"hanson" wrote Absolutely Nothing.

Meanwhile as the Globe Warms....

Bush outlines his financial connections to Afghan opium production.

Afghan poppy industry eludes U.S. control - CNN.com /asia

September 7, 2007 Afghan poppy industry eludes U.S. controlStory
Highlights


NANGARHAR, Afghanistan -- In a small district in southern Afghanistan,
U.S.-backed Afghan drug forces opened fire on farmers who were blocking
roads
and throwing rocks to protest the destruction of their poppy fields earlier
this
year. Scores were injured in the firefight.

A farmer stands in an illegal opium producing poppy farm one hour away from
Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

1 of 3 more photos » Undeterred by the violence, a group of angry farmers
gathered around Masood Azizi, the Afghan official supervising the
eradication.
They maintained that cultivating poppy for opium is the only way they can
survive. "We are hungry, thirsty, and we don't have any money. We are in
debt,"
one said.

It's a message that reverberates throughout this impoverished, war-torn
country.
Poppy production in this part of Afghanistan -- the Nangarhar province --
was
nearly wiped out in 2005, but it rebounded this year with a staggering
increase
of 285 percent, according to a new report from the United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime report.

Eradicating opium poppies has been a key pillar of U.S. policy in
Afghanistan
since 2004, said Doug Wankel, director of the U.S. Counter-Narcotics Task
Force
in Afghanistan.

Yet today, Afghanistan produces roughly 93 percent of the world's illicit
opium,
according to the UNODC report, and the Taliban are making inroads in remote
areas of the country thanks, in part, to proceeds from the drug trade.
Check
out some top provinces for opium production »

Experts say more farmers are producing poppies because they have been unable
to
earn a living by growing other crops like wheat and vegetables. They say
that
the money promised by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the international
community to plant these alternative crops has not materialized. Tour an
illegal poppy farm during harvest season »

"Not only are they back to cultivating poppy because they did not receive
any
alternative livelihoods, but they're angry at the broken promises, and they
don't trust us anymore," said Norine MacDonald of SENLIS, an international
think
tank focusing on drug policy.

Afghanistan's Addiction

Anderson Cooper traces the opium journey, from poppy flower to addict. A
deadly
drug pushing a country into crisis.

"You can try to kill us, but we will still grow poppy," one farmer told CNN.
Afghan poppies, which start as flowers in farmers' fields and often wind up
as
heroin on U.S. streets, fuel a $3 billion a year industry in Afghanistan.
The
industry is filling the coffers of the Taliban, the group who gave safe
haven to
al Qaeda before and after 9/11, and it is destabilizing the Afghan
government.
Learn how poppies are turned into heroin »

"The Taliban pretty much were ancient history four years ago, and now they
are
back, because they are deriving money from the drug trade," said Peter
Bergen, a
CNN terrorism analyst.

Disenchanted farmers find ready allies in the Taliban, who provide
protection
for them and their fields. Both groups align with drug lords who provide
upfront
money and credit for crops, pay farmers cash, and after the harvest, pick up
the
opium themselves. For farmers who may not even own trucks to get crops to
market, this service is invaluable.

"Drug eradication is a fantastic opportunity for the Taliban," said Peter
Jouvenal, a British journalist who has reported from Afghanistan for more
than
two decades. "It gives them the opportunity to recruit farmers that are fed
up
with these foreigners coming in and destroying their land."
U.S. officials claim a lack of opportunity is no excuse for farmers to break
the
law.

"Look, we know you need development and that is coming, but the lack of
development is not an excuse to go against the constitution, to break the
law,
to support the enemy," said Wankel. "I mean, that's part of the message that
goes out to the people."

Wankel's goal is to wipe out enough poppy fields that farmers will think
twice
before they plant poppies again. Less than 10 percent were destroyed last
year.
The U.N. estimates that eradication of 25 percent of the poppy crop would
start
to turn the tide. See photos of eradication efforts »

The Taliban use their share of drug proceeds to build up their forces in the
frontier provinces in the southern part of the country, which is also home
to
the most poppy production. This puts pressure on local governments as well
as
President Karzai's government in Kabul. It also enables the Taliban to hire
forces to attack U.S. and NATO troops.

"This place has shown itself to be something very, very usable for the
fundamentalists to operate from to do whatever is necessary to continue
their
war of terrorism," Wankel said.

American officials are cautious about connecting Taliban drug money to al
Qaeda-sponsored terrorism outside of Afghanistan. But Afghan officials say
there
is little doubt that some money reaches the terrorist organization.

"The drug [money] is directly funding terrorism. The drug is directly
funding
the Taliban, and I wouldn't differentiate between the al Qaeda and the
Taliban,"
said Mirwais Yasini, the former Afghan counter-narcotics minister.

In the past year, U.S. and Afghan counter-narcotics officials have placed a
new
emphasis on targeting drug kingpins, even those who are government
officials. In
June, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officers and Afghan agents
arrested
Abdul Khaliq, a provincial police chief. The bust netted 30 kilos of heroin,
worth roughly $1.5 million on the streets of the United States.

Wankel warns that not containing the drug trade that funds the Taliban
insurgency could have wider consequences: "We lose this government, we could
have another 9/11 here, so we have to succeed not only for Afghanistan, but
for
the region and for the world." E-mail to a friend
CNN's Jason White contributed to this report from New York.