Pubdate: Fri, 07 Jul 2000
Source: American Press (LA)
Copyright: 2000 Shearman Corporation
Contact:  P.O. Box 2893, Lake Charles, LA 70602
Fax: (337) 494-4070
Website: http://www.americanpress.com/

BASE CLOSING HINDERS WAR EFFORT ON DRUGS

Just about when the taxpayer/voter thinks our leaders in government may 
have somehow, somewhere, managed to do something right, the illusion 
disappears like a puff of smoke - leaving us worse off, and poorer, than we 
were.

With decades of history and massive documentation that Panama was an 
absolutely necessary cog for our drug-war wheel, our best and brightest 
politicians ignored that fact when we handed the Panama Canal over to that 
tiny country.

The turnover was complete. What we left in Panama, along with the Canal, is 
a now-deserted Howard Air Force base that gave us gave us an ideal 
launching pad for counternarcotics surveillance flights - a key element of 
U.S. efforts to curb the flow of cocaine and heroin from South America.

Howard Air Force Base isn't only abandoned, it no longer belongs to the 
U.S. We gave the base to Panama when we pulled our military out of that 
country.

It didn't take long for that error to have an effect. Drug movement in the 
entire area has picked up dramatically since we handed over what many U.S. 
and Latin American officials claimed was an irreplaceable weapon in the war 
on drugs.

There has been a major upsurge in small aircraft leaving Colombia and in 
heroin and cocaine shipments leaving the country, observers say.

Colombian Minister of Defense Luis Fernando Ramirez confirms the heightened 
activity. Since Howard's drug operations shut down in May of last year, he 
said, there has been an increase in drug trafficking flights out of the 
country, and the Pacific has been left totally unprotected by radar.

Incredibly, the top military officials for the area say we shouldn't talk 
about the problem. ''Confirming what windows are left unlocked for the 
burglar is not a good idea,'' said a spokesman for the U.S. Southern 
Command, the warfighting command with responsibility for Central and South 
America.

Even total silence wouldn't fool the drug lords, however. The counterdrug 
operations at Howard Air Force Base included 2,000 surveillance flights a 
year. It's hard not to notice when those flights disappear.

Meanwhile, we're spending tons of money in an attempt to replace the base 
we gave away. Three airfields have been activated, but runway improvements 
at Manta and airplane parking areas on Curacao and Aruba are unfinished.

Even accepting the rationale of the administration that the new bases will 
eventually give the U.S. a heightened effort in the war against drugs, 
there is still a huge hole where common sense should have been located.

We had years - even decades - to deal with the known effects of the closing 
of Howard Air Force Base. And we did nothing.

We obviously need new heads on this matter. It's pretty dumb to let the 
same people who left us in the lurch try to get us back in step again.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D