PI ON NEW ONDCP USERS HELP TERRORISTS ADS

Transcript for Monday, February 04, 2001 - related section only.

Bill: So we were talking about the way the administration now -- which I
think is awfully cynical -- they are piggy-backing the war on drugs on this
war on terror.

This is from their website, and there were two ads on the Super Bowl about
this yesterday.

And basically what they're saying is, if you do drugs of any kind, you're a
killer.

There was a big ad in the paper today -- "Last weekend, I washed my car,
hung out with a few friends and helped murder a family in Colombia."

Arianna: It is outrageous.

Bill: It is outrageous.

Arianna: It is completely outrageous.

And you know what's outrageous -- and I hope conservative republicans are
going to attack it.

They're spending taxpayers' money on this junk.

Bill: Oh, yes.

Arianna: Actually, the Super Bowl ads alone cost $3.5 million, the largest
ad buy by the federal government in the Super Bowl.

The entire ad budget is $180 million.
Now we know -- what that's worth in the so-called "drug war" is treatment.

They would have treated 40,000 high school kids if they were concerned
about them.

D.L.: Treatment doesn't make the news.

Bill: Right.

D.L.: What does make the news is rhetoric -- ill-defined rhetoric like
that. I think that, you know, there is a -- that is the problem I have
with this war on terrorism, 'cause it leaks out into a political
agenda that the Republicans have always tried to manufacture, which is
rhetoric like this.

Samer: Part of the problem, part of the offensiveness, is not just they're
insulting our intelligence and they're insulting the intelligence of any
drug user. It's a completely unrealistic portrayal of drug users. And why
are we always focusing on the drug addicts? Why can't we ever treat them?
Why don't we focus on the drug dealers? I thought our borders were safe now
by land, air and sea.
How are these drugs coming in?

Bill: Well, first of all, they do concentrate on the dealers, but it's a
dumb plan because you'll never stop dealers, okay? When people want drugs,
they get drugs.

Samer: Sure. So long as there is a demand, there will be a supply.

Jack: You have to have it all. You have to have interdiction, you have to
deal, you know, work on the dealers. You have to have jail.
You have to have treatment. But let me give you a statistic. There's 28
international identified terrorist organizations in the world that we are
tracking that, you know, are mean and evil and so forth. 14 of 'em actually
do get revenue from drug-related deals.

D.L.: But heroin.

Jack: One in Colombia gets -- heroin --

I mean, I agree, this is not the marijuana for the casual user.

This is the opium, the cocaine. One group in Colombia gets $300 million a
year. It's a terrorist group, and they get --

Bill: But wait a second. Would the Colombians -- are they the ones who are
attacking us -- the Colombians?

D.L.: Right.

Bill: I don't remember Colombians flying planes into the buildings.

The people who fly the planes into the buildings get their money from oil.

That's the addiction, not drugs.

[ Applause ]

Jack: But you know what? Not true.

Bill: Not true?

Jack: Not true.

In Afghanistan, lots of opium was manufactured over there --
or came through there, excuse me -- was grown there.

But remember, September 10th, nobody had heard of al-Qaeda. And so --

[ Talking over each other ]

D.L.: If you're smoking marijuana, you ain't flyin' a plane.

Arianna: Hold on a second.

Why -- if you are saying that it's drugs, as well as oil, as well as diamonds.

It's been proven that Osama bin Laden has partly financed these operations
through diamonds.

Why weren't there ads in the Super Bowl asking Americans to stop buying
diamonds?

[ Light laughter ]

It's outrageous --

D.L.: It's funny, I was --

Arianna: Why is it just one?

Jack: Arianna, outside of Los Angeles, a lot of us aren't buying diamonds
anyhow.

[ Laughter ]

D.L.: I was in Amsterdam.

Arianna: There are plenty of wives of members of Congress sporting big
diamonds.

Jack: But let me say this -- in surveys for kids 12 to 17 years old, 59%
said that they would quit using drugs if they knew that it was financing
terrorism. That's why they're doing this.

D.L.: They would quit doing a lot of things if you told them the
bogeyman was under their bed, too.

[ Laughter ]

Samer: Exactly.

D.L.: I was in Amsterdam. I was in -- and that's the thing. This
administration, like many other previous Republican administrations,
are always trying to scare people with this type of stuff. I was in
Amsterdam. They have what they call soft drugs are legal. And they
have a lower addiction rate and a lower crime rate associated with
that. Where do we --

Jack: They do not have a lower addiction rate.

D.L.: Let me finish my point. We drug test bus drivers and people like
that who have lives in their hands. Why are we drug testing the
janitor? What is he gonna do, drop the mop?

Bill: But wait a second, let's get back --

[ Laughter ]

D.L.: What is he gonna do?

Bill: But wait. We're getting off the point. Wait, wait.

[ Applause ]

Wait, we're getting off the point. I don't wanna talk -- we do this
many nights. We talk about drugs and many -- I wanna talk about the
specific issue of linking the drug war with the war on terror and how
criminal that really is.

Jack: Well, as long as you got terrorist groups that you know are getting --

Bill: But what --

[ Talking over each other ]

Bill: Wait. Whoa, whoa. Let's not lump all these things together as if.
They are getting equal amount of funding from drugs and diamonds. It's oil.

Samer: Oil.

Bill: That is the people.

Jack: Diamonds and oil are still legal. Drugs aren't.

[ Talking over each other ]

Jack: The point of the commercials, unlike the ad there where, you know,
"Today I did my homework, went to work, and then I tortured a family in
Columbia 'cause I drove my suburban --

" you know, that's not quite the same thing. The point is --

Arianna: It is funded by the same people.

It is funded by the same people -

Jack: Well, then quit driving and use a bicycle if you feel better about
yourself.

But the point is to just simply think twice before you say, "I'm doing
drugs, and I'm not hurtin' anybody but me."

D.L.: Clearly the issue is that they're using the fear of 9/11

Arianna: Exactly.

D.L.: -- to promote a political agenda that they wouldn't have had -
like using the term "let's roll" to promote a political agenda is -

Arianna: You know why it's worse than that? Because we are demonizing a
section of our population.

Bill: Right.

Arianna: It's like the movie "Traffic."

[ Talking over each other ]

Arianna: No, we are not talking about terrorists.

You know what? I don't know if you saw the movie "Traffic." But in
"Traffic," the drug czar gives this very emotional speech when he resigns,
when he says, "You can not wage war on your own family." Right now the
administration, with these ads, is waging war on our teenage kids that need
help and treatment.

[ Applause ]

They don't need to be demonized.

Jack: I have teenage kids, and none of them came in and said, "Dad, I just
can't watch the Super Bowl any more.
There's a war being declared on me."
[ Talking over each other ]

D.L.: There's a clear issue -- I'm not here to kind of be the
spokesperson for drugs. I got cousins that'll do that for me.

[ Laughter ]

What I'm saying is that this is the same type of rhetoric where they
take a righteous and good fight and lump it to something else. And
even you, in all your infinite wisdom, know that that's wrong.
Inherently, that is wrong to connect two things that are diametrically
opposed together.

Bill: They're not the same thing.

Jack: As long as there are terrorist organizations in the world that may be
a threat to the United States of America, and they get a portion of their
revenue from drugs, we should know about it, so that --

[ Talking over each other ]

D.L.: Saudi Arabia funded and caused a lot of terrorism, and we're
their best friends.

Samer: Exactly.
Why are we supporting Saudi Arabia? Why are we buying their oil?

Jack: There is one organization that gets $300 million a year to finance
terrorism, and they get it directly from the drug trade.

D.L.: They don't pull Colombians off of the plane.

[ Talking over each other ]

Bill: Osama bin Laden did not get rich from the drug trade.
Osama bin Laden got rich from oil and construction.

Jack: Well, I don't know that.

Arianna: Oh, come on, you don't know that!

Bill: You don't know that?!
[ Talking over each other ]

D.L.: You should listen to your President and his Vice President,
because that's what they told me!

Jack: First of all, I think they had an inside deal on the construction of
the palaces over in Saudi Arabia.

Bill: They did.
But where did the money come --

D.L.: And even an embassy they've built -- an American
embassy.

Bill: But why is Saudi Arabia rich? Oil.

Arianna: Today, the administration announced that it is upping the military
support it gives to the government of Colombia.
So, once again, there is a political agenda behind everything.

Jack: So that's so they can fight it internally.

[ Talking over each other ]

D.L.: I got to visit the world you live in. I'm goin'. I'm bookin' a
ticket right now.

[ Laughter ]

Jack: Well, thank you, D.L.

Bill: I'm gonna take a break.
We'll be right back.