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Some of Yasenev's information about Diligence Iraq is of Russia. The group's total receipts for heroin in the period 1991 corroborated by a press release dated December 8, 2003, from to 2003 are estimated to be US$5 billion.” Diligence itself. Diligence LLC, a private military company The chief narcobaron of the group is said to be Vladimir Filin, (PMC), could be described as a CIA spin-off [see David Isenberg, who is also the head of Far West. Like Surikov, Filin has been "Myths and mystery", Asia Times, May 20, 2004]: known to share his knowledge of drug-trafficking with the Diligence was founded by William Webster, the only man to public.” And grounds have been alleged to suspect that his head both the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal contacts with the CIA through drug-trafficking date back to Bureau of Investigation. Mike Baker, its chief executive officer, Afghanistan in the 1980s. spent 14 years at the CIA as a covert field operations officer It is clear that the Blair and Bush administrations did have specializing in counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency drugs in mind when, in 2001, they developed a strategy for operations. Whitley Bruner, its chief ousting the Taliban in Afghanistan. operating officer in Baghdad, was once Their plans focused chiefly on Ahmad the CIA station chief in Iraq.” . F Shah Massoud, overcoming the long- It Is clear that the Blair and time resistance in Washington to Its partner in Diligence Middle East ini i i supporting this known drug- (DME) is New Bridge Strategies, Bush administrations did have trafficker.“ Massoud, of course, was whose political clout was described by drugs in mind when, in 2001, also the most successful guerrilla the Financial Times [December 11, they developed a strategy for opponent of the Taliban. 2003): . . x A more naked example of a US drug New Bridge was established in May ousting the Taliban In ally was Haji Zaman in Jalalabad [as [2003] and came to public attention H explained by Philip Smucker in Al because of the Republican Atg hanistan. Qaeda's Great Escape, 2004): heavyweights on its board—most When the Taliban claimed linked to one or other Bush Jalalabad...Zaman had fled administration [officials] or to the family Afghanistan for a leisurely life in itself. Those include Joe Allbaugh, George W. Bush's presidential Dijon, France. Just a few years at the top of the heroin trade in campaign manager, and Ed Rogers and Lanny Griffith, former Jalalabad had given "Mr Ten Percent" a ticket to just about any George H. W. Bush aides.” destination he could have chosen. In late September 2001, British and American officials, keen to build up an opposition core to Joe Allbaugh, the co-chairman of the company, was head of the take back the country from the Taliban, met with and persuaded Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on the day of — Zaman to return to Afghanistan.” tha O/11 4 jaad ntil Marah IAN tha manth that tha drugs in mind when, in 2001, they developed a strategy for ousting the Taliban in Afghanistan. Joe Allbaugh, the co-chairman of the company, was head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on the day of the 9/11 attacks and, indeed, until March 2003, the month that the US-led coalition invaded Iraq. The Financial Times [op. cit.] wrote that the success of New Bridge in securing contracts had to do with their relationship to Neil Bush, the President's younger brother.” (A major investor in Neil Bush's educational company, Ignite, is Boris Berezovsky.) According to Asian sources, such as the informed Indian observer B. Raman, Zaman's long-time Pakistani drug-trafficking partner, Haji Ayub Afridi, was also released from a Pakistani jail at this time, "reportedly at the request of the CIA" [http://www.saag.org/papersS/ paper489.html].” Raman was outspoken about the US use of narcobarons to oust the Taliban. In 2002, citing the subsequent failure to curb opium production, he wrote: There are disturbing reports from reliable sources in Afghanistan that this marked lack of success in the heroin front is due to the fact that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the The US Contribution to the Afghan—Kosovo Drug Traffic In 2002, citing the su Much remains to be learned about Far West Ltd, its personnel he wrote: and the American firm which co-founded it. Reportedly it was There are disturl founded in 1998, and Surikov and Saidov were already directors Afghanistan that this 1 of the company when they attended the meeting in Khashoggi's due to the fact that th villa in July 1999. I believe that the group at the r meeting was more concerned with TA MARE MILL oS PUSH eG facilitating drug-trafficking than with DRues... 7 HAVE NO IDEA WAY AT'S strengthening the Kremlin. I believe IN THEA oR WHETHER THEY that the attendees also discussed the Russian presence in Kosovo and the Kit L Auron €. ee coe imminent increase in the flow of DOW 7 HAVE TO THE Afghan drugs through Kosovo. = That this flow is huge has been \ py COPE... attested to by many observers. Russian sources estimate that from 1991 to 2003 the same group shipped to Western Europe up to 300 tons of heroin and sold it to wholesale buyers of Kosovo Albanian nationality. In the same period they sold up to 60 tons of heroin to Azeri and Roma (gypsy) wholesalers in the Volga and the Urals Federal Districts = TRANS HATIONAL PRARMA CEUTIC 4 L Co, — Semervifle Semervifle NEXUS + 23 lt is clear that the Blair and Bush administrations did have AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2006 www.nexusmagazine.com