Seeds of terror
How Aghanistan’s opium industry is still funding the Taliban insurgency.
Afghanistan produces more than 90 per cent of the world’s opium.
It is a multi-billion dollar industry that, according to the US military, funnels an estimated $100-$500m to the Taliban each year.
The main production centre of Afghan opium is the southern Helmand province, a known stronghold for the Taliban.
In fighting a military war, has the US overlooked a vast drug trade that is still funding an insurgency?
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Joining the show is journalist and author Gretchen Peters.
She covered Pakistan and Afghanistan for more than a decade and spent five years travelling the border areas between the two countries to research and write her new book Seeds of Terror: How Heroin is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda.
This episode of the Riz Khan show aired on Wednesday, May 27, 2009.