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| Bush Acts To Ensure Afghans Get U.S. Aid |
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Posted by FoM on February 25, 2002 at 20:29:23 PT By George Gedda, Associated Press Writer Source: Associated Press 
President Bush, issuing a report card on countries with drug problems, gave a passing grade to Colombia and Mexico on Monday and took steps to ensure U.S. assistance to Afghanistan will continue. Bush's assessment covered calendar year 2001, a period, he said, when Afghanistan had "failed demonstrably" to adhere to international drug control standards. Under the law, such a finding could prohibit some assistance programs, but Bush issued a waiver on grounds that aid to the new government in Afghanistan is "vital to the national interests of the United States." The Taliban were in power in Afghanistan for most of 2001, before being ousted by U.S.-led military action. For the past several years, Afghanistan has been denied U.S. assistance, partly because the Taliban was found to have engaged in heroin trafficking. Rand Beers, the State Department's top anti-crime official, told reporters the law does not ban counterdrug and humanitarian assistance. On that basis, he said the Bush administration was able to provide those types of assistance to Afghanistan's interim government, which took office on Dec. 22. The waiver allows the administration to provide all types of assistance to Afghanistan. A month ago, Secretary of State Colin Powell pledged $296 million in reconstruction assistance to Afghanistan for this year, part of what officials say will be a long-term commitment to that country. Bush found that Haiti and Myanmar also had "failed demonstrably" to cooperate effectively in combatting drug trafficking. Haiti, like Afghanistan, was given a national interest waiver. There was no waiver issued for Myanmar, meaning that country will continue to be denied most types of assistance. Of the 23 countries covered by the report, 20 were found to meet international standards for combatting drug trafficking. Colombia and Mexico are major producers of illicit drugs but Beers credited both with mounting effective anti-narcotics campaigns. "The overall efforts of the Colombian police and military, I think, have been have been significant," Beers said. "In addition, the law enforcement cooperation between ourselves and Colombia is superior." Colombia is the world leader in the production and distribution of cocaine. Beers also praised Mexico's anti-drug effort as significant, citing in particular the country's willingness to extradite traffickers wanted in the United States. Mexico is the principal transit point for U.S.-bound cocaine from South America. The 23 countries examined are used for drug production, drug transit, or both. They are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Haiti, Mexico, Colombia, Nigeria, Paraguay, the Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, India, Jamaica, Laos, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Thailand, Venezuela and Vietnam. On Afghanistan, Beers said the challenges for the interim government are enormous as it attempts to curb the production of opium, the raw material for heroin. A State Department report last year said Afghanistan accounts for 72 percent of the world's opium supply. Beers said the new government in Afghanistan has said it will not tolerate cultivation or trafficking in opium poppy. He acknowledged, however, that enforcement of this goal is difficult because of a lack of security forces available for this task. One possibility, he said, was the creation of incentives to induce farmers to plow under their opium crop. But an official in Helmand province, the biggest opium-growing region in the world, said Monday this year's crop will be allowed to bloom and be harvested because the new government in Kabul is too weak to stop it. Source: Associated Press Related Articles & Web Site: Colombia Drug War News A Drug on the Market U.S. To Be Drawn Into Colombian War? Kabul Bans Opium Poppy Growing, Trafficking Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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| Comment #1 posted by legalizeit on February 25, 2002 at 20:47:16 PT |
| >There was no waiver issued for Myanmar, meaning that country will continue to be denied most types of assistance. It's time for all intelligent governments to stand up to the US and say "To hell with your assistance! Your arrogant and useless drug policies have brought us nothing but more wars, corruption and social problems. Forget you. We are going to draft our own, sensible policies." >Colombia and Mexico are major producers of illicit drugs but Beers credited both with mounting effective anti-narcotics campaigns. Yeah, real effective. They kill and poison innocent civilians, create wars and hostility where pre-criminalization there were none, and shoot missionaries out of the sky. Yet traffic and prices hardly change. >One possibility, he said, was the creation of incentives to induce farmers to plow under their opium crop. Yeah, right. What are you going to give them, a new mud hut? The farmers are not dumb. They are going to produce this otherwise cheap crop that your draconian laws have artificially made more valuable than gold. I was intrigued that the president was so adamant at stopping the Pentagon's purported disinformation campaign. This could not be more hypocritical, as he very recently launched his own such campaign by saying that people who smoke up are aiding terrorism. Why doesn't he go one step further and stomp out disinformation altogether, and tell it like it is? Oh yeah, Special Interests. Like Enron! Paul Harvey: "On February 2, VP Cheney stepped out of his remote undisclosed location and saw his shadow. He then declared that we would have six more weeks of Enron!!" [ Post Comment ] |
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