Are you back on your hate America medication? Thank heavens you found one serious problem in Afghanistan that you can blame on the US. Otherwise, you would have to hang your head at the thought of another US success story.

Sorry about the thank heavens comment. It was just an expression and not meant as a value judgment or to give offense to those who might or might not believe in heaven.

God forbid someone blame the drug dealers for the drug trade instead of the U.S. Military.

---

Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

(getting quite irritated)

You guys are such jerks. I never blamed the military for anything. I blame the assholes in the Administration who have their collective heads up their butts so deep that they have no clue as to the reality of the world: you take out what little infrastructure existed in Afghanistan, and just walk away, and you'll get the drug trade back in spades. I don't care about the source of the problem (the users, perhaps) as much as the fact is that there is a large base of drug users, and the supply will rise to meet that demand, and that ne'er-do-wells (like terrorists) will use the drug profits to make us less safe.

But, no, the neo-cons in Washington and on this forum think "hey, we got rid of the Taliban, we can leave a gaping vacuum, it's their problem, not ours". Think again. The Pentagon now thinks it's enough our problem to go back in (quadrupling the money from last year) to attempt to clean up the mess they left there.

Let's hear the Administration supporters, who said it wasn't our problem, now say that the Pentagon is wrong to ratchet up support of the anti-drug efforts in Afghanistan. You know who you are.

---

----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"

(staying quite calm)

"you take out what little infrastructure existed in Afghanistan, and just walk away, and you'll get the drug trade back in spades"

I don't know what you mean by "walk away" since we've never left there.

"But, no, the neo-cons in Washington and on this forum think "hey, we got rid of the Taliban, we can leave a gaping vacuum, it's their problem, not ours"."

Again, we never left. Just because we're going to increase our role in counter narcotics enforcement doesn't mean we weren't already in there.

"The Pentagon now thinks it's enough our problem to go back in (quadrupling the money from last year) to attempt to clean up the mess they left there"

Hey, remember, you don't blame the military.

---

Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

Let's hear the Administration supporters, who said it wasn't our problem, now say that the Pentagon is wrong to ratchet up support of the anti-drug efforts in Afghanistan. You know who you are.

I'm not an administration supporter, but I don't think the Pentagon should be ratcheting up support for anti-drug work in Afghanistan. (Except insofar as it might help us tag Bin Laden, but I haven't heard the argument that it will, so, like I said, the poppy trade isn't our problem. Neither is democracy, or women's rights, or literacy, or paved roads, or running water, etc etc etc. Except insofar as they aid us in our goal of tagging Bin Laden.)

---

"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

We "walked away" enough so that the poppy trade skyrocketed.

As for "military", my error. I don't blame the people who implemented the program (the guys in harm's way), but rather the suits in Washington.

---

----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"

"We "walked away" enough so that the poppy trade skyrocketed"

there's drug trade in Thailand, South America, etc, etc. The drug trade increased because the people there don't have any other skills or resources as easy to deal in. Are we supposed to free them from tyranny and terrorist regime, and on top of that, hold their hands while they learn to grow wheat or corn instead of poppies?

---

Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

Keeping you up to date on the situation. What was it you said? "Well done, USA" I'd say it is a job well done... U.S. indicts alleged Afghan drug trafficker Second court appearance scheduled for Wednesday



Monday, April 25, 2005 Posted: 7:48 PM EDT (2348 GMT)


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www.lendingtree.com SPECIAL REPORT • Security Watch • Gallery: Hunt for al Qaeda • Timeline: Al Qaeda attacks • Explainer: Terror alert system • Special Report YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS Taliban Organized Crime Acts of terror or Create your own Manage alerts | What is this?

NEW YORK (CNN) -- An accused heroin kingpin has been indicted and arrested in a massive narcotics conspiracy involving Afghanistan's former Taliban regime, U.S. Attorney David N. Kelley said Monday.

The U.S. indictment alleges that Haji Bashir Noorzai led an international trafficking ring based in Afghanistan and Pakistan that transported at least $50 million worth of heroin to the United States and other countries.

Noorzai made an initial appearance in Manhattan federal court Monday afternoon. He did not enter a plea. A second appearance is scheduled for Wednesday.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration arrested Noorzai on Saturday while he was traveling to the United States, Kelley said, offering few other details.

Kelley said Noorzai "provided demolitions, weaponry and militia manpower to the Taliban," the Islamic fundamentalist group that ruled Afghanistan until a U.S.-led invasion toppled it in 2001.

In exchange, the Taliban "served as protection for Noorzai's opium crops, heroin laboratories and drug transportation routes out of the country," Kelley said.

The Taliban, which the U.S. government designates a terrorist organization, had allowed al Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, to live and train in the country.

"Noorzai and the Taliban had a symbiotic relationship," Kelley said.

Kelley, whose jurisdiction is the Southern District of New York, which includes Manhattan, declined to comment on reported links between the case and al Qaeda.

"There are published accounts about the relationship between the Afghan drug lords and al Qaeda, but that's not part of this case," Kelley said.

U.S. authorities previously have said Noorzai helped finance al Qaeda when it operated under Taliban protection in Afghanistan.

Noorzai "is perhaps the most notorious Afghan drug lord and has built over the last 15 years a multimillion dollar heroin business by forging an unholy alliance with [supreme Taliban leader] Mullah Mohammed Omar and the Taliban," Kelley said.

"On one occasion in 1997," Kelley said, "it is alleged that Taliban authorities in Afghanistan seized a truckload of morphine base that belonged to the Noorzai organization. It didn't take very long for ... Omar to have the drugs returned to Noorzai with Omar's personal apologies."

The seven-page indictment accuses Noorzai of plotting to distribute heroin as long ago as 1990, with the first shipment a 57-kilogram load in 1997. The indictment lists shipments to New York as recently as 2002.

Noorzai, who was born in 1961, allegedly smuggled an estimated 2,000 pounds of heroin a month from the Kandahar area Afghanistan to Pakistan, according to testimony last year before the House International Relations Committee.

The Bush administration had designated Noorzai one of the world's most-wanted drug kingpins.

Kelley said Noorzai -- if convicted -- faces a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years and a maximum possible sentence of life in prison.

The government is also seeking as much as $50 million in forfeiture of assets as part of Noorzai's sentence, if convicted.

Afghanistan is one of of the world's main growers of opium poppies, the source of heroin. When in power, the Taliban was known to have benefited financially from its production.

The Bush administration recently pushed for legislation authorizing the payment of goods, such as tractors or trucks, instead of cash to potential informants in rural Afghanistan and Pakistan.