DOES STATE DEPARTMENT NEED ITS OWN AIR FORCE?

A largely unknown peculiarity of the massive federal bureaucracy is
the existence of an Air Wing in the State Department, with a primary
mission of eradicating Colombia's drug cultivation. Last month, its
director signed an internal memo that, in a remarkable
self-indictment, said diplomats are ill-equipped for this operation.
His recommendation: Shift State's aircraft to a law enforcement agency.

John McLaughlin, the State Department's director of aviation in the
Bureau of International Narcotics, in an Aug. 4 memo cited the
department's "inherent inability to provide knowledgeable oversight
and support for technical and operational programs." On Sept. 9,
Chairman Henry Hyde of the House International Relations Committee
asked his staff to open talks with the Justice and Homeland Security
departments about taking over the Air Wing.

The broader question involves Plan Colombia's anti-drug program. In
seeking to transfer the Air Wing, Hyde reiterated "deep concerns on
the failure of the State Department to adequately eradicate opium in
Colombia." On Aug. 18 in this column, I reported Hyde's contention
that Plan Colombia had failed to prevent revival of Colombia's opium
production.

Hyde's contention was contradicted by federal drug czar John Walters
in a letter to the Washington Post published Aug. 25. Walters referred
to Hyde only as my "congressional source" without mentioning his
name. With Walters savvy enough not to pick a fight publicly with a
veteran conservative committee chairman, he was trying to obscure
their disagreement.

Walters is also at odds with officials in the business end of drug
eradication. McLaughlin, who is next month retiring as aviation
director stationed at Patrick (Fla.) Air Force Base, sent an e-mail to
Hyde's committee that was first classified "confidential" but since
has been declassified: "Mr. Novak's most recent article has the
Chairman at the right place. Too bad his concern is not more
widespread. The heroin problem can be fixed easily and fast given the
right leadership and focus."

McLaughlin's Aug. 4 memo was sent to officials running the State
Department's anti-drug program: Acting Assistant Secretary Paul Simons
and Deputy Assistant Secretary Deborah McCarthy. It is unusually blunt
for a bureaucratic document: "The Air Wing mission is . . .
'counter-culture' to the State Department's world of interagency
policy coordination. Simply put: Dodging trees and ground fire over
jungle terrain at 200 mph is not diplomacy, and diplomats cannot be
expected to fully comprehend the complexity of the task and the level
of support required."

State's own air force is "now at its lowest state of readiness,"
according to the official who runs it: pilot training curtailed,
safety impaired by reduced staffing, worsening structural fatigue and
failure to adequately protect air crews from ground fire. All these
and more problems, McLaughlin charged, have been brought to the
attention of State Department leaders "but have not elicited
effective support for Air Wing personnel that are flying the mission
and supporting the aircraft."

That's just the beginning. McLaughlin asserts State's planning "did
not include adequate provisions for training O&M [operations and
maintenance] costs, [and] staffing." Planners, he said, were either
under-qualified or "not qualified at all." He urges that the "large
aviation program" be removed from "an agency that should be focused
on the conventional conduct of diplomacy." He recommends reassignment
of the Air Wing to "a law enforcement agency," probably the Justice
Department.

Such criticism within the State Department is new, but calls to ground
the diplomats have been sounded for many years. William Barr, who
during the first Bush administration was the attorney general most
committed to drug eradication, long has wanted to remove the Air Wing
from the State Department. But Barr fears that "State wants to keep
its potential leverage" provided by its planes in practicing
diplomacy. "Why would the State Department have its own air force?"
asks retired Marine Maj. Gil Macklin, a former U.S. adviser in
Colombia and House investigator.

That question is unanswerable after McLaughlin's candid
self-indictment. "The memorandum from such an experienced" State
Department official, said Henry Hyde, "raises numerous and troubling
questions. It reflects my own view about the inadequate performance of
the Department in the fight against drugs abroad." The most pertinent
question is whether the Republican Congress and the Republican
administration will continue to ignore this failure.