Narcoterrorism: A Market Driven Phenomenon

There has been some notice taken of an apparent increase in funding for terrorists, in particular Al Qaeda. The media has been speculating as to the reason for the fattening coffers. The answer is simple and shameful, particularly to Americans. It's coming in large part from narcotics. Narcoterrorism is the melding, if you will, of the profits from narcotics sales and distribution, and the results-funding from those profits for terrorist activities. Here is what the DEA has to say on this subject:

"How are terrorist groups connected to the drug trade?
In several ways. Some terrorist groups, like Colombia’s FARC, collect taxes from people who cultivate or process illicit drugs on lands that it controls; others, including Hezbollah and Colombia’s AUC, traffic in drugs themselves.

Moreover, some terrorist groups are supported by states funded by the drug trade; Afghanistan’s former Taliban rulers, for instance, earned an estimated $40 million to $50 million per year from taxes related to opium. Opium Production Threatens Afghanistan's Future, Officials Say, March 17, 2005
(State, Defense, and drug enforcement principles testify to Congress)

By Michael OToole
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Three key U.S. officials testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on International Relations March 17 about what one called "the greatest challenge facing Afghanistan today" -- opium production and trafficking in that country.

http://www.usembassy.it/file2005_03/alia/a5032307.htm

The drug trade is also a significant part of the economies of Syria—which has funded terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad—and Lebanon, a haven for numerous terrorist groups including Hezbollah and Hamas. How are terrorist groups connected to the drug trade?

Read the bulk of this report here:
http://cfrterrorism.org/terrorism/narcoterrorism.html

Where are the drugs coming from? Afghanistan now supplies the US with over half of the heroin it produces, according to a former DEA agent, who was interviewed on Fox News. Peru and Colombia grow and refine both coca leaf into cocaine and opium poppy into heroin, for delivery to our country. Much of it arriving through Mexico directly into key cities in the U.S. And the junkies line up, cash in hand to buy. So, when you ask where much of the terrorist funding is coming from, look no further than your own neighborhood. The State Department says: " One of the most important things that happened after September 11 is the message that came to people all around the world, and certainly to Americans and basically to the Spanish, and that is, the link that exists between drugs and terror. This is a link that we have seen in Colombia firsthand for a very long time. There's about, according to the drug control office, there's about 1.2 million consumers of cocaine in the United States."

These 1.2 million consumers are putting at risk Colombian democracy. These 1.2 million consumers are not only making damage to their health and their well-being and their family life, and destroying really their families, but they're destroying a larger family. And that is the family of Colombians, which is about 40 million people, which today see terror in the streets. They see kidnappings. They see all forms of violence.

http://fpc.state.gov/9908.htm

Even more troubling are the gangs that are now knowingly cooperating and working with terrorists, either through commercial ventures; i.e. weapons, drugs, prostitution and likely sheltering some cells within their respective territories. The use of narcotics and prostitution are lucrative and highly prized businesses for all concerned. Prostitution, known for it's extortion and abuse of women, is an ideal vehicle for compulsion, particularly online, where 'nicer' women may suddenly find themselves in a position where they cannot refuse to cooperate. Sadly, women who during the day may hold good jobs and be well known as productive loving women, go online and engage in highly risky behaviors. Behaviors that can lead to them being forced to assist terrorism in some form.

Addiction knows no boundaries, neither age, sex or economic status. Every time someone in this country snorts, injects, or swallows a narcotic like cocaine or heroin, they are aiding terrorisms growth, and endangering us all. This has been a national tragedy and disgrace, and now it's downright dangerous. 4 years ago, I built a website: Narcotics Report, that dealt exclusively with narcoterrorism. Someone took exception to the subject and destroyed the site. At that time, groups such as Peru's Shining Path, and the Colombian cartels were just beginning to be seen as a global threat through narcoterroristic activities. Since that time, the threat has spread through South and Central America to Mexico.

The threat has increased, and its results are being seen in places like Bali and Amman Jordan. When you add the growing appetite for narcotics in China and Russia, plus all of Europe, you can imagine the vast amounts of money being made off addiction.

While Democrats and other anti-Bush supporters yowl like scalded cats over the morality of the war in Iraq, they blatantly ignore the biggest immorality of all-allowing their own citizens to bring us down from within, because they won't give up their insatiable appetite for drugs. An appetite so fierce, many are living on the streets, refusing shelter, and dying there for love of a high. Leaving us alarmingly more vulnerable to attacks, and seemingly helpless in the face of such an enormous demand.

Narcoterrorism
Radical Islamic groups appear to be raising money through drug and arms trafficking.