Sassoon David Sassoon: Radhaniya Takeover of India / China Opium Trade -- Jewish American Drug Enforcement Agency Achieves HUGE Success in Afghanistan

DRUG RICH PLANT

The opium poppy is a "Flowering plant (Papaver somniferum) of the family Papaveraceae, native to Turkey. Opium, morphine, codeine, and heroin are all derived from the milky fluid found in its unripe seed capsule." (opium poppy, Britannica Concise Encyclopedia)

HAD BEEN BANNED BY THE TALIBAN IN AFGHANISTAN

Back in 2001, Luke Harding could say "Afghanistan's fundamentalist Taliban rulers have dramatically ended the country's massive opium trade ... Western sources in Kabul yesterday confirmed poppy production in Afghanistan had virtually ceased. This follows an edict issued last year by the Taliban's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, declaring opium to be un-Islamic." (Luke Harding, World's opium source destroyed, The Observer, 1 Apr 2001)

BUT THEN THE AMERICANS CAME

The American Drug Enforcement Administration came to the country. "For nine years the DEA has quietly toiled away in Afghanistan to stop drug traffickers." (Karen Russo, Richard Esposito, DEA Agents Apply Expertise Far From Home, ABC News, 20 Aug 2009)

YANKEE INGENUITY PAYS OFF!!

And the results of their hard work?

DEA ENFORCEMENT = HUGE DRUG HARVEST

The plants grow so well in Afghanistan that 6900 tonnes of opium were produced in 2009. (UN says Afghan opium harvest down, Al Jazeera, 2 Sep 2009)

AMERICAN SOLDIERS AND DEA AGENTS PRESIDE OVER TOP DRUG PRODUCTION REGION

"Afghanistan is still the world's leading producer of opium This year's crop still accounts for around 90 per cent of the world's supply". (UN says Afghan opium harvest down, Al Jazeera, 2 Sep 2009)

WHILE AMERICAN MONEY PAYS TOP DRUG MOVERS

The Americans have done so well with their drug enforcement that even the family of Jewish American governor Hamid Karzai is getting in on the action: "Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials." (Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazzetti, James Risen, Brother of Afghan Leader Said to Be Paid by C.I.A., NY Times, 27 Oct 2009)

WHAT'S REALLY BEING ENFORCED

There's some drug enforcement going on all right. The country of Afghanistan has been forced to produce opium again after the Taliban shut down the business.

BIG BUSINESS / THE SLAVERY BUSINESS

Back in the 1800s, there was a lot of drug enforcement going on in China. Millions of Chinese were enslaved, and "some people" were getting rich off the misery and povery of these slaves: "Hankow was the centre of the opium trade which had ensnared millions of Chinese in a prison of poverty and addiction." (Chrisopher Hale, Himmler's Crusade: The Nazi Expedition to Find the Origins of the Aryan Race, John Wiley & Sons, 2003, p 47)

"MOST RESPECTED" MERCHANTS RUN CHINA SLAVERY RACKET

Sleazy criminals? Not according to top Jewish historians: "Upon his arrival in Bombay David Sassoon set up a trading house,and in less than a decade he became the most respected member of the local Jewish community." (Robert Bickers, Christian Henriot, New frontiers: imperialism's new communities in East Asia, 1842-1953, Manchester University Press, 2000, p 39) And how did he get all this respect? "Significantly, he gradually extended into Central Asia and southern China, trading in Bombay yarn, English piece-goods, and opium." (Robert Bickers, Christian Henriot, New frontiers: imperialism's new communities in East Asia, 1842-1953, Manchester University Press, 2000, p 39)

REALLY PROFITABLE FOR THE DRUG MERCHANTS

And there was some money in this business? "Opium commerce, in fact, represented a lucrative line of trade for foreign merchants, who were eager to trade with China, but whose commercial activities were restricted to Canton (Guangzhou), the only Chinese port open to foreign commerce after 1759." (Robert Bickers, Christian Henriot, New frontiers: imperialism's new communities in East Asia, 1842-1953, Manchester University Press, 2000, p 39)

REALLY BAD FOR THE CHINESE

"A prominent feature of the early descriptions is the group of dissolute and villainous (wulai) men smoking and carousing all night long. An official inTaiwan in 1721 submitted a report about the no goods who customarily gathered and smoked opium all night. He added that opium ruined people physically and financially". (Keith McMahon, The fall of the god of money: opium smoking in nineteenth-century China, Rowman & Littlefield, 2002, p 35)

And who might be selling profitable products that ruin "people physically and financially" (per McMahon, supra) Oh, just the people who run the tobacco business, ruined Iceland, and are well-represented in the cancer trade.

THE LARGEST DEALER IN OPIUM

And so we review "the history of the Sassoon dynasty. The founder David Sassoon, a Persian Jew who died in 1864, made a fortune of at least £2m. by taking the lead in the trade between Bombay and the so-called Treaty Ports of China. The First Opium War (1839-42) effectively opened China to British merchants, and Sassoon became the largest dealer in Indian opium". (Stanley Chapman, The Rise of Merchant Banking, Routledge, 2005, p 131)

Yes, the Sassoon dynasty made a fortune (per Chapman, supra) with a business that "ensnared millions of Chinese in a prison of poverty and addiction." (Chrisopher Hale, Himmler's Crusade: The Nazi Expedition to Find the Origins of the Aryan Race, John Wiley & Sons, 2003, p 47)

CHINESE GOVERNMENT: STOP OPIUM BUSINESS / ENGLAND: SMUGGLE IT IN

The Chinese government was concerned about the ruin of so many of their people, so took action to shut down the drug trade. "Following the official ban on opium imports promulgated by the Jiaqing emperor in 1796, the drug was smuggled to an island near Canton by clippers under the licence of the East India Company." (Robert Bickers, Christian Henriot, New frontiers: imperialism's new communities in East Asia, 1842-1953, Manchester University Press, 2000, p 39) Smuggled by? "David Sassoon was a comparatively late arrival but nevertheless a keen competitor." (Robert Bickers, Christian Henriot, New frontiers: imperialism's new communities in East Asia, 1842-1953, Manchester University Press, 2000, p 39)

LIN ZEXU CRACKS DOWN ON DRUG TRADE

"the majority of men the emperor consulted were on the side of strict prohibition. The opium trade, they said, was harmful to China economically, while opium smoking produced extremely undesirable social elements whose menace to society seemed to increase precisely because of their involvement with opium. The Daoguang ruler (reigned 1821-1850) then sent the highly respected official Lin Zexu to Canton to carry out the new prohibition, which resulted in the famous seizure, dumping, and destruction of a large amount of British opium by means of water mixed with salt and lime in 1839 (Chang 1970, 173-75). Foreigners witnessing the event recorded a horrible smell." (Keith McMahon, The fall of the god of money: opium smoking in nineteenth-century China, Rowman & Littlefield, 2002, p 38)

SASSOON FAMILY COMPLAINED ABOUT THE CRACKDOWN

"Members of the Sassoon family were most vocal in protesting to British officials every attempt by the Chinese to stop the trade." (Kathleen L. Lodwick, Crusaders against Opium: Protestant Missionaries in China, 1874-1917, Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996, p 168)

SO ENGLAND CRACKED DOWN ON CHINA - FORCED TO TOLERATE DRUG TRADE

And the American Drug Enforcement Agency and MI6 said, "Good job"? Not quite: "This dramatic event was followed by numerous isolated small-scale conflicts and battles, the sum of which finally led to the British expeditionary force that arrived in June 1840 to launch what would be called the FirstOpium War. The Chinese forces crumpled in the face of superior firepower, while opium-selling ships followed the British forces as they secured their hold and made themselves invincible. Captain Arthur Cunynghame, one of numerous British participants to publish an account of this event, reportedthat an American merchant ship, the Anne, followed the British fleet up theYangtze River and sold opium to the Chinese in exchange for poultry, which was sold to the British in exchange for plunder, which was in turn sold to the Chinese for a supposed 1,000 percent profit (Cunynghame 1845, 152-53).

Although the Nanking Treaty of 1842 did not specifically mention opium, it had the effect of informally sanctioning the British sale of opium and there-after discouraging the Chinese from much more than “sporadic punishment of opium offenders". (Spence 1992, 244)." (Keith McMahon, The fall of the god of money: opium smoking in nineteenth-century China, Rowman & Littlefield, 2002, p 38)

AND NOW JEWS COULD ALWAYS FIND A JOB

And now business took off for the Sassoons! "Sassoon's family dominated Bombay as no one family ever did in Calcutta, even the Hakohen-Dwek dynasty. His businesses were so successful that it became known throughout Jewish Asia that any Jew in need of employment could find it in Sassoon’s mills. Sassoon's eight sons spread out around the world and eventually established the Sassoon empire not only in Bombay and Calcutta but also in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Kobe, Molucca, Baghdad, Amsterdam, London, and New York." (Nathan Katz, Who are the Jews of India, University of California Press, 2000, p 139)

A MARKET WITH GREAT POTENTIAL

China was open, and it was time for intensive Sassoon exploitation: "David Sassoon's second son, Elias David (1820-80), an adventurous character who possessed remarkable business acumen, immediately anticipated the great potentiality of the Chinese market and sailed to Canton, which he reached after a long, perilous voyage some time between 1843 and 1844.

AND FRAUGHT WITH DIFFICULTY - NO LOCAL JEWISH SUPPORT NETWORK

Upon his arrival Elias David reorganised the family business. His task was enormous, since, in contrast to his father in Bombay, he could not rely on existing networks of Baghdadi Jewish merchants. " (Robert Bickers, Christian Henriot, New frontiers: imperialism's new communities in East Asia, 1842-1953, Manchester University Press, 2000, p 39)

PRACTICAL MONOPOLY ON OPIUM TRADE

Even though E.D. Sassoon had to make do without the customary Jewish community support, he still was able to build up a monopoly position: "Elias remained in China from approximately 1844 to 1853, to be replaced temporarily by Albert Abdullah. ln fact, all the Sassoon sons had to serve their stint in China, usually without their wives. According to Roth, the most lucrative part of the trade from India to China and beyond and, later on, much of the direct trade from England to the Far East came into the hands of David Sassoon, Sons, and Company. Their Bombay base was perfectly suited to this. They had a practical monopoly on the importing of opium, fabrics, and cotton yam." (Jonathan Goldstein, The Jews of China. Vol. 1: Historical and Comparative Perspectives, ME Sharpe, 1999, p 147)

HARVEST TIME

They collected a huge fortune.

"This was harvest time for David Sassoon & Sons. The Yangtze mud glinted with gold as soon as they laid a brick in it." "Their wharves and godowns were bursting with opium". (Carl A. Trocki, Opium, Empire and the Global Political Economy: A Study of the Asian Opium Trade, Routledge, 1999, p 115) By means of "the opium trade which had ensnared millions of Chinese in a prison of poverty and addiction." (Chrisopher Hale, Himmler's Crusade: The Nazi Expedition to Find the Origins of the Aryan Race, John Wiley & Sons, 2003, p 47)

And its still harvest time today!

PIOUS JEWS CONTINUE ANCIENT TRADITIONS

"The Orthodox Jewish community has been shocked by a series of arrests of its members for alleged heroin smuggling. Police and Customs inquiries are centering on a drugs link between Israel, Antwerp and London." "Police in several European countries began to suspect that the diamond area of Antwerp was becoming an international centre for drug smuggling two years ago when an Orthodox Jewish man from Antwerp was arrested at Ramsgate. Dror Hazenfratz, then 34, from Antwerp, was jailed for 11 years for trying to smuggle heroin. He was arrested by British Customs officers while travelling with his wife and child in the family Peugeot 405. Underneath the child seat in the back Customs officers found 15 kilos of heroin worth UKP750,000. Hazenfratz, who was born in Haifa and holds an Israeli passport as well as a Belgian identity card, appeared in Canterbury court wearing traditional dress and carrying the Talmud. He had made other one-day trips to England."

TALMUDIC SCHOLAR FOLLOWS IN ELIAS DAVID'S FOOTSTEPS

"Earlier this month in Tel Aviv, three British drugs officers were in court to see an Israeli man charged with laundering money from an international drugs ring." "Israel Aron Albam, a 38-year-old Talmudic scholar, married with eight children, was released on a bail of 8m shekels (around UKP1.3m ). The Tel Aviv court was told that British authorities had been involved with the seizure of two boatloads of drugs, the first in 1992 with two tonnes of cocaine and one tonne of cocaine." "Albam is an Askenazi of the large Vishmitz sect. Police inquiries revealed that Albam was on a Israeli government grant for poor scholars to study the Talmud at the Yeshiva ( theology college ). He had travelled to New York and London, apparently collecting money for charity. However, Israeli police found 400m shekels ( UKP66m ) in his bank account. The account was in the Israeli religious bank which is tax exempt. (Paul Lashmar, Heroid Scandal rocks London's Devout Jewish Community, The Independent, July 25, 1998).

And this isn't the first time devout religious Jews have been harassed for exercising their talmudic duties: "Daud Pasha, who governed Baghdad from 1817 to 1831, was the most oppressive, seizing wealthy Jews on the flimsiest pretence and holding them for ramsom [fines] or assassinating them [death penalty].

Daud Pasha's most prominent victim was David Sassoon, who was arrested in 1828." (Myer Samra, Migration Patterns of Iraqi Jews in M. Avrum Ehrlich, Editor, Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora - Origins, Experiences, and Culture, ABC-CLIO, 2008, p 355) It looks like Daud Pasha had something against drug trafficking.

But the English government in India didn't have any problem with Sassoon's business. And today, together with Norway and America, their soldiers have made it safe to cultivate opium on a massive scale in Afghanistan.

CHINA 1842 / AFGHANISTAN 2009 - WHEN DRUG ENFORCEMENT SUCCEEDS

"The number of foreign troops in Afghanistan has increased steadily since 2001. Currently there are more than 100,000 soldiers in the country." (Fact sheet: Foreign troops in Afghanistan, Deutsche Welle, 7 Oct 2009) 6900 tonnes of opium were produced in Afghanisten in 2009. (UN says Afghan opium harvest down, Al Jazeera, 2 Sep 2009)