Pubdate: Tue, 11 Jul 2006
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 2006 News World Communications, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/492
Author: Robert Burns,  Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

RUMSFELD LINKS DRUGS, TALIBAN

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said 
yesterday that a flourishing drug trade in Afghanistan may be helping 
fuel a Taliban resurgence, potentially undermining the young Afghan 
democracy. "I do worry that the funds that come from the sale of 
those products could conceivably end up adversely affecting the 
democratic process in the country," he told reporters accompanying 
him on an overnight flight from Washington. "I also think any time 
there is that much money floating around and you have people like the 
Taliban that it gives them an opportunity to fund their efforts in 
various ways," he added. U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan in October 
2001 to oust the radical Taliban regime.

Although the country now has a democratically elected government, the 
Taliban has been making a comeback. At a press conference after Mr. 
Rumsfeld met with President Emomali Rakhmonov and other senior 
government officials, Foreign Minister Talbak Nazarov told reporters 
that the Taliban is trying to "turn Afghanistan back to its past." He 
expressed confidence that the fundamentalist movement would fail. Mr. 
Rumsfeld said U.S. intelligence information indicates that the 
Taliban has taken a share of drug profits in exchange for providing 
protection. He did not offer specifics or elaborate. The defense 
secretary also said the bulk of the demand for heroin and other drugs 
supplied by Afghanistan is largely in Europe and Russia, and he 
called on the Europeans to do more to help fight the problem. 
"Western Europe ought to have an enormous interest in the success in 
Afghanistan, and it's going to take a lot more effort on their part 
for the Karzai government to be successful," he said, referring to 
Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Tajikistan, which has supported U.S. 
counterterrorism efforts including the war in neighboring 
Afghanistan, lies on a major route used by drug traffickers to 
smuggle narcotics to Russia and Eastern Europe. The United States has 
worked with the Tajik government to attempt to improve its border 
security. At the press conference, Mr. Nazarov said his country is 
given too much of the blame for being a drug conduit.

He cited a list of drug-interdiction figures that he said showed his 
government last year had seized large quantities of heroin and other 
drugs manufactured in Afghanistan, and he said seizures were up 27 
percent in the first quarter of 2006. Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters 
that the Pentagon has no interest in setting up more permanent bases 
in Central Asia, but he noted that other basing arrangements are 
needed to support military activities in Afghanistan. Under an 
existing "gas-and-go" agreement, U.S. warplanes are permitted to stop 
in Tajikistan to be refueled, but there is no arrangement for 
full-scale U.S. basing here. U.S. planes supporting operations in 
Afghanistan also are permitted to overfly Tajik territory.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman