• Iraq, 10 years on: Did invasion bring 'hope and progress' to millions as Bush vowed?

    This week marks the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. ITV's John Irvine in Baghdad assesses a country that remains gripped by the violence of its sectarian divide.

    By F. Brinley Bruton and Ghazi Balkiz, NBC News

    When the administration of President George W. Bush planned the invasion of Iraq, hopes ran high that the massive deployment of troops and money wouldn’t just result in the toppling of Saddam Hussein: The United States would help create a country that stood as an example to others. 

    Ten years ago Tuesday, Bush announced military operations "to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger." He warned that the coalition campaign "could be longer and more difficult than some predict," but vowed to give the Iraqis a "united, stable and free country."

    In a speech only weeks earlier, the president had stressed that "a liberated Iraq can show the power of freedom to transform that vital region, by bringing hope and progress into the lives of millions."

    In a televised statement to the nation, President George W. Bush announces "early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq."

    An estimated $61 billion in U.S. reconstruction funds later, reality has fallen short of these expectations.

    An estimated 189,000 people -- including Iraqi civilians, U.S. troops and journalists -- were killed in the war in Iraq since 2003. The country is considered one of the most corrupt in the world, and many of the improvements promised have not materialized. Sectarian tensions regularly explode into open violence.  

    And yet Iraq is now OPEC’s second-largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia. It is headed toward becoming the world’s second-largest oil exporter after Russia in 20 years. The civil war that raged after the invasion is over, and elections have been held in which Iraqis vote at relatively high rates.

    On the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, NBC News asked Iraqis and experts to assess how life had changed.

    Utilities and services
    Omar Qais, 34, a private security worker from Baghdad:

    In the ten years since guided bombs brought "shock and awe" to Baghdad, almost 4,500 troops and 130,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed and Saddam Hussein has been captured and executed in a mission that has cost nearly $2 trillion. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    “The infrastructure, and the services … were bad, but now it is even worse.”

    Mohammad Jabir, 33, unemployed with two children:

    “There isn’t ... one good service.  It has gone from bad to worse.”

    Iraq is a rich country when it comes to natural resources.

    “Iraq stands to gain almost $5 trillion in revenues from oil exports over the period to 2035, an annual average of $200 billion and an opportunity to transform the country’s future prospects,” according to the International Energy Agency.

    But much of that wealth has yet to trickle down to the population in the form of jobs and services. 

    Unemployment stands at 15 percent and youth unemployment at 30 percent, according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Twenty-three percent of the population lives in extreme hunger, it adds.

    “Iraq faces considerable challenges in sanitation,” according to a 2010 U.N. report. Only 26 percent of household are covered by the public sewage network, it added.

    Karim Kadim / AP

    Iraqis sift through garbage for recyclable materials at a dump in the Sadr City area of Baghdad, Iraq, on Sunday. According to the manager of the dump, the people who salvage plastic and aluminum make an average of $8 per day re-selling the materials.

    About two-thirds of homes depend on the public water supply as their primary source for drinking water, but a quarter of these reported that they got potable water for under two hours per day, according to the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction’s January 2012 report.

    Electricity is the worst-rated service in Iraq, according to the Iraq Knowledge Network, a monitoring system set up by the country’s planning ministry. Households get on average 7.6 hours of electricity from the national grid per day, it said.

    Medical services leave much to be desired. In the region, only Yemen has a higher infant mortality rate, for example. Malaria, however, has been almost eliminated, according to the U.N.

    Iranian influence
    Mahmoud Ali Othman, Kurdish politician and member of the Iraqi National Assembly:

    In a speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, President George W. Bush announces that the United States and allies "have prevailed" in military operations in Iraq.

    “Maybe Iran has benefited more than any other country from what has happened, and some people even say America handed Iraq to Iran. But don’t forget the Iranian regime has had relations with all the Iraqi political forces when they were in the opposition, so this relation has continued after Saddam was toppled.”

    Maria Fantappie, Iraq analyst, International Crisis Group:

    “Iran's influence, and that of other powers, is directly proportional to the level of instability of the Iraqi government. Potential for Iranian influence increases the moment there is an unstable situation in Baghdad.”

    On March 12, the navies of Iraq and Iran signed an agreement that called for joint drills and more cooperation, according to reports in Iran.  This was the latest sign of the deepening links between Baghdad and Tehran, with whom the United States has a hostile relationship.

    Khalid Mohammed / AP

    Iraqis visit the Shaheed Monument in Baghdad on March 5. Saddam Hussein had the split teardrop-shaped sculpture built in the middle of a man-made lake in the early 1980s to commemorate Iraqis killed in the Iran-Iraq War. The names of hundreds of thousands of fallen Iraqi soldiers are inscribed in simple Arabic script around the base. In recent years, the Shiite-led government has begun turning it into a museum honoring the victims of Saddam's Sunni-dominated but largely secular regime.

    And according to reports, Iran helped persuade the government of Nouri al-Maliki to deny American forces judicial immunity against prosecution. Western countries then canceled plans to maintain a military presence in the country after the 2011 withdrawal.

    The links go beyond the political and military: Iranian companies are increasing market share in Iraq’s booming economy, and streams of Iranian pilgrims regularly visit the Shiite holy sites in Karbala and Najaf.

    This is a far cry from the 1980s, when the two countries fought a war that killed more than a million people.

    Rule of law and security
    Rawa Naime, head of a local nongovernmental organization:

    “Security-wise, it is definitely not better. On the contrary, it is worse.”

    March 20, 2003: On a special edition of TODAY, NBC's Katie Couric, Matt Lauer, Jim Miklaszewski and Kerry Sanders report on the first day of the Iraq War.

    Peter Batchelor, country director, United Nations Development Program in Iraq:

    “Quality of life and access to services in many areas are worse than they were 30 years ago. Violence has dropped, but it is still high enough that it limits people’s access to services.”

    Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui:

    “Iraq remains caught in a cycle of torture and impunity that should long ago have been broken.”

    Toby Dodge, political scientist and expert on the Middle East:

    “Iraq’s special forces are in effect the personal coercive tool of its prime minister, his Praetorian guard, used to secure competitive authoritarianism.”

    While the numbers of civilian deaths have fallen from the tens of thousands a year seen after the U.S. invasion and in the ensuing civil war, many Iraqis are not safe from acts of terror and sometimes even from their own government. 

    On Tuesday, car bombs and a suicide blast hit Shiite districts of Baghdad and south of Iraq's capital, killing at least 50 people. And on Thursday, a string of explosions tore through the capital. This was followed by a coordinated raid by gunmen of a government building. At least 24 people were killed, and dozens more were wounded.

    The violence comes despite the massive numbers added to the country’s security forces. According to The Brookings Institute, a Washington-based think tank, Iraq’s security forces stood at just under 100,000 in 2003. In 2011 that number had reached 670,000.

    Meanwhile, Iraq remains one of the most corrupt countries in the world.  According to Transparency International’s widely recognized rankings, the country came 169th out of a list of 176.

    There are regional differences. For example, Iraqi Kurdistan, a semi-autonomous region in the north of the country protected under the no-fly zone before 2003, has prospered and been relatively free of violence, although its government has also been rocked by corruption scandals.

    Democracy and sectarian tensions
    Mohammad Jabir, 33, unemployed with two children:

    “Back then, when Saddam was in power, we were oppressed. Now there is freedom. Me as a Shiite, I can practice my rituals, so it is definitely better than before.”

    Mohammad Jabir, 33, unemployed with two children:

    “Sectarianism is like a slow cancer that is spreading through the Iraqi people.”

    Mahmoud Ali Othman, Kurdish politician and member of the Iraqi National Assembly:

    One year after the U.S. military pullout, Iraq teeters between statehood and failure. NBC News' Jim Maceda reports.

    “The whole government has weak performance because the ministers and the key figures have been appointed on political bases. Qualification comes second. ... This has created a weak performance at the level of the government and at the level of the municipality.”

    Rawa Naime, head of a local nongovernmental organization:

    “We have suffered from the sectarian violence, especially liberated and cultured women… There are some sides that want the sectarian war that we had in 2006 and 2007 to come back.  But there is a section of our society that does not want that to come back. There are those who love peace, who think there is no difference between Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, Turkomans and Christians.”

    Maria Fantappie, Iraq analyst, International Crisis Group:

    “The biggest mistake of the 2003 invasion was to understand the country only as composed of three separate communities, without regard to the building of Iraq on the basis of an Iraqi identity."

    Under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, members of the Shiite and Kurdish communities were violently oppressed (Hussein also oppressed Sunnis).  Since the fall of Saddam, the majority Shiites have become the dominant group in society.  The government of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been accused of fomenting sectarian divisions to secure his party’s position in power. 

    While the sectarian violence that swept Iraq in the wake of the U.S. invasion has receded, there has been a recent increase in deadly attacks against Shiites, the government and security forces. And in recent months, Sunnis throughout the country have staged mass protests to demand fairer treatment from the central government and the release of thousands who they say have been detained illegally.

    March 20, 1993: NBC News Special on the first coalition casualties and the first day of the war in Iraq reported by Tom Brokaw, Dennis Murphy and David Bloom.

    The unrest is piling pressure on the country's sectarian balance. 

    And like so much else in Iraq, those inside and out are not sure whether the future will bring the prosperity and peace promised by the Bush White House, or spiraling violence, insecurity and impunity.

    When asked to comment for this story, a State Department official said that both Iraq and the U.S. had "made tremendous sacrifices to deliver this new chapter in our relationship, and our energy is squarely focused on the future."

    The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, added:

    "I’ll leave the retrospectives to the historians to discuss and the Iraqi and American people to assess. ... 

    "On Iraqi progress, we understand that many challenges remain in Iraq and that it continues to evolve after decades of isolation and war. It is unrealistic to expect a unified democracy to develop in such a short period of time. Likewise, the evolution that is necessary to resolve the differences found in Iraq will require generational change and a sustained commitment to its democratic and economic development.

    "One should not forget to reflect on just how far Iraq has come in a short time.  While there have been short-term setbacks, Iraq’s trajectory is positive."

    Iraqi government officials did not respond to requests for comment.

    NBC News' Jeffrey Ackermann and Catherine Chomiak contributed to this report.

    The last 480 troops left Iraq early Sunday morning in high spirits, happy to be heading home for the holidays. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    Related:

    Ten years after Iraq invasion, US troops ask: 'Was it worth it?'

    Dressing up and heading out: Baghdadis make the most of resurgent social life

    Full Iraq coverage from NBC News

     

     

     

     

     

     

      

     

     

     

     

    This story was originally published on Tue Mar 19, 2013 5:32 AM EDT

  • After 10 years of Karzai's rule, has life improved in Afghanistan?

    Parwiz / Reuters

    Farmers work at a poppy field in Afghanistan's Jalalabad province on May 4.

    By Atia Abawi and F. Brinley Bruton, NBC News

    News analysis

    Updated at 9:50 a.m. ET: KABUL, Afghanistan - Many Afghans see dark clouds of uncertainty looming over the calendar as the 2014 deadline approaches for most foreign troops to withdraw, and worry that after that the international community will abandon them.

    Over the last decade, billions of aid dollars have flowed into Afghanistan, and thousands of foreign soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians have died during the effort to bring peace and a modicum of prosperity to the country.  Meanwhile, the government of President Hamid Karzai has passed laws meant to improve the lives of his citizens.  Nevertheless, Afghanistan still faces huge problems, such as widespread violence, official corruption, grinding poverty and a booming narcotics trade.

    EXCLUSIVE: US, NATO behind 'insecurity' in Afghanistan, Karzai says

    “Plagued by factionalism and corruption, Afghanistan is far from ready to assume responsibility for security when U.S. and NATO forces withdraw in 2014,” think tank International Crisis Group said in a recent report.

    Afghan President Hamid Karzai highlighted that his country "paid a heavy price" during the war on terror when he sat down with NBC News' Atia Abawi in Kabul on Thursday. "I don't even know if al-Qaida exists as an organization as it is being spoken about," added Karzai, who expressed great frustration with the U.S. Watch some highlights of the exclusive interview.

    Security
    The Taliban are regaining land and power lost after they were toppled by U.S.-backed forces in 2001. While there have been more than 2,000 American military casualties during this time, civilians have borne the brunt of the violence.  In the first six months of 2012 alone, more than 3,000 civilians were killed or injured, according the United Nations. This number was down 15 percent from a year earlier. Anti-government and coalition insurgents were responsible for 80 percent of the civilian casualties, the U.N. says.

    Jose Cabezas / AFP - Getty Images

    Members of the Afghan Border Patrol are assisted by a member of the Afghan National Army (ANA) (2R) during a training session at the Narizah base in Narizah, Khost Province on August 13, 2012. Some 130,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan are preparing to withdraw in 2014 and are training and working alongside Afghan soldiers as they take increasing responsibility for the anti-insurgency campaign.

    More than 300,000 Afghan National Army soldiers and Afghan National Police members have been trained to replace foreign soldiers.  Afghan security forces face big challenges, such as attrition, illiteracy and insurgent infiltration.

    Panetta: US foresees 'enduring presence' to fight al-Qaida in Afghanistan

    Poverty and corruption
    Most Afghans are not just living in fear of an insurgent attack or NATO airstrike.  They fear hunger and worry that they and their families won’t survive another winter.

    Afghans are among the poorest people on earth.  According to the World Bank, per capita GDP was around $576 in 2011, up from $158 in 2002. 

    More than half of children under the age of five are malnourished, according to the World Food Program.

    Jawad Jalali / AFP - Getty Images file

    A young garbage collector carries recyclable material from a landfill in the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Oct. 17.

    Afghanistan remains largely dependent on foreign aid – the World Bank says that 90 percent of the country’s national budget is still financed by governments and other foreign organizations.

    Along with the huge inflows of foreign aid and poverty is corruption:  the country is tied with Somalia and North Korea at the bottom of Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index 2012.

    A 2012 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report estimated that Afghans paid $2.5 billion in bribes over 12 months, which is equivalent to almost a quarter of the country’s GDP.

    Women
    In 2001, Afghan women were the poster children for the invasion.  Promises poured in to help half of the society that was brutalized and banished during the Taliban.  Despite the pledges, Afghanistan remains one of the most difficult places in the world to be a woman: it has one of the highest levels of maternal mortality and, according to U.N. estimates, around 90 percent of women suffer from some sort of domestic abuse. 

    Ahmad Masood / Reuters

    Women clad in burqas walk in Bagram, Afghanistan, on January 3.

    Nevertheless, there has been some progress. In 2004, President Karzai signed into law a new constitution granting equality among all its citizens and ensuring women’s rights.  And in 2009 the country passed the Elimination of Violence Against Women Law, intended to protect women from abuse, rape, and forced marriages.  While the laws were all positive steps such legislation is rarely enforced. 

    More Afghanistan coverage from NBC News

    The ministry of women’s affairs in Kabul says that from April through July of this year at least 3,600 cases of violence against women were recorded.  However, this grim number may be seen as a sign of progress because it means more families and women are learning about their rights and reporting their grievances. 

    Soosan Firooz rhymes about Afghanistan and the many crises its people have faced. In a country where public performance by women is frowned upon, this is no easy feat.  NBC News' Tazeen Ahmad reports.

    Drugs
    Afghanistan has long-produced about 90 percent of the world's opium, a paste from the poppy plant that is mad into make heroin.  At the end of the Taliban’s rule, the government worked with the U.N. to cut production by around  90 percent.

    In the last decade, opium production increased again. It is now the largest source of export earnings and accounts for half of Afghanistan's GDP, according to humanitarian news site AlertNet.

    All hope is not lost in Afghanistan, progress has been made in small steps rather than the giant leaps expected when United States-backed forces toppled the Taliban. 

    Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images

    An Afghan Pashtun boy, who said he was forced from troubled Baglan province due to threats from the Taliban, looks on after a day after scavenging at a garbage dump in Kabul on November 14, 2012

    In 2001, girls were denied an education under the Taliban regime and only 900,000 children were enrolled in school throughout Afghanistan.  Today, at least 7 million children are attending classes and 2.5-million are estimated to be girls, according to Amnesty International. In the cities, you see women in the workforce again, doctors, politicians and even business owners.

    Still, many fear that these delicate gains will disappear as the last foreign combat troops leave Afghanistan on Dec. 31, 2014. 

    In an exclusive interview with NBC's Atia Abawi, Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai says that the U.S. is not sticking to a signed agreement between their two countries.

    Related content

  • EU forces attack Somali pirates on land for first time

    Mohamed Dahir / AFP - Getty Images, file

    An armed Somali pirate keeps vigil on the coastline near Hobyo, northeastern Somalia, in January, 2010.

    By F. Brinley Bruton, msnbc.com

    Europe's naval force patrolling off the coast East Africa said on Tuesday it had attacked Somali pirate installations on land, the first time it had conducted such an action since extending its remit from strictly to sea-based operations. 

    Initial reports indicated that there were no casualties during the operation, which happened earlier on Tuesday, according to the European Union Naval Force (Somalia) Operation Atalanta's website.

    "We believe this action by the EU Naval Force (NAVFOR) will further increase the pressure on, and disrupt pirates' efforts to get out to sea to attack merchant shipping and dhows," the commander of the EU Naval Force, Rear Admiral Duncan Potts, said in a statement. "The local Somali people ... many of whom have suffered so much because of piracy in the region, can be reassured that our focus was on known pirate supplies and will remain so in the future."

    The action was conducted from the air and "at no point did EU Naval Force 'boots' go ashore," the statement said.

    Arms race? Somali pirates, tankers up their game

    The European force, which is trying to stamp out piracy off the coasts of lawless Somalia, is made up of around 1,400 military personnel, nine warships and five maritime surveillance aircraft, according to NAVFOR's website. 

    Despite successful efforts to quell attacks in the Gulf of Aden, international navies have struggled to contain piracy in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea owing to the vast distances involved.

    Fighting Somali pirates with science


    Seaborne gangs have raked in an estimated $150 million in ransoms in what has become a highly organized, international criminal enterprise, security analysts say. Somali pirates in the failed state have carried out more than 800 attacks on ships, from private yachts to oil supertankers since 2008, Bloomberg reported. 

    Interactive: Global piracy 

    On March 23 the EU Council decided to allow its forces in the region to take "disruption action against known pirate supplies on the (Somali) shore."

    "Putting pressure on their business model by destroying their boats and eliminating their fuel dumps will make life more difficult for the sponsors of piracy and the pirates themselves," the Council said in a statement. 

    Reuters contributed to this report. 

    More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

     

  • Cross-border methamphetamine trade booms amid Mexico's 'war on drugs'

    Alejandro Acosta / Reuters, file

    A soldier guards boilers at an outdoor clandestine methamphetamine laboratory discovered in Chiquilistlan, Mexico, on December 7.

    By F. Brinley Bruton, msnbc.com

    The number of methamphetamine “super labs” seized by Mexican authorities has rocketed in the last five years but shipments of the drug across the border have also continued to grow, according to government statistics.

    The increase highlights how Mexico’s cartels have diversified beyond their traditional focus of exporting cocaine, heroin and marijuana by transforming their operations to also make methamphetamines on an industrial scale.

    The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has noted “a sustained upward trend in Mexican methamphetamine availability in U.S. markets.” Research by the U.S. government also shows that methamphetamine prices are falling and that the purity level of seizures is rising.

    According to information from Mexico’s Secretariat of National Defense, 22 methamphetamine labs were seized in 2007. That number increased to 206 in 2011.

    The vast majority of these were classed as super labs – in contrast to smaller operations that characterize much of the production in the United States, a secretariat official confirmed to msnbc.com.  The official asked for anonymity for security reasons.

    "Methamphetamine seizure rates inside the United States and along the U.S.-Mexico border have increased markedly since 2007," according to a U.S. Department of Justice report.

    'In the business of making money'
    U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials said they could not comment specifically on statistics released by the Mexican government, but acknowledge that the cartels have adapted and changed since President Felipe Calderon declared his war on drugs in December 2006.

    “There has been an evolution,” Special Agent Gary Boggs of the DEA’s Office of Diversion Control told msnbc.com. “All of these drug trafficking groups, they are not in the business of drugs, they are in the business of making money.  So regardless of what the drug is, if there is a market for it they are going to try ways of making money out of it.”

    Methamphetamine, a white, odorless and bitter crystalline powder, dissolves in water or alcohol and can be taken orally, snorted, injected or smoked.  Known as meth, chalk, go-fast, zip, ice and crystal, among other names, it can be very addictive and lead to dramatic weight loss, dental problems, paranoia, hallucinations and extreme violence.

    The methamphetamine trade is only part of the drug problem confronting Mexico – the country’s cartels also produce or traffic large amounts of cocaine, heroin and marijuana, among other narcotics.  Since Calderon's war on drugs began, more than 47,500 people have been killed, according to the country's attorney general's office.  The worsening violence and continued flow of drugs has caused many to question whether Mexico’s militarized approach is the right way to stamp out the cartels.

    While most of the bloodshed in the war on drugs has been south of the border, the problem has had a direct impact on Americans.  Mexico is the primary source of methamphetamines consumed in the U.S., according to the Department of Justice’s National Drug Threat Assessment 2011. 

    “Methamphetamine production in Mexico is robust and stable, as evidenced by recent law enforcement reporting, laboratory seizure data, an increasing flow from Mexico, and a sustained upward trend in Mexican methamphetamine availability in U.S. markets,” according to the study, which bases its conclusions on data running through September 2010.  “Law enforcement and intelligence reporting, as well as seizure, price, and purity data, indicate that the availability of methamphetamine in general is increasing in every region of the (United States).”

    According to the Department of Justice report, from July 2007 through September 2010, the price per pure gram of methamphetamine decreased 60.9 percent, from $270.10 to $105.49. Purity increased 114.1 percent, from 39 percent to 83 percent.

    Booming business
    After declining sharply in 2007, methamphetamine seizures along the Mexico-U.S. border have increased every year. 

    The dramatic growth in operations targeting Mexican methamphetamine super labs from 2007 and 2011 is likely the result of the huge increase in military involvement during Calderon’s war on drugs, said Octavio Rodriguez, coordinator of the Justice in Mexico Project at the University of San Diego’s Trans-Border Institute.

    This jump in decommissions cannot be taken alone, however – falling prices also suggest that the trade in methamphetamines remains a booming business despite the enormous military deployment.

    “My impression is that this data shows a much greater effectiveness on the part of the army,” Rodriguez told msnbc.com.  “But what these numbers imply to me is that if lab seizures are growing and the price is falling is that the production is so high that it is not causing a serious impact. In other words, if seizures are not having a real effect on prices and the price continues to fall it means that the seizures aren’t even affecting the level of production.”

    Since 2007, Mexican spending on security, which includes the army, navy, federal police and attorney general's office, has almost doubled to reach more than $46 billion.

    The United States, the world’s largest consumer of illegal drugs, had spent around $1.4 billion since 2008 on the struggle against the cartels in Mexico and Central America as part of the so-called Merida Initiative.  Meanwhile, U.S. border patrols costing the United States $3 billion per year have helped make the nearly 2,000-mile-long boundary as fortified as it has been in 160 years, according to a report by the Council of Foreign Relations.

    But despite the billions spent and tens of thousands of lives lost, the organization thought to be controlling much of the methamphetamine trade as well as heroin and marijuana, the Sinaloa cartel, remains staggeringly powerful.  In January, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman,  at the helm of the group believed to control the methamphetamine trade and the drug’s key ingredients, earned the title of “world’s most powerful drug trafficker” from the U.S. Department of Treasury.

    Fugitive drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is believed to be a billionaire.

    Guzman has also appeared on Forbes’ World’s Most Powerful People list since 2009, and is thought to be the world’s richest drug dealer, according to the magazine.

    Key chemicals
    Officials say key to stamping out the methamphetamine trade is interrupting the flow of chemicals needed to manufacture it, known as precursors.

    China and India are the main countries involved in the trafficking of key precursor chemicals to Mexico, the DEA’s Boggs said

    “We’ve … taken steps to work with our international partners to curb international chemical smuggling,” he added.

    Despite efforts by officials on both sides of the border, the trade in methamphetamines and precursors is likely spreading south.  According to The Associated Press, 1,600 tons of precursors were seized in Guatemala in 2011, up from 400 seized there in 2010.

    In December alone, 675 tons of precursors destined for Guatemala were seized in Mexico.  Most of it came from Shanghai, China, the AP reported.  At $100 per gram for the finished product, that would end up producing hundreds of billions of dollars-worth of drugs.

    Follow msnbc.com's F. Brinley Bruton on Twitter.