Afghanistan and narco terrorism

July 9, 9:22 PMPortland Drug Policy ExaminerJohn English

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Announced about a week and a half ago, the U.S. government is about to make a dramatic departure from its (supposed) previous anti-drug attack – the eradication of the opium poppy.

Richard Holbrooke, stated recently at the G-8 conference in Trieste, Italy, that American troops in Afghanistan were now going to be focused on impacting the world’s opium trade by new methods.

The truth is eradication has basically failed because it’s been Afghanistan’s political “hot potato.” According to Narco-terrorism experts Rachel Ehrenfeld and Walton Cook, the drug trade there put hundreds of millions of dollars in the coffers of terrorism and something needed to be done!

Opium has been the Afghan farmer’s premier cash crop, supplying 80 - 90% of the world’s heroin, but that the opiate output has risen dramatically since the 2001 U.S. attacks on local-based terrorists. This opium tar-like substance was shipped from India (in a false bottom box) to a commercial enterprise to Georgia. 

The opium crop has financially supported the Taliban, said, Holbrooke, but he began to back-peddle stating 'some crop eradication would take place but only in limited areas', and that eradication is to be “phased out”. From here on, the emphasis would be a three-pronged attack: 1) intercepting the drugs, 2) intercepting the chemical precursors used to make heroin, and 3) going after the drug lords.

Next, Italian Foreign Minister Frattini stated the U.S. planned to cut back funding for the eradication but was allocating several hundred million dollars to support “legal crop cultivation ? ? ?” When discussed previously, that always referred to morphine, also an opiate.

The U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime stated they are committed to a joint effort with Afghanistan, and Pakistan officials to stop al-Qaeda’s drug trafficking. Iran, known to be supporting (Hamas and Hezbullah terrorist) declined to attend the meeting. Afghanistan worried about the recent turmoil in neighboring Iran, also faces an election and President Karzai seems to be concerned about Afghanistan being seen as free, fair, and credible.

Complicating the region even more, Pakistan’s war against the Taliban is progressing in the Swat Valley but has displaced near 2 million people. The question is, … where will the terrorists attack? Will they try to continue and destabilize the refugee problem, try to retake the lucrative Heroin trade or both?

Narco-terrorist experts Ehrenfeld and Cook brought up a comparison that stings to the quick … stating that the 21,000 child casualties to drugs in 2003 would equal 7 - 9/11 attacks on the twin towers / Pentagon / and Pennsylvania. They also noted that it was the UK that had control of the money meant for eradication - that didn’t happen and that it’s the poppy crop / heroin money that funds the warlords - that it’s complicated and interlinked and rules the entire region.

Also, a mycoherbicide, (pleospora papaveracea) was considered and thought to be successful for eradicating the opium poppy. It was experimented with for years (mainly by the CIA against the coca and other mycoherbicides also targeting marijuana plants), after discovery in the Soviet union, but they never came to fruition. The U.N. vetoed the idea and discarded it after the realization of the harm done to mammals.

Though discussed, according to the website then Senator Biden was one of the supporters of mycoherbicides for eradicating drug crops back in 2005.

Another anti-drug-war website stated, “The State Department doesn't want to touch it. The CIA backs away from it. The DEA has washed its hand of it. The drug czar scoffs at it. Nobody in the federal government wants to get involved with mycoherbicides, the pathogenic fungi that could theoretically be applied to coca crops in the Andes, opium crops in Afghanistan, or any other crop, for that matter.”

Cattle die on tansy weed here in the U.S. The “planting” of caterpillars that target the tansy weed here in Oregon was a good idea, but these mycoherbicides are something that’s probably very unwise to mess with.

Violent Columbian and Mexican cartels are now suspected to be working with international terrorists. Legalizers promote growing pot locally to eliminate this connection, meanwhile they refuse to admit that for decades their buying drugs have been supporting the cartels and that they’ve been the root of the problem!

Rachel Ehrenfeld is a member of Drug Watch International.

Most members of Drug Watch International have supported the eradication of the Afghanistan poppy crop for years.