MSNBC, as part of their 100 days of Obama spectacular, invited NBC war correspondent Richard Engel to join Tamron Hall in anchoring the morning’s coverage.
Just after 11 AM, Engel conducted an interview with MSNBC military analyst Barry McCaffrey, the retired army general whose many conflicts of interest have been analyzed by David Barstow’s now-Pulitzer Prize winning reporting for The New York Times. The discussion opened with a question on the government’s efforts towards poppy eradication in Afghanistan.
Engel: I wanted to ask you about that idea of going after the opium trade. It sounds like a good idea. Is it possible and can we really draw away the Taliban’s source of funding by cutting down the opium crop or burning it or whatever were going to do eradicate it?
McCaffrey: Well, I think it’s at the heart of the problem. You’re seeing, as you know, Richard, hundreds of Taliban that emerged from Pakistan sanctuaries some of them wearing REI camping gear, brand new sniper rifles, a lot of this is fueled by the drug trade. Nine thousand metric tons of opium, 4 billion dollars. And that’s really tearing apart an attempt to build a new democracy, a rule of law. It will affect the ability of the police to act in a non-corrupt manner. I think we’ve got to take it on. But, you know, the lead agent can’t be U.S. combat troops. It’s got to be Afghans chopping down opium poppy and Afghans working on roads and new ways of re-instituting the irrigation system, getting agriculture going. It cannot be a U.S. combat mission.
Neither Hall, Engel, nor McCaffrey made mention of DynCorp, a major military contractor that’s doing exactly that—training Afghans to eradicate poppies.
Nor did they mention that McCaffrey sits on DynCorp’s board, which according to federal contracting records, garnered contracts in 2008 and 2009 worth over $323 million dollars with the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, including its work in Afghanistan.
NBC spokesperson Allison Gollust was not immediately available for comment on whether or not the network was comfortable having McCaffrey comment of Afghani poppy eradication given his business interest.
If there is a question to ask regarding "Conflict of Interest" it should go to the State Department. Why did the State Department cancel the contract to eradicate poppies in Afghanistan? Is it because they were getting too close to President Karzai's brother Ahmed Wali Karzai? He's been tracked by the CIA and reports say he is one of the largest opium growers and heroin producers in their country if not in the world. Is it possible we were told to leave him alone? How weak does that make the USA appear to the Taliban? No doubt they will laugh all the way to the weapons market. They need to reinstate that contract and keep cutting down opium poppies. I've seen what heroin can do to people. We can pay them to cut it down now or we will pay in the lives of many innocent Americans when Taliban or Al Qaeda buy weapons, or later when drug dealers supply drugs to our children who become addicted or kill our policemen during raids, when drug deals go bad and bystanders are shot, or when heroin addicts overdose, or just steal from a person walking down the street to feed their habit. It's cheaper to cut them down now and save lives and money.
Posted by TokenGimp on Fri 10 Jul 2009 at 09:22 AM
TRIESTE, Italy – The U.S. announced a new drug policy Saturday for opium-rich Afghanistan, saying it was phasing out funding for eradication efforts and using the money for drug interdiction and alternate crop programs instead.
The U.S. envoy for Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, told The Associated Press that eradication programs weren't working and were only driving farmers into the hands of the Taliban.
"Eradication is a waste of money," Holbrooke said on the sidelines of a Group of Eight foreign ministers' meeting on Afghanistan, where he said it had been warmly received, particularly by the United Nations.
Afghanistan is the world's leading source of opium, cultivating 93 percent of the world's heroin-producing crop. The United Nations has estimated the Taliban and other Afghan militants made an estimated $50 million to $70 million off the opium and heroin trade last year.
In a report released earlier this week, the U.N. drug office said opium cultivation had dropped by 19 percent last year, but was still concentrated in three southern provinces where the Taliban insurgency is strongest.
Holbrooke said the previous U.S. policy, which focused on eradication programs, hadn't reduced "by one dollar" the amount of money the Taliban earned off opium cultivation and production.
"It might destroy some acreage," Holbrooke said. "But it just helped the Taliban."
"We're essentially phasing out our support for crop eradication and using the money to work on interdiction, rule of law, alternate crops," he told the AP. At the same time, Washington is upgrading its support of agriculture programs.
"That's the big change in our policies," he said. "This was widely accepted as the right thing to do."
Agriculture was among the issues taken up by the delegates at the G-8 meeting in their Saturday session on Afghanistan, with participants saying in a draft version of the final statement that agricultural development was seen as "key to the future of Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as other countries in the region."
The statement called for "expanded agricultural cooperation that could lead to rural development, food security, employment growth, higher income levels, alternatives to poppy cultivation and ultimately lower tensions in the region."
Holbrooke said the international community wasn't trying to target Afghan farmers, just the Taliban militants who buy their crops.
"The farmers are not our enemy, they're just growing a crop to make a living," he said. "It's the drug system. So the U.S. policy was driving people into the hands of the Taliban."
Now, there are some highlighted areas here that need to be explained.
"Eradication is a waste of money," and "We're essentially phasing out our support for crop eradication and using the money to work on interdiction, rule of law, alternate crops,"
Those of us that played in Helmand this year fully understand there is no "rule of law" in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. You can do whatever you want in Helmand as an Afghani, and never have to worry about a police officer taking you in. The "alternate crops" he speaks of are wheat and saffron. Wheat is given to them from USAID anyway, so why grow that? Saffron is an expensive spice that is of higher value than poppy.
Let's first talk about getting these bags of wheat or saffron seed to the farmers. Well there is the town of Nad Ali, which is extremely populated with poppy fields. Imagine if you will, a desert paradise in which the closest you can get to it in a mildly safe manner, is 3 kilometers. Once you get that close you get the volley’s of 107mm rockets, Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG's), DShK heavy machine gun fire, 40mm automatic grenades, and of course the 23mm anti-aircraft gun fire. If you get to survive through this and make it to the perimeter of Nad Ali, then you get to cross one of the three ways in. This wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't a roadside bomb every 50 feet. Oh yeah, and the couple hundred dudes with machine guns and RPGs chasing you around.
Okay, now that you squeaked you're way inside Nad Ali near a poppy field you need to find the farmer that owns the field. Hmmm, how are you going to do this? The people that attribute to the Taliban funds, and the Heroin on our streets have either fled the town or are currently shooting at you. Remember though "The farmers are not our enemy; they're just growing a crop to make a living.” Even if you do find a farmer, he will deny that the poppy field next to his mud hut is his. After all, since there are no laws there are no property lines.
Okay, you have finally found a farmer that you want to give wheat or saffron seeds to. He says that he will give up his poppy crop, and grow what you the Western infidel has given him. Cool beans right? Wrong. Now you get to leave Nad Ali and face all the same problems as before, but the nightmare isn't over yet.
A month later you have to go back to that farmer to check up on his new crop. After you lose a few guys getting to the farmer, you see that he's growing poppy not the wheat or saffron you gave him. Here are the reasons why: 1- The Taliban came to him and said grow poppy or I'll kill you and your family. 2- He realized that a crop of saffron can get him US$500/pound to US$5,000/pound, and with the poppy he can make just under that on the side as well. 3- He sells the bags of saffron/wheat at the market for extra cash, and then grows poppy anyway. Well now, since "Eradication is a waste of money," you can't cut down his poppy, but you do get to leave Nad Ali again.
Nad Ali is a walk in the park compared to other poppy rich communities in Helmand Province. If they believe for an instant that we can do anything but kill each other down there, they are sadly mistaken.
The last mentioned alternative was interdiction. Interdiction- delay, disrupt, or destroy enemy forces or supplies. Okay, so now we get to destroy poppy farmer’s livelihoods and family members. This is outstanding and I'm all for it, but with new orders from General Stanley McChrystal, the new NATO commander in Afghanistan, we can't do interdiction in Afghanistan.
Here is what the fine General has to say. When U.S. and coalition forces are receiving fire from Afghan houses and civilian compounds, forces are now directed to withdraw, rather than risk harming Afghan civilians along with the Taliban gunmen. According to McChrystal, "If it is just to defeat the enemy, then we are not going to do it, even if it means we are going to step away from that firefight and fight another time."
Basically, he just told the enemy where he should fight and kill us without risk to himself. Of course the Taliban have been doing this for years, but now we officially have our hands tied in the matter. The farmers will definitely want to talk to us now when we can’t suppress the wall of bullets that follows us around. Let’s get back to interdiction of just the poppy though.
Poppy isn’t just a crop to the Afghans. It is EVERYTHING to them. Wheat and saffron can’t even come close to what the poppy does for them. The seeds from each poppy will go to the next growing season. Leftover seeds go to make some sort of dough like crap that they eat. The stocks from the dead plant are dried and used in addition to tires as fuel for their fires in the wintertime. The stocks and bulbs from the plant are also used as building materials for their mud homes. Even toys for the kids are made from the poppy plant. Of course you can’t forget about the Opium that is used to make heroine to kill people around the world, and fund the Taliban. You still have to remember "The farmers are not our enemy; they're just growing a crop to make a living.”
We just had our most successful cutting year of poppy to date, and if you ask me there are people in political power that are losing money from it. That’s the conspiracy theorist in me coming out though. One thing is for sure and made very clear for us now. The poppy fields will continue to grow, and the fighting of wars is controlled by the media.
There is a much simpler idea on getting rid of poppy that has been turned away because of the possible negative image. Poppy is the ugly cousin of the Dandelion. What do Americans use to kill that obnoxious weed in their food crops and driveways? It has to be non-toxic to the food, but kill the Dandelion at the same time? Ah yes, Roundup. That stuff works great! I can hear the media now though: U.S. uses Agent Orange on the poor Afghan farmers.
Posted by Griffin on Fri 24 Jul 2009 at 04:35 PM