Pentagon in on the take?
Afghan opium production soars
By Deirdre Griswold
If anyone still needs proof that the "war on drugs" is a
monumental fraud and red herring, here it is:
According to the BBC-TV World News of Sept. 26, the amount
of opium produced in Afghanistan has increased by 14 times
since the U.S. military overthrew the Taliban and occupied the
country.
The news report warned: "A huge increase in Afghan opium
production has raised fears of a new influx of heroin into
European cities. Latest estimates suggest that poppy
cultivation has increased by up to 1,400 percent since the
removal of the Taliban regime at the end of last year."
The estimate comes from the British organization Drugscope,
which presented its findings to an international conference in
Paris.
Last year, because of a ban on opium production imposed by
the Taliban, just 85 tons were produced. This year, the figure
is expected to be between 1,900 and 2,700 tons.
The report stresses that Afghan farmers are in desperate
shape and need some other source of income if opium production
is banned. Opium earns 10 times as much per acre as other
crops. About 90 percent of the heroin sold in Britain
originates in Afghanistan.
The phony war on drugs is being used right now by the U.S.
government as an excuse to carry out the anti-guerrilla war in
Colombia. The FARC-EP has been fighting for basic social change
in that country for over three decades--including an agrarian
reform program so that poor farmers don't have to turn to
producing coca to make a living.
The situation in Afghanistan raises the question, how many
U.S. military commanders are in on the take? They were in on
the action in South Vietnam when drugs became a big export
product there during the U.S.ccupation and war.
The wife of the U.S.fficer in charge of the whole "war on
drugs" in Colombia pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn federal court
in May 2000 after evidence was presented that she shipped
$700,000 worth of cocaine to the U.S. from Bogota through the
U.S. Embassy's diplomatic pouch. Col. James Hiett himself was
later convicted of "misprision"--accepting $25,000 of the drug
money from her in cash and using it to pay their bills.
The whole affair got hardly any notice from the corporate
media--which shows that their editorial policy is driven first
and foremost by politics, not sensationalism.
Reprinted from the Oct. 10, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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