OPIUM GUNS AND MONEY IN AFGHANISTAN

Links between the drug trade and terrorism pose a major threat to
Afghanistan's reconstruction.

The US Central Command says it views narco-trafficking as a significant
obstacle to the political and economic reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Rear Admiral Bruce Clingan, the command's deputy director of operations,
told a Senate armed forces subcommittee.

The revenue generated from poppy cultivation provides resources for
extremist and the smuggling infrastructure that supports narcotics
trafficking facilitates terrorist transportation and logistics.

The United Nations recently said Afghanistan is the world's biggest
producer of poppy-derived opium used to make heroin, bringing the country
2.3 billion dollars in revenue last year, nearly half of its gross domestic
product.

Admiral Clingan says the groups benefiting from drug money include the
Taliban, Al-Qaeda operatives and other extremist elements like Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar's Hizb-I-Islami.