U.S. MAY UP ANTE IN COLOMBIA

The Bush administration has drafted plans to expand its military role in
Colombia from counterdrug training to anti-terrorism as well. Top Stories

The policy shift, which comes in the form of proposed legislation, could
require as many as 100 additional American troops to be sent into the civil
war-torn South American country.

Colombia is now engaged in a fight for its democratic survival against the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a well-funded, left-wing
guerrilla force.

Colombian President Andres Pastrana's decision last month to go to war
against the FARC after three years of fruitless peace talks prompted
administration policy-makers to look for ways to offer help beyond
counternarcotics missions. U.S. law and a Clinton administration directive
limit aid to anti-drug efforts only.

A draft plan shows the administration will ask Congress to describe
counternarcotics activities as including anti-terrorism and other threats
to Colombian security. An official said that as of yesterday the White
House had not approved the final language.

In practice, however, the terms are a "distinction without a difference,"
said a senior administration official, because the FARC is also a
U.S.-designated terrorist group and is deeply involved in the production
and shipment of cocaine and heroin.

The White House could submit its new Colombia plan to Congress as early as
this week and fund the missions through a current-year emergency budget bill.

The plan will have two main components:

.Begin using Army Special Forces (Green Berets) and other personnel to
train the Colombian military in anti-terror tactics, in the same way
soldiers are training the Philippines army to engage the terrorist group
Abu Sayyaf. This would require an increase in U.S. troop presence by as
many as 100. The administration would maintain a ban on American troops
directly participating in combat.

.Allow an existing Colombian anti-narcotics brigade, financed and trained
by the United States, to get involved in directly fighting the FARC.

The administration already has asked Congress for $98 million to set up a
new brigade that would protect some of Colombia's vital infrastructure,
such as oil pipelines and power lines, that are a favorite target of the
FARC and the National Liberation Army (ELN), a much smaller guerrilla
group. Some policy-makers would also like to set up a third brigade
strictly for anti-terror operations.

Current policy limits the number of military trainers in Colombia to 400.
There are no plans to ask for a higher limit, officials said. There are 250
American troops in Colombia, 50 Defense Department civilians and 100
contractors, some of whom operate aircraft that spray herbicide on
Colombian coca fields.

One U.S. official said the administration will seek to sell the package as,
"This is the Colombian war on terrorism. This is not the next phase in the
fight against global terrorism."

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer uttered that policy during
Tuesday's press briefing. "The situation with the FARC involved a group
that is listed by the State Department as a terrorist group," he said. "I
don't think it's fair to say that FARC has global reach."

That approach has disappointed some on Capitol Hill. They view the FARC as
qualifying as an enemy under President Bush's declared war on terrorist
groups with "global reach."

"ELN and the FARC in the past 10 years have kidnapped 50 Americans and
killed 10 of them," said a House aide. "This is a national security threat
right in our back door."

The staffer said Colombian-produced heroin and cocaine "have probably taken
more lives every year than [Osama] bin Laden took on September 11. It's
global reach of the vast magnitude that is taking American lives."

Also, the Colombian military reports that Basque and Irish terrorists,
along with Cuban and Iranian representatives, have operated in a
Switzerland-size safe zone the FARC controlled in Colombia until Mr.
Pastrana ended peace talks.

The staffer said that for the new Colombia policy to be effective it must
include helicopter transports that can take troops to the FARC's mountain
encampments.

"Colombia is bigger than Kansas and Texas combined," the aide said. "There
is only one fundamental way to fight: it's mobility. You have to be able to
move in the Andes where the guerrillas operate and the only way you do this
is helicopters."

A Clinton directive, Presidential Decision Directive 73, and appropriations
bill language, limit U.S. military training to counter-narcotics.

The administration is so scrupulous about following the law that U.S.
Southern Command, based in Miami, is prevented from sharing with Colombia's
government certain intelligence on FARC locations and operations. Those
limits would change under the new Bush policy.