STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [Coming immediately on the heels of a report on the Balkans heroin trade by Brian Whitmore (Boston Globe, June 3, 2001) which details the role of ethnic Albanian clans affiliated with the Kosovo Liberation Army in refining opium from Afghanistan and Pakistan, and in dominating the European heroin industry; and even more immediately on a report in the Sydney Morning Herald (June 4, 2001) on the comparable role played by the same forces in all but monopolizing Europe's sex slave trade - with proceeds going to "former Kosovo Liberation Army strongmen currently fighting in the Presevo Valley of Serbia and attacking their Slav neighbours in Mecedonia" - it's curious to say the least to hear NATO General Secretary George Robertson intone: "For NATO and those who want to see an end to the illegal trade in drugs, humanity, guns and sex slaves must invest in these [Central Asian] countries and help them restructure their armies...." Curious, that is, until we're reminded by Robertson that "countries like Kazakstan, which has more oil than all of the Gulf states put together, must be helped." Much as in Colombia, where massive petroleum reserves have been discovered in the southern, that is rebel-controlled, areas of the country, NATO nations are striving to gain a military foothold in Central Asia, through "restruct[ing] their armies," ostensibly to combat the drug trade but in fact to secure access to unparalleled oil supplies.] The Herald (Glasgow) June 5, 2001 Nato chief warns Taliban drug lords JIM CASSIDY THE greatest threat to European stability comes from the extreme fundamentalists who are exporting death through drugs to the streets of Edinburgh and Glasgow, according to Lord Robertson, Nato general secretary. In an exclusive interview before President Bush's first Nato summit with Tony Blair and the other heads of state on June 13, Lord Robertson has outlined his crusade to stop the flow of heroin reaching his homeland. He has told the leaders of emerging countries bordering Afghanistan like Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan, it is their responsibility to stop the tide of drugs that are polluting the streets and causing untold misery in Scotland. "I have seen what is happening and it frightens me. Eighty per cent of the heroin that reaches Scotland's streets comes from Afghanistan and the influence of the Taliban and their criminality spreads across borders, their tentacles spreading everywhere. "Nato and those who want to see an end to the illegal trade in drugs, humanity, guns, and sex slaves must invest in these countries and help them restructure their armies to cope with the civilian tasks of stopping this tide of misery. If we don't we will leave Europe with a frightening legacy of unrest and lawlessness." He warned that, unlike the time of the Stalin's Soviet Union, "few recognise or can identify this new and very real danger." He said countries like Kazakstan, which has more oil than all the Gulf states put together, must be helped. "We must give these countries the resources and the courage to face down the criminals and drug dealers." __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
