Pubdate: Mon, 21 Oct 2002
Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 2002 Orlando Sentinel
Contact:  http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/325
Author: Paul Richter, Washington Bureau, Los Angeles Times

PENTAGON SHIFTS PRIORITY FROM DRUGS TO TERRORISM

WASHINGTON -- Citing the need to redirect resources to the war on 
terrorism, the Pentagon has quietly decided to scale back its effort to 
combat international drug trafficking, a central element of the national 
"war on drugs" for 14 years.

Officials are still weighing how exactly to pare the $1 billion-a-year 
program, but they want to reduce deployment of special-operations troops on 
counternarcotics missions and cut back the military's training of anti-drug 
police and soldiers in the United States and abroad. And they want to use 
intelligence-gathering equipment now devoted to counterdrug work for 
counterterrorism as well.

But the military's counternarcotics effort is highly popular among some on 
Capitol Hill, where the retrenchment plans could run into trouble. The 
plans have not yet been spelled out for lawmakers; however, Defense 
Department memos and interviews with current and former officials make the 
Pentagon's intentions clear.

Congress ordered a reluctant Pentagon to enter the drug war in 1988, when 
surging cocaine traffic from South America sparked a sense of crisis in the 
United States. "We should not be relaxing our efforts in the war on drugs," 
said Rep. Porter Goss, R-Sanibel, chairman of the House Select Committee on 
Intelligence and an important advocate for the effort. "Terrorism is the 
highest priority, but drugs are still insidious."

T he Pentagon's plans have been couched in indirect terms. They were 
signaled this summer in a memo from Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz 
and distributed to senior uniformed and civilian officials.

He said the department had "carefully reviewed its existing 
counternarcotics policy" because of "the changed national-security 
environment, the corresponding shift in the department's budget and other 
priorities, and evolving support requirements." The Pentagon will now focus 
its counternarcotics activities on programs that, among other things, 
"contribute to the war on terrorism," Wolfowitz said.

But even before the Sept. 11 attacks, senior officials including Defense 
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had bluntly stated their lack of enthusiasm for 
the anti-drug mission, which they contend is better handled by civilian 
agencies.

Some experts think the Defense Department may be taking advantage of the 
war on terrorism to scale back a mission they never wanted.

In an interview, Pentagon counterdrug chief Andre Hollis emphasized that 
the Pentagon wants to retain parts of the program that have worked well but 
that all the pieces are being examined to determine whether each "is still 
a priority mission. The top priorities now are to defend the homeland and 
to win the war on terrorism."

Paul Richter is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, a Tribune publishing 
newspaper.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom