McClatchy's Lasseter Probes Afghan Opium Trade and Link to War

By: Samuel Chamberlain One of the under-reported aspects of the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan (seven U.S. troops were killed today) is the role of that country's thriving opium trade in the conflict. McClatchy reporter Tom Lasseter, who won awards for his Iraq coverage, has produced four reports on the surge in opium production since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

The most recent story arrived last week. Here's the lead of the
first of Lasseter's reports: "When it's harvest time in the poppy fields of
Kandahar, dust-covered Taliban fighters pull up on their motorbikes to
collect a 10 percent tax on the crop. Afghan police arrive in Ford Ranger
pickups ? bought with U.S. aid money ? and demand their cut of the cash in exchange for promises to skip the farms during annual eradication."

Afghanistan produces 90% of the world's opium and a record 8,200 tons were produced in 2007. Lasseter's reports document how the drug trade finances both Afghan government officials and Taliban fighters, how the U.S. government has looked the other way, and how the opium network spreads from neighboring Tajikistan to the Caucuses, Russia, Western Europe.

Stories can be found here, here, here and here.