Thursday, July 24, 2008
Former State Department Official Accuses Afghan President of Protecting Country's Drug Trade
A former US State Department official says Afghanistan's drug trade is being protected by the country's top officials.
Thomas Schweich wrote in an article posted on The New York Times website Thursday, that US efforts to eliminate Afghanistan's poppy crops have been repeatedly thwarted by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Schweich left his post as coordinator for Counter Narcotics and Justice Reform in Afghanistan last month.
He alleges that while Taliban militants use the opium trade to finance their insurgency, Karzai and his supporters have also used the drug trade to get rich.
He writes that the Afghan president is using the drug trade to secure his political standing in order to win reelection in 2009.
No US or Afghan officials were immediately available for comment.
According to the United Nations and the US, Afghan farmers produce 93 percent of the world's opium poppies.
A report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime earlier this year predicted the 2008 Afghan poppy crop would be large, but smaller than it was in 2007.
Schweich also claims Karzai was able to undermine US attempts to destroy poppy crops by citing divisions among US officials.
He writes that some US military commanders obstructed counter-narcotic efforts, arguing that fighting the drug trade should not be part of the military's mission.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Karzai is history. An utter failure (apart from his attention-getting fashion statements), he is in the way of more effective Afghan leaders who have resisted the temptations of drug trafficking.
