COLOMBIA'S DRUG WAR INSPIRES GREEN BERETS

Special Forces In Latin America Timeline

Sgt. 1st Class Scott Grimm carefully set up a series of booby traps to
test his Colombian students.

Grimm, a Fort Bragg-based Green Beret, was in Colombia as part of a
team training a specialized battalion of that country's army to deal
with drug traffickers.

The Special Forces engineer hooked up pressure-sensitive trip wires to
poppers and light-makers that would let the students know right away
that they had made a mistake that could have gotten them killed if the
booby traps were real.

"They found every one of them and disarmed them, and they did that at
night," the 40-year-old sergeant said. "I was impressed."

The recent exercise in Colombia was an encouraging moment in an often
frustrating battle to stem the flow of cocaine and heroin from
Colombia into the United States. Fort Bragg is the main source of
military trainers for the Colombian counternarcotics units.

It's a battle that is raising concerns among some members of Congress
and other critics, who see similarities to the early stages of the
Vietnam War and fear an expanded conflict in the South American country.

About 60 Green Berets from Fort Bragg typically are involved in
training a Colombian battalion, but some critics worry the U.S.
presence will grow into thousands of soldiers -- from Fort Bragg and
elsewhere -- fighting in the jungles of Colombia.

Some of that fear comes from the appearance that the drug war in its
current form isn't working well, at least in the eyes of U.S. law
enforcement officials. Cocaine and heroin still flow freely into the
country.

Leading importer

Colombia has coasts on the Caribbean and Pacific and shares borders
with Peru and Bolivia, which grow large amounts of coca. Colombia
supplies more illicit drugs to the United States than any other
country -- 80 percent of the cocaine and most of the heroin, the State
Department estimates.

The United States has an $18.5 billion National Drug Control Strategy
to eliminate production at the source, interdict drug shipments,
prosecute traffickers and cut consumption through prevention,
treatment and rehabilitation.

On a national level, illegal drugs cost the United States 52,000 lives
and $110 billion annually, the State Department estimates. Despite
U.S. efforts to curb the drug trade in Colombia, coca production has
more than doubled there in the past five years, the New York Times
reported Friday. And officials say the operating power of drug
traffickers is growing.

Even a high-ranking U.S. Army officer has been besmirched in the
Colombian drug war. Col. James Hiett, the former leader of the U.S.
anti-drug operation in Colombia, pleaded guilty to a federal charge
Monday, admitting that he knew his wife, Laurie, was laundering drug
money but failed to turn her in. Hiett was once stationed at Fort
Bragg, and his wife taught at Westover High School.

Seeking stability

President Clinton is asking Congress to support a two-year, $1.6
billion assistance package to support Colombian President Andres
Pastrana's plan to battle the drug trade. Advocates say the plan will
help Colombia re-establish sovereignty over its southern regions,
which are largely controlled by drug traffickers and guerrillas.
Critics say the plan is not well thought out and risks deeper U.S.
military involvement in Colombia's civil conflicts.

In part, that's because Colombia is fighting more than just drug
traffickers. A deeply entrenched revolutionary group that has turned
to the narcotics trade to fund its war against the government now
controls a chunk of the country as large as Massachusetts.

Since the fall of Saigon in 1975, any growing U.S. involvement in a
world hot spot has drawn unfavorable comparisons to the Vietnam
experience. That involvement began with small groups of Special Forces
soldiers and official pronouncements that U.S. troops would not be
sent to do what local troops should be doing. Then, as things went
downhill, the United States began "escalating" the number of troops.
Many Vietnam veterans have complained bitterly that the politicians
saddled the war fighters with too many restrictions and no clear
long-term objectives.

Now, critics of U.S. policy in Colombia say the South American country
has no clear plan for destroying the drug traffickers and that
American military advisers will be sucked into a growing conflict
against the revolutionary groups as well as the drug
traffickers.

The State Department is quick to emphasize that the United States has
no intention of committing combat troops.

Every deployment order specifically forbids U.S. troops from
accompanying Colombians on missions, said Brian E. Sheridan, the
assistant secretary of defense who oversees the training programs.

A State Department report said Colombia has not asked for an
escalation of the U.S. military presence. But the New York Times
reported Friday that a poll shows a majority of Colombians are in
favor of American intervention into their internal conflict.

Objectives of plan

Clinton's $1.6 billion aid proposal would focus on the delivery of
helicopters and training of pilots. Plans call for a base at Manta,
Ecuador, and $341 million to be spent for radar upgrades to help
Colombian forces find drug traffickers.

The plan also calls for U.S. soldiers to train more Colombians to
fight their drug war. Spanish-speaking Fort Bragg Green Berets are
playing a key role in that training.

The New York Times reported that Colombian soldiers fighting the drug
traffickers are poorly supplied and equipped, especially since the
enemy has millions to spend on high-tech military gadgetry.

But Fort Bragg soldiers from the 7th Special Forces Group who have
worked with the Colombian anti-narcotics units have high praise for
their abilities.

"I thought they were well trained, well motivated for the conditions
they were having to live in," said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Waddell, the
commander of the 7th Group's 2nd Battalion. Waddell and his men
recently returned from a deployment to Colombia. "They seemed very
interested in the things we were trying to teach them and real
interested in trying to conduct the counternarcotics operations to
help the situation."

Grimm, the engineer sergeant, is among the Fort Bragg Green Berets who
trained the Colombian army's first counternarcotics battalion.

The 950-man battalion graduated in December in Tres Esquinas near the
Ecuador border.

The Colombian soldiers were taught infantry skills, how to protect
human rights, how to raid a drug site and how to decide when to shoot.

"I was very impressed with their ability to shoot, move and
communicate, not only as a platoon but as a company, " said Chief
Warrant Officer Brad Smith, 38, a detachment commander. The battalion
is designed to work on the ground and in helicopter operations with
the Colombian National Police.

The Special Forces soldiers noted with pride that the day after
graduation, the Colombians seized some coca paste from a boat on a
river they were assigned to watch.

The counternarcotics battalion's three-phase training program cost
$3.9 million, and another $3.5 million went for individual and unit
equipment and medical supplies, military officials told Congress.

Planning is under way to establish, train and equip two more
counternarcotics battalions and a brigade headquarters this year, Gen.
Charles E. Wilhelm told Congress March 23. Wilhelm, a Marine four-star
general, oversees U.S. military activity in Latin America.

"The second CN (counternarcotics) battalion will begin training in
April, followed several months later by the third battalion, which
will complete training in December 2000," Wilhelm said.

Once the training cycles are complete, the U.S. advisers have to be
able to step back and let the Colombians train their own troops, the
Green Berets said.

"It's their nation," Grimm said. "They are going to live there when we
go away and we come back to ours."