I wonder who came up with that idea?
Three West African men accused by U.S. prosecutors of plotting to transport cocaine through Africa with the intent to support al Qaeda pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to drug trafficking and terrorism charges.
The press reports on this trial breathlessly repeat DEA concerns about an "unholy alliance" between the Colombian FARC and al Qaeda, and they highlight the Colombians' interest in getting around increasingly tight interdiction efforts in the US and Europe. There's less said in the clippings about al Qaeda's interest, though.
Speculation on that latter point on the flip...
Here's what CBS, citing Reuters, says about the al Qaeda connection:
due to growing difficulty is [sic] shipping cocaine from South America directly to the U.S. and Europe, drug traffickers are now transiting their goods through Africa, with the help of al Qaeda and other groups with links to terrorism.
Not a word on why al Qaeda might want to help Colombian drug dealers, other than the group's connection to terrorism. How fanatic Islamic fundamentalists find common cause with Marxist guerrillas -- if the Colombians really are FARC, that is -- is simply left unexplained. I guess because the mainstream press considers FARC terrorist, and al Qaeda terrorist, and all terrorists -- foreign and brown, it goes without saying -- obviously fall into league with each other. Against civilized us...
Well, there may be some more rational explanations for what's going on, explanations that don't rely on racist myths and that may in fact help us understand a little bit better what happened on NW 253 on Christmas Day.
At least as early as April 2008, the press began reporting on Taliban involvement in the Afghan heroin trade.
The drugs come mostly from Helmand, where most of Britain's 7,800 troops are based. The opium grown there is turned into heroin at factories inside Afghanistan, sold into Tajikistan and smuggled to Europe. The guns are broken down into parts, smuggled back into Afghanistan and delivered to the Taliban. One kilogram of heroin can buy about 30 AK-47 assault rifles at the bazaar.
Nato claims the Taliban get between 40 and 60 per cent of their income from drugs.
The same article concludes:
Violence last year reached record highs, and the Taliban have launched two attacks in Kabul this year. "The heroin is what lets us fight," said the Taliban go-between.
Last May, Dave Davies of Fresh Air interviewed journalist Gretchen Peters, who reportedly spent five years researching and writing her book Seeds of Terror: How Heroin is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda. The Publishers Weekly blurb of her book, reprinted on Amazon, reads
Journalist Peters draws on 10 years of reporting from Afghanistan and Pakistan for this important examination of the nexus of [drug] smugglers and extremists in the global war against terrorists. Citing firsthand testimony, classified intelligence reports and specialized studies, Peters builds a solid case for her contention that the union of narco-traffickers, terrorist groups, and the international criminal underworld is the new axis of evil. Ground zero is Afghanistan, where the rejuvenated Taliban depend on opium for 70% of its funds and there is overwhelming circumstantial evidence of Osama bin Laden's involvement in the drug trade. Peters argues that the failure to halt this money flow to terrorist networks is the single greatest failure in the war on terror, and warns that stanching the flood of drug money into terrorist coffers is essential. The author offers a less-than-convincing strategy to sever the link, including military strikes against drug lords, alternative-livelihood programs for small farmers, regional diplomatic initiatives and a public relations campaign. Prescriptions aside, Peters has exhaustively framed one of the thorniest problems facing policy makers in this long war.
Not everyone is convinced about the al Qaeda/Taliban connection to the heroin trade, though the skeptics do seem to be CTers, but if true we can start to establish a strong al Qaeda interest in reaching out to other drug networks. They want money, and diversification is a time-honored method of increasing opportunity and reducing risk.
But could there be something else at work as well? Have the Colombians worked out unique methods to smuggle white powder past airport security? Has the al Qaeda alliance with Colombian traffickers proven doubly beneficial to the Arabs, providing them not just with cash but also with new ways to get their bomb-making materials onto airplanes?
I'm completely speculating here, drawing together scattered loose strands, and the evidence really is nothing more than suggestive. But the Colombians have been very creative using body cavity techniques to smuggle cocaine into the US. And there are reports that the suicide bomber in the September 2009 attempt on Saudi prince Mohammed bin Nayef had taken
a trick from the narcotics trade - which has long smuggled drugs in body cavities - [and] had a pound of high explosives, plus a detonator inserted in his rectum.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if Colombian traffickers have been smuggling cocaine in underwear for years, and that when al Qaeda bombers learned of it they realized the method would work perfectly to get bomb materials onto an airplane.
Just speculating here, of course, but damn the questions are interesting...