DEA EXHIBIT PRESSES MESSAGE THAT ILLICIT DRUG SALES SUPPORT TERRORISM

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Attorney General John Ashcroft and former New York City
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani helped open a museum exhibit Tuesday intended to
show Americans that buying illegal drugs can support terrorist attacks.

The exhibit, titled "Target America," includes Sept. 11 rubble from the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It is housed at a museum in the Drug
Enforcement Administration's headquarters.

DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson said the exhibit aims to educate Americans
about the role drug money has in terrorism.

"Before terrorism hit home on Sept. 11, few Americans realized the
connection, and fewer still understood that drug money has been used to
fund terrorism," Hutchinson said.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said, "Terrorism and drugs go together like
rats and the plague. ... They thrive in the same conditions, and they feed
off of each other."

The exhibit, supported by $650,000 from the DEA budget plus private
financing from donors, will go on nationwide tour next year.

It includes photographs from Afghanistan that outline connections the
al-Qaida terror network and the Taliban militia, Afghanistan's former
rulers, have had to drug trafficking. An interactive map illustrates that
some reputed opium sellers and distributors support the Taliban.

The rubble from the World Trade Center sits as part of a replica of the
ruins left after the towers fell. Another section of the exhibit is devoted
to exploring the history of the "narcoterrorist," the Bush administration's
label for drug runners who support groups like al-Qaida.

Since Sept. 11, the war on drugs has taken a lower emphasis to the war on
terror. In June, FBI Director Robert Mueller told DEA agents that they
could expect less field support from FBI agents, who have been redeployed
to domestic security.

The museum exhibit brought criticism from some groups pressing for
legalization of drugs.

"This is a sad exploitation of the memories of the 3,000 people killed
Sept. 11," said Bruce Mirken, a spokesman at the Marijuana Policy Project.
"We felt it was important to tell the true story: It is the war on drugs
that funds terrorism by driving up drug profits and forcing the drug trade
underground."

Federal authorities have recently amassed what they say is hard evidence of
connections between drugs and terrorism, uncovering an illegal drug
operation in the United States that was funneling proceeds to Middle East
terror groups such as the Lebanon-based Hezbollah.

A series of DEA raids in January indicated a methamphetamine drug operation
in the Midwest involving men of Middle Eastern descent has been shipping
money back to terror groups, officials said.

DEA officials said the men, most of whom were indicted on drug charges
after their January arrests, were smuggling large quantities of the
chemical pseudoephedrine from Canada into the Midwest.

Giuliani said the links between drugs and terrorism are substantial.

"The link has been known to law enforcement for a long time, but we didn't
see it as Americans because we thought we were immune to terrorism,"
Giuliani said.

On The Net: Museum: http://www.deamuseum.org/

DEA: http://www.dea.gov/

Marijuana Policy Project: http://www.mpp.org/targetamerica