Pubdate: Sun, 01 Oct 2000
Source: Daily Camera (CO)
Copyright: 2000 The Daily Camera.
Contact:  Open Forum, Daily Camera, P.O. Box 591, Boulder, CO 80306
Fax: 303-449-9358
Website: http://www.bouldernews.com/
Author: Jim Mann

A GOVERNMENT FOR THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

WASHINGTON - What's behind Washington's huge, expensive military 
intervention to combat drugs in Colombia?

Last week, the actions of the House Republican leadership suggested one 
possible answer: procurement. The Republican Congress, it appears, wants to 
help American defense firms sell helicopters for use in Colombia - and to 
obtain the prices they want for these copters.

This is not all that unusual. In fact, it's a classic example of how 
Congress sometimes works harder for private defense contractors than for 
taxpayers.

Last summer, the Clinton administration and Congress approved the $1.3 
billion Plan Colombia, a package of aid (most of it military) designed to 
bolster the Bogota government's efforts to eradicate drugs and to combat 
traffickers.

On Sept. 21, the House International Relations subcommittee on the Western 
Hemisphere summoned representatives of the State and Defense departments to 
a hearing on the progress of Plan Colombia.

The executive branch officials came armed with facts and figures on the 
details of the program.

But they had barely started before Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-Neb., made plain 
what the Republican leadership cared most about: concluding a deal for the 
use of Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.'s Black Hawk helicopters in Colombia.

Ordinarily, Bereuter wouldn't even have attended this hearing, because he 
isn't a member of the subcommittee. But he announced that he had come at 
the "personal request" of House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

Hastert, he said, was dismayed that it was taking too long for Sikorsky to 
obtain a contract for its Black Hawks.

The Republican leadership wanted to know why there had been so many delays. 
Congress had approved the purchase of 18 Black Hawk helicopters, but U.S. 
officials had subsequently said they might buy a lower number. Sikorsky was 
willing to sell 16 Black Hawks for $234 million, Bereuter said.

What was going on here? At first, it seemed as though the Republicans might 
be concerned only about speeding up Plan Colombia. The record shows that 
Hastert, to his credit, has taken a personal interest in the issue of 
stopping drugs for years, even before he became the House speaker.

Still, Bereuter persisted, growing more and more specific. "The Sikorsky 
offer still stands, $234 million for 16 Black Hawks," he told the executive 
branch officials. "Is that an understanding?"

Finally, Rand Beers, assistant secretary of State for narcotics programs, 
pointed to the underlying issue: In the original Plan Colombia, $234 
million was supposed to purchase 18 Black Hawks, and now Sikorsky seemed to 
be proposing to supply 16 helicopters for that same $234 million.

"Sikorsky is giving you a number for a lower number of helicopters, and 
that's not our objective," Beers said.

In short, the dispute wasn't just about timing, but also about price. And 
the House Republican leadership seemed to be weighing in on Sikorsky's side 
in its contract negotiations with the Pentagon.

This week, Sikorsky suggested that in Bereuter's effort to help, perhaps he 
had gotten his numbers wrong.

"We have said consistently that we would be prepared to deliver 18 
helicopters, appropriately configured, for $234 million, presuming timely 
contract negotiations with the government," said Scott Seligman, a 
spokesman for Sikorsky's parent company, United Technologies.

The point here is not that Republican lawmakers behave differently than the 
Democrats. In Congress, being solicitous of defense contractors is a 
bipartisan cause.

Sikorsky is located in Connecticut. Earlier this year, Connecticut's two 
Democratic senators, Joseph I. Lieberman and Christopher J. Dodd, both 
pushed hard for Sikorsky to win congressional approval for the use of Black 
Hawks in Colombia.

Rather, the point is that the pressures for contracts and sales in 
America's defense industry are so strong that neither of the major parties 
can resist them.

In the wake of the end of the Cold War, American companies have been eager 
to find new sorts of missions for which they can supply planes and 
helicopters. The drug war in Colombia is one such effort.

"The market for military equipment abroad is not great these days, and 
obviously these (helicopter) companies have to sustain their production 
base," says Gabriel Marcella, a specialist on Latin America at the U.S. 
Army War College.

Sikorsky is merely one of many U.S. companies that hope to take part in 
Plan Colombia. Last month, the Financial Times listed others, such as 
Textron, which is upgrading Huey helicopters, and Lockheed Martin, which 
makes early-warning systems. Other smaller, private companies will hire 
former American soldiers to help train the Colombian military.

Nearly four decades ago, in January 1961, President Eisenhower warned in 
his farewell address about the influence of what he famously called the 
"military-industrial complex."

What we're witnessing now is something new. It's the emergence of a 
narco-industrial complex - a proliferation of U.S. companies lining up, 
with congressional support, to obtain public money for anti-drug campaigns 
overseas.

Beware.
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