[Shadow_Group] Fw: 'Narco-State' - UN

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

(The narco-lords which comprise the USG made out the Taliban to be
"terrorists" AFTER this Muslim religious body outlawed opiate production
and distribution in Afghanistan and began to burn poppy crops.  The
decision to "launch" Bin Laden as the evil master mind behind 9/11 was
absolutely necessary in order for the invasion of Afghanistan to
commence.  Quickly, the Taliban were identified and exterminated.  Then,
the opiates began to flow again, courtesy of the internationalists who
have profited from its distribution since the 50s or before.  Heroin is
now plentifully in the hands of every street dealer of every town
throughout America.)

rense.com

Afghanistan Becoming 
'Narco-State' - UN
By Paul Geitner in Brussels 
The Scotsman - UK
11-19-4
 
Afghanistan is in danger of becoming a "narco-state" because soaring
opium cultivation now accounts for 60 per cent of the economy, the United
Nations warned yesterday. 
  
The countryís poppy crop jumped 64 per cent to a record 131,000 hectares
this year - the highest figure in the countryís history. Ten per cent of
the population, or 2.3 million people, are involved in poppy farming as
poverty makes it more attractive than other crops. 
  
"Cultivation has spread ... making narcotics the main engine of economic
growth and the strongest bond among previously quarrelsome peoples," said
Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and
Crime. 
  
The Afghanistan Opium Survey 2004, which Mr Costa launched yesterday,
estimates the opium economy is now worth £1.5 billion. 
  
Only bad weather and insect infestation stopped it being a record year
for heroin, although production still rose 17 per cent to 4,200 tonnes
compared to the 1999 record of 4,600 tonnes under the radical Islamic
Taleban regime. 
  
"The fear that Afghanistan might degenerate into a narco-state is slowly
becoming a reality. Opium cultivation, which has spread like wildfire
throughout the country, could ultimately incinerate everything:
democracy, reconstruction and stability," Mr Costa said. 
  
In an example of the scale of the problem, Mr Costa said Iranian
intelligence had recently shown him pictures of a drug convoy of 62
vehicles with military protection. "We canít hope that the Afghan police
or army could possibly take on a convoy of 62 vehicles," he said. 
  
As well as a narco-economy, Afghanistan was a narco-society, he said,
with so many people benefiting from the business: farmers pay a "tax" of
about 10 per cent of their earnings to local warlords; laboratories pay
12 to 15 per cent; and export convoys pay 15 to 18 per cent. 
  
He said the commitment of President Hamid Karzaiís government to
eradicating the business meant it was not yet possible to say Afghanistan
was a narco-state. 
  
The United States and NATO-led forces in the country should get more
involved in fighting the drug trade, he said. "It would be an historical
error to abandon Afghanistan to opium, right after we reclaimed it from
the Taleban and al-Qaeda," he added. 
  
NATO nations have been reluctant to involve their troops in the drug
fight. 
  
Last week in New York, however, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the secretary
general of NATO, urged the UN to come up with a drug-fighting plan for
Afghanistan and said the NATO-led mission in the country would be willing
to discuss working under that umbrella. 
  
Mirwais Yasini, the head of Afghanistanís counter- narcotics directorate,
said the government was determined to eradicate drugs but needed foreign
help. "It is undermining our national security, it is undermining our
good name among the international community. We cannot live with this
dragon any longer." 
  
Bill Rammell, a Foreign Office minister, conceded that NATO members had
been slow to build up forces in Afghanistan. But he said recent moves to
extend NATO patrols outside the capital and broaden their mandate, as
well as to build a judiciary and penal system, should begin to pay off
next year. "The troops will now destroy seizures and hand over suspects,"
he said. "That will have an impact." 
  
©2004 Scotsman.com 
  
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1332502004<http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1332502004>

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