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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: maceng2 who wrote (11702)	11/27/2001 11:35:44 AM
From: thames_sider	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

That high? Wow. But this doesn't contradict my point that our 'allies' in the NA are somewhat responsible. Most cogently, there's this - see bold: and this was the NA territory on the 6th October (about 10% of the country). When the Taliban swept to power in Afghanistan in 1996, the drugs industry was already well established. The movement imposed taxes on poppy cultivation, just like the ones that existed for other crops, and charged fees for narcotics production, which brought in $15m to $27m annually, according to a United Nations report. Just over a year ago it finally fulfilled its promises to stamp out poppy growing, reducing production from 3,100 tons in 2000 to virtually nothing in the first half of this year, again according to the United Nations. ... Before the present intelligence offensive, attempts to link Mr bin Laden directly to drugs had been vague. Congressional staff in Washington who had seen the files said he did not actually traffic in drugs, but made money from the trade by hiring out his fighters to guard refineries and escort convoys on their way out through Iran. The Taliban rake off money from drugs in similar ways. A report to the House of Commons accuses them of protecting stockpiles – but the narcotics official scoffed at the idea of "mullahs selling heroin". ... There is also the uncomfortable fact that almost half the heroin flowing out of Afghanistan is thought to come from areas controlled by the Northern Alliance, the West's putative partner in the campaign to oust the Taliban. Any expansion of the alliance's territory could see an increase in the drugs supply. independent.co.uk And, In territory held by the Northern Alliance, opium production was never banned and production rose dramatically when the Taleban cracked down on poppy cultivation further south. Some of the Taleban's rivals are believed to have profited directly from the drugs trade. With the anti-Taleban forces now quickly extending their control over the country, there are fears that more farmers will go back to growing opium poppies. ... For many poor farmers in the war-ravaged country, growing opium poppies is the only way to survive - and planting wheat or other cash crops often proves unfeasible. "We don't have much water, so with narcotics we make more money to offset the problem of the drought", farmer Gul Haidar told the Associated Press news agency. news.bbc.co.uk Or, Almost all Afghan opium this year came out of territories controlled by America's ally in the assault on Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance. Because of a ban on poppy farming, only one in 25 of Afghanistan's opium poppies was being grown in Taliban areas. independent.co.uk Or, Opium poppies have always been grown on both sides of Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, but the region did not become the world's main exporter of heroin until the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 brought near-anarchy. Production and refining exploded as the Afghan mujahedin, with the connivance of Western intelligence agencies, traded in drugs to finance their war against the Russians, with results that can be seen in the streets of Western cities as well as Peshawar. independent.co.uk More detail here... news.bbc.co.uk independent.co.uk IOW, if we're serious about restricting heroin, we need to provide a good alternative for the farmers - and the warlords - who depend on this source of money. I assume that was TLC's point...