"Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Berlin-based Counter [Extremism] Project and an expert on Afghanistan, has seen it all before. Last time the Taliban were in power, from 1996-2001, they curtailed poppy production for the 2000-01 season. Heroin prices soared. Then, when the Taliban were pushed out of power after 9/11, they needed cash to fund their insurgency. In an unequivocal demonstration of their control over the drugs trade, they went back into the opium business."