Title: Tucker Carlson Network
Show: Tucker Carlson Network
Date: 2026-04-28
URL: https://youtu.be/ExPvVJQicuk
Duration: 10:00

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[00:00] May I tell you a story? >> you will. >> When I was the senior investigator on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 2009 to 2011, end of 2011. Uh I told the then chairman John Kerry I wanted to go to Afghanistan to do a formal Senate study on the heroin poppy crop. Right? Afghanistan at the time was producing 93% of the world's heroin. And so I flew to Afghanistan, went to Bagram Air Base.

[00:30] I told them I needed to fly to Kandahar and then to Lashkar Gah, which is the capital of Helmand province, and I was doing this study. Now, as a as a senior congressional staff member, I had the rank of Brigadier General. This is the only time in my life I ever pulled rank on somebody. And I said, they they wouldn't take me down there and I said, "I'm not asking you. I'm telling you you are going to fly me to Kandahar and then we will fly to Lashkar Gah and then we'll fly back to Bagram."

[01:00] So they they relented. We went to Kandahar, did some meetings. When we got to Lashkar Gah, as you're landing, for as far as the eye could see, all you see is heroin poppy. And so I said, "I want to go into the poppy fields and I want to find a farmer and I want to talk to him." So I had security, I had a translator, Pashto translator. We just drive out into the fields and sure enough we stumble on a poppy farmer. And I asked him a very naive question. I said,

[01:32] "Instead of poppy, why don't you grow things that have two growing seasons, like tomatoes or onions or pomegranates?" And he goes like this, "The Americans told me in 2001 that if I told them where the Arabs were, I could grow all the poppy I wanted." I said, "What Americans told you you could grow poppy?" And just as I said the question, my military handler pulls me by the arm and he says, "We're under threat. We have to go back to the base." I never got an answer. We got back into the Jeep and they took me back to the helicopter.

[02:04] I flew back to Bagram. >> Actually. >> Actually, like out of a movie. So, I come back to Washington and I said to to the chief investigator, I said, "I'm I'm on to something here. This is not good." So, I wrote it all up just as I collected it. Well, I had a friend at DEA, the Drug Enforcement Administration. And I I called him. I said, "Listen, I'm going to send you a paper, eyes only. I just want your thoughts on it before I send it to John Kerry." So, he calls me back a couple days later

[02:35] and he says, "Buddy, you know you're not going to get this paper published, right?" I said, "Why not?" He said, "Afghanistan produces 93% of the world's heroin. Almost all of that heroin goes to Iran and Russia, and we want them to be addicted to heroin. It weakens their societies." And I never got it published. Well, fast forward years later, >> That's disgusting. >> we've got a fentanyl epidemic in this country. That fentanyl's coming from

[03:07] China and Mexico. They want us to be addicted to fentanyl because it weakens our society. And that's why we're in the predicament that we're in. >> So, you believe that the US government allowed poppy production in Afghanistan in order to weaken Iran, Russia? >> I do. And the reason I have come to that conclusion is not because I'm any smarter than anybody else, but do you know how much of the world's heroin was produced in Afghanistan in the last year of Taliban rule, 2000?

[03:39] >> Not too much. >> Zero. None. They didn't grow any Not only did they not grow any heroin poppy in 2000, they were a net food exporter to Iran and to Pakistan. And as soon as we took over, it was all about the heroin. >> So, the idea that it's um that's quite amazing. That is quite an amazing statistic. >> Terrible. >> Does anyone in a meeting where these

[04:09] plans were formulated say, you know, we're the United States, like we can't flood other people's countries with heroin. That's just so immoral. >> I never sat in a meeting like that. The meetings were all about how do we win? How do we get a leg up? How do we implement the policy that we want whatever country to follow? That was it. >> But if you intentionally flood other people's countries with heroin, >> Mhm. >> it's kind of hard to tell yourself you're the good guy. Like that's >> Oh, Tucker, that was something that I struggled with for at least half of my

[04:41] career at the CIA. We're supposed to be the good guys. So, why are we doing so much of this? I just never understood it. And what was >> What do you think the answer is? >> The answer was that I uh had stars in my eyes. That that I just I was not fully understanding of realpolitik. >> Do you have a liberal? >> Mhm. >> Well, I'm not a liberal at all and I find that disgusting. I find it disgusting. I don't want my government to be involved in any way in heroin trafficking.

[05:12] >> No. Nor do I. >> And I also don't know why Russia's our enemy, but big picture, but even if it there was a good reason to have Russia as an enemy, I still wouldn't be for flooding their cities with heroin. >> Right after the the Russians invaded Ukraine, um I was one of seven uh journalists, in independent journalists, who were invited to lunch with the Russian ambassador in Washington. And what he wanted was our ideas on how the US and uh Russia could continue to cooperate diplomatically even during a time of war.

[05:43] And I said I was actually proud of what I said. I I went prepared and I said the US and Russia have identical interests in counterterrorism, counterproliferation, and counternarcotics. We should never stop cooperating on those three issues. And um and I said, "And you know what? There's a fourth thing." I said, "Your Excellency, when you arrest an American a female American basketball player and give her a draconian 10-year sentence for having a
