U.S. bombs 300 tons of poppy seeds to cut Taliban drug ties

[babylonsister]

U.S. bombs poppy crop to cut Taliban drug ties


KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The U.S. military bombed about 300 tons of poppy seeds in a dusty field in southern Afghanistan Tuesday in a dramatic show of force designed to break up the Taliban's connection to heroin.

The air strike occurred mid-day in Helmand province and was observed by CNN's Ivan Watson, who is embedded with the U.S. Marines operating in that province.

The military dropped a series of 1,000-pound bombs from planes on the mounds of poppy seeds and then followed with strikes from helicopters.

Tony Wayne, with the U.S. State Department, said the strikes on poppy seeds, that can be used to make opium and heroin, is part of a strategy shift for the military to stop the Taliban and other insurgents from profiting from drugs.

Video Watch U.S. military bomb poppy seeds at link~

"There is a nexus that needs to be broken between the insurgents and the drug traffickers," Wayne said. "Also, it is part of winning the hearts and minds of the population because in some cases they are intimidated into growing poppies."

In a bid to encourage Afghan farmers to swap out their poppy plants for wheat crops the U.S. Agency for International Development has been offering them seeds, fertilizers and improved irrigation.

Observers have noticed a significant decline in the opium trade in Afghanistan, with the number of poppy-free provinces increasing from 13 in 2007 to 18 in 2008, according to a U.N. report released last year.

more...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/07/21/afghanistan.poppy.strike/index.html

[hobbit709]

1. That should slow it down for about a week or two.

[backtoblue]

2. haven't we heard "winning hearts and minds" somewhere before?

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

3. Hmmm... didn't the Taliban itself burn poppy fields before we invaded Afghanistan?

[jschurchin]

4. The Taliban outlawed Poppy

production when they were governing Afghanistan. They ARE NOT in the Heroin business. The same can not be said for the worlds intelligence operations, including the CIA.
This is a bunch of dis-information bullshit.

Want to know who wants poppy production and heroin to flourish? Look here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/printable/centralasia_briefing_print.html

[babylonsister]

5. Yes, until they didn't...

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/07/09/070709fa_fact_anderson

snip//


The Taliban instituted a strict Islamist policy against the opium trade during the final years of their regime, and by the time of their overthrow they had virtually eliminated it. But now, Lieutenant General Mohammad Daud-Daud, Afghanistan’s deputy minister of the interior for counter-narcotics, told me, “there has been a coalition between the Taliban and the opium smugglers. This year, they have set up a commission to tax the harvest.” In return, he said, the Taliban had offered opium farmers protection from the government’s eradication efforts. The switch in strategy has an obvious logic: it provides opium money for the Taliban to sustain itself and helps it to win over the farming communities.

*******************************************


Drugs for guns: how the Afghan heroin trade is fuelling the Taliban insurgency

By Jerome Starkey in Kunduz

Tuesday, 29 April 2008


The heroin flooding Britain's streets is threatening the lives of UK troops in Afghanistan, an Independent investigation can reveal.

Russian gangsters who smuggle drugs into Britain are buying cheap heroin from Afghanistan and paying for it with guns. Smugglers told The Independent how Russian arms dealers meet Taliban drug lords at a bazaar near the old Afghan-Soviet border, deep in Tajikistan's desert. The bazaar exists solely to trade Afghan drugs for Russian guns – and sometimes a bit of sex on the side.

more...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/drugs-for-guns-how-the-afghan-heroin-trade-is-fuelling-the-taliban-insurgency-817230.html

[Buzz Clik]

7. Funny how the Taliban are willing to kill women for improper dress but let the poppies go unhindered

I'm not convinced that they are not profiting from this.

[dysfunctional press]

9. that was because there was a huge glut of the stuff at the time...

and they didn't want the price to crash. plus- the bush administration gave them something like $47 million for doing so.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

6. Whudda 'bout the free market? Bombing the competition doesn't seem fair.

[harun]

8. Does anyone even know what the mission is there anymore? Or do they just

change it to whatever they can shoot at this week.