Losing Afghanistan's Drug War

Losing Afghanistan's Drug War

www.newsweek.com

The U.N. drug czar says that efforts to eradicate opium have failed.

NATO and Afghan forces are trying to focus on the nexus between the opium trade and Taliban financing.

Why give up on poppy eradication?
Last year the Afghan government eradicated 5,000 hectares of about 159,000 that were cultivated.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The U.N. drug czar says that efforts to eradicate opium have failed.

The U.N.'s Drug Czar??????
What????

I just saw this on the front page of MSNBC

The UN's drug czar?

I'm confused here, is that a typo
These czars are american czars right?
Obama isn't appointing UN members serving not America's representation but a global one correct?

And it's not even saying America's drug delegate for the UN

Okay I just did a search on Antonio Maria Costa
Google results is showing UN Czar all over as results

I'm sorry that my comments are that related to the thread topic but can someone clue me in here?

What's going onnn??????

www.newsweek.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 31-7-2009 by ModernAcademia]

The line seems to get more blurry every day. This is the first I have ever heard of a UN Drug Czar.

Hmm...is the Netherlands a member of the UN? Does the UN look the other way when it comes to Amsterdam, or what?

Seems like with all the different policies on 'things' around the world a drug czar would be a pretty stupid position to have in the UN.

reply to post by ModernAcademia


Um............I thought we were there to insure the continuation of the opium trade. Remember? Gosh, I wish I had a link. When we first went into Afghanistan we were told that the Taliban had all but irradicated the poppy farming. Growing poppies and the drug trade goes against all that the Taliban stand for. These folks are radical. They don't want anyone getting high. And now "we" are losing the drug war?




We have ensured the drug trades go on.

Gawd damn! It would all be very funny, except people are dying from this comedy.

Yeah, what a joke. The only people benefiting from the opium trade are the people who 'fight' the opium trade.

In the unlikely event that the Taliban really is harvesting opium, then it must be a very desperate act to not only disgrace themselves but their own religious beliefs. If they are the wrong ones in this fight then why go to such limits of hypocracy?

The same taliban who obliterated the poppy fields in Afghanistan because it violated their religious beliefs? You know why heroin and opiate products dropped off the face of the earth in the late 90s? Because the poppy fields supply the major of the world's opiate supply dried up. And what was the first thing to happen when the US invaded Afghanistan? The opium trade boomed and heroin became huge on the streets. It's all a ridiculous joke.

All this attention all of a sudden is leading to something. Probably more horrifying atrocities and innocent lives shattered in the bull# drug war.

Of course the coalition is losing the war on opium in Afghanistan. As soon as the crops are seized by narcotics agents and special forces; it is put on a plane to the states. If any one remembers, the government has been alleged to be involved in the crack epidemic during the 80's.

It has been alleged that intelligence agencies used money derived from narcotics sales to fund black ops. I'm pretty sure this phenomenon is going on with the recent conflict in Afghanistan. Out of sight out of mind anyone?

[edit on 1-8-2009 by Jakes51]

Here is some info I had compiled for another thread. With what is stated below as evidence, it would be naive to think that there is nothing sneaky afoot in Afghanistan? One of the whistle blowers regarding past allegations of government involvement in narcotics died of a mysterious suicide when he was about to remove the curtains on the complicity of government in narcotics sales and distribution in the 80s. The whistle blower was, reporter, Gary Webb. A little background on him is below as well.

On December 20, 1985, these and other charges were laid out in an Associated Press article after an extensive investigation which included interviews with "officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Customs Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Costa Rica's Public Security Ministry, as well as rebels and Americans who work with them." Five American Contra supporters who worked with the rebels confirmed the charges, noting that "two Cuban-Americans used armed rebel troops to guard coc aine at clandestine airfields in northern Costa Rica. They identified the Cuban-Americans as members of the 2506 Brigade, an anti-Castro group that participated in the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba. Several also said they supplied information about the smuggling to U.S. investigators." One of the Americans "said that in one ongoing operation, the coc aine is unloaded from planes at rebel airstrips and taken to an Atlantic coast port where it is concealed on shrimp boats that are later unloaded in the Miami area."[3]

en.wikipedia.org... aine_trafficking_in_the_US

There was also a mysterious suicide associated with this scandal. Accomplished investigative Reporter, Gary Webb, a potential whistle blower was silenced by suicide. He compiled a series of investigative reports called "The Dark Alliance," which chronicled allegations of the CIA's involvement in the crack trade while a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News in 1996. After his reports reached the masses his career went down the tubes. Apparently, there may have been some truth to his investigation and it rattled the government establishment. His suicide to this day stinks of foul play. Below is the actual autopsy report from 2004 when he died.

Facing a barrage of calls from the media and the public, the Sacramento County Coroner's Office issued a statement Tuesday confirming that former investigative reporter Gary Webb committed suicide with two gunshots to the head.

"The cause of death was determined to be self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head," the coroner's statement said.

web.archive.org...

Here is a link to Mr. Webb's profile and you will see that the man was clearly a professional and not a hack.

en.wikipedia.org...

Below is the complete "Dark Alliance," series and an investigative report that puts some meat to your speculation about the possibility of police officer knowing way to much about her masters' dirty laundry and as result taking her own life or being murdered in the process.

www.narconews.com...

reply to post by Jakes51

Facing a barrage of calls from the media and the public, the Sacramento County Coroner's Office issued a statement Tuesday confirming that former investigative reporter Gary Webb committed suicide with two gunshots to the head.

"The cause of death was determined to be self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head," the coroner's statement said.

He shot himself twice in the head? Alarm bells ring!

Originally posted by TheSam
reply to post by Jakes51

 

Facing a barrage of calls from the media and the public, the Sacramento County Coroner's Office issued a statement Tuesday confirming that former investigative reporter Gary Webb committed suicide with two gunshots to the head.

"The cause of death was determined to be self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head," the coroner's statement said.

He shot himself twice in the head? Alarm bells ring!

Yes, it is very interesting that a man can kill himself with two bullets to the head? That finding alone raised my eyebrows. Apparently, Mr. Webb uncovered something he was never supposed to find and was taken out as a result?

[edit on 1-8-2009 by Jakes51]

I'm fairly sure it's impossible to shoot yourself twice in the head

Modern wars are not meant to be won. I think George Orwell explained the situation very well in "1984". They pretend to be against the very thing they went there to accomplish, namely making sure the heroin keeps flowing to America. The Taliban stopped the poppy farming and they made some evil people very angry.