War On Taliban Shifts To Drug Lords

Alleged Kingpin Captured By U.S. Signals New Policy Of Targeting Heroin Trade Bankrolling Terrorists

(CBS)  Handcuffed and surrounded by agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Haji Bagcho landed at Andrews Air Force base outside Washington early this morning, indicted on federal drug charges tied to his alleged financing of the Taliban, reports CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian.

Bagcho's capture marks the latest success in a bold strategy in the war on terror - the use of crime-fighting techniques like undercover sting operations by DEA agents to hunt down major drug traffickers.

The goal is to cut off the half billion dollars a year traffickers pay the Taliban to run their heroin labs and smuggle drugs out of the country.

"When you make major drug seizures in or around Afghanistan, that's denied revenue for the Taliban," said Mike Braun, who recently retired as director of operations for the DEA.

Braun told CBS News that DEA presence on the ground in Afghanistan has surged from just 13 agents a year ago to more than 70 this fall.

"It's the largest overseas expansion that I know of that the agency's ever undertaken," Braun said. "There's got to be" a major policy shift, he added.

"We all think of them as holy warriors, and in fact when you examine their activities at the ground level, they really behave like criminals," said Gretchen Peters, an expert on the Taliban and Afghan drug lords.

Gretchen Peters, author of "Seeds of Terror," says the Taliban "behave like criminals."

Using lessons learned battling drug kingpins in places like Colombia, the DEA - with help from the U.S. military and Afghan police - has quietly captured at least a half dozen of what it calls "high-value targets," slipping them into this country to stand trial under a far-reaching 2005 federal narco-terrorism law.

"These guys are the Sopranos of the opium trade," said CBS News national security consultant Juan Zarate. "If they're greedy, if they're power hungry, if they have vices, law enforcement can exploit that."

Haji Baz Mohammad is one of the five founding fathers of the Taliban. After his capture, he pleaded guilty to importing millions of dollars worth of heroin into the U.S. He's now in federal prison.

Then there's Haji Juma Khan who ran his billion dollar a year drug cartel out of a travel agency in Quetta, Pakistan. Khan lived in a compound nearby - one of 200 homes he is said to own around the world.

Last week, however, after being caught in a DEA trap in Indonesia, Khan was in federal court in Manhattan facing charges he helped finance the Taliban.

"What is important is the fact it sends a clear message," Braun said. "You can be investigated. You can be convicted. And you can be locked up for the rest of your life."

Brought to justice in the one place that remains beyond the control of Afghan drug lords like Haji Bagcho - U.S. federal court. He was arraigned late Wednesday.

[quapawsix]

Doing good has no end God Wills it. Statements like this one below should worry everyone who appointed the United State the worlds police force. Not to mention it's costing the taxpayers Billions.
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What is important is the fact it sends a clear message," Braun said. "You can be investigated. You can be convicted. And you can be locked up for the rest of your life."

Brought to justice in the one place that remains beyond the control of Afghan drug lords like Haji Bagcho - U.S. federal court.

[nokia3210c]

MR. OBAMA, IS IETHER NOT TELLING THE WORLD THE WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT THIS WAR IN AFGHANISTAN, OR HE IS PART OF THE 'FAT CATS' WHO HIDE BEHIND KILLING INNOCENTS FOR 'DRUG MONEY' OR HE IS BEING BLACKMAILLED TO CONTINUE THE BUSH LEGACY, AND TO ME, HE IS DOING THAT. 1 THING I CANNOT UNDERSTAND, HE CALLED THIS WAR 'A RIGHTFUL WAR' TO ELIMINATE X-TRIMISM IN MUSLIM AFGHANISTAN, WHICH,(ACCORDING TO HIM, OBAMA) IF NOT TACKLED, WILL YIELD THE LIKES OF 911.
THIS IS PATHETIC. DOESN'T ANY BODY CARE ABOUT AMERICAN LIVES AND BLOOD BIENG WASTED ON 'MIRAGE' OF MUSLIM EXTRIMISM. THIS SHOULD STOP, AND SHOULD STOP IT RIGHT NOW........

[mysteriousjz]

Dear CBS!!!!

You are stooping to the lower and lower level, day by day, with one cheap propaganda to another in your headlines against almost 1/3rd particular population of the world....all, while North Korea is not making any news....

I am not liking it

[mysteriousjz]

I am seeing desperation on US part. A Somali teenage boy apprehended for piracy when he hardly looked like an urban kid from local High School! Now this poor man-I should say new poster boy!!!!

Nah... I dont like it.

There are millions of thugs on US streets, there more drug cartel right here in backyard, not even in Mexico or Colombia..

It seems as if Al-Qaeda causes are legit-They want you to stop hectoring and humiliating their people like that.

Obama's "reachout" is a lost cause-more resentment and anger are probably boiling over...... Ding Dong!!! I am waiting for the next bang...a big one........ Ding Dong!!!!!......

[legacyabq]

How is it that the DEA has any authority to operate IN afghanistan?

I dont like it one bit

[mysteriousjz]

I know this for sure. Taliban took over in 90's to get rid of corruption, drugs, alcohols and all the vices. All it got attention for in the western media was 'forcing their women and all of that." They brought some law and order, and justice in the country by getting rid of the corrupted and brutal regime. And now, you all are crying "wounded and shooting."

I have yet to see if Karzai is brought to justice for drug dealings... nah, it is not gonna happpen, he is "our ally."

Us has failed miserably in all three wars. There are more terorists than there were just few years ago; there is astronomical increase in terrorist attacks after peace operations by "angel of peace." And now this cheap propaganda, exploiting poor people........

If you are so brave and angel, why dont you face Korea head on?

[1notrub11]

I know this for sure. Taliban took over in 90's to get rid of corruption, drugs, alcohols and all the vices. All it got attention for in the western media was 'forcing their women and all of that." They brought some law and order, and justice in the country by getting rid of the corrupted and brutal regime. And now, you all are crying "wounded and shooting."

Yeah, sure. The cure was worse than the disease, in this case. Thugs are still thugs.

[1notrub11]

"If you are so brave and angel, why dont you face Korea head on?"

What does this challenge have to do with anything? The two issues are completely different. It just proves you have no real idea about either issue - you don't reasonably define "failed miserably" and those terrorists you mention are mostly killing Muslims in their terrorist attacks.

[hermitdave]

WHAT crazy irony that drugs are mentioned in the Afghan crusade. Of course the dumbest of the dumb do not realize that this is the single biggest reason for the Afghan crusade. The evil Osama Bin Laden and the crazy Islamic religious nuts and damn near shut down the Afghan drug business. Thanks to the Bush Afghan crusade, every year since the first bomb was dropped on a innocent Afghan family, blowing them into small bits of flesh, the poppy crop has set new records. I hope I am not the only one who smells something here.

[CarlReynolds]

6/24/09

Armen Keteyian's final comment in tonight's broadcast CBS Evening News of the report ( http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/24/cbsnews_investigates/main5110590.shtml?tag=contentBody;featuredPost-PE ) on the transfer of Taliban drug lords to stand trial in the US is that they are being sent to the "one place" outside the reach of their corrupt supporters, "US federal court." What a hype! In other words British, German, French, Swedish courts and prisons are corruptable but not the Great US! You hacks say **** right off the tops of your heads and the American sheep eat it up. Utter nonsense! I get better information from Jon Stewart on The Daily Show and Colbert's Report. Actually my main source for unbiased international news is English al Jazeera.
Carl Reynolds
Sherwood, Oregon
http://www.quixote-quest.org/resources/israel_palestine/Gaza_rockets_during_truce.html
http://www.quixote-quest.org/resources/demo_cap_soc/Nader_Single_Payer_Action.html

[cs4466]

Good job US Military, good job, President Obama!

[pvperson3]

I find it odd that the drug traffic increased a thousand fold AFTER we became involved, it does suggest what we are REALLY fighting for, now doesn't it?

[tmittelstaed]

That isn't true. What the Taliban did was in a single season - year 2000 - ordered all Opium production to cease, which it did. (as in, you stop production or we kill you) They claimed it was for religious reasons but the real reason was that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) had promised the Taliban a payment of 250 million dollars if they ended poppy production.

The production halt caught UNODC completely by surprise, and rather than pay out the 250 million, about 2 months after Mullah Omar's decree ending poppy production, UNODC closed ALL their offices in Afghanistan, and completely withdrew from the country - they didn't even bother telling the Taliban government they were leaving. The 250 million was never paid - UNODC had never had the money and certainly had no authorization to offer such a deal.

The United States in fact, rushed emergency assistance to the Afghan farmers and in 2001 (before the
911 attack) became the single largest aid donor to Afghanistan. This was despite the fact that the Taliban was still sheltering Osama Bin Laden who was wanted in conjunction with attacks on American embassies in Africa in 1998

This might, in fact, illustrate why the US invaded, after 911. We had demanded Osama, the Taliban had refused to give him up, then during one of the worst droughts and economic disruptions (caused by the poppy ban) we were the largest aid donors - despite the Taliban's refusal to turn over Osama - and then after 911 the Taliban -still- refused to give up Osama.

The US does not control what the UNODC does or tells governments and we aren't responsible for them reniging on the 250 million - and in fact, it wasn't until several years later that the US government even found out about that particular broken promise. Giving up Osama was the morally right thing for the Taliban to do - even they condemmed the attack - but they didn't do it.

The fact is that before the ban, the Taliban collected taxes on opium production, it was the largest source of money for their government.

[johnbrown8888]

"The fact is that before the ban, the Taliban collected taxes on opium production, it was the largest source of money for their government. "


Yes, and the US government collects taxes on production of alcohol and tobacco.

Which do you think does the most damage?

The Taliban are philosophically opposed to drugs, as the Koran requires. Pragmatic considerations of funding may have overridden that, but the truth is, it was the folks the Taliban replaced, and the folks that the US has put in place of the Taliban, that are the big opium supporters.

But it's the push of the fascist agenda in America to first pick a group that no rules of law, like Constitutional guarantees apply to, then expand that group until the power structure can arrest and hold anyone forever without warrant or trial.

Linking "terrorism" and "drugs" has been tried before by the US propagandists.

[hermitdave]

WOW--that sounds like a official CIA report. In other words not much truth involved. The last person Bush wanted after 9/11/01 was Osama Bin Laden. The whole New Pearl Harbor story would have come crashing down in flames.

[johnbrown8888]

"
"We all think of them as holy warriors, and in fact when you examine their activities at the ground level, they really behave like criminals," said Gretchen Peters, an expert on the Taliban and Afghan drug lords. "


Of course the US government would never engage in disinformation campaigns!

The Taliban were the enemies of the drug lords. They stamped out opium production. It was the US allies who brought it back.

Funny how everything gets switched around when the US propagandists get their hands on it!

[government_control]

obama = crackhead in chief