With Afghan drawdown ongoing, U.S. to set up center in Bahrain to continue anti-drug efforts --- As the United States shrinks its civilian presence in Afghanistan, limiting its ability to combat the country’s booming drug industry, U.S. officials intend to establish an intelligence center in Bahrain to continue fighting the trade.-- The center in the tiny Persian Gulf nation, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, will be an “integral part” of the Defense Department’s post-2014 strategy in Afghanistan, Erin Logan, who oversees the Pentagon’s counter­narcotics efforts, said Wednesday afternoon. -- “The center will help fill the gap where space for personnel on the ground in Afghanistan is no longer available,” she told a Senate panel on narcotics control. -- Lawmakers and the inspector general overseeing reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan said they were alarmed that a problem that Washington has spent billions of dollars trying to combat is likely to worsen and further destabilize Afghanistan at a critical time. -- John F. Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, said that during a recent visit to the country, Afghan and U.S. officials conveyed to him that Afghanistan’s drug problem is “dire, with little prospect for improvement in 2014 or beyond,” after the end of the U.S. combat mission. --- “The narcotics trade is poisoning the Afghan financial sector and fueling a growing illicit economy,” said Sopko, who has launched an audit of U.S. counternarcotics efforts. “This, in turn, is undermining the Afghan state’s legitimacy by stoking corruption, nourishing criminal networks and providing significant financial support to the Taliban and other insurgent groups.” - More, Ernesto Londoño, washingtonpost at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/with-afghan-drawdown-ongoing-us-to-set-up-center-in-bahrain-to-continue-anti-drug-efforts/2014/01/15/25dc771e-7e2d-11e3-9556-4a4bf7bcbd84_story.html