The United Nations drug agency wants "effective surgery" to eliminate the "cancer" of opium production in Afghanistan. It's a bad analogy. Poppy cultivation isn't a fire we can stamp out or a disease we can cure. It's an industry. Economic laws created it, and economic laws will determine its future. In its World Drug Report 2007, the agency reports that drug production in Afghanistan is at record levels. Nothing -- not the ban imposed by the Taliban when they were in power, not the post-Taliban attempts to change habits -- has been a permanent and countrywide solution. Why do farmers persist in growing poppies? [continues 455 words]
The Taleban Aren't Going To Like This . . . Britain leads a #1-billion-a-year international programme to eradicate illicit opium production in Afghanistan by destroying farmers' poppies and persuading them to grow other crops. As an anti-narcotics strategy, this programme is a demonstrable failure. In terms of counter-terrorism, it is a disaster. But a scheme unveiled this week can, finally, offer some hope. Six years into the eradication programme, Afghanistan produces 92 per cent of the world's opium, more than ever before. [continues 881 words]
And Much Of It From One Unruly Region Of Afghanistan THE smell of the Afghan poppy season is unmistakable, even from the open door of a Black Hawk helicopter. NATO Soldiers in Helmand province see the expanse of purple and pink blossoms flashing by, but they do little to stop drug production; they worry instead about Taliban fighters mingling among the villagers, and are grateful to avoid being shot down. Yet the opium economy and the insurgency are mutually reinforcing; drugs finance the Taliban, while their violence encourages poppy cultivation. Not surprisingly, perhaps, both problems have grown more severe in recent years, nowhere more so than in Helmand. [continues 1403 words]
Southern Province Set To Become 'World's Biggest Drug Supplier' UNITED NATIONS - The world's drug supply problem is "being contained," with one glaring exception -- heroin production in southern Afghanistan, a global study by the United Nations says. World Drug Report 2007, to be released today in Vienna by the UN's Office of Drugs and Crime, warns that the supply of heroin-producing opiates from the region where Canada's biggest overseas force is deployed is rising so rapidly that it threatens to drive up heroin consumption around the globe. [continues 527 words]
Coaxing Afghan farmers to plant crops other than poppies has been tried before. As the ultimate incentive, a Canadian general is advocating buying those alternative crops for the same price as opium EDMONTON - The first contact that an Afghan farmer will often have with Hamid Karzai's federal government in far-off Kabul is when an armed government convoy comes to bulldoze the crop in his field, says Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, the Canadian general who commanded NATO forces in southern Afghanistan last year. [continues 1898 words]
Re: Buying Afghan Poppies No Solution, letter to the editor, June 5. Colonel Brian MacDonald claims that there is no global shortage of morphine. I would like to point out that the International Narcotics Control Board acknowledges that six countries -- Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia -- consume more than 80% of the world's morphine. That leaves millions of people, particularly cancer and HIV/ AIDS sufferers in developing countries, to live and die in unnecessary pain with little or no access. [continues 178 words]
Canadian Funds to Fight Narcotics Trade Left Unspent UNITED NATIONS - Four months after Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a substantial increase in funding for Afghan reconstruction and development -- with a large portion of the new money slated for anti-drug programs -- Afghanistan's cumbersome bureaucracy has managed to spend only a fraction of the windfall. Britain, chief donor to the US$42.3-million fund, is so alarmed it has "turned off the [money] tap" until Afghanistan's ministries show they can spend the cash, which has languished in the Counter Narcotics Trust Fund since its inception in 2005. [continues 692 words]
The Chief Donor to the Fund, Britain, Is So Alarmed by the Lack of Progress That Is Has 'Turned Off the Tap,' Writes Steven Edwards at the United Nations. Back in February, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced to great fanfare that his government would substantially increase its funding for Afghan reconstruction and development. A big portion of that new money, Mr. Harper said, was earmarked for anti-drug programs, including a fund to be spent by the Afghan government. It now emerges the Afghan bureaucracy is so cumbersome that almost $42.3 million U.S. that Canada and other donors have given to the Counter Narcotics Trust Fund since its 2005 launch is languishing in bank accounts, unused. [continues 507 words]
At home, the red European wild poppy is a symbol of Canada's military heritage. But the Canadian soldiers of today are trudging through fields of opium poppies every day in Afghanistan, and for them, the potent tall-stalked plant has become a contemporary symbol of the frustrations of nation-building in a failed state. Illicit poppy production is simultaneously a hard-to-replace source of income for thousands of small Afghan farmers and a valuable source of revenue for the enemies of NATO and the legitimate Afghan government. Over 90% of the world's illegal raw opium is thought to come from Afghanistan. Ultimately, its by-products go on to wreak havoc in cities around the world. [continues 707 words]
As Heroin Trade Grows, A Nixon-Era Plan In Turkey Provides A Model. Afghanistan provides more than 90% of the world's heroin, which is made from poppies. The amount has skyrocketed since the Taliban regime that sheltered Osama bin Laden was toppled in 2001. The poppy boom feeds heroin addicts in Europe and in the USA. It also provides income for the resurgent Taliban, which is battling American and NATO forces and which has decided that its religious strictures against drugs don't preclude it from cashing in on the heroin trade. [continues 394 words]
Afghanistan's opium crop appears set to rise by up to 20 per cent in the wake of last year's record haul, prompting calls for NATO and United States forces to play a bigger role in the war on drugs. With growing drug profits flowing to the Taleban, western governments are being urged to use a two-pronged approach: combining their efforts on anti-narcotics and anti-terrorism. Thomas Schweich, a senior US state department official, has briefed NATO ambassadors in Brussels and General Dan McNeill, the top NATO general in Afghanistan, on the need for increased military co-operation on the drug front. [continues 1042 words]
The occupation forces in Afghanistan are supporting the drug trade, which brings between 120 and 194 billion dollars of revenues to organized crime, intelligence agencies and Western financial institutions. The proceeds of this lucrative multibllion dollar contraband are deposited in Western banks. Almost the totality of revenues accrue to corporate interests and criminal syndicates outside Afghanistan. The Golden Crescent drug trade, launched by the CIA in the early 1980s, continues to be protected by US intelligence, in liason with NATO occupation forces and the British military. In recent developments, British occupation forces have promoted opium cultivation through paid radio advertisements. [continues 1408 words]
The occupation forces in Afghanistan are supporting the drug trade, which brings between 120 and 194 billion dollars of revenues to organized crime, intelligence agencies and Western financial institutions. The proceeds of this lucrative multibllion dollar contraband are deposited in Western banks. Almost the totality of revenues accrue to corporate interests and criminal syndicates outside Afghanistan. The Golden Crescent drug trade, launched by the CIA in the early 1980s, continues to be protected by US intelligence, in liason with NATO occupation forces and the British military. In recent developments, British occupation forces have promoted opium cultivation through paid radio advertisements. [continues 1409 words]
'Under the Current Strategy, the Military Situation Has Grown Worse' Is it possible that there is an economic key to the problem of Afghanistan that will prove more effective than the military methods applied so far? As the rundown of UK strength in Iraq comes nearer, our commitment in Afghanistan looks ever more open-ended, and the prospect there increasingly alarming. Current policies to defeat the Taliban by military means and cut the flow of heroin to Western countries by destroying the poppy crops have manifestly failed. The number of UK and NATO troops has gone on rising, but the Taliban are resurgent. Poppy production has reached record levels. [continues 881 words]
Even before the Senlis Council, an international police think tank, released its latest survey on the situation in southern Afghanistan, the Canadian defence establishment was already circling the wagons. A flurry of e-mails was dispatched to the mailing list of the Conference of Defence Associations (CDA), alerting its members to the fact that previous Senlis Council findings "have been less than positive about this mission." Presumably, in the eyes of the CDA, the publishing of negative assessments automatically damages the credibility of the independent Senlis Council. [continues 628 words]
Losing Hearts to Taliban Last week, even before the Senlis Council released its latest survey on the situation in southern Afghanistan, the Canadian defence establishment was circling the wagons. A flurry of e-mails alerted Conference of Defence Associations (CDA) members to the fact that previous Senlis Council findings "have been less than positive about this mission." Presumably, in the eyes of the CDA, the publishing of negative assessments automatically damages the credibility of the independent Senlis Council. That's right old chaps, the army says we're winning the war, so thump those tubs and drown out any naysayers! [continues 522 words]
Last week, even before the Senlis Council released its latest survey on the situation in southern Afghanistan, the Canadian defence establishment was already circling the wagons. A flurry of e-mails was dispatched to the mailing list of the Conference of Defence Associations (CDA), alerting its members to the fact that previous Senlis Council findings "have been less than positive about this mission." Presumably, in the eyes of the CDA, the publishing of negative assessments automatically damages the credibility of the independent Senlis Council. [continues 615 words]
Last week, even before the Senlis Council released its latest survey on the situation in southern Afghanistan, the Canadian defence establishment was already circling the wagons. A flurry of e-mails was dispatched to the mailing list of the Conference of Defence Associations (CDA), alerting its members to the fact previous Senlis Council findings "have been less than positive about this mission." Presumably, in the eyes of the CDA, the publishing of negative assessments automatically damages the credibility of the independent Senlis Council. [continues 662 words]
Last week, even before the Senlis Council released their latest survey on the situation in southern Afghanistan, the Canadian defence establishment was already circling the wagons. A flurry of e-mails was dispatched to the mailing list of the Conference of Defence Associations (CDA), alerting its members to the fact that previous Senlis Council findings "have been less than positive about this mission." Presumably, in the eyes of the CDA, the publishing of negative assessments automatically damages the credibility of the independent Senlis Council. [continues 661 words]
Last week, even before the Senlis Council released their latest survey on the situation in southern Afghanistan, the Canadian defence establishment was already circling the wagons. A flurry of e-mails was dispatched to the mailing list of the Conference of Defence Associations (CDA), alerting its members to the fact that previous Senlis Council findings "have been less than positive about this mission." Presumably, in the eyes of the CDA, the publishing of negative assessments automatically damages the credibility of the independent Senlis Council. [continues 616 words]
Last week, even before the Senlis Council released their latest survey on the situation in southern Afghanistan, the Canadian defence establishment was already circling the wagons. A flurry of e-mails was dispatched to the mailing list of the Conference of Defence Associations (CDA), alerting its members to the fact that previous Senlis Council findings "have been less than positive about this mission." Presumably, in the eyes of the CDA, the publishing of negative assessments automatically damages the credibility of the independent Senlis Council. [continues 662 words]
Editor's note: Osprey Media LP, the parent company of The Daily Observer, has brought together some of the foremost thinkers in their fields to write on the issues facing our cities and country. The columns are bold, articulate, provocative and thoughtful. This week's writer is former Canadian soldier Scott Taylor, the editor of Esprit de Corps military magazine and a veteran war correspondent. He is the author of "Spinning on the Axis of Evil: America's War against Iran," and "Among the Others: Encounters with the Forgotten Turkmen of Iraq." In September 2005, he was held hostage for five days in northern Iraq by Ansar al-Islam Mujahadin. Comments can be sent to: writersgroup@ospreymedia.ca [continues 682 words]
Last week, even before the Senlis Council released its latest survey on the situation in southern Afghanistan, the Canadian defence establishment was already circling the wagons. A flurry of e-mails was dispatched to the mailing list of the Conference of Defence Associations (CDA), alerting its members to the fact that previous Senlis Council findings "have been less than positive about this mission." Presumably, in the eyes of the CDA, the publishing of negative assessments automatically damages the credibility of the independent Senlis Council. [continues 626 words]
Senlis Council Reports Would Help Nato Better Understand Afghans Last week, even before the Senlis Council released its latest survey on the situation in southern Afghanistan, the Canadian defence establishment was already circling the wagons. A flurry of e-mails was dispatched to the mailing list of the Conference of Defence Associations (CDA), alerting its members to the fact that previous Senlis Council findings "have been less than positive about this mission." Presumably, in the eyes of the CDA, the publishing of negative assessments automatically damages the credibility of the independent Senlis Council. [continues 598 words]
A survey from a European-based think-tank says Canada and other Western countries are losing the battle for hearts and minds in Afghanistan while the Taliban are seizing the advantage. According to the Senlis Council, nearly half of the men in Afghanistan's southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, where Canadian troops are based, believe the international community will lose the war against the Taliban. "The military forces are doing a remarkable job in extremely difficult circumstances," said Senlis's Canadian founder, Norine MacDonald. "But woefully inadequate aid and development, and misguided counter-narcotics policies are turning people against them and making their work much more dangerous." [continues 113 words]
NATO Battles Rising Hostility in Afghanistan The fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan continues this spring. But as the number of civilian casualties rises, support for Western troops is dropping. The grave is 14 meters long. The white flags with golden characters flutter in the wind at the tops of bamboo poles. The inscriptions are verses from the Koran meant to guide the dead into the afterlife. Abdullah Shah stands alone in the Da Mirwais mini Hadira cemetery in western Kandahar, his hands raised to the sky. After completing his prayers, the old man strokes his face and his white beard, as ritual requires. Twenty people are buried beneath the mound of earth at Shah's feet: his wife Miamato, his three sons, 13 grandchildren, two daughters-in-law and a cousin. They died in Lakani, a village in the embattled Panjwai district in southern Afghanistan, at 2:30 in the morning on October 25, 2006. Their lives were extinguished by fire from the 30 mm guns of an American A-10 ground attack aircraft, aka Warthog. [continues 2412 words]
OTTAWA -- March 2, 2007 -- An international think-tank says Canada should help improve Afghanistan's rural development by legitimizing the country's booming opium trade. A year's income for an Afghan farmer. Canada's leading role in Afghanistan's reconstruction means it can be an important player in the licensing of the opium trade, especially as it becomes increasingly clear that poppy eradication is not the solution to the problem of opium production in Afghanistan, according to the Senlis Council. [continues 885 words]
Former NATO Official Criticizes Poppy-Eradication Programs OTTAWA -- An international marketing board for opium, similar to Canada's wheat board, would better fight terrorism and the booming drug trade in Afghanistan instead of current poppy-eradication programs, a former NATO ambassador says. Destroying poppy crops, a major plank of American and British policy, only drives farmers closer to the Taliban, said Gordon Smith, Canada's NATO ambassador between 1985 and 1990. He's the lead author of a report released Thursday that urges the continuation of Canada's military presence beyond the current 2009 deadline, but also says current NATO policies need a shake-up. [continues 475 words]
Why Canada Shouldn't Pull Its Troops Out Of Afghanistan Camp Julien was set down on a barren plain on the outskirts of Kabul, against a stark, mountainous backdrop. Across the road sat the ghostly, bombed-out remnants of Afghanistan's royal palace. Once a majestic building surrounded by immaculate gardens, it was now a looming reminder of destruction wrought by decades of war. In sturdy canvas tents within the heavily fortified camp, about 1,700 Canadian soldiers slept side-by-side in cots. Everything they ate or drank was shipped in. The only time they left was to go on patrol. [continues 3458 words]
Experts debate whether the Afghan poppy problem could be solved by following Ankara's strategy of diverting heroin production into legal medical products, writes Lynda Hurst Back in the 1960s, Marseilles was the conduit, but Turkey was the originating source of almost all the illegal heroin flowing into the West. Today, it's Afghanistan. Ongoing attempts by the United States to obliterate the poppy fields of that embattled land have been a fiasco. Afghan fields now supply the opium for 92 per cent of the global heroin trade. [continues 1378 words]
Wants Ottawa To Back Pilot Project To Turn Opium Into Medicinal Painkillers OTTAWA-Canada should back a pilot project to market Afghanistan's opium production - blamed for fuelling a deadly insurgency - as legal medicinal painkillers, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion says. In a major foreign policy speech yesterday, Dion called for a new strategy for the Afghan mission to put a greater focus on diplomacy and development. And one key plank is a plan to cope with the country's poppy crop, which has become a mainstay of the economy. [continues 437 words]
Usually we are leery about special-interest studies, since the conclusions usually match the group's mission. We took a critical view of the Senlis Council's recommendations last week to counter the insurgency of the Taliban in Afghanistan. We have to acknowledge, though, that this international policy think-tank does offer innovation for a counter-narcotics strategy that could strengthen, not weaken, the Afghan government. The war in Afghanistan became more economic than cultural when the Hamid Karzai government outlawed the cultivation of poppies for opium. Afghanistan supplies 80 percent of the world's opium. U.S. and NATO forces are part of the campaign to eradicate Afghanistan's main crop, and that invigorated anti-American sentiment, especially in the rural areas. [continues 150 words]
At last -- some common sense is being brought to the debate about poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, thanks to the Liberal party. In a speech Thursday at the University of Montreal, Liberal leader Stephane Dion outlined his party's position on Canada's military role in the impoverished, war-ravaged nation. Sensibly, he advocated that Canada set a 2009 deadline for its NATO participation, after which another of the 26 member states can take over. He called for Canada to focus more on reconstruction and training, to enable the Afghans to run the show. [continues 613 words]
Last Wednesday the Senlis Council released a report critical of the coalition forces tactical approach to waging a counterinsurgency effort in southern Afghanistan. True to form, the Canadian military and NATO allies immediately launched their own counterattack calling into question the motives and credibility of the Senlis Council. This response was certainly not unexpected. In the past, Senlis has tabled other similar findings that warned against losing the hearts and minds of the local Afghan population through either heavy-handed military tactics or the policy of drug crop eradication. [continues 677 words]
LAST WEDNESDAY the Senlis Council released a report critical of the coalition forces' tactical approach to waging a counter-insurgency effort in southern Afghanistan. True to form, the Canadian military and NATO allies immediately launched their own counter-attack, calling into question the motives and credibility of the council. This response was certainly not unexpected. In the past, the council has tabled similar findings that warned against losing the hearts and minds of the local Afghan population through either heavy-handed military tactics or the policy of drug crop eradication. The argument put forward by the council is that rising collateral damage and the deaths of innocent civilians caused by NATO offensives against the Taliban are causing widespread resentment of foreign troops. [continues 649 words]
AFGHANISTAN has warned it could unravel into a terrorist-backed narco-state unless Australia and the rest of the international community send specialist police to combat the heroin trafficking which is funding the Taliban insurgency. The war-battered nation's ambassador to Canberra, Mohammed Anwar Anwarzai, said yesterday Australia's military deployment had helped build local trust, but a dangerous vacuum existed in the wake of their withdrawal last year. Afghanistan's woes include the unenviable reputation of being the world's biggest supplier of heroin. [continues 360 words]
In 2005, Afghan President Hamid Karzai declared war on his country's poppy industry, which fuels a vicious international opium trade and swells the war chest of Taliban forces fighting to regain power. Two years later, Afghan police are plowing up the poppy fields in southern Helmand province, supported by British NATO troops. But as Afghanistan's drug trade continues to generate half the country's income, some observers say a change in tactics is needed in the bid to crush the trade that is endangering both Afghans and NATO forces. [continues 252 words]
Afghan officials in Washington are redoubling their advocacy efforts to capitalize on Congress and the Bush administration's renewed focus on their country -- and to prevent their country from slipping back into Taliban hands. Embassy officials are calling the Bush administration's drug-eradication policy in Afghanistan a flawed solution to the problem and are speculating on how a new U.S. ambassador to their country will influence the struggle against the narcotics trade and how the U.S. will change the management of foreign aid there. [continues 918 words]
OTTAWA - Canada should spearhead an international effort to license opium production in Afghanistan for peaceful pharmaceutical uses to combat the country's chronic economic dependence on the illegal narcotic, deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said Thursday. Ignatieff endorsed the proposal of the controversial London-based think-tank, the Senlis Council, which has called for a pilot project to study the licensing of the Afghan opium crop -- the backbone of the world's illicit heroin trade and the cornerstone of Afghanistan's impoverished economy. [continues 333 words]
OTTAWA -- Canada should spearhead an international effort to license opium production in Afghanistan for peaceful pharmaceutical uses to combat the country's chronic economic dependence on the illegal narcotic, deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said Thursday. Ignatieff endorsed the proposal of the controversial London-based think-tank, the Senlis Council, which has called for a pilot project to study the licensing of the Afghan opium crop -- the backbone of the world's illicit heroin trade and the cornerstone of Afghanistan's impoverished economy. [continues 349 words]
Seeks Production Licensing In Afghanistan For Peaceful Pharmaceutical Purposes Canada should spearhead an international effort to license opium production in Afghanistan for peaceful pharmaceutical uses to combat the country's chronic economic dependence on the illegal narcotic, deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said yesterday. Ignatieff endorsed the proposal of a controversial London-based think tank, the Senlis Council, which has called for a pilot project to study the licensing of the Afghan opium crop - the backbone of the world's illicit heroin trade and the cornerstone of Afghanistan's impoverished economy. [continues 348 words]
OTTAWA -- Canada should spearhead an international effort to license opium production in Afghanistan for peaceful pharmaceutical uses to combat the country's chronic economic dependence on the illegal narcotic, deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said Thursday. Ignatieff endorsed the proposal of the controversial London-based think-tank, the Senlis Council, which has called for a pilot project to study the licensing of the crop -- the backbone of the world's illicit heroin trade and the cornerstone of Afghanistan's impoverished economy. [continues 96 words]
LONDON -- Counter-narcotics policies in Afghanistan need to be urgently overhauled before they push the people of southern Afghanistan into the arms of the Taliban insurgency, a security think tank said yesterday. A poppy-eradication program that began last month has already sparked a new wave of violence, said Norine MacDonald, president of the Senlis Council, a European security think tank. She said the program was costing NATO the popular support it needed to counter a looming Taliban offensive. [end]
The Kabul government is planning to take the war to its illegal drugs trade. And once again, it will put Britain's exhausted troops back into the firing line. British troops in southern Afghanistan, already engaged in stiff fighting with the Taliban, face a new threat as the Kabul government prepares to crack down on the country's rampant drugs trade. The Independent on Sunday has learned that in the next week to 10 days, 300 members of the Afghan Eradication Force (AEF), protected by an equal number of police, will begin destroying fields of ripening opium poppies in the centre of lawless Helmand province, where Britain has some 4,000 troops. While British forces will not be directly involved in the operation, commanders concede that they will have to go to the aid of the eradication teams if they encounter armed resistance. "A backlash is definitely possible," said one senior officer. [continues 1171 words]
How To Solve Afghanistan's Drug Problem The British Empire once fought a war for the right to sell opium in China. In retrospect, history has judged that war destructive and wasteful, a shameless battle of colonizers against colonized that in the end helped neither side. Now NATO is fighting a war to eradicate opium from Afghanistan. Allegedly, this time around the goals are different. According to the modern British government, Afghanistan's illicit-drug trade poses the "gravest threat to the long term security, development and effective governance of Afghanistan," particularly since the Taliban are believed to be the biggest beneficiaries of drug sales. [continues 743 words]
Poppies and Afghan Recovery Can Both Bloom Once, the British Empire fought a war for the right to sell opium in China. In retrospect, history has judged that war destructive and wasteful, a shameless battle of colonizers against the colonized that in the end helped neither one. Now, NATO is fighting a war to eradicate opium from Afghanistan. Allegedly, the goals this time around are different. According to the British government, Afghanistan's illicit drug trade poses the "gravest threat to the long term security, development, and effective governance of Afghanistan," particularly since the Taliban is believed to be the biggest beneficiary of drug sales. Convinced that this time they are doing the morally right thing, Western governments are spending hundreds of millions of dollars bulldozing poppy fields, building up counternarcotics squads and financing alternative crops in Afghanistan. Chemical spraying may begin as early as this spring. But in retrospect, might history not judge this war to be every bit as destructive and wasteful as the original Opium Wars? [continues 647 words]
