Who Are These People And What Are They Doing?

Right off the get go I want to point out that I am pretty sure who they are and what they're doing, but I also wanted to point out that I cannot explain the full context of the video as the video description is almost non existent so there is certainly room for speculation. Hopefully some fellow ATS members can help confirm who these people are and what they are doing.

Come one everyone, it's only 45 seconds long...watch it please



Now that you have all seen the video and have had the chance to base your own opinion/theory I will explain what I think I see.

I see armed NATO forces (in my opinion most certainly American) watching Afghan farmers cultivate their opium poppies.

Many might say that they are observing the fields while they prepare them for "destruction" but I do not believe this to be true.

Why are armed soldiers standing there watching farmers tend to illegal crops? It appears that they are giving their opium poppies some TLC just like we would to our tomato plants, I find it difficult to believe that the actions presented in this video depict any intent to destroy those fields.

So, again, who are they and what are they doing?

In my opinion the answer is quite clear, they are allowing this because the Afghan opium trade is a major cash crop and certain entities have taken full advantage of it...how dare I say that!

Common sense tells me that I am not the only one who believes that opium is one of the MANY reasons why Afghanistan is still, and most likely will always be occupied by Western forces.

We have heard countless stories, seen countless pictures, yet some crowds get bent out of shape when we mention the possibility that one of the major reasons they are there is to plunder their opium.

They are not only there for opium either, there are plenty of reasons including but not limited to regulating their mass wealth of rare minerals and a very convenient strategic location for pipelines and to help achieve their goal of destabilizing the Middle East.

They have used Afghanistan to spy on Iran, bomb innocent civilians both in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, so it wouldn't be such a crazy theory to at least consider that they might have more sinister motives hidden up their sleeve.

This leads me to a greater problem...

Most of the people who ordered and supported this war consider the Afghanistan opium trade to be a major contributor of funds to terrorism, that being said, would it not also make those soldiers monitoring and allowing the cultivation terrorists as well?

Participating in terrorism makes you a terrorist, am I wrong?

Before the invasion, the Taliban had the opium trade in check, so once they were settled in the invaders dipped into the Afghan heroin trade...the government hates competition!

And please don't be too surprised if this is the first time you have heard that certain, if not all governments have a major part in the illicit drug trade.

Who are the major players on the world stage though, any guesses?

Criminals In Action...

I pity the poor souls who get suckered into participating in this terror.

Time to protect them freedoms!

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


You are spot on , they are scraping the poppy bulbs so that the sap , which is what they make the drugs with will ooze out for collection.

This is not a field being prepared for destruction and they are being protected by soldiers of which type , I'm not sure , perhaps someone else can confirm that.

I have friends who spent time guarding the fields while in Afghanistan so yes it is real. All one has to do is look at the statistics to see that there is a large correlation between the start of the war and the rise in heroin use in America. I personally would not be surprised if the CIA was flying it in on Uncle Sam's dime with the current level of corruption that is running rampant in our society. When we came upon large Marijuana grows in Iraq we were always told to leave them alone. I think you pretty much got it right. S&F

To generate/maintain some type of economy for Afghanistan?

It is really bizarre that the Taliban in 2001 tried to ban opium production and sslaes claiming "it was a unIslamic thing to take drug and sell drugs" and then record poppy production occurred thereafter.
It sounds like(from one side) if production stopped, the farmers would blame US for poverty and return to the Taliban's rule.

November 2009, the Afghan Minister of Counter Narcotics General Khodaidad Khodaidad stated that the majority of drugs are stockpiled in two provinces controlled by troops from the US, the UK, and Canada. He also said that NATO forces are taxing the production of opium in the regions under their control and that foreign troops are earning money from drug production in Afghanistan.

publicintelligence.net...

What a surreal image, considering...

Max Keiser said that when he worked on Wall Street, it was well known that every Friday night, the armored trucks would pull up to the big banks and unload the drug money that was needing to be laundered for the next week. Millions of dollars of worth of drug money, every week.

I doubt the US government would last a week without the influx of drug money. After all, if they wanted to really win the war on drugs once and for all, they just need to poison it with Agent Orange or Depleted Uranium.

The Taliban tried rather violently to get the farmers to stop producing heroin because it brought the outsiders, the infidels (meaning us/U.S.) in and was interfering with their religious tribal way of life. That's why the Taliban had to go.

And we pay tax dollars to fund this craziness, and our sons and daughters are paying with their lives, their limbs and their sanity.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


Hi CX, most of the answers you seek can be found in "Murder in Samarkand" by Craig Murray.

Peace starchild

Well, if the people in control don't want to raise taxes on themselves...how else are they going to generate revenue?

reply to post by usmc0311


Thanks for sharing your own personal story about Iraq. My brother was in Afghanistan, he had stories supporting both sides. He told me about times when they drove through or near burning fields, at other times witnessed other fields being protected such as this one.

I completely agree that the CIA or some other black op organization is using this to generate some extra funds for what ever it is they are trying to do. The sad thing is that this stuff makes it home and poisons people via pharmaceuticals or heroin...it ruins families and much more.

At the same time the "other team" are demonized for doing the exact same thing, but that's the name of the game so no surprise there.

Maybe they are using the funds from these operations to help pay for the rebels in other places such as Libya and Syria...the irony keeps getting stronger I can't take it anymore

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


Have you heard the story of a soldier accidentally tripping over 1 of the largest Lithium Mines while fighting the war in Afghanistan. It's also one of the largest in the world.

Trillion Dollar Find

"It could also cause friction between the U.S., which has made heavy investment in Afghanistan, and China and Russia, who are both eager to stake a claim for a share of the riches. Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk... Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook"

If I dig deeper I'll come back and share the story of how they found it... It will make you laugh.

People still think we're there to " help " these poor poor people from the big bad wolves... I've been saying this for years... The Middle East in general is a gold mine... It's about power/ greed/ and resources and not allowing these guy's to get smart enough to take our dollar out!

To the guy that said we're protecting our interest so we can make pain meds for " the people"
I just have to first say... It wouldn't grow here (?) I just had to laff hard at that one.... Haha

We don't need Mexico or jaaaaMacia to grow some of the best medical pot around.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed

The opium poppies are not exclusively used for the production of heroin, they are also used to manufacture morphine and various other opiate analgesics.US and UK/NATO troops have been used to oversee the poppy harvests, and to ensure that the product is transported safely to enable it to be passed on to legitimate licensed morphine and opiate analgesic manufacturers.

,

reply to post by tracehd1


I didn't miss that story, but thanks for contributing supporting links!

I made sure to mention minerals/resources as part of the reason that we are there.

Please feel free to share more examples though, I mostly focused on the video in my OP but I am glad that other members are sharing supporting stories/links

reply to post by nake13


Except we can synthesize it; no need to grow it halfway around the world. I think the soldiers are being told they are guarding it for medical (legal) purposes.

Of course, if some kid back in the States decides to take advantage of his vaunted 'freedom' and partake of a bit, he could end up in a cage in record time. There's a profit in that, too, and for the same cartels.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


Sure, there is most likely double dealing and hypocrisy at work here. But as said earlier, it's also a legitimate product in many cases and quite invaluable. It was also one of the largest crops of the ancient world and for good reason. It's a damn shame all of the BS that comes with the politics and The Drug War - a decent return could come to legitimised farmers in some of the poorest parts of the world for this rather than lining the pockets of Police Forces, Cartels, Politicians, Smugglers and so forth.

The sap is extracted by slitting the pod vertically in parallel strokes with a special curved knife. As the sap oozes out, it turns darker and thicker, forming a brownish-black gum. A farmer collects the gum with a scraping knife, bundles it into bricks, cakes or balls and wraps them in a simple material such as plastic or leaves.

Welp, there ya go.

Link

There are a lot of reasons I can see troops guarding these farms without a govt. run drug smuggling operation.

reply to post by Domo1


Thanks for joining the thread and leaving a comment.

There are a lot of reasons I can see troops guarding these farms without a govt. run drug smuggling operation.

I am very interested in these reasons, I can think of a few as well, do you care to share?

reply to post by signalfire


I agree that certain analgesics that mimic morphine and other opiates can be produced synthetically, (opioids) ,however,morphine and morphine derivatives still require the opium poppy as a base.

This so backwards and so messed up, i wish they were protecting olive fields instead


Love and harmony
Whateva

reply to post by Whateva69

Unfortunately, there's not the same profit in olives as there is in opium.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


Hearts and minds, guilt over destroying the only source of income for people living in poverty, wishing to use the land without making it blatantly obvious, keeping the lands in the hand of people that are more friendly than Taliban in strategic areas, getting free drugs, poppies are pretty.

I think hearts and minds makes the most sense. Why give even more people incentive to outright despise you if you can just look the other way of what can be considered a victimless crime. I would rather deal with poppy farmers than poppy farmers turned Taliban. That and I have no idea the extent of the drug problem over there. Encouraging it could be beneficial. Encourage the use of opium and have a dumbed down, lazy population that would rather get high than fight.

There are more but they seem less reasonable.

What were you thinking?

reply to post by Domo1


Your example is definitely plausible.

Even though I have shown bias towards the smuggling rings existing, another example of this being something other than a smuggling ring could be that they were actually preparing the fields for destruction and allowing the farmers to keep a small portion as charity, but not enough for profit. I have heard first hand experiences of the poppy fields being burned but that is no secret.

There are tons of other possibilities as you mentioned but I still find it hard to believe that these black op smuggling rings do not exist no matter how many alternatives we think of.