Islamic Fundamentalism, Narcotics Production in Afghanistan Backed by U.S.

Edu Montesanti. An Interview with RAWA
 
Afghanistan, the worst country for women among 188 countries worldwide according to Women, Peace and Security, an institution affiliated with US Georgetown University: this is not post-9/11 attacks news reproduction, when then-President George W. Bush decided to invade the Asian country more than 24 years ago, allegedly to ¨liberate the Afghan women from oppression¨.

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org by Accuruss, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Шприц, наркотики

Last December 31, the American organization said in its annual report that, examining the situation of women based on three main indicators, inclusion, justice, and security, the study shows once again that women and girls, among the most vulnerable social groups in Afghanistan, are in the lowest global position in terms of security and access to justice.

There have been severe restrictions on women’s right to work and education in Afghanistan, where girls and women have been heinously, daily raped and killed by the Taliban and other misogynists. Even accessing healthcare has become increasingly difficult for Afghan women and girls. ¨A climate of fear keeps many women from even leaving their homes,¨ reported the UN Women last August.

A tragedy repeated year by year in the only country in the world where there is a gender apartheid. Not international news for a long time, after a world hysteria – starting with the US media echoing the White House, then dictating to the world media – when the ¨War on Terror¨ was the core of US foreign ¨policy.¨

¨Values like ´democracy,´ ´women’s rights,´ and ´human rights´ were simply used as a cover to make the invasion and occupation look humanitarian,¨ says Friba, an Afghan women´s leader, about the 20-year US occupation in her now more than ever torn country, in the following interview.

According to the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan´s (RAWA) representative in this interview, the jihadi parties and the Taliban are backed financially by the U.S., Israel, and Saudi Arabia, and trained by Pakistan’s ISI. ¨When the United States arrived, it did exactly what it had done with al-Julani of ISIS in Syria: it brought the bloodthirsty leaders of Afghan fundamentalism to power, dressed them in suits and ties, and enabled them to serve the interests of the West,¨ tells Friba.

The old opium production in Afghanistan and the trafficking of heroin is still a big business managed by the Taliban, with its well-known partner since the 80´s: the United States of America. A UN Office on Drugs and Crime report released last November states that opium cultivation has dropped sharply in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, but regional trafficking rises as synthetic drug production, particularly methamphetamine, is going up, and seizures in and around Afghanistan were 50 per cent higher by late 2024 compared to the previous year.

¨The United States, in addition to cooperating with major international drug traffickers, also supports and trains local groups involved in narcotics production¨, states Friba, detailing how the US historically allies with Afghan drug dealers.

Nothing of that kind is on the White House agenda. Not even a single word by President Donald Trump. He who justifies human rights and combating drugs in other parts of the world, to illegally and brutally spread US military bases and impose his interests, overthrowing local governments violating international laws, and even the US Constitution.

¨The United States cannot present itself as a champion in the fight against terrorism. The CIA, MI6, Mossad, and their allied intelligence agencies have never ceased funding, arming, training, and promoting these regional proxies,¨ exposes the RAWA´s representative in the following interview.

Edu Montesanti: Describe the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, comparing the current situation with that before the US occupation in 2001, promising to bring democracy to the country, especially to liberate the Afghan women from oppression.

Friba: For more than forty years, the people of Afghanistan have been burning in the fires of war, poverty, unemployment, homelessness, and forced migration, and this unbearable suffering continues with the same intensity to this day.

The jihadi parties and the Taliban, backed financially by the U.S., Israel, and Saudi Arabia, and trained by Pakistan’s ISI, turned Afghanistan into ruins and paved the way for the U.S. and NATO military invasion. Islamic fundamentalism, which served as the base for U.S. and Western influence in Afghanistan and was strengthened with dollars and weapons by imperialist powers, has been the source of countless tragedies.

The jihadi and Taliban factions looted Afghanistan’s last remaining resources and turned life into hell for the people. But when the United States arrived, it did exactly what it had done with al-Julani of ISIS in Syria: it brought the bloodthirsty leaders of Afghan fundamentalism to power, dressed them in suits and ties, and enabled them to serve the interests of the West.

Naturally, it also allowed them to engage freely in all forms of corruption and crime. In the name of “democracy,” “women’s rights,” and the “war on drugs,” the U.S. occupied Afghanistan. Instead, it empowered those who were the worst violators of democracy, the most misogynistic warlords, and key figures in the drug mafia, giving them vast amounts of money and resources.

Over the past twenty years, the United States did everything in its power to prevent the prosecution of warlords; instead, it supported them. [Abdul Rasul] Sayyaf, Atta Mohammad, [Mohammad Younus] Qanooni, [Mohammad] Fahim, Gulbuddin [Hekmatiar], [Abdul Rashid] Dostum, [Burhanuddin] Rabbani, Ismail Khan, [Karim] Khalili, [Mohammad] Mohaqiq, Haji Qadir, Hazrat Ali, and many others were among the main perpetrators of massacres and destruction.

The U.S. protected them and suppressed the publication of reports that documented their crimes. Before the U.S. occupation, the people of Afghanistan, especially women, were subjected to the most horrific atrocities by the fundamentalists.

During the occupation, not only that situation persist, but also due to bombardment and war crimes of the US/NATO forces, tens of thousands of our innocent people were massacred. Rukhshana, Tabasoom, Farkhunda, Marwa, Zainora, Sheema Rezaee, Zulaikha, Mina Mangal, and hundreds of other women were stoned, shot, or tortured to death in the presence of the U.S. occupation.

Thousands more were raped and abused, and rates of suicide and self-immolation among women reached record highs. Due to the dominance of feudal and anti-woman ideology, even these incidents rarely reached the media.

Just as the foundation of imperialist powers has always relied on corrupt and traitorous forces, in Afghanistan, too, jihadi and Taliban criminals were its base. Values like “democracy,” “women’s rights,” and “human rights” were simply used as a cover to make the invasion and occupation look humanitarian.

As we have stated in all our declarations, expecting freedom and prosperity from any occupying forces, including the United States, is an illusion and a betrayal of the blood of thousands of freedom fighters who gave their lives for this country’s liberation.

How do you evaluate the Taliban’s return to power when the US left Afghanistan? A very particular fact in history, after the US invasion supposedly to fight the Taliban: just a tragic mistake nowadays?

We do not see the Taliban’s return to power as a “unique historical event” or a “disastrous mistake.” On the contrary, both before and after the reinstallation of these medieval forces, we clearly stated in several of our declarations that the Taliban, as a reserve force of U.S. imperialism, were created and nurtured by the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.

This group fights to serve its interests, and whenever needed, it will be brought back to power by removing its technocratic protégés. In our statement issued on August 15, 2022, we clearly declared our position: U.S. imperialism claims to have been surprised by the fall of Kabul and Ghani’s escape, but the reality is that the plan to hand over power to the Taliban had been in motion from the moment Taliban leaders were freed from Guantanamo and Bagram, from the removal of terrorists and war criminals from the UN blacklist, to the opening of the Doha office, the launch of multilateral negotiations under the supervision of traitors like Khalilzad, the signing of a disgraceful treaty withthe monsters, the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners, and finally the complete handover of power and $85 billion worthof U.S.-made military equipment all went exactly according to plan.

The U.S. and NATO, during their 20-year occupation, preserved the Taliban as a reserve force and, under the guise of a cat-and-mouse game, covertly strengthened them.

Throughout those years, the Taliban committed countless acts of terror, suicide bombings, and explosions targeting innocent Afghan civilians, not the American or NATO occupiers.

The bloodstained hands of U.S. imperialism and its allies in creating and supporting brutal groups like the Taliban, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and the jihadi factions are no secret to anyone.

The United States cannot present itself as a champion in the fight against terrorism by merely eliminating one or two burned-out or disobedient pawns. The assassination of al-Zawahiri in Kabul was more of a propaganda stunt aimed at the U.S. presidential elections than a genuine attempt to dismantle terrorist networks.

The CIA, MI6, Mossad, and their allied intelligence agencies have never ceased funding, arming, training, and promoting these regional proxies.

For more than forty years, the governments of Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia have played a central role in nurturing this cancerous phenomenon. Pakistan’s sheltering of war criminals and traitors from the jihadi factions, along with the existence of 30,000 religious madrasas financed by American and allied sources, stand as clear evidence of the ISI’s deep support for terrorism.

The U.S. has not abandoned Afghanistan, not for a second, as it seeks to maintain its strategic interests and counter China and Russia. Though it may outwardly impose sanctions on the Taliban and claim not to recognize them, it continues to pump dollars into the regime under various pretexts to prevent its collapse.

These imperialist powers are now pushing for the creation of a so-called ‘inclusive government’ so that a few seasoned spies of theirs can be inserted into the Taliban administration.

In addition, the U.S. is actively strengthening ISIS in the region. As reported by media outlets, ISIS recruitment has tripled over the past year. The transfer of ISIS fighters from Syria to Waziristan and then into eastern Afghanistan shows that ISIS is being prepared as the next tool for regional chaos aimed at putting pressure on China and Russia. Once again, it is our people who will bear the brunt of this terrorism.

In interviews with me years ago, during the US occupation, you exposed the US involvement in opium production in Afghanistan and heroin trafficking. Please, detail this dark business a little more today.

As we have previously stated, in every country where the United States has intervened, alongside other consequences, the cultivation, production, and trafficking of narcotics have reached unprecedented levels. For this purpose, the United States, in addition to cooperating with major international drug traffickers, also supports and trains local groups involved in narcotics production.

During the Vietnam War, for example, Frank Lucas, a major drug trafficker, worked with American forces to transport large quantities of narcotics to the United States in the coffins of deceased soldiers (for further details, see the film American Gangster). Similarly, in Afghanistan, the U.S. paid the Taliban to safeguard opium fields.

American commanders in regions with extensive drug cultivation, such as Helmand, used their own media platforms to portray these areas as insecure. They provided Taliban leaders with significant sums of money and weaponry to prevent government forces from entering those districts. After harvest, the narcotics were transported to British bases and then trafficked to the United States and the United Kingdom on military aircraft.

This context explains why Squadron Leader Steve Smith, Senior Air Traffic Control Officer at Camp Bastion in Helmand, stated that the airfield handled an average of 400 flights per day, an extraordinarily high number for a remote province, revealing the real purpose behind such heavy air traffic.

To ensure Taliban control over drug-producing areas, the United States also maintained close relations with major traffickers affiliated with the Taliban, such as Haji Bashir Noorzai.

Consequently, from the U.S. intervention in 2001 until its withdrawal, approximately 200,000 hectares of land remained under opium cultivation, and more than three million Afghan men and women became addicted to narcotics.

You may ask: What benefit does the United States gain from narcotics production? The answer is quite straightforward. Just as Britain sought during the Opium Wars to addict the Chinese population to dominate their trade and territory, the United States likewise aims to render young people dependent on these poisonous substances so that countries can be subdued one after another with ease. It also seeks to render its own population susceptible to addiction, ensuring that no one remains capable of questioning its crimes, killings, and exploitation.

It´s been discussed by some, especially in the US and Europe, about passing new international laws to prevent the Taliban from committing crimes: doesn´t it seem like another distraction, as the issue is not a lack of laws but putting many existing ones in practice to punish the Taliban?

Indeed, you are correct: our problem is not with the laws themselves. During the twenty-year occupation of Afghanistan by NATO and the United States, dozens of laws were drafted, allegedly to protect women. Still, all of them amounted to nothing more than worthless pieces of paper. The Taliban neither adheres to law nor attributes any value to it.

Such reports and investigations are conducted at the behest of the Taliban’s foreign patrons to downplay the crimes, brutality, oppression, and savagery of this medieval group against the people of Afghanistan, especially women, and to divert attention from the truth.

Anyone who drafts laws for this murderous and misogynistic regime is, in fact, betraying the people of Afghanistan, and especially its women.

We do not believe in any way that the Taliban can be reformed through legislation. Rather, we demand the overthrow of this tyrannical, anti-woman, anti-civilization, and anti-human regime.

It´s interesting to note the world’s silence before the current Afghanistan tragedy, especially by the media and by the so-called ¨international community,¨ after their frenetic concern for the country following the 9/11 attacks, huh, Friba? How do you see it?

In today’s world, the corporate media and what is referred to as the ‘international community’ are entirely instruments in the service of imperialism, especially that of the United States.

We witnessed how, when the budgets of the U.S.State Department and USAID were cut under Trump, the operations of hundreds of media outlets ceased not just within the U.S., but globally. These media outlets, after the imperialist war machine itself, play the largest hidden role in supporting waves of barbarism and criminal wars across the world.

U.S. and Western-aligned media only report on war criminals when it serves American interests. When necessary, they can portray a well-known bloodthirsty terrorist like al-Julani as a ‘democrat’, a ‘human rights defender’, a ‘women’s rights advocate’, and a ‘supporter of minority rights’.

The U.S. government had placed a $10 million bounty on Sirajuddin Haqqani (the interior minister of the Taliban) just two years ago. Yet, today all the media, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and various Western-funded Afghan outlets, are promoting Haqqani as a ‘politician’, a ‘supporter of girls’ education’, and a ‘moderate’!

These same bought-and-paid-for media once even branded Ashraf Ghani the rotten brain of the world as the ‘secondmost intelligent thinker on earth’ overnight!

Following the reinstallation of the Taliban, the first move by the U.S. was to fund several Afghan media outlets broadcasting from American soil back into Afghanistan. For instance, the TV channel Amu was quickly launched with substantial resources and the recruitment of several U.S.-trained media figures.

Through satellite broadcasts and social media, this outlet began manipulating public opinion. These outlets now glorify the traitors of the so-called ‘Republic’ regime and some fugitive jihadi figures who share ideological ground with the Taliban and are themselves responsible for Afghanistan’s misery.

Notably, they are praising Ahmad Massoud, who holds no real superiority over the Taliban, preparing him as a potential Western puppet for future power.

These media not only whitewash second- and third-tier war criminals, but they also sanitize the images of major war criminals like Netanyahu, Trump, Macron, and others.

Despite the massacres, destruction, and famine inflicted upon the people of Gaza over the past two years, these same media platforms continue to present Trump as a ‘peacelover’ and remain virtually silent about the Gaza Holocaust.

When they do speak, they put all the blame on ‘Hamas’, presenting it as the cause of all the suffering and mass killings.

In recent times, the same media have launched propaganda campaigns to whitewash the Taliban by claiming that poppy cultivation and drug trafficking in Afghanistan have decreased or nearly stopped. However, according to evidence and conversations with people in remote provinces, these claims are false.

In reality, poppy cultivation only dropped in the first year of the Taliban’s return to power, and that too because major traffickers’ warehouses (many of whom fund and belong to the Taliban) were already full.

With reduced cultivation, demand for opium and drugs increased, allowing the Taliban and their backers to profit enormously.

In our view, just as the media uproar before September 11, 2001, was aligned with U.S. political interests, the current media silence regarding the catastrophe in Afghanistan, particularly the horrific situation of women, who have been stripped of their most basic rights, barred from work and education, and killed under various pretexts also reflects the same U.S. and Western policies and interests.

Both China and Russia haven´t opposed the Taliban´s return to power, and Russia was even the first country to recognize the Taliban officially. For a long time, RAWA insists, including in interviews with me, that Russia has ¨its talibans¨ in Afghanistan for economic and geostrategic interests. Can you describe how both countries operate in Afghanistan right now, and how their ties to the Taliban have developed over the years?

What is clear and something we have emphasized repeatedly is that reactionary and religious forces are inherently opportunistic and quick to sell themselves out. They readily make deals in exchange for money and privileges.

In Afghanistan, we have seen how jihadi parties sold themselves to Pakistan, the United States, Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, France, and the United Kingdom. They tore the country apart and turned it into a bloodbath. The Taliban are the ideological twins of the jihadists.

During the twenty-year U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, both Russia and China had certain factions within the Taliban under their influence to protect their own interests, particularly to prevent ISIS infiltration into Central Asia and their borders, and to strike at American forces. In this regard, they were relatively successful.

Following the Taliban’s return to power, both Russia and China, who had already established ties with this group, saw the vacuum left by their rival and seized the opportunity to advance their own political and economic agendas.

They sought to rein in the Taliban and consolidate their influence in Afghanistan. These powers understand very well that the United States will not easily relinquish its grip on this strategically vital region, which is why Russia and China are attempting to use the Taliban against the U.S.

They have also realized that America’s declining global strength, and believe that it can be pushed out of Afghanistan, a land of key strategic importance in Asia. Russia was the first country to formally recognize this criminal and terrorist group, hoping that by offering this legitimacy, it could further bind the Taliban to its own interests.

We believe that these two countries, and Iran as well, have succeeded to a large extent in influencing the Taliban and advancing their economic goals, especially by securing contracts over Afghanistan’s rich mineral resources.

However, their silence in the face of the Taliban’s tyranny, particularly the oppression of women, is inexcusable and will not be forgotten by the people of Afghanistan.

RAWA has been highly concerned about a group of Afghan women, labelling them as ¨traitors,¨ and ¨even more than the Taliban.¨ It´s serious, not news by the world media. Please, Friba, tell us who they are, what they are doing, where, and if possible, quote their names.

Yes, dear friend, RAWA has repeatedly emphasized that women who are self-serving and funded by the West, such as Mahbouba Seraj, Shahrzad Akbar, Habiba Sarabi, Mari Akrami, Nargis Nehan, Farkhunda Zahra Naderi, Sima Samar, Shukria Barakzai, Rangina Hamidi, Zarifa Ghafari, Asila Wardak, Roya Rahmani, Adela Raz, Naheed Farid, Shahgul Rezai, Sharifa Zormati, Fawzia Koofi, Shinkai Karokhail, Manizha Bakhtari and others who participate in international conferences and programs under the name of ‘representatives of Afghan women’, receive awards, they have been promoted, they are all betrayers of the interests of the imprisoned women of Afghanistan.

They are collaborators and defenders of Western interests and their jihadi and Taliban puppets. Most of these women, along with a group of men, were nurtured by the West during the twenty-year occupation of Afghanistan by the U.S. and NATO.

Some were also trained through Fulbright and Chevening scholarships, and later appointed to government positions in the puppet regimes of Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani. In line with Western interests, their mission was to justify the military occupation of Afghanistan and portray it as a defence of Afghan women’s rights and democracy. As female pro-Western pseudointellectuals, they were sugar-coating the US/NATO invaders and their puppets.

They aimed to influence women’s thinking in such a way that they would support the American occupying forces and accept their puppet governments. For years, they have been working to implant the toxic culture and ideology of imperialism and fundamentalism into the minds of our youth, thereby diverting revolutionary, independence-seeking, and progressive struggles from their true path.

These women have established NGOs and so‑called ‘civil society organizations’ through which they have received vast amounts of money in the name of Afghan women from Western donors, turning the struggle into a business. As a result, they have become part of a privileged class living in luxury and comfort.

These same opportunistic women were nestled beside the major jihadi criminals in Ashraf Ghani’s corrupt and puppet regime, traveling to Dubai, Qatar, and Moscow for the so‑called ‘peace talks’ with the Taliban.

Following the wishes of their American and British masters, they propagated on behalf of the Taliban, speaking of their ‘changed nature’ and even praising their ‘fragrance’ and ‘luxury clothes’ to the people!

These ornamental women went on media platforms to speak about the Taliban’s good programs for Afghan women. However, before the U.S. and the West once again handed power back to the Taliban, they were respectfully evacuated to the West aboard the same American planes that had previously dropped bombs and fire on the Afghan people.

For the past four years, they have been operating from there as the mouthpieces of America, working to confuse and manipulate public opinion.

Do you think these women have been funded to act like that? If so, by whom?

Yes, we are one hundred percent certain that these women, in exchange for money, awards, positions, and future posts in governments established by the U.S. and the West, have been assigned the mission to act, regarding their policies and interests.

The U.S., France, Germany, the U.K., and other imperialist countries promote and glorify these women precisely because they serve as their pawns.

Is RAWA continuing its work for women across the country? Describe the risks RAWA has faced over time due to this job.

Yes, from day one, we have believed in struggle and in the untapped power of our own women, and we continue to walk this path with determination despite all dangers.

Today, RAWA continues its work to raise awareness and mobilize women. We are running secret political and educational courses in both Kabul and the provinces. In emergencies, such as floods, earthquakes, outbreaks of infectious diseases, and so on, we deliver medical aid, food, and clothing through a dedicated relief team to affected communities, doing what we can to help heal their wounds.

Media outreach and political awareness are also an essential part of our work. We believe that the Taliban’s rule of ignorance and barbarism will collapse under the pressure of the people’s resistance and struggle. The people of Afghanistan deeply hate the Taliban’s rotten, medieval regime, which has stripped society of all freedoms and dragged it into the darkness of the Stone Age, poverty, and unbearable suffering.

 
Edu Montesanti
Journalist, Author, Teacher, Translator
edumontesanti.wordpress.com