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General sees drugs link with alqaeda Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.reuters.com/locales/newsArticle.jsp?type=worldNews&locale=en_IN&storyID=4738170http://www.reuters.com/locales/newsArticle.jsp?type=worldNews&locale=en_IN&storyID=4738170
02 Apr 2004 15:08
U.S. general sees drugs link with al Qaeda
By James Mackenzie
BERLIN (Reuters) - U.S. forces are finding increasing quantities of drugs during raids to hunt Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan, a top general said on Friday.
"There are indications that there is some degree of linkage between the drugs and terrorists. It's still emerging how extensive or not extensive that might be," Lieutenant General David W. Barno, a commander with the U.S.-led force hunting for Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda fugitives, said in an interview.
He said troops had found drugs or signs of drug activity on more operations in recent months but it was still not clear how far al Qaeda or the Taliban were raising funds from narcotics.
"Clearly there's some connection out there," he said. "It's a cash economy so money moves very quickly through legitimate means, illegitimate means, corruption and crime without any real traces on the money."
Since the fall of the ruling Taliban in 2001, Afghanistan has re-emerged as the world's leading opium producer, accounting for three-quarters of global production.
Concerns about the inter-related threats from drugs, warlords and terrorism partly overshadowed a conference in Berlin this week at which foreign donors pledged $4.5 billion to finance Afghanistan's reconstruction in the coming year.
Barno said U.S. forces were not only sharing intelligence on drugs with Afghan authorities, but were routinely turning over drug hauls to them or destroying them on the spot.
During a raid north of Kandahar last month, troops "came into a compound, had a fight there and found poppy in a paste form that one of our FBI elements who was with us estimated at about $15 million of street value," he said.
Barno said the United States would provide "additional robust assistance" in wiping out poppy cultivation but made clear Afghan authorities had to take the lead in dealing with drugs and factional fighting.
PAKISTAN DRIVE
Barno praised Pakistani authorities who have stepped up their efforts on the other side of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
An operation last week by 5,000 Pakistani soldiers near the Afghan border netted 163 prisoners and uncovered a large tunnel network that appeared to have been in place for some time.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri said this week troops had even found a private telephone system in the emplacement, captured after fierce resistance by militants, many thought to have come from outside Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Barno said U.S. troops typically did not meet the entrenched resistance encountered by the Pakistani forces in the wild border region, where central government has never held sway.
"We don't run into that in Afghanistan, typically. At the stage we're in right now we have more hit and run type attacks," he said. "In Pakistan, it's a very different dynamic," he said, but added that local operations were bearing fruit.
"The Pakistanis...have put a great deal of pressure on the al Qaeda network in the tribal areas of Pakistan. I think that's certainly pressurising the (Qaeda) leadership as well."
(Additional reporting by Mark Trevelyan)
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