Taliban Raise Poppy Production to a Record Again

[n2doc]

Taliban Raise Poppy Production to a Record Again

By DAVID ROHDE
Published: August 26, 2007
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Aug. 25 — Afghanistan produced record levels of opium in 2007 for the second straight year, led by a staggering 45 percent increase in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand Province, according to a new United Nations survey to be released Monday.

The report is likely to touch off renewed debate about the United States’ $600 million counternarcotics program in Afghanistan, which has been hampered by security challenges and endemic corruption within the Afghan government.

“I think it is safe to say that we should be looking for a new strategy,” said William B. Wood, the American ambassador to Afghanistan, commenting on the report’s overall findings. “And I think that we are finding one.”

Mr. Wood said the current American programs for eradication, interdiction and alternative livelihoods should be intensified, but he added that ground spraying poppy crops with herbicide remained “a possibility.” Afghan and British officials have opposed spraying, saying it would drive farmers into the arms of the Taliban.

While the report found that opium production dropped in northern Afghanistan, Western officials familiar with the assessment said, cultivation rose in the south, where Taliban insurgents urge farmers to grow poppies.

Although common farmers make comparatively little from the trade, opium is a major source of financing for the Taliban, who gain public support by protecting farmers’ fields from eradication, according to American officials. They also receive a cut of the trade from traffickers they protect.

In Taliban-controlled areas, traffickers have opened more labs that process raw opium into heroin, vastly increasing its value. The number of drug labs in Helmand rose to roughly 50 from 30 the year before, and about 16 metric tons of chemicals used in heroin production have been confiscated this year.



more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26heroin.html

[Buzz Clik]

1. Well, records were made to be broken. Does this one get an *?

After all they had lots of help ... from us.

[Buzz Clik]

2. "the current American programs for eradication, interdiction and alternative livelihoods". Ah, shit.

How's that working out in Colombia, Mr. Ambassador?

[EVDebs]

3. The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade

http://www.lycaeum.org/drugwar/DARKALLIANCE/ciaheron.html

With the 'catastrophic success' of Bush I and now Bush II's war on drugs we now wonder what extra-Consitutional source of funds for the military's 'black op' (and Congressional campaign contributions via overseas sourced drug running) are up to these days.

The funny thing is prior to 9-11 Bush's administration actually was paying the Taliban to decrease the opium crop,

"The Taliban, which briefly banned poppy cultivation in 2000 in an effort to gain U.S. diplomatic recognition and aid, now both supports and draws support from that profitable crop; Afghanistan provides 92 percent of the world's heroin.

Yet Western policies designed to eliminate the Taliban and the poppy are at odds with each other. While NATO troops scramble, between battles, to rebuild rural infrastructure, U.S. advisers urge Afghan anti-narcotics police to eradicate the livelihood of 2 million poor farmers. "

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/12/17/ING08MTPMB1.DTL

[Blackhatjack]

4. Large and Larger crops of poppies? Where does the product go and who Gets the $$???

This has implications for funding all kinds of entities fighting one another in Afghanistan and beyond.

All that 'product' is not just sitting somewhere.

[shraby]

5. It's odd that the Taliban is being blamed for increased

production. Pre-invasion of Afghanistan, the Taliban had prohibited the growing of poppies in the country. Found that out a couple years ago with google.