[MossadConspiracy]

Taliban Push Poppy Production to a Record Again
By DAVID ROHDE

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Aug. 25 — Afghanistan produced record levels of opium in 2007 for the second straight year, led by a staggering 45 percent increase in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand Province, according to a new United Nations survey to be released Monday.

The report is likely to spark renewed debate about the United States’ $600 million counternarcotics program in Afghanistan, which has been dogged by security challenges and endemic corruption within the Afghan government.

“I think it is safe to say that we should be looking for a new strategy,” said William B. Wood, the American ambassador to Afghanistan, commenting on the report’s overall findings. “And I think that we are finding one.”

Mr. Wood said the current American programs for eradication, interdiction and alternative livelihoods should be intensified, but he added that spraying poppy crops with herbicide remained “a possibility.” Afghan and British officials have opposed spraying, saying it would drive farmers into the arms of the Taliban.

While the report found that opium production dropped in northern Afghanistan, Western officials briefed on the assessment said, cultivation rose in the south, where Taliban insurgents urge farmers to grow poppies.

Although common farmers make comparatively little from the trade, opium is a major source of financing for the Taliban, who gain public support by protecting farmers’ fields from eradication, according to American officials. They also receive a cut of the trade from traffickers they protect.

In Taliban-controlled areas, traffickers have opened more labs that process raw opium into heroin, vastly increasing its value. The number of drug labs in Helmand rose to roughly 50 from 30 the year before, and about 16 metric tons of chemicals used in heroin production have been confiscated this year.

The Western officials briefed on the report said countrywide production had increased from 2006 to 2007, but they did not know the final United Nations figure. They estimated a countrywide increase of 10 to 30 percent.

The new survey showed positive signs as well, officials said.

The sharp drop in poppy production in the north is likely to make this year’s countrywide increase smaller than the growth in 2006. Last year, a 160 percent increase in Helmand’s opium crop fueled a 50 percent nationwide increase. Afghanistan produced a record 6,100 metric tons of opium poppies last year, 92 percent of the world’s supply. Here in Helmand, the breadth of the poppy trade is staggering. A sparsely populated desert province twice the size of Maryland, Helmand produces more narcotics than any country on earth, including Myanmar, Morocco and Colombia. Rampant poverty, corruption among local officials, a Taliban resurgence and spreading lawlessness have turned the province into a narcotics juggernaut.

Poppy prices that are 10 times higher than those for wheat have so warped the local economy that some farmhands refused to take jobs harvesting legal crops this year, local farmers said. And farmers dismiss the threat of eradication, arguing that so many local officials are involved in the poppy trade that a significant clearing of crops will never be done.

American and British officials say they have a long-term strategy to curb poppy production modeled after successful, decade-long efforts in Pakistan and Thailand. About 7,000 British troops are gradually extending the government’s authority in some areas, they said. And the United States Agency for International Development is mounting a $160 million alternative livelihoods program in southern Afghanistan, most of it in Helmand.

Loren Stoddard, director of the aid agency’s agriculture program in Afghanistan, cited American-financed agricultural fairs, the introduction of high-paying legal crops and the planned construction of a new industrial park and airport as evidence that alternatives were being created.

Mr. Stoddard, who helped Wal-Mart move into Central America in his previous posting, predicted that poppy production had become so prolific in Helmand that the opium market was flooded and prices were beginning to drop.

“It seems likely they’ll have a rough year this year,” he said, referring to Helmand’s poppy farmers. “Labor prices are up and poppy prices are down. I think they’re going to be looking for new things.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Stoddard and Rory Donohoe, the director of USAID’s Alternative Livelihoods program in southern Afghanistan, attended the first “Helmand Agricultural Festival.” The $300,000 American-financed gathering in Lashkar Gah was an odd cross between a Midwestern county fair and a Central Asian bazaar, designed to show Afghans an alternative to poppies.

Under a scorching sun, thousands of Afghan men meandered among booths describing fish farms, the dairy business and drip-irrigation systems. A generator, cow and goat were raffled off. Wizened elders sat on carpets and sipped green tea.

Some wealthy farmers seemed genuinely interested. Others seemed keen to attend what they saw as a picnic.

When Mr. Stoddard and Mr. Donohoe arrived, they walked through the festival surrounded by a three-man British and Australian security team armed with assault rifles.

“Who won the cow? Who won the cow?” shouted Mr. Stoddard, 38, a burly former food broker from Provo, Utah. “Was it a girl or a guy?”

After Afghans began dancing to traditional drum and flute music, Mr. Donohoe, 29, from San Francisco, briefly joined them.

Afghans gave the fair mixed reviews. Haji Abdul Gafar, 28, a wealthy land-owner, expressed interest in some of the new ideas.

Saber Gul, a 40-year-old laborer, said he was too poor to take advantage. “For those who have livestock and land, they can,” he said. “For us, the poor people, there is nothing.”

Local officials said all the development programs would fail without improved security.

Assadullah Wafa, Helmand’s governor, said his own police were too weak to take and hold territory, and he praised British military attempts to extend his authority. Mr. Wafa said four of Helmand’s 13 districts were under Taliban control. Other officials put the number at six.

Mr. Wafa, who eradicated one-quarter of the acres of the governor in neighboring Kandahar Province, called for Western countries to decrease the demand for heroin.

“In the international legal system, both the growing and consuming are against the law,” he said. “The world is focusing on the production side, not the buying side.”

The day after the agricultural fair, Mr. Stoddard and Mr. Donohoe gave a tour of a $3 million American project to clear a Soviet airbase on the outskirts of town and turn it into an industrial park and civilian airport.

Standing near rusting Soviet fuel tanks, the two men described how pomegranates, a delicacy in Helmand for centuries, would be flown out to burgeoning markets in India and Dubai. Animal feed would be produced from a local mill, marble cut and polished for construction.

“Once we get this air cargo thing going,” Mr. Stoddard said, “it will open up the whole south.”

That afternoon, they showed off a pilot program for growing chili peppers on contract for a company in Dubai. “These kinds of partnerships with private companies are what we want here,” Mr. Donohoe said. “We’ll let the market drive it.”

As the Americans toured the farm, they were guarded by five Afghans and five guards from the British security firm. The farm itself had received guards after local villagers began sneaking in at night and stealing produce. Twenty-four hours a day, 24 Afghan men with assault rifles staff six guard posts that ring the farm, safeguarding chili peppers and other produce.

“Some people would say that security is so bad that you can’t do anything,” Mr. Donohoe said. “But we do it.”

Mr. Wafa, though, said the effort remained too small and was “low quality.”

“There is a proverb in Afghanistan,” he said. “By one flower we cannot mark spring.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/wo...wante d=print

[A_Muminah]

As-Salaamu 'Alaykum Wa Rahmatullaah,

lol, this article is laughable.

The United Nations itself reported that the Taliban nearly wiped out opium production in 2001 before Sept-11 because of their ban on poppy cultivation. Bleh...ah huh, whatever.

Was-Salaamu 'Alaykum Wa Rahmatullaah.

[rahat]

Can you prove that the Taliban wiped out poppy seeds? Or even that the UN reported on such a topic? Can you provide any evidence, of any sort, that anyone ever actually wrote down in a public article that Taliban abolished poppy seeds?

If not, then you are just another sympathizer of the Hell bound Taliban.

Its the Taliban themselves that are growing this ****. This is their "sharia" and just another blatant contradiction of Islam.

-
rahat

[Anderson]

Originally Posted by A_Muminah

As-Salaamu 'Alaykum Wa Rahmatullaah,

lol, this article is laughable.

The United Nations itself reported that the Taliban nearly wiped out opium production in 2001 before Sept-11 because of their ban on poppy cultivation. Bleh...ah huh, whatever.

Was-Salaamu 'Alaykum Wa Rahmatullaah.

Hillarious.

But between the laughter and hysterical thigh slapping wouldn't it be within the realms of reality that the Taliban support their insurection through poppy cultivation.

[MossadConspiracy]

Originally Posted by A_Muminah

As-Salaamu 'Alaykum Wa Rahmatullaah,

lol, this article is laughable.

The United Nations itself reported that the Taliban nearly wiped out opium production in 2001 before Sept-11 because of their ban on poppy cultivation. Bleh...ah huh, whatever.

Was-Salaamu 'Alaykum Wa Rahmatullaah.

no they never nearly wiped out opium, but there was a period under the Taliban when poppy production was lower than it had been. Right now the Taliban are no longer a government, but are instead a gang of fighters who are trying to destabilize a government. Supporting narcotics production does that very well and also provides them with a great source of income which they can use to buy guns, pay people off, recruit more fighters, and all the other stuff they need to do to keep killing, which is probably why theyre doing it

ws

[A_Muminah]

As-Salaamu 'Alaykum,

The Congressional Research Service had a report out on October 5, 2001 called "Taliban and the Drug Trade" which reported the following:

'DEA analysts note that Afghani opium production has declined dramatically from over 3,000 metric tons in 2000 to 74 metric tons through October 2001' which is when the US invaded Afghanistan. 'Some members of the US drug enforcement community suggest that a new stragey may have been adopted by the Taliban in the wake of their July 27, 2000 announced ban on cultivation. '

Was-Salaamu 'Alaykum Wa Rahmatullah

[ChotooMotoo]

declined dramatically does not equal eradication.

[A_Muminah]

As-Salaamu 'Alaykum,

Originally Posted by ChotooMotoo

declined dramatically does not equal eradication.

Miss darling, if you read my first post...you will notice I said 'nearly wiped out' and not eradication either .

And dude, would you rather prefer dramatic decline or whats happening now?

Quit complaining and BS'ing people. SubHana-Allaah. Some people are never satisfied.

Ohh, and have a nice evening

Was-Salaamu 'Alaykum Wa Rahamtullaah

[MossadConspiracy]

salam

sister, like I said, the Taliban reduced poppy production back in those days. They had a policy of executing farmers who grew it, so that got alot of them to stop pretty quickly. But things change. The Taliban are no longer the government of Afghanistan, they are a gang of insurgents trying to overthrow the government. And drugs fuel their efforts

By the way, the congressional research service isnt the UN, its a US government office. but if you trust the information that is provided by the US government, the information about the Taliban being involved in the drug trade in Helmand.

And yes, afghans are better off now than under the Taliban, by any metric that is routinely used (like per capita GDP, health outcomes, etc)

ws

[A_Muminah]

As-Salaamu 'Alaykum,

The UN reported it as well. I just didnt have enough time to find their report. You can look for it yourself if you really want to see it.

Bleh bleh. yes yes...alHumdu-Lillaah Oh and by the way...if the world actually cared for Afghanistan like it supposedly cares now back when the Soviet's pulled out...Im sure Afghanistan would have start afresh and been in a better stage during the Taliban Era as well.

Jezaaka-Allaahu Khayren

Was-Salaamu 'Alaykum Wa Rahmatullaah

[A_Muminah]

UN Says Taliban Poppy Ban Hits Farmers Hard (Part 1)

Vienna, 24 May 2001 (RFE/RL) -- Officials at the UN Drug Control Program, or UNDCP, who recently toured Afghanistan say that the Taliban's ban on opium-poppy cultivation is in almost total effect in the areas the militia controls.

The officials, who accompanied a special tour of drug experts from UN-member countries to Afghanistan last month, say they saw no signs of opium-poppy cultivation in the fertile eastern and southern areas that last year produced 75 percent of the world's opium crop.

Instead, the fields -- which are now approaching harvest time -- are filled with struggling stems of wheat. They are struggling because there is insufficient water to grow them due to Afghanistan's continuing drought. Wheat requires substantially more irrigation than do poppies.

That means that the farmers in Afghanistan's most fertile provinces will be hard hit economically this year by the Taliban's order in July not to plant opium poppies. Many farmers had become economically dependent upon growing opium over the past years.

Mohammad Amirkhizi, a special adviser on West Asia to the UNDCP's general director, told RFE/RL that the ban has achieved the long-standing goal of the UN drug control agency to eradicate opium-poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. The vast majority of the Afghan opium-poppy crop had been grown in Taliban-controlled areas.

He says that most of the farmers his team spoke with were not against the ban -- in principle.

But Amirkhizi says that at the same time, the suddenness of the ban -- implemented as a religious order with the threat of prison sentences for anyone who did not comply -- has dislocated the rural economy.

"The farmers [we talked to] were not against the decision not to cultivate opium. They were, let's say, dissatisfied with the effects on their lives. So, if one can mitigate the consequences and if they can live on licit trade -- and I don't mean very comfortably, but at least at the same level they used to, which is not much but is subsistence -- then perhaps on the farmers' side there would be no need to go back to cultivating."

One reason for the ban's severe economic impact is that in Afghanistan's war-torn economy, the only source for rural credit until now has been opium merchants. The merchants provided farmers with loans at the beginning of the planting season that assured them enough money for expenses until the next harvest. But no such credit exists for legal crops, such as wheat.

The effect of the ban is also severe because Afghanistan's devastated economy currently provides no means for getting legal crops to market -- although a highly efficient system existed for the opium trade. For most farmers, there will be no way to sell any wheat that they manage to grow despite the drought.

At the same time, the poppy cultivation ban has left thousands of migrants -- who used to help farmers harvest the sap from poppy bulbs -- with no work.

UN officials say that the economic dislocation due to the ban has caused some isolated incidences of resistance by farmers. Barbara Brueckmeyer, an Afghan project officer who took part in last month's tour, says the group found that anger with the ban was widespread in eastern Afghanistan, while people in southern areas were more compliant.

"We saw in some areas, especially in the east, that the people were extremely angry about the poppy ban. There was one district in Nangarhar province in the east where there was a demonstration of people who played their musical instruments and shaved their beards and refused to implement the ban."

She continues:

"It was one isolated incident, but it was within a wider area where people were extremely angry. We spoke to people of many districts in this province and people were very angry. I couldn't predict what will happen next planting season, but the mood of the people in this area was different than the mood of people in the southern areas, where they are more compliant with the ban."

Sandro Tucci, the UNDCP's spokesman, says that the ban on poppy growing is likely to affect some 1.2 million people -- out of the country's population of 26 million -- who are directly involved in the opium business. Those directly engaged in the business included farmers and traders. But Tucci says the economic impact on Afghanistan's economy as a whole will be limited.

"Some 1.8 to 2 percent of the agricultural land of Afghanistan was cultivated with opium. Even though these are very populated regions, you are still talking about a very small fraction of the population which was depending on the income from opium growing." Tucci says that opium-poppy cultivation earned Afghan farmers some $69 million a year.

The UNDCP spokesman says that the Taliban is unlikely to suffer from the opium-poppy ban because the militia is believed to have earned only some $20 million a year by taxing the harvest. Most of the Taliban's revenues come from other sources.

Ahmed Rashid, an Islamabad-based journalist for Hong Kong's "Far East Economic Review" and an expert on Afghanistan, has estimated that the Taliban has a war budget of some $100 million. Rashid says most of that comes from taxes on the illegal smuggling of consumer items into Pakistan using Afghanistan as a cover.

Even though opium-poppy cultivation now has ended in Taliban-controlled areas, opium poppies continue to grow in the some 10 percent of Afghanistan controlled by the northern alliance, a loose grouping of forces opposing the Taliban.

Peter Tejler, the head of an EU mission that recently visited northern alliance areas, reported yesterday that his group saw "a lot" of opium-poppy fields on its way to the border with Tajikistan.

The UNDCP is now undertaking an annual full-country survey of Afghanistan's poppy fields with results due to be issued in mid-August. Officials expect the annual survey to fully confirm the Taliban's eradication of poppy growing in its areas.

The rest of the parts to this article can be found here.

[Aryan_]

Damn...this is going to bring street prices down and cut into my profit margins.

[IbnAbdullah]

You guys are funny; Taliban are under attack, almost the whole kafir world has invaded their country, they are not being supported by anyone except Allah, as kuffar believe 'everything is fair in war' this should be 'fair' in case of Taliban too. Therefore it is true or not, because we as believers shouldn't believe in the words of Kuffar of New York Times as they are the supporters of kafir criminals but again, if Taliban are not using 'poppy tactics' against kuffar in Afghanistan, they are not doing something 'intelligent'. Taliban should do everything to 'damage' and 'destroy' kuffar in Afghanistan even if that doesn't please the Munafiqeen, those who call themselves Muslims but act like kuffar.

[IbnAbdullah]

Originally Posted by rahat

Can you prove that the Taliban wiped out poppy seeds? Or even that the UN reported on such a topic? Can you provide any evidence, of any sort, that anyone ever actually wrote down in a public article that Taliban abolished poppy seeds?

If not, then you are just another sympathizer of the Hell bound Taliban.

Its the Taliban themselves that are growing this ****. This is their "sharia" and just another blatant contradiction of Islam.

-
rahat

Taliban are not mushrikeen to worship 12 gods, their sharia is something you can't understand, your comments are not welcome that's why.