Legal Trade of Khat in UK Funding Terror in Yemen?
Better late than never, the Obama administration finally is bringing war to the terrorist breeding grounds of lawless Yemen. In 2010, expect many more aerial strikes like those the Yemeni air force carried out Dec. 24. Those strikes took out dozens of al-Qaeda terrorists at a planning confab.
The coming U.S.-guided terrorist hunt over Yemen is a good first, if rather obvious, step. But the time is ripe for a companion tactic that is so ill-apparent as to sound, I admit, almost kooky. Still, the tactic should be part of any stratagem for Yemen. The Obama administration should pressure Great Britain for an immediate ban on the narcotic plant known as “khat.”
Khat is a narcotic flowering shrub widely cultivated — and consumed — in Yemen. Chewing khat leaves produces a euphoric stimulating effect on users similar to the effect of cocaine. Its use is widespread for other reasons. It is so culturally ingrained among the Arab tribes of northeast Africa and the Arabian peninsula, most notably the people of Somalia, that millions of immigrants from the region have taken the habit with them to all points of the globe. The result is an international khat trade by which warlords and criminal gangs — and, no doubt, terrorists back home — are able to import huge volumes of Western currency.
But whereas using or importing khat is illegal in the U.S. and most European countries, it is completely legal in the United Kingdom, where some 250,000 Somali immigrants have taken up residence. Nothing in British law stands in the way of at least 30 tons of freshly cut Yemen khat arriving at Heathrow Airport every month. By allowing this huge khat loophole to persist, our ally in the global war on terror has become a forward staging ground for smuggling to the rest of the world, most notably to Somali immigrant communities in many American cities. Millions (maybe even billions) of British pounds and American greenbacks are flowing back to Yemen, Somalia, and other terrorist-harboring states.
I know all of this because I first investigated the international khat trade almost ten years ago while working as a reporter in Dallas, Texas. I’d noticed that local airport customs inspectors at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport were turning up loads of the stuff on young British citizens, “mules” arriving on flights from the UK carrying luggage stuffed with weird plants most cops didn’t recognize. The plants were headed for local immigrant communities still arriving from Somalia and Ethiopia. I was surprised, for instance, to learn that airport cab drivers were chewing khat to stay on Dallas roads longer. I had no good reason to consider who might be profiting on the back end of the supply chain — not until after 9/11.
In 2005, I traveled to London to further investigate the trade in the context of the post-9/11 war on terror. I easily found the stuff for sale at any north London grocery store. Wrapped by twine in banana leaves, bundles of khat were offered for about five bucks next to bottles of Snapple, Coca-Cola, and orange juice.
British parliamentarians and political experts explained the lack of interest in following other European nations in criminalizing khat. The drug is considered so integral to immigrant culture that any measure to ban it might be construed by a restive Muslim immigrant population as an attack on culture and heritage. I also learned that British customs inspectors had never been ordered to scan for outgoing British khat smugglers boarding international flights. A khat exporter’s dream.
Britian is long gone. The Labour (Left Wing) Party saw to that. They have trashed and destroyed their nation to accommodate Middle Easteners who arrive daily to help with the destruction. Mind boggling.
Of course, just ban it, and the problem ceases to exist… and because drugs are illegal in the UK, no-one here takes or sells them, just like in the US, where no-one ever would dream of breaking the law or getting rich quick selling drugs.
It’s not like we don’t have enough criminal/terrorist gangs that peddle illegal drugs (we have police-manned roadblocks with machine guns in North London to slowdown the smack dealers…), no, we urgently need to add yet another illegal market opportunity to the mafia’s portfolio so that the police and justice system has some more busywork yet.
I like the way the author then admits he has seen no evidence of terrorist getting rich on Khat… yes, the reason is that Khat is very cheap because it’s legal and real terrorists don’t find it an attractive business proposition because of that, as there is this thing called ‘work’ and ‘paying taxes’ involved in order to earn money.
Two words: defoliant spraying.
Grow it legally in the US and export it. Prohibition will merely raise the price. Let the profits go to American farmers.
Geez I’ve been losing sleep as I am sure you all have over that lawless Yemen, It’s a good thing we’re showin some spine, really we’ve always been at war with Yemen, about time its coming out those evil evil khat-mongers. And no I don’t think gross incompetence is any reason to abolish Homerland Security. They just need much more power and money and far fewer freedoms to have to guard. And don’t get me started on crazy Iran, they keep starting war after war in the middle east, at least we guard our nations borders and don’t bother anyone else. That Iran has been going downhill ever since the three wise man of Christmas left out from there.
http://healthjournalclub.blogspot.com/
Please, PJM, stop it with the drug prohibition articles. You have readers here who are libertarians–in fact a lot of us are libertarians. Stop it, it’s stupid and insulting.
I’ve been saying it since I first visited the Middle East: qat will the next cocaine. Right now, the natives pluck a few leaves and chew on them to get a mild buzz, same as the locals and coca plants. At some point, someone in the West will isolate the active ingredient and distill it into a concentration that makes the consumer lose his mind. The next step is to make it ingestible, smokable, inhalable, whatever — and it will sweep the world. The only thing that will stop this is that in heavy doses it’s been known to cause severe permanent vision loss — but who knows, we could wind up having to care for a bunch of blind addicts for the rest of their lives.
“Nothing in British law stands in the way of at least 30 tons of freshly cut Yemen khat arriving at Heathrow Airport every month.”
This might be about the only sensible thing in British law. Good lord, why can’t we have this stuff? Who doesn’t like mildly euphoric stimulants? Beats coffee.
As for yemen, just nuke it. All of it. Seriously, why bother with trying to fight them one-on-one? It is a total dump of a country. Just get rid of it. But take the khat first.
Anyway, conservatives really need to get over the idea that molecules have moral properties. That is the single dumbest idea next to the idea that my exhalation causes the Earth to warm (and fortunately, conservatives only have a few dumb ideas compared to liberals, who pretty much don’t have any ideas that aren’t at least half-retarded). I thought we liked to hold people responsible for their own behavior? Substance abuse=bad. Substance use in moderation=not so bad. Easy, right? Good. Now bring on the khat and nuke the Yemenis. And the Somalis too. I mean who is going to miss them and their amazing contributions to the world? If your countries claim to fame is that you invented the underwear bomb, it is probably time for you to cease existing.
The most shocking thing about this story – there are a quarter million Somali immigrants in the UK?! What the hell was the UK government thinking? Why let that many uneducated Muslims into what was once England? Labour really did decide to destroy the country.
How about a story exposing money laundering going on in Wall street and London currency exchanges..?
concerned about a couple billion being laundered….how much concern does several billion per day raise..? The exchanges have been laundering massive amounts of cash for banking and govt interests for decades..yet nobody wants to touch the reality of the exchanges.
Start with Dennis Hastert, Ex Speaker of the House, United States congress. That will get your started in the right direction.
Stories like his will just serve as more ammo for the BNP.
“250,000 Somali immigrants have taken up residence”
“Earlier drafts I saw also included a driving political purpose: that mass immigration was the way that the Government was going to make the UK truly multicultural. . . I remember coming away from some discussions with the clear sense that the policy was intended – even if this wasn’t its main purpose – to rub the Right’s nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date. . . But ministers wouldn’t talk about it. In part they probably realised the conservatism of their core voters: while ministers might have been passionately in favour of a more diverse society, it wasn’t necessarily a debate they wanted to have in working men’s clubs in Sheffield or Sunderland.” – Andrew Neather
—————-
The problem isn’t that Britain allows Khat imports, the problem is that it allowed 250,000 Somalis to colonize its land and people. Britain is a grossly overcrowded country, with 60+ million people crammed into a space the size of Oregon, they shouldn’t be allowing ANY immigration above a trickle, if that. Islamic terrorism within the West (and to some degree without as well) is a by-product of treasonous, hateful, multiculturalism, political correctness, and internationalism. Conservatives are simply too gutless to take on the real problem, West-hating racism from the elite, and confine themselves to whining about peripheral issues, thus helping to insure their nations, civilization, and political movement (“render their arguments out of date”) will be swept into the dustbin of history.
They ( the English ) don’t want to offend their muslim immigrants…….
Well, that sort of sums up the whole problem right there doesn’t it?
This is what happens when cowardice hides behind being polite.
By all means, these people should be offended at every opportunity and sent back to the bowels from which they come.
DH
  Break out all the unused stockpile of Agent Orange and defoliate the crops, it worked pretty good in Nam. If they grow it then we kill it, they are poor as hell already so just make them even more so!
  There the Khat problem is solved! To those offended sell them oregano or something that looks like it and maybe they will get a placebo effect!
If made illegal, it might become more profitable, funding more terror.
Not if you make the punishment harsh enough! Like death for growing or shipping or trafficking or anything concerning this stupid plant. Just dump Agent Orange one it, and be cone with it!
I hear Khat works wonders for erectile dysfunction. Great! Just what we need, another embarrassing television commercial to watch with friends and family.