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Afghan poppy production doubles
(CNN.com, November 28, 2003)
Ever wonder why the markets are doing so well? As FTW has documented for years, with almost $600 billion in drug money being laundered through Wall Street and US banks, the markets should be improving. According to CNN, opium production in Afghanistan is 36 times higher than at the end of Taliban rule. Not every US policy overseas is a failure. Hamid Karzai controls a few square blocks of Kabul. But CIA-controlled warlords control the real estate that really matters. . . . Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan doubled between 2002 and 2003 to a level 36 times higher than in the last year of rule by the Taliban, according to White House figures released Friday. . . . The area planted with poppies, used to make heroin and morphine, was 152,000 acres in 2003, compared with 76,900 acres in 2002 and 4,210 acres in 2001, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy said in a statement. . . . The new Afghan government, led by President Hamid Karzai, has not been able to impose its will in many areas of the country, which remain under the control of warlords. . . . The U.S. figures differ significantly from those released a month ago by the United Nations, which estimated that poppy cultivation rose 8 percent in 2003, to 200,000 acres from 185,000 in 2002. . . . Opium production complicates the task of restoring central government authority in Afghanistan because it enables the warlords to run small armies and gives them an extra financial incentive to retain their autonomy.

posted by LoZo 3:18 PM