Taliban and al Qaeda should be treated as criminals, not holy warriors

Washington, June 25 (ANI): The Taliban and al Qaeda should be treated more like criminals than holy warriors, according to a new book.

Today many of these terrorists are motivated more by greed than religion or ideology, according to the author Gretchen Peters, whose book, "Seeds of Terror: How Heroin is Bankrolling the Taliban and Al Qaeda," was recently published by Thomas Dunne Books.

"They start to look more like Tony Soprano and his guys than holy warriors. They behave like criminals. They're involved in the drugs trade, human trafficking, kidnapping, gun running...all sorts of criminal activity," CBS News quoted Peters, as saying.

Peters is a former reporter and is considered an expert on the Taliban and the legendary Afghan drug lords who bankroll the Taliban and other terror groups by giving them billions of dollars in profits to protect their global heroin networks, money which is then used to fight US-led coalition forces.

A new strategy in the war in Afghanistan aimed at choking off the flow of money to the Taliban has been launched by dozens of agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, who are now working on the ground in Afghanistan, CBS News reported.

The agents are using traditional drug fighting techniques such as sting operations to capture these drug lords and disrupt their heroin operations.

Several of these top Afghan drug lords have been brought to the United States to face trial on federal narco-terrorism charges. A unit of specially trained assistant US Attorneys from the Southern District of New York have prosecuted them, CBS News reported.

Peters called the strategy to go after the drug lords who are financing the Taliban and other terrorist groups, "a step in the right direction."

It weakens the Taliban, disrupts their operations and their ability to fight US troops and their support of terrorism, she said. he author noted that although the drug lords have close ties with the Taliban, "a lot of these guys really don't behave like pious Muslims. I mean, we heard stories of parties-alcohol-drenched parties lasting late into the night. Russian prostitutes, weekends, dirty weekends in Dubai," she said. (ANI)