Pubdate: Mon, 03 April 2000
Source: Newsweek (US)
Copyright: 2000 Newsweek, Inc.
Contact:  251 West 57th Street, New York, N.Y. 10019
Website: http://www.newsweek.com/nw-srv/printed/us/
Author: Michael Isikoff and Gregory Vistica, with Steven Ambrus in Bogota

FIGHTING THE OTHER DRUG WAR --  IS A $1.3 BILLION COLOMBIA AID PACKAGE
SMART POLICY?

Photo Caption- A Colombian police officer gives the signal to land to
a U.S. donated Black Hawk helicopter in February. The plane is
providing security to crop-duster planes spraying poppy crops -- the
raw material of heroin, in Rionegro, Colombia.

March 26 --  Only last summer, the White House seemed wary of greater
U.S. involvement in Colombia's vicious drug war. Republicans on
Capitol Hill wanted to add muscle to Colombia's anti-drug forces, but
administration officials favored more diplomacy.

A top State Department official returned from a visit to Bogota and
described himself as "sobered, but certainly not panicked." Then,
two months ago, the president announced a stunning $1.3 billion aid
package, including 63 U.S.-made helicopters and other military hardware.

If approved by Congress, the massive program would be the largest
single increase in drug-war spending since Bill Clinton took office.

Critics -- including some inside the administration -- fear a nasty
entanglement. "When I first saw this," says a veteran U.S.
anti-drug official, "my reaction was, `What, are they nuts?' " Why
did Clinton suddenly change tack? The answer, according to a Newsweek
reconstruction, is a surprising Washington tale of the pressures that
influence White House foreign policy in an election year. No one
doubts that Colombia is a serious policy challenge, and many strongly
believe the aid package is a vital response.

But a series of other factors also came into play. Domestic politics
was one - and lobbying efforts by arms producers may have been another.

Few in the White House paid much heed to Colombia until last
September, when Democratic pollster Mark Mellman showed up with
worrisome news: the public perceived that "drug use" was on the
rise and was inclined to blame Democrats.

According to the White House version of the story, it was Clinton's
drug czar, Gen. Barry McCaffrey -- the former commander of all U.S.
forces in Latin America -- who convinced Clinton something had to be
done about Colombia. In White House meetings and in memos, McCaffrey
repeatedly pointed to Colombia's surging coca crop and increasing ties
between the country's Marxist guerrillas and its drug lords.

By last spring, the guerrillas were making daring raids into
government-controlled territory. The U.S. drug czar prodded Colombia's
new president, Andres Pastrana, to take more aggressive action,
telling him the guerrillas would be "outside his window" if his
military didn't strike harder.

McCaffrey was similarly blunt with his own boss, warning President
Clinton that his legacy was at stake. If the administration failed to
act against Colombia's narcoguerrillas, he told Clinton last summer,
the United States would soon face a blizzard of Colombian cocaine more
intense than anything seen before. "The country will say you let
this go," McCaffrey said to the president.

But it wasn't McCaffrey alone who prodded Clinton into
action.

Despite the drug czar's warnings, officials say, few in the White
House paid much heed until last September, when Democratic pollster
Mark Mellman showed up with worrisome news: the public perceived that
"drug use" was on the rise and was inclined to blame Democrats.
(In fact, government figures show overall drug use has been static for
the past five years.) Drugs, according to Mellman's polling, were one
issue where Republicans had a clear edge in the upcoming election.
"This issue is an Achilles' heel" for the party, Mellman warned.

As it turned out, the poll was hardly the idea of a disinterested
party: Newsweek has learned that it was commissioned by Lockheed
Martin, the giant defense contractor. As the maker of P-3 radar planes
used to track drug smugglers, the company had been pushing for heavy
increases for drug interdiction. But Lockheed was facing resistance,
especially from "liberal" Democrats on Capitol Hill, a company
official says. Mellman's findings -- based on telephone interviews
with 800 registered voters -- concluded that "56 percent" of the
electorate would support a $2 billion increase in funding for
"tracking planes to be flown in drug producing areas."

Other powerful interests also weighed in. Occidental Petroleum, which
has large investments in Colombia, pressed for greater U.S.
engagement, and the Colombian government retained the powerhouse
Washington law firm of Akin, Gump, to push for increased aid.
Lobbyists from two U.S. helicopter companies were even more
aggressive: Textron, maker of the Bell Huey, and United Technologies
Corp., whose Sikorsky Aircraft division makes the Black Hawk. Both
firms sent choppers to Washington's Reagan National Airport to impress
congressional members with gut-twisting rides.

The companies also made large campaign contributions. Federal election
records show that Textron and United Technologies donated $1.25
million to both parties between 1997 and 1999. Last year UT made a
strategic shift: having long favored gift-giving to Republicans, the
Connecticut-based firm earmarked two thirds of its "soft money" to
the Democrats, writing four checks totaling $125,000 to various
Democratic committees. The bulk of that money, $75,000, was deposited
in party accounts on one day, Dec. 31, 1999 -- 11 days before the
Colombia package was announced. (The company and the Democratic
National Committee deny any link between the events: "We didn't even
know the Black Hawks were going to be in there" until the plan was
released, a UT spokesman said. Lockheed and Textron officials also
denied trying to influence the White House.)

Republican operatives have pointed to the role of Sen. Christopher
Dodd, a former DNC chair.

The aid deal includes $400 million for 30 new Black Hawks, which are
made in Dodd's home state of Connecticut. Even administration
officials acknowledge the Colombian Army lacks enough hangars and
pilots to handle so many choppers. "A year ago we couldn't get them
to fund three Black Hawks -- and now they want 30?" says one GOP
staffer. Dodd, who visited Colombia last December, denies ever
mentioning his home-state choppers to administration officials -- or
knowing anything about the company's last-minute campaign infusion.

McCaffrey acknowledges that it will be some time before the Colombians
will be able to use the choppers, even if the package survives the
scrutiny of Republicans in Congress. "This is a five-year
engagement," he says. By then, Clinton's Colombia troubles will be
in someone else's hands.
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MAP posted-by: Allan Wilkinson