U.S. USE OF CONTRACTORS IN DRUG WAR IS QUERIED; COLOMBIA SHOULD EMPLOY
LOCALS, CRITICS SAY

Their presence grew as Colombia's drug war intensified in the 1990s, with
the United States hiring American pilots, radar operators, former army
Special Forces trainers and other ex-military personnel to carry out
important missions.

Under private contracts known to only a few members of the U.S. Congress,
these specialists -- all working for American companies -- have flown spray
planes and helicopters, trained and advised Colombian military personnel,
repaired high-tech machinery and helped pave remote airfield runways.

Supporters of private contractors say that, overall, the companies have
completed important work while relieving American military specialists who
would otherwise have had to uproot from other strategically significant
regions.

But now, questions are being raised in the U.S. Congress and even by
Colombian officials about the logic of relying on private companies for
operations that are not open to public scrutiny.

Americans working in Colombia are constantly exposed to danger, critics
note, with three American pilots killed since 1997 when their spray planes
crashed. Also of concern to policymakers in Washington and military
officials in Bogota is whether the United States should be spending tens of
millions of dollars annually on contractors when Colombian officials say
Colombians could be trained to complete the same operations for much less
money.

The largest of the companies operating in Colombia is DynCorp of Reston,
Virginia, a $1.4 billion company that has handled many tasks in Colombia in
the last 10 years. It was awarded a 5-year, $170 million contract in 1998,
according to government reports. American congressional aides familiar with
DynCorp say that the company's pilots can earn more than $100,000 a year,
conducting operations that Colombian pilots could do for under $40,000

"When we get a contractor here, we always think we could probably get a
Colombian to do this, and a lot cheaper," said a high-ranking official in
President Andres Pastrana's administration who is familiar with
contractors. "We can do it with a Colombian company, and it would cost 60
percent less."

But R. Rand Beers, assistant secretary of state for international narcotics
and law enforcement affairs, said that finding qualified personnel in
Colombia was not always easy. And going to the American military is not the
catch-all answer, since U.S. forces do not employ pilots for crop-spraying
or the mechanics and logistics experts needed for defoliation programs.

Hiring private contractors, Mr. Beers said, is often the best option,
giving the government flexibility to hire for short-term jobs while
choosing from a pool of experienced companies that offer services tailored
for places like Colombia.

In April, a Peruvian fighter plane involved in an anti-drug program
supported by the United States mistakenly shot down a private plane
carrying missionaries from the United States, killing a woman, Veronica
Bowers, and her infant daughter. American contractors on a surveillance
aircraft flying nearby had alerted the Peruvians that the airplane might be
suspicious because of where it was flying.

Representative Bill Delahunt, a Democrat on the House International
Relations Committee, said contract work in Colombia must become more public
"to establish some transparency to ensure accountability."

With bipartisan support from other members of the committee, Mr. Delahunt
sponsored an amendment to a State Department authorization bill that calls
for detailed reports on contractors in Colombia and for American workers to
be replaced by Colombians if and when qualified personnel are made
available. The legislation was approved Wednesday in the House.

"We don't need, given the incident in Peru and our experiences in Latin
America in the past, shadowy relationships where information is difficult
to secure and where activities tend to be obscure," Mr. Delahunt said.

Some military experts and analysts note that contractors have fulfilled
crucial missions since World War II. They tend to be highly trained and
offer expertise when the American military is stretched thin, said Gabriel
Marcella, who teaches at the U.S. Army War College and has written
extensively about Colombia's conflict. These specialists, military analysts
say, can quickly fill posts in places like Colombia without compromising
American military commitments in other regions.

To human rights groups and some policymakers in the U.S. Congress, the use
of contractors provides a way for the American government to deny or play
down any responsibility if something goes wrong. And some policymakers fear
that, if Colombia's conflict escalates, the use of contractors could grow.

"What we're seeing is the out-sourcing of the war down there," said a
senior Republican aide in Washington.