From Workers World October 10, 2002

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. occupation and war.

The wife of the U.S. officer 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.

- END -

(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@wwpublish.com. Subscribe wwnews-on@wwpublish.com. Unsubscribe wwnews-off@wwpublish.com. Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)

#