DEA TARGETS AFGHANISTAN IN DRUG WAR

Narcotics agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration could soon be
working in Afghanistan for the first time in nearly two decades, but there
are limits to what the agency can do about next month's harvest of opium,
Asa Hutchinson, head of the DEA, told a Senate subcommittee Wednesday.

That harvest will come primarily from the country's most war-torn and
lawless regions and could be much larger than last year's harvest because
the current government of Afghanistan has little power to enforce its ban
on poppy cultivation and production.

"There are security concerns. This is an enormously dangerous neck of the
woods, as we say in Arkansas," Hutchinson said. "But we have DEA agents who
are ready, willing and anxious to be there because it is so important to
our nation."

Hutchinson was on a panel that addressed the Subcommittee on Technology,
Terrorism and Government Information. The topic was the worldwide
connection between drugs and terrorism.

Hutchinson said Afghanistan's interim president, Hamid Karzai, has renewed
the Taliban's ban on poppy cultivation. But other countries will have to
supply resources to enforce the ban.

The law of supply and demand gives desperate farmers and drug dealers in
Afghanistan the incentive to continue their efforts. Since last year, the
price of opium has increased from about $30 a kilogram to about $330 a
kilogram, according to DEA estimates.

Hutchinson said a proposed DEA initiative called Operation Containment
would open an office in Kabul and expand existing offices in Asia and
Europe. The establishment of an office in Kabul can be paid for within the
current DEA budget, but Congress would have to approve a transfer of
funding. Lawmakers on the subcommittee said they would work to make that
transfer happen as soon as possible.

Martha Brill Olcott, senior associate for the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, told the subcommittee that the United States has for
too long ignored the security risks inherent in Afghanistan's drug trade.
That's because most of those drugs went to Europe.

"Prior to Sept. 11, it was difficult to convince U.S. policy-makers that
Afghanistan's drug industry was a U.S. problem, and even now, we have no
concrete strategy to deal with renewed drug cultivation in Afghanistan,"
Olcott said.

The effectiveness of the current ban in Afghanistan depends upon the
willingness of local warlords to go along, she said.

"But these men have absolutely no incentive to do so, as they are able to
tax the crop or its transit, depending upon what part of the country they
are living in," she said.

The United States and its allies have discussed paying farmers to grow
other crops, or paying some of their expenses, but Olcott said that won't
stop the drug trade.

"Economic incentives will work for the farmers only if the country's elite
is forced to cease collecting from this highly lucrative trade," she said.

"As in all civilized countries, Afghanistan's drug dealers must be subject
to arrest and lengthy incarceration. Pressing Hamid Karzai's government to
punish Afghanistan's drug dealers will certainly cost it and us some friends."

Hutchinson said the DEA's focus is on fighting drug trafficking, but the
agency's growth in war-torn regions of the world, such as in the Middle
East and Asia, will help the agency gather more intelligence that can be
used in the war on terrorism.

The president has requested an additional $35 million and 73 positions for
next year to enhance intelligence gathering by the DEA.