Operation Ranch Hand Afghanistan

The US stands accused of clandestine aerial spraying of Afghanistan's poppy fields:

Abdullah, a shepherd, said he was watching over his sheep one night in February when he heard a plane pass low overhead.

By morning his eyes were so swollen he could not open them and the sheep around him were dying in convulsions.

Although farmers had noticed a white powder on their crops, they cut grass and clover for their animals and picked spinach to eat anyway. Within hours the animals were severely ill and the villagers complained of fevers, skin rashes and diarrhoea.

The children were particularly affected. A week later, the crops were dying and a dozen dead animals lay tossed in a heap.

The incident on February 3 has left the herders in the remote mountain area of Kanai in Helmand province deeply suspicious. They are convinced someone is surreptitiously spraying their lands, presumably in a clandestine effort to eradicate the bumper poppy crop from the world's leading source of opium.

Hmm, there's no evidence the crops were sprayed but that doesn't stop the SMH picking up the story and passing it on. This article is also a bit odd in that the neo-cons don't even rate a mention.