[Intl-tobacco] [Fwd: Don't Miss "Tobacco Traffic" on PBS - TONIGHT!]

[Robert Weissman]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Don't Miss "Tobacco Traffic" on PBS - TONIGHT!
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2002 00:17:33 -0400
From: Anna White <awhite@essential.org>
To: awhite@essential.org

Dear Friends,

Here is an article on Big Tobacco's involvement in smuggling in Colombia
that we encourage you to read, and a related PBS television show that
airs TONIGHT (for those of you in the U.S.).

READ ABOUT BIG TOBACCO, SMUGGLING & COLOMBIA...

The Nation magazine in the United States has just published (on the web)
a major investigative story on Philip Morris and BAT involvement in
smuggling in Colombia. You can find it at:

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020506&s=schapiro

All pages:
http://www.thenation.com/docPrint.mhtml?i=20020506&s=schapiro


DON'T MISS "TOBACCO TRAFFIC" TONIGHT ON PBS!!! (Check local listings for
time)

The reporting for the story in The Nation was done in conjunction with
the US television network PBS. The program, 'NOW With Bill Moyers' will
broadcast a story *TONIGHT* that features the link between smuggled
cigarettes and the laundering of narco-dollars in Colombia. The
highlight section of the NOW webpage asks: "Cigarette Smuggling: Is Big
Tobacco Flouting International Law?"

The In-Depth report, on Tobacco Traffic, introduces the show and notes
other country cases: "Producer Orianna Zill de Granados expands on the
global problem of cigarette smuggling. Tobacco is one of the most widely
traded products in the world, with an annual turnover of approximately
$400 billion. And the World Health Organization estimates that fully one
quarter of all cigarettes produced in the world end up being smuggled.
While "Tobacco Traffic" focuses primarily on the problem of cigarette
smuggling in Colombia, government investigators around the globe
complain about similar smuggling issues...

Canada - In an explosive case several years ago, R.J.Reynold's Northern
Brands was indicted for smuggling into Canada, using a circuitous route
through Aruba, into the US and across a Native American reservation.

Montenegro - Last December, the Parliament held hearings on allegations
that Montenegro's President, Milo Djukanovic has ties to cigarette
smugglers.

Iran - The Iranian health ministry reported that up to two-thirds of the
cigarettes in this country are smuggled.

European Union (EU) - Evidence introduced in their court case against
the tobacco companies says that the profits from cigarette smuggling
have gone to fund terrorist groups in Iraq and elsewhere.

Iraq - Evidence submitted by the EU and reported on by the Center for
Public Integrity says that tobacco companies have been involved in a
complex scheme to ship cigarettes into Iraq, using several companies,
but eventually passing through the hands of the Kurdistan Workers'
Party, or the PKK, European Union lawyers said. The smuggled shipments
of cigarettes into Iraq are controlled by Saddam Hussein's son, Uday."

http://www.pbs.org/now/indepth/041902_smuggling.html

More information on the show and the Black Market Peso Exchange is
available at this link:
http://www.pbs.org/now/indepth/041902_peso.html

-------------
Global Partnerships for Tobacco Control
Essential Action
P.O. Box 19405
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: 202-387-8030
Fax: 202-234-5176
Email: tobacco@essential.org
http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco