RISKY SHOOTDOWN POLICY PAUSE

It has now been more than two months since the tragic April 20 accidental
shootdown of an innocent civilian aircraft over the skies of Peru,
mistakenly identified as a drug-trafficking flight by the Peruvian air force.

While the U.S.-backed shootdown policy continues to be on hold and the
incident under investigation by a State Department-led team, the skies over
Peru and Colombia are wide open for drug traffickers moving narcotics in
the region, and inevitably, to our nation's streets and communities to
destroy our young people.

Concerning our nation's policy on interdiction of drugs with foreign
military cooperative efforts, we need to carefully evaluate where we go
from here in light of the recent tragic events in Peru. One thing we should
not do, regarding the Peruvian aerial shootdown policy on illicit drug
trafficking in the skies over the Andes, is throw out the baby with the
bath water.

The tragic loss of innocent life that has occurred is regrettable, and our
sympathy and that of this nation goes out to the families of those killed
and injured in this unfortunate incident. Fortunately, in the many years in
which our government has worked side-by-side with the Peruvian authorities
to effectively intercept aerial drug trafficking from that drug-producing
region, no similar incident has occurred. We must work to ensure that it
never happens again.

In both Colombia and Peru, under this effective program there have been
nearly 100 shootdowns or forced groundings of illicit drug flights, all
without any tragic incident such as the case on April 20 in Peru. Peru is
no longer the world's leading coca producer and has seen a 68 percent
reduction of its illicit coca crop, mainly because of this air bridge
denial program. This has driven the cost of production and trafficking up
sufficiently that it exceeds any likely profits, with the result that poor
Peruvian farmers are abandoning their illicit fields and turning to other
international crops. This is good for our children here at home and all
around the globe.

It is incumbent upon our nation and the Peruvian government to fully
investigate this tragic occurrence and to develop future safeguards in the
program so this never happens again. We need to do all we can to get this
program back up and running as soon as possible with these new safeguards,
based upon the ongoing interagency review now under way in Peru.

Where appropriate, we must also work to establish accountability for those
responsible for this recent tragedy. A suspension of information-sharing in
order to conduct this ongoing interagency review should be adequate to
learn the facts and to determine reforms to prevent this type of tragedy
from recurring. However, this interruption must not provide an advantage to
the drug traffickers and cause any more loss of life. We must still
confront these merchants of death, who are moving massive amounts of
cocaine into our communities and destroying the lives of thousands of our
young people.

While not excusing or minimizing this tragedy, we must bear in mind that
nearly 16,000 Americans lose their lives each year from the use of and sale
of illicit drugs, many of which originate in the Andean Ridge area,
including Peru. The tragic loss of innocent life in Peru needs to be viewed
in the overall context of the illicit drug problem facing our nation,
destroying our young people and communities.

We should not over react by allowing the skies of Latin America to once
again be awash with drug-trafficking flights, moving their deadly poison
more and more in our direction, taking the lives of many more innocent
young people, here and elsewhere around the globe.

With regard to the contention by many that demand here at home is where the
emphasis should be in our drug policy, it is important to bear in mind that
we are already spending billions to reduce that demand for drugs here in
the United States. In turn, an unlimited supply of ever-cheaper, purer, and
highly addictive drugs coming in unabated from abroad, impacts and
increases demand here at home, as well. Simultaneously, we need to
accomplish the reduction in supply and demand together, not one at the
expense of the other.

The aerial drug-trafficking shootdown program in the Andean Ridge region,
which produces all of the world's cocaine, needs to be restored as part of
the supply-reduction effort. One tragedy doesn't justify more death and
destruction on our nation's streets and communities.

I am urging the Bush administration to restore this vital air policy as
quickly as possible, over the skies of both Colombia and Peru, consistent
with recommended changes necessary, which result from the investigation of
the tragic April 20 incident.