If at first you don't succeed, LIE, LIE again
In an effort to justify US plans to remain indefinitely in Afghanistan, again the US peddles the flagrant lie that the Taliban supports the country's opium trade, while the US fights it.
Afghanistan's Taliban-led insurgency is likely to worsen this year as new NATO troops replace battle-hardened American forces in some areas and the government pushes ahead with an aggressive anti-drug campaign . . .What a load of shit.
Afghanistan supplies nearly 90 percent of the world's opium and heroin and some of the profits from the illicit business are believed to go to the Taliban.
The government, backed by hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. and British money, has launched a campaign to forcibly eradicate poppies in many areas - a move that is believed to have prompted armed resistance from traffickers.
The United Nations Drug Control Program says the world's biggest heroin producing country, Afghanistan, has gone out of the drug business.That explains why "[t]he British, the Dutch and the Canadians have deployed thousands of soldiers in recent months" - to re-establish the lucrative trade.
A UNDCP report to be released next month [August 2001] will say Afghanistan has completely eradicated cultivation of the opium poppy, the plant producing the resin which is refined into heroin.
"We do not grow poppies and we will not grow them. This is a Taliban edict and it must be obeyed," Sheikh Rashimi, leader of the village of Spenghagbarga, told the CBC's Patrick Brown.
Spenghagbarga is just a dusty truck stop of a village. It used to be a way station on the long journey from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to the heroin dealers on the streets of Moscow, London, New York and Vancouver.
The Taliban's ban on opium products has cost many people their livelihoods. But no one dares defy the ban.But, alas. Little facts like these don't deter the US propaganda machine. If at first they don't succeed, they just lie and lie again.
Last year Afghanistan produced almost 4,000 tonnes of opium. This year's figure is ZERO.
Bernard Frahi of the UN Drug Control Program confirms those numbers. But now, he says, Afghanistan's farmers need help.
"Since they did something that is remarkable, and deserve respect by the international community, they deserve our respect and support to help their families," he said.
posted by qrswave @ Monday, April 03, 2006
9 Comments:
I wonder if Boltons influence had anything to do with the reports findings.
Bolton? Which report? The one in 2001? I doubt it.
QRS,
I read that there was a massive stockpile of poppy seeds prior to the invasion of Afghanistan. This massive stockpile means that, even if there has not been any new production of the opium, there's enough on the ground to make up for that.
link please.
QRS,
Okay, I made a mistake. Poppy production increased after the fall of the Taliban, but the Taliban did not stop drug production. There was a stockpile when the Taliban took over which was sold during Taliban years. I actually meant to say this, but my mind got a bit jumbled when I typed. :-p
This is a scholarly article about the poppy trade.
http://www.american.edu/TED/taliban-poppy.htm
Interesting article-Where the imaginary "war on drugs" meets the imaginary "war on terra".
From http://mondediplo.com/2002/03/13drug
Most heroin sold in Europe comes from Afghanistan’s poppies - it is said up to 90% (2002 estimate).
Iran is on the shortest route from the producers in Afghanistan to European consumers. The Central Asian states of the former Soviet Union have split into separate countries, with many borders to cross. Via Iran, there are only two." Once the smugglers have crossed into Iran, they stick to the mountainous areas in the north and south until they reach the Turkish border. Near Yazd, in central Iran, the Baluchi and Afghan carriers hand over their cargo to Azeris, Persians and Kurds.
So now the Nato (Canadian, British & Dutch) forces are to control that border & hence the passage of opium/heroin.
In 2002 it was reported that around 10% of Iran’s armed forces, are deployed along the eastern border (inc Afghanistan – where the opium/heroin passes through); 1,950 kilometres from Turkmenistan, in the north, down to the Indian Ocean. The border has more than 200 observation posts, dozens of walls blocking mountain passes and hundreds of kilometres of trenches and barbed wire, an investment of $1bn, plus upkeep. Iran’s majlis (parliament) allocated $25m to improve border fortifications in 2000: 3,140 members of the security forces, including two generals, have been killed in skirmishes with smugglers since 1979, a rate of three a day (3).
Also worth noting is that Iran has probably the HIGHEST incidence of opium/heroin addiction in the world – over 2 million users in a population of approx 73 million people.
As always, Byrne, thanks for the outstanding information and link.
The linking of War on Terrorism, Energy & Drugs is nothing new.
See the article Big Oil and the War on Drugs and Terrorism
here
http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/OilDrugsTerrorism.html
Other excellent Nexus articles are available here
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