HAGEL: U.S. MUST HELP IN DRUG WAR

U.S. vital interests are at stake in South America's violent drug war,
Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel said Thursday.

Hagel, who has just returned from a tour of battleground bases in Colombia
and Ecuador, said narcotics traffickers are a threat to U.S. national
security, as well as American economic and societal interests.

"We have a very, very serious problem on our hands," he said in a telephone
interview from Washington. "This is at our doorstep. We must help. We've
got a big stake here."

Hagel joined four other senators on a trip to interior bases where U.S.
military personnel help train Colombian and Ecuadorian forces in their
battle of surveillance and interdiction. Intelligence overflights lead to
spraying of coca leaf crops, which are used to produce cocaine.

The senators also met with each country's president.

"Colombia's future sovereignty is at stake," Hagel said. The government
controls only about half of the country today.

Increased drug traffic "popped out into Ecuador" when pressure was
successfully applied in Bolivia and Peru, Hagel said.

Narcoterrorists have adopted kidnapping as an ancillary enterprise in
addition to drug trafficking, he said.

Their activities have the potential to destabilize much of South America,
Hagel said. Meanwhile, the continued flow of drugs into the United States
"tears at the fabric of our society," he said.

The worst cost is measured in "what drugs do to our young people," he said.
But there are other costs in terms of economic losses and fewer trade
opportunities, Hagel said.

"There is a scourge sweeping across America and much of it is coming from
Latin America," he said.

His firsthand look at operations in Colombia and Ecuador lead him to
believe "we're generally on the right path," Hagel said.

"We need to provide training and resources to combat these
multimillion-dollar drug operations," he said. "But we have to keep working
to find the right answers."

One is to help poor peasants build an alternative economic future, Hagel
said. He supports legislation to give Colombia the same trade status
accorded to Caribbean nations, allowing it to export textiles and shoes
into the U.S. market without tariffs.