This excuse is pretty lame:

"This alleged effort to arm and enrich the Taliban is the latest example of the dangers of an inter-connected world in which terrorists and drug runners can link up across continents to harm Americans," U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara said in the statement.

More on these expensive ventures, which apparently will still be funded in 2011, can be found here. As I wrote then:

How much of our money is the DEA spending on its African adventures? And how much are we spending to fly these sting targets from Africa to the U.S., hold them for a year or more in pre-trial detention, fund their defense, try them, incarcerate them for decades, and then fly them back when they are deported after their sentences?

Considering that except at the DEA's request, the (illusory) drugs are not going to the U.S., why is it even their business to intervene? Or to steer non-U.S. criminal activity into the U.S.?

Here's more on the funding of the increasingly global reach of the DEA.

Others not happy with the new drug war budget: Law Enforcement Against Prohibition:

Obama's federal drug control budget maintains a Bush-era disparity devoting nearly twice as many resources to punishment as it does for treatment and prevention, despite his saying less than three weeks ago that, “We have to think more about drugs as a public health problem," which requires "shifting resources."

I'm still willing to give some praise to Obama's new budget for starting the process of increased funding for prison alternatives, re-entry reform and for mentioning sentencing reform in the DOJ Budget.

The Budget provides $187 million in prisoner re-entry and jail diversion programs, including $100 million for the Second Chance Act programs and $57 million for drug, mental health, and other problem-solving courts.

....The Administration proposes $8.4 billion for the operations of the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee and the Bureau of Prisons, and will help stabilize the prison population by advancing evidence-based sentencing reform legislation. The Administration will continue to explore fiscally sound, data-driven administrative procedures to address population stress on the prison system such as expanded use of alternatives to incarceration, increased reliance on risk assessments, and diversion for non-violent offenders. In addition, drug treatment and prisoner re-entry programs will be expanded to enhance returning prisoners’ prospects for successful re-entry.

I'm looking forward to seeing the details on this. It has potential. Unfortunately, we will still be spending on new prisons:

Prison overcrowding also will be addressed through the activation of a newly constructed prison at Aliceville, Alabama, which will add more than 1,750 beds.

What policies should the Administration be moving toward? Here's Ethan Nadelman's latest at Alternet, The Disastrous War on Drugs Turns 40: 5 Ways to Stop the Madness.