Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Philadelphia Inquirer
January 3, 2008 By Jason Straziuso, Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S. general in charge of NATO's Afghanistan mission said yesterday that he expected another year of "explosive growth" in the country's poppy fields, a harvest that extremists will turn into weapons for use against Afghan and NATO troops.
Gen. Dan McNeill said NATO commanders in Europe had told him to step up the counternarcotics fight this year, "and I will."
"The money associated with poppy and opiate production continues to appear to be very good," McNeill told a news conference. "So without pressure or incentives or dissuasion to keep people from growing it, I expect the amount grown next year to increase."
After a record haul in 2006, Afghan farmers increased opium production about 34 percent in 2007. Afghanistan last year produced 93 percent of the world's opium, the main ingredient in heroin. Its export value was estimated at $4 billion.
McNeill, the commander of the 39-nation International Security Assistance Force, estimated that insurgents get 20 percent to 40 percent of their income from drugs, but he said some U.N. officials had told him the number could be as high as 60 percent.
"So when I see a poppy field, I see it turning into money that turns into [weapons] that are used to kill Afghans and members of the International Security Assistance Force," McNeill said.
He said that Afghanistan's record opium crop last year was due in part to the abundant rains Afghanistan received. He said the country expected more good rainfall this year.
NATO's leaders in Brussels have made clear, McNeill said, that he is to use the current ISAF mandate to its fullest extent "to help the people of Afghanistan rid themselves of this scourge."
He made clear that NATO would not be involved in eradication of poppies from fields but that it could bear down on drug growers and dealers connected to the insurgency.
Links between drug growers and insurgents have been thought to be expanding in recent years. Proof of that came when Afghan and NATO forces last month recaptured from militants the town of Musa Qala in Helmand province, the world's largest poppy-growing region.
They discovered dozens of heroin labs and stockpiles of drugs worth $500 million in street value, according to U.S. Ambassador William Wood.
January 3, 2008 By Jason Straziuso, Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S. general in charge of NATO's Afghanistan mission said yesterday that he expected another year of "explosive growth" in the country's poppy fields, a harvest that extremists will turn into weapons for use against Afghan and NATO troops.
Gen. Dan McNeill said NATO commanders in Europe had told him to step up the counternarcotics fight this year, "and I will."
"The money associated with poppy and opiate production continues to appear to be very good," McNeill told a news conference. "So without pressure or incentives or dissuasion to keep people from growing it, I expect the amount grown next year to increase."
After a record haul in 2006, Afghan farmers increased opium production about 34 percent in 2007. Afghanistan last year produced 93 percent of the world's opium, the main ingredient in heroin. Its export value was estimated at $4 billion.
McNeill, the commander of the 39-nation International Security Assistance Force, estimated that insurgents get 20 percent to 40 percent of their income from drugs, but he said some U.N. officials had told him the number could be as high as 60 percent.
"So when I see a poppy field, I see it turning into money that turns into [weapons] that are used to kill Afghans and members of the International Security Assistance Force," McNeill said.
He said that Afghanistan's record opium crop last year was due in part to the abundant rains Afghanistan received. He said the country expected more good rainfall this year.
NATO's leaders in Brussels have made clear, McNeill said, that he is to use the current ISAF mandate to its fullest extent "to help the people of Afghanistan rid themselves of this scourge."
He made clear that NATO would not be involved in eradication of poppies from fields but that it could bear down on drug growers and dealers connected to the insurgency.
Links between drug growers and insurgents have been thought to be expanding in recent years. Proof of that came when Afghan and NATO forces last month recaptured from militants the town of Musa Qala in Helmand province, the world's largest poppy-growing region.
They discovered dozens of heroin labs and stockpiles of drugs worth $500 million in street value, according to U.S. Ambassador William Wood.