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  Colombian Aid Limits Reviewed
Posted by FoM on April 16, 2002 at 07:28:39 PT
By Karen DeYoung, Washington Post Staff Writer 
Source: Washington Post 

justice Another difficult and controversial foreign policy issue is about to crowd onto President Bush's already overflowing plate, as Congress takes up his plan for a major expansion of U.S. involvement in Colombia's guerrilla war.

Hearings scheduled to stretch into next month began last week on the proposal to stop restricting U.S. military aid to Colombia's fight against cocaine and heroin production and export.

The restrictions were designed to keep the United States from becoming directly involved in South America's oldest guerrilla conflict. But the Bush administration maintains that left- and right-wing insurgents fighting the Colombian government and each other are both drug traffickers and terrorists whose activities threaten not only Colombia but the stability and security of Latin America and the United States.

Colombian President Andres Pastrana arrives in Washington today for a four-day visit to help lobby for the plan, which would also waive a number of human rights provisions and other restrictions Congress has attached to Colombia aid.

With little to show for nearly $2 billion already spent fighting Colombia's drug war since 2000, however, Bush and Pastrana face an uphill task. Skeptical legislators have indicated they want a better explanation of past failures and a far more detailed description of the new policy than has been provided.

"You're asking for an unprecedented level of decision-making power over policy in Colombia -- with no specifics," Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) told Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman at a House appropriations subcommittee hearing last week. "I don't feel I know any more about what U.S. policy in Colombia is than I did before."

Language authorizing the policy change is contained in one sentence, deep inside the voluminous White House request for $27 billion in emergency anti-terrorism aid sent to Congress last month. Superseding all existing restrictions, it says that all previously approved and future aid "shall be available to support a unified campaign against narcotics trafficking, terrorist activities, and other threats to Colombia's national security."

The administration has said it will not send U.S. combat troops to Colombia, nor extend the U.S. military mission beyond training and supplying military equipment. But there would be no restrictions on Colombia's use of U.S. equipment and U.S.-trained troops.

The new request explicitly retains Congress's 400-person cap on the number of U.S. military personnel in Colombia, and observance of a worldwide requirement for human rights vetting of any foreign troops trained by U.S. forces.

Grossman explained that the "new authority would allow us to address the problem of terrorism in Colombia as vigorously as we currently address narcotics, and help the government of Colombia address the heightened terrorist risk that resulted" from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The change, he said, would also help Colombia deal with the collapse of peace talks last month between Pastrana and the largest rebel group, the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

The State Department lists both FARC and the United Self-Defense Forces, a paramilitary group of equal size and viciousness, as "foreign terrorist organizations," along with a smaller leftist guerrilla group. All are financed principally by the illegal drug business that supplies nearly all of the cocaine that enters the United States, and much of the heroin. The three groups regularly attack civilians in addition to their battles with the Colombian army and each other.

FARC, in particular, has escalated attacks against Colombia's national infrastructure since February, when Pastrana ended three years of sputtering peace talks following a spate of kidnappings of public officials.

The proposed change in ground rules for Colombian aid marks the first time since Sept. 11 that the administration has suggested that domestic insurgents in another country pose a terrorist threat even if they have not directly targeted the United States and have no known connection to any group that has.

With virtually no progress in the drug fight, some in Congress have suggested the administration is creating a terrorist danger in Colombia to justify throwing good money after bad, and in the process risking a Vietnam-type quagmire.

Worse than a "slippery slope . . . I think we're approaching a cliff," Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) told Assistant Secretary of State Otto J. Reich at a House International Relations subcommittee hearing last week.

Administration officials say that the infusion of drug money into FARC and AUC has led to their rapid growth and inserted a new element into the long history of Colombian insurgency. The drug and terror wars are now so intertwined, they argue, that neither can be won without U.S. involvement in both.

Beyond the firewall restricting the use of U.S.-trained troops and U.S-provided equipment to counter-narcotics missions, more specific limits on Colombia assistance would also be waived under the new policy.

Congress has refused to release any military-related funds in a $300 million Colombia aid package it appropriated for 2002 until the administration can certify that the Colombian army has ended collusion with the AUC, suspended and prosecuted senior officers credibly alleged to have been involved in human rights violations and moved to arrest AUC leaders. The leftist FARC and the right wing AUC are officially equal enemies, but both the Colombian and U.S. governments display far more interest in combating the former than the latter.

Money to continue a U.S.-paid aerial fumigation program has been withheld pending proof that the herbicide being sprayed on drug crops is nontoxic and safely used. Neither the military certification nor the herbicide information has been provided.

In February, the Senate prohibited spending any of the new 2002 money for any purpose, until the administration provides a more detailed outline of its strategy.

According to senior Colombian and U.S. officials, the cutoff is beginning to pinch. "We're scraping bits and pieces" left in accounts from earlier years to keep the military and spraying programs going, an administration official said. But "we're at a precipice in terms of where there begins to be an impact."

While arguing there has been modest progress in all areas of U.S. effort in Colombia, the administration agrees it has been insufficient. Army collusion with AUC, which the State Department's human rights reporting holds responsible for civilian massacres and brutality as well as drug trafficking, has continued, while there have been few advances in the war that both are fighting against FARC.

Members of Congress also have asked why the administration proposes spending more money to defend Colombia, including more than $500 million requested for 2003, when Colombia itself is spending less.

Although Pastrana increased defense spending in 1998, his first year in office, it has declined as a percentage of gross domestic product every year since then. Colombia now spends slightly less than 2 percent of its GDP on the army, and 3.3 percent for all security forces combined.

"I'm not at all satisfied with the commitments" Colombia has made, Rep. Sonny Callahan (R-Ala.) told administration officials. "We're talking about a lot of money going into a very small area that can show me zero progress."

Note: Pastrana, Bush Ask a Skeptical Congress to Lift Restrictions.

Source: Washington Post (DC)
Author: Karen DeYoung, Washington Post Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, April 16, 2002; Page A16
Copyright: 2002 The Washington Post Company
Contact: letterstoed@washpost.com
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com

Related Articles & Web Sites:

Colombia Mobilization
http://www.colombiamobilization.org/

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

Colombia's Chief Wants More US Help
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12532.shtml

High Stakes in Colombia
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12529.shtml


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Comment #2 posted by dddd on April 16, 2002 at 23:39:20 PT
..it's not good....
....this Colombian aid limits,,is a false quandry,,,nearly insignificant!... .Does anyone believe that some sort of congressional approval will make a difference in the big picture?,,,...it is long,,but I highly recommend reading the excellent link FoM posted from Narconews..........
... consider the national media coverage of South America........
..Imagine the paralell between the oil profiteers of the middle east,and those in S.A.......Oil money creates profits and riches beyond belief.....the US has been messin' around with S.A.,and have used the fake-out of a drug war,to sieze the BIG oil!!...next thing will probably be;,,reports of Venezuela being a cocaine smugglin' and producing country!,,full of terrorists .........................
.I know,,,,I always say too much. .. . but I gotta say, again ,,that this "War on Terror",can be used to justify any aggression..........After the grotesque display of military toys playtime, that the shrub/defense did in Afghanistan, all in the name of "Bringin' 'em ta justice!",,,"thuh Evildoers".........it's off the edge now!, Anything goes! What can the US say about Isreal slaughtering Palestinians???.. Not Much......The idea of "terrorists",is now acceppted amongst the Sheeple................Watch Out Everybody!!! ..The only thing that seperates you from being a terrorist,, , , is being bestowed with the "terrorist label"!!!!This Aint Pretty!....If you think I'm over-doing it,, then consider the "Terror alert Color Code".thing.It's like part of a cheap fiction novel!............ Think about what they are already getting away with!..?.. Your government... Our government!.... Our "represenative government" ,is now able to identify "terrorists",,and issue;"terror alerts" .. ..ya know,, I kinda thought about Joe McCarthey. There are some spooky similarities....Communist..Terrorist..Drug User ,,,they are all Offenders,,and they must be "brought to juistice"........"Communist Alert"...."Communist Alert Level"....
..I guess,,that one way to explain what it all boils down to;,,is to put it in terms of "Labels"... .. Who gets to be the one to decide the labels?.....You may have thought that you were a Patriot, ,but not any more! You are a Terrorist now,because if you were a patriot,you would agree with the government.Lawyers are not an option,,because as a "terrorist",you are under a bunch of new laws.....
..Here's the bottom line,,I'm a starred and striped,,red ,white, and blue American Patriot!.I love American people....I am indellibly American,,born and bred from fine mid fifties baby-boomer stock! I love my country! ,,It's the best!,,,,,but I think the government is fucked!!They are bogarting all the Freedom!...........
.I'm on board the Galactic Mayflower,,,...
...live from outer space....dddd...


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Comment #1 posted by FoM on April 16, 2002 at 08:40:47 PT
NarcoNews - Three Days that Shook the Media
April 15, 2002
A Narco News White Paper
Narco News '02
Authentic Journalism on the "War on Drugs" in Latin America
"The Name of Our Country is América" - Simón Bolívar

Three Days that Shook the Media

Complete Article: http://www.narconews.com/threedays.html

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