DRUG CHIEF SAYS PENTAGON NOT DOING ENOUGH IN DRUG WAR

Washington, Nov 6 (Reuters) White House drug policy chief Gen. Barry
McCaffrey told the Department of Defense on Thursday to spend more money in
fighting narcotics.

McCaffrey sent Defense Secretary William Cohen a letter saying he could not
certify the Pentagon's budget request of $809 million for drug control
programs in fiscal 1999 because it was inadequate.

The Pentagon plans to spend less fighting drugs in 1999 than in 1998, and
32 percent less than it did in 1992.

``To correct the deficiencies in the current proposal, the Department of
Defense needs to amend its 1999 budget to include an additional $141
million in drug control initiatives,'' McCaffrey wrote to Cohen in the
letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

Under the National Narcotics Leadership Act, McCaffrey's Office of National
Drug Control Policy is empowered to review drug budgets of each department
and certify whether they are adequate to implement the president's
antidrug policy.

McCaffrey had asked the Pentagon to raise its 1999 drug budget repeatedly,
but his pleas were ignored.

A recent General Accounting Office report noted the Defense Department's
reduced commitment to the drug threat.

It cited the closing of nine radar networks and cuts in efforts to stop
drug trafficking in transit zones such as the Caribbean, where the use of
Pentagon surveillance planes is crucial in tracking suspicious crafts.

McCaffrey is under pressure from Congress to achieve more results in
reducing drug abuse in the United States and stop the flow of narcotics
such as cocaine and heroin flowing into the country from South America.