Ramtanu Maitra, head of the South Asia Desk for Executive Intelligence Review, discusses the concept of the British capital being referred to as Londonistan, due to the number of radical Islamic militant groups operating there.
Maitra puts forth his theory that a lot of money from the drug trade in Afghanistan is laundered through Western banks and a lot of it makes it way to London, where it can be used to finance Islamic militant groups.
“This is real cash, drug money is real cash, it’s poor addicts putting out money – they’re not putting out IOUs – they are putting out cash in order to buy the drugs on the street. So this is the only real money the city of London really has. That is the only money that is real, the other money is on paper.”
He cites the top U.N. official responsible for drug combat operations as telling him in an interview that these drug funds were the only real money left over after the financial crisis of 2008.
“It was the drug money, it was this drug money that was laundered through offshore banks that kept things alive, there was nothing else that existed. But this drug money is not handled by the CEO of HSBC or Goldman Sachs, people like that. This drug money is run on the ground by various types of criminals.”
Maitra goes on to say that Britain is heavily involved in these operations as well, since a lot of the money from Saudi oil profits ends up in London, which then provides certain materials to support extremist activities. “(Britain) is serving the extremist Sunni interest that is exhibited by Saudis, Qataris and Kuwaitis,” he said.
Watch the full episode to also hear Maitra explore the concept of the New Great Game and how Western nations are ironically focused once again on Russia as the biggest global threat in the post Cold War world.
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