"If they can't feed their families then what we do is alienate them from us, they blame us - you drive them into the hands of the Taliban."

The Netherlands is the lead nation for Nato's coalition troops in southern Uruzgan province, one of the poorest in Afghanistan - and the fourth biggest poppy producer."

The chief civil representative on Task Force Uruzgan, Michel Rentenaar, says that the Dutch aim to encourage farmers to turn to alternative crops, such as saffron and fruit and nut trees.

"Our effort is to supply an alternative livelihood. We have had success with introducing saffron in the province, the harvest has increased every year for the past three years.

"Saffron is incredibly expensive and its yield is about two to three times higher than poppy. But it is slow to convince farmers to change."

The 2008-09 harvest was 50 kilogrammes (110 pounds), while this year's is expected to be almost double that, and of better quality.

While the figures are small, saffron has long been the world's most expensive spice by weight and a total of some 500 farmers are growing it in Uruzgan, with a Dutch firm buying a large chunk of the harvest.

 President Barack Obama in November committed more than $38 million to finance development projects or alternative crops in provinces that cut poppy production.

Last year Washington also placed 50 alleged Afghan drug traffickers with suspected ties to the Taliban on a "kill list" of people targeted for elimination, according to a report by a US Senate committee.

"Major drug traffickers who help finance the insurgency are likely to find themselves in the crosshairs of the military," the Senate foreign relations committee report said.

"But the farmers are not guilty of buying guns, they just have to make a living,"

The Hijacking of American 77
American Airlines Flight 77 was scheduled to depart from Washington Dulles for Los Angeles at 8:10. The aircraft was a Boeing 757 piloted by Captain Charles F. Burlingame and First Officer David Charlebois. There were four flight attendants. On September 11, the flight carried 58 passengers.

American 77 pushed back from its gate at 8:09 and took off at 8:20. At 8:46, the flight reached its assigned cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. Cabin service would have begun. At 8:51, American 77 transmitted its last routine radio communication. The hijacking began between 8:51 and 8:54. As on American 11 and United 175, the hijackers used knives (reported by one passenger) and moved all the passengers (and possibly crew) to the rear of the aircraft (reported by one flight attendant and one passenger). Unlike the earlier flights, the Flight 77 hijackers were reported by a passenger to have box cutters. Finally, a passenger reported that an announcement had been made by the "pilot" that the plane had been hijacked. Neither of the firsthand accounts mentioned any stabbings or the threat or use of either a bomb or Mace, though both witnesses began the flight in the first-class cabin.

At 8:54, the aircraft deviated from its assigned course, turning south. Two minutes later the transponder was turned off and even primary radar contact with the aircraft was lost. The Indianapolis Air Traffic Control Center repeatedly tried and failed to contact the aircraft. American Airlines dispatchers also tried, without success.

At 9:00, American Airlines Executive Vice President Gerard Arpey learned that communications had been lost with American 77.This was now the second American aircraft in trouble. He ordered all American Airlines flights in the Northeast that had not taken off to remain on the ground. Shortly before 9:10, suspecting that American 77 had been hijacked, American headquarters concluded that the second aircraft to hit the World Trade Center might have been Flight 77. After learning that United Airlines was missing a plane, American Airlines headquarters extended the ground stop nationwide.

At 9:12, Renee May called her mother, Nancy May, in Las Vegas. She said her flight was being hijacked by six individuals who had moved them to the rear of the plane. She asked her mother to alert American Airlines. Nancy May and her husband promptly did so.

At some point between 9:16 and 9:26, Barbara Olson called her husband, Ted Olson, the solicitor general of the United States. She reported that the flight had been hijacked, and the hijackers had knives and box cutters. She further indicated that the hijackers were not aware of her phone call, and that they had put all the passengers in the back of the plane. About a minute into the conversation, the call was cut off. Solicitor General Olson tried unsuccessfully to reach Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Shortly after the first call, Barbara Olson reached her husband again. She reported that the pilot had announced that the flight had been hijacked, and she asked her husband what she should tell the captain to do. Ted Olson asked for her location and she replied that the aircraft was then flying over houses. Another passenger told her they were traveling northeast. The Solicitor General then informed his wife of the two previous hijackings and crashes. She did not display signs of panic and did not indicate any awareness of an impending crash. At that point, the second call was cut off.

At 9:29, the autopilot on American 77 was disengaged; the aircraft was at 7,000 feet and approximately 38 miles west of the Pentagon. At 9:32, controllers at the Dulles Terminal Radar Approach Control "observed a primary radar target tracking eastbound at a high rate of speed." This was later determined to have been Flight 77.

At 9:34, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport advised the Secret Service of an unknown aircraft heading in the direction of the White House. American 77 was then 5 miles west-southwest of the Pentagon and began a 330-degree turn. At the end of the turn, it was descending through 2,200 feet, pointed toward the Pentagon and downtown Washington. The hijacker pilot then advanced the throttles to maximum power and dove toward the Pentagon.

At 9:37:46, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, traveling at approximately 530 miles per hour. All on board, as well as many civilian and military personnel in the building, were killed.

Quote Originally Posted by MoneySRH:

Russian, Chinese and other intelligence agencies working in the US.

I hear carnival music when i read your nonsense

Speaking about the amount of foreign spies on U.S. soil,he told CBS

: 'If you look at the threat that is imposed upon our nation every day, some of the major nation states - China in particular - have very sophisticated intelligence operations, very aggressive operations against the U.S.