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| Hutchinson Helping Track Terrorists |
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Posted by FoM on September 14, 2001 at 14:35:28 PT By Samantha Young Source: Southwest Times-Record 
The federal anti-drug agency headed by Arkansan Asa Hutchinson has been given an assignment in the investigation of this week’s terrorist bombings. Hutchinson said Thursday the Drug Enforcement Administration is helping to track down associates of the 18 terrorists who hijacked airplanes and crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Tuesday. “I have been working with the Justice Department and supplementing their investigation,” said Hutchinson, a former Arkansas congressman who moved to the DEA last month. “The DEA has an airwing and our airwing has been making special trips, flying emergency workers, removing key personnel to safe locations and transporting blood,” Hutchinson said. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the lead government agency, has tapped the investigative capabilities of the DEA. The 9,000-member agency operates surveillance equipment and employs hundreds of agents and contacts around the world. The two agencies are in contact on the hour, Hutchinson said. “We have sophisticated intelligence analysis equipment that we are utilizing,” Hutchinson said. “We are responding to leads when the FBI needs assistance.” Hutchinson’s office in an Arlington, Va., highrise faces the Pentagon, a view he once bragged about to friends. Now it’s a constant reminder of terrorism. “I see a big hole,” Hutchinson said. “It is an eerie reminder of the entire catastrophe. Whenever you see it, it’s one thing. Whenever you watch it, it’s one thing. But when you can smell it and it burns your eyes, it’s much more personal.” Hutchinson was not in Washington when a hijacked American Airlines Boeing 757 plane flew past his office building and into the Pentagon. At the time of the attacks, Hutchinson was headed to the airport in Albuquerque, N.M., the morning after debating the governor of New Mexico on drug use policy. Like thousands of other Americans, Hutchinson was stranded when the government grounded all flights within the United States. Unlike others, Hutchinson only had to wait three hours for a military cargo plane to transport him back to Washington. But he could not go back to his office. The smoke billowing from the Pentagon and the ground shocks from the impact of the plane forced DEA officials to evacuate their buildings. Their command center was moved to rural Virginia. “It’s amazing one minute I’m debating someone on drug policy and the next we’re in the middle of an investigation,” Hutchinson said. Related Articles: Pro-Pot Governor Debates DEA Chief Is Asa Hutchinson Qualified To Run DEA? CannabisNews Articles - Asa Hutchinson Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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| Comment #10 posted by FoM on September 14, 2001 at 15:35:53 PT |
| If we don't have a war we will create one I've always felt. Implements of destruction costs lots to make. PS: Poisoned, I'm going to change my name to FoM I feel safer that way. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #9 posted by Poisoned1519Days on September 14, 2001 at 15:34:53 PT |
| I did not mean the KKK wre scapegoats. They were scapegoaters. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #8 posted by Poisoned1519Days on September 14, 2001 at 15:31:01 PT |
| Thanks Martha. Its funny how obvious it is to all of us that the WOD was really just a device to create an artificial threat so that certain politicians could get votes fighting it. Now that we have a real threat we may not need the artificial threat we are so heavily invested in. We Americans seem to always need our scapegoats. KKK, Communists, gays, feminists, etc. Each get their rights in turn and then its off to the next scapegoat - until we have a real threat and then its togetherness time - like how WWII broke down a lot of color barriers. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #7 posted by E. Johnson on September 14, 2001 at 15:29:55 PT |
| The DEA doesn't usually get to do something that everyone in our society feels is good and necessary and of enormous value and urgency that might actually succeed. How will they keep up their demon fervor towards marijuana after this? [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #6 posted by el_toonces on September 14, 2001 at 15:27:53 PT:
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| Smokers of Marijuana Against Radical Terrorists I know, I know! I will keep working on it......... I have to go drive a car now (Toonces, the driving cat.....just couldn't drive very well) El [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #5 posted by The GCW on September 14, 2001 at 15:26:10 PT |
| This does seem to indicate that our country should relegate its resources better. If the war on drugs is so bad... then Hutchinson should remain in the trenches...and get those cannabis users...every one of them. Surely, if all the anti-plant people and all the $ money spent to get the cannabis user into a cage, were used to spot terrorism, we would have perhaps made a difference. They have squandered their power for trivial matters. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #4 posted by el_toonces on September 14, 2001 at 15:25:37 PT:
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| Yes, o' Poisoned One, I think we should even start anti-terroism pro-drug advocacy. Maybe somthing along the lins of PSAT or MMPOT (Pot SMokers Against Terroists and Medical Marijuana Patients Opposing Terrorists).... It almost like that is the only way to be accepted these days......you must be against SOMETHING, even as a group that is FOR SOMETHING, or ya don't count! DAT? (Druggies Against Terrorists). I will keep working on a suitable acronym. El [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #3 posted by FoM on September 14, 2001 at 15:23:34 PT |
| I think that so much money will be needed to protect our country that the drug war will become secondary. I believe I said that the first we heard about the WTC tragedy. WOT that sounds much better. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #2 posted by Poisoned1519Days on September 14, 2001 at 15:20:19 PT |
| As I indicated previously, the war on drugs seems so trite compared to the new WAR ON TERRORISM. Pot smokers do not blow up buildings. Support the WOT. Forget the WOD. WOD wasn't getting votes any more anyway. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #1 posted by msegesta on September 14, 2001 at 14:56:49 PT |
| I think finally we have an answer to the question of what these 9,000 a**h*l*s could do if people in this country were free to use all of God's plants, to put what they want into THEIR OWN bodies, to be FREE...........they can fight terrorists, a group worthy of the enmity these DEA people are so full of, along with that other stuff they are so full of................ I mean, I was going crazy with worry as to how these idiots would feed their families if the U.S. citizens finally were free, and now we have an answer. They would have to get used to one thing, though: they would finally have a real enemy instead of a plant -- an enemy that fights back, and does so as dirty as the DEA does, and they might have to get their big a** butts off those stools at the donut shop and do some real work. Also, the public might actually expect them to get some results. They could even start a D.A.R.E. substitute, but instead of lying to kids about drugs, they could try and convince the kids not to become terrorists. I like the idea of Joe DEA teaching classes....in Tabul, Afganistan! (where he belongs with his totalitarian betheren, the Taliban, who coukd probably also teach Joe DEA about ridding the world of drugs through REAL tyrannical power, the kind all prohibs seem envy). Plus, if we re-directed the $80 billion we waste each year prohibiting a plant to fighting terrorism, we could save a lotta $$$$$$$$$$$$$ It works for me.....anyone else like this concept? [ Post Comment ] |
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