U.S. SENDS COLOMBIA 'UNSAFE' SHELLS FROM '52

The State Department sent 17 million rounds of nearly half-century-old
ammunition to Colombia to use in machine guns on Black Hawk helicopters as
part of the drug war despite warnings the rounds were unsafe and could
injure those who fired them.

The 50-caliber ammunition was manufactured in 1952 for the Korean War, but
was forwarded earlier this year to Colombian National Police (CNP) for use
in the GAU-19/A Gatling guns aboard more than two dozen Black Hawk
helicopters given to that government as part of its drug-eradication program.

The ammunition, according to government records, was approved by the State
Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement despite
a written warning by the manufacturer of the Gatling guns, General Dynamic
Armament Systems, that 50-caliber ammunition made prior to 1983 "is suspect
and should not be used in the GAU-19/A machine gun."

General Dynamics' technical manual, under the heading "WARNING," said the
deterioration of the outdated ammunition could result in lower muzzle
velocity and increase action time resulting in "hang fires" that could
result in "possible injury to personnel as well as affecting performance
and reliability."

The manual said only 50-caliber ammunition made after 1983 should be used
"in order to maintain gun performance and reliability." The ammunition was
manufactured by Twin Cities Arsenal and sent by the government to Colombia
in boxes bearing an Aug. 20, 1952, date.

Its delivery came at a time the U.S. government is looking to provide up to
$1.2 billion in economic and military aid to Colombia for the years 2000 to
2002. The Andean nation is the world's top supplier of cocaine and is fast
gaining a large slice of the heroin market.

The aid package would assist the Colombian government to win back some of
the more than 30 percent of the country held by the rebel Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia, known by the Spanish acronym FARC. The regions
under FARC control, mostly in southern Colombia, supply most of the cocaine
and much of the heroin flowing into the United States.

The outdated ammunition was discovered by investigators for the House
Government Reform Committee, who visited Colombia last month. Investigators
questioned the reliability of the 48-year-old ammunition and, according to
records, were told at an April 20 briefing it would not be dangerous if
those who used it fired it at a slower rate -- about half its maximum rate
of fire.

But Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana Republican and committee chairman, questioned
those claims in a letter yesterday to Secretary of State Madeleine K.
Albright, saying General Dynamics told investigators that slowing the rate
of fire "would not eliminate the problems associated with the outdated
ammunition."

Mr. Burton said the firm had decided that ammunition manufactured before
1983 "should not be used, even for training purposes, for the same reasons
it cannot be used during combat." He said the U.S. Army has forbidden the
use of 50-caliber ammunition manufactured before 1983 for its GAU-19/A guns.

"My principal concerns are for the safety of our long-standing allies, the
CNP, and the effective prosecution of the battle against Colombian
narcoterrorists," Mr. Burton said. "The provision of grossly outdated
ammunition seems to do little to further either objective.

"International drug trafficking from Colombia and the rest of the Andean
region is one of the most serious national security threats we face as a
nation," he said. "Any effort to eliminate this threat on the cheap is
penny-wise and pound-foolish. We cannot expect the Colombian government to
wage a winning battle against heavily armed narcoterrorists if we are going
to supply them with unsafe and useless 50-year-old ammunition."

State Department spokesman Martha Duckett said the department had not yet
seen the Burton letter and could not comment on the propriety of the
ammunition until it had a chance to review the letter.

Officials at the Colombian Embassy in Washington did not return calls for
comment.

The delivery of the ammunition was not, however, the first time that
outdated or dilapidated material for the war on drugs had been sent to
Colombia. Last year, Colombia rejected a U.S. donation of 18 Vietnam-era
trucks because they were so broken-down it would have cost almost as much
to fix them as to buy new ones.

Colombian officials waited for months for the trucks to transport troops
into mountain jungles to eradicate drug plantations and processing labs.
But when the 2.5-ton trucks arrived in October 1999, the officials found
that the bodies were gnawed by rust, the batteries were corroded and the
engine models were so old the Colombian army had stopped using them a
decade ago.

The trucks, destined for use in steamy jungles, came with heaters and
ignition systems made to withstand subzero temperatures.