Corcoran: Whoever controls the opium poppy controls southern Afghanistan - such is the power of this humble plant.
Music
Corcoran: It was a lesson quickly learned by the Soviets, the Mujahadeen, then the religious zealots of the Taliban.
Now it is the turn of the Americans -- descending from clear skies on Operation Enduring Freedom with lofty ideals of good versus evil only to find theyve landed in a grey world of compromise.
Music
Corcoran: This airport is the gateway to Kandahar, Afghanistans second city, capital of the biggest opium growing region in the world.
It's now a base for more than 4,000 troops -- an American led coalition of Canadians, Australians, Danes and Germans -- all fighting the so-called War on Terror.
Roper: We have to eliminate, reduce, fight do everything we can to wipe out terrorism here in Afghanistan.
FX: Dogs
Corcoran: Thirty kilometres outside the city of Kandahar, the Dogs of War are unleashed.
Among the crowd are warlords, opium merchants, and poppy farmers.
This gathering is illegal. Like opium production, traditional dogfights have been banned by Afghanistans interim administration.
Here, both edicts are viewed with contempt - seen as little more than a sop to western sensibilities. 4.5 billion U.S. dollars of foreign aid has been pledged on the condition that opium is eradicated.
But sport and business still continues apace - a suitable distance from the wests offended gaze.
Music
Corcoran: Up until two years ago, these fields produced more than 70 percent of the worlds opium some 4,500 tonnes a year enough to refine 450 tonnes of heroin. But then, in a bid to win favour with the west, Taliban Supreme Leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar declared a ban on poppy cultivation and the crops vanished overnight.
Now with the Taliban gone the poppies are back, and despite the fact that this country has been in the grip of the worst drought in 50 years, the farmers are using what little water they have on the crops and are expecting a bumper harvest in May.
Music
Corcoran: Of course, opium never really disappeared under the Taliban. Overproduction had created a massive stockpile more than two years global supply the ban simply helped ease the glut and drive up prices.
Music
Corcoran: But now stockpiles are falling, and farmers such as 60-year-old Mohammed Zai Akar have planted for another season. Indebted to the drug barons who provided loans during the Taliban prohibition, he says hed like to grow other crops, but simply has no choice.
Akar: It is necessary that I grow this I borrowed money from lots of Muslims and I am obliged if it was not for that I wouldnt do it.
Corcoran: Thousands of other poppy farmers are also caught in Mohammeds poverty trap, working as little more than indentured labourers for the syndicates.
In war-ravaged Afghanistan, opium is simply too lucrative to ignore. Poppies require only half the water needed for wheat, yet reap 30 times the profit.
Effective western crop substitution schemes would be prohibitively expensive. Theyd also be difficult to enforce because too many officials get a cut of the drug profits - 10 percent from the farmers - 20 percent from the traffickers.
Akar: These people are actually destroying the nation they are just looking after themselves they dont care about me.
Corcoran: And the top United Nations Drug Control expert here confirms what everyone anticipates -- that officials of the new regime will also expect a cut of the action.
Frahi: They could get the profit. So it will not be under an official tax but it will be a different formula again and get some income yeah could be.
Corcoran: But again, its a better bet than foreign aid, isnt it no strings?
Frahi: No, you are perfectly right, yeah.
Music
Corcoran: To drive into Kandahar is to enter a city much the same as the Taliban left it.
This deeply conservative town was the ideological heartland of the Taliban movement and home to Mullah Omar.
The streets are full of demobilised but surly ex-Taliban fighters watched from the shadows by a 30 strong team of American special forces and CIA tasked with keeping Kandahars new governor in power.
Corcoran: Hi where are you guys from?Man: KandaharCorcoran: Oh right. Is it safe to film in around here? Is it safe, is it okay for us to film around here?Man: I guess so.
Corcoran: That night we are summoned to meet the new Governor of southern Afghanistan at his heavily guarded compound.
Natsot Corcoran: Tell him were here for our appointment with the Governor.
Following the Taliban surrender Governor Gul Agha Sherzai - backed by his American minders - seized power after a brief gun battle with Kabuls nominee for the job. It appears might is still right in the new Afghanistan. But Sherzai knows he sits in the Governors office at the Americans' pleasure.
Corcoran: Thank you very much for seeing us. I understand you're extremely busy.
Sherzai: The Americans gave me a citation for being a hero and thats why all of the people think that I am a military officer.
Corcoran: This is Sherzais second term as Governor. He previously ran Kandahar during the chaotic rule of the Mujahadeen in the early 90s, when the city first emerged as Afghanistans opium capital.
Top of his agenda, he insists, is the destruction of the new opium crop.
Sherzai: I will fight very strongly against the cultivation of opium and the production of heroin.
Corcoran: Given his track record, no one really takes him seriously.
Sherzais one anti-narcotics achievement to date has been the forced closure of the citys opium market. But as wed discover the trade is flourishing elsewhere.
Ware: Were driving into what used to be the opium market now.
Corcoran: Michael Ware is Time Magazines man in Kandahar. Since the collapse of the Taliban this Australian journalist has spent more time than any other foreigner delving into the dangerous labyrinth of Kandahari politics.
Ware: You take away the opium and you suck away the oxygen out of this economy and youll be treading on the toes of significant players who have built empires around the opium trade and that includes political and military figures as well as criminal and business figures here in Kandahar.
Music
Corcoran: The real business of the opium and heroin trade is still conducted far from the city.
We set off on the three-hour drive across the desert in search of what the Governor doesnt want us to see -- the biggest drug market in the country.
On the way, we run straight into what initially appears to be every foreigners nightmare -- a roadblock of heavily armed Taliban, many still wearing their distinctive black or white turbans.
But nothing in Afghanistan is ever as it seems. These gunmen are surrendered Talibs. Granted an amnesty, theyre now enthusiastic recruits in Americas war on terror.
Talib: Listen to what Im saying! This area is desert and there is a lot of banditry. Thats why we block the road.
Corcoran: Some people say that you are Taliban who have changed sides?
Interpreter: He says if you people provide us with a uniform we will change we will change.
Corcoran: A shave and a new uniform - and these former Islamic holy warriors will happily fight alongside the American infidels, their loyalty shifting faster than the sands.
Its a trait of Afghan politics that continues to confound U.S. commanders, attempting to distinguish friend from foe.
But for today at least, these re-badged Talibs are content to relieve travellers of money and valuables on the pretext of searching for weapons.
Talib: We are hungry and for the past two days we havent had a proper meal. Give us money give us dollars.
Corcoran: We manage to depart with our wallets intact, the gunmen fearing that we are somehow connected to the Americans.
Their strategically placed roadblock just happens to guard the turn off to Sangin the largest opium market in Afghanistan.
Warned against openly filming, we use a hidden camera. Our security escort of hired gunmen necessary for travel outside Kandahar -- clearly feel uneasy. Governor Sherzais mandate is meaningless here, and we had no wish to provoke a confrontation.
Corcoran: Just one man just one man, one guard following behind not with us.
Corcoran: Sangin is obviously under the control of the Taliban, or the surrendered Taliban, a distinction impossible for us to make. Either way, it is still very much business as usual for 30 wholesalers and brokers.
Corcoran: Good quality product at the moment? Good quality opium?
Interpreter: Bad quality, good quality, most special quality.Corcoran: If I want to buy some, how much for a kilo in US dollars?
Interpreter: Fifty thousand rupees per kg. That comes around 800 dollars.
Corcoran: The shops only hold samples. Serious traffickers wishing to buy in bulk are taken to secret warehouses in the mountains.
Corcoran: Can we see some product show us some good quality stuff and some ordinary quality stuff.
Trader: You stand here! You stand here! He will bring it for you.
Corcoran: The economics of trafficking are straightforward. These men pay the farmers around $300 US dollars a kilo. Im quoted $800 for a kilo that would fetch me 16 thousand dollars were I to smuggle it to the streets of Europe. Refined into heroin its worth ten times that again.
Man: He says shall I open it?Corcoran: Yeah why not?Man: He says do you want to taste it?Corcoran: Not for me.
Trader: We are buying it from the farmers here.Interpreter: So you guys are buying it from them?Trader: Yes, then we take it to the border then Iran.
Corcoran: But it must be very dangerous Ive been to Iran if they catch you in Iran with this they will execute you?
Trader: It doesnt matter I dont care.
Corcoran: So these are all opium shops too?
Corcoran: Initially, after the collapse of the Taliban there was unease here, but the traders say they are now relieved that the Americans show no intention of closing down their operations.
Corcoran: Did the Americans come here?Man: Yes, the military came and also another group of foreigners they promised us a lot and they asked us who we were what we needed. They asked us about the road and the irrigation channels. Corcoran: Did the Americans ask you to close these shops?Man: No, no.
Corcoran: One puzzling contradiction has been the Americans' lack of interest in destroying the drug industry -- the source of so much terrorist wealth.
The reason for the crop remaining untouched is an open secret in Kandahar, but one both the Americans and the United Nations top drug control official are unwilling to share.
Corcoran: There is a large American contingent at Kandahar which is a key opium poppy growing area. Why dont they simply go out and destroy the crops?
Frahi: Just ask them I dont know just ask the Americans. We dont know ourselves.
Corcoran: Why arent the American forces destroying the opium crop, as it is a key source of income for the warlords, for the Taliban, for a whole range of unpleasant people in this area?
Roper: Thats another question thats really outside the purview of Task Force Rakkasan. Let me . I dont know if I can give you a good answer on that
Music
Corcoran: The answer lies with this man Haji Bashar. He is the heroin and opium overlord of southern Afghanistan whose operations continue unimpeded by the US presence.
Bashars drug empire helped finance the Taliban. And he was a close friend of Supreme Leader Mullah Omar, Today, he quite literally owns Kandahar.
Ware: From this point on, in the centre of Kandahar, from this roundabout all the way down this main road, the buildings on both sides of the street for another kilometre or maybe a little bit more, are all owned by a man named Haji Bashar. He is the most powerful drug lord in southern Afghanistan. With each new administration that comes to Kandahar, they have to face the choice of either taking Haji Bashar on or making a deal with him. Invariably, every Government that has taken office has quickly come and made a deal with Haji Bashar.
Corcoran: On the 23rd of January this year, this great survivor of Afghan politics surrendered his 12,000 man private army, and promptly struck a deal with the Americans.
Ware: He was brought into the new Government as an ally. He now provides much needed military muscle that this relatively weak Governor needs.
The Americans for their part received intelligence on a level that I do not believe they had been receiving before.
Haji Bashar intimately knows senior members of the Taliban. He more than anyone has information on where these leaders went, how they got away, and he is now proving pivotal in negotiating the surrenders of countless Taliban commanders.
Corcoran: Haji Bashars narcotics empire remains untouched. No one has ever dared take him on and lived -- until now.
One man who says hell try is Kandahars new Police chief, Brigadier Mohammed Akram, though his motives for doing so are open to question. As a former warlord and political opponent of the new Governor, he may crave a slice of the trade for himself.
Brigadier Akram confirms that Bashar is still very much in business and seems to relish the prospect of a showdown with Washingtons favourite drug baron.
Akram: Yes Haji Bashars name is mentioned constantly. Haji Bashar is a great smuggler of last 20 years his business deals in heroin and opium and he is exporting it to Europe. Haji Bashar is the person whose heroin has killed or addicted thousands around the world and he is still doing the same work.
Corcoran: Are the Americans aware of his background? Have you told them about this?
Akram: Definitely definitely the Americans know about this - that he was a great smuggler before he surrendered to the Americans. The Americans raided his home and they wanted to find out how much opium and heroin was stockpiled there but hed already removed the stockpile nothing was left in his house. The Americans know everything about him.
Corcoran: But a visit to Haji Bashars new house in Kandahar reveals another surprise -- the family of Governor Sherzai.
Ware: We are now coming to Haji Bashars house. This is by far the most luxurious and impressive house in Kandahar. As a sign of the closeness of their relationship, the Governor of Kandahars family is currently staying in this house. In fact you are now looking at the Governors soldiers guarding the drug barons house with the Governors family inside.
Corcoran: Do you have a personal relationship with him? What is the extent that you know each other?
Sherzai: I cannot call him a personal friend and I cannot trust him personally, but he and his tribe are guaranteeing and they also guarantee America that he will not be involved in anti-state activities in the future.
Corcoran: But for a man who denies any personal connection with Haji Bashar, Governor Sherzai makes a great public display of demonstrating his bond with Kandahars power broker, as they chat on their US-supplied satellite phones.
Guard: Its Haji Bashar Hello Haji! Dont hang up! Dont hang up! Sherzai: Hello peace be upon you. May God bring you to me. Are you well? Are you OK? Thanks be to God. God willing it will be done. Tomorrow or the day after, you will have to do it because we dont have much time.
Corcoran: Haji Bashar was out of town, apparently on business with the Americans.
We made numerous attempts to contact him, until warned that Bashar had given orders for his gunmen to shoot any journalist who persisted in annoying him.
Music
The Americans insist that amid the war on terror theyve continue to wage war on drugs, calling in air strikes and the special forces to destroy opium warehouses and the estimated 400 heroin labs in the country. But on the ground, there is simply no evidence to support these claims.
Music
Ware: In the American consciousness, all that really matters is Al Qaeda, and the risks to the Americans themselves. Anything else be it liberating these people, be it establishing a new democratic government, be it rebuilding this country or be it putting a stop to the opium trade are much, much lower priorities. So I do not think it is something the American public or the American government really has at the forefront of their agenda.
Music
Corcoran: America now dominates this city that secretly thrives upon the profits of the drugs trade yet chooses not to confront the problem. Ninety percent of Europes heroin originates from here almost none of it ends up on American streets.
Music
Corcoran: One question remains -- if it were the other way around if Afghan heroin was finding its way into the veins of Americas youth, would the US have been so ruthlessly pragmatic in enlisting Afghanistans most powerful drug lord for the war on terror?
Music
Corcoran: It was a lesson quickly learned by the Soviets, the Mujahadeen, then the religious zealots of the Taliban.
Now it is the turn of the Americans -- descending from clear skies on Operation Enduring Freedom with lofty ideals of good versus evil only to find theyve landed in a grey world of compromise.
Music
Corcoran: This airport is the gateway to Kandahar, Afghanistans second city, capital of the biggest opium growing region in the world.
It's now a base for more than 4,000 troops -- an American led coalition of Canadians, Australians, Danes and Germans -- all fighting the so-called War on Terror.
Roper: We have to eliminate, reduce, fight do everything we can to wipe out terrorism here in Afghanistan.
FX: Dogs
Corcoran: Thirty kilometres outside the city of Kandahar, the Dogs of War are unleashed.
Among the crowd are warlords, opium merchants, and poppy farmers.
This gathering is illegal. Like opium production, traditional dogfights have been banned by Afghanistans interim administration.
Here, both edicts are viewed with contempt - seen as little more than a sop to western sensibilities. 4.5 billion U.S. dollars of foreign aid has been pledged on the condition that opium is eradicated.
But sport and business still continues apace - a suitable distance from the wests offended gaze.
Music
Corcoran: Up until two years ago, these fields produced more than 70 percent of the worlds opium some 4,500 tonnes a year enough to refine 450 tonnes of heroin. But then, in a bid to win favour with the west, Taliban Supreme Leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar declared a ban on poppy cultivation and the crops vanished overnight.
Now with the Taliban gone the poppies are back, and despite the fact that this country has been in the grip of the worst drought in 50 years, the farmers are using what little water they have on the crops and are expecting a bumper harvest in May.
Music
Corcoran: Of course, opium never really disappeared under the Taliban. Overproduction had created a massive stockpile more than two years global supply the ban simply helped ease the glut and drive up prices.
Music
Corcoran: But now stockpiles are falling, and farmers such as 60-year-old Mohammed Zai Akar have planted for another season. Indebted to the drug barons who provided loans during the Taliban prohibition, he says hed like to grow other crops, but simply has no choice.
Akar: It is necessary that I grow this I borrowed money from lots of Muslims and I am obliged if it was not for that I wouldnt do it.
Corcoran: Thousands of other poppy farmers are also caught in Mohammeds poverty trap, working as little more than indentured labourers for the syndicates.
In war-ravaged Afghanistan, opium is simply too lucrative to ignore. Poppies require only half the water needed for wheat, yet reap 30 times the profit.
Effective western crop substitution schemes would be prohibitively expensive. Theyd also be difficult to enforce because too many officials get a cut of the drug profits - 10 percent from the farmers - 20 percent from the traffickers.
Akar: These people are actually destroying the nation they are just looking after themselves they dont care about me.
Corcoran: And the top United Nations Drug Control expert here confirms what everyone anticipates -- that officials of the new regime will also expect a cut of the action.
Frahi: They could get the profit. So it will not be under an official tax but it will be a different formula again and get some income yeah could be.
Corcoran: But again, its a better bet than foreign aid, isnt it no strings?
Frahi: No, you are perfectly right, yeah.
Music
Corcoran: To drive into Kandahar is to enter a city much the same as the Taliban left it.
This deeply conservative town was the ideological heartland of the Taliban movement and home to Mullah Omar.
The streets are full of demobilised but surly ex-Taliban fighters watched from the shadows by a 30 strong team of American special forces and CIA tasked with keeping Kandahars new governor in power.
Corcoran: Hi where are you guys from?Man: KandaharCorcoran: Oh right. Is it safe to film in around here? Is it safe, is it okay for us to film around here?Man: I guess so.
Corcoran: That night we are summoned to meet the new Governor of southern Afghanistan at his heavily guarded compound.
Natsot Corcoran: Tell him were here for our appointment with the Governor.
Following the Taliban surrender Governor Gul Agha Sherzai - backed by his American minders - seized power after a brief gun battle with Kabuls nominee for the job. It appears might is still right in the new Afghanistan. But Sherzai knows he sits in the Governors office at the Americans' pleasure.
Corcoran: Thank you very much for seeing us. I understand you're extremely busy.
Sherzai: The Americans gave me a citation for being a hero and thats why all of the people think that I am a military officer.
Corcoran: This is Sherzais second term as Governor. He previously ran Kandahar during the chaotic rule of the Mujahadeen in the early 90s, when the city first emerged as Afghanistans opium capital.
Top of his agenda, he insists, is the destruction of the new opium crop.
Sherzai: I will fight very strongly against the cultivation of opium and the production of heroin.
Corcoran: Given his track record, no one really takes him seriously.
Sherzais one anti-narcotics achievement to date has been the forced closure of the citys opium market. But as wed discover the trade is flourishing elsewhere.
Ware: Were driving into what used to be the opium market now.
Corcoran: Michael Ware is Time Magazines man in Kandahar. Since the collapse of the Taliban this Australian journalist has spent more time than any other foreigner delving into the dangerous labyrinth of Kandahari politics.
Ware: You take away the opium and you suck away the oxygen out of this economy and youll be treading on the toes of significant players who have built empires around the opium trade and that includes political and military figures as well as criminal and business figures here in Kandahar.
Music
Corcoran: The real business of the opium and heroin trade is still conducted far from the city.
We set off on the three-hour drive across the desert in search of what the Governor doesnt want us to see -- the biggest drug market in the country.
On the way, we run straight into what initially appears to be every foreigners nightmare -- a roadblock of heavily armed Taliban, many still wearing their distinctive black or white turbans.
But nothing in Afghanistan is ever as it seems. These gunmen are surrendered Talibs. Granted an amnesty, theyre now enthusiastic recruits in Americas war on terror.
Talib: Listen to what Im saying! This area is desert and there is a lot of banditry. Thats why we block the road.
Corcoran: Some people say that you are Taliban who have changed sides?
Interpreter: He says if you people provide us with a uniform we will change we will change.
Corcoran: A shave and a new uniform - and these former Islamic holy warriors will happily fight alongside the American infidels, their loyalty shifting faster than the sands.
Its a trait of Afghan politics that continues to confound U.S. commanders, attempting to distinguish friend from foe.
But for today at least, these re-badged Talibs are content to relieve travellers of money and valuables on the pretext of searching for weapons.
Talib: We are hungry and for the past two days we havent had a proper meal. Give us money give us dollars.
Corcoran: We manage to depart with our wallets intact, the gunmen fearing that we are somehow connected to the Americans.
Their strategically placed roadblock just happens to guard the turn off to Sangin the largest opium market in Afghanistan.
Warned against openly filming, we use a hidden camera. Our security escort of hired gunmen necessary for travel outside Kandahar -- clearly feel uneasy. Governor Sherzais mandate is meaningless here, and we had no wish to provoke a confrontation.
Corcoran: Just one man just one man, one guard following behind not with us.
Corcoran: Sangin is obviously under the control of the Taliban, or the surrendered Taliban, a distinction impossible for us to make. Either way, it is still very much business as usual for 30 wholesalers and brokers.
Corcoran: Good quality product at the moment? Good quality opium?
Interpreter: Bad quality, good quality, most special quality.Corcoran: If I want to buy some, how much for a kilo in US dollars?
Interpreter: Fifty thousand rupees per kg. That comes around 800 dollars.
Corcoran: The shops only hold samples. Serious traffickers wishing to buy in bulk are taken to secret warehouses in the mountains.
Corcoran: Can we see some product show us some good quality stuff and some ordinary quality stuff.
Trader: You stand here! You stand here! He will bring it for you.
Corcoran: The economics of trafficking are straightforward. These men pay the farmers around $300 US dollars a kilo. Im quoted $800 for a kilo that would fetch me 16 thousand dollars were I to smuggle it to the streets of Europe. Refined into heroin its worth ten times that again.
Man: He says shall I open it?Corcoran: Yeah why not?Man: He says do you want to taste it?Corcoran: Not for me.
Trader: We are buying it from the farmers here.Interpreter: So you guys are buying it from them?Trader: Yes, then we take it to the border then Iran.
Corcoran: But it must be very dangerous Ive been to Iran if they catch you in Iran with this they will execute you?
Trader: It doesnt matter I dont care.
Corcoran: So these are all opium shops too?
Corcoran: Initially, after the collapse of the Taliban there was unease here, but the traders say they are now relieved that the Americans show no intention of closing down their operations.
Corcoran: Did the Americans come here?Man: Yes, the military came and also another group of foreigners they promised us a lot and they asked us who we were what we needed. They asked us about the road and the irrigation channels. Corcoran: Did the Americans ask you to close these shops?Man: No, no.
Corcoran: One puzzling contradiction has been the Americans' lack of interest in destroying the drug industry -- the source of so much terrorist wealth.
The reason for the crop remaining untouched is an open secret in Kandahar, but one both the Americans and the United Nations top drug control official are unwilling to share.
Corcoran: There is a large American contingent at Kandahar which is a key opium poppy growing area. Why dont they simply go out and destroy the crops?
Frahi: Just ask them I dont know just ask the Americans. We dont know ourselves.
Corcoran: Why arent the American forces destroying the opium crop, as it is a key source of income for the warlords, for the Taliban, for a whole range of unpleasant people in this area?
Roper: Thats another question thats really outside the purview of Task Force Rakkasan. Let me . I dont know if I can give you a good answer on that
Music
Corcoran: The answer lies with this man Haji Bashar. He is the heroin and opium overlord of southern Afghanistan whose operations continue unimpeded by the US presence.
Bashars drug empire helped finance the Taliban. And he was a close friend of Supreme Leader Mullah Omar, Today, he quite literally owns Kandahar.
Ware: From this point on, in the centre of Kandahar, from this roundabout all the way down this main road, the buildings on both sides of the street for another kilometre or maybe a little bit more, are all owned by a man named Haji Bashar. He is the most powerful drug lord in southern Afghanistan. With each new administration that comes to Kandahar, they have to face the choice of either taking Haji Bashar on or making a deal with him. Invariably, every Government that has taken office has quickly come and made a deal with Haji Bashar.
Corcoran: On the 23rd of January this year, this great survivor of Afghan politics surrendered his 12,000 man private army, and promptly struck a deal with the Americans.
Ware: He was brought into the new Government as an ally. He now provides much needed military muscle that this relatively weak Governor needs.
The Americans for their part received intelligence on a level that I do not believe they had been receiving before.
Haji Bashar intimately knows senior members of the Taliban. He more than anyone has information on where these leaders went, how they got away, and he is now proving pivotal in negotiating the surrenders of countless Taliban commanders.
Corcoran: Haji Bashars narcotics empire remains untouched. No one has ever dared take him on and lived -- until now.
One man who says hell try is Kandahars new Police chief, Brigadier Mohammed Akram, though his motives for doing so are open to question. As a former warlord and political opponent of the new Governor, he may crave a slice of the trade for himself.
Brigadier Akram confirms that Bashar is still very much in business and seems to relish the prospect of a showdown with Washingtons favourite drug baron.
Akram: Yes Haji Bashars name is mentioned constantly. Haji Bashar is a great smuggler of last 20 years his business deals in heroin and opium and he is exporting it to Europe. Haji Bashar is the person whose heroin has killed or addicted thousands around the world and he is still doing the same work.
Corcoran: Are the Americans aware of his background? Have you told them about this?
Akram: Definitely definitely the Americans know about this - that he was a great smuggler before he surrendered to the Americans. The Americans raided his home and they wanted to find out how much opium and heroin was stockpiled there but hed already removed the stockpile nothing was left in his house. The Americans know everything about him.
Corcoran: But a visit to Haji Bashars new house in Kandahar reveals another surprise -- the family of Governor Sherzai.
Ware: We are now coming to Haji Bashars house. This is by far the most luxurious and impressive house in Kandahar. As a sign of the closeness of their relationship, the Governor of Kandahars family is currently staying in this house. In fact you are now looking at the Governors soldiers guarding the drug barons house with the Governors family inside.
Corcoran: Do you have a personal relationship with him? What is the extent that you know each other?
Sherzai: I cannot call him a personal friend and I cannot trust him personally, but he and his tribe are guaranteeing and they also guarantee America that he will not be involved in anti-state activities in the future.
Corcoran: But for a man who denies any personal connection with Haji Bashar, Governor Sherzai makes a great public display of demonstrating his bond with Kandahars power broker, as they chat on their US-supplied satellite phones.
Guard: Its Haji Bashar Hello Haji! Dont hang up! Dont hang up! Sherzai: Hello peace be upon you. May God bring you to me. Are you well? Are you OK? Thanks be to God. God willing it will be done. Tomorrow or the day after, you will have to do it because we dont have much time.
Corcoran: Haji Bashar was out of town, apparently on business with the Americans.
We made numerous attempts to contact him, until warned that Bashar had given orders for his gunmen to shoot any journalist who persisted in annoying him.
Music
The Americans insist that amid the war on terror theyve continue to wage war on drugs, calling in air strikes and the special forces to destroy opium warehouses and the estimated 400 heroin labs in the country. But on the ground, there is simply no evidence to support these claims.
Music
Ware: In the American consciousness, all that really matters is Al Qaeda, and the risks to the Americans themselves. Anything else be it liberating these people, be it establishing a new democratic government, be it rebuilding this country or be it putting a stop to the opium trade are much, much lower priorities. So I do not think it is something the American public or the American government really has at the forefront of their agenda.
Music
Corcoran: America now dominates this city that secretly thrives upon the profits of the drugs trade yet chooses not to confront the problem. Ninety percent of Europes heroin originates from here almost none of it ends up on American streets.
Music
Corcoran: One question remains -- if it were the other way around if Afghan heroin was finding its way into the veins of Americas youth, would the US have been so ruthlessly pragmatic in enlisting Afghanistans most powerful drug lord for the war on terror?