Al Jazeera exposes Iraq's booming, 'endemic' drug trade

Al Jazeera exposes Iraq's booming, 'endemic' drug trade

http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/09/al...mic-drug-trade/

9/19/2009

A little-noticed report by Arab news network Al Jazeera on Friday shined a light on an often overlooked aspect of occupied Iraq: Its blossoming drug trade, fueled by Afghanistan and Iran, the profits from which have begun to spill over from the drug cartels to the militias.

In an interview with Dr. Abdul Rahman Hamid, of Almuthanna province, the veterinarian claimed that drug smugglers have been cutting open camels' humps to stow their illicit cache. "It is criminal, what they are doing to these animals," he said.

Discussing the report, Al Jazeera's host framed a strikingly broad question: "Today, drug use and trafficking has become endemic in Iraq, threatening the very fabric of society. Has the Iraqi government lost the war on drugs?"

Mustafa Alani, program director of security and terrorism studies at the Gulf Research Center, quoted Iraqi government figures from 2007 which suggested the country had just 14,000 drug users. He further suggested that under the "previous regime," Iraq was "clean from the drug" and had a "zero rate of drug using and drug trafficking."

According to the International Organization for Migration, Iraq has just under 28 million residents. The likelihood that merely 14,000 used a drug in 2007 is, to say politely, minuscule.

Despite the imaginary numbers, Alani held out hope that "we still have some chance to save the country."

Sadegh Zibakalam, a professor of political science with the University of Tehran, rebutted both Alani and the show's host and defended Iran against allegations that officials have looked the other way and allowed traffickers to inundate Iraq.

Zibakalam cited numerous police-state dictatorships, such as North Korea, the Soviet Union and Saddam's Iraq, saying of course "ruthless" regimes had no drug problems.

Alani interrupted: "This is an achievement."

"When you have democracy, you are bound to have drug problem, because it is one of the most fundamental problems posed by liberalism," Zibakalam replied.

The host appeared incredulous and suggested the professor had claimed democracy makes an endemic drug trade "okay."

"I am not saying that if you have a democracy, you must have drug problem," Zibakalam said. "All I am saying is, democracy begins with this fundamental, principle question: Is the individual free to do what he or she likes? Or is the individual must do what the state tell him?"

Again, the host was incredulous, and simply dashed his guest's argument as being in defense of drug abuse and trafficking.

The entire segment is like a brief glimpse into Iraq's own right-wing media, where some facts are specific but the broader picture skewed, and host is not afraid to shout down a guest he may disagree with.

But more than that: The whole exchange between the three men -- where one is damned for advocating freedom and another is allowed to call a tyrannical regime an "achievement" -- just seems so very ... American.

-- Stephen C. Webster

This video was broadcast by Al Jazeera on Sept. 18, 2009.

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