END SOUGHT TO COCAINE CONTRACTORS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Lawmakers are trying to force the government to stop
hiring U.S. companies for dangerous counternarcotics missions in South
America. Two proposals -- one to phase out the use of contractors in
Colombia, the other to end it entirely in the entire Andean region -- were
introduced recently in Congress. The measures were prompted by concerns
about the role of contractors flying State Department-sponsored drug
eradication missions in Colombia. But those worries intensified after the
Peruvian Air Force on April 20 shot down a plane carrying American
missionaries that a CIA-hired surveillance crew had identified as a
possible drug flight. Lawmakers are angry that the CIA has refused to
publicly identify the contractor or provide details of its work. "I think
it really underscored the need for transparency and accountability," said
Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., a member of the House International
Relations Committee. With bipartisan support, Delahunt last Wednesday
amended the committee's version of the State Department authorization bill
to say that the government should try to phase out the use of U.S.
companies for antidrug missions in Colombia. Responsibility would be
transferred to Colombian security forces. Delahunt's amendment also would
require annual reports identifying the U.S. businesses hired for the
missions and providing information about their pay, purpose and the risks
they face. A bill introduced last month by Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.,
would effectively ban the use of private businesses for counternarcotics
operations. "I think the American taxpayers are funding a secret war that
could suck us into a Vietnam-like conflict," she said. The State
Department's counternarcotics bureau said it could not comment on the
Delahunt and Schakowsky proposals.

It noted that the bureau's director, Assistant Secretary of State Rand
Beers, was in Peru leading the team investigating the missionary plane
shooting. At a House Government Reform subcommittee meeting last week,
Schakowsky, one of the most liberal lawmakers, and Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind.,
one of the most conservative, found common ground in their outrage over the
little information released about the missionary plane incident. The small
aircraft had been spotted by a surveillance plane operated by a CIA
contractor, which identified it as a possible drug flight and alerted
Peru's air force.

U.S. officials say the crew later realized it was likely an innocent
flight, but couldn't stop Peruvians from shooting it down. An American
woman and her infant daughter were killed. The CIA has declined to identify
the contractor. News reports have said it is Aviation Development Corp. of
Montgomery, Ala. Company President Lex Thistlethwaite did not return
messages seeking comment. Anti-drug agencies rely on contractors for a
variety of counternarcotic purposes in the Andes. In some cases, they are
needed for short-term missions in which it doesn't pay for the United
States to hire new employees, said Dennis Jett, a former ambassador to
Peru. But there's another reason, Jett noted. "In terms of politicians,
there's less sensitivity if there were a fatality for a contractor than a
man in uniform or a woman in uniform," he said. This has been seen as a big
consideration in Colombia, where the State Department uses Reston,
Va.-based Dyncorp to fly fumigation missions over fields of coca and poppy,
the raw materials for cocaine and heroin. "Congressional attitude and
public attitudes toward not getting our military involved clearly point you
to contractors," said Myles Frechette, a former ambassador to Colombia.
Dyncorp employees have come under fire while flying eradication missions in
territory controlled by leftist guerrillas. On Feb. 18, contractors flew by
helicopter into a gun battle in southern Colombia and rescued the crew of a
downed police helicopter. Delahunt said his proposal would help avoid
"mission creep" -- the gradual escalation of U.S. involvement in Colombia
- -- by having Colombians take on more anti-drug missions. The State
Department says its policy has always been to help prepare Colombians to
take over the eradication missions, some of which have been handled by
Colombian National Police. In 1998, the U.S. Embassy in Bogota began
developing a plan to phase out the use of contractors, Congress' General
Accounting Office reported last year. But it said the plan was never
approved and was set aside following the approval of the $1.3 billion
anti-drug package. A State Department internal audit last year noted that
it is much more expensive to rely on contractors instead of Colombians. It
said a Dyncorp pilot receives $119,305 a year, compared with $45,000 for
contractors hired by Colombian National Police. The State Department also
must pay higher costs for housing and security. Dyncorp has a $200 million,
five-year contract with the department, company spokeswoman Janet Wineriter
said.