WASHINGTON -- With little to show for a costly U.S. campaign against Colombian drug trafficking, the Bush administration and some key lawmakers are seeking to redefine the effort as a war on economic and political terrorism. Officially, President Bush seeks no change in congressionally imposed limits that restrict Colombia's use of U.S. military equipment and training to fighting the drug war rather than battling two powerful rebel groups. "At this point in time, and I suspect for the future, we're in a counter-narcotics situation with the Colombians," said a senior administration official. "We are training their military and providing equipment for counter-narcotics." [continues 732 words]
Anti-Drug Effort To Go On Despite Health Protests WASHINGTON -- Chemicals sprayed on coca crops in Colombia as part of a massive campaign against drug trafficking can cause skin and eye irritations, the State Department acknowledged for the first time Thursday, but the effects are considered mild, and the Bush administration plans to push forward aggressively with the program. Part of the administration's $1.3 billion Plan Colombia initiative to help the South American country curtail its illicit cocaine industry, the aerial spraying of herbicides is viewed in Washington as the key to success. The Bush administration is opening a public-relations campaign for the spraying program out of concern that it will be halted by protests in Colombia and opposition from environmentalists. The State Department's senior official in charge of counternarcotics said he is so confident of the program's safety that he would be willing to put his family in a field while it was being sprayed with the plant killer. [continues 701 words]
WASHINGTON -- The United States is confronting a deteriorating military situation in Colombia that could present the Bush administration with the choice of retreat or much deeper involvement, according to a study for the Air Force. The report by the Rand Corp. released Friday criticizes the current focus on countering the booming narcotics trade that supplies much of the cocaine and heroin flowing into the U.S. Instead, it says, President Bush should recognize that powerful leftist rebel groups have merged with the narco-traffickers and present an inseparable challenge to the government. [continues 403 words]
U.S. Committed To Plan Colombia, A Potential Quagmire WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration is preparing to hand off to the next president a large commitment to finance Colombia's drug war, an effort that will take years to yield results and could widen to neighboring countries. President Clinton and his advisers make their point again and again: The new U.S.-funded war on drugs in South America won't turn into another Vietnam. With the passage of Plan Colombia, a $1.3 billion aid package, the United States is, in essence, going in with its wallet, not with its boots. [continues 1276 words]
Jack Straw has said - at last - that he's willing to have a reasonable debate about the use of cannabis. But he won't. The debate will be based on the assumption that cannabis is a dangerous and illegal drug, used only by sad old hippies and the disillusioned young. So let's get this straight; the argument about whether cannabis in any of its forms should be legalised isn't really about whether the stuff is bad for you, or about whether it leads the weak-willed to take heroin or cocaine, or even about whether the dope-crazed are more or less likely to go out and run down children as, whacked out by the weed, they forget how to drive straight. [continues 852 words]
(WASHINGTON) - Beset by one of the world's longest civil wars and by his nation's reputation as the world's biggest cocaine exporter, Colombian President Andres Pastrana came to town yesterday seeking billions in economic and military assistance. The Clinton administration and lawmakers seem willing to give it to him, and World Bank President James Wolfensohn added his support. But there is disagreement over what the money should buy. Democrats want the aid focused on drug exports, and they urge the Bogota government to negotiate an end to the civil war. But Republicans told Pastrana bluntly: no money as long as your government negotiates with rebels who support narcotics traffickers. [continues 414 words]
(Washington) -- Beset by one of the world's longest civil wars and by his nation's reputation as the world's biggest cocaine exporter, Colombian President Andres Pastrana came to town Wednesday seeking billions in economic and military assistance. The Clinton administration and lawmakers seem willing to give it to him, and World Bank President James Wolfensohn added his support. But there is disagreement over what the money should buy. Democrats want the aid focused on drug exports, and they urge the Bogota government to negotiate an end to the civil war. But Republicans told Pastrana bluntly: No money as long as your government is negotiating with rebels who support narcotics traffickers. [continues 959 words]
WASHINGTON -- The CIA failed to fully inform Congress and law enforcement agencies of reports that Nicaraguan Contras were involved in drug trafficking, according to a newly declassified agency study. While congressional oversight committees got some briefings during the U.S.-backed Contra wars of the 1980s, "CIA did not inform Congress of all allegations" linking Contras to drug trafficking, the CIA Inspector General L. Britt Snider concluded. "No information has been found to indicate that any U.S. law enforcement entity or executive branch agency was informed by CIA of drug trafficking allegations" concerning 11 Contra-related individuals who worked with the CIA, the report said. [continues 562 words]
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The CIA failed to fully inform Congress and law enforcement agencies of reports that Nicaraguan Contras were involved in drug trafficking, according to a newly declassified agency study. While congressional oversight committees got some briefings during the U.S.-backed Contra wars of the 1980s, ``CIA did not inform Congress of all allegations'' linking Contras to drug trafficking, the CIA Inspector General L. Britt Snider concluded. ``No information has been found to indicate that any U.S. law enforcement entity or executive branch agency was informed by CIA of drug trafficking allegations'' concerning 11 Contra-related individuals who worked with the CIA, the report said. [continues 566 words]
WASHINGTON - A second volume of a CIA study into agency connections to Nicaraguan contras in the 1980s supports earlier conclusions that the agency continued to work with individual rebels suspected of drug trafficking. Growing out of a hotly disputed newspaper account about the spread of crack cocaine in American cities, the CIA inspector general's report also confirmed earlier conclusions that there was no evidence that any CIA officials engaged in actual drug trafficking with contra rebels, a U.S. intelligence official said today. [continues 279 words]
WASHINGTON -- A CIA internal investigation found no evidence linking its employees, agents or operatives with the crack cocaine drug epidemic in the United States and no connection between the agency and three men at the center of that drug trade. The findings, released yesterday, dispute allegations made in a series of 1996 newspaper reports of a CIA link to cocaine trafficking in California. The CIA released the first of two volumes of conclusions reached by agency Inspector General Frederick Hitz, who led a 17-member team that reviewed 250,000 pages of documents and conducted 365 interviews. [continues 360 words]
The agency's inspector general finds no evidence to support charges published in the San Jose Mercury News in 1996. WASINGTONThe CIA found no evidence that its employees or agents colluded with allies of the Nicaraguan contra rebels involved in crack cocaine sales in the United States,a senior official said Thursday. The San Jose Mercury News sparked the inquiry with a series of articles in August 1996. The series concluded that a San Francisco Bay area drug ring sold cocaine in southcentral Los Angeles and funneled profits to the contras for the better part of a decade. It traced the drugs to dealers who were also leaders of a CIArun guerrilla army in Nicaragua. [continues 437 words]
