Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Wednesday, June 11, 2008

World's biggest hashish bust

By Libby



I don't know if that is true, but this is a lot of hashish.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan counternarcotics officials said Wednesday that they uncovered 260 tons of hashish hidden in 6-foot-deep trenches in southern Afghanistan in what one DEA official said appears to be the world's biggest drug bust.



The hashish, found in the southern province of Kandahar on Monday, was worth more than $400 million and would have netted about $14 million in profits, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said.

It's being touted as a huge victory in the war on some drugs and a deadly blow against the terrorists. I seriously doubt that. Yes, it's an impressive bust, and it sounds like a lot of cash but at that level of dealing, it's an easily absorbable loss. The real money is in heroin.



This may dent the local Afghani hash market for a while but it's unlikely it seriously disrupted the drug trade in Afghanistan. In fact, I have to say I find the storage scheme odd. It feels like a setup to me. The government gets a glamourous bust of the least profitable product to prove it's seriously fighting the drug problem and drug lords get to keep the opium trade running. In reality, the government can't afford to shut down the heroin industry. It's the only thing keeping the country's economy alive.



Still, I'm glad to see that at least they busted at a high level instead of harassing the dirt poor farmers at the bottom of the chain.



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6 comments:

  1. CernigJune 11, 2008 at 12:51 PM

    Libby, 260 tons is hardly even a blip in the hashish supply. The world supply of hashish in 2004-05 was around 7,400 tons. Less than 4% then.
    In any case, the largest proportion of the world's hashish (resin, not leaf) comes from Morrocco (31%) - it's Morrocco's largest export and biggest GDP contributor. It's followed by Pakistan (19%), then Afghanistan (18%), Lebanon (9%) and India (9%)

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  2. KatJune 11, 2008 at 1:29 PM

    This article includes 'mind-boggling' photos of the trenches concealing a record 236 tons of hash and 2.5 tons of opium.
    "Buried in vast trenches in the desert, it was found close to the Pakistan border.
    "Members of the Special Boat Service had brought petrol to burn the drugs. But when they saw the extent of the haul, they called up the RAF to bomb it.
    "Afghanistan's deputy Interior Minister, Lieutenant General Abdul Hadi Khalid, said yesterday: 'This is a new world record in the global war on drugs.' "

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  3. festerJune 11, 2008 at 1:43 PM

    I wonder who has the concession contract downwind of the burn as they'll be making a fortune :)

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  4. LibbyJune 11, 2008 at 3:17 PM

    Hey C. I apparently forgot to proof the post. I was thinking of the local Afghani market, not the world market. I edited to make that clearer.
    Kat, the photo was pretty impressive, wasn't it?
    LOL Fester.

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  5. pwapvtJune 12, 2008 at 12:07 AM

    No wonder I can;t get any around here....

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  6. LibbyJune 12, 2008 at 3:06 AM

    Maybe it's just because I'm out of the loop but in my experience, you rarely saw it in the Northeast anymore. Interestingly, they just busted a couple of guys at Raleigh Durham airport last week with a fairly significant amount, I forget how much exactly. It was concealed in wooden clothes hangers. It struck me as a kind of dumb way to move it on a plane. I mean who carries empty clothes hangers around when they're traveling? Dumb smugglers are probably another reason you don't see any.

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