Cruel Harvest: US Intervention in the Afghan Drug Trade

193 Pages·2013·4.652 MB·English

by  Julien Mercille

Cruel Harvest

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Cruel Harvest
us Intervention in the
afghan Drug trade
Julien Mercille

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First published 2013 by Pluto Press
345 archway road, london N6 5aa
www.plutobooks.com
Distributed in the united states of america exclusively by
Palgrave Macmillan, a division of st. Martin’s Press llC,
175 Fifth avenue, New York, NY 10010
Copyright © Julien Mercille 2013
the right of Julien Mercille to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents act 1988.
British library Cataloguing in Publication Data
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British library
IsBN 978 0 7453 3233 8 Hardback
IsBN 978 0 7453 3232 1 Paperback
IsBN 978 1 8496 4776 2 PDF eBook
IsBN 978 1 8496 4778 6 Kindle eBook
IsBN 978 1 8496 4777 9 ePuB eBook
library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for

this book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed
and sustained forest sources. logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are
expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing services ltd
typeset from disk by stanford DtP services, Northampton, england
simultaneously printed digitally by CPI antony rowe, Chippenham, uK and
edwards Bros in the united states of america

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Contents
Abbreviations vi
Acknowledgements vii
1. Introduction 1
2. Perspectives 10
3. Rise to Prominence 24
4. From Forgotten State to Rogue State 45
5. To Afghanistan 67
6. Washington and the Afghan Drug Trade since 2001 81
7. Solutions 105
8. Conclusion: American Power, Drugs, and Drug Wars 126
Notes 131
Bibliography 159
Index 177

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abbreviations
AREU Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit
BCCI Bank of Credit and Commerce International
CAT Civil Air Transport
CIA Central Intelligence Agency
CSTO Collective Security Treaty Organization
DEA Drug Enforcement Administration
EU European Union
FARC Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia
(Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia)
GAO Government Accountability Office (United States)
GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
GDP Gross Domestic Product
ICOS International Council on Security and Development
(formerly Senlis Council)
INCB International Narcotics Control Board
INL Department of State’s Bureau of International
Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (United
States)
ISAF International Security Assistance Force
ISI Inter-Services Intelligence (Pakistan)
KMT Kuomintang
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NSP Needle and syringe exchange programs
NWFP North-West Frontier Province (Pakistan)
RAWA Revolutionary Association of the Women of
Afghanistan
RDF Rapid Deployment Force
SCO Shanghai Cooperation Organization
TAP Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan pipeline (Trans-
Afghanistan Pipeline)
UN United Nations
UNAMA United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan
UNDCP United Nations International Drug Control Program
UNODC United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
UNSCR United Nations Security Council Resolution
WHO World Health Organization
vi

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acknowledgements
Thank you to all who agreed to be interviewed for this book or
provided material and information at UNODC, the National
Security Archive, the US military and government, DEA, NATO,
and organizations in Afghanistan, the United States and elsewhere.
Thank you also to Sonali Kolhatkar, James Ingalls, Enda Murphy
and others for comments on earlier drafts, as well as to the staff at
Pluto Press for editing and publishing support.
vii

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1
Introduction
THE ARGUMENT
Afghanistan is the world’s uncontested leader in heroin production,
accounting for as much as 90 percent of global supply, leading
some commentators to label it a “narco-state.”1 Counternarcotics
operations in the country have been intensified over the last few
years, led by the United States with the participation of NATO
allies. The stakes are high, we are told, because drugs fund the
insurgency, corrupt the political process, and increase addiction
around the world. The Taliban are invariably depicted as the main
culprits and beneficiaries of the drug trade, along with a host of
corrupt government officials. It is thus claimed that eliminating
the narcotics industry would weaken the insurgency and allow the
United States to preside over the establishment of a stable and
democratic Afghan polity.
This book’s position differs and documents the United States’
complicity in drug trafficking and repeated failure to reduce drug
problems. For example, Washington has long supported or tolerated
traffickers around the world, has looked the other way while the
global financial system launders large sums of narcotics money
every year, and has consistently adopted the counterdrug strategies
known not to work. Counternarcotics missions abroad mostly target
individuals and groups that are considered enemies or who have
outlived their usefulness, while allies are rarely prosecuted. This,
in fact, seems to have become President Obama’s official policy in
Afghanistan, as when his administration specified in 2009 that it
is drug traffickers with links to the insurgency that will be targeted
(see chapter 6). The book suggests that so-called “drug wars” have,
in effect, served to facilitate intervention overseas.
A few days before the US-UK attack on Afghanistan in October
2001, the British prime minister, Tony Blair, declared that the Taliban
is a regime “funded on the drugs trade. The biggest drugs hoard
in the world is in Afghanistan, controlled by the Taliban. Ninety
per cent of the heroin on British streets originates in Afghanistan.
The arms the Taliban are buying today are paid for with the lives
1

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