SOUTH AMERICAN DRUG INTERDICTION FLIGHTS MAY RESUME

WASHINGTON - President Bush is expected to approve the resumption of a
program to force or shoot down airplanes suspected of ferrying drugs in
Latin America, a year after the program was halted by the mistaken downing
of a plane carrying American missionaries in Peru, U.S. officials say.

Once the president gives his final approval, the State Department would
take over the program from the Central Intelligence Agency, and U.S.
officials said air interdiction operations could begin in Colombia as early
as this fall and would probably be expanded to Peru later. The Pentagon
would support the program as well, providing intelligence about suspected
drug flights gathered from ground-based radar and other sources, officials
said.

The program calls for the United States to identify and locate suspected
drug planes, and for Colombian and Peruvian air force planes to shoot them
down if they do not respond to calls to land. U.S. officials said the
governments of both Colombia and Peru had expressed support for restarting
the operation.

The program's critics had assumed the mistaken killings of two Americans
would make it impossible for the White House to start it up again. But the
plans for resumption began months ago, and in recent weeks, Colombia's
incoming president, Alvaro Uribe Velez, visited Washington to urge an
aggressive U.S. role in the Latin American drug war.

The decision to shift the management of the program to the State Department
came after CIA Director George Tenet made it clear that his agency no
longer wanted any part of the operation, officials said. Since the plane's
downing, Congress has placed restrictions on the CIA's involvement,
officials said.

The CIA said last year that a contractor, Alabama-based Aviation
Development Corp., ran the program on its behalf. But Aviation Development
was actually a CIA front company, and public scrutiny of the program after
the downing of the missionary plane prompted the CIA to dissolve it,
officials familiar with the program said. Alabama state records show that
Aviation Development was dissolved in January.

Secretary of State Colin Powell has expressed strong support for resuming
the air interdiction operations through the State Department, and has
repeatedly inquired about the progress of the program, officials said.

Although Bush has not given a final green light, the administration is far
advanced in preparing to resume the program, officials said. The Cessna
Citation surveillance jets the CIA previously operated in the program have
been upgraded and transferred to the State Department, officials said.

Colombian Air Force pilots have just completed basic training in the United
States on how to fly the Citation jets, and are scheduled to begin more
advanced training in how to perform the complex interdiction missions as
early as August.

In April, the State Department awarded a contract to a Maryland-based
aviation company, ARINC Corp., to help train Colombian and Peruvian pilots
and manage the air operation, officials said.

ARINC has tried to hire back many workers involved with the program when
the CIA ran it. But some have refused, in part because they do not believe
that the State Department is allotting enough time for training, according
to people familiar with the program. Other officials stressed that the
State Department plans to impose rigorous training standards on the air crews.

One big change under the new plan is that the Citation jets, previously
flown by CIA contractors, would be flown by Colombian and Peruvian pilots,
officials said. ARINC will have one bilingual observer on each plane,
offering recommendations. But the final decision on whether to direct
fighter planes to fire on suspect aircraft would be with the Peruvian and
Colombian pilots.