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Peace activist Kathy Kelly is about to begin a three-month prison sentence for protesting the U.S. drone war at a military base in Missouri earlier this year. Kelly, along with another activist, was arrested after offering bread and an indictment against drone warfare. Kelly is the co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Kathy Kelly, in addition to U.S. troops staying, 11,000 troops staying, and participating not only in Operation Resolute Support, but fighting themselves directly, they’ll be supported by bombers, drones. You participated in a drone strike, and you’re headed home to Chicago, then to prison. Talk about this drone strike and why you chose to get arrested.
KATHY KELLY: Well, I think it’s a good time to be very uncompromising with regard to the United States’ wars. These wars are murderous. The wars are killing civilians, as has been happening in the United States’ wars since World War II. Now 90 percent of the people killed in wars are civilians. And this is true certainly with the drone strikes. The Reprieve organization has said that for every one person who is selected as a target for assassination, 28 civilians are killed. And even just three nights ago, there was another targeted assassination in which they hit two homes in the Logar province, and six people were wounded, four people were killed, all of them civilians.
And so, I crossed a line at Whiteman Air Force Base. A squadron operates weaponized drones over Afghanistan. Afghanistan has been an epicenter of drone warfare. And a good symbol for people in Afghanistan is breaking bread. I carried a loaf of bread and a letter, wanting to talk to the commandant. We thought it was important to know how many people were killed by Whiteman Air Force Base on that day.
AMY GOODMAN: Where is Whiteman?
KATHY KELLY: That’s in Knob Noster, Missouri.
AMY GOODMAN: And what’s its relationship with Afghanistan?
KATHY KELLY: Well, the weaponized drones are flown—once they’re airborne, they’re operated entirely by people in United States Air National Guard bases and air bases. And so, Whiteman Air Force Base won’t disclose, neither will the CIA disclose, information about the results of these killings, but this is what people in the United States need to know. We have a First Amendment right to seek redress of grievance. And having been in Afghanistan, living with young people who are too frightened to go back to visit their own relatives, who see for themselves a future that could be a prolonged, exacerbated warfare, there is a grievance, and we wanted to bring that to the commandant at that particular base.
AMY GOODMAN: I said you participated in a strike; I meant to say in a drone protest. So, exactly what was the action you engaged in?
KATHY KELLY: Well, I think I stepped one or two steps over a line. And—
AMY GOODMAN: Holding a loaf of bread and an indictment?
KATHY KELLY: And so the military prosecutor said, "Your Honor, Ms. Kelly is in grave need, great need, of rehabilitation." But I think it’s a—this is an important time to connect these oppressive issues. You know, while we’re spending $1 trillion on warfare in Afghanistan and looking at another $120 billion that will be spent—the Pentagon wants $57 billion for this year alone—we’re squandering needed resources. We’re undermining the possibility of solving extremely serious problems that we’re moving into.
AMY GOODMAN: How long will you be going to prison for?
KATHY KELLY: Three months.
AMY GOODMAN: Where?
KATHY KELLY: Well, I don’t know yet. The Bureau of Prisons will tell me where I’m to be put, probably at the end of January.
AMY GOODMAN: How many times have you gone to prison for protesting war?
KATHY KELLY: Well, this will be my third time in a federal—well, no, fourth time in a federal prison. And I’ve been jailed in various county jails and other kinds of lockups more times than I can count.
AMY GOODMAN: Kathy Kelly, I want to thank you very much for being with us—
KATHY KELLY: Thank you, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: —co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare, just returned from Kabul, Afghanistan. We’ll link your recent piece, "Obama Extends War in Afghanistan: The implications for U.S. democracy aren’t reassuring." And, Matt Aikins, please stay with us. I want to talk about your latest piece looking at Afghanistan; the piece is "Afghanistan: The Making of a Narco State." Stay with us.
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Some 20,000 people, including a sea of uniformed officers, gathered in New York City on Saturday for the funeral of NYPD Officer Rafael Ramos, one of the two killed in a targeted ambush one week before. It was said to be one of the largest police funerals in New York City history. Controversy erupted as hundreds of police turned their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio as he delivered a eulogy inside the church, protesting his earlier comments on police brutality and racial profiling. It was the second time officers have turned their backs on de Blasio since the two officers were killed. We are joined by Adhyl Polanco, an NYPD officer who says those who shunned de Blasio do not represent the feelings held by many police officers. Polanco previously blew the whistle on superiors who told officers to meet a quota under "stop and frisk," or face punishment — a move that led to his suspension without pay and later modified assignment.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We turn to new developments since two New York police officers were gunned down in the line of duty at the same time the nation has begun a dialogue over the police killing and targeting of unarmed African Americans. On Saturday, some 20,000 police officers from around the country attended the funeral for Officer Rafael Ramos, who was ambushed in his patrol car along with Officer Wenjian Liu just over a week ago. Their killer, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, had a history of mental health issues and multiple arrests. Officer Ramos’s funeral may be the largest in the history of the New York City Police Department. A series of officials addressed the grieving city at a church in Queens, beginning with Vice President Joe Biden.
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: This is a city of courage and character, having faced and overcome the toughest challenges. And I’m absolutely confident, as you are, that spirit is still alive and well in this city. And I’m absolutely confident it will guide you in the days and weeks ahead. I believe that this great police force and this incredibly diverse city can and will show the nation how to bridge any divide.
AMY GOODMAN: Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu are the first New York City police officers to die in the line of duty since 2011. Among Saturday’s most anticipated speakers was New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. While those attending the funeral inside the church quietly applauded him, video shows hundreds of officers outside the church turning their backs to the video monitor as the mayor spoke, in protest of his earlier comments on police brutality and racial profiling. It was the second time officers have turned their backs on de Blasio since the two officers were killed. Before the killings, the head of New York City’s largest police union called on officers to request that the mayor not attend their funerals if they were to die in the line of duty. This is an excerpt of Mayor de Blasio’s remarks at the funeral of Officer Rafael Ramos.
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO: The threats against New York’s police are an insult to the law-abiding New Yorkers, and they will not be tolerated. They will be investigated, and they will be prosecuted.
AMY GOODMAN: That was actually Governor Andrew Cuomo. This is Mayor de Blasio.
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO: He was so committed to the NYPD. It meant so much to him to be a member of the finest police force in this country. He always wanted to join the NYPD. It wasn’t his first career. He started out as a school safety officer, protecting our kids, and he was much loved in that role. He had a dream that he would one day be a police officer, and he worked for that dream, and he lived it, and became it. He couldn’t wait to take that test. He couldn’t wait to put on that uniform. He believed in protecting others. And those who are called to protect others are a special breed, those who stare down danger, those who sacrifice for all of us.
AMY GOODMAN: All of this comes as New York City’s police commissioner, Bill Bratton, said Sunday it was wrong for police officers to turn their backs as Mayor de Blasio spoke at the funeral of Officer Ramos. Bratton called for less rhetoric and a lot more dialogue to defuse the tension between police and the people they’re meant to serve and protect. A funeral service for the other slain officer, Wenjian Liu, will be held Sunday.
Well, today we hear directly from a New York City police officer, a member of the largest police department in the country. Adhyl Polanco joins us. He’s been with the New York Police Department since 2005. When I interviewed him last year, he described how in 2009 he became critical of the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy when his superiors told officers to meet a quota of stops, or face punishment. He made audio recordings of the quotas being described during meetings in his precinct, and brought his concerns to authorities, but he said he was ignored. He then took his audio tapes to the media, including The Village Voice, where reporter Graham Rayman wrote a series called "The NYPD Tapes." For several years, Officer Polanco was suspended with pay, but he’s since returned to work on the police force.
You went to the wake of Officer Ramos. Can you talk about the reaction of the police to the mayor?
ADHYL POLANCO: Good morning. First of all, I’ve got to start by saying I’m not here on behalf of the police department. I’m here on my own, as a citizen, as a concerned citizen of New York. I’m not speaking on their behalf. If you can please repeat your question?
AMY GOODMAN: First, your reaction to the killing of these two officers?
ADHYL POLANCO: It’s an act of a barbaric coward. This is not acceptable. This is not something that anybody can say we’re happy for this. We have lost a brother. We have lost a citizen. I went to the wake and to see the family, the way they’re speaking, to see the church. And the people who are supposed to be angry—his family, his wife, the ones that—the people that are affected the most—they are calling for unity, they are calling for peace. How come we cannot honor what they are calling for?
AMY GOODMAN: Your reaction to your fellow officers turning their back on Mayor de Blasio, not in the church, but outside, because there were so many, they couldn’t all fit in the church?
ADHYL POLANCO: Absolutely wrong, absolutely wrong. Mayor de Blasio came to the police department, that had a lot of issues with before he got to this police department. Mayor de Blasio came with the attitude that "I can fix this police department." But this police department has a culture that is going to make whoever tried to change that culture and life impossible, including the mayor. It’s absolutely wrong to turn their back on the mayor. It absolutely don’t show—this is not what we’re made of. This is—I was not taught—you know, this does not represent the police department. This does not represent how, when a family calls for peace and unity, you’re going to have a hundred officers doing the absolute opposite.
AMY GOODMAN: Do other officers feel as you do?
ADHYL POLANCO: There’s many. There’s many officers that feel like I do. There’s many officers that—
AMY GOODMAN: Last week, the president of the largest police union, your union in New York City, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, said the mayor’s office should be held accountable for the deaths of Officers Ramos and Liu. This is Patrick Lynch.
PATRICK LYNCH: There’s blood on many hands tonight: those that incited violence on the street under the guise of protest, that tried to tear down what New York City police officers did every day. We tried to warn it must not go on, it cannot be tolerated. That blood on the hands starts on the steps of City Hall—in the office of the mayor.
AMY GOODMAN: On Friday morning, the day after Christmas, many New Yorkers saw a plane flying a banner above the Hudson River that read: "De Blasio, our backs have turned to you." Former NYPD Officer John Cardillo wrote on his blog the officers behind the act felt that "Mayor de Blasio’s dangerous and irresponsible comments about his and his wife’s concern for their son’s safety at the hands of the NYPD fueled the flames that led to civil unrest, and potentially to the deaths of [PO] Wenjian Liu and [PO] Rafael Ramos, as well as the continued threats against NYPD personnel," unquote. Let’s turn to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s remarks, which were made earlier this month amidst protests over lack of police accountability in the Eric Garner case, Eric Garner who died of a police chokehold. He said that he and his wife, Chirlane, who is African-American, fear for the safety of their teenage son Dante.
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO: Chirlane and I have had to talk to Dante for years about the dangers he may face. Good young man, law-abiding young man, who never would think to do anything wrong, and yet, because of a history that still hangs over us, the dangers he may face, we’ve had to literally train him, as families have all over this city for decades, in how to take special care in any encounter he has with the police officers who are there to protect him. And that painful sense of contradiction that our young people see first, that our police are here to protect us and we honor that, and the same time, there’s a history we have to overcome because for so many of our young people there’s a fear, and for so many of our families there’s a fear.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Mayor de Blasio speaking amidst the protests around Eric Garner. Adhyl Polanco?
ADHYL POLANCO: How can a parent—how can a parent who has a black child, how can a parent that have seen millions of kids being stopped by stop-and-frisk—and you know the statistics of that—how can the parents of kids and see black kids get killed by police over and over, how can parents that see kids being summonsed illegally, being arrested in their own building for trespassing, and being the treatment that they deserve from—they get from the police department—not from all officers, because not all officers are the same—how can you not responsibly to have that conversation with your son? You have to.
AMY GOODMAN: You brought your son today to the studio.
ADHYL POLANCO: Of course. Of course.
AMY GOODMAN: Have you had that conversation with him?
ADHYL POLANCO: Absolutely. I have to have that conversation.
AMY GOODMAN: You’re a police officer.
ADHYL POLANCO: And I’m a police officer. And I’ve been thrown against the wall off-duty, because they all [inaudible] the mentality that Patrick Lynch and many other officers don’t want to hear about. They don’t have to speak to their kids. They don’t have—if my kids and Patrick Lynch’s son walk the street right now, chances are that, you know, the conversation that I have to have with my son, he won’t have to have. As an officer, I’ve been thrown against the wall. As an officer, I’ve been shown no respect.
AMY GOODMAN: Thrown against the wall by who?
ADHYL POLANCO: By fellow officers, stop-and-frisk, walking to the neighborhood of where my mother lives. Absolutely no need.
AMY GOODMAN: When you were out of uniform.
ADHYL POLANCO: I was out of uniform. And this is—the other thing that they mention is that 50 percent, 60 percent of the population of the police department is Hispanic, because it’s a diverse society. But we are out there. And when we take the uniform, us versus them, we become them. The second I take my uniform off, I’m them. I’m back to the civilian, that, unfortunately—not by this administration, because we cannot say this administration is doing it, but by the 12 years of dictatorship that we had by Bloomberg and Kelly, we had to harass people that did not deserve to be harassed.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you feel the policy is changing under Mayor de Blasio—
ADHYL POLANCO: Absolutely.
AMY GOODMAN: —and police officer—and Police Chief Bratton?
ADHYL POLANCO: Absolutely, absolutely. Got—welcome Commissioner Bratton. I mean, de Blasio made a mistake. I think that the way he responded to the incident that happened over the bridge, it was not accurate. I don’t think it was appropriate.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain.
ADHYL POLANCO: Over the "alleged," that when the two lieutenants got assaulted, he said that was an alleged.
AMY GOODMAN: During a police protest.
ADHYL POLANCO: Yes. I think that was a mistake. I think—and he’s human. But I think that was provoked. This union has been fighting this mayor since before he became a mayor. And this mayor made his whole campaign around fixing the police department, bringing changes to the police department. And people heard him. And I think it was the one thing that separated him from Quinn and Lhota, it was his approach on how he needed to change and reform the police department. And voters came out.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you feel about the police protests that have been taking place? I mean the protests against police brutality and police violence.
ADHYL POLANCO: Yeah, people need to get it straight: People are not protesting against police. People are not protesting like angels, like Officer Ramos, and people who go out there and do their job every day. They’re not saying these officers shouldn’t be in the street. People are protesting against bad policies that have been in this country for many, many, many years.
AMY GOODMAN: Do think these protests dishonor the slain officers?
ADHYL POLANCO: No, no, not at all. I think these protests were there before the officers. I think the issues that we have to resolve, we cannot deny that they’ve been there before the officers were dead. I think they should have held the protests until after the wake, maybe show a little more respect. But there is still an issue, and that issue cannot be ignored. That issue, you cannot tell people they don’t have the right to protest.
I want to ask everybody—and I see Mayor Giuliani and many others of people stepping up now, I don’t know for what reason, and they want to say that everything was mishandled, that everything was mischaracterized, that the mayor did a terrible mistake. But take a picture of Ferguson, Missouri, when the decision of Michael Brown came over. Take a picture of the gas station on fire. Take a picture of the police cars on fire. And then take a picture of New York when the Eric Garner decision came out. Which one you rather have, as a mayor, as a president, as a government? Which one you would rather have? So you’ve got to give this mayor some credit, if not all, for the way they handled it.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you very much for being with us. That ends our show. Also wanted to point out that Emerald Garner, the daughter of Eric Garner, laid a wreath at the officer’s memorial. Adhyl Polanco is a 10-year veteran of the New York Police Department.
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In the 13 years since the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001, the country’s opium production has doubled, now accounting for about 90 percent of the world’s supply. To learn more, we are joined by Matthieu Aikins, a Kabul-based journalist whose latest report for Rolling Stone magazine explores Afghanistan’s heroin boom. "What has happened in Afghanistan over the last 13 years has been the flourishing of a narco-state that is really without any parallel in history," Aikins says. "This is something that is extraordinary, that is catastrophic, that has grave danger for the future and yet there has been virtually no discussion of in recent years."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: As the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan officially concluded its combat mission Sunday, 13 years after it started in 2001, ending the longest war in U.S. history, we continue speaking with Matt Aikins, a journalist usually based in Kabul. He’s speaking to us by Democracy Now! video stream from Halifax, Nova Scotia, in Canada. His recent article for Rolling Stone magazine is headlined "Afghanistan: The Making of a Narco State." Why don’t you lay out for us what has happened in Afghanistan around the growing of heroin, Matt Aikins?
MATTHIEU AIKINS: Sure. Well, today Afghanistan produces twice as much opium as it did in the year 2000. And this spring I traveled to Helmand province in southern Afghanistan to witness what would be the largest harvest of opium in Afghanistan’s history. It’s a record year. And all over the south, east, west and north of the country, hundreds of thousands of people were taking part in this labor-intensive opium harvest. So, what has happened in Afghanistan over the last 13 years has been the flourishing of a narco-state that really is without any parallel in history. It accounts for 15 percent of the GDP, which is more than double what cocaine accounted for at the height of Escobar-era Colombia. So, this is something that’s extraordinary, that’s catastrophic, that has grave danger for the future, and yet there’s been virtually no discussion of in recent years.
AMY GOODMAN: Who’s growing it? Who’s profiting?
MATTHIEU AIKINS: Everyone is growing it. Everyone is profiting. It touches all levels of Afghan society, both sides of the conflict, the Taliban and the government. The Taliban is definitely involved. They profit by taxing the trade, by taxing growers in their areas. But the government is even more involved. Government-linked officials are believed to earn an even higher piece of revenue from the opium trade.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk more about the involvement of the Afghanistan government. Again, quite an amazing fact that Afghanistan provides 90 percent of the opium in the world.
MATTHIEU AIKINS: Well, what’s important to remember is the history here. So, after 2001, the U.S., in its quest for vengeance against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, partnered with the very warlords whose criminality and human rights abuses had created the conditions that led to the rise of the Taliban in the first place. And in many cases, these are the same individuals who were responsible for bringing large-scale opium cultivation to Afghanistan during the war against the Soviets. When they were backed by the CIA and Pakistan’s military, they became involved in heroin trafficking and opium production.
So, for example, in Helmand, which is the most—the largest opium-producing province in Afghanistan, they brought back a member of the Akhundzada family. Karzai appointed him as governor. He was a key ally of the U.S. special forces there. And this is the same guy who had been responsible for bringing opium production to Afghanistan. So, the reason that opium has flourished in Afghanistan is because we have brought in, supported, tolerated figures who are involved in very grave criminality and in human rights abuses and in torture. And we’ve done this because it’s been deemed militarily expedient. The generals and diplomats have decided that to pursue these, you know, narrow goals of defeating the Taliban, we needed some—to support these criminals.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about Marjah more. Talk about its going from poppy-free to what it is today.
MATTHIEU AIKINS: Yes. Well, you probably remember Marjah was the site of one of the largest battles of the war, the Battle of Marjah, where the Marines air-assaulted into this stretch of irrigated canal land, that had actually, in a rather ironic twist of history, been built by a USAID-funded project in the 1950s and ’60s as part of the Cold War rivalry with the Soviets. They built this huge canal-irrigated zone west of Helmand that brought, you know, agriculture to the desert. And that was eventually turned into a center for poppy cultivation and a bastion of the Taliban, you know, by the mid-2000s.
So the Marines air-assaulted in. There was this very televised battle. They threw the Taliban out. And for a few years, the area was indeed poppy-free. But since then, as the Marines have left, as the Afghan government has become very distracted by the elections, farmers there had taken to poppy cultivation again. It was part of a general trend across the country that what small gains had been made in reducing poppy cultivation were being reversed, because they had largely been driven by short-term incentives.
And so, I went to Marjah and hung out with these farmers and saw their opium harvest, and it was really remarkable, because, you know, I was sitting in a living room with this guy, and he brings out a basketball-sized lump of opium. And I asked him how much he was thinking he was going to sell this for. He said, you know, he hoped to sell it for $600. And I asked him, you know, "Do you know how much this will be worth on the streets of Europe?" And he said he didn’t. So I did a quick calculation in my head, and it worked out to over $100,000, if it was converted into heroin and sold by the gram. So, you know, $100,000 sitting on the floor of a guy without plumbing or electricity really gives you a sense of how Afghanistan, in fact, is just at one end of this vast global economy that is the international drug trade.
AMY GOODMAN: You also write about the history of U.S. involvement and CIA involvement with drug traffickers in Afghanistan. Can you talk about that?
MATTHIEU AIKINS: Yeah, well, you know, the CIA’s dirty wars that it fought in Afghanistan involved patronizing mujahideen commanders who in many cases were directly involved in the narcotics trade, people like Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who was responsible for the flourishing heroin laboratory seen in Pakistani tribal areas in the 1980s; Mullah Nasim Akhundzada, who was—I already mentioned—a major drug baron in southwestern Afghanistan. These are all people who’d receive U.S.-supplied weaponry and funding.
AMY GOODMAN: And you note that the U.N. has estimated the Taliban makes hundreds of millions of dollars from taxing opium and other illicit activities. But in the summer of 2000, the country’s fundamentalist leaders actually announced a total ban on opium cultivation. What changed?
MATTHIEU AIKINS: Well, you know, the Taliban’s decision to ban poppy cultivation in 2000, which was actually remarkably successful—the only poppy that was really cultivated in the country that year was in the corner of the country still controlled by the Northern Alliance, who later became our allies. So, there’s still a lot of debate as to why the Taliban made that decision. Probably it was just a rash one based on ideological beliefs—they were against opium as an intoxicant, being forbidden in Islam—one that where they were seeking to break their international isolation and get some desperately needed development aid. But in any case, since the invasion, you know, since the war, the Taliban has found it expedient to become involved in not just drug trafficking but all sorts of illicit activities—marble and timber smuggling, contraband goods. And so, yes, the Taliban and other militant groups are definitely involved in the drug trade, and that is another reason why it’s so cancerous for the region. It funds all sorts of militant groups. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that this is something that is as much at the doorstep of the Afghan government as is the Taliban.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us about Hajji Lal Jan?
MATTHIEU AIKINS: Yeah, Hajji Lal Jan is an interesting case that really highlights the limitations of the approach that we’ve tried to take to opium there. We had been—the U.S. had been supporting the specialized counternarcotics unit within the Ministry of the Interior in the hopes that this would provide the seed for Afghan efforts to go after drug trafficking, because there was sort of a decision made at the interagency level not to directly prosecute corrupt Afghan officials, because that would be too harmful to our war effort. So, the hope was the Afghans would do it themselves.
And in 2012, this major drug kingpin—he had been designated as a foreign narcotics kingpin by President Obama, but he had been living openly in Kandahar for many years, allegedly under the protection of President Karzai’s powerful half-brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai. So he was actually arrested by this Afghan commando unit, with international advisers. He allegedly, you know, according to court documents and prosecutors that I spoke to, he managed to escape when the raid was happening, went nearby, placed a call to Kandahar’s governor, Toryalai Wesa, on the phone. Wesa, again, allegedly, according to the wiretaps, told him that—just to sit tight, and he would call President Karzai and see what was happening. They did—then, based on that phone call, they tracked him to a second location, got him. He was taken to Kabul and put in a special counternarcotics court, where he was successfully prosecuted, convicted. It went to the appeals court. He was given 20 years in prison.
And then a sort of chain of events occurred that, for many people, highlighted just how deeply the narcotics industry reaches, you know, the highest levels of the executive and judicial branches. At the Supreme Court, his sentence was reduced to 15 years in prison. He was then transferred, after an order from the presidential palace, back to Kandahar to serve his time there. In Kandahar prison, a local court, based on an outdated provision in the Afghan criminal code that allowed for release for good behavior after nine months for sentences that were 15 years or less, ordered him to be released on parole. He immediately fled across the border to Pakistan. So, it certainly seemed to many observers like an orchestrated conspiracy to free a notorious and powerful drug trafficker who, again, allegedly was making payments both to the Afghan government and the Taliban in order to facilitate his heroin business.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you see the opium economy changing with the U.S.'s changing role, though it certainly hasn't pulled out entirely?
MATTHIEU AIKINS: Unfortunately, it seems like it’s just increasing year after year. And at this point, you know, given how catastrophically things have gone—I mean, you know, of course opium was a deeply entrenched problem in Afghanistan in the year 2001, but for it to have gotten twice as bad would require some remarkable failures in policy over the last 13 years. So, given that we’ve gotten to that point, any gains, any reductions in poppy cultivation will be incremental and long-term.
It should be remembered that, one, Afghanistan—Afghan farmers only touch 1 percent of the value of the global opium trade. This is a world problem. This has to do with the fact that the world desires, people desire, millions of people desire to consume illegal drugs. We’ve made that illegal and waged a war against it, so there will always be narco-states like Afghanistan under such a system. And, two, there are huge segments of the Afghan population whose human security is dependent on poppy. You know, these are impoverished farmers in many cases. And if we pursue some brutal campaign of eradication against them, it’s going to immiserate the rural population.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Matt, I want to thank you for being with us, George Polk Award-winning journalist, usually based in Kabul, joining us now from Halifax, Nova Scotia, in Canada. We’ll link to your recent piece in Rolling Stone, "Afghanistan: The Making of a Narco State."
This is Democracy Now! When we come back, we’ll be joined by a New York police officer. He says the hundreds of officers who turned their back on Mayor de Blasio as he gave his eulogy at the funeral of a slain police officer don’t represent most police officers here in New York. Stay with us.
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The U.S.-led NATO occupation has formally ended its 13-year combat mission in Afghanistan. The move leaves Afghan forces in charge of security, though more than 17,000 foreign troops will remain. This includes more than 10,000 U.S. troops, who will continue to see a combat role despite the nominal change. Last month, President Obama secretly extended the U.S. role in Afghanistan to ensure American troops will have a direct role in fighting, along with jets, bombers and drones. The transition follows the deadliest year in Afghanistan since 2001. According to the United Nations, almost 3,200 Afghan civilians have been killed. More than 5,000 members of the Afghan security forces have also died, the highest toll in 13 years of fighting with the Taliban. We are joined by two guests: Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare; and Matthieu Aikins, a Kabul-based journalist whose recent report for Rolling Stone magazine is "Afghanistan: The Making of a Narco State."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan officially concluded its combat mission on Sunday, 13 years after it started in 2001, ending the longest war in U.S. history. The commander of the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, General John Campbell, announced the end of formal combat operations.
GEN. JOHN CAMPBELL: Today marks the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. Today NATO completes its combat mission, a 13-year endeavor filled with significant achievements and branded by tremendous sacrifice, especially by the thousands of coalition and Afghan army and police wounded and fallen who gave so much to build a better future for this war-torn land.
AMY GOODMAN: But the war is not over. The Obama administration said earlier this month it would leave a residual U.S. force of about 11,000 troops in Afghanistan for at least the first months of 2015 to assist Afghan security forces under the mission known as Resolute Support. And last month President Obama secretly extended the U.S. role in Afghanistan. According to The New York Times, he signed a classified order that ensures American troops will have a direct role in fighting. The order reportedly enables American jets, bombers and drones to bolster Afghan troops on combat missions. Under certain circumstances, it would apparently authorize U.S. airstrikes to support Afghan military operations throughout the country. Afghanistan’s new president, Ashraf Ghani, who took office in September, has also backed an expanded U.S. military role.
This comes as 2014 marked the deadliest in Afghanistan since 2001. The United Nations reports nearly 3,200 Afghan civilians were killed in the intensifying war with the Taliban, a 20 percent rise from 2013. The national army and police also suffered record losses this year, with more than 4,600 killed.
For more, we’re joined by two guests. Kathy Kelly is with us in studio, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare. She returned from Kabul last month and is heading soon to prison over a drone protest in Missouri. She recently wrote an article headlined "Obama Extends War in Afghanistan: The implications for U.S. democracy aren’t reassuring."
And Matt Aikins also joins us, a journalist based in Kabul. He’s joining us from Halifax, Nova Scotia, in Canada. Aikins is currently a Schell fellow at The Nation Institute. His recent report for Rolling Stone magazine is headlined "Afghanistan: The Making of a Narco State."
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Kathy Kelly, you were just in Afghanistan. What is the significance of saying the formal war is over, but in fact the formal war continues with U.S. troops fighting?
KATHY KELLY: Well, I think the United States doesn’t want to acknowledge that what went on over the last 13 years, at a cost of $1 trillion, has been not only a defeat, but, as one British commentator said, also a disgrace. I mean, the extent of spending, $80 billion under the Obama administration, that fueled corruption, that did not improve the lives of people in Afghanistan in any measurable way, ought never, ever to be held up as some kind of a success story. But I think the United States wants to walk away from responsibilities within Afghanistan, certainly doesn’t talk about paying reparations.
AMY GOODMAN: Matt Aikins, talk about officially what this means. You have lived in Afghanistan for a long time covering it. How is this seen in Afghanistan?
MATTHIEU AIKINS: Well, the scene in Afghanistan really isn’t going to change today. The war continues, by any measure. You have 11,000 U.S. troops with new combat authorities. You have rising levels of violence. You have the highest-ever casualties both for Afghan security forces and civilians. So in no sense but the semantic can this war be said to be over. And if we have the end of—the formal end of a war, that means the beginning of an informal war, which is troubling indeed, as Kathy says.
AMY GOODMAN: On Thursday, President Obama addressed troops gathered for Christmas dinner at a Marine Corps base in Hawaii. He spoke about the end of the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We have been in continuous war now for almost 13 years, over 13 years. And next week, we will be ending our combat mission in Afghanistan. Obviously, because of the extraordinary service of the men and women in the American armed forces, Afghanistan has a chance to rebuild its own country. We are safer. It’s not going to be a source of terrorist attacks again. And we still have some very difficult missions around the world, including in Iraq. We still have folks in Afghanistan helping Afghan security forces.
AMY GOODMAN: The outgoing defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, spoke earlier this month, talking about the United States keeping an additional 1,000 troops in Afghanistan on top of the nearly 10,000 already committed to remain beyond this year. He announced the move during a visit to Afghanistan.
DEFENSE SECRETARY CHUCK HAGEL: President Obama has provided U.S. military commanders the flexibility, the flexibility to manage any temporary force shortfalls that we might experience for a few months, as we allow for coalition troops to arrive in theater. This will mean a delayed withdrawal of up to 1,000 U.S. troops, so that up to 10,800 troops, rather than 9,800, could remain in Afghanistan through the end of this year and for the first few months next year.
AMY GOODMAN: Hagel said the change is temporary and won’t change the long-term timeline for withdrawing troops. The announcement came amidst a surge in Taliban attacks over the past several months. And the new president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, Kathy Kelly, has lifted former President Karzai’s ban on night raids. The significance of this?
KATHY KELLY: Well, using the night raids, which is their means of surprising the Taliban by bursting into homes at 3:30 in the morning, by arresting people, possibly disappearing them over a period of months or possibly longer, is a despised tactic. It’s a way, many say, to recruit more people to either tolerate or support the Taliban.
But the decision on the part of Ashraf Ghani shows a willingness to continue cooperating with the corruption of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. He, I think, has tried to make some changes, for instance, in going after corrupt figures within the Kabul Bank, but why is he so reluctant to disobey any orders from the United States or disobey the desires of the United States? Well, I think we see that even Britain now is saying that they had seen themselves as being in a subordinate roll to the United States and now look back with a great deal of remorse on the disgrace that the war has brought on Britain.
AMY GOODMAN: Matt Aikins, what has been the result of this war? We won’t say "with its end," but at this sort of point, 13 years in, what has been the effect on Afghanistan?
MATTHIEU AIKINS: Well, getting back to the last point about President Ghani’s cooperation with the U.S. military, one of the results has been an extremely dependent state, perhaps the most aid-dependent large state in history. And so, the Afghan government can’t possibly pay for its budget expenditures. It can’t pay for the overlarge army and police force that we’ve created for it. It’s billions of dollars in excess of its revenues. So, there really is no choice—I think President Ghani recognizes that—but to cooperate with the U.S. military, because the government would collapse very swiftly if international support were withdrawn.
On a number of other indicators, you have mixed results. In the cities, in places like Kabul, there’s been significant development. Education has been a success story. But if you travel outside of the capital, which [inaudible] increasingly do because of the rising insecurity, you’ll find that there’s things like child malnutrition, food insecurity, growing opium production, which we’ll talk about in a minute, I guess, and just an increased level of violence and insecurity that paints a very stark divide between the urban and rural parts of the country.
AMY GOODMAN: And what about women’s rights, Matt?
MATTHIEU AIKINS: Well, women’s rights have made a lot of gains in urban areas, places like Kabul, especially symbolic ones. But the fact of the matter is, is that in rural areas, particularly ones afflicted by insecurity in the south, there hasn’t been a lot of change. And in any case, this change isn’t going to come at the barrel of a gun. It’s not going to come in conditions of insecurity.
The question now is whether the gains that have been made in urban areas are going to be rolled back, if there’s going to be—not just for women’s rights, but for things like free speech, for things like the rule of law, corruption, human rights abuses by the Afghan security forces, whether these are going to be areas where we’re going to see, you know, a retreat in progress, especially as the mission there becomes one that’s primarily focused on counterterrorism and military goals. So there needs to be pressure, not just from the administration, but from all voices in Afghanistan, to make sure that those hard-fought gains, gains that were hard-fought not just by the internationals, but mostly by the Afghan people themselves, aren’t lost.
AMY GOODMAN: The significance of the Pakistani military and the role it plays now in Afghanistan? After the Army Public School massacre by the Taliban earlier this month in Peshawar, the Pakistani prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, pledged solidarity with his Afghan neighbor in fighting terrorism. The attack in Peshawar killed 152 people, including 133 children.
PRIME MINISTER NAWAZ SHARIF: [translated] Pakistan will not tolerate these militant elements on its territory. If our territory is used for any activities against Afghanistan, we will deal with it very strongly, and we’ll take tough action against those elements. In the same way, if anything like this happens on the Afghan side, they will also deal with it in a strong manner. After General Raheel’s visit to Kabul, they have carried out an operation in the region.
AMY GOODMAN: Matt Aikins, if you can talk about the effect—what’s going to happen with the Pakistani military’s relationship in Afghanistan with the military and with the Taliban?
MATTHIEU AIKINS: Well, you have to remember that we’ve seen this kind of rhetoric from the government before after similar shocking incidents. There was an attack in 2011 against the Pakistani naval base in Karachi by the Taliban, attack against the general headquarters in 2009. There was the whole incident of the Lal Masjid siege in 2007, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. And after, you know, each one of these sort of watershed so-called moments, you’ve seen the same kind of rhetoric, that there’s no more—there’s going to be no more distinction between good and bad Taliban, we’re going to go after their sanctuaries in the tribal areas, we’re not going to support militants in Afghanistan.
But the fact of the matter is, is that the relationship, the complex relationship, between the Pakistani state and various militant groups are tied to much deeper strategic and structural interests of the military, of Pakistan’s central government. So, it remains to be seen whether this actually represents some sort of fundamental shift. And certainly, one incident isn’t going to—isn’t going to solve it. There’s been plenty of massacres in Pakistan of children, of innocents. And this is not going to change their calculations all of a sudden.
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U.S.-Led NATO Occupation Formally Ends Combat Role, But War Continues
The U.S.-led NATO occupation has formally ended its 13-year combat mission in Afghanistan. The move leaves Afghan forces in charge of security, though more than 17,000 foreign troops will remain. This includes more than 10,000 U.S. troops, who will continue to see a combat role despite the nominal change. The transition follows the deadliest year in Afghanistan since 2001. According to the United Nations, almost 3,200 Afghan civilians have been killed. More than 5,000 members of the Afghan security forces have also died, the highest toll since 2001.
U.S. Drone Strike Kills 7 as Pakistani Forces Expand Offensive
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Thousands Attend Funeral for Slain NYPD Officer
Thousands of people, including a sea of uniformed officers, gathered in New York City on Saturday for the funeral of New York Police Department Officer Rafael Ramos, one of the two killed in a targeted ambush one week before. The funeral was said to be the largest in the NYPD’s history. Speakers included Vice President Joe Biden and Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Vice President Joe Biden: "I believe that this great police force and this incredibly diverse city can and will show the nation how to bridge any divide. You’ve done it before, and you will do it again."
Mayor Bill de Blasio: "He had a dream that he would one day be a police officer, and he worked for that dream, and he lived it, and he became it. He couldn’t wait to take that test. He couldn’t wait to put on that uniform. He believed in protecting others, and those who are called to protect others are a special breed."
Police Commissioner: "Inappropriate" for Officers to Turn Their Backs on Mayor
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LAPD Officers Mock Killing of Michael Brown in Song Parody
Los Angeles police have been caught on video mocking slain Ferguson teenager Michael Brown. A video obtained by the website TMZ shows officers at an LAPD gathering listening to a parody based on the song, "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown." It includes the lyrics "Michael looked like some old Swiss cheese / His brain was splattered on the floor."
Song: "And Michael looked like some old Swiss cheese / His brain was splattered on the floor / And he’s dead, dead Michael Brown / Deadest man in the whole damn town / His whole life’s long gone / Deader than a roadkill dog."
The singer of the song has been identified as former federal investigator Gary Fishell. The LAPD says it is investigating.
Ferguson Police Spokesperson Suspended for Calling Roadside Memorial "a Pile of Trash"
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Anti-Police Brutality Protests Continue Across U.S.
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Adán Cortés: "I feel powerless. I would love to hand their children over to them, if they’re kidnapped, turn them over alive, and if they’re dead, at least hand over their bodies so they can pray over them. I feel a sense of impotence, and I also feel empathy for their anger. Just imagine what they must feel to not have any news about their children for three months. We’re not talking one week or one month. It’s three months, and they know nothing about their children. Anger and solidarity is all that I can feel in this moment."
Al Jazeera Journalists Mark 365 Days of Imprisonment in Egypt
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Andrew Greste: "We have never given up fighting for justice, because we obviously believe, as do the majority of the world believe, that he’s done nothing wrong. He’s a remarkably tough guy, but again, it’s been a long 12 months, and the conditions haven’t been all that easy to endure, and he’s as good as he can be, I guess, given that he’s been there for 12 months and locked up on some pretty flimsy evidence."
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