OUR JUNKIES FINANCE TERRORISM

Osama bin Laden likes to be seen as a man of God. He's more like a
Godfather - producing and shipping billions of dollars worth of heroin to
the West, laundering smugglers' money and taking his cut. Then, of course,
there's mass murder.

Bin Laden's drug profits pay for weapons, training and terror operations.
In addition, they help finance the Taliban wackos, who get even more money
by taxing the growing of opium poppies and the manufacture of heroin.

This suggests that one of our best weapons against terrorism might be drug
treatment clinics.

Afghanistan has long been a major producer of heroin. The recent re-running
on PBS of Traffik (an infinitelybetter and more complex film than the
flashy Hollywood copycat) showed how, several years ago, Pakistani peasants
and drug lords were working with their counterparts in Afghanistan to
smuggle drugs into Europe.

The drug trade got a big hand from the CIA when the United States hopped
into bed with the Islamic fanatics who eventually drove the Soviets out of
Afghanistan.

According to a University of Wisconsin professor quoted by the Washington
correspondent of The (Raleigh) News & Observer, the Mujahedeen financed
their war with opium sales, and the CIA looked the other way. The professor
said a billion American dollars was given to one guerrilla leader who was a
leading drug trafficker.

In other words, as we fought the Cold War, we surrendered in the "war on
drugs" and helped strengthen a formidable enemy that now has turned his
murderous hatred on us.

Something to remember as we consider our associates and our tactics in the
"war on terrorism."