Andrei Lugovoi has been accused by the British of murdering Russian intelligence agent Alexander Litvinenko, yet says his wife and child needed treatment for radiation too.
This from Craig Murray who also details why Litvinenko quit as an intelligence agency officer and why he feared for his life. He uncovered a huge heroin smuggling ring emanating out of Afghanistan through Uzbekistan and then to Russia. He told Putin about it, not realizing those involved on the Russian end were among Putin’s closest allies. The Afghan and Uzbek heroin trade enjoys similar protection at the highest levels too. Murray suggests a lot of people wanted him dead.
While it’s interesting that the Russian government is allied with heroin smuggling, I’m more fascinated by the American role. Opium production was nearly eliminated under the Taliban (it’s against their version of religion). But under the U.S.-supported government, opium production hit a record high (no pun intended) in 2006. The Washington Post reported, apparently with a straight face, that “White House drug policy chief John Walters called the news ‘disappointing.'” Ya think?
From zero to recordbreaking in five years… Afghanistan now produces more than 90% of the world’s heroin! Is this just another abject failure by a bumbling U.S. administration, or are those billions of heroin dollars influencing American policy?
And the US is probably the biggest end user of heroin too.
One site claims that on a percentage basis, in Denmark, Greece, Ireland and Italy 2% of youth have used heroin, as compared with 1.2% in the U.S. and 1.4% in Australia. Of course, we all know that young heroin users always tell the truth, so these numbers are surely reliable.
Considering this post, you might find this link of interest:
Sibel Edmonds, the neocons and the Turkish gravy train
Which brings up an interesting question: would we rather have Turkish-based terrorists getting the drug profist to attack us with, or Russian mafiosos? Heck, why don’t we let U.S. companies smuggle the stuff, and at least the billions of dollars in profits would come back to the U.S.!