Doubts of victory surface in war on Afghan poppy crops

The U.S., Britain and Denmark provided $56 million to set up the special area over the past three years. But with allies pulling out of the country, the State Department will have to pay the bill if such zones are to be created in other provinces.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat and chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, is pressing the State Department to fill the gap.

“The drug problem in Afghanistan cannot be ignored, because it is now a major source of funding for the Taliban,” she wrote Feb. 7 to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“Programs like the Helmand Food Zone are essential because their success can ultimately help to cut off financing to the Taliban. … Replication of the Helmand Food Zone in additional high-poppy-cultivation provinces will help to achieve the dual goal of strengthening Afghanistan’s economy while weakening the Taliban.”

Mrs. Feinstein followed up the letter by meeting privately March 27 with State Department officials and as Afghanistan’s top counternarcotics minister, Zarar Ahmad Osmani.

A staffer said State Department officials at the meeting made no commitment to expand the Food Zone program.

“The British are broke,” Mr. Hollis said. “If State does not act, the Food Zone will go away.”

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