BUSH TO OK AIR INTERDICTION IN DRUG WAR

Program Had Been Halted After Plane Went Down In Peru

WASHINGTON - President Bush is expected to approve the resumption of a
program to force down or shoot down airplanes suspected of ferrying drugs
in Latin America, a year after the program was halted by the mistaken
downing of a plane carrying American missionaries in Peru, U.S. officials say.

Once the president gives his final approval, the State Department would
take over the program from the Central Intelligence Agency, and U.S.
officials said air interdiction operations could begin in Colombia as early
as this fall and would likely be expanded to Peru later. The Pentagon would
support the program as well, providing intelligence about suspected drug
flights gathered from ground-based radars and from other sources, officials
said.

The program calls for the United States to identify and locate suspected
drug planes, and for Colombian and Peruvian air force planes to shoot them
down if they do not respond to calls to land. U.S. officials said the
governments of both Colombia and Peru had expressed support for restarting
the operation.

The program's many critics had assumed that the mistaken killings of two
Americans would make it impossible for the White House to start it up
again. But the plans for resumption began months ago, and in recent weeks,
Colombia's incoming president, Alvaro Uribe Velez, visited Washington to
urge an aggressive U.S. role in the Latin American drug war.

The decision to shift the management of the program to the State Department
came after the CIA director, George J. Tenet, made it clear that his agency
no longer wanted any part of the operation, officials said. Since the
plane's downing, Congress has placed restrictions on the CIA's involvement,
officials said.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has expressed strong support for
resuming the air interdiction operations through the State Department, and
has repeatedly inquired about the progress of the department's work on the
program, officials said.

Although Bush has not given a final green light, the administration is
already far advanced in its preparations for resuming the air interdiction
program, several officials said. The Cessna Citation surveillance jets that
the CIA previously operated in the air interdiction program have been
upgraded and transferred to the State Department, officials said. Colombian
Air Force pilots have just completed basic training in the United States on
how to fly the Citation jets and are scheduled to begin more advanced
training in how to perform the complex interdiction missions as early as August.