US HAWKS PUSH FOR WAR IN COLOMBIA

Pentagon And State Department Fear New Vietnam As DEA Presses Deeper Into
Drugs Quagmire

The United States is facing a new tidal wave of Colombian cocaine and
heroin, say drug enforcement officials, who claim the US is in danger of
losing the war against drugs in Central America.

They are urging President Clinton to step up his controversial
intervention, demanding an extra $1billion to fund what is being called his
'Narco-Nam': the war against Colombia's cocaine barons.

The calls came as investigators in New York were this weekend following
another lead back to Colombia after one of the biggest hauls of the drug in
the city's history was seized in Brooklyn.

But despite the demands for intervention, other voices are warning Clinton
against involvement. The Pentagon claims Colombia is a collapsing ally
under siege from 'narco-terrorism'. It is said to be a quagmire in which
there can be no victory and from which it will be harder to escape than
Vietnam.

Under-Secretary of State Thomas Pickering, who returned from Colombia last
week, denounced the deployment of US troops as 'a crazy idea'. Even as he
spoke, a thousand US Marines arrived for a 'training exercise'.

In defiance of Pentagon wariness, the Drugs Enforcement Administration
(DEA) is gearing up to fight its own war. Last week a top official attacked
US policy in Colombia and claimed that Colombia's narco-war has reached
'crisis point', and we're about to lose it badly.

'This is a war we can afford to lose even less than Vietnam. If we don't
decide to fight and win it damn soon, that situation is going to spiral
right out of control.'

Colombia produces 80 per cent of the world's cocaine and 70 per cent of the
heroin imported into the US. DEA intelligence shows that, although Congress
tripled anti-drug aid to $289 million last year, land devoted to coca and
poppy production has risen by a quarter.

The warning came as General Brian McCaffrey, who heads the White House
Office of Drug Control Policy, demanded operations that go far beyond what
even the Colombians are pressing for, taking the US to the brink of
bankrolling an all-out war.

'Colombia is in a near crisis situation,' McCaffrey told Congress on his
return from a tour of the country last week. 'This is an emergency.'

Intelligence operations are at the core of the escalation of the backdoor
war, and of opposition to it by those who fear that information could be
shared with right-wing death squads.

In secret, the US adopted new intelligence guidelines for Colombia last
March. These were pivotal to the defeat of the latest guerrilla offensive,
but in turn led the guerrillas to regard the US presence in Colombia as a
legitimate target, setting the stage for direct confrontation.

Because of sensitivity over the 'dirty wars' of the Reagan era, the new
directives specified that intelligence-sharing would apply only to
narcotics not political insurgents.

The US remains unconvinced that the military has purged itself of
connections to the death squads. But now it is clear that the guerrillas
finance their war with the profits from drug-trafficking, and are guarding
the coca fields, the two wars are entwined.

Since May, the US has escalated its campaign by passing detailed military
intelligence analyses of guerrilla movements to the Colombian army and
locating strike targets. A devastating weekend of bombing by Colombian
warplanes last month turned the tide of a three-week rebel offensive which
had brought the insurgents to within 20 miles of Bogota.

That prompted an ultimatum from Jorge Suarez, deputy commander of the
biggest guerrilla group, the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia, or
Farc: 'If the United States intervenes, it will see blood flow.' To the
alarm of human rights groups, declassified documents have revealed a budget
of $1.6 million for US Special Operations Forces to train infantry, combat
helicopter and naval units.

But despite the deeper involvement of US forces, the Clinton administration
maintains its public opposition to deeper intervention. In a rare, signed
editorial in the New York Times last week, Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright acknowledged the US role in the ravaging of Colombia.

'Our demand for drugs is a major cause of the problem,' she concedes. 'It
should be clear that a decisive military outcome is unlikely,' she added,
casting doubt on military aid.

There has been another humiliation in the US's fumbling war on drugs.
Following the arrest of Louise Ann Hiett, wife of Colonel James Hiett,
commander of the 200 US military personnel officially fighting the drugs
war in Colombia, on charges of smuggling cocaine in the diplomatic mail,
investigators have widened their inquiries to take in 'at least six'
military and diplomatic personnel at the embassy.