SNAGS PUT COLOMBIAN ANTI-DRUG PACKAGE IN DOUBT

Mistakes On Equipment Dog Mission Efforts

WASHINGTON - The delivery of 50,000 rounds of ammunition to the State
Department in mid-January alarmed security guards on alert for terrorist
attacks against government buildings.

They relaxed only after determining that the shipment had arrived at the
wrong destination - off by thousands of miles. The boxes filled with rifle
bullets should have gone to the Colombia National Police as U.S.
anti-narcotics aid.

Other mistakes such as delivering nonworking helicopters and faulty weapon
systems to Colombia are dogging administration efforts to push a major
Colombian anti-drug package through Congress.

As a result, some of the plan's staunchest supporters on Capitol Hill
wonder whether the administration can make good on its ambitious proposal.

"Hopefully, the administration is now getting serious," said House
International Affairs Committee Chairman Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y. "But these
mistakes don't give us much comfort."

While administration officials acknowledge the snafus, they insist they are
insignificant when measured against the whole of their new anti-drug plan.

The Clinton administration proposed $1.3 billion in new assistance. It
would pay for 63 helicopters, including 34 sophisticated Blackhawks, among
other things.

The debate mostly has been focused on whether the plan would involve the
U.S. military directly in the Colombian government's long-running battle
against guerrillas, who control 40 percent of the country.

The insurgents increasingly have financed themselves through the country's
illicit drug trade, which supplies 80 percent of the world's cocaine and 75
percent of the heroin consumed in the United States. What's more,
Colombia's future harvests of coca plants -- used to produce cocaine -- are
expected to soar.

"This reminds me very much of Vietnam," said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis.,
ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.

He also said, "The root of the problem lies not in Colombia, but in this
country, as long as we have a single person who can't get into a treatment
program."

Critics of the aid package say coca cultivation in Colombia has risen even
though great sums of U.S. dollars have been spent on eradication. New aid
further would waste money, they argue.

Nonetheless, the aid package has passed the House, where the appropriations
panel upped the amount to $1.7 billion at the insistence of House Speaker
Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. Hastert, Gilman and House Government Operations
Committee Chairman Dan Burton, R-Ind., long have pressed the administration
to do more for Colombia.

Tougher sledding could come in the Senate, where Majority Leader Trent Lodd
said this week that a vote may not take place until summer.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, asked,
"Who's going to go in if this blows up? I want to help, but I want to see a
plan that's survivable and tells us what's going to happen, if it goes
wrong. I don't see this here."

Last month, a panel of experts urged Congress to quickly approve the
package, saying doing so "would signal a strong U.S. commitment to help a
troubled country at a critical moment."

The recommendation was made in an interim report by an independent task
force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations and the Inter-American
Dialogue. While backing the aid proposal, the report said the
administration and Congress should give higher priority over the longer
term to supporting Colombian efforts to remedy the country's social,
economic and institutional problems, "going beyond drug fighting."

The administration says its proposal would facilitate action by the
Colombian military that, in turn, would pave the way for the Colombian
National Police to assume control of what is now drug-producing territory.

"U.S. military forces have not -- and will not -- become involved in the
counter-insurgency conflict," said Anna Marie Salazar, assistant secretary
of defense for drug policy.

Some key Republicans, who support the aid package, worry whether the
administration can make it work.

"We have a gang that can't shoot straight," said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla.,
chairman of the House drug policy subcommittee.

In the case of the misdelivered ammunition, it took three tries before
usable bullets got to Bogota.

In the first attempt, the ammunition made it to Colombia, but it turned out
the bullets -- manufactured in 1952 -- were too old for anything except for
training. The shipment erroneously sent to the State Department -- which
administers the aid program -- was the second attempt at delivery.

"A shipping company under contract with the State Department made a
mistake," a State Department official said.

U.S. helicopters dispatched to the Colombian National Police also have had
serious problems.

Of six Bell-212 choppers -- all previously used by the State Department --
one crashed on its initial anti-drug flight. Three others have undergone
frequent repairs. The remaining two have sat on the ground, cannibalized
for parts to repair the other three.

Three Blackhawks, shipped in October, have not been used in anti-drug
operations. They lacked floor armor to protect crews from ground fire and
also arrived minus guns.

Although chopper armaments finally were sent, the Blackhawks have not been
used. The weapon systems are different models and incompatible with each other.

An administration official said some helicopters were shipped prematurely
at the request of Colombian officials, who wanted them in time for the
National Police force's 75th anniversary.

One U.S. Vietnam-era helicopter was shot down by guerrillas last year after
its 1960s-vintage guns jammed. Although the pilot survived, he suffered
head injuries, which some attributed to the failure of U.S. aid to include
protective helmets.

"He was waiting for a helmet since 1997," Burton said.

A load of helmets recently shipped included many too small for the pilots
to wear. Others were misplaced by Colombian officials, the State Department
official said.

Gilman, Burton and others worry that much of the proposed aid is targeted
for the Colombian military -- linked to abuses of human rights -- instead
of the National Police, which has a much better reputation.

White House drug control chief Barry McCaffrey said the administration
"doesn't want to militarize the Colombian police." Other officials said the
military is improving its record on human rights.

Members of Congress also question the Colombian government's commitment to
defend itself when high school graduates are exempt from combat by law,
leaving poorly educated peasants to do the fighting.

Success in slowing drug smuggling from Peru and Ecuador has been attributed
to U.S. radar planes spotting drug-carrying aircraft and directing the
Latin nations' warplanes attempts to force the drug-carriers down.

However, Marine Gen. Charles Wilhelm, head of U.S. Southern Command, said
much of his radar-plane fleet has been redeployed to the Middle East and
other areas.

"We can only cover 15 percent of the area, 15 percent of the time," Wilhelm
said of U.S. surveillance over Colombia.

Also, members of Congress from both parties wonder how effective the
Blackhawks will prove against surface-to-air missiles the guerrillas are
believed to have obtained with drug profits.

"The way this is going to come a cropper real quickly is when you lose four
Blackhawks," said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.