COLOMBIA'S UNDERHANDED ENEMIES

War On Drugs: Just as Colombia comes up for U.S. aid, out come flimsy
'scandal' stories claiming it may not be fighting its enemies by
Marquis of Queensbury rules. It's nothing but partisan politics to
undercut our ally.

Over the weekend, a report surfaced in the Los Angeles Times that the
chief of Colombia's army, Gen. Mario Montoya, was 'collaborating'
with Colombia's paramilitaries, one of three scourges Colombia is
trying to end in its 44-year war. The intelligence was unverified and
the source anonymous, leaving readers little to judge but rumors.
Montoya calls it an 'immense slur.'

Colombia's paramilitaries are armed vigilantes who emerged in the
1980s as self-defense forces against Colombia's Marxist FARC
narcoterrorists. The paras arose understandably enough, after
Colombia's government did nothing to protect citizens. Back then, it
was actually appeasing the FARC. But some paras became criminals, and
others allied themselves with Colombia's drug lords.

Enter President Alvaro Uribe in 2002, whose steely leadership against
all factions reduced Colombia's civil war, put its drug trafficking
under duress and made Colombia's major cities safe.

With the help from $4 billion in U.S. aid, Uribe managed to power up
Colombia's army into a credible fighting force, and persuaded 31,000
paramilitaries to give up their arms in confidence that Colombia's
army would do its job. Now that Colombia's $586 million in aid is up
for renewal by the U.S. Congress, out come the opponents, seeking to
discredit Uribe.

They can't argue with his 70% popularity among Colombians or his
success in abating the war. So they go after Uribe and his men,
trying to knock them out individually in the same way congressional
Democrats seek to weaken President Bush by picking off his cabinet
officials one by one.

The Times story cited a confidential CIA report obtained from an
anonymous source who said he was dissatisfied with Colombia's drug
war. In other words, he was leaking out of political motives.

The Times said Montoya, a well-regarded official in the U.S. with a
long career fighting narcoterrorists, 'collaborated' with the paras
to clean out a FARC-infested slum in Medellin in 2002. But it didn't
name the report, quote wording or explain any extenuating
circumstances in the report. That left readers wondering about the
source and motives of the unconfirmed and anonymous report.

The CIA is a veritable dirt-magnet for reporting and could have
gotten just about anything from a disgruntled underling tattling on a
boss to a false report from a FARC infiltrator. It could have
distorted what happened. But again, there's no way a reader can tell.

This report is nothing but a weapon in the hand of Colombia's enemies
seeking high moral ground for undercutting the war effort. Unverified
information from anonymous sources is exactly why it needs to be
transparent. The CIA pleaded with them not to run news of the report,
but the Times pompously ignored that plea.

Now Colombia's on the defensive, its aid threatened, and must answer
questions about a possible smear in a newspaper. Congressional
Democrats, who are always carping about how Uribe runs the war and
demand to manage it themselves, will be in a prime position to
dictate newer and more difficult terms for aid, if not cut it off.

But some things are clear: Colombia critics hate Bush and by
extension his ties with Uribe, and would do anything to undermine
both. They also want to force Colombia into concessions, redirecting
its military aid to social programs that will no doubt employ lots of
nongovernment organizations the Democrats favor. For them, aid is a
Christmas present, not a critical necessity that keeps illegal drugs
out of America. Maybe they can explain that strategy to the next
random shooting victim caught up in the Los Angeles gang war.

Some also want to force Colombia into peace concessions with FARC.
Seven congressional Democrats already are playing amateur diplomat in
a new 'peace process' prisoner swap, little different from Colombia's
failed appeasement initiatives of the past. It looks like an
IRA-style effort to enable FARC to eventually grasp political
legitimacy, now that Uribe's got them militarily cornered.

Fortunately, Uribe isn't bending. 'Colombia's government rejects
accusations made by foreign intelligence agencies against army
commander Gen. Mario Montoya, that have been filtered through the
press, without evidence being presented to Colombian justice and the
government,' Reuters reported.

If the Times' leaked CIA report manages to influence Democrats to
weaken aid, Colombia's army will diminish in strength and Colombia's
paramilitaries will step in to fill the void. That in turn will
negate Colombia's progress. Colombia's enemies want this. The rest of
us can't let that happen.