Bush excuses Afghanistan, Haiti from drug penalties

Bush excuses Afghanistan, Haiti from drug penalties
Cites National Security Interests

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration waived penalties against Afghanistan and Haiti in the annual United States counternarcotics determinations -- despite finding that both countries had "failed demonstrably" in combating the drug trade in the past year.

Afghanistan, Haiti and Myanmar -- formerly known as Burma -- failed to make "substantial" counternarcotics efforts last year, the administration said.

Those three countries were the only ones cited as uncooperative among nearly two dozen named on the "majors list" of illicit drug-producing and -transit countries.

By law, countries that have not cooperated with the United States are to be denied aid from Washington. But President Bush has given Afghanistan and Haiti waivers, citing U.S. national security interests.

Rand Beers, Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, said that the U.S. judgment of Afghanistan's performance in combating drugs was made during a period in which the Taliban were in power.

"The president has further determined that it is in the vital national interest of the United States to provide the full range of assistance to support the new Afghan Interim Authority in the reconstruction of Afghanistan," Beers said.

Myanmar and Afghanistan have been the world's largest sources of opium, while Haiti is a major transit country for cocaine and other Latin American drugs, which are bound for the United States.

Last year, Taliban-run Afghanistan was cited for failing to cooperate with counternarcotics efforts and was denied U.S. aid. Despite the Taliban's ban on poppy cultivation, the U.S. says, the militia failed to stop drug trafficking and kept drug money to support their regime.

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could "national security interests" imply that now that we have a foothold in Afghanistan, the CIA/DEA/FBI can freely run drugs in and out of there?? Possibly.

I smell a conspiracy... maybe an Air America type thing or drugs for guns??

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