New Opium Crops - In Iraq

May 28th, 2007

By Rowan Wolf

One would have thought this would have been big news, but somehow it has largley escaped the U.S. corporate media. Patrick Cockburn, however, writes Opium: Iraq’s deadly new export. While apparently in the beginnings of cultivation, the poverty and chaos which has enveloped Iraq is spawning opium fields in southern Iraq. Iraq has historically been one of the opium highways for Afghanistan’s trade.

Now Iraq is turning to opium cultivation for the same reason that Afghanistan returned to it - poverty, profit, and chaos:

As in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, these conditions of primal anarchy are ideal for criminal gangs and drug smugglers and producers. The difference is that Afghanistan had long been a major producer of opium and possessed numerous laboratories experienced in turning opium into heroin. The Taliban, on the orders of its leader, Mullah Omar, had stopped its cultivation by farmers in the parts of Afghanistan it controlled. Farmers near the southern city of Kandahar grubbed up cauliflowers and planted poppies instead as soon as the US started bombing.
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The one factor currently militating against criminal gangs organising poppy cultivation in Iraq on a wide scale is that they are already making large profits from smuggling drugs from Iran. This is easy to do because of Iraq’s enormous and largely unguarded land borders with neighbouring states. Iraqis themselves are not significant consumers of heroin or other drugs.

There are well established links between the illicit drug trade, U.S. foreign policy, and global financial institutions. While the discussions of these are intricate and complex, the summation of them is not. The CIA - and more recently Special Forces - have utilized the heroin and cocaine trades to finance “black ops.” Corporations have equally benefited by laundering vast amounts of drug money through financial institutions and Wall Street.

One of the implicit “benefits” of massive instability resulting from conflict and poverty is the encouragement of drug production. The desperation created in nations such as Afghanistan and Iraq fuels the increase of illicit drug manufacture. It has been argued by some that the reason for the U.S. Southeast Asia intervention (Vietnam War) was to control the “Golden Triangle. Certainly, once the Taliban stopped virtually all of the opium production in Afghanistan, Myanmar/Burma once more emerged as the leading source of opium. The invasion of Afghanistan, and removal of the Taliban, has seen opium production in Afghanistan grow each year - it is now at record highs. It is hardly likely that this is simply coincidence.

It is no surprise then that Iraq would join the opium trail. The business is “good” for all “interests.” Crime rings, war lords, and extremist groups get a massive surge of resources. The CIA and Special Forces get funding for illicit operations. Arms dealers (including the U.S. which is the world’s largest arms dealer) are assured ongoing demand. Corporations get massive infusions of cash to extend their operations and line their pockets. Meanwhile, the “war on drugs” facilitates a growing militarized police state. With the privatization of jails and prisons, the growing populations of those incarcerated in the “war” creates a profitable labor force, while tax payers pay the bill for the whole thing. This was detailed in the case of Iran/Contra by Gary Webb in his series in the San Jose Mercury News and then in his book “.”

Tangled webs that ensure future conflict - and profit. So goes Iraq.

Other Related Articles
From The Wilderness Archive: CIA and Drugs

The Bush-Cheney Drug Empire. Michael Ruppert, 10/24/2000.

CIA, Drugs, and Wall Street. Michael Ruppert, 6/29/1999.

U.S. : Afghan poppy production doubles. Reuters, 11/28/03.

Entry Filed under: NEGATIVE SPACE, FICTIONAL FREEDOM