[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 14856-14857]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             NEW TRENDS IN THE GROWING AFGHAN DRUG ECONOMY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KIRK. Mr. Speaker, with the increasing number of cross-border 
attacks in Afghanistan that are coming from the Waziristan region of 
Pakistan, it is more important than ever to develop a complete picture 
of where al Qaeda and the Taliban terrorists are hiding and especially 
of how they are funded.
  Last month, the Defense Department finally recognized what many of us 
in the Congress have been saying for years. The report states: 
``Narcotics-related activities are fueling the insurgency in 
Afghanistan and, if left unchecked, threaten the long-term stability of 
the country and the surrounding region.'' It continues: ``The emerging 
nexus between narcotics traffickers and the insurgency is clear. 
Narcotics traffickers provide revenue and arms to the Taliban while the 
Taliban provides protection to growers and traffickers and keep the 
government from interfering with their activities.'' In short, the 
Taliban has become a fully functioning, South Asian narco-terrorist 
organization, protecting the source of 92 percent of the world's opium.
  Production is so high now that the price is dropping after years of 
record crops. Never one to ignore market forces, Afghan drug kingpins 
are now expanding into new illicit markets, and they have become the 
major supplier of the global cannabis and hashish markets.
  Now, Morocco used to be the traditional main source for hashish in 
the world, but that is rapidly changing. Morocco has been marginalized 
in favor of Afghanistan. According to the United Nations Office on 
Drugs and Crime, Morocco used to be the source of 31 percent of the 
world's hashish, but by 2006, the number dwindled to just 18 percent.
  In contrast, the U.N. now reports that cannabis cultivation in 
Afghanistan has more than doubled since 2004. In 2004, 30,000 hectares 
were under cultivation. In 2007, that number had risen to 70,000, much 
of which is protected and nurtured by the Taliban as their new source 
of income.
  U.N. figures also show that cannabis cultivation is surging in 
Taliban strongholds, including in the Kandahar, Uruzgan, Paktika, 
Zabol, and Helmand Provinces. If the Great Plains are the breadbasket 
of America, then these Afghan Provinces make up the production 
heartland of the international narcotics trade.
  The U.N. report also notes that, in these southern provinces, all of 
the farmers growing poppy and now cannabis pay taxes of, roughly, 10 
percent of revenues to antigovernment elements, including to the 
Taliban and to al Qaeda. Taliban presence is highest in the provinces 
with the greatest drug production, and violence follows wherever the 
Taliban is present.
  In the heroin heartland of the Helmand Province, the bloodshed is 
dramatically higher than in all other Afghan provinces. Militants 
launch an attack every 32 hours in Helmand, compared to just one attack 
every 3 or 4 days in the rest of the country or just one attack a week 
in Kabul.
  The shift demonstrates that it's time for the United States and for 
our NATO allies to take a stronger stand against the narcotics trade of 
Afghanistan. Even the Defense Department now acknowledges a clear link 
between drug trafficking and terrorist financing, a concept that used 
to be very controversial in Afghanistan, but that is now clear.
  Of course, in Colombia, we learned that drugs and terrorism must be 
fought simultaneously. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, we must take the 
lessons learned in Colombia to understand that counterterrorism 
programs will not

[[Page 14857]]

work unless there is also an effective counternarcotics program to 
eliminate the Taliban's source of money.
  Mr. Speaker, while partisan feelings in the House surround the 
mission in Iraq, the challenges of the Afghan mission are overshadowed. 
The Afghan war is sometimes described as the ``good war'' or as the 
``bipartisan war'' or as the ``war that our allies support.'' It is 
certainly true that our forces in Afghanistan enjoy stronger support 
from the American people and from our allies overseas. While we have a 
NATO command in Afghanistan, our strong allied support for this mission 
should not blind us to the growing problems and dangers emerging for 
our troops.
  The reality is this: Heroin has financed the resurgence of al Qaeda 
and the Taliban, and they have now found a new source of money--hashish 
and cannabis--which provide, in our estimate, hundreds of millions of 
dollars to finance terror. The lessons of FARC's decline in Colombia 
are clear: To wipe out terror, you have to attack its income. In both 
Colombia and Afghanistan, that income comes from narcotics.

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