PENTAGON 'LEANING FORWARD' ON CONTROLLING AFGHAN DRUGS

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday the Pentagon is
"leaning forward" on drug control in post-Taliban Afghanistan, but said
using the U.S. military to eradicate poppy fields is only one option.

Asked about a report in yesterday's editions of The Washington Times that
the U.S. military is opposing the eradication of poppy crops in
Afghanistan, Mr. Rumsfeld said he spoke to Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of
U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Gen. Franks "has no knowledge of anyone opposing or supporting anything,
except that our policy is, as a country, that the heroin trade, the poppy
business in that country, represents a fairly significant fraction of the
world's heroin, and that that's a bad thing. And that the money that's
going to the people that are doing that ends up doing things that are
generally unhelpful to the United States of America and to the interim
government of Afghanistan," Mr. Rumsfeld said.

U.S. officials told The Times that Gen. Franks has opposed a Bush
administration effort to use military forces, with crop-dusting aircraft,
to spray herbicide on Afghanistan's poppy fields. The general does not view
crop eradication as a job for U.S. forces, the officials said.

The need for crop eradication is said to be urgent since the fields will be
harvested in the next four to six weeks and a large crop is expected.

Pressed on whether he opposes using the military for poppy-field
eradication, Mr. Rumsfeld said eradication may not be "the best word" to
use in dealing with the Afghan drug production problem.

A "variety" of means are being discussed, Mr. Rumsfeld said, noting that "I
just haven't heard any yet that necessarily involve the Department of Defense."

Some administration officials, along with those in the international
community, favor trying to stop drug trafficking from Afghanistan by
cutting off supplies of opium and finished heroin as it is transported out
of the country.

Critics of that tactic say crop eradication is the only viable option
because drug traffickers, like numerous Taliban and al Qaeda fighters, can
easily evade capture.

Britain's government wants the United States to take the lead in the
anti-drug efforts in Afghanistan, and U.S. officials have said they want
London to play a major role, the officials said.

One U.S. official said U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan asked
Central Command headquarters to authorize poppy field eradication but were
rebuffed.

The eradication effort has been discussed among U.S. national security
officials over the past several weeks, and the idea of crop eradication is
being pushed by several White House and State Department officials.

"There is no real solution to keeping profits away from terrorist
organizations except through eradication," said a U.S. official close to
the internal debate. "The bottom line is, if the poppies survive, hundreds
of millions of dollars are going to go to terrorists," the official said.
"And it will cost the lives of many American servicemen in Afghanistan."

Mr. Rumsfeld said the interim government of Afghanistan, headed by Hamid
Karzai, is concerned about drug production. Mr. Karzai has asked for
international assistance in dealing with the problem.

However, other officials said Mr. Karzai has no control over the Pashtun
tribes involved in opium production.