U.S. ignores angry reaction to secret poppy spraying test (McClatchy)

[Eugene]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

U.S. ignores angry reaction to secret poppy spraying test
By Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers

Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2007

WASHINGTON — In 2004, U.S.-contracted aircraft
secretly sprayed harmless plastic granules over poppy
fields in Afghanistan to gauge public reaction to using
herbicides to kill the opium poppies that help fund the
Taliban and al Qaida.

The mysterious granules ignited a major outcry from
poor farmers, tribal chiefs and government officials up
to President Hamid Karzai, who demanded to know if the
spraying was part of a poppy eradication program. At the
time, U.S officials up to the level of Ambassador Zalmay
Khalilzad denied any knowledge of the program.

U.S. officials declined to identify the agency that
oversaw the test spraying, but pointed out that the
State Department oversees U.S. counter-narcotics efforts
in Afghanistan. The department's bureau of international
narcotics and law enforcement declined to comment. U.S.
officials spoke to McClatchy Newspapers on condition of
anonymity because the tests remain classified.

Now the Bush administration is pressing Karzai to spray
real herbicide against what's expected to be another
record opium poppy crop, which is refined into heroin.
There's wide opposition — from Karzai and his government,
NATO allies such as Britain with troops in Afghanistan
and even major parts of the U.S. government, including
the Pentagon, the CIA and U.S. military commanders.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/20852.html

[XemaSab]

1. This is so ridiculous...

If Sweden came here and sprayed herbicide on our GM corn, what would be our response?

[GliderGuider]

2. And that brown-noser Governor Harper

of the fine State of Canada doesn`t make a peep.

[Mrs. Overall]

3. Do I remember this correctly? Wasn't the female soldier killed on the base in Afghanistan

in charge of the payroll and didn't she tell someone that the military was secretly profiting from the production of opium in the region? I may be mixing this up with another story--but I know I have read several items about the US gaining access to the illegal drug profits in Afghanistan.

[truedelphi]

4. Can't answer your question - but I will add that of the three wars we are fighting

One is in Afghanistan with its poppies.

And the other is in Columbia with its cocaine (Though Columbia is mostly American contractors and mercenaries like DynCorp and Blackwater)