HIGHTECH DRUG FIGHT ENDORSED

Official Calls For Update In Border Equipment

Associated Press

PHOENIX A top Clinton drugcontrol strategist has conceded that the
United States is failing in its effort to stem the tide of drugs across the
Southwest border, a newspaper reported Sunday.

"Our current interdiction efforts almost completely fail to achieve our
purpose of reducing the flow of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines across
the [Southwest] border," said Francis X. Kinney, director of strategic
planning for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, in a memorandum
acquired by The Arizona Republic.

Mr. Kinney said the United States will continue to be overrun by drug
traffic at the U.S.Mexican border unless it emphasizes improved
intelligence and hightech screening equipment, the Republic reported in a
copyrighted story.

The United States should shift away from traditional physical inspections
by agents to an "intelligencedriven" system that uses the latest equipment
to conduct "nonintrusive searches" of vehicles.

"You don't need National Guard guys to be inspecting every head of lettuce
and looking behind every cargo compartment underneath seats in every car,"
Mr. Kinney said, "if you can get technology that can bring a truck through
and basically take a photo of it or an Xray."

The memo, dated Oct. 28, came after a tour of the Southwest border by drug
czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey.

As an illustration of the need to reform, the memo said 900,000 U.S.bound
trucks about a quarter of the total crossing the border were inspected
for drugs last year. Cocaine was found in 16.

But up to 70 percent of the cocaine entering the United States crosses the
2,000mile stretch along the Southwest border.

Mr. Kinney said he is not trying to shortchange the $1.7billionperyear
drugfighting efforts, but he does want to point out shortcomings.

Congress "wants us to be agitators in a certain way. They want us to call
it like it is, not to be an apologist," he said.

Still, the memo's bleak assessment caught some lawmakers off guard.

"Past reports have suggested not that they were a panacea . . . but at
least that the efforts did produce results and were worth doing," said Sen.
Jon Kyl, RAriz.

He said he would support use of more technology, but only if it did not
come at the expense of manpower. Mr. Kyl said he has been pushing for the
addition of more agents to deter drug smuggling and illegal immigration.