DRUG TERRORISM

Bin Laden's Weapon Of Slow Destruction

Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon, sells opium products both to fund his
global terrorism network and as a weapon of slow destruction. The United
States must target bin Laden's opium stockpiles and destroy Afghanistan's
new poppy crop or face a surge in the availability of cheap heroin that
could result in even more casualties.

Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, confirmed that bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorism network profits
from the opium trade by moving heroin to market. A byproduct of bin Laden's
trafficking is revenge on the world, Kerry said. Their objective is to "get
as many people drugged out and screwed up" as possible.

A recent U.N. report confirms that Afghan drug profits are used to buy
weapons and "finance the training of terrorists and support the operations
of extremists in neighboring countries and beyond." Bin Laden reportedly
has a worldwide army of 13,000 terrorists ready to move opium.

Bin Laden may push more and cheaper heroin at America with the expectation
that it will exacerbate our drug-related misery, crime, chaos and death.
Each year, Americans spend at least $66 billion on illegal drugs while
taxpayers spend more than $110 billion for health and workplace damages
from illegal drugs. In addition, 52,000 Americans die annually of
drug-related causes and at least a third of all arrestees test positive for
alcohol and/or drugs.

Recent reports that the Taliban regime has banned opium production are
misleading. "Despite the Taliban's public relations commitment," said Asa
Hutchinson, the Drug Enforcement Administration's administrator, "there has
not been any reduction of heroin trafficking or in the amount of heroin
coming out of Afghanistan."

Hutchinson explained, "Sixty percent of the country's crop of opium has
been stockpiled in recent years in an effort to drive up prices."
Apparently the Taliban's efforts to guarantee continuing profits from drug
sales have worked. The U.N. reports that over the past year, the cost of a
kilogram of opium rose from $30 to $500. The Taliban takes a "zakat," or
tithe, of 25 percent from each kilogram sold.

The Taliban has taken steps to increase its drug profits. The State
Department reports that Afghanistan's poppy cultivation has increased
significantly since the Taliban took control in 1996. In recent years,
Afghanistan has produced 75 percent of the global supply of opium and to
promote production the regime has distributed fertilizer to opium farmers.
That regime has also nurtured the development of infrastructure for the
production of heroin, rather than shipping opium abroad to be refined into
heroin. Most of the heroin produced finds its way to European markets.

In 2000, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar issued an edict declaring the
cultivation of narcotic crops "un-Islamic." Even if the ban is legitimate,
it is of little consequence. Pino Arlacchi, executive director of the U.N.
Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, said, "Criminal groups, who
are as powerful as the Taliban and as powerful as anyone in Afghanistan,
have full control of those (opium) stockpiles."

There might be as much as 3,000 tons of stockpiled opium gum in Afghanistan
today, enough to produce 300 tons of pure heroin.

Criminal groups like bin Laden's al Qaeda are at the center of
Afghanistan's drug business. Yoseff Bodansky, director of a congressional
task force on terrorism, believes that bin Laden takes a 15 percent cut of
the drug trade money in exchange for his services. "Bin Laden oversees the
export of drugs from Afghanistan," said Bodansky, and "his people are
involved in growing the crops, processing and shipping."

Last year, an estimated 2,200 pounds of Afghan heroin reached the United
States. That translates to $260 million in street value. Some of that money
certainly goes to support bin Laden's jihad against the United States.

Terrorist bin Laden can and will continue to use heroin as a weapon of slow
destruction to support his jihad. That's why our DEA and other drug
fighting agencies must become an integral part of the coordinated
multi-echelon war against terrorism. Drug fighting is now part of the
homeland defense from terrorism.

Meanwhile, uncertainty about the war on terrorism will compel Afghan
farmers to plant larger opium crops this month. Arlacchi explains that
opium is a good crop for bad times because it requires little water and can
be sold easily.

The war against terrorism must aggressively attack all aspects of the drug
trade. New poppy fields must be destroyed. Existing stockpiles must be
burned. Smuggling networks like bin Laden's must be dismantled.
Simultaneously, we must reduce demand at home. Failure to accomplish these
tasks will only facilitate those terrorists who are likely responsible for
murdering more than 6,000 innocent people on Sept. 11 and who promise to
take more innocent blood in their holy war against the West.