the capacity of existing law to assist in interdicting these cargoes. It is upon this latter issue that this short brief concentrates.
The law – in its current state – is of some use, but not a lot. In accordance with the Law of the Sea Convention 1982, as generally paralleled in customary international law, a warship (or other state vessel such as a marine police vessel) can board a vessel outside the territorial seas of any state if it has reasonable grounds for suspecting that the vessel is engaged in a very limited number of activities (such as piracy, or being a stateless vessel – Article 110). However, trafficking in drugs is not one of those grounds. The Law of the Sea Convention 1982 specifically mandates that ‘all States shall co-operate in the suppression of illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances engaged in by ships on the high seas contrary to international conventions’ (Article 108). But this permission does not allow for boarding vessels flying the flag of another state, even on suspicion of drug trafficking, without the consent of that flag state. This can present a major impediment to a ‘legal finish’ (such as seizure of the dhow, and/or prosecution of the crew) where there is no adequately responsive mechanism for seeking that permission. The 1988 Vienna Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances has an article specifically related to maritime drug interdictions (Article 17), but this does not alter the fundamental rule regarding the requirement for flag state consent to board. Thus unless there is a streamlined process for asking for, and receiving, Iranian or Pakistani consent to board suspected drug trafficking dhows claiming their nationality, the capacity of international maritime law enforcement agents to take any high seas enforcement action is extremely limited.
One exception to this requirement for requesting flag state consent is where the dhow appears to be stateless, or unflagged. The Law of the Sea allows for warships or other maritime law enforcement vessels to board suspected unflagged vessels. It is under this head of power that CTF 150, for example, has been able to board suspected unflagged vessels in the Indian Ocean, in order to check their nationality. It is drugs discovered during this process, primarily, that have been seized and disposed of by CTF 150 units. However, without a further authorisation, most states are understandably unwilling to assert any additional jurisdiction over these vessels beyond such seizures. The dhows, consequently, are then often simply sent on their way.
For the foreseeable future, the high seas maritime law enforcement response to the Indian Ocean heroin route is likely to remain focussed upon seizures from unflagged dhows. There are possibilities for a wider response, but each requires both a champion and an assertion of political will. One option, for example, is for interested states and international organisations to talk with Iranian and Pakistani authorities about a streamlined system for requesting and receiving flag state consent to board suspected drug trafficking dhows claiming their respective nationalities. Given the plain fact that more extended forms of legal finish – such as sharing evidence for prosecutions – will likely run up against a range of legal issues, grasping this nettle could, at the very least, facilitate seizures from a wider pool of suspect vessels. Another option – perhaps leveraging off existing UN Security Council resolutions and conventions regarding terrorist financing – might be to create an appropriate authorisation for extended seizure operations against vessels suspected of facilitating Taliban funding via their involvement in the Indian Ocean heroin route. This may open up some options for third state prosecutions, for example. A third option – challenging in terms of co-ordination and available enforcement assets, but worth considering – is to facilitate greater information sharing between and amongst concerned states, so that interdictions can be made by coastal states at the point of departure or entry. Yet even this option carries with it a number of legal hurdles to be negotiated, such as understandings as to the uses to which shared information will be put, and the possible consequence of prosecutions where death penalties may be an option.
Perhaps we simply need to accept these constraints, and remain focused on the partial solution we currently have in terms of seizures from unflagged dhows. But if our aim is to reduce the attraction of this Indian Ocean trafficking route, this status quo response will not serve the purpose.
There is also the fact that heroin is being brought in from Canada. Vancouver airport is catching huge shipments, and the city is known to be infested with crime organizations. It isn't only coming in from Mexico.
Our government has the blood of American children on their hands. This is no joke. The cartels are running the show. Iran paid for Chavez, who turned Venezuela into a narco nation and murder capital of the world. the rest of Latin America "coincidentally" fell as well. The level of deception taking place is beyond most people's comprehension. Take care of your families.
http://shiro-khorshid-forever.blogspot.ae/2014/03/irans-charm-offensive-rouhani-zarif-and.html
Iran’s Charm Offensive: Rouhani, Zarif and Senator Kerry
published on Friday, March 14, 2014
Billionaire-Liberal and Political-Kingmaker George Soros wasted his money on John Kerry’s 2004 Presidential bid. However, he was not discouraged by this failed effort, as he had alternative plans to influence the direction of U.S. foreign policy.
In 2004, Soros hosted a meeting with the then Ambassador to the United Nations from the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mohammad Javad Zarif. Soros and Zarif talked about the possibility of a future “grand bargain” between Washington and Iran. In 2005, he arranged a meeting between Zarif and Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Senator John Kerry. So when Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif met Secretary of State Kerry in Geneva last September to discuss Iran’s nuclear programs, it was a meeting between well-acquainted friends.
Zarif has lived many years in the United States. In fact, he earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees at American colleges. He also has spent a good deal of time and energy recruiting admirers among America’s intelligentsia. He even approached me while I was the Senior Iran Political-Military analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Kerry, a Boston Mandarin, apparently has the ability to rise above the pedestrian politics of bilateral relations. His ego is not beyond imagining that he will arrange, with the help of his friend, Zarif, a “grand bargain” between the United States and Iran. But first, Kerry must find a way to finesse the issue of Iran’s drive for a nuclear weapon with its attendant ballistic military delivery system. This is a substantive obstacle, since Iran probably already has the capability to fashion a nuclear weapon. However, it may not yet be able to shape a warhead to “fit properly” on its missile nose-cone’s re-entry vehicle. But it just needs a bit more time for that.
Then there is the issue of Israel, the most likely recipient of the warhead should it come to that. Tel Aviv does not trust the Islamic Republic to abide by any agreement unless it dismantles its existing nuclear architecture. This includes its supply of enriched uranium, thousands of centrifuges which can produce even more, and various facilities critical to the development of its nuclear weaponry.
One might ask then, why should the U.S. Secretary of Defense trust Iran to abide by any agreement? Even if existing sanctions against Iran helped bring Tehran to the bargaining table, the Islamic Republic will remain at war against the United States. After all, the Islamic Republic was responsible directly or indirectly for a third of American military casualties in Iraq.
There is still the issue of Iran’s support for terrorists and destabilizing insurgencies around the world. Moreover, Tehran has sought to derail several attempts to negotiate a settlement of the Palestinian/Israeli enmity. Recently, this effort was highlighted by the Israeli interception of a shipload of weapons earmarked for radicals in the Gaza.
Most telling of all, how can any nation-state trust a regime that murders its own citizens at the most prolific rate of any society on earth. Since the “Smiling Mullah” Rouhani became President, over 400 Iranians, mostly young people have been executed. That is just the ones we know about. One should just Google the photos of bodies hanging from construction cranes in Tehran.
Nevertheless, Zarif like his President Rouhani, smiles a lot. Americans like that. He even somewhat obliquely has acknowledged the Holocaust and sent a Jewish New Year’s greeting to Israelis. Moreover, he speaks perfect English and his son and daughter were both born in the United States. Zarif is urbane, witty, and charming. And he is hip even using twitter. Too bad the rest of the Iranian people who use twitter have it filtered by Iran’s fundamentalist regime. What more can we ask for? It is certainly enough for Senator Kerry.
However, journalists should pose a few questions to the would-be Nobel Prize Winner Kerry:
(1) Can you describe the relationship you have had with Zarif prior to your having been named Secretary of State?
(2) Why did you assiduously feel a need to keep secret your daughter Vanessa’s marriage to an Iranian-American until after you had been approved by the Senate as Secretary of State?
(3) Why did your daughter and Behrooz Vala Nahed keep secret the guest list at the wedding?
(4) Do you think your new son-in-law Vala Nahed was being disingenuous when he said that he did not know your daughter was Senator Kerry’s daughter?
(5) Have you heard about the rumor among Iranian-Americans in Los Angeles that Zarif’s son was your son-in-law’s best man. Is this true?
(6) Is it also true that Vanessa and Behrooz have traveled to Iran?
(7) Do you see any grounds for a conflict of interest here, given your responsibilities and security clearances? Of course, you must know that many loyal Iranian and Arab-Americans have been denied clearances for less.
(8) Has your son-in-law’s parents given up their Iranian passports?
(9) What is your son-in-law’s passport and citizenship status vis-à-vis Iran’s terrorist regime?
(10) Are you certain that none of your son-in-law’s extended family have no contacts with the Islam Revolution Guard Corps or Iranian intelligences services?
(11) What about Behrooz’s file at the Islamic Republic’s interest section in Washington D.C.?
(11) Oh Senator Kerry, one last question. Have any of your “inside-the-beltway” senatorial colleagues asked you any of the above questions?
(12) And by-the-way, John, given the pro-Palestinian views of Episcopalian Bishop Shaw who officiated at your daughter’s wedding, don’t you agree that Israelis might have reason to be worried about the U.S. Secretary of State’s pledge to have Israel’s back.
Dr. Lawrence Franklin
Former Iran Desk Officer
Former Air Force Reserve Colonel Attaché to the U.S. Embassy in Israel
The solution to the Afghan heroin problem is simple. Outbid the Taliban for the raw opium. Let big Pharma do the heavy lifting. Then it could be processed into morphine for legitimate use.
The free market will work if we let it.
Are you out of your mind? We have an opiate epidemic in this country that stems from “legalized” drugs. Opiates haves surpassed alcohol and car accidents as the leading cause of accidental death in the US.
Heroin turned China, Iran, and Russia into slave nations. That is what they want to do to us.
Heroin isnt like alcohol that you can use recreationally. For a majority, the only way of quitting has been DEATH.
Heroin today is cheaper and easier to get for kids than beer. Most wont stand a chance. Our government is treasonous and tyrannical.
Our war on drugs could work, but it never will the way it is being waged. Our gov’t isn’t serious about stamping out the drug problem.
There is no war on drugs. Our government is complicit. It is ALL a FARCE.
Of those who have used heroin, 77% never became dependent. (The figure for alcohol is 85%.)
Heroin today is cheaper and easier to get for kids than beer.
Beer is legal for adults, so its sellers generally don't want to jeopardize their legal profits by illegally selling to kids. Things that make you go hmmmmmm.
I see reading comprehension isn’t your strong suit.
This is what I understand, Afghan heroin is flooding world markets. Record breaking levels of heroin are being seized in the Indian Ocean. We have an unprecedented addiction problem in this country. The media silence is deafening. Our government is complicit.
Try re-reading my response. Feel free to move your lips if you need to. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll finally grasp what it is I actually said. Be sure to read all the way to the end.
Dipstick....
I don’t know where you get your fantasy figures from, but they are a LIE.
The cartels aremrunning the show, and lies like yours are part of their dangerous message to youth around the world.
$Billions in cartel influence peddling, and lobbying, is what has led people to believe that the war on drugs was useless. If you dont believe these ruthless sociopaths are going after your children, think again.
The drug legalization campaign should be a case study in social engineering. It was bought and paid for by bankers who launder money for the cartels, and pretends to be citizen activism. It has obviously duped too many innocent simpletons.
http://www.aim.org/special-report/the-hidden-soros-agenda-drugs-money-the-media-and-political-power
Heroin turned Iran, China, and Russia into slave nations. That is what they want to do to us.
I dont care about anyone’s personal opinions of me are. I care about children. I have consistently mentioned for years that Obama’s campaign was just like that of Chavez. Chavez was funded by Iran.
Heroin today is cheaper and easier to get for kids than beer.
Beer is legal for adults, so its sellers generally don't want to jeopardize their legal profits by illegally selling to kids. Things that make you go hmmmmmm.
I don’t know where you get your fantasy figures from, but they are a LIE.
Those figures are from James C. Anthony, Etiology Branch, Addiction Research Center, National Institute on Drug Abuse and Johns Hopkins University; Lynn A. Warner and Ronald C. Kessler, University of Michigan, "Comparative epidemiology of dependence on tobacco, alcohol, controlled substances, and inhalants: Basic findings from the National Comorbidity Survey," Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology 2:244-268.
Do you have more reliable figures?
The cartels aremrunning the show, and lies like yours are part of their dangerous message to youth around the world.
$Billions in cartel influence peddling, and lobbying, is what has led people to believe that the war on drugs was useless. If you dont believe these ruthless sociopaths are going after your children, think again.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2011/08/26/george-soros-shocking-methadone-man-comic-book-touts-virtues-of-drug/
The drug legalization campaign should be a case study in social engineering. It was bought and paid for by bankers who launder money for the cartels, and pretends to be citizen activism. It has obviously duped too many innocent simpletons.
http://www.aim.org/special-report/the-hidden-soros-agenda-drugs-money-the-media-and-political-power
First, the argument that since someone with a material interest in a position is lobbying for it somehow proves that the position is false, is a logical fallacy - and a favorite of liberals who rant about, for example, the Koch brothers' financial support for promoting conservative ideas.
Second, the fact that Soros and I agree on a single issue no more makes me his "dupe" than your agreeing with the anti-drug position of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation makes you a "dupe" for their anti-Second-Amendment position.
Heroin turned Iran, China, and Russia into slave nations. That is what they want to do to us.
They'll fail - when opiates were completely legal in this country, the addiction rate was low and getting lower.
I dont care about anyone’s personal opinions of me are.
Since I haven't stated a personal opinion of you, I'm not sure why you bring this up. Speaking of personal opinions, though: you didn't suggest above that I'm a "duped" "simpleton," did you?
I care about children.
It takes a village, eh, Hillary? We've already agreed above that kids can get illegal-for-adults drugs more easily than legal-for-adults drugs - so truly caring for children seems to imply supporting legalization of drugs for adults.
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