NARCO-TERRORISM:
IS IT A REAL OR FABRICATED THREAT TO OUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN'S CHILDREN?

GROUND ZERO PLUS 1101 DAYS,--New York, NY, Thursday, September 16, 2004--Narco-Terrorism. Is it a real or fabricated threat to the future security and safety of our nation and our Children's Children's Children.

"Target America: Drug Traffickers, Terrorists and You" opened September 13, 2004 in Times Square

That's the question posed by the recent opening of the Drug Enforcement Agency's museum in Times Square a free exhibit that explains how illegal drug users are not the only victims of drugs.

The exhibit called "Target America: Drug Traffikers, Terrorists And You" directly links funding of Terrorists to drug production and sales, inciting critics to accuse the DEA of "riding the wave of Terrorism" in an attempt to justify its War On Drugs. The exhibit opened September 10, 2002 traces the historic and contemporary connections between global drug trafficking and terrorism.

Target America has spent the past two years traveling the nation in Virginia, Texas and Nebraska and stops are planned for Chicago, Atlanta and Boston. Target America will stay in MidTown until February 1, 2005.

Target America will remain in MidTown until February 1, 2005

Supporters of the exhibit that travels throughout the United States to enhance awareness of the ongoing battle between drugs and the safety of society, claim there is a direct link between drug manufacturing and sales, and the flow of money to Terrorist organizations.

The question comes down to: "Who pays for the bullets, bombs, food, training, hiding, planning and execution of a Terrorist?"

Anyone who studies what happened on September 11, 2001 realizes that a massive mountain of money was necessary to plot, plan, fund and execute the assault against Americans. Originally, ten planes were slated to attack that day. Over time, only four actually struck American soil.

Simultaneously, thousands of Terrorists were being trained around the world in various cells--all funded by some source or sources.

Was the illegal manufacture of drugs and the money resulting from their sale any part of that? If so, does that justify the title Narco-Terrorism?

There are two forms of money. One is legitimate, above the board money that can be traced back to its origination point. Then, there is illegal money, created by the sale of illigimate products such as drugs that requires "laundering" so that it flows through the legitimate monetary system as though it was "clean."

What is narcoterrorism?

"According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), narcoterrorism refers to terrorist acts carried out by groups that are directly or indirectly involved in cultivating, manufacturing, transporting, or distributing illicit drugs. The term is generally applied to groups that use the drug trade to fund terrorism. However, it has also sometimes been used to refer to the phenomenon of increasingly close ties between powerful drug lords motivated by simple criminal profit and terrorist groups with political agendas, particularly in Colombia." (from Terrorism: Q& A- Council on Foreign Relations)

How did the millions of dollars necessary for funding Terrorists appear and flow? One of the major sources of money besides oil in the Middle East is the growing and manufacturing of drugs. Is there a relationship?

It is virtually impossible for anyone with any sanity to deny that drug money funds Terrorism in some degree, whether it is huge or small. The ultimate degree doesn't matter when a bullet or bomb strikes a loved one, for even if a tenth of a bullet or a tenth of piece of dynamite was purchased with drug money, it still remains Narco-Terrorism.

And, the odds that "legitimate money" is used to fund Terrorism is ludicrous. Most "legitimate money" flows through the monetary system, while drug money goes to fund Acts of Terrorism--whether they be criminal or Terroristic in nature.

According to DEA Administrator Karen Tandy, “Bringing ‘Target America’ to Times Square will let millions of visitors see, first hand, how US illegal drug sales not only help support terrorism, but also how drugs terrorize all of us.”

But the real issue comes down to what is Narco-Terrorism?

Shelve the idea of a Terrorist in the Middle East arming himself or herself with bombs and bullets and plans to attack America or any other nation, and imagine the guy or gal skulking around your local neighborhood school with his or her pockets bulging with pills and joints and other drugs designed to Terrorize your child's mind and body.

The local drug dealer may not be strapped up with suicide bombs, but is there any difference between the damage he is doing to the children of a society from a Middle Eastern Terrorist walking into the school room and pulling a detonation cord and blowing up everyone in sight?

Badges given out to children visiting the museum with their parents

America's jails and prisons are bursting with citizens who have become slaves to the Beast of Drug Terror. Are they victims of Narco-Terrorism?

There can be little doubt that Terrorism is much more than the attack on the United States on September 11, 2001. But there can be no doubt that the events of Nine Eleven has opened our eyes to the bigger role of Terrorism in our daily lives.

Narco-Terrorism is only one division of that Terrorism. Target America expanded in the Summer of 2004 and presents not only narco-terrorism issues, but also a look at other costs to society – "costs to children, costs to the environment, costs to the body, and ends with an important look at how each visitor can work to break the cycle of drug abuse and drug-related violence."

Child abuse is also a form of Terrorism. So are the efforts of a major corporation to steal and pillage the funds of its investors, a crime called Corporate Terrorism.

Any assault on a person or society with a primary goal of injecting Fear, Intimidation and Complacency is an act of Terrorism.

One of the major acts is, of course, the injection of drugs into our society. But even more frightening is that the funds we spend for those drugs flows back to people with guns and bullets who have vowed to kill us.

Critics of the DEA museum need to ask themselves, "What if only One Percent of the funds the Terrorists receive came from drug sales? Would that be justification for the DEA to use the word Narco-Terrorism?"

Before answering that question, one other question needs to be asked. "If a Terrorist came into an American school, huddled a hundred kids into a gym as they did in Russia, set mines around the kids to blow them all up, and only One Percent of the funds that Terrorist received to fund his/or her career came from drug sales, would that One Percent be enough to cause the parents and loved ones of the dead children to want the DEA and other organizations to eliminate the source of funds that caused the death of their children?"

Critics of Narco-Terrorism see Terrorism through blinders. They make the fatal mistake of limiting Terrorism to some far-distant definition that denies any act or effort to make Terrorism an inclusive rather than exclusive definition.

I believe any act that threatens the future security of our children is an act of Terrorism

I personally believe any act that threatens the future security of our children is an act of Terrorism. That includes not only funding bombs and bullets with drug money, but also the Terrorism of someone denying that any and all efforts to fight the drug war that assaults our children is invalid.

Narco-Terrorism existed long before Nine Eleven.

Anyone who tries to refute that point need only go to an institution where a child writhes and slavers because some drug dealer fed him or her drugs that burned the child's brain.

That's Narco-Terrorism.

And it's not just the result of Nine Eleven, it's only heightened by it.