HUTCHINSON HELPING TRACK TERRORISTS

The federal anti-drug agency headed by Arkansan Asa Hutchinson has been
given an assignment in the investigation of this week's terrorist bombings.

Hutchinson said Thursday the Drug Enforcement Administration is helping to
track down associates of the 18 terrorists who hijacked airplanes and
crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Tuesday.

"I have been working with the Justice Department and supplementing their
investigation," said Hutchinson, a former Arkansas congressman who moved to
the DEA last month.

"The DEA has an airwing and our airwing has been making special trips,
flying emergency workers, removing key personnel to safe locations and
transporting blood," Hutchinson said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the lead government agency, has tapped
the investigative capabilities of the DEA. The 9,000-member agency operates
surveillance equipment and employs hundreds of agents and contacts around
the world.

The two agencies are in contact on the hour, Hutchinson said.

"We have sophisticated intelligence analysis equipment that we are
utilizing," Hutchinson said. "We are responding to leads when the FBI needs
assistance."

Hutchinson's office in an Arlington, Va., highrise faces the Pentagon, a
view he once bragged about to friends. Now it's a constant reminder of
terrorism.

"I see a big hole," Hutchinson said. "It is an eerie reminder of the entire
catastrophe. Whenever you see it, it's one thing. Whenever you watch it,
it's one thing. But when you can smell it and it burns your eyes, it's much
more personal."

Hutchinson was not in Washington when a hijacked American Airlines Boeing
757 plane flew past his office building and into the Pentagon. At the time
of the attacks, Hutchinson was headed to the airport in Albuquerque, N.M.,
the morning after debating the governor of New Mexico on drug use policy.

Like thousands of other Americans, Hutchinson was stranded when the
government grounded all flights within the United States. Unlike others,
Hutchinson only had to wait three hours for a military cargo plane to
transport him back to Washington.

But he could not go back to his office.

The smoke billowing from the Pentagon and the ground shocks from the impact
of the plane forced DEA officials to evacuate their buildings. Their
command center was moved to rural Virginia.

"It's amazing one minute I'm debating someone on drug policy and the next
we're in the middle of an investigation," Hutchinson said.