Underground Knowledge — A discussion group discussion

Excerpt from The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy:


Dr. Michael Chossudovsky also believes heroin is a primary motivating factor in the war in Afghanistan – the war the American administration calls Operation Enduring Freedom. In an article published in RonPaulForums.com and dated June 25, 2013, he says, “Since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, the Golden Crescent opium trade has soared.”

In the same article, Dr. Chossudovsky says in the previous four years there was a surge in Afghan opium production. He quotes UNODC (the UN Office on Drugs and Crime) figures which reveal that poppy cultivation in Afghanistan in 2012 covered an area of more than 154,000 hectares; he also quotes a UNODC spokesperson as confirming in 2013 that opium production is heading toward record levels.

Dr. Chossudovsky is also extensively quoted in the GlobalResearch.com site, which provides some of the most credible, in depth research and reporting on the Afghan drug trade.

Under the tell-all heading “The Spoils of War: Afghanistan’s Multibillion Dollar Heroin Trade”, Global Research carries yet another article by Dr. Chossudovsky. It was first published in May 2005. In it he states:

“Heroin is a multi-billion dollar business supported by powerful interests…One of the ‘hidden’ objectives of the war (in Afghanistan) was precisely to restore the CIA-sponsored drug trade to its historical levels and exert direct control over the drug routes.

“Immediately following the October 2001 invasion, Opium markets were restored. By early 2002, the opium price…was almost 10 times higher than in 2000.”

Readers are reminded that “prior to the Soviet-Afghan War (1979-1989) opium production in Afghanistan and Pakistan was directed to small regional markets” and “there was no local production of heroin.”

Dr. Chossudovsky claims “the Afghan narcotics economy was a carefully designed project of the CIA, supported by US foreign policy”.

History lends some weight to the doctor’s claims. Out of the chaos that followed the Soviet-Afghan War, the ruling Taliban decreed that opium production be significantly curbed. That ruling was followed by another ordering that opium cultivation cease totally.

There has been considerable speculation that America’s invasion of Afghanistan was prompted by this development. Whether true or not, one result of that military action is not in doubt: the opium ban was quickly lifted and Afghan opium production rapidly rose to record levels.

Of course, this could be passed off as coincidental. An innocent result of an invasion that saw Afghanistan’s war lords back in control and opium growth thriving once again. Indeed, that’s the official line and that’s how many perceive it.

However, if commentators and researchers are united about any one thing it’s that the CIA is inexorably linked to Afghanistan’s illicit drug trade and has been, in the words of one commentator, “since the agency funded Taliban fighters to oppose the Soviets”.

Yes! Oh, yes it is.

Did you notice when the UK rather tactfully elected to take a beating in another theatre of the conflict than risk being associated with the region of the trade, now under US control?

Drugs, Oil & War: The United States in Afghanistan, Colombia & Indochina



American War Machine: Deep Politics, the CIA Global Drug Connection & the Road to Afghanistan

Seeds of Terror: How Drugs, Thugs, and Crime Are Reshaping the Afghan War

Pffffft...Even the name Operation Enduring Freedom is a joke!

The Spoils of War: Afghanistan’s Multibillion Dollar Heroin Trade

Washington's Hidden Agenda: Restore the Drug Trade

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, November 10, 2017

https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-spo...