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Ear to the Ground

U.S. Targets Afghan Drug Suspects for Killing

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Posted on Aug 9, 2009
USAF / Staff Sgt. Jeremy T. Lock

Civilians watch coalition forces from a poppy field in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan.

“Fifty Afghans believed to be drug traffickers with ties to the Taliban have been placed on a Pentagon target list to be captured or killed ... ,” The New York Times reports. That’s not quite targeted assassination, but it comes pretty close.

New York Times:

WASHINGTON — Fifty Afghans believed to be drug traffickers with ties to the Taliban have been placed on a Pentagon target list to be captured or killed, reflecting a major shift in American counternarcotics strategy in Afghanistan, according to a Congressional study to be released this week.

United States military commanders have told Congress that they are convinced that the policy is legal under the military’s rules of engagement and international law. They also said the move is an essential part of their new plan to disrupt the flow of drug money that is helping finance the Taliban insurgency.

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By mike112769, August 10, 2009 at 3:04 pm Link to this comment

This is not about denying money to the taliban, it’s about control. If you want to deny “terrorists” profits from drugs, legalize it and tax it yourself. The war on drugs is a war on freedom. Period.

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By Folktruther, August 10, 2009 at 12:39 pm Link to this comment

It appears that organized crime has merged with the US power structure and drugs are the central commodity.  In both Columbia and Afghanistan the destruction of opposition drugs increases the price of those protected by US power.

Just as Britain went to war in the 19th century, twice with China, over drugs, the US apparently is warring over control of Opium in afghanistan and cocaine in Coumbia.Both places where US troops are being used to destroy opposition drugs.

The banning of grass in the US, which is less suitable for centralized commercialization, tends to keep the market for hard drugs lively.

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By Bill C., August 10, 2009 at 11:52 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Here’s a question for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - why do we train the Afghan National Army in front of pot and poppy fields that make the corn fields in Iowa look small by comparison? And why are the leaders of the Northern Alliance allowed to sell as much heroin as they want?

The drug war is just another way to fund and defund various armed groups around the world without the messiness of public debates and Congressional oversight. Although let’s face it the Senators all know the score and they really don’t want to have oversight.

BTW - If you don’t believe me about us training the the soldiers in front of huge poppy and pot fields, ask any soldier who comes back from there or check with the BBC about the documentary they already made which shows the taped footage of our troops and their troops in front of the marijuana and poppy fields. It’s not really hidden from anyone.

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By skulz fontaine, August 10, 2009 at 10:23 am Link to this comment

“U.S. targets Afghan drug suspects for killing.” Code for, ‘U.S. targets Afghans’. Period. More propaganda courtesy of the New York Times. Gen. Stan ‘mad bomber man’ McChrystal just likes killing. Especially when it’s innocents that get to be McChrystalized into oblivion.

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By garth, August 10, 2009 at 10:19 am Link to this comment

Yesterday, I finished a fine bottle of inexpensive chardonnay, and my mind was still not in a nice place.  I thought: Wouldn’t it be nice to have a joint to help me cross the line, to move me to that point where all that matters is constructing a coherent, anti-governmental, anti-Judeo-Christian, WASP-WASC (White Anglo Saxon Protestant-White Anglo Saxon Catholic) interpretation of what is reality.

Now, I learn, the US, probably the biggest trader in drugs and no doubt, the biggest trader in arms, is broadcasting an all out attack on 50, count ‘em, 50, heroin or poppy dealers in Afghanistan.
When George W. tried to block the sale of US ports to Dubai, what do you think that was all about?  Well, I’ll tell you.  The drug trade is the one of the most lucrative businesses in the world next to the armed blockade against the drug trade.

We are all caught up in a madness that will never stop unless the people stand up say, “Enough is enough!”.

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By Travis F. Smith, August 10, 2009 at 7:33 am Link to this comment

Very true, and sad.

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By Barry Seltzer, August 10, 2009 at 7:23 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

My suspicion grows with General McChrystal’s aims.  This proposed attack on the 50 or so drug warlords sounds like a job for the Colombian unit that McChystal sent for, which was trained at the School of Americas, the counter-insurgency training school.
They are saying that they want to protect the Afghanis from the Taliban. I think they are trying isolate the Afghanis and block any flow of information that the Afghani’s could use to counter the American Imerialism, kill off the drug warlords, the local ecomonic potentates, leave the people completely destitute, and claim a victory.
The films they show of US military talking to Afghans in a sort of pow wow is simply to bullshit the camera and us.
The Afghans hate us.  Not for our freedoms but because we are killing them.

PS If they built half the schools in the US that they purportedly built in Iraq and Afghanistan, would we have noticed it by now?

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By Howie Bledsoe, August 10, 2009 at 3:10 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Well, how many of our own people are dying every day in substandard prisons, many of whom are inside for drugs charges? Why is a surprise that the US is killing “drug offenders” around the world?

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By Ouroborus, August 10, 2009 at 2:13 am Link to this comment

Try as I might I’m increasingly having trouble identifying the differences between Bush and Obama (besides the spelling) and I finally found one; civility. Now I get a smile and kind words with the knife in the back.

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By Leefeller, August 9, 2009 at 10:54 pm Link to this comment

Seems if drugs were made leagal and taxed, we would have empty prisons and less police needed and not be loosing lives of our military at the same time?

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