Seeds of Terror: How Heroin is Bankrolling the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

• Author: Pozez, Gerri
• Position: FURTHER READING - Brief article - Book review

SEEDS OF TERROR: How HEROIN IS BANKROLLING THE TALIBAN AND AL QAEDA

Gretchen Peters

(New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2009), 320 pages.

In Seeds of Terror, journalist Gretchen Peters gives readers an in-depth look at all sides of the heroin trade in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The book explores the multifaceted issues surrounding this multibillion dollar illegal industry. Through exhaustive research that includes firsthand interviews, over a decade of travel and exclusive previews of classified documents, Peters attempts to answer many interlinked questions. For example: Who is benefiting from this drug trade: the Taliban, Al Qaeda or the U.S.-backed Afghan government? When and how did this rampant trade take hold in these volatile areas? Where is the money from this trade going? How might it affect U.S. security?

Peters builds a solid case for her argument that narco-traffickers, terrorist groups and other related international criminals are in fact the new axis of evil. In this battle, Afghanistan is the main front for a revitalized Taliban dependent...