The Economist Propagandizes for Al Quaeda’s Narcotics Policy

13 July 2026, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

As I have previously documented, U.S. President Barack Obama personally selected Al Qaeda in Syria to lead in his operation to overthrow the President of Syria Bashar al-Assad, whom even the U.S. Government’s own hired polling organization had found to be the top-preferred person by Syrians to be their nation’s leader — and that Syrians overwhelmingly disapproved of Al Qaeda and blamed the U.S. Government as having created it.

Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, now called al-Sharaa, had been the al-Qaeda leader in Syria who ruled Syria’s Idlib province, which was the place to which Assad’s government had been bussing all surrendered jihadists they had captured. When Assad was overthrown on 8 December 2024, that was done by Jolani’s forces pouring down from Idlib into Damascus. Jolani was an agent of the U.S. Government.

Here is from my 4 September 2018 “How U.S. Government Relies on Lying Media”:

For years, Syria’s Government has been liberating increasing numbers of cities and towns and villages, from the approximately one hundred thousand jihadists that have been fighting in Syria to overthrow and replace their Government. Those jihadists have been supported by the US Government in this overthrow-effort. Most of the jihadists were recruited into Syria as fundamentalist-Islamic (actually fundamentalist-Sunni-Islamic) mercenaries, by the US coalition, which have worked with Al Qaeda’s Syrian branch to train and arm these jihadists, for them to serve as the US coalition’s boots-on-the-ground, to overthrow Syria’s non-sectarian Government. The US coalition aim to install in Syria rulers who have been selected by the fundamentalist-Sunni Saud family, the world’s wealthiest family, who own Saudi Arabia, and who want to control also Syria.

Tens of thousands of jihadists have surrendered to the Syrian Government and been bussed by the Government into Idlib Syria — those were the surviving jihadists who chose surrender and relocation to Idlib, instead of immediate death at the hands of the Syrian Government, and of its allies, Russia and Hezbollah.

Ever since the start of the Syrian Government’s operation to transport surviving jihadists to Idlib, there has been a question as to what would be done with them: either to free them to go back to their home countries or to any country that will take them, or else to slaughter them. The expectation has increasingly become that they will be slaughtered, because no peaceable land wants them, and because even the US and its allies say that they want to kill all jihadists. America’s Islamic allies, such as the royal Saud family, say that jihadists need to be educated to convert away from jihad, but everyone knows that with only rare exceptions, that’s impossible to do — and the countries that claim to be doing it are secretly funding jihadists such as Al Qaeda abroad.

There is evidence that most Syrians want the jihadists to be slaughtered. The British polling firm Orb International’s 2014 Syrian poll asked “Q5. Who do you feel best represents the interests and aspirations of the Syrian people?” The top two most-favored choices were: “The Assad Government” 35%, and “Political Opposition” 21%. Both of those are secular, not sectarian. All of the armed groups who were trying to overthrow Assad wanted Sharia law, and they were supported by only 27% of Syrians, but they were supported and armed and trained by all of the US international coalition.

A year later, Orb polled again, and found (“Table 3”) that 47% of Syrians in 2015 said that Assad had a “positive effect” on the country; 43% said Iran did; 37% said “Arab Gulf Countries” (the US Government’s allied nations against Syria) did; 36% said “Free Syrian Army” (America’s proxies or boots-on-the-ground fighters in Syria) did; 35% said “Nusra Front” (Al Qaeda in Syria, which trained and led the Free Syrian Army) did; 26% said the “Syrian Opposition Coalition” (America’s other proxy fighters to overthrow Assad) did; and 21% said “Islamic State” (ISIS or ISIL, or simply “IS”) did. 76% said IS had a “negative effect” on Syria. IS was hated by Syrians, but apparently not as much as US was hated by them: When Syrians were asked “to explain the presence of ISIL in Iraq/Syria” 82% answered (Table 26) that the explanation “is US.” Syrians might not have agreed on whom they supported, but they agreed overwhelmingly that America was their nation’s enemy. And it is. Syrians don’t want to be ruled by stooges selected for them by the Sauds. But that’s whom the US coalition lined up to rule them. Except that Russia decided not to accept it. And now Pompeo is warning Russia (which is legally in Syria at the request of the Government, while the US itself is only an invading power there) to give up and let Syria be conquered by America’s proxies.

Furthermore, the 2015 Orb poll (Table 4) also found that Idlib was the region of Syria which had the lowest percentage of its inhabitants (only 4% — versus 47% in the nation-at-large) supporting Assad. Table 6 there shows that 35% of Idlib’s residents supported ISIS. Table 7 shows that 70% of Idlib’s residents supported Nusra (Al Qaeda in Syria). So: when Assad made the decision to relocate surrendered jihadists to Idlib, he knew that he was sending them to the Governorate that’s far more supportive of the jihadist cause than any other area of Syria is. Only a tiny portion of Idlib’s residents oppose jihadists. And, now, suddenly, to America’s Mike Pompeo, all of the people in Idlib are somehow (as he suggests, but is sly enough not to state outright) refugees.

Orb’s 2018 poll of Syrians reported that, “Only 26% think that the influence of the International Coalition has been positive, and 69% think their influence has been somewhat or strongly negative. A further 57% think The West has played a negative role.” Orb, the pollster — since it’s allied with the US instead of with Syria — also blamed Assad, instead of blaming Trump, for the worsening situation their latest poll found in Syria. Orb’s 2018 report says: “Whether or not an Assad victory is good for the future of the country is wide open — Although 39% agree that the country is heading in the right direction, this is a large drop since 2017 when 57% agreed with this statement.” Between 2017 and now, most Syrians, just like most Americans, became disillusioned that Trump really was going to let Syria win the war that the US Government has been waging against Syria ever since 1949 and which exploded into the open once Obama came into the White House. During the past year, it has become increasingly clear that Trump is continuing and even escalating this war; so, of course, Syrians, who know that the US is their enemy, don’t think “that the country is heading in the right direction.” Like Americans, the people in Syria had believed Trump’s lies about what his intentions regarding Syria were. They know better now.

Furthermore: Pompeo’s allegation that “The 3 million Syrians who have already been forced out of their homes and are now in #Idlib,” is itself blatantly false, because the population of the entire region — and not just of the city of Idlib — is only 1.5 million, and far fewer than 100,000 have been added to that population by Syria’s bussing all of the surrendered jihadists there.

In service to the U.S. imperial regime, The Economist, on July 9th, headlined “Ahmed al-Sharaa is quashing Syria’s vast captagon trade”, and opened: “Among Bashar al-Assad’s many crimes as Syria’s dictator was turning his country into a narco-state. Captagon, an amphetamine, became Syria’s largest export. Mr Assad’s neighbours resented his role as drug-pusher-in-chief. To their relief, Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s new president, seems eager to stem the flow of captagon in the region.”

Today I had this conversation with ChatGPT:

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“What was Assad’s policy on captagon?”

Officially, the government of Bashar al-Assad denied any involvement in the Captagon trade. Assad repeatedly portrayed Syria as a victim of drug smuggling rather than a sponsor of it. During Syria’s rapprochement with Arab states in 2023, Damascus publicly promised greater cooperation against narcotics trafficking and participated in regional discussions about border security and drug interdiction.

However, there is a sharp distinction between the Assad government’s public policy and what numerous governments, journalists, and researchers concluded was happening in practice.

The broad consensus among investigations by governments and major news organizations is that:

• By roughly 2018–2024, Syria had become the world’s largest producer of illicit Captagon.
• Production was concentrated in regime-controlled territory.
• The trade generated billions of dollars annually and became one of Syria’s most important sources of foreign currency after years of sanctions and economic collapse.
• Key elements of the Syrian state — including members of the security services and military — were alleged to have protected or directly participated in production and smuggling. Many reports specifically identified Assad’s brother, Maher al-Assad, commander of the Fourth Armored Division, as a central figure.

As a result, the United States and several allies adopted sanctions targeting individuals and networks allegedly involved in the trade. In 2024, the U.S. Congress enacted the Illicit Captagon Trafficking Suppression Act, whose findings state that:

• industrial-scale Captagon production occurred in areas held by the Assad regime,
• “elements of the Government of Syria” were key drivers of production and trafficking, and
• ministerial-level officials were complicit.

Why would the Assad government tolerate or encourage it?

Analysts have generally proposed three overlapping explanations:

1. Revenue. International sanctions and the destruction of Syria’s economy sharply reduced legitimate export earnings. Captagon became a lucrative alternative source of hard currency.
2. Patronage. Profits reportedly financed military units, intelligence services, and allied militias, helping sustain the regime during and after the civil war.
3. Diplomatic leverage. Some analysts argued that Damascus used its ability to reduce—or threaten to continue—the flow of Captagon as a bargaining chip in negotiations with neighboring Arab states seeking normalization of relations.

Did Assad ever announce a policy of promoting Captagon?

No.

There is no public policy document or official declaration in which Assad stated that Syria would produce or export Captagon. The alleged policy is inferred from evidence collected by governments, sanctions investigations, law-enforcement seizures, investigative journalism, and, after the fall of Assad’s government, the discovery of numerous production facilities in areas formerly controlled by regime forces.

So, in summary:

• Official policy: deny involvement, condemn drug trafficking, and promise cooperation against it.
• Widely reported de facto policy (according to Western governments, many Arab governments, and extensive investigative reporting): tolerate or actively support industrial-scale Captagon production through regime-linked military and security networks as a source of revenue and political leverage.

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The Economist is presenting not news-reporting but propaganda to make it appear that Assad — the person that the empire overthrew — ran Syria’s capatagon trade instead of increasingly tolerated and then worked with it to supply needed funds to be able to continue its war against the jihadists and their U.S.-and-allied backers.

Furthermore, there is this:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13629395.2023.2297121#d1e116

Captagon and conflict: Drugs and war on the border between Jordan and Syria

https://archive.ph/nSKJv

10 January 2024, Christina Steenkamp, Mediterranean Politics journal

ABSTRACT

Captagon is an illegal amphetamine that is widely used in the Middle East. Since the civil war started in 2011, Syria has become an international hub for Captagon production. A main Captagon trafficking route runs from Syria to the Arabian peninsula via Jordan. This has caused increasing domestic consumption of Captagon in Jordan. This article asks how Captagon trafficking and use in Jordan intersects with war in Syria and its wider impact. It illustrates how drug trafficking can be the product of violence and can also become a conduit for further violence. The article firstly analyses the drugs-conflict nexus in Syria and emphasizes Captagon trafficking as a new case study to this literature. It unpacks the role of the state in the crime-conflict nexus. The second half of the article draws on critical border studies literature to illustrate how the illegal Captagon trade has increased violence by contributing to an increasingly militarized border, with significant consequences for the communities who live and work there. The study concludes by considering the implications of Captagon trafficking for peace and stability in Syria and the region.

On 19 May 2011, Obama said “President Assad now has a choice: he can lead that transition, or get out of the way.”

On 18 August 2011, he said “For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside.”

As I documented in my 9 November 2015 “The Uprising Against Assad Was Engineered in Washington”, even when Obama entered office in January 2009 he had been wanting Assad to be overthrown. Moreover, he selected as his CIA chief John Brennan, who since 2009 had been constantly communicating with Prince Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud — the man who had funded at least two of the Saudi handlers of at least two among the 15 Saudis among the 19 hijackers on 9/11 and donated to Al Qaeda — who had led the Saud family’s operation to get the U.S. Government to oust Assad, ever since Saudi King Abdullah in 2011 had decided to get Assad overthrown.

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.