ARE YOU SMOKIN' WITH BIN LADEN?

If you buy drugs, you are a terrorist.

Unless you have been living in a cave for the past year, you have probably
seen the aggressive advertising campaign that capitalizes on a loose
definition of terrorism to convince you that you are killing people.

This is nothing new, as those who grew up in the 1980s can attest to.
Everyone should remember the "this is your brain on drugs" campaign, and
the girl diving into an empty swimming pool. But the latest barrage of
rhetoric focuses on the consequences for others, rather than the user.

There's nothing wrong with that. We're not here to tell you that drugs
don't harm you or others indirectly. But for once can they just be honest
with us?

Who are they, you ask. Well, they're your good friends at antidrug.com
funded by ... well it's not clear. Attempts by the Kaimin failed to elicit
a response from them as to how they are funded.

Terrorists, as most people would define them, are people like those in
al-Qaida, Hamas, Huzbullah and the like. Drug dealers are criminals and
murderers, but when did they become terrorists? If you include drug dealers
in your definition of terrorism, then you better include anyone who commits
murder.

It appears to be charity organizations that are the chief source of funding
for actual terrorists. See "The iceberg under the charity" in the Economist
for March 15. It's not a typo, it's the truth.

A Yemeni cleric in Brooklyn was recently charged with taking collections at
his mosque and passing it on to al-Qaida. Last month, the head of the
Benevolence International Foundation, based in Chicago, pleaded guilty to
secretly sending money to Chechen rebels and Bosnian Muslims to fight Serbs.

Two of the largest Islamic charities in the United States, the Global
Relief Foundation and the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development,
had their assets frozen by the U.S. government, according to the article.
Saudis now think an Islamic charity there gave $2.7 million, which somehow
found its way into the hands of al-Qaida.

Here's another shocker for you: if you buy diamonds, you fund terrorism.
Don't believe us? Try reading "Diamonds, the real story," National
Geographic, March 2002.

Check out the photos of children in Sierra Leone with severed limbs, the
handiwork of the Revolutionary United Front. The RUF is a rebel terrorist
group seeking to control the country's diamond fields.

The RUF terrorists hack off arms and legs to scare the locals into
submission. Why? Because diamonds are a $50 billion a year business, and
the RUF wants a piece of the pie. Americans buy 48 percent of all the
diamonds mined each year. The article also raises concerns about Osama bin
Laden laundering money with diamonds in Liberia.

So who is funding terrorism? Is it the pothead down the street? In some
people's twisted sense of reality, yes. Who are funding the REAL
terrorists? It could be you. Do some research and find out where your
dollars are going.

- --Bryan O'Connor