-Caveat Lector- The Washington Times www.washingtontimes.com
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030109-93642922.htm > Federal law enforcement authorities expect the 2002 opium > production total in Afghanistan to be about 3,700 tons, compared with > 185 tons in 2000. In 1999, Afghanistan produced a record 5,070 tons of > opium. >>>Note that this was the time when the Taleban consolidated (2000) and they were awarded something like $43million for their good deeds in reducing the output. Note also that the increase was expected in production to sate the "Great Satans' " appetites after the attacks on Afghanland. Note also that figures for 2001 are somehow not there. Reuters (via Rense) cites the 185 ton figure for 2001 [see below]. They also use fugures of between 1,900 and 2,700 tons for 2002. Now ... if someone "knows" how much, they must be able to "know" where. A<:>E<:>R <<< Afghan drug crops up despite curbs Jerry Seper THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published January 9, 2003 Opium production in Afghanistan has risen twentyfold over the past two years to levels similar to peak production under the terrorist-tied Taliban regime, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration said yesterday. DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson said independent drug traffickers had re- established traditional trade routes in the war-torn country and there had been a significant increase in the number of acres planted with opium poppies, which are processed into heroin. Mr. Hutchinson also said there were concerns the Afghan drug trade could again come under the control of terrorist organizations. "We are seeing poppy production grow, to our regret, to the same levels prior to the dismantling of the Taliban," Mr. Hutchinson told reporters during a briefing at DEA headquarters. "Eradication has been moderately successful, and we are having a measure of success in containing the operations." But, he said, while the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai was strongly opposed to opium production, there were "gaps" in efforts by the still- splintered law enforcement agencies in that country to bring it under control. Mr. Hutchinson said the Afghan government has not trained enough police to control the production of opium. Federal law enforcement authorities expect the 2002 opium production total in Afghanistan to be about 3,700 tons, compared with 185 tons in 2000. In 1999, Afghanistan produced a record 5,070 tons of opium. The Karzai government tried to pay farmers to allow the destruction of their opium crops earlier this year, but the program ran out of money. There also were violent demonstrations by Afghan farmers who opposed the program. The authorities estimated that the 3,700 tons of opium produced represented a cash crop of about $1.2 billion — in a country trying to recover from years of war. In the fiscal 2003 budget, the Justice Department implemented a $17.4 million program called "Operation Containment" aimed at identifying, targeting, investigating, disrupting and dismantling transnational heroin-trafficking organizations in Afghanistan. The department said the links to terrorism made combating heroin production in Central Asia critical to U.S. security. It said Operation Containment would use a "multifaceted approach to drug enforcement involving a series of investigative, diplomatic and training initiatives." Under Operation Containment, the DEA has directed enforcement and intelligence assets to dismantle all organizations, including terrorist groups, engaged in drug trafficking. Before the U.S.-led war against the Taliban, Afghanistan was a major source for cultivation, processing and trafficking of heroin, and accounted for more than 70 percent of the world's supply of illicit opium in 1999. Morphine base and heroin produced in Afghanistan were trafficked worldwide and narcotics was the largest source of income in Afghanistan as a result of the decimation of the country's economic infrastructure. The ousted Taliban militia controlled the opium trade, according to government estimates. The sale of the product, authorities said, brought the Taliban as much as $40 million a year with some of the cash going to the terrorists who hid and trained in that country, including Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist network. The Taliban taxed opium harvests, heroin production and drug shipments to help finance its purchases of arms and war materials, pay for terrorist training, and support the operation of Islamist extremists in neighboring countries. In January 2002 the Afghan Interim Authority (AIA) announced a ban on poppy cultivation and began an eradication program that targeted about a quarter of the 2002 spring poppy crop. Copyright ?#169; 2003 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. Rense.com http://www.rense.com/general29/rpo.htm Afghanistan's Opium Production Rises Sharply By Jason Hopps 9-25-2 LONDON (Reuters) - Opium cultivation in Afghanistan, once the world's biggest producer of the illicit drug, has shot up by more than 2,000 tons since the Taliban were driven from power last year, according to a report published on Thursday. The report's authors said the nascent boom in Afghan poppy production -- banned by the Taliban -- highlighted the urgent need to rebuild the country's shattered infrastructure and wean farmers off the lucrative crop. Afghan opium is used to make most of the heroin sold in Europe and almost all the heroin that illegally enters Britain. "The expected large rise in Afghan opium production is a major concern," said Roger Howard of DrugScope, Britain's leading drugs charity "If we are to stop the return to full-scale opium production, the international community must fulfil its commitment to help rebuild Afghan society, giving communities and individuals another option," he said. The report said that the total yield for Afghan opium production will be between 1,900 and 2,700 metric tons for 2002 -- up from the relatively meager 185 tons produced in 2001, before a U.S.-led bombing campaign smashed the Taliban. Although production was still below levels reached in 1999, the report warned that a return to widespread poppy production in Afghanistan was a strong possibility. The blossoming opium industry is also causing concern within Afghanistan, where the government is taking tentative steps to stamp out poppy growing, but many farmers say they have not been compensated for giving up the crop. The governor in one of Afghanistan's drug producing provinces said on Monday that money was needed to compensate farmers: "When the government orders a total ban, we want to implement it," said the governor of Nangarhar province, Haji Deen Mohammad. "But we need aid and job creation projects to keep the farmers satisfied, to stop it peacefully rather than using force," he said. In June, British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged the complete elimination of opium poppies from Afghanistan within 10 years. The DrugScope report will be presented to an international drug trafficking conference in Paris on Thursday. Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/global/drugs/00120801.htm 08 December 2000 Fact Sheet: Opium, Heroin Production in Afghanistan U.N. bans sale of chemical used for heroin manufacture Following is the text of a U.S. Department of State fact sheet released December 8 on opium and heroin production under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan: (begin fact sheet) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE FACT SHEET THE TALIBAN AND THE AFGHAN DRUG TRADE -- The United Nations Security Council Resolution introduced on December 7, 2000, calls on all parties in Afghanistan to observe the existing international conventions to work for the elimination of illicit cultivation of opium poppy. Further, the resolution includes a measure to ban the export to Afghanistan of a precursor chemical, acetic anhydride, which is used to manufacture heroin. -- The international community agrees that these further measures are necessary because Afghan territory under Taliban control is now the largest producer in the world of illicit opium, which is refined into heroin. Narcotics-related income strengthens the Taliban's capacity to provide support for international terrorism. -- The Taliban benefit directly from poppy cultivation by imposing a tax on the opium crop, and they also profit indirectly from its processing and trafficking. -- The Taliban's support for, or acquiescence to, poppy cultivation and narcotics manufacture and trade has further exacerbated the humanitarian crisis of the Afghan people. The explosion of poppy cultivation under the Taliban has reduced agricultural land available for food crops at the very time that Afghanistan is suffering the worst drought in a generation. -- In recent years, the Taliban have announced several bans on poppy cultivation, but there has been little evidence that these bans are credible. MASSIVE POPPY CULTIVATION HARMS THE AFGHAN PEOPLE -- Afghanistan's opium crop of 3,656 metric tons accounted for 72 percent of the world's illicit opium in 2000. -- Since 1997 over 96 percent of the opium-poppy crop has been cultivated in Taliban-controlled areas. -- Opium-poppy cultivation in Afghanistan continues to increase, in spite of a devastating drought and decrees from the Taliban leadership banning poppy cultivation. -- Poppy is cultivated at the expense of wheat and other food crops, desperately needed by the people of Afghanistan, and is planted on the best available land with productive soils, irrigation, and fertilizer, not on previously uncultivated or marginal lands. THE EXPLOSION OF POPPY CULTIVATION UNDER THE TALIBAN -- In 1992-93, Afghanistan's poppy cultivation stood at about 20,000 hectares, mostly in Nangarhar province, which is located between Pakistan's North West Frontier province and Kabul in Afghanistan. -- Poppy then began to invade Helmand province where it has increased 800 percent since 1993. -- Helmand borders on Qandahar province, the Taliban's power base, and harbors traditional smuggling routes to Pakistan and Iran. -- Helmand also contains the HAVA irrigation system built by the United States Agency for International Development in the 1950's. This irrigated area has been modern Afghanistan's breadbasket. -- Massive poppy cultivation in Helmand has developed since the Taliban took control of the area, and with the full knowledge of Taliban authorities. -- The irrigation system minimizes the effects of drought and supports high- yielding opium poppy from year to year. -- Poppy cultivation overall for Afghanistan has climbed from 41,720 hectares in 1998 to 64,510 hectares in 2000, mainly as a result of increases in Helmand. Taliban-controlled Helmand province alone now accounts for 39 percent of the world's illicit opium. TALIBAN'S BANS ON POPPY CULTIVATION LACK CREDIBILITY -- The United States funded a non-governmental organization to improve this irrigation system for alternative crops in 1998 and 1999 in a failed effort to test the Taliban leadership's sincerity on narcotics control. -- The Taliban decreed a ban on opium in August 1997 and in 1999 ordered a one-third decrease in poppy cultivation. No positive results were reported from either action. -- On July 28, 2000, Taliban leader Mullah Omar issued a ban on the cultivation and trafficking of opium and repeated this ban in October, ordering the Taliban to plow up fields planted to poppy. The international community will monitor these developments closely. -- There have been media reports that the Taliban have arrested some farmers in Nangarhar province for sowing poppy (but not in Helmand). Even so, credible reports from counter-narcotics officials in neighboring states report that drugs from Afghanistan are "bursting" across their borders. -- The Afghan drug trade is deeply entrenched globally. After two years of bumper crops, opium stocks are likely to be at record levels. -- According to the UNDCP, farmgate prices for fresh opium declined from about $40/kg in 1999 to $30/kg in 2000, a significant drop in price, further indicating increasing cultivation of opium, despite UNDCP claims that production fell in 2000. -- Under the Taliban, the international community has not been able to employ the appropriate monitoring means required to verify the Taliban's claims of enforcement action against drugs. -- In one example in April 2000, the Taliban publicly plowed under some poppy crops in the presence of media observers. However, the size of the crop destroyed was greatly exaggerated and may have already been harvested. Independent experts have not verified the Taliban's claims. -- The Taliban admit to imposing the same ushr, a 10 percent tax, on poppy as they impose on other agricultural crops. This tax can be paid in cash or kind. This is clear evidence that Taliban officials have to handle opium and, from the viewpoint of farmers, is a green light to cultivate an illicit crop. -- The media have reported sizeable narcotics processing complexes in Helmand, and open opium markets in Nangarhar. Both exist in full view of Taliban authorities. (end fact sheet) This site is produced and maintained by the U.S. Department of State. Links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views contained therein. Return to the article A<:>E<:>R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Forwarded for your information. The text and intent of the article has to stand on its own merits. Therefore, unless I am a first-hand witness to any event described, I cannot attest to its validity. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumoured by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of teachers, elders or wise men. Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all. Then accept it and live up to it." The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutra <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
