New Books Review

Book Review: Seeds of Terror: How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and Al Qaeda: Gretchen Peters, Laural Merlington: BooksFollow the Money,

By Steven Stoft -

  

This review is from: Seeds of Terror: How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda (Hardcover)

To understand the Taliban and al Qaeda, read this book. “Seeds of Terror” takes you to the heart of the matter—money, not religion. Opium not jihad. Gretchen Peters understands the big picture, the one Obama and the U.S. military desperately need to see.

Opium is still seen as just one means of financing religious fanatics. As Peters reveals, it’s much more. For the Taliban, drug money is not just the means; it has become the objective—just like it is for the Colombian and Mexican drug mafias. As she tells us, “The insurgency is exploding precisely because the opium trade is booming.”

The Taliban are almost entirely from the Pashtun tribe, and to her credit, Peters speaks fluent Pashto, which may be why the book feels so credible. For ten years, she has tracked the drug racket in every way imaginable, from flying with Pakistanis using forward-looking infrared cameras looking for drug convoys to sipping tea in one of HJK’s two hundred houses. HJK, you will learn, was the number one smuggler behind the Taliban, with a billion-dollar drug business extending from Osama bin Laden to Mullah Omar and from Uzbekistan to Dubai. It’s a fascinating read.

Peters admits she can’t determine the depth of al Qaeda’s involvement in the drug trade, although al Qaeda operatives routinely ship drugs to the Gulf. But she proves beyond a doubt that the Taliban has become primarily a criminal operation, and if the Taliban wins, al Qaeda will have its own narco-state.

Here’s a hint of what’s in the book. Chapter (1) To go after terrorist, you must go after their drug profits. (2) The explosion of heroin during the war to oust the Soviets. (3) The rise of the Taliban and the narco-terror state. (4) How heroin saved the Taliban (and changed them) after we kicked them out. (5) HJK, the sheepherder turned kingpin. (6) How drug money flows outside the banking system—an amazing process. (7) How U.S./NATO policy has avoided the drug war or been wholly inadequate, and how the Afghan government has been corrupted. The final chapter (8) is about what should be done. It’s not the most fascinating part, but it may be the most important.

Peters present a nine point approach that seems well thought out, but in my view, her biggest strategic contribution is her thinking on how to attack the drug business. “Twelve percent of the Afghan population lives off the poppy trade. Destroying their livelihoods overnight [poppy eradication]—before providing alternatives—would … turn more Afghans against the United States. … The goal should be to cut or eliminate profits for smugglers and financiers at the top.” Unfortunately she only goes a little deeper than that, but I think she’s headed in exactly the right direction. As Peters has proved, Afghanistan is a narco-terror state, and we need to fight both parts at once–the narcotics business and the terrorist who profit from it.

Hunting the Houbara Bustard,

By Lightman (New York) -
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)
  

This review is from: Seeds of Terror: How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda (Hardcover)

As described by Gretchen Peters in Seeds of Terror, this was a common pretext for invitations by Osama bin Laden to wealthy Persian Gulf sheiks to travel to Afghanistan in the late 1990’s. Combining business and pleasure, the sheiks were believed to bring in weapons and materiel for al Qaeda and the Taliban and to fly out with loads of heroin. Apparently bin Laden himself often participated in the bustard hunting excursions that represented the pleasure component of the junkets.

Like me you may be wondering what in the world a houbara bustard actually is. We learn from Peters that it’s a type of “rare falcon”. As it turns out, this is not correct. In fact, the houbara bustard is an endangered, primarily terrestrial bird, which is hunted by falcons and is the most prized quarry for Arab falconers. Hence its near extinction…

Anyway, setting this bit of sketchy scholarship aside, there is much of consequence that we do learn in Seeds of Terror. Essential points of the book are as follows:

* Drug traffickers, terrorist groups, and the criminal underworld represent a new axis of evil that the world needs to confront.

* The Taliban (clearly) and Al Qaeda (implicitly) are prospering from a growing stream of funding from the drug trade.

* Combating the terrorists will require going after the drug traffickers. This is something that for a variety of reasons the US and NATO commanders have been reluctant to do.

* The stakes are exceptionally high. According to the 9/11 Commission, September 11 cost al Qaeda $ 500,000. Al Qaeda has threatened future actions with casualties “too high to count”, implying a quest for weapons of mass destruction. The availability of vast amounts of money from drug profits puts them closer to achieving this goal.

* Cutting off this source of funding will be exceedingly difficult, but not impossible.

* Eradication of the poppy crop, to date the focus of anti drug efforts in Afghanistan, is the least effective strategy. Instead, a holistic approach involving diplomatic initiatives; counterinsurgency strategy; blended intelligence and law enforcement efforts; military strikes against drug lords, labs, and transport convoys; development of a farm support network; public relations; disruption of financial flows; and implementation of alternatives for the livelihoods of affected parties is proposed.

Clearly this is important material and the world needs to hope that the appropriate policy makers take note.

Reading this book, particularly wading through the labyrinthine relationships of Afghanistan’s various factions, gangs, and power brokers, is tough going. Nevertheless, given the significance of the subject matter, I give it a four star recommendation, in spite of the sloppy ornithology of the bustard business.

Comprehensive and Frightening,

By Ryan T. Hunter -

  

This review is from: Seeds of Terror: How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda (Hardcover)

In Seeds of Terror, Peters does a miraculous job of condensing nearly a decade of fact finding into an easy-to-digest treatise that should educate and terrify you. Seeds of Terror is fast-moving and packed with facts that have been gathered through exhaustive primary and secondary research. Peters doesn’t spare a frivolous word to educate readers on the thirty year evolution of opiate production and distribution in Afghanistan.

Here’s the frightening part… For the uninitiated, Peters’ insights into the utter sophistication with which the Taliban and al Qaeda are producing opiates are terrifying in their implications. That the Taliban has current stockpiles of opiates sufficient to supply the world’s addicts for two-years without any additional poppy harvests is eye opening in itself. However, one must consider what the Taliban and al Qaeda are planning to do with the $500M in drug related funds they are generating on an annual basis.

Peters quite rightly assesses the Taliban as no different from drug thugs and narco-terrorists and notes that their motivation for jihad has not been tempered by their ever-expanding foray into the drugs industry. Ultimately Peters has outlined a compelling plan for dealing with this looming disaster and I am one reader that hopes Washington, NATO and the UN are listening.
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