THE (DRUG) MONEY TRAIL

A Sept. 22 editorial called on the government to do more in the way of
tracking the assets of terrorists, but it missed a key point: drug money.

The editorial mentioned how the Clinton administration successfully went
after the Cali drug cartel's assets in the 1990s. But these days terrorism
and drug trafficking around the world are linked. The attorney general has
missed the same point when he has declared that the drug laws are better
than the terrorism laws. Actually, he can use the drug laws to prosecute
and track the terrorists.

Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of the opium poppy, the crop
refined into heroin. Its poppy cultivation area has quadrupled since 1990.
Despite recent claims of reductions, the Taliban government has nurtured
the development of an infrastructure for the production of heroin "in
contrast to several years ago when nearly all heroin refining took place
outside the country," according to the State Department.

We could stop a huge portion of the funding for terrorism if we went after
the money of the drug traffickers. Osama bin Laden and his network have
cells in dozens of countries. Drug money laundering worldwide is estimated
at $200 billion to $400 billion.

The attorney general, the secretary of state and the new drug czar should
devote resources to find and block the funding base of the drug traffickers
in key terrorist states such as Afghanistan and Colombia. In so doing they
will be strengthening our national security.

ROBERT S. WEINER, Accokeek