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  Looking for Leadership in the Drug War
Posted by FoM on August 01, 2001 at 15:16:46 PT
Special To Washingtonpost.com 
Source: Washington Post 

justice With Senate Democrats dragging their feet and Bush administration officials focused on other issues, Speaker of the House Dennis J. Hastert (R-Ill.) is planning to take the lead in U.S. anti-drug policy.

By drafting nearly 50 Republican members into his Drug Free Task Force, the only task force he plans to create this legislative session, Hastert will nearly double the size of previous drug groups, adding new voices to the effort.

"The task force will pursue a balanced approach toward drug enforcement policy," said Rep. Rob J. Portman (R-Ohio) who is expected to act as co-chair of the group on behalf of demand reduction programs. "While Congress has historically looked at ways to decrease the supply of narcotics that come across our borders, I'd also like to see a greater focus on ways to reduce the demand for illegal drugs," Portman said.

The speaker had scheduled the launching of the task force for today, but the official announcement has been postponed until members return from the August recess. Supporters of hard-line drug policies welcomed the task force, particularly at a time when the Senate most likely will recess without having confirmed a critical drug-war cabinet nominee, John P. Walters. Walters was nominated three months ago to direct the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the office that coordinates the administration's inter-agency drug efforts. Democrats in the Senate have not been eager to move his confirmation forward, making him the last cabinet member awaiting confirmation.

Another critical appointee, Andre Hollis, began work this week as the new deputy assistant secretary of defense for counternarcotics. Described by sources as having little expertise in drug issues, Hollis was, most recently, counsel at the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee where he participated in many government investigations, including Pentagon oversight.

Because of his experience "he is a person who can see where roadblocks will be. He can anticipate things a lot better than the last crew," said a former congressional colleague who asked not to be named. "He won't be burdened with having planned help to Plan Colombia, realizing he can change it."

But changes are precisely what trouble many hard-line drug war advocates, who say the lack of more serious commitment and leadership in the anti-drug effort is an important set back, especially when many elements of U.S. international drug programs are facing difficulties.

Last Friday, aerial fumigation of illegal crops was once again suspended in part of Colombia pending a legal battle over environmental effects. Also entering the fray yesterday, farmers in southern Colombia blocked highways to protest the U.S. backed eradication program because of alleged damage it causes the environment and legitimate crops. Meanwhile, Colombian governors and legislators arrived in Washington to speak out against fumigation, which one member of the U.S. House of Representatives last week called "spectacularly unsuccessful."

According to the State Department, close to 50,000 hectares have been sprayed since December, or 37 percent of the total area estimated to be planted with coca in Colombia last year.

Also still suspended is the program that for years helped intercept suspicious flights in the Andean region with notable success, according to U.S. and Andean observers. The suspension began last April when an American missionary and her baby girl died in a plane that was shot down over the Amazons by a Peruvian fighter jet after receiving U.S. intelligence.

Hard-liners also express concerns about anti drug cooperation with Mexico at a time when issues of immigration and Mexican trucking -- both with their own implications in the drug fight -- are taking up much of the attention. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) has expressed interest in suspending the contentious drug certification process as a sign of good will toward Mexico, but many of the Speaker's task force members strongly defend its effectiveness in getting foreign governments to cooperate against drug trafficking.

The decision to create the task force "should signal to both Democrats in the Senate and members of the cabinet... that Congress is going to take this issue very seriously," said Robert Charles, who was chief of staff for the speaker's drug task force from 1995 to 1999. "It will become a national priority as a result of their dedication."

Latinos Discriminated Against as a Majority?

A new report by a Latino research organization has found that professionals of Hispanic descent report "inhospitable" environments when working in Latin America, especially in Mexico and Cuba.

Hispanic government employees in the field of foreign affairs face discrimination and accusations of "dual loyalties," according to the report by the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute covered in yesterday's Washington Post.

The report says that Hispanics in the Foreign Service said they are discriminated against, for example, by being assigned disproportionately to posts in Latin America. Once they are there, these professionals often encounter an unfriendly environment, not just among their U.S. colleagues but also among Latin American officials with whom they interact.

"Latin American officials do not respect Latinos in general because they continue to view them as impoverished, lower class members of their own societies rather than as part of a new group of significant American political actors," wrote Rodolfo de la Garza, vice president of the institute and author of the study. He said that almost half of the professionals that mentioned "less receptive" countries named Cuba and Mexico. The author warned that many of the results, based on interviews in 1998 with 43 members of the Hispanic Employees Council of the Foreign Affairs Agencies, require more study to be confirmed.

De la Garza was particularly concerned about the perception of a third of the people surveyed that they had been accused of "dual loyalties" toward foreign governments. The Employees Council said that between 1890 and 1997 there have been 46 U.S. ambassadors of Latin American descent, 13 of them career diplomats. "All but seven headed missions in Latin America at a time when all Latin American assignments, including Mexico, Brazil and Argentina were of such low significance that they were generally referred to as 'the cucaracha circuit' within the Department of State. No Hispanic ambassador was responsible for a strategically significant mission in Europe or elsewhere during those years," de la Garza wrote.

Complete Title: Looking for Leadership in the Drug War ... Latinos Discriminated Against as a Majority?

Source: Washington Post (DC)
Published: Wednesday, August 1, 2001
Copyright: 2001 The Washington Post Company
Contact: letters@washpost.com
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Related Articles & Web Site:

Colombia Drug War News
http://freedomtoexhale.com/colombia.htm

Colombians Protest Fumigation
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10490.shtml

The Walters Confirmation
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10427.shtml


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Comment #5 posted by Lehder on August 02, 2001 at 06:27:40 PT
76 million tickets
Not a bad idea, meagain. At $500 / ticket that would be $38 billion, the total government outlay for only one year of the drug war. I, for one, accept; I can think of many good reasons for living in Holland. They could wind it up this year and say they've won. Oh, but then there would be millions of unemployable drug warriors.
--------
I have enjoyed reading about the "code red" virus; like the bacteria of cultured yogurt, there are good viruses too. This one, as I understand it, spreads by probing the net and then, on the 20th of each month, jams the federal government's computers. Microsoft offers a neutralizing patch that can be downloaded for free, but I wonder how many people are taking the trouble. My computer, for one, has opened her ports and set out bowls of sour cream; Lady Liberty herself has planted one foot on Manhattan and opened her legs wide to receive it. See her on the way to Holland.


[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #4 posted by meagain on August 02, 2001 at 05:38:03 PT
Bird Bird... Bird is the word..
Why don't you just issue 76 million one-way tickets to Amsterdam...WE DON"T WANT TO BE HERE ANY MORE THAN YOU WANT US TO BE HERE SO LET US GO and have your stupid drug-free country. !!!!!!!!!!!! BTW it will still be filled with morons after we are gone....

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #3 posted by mayan on August 02, 2001 at 05:16:42 PT
PUPPETS
We will get no leadership from these half-dim puppets.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #2 posted by legalizeit on August 01, 2001 at 19:37:24 PT
Experience... heh heh
>Because of his experience "he is a person who can see where roadblocks will be. He can anticipate things a lot better than the last crew,"

Does he anticipate the inevitable outcome of any prohibition campaign, including any he is now dreaming up? One would think these weirdos would amass enough experience through 60+ years of prohibition to come up with the determination that it DOES NOT WORK!!

Experience in failing - that is what they have.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on August 01, 2001 at 15:44:54 PT
Prohibitionist article
The tone of this article amuses me....a great example of the way media complicity in failed policies perpetuates the bumblings of the political class, and validates the incompetent workings of our huge, bloated federal government.

Almost every measure mentioned in this article has been a complete failure, yet it's discussed as a perfectly valid approach. It's so ludicrous. Why do we accept this from our government? If a big corporation quietly went about investing 25 billion a year into a product line they've been developing for 30 years without making a cent in profit, they'd be ridiculed by the media.

Look at this paragraph:
"Also still suspended is the program that for years helped intercept suspicious flights in the Andean region with notable success, according to U.S. and Andean
observers. The suspension began last April when an American missionary and her baby girl died in a plane that was shot down over the Amazons by a Peruvian
fighter jet after receiving U.S. intelligence"

This is their description of a woman who was killed while sitting in the plane by a single bullet ripping through the fueselage, going through her back, out her chest, and into the baby girl she was holding in her lap. The others on the plane escaped by crash-landing into a river.

It just seems like no one in American society cares anymore about what's right and wrong. It's irrelevant. The only thing that matters is political expediency, which special interest you are rewarding, how much attention you can attract. Richard Cowan is right, the two-word explanation for the WOD is "bad journalism". The Post just gets by printing these fluff pieces until the next OJ trial comes along......

"Notable success"? Was the flow of drugs into the US reduced one iota? How many addicts quit using drugs? Did the price of heroin or cocaine go up even 1%? morons.......

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