Pubdate: Sun, 03 Jun 2001
Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 2001 Orlando Sentinel
Contact:  http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/325
Author: Pedro Ruz Gutierrez

BREVARD BASE GUIDES ANTI-DRUG FIGHT

PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE -- A big part of the war on drugs in Colombia is 
being waged from a conference room wedged between two hangars at this 
military complex near Cocoa Beach.

Maps line the walls, showing the latest target areas where Colombian 
peasants and their drug-trade landlords are trying to make a living.

Red dots, identifying coca fields in Colombia's southern plains, swarm the 
bottoms and sides of the poster-sized maps. The yellow areas show recent 
spray sorties by U.S. planes in the embattled South American nation.

Inside one of the many cramped, subdivided offices, mapping analysts stay 
busy plotting the latest spray patterns and grids of Colombia's coca and 
opium fields -- the raw crops for cocaine and heroin -- with colorful 
computer graphics. Outside, mechanics inspect spare parts. They refurbish 
surplus Vietnam War-era helicopters and convert military planes into 
crop-dusters.

This sprawling base, better known for its support role in Air Force rocket 
launches from nearby Cape Canaveral, is the nerve center for U.S. 
drug-eradication programs in Colombia and elsewhere. As the maintenance, 
planning and training center for the U.S. State Department's Air Wing, it 
plays a crucial role in the $1.3 billion U.S. aid package approved last 
year for Plan Colombia.

One of the major goals of the plan: cut coca production in half within 
three years and, in doing so, take away a major source of income for armed 
groups who are fueling acivil war that kills nearly 4,000 Colombians a year.

But it's still too early to tell whether Plan Colombia will succeed.

So far this year, U.S. and Colombian pilots have sprayed 94,000 acres, or 
about one-fourth of the crop.

Despite the record spraying, though, varying estimates show that coca is 
still booming and that cultivation is sprouting in other areas.

The spraying campaign also is igniting widespread criticism -- especially 
from growers and Colombian politicians who claim the effort is making 
farmers sick, damaging the environment and killing other crops such as 
bananas and corn. In response, Colombian authorities are drawing up new 
environmental-impact studies.

Critics also say the early stages of Plan Colombia have not lived up to 
Colombian President Andres Pastrana's promise to complement the fumigation 
with simultaneousinvestments in alternative crops.

Regardless, a State Department official said Friday that the spraying will 
succeed because the United States is throwing more resources into the 
campaign, including a doubling of the crop-dusting fleet from 11 to 22.

'No secrets'

It's dangerous and controversial work directed by career State Department 
officers but often executed by for-profit U.S. companies. At Patrick alone, 
the State Department employs 158 people, the bulk of whom are contractors.

The practice, known as "outsourcing," is under growing scrutiny, especially 
after the downing of a U.S. missionary plane over Peru in April. That was a 
CIA-contracted operation erroneously linked to DynCorp, the State 
Department's defoliation contractor in Colombia. DynCorp, a Fortune 500 
company based in Reston, Va., takes in more than $1 billion a year in 
revenue from government contracts in the United States and abroad. It 
subcontracts the airplane-pilot portion of the drug-fumigation program to 
Eagle Aviation Services & Technology (EAST Inc.), also of Virginia.

Critics, including defense specialists, human-rights groups and 
congressmen, have frequently said the trend of privatizing U.S. government 
operations is convenient for foreign policy. It lacks accountability, the 
contracts often are hidden from the public and it gives government agencies 
a perfect cover in case something goes wrong abroad.

Conversely, government agencies and the military argue that private 
contractors are more efficient and cheaper.

John McLaughlin, the State Department's air-division chief at Patrick, is 
an avowed advocate of aerial spraying and outsourcing. McLaughlin, a 
22-year agency veteran, believes only a steady commitment to spraying in 
countries such as Colombia will have a lasting effect.

In fact, $119 million for aerial fumigation was allocated in last year's 
U.S. contribution to Plan Colombia.

"It's not a black program," said McLaughlin, 59, using the term for covert 
government operations. "I can't think of anything that's secret."

The State Department, however, often shuns publicity, and its contractors 
are barred from publicizing their work. McLaughlin, a former Air Force jet 
pilot, calls them "patriots" who are often drawn to the work because of 
their military background.

DynCorp employees at Patrick said they resent being portrayed as Uncle 
Sam's mercenaries.

"Quite frankly, it's been insulting to us," chief helicopter mechanic Earl 
Meade, 35, said.

The Army veteran and former Apache helicopter crew chief said money -- 
pilots' salaries run from $95,000 to $180,000 -- is not the only incentive.

"It's about the mission," Meade said.

For him, it's a personal crusade to stamp out drugs from American streets.

"I'm raising three children. There's not a whole lot of fathers who can say 
they're actually doing something about it."

High-risk acrobats

Up to six flight trainers take advantage of Brevard County's vast rural 
landscape to teach American and foreign recruits how to fly at more than 
200 mph only dozens of feet above treetops while releasing a powerful mist 
of weedkiller.

Aviators learn how to apply the herbicide glyphosate using satellite-guided 
panels while their helicopter counterparts and crews learn how to maneuver 
in hostile territory and escort the planes. Paramedics are taught to rappel 
from choppers during search-and-rescue missions. And equally important, 
everybody undergoes survival training in case of capture by armed groups.

In this case, the enemy is Colombia's powerful leftist guerrillas.

 From the wide canopy of a refurbished OV-10 Bronco military airplane at 
2,000 feet, Central Florida's palms, pines and other foliage below look 
eerily similar to Colombia's lowlands. That's where the similarities end, 
though.

In Colombia's plains and lush countryside, pilots and crews face armed 
peasants and guerrillas. The ground fire comes not only from small arms 
such as AK-47 assault rifles, but also from guerrillas toting 
rocket-propelled-grenade launchers. The low-flying acrobats sometimes 
encounter gunfire at point-blank range as they zoom past rooftops and shacks.

The hazards on the ground or the skies are ever present.

The State Department measures the threat in bullet hits. Through mid-May, 
State Department aircraft had taken at least 81 bullets, a figure expected 
to surpass last year's record 124 hits.

Some of those holes and impressions are clearly visible on the aircraft 
when they return to Patrick for maintenance.

Though no contractors have been killed or wounded from ground fire, three 
American pilots have died in accidents in Colombia since 1997. Another U.S. 
contract pilot was injured during an ejection from an OV-10 spray plane 
last year.

To lessen the dangers, State Department planes have armor-plated fuselages 
and bulletproof cockpits. Night-vision goggles allow operations to continue 
under the cover of darkness. And forward-looking infrared systems guide 
escorting Colombian helicopter gunners who often spray machine-gun fire to 
deter ground attacks. Civilian contractors are not supposed to engage armed 
groups directly. But it happened in February when a search-and-rescue 
helicopter team was called in to save the crew of a downed Colombian police 
helicopter. The U.S.-Colombian team landed in the middle of a gunfight in 
the region of Caqueta, not far from a 16,000-square-mile zone ceded by the 
government to the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) 
rebels, but escaped unscathed.

The missions

Five days before last Christmas, a fleet of six OV-10 Broncos and six T-65 
Turbo Thrushes took to the skies in the southern province of Putumayo and 
began a 45-day fumigation campaign that extended into neighboring Caqueta 
province.

Before them, two U.S.Green Beret-trained Colombian army counter-narcotics 
battalions had begun an air assault with dozens of Bell UH-1N Hueys 
recently renovated at Patrick. They secured large swaths of coca-growing 
fields ahead of the fumigation pilots.

Their mission: to unload thousands of gallons of glyphosate, the chemical 
weedkiller also present in the household product Roundup.

After the campaign, U.S. and Colombian government officials reacted with 
glee at one of the most prolonged spray operations in recent history.

When the aviators and crews, both U.S. and foreign, had finished, about 
61,700 acres of coca fields had been sprayed with littleresistance. 
Observers said that wasn't surprising, considering Colombia's powerful 
right-wing paramilitaries controlled the targeted areas and did not object 
to the spray.

The story on the ground was different.

Peasants, backed by indigenous groups and local politicians, fiercely 
complained of having their livelihoods wrecked by the fumigation. Reports 
of skin rashes and respiratory ailments were common.But the growers found a 
way to fight the wilting effects of herbicides on their small 5-acre plots: 
They clipped the bushes soon after they were sprayed so the roots and stems 
survived. Officials estimate they are saving up to a quarter of their coca.

High-tech future

Sometimes, estimating drug crops in Colombia can be tricky. The United 
Nations, the CIA, the State Department and even Colombian authorities have 
all offered differing predictions. As recently as last month, the U.N. 
drug-control office in Bogota presented a satellite study that showed far 
more cultivated coca than previously thought.

Despite the criticism, U.S. government officials remain hopeful that more 
extensive mapping at Patrick, the conversion of the newer A-10 Warthog 
military aircraft to crop-dusters and more spraying finally will start 
having an impact.

For example, before the spray missions in the Putumayo, a Cessna plane 
mounted with a $1.7 million digital-imaging system took pictures of the 
coca fields and then used a satellite to find coordinates for targeted 
areas. That information later was copied onto computer programs that 
alerted airborne pilots when to open the spray nozzles.

The eventual goal of the fumigation program is to transfer the equipment, 
technology and know-how to Colombian agencies in a couple of years.

However, government officials and experts are predicting the U.S. presence 
- -- and Patrick Air Force Base's contribution -- may well last longer.

"The difference between the previous effort and now is . . . we have a 
larger program and resources," said Rand Beers, head of international 
narcotics and law-enforcement affairs for the State Department.
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MAP posted-by: GD