Mark Kirk: “I just returned from Pakistan's frontier where Osama bin Laden is likely hiding. We describe bin Laden as a terrorist.…”

“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. 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.”