Friday June 19, 2009, 11:26 pm
"You can't look for lilywhite purity in Afghanistan; it doesn't exist by our standards"
Thomas Schweich, US Ambassador for Counternarcotics 2007-08.

It's one of the world's most dangerous places where friendships can be fickle and America's strategy of playing favourites means either a palace or a prison cell. Getting things done means getting cosy with some pretty unsavoury types, where the US President seeks the counsel of an alleged drug runner and killer.

In early 2002, Foreign Correspondent's (ABC Australia) Mark Corcoran was in the southern Province of Kandahar, where he encountered two warlords who had become the key players in Washington's strategy to eliminate the Taliban.

Now Corcoran has returned to the war zone to discover they've both taken very different paths - one to high influence and prestige, the other to an American prison for life...

Their divergent destinies are an apt metaphor for the treachery and failed strategies of a war now dragging into its 8th year.

It's a white knuckle journey through Afghanistan's dark underbelly featuring a re-union - of sorts - with the man who's become known as The Bulldozer.

He is the gregarious Gul Agha Sherzai.
Now hailed as America's favourite warlord, Sherzai was the go-to man when then Senator Barack Obama visited Afghanistan last year.
Despite his dark past Sherzai is now a key political powerbroker instrumental in keeping President Hamid Karzai in office.

"To be a leader, an effective leader, in Afghanistan at some point in your life you had to have been involved in the commission of atrocities, the accumulation of enormous wealth."
Ivan Fisher American lawyer

Human rights investigators say Sherzai should be investigated for human rights abuses- and accusations of his involvement in the narcotics trade have been ignored. For the Americans, he's a warlord they can do business with.

The Governor flexes his authority with a hair-raising car-trip through Taliban infested mountain passes and open roads. Corcoran's along for the ride and declares on arrival at Sherzai's residence: 'Governor if the purpose of that exercise was to terrify me you've succeeded.'

However it is a very different lifestyle of the other warlord.
Haji Bashir Noorzai, a former ally of the Pentagon and CIA, was a key Taliban powerbroker who when he was lured to New York ostensibly to broker a peace deal was arrested for drug trafficking and sentenced to prison for life..................................................................................

If you have the time...Do watch this video, I have grave doubts that it will ever be shown on mainstream US television for reasons that will become obvious should you view the video...Here it is for you to view...If you are prepared to believe everything you read in your mainstream news that's cool with me...But for anyone, even slightly sceptical, why not subscribe to abc.com.au/lateline ?

Friday June 19, 2009, 11:31 pm
Ooooops, duninahurry.../foreigncorrespondent

Saturday June 20, 2009, 12:45 am
One thing we have to admit about the Taliban:
When they ran Afghanistan, they kept poppy
cultivation down to almost nothing.
When GWB invaded/occupied the country in 2001,
he ignored 1,000 years of history in which NO
ONE has defeated the Afghanis at war. GWB also
made Afghanistan safe and profitable for smack
dealers. Looking bavk on his mis-Administation,
it would be easy to believe that George was
mainlining smack himself....that WOULD explain
alot, now wouldn't it?
Thanks, David.
noted.

Saturday June 20, 2009, 1:30 am
It would explain everyting Tim...What a shame Bushco had control of so many for so long, undisputed and living like Gods (and still are, until someone bites the bullet and brings them to justice)......Just ain't fair!...

I guess everyone is not going to bother to watch the entire video? So here is a short, (but long:-) transcript of the story...

Transcript....................................................................................

CORCORAN: Welcome to the new Afghanistan, where America’s war on terror collides head on with the war on drugs.

THOMAS SCHWEICH (US Ambassador Counternarcotics, Afghanistan 2007-’08): ‘You can’t look for lilywhite purity in Afghanistan. It doesn’t exist by our standards.’

IVAN FISHER: ‘To be a leader, an effective leader in Afghanistan, at some point in your life you had to have been in involved in the commission of atrocities, the accumulation of enormous wealth.’

CORCORAN: ‘And that wealth comes from?’

IVAN FISHER: ‘In Afghanistan? Either monopoly sets…. or opium.’

CORCORAN: This is the story of two warlords I first met in 2002 when an American victory seemed near and the demoralised Taliban were surrendering in droves.

TALIBAN: [Talking to Corcoran, 2002] ‘We are hungry – and for the past two days we haven’t had a proper meal. Give us money. Give us dollars.’

CORCORAN: The two warlords were key American allies whose drug trafficking and human rights abuses were conveniently ignored. Their fate now serves as an apt metaphor for the erratic conduct of Washington’s secret war in Afghanistan.

Warlord #1 now faces life in an American prison. While his former partner, Warlord #2, has become Washington’s favourite….. feted by none other than Barack Obama.

THOMAS SCHWEICH: ‘I was surprised because he does have a questionable past, but I can’t imagine that the President wasn’t briefed on who he was meeting with.’ (??????????)

CORCORAN: Today in the shadow world of narco-politics, all roads lead to Kabul. Asking questions about drug trafficking in a war zone it’s easy to make enemies and not just with the Taliban, so we’re protected by a private security team. Trust is in short supply. Suicide attackers often dress as police.

‘Well it’s now six years since I was last in Kabul and the city in parts is almost unrecognisable. There seems to be twice as many people, ten times as many cars and it’s become a city of high concrete walls and razor wire. It also has its own unofficial Green Zone here, a bit like Baghdad, and like Baghdad people just seem to be gritting their teeth and waiting for the next car bomb or suicide attack.’

Of course all this only protects the rich and the powerful. Afghans are bitterly disillusioned with President Hamid Karzai. The billions in foreign aid have delivered neither security nor prosperity, just the bog of corruption and narcotics. Many, including the President’s own brother, have been implicated but few are arrested.

Now producing 90% of the world’s heroin and opium, Afghanistan is a virtual narco state. Drugs fuel half the economy. America’s top counter-narcotics official here admits he has a problem.

‘To what degree does this narco economy permeate the political leadership?’

ANDREW SCHOFER: [Counsellor Narcotics, US Embassy] ‘It is pervasive. It is throughout the leadership, throughout the economy, throughout the political class I don’t think anybody disputes that.’

CORCORAN: New mansions dubbed ‘poppy palaces’ have been built upon the opium profits and we’re on our way to one such pile to meet an old acquaintance from 2002. He’s since moved on to become America’s favourite warlord.

GUL AGHA SHERZAI: [Corcoran greeting Sherzai] ‘Thank you very much. I’m also happy to see my friends again.’

His name is Gul Agha Sherzai. Sherzai translates as ‘son of a lion’. But these days he’s better known as ‘the Bulldozer’ – the ruthlessly efficient former warlord who gets things done.

GUL AGHA SHERZAI: ‘And President Karzai is calling me his Bulldozer.‘

CORCORAN: For five years now he’s been Governor of troubled Nangarhar Province. Bordering Pakistan, it was a Taliban and opium growing stronghold, but the Bulldozer has wiped out poppy cultivation and taken on the insurgents – becoming a national hero in the process.

GUL AGHA SHERZAI: ‘I was made Person of the Year and the President gave me the medal of Wazier Aakbarkahan.’

CORCORAN: Today he hosts lunch for his tribal brethren, ethnic Pashtun leaders from the Kandahar region, the heart of the Taliban insurgency. Sherzai was going to challenge Hamid Karzai for the Presidency in elections this August, but he withdrew after striking a deal that almost guarantees Karzai’s re-election and repositions Sherzai as the top powerbroker. He says the key to his success is to hunt down the foreigners of Al Qaeda, while offering an amnesty for tribal Taliban fighters.

GUL AGHA SHERZAI: ‘With the religious scholars and mullahs – there are almost 12 thousand Taliban in Nangarhar province - with the help of those leaders I convinced the Taliban to join the peace process.’

CORCORAN: That night he puts his peace process to the test. Sherzai’s suddenly decided to return to his provincial capital of Jalalabad – and we’re going with him. It’s a 140 km dash, at night, along a route routinely attacked by the Taliban, but there’s political point scoring behind this apparent recklessness.

While President Karzai remains hunkered down in his palace, the Bulldozer is seen to be out and about, daring his enemies to take a shot at him, which they often do.

This display of bravado is carefully calculated. The journey, decided with just an hour’s notice, runs at breakneck speed under the cover of darkness. In Afghanistan an uneventful trip is a good trip and there’s a huge sense of relief as we swing into the grounds of the Bulldozer’s palace.

Greeted by his youngest sons, Sherzai segues from Warrior to Family man with 17 children from three wives. It’s all part of the Bulldozer road show.

GUL AGHA SHERZAI: ‘When the Bulldozer’s here, no problem. [shakes Corcoran’s hand] The Taliban is no danger. I have defeated them.’

CORCORAN: It’s been a long political journey here for the Bulldozer. He first made his name as a mujahedeen commander in the war against the Soviets. In the early 1990s after the Russians went home, he was appointed Governor of the southern region of Kandahar. His was a brutal reign of violence that has now been conveniently forgotten.

‘So are you still very much a fighter? A mujahedeen?’

GUL AGHA SHERZAI: ‘My heart is still the same old heart.’

CORCORAN: A leading human rights investigator claims the Bulldozer’s brutality was a major factor in the rise of the Taliban who won widespread support by vowing to end the chaos. His demand for Sherzai to be investigated has been ignored.

NADER NADERI: [Independent Human Rights Commission] ‘We do know that while he was a governor in Kandahar, he was not able to control individual commanders who were committing serious atrocities and that was raping girls, raping boys, kids, everyday mass killings.’

CORCORAN: We first met Sherzai back in early 2002. Backed by US Special Forces, he’d just returned to Kandahar, ousted the Taliban and installed himself as governor for a second time. As we revealed, the Bulldozer was part of a controversial deal involving the other warlord in our story, Haji Bashir Noorzai. Noorzai was Afghanistan’s most powerful drug lord and leader of a one million strong tribe allied to the Taliban. Noorzai cut a deal with the Americans, agreeing to help track down fugitive Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders. In return, the US turned a blind eye to his narcotics operation.

For the US, the priority was catching terrorists. Drugs came a very poor second. The two warlords were happy to help.

GUL AGHA SHERZAI MINDER: [Answers phone whilst walking] ‘Haji Bashir (Noorzai). Hello Haji.

GUL AGHA SHERZAI: ‘Don’t hang up! Don’t hang up! [minder passes him phone] Hello… greetings!’

CORCORAN: Chatting on their US supplied satellite phones it was all pleasantries, never business because the business that glued the pair together was an enormous narcotics enterprise. Governor Sherzai, ‘the Bulldozer’ was allegedly taking his cut of Noorzai’s drug operation. The heart of that business lay three hours away in the town of Sangin.

[2002] Armed with a hidden camera, we entered this former Taliban stronghold. The traffickers assumed we were American Special Forces. Had we delivered our real identity, it was unlikely that we would have walked out again.

‘And is it good quality product at the moment? Good quality opium?’

TRANSLATOR: ‘Bad quality, good quality. Most special quality.’

CORCORAN: ‘Yeah if I want to buy some, how much for a kilo in US dollars?’

TRANSLATOR: ‘Around eight hundred dollars.’

CORCORAN: ‘Can we see some product? Show us some good quality stuff.’

TALIBAN: ‘Stay here, yeah?’

It’s no coincidence that since we filmed here, the struggle to control this town in the heart of Taliban opium country has led to some of the heaviest fighting of the war. The United Nations estimates that five hundred million US dollars a year in drug profits flow to the insurgents.

TRANSLATOR: ‘Shall he open?’

TALIBAN: [Opening bag of heroin to show Corcoran]

CORCORAN: ‘Yeah, why not?’

TALIBAN: ‘Do you want to taste it?’

CORCORAN: ‘Not for me.’

Sherzai was later sacked as Governor amid tribal rivalries. Western and Afghan intelligence officials accused him of amassing a $300 million dollar fortune from the drug trade, but President Karzai refused to investigate. The Bulldozer was parachuted in here to run Nangarhar.

‘The main allegation is that you got wealthy during your time as Governor of Kandahar, taking a percentage of the opium profits from the area. How do you respond to that allegation?’

GUL AGHA SHERZAI: I’m very vulnerable… why do they talk behind my back? If someone has proof, it’s okay – but if they don’t, no-one will get it off those gossips. Everyone will stone a tree full of fruit but no one will touch a fruitless tree. Praise to God no-one can prove it against me.’

CORCORAN: But there was no soft landing for his old associate. Haji Bashir Noorzai took arguably the biggest risk of his life - he flew straight into the lair of the infidel. New York City. He was one of the world’s most wanted narcotics traffickers but somehow he’d swallowed assurances that he wouldn’t be touched, for the right information. Still it must have been a stomach-churning ride to a meeting with intelligence officers at this Manhattan hotel.

IVAN FISHER: ‘He has for at least, for the last twenty years, been dedicated in varying degrees to working for and with the United States in Afghanistan, working as he understood it with CIA funds and sometimes with CIA individuals.’

CORCORAN: In a room with a view of Ground Zero, where the Twin Towers once stood, Noorzai coughed up what he thought his hosts wanted – intelligence for their war on terror, but he’d been duped by an elaborate sting. His hosts, pictured with him here, were not the agents he thought they were but contractors working for America’s counter-narcotics agency – the Drug Enforcement Administration or DEA. Noorzai was no longer an asset but a target. He was charged with conspiracy to import fifty million dollars worth of heroin.

JOHN P. GILBRIDE: [April 25, 2005] ‘Today’s arrest of heroin warlord, Bashir Noorzai, is a huge victory for Afghanistan and the US in the fight against international narcotics trafficking.’

CORCORAN: This veteran of Washington’s covert wars had just been king hit by America’s wildly spinning moral compass. Noorzai’s high profile attorney claims it was a controversial takedown. He says Noorzai was lured to New York by a mysterious private company called Rosetta. While it was a DEA run sting, he claims Rosetta’s real masters were then Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his Deputy Paul Wolfowitz.

‘So Rosetta was a kind of private enterprise CIA working to the Defence Secretary?’

IVAN FISHER: ‘Hopefully a competent CIA as opposed to the one according to Wolfowitz that it had offices a few miles away, so yes that was the idea. This was going to do things that couldn’t be done through regular channels, bribing public officials in order to establish introductions to people who ultimately introduce you to one of these high value target people.’

CORCORAN: Noorzai’s New York arrest offered a brief glimpse into the strange interdependent world of drug trafficking and intelligence. In 2007, with the insurgency and drug production spinning out of control, Thomas Schweich was appointed the Bush Administration’s Special Ambassador for Counter-Narcotics. His brief? To sort out the mess in Afghanistan.

THOMAS SCHWEICH: [US Ambassador Counternarcotics 2007-08] ‘It is shocking. It’s shocking when you first get there to realise that everybody you’re dealing with has been part of a gruesome thirty years of war, a civil war, fighting tribal rivalries, rivalries with neighbours… and it’s just not a world that most of us in the West have ever encountered before…. so you have to do the best you can.’

CORCORAN: In targeting one warlord it appears the Americans were prepared to ignore the crimes of another. We’ve obtained hundreds of pages of documents from the Rosetta operation to snare Noorzai. This secret 2004 Pentagon report, accused Noorzai of directly bribing Gul Agha Serzai and of handling 500 million dollars of Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s money.

In another document, Noorzai himself made detailed allegations of drug trafficking and collaboration with the Taliban against many in the Afghan leadership – including Washington’s favourite warlord, Gul Agha Sherzai. All this material was ruled off limits during Noorzai’s New York trial.

IVAN FISHER: ‘Sherzai was involved in the obtaining and keeping of power.’

CORCORAN: ‘In Afghanistan, what does that mean?’

IVAN FISHER: [Defence Attorney] ‘In Afghanistan that means that you are probably quite ruthless and capable of enormous violence and very, very ugly forms of it. One way or another you’re involved with opium.’

GUL AGHA SHERZAI: ‘I didn’t work with Haji Bashir (Noorzai). He surrendered to me… handed over his weapons and surrendered. He was working with the Taliban… he wasn’t working with me.’

CORCORAN: Sherzai’s splendid Jalalabad palace is a heavily guarded island of tranquillity. The Bulldozer claims Nangarhar Province is now poppy free and safe, but in Afghanistan security is a relative concept.

[Foreign Correspondent, 2008] Last year two Australian journalists, Stephen Dupont and Paul Rafael were here witnessing Sherzai’s Opium Eradication Team in action when they were wounded in a suicide attack that killed more than twenty Afghans.

STEVE DUPONT: ‘You can see the carnage behind me. I was very close to the actual bombing and all I remember is an incredibly loud explosion.’

CORCORAN: Today the Americans take no chances.

LT COL STEVE CABOSKY: ‘Generally the Province is pretty safe but we did have an attack last month that killed four…. four of my guys.’

CORCORAN: The Bulldozer is officially reopening an irrigation system rebuilt with American money. Washington believes he’s delivered that most previous commodity – security. In return, the US has invested $140 million in 100 projects across his province.

LT COL STEVE CABOSKY: [Provincial Reconstruction Team] ‘Well he’s a strong leader. He’s done a lot of good work for Nangarhar. A lot of talk about whether he may want to move on to bigger and better things so we’ll how it goes.’

CORCORAN: The Governor is quite literally a river to his people. This system will provide water to 60 thousand villagers. The Bulldozer’s men forced them to abandon poppies for wheat and other crops requiring much more water. Now he’s delivered.

‘A man you can do business with?’

LT COL STEVE CABOSKY: ‘Yeah he sure is. He’s a friend of the Coalition, he’s worked very closely with us. We have established a great working relationship throughout the years and will continue to do so.’

CORCORAN: Back in Kabul, US Counter narcotics officials plot the Bulldozer’s achievements with amazement.

ANDREW SCHOFER: ‘Well if you look at the numbers, it’s hard to argue that he’s been anything but a success. Going from 18,000 hectares to effectively zero in one year is pretty remarkable.’

CORCORAN: ‘Why has he been able to make it work in Nangarhar and you don’t have that degree of success anywhere else in the country? What’s the critical factor there?’

ANDREW SCHOFER: [Counsellor Narcotics, US Embassy] ‘I wish we knew. I wish we could see the same results in other provinces around the country.’

CORCORAN: ‘Gul Agha Sherzai previously was governor of Kandahar during a period when the opium production down there basically spun out of control. I mean he wasn’t just running Kandahar, he was running four provinces.’

ANDREW SCHOFER: ‘I prefer to look at the results for this year and what happens next year. There are plenty of fingers to be pointed at what was done in the past. I don’t want to get into that.’

CORCORAN: ‘Gul Agha Sherzai, what kind of man is he?’

TOM SCHWEICH: ‘Well we hear a lot of things. I mean he obviously, like many Afghan warlords, has a background that’s kind of shaky. He’s a man who craves attention, who wants to be perceived as a hero in Afghanistan. He’s very politically ambitious, but he’s also pretty brave. He’s willing to make tough decisions and crack down on people who are powerful in order to get that recognition. I think there’s a perception among the West that he’s somebody who can be rehabilitated though, who can be brought around.’

CORCORAN: Sherzai’s rehabilitation received its biggest boost last August, when then Senator Barack Obama visited Afghanistan. Obama initially bypassed President Karzai, heading first for a briefing from the Bulldozer.

GUL AGHA SHERZAI: ‘I prayed for him and said, May God make you President. And he said to me, If God wills it!’

TOM SCHWEICH: ‘This is exactly what they craved too Mark, they want recognition. The more recognition you give these warlords as having improved their country, the more they will do things that we like.’

CORCORAN: President Obama is now sending an extra 21,000 troops to Afghanistan, part of his new strategy for victory that also targets traffickers.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: [March 27, 2009] ‘The economy is undercut by a booming narcotics trade that encourages criminality and funds the insurgency. The people of Afghanistan seek the promise of a better future.’

CORCORAN: The tragedy is that it’s taken nearly 8 years for America’s generals to acknowledge what was obvious from the first day their troops marched through the opium poppy fields - that drugs, the Taliban and the corrupt Afghan leadership are all linked.

‘Was it perhaps one of the biggest errors made strategically in dealing with Afghanistan?’

TOM SCHWEICH: ‘I think so, absolutely because the people who are fighting get significant resources from the drug trade and we should have known that because the Taliban in the 1990s took money from the drug trade.’

CORCORAN: But this new get tough strategy has its limits. The party won’t be ending any time soon for Gul Agha Sherzai. The new Afghanistan needs strong leaders.

IVAN FISHER: ‘Is the national interest best served by fighting the drug people or working with them? And now we see in Sherzai’s example the pendulum is going back to the practical approach.’

CORCORAN: The swing of the pendulum has knocked out Haji Bashir Noorzai. Held in this Manhattan jail for four years, he was recently sentenced to life behind bars.

TOM SCHWEICH: ‘We do have to make judgements there and I think that if you look at the totality of the evidence, there was a much stronger case against Noorzai as somebody we really shouldn’t be dealing with who does need to serve some time in prison, versus Sherzai.’

CORCORAN: The Coalition soldiers have been farewelling the fallen since 2001. Nearly 1,200 have now died in Afghanistan including ten Australians. Haji Bashir Noorzai’s imprisonment did nothing to diminish the opium trade, nor the insurgency. His lawyer ponders on what might have been.

IVAN FISHER: ‘Whenever on television there is a story about our guys being killed, I ask myself would their lives have been saved had Haji Bashir been free to pursue the joint effort he came here to establish?’

CORCORAN: We’ll probably never know.

(Maybe the war in Afghanistan should have stopped in 2002 (before it started!) ???

Saturday June 20, 2009, 7:19 am
David good stuff as usual my friend and I am going to send U some stuff on this subject in a bit along with a few other items- I did some research on this subject when I was writing my blog article on afghanistan and have a question I would like people to mull around in their brains-Where do the pharmaceutical companies get their morphine,and all other opiate based drugs and who has the largest opium fields in the world?
great story hon and very newsworthy.

Saturday June 20, 2009, 9:12 am
Not unlike Iraq for oil, Afganistan for opium, natural gas and oil from around the Caspean. Capitalistic greed. thanks David

Saturday June 20, 2009, 10:59 am
Excellent info. It was a well kept secret and still little is said about the huge gas reserves in Afghanistan. The motives of the power brokers are always the same, confuse the masses. Make them believe that this aggressive approach towards another nation is in their best interest. Cover tracks when it becomes too sticky.

"The Games People Play" will continue until they are called out. The more weapons of Mass Destruction the more "We" all become fair game. Gr$$d has no conscience! Gr$$dy people are without mercy. Obama has his cross to bare. How well he carries it will tell the story. I would not want to be a person of conscience and be President of these United States.

Many American's realize, for the most part, that America's President has become a figure head, at best! If a President "Dare" show character, integrity and humility, they will soon be blown out of the water.

That's why "We" the People must do our part. "Dare" stand up to the power brokers, Those who abuse their power. Call them out for thier pernicious quest for empire. It may sound cliché but, "United "We" Stand, Divided "We" Fall., Simple words for a complicated era! With tenacity, courage and the willingness of the American people "We" will see "Change We Can Believe In"__"Yes We Can"__ Barbara/founder/dtdn

Saturday June 20, 2009, 12:02 pm
"Looking bavk on his mis-Administation,
it would be easy to believe that George was
mainlining smack himself....that WOULD explain
alot, now wouldn't it?"

I beg to differ,Tim. I have actually come across a few junkies in my lifetime and though obviously unreliable, tend to be some of the most resourceful and truly brilliant people I've ever met, believe it or not. (To those that don't know me, I'm not advocating abuse of opiates.)
GWB falls so far short on all accounts, except his buddy Rush Limpdick may have bennefitted!) I really think he is just 100% thoroughly incompetent at literally EVERYTHING including being an addict/alcoholic. As a self described "Christian" he is personally responsible for the most lives murdered since perhaps Pol Pot. I could go on ad-infinitum, but we all sadly know that tune. Thanks for the laugh though, my friend.

Great post David, thank you. I'll check out abc.au/foreigncorrespondent. I'll be not only surprised but relieved if they aren't just another parrot for the Disney Corporation.

Saturday June 20, 2009, 4:11 pm
Noted, thank you my dear David! :)

Saturday June 20, 2009, 4:33 pm
Great tell it how it is article. Noted with thanks David.

Saturday June 20, 2009, 5:52 pm
thank you birthday boy

Saturday June 20, 2009, 6:01 pm
they owe you a gold note i clicked on

Sunday June 21, 2009, 1:18 pm
Kudos to you, Birthday boy for this As always, you hit the head on the nail.
Afghanistan has seen nothing but collusion, genocide and turmoil since The Russians occupied them for ten years. I was probably one of few westerners living there in 1973 before the proverbial shit hit the fan.. We were living and playing Muslim Classical Music with Musician/Hemp growers in Herat.
The King was still in power, playing both sides against the middle. Both Russia , China and U.S. were interested in their oil and other mineral reserves. The U.S. and United Nations, using sanctions as a carrot, were trying to pressure the King to cease their production of Hemp. The consensus, of the Heratis then, who speak Urdu and are genetically more connected with ancient Kurdistan than in the Eastern part of the country, was that they were far less concerned with politics from Kabul than they were in moving their Hemp into the rest of the world. The Taliban had not yet infiltrated and disrupted the ancient customs They, the Heratis who are traditionally farmers/ musicians, were forced to become warriors in protection of their lifestyle and Homeland which they lovingly referred to as the Mountains of the Moon. They possess a sense of social graces which has been and is much misunderstood by the Western world . Their classical music is the ancestor of Muslim Classical music of India, right down to the instruments they play. There were no restrictions or pandemic illnesses until The WHO, in the early 70's st interfered and manipulated the Maternal instincts of their Women.
I remember clearly, when in Kabul, being told that the jails were full of young western junkies which the federal government were having problems deporting them back to their home countries because of lack of co-operation with the various western countries. One dosen't hear much about Herat which is a state unto its own, only Kandhahar and Kabul, where mostly Pharsi is spoken. There is so much going on there which rarely is aired outside the country.
The King's son lives here in Canada , has refused to help the CIA or anyone and seems to biding his time before taking his place . Kingship has existed there for thousands of years and , insipte of what's happening, the thought and desire to returning to to a more honourable form of government, is not dead, only struggling to rise above all the diabolic circumstances which are choking this rich culture.. The Royal Seal is still being used as the official stamp of their Hash for export. The proceeds drift back into the country to support those against the Taliban.
When the "Company" first brought in the Taliban,their purpose was to undermine the large Hash growers and cohercre them through intimidation, murder and promises of huge profits to produce Poppies.In the early 70's , Opium was not being grown inside the country,as prevalently, as it is now In those times, most of it was coming from western Pakistan into Kabul. I saw none of this kind of Production in Herat, at all.
These are resilient people, though, who've never been completely conquered or controlled for very long. It so unfortunate that corruption has taken hold of so many officials but it seems to me that if we look back on the history of this area, even Alexander didn't stay there for long.
As in the Csomos, everything is subject to change and hopefully for the better.. Some officials have allowed themselves to be corrupted beyond all hope of redemption but the people will prevail and the glory that was Afghanistan will be rejuvenated. May we live to see it
As I left to return to Europe, .I shed tears of gratitude for all the wonderful people I'd met who shared their rich culture and music with me, whose knowledge of natural medicine had saved the life of my young Daughter and also tears of sadness as I sensed that I may never witness again the country as it was then.
Power to the common people of Afghanistan. May they, one day,in the not so distant future, again know Peace and Freedom from outside interference. Peace in Their Quest for Truth.

Wednesday June 24, 2009, 4:11 am
Noted David.
Afghanistan is a future long war front,america will be involve in. because Afghanistan is a strategic country economical and military. and the oil and gas company Ned will this passage aria for the oil, gas pip line to Indian occasion.Plus the foundation of balk sea and Russia and old number of the soviet union.

Thursday June 25, 2009, 1:11 pm
Some country is using Afghanistan's main product for export ...

Britain Is Cocaine Capital Of Europe: UN Report