http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/concern/18862/index.htm
“National Drug Threat Assessment 2007
National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC)”
Publication Date: October 2006
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Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=32867
Opium Funds Taliban Operations, Hurts Afghan Economy, Fallon Says
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 19, 2007 – The illicit, but lucrative, opium trade is helping to finance Taliban operations while placing a stranglehold on Afghanistan’s economy, the commander of U.S. Central Command testified during a Congressional hearing yesterday.
In fact, some military analysts credit the recent relative lull in Taliban activity to their participation in the annual opium harvest that’s under way now in Afghanistan, Navy Adm. William J. Fallon told House Armed Services Committee members.
“This is opium harvest season, I’m told, and that’s probably one of the reasons why the Taliban have been relatively quiet in the last couple of weeks because (intelligence analysts) tell me they’re busy out in the fields harvesting their crops,” Fallon told committee members.
Opium is a powerful illegal narcotic that’s derived from poppy plants cultivated by many Afghan farmers as a cash crop. Heroin is an opium derivative and most of Afghanistan’s opium is sold on the European drug market.
Fallon said it is unfortunate that some Afghans are dependent on opium-poppy farming for their livelihoods.
“It’s painful to watch this, because the impact of this criminal activity runs throughout the country and I suspect it’s one of the reasons life is challenging in Afghanistan, because it appears that at every level, from growers to farmers on up to higher levels, there’s some degree of gain from this illicit trade,” Fallon said.
As desirable as it would be to remove opium as Afghanistan’s mainline cash crop, Fallon pointed out that a viable alternative agricultural crop would have to be identified to replace it.
“I think we have to come up with a realistic alternative,” Fallon told committee members. Some have proposed that orchard crops could one day replace opium growing in Afghanistan, he noted.
“What I don’t know how viable this is as a realistic, major ‘muscle mover’ in the (Afghan) economy,” Fallon said, noting that he’s been told it would be very challenging to get the orchard produce to market, given the rudimentary and poor state of Afghanistan’s roads.
In fact, that’s why ongoing work to establish a ring of paved roads that connect Afghanistan’s major municipalities is such an important project, the admiral said.
“Everybody that I’ve talked to, from President (Hamid) Karzai on down, tells me (the new road network) is absolutely essential to the economic future” of Afghanistan, Fallon said.
Fallon took over as CENTCOM’s chief March 16. Since then, he has traveled to Iraq, Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern countries that come under his command’s purview.
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=32877
Iraqi Forces Thwart Terrorist; Insurgent Bomb Hits Ambulance
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 19, 2007 – A quick-thinking Iraqi soldier thwarted a would-be terrorist, U.S. soldiers found a weapons cache, and a terrorist bomb hit an ambulance, wounding three Iraqis during operations in Iraq April 17.
An alert Iraqi army soldier from the 2nd Iraqi Army Division identified and engaged a driver attempting to attack an Iraqi combat outpost with a suicide car bomb near April 17, near Nablis.
The driver was shot and killed by the soldier, causing his bomb to detonate prematurely. The blast, although missing its intended target, killed three Iraqi civilians and wounded four others.
Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Iraqi Army Division, responded to the scene and offered assistance moving the wounded to a local hospital.
Elsewhere, a terrorist bomb detonated against an Iraqi ambulance near the Salah Ad Din town of Mukayshifah, severely injuring three civilians April 17. Coalition forces responded to the blast site and provided medical assistance to the injured. All three wounded civilians were transported to a coalition medical facility for treatment.
“This is a deplorable act by the terrorists in this area to target injured Iraqis and medical personnel,” said Col. Bryan Owens, commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. “It is apparent that terrorists don’t differentiate amongst Iraqi civilians, Iraqi security forces, and coalition forces. No matter who pays the price, these terrorists are content as long as they continue to cause death, destruction and damage to the Iraqis and their infrastructure.”
In another operation, Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers found five containers filled with explosives April 17 near Al Shira, on the site of a vacant hospital that was destroyed two days earlier by insurgents.
After receiving information from villagers that insurgents had used explosives to destroy the building April 15, soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, investigated the site.
Upon examination of the destroyed building, the soldiers discovered four propane tanks filled with explosives and a separate container filled with an unknown explosive substance.
Soldiers are currently investigating the incident to find those responsible for destroying the building.
(Compiled from Multinational Corps Iraq news releases.)