Pubdate: Tue, 11 Dec 2001
Source: Union Leader (NH)
Copyright: 2001 The Union Leader Corp.
Contact:  http://www.theunionleader.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/761
Author: Robert D. Novak
Note: Robert D. Novak is a Washington political columnist and a commentator 
on CNN.

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.
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