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passports from Venezuela, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Germany. Between them they allegedly enjoyed excellent relations with: 1) Ayman al-Zawahiri, the acknowledged mastermind of 9/11 and senior mentor to Osama bin Laden; 2) Soviet military intelligence; 3) the FARC, the Colombian revolutionary group that has become increasingly involved in the drug traffic; 4) the Kosovo Liberation Army, a similarly involved group; 5) (according to a well-informed Russian source) the CIA. The third important proposition is that a meta-group of this scale does not just help government agencies make history. I hope to show that its members, and its predecessors, are powerful enough to help make history themselves. However, they do not do so overtly but as a hidden "Force X" whose presence is not normally acknowledged in the polite discourse of academic political scientists. On the contrary, as we shall see, references to it are usually suppressed. passports from Venezuela, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and The "wiring together" effected by drugs has helped give a Germany. Between them they allegedly enjoyed excellent significant boost to the global banking network, particularly in relations with: Russia and Southeast Asia. In these areas it has also fostered 1) Ayman al-Zawahiri, the acknowledged mastermind of 9/11 trade and investment, bringing businessmen from previous, and senior mentor to Osama bin Laden; diverse, commercial areas into increasing contact with each other. 2) Soviet military intelligence; From this perspective, globalisation can be seen as a compradorial 3) the FARC, the Colombian revolutionary group that has revolution: compradorial classes have moved into positions of become increasingly involved in the drug traffic; power, and in some cases their international networks have been 4) the Kosovo Liberation Army, a similarly involved group; more than a match for local state power. 5) (according to a well-informed Russian source) the CIA. As to how many drug meta-groups exist in the world, I believe The third important proposition is that a meta-group of this there are at least two. A second, which we will not examine here, scale does not just help government agencies make history. I oversees the new drug highway from northern Myanmar (Burma) hope to show that its members, and its predecessors, are powerful through the entrepreneurial zones of southern China, and manages enough to help make history themselves. However, they do not the international connections necessary to arrange for the do so overtly but as a hidden "Force X" whose presence is not smuggling of heroin and people into Australia and the eastern and normally acknowledged in the polite discourse of academic western United States.’ political scientists. On the contrary, as we shall see, references to The relation of the West to this second or Eastern meta-group is it are usually suppressed. unknown, and in all probability it is highly complex and ambiguous. It is probably safe to say, however, that the global A Digression: Drugs, Meta-Groups and the reach of the second meta-group, overseeing the much smaller Compradorial Revolution flow of drugs east from Myanmar, is less than the first or Western The question arises whether this is the only such meta-group in meta-group we shall discuss here, overseeing the far greater flow the international drug milieu. My tentative answer is that there of drugs west from Afghanistan. It has been estimated that by are indeed other focal nodes for organised international drug now Afghanistan supplies 87 per cent of the global heroin trade." trafficking, often above the reach of There is an undeniable Western the law. (The remnants of the face to the dominant meta-group. dissident Hekmatyar drug network in One member of the meta-group at the Afghanistan would be a prime But there are much more 1999 meeting, Anton Surikov, had example.) What is special about this . . . spent time at the London Centre for rot eto is its elobal reach, which important functional links Defence Studies; in addition, Surikov maces vor cspecial interest to the between this meta-group had nag contacts with we one and other pro-American . senior representative. nother agencies committed to globalisation. and corporations close to the member of the meta-group, former wee mas is own pusiness fom Far White House of President panan Defence Minister Auaeits est, Ltd., which has interface utkevicius, was with Surikov at the with prominent political George W. Bush. London Centre.) We shall see that a transnational firms like Halliburton. third member, Ruslan Saidov, is said A drug meta-group with such to have been paid as a CIA contract broad connections is not agent. unprecedented. As I argue elsewhere, I see an historical But there are much more important functional links between succession of meta-groups influencing US governmental relations this meta-group and corporations close to the White House to the international drug traffic. This succession reaches back, of President George W. Bush. The group's business front, Far through the CIA-sponsored activities of BCCI, to what I call the West, Ltd, is said to have CIA-approved contractual dealings with first post-war meta-group: the overlapping global operations of Halliburton for geopolitical purposes in the Caucasus as well as William Donovan, E. Howard Hunt, Paul Helliwell and Meyer dealings in Iraq with Diligence LLC, a group with connections to Lansky.° If there is an historical pattern of evolution in this Joe Allbaugh (the FEMA chief in 2001) and to the President's succession, it is that successive meta-groups have become more younger brother Neil Bush. The head of Far West recently told a powerful, more highly organised and more independent of their Russian outlet that "a well-known American corporation...is a co- government connections. founder of our agency"."” A clear predecessor for the Far West meta-group was the Bank One of the alleged purposes of the meeting at the villa—but not of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), a drug-laundering the only one—was to give the Yeltsin "family" what it supposedly bank which was of use to CIA Director William Casey precisely needed: a Russian 9/11. because of its corrupt global reach. As a Washington insider said to two Time reporters covering BCCI: The "Russian 9/11": Bombings and Plans for War They were the only way we could talk to certain folks, and they Russia has been familiar for some time with charges that the were the only vehicle available for some transactions. Who else bombings in Moscow in September 1999, and an accompanying could wire something together to Saudi Arabia, China, Israel, and invasion of Russian Dagestan that rekindled the ongoing war in the US?" neighbouring Chechnya, were both planned by representatives of important functional links between this meta-group and corporations close to the White House of President The "Russian 9/11": Bombings and Plans for War Russia has been familiar for some time with charges that the bombings in Moscow in September 1999, and an accompanying invasion of Russian Dagestan that rekindled the ongoing war in neighbouring Chechnya, were both planned by representatives of the Islamist element in the Chechen resistance in collusion with a representative of the Russian Kremlin. Read synoptically, these stories indicate that the well-connected drug-trafficking meta-group, with connections to both the Kremlin and the CIA, arranged in advance for the bombings and It is worthy of note that Khashoggi has enjoyed intimate connections to both Far West and BCCI, as well as to Western intelligence and politicians. He was listed in the 1992 US Senate BCCI report as one of the "principal foreign agents of the US".* 26 = NEXUS JUNE — JULY 2006 But there are much more George W. Bush. www.nexusmagazine.com