London makes clear to the Pashtuns aspiring for Pashtunistan that their opium income will remain intact only if Britain is allowed in remain on the saddle of affairs in Pashtunistan.
The opium economy serves Britain well. During the eighteenth-and-nineteenth-century British Raj, more than 50 per cent of the now-defunct British Empire’s income was generated from Bengal, Bihar and Malwa opium. Opium is unaccounted for cash of large sums and is used to enhance liquidity in the bankrupt banks, as well as to finance various terrorist and secessionist groups working on behalf of London. According to the United Nations Office of Drug and Crimes (UNODC) chief, Antonio Mario Costa, the Afghan drugs, after it is retailed in the streets of western European cities, generate $400 billion annually.38 This entire amount is off the book, and Mario Costa said that this amount becomes the bread and butter of many reputed banks after the money gets laundered through offshore banks.
In December 2007, senior Afghan government officials told reporters that two MI6 agents were expelled from the country, at the behest of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), after they were caught funding Taliban units. The two alleged MI6 agents, Mervyn Patterson and Michael Semple, left Afghanistan on 27 December on charges that they posed a threat to the country’s national security. Patterson worked for the United Nations, and Semple worked for the European Union. Both men were Afghan specialists, who had been operating in the country for over 20 years. An unnamed Afghan government official told the London Sunday Telegraph that “this warning” that the men were financing the Taliban for at least 10 months, “came from the Americans.” The London Times, on 30 December 2007, added that when Patterson and Semple were arrested, they had $150,000 with them, which was to be given to Taliban commanders in the Musa Qala region, which was under British troops at the time.39
Some Pakistani-based militant groups are reported to still scout for recruits at mosques among Muslim communities in Britain.
On 20 April 2010, an Afghan member of Parliament, Nasimeh Niazi, told the Fars News Agency (FNA) that the foreign forces deployed in Afghanistan were involved in the production and trafficking of illicit drugs in the country, adding that the British troops have even trained opium experts. Britain deployed 7,000 troops in Helmand province beginning in 2006. Helmand province, where almost 50 per cent of Afghanistan’s opium is produced, began to register huge growth in opium production that year. In 2007, it reached a level of 4,400 tons, which is almost the amount entire the world consumes annually. Productivity of opium per hectare, aided by British research, has grown enormously. Ms. Niazi also pointed out that Helmand province in southwestern Afghanistan has been transformed into a profitable centre for foreign states to earn an expense fund for their deployment in the country. Heroine-production labs in Helmand, which did not exist before the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, are now plentiful and work overtly, Niazi added.40
In addition, London makes clear to the Pashtuns aspiring for Pashtunistan that their opium income will remain intact only if Britain is allowed in remain on the saddle of affairs in Pashtunistan.
“¦following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Pakistans ISI, Britains MI6 and Americas CIA joined hands to recruit Arabs to help the Afghan mujahideen fight the Red Army.
The second weapon Britain is using in Afghanistan is its huge reserves of educated Muslims residing in Britain. Over the years, many reports have emerged indicating a growing number British Muslims operating in Afghanistan41 and in the border areas of Pakistan. British military sources said (Foreign Policy, 15 June 2009) a terrorist found in Afghanistan was with a tattoo of a British soccer club, indicating the individual is from West Midlands of England. The British military source said: “We’ve known for a long time that foreign fighters, many with thick Birmingham accents, have been recruited to fight against us for the Taliban. Some of the linguistics specialists have picked up West Midland and Manchester accents too.”
These British Muslims, located by British military authorities in Afghanistan, were part of the MI6-trained operators. Some Pakistani-based militant groups are reported to still scout for recruits at mosques among Muslim communities in Britain.42 Smaller British mosques have their own links with madrassas in the Punjab and other regions of Pakistan though they insist these are genuine schools of Koranic study, not terror training camps.
Well-known militant groups, such as Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and Harkat ul Mujahideen, have operated openly in the past and in some cases with the military’s support and boasted of their British recruits (Times of London, 14 July 2005).
Omar Saeed Sheikh was originally recruited by British intelligence agency, MI6, while studying at the LSE. He was seen with Islamic fundamentalists and was instrumental in recruiting students around London to the cause.
In early 1980s, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Pakistan’s ISI, Britain’s MI6 and America’s CIA joined hands to recruit Arabs to help the Afghan mujahideen fight the Red Army. It is at this time a tacit agreement developed between ISI and MI6 allowing the ISI to recruit from British mosques. One such mosque was London’s notorious Finsbury Mosque under Abu Hamza al-Masri. Subsequently, it was revealed that al-Masri had been working with two branches of the British security services, the police’s Special Branch and MI5, the domestic counterintelligence service. The relationships continued for several years, and there were at least seven meetings between Abu Hamza and MI5 between 1997 and 2000.43 Based on records of the meetings, British authors Daniel O’Neill and Sean McGrory described the relationship as “respectful, polite, and often cooperative.”
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