[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 21, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H62-H63]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           AL QAEDA DEALS HEROIN TO FUND TERRORISM OPERATIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KIRK. Mr. Speaker, I just returned from Pakistan's frontier where 
Osama bin Laden is likely hiding. We describe bin Laden as a terrorist. 
While that label applies, I think we can be more accurate. He has 
become a narco-terrorist.
  During my mission, I learned that bin Laden's source of donated funds 
has been reduced. In response, bin Laden has become one of Pakistan's 
top heroin dealers. Kandahar trafficker Haji Bashir Noorzai provides 
1,000 kilograms of heroin each month to bin Laden's organization. That 
provides al Qaeda with $24 million a year to fund his attacks against 
the West.
  If we are to catch bin Laden and to wrap up his organization, we must 
attack his new source of income, heroin.

[[Page H63]]

This triggers a change in the policy of the international coalition 
fighting al Qaeda. We should make this change. We should raise the 
rewards for catching bin Laden and attack his heroin organization.
  There are at least three major drug trafficking organizations now 
operating in Afghanistan, all with links to Pakistan: The Taliban, the 
HIG and bin Laden's al Qaeda. Last week, coalition forces made their 
first effort and hit a major drug lab in eastern Afghanistan that 
captured $100 million worth of heroin that could have supported terror 
against the West.
  Next week, I will be offering legislation to increase the rewards for 
the capture of terrorists but to also expand the rewards program to 
involve the rewards program in capturing narco-terrorists, and also to 
loosen up that rewards program so that we can provide valuable 
commodities which speak much more directly to the rural families in 
Pakistan and Afghanistan, providing, for example, motorcycles, farm 
implements or trucks for the capture of these well-known terrorists. 
The terrorists are changing their source of financing and the United 
States needs to change its strategy to dry up that financing.

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