The connection between the resurgence of the Taliban and the continuing escalation of poppy cultivation is much more than mere coincidence. The Taliban has always been deeply connected to, and in all reality has controlled, the amounts of opium available in the world black markets. The explosion in poppy cultivation is occurring in Taliban dominated provinces. If Western countries seriously want to eradicate this opium, they are going to have to allocate the troops and resources necessary to stabilize and secure these provinces. So it is easy to correlate the increasing amount of opium production in Afghanistan to the strengthening and reemergence of Taliban in the past few years not only in the violence in Afghanistan, but in Pakistan as well. Afghanistan's 2008 opium crop is expected to produce similar yields as last year's record of 8,243 metric tons, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). In 2007, five provinces which are under Taliban influence and control: Helmand, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Nimroz and Farah were responsible for 77.7% of the country's opium cultivation. Helmand province alone produced 53% of the nation's total crop. http://www.terroristplanet.com/opium.htm
Efforts by the United Nations (UN), the US military and the Indian government to curb opium production in Afghanistan since 2007 have been largely ineffective, due in large part to the ties between the drug trade and the Taliban. please log in to view this image Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium, the raw material harvested from poppies to make heroin, as well as alkaloids like codeine and morphine. According to two cables released this month by WikiLeaks, Afghanistan's supply of opium exceeds the world's demand for heroin, with its unsold stock currently totaling 12,400 tons. Taliban-linked drug cartels emerging along the southern border of the country, where 99 percent of production takes place, influence the majority of poppy cultivation by coercing farmers into growing the crops for a strong and well-supplied insurgency. According to Antonio Maria Costa, former executive director of the UN Office of Drug and Crime (UNODC), the cartels treat the excess stock like a "savings account," a practice that could pose a serious threat to peace efforts if it is used to fund the Taliban insurgency. Read more: http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/201...strong-and-corrupt-as-ever.html#ixzz1V1PMRV7R
ZANGABAD, Afghanistan — American commanders are planning to cut off the Taliban’s main source of money, the country’s multimillion-dollar opium crop, by pouring thousands of troops into the three provinces that bankroll much of the group’s operations. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/world/asia/29afghan.html?ref=opium
Dev, it's pointless. Your links will be decried as unreliable like my one from the United Nations itself The guy is a complete helmet
Not at all, I actually pity him and his life ahead. Pretending he was a teacher and unable to deal with factual information because it ruins his side of an argument
your boyh talking shoite now both of you are citing shoite from 2007 and 2008 the evidence i have provided to you is 2009 onwards therefore more recent and its from sources that you can check yourself, CIA, DIA, congress etc these are reports provided to the decision makers I bet you knobs believed in th eweapons of mass destruction too i bet you think they STILL exist the problem here is that you will resort to any form to try and proove a loosing point This includes sources that are like spielberg asking hitler for a reference the point stands the taliban were successful in reducing the drugs trade (bearing in mind that opium for morphine etc is different than heroin) it is well documented (before the propoganda started, and recently) that the taliban and drugs issue was 'exaggerated' as they were the enemy it is also well documented that the taliban were only successful in the areas that they controlled, which was not all afghanistan heroin production went up 300% when the allies went in, the forces are used to protect the poppy fields the links to drugs and al qaida are tenous at best and generally believed to be bullshit there is an influx of heroin into europe from afghanistan as BH suggests this is due to the 300% rise in production WHICH HAPPENED WHEN THE TALIBAN WERE OUSTED
the sate of play before the attacks on afghanistan as reported by the associated press were as follows: A year after a Taliban ban virtually wiped out opium production in Afghanistan, desperate Afghan farmers are once again preparing their fields for planting poppies, a U.N. official said Wednesday. That could signal a major increase next year in the availability of heroin and other opium-based narcotics in markets in the United States and Western Europe. Bernard Frahi, the U.N. Drug Control Program representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, said reports from major poppy-growing areas of southern and eastern Afghanistan indicate fields have been tilled in a manner that suggests farmers will be planting poppies. It is clear the fields are being prepared for poppies and not wheat, cotton or other crops because of the pattern of tilling, Frahi said. Poppy fields are tilled in an undulating pattern to allow for free-flow of water. Fields prepared for other crops are flat with canals constructed along large tracts for irrigation, he said. Signs that Afghan farmers are resuming poppy cultivation are a bitter disappointment to U.N. drug control officials. Last year, the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, banned poppy production as "un-Islamic." Before that order, which the United Nations said was rigorously enforced, Afghanistan had been the world's largest producer of opium poppies. As a result of the ban, areas of Afghanistan controlled by the Taliban produced a few hundred tons of opium, compared with 3,200 tons produced last year and 4,500 tons the year before. "This was the one success story in Afghanistan," Frahi said. "For us it was very important and came after three years of dialogue with the Taliban." The planting season begins in October and continues for the next two months, Frahi said. Harvest time is in April when it will be evident to what extent Afghanistan has returned to opium production. Frahi said it appeared the Taliban, with their hands full in the face of U.S. air attacks, were not enforcing the ban. Farmers devastated by last year's ban were taking advantage of the relaxed enforcement to plant a high-profit crop. He said Omar issued an order on Sept. 3 extending the ban - a week before the terrorist attacks in the United States. "Everything stopped on Sept. 12," Frahi said. According to a U.N. report released Wednesday, the Taliban had reduced poppy production in Afghanistan by an incredible 91 percent. "Almost all major former poppy growing provinces had no poppy or relatively small areas under cultivation this year," the report said. "The reductions are clearly the result of the implementation of the opium ban." Most of the poppies grown last year in Afghanistan were in the 5-10 percent of the country controlled by the opposition northern alliance, Frahi said. He said production in opposition-controlled areas was up this year because opium dealers were offering farmers "10 times more for opium as well as cash advances." The Taliban ban may have been a major contribution to reducing heroin in the West but was a devastating blow for Afghanistan's farmers, Frahi said. Farmers usually borrow money for seeds and other supplies and pay off the loan at harvest time. However, with the poppy ban in place, Taliban drug control officers said some destitute farmers were so desperate for cash they were giving their daughters, some as young as 10 years old, as brides in exchange for having loans written off. Frahi said hundreds of small farmers sold their land to repay debts. Farmers and day laborers were among the tens of thousands of refugees who slipped into Pakistan late last year and early this year.
thefanwithmentalhealthissues has been furiously googling away all afternoon trying to dig himself out of his hole. http://www.ja606.com
you still here ****ter? as stated earlier i went to watch the united match here is a thought though, maybe...just maybe... if you had done some research whilst at uni it may have taken you less than 6 years to fookin graduate 6 years! FFS you probably wrote shoite in your assignments aswell I know guys who had no qualifications, went in through the mature student route, never been to college but still managed it in 4!
I'm not going to go into the details of what happened, all I know is I had a great time. You are one of the most stupid people that I've ever bothered talking to, go away
Opium production in Afghanistan has been on the rise since U.S. occupation started in 2001. Based on UNODC data, there has been more opium poppy cultivation in each of the past four growing seasons (2004–2007) than in any one year during Taliban rule In the seven years (1994–2000) prior to a Taliban opium ban, the Afghan farmers' share of gross income from opium was divided among 200,000 families in July 2000, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, collaborating with the United Nations to eradicate heroin production in Afghanistan, declared that growing poppies was un-Islamic, resulting in one of the world's most successful anti-drug campaigns. As a result of this ban, opium poppy cultivation was reduced by 91% from the previous year's estimate of 82,172 hectares. The ban was so effective that Helmand Province, which had accounted for more than half of this area, recorded no poppy cultivation during the 2001 season. December 7, 2004, Hamid Karzai was formally sworn in as president of a democratic Afghanistan. Two of the following three growing seasons saw record levels of opium poppy cultivation. Corrupt officials may have undermined the government's enforcement efforts. Afghan farmers suggested that "government officials take bribes for turning a blind eye to the drug trade while punishing poor opium growers. Another obstacle to getting rid of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan is the reluctant collaboration between US forces and Afghan warlords in hunting drug traffickers. In the absence of Taliban, the warlords largely control the opium trade but are also highly useful to the US forces in scouting, providing local intelligence, keeping their own territories clean from Al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents, and even taking part in military operations. In March 2010, NATO rejected Russian proposals for Afghan poppy spraying, citing concerns over income of Afghani people. There have also been allegations of American and European involvement in Afghanistan's drug trafficking.
Is that what you were trying to do when you compared the military forces in Afghanistan (and soldiers in general) to Concentration camp guards during WW2?
you chose to get involved now take it like a man. oops that came out wrong I wasnt being suggestive you really are one of those 'run to mummy' kind arent you i have largely ignored you, but you insist on making snidey ****y comments then on come back you whinge like a biatch you say i am stupid? 6 ****ing years? what are you ******ed too? i could give you private tuition, for a fee, as i was a teacher dont you know? of course it would have to be behind plexi glass, ypou being a ****ter an all
