BEKAA VALLEY BECOMES NEW GOLDEN TRIANGLE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100150063-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 29, 2012
• Sequence Number: 63
• Publication Date: September 2, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/29: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100150063-9
V
,:'.TICLE FFEARE1)
Bekaa Valley
I
Becomes New
Golden Triangle
The military focus in the Middle
East has shifted from Beirut to the
Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon,
where Syria and Israel are bpilding
up their forces. At stake is one of the
Middle East's most fertile areas. But
the most important crop isn't melons
or wheat; it's'hashish.
Intelligence sources in Israel, Leb-
anon and Washington agree that
hashish production has increased
,since 1976,- when the Syrians occu-
pied the Bekaa Valley as a United
Nations' peace-keeping force. Some
sources suggest that hashish is one
reason Syria wants to stay there.
A classified "narcotics intelligence
estimate." erenared with the help of
the CIA and shown to my associate
Dale Van Atta, estimates. that the
valley's annual production of hashish
was 230 to 260 tons, almost double
what it was before the S occu-
ation. Nearly 75 percent of crop
has been' going to Egypt -each year,
the report notes. "Generally, only
one crop is grown per year," the nar-
cotics report explains. "It is .. - har-
vested from mid-August to. mid-
September, . before the advent of the
rainy season"
THE WASHINGTON POST
2 September 1982
In other words; the Lebanese
farmers are harvesting their crop
right now, at least they're trying to.
The intelligence experts say this
year's hashish crop is not nearly as
big as usual, because of the Israeli
invasion. But no one can guess the
exact size of the crop because, as one
report notes, "the' flow of narcotics
intelligence from Lebanon has been
seriously curtailed because of the
turmoil there."
Anywhere from 9,000 to 13,000
acres of the Bekaa Valley are devot-
ed to cultivation of cannabis, the
plant that produces marijuana and
hashish. Because.of the valley's lush-
ness, an acre yields .a 3,080-pound
crop. This can be transformed into
more than a ton of marijuana,, or 35
to 60 pounds of hashish.
When the Syrians moved in,
"some of the land abandoned by
Christian villagers [weal confiscated
by Moslem farmers and put into
cannabis cultivation," the narcotics
estimate reports. It adds that "the'
livelihood of two-thirds of the val-
ley's population" depended directly
on hashish cultivation under the
Syrians. Before the Israeli invasion,
the Bekaa Valley was controlled "by
approximately 20 family organiza-
tions," each of which had its own
"well-armed, - paramilitary, force
whose arsenals reportedly contain
automatic weapons and, in_, some
cases, tanks," the report states.
Lebanese authorities have gener-
ally .winked at the lucrative,,:ilhcit
traffic. It is an irony that ish
trade has been one 'of the pb*
area: of dose cooperation-e(
Moslems and Christians.
"Traditionally, Christians --~m
controlled most of the hii" -And
financial arrangements of the hash-
ish trade, [including control cfl two
the major hashish in
export!:
the the north," says a d aifl ,
been the hashish.
Cles t
operational, waiting only:fo
lens and. jjaraeliis to sett e:tl>igf
farenoe? sand let the ba"t
as ..:,....
k
bec
Nov. 2 elections,
expected to authociae a major nge
of Cabinet members''and. MWbite
House aides. The' ex w l:*bebiy..
fall between Tbetlk ivia$-''.:1nd 1
Christmas, when .most of igVaebing
ton has .its mind on 'turkeji i r
plums and lame ducks. ~,r
- Administration insiders, eed-:,Ibpee
headed for the block 'incl id 4mpoc
J
tenor Secretary James? G. att t d_
Housing" 8nnd Urben
Secretary' Samuel
'
the
Whibe House, ice:
*Stockman, communicationer
David "R: Gergen and
F. Fielding are reported
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/29: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100150063-9