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LAHORE // The smuggling of tobacco is helping to fuel the Taliban insurgency in Pakistan, according to analysts and officials. While the poppy trade still contributes nearly half of the funds funnelled to the Taliban - both in Afghanistan and Pakistan - officials now believe the militants are increasingly turning to other sources, including tobacco sales and smuggling, kidnappings, logging and mining.
"We believe tobacco has been second only to drugs as a source of finance to the Pakistani Taliban," David Kaplan, the editorial director of the US-based Center for Public Integrity (CPI), a non-profit organisation based in Washington, DC, said in a report last month.
With the US and Pakistan both engaged in fighting the Taliban, there is a growing consensus among officials that the only way to defeat the militants is to hit them where it hurts the most - their pockets.
But that is becoming increasingly difficult as the Taliban appear adept at switching sources of financing. . . .
But with efforts by the US to wipe out poppy farming in Afghanistan showing some success, and sanctions by the Pakistani government on charitable donations, the Taliban have been forced to look elsewhere for financial support.
According to the World Health Organization, cigarette and tobacco smuggling provides about $40bn a year to extremist groups, including the Taliban. Analysts inside Pakistan estimate the group receives about 20 per cent of its funding from counterfeit cigarette production and smuggling.
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BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan -- More than 600 soldiers participated in a Cold Turkey Trot run held at Bagram, Nov. 20, to raise awareness of the many resources available to people trying to quit tobacco.
"We, in the military, have a lot of people who are addicted to nicotine, both through smoking and smokeless tobacco," said Maj. Heidi Whitescarver, a public health nurse in the Command Joint Surgeon's office for Combined Joint Task Force-101. "This event brings that fact to light. I just wanted to have one day to say, 'Hey, if there's people out there who want to quit, there are people here on BAF (Bagram Air Field) and around Afghanistan that are willing to help them do that."
Whitescarver, an Anchorage, Ala., native, coordinated the run and also created a proclamation that was signed by the commanding general of Combined Joint Task Force-101, officially declaring Nov. 20 as the CJTF-101 tobacco-free day. According to Whitescarver, the proclamation also talks about the resources available to help individuals who want to quit tobacco.
The "Great American Smokeout Day" was the perfect opportunity for Whitescarver to express her devotion to the health of soldiers, urging all tobacco users to quit for just one day.
Amid the explosions echoing through the mountains of Afghanistan, or the ruins of an Iraqi neighborhood, the robust aroma of a fine cigar is helping U.S. troops remember life back home.
Quality cigars, by some estimates, are second only to Starbucks coffee on the wish list of troops overseas. Where but Tampa, Cigar City, can the need best be met?
Enter Thompson Cigars, a 92-year-old retailer near Tampa International Airport, along with a dedicated employee and an ex-Navy man with a passion for helping the troops overseas. . . .
A month after terrorists struck New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, Thompson began getting requests from overseas troops for cigars. Initially, the company just sent free boxes of cigars to those who asked.
Now, it's a big-time giveaway. About 10,000 free cigars of all brands and varieties were shipped last year to troops, mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan. That amounts to $50,000 worth of finely rolled tobacco, said Thompson Cigars' owner, Carlos Franzblau.
Afghanistan may be the world's largest producer of heroin, but the government has taken the first step towards to a ban on smoking in public places.
Local media said on Tuesday that the council of ministers had ordered a campaign through the media and mosques to inform the public that smoking in educational institutions, hospitals and government offices has been outlawed.
The ban will be widened later to cover hotels and restaurants.
The Taliban gunmen who murdered two teachers in eastern Afghanistan early Saturday were only following their rules: Teachers receive a warning, then a beating, and if they continue to teach must be killed.
The new list of 30 rules, decided on during a high Taliban meeting in September or October and since circulated over the Internet, span from the organizational - no jihad equipment may be used for personal means - to the health conscious - militants are not supposed to smoke. . . .
No. 18 says fighters "should refrain from smoking cigarettes."
U.S. Marine Cpl. Benjamin Czap and 150 other Marines left Fallujah, Iraq, after 25 days of fighting.
The Marines gathered around a large fire as cases of cigars were passed around to the weary soldiers, including Czap, who had never smoked a cigar.
"It's pretty much a military tradition that when you get back from a battle you smoke a cigar," said Czap, who has been honorably discharged from the Marines and now lives in Menasha.
"We pulled out of Fallujah after nearly a month of fighting and with no showers and very little sleep. We lost 17 of my friends who were killed. We were all pretty well shell-shocked," Czap said. "That was the first cigar I had. It was almost a moving experience. It took me away from everything. It made me feel like I was home. I don't know why. It just did."
Czap wants to make sure fellow Marines still fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan have a chance to partake in what he calls "victory cigars."
Czap and a co-worker at Stowe-Woodward in Neenah are asking Fox Cities residents to donate cigars for shipment to frontline Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cigars are being collected at Appleton Souvenir & Cigar Co., 415 W. College Ave.
It's pretty much a military tradition that when you get back from a battle you smoke a cigar. . . . The cigars represent victory. . . . "I just want to let them (soldiers) know that the American public still values and honors them and the public is taking the time out of their busy day to do something for them, to say 'Here. Here is your victory cigar because you guys are heroes in our book.'U.S. Marine Cpl. Benjamin Czap, who is asking Fox Cities (WI) residents to donate cigars for shipment to frontline Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I just received one box that had several packages of chocolate and strawberry blunts, and one box of Bering Robusto's cigars all in one box.
We will enjoy sitting around outside our tents and puffing on our Swisher Sweet's reflecting on our previous day activities and talking about what we will do when we get back home...We contacted two other cigar manufactures and Swisher has been the only company with any American Spirit to even correspond back...
I also enjoy your products. . . . --Ronald A. Risdon United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations
Afghanistan's western Herat province has banned smoking in all government buildings, becoming the first region in the country to join an international effort against smoking, government officials said on Sunday.
The move follows Afghanistan's recent signing of a global convention of banning tobacco consumption in public, health officials said.
"The ban has been implemented in government buildings," said Amin Haider a public health ministry official in Herat. "Our next step is to enforce it in covered places or public areas such as restaurants," Haider told Reuters.
Abdullah Fahim, adviser to the Public Health Ministry, told Reuters Afghanistan had yet to pass a law to enforce the ban nationwide. . . .
The majority of men smoke in male-dominated Afghanistan. Most smoke Western-style filter-tip cigarettes, the vast majority of which are counterfeits made in neighbouring countries.
In January when Clay Carlton decided to send a box of 25 of his hand-rolled cigars to the troops in Iraq, he had no idea that his simple act of patriotism would become a mission.
But that's what's happening. Carlton, who owns Timberline Barbers in West Vail, wants to take his cigar-rolling hobby from a simple one-man demonstration of support for the troops to a national mobilization.
All it took was a story in this newspaper about his efforts, and donations began to roll in and his idea began to spread like the smoke from his aromatic hobby. . . .
Now he's starting a nonprofit organization, Cigars to the Troops, so he can begin raising money to ship up to 10,000 cigars a month to members of the armed services in Iraq and Afghanistan. He wants to collect donations from individuals and corporate sponsors, he said.
The largest provider of private education in England has struck a deal with a cigarette importer to build new schools.
Global Education Management Systems (Gems) and the Alokozay Group, both based in Dubai, plan to create the network of fee-paying schools in Afghanistan. The investment has been welcomed by children's charities but questioned by anti-smoking campaigners.
Gems operates 13 independent schools in England and its directors include Mike Tomlinson, chair of the Government's working group on 14-19 education.
The Alokozay Group describes itself as a "leader in the cigarette industry" and is the sole distributor for cigarettes made by the Korea Tobacco and Ginseng Corp in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
A one of a kind method of showing your support for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan is based right here in San Antonio. In fact, it's based here with a new guy at our sister radio station.
Jeff Bolton, the new afternoon talk show host on WOAI radio started the program a while back . . .
To get radio listeners to help send the troops something different - cigars, or as they call it, "Sticks for Soldiers."
"They're working seven days a week, 12 hours a day, they're eatin' the same food, drinking the same old coffee," said Bolton. "We wanted to give them just a moments relaxation with a cigar, things we take for granted here at home or things they just don't have there."
Bolton wrote about "Sticks for Soldiers" in a national cigar magazine and brought it to San Antonio.
"What happened is Club Humidor has come alongside us to partner and people have been donating cigars there," said Bolton. "It's been incredible." . . .
"We're not there to start a bad habit with anybody, because you know, it's an elective thing," said Bolton. "If you want 'em and a guy hands 'em to you, you can take 'em. If you don't, you can hand them back."
We're not there to start a bad habit with anybody, because you know, it's an elective thing. If you want 'em and a guy hands 'em to you, you can take 'em. If you don't, you can hand them back.WOAI talk show host Jeff Bolton, who started "Sticks for Soldiers," which sends cigars to military personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq.
A jury found five people guilty Wednesday of conspiring to commit money laundering in a cigarette smuggling case.
Authorities said the defendants purchased millions of dollars of untaxed, unstamped cigarettes for sale on the black market in Michigan and New York, resulting in an estimated loss of tens of millions of dollars in excise tax revenues to the two states.
One of the defendants, Aref Ahmed, 27, of Niagara Falls, provided $14,000 to five Yemeni-Americans who were part of the so-called Lackawanna Six who attended an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan in 2001, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Bruce.
WAR-torn Afghanistan is a conduit for millions of packets of smuggled cigarettes made by Imperial Tobacco that find their way back to Britain, alleges a secret Customs & Excise dossier.
The six-page document has been sent to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, which will question Gareth Davis, Imperial's chief executive, when he appears before the committee on 19 June.
Committee members have been astonished by allegations that Imperial makes half the contraband cigarettes sold in the UK.
Committee chairman and Tory MP Edward Leigh said: 'This dossier makes a substantial case against Imperial. It is very embarrassing for the company. I predict that by the time of the hearing, Imperial will be co-operating much more with Customs & Excise.'
A carton of cigarettes fetches up to $50.
Bartering has become a way of life for the 3,600 troops at the U.S. base outside the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.
That's partly because the Army has yet to open a PX - Post Exchange - with toiletries, cigarettes and goodies like potato chips. . .
Troops are also swapping military items with soldiers from other nations. . . To get the scarf, he traded a knife which he had swapped for Cuban cigars.
Before leaving Monday, Marine Lance Cpl. Ben McBrown, 20, said he bought Marlboro Reds for $40 a carton from an Air Force airman who had just arrived.
"I thought about quitting, but I didn't think this was the place to quit," McBrown said
Troops stationed at Kandahar Airfield have been forced to quit tobacco products cold turkey because there is no Army and Air Force Exchange Service at the base, and, instead, have resorted to paying black-market prices for smokes, dip and chew — if they can find any.
"It’s crazy. There’s nothing else to do but smoke, and now I can’t get anything," said Marine Lance Cp. Victor Felix. He ran out of smokes shortly after AAFES shutdown its briefly opened field exchange about two weeks ago. . .
No one is exactly sure when AAFES will set-up again. Army spokesman Maj. AC Roper said AAFES should return "soon" but didn’t know an exact date.
The troops seem slightly baffled as to what happened. When AAFES packed up, they left behind some of their products, including cigarettes, in a padlocked storage area.
"Just come on back," Felix said, "you have plenty of customers."
Attempts to contact AAFES-Europe spokesman Maj. Mitch Edgar on Sunday were unsuccessful. He is currently at an airbase in Uzbekistan, where there is a fully operating exchange.
[I]f you’re addicted, what else can you do but beg. . . Yeah, I stole one the other day. I felt guilty. But I got it from a smoker. He would understand.Army Spc. Randy Vasquez, a pack-a-day smoker stationed in Afghanistan who is down to one maybe two begged, borrowed or stolen butts a day. Josar, D.