NATO commander urges focus on stopping Afghanistan opium network

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NATO commander urges focus on stopping Afghanistan opium network
By Kevin Dougherty, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, October 9, 2008

The NATO-led force in Afghanistan needs to focus more on the illicit chemical labs and support networks that exist to help convert opium into heroin, the ultimate cash cow for the stubborn insurgency, particularly in the south.

That’s the view of U.S. Army Gen. John Craddock, the supreme allied commander of NATO. It’s a position he’s expected to articulate Thursday at a NATO ministerial meeting in Budapest, Hungary, according to an alliance official.

"It is new," the official said, referring to the shift in policy. The official spoke on condition of anonymity. "We expect him to bring it up" at the meeting.

U.S. and NATO officials have spoken for years about the need to address the illicit drug trade in Afghanistan. But officials have been loath to directly involve NATO forces on the ground, maintaining those anti-drug efforts would best be handled by Afghan security forces.

However, officials now draw a much sharper distinction between physically eradicating opium poppies in the field and removing the means and methods of converting the crop into heroin and other drugs. Interdiction, the NATO source said, is not the same as eradication.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=57986