The Drug Enforcement Agency in orchestration with military assets have been in Afghanistan for some time interdicting opium cultivation and
distribution, like they have done in Central and South America with the cocaine in the past. That is at least the story our benevolent leaders would
want the general public to believe regarding the DEA's involvement in Afghanistan at present. Could there be more to the story than meets the eye?
Apparently, they are joining special forces in stemming the tsunami of narcotic trafficking coming out of Afghanistan that ultimately finds its way to
the streets of America.
DEA agents along with Special Forces already are rolling up processed poppies — black tar opium — especially in village bazaars in Helmand
province, the main location for poppy production.
www.npr.org...
Now, will these efforts result in success or further exasperate the insurgency, because it is clear, that much of the income for it comes from drug
trafficking? It is a monster that has grown out of the void left by the Taliban when they were ousted from power following 9/11. Never take a piece of
meat away from a hungry dog because they are libel to get aggressive. Poppy cultivation and distribution have risen to staggering proportions since
2001 when the US supplanted a presence in country.
For much of its eight-year tenure, the Bush administration's counter-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan were focused on destroying the vast fields of
poppy that have long been the source of the world's heroin. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Afghanistan's contribution to the global heroin trade has
risen to 93%, according to the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime.
But the Obama administration believes that the effort drove many farmers and influential tribesmen into supporting the Islamist insurgency. The Afghan
government and some NATO allies in the country agree.
articles.latimes.com...
Perhaps, a civil service initiative was in order at the start of the war? Such as, getting forces versed in civil decorum into the provinces where
opium farming has a history, and teach them modern farming techniques to grow legal cash crops, such as wheat or corn. However, why it wasn't a focus
of the Bush Administration is a mystery? The 93% increase, as reported by the UN Office of Drugs and Crime is blatantly unacceptable and raises a lot
of questions as to why it is so high after the US began combat operations in Afghanistan.
Now, lets look at how lucrative this illicit enterprise has become for Afghan warlords. A half a billion dollars enters that country annually and most
likely finds its way into the hands of those that have a seedy disposition to the Western presence in Afghanistan.
With the Taliban now controlling large swaths of Afghanistan, traffickers and their networks pay the militants as much as $500 million a year,
according to some U.S. and U.N. intelligence estimates, to grow and protect the poppy fields, smuggle the drugs and run sophisticated processing labs
and drug bazaars in Afghanistan and neighboring countries.
Similar drug trafficking activity is flourishing in the lawless tribal belt that includes northwestern Pakistan, and it is providing huge amounts of
cash to the Pakistani Taliban and possibly Al Qaeda as well, the officials said.
articles.latimes.com...
That income stream is just staggering and who it ends up with is just as bad! Now, with the waste and corruption involving the early stages of
occupation of Iraq, it is safe to assume that many of those crooked officials have found their way to Afghanistan to get fat off the land as they have
done before.
Apparently, the DEA is trying to increase their numbers by 2010. A lot of good that will do, because as I have shown, the problem is now deeply
entrenched and almost impossible to reverse. It has had over 8 years to grow and fester to what we are seeing today.
"We see their involvement through just about every stage of drug trafficking, and in each of the four corners of Afghanistan," Thomas Harrigan,
deputy administrator and chief of operations for the DEA, said of the Taliban. "They use the money to sustain their operations, feed their fighters,
to assist Al Qaeda."
In response, the number of DEA agents and analysts in Afghanistan will rise from 13 to 68 by September, and to 81 in 2010. More agents will also be
deployed in Pakistan. It is "the most prolific expansion in DEA history," Harrigan said.
articles.latimes.com...
If the US/Nato mission is careful and with the recent revelations of the election irregularities, fraud, and corruption in the race between President
Hamid Karzai and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan has the potential of becoming a narco-state like we have seen with central and South American
countries. As a result, once again, our forces will be caught in the middle of the meat grinder looking over their shoulders, as a cruel reminder of
past adventures by our political leaders.
Now, are government agencies procuring some of that lucrative income for themselves for their moonlighting efforts, off-the-grid projects, and other
seedy activities? That is up in the air at the moment? However, I found a blast from the past about the DEA during the early 90's out of Pakistan.
This article is pretty telling regarding the speculation above. Please read the entire article to get the full picture, because it is very intriguing,
to say the least.
A top gun with the DEA’s Special Operations Division, along with two fellow law enforcers, are not what they seem, if Gaetano (Guy) DiGirolamo Sr.,
a convicted heroin dealer, is to be believed.
The trio are, in fact, drug dealers themselves, argues Yale law professor Steven B. Duke in court pleadings filed on behalf of his client,
DiGirolamo.
narcosphere.narconews.com...
Who knows what is going on in Afghanistan at the moment, but as reporter, Gary Webb, uncovered in his "Dark Alliance," series the "War on Drugs,"
is fraught with gray, and not much black and white, regarding the distinction between the government and the criminals they are tasked with pursuing.
Webb died under mysterious circumstances for those who don't know. However, that is a topic for another time, but I am sure many are familiar with
the case.
On a parting note, many in the DEA are disillusioned by their involvement and mission in Afghanistan. Some have mentioned lack of training, proper
weapons, and other shoddy efforts to maintain readiness and effectiveness by their contingent in country. Now why would they be sent into a combat
zone unprepared is another question?
Yet when four supervisors, including Dionne, traveled on brief trip to Afghanistan in 2005, they spent more than $700 on boots and uniforms for
themselves, according to DEA records.
On longer tours, agents complain that they're not issued ammunition or magazines and are forced to borrow them from fellow agents. Ballistic vests
aren't fitted for specific agents. Rifles are issued without laser sights and optics like the military has, and personal locator beacons and GPS
systems are hard to come by. Some agents said they end up buying thousands of dollars of equipment themselves.
"The DEA does not have enough resources or equipment to get the job done in Afghanistan," one agent said.
www.mcclatchydc.com...
So, welcome to a new episode of the "Twilight Zone," and that is the new front in the "War on Drugs," and it is in the middle of the Afghan
Heartland where the "War on Terror," is taking place. Strange bedfellows aren't they?
[edit on 26-10-2009 by Jakes51]
