TERRORISM AND DRUG DISTRIBUTION, TWO TARGETS IN THE SAME WAR

AMERICA'S WAR on terrorism ought to be linked inextricably to the war on
drugs. It is not. That unfortunate failure, making it more difficult to
defeat either scourge, is reflected in two anomalies.

George W. Bush, omnipresent and eloquent in exhorting his fellow citizens
to combat terror, since Sept. 11 has mentioned narcotics hardly at all. Not
once in his daily rhetoric over those three months has the President used
the word "narco-terrorism."

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), widely considered to have the
best U.S. intelligence operations, has no seat at the inter-agency table in
fighting terrorism. It never did, and the attacks of Sept. 11 did not
change anything. These facts of life are the background to last Tuesday's
unprecedented narco-terrorism symposium convened by the DEA's aggressive
new administrator, former Rep. Asa Hutchinson, and held at the DEA
headquarters in Arlington, Va. Criticism was restrained and indirect, but
the consensus was clear that drug-fighting must be part of the anti-terror
strategy.

The DEA has always appreciated the nexus between terror and narcotics, but
not the State Department or CIA. Accordingly, the U.S. government for years
turned a blind eye to the fact that Colombia's FARC guerrillas from the
start have been financed by illegal narcotics. The Taliban, which supported
Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, has been financed by the opium trade to
Europe. While U.S. policymakers still talk at length about state-sponsored
terrorism, support now is more likely to come from the poppy seed than a
government sanctuary.

Raphael Perl, narco-terrorism expert for the Congressional Research
Service, told last week's symposium that "income from the drug trade has
become increasingly important to terrorist organizations." He added: "State
sponsors are increasingly difficult to find. What world leader in his right
mind will risk global sanctions by openly sponsoring al Qaeda or funding
it?" Steven Casteel, DEA chief of intelligence, agreed: "State-sponsored
terrorism is diminishing. These organizations are looking for funding, and
drugs bring one thing: quick return on their investment."

Narcotics provide more than a way to finance terrorism, in the DEA's view.
Al Qaeda expands ABC - atomic, biological and chemical - to ABCD, with
drugs added, according to Casteel. "Drugs are a weapon of mass destruction
that can be used against Western societies and help bring them down," he said.

On Sept. 7 this year, DEA agents seized 53 kilos of Afghan heroin
distributed by Colombians. "I would argue," said Casteel, "that we've been
under attack in this country for a long time, and it didn't start on Sept.
11." Considering DEA's experience, it would seem natural that its
representatives would immediately be put on the high command of the new war
against terrorism. They were not, and still have not.

Larry Johnson, a former CIA official who was a high-ranking State
Department counter-terrorism expert during the first Bush administration,
told the symposium: "I can say, hands down, that the best intelligence we
have on the ground overseas is DEA and yet, after all of the time that I've
been involved with counter-terrorism, not once have I seen a DEA body
sitting at the table, at the CSG (Counter- terrorism and Security Group)
meetings which go on at the White House, where you're talking about
combating terrorism." Nor are they there today.

No wonder the President never uses the word narco-terrorism. What is lost
by this silence is the leverage of the presidential bully pulpit to fight
drugs. Last week's DEA symposium was called "Target America: Traffickers,
Terrorists and Your Kids." The "kids" part was discussed by Stephen Pasierb
of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. He presented polling data
showing a rare conjunction between generations: a mutual inclination by
parents and children to believe that illegal drugs finance terrorism.

That opportunity can be exploited by the government's massive megaphone,
especially the presidential bully pulpit. "The understanding of this link
(between narcotics and terrorism) is essential," said Pasierb, "and that's
what our leaders can do. Leadership in this nation can help our people
understand." The wonder is that the blase attitude toward narcotics in high
places that marked the Clinton administration has not totally disappeared
under President Bush.