The "Bali Nine"
 

9 Heroin mules from Australia got some really bad news this morning, but the news could be a sign of bad news for millions of Indonesians in the future.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bali_Nine

Indonesia is allegedly a secular state, but I think the Indonesian Supreme Court is sending a message to the West not just about drug trafficking, but about Islamic Law. The prosecution was asking for 20 years, but the Indonesian Supreme Court increased the sentences of six of the "Bali Nine" to death; and they didn't even tell their lawyers.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems...9/s1734831.htm

Indonesia has the world's largest Islamic population, and I think their Supreme Court is asserting a more Sharia-like view. I suppose time will tell.:neutral:

Amazing. How about the interpretation of Islamic Law by the Taliban, the most vicious and cruel regulators of Sharia that the world has ever known? They have more than doubled opium production in Afganistan in the last year, using the money to finance a resurgance of their control over the country. No doubt some of their product will find its way to Indonesia. Where is "Islamic Justice" in that? :(

Riding The Horse
 

Well, I suppose they think (and are probably correct) that a lot of that horse ends up in the decadent West, so they justify making money off of it because all it does is addict and kill the infidels.

I do see irony, however, in all those purty poppy fields.:rolleyes:

BTW. Where is Osama?:neutral:

Is it the Taliban that is growing the opium? 'Cause before the war, the Taliban was the only one deterring opium production in Afghanistan, and the farms really popped up after the Taliban was deposed.

Not that I'd be too shocked if they have started taking a cut.

Afgani Opium
 

Sure is a mess::neutral:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanista...865302,00.html

In western Pakistan.

Well...
 

...go get him glatt. You'll be a National hero!:D

Slang's our resident traveler to dangerous places. He can go.

According to the New York Times, yes. This story was carried by the AP news service and also appeared in my local paper. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/wo...=1&oref=slogin

"Afghanistan’s opium harvest this year has reached the highest levels ever recorded, showing an increase of almost 50 percent from last year, the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, said Saturday in Kabul.

He described the figures as “alarming” and “very bad news” for the Afghan government and international donors who have poured millions of dollars into programs to reduce the poppy crop since 2001.

He said the increase in cultivation was significantly fueled by the resurgence of Taliban rebels in the south, the country’s prime opium growing region. As the insurgents have stepped up attacks, they have also encouraged and profited from the drug trade, promising protection to growers if they expanded their opium operations.

“This year’s harvest will be around 6,100 metric tons of opium — a staggering 92 percent of total world supply. It exceeds global consumption by 30 percent,” Mr. Costa said at a news briefing.........."

Heh. So we made the Taliban decriminalize drugs. Yay us!

Yep. And these are the same religious nuts who stone a woman to death for exposing her ankle.