Text 8007, 168 rader
Skriven 2005-01-25 16:17:38 av RICHARD JOHNSON (1:10/345)
     Kommentar till en text av STAN HARDEGREE
Ärende: RE: fighting terrorism.
===============================
On 1/25/05 4:14 PM, STAN HARDEGREE wrote to DARRYL PERRY:

-
->  DP> I've heard that poppy production is way up in Afghanistan now
->  DP> that the Taliban are out of power.  Where is the funding for
-> 
-> You seem to hear a lot of things that the rest of us don't hear.

Then you best be watching your beloved Fox News, sonny.


http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,140822,00.html

Opium Production Up in Afghanistan

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos

WASHINGTON ÿ An alarming uptick in poppy production has Afghan and
international officials worried about the impact the opium trade will have on
the emerging democracy, but all sides agree that interdiction efforts must be
led by the Afghans themselves.

While President Hamid Karzai was inaugurated Tuesday with great fanfare, a U.N.
Office on Drugs and Crime (search) report released last month shows that poppy
cultivation in Afghanistan (search) was up 64 percent from 2003 to 2004. The
percent of agricultural land used for poppy cultivation has risen from 1.6
percent to 2.9 percent during that time, or 51,000 hectares to 131,000
hectares. While the price per kilogram has dropped 67 percent during that
period, all 32 provinces in the country and a record number of farmers are
involved in some form of opium cultivation.

"The situation is getting out of hand," said Mahmood Karzai, brother of the new
president. Karzai lives in the United States and travels frequently to his home
country as head of the Afghan-American Chamber of Commerce (search). "The
United States wants to take care of the problem. I think it is a good thing to
do, but it’s important that in taking care of the problem, part of the solution
is resolving the Afghan economy as a whole."

Col. David Lamm, chief of staff for the U.S. military command in Afghanistan,
agrees that production is expanding, and added that efforts to shut it down,
including busting drug lords, closing laboratories and destroying the poppies ÿ
the main ingredient in heroin ÿ must be led by the Afghans.

Any counter-narcotics plans won’t involve the U.S. military directly in law
enforcement or crop destruction, he told FOXNews.com.

"We don’t want to upset what is an emerging democracy here," Lamm said. "We are
very serious about addressing the problem but it is important not to get too
precipitous."

Though the military is offering only backup support to the Afghans, the Drug
Enforcement Administration announced in November that it is stepping up its
efforts to fight drug production in the region and will put more agents and
resources into the country as part of the Bush administration's
counter-narcotics plan.

Afghanistan is the world’s leading producer of opium, responsible for about 87
percent of the world's supply, the U.N. drug office reported in its Afghanistan
Opium Survey of 2004 (search). The drug trade there counts for nearly $2.8
billion a year ÿ roughly 60 percent of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product,
the U.N. says.

Despite a ban by the Taliban (search) on poppy crops in 2001, the
fundamentalist government had enjoyed the fruits of the opium trade for years.
The U.S. government reported in 2001 that much of the money earned by the
Taliban in the drug trade funded Al Qaeda terrorists.

Today, members of the Taliban, while out of power, are still scraping by,
offering safe passage to drug traffickers and contributing to instability in
the country.

U.N. officials admit that no crop can earn the kind of cash that the poppy
trade does. The average yearly income per capita in Afghanistan was $207 in
2000, while opium-growing families ÿ 264,000 households in the nation of 24
million are believed to be involved ÿ earned a per capita income of $600 that
same year.

The drug money has also corrupted the rest of society, to the highest levels of
government, say experts. In response, the Bush administration is seeking more
than $700 million to expand the drug war there, providing more muscle to
British forces that are now taking the lead in the counter-narcotics effort.

Some of the money will come from transferring funds from existing programs, for
which congressional approval is needed. Staffers on Capitol Hill said last week
that the rest of the cash will likely come in the form of a supplemental
funding request.

Robert Charles, assistant secretary for international narcotics and law
enforcement at the U.S State Department, which is leading the administration’s
efforts, told FOXNews.com that the additional funds will assist the Afghan
government in law enforcement, intelligence, setting up a legal system to
prosecute drug warlords, crop eradication, public information and offering
economic incentives like subsidies for farmers to grow alternative crops.

"The primary theme is the Afghan government has expressed a very strong desire
to do this," Charles said, adding that the military will function in a
supporting role to the Afghan government's efforts.

But some foreign policy experts have expressed doubts about U.S. efforts, and
warn against launching an American-style drug war in a country still
battle-weary and just beginning to trust the occupying western forces.

"We have really done damage to the Taliban and Al Qaeda and we would not want
to see them rejuvenate simply because of clumsy U.S policy," said Ted Galen
Carpenter, foreign policy expert at the Cato Institute (search). He argues that
an aggressive drug interdiction effort, particularly against poor farmers, may
undermine the primary mission.

"I would say it would be a tragedy," he added.

But others say that clearing the country of the nearly 506 square miles of
poppy crops and putting a dent in the organized crime and corruption will help
stabilize the country and put the squeeze on a valuable terrorist funding
source.

"We recognize that the drug problem in Afghanistan is probably one of the major
threats we will be dealing with for the next two to three years," said Col.
Lamm. "Afghanistan really wants to be a successful state, not a narco-state."

Eradication Efforts Gone Awry

A suspected attempt to destroy some of the poppy crops has already drawn a
barrier between Afghanistan and the United States and Britain. In November,
Afghan President Karzai questioned British and American officials about a
mysterious plane that allegedly sprayed poppy fields in the Nangarhar province
with herbicides, and reportedly made some villagers sick.

U.S and British officials deny any involvement, and Lamm said he is "skeptical"
such a plane even exists, adding that the military does not do crop
eradication. Crop destruction, so far, has been conducted on the ground by
local Afghans, officials added.

U.S. critics say that if the incident is true, it’s regrettable since such
aggressive targeting of poor farmers might ultimately drive rural Afghans
against coalition forces.

"If this is the proverbial trial balloon, it’s certainly emerging as a problem
ÿ doing crop eradication by spraying herbicides is likely to go spectacularly
wrong," said David Isby, a Central Asian specialist with U.S. defense
contractors SPARTA, Inc. (search)

Lamm said if the United States wants to help farmers move away from poppy
production, it must help build roads, irrigation systems and other
infrastructure.

"We have to ensure that farmers be given a chance for a better livelihood
before we go in and eradicate," he said. "[Afghans] are pragmatic, hardworking
folks and I think they will be more than happy to have an alternative and get
rid of the drug lords."

Mahmood Karzai said Afghans are "reasonable people" who will respond to a
carrot and stick approach.

"If the government says, okay, we will give you this particular price if you
grow this (alternative crop), but if you grow poppies we will destroy you, they
will listen," he said.

---

You really are a ignorant and uninformed redneck aren't you?




 
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