He who has the gold, makes the rules!

Feathered Cocaine: The Story of Money, Terrorism and Falconry (2010)

Is not interesting that fifteen years after the apprehension and killing of Osama bin Laden, this documentary is making its round. Perhaps, it is the flavour of the month as the US Elections are just around the corner. Probably because Joe Biden is associated with the old administration, it is a subtle reminder of the evil deeds of the past Government.

Watching this Tribeca Film Festival screened a documentary about falconry, it gave a kind of a deja vu feeling. It reminded me of the many so-called altruistic non-governmental organisation working on humanitarian cause getting a free pass into third world countries and starting to dictate how the host country should be run. Think Red Cross and the Bolshevik Revolution, think IMF and the 1997 economic crisis, think missionaries and the Nicaragua Contra rebels.

Here, in 2010 documentary, Alan Howell Parrot tells the story of his life. Becoming obsessed with falcons, at the age of 18 years, he bought himself a one-way ticket to Teheran. He left his serene life in the lush of Maine, New England to train professionally in falconry in the naked deserts of Iran. Here, he got a revelation of sorts. He realised the high status that falcons commanded in this region. A visit to the Golden Sikh Temple and the last Sikh Guru's, Guru Govind Singh's fascination with falcon made him assume a Sikh identity in appearance and way of living. Historically falcons played essential roles in international diplomacies. Even in Europe, falcons were gifted between kingdom to sweeten business transactions and shipping passage.

He returned to Cornell to study and returned halfway through his studies to the Middle East to legally catch, breed and sell wild Icelandic Falcons (Jer Falcons) to the filthy wealthy Arabs at up to $1 million per bird. Parrot (ironic) found himself mixing with the who's who of the upper echelon of the ruling class of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran as well as the infamous fugitive, Osama Bin Laden. The falcons were such priceless commodities, even more, valuable than cocaine. There was a massive demand in the black-market, but surprisingly most Governments are relaxed about curbing this illegal trade. In fact, many countries turn a blind eye to it as it is done in high places. 

Alan Parrot @ Hari Har Singh Khalsa

Many makeshift camps are built in the middle of nowhere in the desert terrains of Afghanistan and Pakistan called Falcon Hunting Camps. Here, Islamic radicals like Al-Qaida meet Arab royalties, and many deals are made. Obscene amounts of cash are given by the opulent royalties to the terrorist group as zakat as an atonement. Osama is known to have presented exquisite purebred falcons as gifts to the members of the Arab royalties. The 9-11 attack was allegedly agreed upon in one of these camps.

At the heights of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, he was a guest of the Iran government. Parrot and US intelligence were aware of his whereabouts. Despite repeated contact with the US authorities, the message somehow got lost in a bureaucratic maze. Or did it?

Parrot and his agents believe that there is a general malaise to stop this type of clandestine dealings. The black market of falcons has led to corruption against military leaders, political murder, and international terrorism. What is stopping them is money.  There is an apparent shady connection between this falcon trade and royal dynasties, the CIA and KGB, the oil industry, American government, and Al-Qaeda. Even the enforcement officials have to line their pockets during the short tenure of their earning life. 

" Ultimately, the message that Feathered Cocaine wants to deliver to its audience is not strictly about falcon smuggling or the uncovering of evil plots conceived for ideological reasons. It is by far more pessimistic than that. Feathered Cocaine is one of many untimely records of corruption and greed. Untimely, but at the same time well-rooted in our turbulent globalized age. Power is one and the same anywhere, and terrorism is not but an excuse and a disguise to put the public opinion under pressure. All mechanisms are in favor of the profit of few. Escalation of terror is not going to stop, because involved interests are increasing their magnitude every day. Evidence of this trend is what happened in recent times, with tragedies whose connotations are still unknown to common people; facts like 9/11 are bound to happen again and again, because nobody among those holding power — not only the governments, but the lobbies and the organizations connecting them all — is at this point different in pursuing his main interests. And of course, this interest can be summed up with one name only: Money."

https://icelandchronicles.com/2011/01/feathered-cocaine-review/

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. 

Follow

Follow

Follow

Osama: Has he left the building?**

For the whole week, all of the Western media have been going at full throttle on Osama's capture and subsequent killing. Obama had the honour of announcing to the world this welcoming news of his near namesake to his voters, much to the joy and satisfaction of the average American who are average minded anyway! Donald Rumsfeld's private secretary apparently had twittered about this hours before the Presidential announcement.
What they to fail to realize is that Osama is just a figment of the symbol of American hegemony on the matters of the world. Like a T4 bacteriophage, the demise of the parent Osama will breed many little Osamas waiting to pounce of other bacilli when the time is ripe.
There is definitely no reason to rejoice as many wise men before have told us that 'An eye for an eye will only leave the whole blind' and we have enough misery in the world to exemplify that.
Are the aggressors going to cow into submission saying, "Oh, I am so scared! The infidels have killed our leader. Let us all repent and lay down our weapons." Sorry, Jose. Dream on....
Already conspiracy theories are flying all over the place on Osama's demise in martyrdom. Why is it that Osama was living cosily just 90km from Islamabad under the very noses of the Pakistani 'intelligences'? Why was the unarmed Osama killed? Would he not be a treasure cove for all information of terrorist activities of the world, from Al-Queda to Al Sayaf to Jemaah Islamiyah? Why was the footage of his capture or body not shown and his body was disposed off so fast into the Arabian Sea? And the newspapers announced just the following day that his DNA matched to Osama. Just like the FISH (Filtration In-Situ Hybridization) technique used to match  the DNA, this whole conundrum smells fishy till high heaven.

Remington Steele

That is, of course, if an entity called Osama actually exists in the first place. This reminds me of the TV series 'Remington Steele' (a lady PI with no cases creates a non existent employer to sex up her firm, acted by Pierce Brosnan and pretty Stephanie Zimbalist) and 'Wag the Dog' where they created a non existent war to divert the attention of the masses.

**The phrase 'Elvis has left the building' was first used in the mid 50s to pacify the ecstatic rabid teenagers (from jumping all around and searching for up and coming Elvis after his performance), so that the rest of the show could proceed. Ironically in the 70s, the same phrase was used to tell his audience that his show was over and it was time to go back home!