Pubdate: Tue, 26 Aug 2003
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Section: Page 1B
Copyright: 2003 The Dallas Morning News
Contact:  http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author: Michael E. Young, The Dallas Morning News

TERRORISM'S TERRIBLE COSTS

Traveling DEA Museum Exhibit Makes Case That American Addictions Fund 
Extremists

The battered artifacts measure the cost of terrorism - the children's toys 
and the clutter of busy offices, a twisted I-beam and a torn chunk of 
limestone. But it's the rest of "Target America: Traffickers, Terrorists 
and You" that details how American addictions help provide extremists with 
the tools of terrorism, pounding home the links between recreational drug 
use, drug trafficking and the radical groups that use drug profits to fund 
their campaigns against America and the West.

"Target America," an exhibit that opened at the Drug Enforcement 
Administration's Museum in Arlington, Va., on the first anniversary of the 
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, comes to Dallas two days before the 
second anniversary.

The exhibit's six-month stay at The Science Place in Fair Park is the first 
stop on a national tour.

"We'll do what we call a soft opening on Sept. 9," Science Place president 
Diana Hueter said, "and we'll do the official ribbon-cutting on Sept. 23 
with Rudolph Giuliani."

The former New York mayor, who has come to personify the struggle back from 
the Sept. 11 attacks, helped open the exhibit at the DEA Museum, director 
Sean Fearns said, and told organizers that he'd be glad to help as the 
exhibit moved around the country.

"So we took him up on that," Mr. Fearns said. The exhibit opens with Sept. 
11 artifacts pulled from the Pentagon and the World Trade Center - shoes, 
toys, office items, a bit of the Pentagon's facade. A hidden speaker 
provides the sounds of that day. Photos chronicle the crash of a hijacked 
jetliner into an empty Pennsylvania field, and the bravery and selflessness 
of the passengers on board.

"We worked closely with the New York Police Department and the Port 
Authority to go to Ground Zero and the Fresh Kills landfill for artifacts," 
Mr. Fearns said. "That's where the exhibit starts, with this reconstruction 
of elements from New York and the Pentagon and photos from Pennsylvania." 
DEA offices provided other exhibits, including a captured Taliban flag and 
Taliban tax receipts for heroin shipments from Afghanistan, with the 
contents labeled "white gold," Mr. Fearns said. At one point, he said, the 
Taliban controlled 71 percent of the world's heroin supply. From there, the 
exhibit looks back to the earliest records of drug trafficking along the 
fabled Silk Road between Europe and Asia, and the rise of assassins - from 
the word hashshashin, Muslim fighters who used hashish to create visions of 
heaven and carried out assassinations against political and military 
leaders, particularly during the Christian Crusades. Another part of the 
exhibit examines money laundering, how it works and where, and how some of 
that money is funneled to terrorists. Among the so-called narco-terrorists 
profiled are Pablo Escobar of Colombia; drug lord Khun Sa of Myanmar; 
Abimael Guzman, founder of the Shining Path in Peru; and Hezbollah leader 
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.

Photos displayed in a large metal globe show the impact of drugs and 
terrorism in various countries around the world. Two panels added for the 
Dallas show focus on issues close to home, such as the spate of heroin 
deaths in Plano in 1997, the Oklahoma City bombing and the recent 
proliferation of methamphetamine labs in the Dallas area. "The final 
section is called 'Getting Involved,' " Mr. Fearns said. "After visitors 
have had the chance to explore the different sections, this says here's how 
to get involved with family, workplace and community, to stay away from 
drugs and deny funding to terrorist groups." Ms. Hueter said The Science 
Place began working with the DEA to bring "Target America" to Dallas even 
before its official opening at the DEA Museum. "Last year, the American 
Association of Museums met in Dallas, and we heard that this exhibit was in 
the planning stages," she said. "We began working with the DEA with the 
potential of having Dallas be the first stop on the national tour.

"We're very excited that that's happened." Even more exciting is an $80,000 
gift from an anonymous donor earmarked to provide field trips for 
Dallas-area middle school students whose schools don't have the money to 
send them, Ms. Hueter said.

"It serves our mission so well," she said. "That's probably the best part."