U.S. DRUG WAR PAYS AFGHANS WHO AID TERRORISTS WHO ATTACK U.S.

Shortly after Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a call to duty to
America's federal law enforcement to assist in guarding the nation's
commercial airlines, local investigators and agents wondered aloud whether
they would get the nod.

One joked Tuesday about the possibility of frequent flier miles. Another
wondered which agency would be used first. Would it be the U.S. Marshals
Service, which provided the original sky marshals three decades ago in
response to a rash of hijackings?

Or would U.S. Customs agents be asked to step forward? They had taken over
the sky security program before it was handed to the Federal Aviation
Administration and eventually mothballed.

One federal veteran said he thought Drug Enforcement Administration agents
would be quickly called in. Another thought IRS agents might be used.
Although a local Marshals Service official confirmed that 300 deputies had
been assigned nationwide to assist the FBI in investigating nearly 50,000
tips that have surfaced since last week's terrorist attacks, as of Tuesday
only one Southern Nevada deputy had been chosen.

While agents and deputies expressed uncertainty, a thick smoke began to
cloud the air.

It was not the acrid stench of death in the wake of last Tuesday's
nightmarish deadly terrorist attack on the World Trace Center and Pentagon.
It was the foul smoke of irony that accompanies Ashcroft's request to pass
new anti-terrorism measures by the end of this week and assigning hundreds
of federal agents to act as undercover sky cops.

If you're following developments in the terrorist attack story, you're
probably learning to hate irony. The more you know about Afghanistan's
ruling Taliban militia, the more you're bound to be disgusted by the irony
of the U.S. government's role in supporting it.

The United States doesn't officially recognize the Taliban as a government.
Only three Islamic nations do that.

But who needs official status when this country in May was happy to cut a
check for $43 million as a reward for the Taliban crushing opium poppy
production by desperate Afghan farmers?

America's drug war marches on against all logic and even into the waiting
arms of despots.

Make that despots with our money.

Afghanistan produced a majority of the world's opium. Secretary of State
Colin Powell called the poppy eradication "a decision by the Taliban that
we welcome."

But that $43 million didn't trickle down far.

In May, The Associated Press reported that human rights conditions in
Afghanistan had grown worse since the eradication. One farmer called the
move another example of the Afghan people being crushed under the foot of
the world's political giants. He meant, of course, the United States.

"We accept the poppy ban because we know heroin is bad for humanity,"
Mohammed Rachmani told the AP's Steven Gutkin. "But the government and the
world don't care if we live or die."

While drought, poor irrigation and even a shortage of seeds ruined the
efforts of farmers attempting to grow "alternative crops," the Taliban
continued its totalitarian squeeze on Afghanistan's beleaguered citizens.

In May, the Western press learned that the Taliban was outdoing itself by
forcing religious minorities such as Hindus to wear patches on their
clothes in a move reminiscent of the way Nazis labeled Jews and other
undesirables under Hitler.

The Taliban gained further notoriety for arresting Christians whose crime
was proselytizing.

This is the same Taliban that the Bush administration rewarded with $43
million at a time it knew of shocking human rights violations.

This is the same Taliban that vows a "holy war" should the United States
launch a retaliatory strike against Afghanistan, the home-away-from-home
for Saudi exile Osama bin Laden -- the man thought responsible for
masterminding the latest terrorist attacks.

On Tuesday, I spoke with a U.S. Customs official in Washington who said
plans to staff the sky marshals remain in flux.

But they're coming.

In part, to guard against a deadly and elusive monster our country helped
to create.