How war against drugs may have helped Hezbollah

The Times (U.K.) ^ | 08/21/06 | Bob Graham and Michael Evans

[Pokey78]

BRITAIN’S attempts to counter heroin traffickers may have provided Iran with the opportunity to supply Hezbollah with British military equipment.

Around 250 sets of military night vision equipment sent to Tehran from Britain appear to have been passed on to the Lebanon-based militia group which it funds and supports.

They were sold under an export licence in 2003 to help the Iranians to monitor the desert and mountainous border regions with Afghanistan.

Despite the British Government’s current confrontation with Iran over its suspected nuclear weapons programme, the longstanding co-operative arrangement between Tehran and London over countering the heroin trade has produced effective results.

It is a relationship born of necessity. About 60 per cent of the heroin that reaches Britain and other European capitals comes from the poppy fields of Afghanistan, via Iran.

The battle to stem the flow of heroin and opium has resulted in the deaths of more than 3,500 Iranian anti-narcotics police since 1997.

Iran has publicly complained that its efforts to counter the drugs traffickers has been ignored by the West. However, Britain has pledged its full support to Tehran in this one area of co-operation. Customs and Excise officers, through drug liaison officers based in Islamabad, in Pakistan and in Tehran, have developed close links to their Iranian counterparts.

About 95 per cent of heroin which finds its way into Britain comes from Afghanistan, and then passes through the so-called Golden Crescent route through Pakistan and Iran. Up to 85 per cent of all heroin seizures takes place in Iran, indicating the scale of the Iranian counter-narcotics programme.

It was in recognition of the role Tehran could play that persuaded Britain to allow the sale of military night-vision equipment to Iran in 2003.

With much of the heroin trafficking taking place in remote border regions at night, it was judged to be crucial for the Iranian police to be able to operate effectively in the dark.

A report on the smuggling routes released by Customs and Excise in 2002 pinpointed how the smugglers ferried the drugs, mostly as unrefined opium at that stage, to mobile laboratories, operating in Turkey, Iran’s western neighbour.

Turkish drugs barons are the prime suppliers of heroin to the streets of Britain. Earlier this year a Turkish crime syndicate operating in Britain was convicted and imprisoned on drugs trafficking offences.

The support offered to Iran by Britain was taken a step further seven years ago when Robin Cook, then Foreign Secretary, agreed to increase collaboration with Tehran to try to stem the flow of heroin.

Mr Cook was responding to criticisms from senior Iranian politicians. Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari, Iran’s former Interior Minister, had accused the Europeans of not doing enough to help Iran in the fight against the drugs traffickers.

Although this was not strictly true in Britain’s case — MI6 and other organisations had been engaged in covert anti-heroin operations — the Foreign and Commonwealth Office decided that it was time to offer more help.

Through the UN’s Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), Britain supplied Tehran with bullet-proof vests, and soon afterwards, Mr Cook visited Tehran where he was told of other equipment shortages, including night-vision equipment.

Underlining the British efforts, Mr Cook made a statement praising the work of MI6 intelligence officers in tackling the drugs traffickers. It was partly in recognition of the secret collaborative work carried out with the Iranians.

In one six-month period in 2000, Iran seized 163 tonnes of opium and heroin, most of it heading for Europe. One shipment, carried on camels, weighed two tonnes.

The UNDCP opened an office in Iran in January 2000, and allocated about £6 million to Tehran’s campaign against the traffickers. The UN said in a statement: “Iran fights a war alone”. However, even the US, with its strong anti-Iranian position, agreed to take Iran off its list of countries supporting drugs trafficking.

[Weaponier]

What is next? Flying our own airplanes into our... ..nevermind.

It is going to get worse before it gets better I am afraid.

[thoughtomator]

The War on Drugs helps terrorists anyway, by providing them with ready funding for their activities. Without the price support from Prohibition, they'd have to turn to another source for hard cash.

[Zon]

The battle to stem the flow of heroin and opium has resulted in the deaths of more than 3,500 Iranian anti-narcotics police since 1997.

High probability that more anti-narcotics police were killed than there would have been overdose deaths prevented from the heroin the agencies seized since 1997. Even then they probably seized about only 10% of supply.

Perhaps nothing more powerful than persons that have turned against a conviction they once believed in. John Lott for example, author of: More Guns, Less Crime. Here comes LEAP.

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition -- LEAP. In the trenches, judges, prosecutors, LEOs, DEA, FBI etc. that have witnessed the WOD from the inside. Having busted and prosecuted several thousand victims of the WOD they eventually faced the fact that the WOD is a miserable failure and now speak out against prohibition. Watch the 13 minute introduction video. Its excellent. The Web site is most informative. Introduction video. Real Media (14 mb) - MPEG-4 (23 mb) 

[Lurker]

The War on Drugs helps terrorists anyway, by providing them with ready funding for their activities

Bingo.

Legalize the crap and the drug gangs are out of business.

L

[Zon]

The U.S. government turned away from alcohol prohibition and toward the WOD. Who in the Middle East is the equivalent of Al Capone and Pablo Escobar?

Al Capone	Pablo Escobar
Same problem, Same solution!

End Prohibition !

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COPS SAY LEGALIZE DRUGS!
Click to ASK US WHY.

The stated goals of current U.S.drug policy -- reducing crime, drug addiction, and juvenile drug use -- have not been achieved, even after nearly four decades of a policy of "war on drugs". This policy, fueled by over a trillion of our tax dollars has had little or no effect on the levels of drug addiction among our fellow citizens, but has instead resulted in a tremendous increase in crime and in the numbers of Americans in our prisons and jails. With 4.6% of the world's population, America today has 22.5% of the worlds prisoners. But, after all that time, after all the destroyed lives and after all the wasted resources, prohibited drugs today are cheaper, stronger, and easier to get than they were thirty-five years ago at the beginning of the so-called "war on drugs".

With this in mind, we current and former members of law enforcement have created a drug-policy reform movement -- LEAP. We believe that to save lives and lower the rates of disease, crime and addiction. as well as to conserve tax dollars, we must end drug prohibition. LEAP believes that a system of regulation and control of production and distribution will be far more effective and ethical that one of prohibition.

We do this in hopes that we in Law Enforcement can regain the public's respect and trust, which have been greatly diminished by our involvement in imposing drug prohibition. Please consider joining us. You don't have to be a cop to join LEAP!

Find out more about us by reading some of the articles in our Publications section or by watching and listening to some of our multimedia clips,. You can also read about the men and women who speak for LEAP, and see what we have on the calendar for the near future.

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- Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

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[Urbane_Guerilla]

It is truly and utterly amazing that so many folks would prefer to create vast wealth benefitting terrorists and psychopaths, than to suffer the thought of another human being getting high.

[11B40]

Unfortunately the insane, immoral, and failed WOD has inertia of its own due to the vast numbers of jobs it provides. Without the WOD a lot of people would have to get jobs that actually provide a wanted good or service.
In other words they would have to become productive.

[gotribe]

Good grief. What an utterly stupid mistake. Our governments know for sure that the terrorist states promote the drug trade.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel.

also Keywords 2006israelwar or WOT [War on Terror]

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[lonestar67]

I find it fascinating that the pathological legalization crowed uses the British abuse of security interests to provide Hezbollah with night vision goggles and kill Israeli soldiers rather than confront the direct evil of Hezbollah and Iran.

[familyop]

The sale to Iran had nothing to do with the war on drugs. We know that, because the story above came from The Times (U.K.). Read behind the following link for some background information that few Euro-philes want anyone to see.

http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate.php

[Zon]

Apparently you cannot do both, but many of us can.

[Zon]

I find it fascinating that the pathological legalization crowed...

Either you're fascinated by your own delusions or you suffer in denial. There is solid evidence that the WOD does far more harm than good.

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition -- LEAP. Watch the 13 minute introduction video. Its excellent. The Web site is most informative. Introduction video. Real Media (14 mb) - MPEG-4 (23 mb) 

[dervish]

The Brits have been had.


"The Islamist regime has responded by cracking down on students on several occasions in order to defuse the most imminent threats of rebellion. It has also devised a more sinister and long-term plan for the containment of Iranian youth: a systematic and massive induction to drug addiction, which has now reached colossal proportions. Several United Nations and DEA reports have documented this crisis, indicating that drug addiction is the thorniest problem in Iran.



To give an idea of the magnitude of this matter, Afghanistan produced around 6,000 tons of opium in 2003—approximately half of which has been acquired by Iran. After the Afghani government announced it would crack down on opium production, the Iranian government decided, after an open debate reported by several official press agencies such as IRNA, to start producing opium on Iranian soil to satisfy the internal (and induced) demand."

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=16800