LAWMAKERS ATTACK WHITE HOUSE'S PROPOSED $1.6B ANTIDRUG COLOMBIA PACKAGE

WASHINGTON - Armed with embarrassing CIA revisions in estimates of cocaine
produced in Colombia, US drug policy director Barry R. McCaffrey yesterday
launched the Clinton administration's effort in Congress to win a $1.6
billion aid package aimed at fighting drugs along the Andean ridge.

The former four-star general took flak from Republicans who said the
administration was woefully slow in responding to the Colombian threat, and
he took heat from Democrats who criticized the program for not giving goals
in drug reduction, a timetable to get out, or an estimate of US troops.

McCaffrey deflected much of the criticism but warned a House Government
Reform subcommittee, which deals with drug issues, of what he called "anemic
political theater over who lost Colombia. Nobody lost Colombia. And we're
not going to save it. Thirty-six million Colombians are."

The hearing provided a preview in Congress of a fierce and lively debate
over the next two months on the wisdom of sending a military mobilization
package to help the Colombian government take back parts of their country
from guerrillas and paramilitaries in order to destroy coca and poppy
fields.

Colombia, now the third largest recipient of US foreign aid, produces 80
percent of America's cocaine and the majority of its heroin. "The war in
Colombia is our war as well as the Colombians'," said Representative Dan
Burton, an Indiana Republican. "Every year, 14,000 Americans die from drugs
and drug-related violence."

McCaffrey later corrected him: "It's 52,000 dead a year," he said.

McCaffrey was forced to explain why the US government had underestimated
cocaine production by as much as 250 percent in Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia
in the past four years. Last year McCaffrey estimated an increase to 320
metric tons of cocaine from Colombia. But the CIA estimated 520 tons was
produced, or 70 percent of the world's total.

The error, McCaffrey said, stemmed from underestimating potency of new coca
plants and "new, industrial techniques" in drug labs. The revised estimate
is now being used by the administration to help sell the $1.6 billion plan
and emphasize the shift of coca production away from Peru and Bolivia and
into Colombia.

Several Republicans argued yesterday that the administration should have
proposed a huge military package several years ago. They also complained
that the administration had moved slowly in delivering military equipment to
Colombia.

Subcommittee chairman John L. Mica, a Florida Republican, said that three
Blackhawk helicopters sat idle for months because of a lack of proper armor.
And he said 50,000 rounds of ammunition intended for Colombia was shipped
instead to "the loading docks of the State Department."

"It appears that, unfortunately, we have a gang that can't shoot straight,
or get the ammunition to shoot straight to Colombia, where it's needed,"
Mica said.

Representative Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, raised different
concerns, suggesting the administration's priorities were misplaced. "Do we
invest in a militaristic drug war that escalates the regional conflict, in
the name of fighting drugs, or do we attack the drug market by investing in
prevention and treatment at home?" she asked.

Schakowsky also asked why the effort seemed directed only against
guerrillas, sparing rightist paramilitary fighters accused of numerous human
rights abuses. Paramilitary groups also control and tax parts of the drug
trade.

McCaffrey challenged Schakowsky's assertion that the military push into
southern Colombia wouldn't affect the paramilitaries. He said the best route
toward peace was confronting the rebels with force, even though government
and guerrilla negotiators made progress in talks last week in Sweden. But,
he said, "why would you talk, if you're a front that's getting hundreds of
millions of dollars a year out of the drug cartels?"