DRUG CRACKDOWN COULD CRIPPLE TERRORISTS, SENATORS SUGGEST

Panel Urges Interception Of Afghan Opium To Plug Money Funnel

WASHINGTON - The United States must do more to crack down on illegal drugs
if it hopes to eradicate terrorism, members of a Senate subcommittee said
Wednesday, pointing to financial ties between drug traffickers and terrorists.

Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network benefited from Taliban control of
Afghanistan's opium poppy crop, which supplies 70 percent of the world
heroin, said Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.

Likewise in Colombia, guerrilla groups are being funded in large part by
"protection" fees they impose on drug traffickers, they said.

"It has become increasingly clear that money spent to buy drugs on the
streets of America may eventually end up funding a terrorist attack on our
country," Ms. Feinstein said at a hearing of the Senate judiciary terrorism
subcommittee, which she chairs.

The Bush administration is trying to drive that point home with a $10
million ad campaign, launched during the Super Bowl and continuing into
April, that tells U.S. drug users that they are aiding terrorists.

While U.S. and foreign law enforcement services have focused largely on
intercepting money transfers and freezing assets, less attention has been
paid to the financial rewards terrorist groups reap from drug trafficking,
said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

"We've heard of Yemeni honey producers and Saudi charities being sources of
funds for terrorists, but the real money is in narcotics," Mr. Hatch said.

Twelve of the 25 groups designated as terrorist organizations by the State
Department have ties to drug traffickers, officials say.

"Drug traffickers benefit from the terrorists' military skills, weapons
supply and access to clandestine organizations," the State Department's
ambassador at large for counterterrorism, Francis X. Taylor, told the
Senate subcommittee. "Terrorists gain a source of revenue and expertise in
illicit transfer and laundering of proceeds from illicit transactions."

The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Asa Hutchinson, urged
Congress to free up $18 million to permit the agency to resume drug
interdiction efforts in Afghanistan.

"We have to understand that by reducing demand for drugs, we will also
reduce the financial structure that supports terrorist groups," Mr.
Hutchinson said. "There is multisource information that Osama bin Laden
himself has been involved in the financing and facilitation of heroin
trafficking activities."

With the Afghan poppy crop just weeks from harvest, Ms. Feinstein urged
U.S. officials to intercept the opium before it is converted to heroin - a
drug that garners $35 billion each year on the global market. Afghan
farmers receive just $200 million of that amount, she noted.

"It seems to me that we have an opportunity today to really change the farm
processes in Afghanistan," she said. "If we can't do it today, when our
people are there, we are never going to be able to do it."

Mr. Hutchinson and the State Department's assistant secretary for
international narcotics suggested there might be significant impediments
that keep the United States from destroying the crop.

"We will do as much as we can, but there may be some real practical
limits," said Rand Beers, who heads the Bureau for International Narcotics
and Law Enforcement Affairs.

Four of the five Afghan provinces where the opium production is centered
are lawless places where the United States and its allies have no control,
Mr. Beers said.

Echoed Mr. Hutchinson, "It is very difficult to be able to get everything
done in time to intercede with the next crop."