Pharma

U.S. Medics Reach Out In Afghanistan - Matt Mientka

Army Medic Stacey Osterhoubt
Army Medic Stacey Osterhoubt
KABUL, AFGANISTAN-Though the Department of Defense's (DoD) Central Command in Tampa, Fla., continues to prepare for a possible war with Iraq, American civil affairs officials here said they are staying for the long haul to help rebuild the country and inoculate the population against terrorism.

The United States began a dual military and humanitarian mission last year in which combat medical support teams began to conduct medical and dental outreaches into the local populations. This year, reserve civil affairs teams began to replace the combat medical providers to help rebuild the country's medical infrastructure and to conduct outreaches far into the Afghani countryside, away from the relatively sophisticated medical infrastructure of Kabul.

Currently, the U.S. deploys approximately 300 medical and non-medical civil affairs personnel-a higher number than at any other time during the war. These so-called Coalition of Joint Civil Military Operations Task Force teams include physicians, nurses, medics and other non-medical specialists, some of whom coordinate work with the many non-governmental organizations (NGO), such as the International Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, that operate here. The vast majority of the task force members are reservists.

Away from the greater Kabul area and the U.S. base in Bagram, seven medical teams composed of various specialists live in safe houses in the countryside, from which they launch medical outreaches to remote villages, providing clinics and meeting with village elders to assess medical needs. The teams also build water wells and restore schools.

Col. Elizabeth Steadman, NC, USA, told U.S. MEDICINE last month that DoD continues to play a leading role in rebuilding the country, assessing needs and coordinating the inflow of equipment and supplies from governmental and non-governmental donors. "The [Afghanis] have good plans," she said. "It's just really a matter of getting the resources to work with and the U.S. has helped significantly with that."

Col. Steadman said she has worked with the new Afghani minister of health, a female surgeon and retired four-star general, to plan Afghanistan's medical infrastructure. "Their focus now is on primary care and preventive status," she said.

Medical Infrastructure
Most hospitals in Afghanistan have not had the money to purchase new equipment and refurbish their buildings for the better part of two decades, Col. Steadman advised. "So most of the equipment is 20-30 years old in many cases and they don't have the high-tech things that we have in the U.S.-there are no CT scanners in Afghanistan, except one at the Army hospital," she said.

Officials interviewed by U.S. MEDICINE agreed that, although medicine is practiced in a Spartan, low-tech environment, the country has a wealth of talented, dedicated physicians who often work without pay. In contrast to a report from the American Forces Press Service that Afghani physicians treat everything with "egg yolk and spit," Col. Steadman advised that the primary difference between urban Afghanistan and U.S. medical care is technology.

"At Kabul, the treatment is basically the same as in the U.S. but without the high technology," Col. Steadman said. "They have the same medications that we do and they treat with [virtually] the same antibiotics that we have. Basically, if they had the supplies and equipment the treatment would be the same," she said, noting that a lack of radiology and other equipment precludes physicians from performing certain procedures.

Col. Steadman, who was at the tail-end of a nine-month tour last month, said she had traveled a few times from Kabul to Bagram and other points in the country but had worked primarily in Kabul. Among other tasks, she worked with officials from the Kabul Medical Institute, a medical school that, like the two sole pharmaceutical plants in the country, was ravaged by the civil war and the Taliban.

"After the Taliban left, there were no medical books in the library" at the medical school, Col. Steadman said. Since then, American personnel have obtained approximately 16,000 medical, dental, veterinary and nursing textbooks, as well as monetary donations for the school. "We rebuilt the library at Kabul Medical as well as the dental school and we've also sent a lot of [textbooks] out to some of the remote areas and villages to the physicians there," she said.

The Kabul Medical Institute was reopened in late October with U.S. and coalition help, according to DoD.

Currently, the task force is working to restore Afghanistan's pharmaceutical production capacity, which was greatly slowed when warring factions during the civil war stole scarce machine motors from the only two plants in the country. While one plant once employed 702 pharmacists, it is now down to 80 total employees manufacturing only two or three drugs. Col. Steadman said the task force is hopeful they will soon procure machinery to restore the pharmaceutical output to 25 per cent of its former capacity, allowing the country to reduce its import dependence on Pakistan.

Afghanis Receive American Personnel
Though American civil affairs teams have been well received in Afghanistan, military personnel continue to exercise caution because Taliban and al Qaeda sympathizers remain in the area. "There's a level of danger. Going out, we're always armed, we are always in uniform," said Col. Steadman. "I don't feel threatened, but I'm very cautious because we are still considered to be in a war zone."

Upon arriving in Afghanistan, Col. Steadman said she had doubts about how she would be perceived by the local male physicians because of her sex. "I have to say there has not been the first issue," she said. "They've been incredibly gracious and it's just amazing how wonderful they are and how much they appreciate us."

Working in Kabul, Col. Steadman said she has seen the "good parts" of Afghani society and has observed that, in just the last three months, fewer women are covering themselves with burkas. "It seems to be their choice now," she said. Currently, women are returning to school across the country, including the nursing school in Kabul, where there are now 25 female students among the 325 students. The task force is also refurbishing a women's surgical hospital that had long been neglected.

A Medic Teaches Afghanis
Likwise, Staff Sgt. Stacey Osterhoubt, USA, a medic, told U.S. MEDICINE last month that she and her colleagues have been well received in Afghanistan. "They're very curious about us, as we are about them, and I'd say that [medical outreach] has been very welcome."

Sgt. Osterhoubt, who is a nurse in the civilian world, said she and her colleagues commonly treat patients that suffer from the common cold. "They're very prone to [colds] as well as stunted growth simply because of malnutrition," she said. "So a lot of what we're trying to do is work with volunteer groups, furnishing vitamins in the area, doing teaching in schools to help along the way."

Although infectious diseases such as tuberculosis are common here because of poor sanitation and medical infrastructure, the most common ailments stem from malnutrition, and obesity is equally rare. "What we've done is go to villages outside of the city and spend a few days with them, treat them," said Sgt. Osterhoubt.

In a remote village far from Kabul, the hub of Afghani medicine, she once spent the day with a local midwife to reinforce the teachings she had done with the local women there. Sgt. Osterhoubt said she believes, as military leaders have been saying, that civil affairs forces will remain in Afghanistan for the near future to get the job done.

Last month, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs Torie Clark outlined the recent actions of civil affairs personnel over the course of "just a few days." Among their accomplishments, they provided medical care for 1,400 civilians-half of them children-in Kandahar. In northeastern Afghanistan, they treated 900 civilians for minor medical conditions and provided veterinary care for 700 area sheep.

Afghan Sexy girl

Prostitution Thrives in Afghanistan

Prostitution Thrives in Afghanistan
The oldest profession is alive and well in carefully-concealed brothels and on the streets.

By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in Mazar-e-Sharif

“I do not enjoy being with men. I hate them. But to keep them as loyal customers, I pretend,” said the young Afghan woman.

Dressed in jeans and a tee-shirt, with shoulder-length black hair and wearing no makeup, 21-year-old Saida (not her real name) looked ordinary enough. But in this highly conservative society, she has sex with men for money, sometimes several times a night.

Saida’s father and older brother were killed in the civil war of the Nineties, and she lives with her mother and younger siblings in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
an ill-fated Afghan women who have been pushed into prostitution
RAWA Interview with some prostitutes

She has been a prostitute for six years, since the day her mother made a deal with a local pimp.

“One day an old woman came to our house,” Saida recalled. “She talked to my mother, and then took me to a house. A man almost 30 years old was waiting for me. He attacked me right away. It was horrible. I knew nothing; I felt only pain.”

According to Saida, she was left alone with the man for half a day before being brought home.

She told her mother what had happened, but she got no response.

“I now know she must have agreed because she was desperate,” said Saida. “I was in pain for a week. The old woman came again ten days later and took me back to that house. After that I started going on my own and getting money from rich people.”

Saida is now quite familiar with the world of prostitution, and accepts it as her lot in life.

“Having sex with men of any age or appearance is quite normal for me,” she said. “I don’t care who I spend the night with as long as I make a little money.”

She said she sometimes services five customers in one night, and has some regular clients, although she prefers to have a steady stream of new ones.

“My regular clients pay me less,” she explained. “The new ones give me a lot of money.”

Saida said that she charges from 1,000 to 2,500 afghani per night, between 20 and 50 US dollars.

“All men are the same to me,” she said. “At first I really hated fat men, or those whose bodies smelled bad, but now I don’t care.

She broadens her client base through referrals, and does not have a madam or pimp.

“Men give my telephone number to their friends, and that way I find new customers,” she said.
Afghanistan is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude.
US State Department Trafficking Report, June 12, 2007

Afghanistan’s sex industry is booming, according to both private and official sources. Statistics are scattered, and few solid figures exist. But since the fall of the Taleban regime in late 2001, prostitution has become, if not more widespread, at least more open.

A police official in the northern province of Jowzjan, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that according to official figures, 2,000 families in his province alone had resorted to prostitution over the past 10 years. The true figure is likely much higher.

“The main factor is the lack of employment opportunities,” he said.

In many cases, prostitution becomes a hereditary trade, passed on from mother to daughter.

The Taleban strictly controlled sexual activity, meting out harsh punishments for extra-marital relations and adultery. Married women who had sex outside marriage were stoned to death; others were publicly flogged.

Sex outside marriage remains illegal in post-Taleban Afghanistan, and the prisons are full of women who have been convicted of “fornication”, a charge that carries a penalty of from five to 15 years in jail.

But this has not stopped women like Dilbar (not her real name), a 40-year-old madam who keeps a brothel in Mazar-e-Sharif.

Dilbar is a professional. She worked as a prostitute for many years, and has passed the trade on to her daughter, who helps her run the brothel. She no longer takes on clients herself.

“I am too old now,” she laughed. “I have children. But I help other girls to become prostitutes. I provide the means to make young men happy for a short time.”

Her customers call her “Khala” - “Auntie” - as a sign of respect.

Dilbar has ten girls who operate out of her brothel as well as making house calls on request. She requires a constant supply of new blood for her clientele, who are always seeking fresher delights.

“When I find a new girl I ask her to bring a friend,” she explained. “That way I get more and more girls. So I can get rid of those who become too old, or who get used up.”

Since prostitution is illegal, Dilbar has to be careful. She does not often allow customers to spend the night, to avoid attracting her neighbours’ attention.

“Most customers just spend a few hours during the day,” she said. She charges from 1,000 to 2,000 afghani, depending on the girl. “The younger, fresher ones get more,” she explained. She shares the proceeds with the girls, but did not divulge her percentage.

The business end of things has been made much easier by the mobile phone. Dilbar moves house frequently so as to avoid detection. With a mobile phone, she can alert her regular customers to her new location.

“Before we had mobile phones, I had to spend a longer period in each house,” she said. “Then when I moved, I would have to go personally to my customers to tell them where we were. These mobile phones are a great help.”

The capital Kabul, too, has its bordellos. In addition to a number of Chinese “restaurants”, which employ imported prostitutes and cater to an international clientele, the city sports several venues such as the house run by Kaka Faiz (again, not his real name).

The charges are steeper in the capital, with Kaka Faiz charging up to 100 dollars for a night with one of his girls.

“We address the needs of young men,” he said. “They exist, so we exist.”

Most of Faiz’s girls are under 25, and he has a well-heeled clientele.

“The men who come to my house work in NGOs [non-government organisations], and some of the city’s wealthiest people also come,” he boasted. “I have placed this entire house at their service, and they can feel quite safe and secure.”

Azita, 19, is one of Faiz’s girls.

“I do not want to do this,” she said, tears rolling down her face. “But I only have eight years of schooling. I wanted to become a doctor, but I couldn’t complete my studies. This is the only job open to me.”
While prostitution existed both before and during the Taliban, Afghan women's rights groups believe the number of sex workers in the country is increasing at a greater rate than before because the country has reached an unprecedented level of economic hardship and lawlessness.
South China Morning Post, April 9, 2006

While unhappy with her fate, she does not blame Faiz, who offered her assistance when she needed it.

“I did not know any boys, and they did not know me or my address,” she explained. “So I meet them in Faiz’s house. He is a good man. Even when there were no customers, he gave me some money. Otherwise, our family of six would die of hunger.”

Organised brothels may offer the girls some protection from the tougher customers.

Latifa, 25, who operates independently, complains that many of her clients are swindlers who refuse to pay after sex.

“Some men try to make us smoke or drink,” she said. “One night two men invited me to their house and said they would pay me 2,000 afghani. They offered me a drink, but I said no. Then they demanded that I have anal sex with them. When I refused they threw me out of the house at midnight, without paying me anything.”

But it’s not all bad, she added.

“There are a few good men who honour their agreement and pay in advance,” she said.

Street prostitutes have a difficult time.

Roya (not her real name), is 25 and comes from Pul-e-Khumri, but now lives in Mazar-e-Sharif, about two hours away.

She is a full-time beggar, and also performs sexual services for money. She goes into shops and offers to have sex with the owner for the equivalent of four dollars.

“Otherwise I have to stand out on a busy street for hours to make one afghani,” she complained. “I have been begging since I was a child. But when I got to be an adolescent, men would humiliate me and try to touch me. So I started having sex for money.”

Taxi drivers are a rich source of information on prostitution, since they interact with so many different types of people.

“I know an old man who came from a foreign country,” said a cabbie in Mazar-e-Sharif. “He didn’t know the city so he asked me for help. He likes young girls. So I took him to a few places. Now we both go once a week. He meets one young girl, and I get another one. He pays for us both, and then he gives me six times the usual taxi fare.”

One young man in Balkh province was unapologetic about visiting prostitutes.

“It’s entertainment - what else are we supposed to do?” he said. “I have relations with a lot of girls; they come to my shop and I pay them. It is good for both sides – I am not married, and they make money.”

The market was completely unregulated, he added.

“We pay from 100 to 5,000 afghani [two to 100 dollars] depending on age and beauty,” he said. “Half the population is involved in this type of activity.”

With so much underground sexual activity, the risk of disease is high.

Doctor Khalid, who runs the AIDS Public Awareness section of a Mazar-e-Sharif clinic, said the Afghan public is woefully ignorant of the risks of HIV infection.

“There are many factors in the transmission of [HIV/] AIDS,” he said. “But the main one is illegal and unhealthy sexual relations.”

When a prostitute has sex with many clients, there is scope for passing on not only the HIV virus which causes AIDS, but also other diseases such as syphilis and certain strains of hepatitis, the doctor explained.

“The campaign for public awareness is not satisfactory,” he complained. “Most people are not aware of the dangers.”

Exact figures are unreliable, but the Afghan health ministry listed 75 recorded cases of HIV in August 2007, representing a fourfold increase in just six months. The actual figure is likely to be exponentially higher.

If Dilbar’s views are any indication, Doctor Khaled is right to be worried.

“AIDS, shmaids!” laughed the brothel owner. “AIDS doesn’t exist in Afghanistan. I’ve never heard of anyone getting infected with AIDS. Here a girl will have sex with three men in a day without using a condom. These condoms are some kind of foreign thing. Myself, I’ve never used one.”
A police official in the northern province of Jowzjan, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that according to official figures, 2,000 families in his province alone had resorted to prostitution over the past 10 years. The true figure is likely much higher.
IWPR, Jan.16, 2008

The police say they are clamping down on prostitution.

“We are quite serious about eliminating these centres of prostitution,” said General Sardar Mohammad Sultani, the police chief in Balkh province, of which Mazar-e-Sharif is the main town. “Now no one dares to do this openly. If there are such centres, they are hidden, and those who use them are so skilled that the police do not know they are there.”

But one young man who had been arrested for having had unlawful sexual relations told IWPR that many prostitutes operate in collusion with the police.

“I once had an appointment with a girl at her house,” he said. “Ten minutes after I got there, the police showed up and took me to jail.”

He explained that this happened because he had not yet figured out how the system worked.

“Last year, I was taking a woman home. She was wearing a burqa, but the police stopped us and said they recognised her as a prostitute. She had a good laugh with the police, who demanded money. I gave them 100 dollars and they let me go.”

Police chief Sultani denies that his men are complicit in prostitution.

“If anyone has any evidence, they should come to us,” he said. “If we do not take action, then people can hold us responsible.”

Dilbar, the wily madam, just laughed when asked about police corruption.

“We have always existed, under each and every government. So have the police,” she said. “Somehow we find a way to do our job and keep everyone happy.”

Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is an IWPR staff reporter in Mazar-e-Sharif.

world map

Sheikh Osama Bin Laden in Tora Bora Mountains

Al Qaeda was founded in 1988 by Osama bin Laden to consolidate the international network he established during the Afghan war. Its goals were the advancement of Islamic revolutions throughout the Muslim world and repelling foreign intervention in the Middle East.

Bin Laden, son of a billionaire Saudi businessman, became involved in the fight against the Soviet Union’s invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, which lasted from 1979 to 1988 and ended with a Soviet defeat at the hands of international militias of Muslim fighters backed by the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Together with Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood leader, Abdullah Azzam, bin Laden ran one of seven main militias involved in the fighting. They established military training bases in Afghanistan and founded Maktab Al Khidamat, or Services Office, a support network that provided recruits and money through worldwide centers, including in the U.S.

Bin Laden and Azzam had different visions for what to do with the network they had established. Bin Laden decided to found Al Qaeda, based on personal affiliations created during the fighting in Afghanistan as well as on his own international network, reputation and access to large sums of money. The following year Azzam was assassinated. After the war ended, the Afghan-Arabs, as the mostly non-Afghan volunteers who fought the Soviets came to be known, either returned to their countries of origin or joined conflicts in Somalia, the Balkans and Chechnya. This benefited Al Qaeda’s global reach and later helped cultivate the second and third generations of Al Qaeda terrorists.

Following the first Gulf War, Al Qaeda shifted its focus to fighting the growing U.S. presence in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s most sacred shrines. Al Qaeda vociferously opposed the stationing of U.S. troops on what it considered the holiest of Islamic lands and waged an extended campaign of terrorism against the Saudi rulers, whom bin Laden deemed to be false Muslims. The ultimate goal of this campaign was to depose the Saudi royal family and install an Islamic regime on the Arabian peninsula. The Saudi regime subsequently deported bin Laden in 1992 and revoked his citizenship in 1994.

In 1991 bin Laden moved to Sudan, where he operated until 1996. During this period, Al Qaeda established connections with other terror organizations with the help of its Sudanese hosts and Iran. While in Sudan, Al Qaeda was involved in several terror attacks and guerrillaactions carried out by other organizations. In May 1996, following U.S. pressure on the Sudanese government, bin Laden moved to Afghanistan where he allied himself with the ruling Taliban.

Between 1991 and 1996, Al Qaeda took part in several major terror attacks. Al Qaeda was involved in the bombing of two hotels in Aden, Yemen, which targeted American troops en route to Somalia on a humanitarian and peacekeeping mission. It also gave massive assistance to Somali militias, whose efforts brought the eventual withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1994. Bin Laden was also involved in an assassination attempt against Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia in June 1995. Two major terrorist actions against the U.S. military in Saudi Arabia, a November 1995 attack in Riyadh and the June 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, also fit Al Qaeda’s strategy at the time, but their connection to Al Qaeda is not entirely clear. There is little evidence to suggest a significant connection between bin Laden and the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993.

After moving to Afghanistan, bin Laden escalated his anti-American rhetoric. In an interview with the Independent in July 1996, bin Laden praised the Riyadh and Dhahram attacks on U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia, saying it marked “the beginning of war between Muslims and the United States.” He did not take responsibility for the attacks, but said that “not long ago, I gave advice to the Americans to withdraw their troops from Saudi Arabia.” On August 23, 1996, bin Laden issued Al Qaeda’s first “declaration of war” against America, his “Message from Osama bin Laden to his Muslim brothers in the whole world and especially in the Arabian Peninsula: declaration of jihad against the Americans occupying the Land of the Two Holy Mosques (Saudi Arabia); expel the heretics from the Arabian Peninsula.”

In February 1998 bin Laden and several leading Muslim militants declared the formation of a coalition called the International Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders to fight the U.S. Member organizations included Al Qaeda, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad led by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian Islamic Group, and organizations engaged in Kashmir and Bangladesh. Bin Laden was appointed to head the Front’s council (shura). The militants signed a fatwa (religious opinion) outlining the Front’s ideology and goals. The fatwa was published in a London-based Arabic paper, Al Quds Al Arabi; it called on all Muslims to “kill the Americans and their allies - civilians and military,” wherever they may be.



Subsequently, Al Qaeda escalated its war against the U.S. In August 1998, Al Qaeda bombed two U.S. embassies in East Africa (Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) killing more than 200 people, including 12 Americans. In retaliation, the U.S. attacked targets in Sudan and Afghanistan. In October 2000, Al Qaeda bombed the U.S.S. Cole, an American guided-missile destroyer at Aden, Yemen, killing 17 American servicemen. It committed its most devastating attack on September 11, 2001, when 19 Al Qaeda operatives hijacked four passenger planes and drove two into the Twin Towers in New York City and one into the Pentagon; a fourth plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attack.

Afghanistan Tops Columbia as Capital of Illicit Narcotics

Afghanistan Tops Columbia as Capital of Illicit Narcotics

SF Chronicle: Afghanistan Tops Columbia as Capital of Illicit Narcotics

This message is available on the Internet at http://www.WantToKnow.info/afghanistandrugcapital

Dear friends,

Afghanistan has now surpassed Columbia as the world's capital of illicit drugs. The below article from the Nov. 19th front page of the San Francisco Chronicle states that Afghanistan has a narco-economy where 40 to 50 percent of the entire economy is dependent on illicit drugs. With all of the American troops and an American-installed government, how can this be? Especially when drought and the Taliban had eradicated over 90% of the opium crop in 2001. Here are two quotes from our 10-page 9/11 timeline http://www.wanttoknow.info/9-11cover-up10pg

The Truth about Drugs

Feb 21, 2002: A ban on poppy growing by the Taliban in July 2000 along with severe droughts reduced Afghanistan's opium yield by 91% in 2001. Yet the UN expects its 2002 opium crop to be equivalent to the bumper one of three years ago. Afghanistan is the source of 75% of the world's heroin. Guardian, 2/21/02

Aug 11, 2002: The Observer has learned of three heroin refineries in Afghanistan. There are believed to be several more, some of them operating in broad daylight. Observer, 8/11/02 http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,772598,00.html

It is a sad fact that though the US and UK talk tough on fighting the drug trade, in reality, they care little about this massive business, and very possibly actively encourage and benefit from it. If you find this hard to believe, I invite you to watch former LA cop Mike Ruppert's excellent video "Truth and Lies of 9/11 ." Ruppert was forced out of his job 20 years ago when he tried to expose CIA involvement in the drug trade in the US. He has done his homework very well in this video. Or read 25-year DEA agent Mike Levine's story http://www.wanttoknow.info/massmediacover-ups#levine or Pulitzer prize winning reporter Gary Webb's story http://www.wanttoknow.info/massmediacover-ups#webb or Prof. Peter Dale Scott's essay <http://www.wanttoknow.info/resources#drugscontrascia on the topic. All of them found massive evidence of clandestine government involvement in the drug trade both at home and abroad. http://jahtruth.net/300.htm

It's time to bring the dirty laundry into the light and call for clean government and renewed democracy. Corporate media ownership prevents this critical news from going out, so we must depend on all of us now working together. Please help to spread the word by forwarding this important message to your friends and colleagues. Together, we can build a brighter future. http://jahtruth.net/democra.htm

Demoncrazy is unLawful and anathema to God - JAH:- http://jahtruth.net/godgovmt.htm

With best wishes, Fred Burks for the WantToKnow.info team

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi? file=/c/a/2004/11/19/MNGSB9UALS1.D TL

Afghanistan's disturbing poppy explosion U. N. says nation tops Colombia as capital of illicit narcotics Colin Freeman, Chronicle Foreign Service Friday, November 19, 2004

Kabul, Afghanistan -- In the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, where his $100 million empire is based, inquiries about Haji Bashir Noorzai elicit an anxious frown, a shrug or the vague explanation that he left years ago.

On a U. S. government most-wanted list established under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, however, he was named in June as an international kingpin. The list names him as the top heroin dealer in Afghanistan -- and one of the biggest in the world.

He also is among the key beneficiaries of a massive rise in drug cultivation in Afghanistan described Thursday in a report by the United Nations, which says production of opium and its derivative, heroin, has rocketed to near record levels.

The discouraging numbers have highlighted the simmering discontentment among hardliners in the Bush administration with anti-drug efforts by Britain, which was assigned the lead in stamping out the Afghan opium trade after the U. S.-led campaign to oust the Taliban in 2001.

"In Afghanistan, drugs are now a clear and present danger," said Antonio Maria Costa, director of the U. N. Office of Drugs and Crime, on the release of the 2004 Afghanistan opium survey. "The fear that Afghanistan might degenerate into a narco-state is becoming a reality."

Opium poppy cultivation, the U. N. report says, has risen by two-thirds, compared with last year, to more than 320,000 acres -- more than 10 times the area of San Francisco. The harvest in 2004 was estimated at 4,200 metric tons, an increase of 17 percent from last year. A metric ton equals about 2,
205 pounds.

The report shows that the drug trade has been rising steadily for decades -- except for an abrupt one-year decline in opium poppy cultivation in 2001 that followed a ban imposed by the Taliban regime. "The drug problem in Afghanistan has been allowed to become ever more serious. If it persists, the political and military successes of the last three years will be lost," the report warned.

Since 95 percent of Afghan heroin ends up in Europe, U. S. interest in foreign drug kingpins traditionally has focused on Latin America. But the report says Afghanistan has surpassed Colombia as the world's biggest gross producer of illicit narcotics, heroin being the "main engine of economic growth" and the "strongest bond" among tribes that previously fought constantly.

Until now, "narco-sheikhs" such as Noorzai have been virtually unknown outside their war-torn fiefdoms. But their days of peaceful criminal obscurity may be at an end.

In a move that signals a new front in its worldwide drug war, the Bush administration hopes to extradite Noorzai and up to a dozen other drug lords as part of an "urgent" strike against Afghanistan's spiralling $2.8 billion-a- year heroin trade.

"We are interested in getting people like these indicted and then extradited to the U. S.," said one senior Kabul-based U. S. official. "It sends out a very strong message to the others that no matter how rich and powerful they are, there is a risk attached to what they do."

Yet the extradition move, which requires the permission of newly elected President Hamid Karzai, is sensitive.

"What we have here now is a narco-economy where 40 to 50 percent of the GDP is from illicit drugs," said the Kabul-based official. "The heroin traffickers are naturally interested in supporting terrorism and doing what they can to destabilize the central government because the last thing they want is the establishment of the rule of law. In those terms, it is a matter of national security to the U. S. and Europe."

Officially, both U. S. and British diplomats insist that just as in the war on terror, Washington and London see exactly eye to eye on drug eradication. But at a House International Relations Committee hearing in February, a senior Bush administration official accused Britain of being squeamish about eradicating opium poppy fields before Afghan farmers had found other means of income. http://jahtruth.net/300.htm

"Our priority should not be some kind of misplaced sympathy for someone who will have to do a little bit more work to grow other, less-lucrative crops, such as wheat or barley," said Robert Charles, assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement.

British officials believe the more robust U. S. approach, which also may involve crop-dusting raids, could simply alienate the very farmers they are trying to win over, by putting the stick too far ahead of the carrot. They also complain that the 18,000-strong U. S. military in Afghanistan has turned a blind eye to warlords' involvement in the opium trade in exchange for help against al Qaeda and Taliban remnants.

But with the U. N. report confirming Charles' misgivings by revealing a massive rise in opium cultivation, the United States now seems set to steal the lead from Britain by targeting the narco-sheikhs directly.

"We need to turn this thing around quickly," said the Kabul-based official. "It may take 10 or 20 years to completely eradicate it, but we definitely need some success in the next year or two."

Britain has trained a squad of elite counternarcotics police that has seized
50 tons of opium this year, but as of yet not a single drug lord has been brought to court on criminal drug-trafficking charges. The Afghan justice system, which is being rebuilt by Italian officials experienced in dealing with the Mafia, still lacks the necessary investigation teams, secure jails and witness protection programs to begin prosecutions in earnest.

Haji Juma Khan, another kingpin accused by U. S. officials of funding al Qaeda, still freely travels between his homes in Afghanistan and Pakistan and regularly visits Dubai, where he has extensive investments. "Plenty of Afghans will tell you that he is a big player, but getting proof that will stand up in court is another matter," said one official.

U. S. troops arrested Khan two years ago during the hunt for Osama bin Laden, only to release him -- a decision they now bitterly regret.

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The ONLY solution is to enforce The Plan against the N. W. O. Elite traitorous, narco-trafficker, mass-murder, insider-job perpetrators of 911 and the phoney Wars on Terror and Drugs:- http://jahtruth.net/drugs.htm

Drug industry

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Chapter 1
Introduction and Overview: The sheer size and illicit nature of the opium economy mean that it infiltrates and seriously affects Afghanistan's economy, state, society, and politics. The opium economy is a massive source of corruption and gravely undermines the credibility of the government and its local representatives. While the chapters in this report cover diverse topics and use different research methods, their findings are broadly consistent and they have many common themes. This introductory chapter focuses on methodology, main themes, chapter summaries, and conclusions and recommendations.

Chapter 2
Macroeconomic Impact of the Drug Economy and Counter-Narcotics Efforts: The opium economy is equivalent to more than one-third of Afghanistan’s licit economy. Iit is the country's largest source of export earnings, and it comprises a major source of income and employment in rural areas. However, because a large share of drug proceeds leave or never enter the country, and some of the rest are used for imports, the impact of the opium economy is less than its size would suggest. Correspondingly, the harmful macroeconomic effects of successful measures against drugs may be somewhat limited and manageable, although monitoring is needed. The critical adverse development impact of counter-narcotics actions is on poor farmers and rural wage laborers.

Chapter 3
Responding to the Challenge of Diversity in Opium Poppy Cultivation: This chapter argues that diversity in rural household characteristics, assets, and access to markets means a diverse pattern of dependency on the opium economy, and of decision-making about whether to cultivate opium poppy under varying local circumstances. There is also diversity in households' responses to shocks like elimination of opium poppy cultivation in their locality, and to which degree they are able move into alternative livelihoods, or remain dependent on opium. Households with the least assets and limited access to local resources (land, irrigation water) and market opportunities tend to be the most dependent on opium. All of this diversity calls for a commensurate response on the part of the counter-narcotics strategy – working with the diversity that exists rather than ignoring it, and making use of the knowledge that has been gained about rural households and opium cultivation in different localities.

Chapter 4
Opium Trading Systems in Helmand and Ghor Provinces:This chapter looks into the next level up – opium traders and patterns of opiumtrade – based on fieldwork in Helmand, the dominant center of opium production and trade in the south, and Ghor, a much more recent and marginal producer toward the west. Geographical and climatic differences, continuity of different trading systems from the past, and drug-related economic interactions between the two provinces, have shaped the very different size and evolution of the opium trade. There is a case for anticipatory action in Ghor to restrict the spread of opium cultivation in that province. A persistent theme is the engagement of key provincial and district authorities in the opium economy, and both interdiction and eradication measures may have inadvertently contributed to key drug industry actors and their sponsors gaining tighter control over distribution and trade.

Chapter 5
Prices and Market Interactions in the Opium Economy: This chapter analyzes prices of opium and opiates to assess price trends, market structure, and the degree of market integration. Opium prices in Afghanistan have fluctuated sharply in recent years and have been volatile, reflecting supply side factors (weather, cultivation bans) mediated somewhat by inventory adjustments. Spatial price patterns indicate that opium markets are flexible and mobile; actions against the opium economy can have an impact on local markets, but they tend to encourage a shift of production and trade to other areas. Based on econometric tests, opium markets have become less integrated in recent years, probably due to the differing strength and effectiveness of counter-narcotics actions in different areas. Helmand and Kandahar in the south appears to be functioning as a “central market” for opium in Afghanistan.

Chapter 6
The Nexus of Drug Trafficking and Hawala in Afghanistan: This chapter explores the very important but murky nexus between the drug industry and the informal financial transfer system (hawala). The hawala system facilitates the transfer of drug-related funds in Afghanistan, while at the same time serving as a vehicle for licit commercial transactions, aid flows, and remittances. In the settlement process hawala dealers are heavily reliant on formal banking channels in regional countries around Afghanistan. The positive role of the hawala system must be recognized, and through partnership and incentives it can progressively be brought into compliance with existing registration and taxation provisions. The international community also needs to be more diligent in its use of the hawala system to prevent its funds from becoming intermingled with illicit transfers. But imposing stringent anti-money laundering standards too quickly on the re-emerging formal financial sector risks alienating the Afghan people from using banks. Anti-money laundering provisions need to be more strictly enforced for nearby countries’ banks which support the hawala trade.

Chapter 7
Drug Trafficking and the Development of Organized Crime in Post-Taliban Afghanistan: This chapter looks at the drug industry in Afghanistan from an organized crime perspective, focusing on its consolidation, changing internal structure, and linkages with different levels of government. In an environment of criminalization of narcotics, increasing albeit uneven law enforcement and eradication campaigns, and ongoing efforts to rebuild state institutions, the drug industry in Afghanistan is becoming increasingly consolidated. The chapter argues that at the top level, around 25-30 key traffickers, the majority of them in southern Afghanistan, control major transactions and transfers, working closely with sponsors in top government and political positions. The chapter concludes that there are no easy solutions to the drug industry as an increasingly organized set of criminal activities. New analytical frameworks and thinking will be needed, countering organized crime will require a careful balancing act, and improvements in specialized law enforcement agencies alone will not be sufficient. Broader state-building and governance improvements will be key.

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