Book Review: Seeds of Terror: How Heroin is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda
By Gretchen Peters
St. Martin’s Press, New York, 2009
Review by Matthew S. Marlowe
Suffering from poor governance, regional instability, and an incomprehensive Western eradication strategy, Afghanistan serves as a central node for illicit opium production and distribution. The lucrative opium industry threatens the likelihood for peace, as its funds increase the capability of terrorist groups to project influence. Seeds of Terror: How Heroin is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda by Gretchen Peters argues in eight chapters that the West should tackle the opium trade to diminish the viability of terrorists. The book covers the connection between narco-traffickers and terrorist groups, posing that the United States (US)-backed anti-Soviet movement enabled the emergence of a criminal culture. Financial incentives encourage collaboration between terrorist groups, intelligence services, and average farmers. Unregulated financial networks permit the movement of narcotics and the regeneration of the Taliban and al Qaeda (AQ). The US has provided tacit approval of the emerging drug trade by working with nefarious figures in the hunt for high-level terrorists. Moving forward, a nine pillar grand strategy of engaging with the locals would combat the drug trade and weaken terrorist groups.
Drawing upon interviews with officials and journalists, government documents, and firsthand field research, Peters presents several themes in Seeds of Terror. First, poor governance allows the opium business to flourish, as top ranking officials are likely to have had involvement in the drug trade. Second, regional instability determines the vastness of the trade network. The security vacuum in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region provides a safe haven for terrorists, while the smuggling routes traverse Iran and Pakistan with the assistance of rogue elements of the intelligence services. Third, the US has misfired in its attempts to facilitate stability. The US government has not placed a high enough priority on combating the drug trade, as evidenced by its reluctance to destroy opium crops after the invasion and its short-sighted partnerships with unsavory figures involved in opium.
Gretchen Peters leverages her background in investigative journalism to provide an array of supporting information. She references Washington Post editor and Ghost Wars author Steve Coll when explaining how a motley assortment of donors – criminals, intelligence services, and wealthy patrons – financially sponsored the Taliban. The book relies on seemingly authoritative documents and interviews with current and former officials. US intelligence reports show the significance of the opium trade by stressing both its proportion to the overall economy and its overwhelming percentage of Taliban revenue. The reliance upon such sources could be considered a strong point for its breadth of research.
On the other hand, closer analysis reveals a persistent sloppiness that manifests itself in inconsistent source descriptions. New sources either lack explanation or they include unhelpful interjections, bringing the credibility of the sources into question. Peters recounts how a government source resigned in disgust, and often gives vague assurances that she has seen documents that she references. The government officials may have agendas to push, possibly having ended their employment acrimoniously; their position may be peripheral to the topic they discuss; and they may be unreliable if they have improperly disclosed classified information – which remains illegal. Peters would clarify the use of reports if she distinguished the classification level; the veracity and access of the sources; and the means of acquisition. A more precise and standardized methodology would improve the book.
Similarly, some assertions tend to lack substance. Involvement of Iranian and Pakistani intelligence services in the drug trade passes as speculation, with the evidence for the latter revolving around the observation that censors may have excised information from reports regarding the alleged connection between the Inter-Services Intelligence and heroin. The author does not demonstrate a substantial link between AQ and opium, despite circumstantial evidence that implies AQ has involvement with the drug trade through the loose affiliation with an Uzbek trafficking group. The closest connection from AQ to opium – which one would expect the author to establish, given the reference to AQ in the title – are references to low-level AQ thugs caught in a maritime seizure. These points require development to become plausible.
The debate on Afghanistan has displayed prominently in political discourse throughout the last year. Seeds of Terror has the opportunity to change perceptions about Afghanistan and the nature of its insurgency, as its release in 2009 infers relevance to the field of international security. Western policymakers may fixate on the troop levels, but the usability of troops assumes a greater standing upon reading the book. One gathers that nation-building activities would be required to recalibrate priorities. In particular, the US must transcend a narrow-minded approach to pursue hard targets, and consider the long-term societal ramifications for working with warlords. A stronger synthesis of inter-agency efforts, a reinforcement of good governance practices, and the restriction of punishment for everyday poppy-seed farmers would likely form components of an enlightened US strategy. The ongoing employment of various nation-building activities for the US military lends validity to Peters’ perspectives.
Beyond affirming sound counterinsurgency principles, Peters fails to deliver novel contributions to the field of international security. The premise that neglect from the US in the post-Cold War era provided the environment for the emergence of narco-terrorist infrastructure rings familiar to the overarching point of Steve Coll’s aforementioned Ghost Wars.[i] Likewise, the proposal to target the criminal financing and smuggling activities of terrorist networks to interrupt the sources of funding echoes the sentiment of Tamara Makarenko. Makarenko says, “[O]n a practical level counterterrorist policy and initiatives would likely meet with greater initial success…if they focused on criminal aspects.”[ii]
Peters tends to oversell key points, although she makes an admirable effort to address issues that perplex US policymakers. Pakistan surely plays a significant role in the opium trade. However, Peters implies that drug activity causes instability in Afghanistan and Pakistan, instead of assessing that drug activity could be one of many results of poor governance. Next, US policy can affect negatively the security environment in Afghanistan. Yet, Peters pushes the angle of US complicity in the drug trade, without considering how the US may have more pressing concerns than combating drugs. Regarding the purported working relationship with US collaboration and shady figures, perhaps those who would have the wherewithal to assist US forces in searching for specific high-value targets would have involvement in the drug trade as a means to seek money and influence. One questions the likelihood for the US to find power players that have a total dissociation from drugs. A prospective reader would be advised to maintain a healthy criticism of bold assertions. That said, Seeds of Terror would be recommended as a useful primer on narco-terror financing.
Matthew Marlowe is currently a full-time student at the Center for Global Affairs in his second semester of study. Concentrating in Transnational Security, Matt’s research interests include the dynamics of political-military leadership, the implications for armed humanitarian interventions, and the nexus between instability and development. He served for three years as an analyst for the United States government prior to matriculation to New York University.
[i] Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, From the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2004).
[ii] Tamara Makarenko, “The Crime-Terror Continuum: Tracing the Interplay between Transnational Organised Crime and Terrorism,” in Global Crime Today: The Changing Face of Organised Crime, ed. Mark Galeotti (Oxford, UK: Routledge, 2005), p. 141.