cannabisnews.com: Hutchinson Helping Track Terrorists 










  Hutchinson Helping Track Terrorists 

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. Source: Southwest Times-Record (AR)Author: Samantha YoungPublished: Friday, September 14, 2001 Copyright: 2001 The Donrey Media GroupContact: letters swtimes.comWebsite: http://www.swtimes.com/Related Articles: Pro-Pot Governor Debates DEA Chief http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10892.shtml Is Asa Hutchinson Qualified To Run DEA? http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10770.shtmlCannabisNews Articles - Asa Hutchinsonhttp://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=Hutchinson 

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Comment #30 posted by xxdr_zombiexx on September 15, 2001 at 17:01:17 PT:
Encouraging words from The Cult
**It's the way that you feelIt's the Truth in your Eyesyou got wings upon your backand you can't fly...you're up against the worldand still you riseand STILL we rise.
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Comment #29 posted by kaptinemo on September 15, 2001 at 08:18:37 PT:
El Toonces, it wouldn't matter
The USG has had plenty of practice in being selectively blind; they'd just round up all the draft-age men, and shovel them into uniforms, anyway. Remember, they 're-legalized' hemp for the war efforts during WW2, and immediately after went back to demonizing the weed, again. I cannot help but emphasize again: the USG will sneakily use every underhanded trick it can in order to achieve what it wants...de facto (but certainly not de jure, that would really be pushing things, and it knows it) suspension of the Constitution for "just a little while folks; we'll give you your liberties back when it's safe." Ol' Shrubya is being pretty cagey about the details of these 'governmental security plans' he was so quick to say he was implementing. I've posted links to some of the ones that we know about; what else in the way of unConstitutional landmines are there out there?The piglets suckling on the Federal Law Enforcement Sow organization teats are in a fight for the biggest nipple; they will try to outdo each other in patriotic rhetoric to get the richest milk. And that rhetoric is now being turned against us. They want to silence us once and for all by associating us with terrorists, so that Joe Sixpack will unthinkingly make the connection and turn his blind fury upon us. They know that if they can succeed, drug law reform in this country is doomed, and their continued place at the sow's teats is assured for the next twenty years. WE MUST NOT LET THAT HAPPEN.
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Comment #28 posted by mr.greengenes on September 15, 2001 at 05:54:57 PT
A couple of points to ponder
Shouldn't it be called the War on Some Terrorism, since whatever our government continues to do along these lines will be condoned by the sheeple?If the draft starts up, what will the government do if almost every draftee tests positive for THC?Comments?
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Comment #27 posted by xxdr_zombiexx on September 15, 2001 at 05:02:59 PT:
CONTEXT for LEGALIZATION
The CONTEXT for waging a war against cannabis has been permanantly changed by this event.what's scarier: people being able to obtain "druuugs" legally and safely,...or decending into an Isreal-type of security environment while suffering ongoing terrorist attacks (and other's drug use anyway)?The War on Druuuugs has resulted in widespread police corruption, and the impairment of the collective judgement of Law Enforcement, from small town cops to the FBI and DEA. And this has played a part in the erosion of our security. We don't value them properly, and they don't work properly anymore.And the truth is still coming to light that the War on druuugs is, in the end, directly aiding in supporting the terrorists around the world as well as contributing to the erosion of our national security. I wonder if Bill Bennett can be held responsible for this: remember his recent little banter about how the increased price of druuugs is actually a "policy success"? He seemed pretty pleased about that. Is that not aiding and abetting? The CIA is known to have profiteered off the drug trade to supprt their wars in Central America in the 1980's.The Iron Law of Prohibition accounts for how, once the price becomes so high, and law enforcement so heavy, only real criminals will be in the business. With cannabis prohibited it is valued higher than gold, ounce for ounce.Thus any policy that aims to keep the value of illegal drugs high, is quite possibly NOT a good policy for dealing with terrorism.The benefits of legalization of cannabis would be amazing: Importation (ie: smuggling) would all but stop as America can easily produce more than enough. Trade for BC bud could be established and formalized, enhancing US-Canadian security, rather than focusing on how to pierce it. Legalization would then be a major move against terror, cutting funding off significantly: they are only in traffiking for the money. Meanwhile, american law enforcement could re-focus on proper law enforcement and protecting us from others, not ourselves.
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Comment #26 posted by FoM on September 14, 2001 at 22:05:40 PT
el_toonces 
Maybe we should see about a web site. Thank you, I'm calling it a day too. I'm very tired and need to catch up on some sleep.
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Comment #25 posted by el_toonces on September 14, 2001 at 21:04:55 PT:
FoM
I like the idea of a supportive website.....something like the "Dan and Tracy" ads....your good neighbors who abhor terrorism and hoot jib?I am done for the day....exhausted and headed for bed.......finally, maybe I will get the night without insomina.......El
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Comment #24 posted by el_toonces on September 14, 2001 at 21:03:20 PT:
Sorry Dank.....
But "jib" was just the vernacular for MJ in the college and high school sailing crowd I ran with......but apparently there was a reason for that you did discover.....Be well all.El
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Comment #23 posted by Toker00 on September 14, 2001 at 19:26:31 PT
Pics
Here is a site worth visiting. Click on "what's new" to see some strange pics of this attack. http://www.artbell.comPeace. Realize, then Legalize.
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Comment #22 posted by FoM on September 14, 2001 at 18:26:50 PT
Thanks Cannabis for Freedom 
Thank you Cannabis for Freedom for the pictures. I bookmarked the page.
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Comment #21 posted by Toker00 on September 14, 2001 at 18:24:30 PT
Irony
For thirty some years, they (Congress and DEA) have declared war on our culture. Very rarely and almost NEVER have we responded with terror or violence. Now when someone jackboots them, they call for our support. I am having a very hard time with this. They now know what it feels like to be terrorized. They most likely will continue with our persecution, and at the same time ask for our support against terror. For my country, I have displayed TWO flags in front of my house. One, for us. To show that we are only asking for the liberties our constitution guaranteed, at least at one time. And for Tom and Rolland. The other, for the 5,000+ innocents who died for basically the same reason some of us have lost our lives. Capitalism. Or, more pertently, GREED. All the bombings around the world they have done for the last two or three decades, has been for the profits of crude oil. With us, however, it has been the suppression of Cannabis competition. Parallels? I think.I hope I have not become desensitized by their war on us. But I can STILL not support Bush or Congress in this war. But the Americans who died and will die? With all my being. The terrorist attack on the WTC was indeed an attack on humanity. But to support the very government who has been warring against us and a plant for the last thirty years? Sorry, but NOPE. My prayers go out to the families who lost loved ones from this attack. My support is SQUARELY shoulder to shoulder with my fellow Americans. To the government I say, you reap what you sow.Peace. War. Realize, then Legalize.
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Comment #20 posted by CANNABIS FOR FREEDOM on September 14, 2001 at 18:19:51 PT
Time to focus on America's REAL priorities
While the FBi was killing non-violent marijuana farmers, and colin Powell was helping to poison and murder poor Columbians, terrorists were roaming free in America. We have had a War on American citizens for too long. The politicians and lawmakers of the United States are just as responsible for these terrorist acts as are the terrorists that carried them out. If our current administration and the current Senators and Congressmen really cared about our people they would have thwarted this violence before it ever occurred. But, no they had to eradicate a harmless substance which has never torn people's limbs from their bodies. Cannabis has never taken down 110 story buildings or stopped our financial markets, yet the politicos in office have always seen it as a greater threat than terrorism. How many more years will we Americans become victims of terrorism because some assholes in Congress want to persecute us. How many more BILLIONS of dollars will be wasted trying to stamp out Cannabis and other drugs that will never match the horrors of September 11, 2001. At least $20 billion a year is spent eradicating cannabis and prosecuting those who use and possess it, it's no wonder our economy is suffering and social security is being bilked and our innocent New Yorkers are being killed.I personally hold every politico who has perpetuated the drug war in the last 30 years responsible for the tragedy that occurred on September 11, 2001.
http://WWW.foureyes.com/towers
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Comment #19 posted by FoM on September 14, 2001 at 17:47:02 PT
Question
I don't want to get blamed for this at all. We are peaceful but determined people. Most of us have strong convictions about the value of life. Maybe a web site should be made. Maybe Matt could make a page for us. One that says we are upset about what happened and other things. What do you think? Any ideas? I'm just trying to figure a way to let them know we are sick about this too.
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Comment #18 posted by Dankhank on September 14, 2001 at 17:40:49 PT
gotcha ...
Main Entry: 3jibFunction: intransitive verbInflected Form(s): jibbed; jib·bingEtymology: probably from jib to shift from one side of a ship to the other, perhaps from 1jibDate: 1811: to refuse to proceed further : BALK- jib·ber noun :-)
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Comment #17 posted by kaptinemo on September 14, 2001 at 17:32:29 PT:
Uh, folks, I don't want to seem overly buggy
but a big orange target has already been painted on our backs.Think back. Think back to the Olympics in Atlanta. Think back to a man named Richard Jewel. The Feebs had an enormous amount of pressure on them to produce results. They had to look like they were 'doing something'. So what did they do? Try to railroad Richard Jewel. If Jewel had not had first-rate legal counsel, he would be behind bars for the rest of his life - how ever short that might be because of conditions inside US 'penitentiaries'. His protests of innocence would have been heard by few...and forgotten quickly in the hurly-burly of the next crisis.That is because the Feds have usually turned in a lackluster performance when it comes to major investigations. Flight 800 is a perfect example; nobody knows to this day exactly what happened. All they have is supposition and speculation. Period.Many 'investigators' are simply not up to the task. They are bureaucrats, paper pushers, 'ticket-punchers' as we Army grunts used to say. So, they 'settle' for easy scores to relieve the political pressure. They thought Jewel was such an easy score. And they are no doubt hoping that to increase their bloated - and wasted - budgets, they must find, as all bureaucracies do, another means of justifying their presence at the public trough.By finding other easy scores. Like 'druggies'. If you thought we were catching Hell before, you ain't seen nothing yet. Rainbow Farms was peanuts compared to what's coming over the horizon. Very soon, the rhetoric that has been reserved for Islamic terrorists will begin to include us.There’s an old line from a poem I'd like to share:Day of wrath, and doom impending,David's words with Sybil's blending,Heaven and Earth in ashes ending.Who for me, frail man, be pleading?Who for me, be interceding?When the Just are mercy needing?In other words, no one will stand up for us until long after the fact, when what may be coming down the pike in our direction has passed, and scholars tut-tut about the hysteria that prompted such horrors. We do the same about witch-burnings; will someone do the same twenty years from now about mass incarcerations of 'druggies' a la the Nisei during World War Two? Or even worse?If we don't make a stand and speak up, if we don't throw their rhetoric back in their faces, then Canada will not only be a choice, but a bloody necessity. Because once the Feds get it into their heads that there will be no public outcry against brutalizing us, they will come after us hammer and tongs to compensate for their inability to do anything about the real problem of why we have suffered this tragedy.Like the DrugWar itself, the war against terrorism cannot be won...because the origin for it lies in the hands of very powerful, wealthy people who benefit from the maintenance of the status quo. They are not about to change. So they will 'settle' on appearing to be 'doing something'. And if that means mass arrests of our people, they'll do it with a smile on their porcine faces.The more I look at this procession of events, the more I think Lehder might be right about the inevitable outcome. Stupidity has an ugly tendency to get it's way. And grind up anyone seeking to retard its' progress.And I'm seeing a very deadly form of stupidity manifesting right before our eyes.
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Comment #16 posted by el_toonces on September 14, 2001 at 16:35:15 PT:
Links.............
As members of JAT (Jibbers Against Terrorism), we should note that our U.S. government, under CURRENT policies, recently gave misogynistic Afghanistan -- 90% of course Taliban controlled -- $43 million bucks for reducing opium output basically by thier terrorizing and killing their own people. And, in case we're dealing with a Christian religious fascist, who's in for the repression, you have to mention they have some young Christian missionaries on trial there -- just for preaching Jesus!I am afraid current policy does not do much to help their side of the argument.......a link, if it exists, may be a good moral argument not to purchase any foreign or domestic product where the proceeds fund anything offensive, from terorism to slave wages....but I think honesty here is the best policy since good public health (of which drug policy is but one facet)has nothing to do with whether we're at war or not, it seems to me.Take care, and remain safe,el
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Comment #15 posted by FoM on September 14, 2001 at 16:26:12 PT
Thanks Richard
I looked and looked all around the Ottawa Citizen and couldn't find it but I just got it posted after I saw you did.Terrorists Get Cash From Drug Tradehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10912.shtml
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Comment #14 posted by Richard Lake on September 14, 2001 at 16:19:01 PT:
Terrorists Get Cash From Drug Trade 
On several email lists activists have been talking about the tie between terrorists and drug prohibition. However, the argument has been one of using great caution in making the connection. One drug policy expert wrote:"My suspicion is that people will now have even less sympathy for "druggies," especially if they make a connection between drug money and terrorism. They will argue that not only is illicit drug use selfish, but it funds terrorism. It's like the person who during WWII doesn't abide by the rule of "loose lips sinks ships," and indulges in the pleasure of telling secrets at the risk of endangering Americans. I don't think people are looking for a reason to be more compassionate to others not like them. Indeed, I think the opposite may now be even more true, that drug users will be more stigmatized. If we engage in the illegal drug/terrorism debate, we have to be vigilant in associating terrorism with prohibition. Otherwise our opponents may be successful in establishing an association of drug users/terrorism. That would make reform exponentially more difficult than it already is."But the connection is already in the news. Today award winning investigative reporter Dan Gardner ( http://www.mapinc.org/author/Dan+Gardner ) made the connection in an Ottawa Citizen article "Terrorists Get Cash From Drug Trade" now archived, complete with links to previous related articles, at:http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n1680.a05.htmlWe understand Dan is continuing to investigate the link so perhaps other articles from him may be published on this subject.Others are sure to pick up the story.Thus, in my opinion, we need to be ready to deal with it - and make the tie between the funding of terror and high costs -- the maximizing of harm - caused by drug prohibition forcefully when appropriate."We have to look at the ways that our drug policies are enriching terrorist organizations just the way that they're enriching organized crime," said Eugene Oscapella, an Ottawa lawyer and a founding member of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy.Indeed!Richard 
Terrorists Get Cash From Drug Trade 
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Comment #13 posted by FoM on September 14, 2001 at 16:08:24 PT
That's ok
That's ok Poisoned. Please don't think twice about it.
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Comment #12 posted by Poisoned1519Days on September 14, 2001 at 15:44:46 PT
Sorry FoM
Sorry FoM
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Comment #11 posted by Poisoned1519Days on September 14, 2001 at 15:43:14 PT
Thanks el_toonces
Thanks el_toonces. Its funnyhow important buzzphrases are to market your ideas. Every good idea needs some kind ofbuzzword/acronym to help sellit. WAR ON TERRORISM soundsso good I could see BUSH usingit. ( Say WOT!!!!!! ) And an Advocacygroup fits in too - expecially sincewe have been terrorized by the WOD!
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on September 14, 2001 at 15:35:53 PT

war
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. 
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Comment #9 posted by Poisoned1519Days on September 14, 2001 at 15:34:53 PT

correction
I did not mean the KKK wre scapegoats. They werescapegoaters.
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Comment #8 posted by Poisoned1519Days on September 14, 2001 at 15:31:01 PT

WAR ON TERRORISM - PART V ( THANKS FOM )
Thanks FoM. Its funny how obviousit is to all of us that the WOD wasreally just a device to create an artificial threat so that certainpoliticians could get votes fighting it.Now that we have a real threat wemay not need the artificial threat weare so heavily invested in. We Americansseem to always need our scapegoats.KKK, Communists, gays, feminists,etc. Each get their rights in turn andthen its off to the next scapegoat - untilwe have a real threat and then itstogetherness time - like how WWII broke down a lot of color barriers.
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Comment #7 posted by E. Johnson on September 14, 2001 at 15:29:55 PT

How does it feel, boys?
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?
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Comment #6 posted by el_toonces on September 14, 2001 at 15:27:53 PT:

SMART?
Smokers ofMarijuanaAgainstRadicalTerroristsI 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
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Comment #5 posted by The GCW on September 14, 2001 at 15:26:10 PT

Revealing.
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.
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Comment #4 posted by el_toonces on September 14, 2001 at 15:25:37 PT:

WOT vs. WOD
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
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on September 14, 2001 at 15:23:34 PT

Good idea
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.
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Comment #2 posted by Poisoned1519Days on September 14, 2001 at 15:20:19 PT

WAR ON TERRORISM - PART IV
As I indicated previously,the war on drugs seems sotrite compared to the newWAR ON TERRORISM. Pot smokersdo not blow up buildings.Support the WOT. Forget the WOD. WOD wasn't getting votes any more anyway.
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Comment #1 posted by msegesta on September 14, 2001 at 14:56:49 PT

Finally.....
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? 
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