'VERY BAD' NEWS ON OPIUM WAR

UN Drug Report Finds 'Staggering' Rise In Afghanistan Output

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan increased 59
percent this year, producing a record-breaking 6,100 metric tons of
opium, in part because of efforts by the Taliban and other insurgents
in the troubled south, according to a UN survey.

Antonio Maria Costa, the United Nations anti-drug chief, called the
crop "staggering." Afghanistan now produces 92 percent of the world's
opium supply. If security in the south does not improve, entire
provinces could fail. The southern part of the country is "displaying
the ominous hallmarks of incipient collapse," Costa said Saturday.

"The news is very bad," he said.

It is difficult to overstate the problem with poppies, the raw
product for opium and heroin. Opium is the biggest employer in
Afghanistan and the largest export. The drug trade makes up at least
35 percent of the country's gross domestic product. Police chiefs,
governors and other government officials profit from the trade, Costa
said. So do the Taliban and other insurgents, who urged farmers to
grow poppies in southern Afghanistan this past year to destabilize
the government and make money.

Insurgents, whether Al Qaeda or the Taliban, also protect drug
traffickers, even riding along with convoys in the south and west,
Costa said. In exchange, they demand money.

"The insurgency derives a significant amount of revenue from drugs,"
Costa said.

The annual survey, by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, showed the
area for growing poppies in Afghanistan ballooned to 407,724 acres in
2006 from 256,989 acres in 2005. The previous highest total in
Afghanistan was 331,360 acres in 2004.

Afghanistan also had record opium yields. Production increased 49
percent from the year before. The estimated 6,100 tons even broke the
world record of 1999, when 5,764 tons of opium were produced globally.

The numbers shocked Western officials who have worked for years to
tackle the drug problem. "This country could be taken down by this
whole drugs problem," said Doug Wankel, the U.S. drug czar in Afghanistan.

President Hamid Karzai said he was disappointed by the increase in
poppies. "Regrettably, over the last year, our efforts to fight
narcotics have proved inadequate," Karzai said in a statement.

Costa urged the Afghan government to take tougher action to get rid
of corruption and arrest major drug traffickers. He said some aid
money was misused or stolen by incompetent intermediaries or corrupt
administrators.

The growth in poppies is directly linked to corruption and
insecurity, officials said. It shows just how dire the situation has
become in Afghanistan almost five years after the Taliban fell. A
renewed insurgency is mounting its most serious challenge to the
U.S.-backed government.

Although the Taliban regime once successfully reduced poppy
production, it now encourages cultivation. Farmers are growing
poppies despite hundreds of millions of dollars in international aid
spent on prevention, eradication and alternative-livelihood programs.

Not all the news is negative. Six of the country's 34 provinces are
now opium-free. Cultivation fell in eight provinces, most in the
north. Three of the most corrupt governors in the south were replaced
after the poppy growing season last year.

But that is the only good news in the south. In the southern province
of Helmand, where several districts have fallen under Taliban
control, opium cultivation increased 162 percent this year, to
171,303 acres. That is 42 percent of the opium cultivation in the country.

A senior U.S. official said poppies are grown on almost 30,000 acres
of government land in Helmand province, showing the problem with
government corruption and drugs.

Punishment for drug crimes has been minimal. The Afghan government
has been reluctant to jail poppy farmers. It has had little luck
going after traffickers. Investigation is difficult -- Afghanistan
doesn't have the capability to use fingerprints.