This has been the source of the corruption of the Afghan people. Enough. Bush started all this. This is typical, typical, typical CHENEY. They didn't mind if the American people had a protest vote with President Obama so long as they didn't lose control over their wars until they could get back into power.
NO MORE !!!
Why fight the 'real war' when Iranian oil is at hand, right Dickie?
I should have started this by saying, "General McCrystal is a brilliant general. He is an incredible strategist. He has assessed his war assets admirably. We aren't interested in a dishonest position in any other theater, though."
This is nothing but timidity and horse shit. This is the crop to end all crops and has been the mainstay of the al Qaeda income to assault the West. This cannot be tolerated. With the opium crops in place there is even more reason for the Taliban to fight the USA and NATO.
There can be a subsidy program set up for Marja and the crops destroyed. This is an insult to the USA and its priorities in other countries in the region.
They are never to grow opium AGAIN !
American Marines in an opium poppy field in Marja, Afghanistan, last month. The military decided not to destroy the fields.
Iranian Jewish family nabbed at Ben-Gurion with 15 kg. opium (click here)
By YAAKOV LAPPIN11/03/2010 23:19
An Iranian Jewish man, his wife, and their teenage son were arrested on Wednesday evening at Ben-Gurion Airport on suspicion of smuggling 15.4 kilograms of pure Iranian opium into Israel.
Acting on intelligence, police opened an undercover investigation into the alleged drugs smuggling ring in January, and have dubbed the investigation “Oznei Haman,” or “Haman’s ears.”
The Lachish police subdistrict’s Central Unit, together with the Unit 747 narcotics squad, based at Ben-Gurion Airport, seized several food storage cans from a suitcase belonging to the family that were allegedly used to conceal the opium.
The Jerusalem Post has learned of the route allegedly used to smuggle the drugs into the country, but the Ashkelon Magistrate’s Court on Thursday afternoon imposed a ban on its publication.
During questioning, the man told police that the narcotics belonged to him only, and not his wife or son, Dep.-Cmdr. Dudu Boani, head of Lachish Central Unit, told the Post.
“This isn’t the first time they have been to Israel,” Boani added.
An opium market exists among some members of the Israeli-Iranian community, Boani said, describing the drug as a “dangerous, addictive drug” from which heroin is made.
He said the suspect had planned to bring the drugs to Ashdod, from where they would have been “distributed and sold all over Israel.”...
Secretary Clinton needs to speak with General Stanley McCrystal and Secretary Gates. Evidently, they don't have the same priorities as the State Department.
U.S. says happy to work with Iran on tackling drugs (click here)
U.S. envoy Glyn Davies said he had met on Friday with Ali Asghar Soltanieh of Iran, which is chairing the week-long U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) meeting in Vienna.
"It is in our interest to participate with the CND," Davies told reporters on Monday. "We are very happy to work with the chair even if he is from a country which we have differences with."
Soltanieh confirmed he had met with Davies but said it was only in his capacity as CND chairman and said it did not constitute a bilateral meeting.
"I will meet with all members of the commission, my office is open to all members," he told Reuters. "This week I am not in the capacity of my delegation."
Soltanieh is Iran's ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, including the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
He said he did not expect the delegation sent from Tehran would meet with U.S. officials in Vienna.
Washington and Tehran are locked in a bitter dispute over the Iranian nuclear programme, which the West suspects is aimed at producing atomic weapons and which Iran says is purely for civilian uses such as generating power.
The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since the Islamic Revolution three decades ago....
The Middle East News Source / Adam Gonn
U.S. State Department report claims Iran has the globe’s highest rates of opiate drug abuse.
Iran suffers from the highest levels of opiate drug use in the world, a U.S. government report has claimed.
The 2010 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report released by the U.S. State Department concluded that with its close proximity to Afghanistan, Iran has the highest levels of heroin and opium use in the world.
“Iran was a producer for many years until the [1979 Islamic] revolution, when it was eradicated, but they could not do away with the addiction,” Thomas Pietschmann, Research Officer with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, told The Media Line.
“It’s simply due to Afghanistan,” he continued. “Opium and heroin [from Afghanistan] are exported via Iran to turkey and then to Europe. They also supply the goods to the Iranian markets, not very much smaller than the markets of Western Europe.”
Afghanistan’s share of the world opium market is estimated to be between 87 and 93 percent.
According the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, there are around 5 million opiate users in Western Europe compared to 1.4 million in Iran but while heroin is commonly used in Europe, opium use is more widespread in Iran.The Iranian Resistance will need a different income !
The USA CIA now has the largest opium supply in the world to play with and attempt to disrupt sovereign governments everywhere.
"Oh, NO, YOU DON'T."
Secretary Gates needs to stop this idiocy, destroy the crops in Afghanistan, subsidize the farmers and stop the reason why al Qaeda and the Taliban want back in to the country of Afghanistan. The Afghans needs agricultural rehab.
NO American soldier will die for this moronity !!!
And the USA military WILL NOT participate in such stupidity. Why not just cause WW III ?