Drug Enforcement Agencies Fail Because of Obama

April 8, 2010 (LPAC)—Even though Afghanistan is responsible for 93% of all the opium produced in the world, and despite the fact that the Drug Enforcement Administration is working as the key lead agency in interdicting narcotics and arresting traffickers, the DEA has only 96 agents working there—all volunteers. This is an all-time high number of DEA agents in Afghanistan, but it doesn't come close to what is needed against the traffic. And of the 130,000 U.S. troops (not all of them are there yet), and an even greater number of civilian "support" personnel and contractors, only a limited number will be assigned to assist the DEA mission.

At the beginning of April, DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart, who has been a longstanding competent voice in identifying narco-terrorism, made a three-day visit to Afghanistan, which included a roundtable with reporters at the U.S. embassy in Kabul. The Russian language website afghanistan.ru reported on the trip, noting that Leonhart declared that the DEA objective is to "eliminate" the connection between narcotics and terrorism.

But Leonhart also confirmed that eradication of the drug crop is off the table — as ordered by Obama in March 2009. Leonhart was asked at her press roundtable about the plans for eradication in Marjah, where Gen. Stanley McChrystal declared recent "victory", while surrounded by poppy fields and buildings hiding heroin labs.

"The DEA, we're the investigative body," Leonhart said. "I said that our mission is going after the major traffickers, so we really don't have an eradication mission." She confirmed that the eradication mission is in the hands of the Afghanistan government, both the "Governor Led Eradication program," and the Afghan "National Interdiction Unit." This is highly ironic, since Obama considers the Afghan government corrupt. Several Afghanistan experts in touch with EIR have said that the Afghan troops are highly inadequate, untrustworthy, and according to regional government intelligence services, a large number of Afghan police and army recruits are opium or heroin users.

The way to make the DEA mission successful is by implementing LaRouche's call for a coordinated U.S. and Russia "sudden, unexpected hit against the Afghan dope trade." Through an alliance that includes neighboring Iran, and China, which could exert important influence on other neighbors.