DEA's Targets Tied To Taliban

The Washington Times ^ | Oct 23, 2007 | Jerry Seper

[RDTF]

The vast majority of "high value targets" for U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Afghanistan are tied to the Taliban, which is using the country's rampant opium poppy cultivation to fund terrorist insurgencies.

"We must make it clear to the Afghan people that we, the international community and the Afghan government are serious about this drug trade and corresponding terrorism," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Florida Republican and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

"We are not just eradicating a few opium fields or arresting some local, midlevel drug dealers to show something is being done, but that is not really changing the overall and deteriorating situation, while the big and powerful prosper and go free."

She outlined her concerns that not enough is being done to target drug kingpins and warlords in Afghanistan in a letter Friday to Ambassador Thomas Schweich, coordinator for counternarcotics and justice reform in Afghanistan.

Mrs. Ros-Lehtinen said Afghan drug producers and smugglers are using their illicit proceeds "to finance terrorism, the killing of coalition forces and corrupting the new Afghan democratic institutions." She said information from the DEA showed that of the agency's 21 high-value targets, 17 have links to the Taliban and that 16 of the 17 are grouped in the country's volatile south.

"Nothing like these numbers could better make the case of the links between drugs and terrorism in Afghanistan and the overlapping increased violence in the south," she said.

-snip-

[mysterio]

End the failed drug war and take money away from terrorists.

[coloradan]

Kind of ironic, then, that the US paid $140 million to the Taliban back in 2001 for their efforts in opium destruction. I bet some of that money was spent on flight schools back here at home.

[bukkdems]

Most excellent idea here:
http://www.senliscouncil.net/modules/Opium_licensing

Our drug war policies in Afghanistan are erasing all our gains and feuling the Taliban.

[mysterio]

If we really want to fight a war on terror, there are several very important planks missing. In my opinion, it cannot be successful without these planks.

1. Energy independence. With every tankful of imported oil, money pours into the middle east, and at least some of that goes to terrorism. It makes our economy more vulnerable to external pressure. And we are required to protect our business interests in many areas of the world. An effective war on terror would have us rushing to build enough nuclear power plants to keep the country running in almost any situation.

2. The border. A porous border makes it easier for attackers to sneak in WMDs. And we have two extremely porous borders.

I don't consider the drug war to be a major terror risk, but it certainly sends a lot of money to the blackmarket opium trade in the middle east.

If we are serious about the WOT, we need to get off of our butts and start doing something more significant to protect ourselves.