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March 25, 2008: The bonanza of captured documents from two recently killed FARC leaders, confirmed the sharp decline in FARC strength. A decade ago, FARC had nearly 18,000 fighters under arms. Now, fewer than 9,000 gunmen are out there, and many are inclined to surrender to the government, or just run away. In the last year alone, FARC lost 4,000 people (38 percent were killed, the rest deserted or were captured). This is more than double the losses of 2006. Recruiting is more difficult, largely because FARC is no longer cool, or very safe. The FARC deserters come home and...

The Colombian navy has seized two homemade submarines believed to have been built by the Farc rebel group to smuggle cocaine out of the country. The two fibreglass vessels were found in a clandestine shipyard outside the country's largest port, Buenaventura. One of the 17m (56ft) submarines was ready for launch, while the other had nearly been completed, the navy said. Correspondents say drug-traffickers are increasingly relying on the sea to avoid checkpoints and border crossings. Since 2005, the Colombian armed forces have uncovered nine homemade submarines, including a 20m (66ft) vessel on the country's Caribbean coast in August. In...

QUITO, ECUADOR — The Ecuadorean government on Friday insisted on ending a cooperation agreement with the United States that allows the U.S. military to use a coastal air force base for anti-drug operations in the Andes. -snip- ...Galo Mora, a representative of Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, told participants at a solidarity forum with Cuba. The 10-year agreement, signed by the United States and Ecuador in 1999, allows Washington to deploy up to 475 military personnel in Manta in support of counternarcotics operations.

Maoist rebels in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand have been growing opium poppies to fund their operations in the region, officials say. The rebels have a presence in 18 of the 22 districts in Jharkhand. The Maoists say they are fighting for more rights for indigenous people in at least five states, including neighbouring Bihar, which has a reputation as India's most lawless state. What began as small scale poppy cultivation in the remote areas of Chatra and Katkamsandi in Hazaribagh district two years ago has now flourished into a booming activity spread over some 20,000 acres of land...

MEXICO CITY - The Mexican government will expand its anti-drug raids to two states across the border from Texas, deploying more than 3,000 soldiers, sailors and federal police, officials said Sunday. The raids will cover Nuevo Laredo, a town across the border from Laredo, Texas, that has been bloodied by turf wars between drug gangs in recent years. Officials also said that in the two months since intensive raids began in central and western Mexico, they have destroyed almost as many opium fields as plots of marijuana, long Mexico's principal drug crop. "We have begun a frontal struggle against organized...

Suspected rebels in Peru have killed seven men, including five policemen, in an ambush in the country's coca-growing interior. The police convoy was attacked during a crackdown on illegal coca-growing in the second major ambush in a year. The interior ministry has not blamed any group for the attack but remnants of the Shining Path guerrilla movement are known to operate in the region. More than 20 police have been killed in ambushes in the last year. The rebel group, which led one of Latin America's bloodiest insurgencies in the 1980s and 1990s, has claimed responsibility for similar attacks. The...

Troops have been dispatched to the central Andean valleys of Peru in recent weeks to counter renewed guerrilla activity by re-equipped leftist rebels of the Shining Path, according to high level government officials. ... Twenty-three members of the group have been arrested since Shining Path resumed operations at the beginning of the year with a road ambush that killed eight police officers. In a videotape released at the end of last month, a hooded leader using the pseudonym of Comandante Artemio said the group would resume large-scale attacks in three months. ...Comandante Artemio threatened to renew attacks unless the government...

Federal prosecutors in Miami were prepared to indict Raul Castro as the head of a major cocaine smuggling conspiracy in 1993, but the Clinton Administration Justice Department overruled them, current and former Justice Department officials tell ABC News. The officials say Castro, as Cuban Defense Minister, permitted Colombian drug lords to pay for the use of Cuban waters and airstrips as staging grounds for smuggling runs into the United States in the 1980s and early 1990s. "It was a major investigation involving numerous witnesses that was killed at the highest levels in Washington," said a former Justice Department official...

Right poised to buck the trend in ColombiaBy Jeremy McDermott in Bogota(Filed: 27/05/2006) Colombia is set to buck the Left-ward trend in Latin America tomorrow with Right-wing president Alvaro Uribe likely to secure a second term.Mr Uribe, 53, an Oxford-educated lawyer and yoga fanatic, changed the constitution to stand a second time and all the polls suggest he is far ahead of his rivals.   Alvaro Uribe has had an average of 60pc support in every poll The key to his success is simple: Colombia is racked by a 43-year-old civil conflict, and Mr Uribe has made himself the champion...

HARLINGEN -- Gov. Rick Perry and Mexican Gov. Eugenio Hernandez Flores were scheduled to discuss border security and drug violence at a joint appearance today. Hernandez Flores is governor of the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas, which includes the violence-plagued city of Nuevo Laredo. Perry has said U.S. border security is a federal responsibility but that the state cannot wait for Washington to direct more equipment and manpower toward the border. Border violence, particularly in Nuevo Laredo, has been blamed on cartels warring over a smuggling hub where Mexican and U.S. highways converge. In 2005, more than 170 people were...

MEXICO CITY - Wracked by violent drug crime and too poor to arm its police properly, the Mexican state of Guerrero is seeking a $24 million bank loan to buy more guns and security equipment. The local government plans to use the credit, approved by its Congress, to get guns, communications gear and police cars for the most cash-strapped parts of Guerrero, one of Mexico's poorest states, the state government said on Friday. "We want to seek a credit line to acquire transportation and arms," a state government spokesman said. Guerrero, whose craggy hills hide numerous marijuana and poppy fields,...

"Washington wants to curb Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's anti-American influence by lobbying allies to try to expose any anti-democratic policies, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday..." "Rep. Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican, and influential player on U.S. policy toward Latin America, said Chavez may give $50 million to the Palestinian group Hamas, which the United States considers a terrorist organization... "...Such a move would further strain deteriorating ties between the United States and one of its top oil suppliers after the countries each expelled diplomats this year in a dispute over alleged U.S. espionage. "Chavez has said the...

We are bordering on madness By Dimitri Vassilaros TRIBUNE-REVIEW Friday, February 17, 2006 Two nations are threatening American law-enforcement officers who protect this republic's southern border. Mexico is the obvious threat. The other will stun you. Men dressed as Mexican soldiers have set foot on American soil more than 200 times in the last decade. The Mexican government claims they are impersonators helping drug warlords' shipping into the United States. Whether soldiers or soldiers of fortune, Mexico has done virtually nothing to stop incursions by heavily armed forces in military-style Humvees. Mexico's inaction surely has helped embolden drug warlords salivating...

For years I have tried to warn people about the heating up of trouble spots "south of the border" ( Central & South America ), the inter-linking of terrorist groups there and elsewhere, and the Cuban/left-wing ties to all this.Here are links, pulled from other links & posts, to give you a heads-up on "what the media doesn't want to talk about...." China's Whampoa Ltd. opens port in Bahamas Unresolved Questions- the Panama canal, good, bad, or a waiting disaster?--thread II Fidel May Be Part of Terror Campaign Yes, Cuba is a terrorist nation Castro: "Iran and Cuba, in cooperation ...

MEXICO CITY Mexico says its arrested four Iraqis who were trying to sneak into the United States without the proper documents. Mexico's Attorney General's office says police -- acting on an anonymous tip -- found the four aboard a bus in the northern city of Navajoa (nav-ah-HO-. That's about 375 miles south of the Arizona border. The statement says the Iraqis were in Mexico illegally. Officials are investigating the background of the four and trying to determine how they got into Mexico. Many undocumented Iraqi nationals have been captured in Mexican territory en route to the U-S border. None have...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Cindy Sheehan, the peace activist who just announced that she is weighing a run for Senate, plans to protest again outside President Bush's Texas ranch, Venezuela's president said Sunday with Sheehan by his side. Hugo Chavez, his arm around Sheehan's shoulders, told a group of activists that Sheehan had told him that during Holy Week, in April, "she is going to put up her tent again in front of Mr. Danger's ranch." "She invited me to put up a tent. Maybe I'll put up my tent also," Chavez said, to applause from activists invited to his...

With its restrictions on everything from foreign ownership of real estate to the carrying of sidearms by American drug agents assigned there, the government of Mexico has made its touchiness about its sovereignty clear time and again. But when it comes to the sovereignty of the United States of America, Mexican contempt seems to know few limits. The latest example came at 3:15 p.m. Monday, as yet another standoff between armed Mexicans and American law-enforcement officers took place in Texas at the very spot where a similar standoff (described by Paul Green in a column on the Opinion 2 page...

Posted on Tue, Jan. 24, 2006 LATIN AMERICA Bolivian praises coca and CastroEvo Morales' first day as president of Bolivia included meeting leaders of Cuba and Venezuela and the swearing-in of a leftist Cabinet. BY JACK CHANG, Knight Ridder News Service LA PAZ, Bolivia - Newly inaugurated Bolivian President Evo Morales began his historic, five-year term Monday by meeting with leaders from Cuba and Venezuela, two of Latin America's harshest critics of U.S. policy, before swearing in a Cabinet largely made up of political radicals. His Cabinet choices included a former housekeeper turned union activist as justice minister and a...

IN ONE of the bloodiest incidents for more than a decade, Shining Path guerrillas ambushed and killed eight police officers, amid fears that money from drug trafficking is giving the Peruvian rebel group a new lease of life. The ambush was set along the road to Aucayacu, more than 240 miles east of Lima. As the vehicle carrying nine officers entered the rebel killing zone, 20 members of the Shining Path opened up with automatic weapons. The police driver managed to get the vehicle off the road, where those not killed in the initial hail of gunfire fought on for...

NEW YORK - A Taliban-linked drug lord who allegedly sought to poison U.S. streets with millions of dollars of heroin in a deadly "American jihad" has become the first person extradited from Afghanistan to face federal charges, officials said Monday. Haji Baz Mohammad, one of the world's "most wanted, most powerful and most dangerous" drug kingpins, had helped finance the Taliban by selling opium since 1990, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrator Karen Tandy said. "In return, the Taliban protected Mohammad's crops, his heroin labs, his drug transportation labs and his associates," Tandy said after a conspiracy indictment was unsealed accusing Mohammad...

LIMA, Peru, Aug. 19, 2005 – Peru has become a leader in confronting terrorism and narcoterrorism, but it's critical that the region's countries all work together to deal with the common threats they face, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said here Aug. 18 during a joint press conference with Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo. "The problems that our respective countries face of terrorism, ... narcotrafficking, hostage-taking (and) crime are problems that no one country can deal with alone," the secretary said in the Peruvian presidential palace. "It requires regional cooperation." Toledo called these challenges a "shared responsibility" among the South American community...

WND Exclusive CONTROLLING THE SUBSTANCES Big money in Mexican meth New laws cut down on U.S. labs, but drugs still flow Posted: August 19, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com While new state and federal laws are cutting down the number of U.S. meth labs, the deadly drugs continue to flow into the U.S. across the porous border with Mexico, say law enforcement authorities. The federal anti-meth law was recently amended to permit states to impose their own stiffer restrictions and penalties. In Oregon, for instance, legislators now require cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, a principal ingredient in methamphetamine, to...

The three Irishmen in hiding after being sentenced to 17 years in prison for training Farc rebels in Colombia have returned to Ireland and insisted they are not on the run. Martin McAuley, Niall Connolly and Jim Monaghan have been on the run since a Bogota court overturned their original acquittal in December. A Government spokesman has been quoted as saying the Government had no prior knowledge of the men's return. "This issue was not part of the Government's discussions with Sinn Fein and we had no prior knowledge of their return to Ireland," a spokesperson said. The Department of...

TUMACO, COLOMBIA - Tipped off by informants, Colombian authorities were nonetheless stunned by what they found on a jungle mission near the Ecuadorean border. In the largest-ever drug seizure in Colombia, police and naval forces seized eight boats on the Mira River that were packed with 15 metric tons of cocaine. Agents confiscated so many packets of white powder that the stash later burned for 19 hours in a police bonfire. But the quantity of cocaine, worth an estimated $400 million, wasn't the only surprise during the raid conducted earlier this month. According to Colombian authorities, the narcotics were produced...

BOGOTA, Colombia May 17, 2005 — Speedboats laden with tons of rebel-produced cocaine slip through Caribbean waters to the palm-fringed coasts of Central America, and return to Colombia stuffed with weapons for the guerrillas. Police investigate high-profile kidnappings in Venezuela and Paraguay, and find the fingerprints of Colombian rebels all over them. From the jungles of Central America to South America's southern cone, Colombia's main rebel group has been expanding its criminal activities, according to law enforcement officials and political leaders across the continent. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, began battling for the rights of peasants in...

WASHINGTON: Maoists in Nepal are reportedly involved in smuggling narcotics, mostly to India, to fund their insurgency and the Kingdom does not have laws to target drug-related corruption, the US has said. The state department, in its annual report on narcotic drugs, said the Maoist insurgency has an impact on rule-of-law and interdiction efforts in many parts of Nepal. "Police have reconfirmed that production of cannabis is on the rise in the southern areas of the country, and that most is destined for the Indian market," it said. The report said that police have also intercepted locally produced hashish en...

Drugs and Terror: Understanding the Link and the Impact on America "It's so important for Americans to know that the traffic in drugs finances the work of terror, sustaining terrorists, that terrorists use drug profits to fund their cells to commit acts of murder. If you quit drugs, you join the fight against terror in America." President George W. Bush There is an undeniable link between acts of terror and illicit drugs. Law enforcement officials around the world have long recognized this close connection, but a changing world and recent events have made this link more relevant in the daily...

Drugs, Russia and Terrorism Joseph D. Douglass Jr. Editor's Note: This article is the first part of a two-part article. quot;When we fight drugs, we fight the war on terror,quot; President Bush explained on Feb. 12 as he announced an increase in the budget for the war on drugs. He is right. Additionally, we cannot wage a real war on terrorism without waging a real war on illegal drugs, because the two are closely coupled. The two are so intertwined that perhaps the real question is quot;How can we win a war on terrorism if we can't win a war...

Defense and Foreign Affairs, October 21, 2004 KLA Video Shows Holbrooke, Clark Raising Funds for Kerry Campaign from KLA-linked Albanians, and Shows Ongoing Acquisitions From GIS Station Amsterdam and other sources. A recent video produced by Albanians who identified themselves as members of the ostensibly-banned Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has been broadcast on Dutch television, showing KLA members giving donations to members of the US Presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry. The video also shows former US Presidential candidate and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Wesley Clark and former US Ass. Sec. of State Richard Holbrooke - now both...

John Kerry's Fellow TravellersA 5-part series exposing John Kerry's Communist connections.Part 4: Subversion in the Senate: Kerry's Communist ConstituencyBy Fedora *NOTE: The term "fellow traveller" as used in this article series refers to someone who is not a member of the Communist Party (CP) but regularly engages in actions which advance the Party's program. Some apparent fellow travellers may actually be "concealed party members": members of the CP who conceal their membership. Which of these classifications is applicable to the Kerrys is a question this series leaves unresolved. This series does not argue for any direct evidence of Richard or...

Beslan militants were drug-dependent, forensic study shows By C.J. Chivers Monday, October 18, 2004 MOSCOW Forensic analysis of the remains of 31 militants who seized the public school in Beslan last month has determined that all of them were dependent on drugs, a senior law enforcement official said in a statement reported by Russian news agencies Sunday. Nikolai Shepel, the deputy prosecutor general of Russia's southern federal district, also said that blood tests had found very high levels of heroin and morphine among a majority of the attackers who died at the siege, "which indicates that they were long-term drug...

The Balkans' uncharacteristically silent exit from the world stage as the most prominent international hot spot of the last decade belies its status as a major recruiting and training center of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. By feeding off the region's impoverished republics and taking root in the unsettled diplomatic aftermath of the Bosnia and Kosovo conflicts, al Qaeda, along with Iranian Revolutionary Guard-sponsored terrorists, have burrowed their way into Europe's backyard. For the past 10 years, the most senior leaders of al Qaeda have visited the Balkans, including bin Laden himself on three occasions between 1994 and ...

I have created a public register of "bump lists" here on Free Republic. I define a bump list as a name listed in the "To" field used to index articles. Free Republic Bump List Register

Marxist rebels in Colombia have killed ten hostages, after the army bungled a helicopter mission to rescue them. The captives, including Governor Guillermo Gaviria and former Defence Minister Gilberto Echeverri, were killed as Government soldiers approached the rebel camp where they were being held. President Alvaro Uribe confirmed that one hostage escaped unharmed and two others survived but were wounded. No rebels were captured or killed in the failed rescue operation. Gaviria and Echeverri were kidnapped on April 21, 2002, as they led hundreds of peace marchers from Medellin to the village of Caicedo to meet with the rebel commanders....

PICHARI, Peru - Shining Path guerrillas ambushed a 30-man marine patrol in a section of steep, mountainous jungle, killing seven and wounding 10 in the Peruvian military's worst loss to rebels in at least four years, military sources said Friday. A marine captain, four other marines and two civilian guides were killed in the attack Thursday afternoon in the Ayacucho region when rebels opened fire after they stopped to take a break in a clearing, said an army officer who spoke on condition of anonymity. The attack was another strong sign of a resurgence in Shining Path activity. Last month,...

Insider notes from United Press International for April 12 ... Angry at the slow pace of reform at Pakistan's still-powerful Inter-Services Intelligence, President Pervez Musharraf is asking the Bush administration for a more formal arrangement under which the FBI would take over a wholesale re-training of the Pakistani security agencies. The essential role of the CIA and FBI in tracking down the al Qaida cell in Faisalabad that led to the arrest of al Qaida's logistics and training chief Abu Zubaida convinced Musharraf that Pakistan's own forces were not up to the job. Musharraf was persuaded to call in the...

Gunmen kidnap six Colombian officials Rebels have carried out similar attacks in the past Gunmen have kidnapped six Colombian legislators in an attack on the regional assembly in the city of Cali. The assembly was in session when the armed men entered the building, set off an explosive device and took the officials hostage. During an exchange of fire, a policeman is reported to have been killed. There is no information on who carried out the attack, but left-wing rebels have staged similar kidnappings in the past. Armed raid Local radio reports said as many as 25 armed men dressed...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Oil, not drugs, is the focus of a $98m aid package to fund an army brigade to protect a pipeline from sabotage by guerrillas The Cano Limon oil pipeline is buried 6ft underground, but its route through the rolling Colombian prairie is clearly marked by a swath of oil slicks and scorched earth - the result of incessant bomb attacks by leftwing rebels. Since it was completed in 1985, the pipeline has been holed so many times that locals call it "the flute". Some 2.9 million barrels of crude oil have...

Colombian Rebels Plan Strike in U.S. BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - A Colombian guerrilla leader has spoken of a plan to attack U.S. interests both here and in the United States in a tape recording that Colombian security sources confirmed on Monday was the voice of the military commander of the Marxist FARC rebels. Security sources provided Reuters with a copy of the tape which they said contained a message broadcast by Jorge Briceno -- alias ``Mono Jojoy'' -- to his top lieutenants some time during the past month. ``To combat them wherever they may be, until we get to ...

FLORENCIA, Colombia (AP) - Colombian warplanes began bombing a vast rebel territory Thursday and amassing troops nearby, following the president's decision to cancel peace talks and reclaim the region from leftist guerrillas, the military reported. President Andres Pastrana formally ended Colombia's three-year peace process Wednesday night, just hours after guerrillas hijacked a domestic airliner and kidnapped a senator on the flight. Pastrana set a midnight deadline for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to abandon the zone in southern Colombia that he gave to the rebel group in 1998. Troops in camouflage uniforms tightly guarded a highway ...

Issue # 18 Sign Up for Free Mailing List March 11, 2002 Narco News '02 Colombia Voters Reject U.S. War Ruling Parties Lose the Senate and the House By Al Giordano When Colombian voters went to the polls yesterday to elect a new Congress, they massively rejected the candidates of the traditional ruling two-party system of the Conservative and Liberal parties. The results also strongly suggested a rejection of the U.S.-imposed strategy of quot;frontal warquot; upon the Colombian rebels. This is a story, so far, untold by the U.S. press. President Andreacute;s Pastrana -- the U.S. government's delivery man...

The world is full of bad people doing bad things. There are regimes that persecute Christians, Buddhists and others. There are double-crossing generals, arms and drug traffickers, treacherous diplomats and false fronts. There are double agents and blackmailed politicians. There is blood in the streets, revolution, war and hatred in today's world. You wouldn't know it from looking out a suburban window in America. But beyond our borders things aren't nice. People are suffering. On Feb. 11 FoxNews.com reported that Chinese authorities were cracking down on Christian churches that operate outside government control. Nearly 24,000 Christians have recently been arrested ...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Get ready for deeper U.S. military involvement in Colombia following last week's decision by President Andrés Pastrana to regain the territory he had somewhat naively ceded to leftist guerrillas as part of a peace effort more than three years ago. While U.S. officials say that U.S. troops will not be drawn into combat in Colombia, the Bush Administration may soon issue a ''national security directive'' expanding the nature of U.S. military aid to Colombia. Until now, the Bush Administration largely followed the Clinton policy of supporting Pastrana's peace talks with the ...

THIS DRUG AD A HARD SELL It's not all corporate pitchmen at this year's Super ( Ad ) Bowl. Joining Anheuser-Busch, Pepsi and tonight's other big-budget image buffers is one advertiser with a truly tarnished brand: White House drug czar John Walters, desperate to add some luster to the government's discredited war on drugs. Sorry, John. That'll take more than TV commercials, even during the Super Bowl. But Walters is a hard-nosed protege of tough-talking drug warrior Bill Bennett. Since being confirmed by the Senate in December, Walters has been an eager captive of the old-school lock-'em-up approach, emphasizing ...

STRATFOR GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE UPDATE War on terror worsens war on drugs Opium production flourishes after defeat of Taliban Editor's note: In partnership with Stratfor, the global intelligence company, WorldNetDaily publishes daily updates on international affairs provided by the respected private research and analysis firm. Look for fresh updates each afternoon, Monday through Friday. In addition, WorldNetDaily invites you to consider STRATFOR membership, entitling you to a wealth of international intelligence reports usually available only to top executives, scholars, academic institutions and press agencies. © 2001 WorldNetDaily.com The downfall of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban and the rise of Northern Alliance forces ...

Huge smuggling ring — an MSNBC.com exclusive WASHINGTON, April 9 — Russian crime syndicates and military officers are supplying sophisticated weapons to Colombian rebels in return for huge shipments of cocaine, U.S. intelligence officials told MSNBC.com. A senior intelligence official described the smuggling ring as "literally an industry" that threatens to overwhelm the Colombian government and turn the U.S.-backed fight against the Colombia cocaine cartels into a losing proposition. Officials close to the investigation cited intelligence intercepts that show the IL-76 cargo planes use Royal Jordanian Airlines cargo facilities in Amman, where airline officials are bribed to ignore false ...

Afghanistan was the world´s largest grower of opium poppies until the Taliban took over. Perhaps the only positive thing the Taliban ever did was to prohibit the growing of them. Now that the Taliban are no longer in control, Afghani farmers are already planting their first opium crops, with initial harvesting expected in April. Because of this, our ‘War On Terror´ could be a boon for the drug industry and ultimately result in disaster for us. Opium growing has a long history in Afghanistan. After the Taliban outlawed growing opium, the only source of poppy production was in lands held ...

Sayed Ali welcomed the fall of the Taliban, but the new political and social freedoms now on offer mean little to the poverty-stricken Afghan farmer. What is important is that he can grow opium poppies again - he has already planted his first crop. In the small mud-brick village of Chinar Khalia, near the eastern city of Jalalabad, Ali and other local farmers are now looking forward to a bumper harvest around mid-April. The Taliban ban on poppy-growing, which slashed Afghan opium production by 94 per cent last year, is over. And the impact on the West will be huge ...

Robert Weiner, former White House drug policy director of public affairs and spokesman for Drug Czars Barry McCaffrey and Lee Brown, is suggesting the investigation and prosecution of terrorist Osama bin Laden through the Taliban's "nurturing" of funds from Afghanistan's world-leading opium poppy cultivation, the raw product for heroin production, as an additional way to expose and prosecute the way "bin Laden and those who harbor him may get a great part of their operational money. As evidence grows of Osama bin Laden and his network's connection to the most horrific terrorism in our history, and as President Bush ...

ROME -- Italy's financial police face a huge challenge unraveling the money trail from the Mafia's illegal drug trade to find the strand that leads back to the Taliban in Afghanistan. "You'd need a crystal ball to tell how much of the money generated from the Mafia's illegal activities can be traced back to the Taliban," said Sandro Senatore, head of the Guardia di Finanza's operations to combat money laundering. "There's no way to tell until you get to the very end of the money trail." With the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan entering its fifth week, new urgency is being ...