COLOMBIAN AID BILL CONTAINS REFERENCES TO ARMED MERCENARIES TAKING PART IN
THAT COUNTRY'S WAR ON DRUGS

DAN RATHER, anchor: The United States could soon have a much bigger role in
the war on drugs in Colombia. CBS' Cynthia Bowers has been reading the
fine print in new legislation that could reach the House floor as early as
tomorrow.

CYNTHIA BOWERS reporting: The messy civil war in Colombia threatens to
spill over onto Capitol Hill as Congress considers legislation that could
dramatically escalate America's involvement. When lawmakers agreed to fund
last year's $1.3 billion aid package called Plan Colombia, it was sold as
an anti-drug initiative. It also paid up to 300 private military
contractors from US companies like MPRI and DynCorp. to train Colombia's
military, but the Americans were barred from engaging in battles against
leftist guerrillas. This year's package could change that. Buried deep in
the aid bill are a couple of innocuous-looking sentences some in Congress
find shocking.

Representative JOHN CONYERS (Democrat, Michigan): What it means is we're
getting into the war, baby.

BOWERS: What the provisions would do is give the Bush administration a free
hand in sending unrestricted numbers of private military personnel, or
mercenaries, into Colombia and, for the first time ever, allow them to take
part in the fighting.

John Conyers' staff uncovered what he calls a sneaky attempt to escalate
the war without anyone noticing.

Rep. CONYERS: It was not advertised in the plan and is a way of getting us
more and more into the war. Not good, and we caught you.

BOWERS: Republican Congressman Jim Kolbe added the provisions, but says
it's not about military involvement.

Representative JIM KOLBE (Republican, Arizona): And nobody's talking about
them being armed or being mercenaries or going out into the field.

BOWERS: So is that why the language about allowing them to be armed...

Rep. KOLBE: Yes. It's just carrying their own side arms, basically, is
what we're talking about.

BOWERS: Conyers points out that was always allowed. He's sponsoring an
amendment to strike the new provisions because of his growing concern that
America is on the verge of becoming more involved in Colombia's war.
Cynthia Bowers, CBS News, Washington.