American Morning With Paula Zahn

THE BIG QUESTION: IS THERE A LINK BETWEEN DRUG USE AND TERRORISM?

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The big question, of course, at this hour, is there
a link between drug use and terrorism?

The White House is sending a powerful message linking illegal drugs and
global terrorism. The message was delivered, in fact, during last night's
Super Bowl. The administration spent nearly $3.5 million on two 30 second
commercials focusing on how drugs support terror.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM COMMERCIAL) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anything else, sir?

(END VIDEO CLIP FROM COMMERCIAL) ZAHN: And joining us now from Washington,
John Walters, director of the White House office of National Drug Control
Policy.

Good to have you with us on this Monday morning. Welcome, sir.

JOHN WALTERS, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY: Good morning.

ZAHN: How are you going to be able to gauge how effective these ads are?

WALTERS: Well, our goal is to both create awareness about the very real
link between drug use in this country and the funding of terror around the
world. We'll measure some of that awareness in subsequent surveys. But the
ultimate goal here is to reduce drug use. And that's something that we will
see over the course of the coming months.

ZAHN: Let's talk a little bit about that challenge, because there was a
survey done recently by a Partnership for Drug-Free America where they
analyzed the attitudes of parents and children. And in this latest survey
they found that just over half of all parents, 53 percent, and less than
half of teens between the ages of 12 and 17, 46 percent, believe that
international terrorism is in part financed by the illegal drug trade.

What do you have to do to change those numbers?

WALTERS: Well, I think it's, this is basically an education effort. The ads
at the Super Bowl begin that process by talking about the very real link.
As you saw, there's a Web site associated with this campaign that has much
greater detail about all the individual statements in the ads, but also
greater detail on the issue overall.

In addition, we're doing print ads and there are lesson plans going to over
eight million children in classrooms during this week with detail about
this link. We're, our goal is to give people the information to make
informed choices. We think they will change their behavior when they get
that information.

ZAHN: You talked about some of the other directives you'll use to try to
convince the public of this message. It is interesting to note in that same
survey it also showed that if the parents and children knew that terrorism
was directly related and supported by drug use, 62 percent of teens said
they would be less likely to use illegal drugs.

WALTERS: Yes. That's why we chose this venue. This, we know from the
testing that was done, we did five cities, over 200 individuals of various
ages were used. We know this message is extremely powerful. And it's
information people want. It's something they can do to combat terrorism in
talking to young people and in their own behavior. So we know these ads
will work and that this message will have a great effect on people's
thinking about drug use and if they're thinking about talking to young
people more directly and forcefully about drug use. So we think this will
change behavior in the coming months.

ZAHN: Mr. Walters, right now we'd like to review the second of those ads
that ran in the Super Bowl last night.

WALTERS: Sure.

ZAHN: Let's all watch and listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM COMMERCIAL)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I helped murder families in Colombia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just innocent fun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I helped kidnap people's dads.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, some harmless fun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I helped kids learn how to kill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was just having some fun, you know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I helped kill policemen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just having fun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I helped the bomber get a fake passport.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Other kids do it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I helped kill a judge.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I helped blow up buildings.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My life, my body.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not like I was hurting anybody else.

(END VIDEO CLIP FROM COMMERCIAL)

ZAHN: So does making this linkage between drug use and terrorism want, do
you want the audience to believe this is one war, that the one war has
morphed into the other?

WALTERS: Well, I think it's partly one war. As the president said, if you
quit drugs you join the fight against terror in America. We are funding
part of the terrorist networks and part of the generalized terror
associated with the drug trade and other activities around the world
through sales of drugs in the United States. We know this. Over half or
roughly half of the 28 identified terrorist organizations have also been
linked to drug trafficking.

So our goal is just to make that information more salient with the ads and
the associated educational materials.

ZAHN: Was there any controversy at all associated with making these ads and
getting them on the air, especially during the Super Bowl?

WALTERS: Not with putting the ads on the air. When people saw the power.
And obviously we're committed to the effort of both reducing drug use and
reducing terror. It's an unprecedented effort, though. Almost every major
agency of the federal government was involved in preparing the information.
We wanted to get the facts right and we spent a lot of time making sure we
could support all the statements. We used groups outside as well, outside
the government as well to help us vet the material and to make sure we had
a message that was honest, fair and powerful.

ZAHN: Well, Mr. Walters, we appreciate your coming on this morning and we'd
love to have you back when you can better gauge the effectiveness of these
ads. WALTERS: I'd be happy to join you.

ZAHN: Of course, the director of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy, John Walters.

Thank you again for your time.

WALTERS: Thanks.

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