09-29-2006, 12:48 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Poppy pops up in Afghanistan </b>
Farrukh Saleem
Bush dreams of stabilising Afghanistan but with drugs comes crime and crime means continued instabilityÂ
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Fact: According to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, the domestic âhard-core heroin-using population is 980,000â.
Fact: According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Afghanistanâs opium contribution âaccounts for 90 percent of world productionâ.
In 2001, Afghans had 4,163 acres under poppy cultivation, producing 40 MT (metric ton) of opium, 5 MT of heroin valued at some $600 million. Then happened 9/11. Exactly 26 days after 9/11, at 8:45 pm local time, 1615 GMT, 15 land-based bombers and 25 strike aircraft attacked Afghanistan. US and British ships and submarines fired an additional 50 Tomahawk missiles.
Then came US military bases: Air Base Bagram, Air Base Khost, Air Base Kandahar and Air Base Mazer-e-Sharif. NATO is now building a base in Herat big enough to accommodate 10,000 troops. There is news of at least nine new bases in Helmand, Herat, Nirouz, Balkh, Khost and Paktia.
Taliban toppled, in walked Bush. Within four years, 510,766 acres were brought under poppy cultivation producing 5,000 MT of opium, 600 MT of heroin with a street value of $50 billion. At least 52 percent of Afghanistanâs GDP is poppy. Everyone who is anyone â especially the provincial governors, police chiefs and district commanders â is in the drug trade. Anyone who is Americaâs political ally in Afghanistan is in the drug trade. Many of Americaâs political allies helped America overthrow the Taliban. America canât haunt its own political allies and thus the drug trade flourishes.
Afghanistan is one country where the drug circle is an open secret. Ali Jalali, Karzaiâs interior minister who recently resigned, has compiled a list of â100 high-ranking Afghan officials involved in the drug trade. The list includes at least 13 former or present provincial governors and four past or present cabinet ministersâ. Informed Kabul-based diplomats estimate that at least one-quarter of the new elected members of Wolesi Jirga or House of People maintain links either with production cartels or with traffickers.
Some half-million Afghan families sow poppy as a cash crop. Afghan poppy growers, however, remain subsistence farmers whereby 90 percent of drug-related income goes to well-connected traffickers and their powerful political backers. Strangely, most international anti-drug campaigns continue to be directed against poor farmers while traffickers build multi-storied plazas in Kabul.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime claims that â170,000 Afghans now use opium or heroin. About 30,000 of those addicts are women, a shockingly high number in such a conservative Muslim societyâ.
Bush dreams of stabilising Afghanistan but with drugs comes crime and crime means continued instability. Bushâs Afghanistan is a narco-state and narco-dollars are being controlled by Americaâs political allies.
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Farrukh Saleem
Bush dreams of stabilising Afghanistan but with drugs comes crime and crime means continued instabilityÂ
 Â
Fact: According to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, the domestic âhard-core heroin-using population is 980,000â.
Fact: According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Afghanistanâs opium contribution âaccounts for 90 percent of world productionâ.
In 2001, Afghans had 4,163 acres under poppy cultivation, producing 40 MT (metric ton) of opium, 5 MT of heroin valued at some $600 million. Then happened 9/11. Exactly 26 days after 9/11, at 8:45 pm local time, 1615 GMT, 15 land-based bombers and 25 strike aircraft attacked Afghanistan. US and British ships and submarines fired an additional 50 Tomahawk missiles.
Then came US military bases: Air Base Bagram, Air Base Khost, Air Base Kandahar and Air Base Mazer-e-Sharif. NATO is now building a base in Herat big enough to accommodate 10,000 troops. There is news of at least nine new bases in Helmand, Herat, Nirouz, Balkh, Khost and Paktia.
Taliban toppled, in walked Bush. Within four years, 510,766 acres were brought under poppy cultivation producing 5,000 MT of opium, 600 MT of heroin with a street value of $50 billion. At least 52 percent of Afghanistanâs GDP is poppy. Everyone who is anyone â especially the provincial governors, police chiefs and district commanders â is in the drug trade. Anyone who is Americaâs political ally in Afghanistan is in the drug trade. Many of Americaâs political allies helped America overthrow the Taliban. America canât haunt its own political allies and thus the drug trade flourishes.
Afghanistan is one country where the drug circle is an open secret. Ali Jalali, Karzaiâs interior minister who recently resigned, has compiled a list of â100 high-ranking Afghan officials involved in the drug trade. The list includes at least 13 former or present provincial governors and four past or present cabinet ministersâ. Informed Kabul-based diplomats estimate that at least one-quarter of the new elected members of Wolesi Jirga or House of People maintain links either with production cartels or with traffickers.
Some half-million Afghan families sow poppy as a cash crop. Afghan poppy growers, however, remain subsistence farmers whereby 90 percent of drug-related income goes to well-connected traffickers and their powerful political backers. Strangely, most international anti-drug campaigns continue to be directed against poor farmers while traffickers build multi-storied plazas in Kabul.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime claims that â170,000 Afghans now use opium or heroin. About 30,000 of those addicts are women, a shockingly high number in such a conservative Muslim societyâ.
Bush dreams of stabilising Afghanistan but with drugs comes crime and crime means continued instability. Bushâs Afghanistan is a narco-state and narco-dollars are being controlled by Americaâs political allies.
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