BUSH POLICY IN COLOMBIA IS UNCHANGED

Officials Respond To News Stories About Anti-Drug Effort Expansion

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has no plan to expand America's
anti-drug efforts in Colombia, officials said Thursday, backing away from
comments attributed to the U.S. ambassador in Bogota that drew fire from
Congress.

U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Anne Patterson on Tuesday described plans to
expand America's role in training the Colombian military to battle drug
cartels supported by leftist guerrilla groups.

Patterson was paraphrased by the Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times
as saying the United States was weighing a plan to have American military
advisers train Colombian soldiers to go after narco-traffickers in several
different parts of Colombia.

Those comments rattled many in Washington who are sensitive to any
suggestion that U.S. efforts in Colombia could expand into a full blown war
against guerrilla groups.

American Green Berets already have trained 3,000 Colombian army troops, and
the United States is spending $1.3 billion for helicopters and other
equipment under "Plan Colombia," an effort aimed at eradicating coca leaves
and opium poppies in southern Colombia.

The drug eradication campaign by those Colombian battalions -- armed with
American Black Hawk helicopters and other equipment -- has not yet commenced.

But Patterson said the production of drug crops in Colombia had spread
across the country, and additional U.S. trained troops might be needed to
extend eradication efforts. The State Department insisted Thursday no final
decisions had been made to expand training of Colombian forces by American
military advisers.

"The U.S. policy has not changed. The U.S. government is continually
reviewing the situation, but press accounts have inaccurately implied that
additional decisions on training have taken place," said a State Department
spokesman.

"Any such program would only be implemented after consultation with Congress."

The U.S. involvement in Colombia so far has been carefully choreographed
among the administrations of former President Clinton and President Bush
and Congress.

But Patterson was quoted Tuesday saying, "We don't think there is going to
be a problem on the Hill" with the possibility of expanding the U.S.
training role in Colombia.

"The U.S. Congress would be notified if that plan goes forward," she said,
according to a partial transcript of the interview quoted by the State
Department.

A U.S. Embassy official in Bogota did not dispute the news stories, but
said, "Some media accounts have overcharacterized what was said. There is
no done deal yet. (Ambassador Patterson) did not say there was a firm deal."

Key members of Congress from both parties were caught off-guard by the
statements, and challenged what appeared to be a Bush foreign policy change
without congressional input or approval.

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., ranking minority member on the House Judiciary
Committee, warned Thursday against "mission creep" in Colombia. "Several
safeguards were put into Plan Colombia to prevent an escalation of U.S.
involvement without congressional oversight," he said.

Some Republicans voiced similar concerns.

"We ought to first get the job done in southern Colombia eliminating coca
as envisioned by Plan Colombia and end all the opium growth which is
fueling the current heroin crisis here at home, before we expand our
mission with the Colombian military," said Rep. Ben Gilman, R-N.Y.

Gilman, who is vice chairman of the House drug policy subcommittee, also
was troubled that Patterson appeared to rule out, under any circumstances,
U.S. help to Colombia in its war with leftist guerrillas.

"The political stomach for going into the counter-insurgency business is
zero. It is not going to happen," she said, according to a partial
transcript of the interview.