tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13638234.post8640006737670079139..comments2023-10-31T08:05:38.800-04:00Comments on Sterling on Justice & Drugs: Afghanistan: Opium profits, the Taliban and al QaedaEric E. Sterlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09061193531254728800noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13638234.post-477712022332483012009-07-16T14:22:30.411-04:002009-07-16T14:22:30.411-04:00(something had to be done...)
Afghanistan, Opium ...(something had to be done...)<br /><br />Afghanistan, Opium and the Taliban<br />Papaver somniferum: the opium poppy<br /><br />JALALABAD, Afghanistan (February 15, 2001 8:19 p.m. EST<br /><br />U.N. drug control officers said the Taliban religious militia has nearly wiped out opium production in Afghanistan -- once the world's largest producer -- since banning poppy cultivation last summer.<br /><br />A 12-member team from the U.N. Drug Control Program spent two weeks searching most of the nation's largest opium-producing areas and found so few poppies that they do not expect any opium to come out of Afghanistan this year.<br /><br />"We are not just guessing. We have seen the proof in the fields," said Bernard Frahi, regional director for the U.N. program in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He laid out photographs of vast tracts of land cultivated with wheat alongside pictures of the same fields taken a year earlier -- a sea of blood-red poppies.<br /><br />A State Department official said Thursday all the information the United States has received so far indicates the poppy crop had decreased, but he did not believe it was eliminated.<br /><br />Last year, Afghanistan produced nearly 4,000 tons of opium, about 75 percent of the world's supply, U.N. officials said. Opium -- the milky substance drained from the poppy plant -- is converted into heroin and sold in Europe and North America. The 1999 output was a world record for opium production, the United Nations said -- more than all other countries combined, including the "Golden Triangle," where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet.<br /><br />Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban's supreme leader, banned poppy growing before the November planting season and augmented it with a religious edict making it contrary to the tenets of Islam.<br /><br />The Taliban, which has imposed a strict brand of Islam in the 95 percent of Afghanistan it controls, has set fire to heroin laboratories and jailed farmers until they agreed to destroy their poppy crops.<br /><br />The U.N. surveyors, who completed their search this week, crisscrossed Helmand, Kandahar, Urzgan and Nangarhar provinces and parts of two others -- areas responsible for 86 percent of the opium produced in Afghanistan last year, Frahi said in an interview Wednesday. They covered 80 percent of the land in those provinces that last year had been awash in poppies.<br /><br />This year they found poppies growing on barely an acre here and there, Frahi said. The rest -- about 175,000 acres -- was clean.<br /><br />"We have to look at the situation with careful optimism," said Sandro Tucci of the U.N. Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention in Vienna, Austria.<br /><br />He said indications are that no poppies were planted this season and that, as a result, there hasn't been any production of opium -- but that officials would keep checking.<br /><br />The State Department counternarcotics official said the department would make its own estimate of the poppy crop. Information received so far suggests there will be a decrease, but how much is not yet clear, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.<br /><br />"We do not think by any stretch of the imagination that poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has been eliminated. But we, like the rest of the world, welcome positive news."<br /><br />The Drug Enforcement Administration declined to comment.<br /><br />No U.S. government official can enter Afghanistan because of security concerns stemming from the presence of suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden.<br /><br />Poppies are harvested in March and April, which is why the survey was done now. Tucci said it would have been impossible for the poppies to have been harvested already.<br /><br />The areas searched by the U.N. surveyors are the most fertile lands under Taliban control. Other areas, though they are somewhat fertile, have not traditionally been poppy growing areas and farmers are struggling to raise any crops at all because of severe drought. The rest of the land held by the Taliban is mountainous or desert, where poppies could not grow.<br /><br />http://opioids.com/afghanistan/index.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13638234.post-33276896170945320632009-07-09T12:30:28.514-04:002009-07-09T12:30:28.514-04:00Hi Steve,
I just came across your blog and Jessi...Hi Steve, <br /><br />I just came across your blog and Jessica Thompson's blog about the WSJ review of my book, Seeds of Terror. I am pleased to see increased debate about this important subject, and I am glad to find your thoughtful platform that pushes for a more sensible narcotics policy in the U.S. <br /><br />However, I would like to set the record straight with you about one aspect that I think the WSJ review -- and your blog on that review -- misinterpret about my book and my intentions. <br /><br />I certainly agree with Ms. Gannon, the author of the WSJ report, that Washington has gotten into bed with unsavory actors in the "AfPak" region. And I argue in Seeds of Terror that fighting drug-fueled corruption – both in Afghanistan and in Pakistan – will likely be a greater challenge to the international community than fighting the Taliban and al Qaeda.<br /><br />State corruption and the insurgency are inter-related problems that feed each other, a point I make repeatedly in Seeds of Terror.<br /><br />In recent meetings I have held at the Pentagon, the National Security Council and with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, I have been gratified to see that Washington now appears to understand that a comprehensive effort to develop better governance in AfPak will be critical to any exit strategy. <br /><br />Insurgencies exist where good governments do not. I argue that point in Seeds of Terror.<br /><br />However, the central purpose of my book is not to report on government corruption in Afghanistan and Pakistan, two problems that have been well-documented, in my opinion, by monitoring groups like Transparency International as well as the media. <br /><br />Rather I seek to expose an issue I believe had not been well-researched previously: how the Taliban, al Qaeda and other extremist groups along the border are morphing into criminal gangsters, similar to the transformation made by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, when the Maoist rebels got sucked into the cocaine trade. I appreciate the chance to set the record straight on your website. <br /><br />Gretchen PetersUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09742556332011892750noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13638234.post-10846961287759935182009-06-30T02:02:49.540-04:002009-06-30T02:02:49.540-04:00This is a great topic to discuss, as it will becom...This is a great topic to discuss, as it will become increasingly important to U.S. policy in confronting the grave threat Afghanistan poses. Miss Thompson, your criticism of Gretchen Peters' failure to emphasize a potential solution to the problem at hand is well deserved. <br />Moreover, while the current issue is of high priority, the U.S. policy of the past is also relevant to note. This demonstrates the grave consequences a failure to create a mini-Marshall-esque Plan may ultimately lead to 25 years down the road. Furthermore, the U.S. should also look to 20th century history to recall the results of the 18th Amendment--and the subsequent repeal thereof--in forming modern drug policy.HD4Libertynoreply@blogger.com