[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 25 (Tuesday, March 2, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H729-H730]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HEROIN GROWTH IN AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address one of our Nation's 
most difficult narcotics problems: Afghanistan.
  Afghanistan has historically produced significant quantities of opium 
which is refined into heroin. Afghanistan's opium crops accounted for 
over 70 percent of the world's supply in the year 2000. According to 
the DEA, about 50 percent of the heroin in the American market 
originated in the Afghanistan-Pakistani border area in 1984.
  We must learn from history and diligently work to prevent any Afghan 
heroin from entering the American market. While Europe is the primary 
destination for Afghan heroin today, we suspect that 7 to 10 percent of 
the illegal crop ultimately reaches the streets of our congressional 
districts.
  Opium production in Afghanistan has resumed over the past 2 years. 
With the fall of the Taliban, Afghan growers resumed cultivation 
despite the renewal of the ban on poppy growth by the Karzai 
government. This problem could grow far worse. Only 8 percent of 
Afghanistan's cultivated land is presently used to grow opium poppies. 
If we do not prevail over this problem, the remaining cultivated land 
could easily accommodate more of this illegal crop.
  These drugs are of great concern to all of us because they increase 
the worldwide supply and have the potential to fund terrorists and 
other destabilizing groups, and they subvert all of our efforts to 
assist Afghanistan. The new Afghanistan cannot survive on an illegal 
economy.
  Drug proceeds are the source of a growing reservoir of illegal money 
that funds international crime across the region; that sustains the 
destabilizing activities of warlords; and that fosters local coercion 
and terrorism. Just like the challenges faced south of our own borders 
for decades, I am convinced that drug money and terrorist organizations 
in Afghanistan and throughout that region are locked together like a 
daisy chain. Our resolve to restore Afghanistan must include a broad, 
comprehensive plan to eradicate poppy production, not only to help the 
people of Afghanistan, but to cut off the funding of the terror 
organizations that threaten our own security.
  I recently returned from a trip to Libya, Iraq, Pakistan and 
Afghanistan. We met with President Karzai and he reaffirmed my 
conviction that he means business. He is serious about tackling the 
heroin threat to his country. Together, we must prevent the 
institutionalization of the heroin cartels. We must support democracy's 
early days in post-Taliban Afghanistan. We must help them confront 
those that still threaten to destabilize their society through both the 
narcotics trade and terrorism. If we are to win the war in Afghanistan, 
we must recognize that narcotics play a large part in funding the 
radical anti-democratic elements.

[[Page H730]]

  We are pressing for increased coordination with the British on 
counternarcotics; with the Germans on policing and police training; and 
with the Italians on justice sector reform. In addition to the 
traditional smuggling routes through Iran and Turkey, reports indicate 
a continued movement of heroin shipments north from Afghanistan through 
the central Asian states, Pakistan and India en route to international 
markets.
  Our strongest partners in these efforts must be those consumer 
nations where the drugs are destined. The financial, resource, and 
intelligence requirements to defeat the scourge are not our sole 
responsibility. The administration must seek commitments from Europe 
and elsewhere to share this burden, where they get 90 percent of the 
heroin.
  Let me give my colleagues an example of a successful international 
operation. Operation Containment is an ongoing effort by the DEA. They 
recently arrested 15 members of a heroin trafficking organization and 
seized 7.4 tons of morphine base in Turkey. Morphine base can be 
converted to heroin at a ratio of one to one with a chemical. This is 
the largest seizure of morphine base ever made. To put the magnitude of 
this seizure in perspective, the amount seized was more than four times 
the total worldwide morphine base seizures made in 2000.
  There are legitimate uses of the chemical acetic anhydride in 
industry. Countries that produce this chemical must do their part by 
restricting or controlling its sale and transportation to legitimate 
consumers.
  The Department of Defense has seen the magnitude of the transshipment 
problem with three separate seizures by the U.S. Navy operating in the 
Gulf region. The first seizure was made on December 15 when a motorized 
dhow was apprehended in the Arabian Gulf. Two tons of narcotics were 
seized, and three of the 15-man crew were identified as having possible 
ties to al Qaeda. On December 18, two more dhows were intercepted. 
Those seizures yielded drugs worth more than $10 million.
  I am passionate about this subject. I have chaired a hearing on 
Afghanistan just last week. Many of the members of my subcommittee have 
visited the region. The administration must extract commitments from 
the Europeans to pull their own weight. As leaders of the coalition of 
Afghanistan and Iraq, the Department of Defense must be compelled to 
address the growth, storage, processing, and transshipment of drugs in 
the region. The bullets and bombs used against our own troops are 
purchased with illicit funds. The Department of State and the DEA must 
be resourced adequately to address and to assist Afghanistan in 
reestablishing a viable criminal justice system so that their own poppy 
ban can be effectively enforced.

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