U.S. OFFICIAL: TALIBAN IN OPIUM TRADE

WASHINGTON (AP) - Though Afghanistan's Taliban rulers remain deeply
involved in the opium trade, there is little evidence that drugs are
a major source of funding for Osama bin Laden's terrorist network,
top drug officials told lawmakers Wednesday.

But the officials said the al-Qaida network, based in Afghanistan,
benefits indirectly from the Taliban's involvement in trafficking and
they are concerned that it could develop closer links with
traffickers as it comes under pressure from the United States
following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

``Whenever you have a terrorist organization that has to have sources
of money and they are geographically alongside drug organizations
that produce money, then there's obviously the potential for a
stronger connection between the two,'' Asa Hutchinson, head of the
Drug Enforcement Administration, told the House Government Reform
subcommittee on criminal justice, drug policy and human resources.

U.S. officials say that opium trafficking has been a major source of
financing for the Taliban, the hardline Islamic militia that governs
most of the country. Hutchinson and William Bach, a State Department
counter-narcotics official, said the Taliban tax traffickers,
sometimes accepting opium instead of cash.

In anticipation of U.S. military reprisals for the terrorist attacks,
the Taliban appears to be dumping its stockpiles. Opium prices in the
region dropped suddenly from $746 a kilogram to $95 immediately after
the attacks. It has since bounced back to $429.

In the late 1990s, Afghanistan was the world's leading producer of
opium, the raw material for heroin. At its peak, it supplied more
than 70 percent of the world market.

Last year, the Taliban ordered a halt to opium cultivation, citing
religious principles. International observers confirmed production
had been almost wiped out in Taliban-held areas, with the little
remaining opium being cultivated on land held by the opposition
northern alliance.

But U.S. officials say the ban has had little effect on trafficking
because the Taliban hasn't eliminated massive opium stockpiles from
previous years or stop traffickers.

Subcommittee chairman Mark Souder, R-Ind., called the ban ``a coldly
calculated ploy to control the world market price for their opium and
heroin.''

U.S. officials have estimated that opium could provide the Taliban
with up to $50 million a year. Hutchinson and Bach said al-Qaida
benefits indirectly because it has been protected by the Taliban.

But Bach said that drug trafficking ``just doesn't seem to be the
major resource for al-Qaida.''

Souder noted that U.S. officials have paid little attention to the
Afghan opium trade because little of it entered the United States.

``We now must confront the new reality that the Afghan drug trade,
largely without crossing our borders, has harmed our country just as
much as the drugs from half a world away that reached American
streets,'' he said.