U.S. EYES SHIFT IN COLOMBIA POLICY

Greater Aid for War Against Leftist Guerrillas Sought

The Bush administration is considering expanding U.S.
counternarcotics assistance to Colombia to give more aid to that
country's counterinsurgency war against leftist guerrillas, according
to administration officials.

Proposals under high-level discussion include increased intelligence
sharing on guerrilla activities around the country and training of an
additional battalion of Colombian troops to serve as a rapid-reaction
force protecting vital infrastructure, including pipelines used by
U.S. oil companies, against guerrilla attack.

The U.S. military has trained three such battalions in the past two
years, but they have been restricted to counternarcotics activities,
as has virtually all U.S. military assistance in Colombia.
U.S.-provided military equipment, including helicopters, is also
limited under law to counternarcotics use, although the Colombian
government is pressing for those restrictions to be lifted.

Officials stressed that none of the proposals include the possibility
of direct American combat involvement in Colombia. But expansion of
U.S. assistance and training beyond the fight against production and
export of illegal drugs would represent a quantum leap in a highly
sensitive area of U.S. policy. Since massive amounts of U.S. military
aid began flowing to Colombia less than two years ago, Congress has
repeatedly warned against "mission creep" into a Vietnam-like
counterinsurgency war.

High-level consideration of the proposals, one official said, is a
direct result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
"Before then, there would have been no debate, or only a very limited
debate, about whether to even think about extending beyond
counternarcotics aid," the official said. "At least now, these are
debatable propositions."

The momentum begun with September's attacks moved into high gear last
weekend, after Colombian President Andres Pastrana unexpectedly
suspended three-year-old peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's largest guerrilla group.
Pastrana ordered FARC troops to evacuate the Switzerland-sized zone
he granted the rebel group in 1998 to encourage negotiations.

His announcement sent Colombian army troops to mass near the zone in
preparations for reoccupying it and driving out the FARC if a
deadline set at 9:30 last night passed without substantive rebel
concessions. Right-wing paramilitary troops fighting their own war
against the guerrillas, in frequent alliance with the army, were also
prepared to move, and there were widespread fears of impending
civilian massacres. For its part, the FARC was expected to launch
attacks throughout the country.

Pastrana's ultimatum sent senior U.S. officials into urgent weekend
discussions over what one called "authorizations and resources" --
what the United States was equipped and allowed to do under law and
congressional restrictions in aiding the Colombian military.
Officials were in the middle of an interagency meeting on the subject
late yesterday afternoon when news arrived that the 9:30 p.m.
deadline had been suspended, at least temporarily, following
last-ditch mediation by a group of international diplomats working
with the United Nations in Colombia.

Whether peace talks get back on track or not, however, Colombia's
multi-front war will continue, and "it is fair to say we are looking
for other ways to help" the government prevail, said another
administration official, who, like all those contacted, declined to
be identified. At the very least, officials said, there are now six
days to think about it before Pastrana's next deadline arrives Sunday.

The Pastrana government, which will leave office following elections
this summer, has argued with increasing urgency that the United
States must have a more comprehensive military program in Colombia.
When the Bush administration, which made few changes in the
bipartisan Colombia policy inherited from its predecessor, launched a
policy review several months ago, a number of officials, led by
senior civilians in the Defense Department, argued that the line
drawn between counternarcotics and counterinsurgency was an
artificial one that lessened the effectiveness of U.S. aid.

Both the Clinton administration's Plan Colombia, the $1.3 billion
Colombia aid package passed by Congress in 2000, and the Bush
administration's $625 million Andean Regional Initiative, approved in
December, came with sharp congressional restrictions on how the aid
could be used.

U.S.-trained troops and military equipment, and most U.S.
intelligence, are restricted to the fight against narcotics
trafficking in Colombia, which provides more than 90 percent of all
cocaine and a major part of the heroin in this country. Colombian
troops eligible for U.S. training have to be thoroughly vetted for
past human rights abuse and association with the paramilitaries. But
since the Colombian military has been slow to move against those with
paramilitary ties, and all three of Colombia's insurgent groups are
deeply involved in the drug business, the lines have been difficult
to maintain.

Intelligence cooperation became even more problematic after the
suspension of U.S. drug surveillance and tracking flights over both
Colombia and Peru last spring, when a CIA-guided Peruvian Air Force
fighter shot down an aircraft carrying American missionaries in the
mistaken belief they were drug traffickers. Although the
administration completed its investigation into the matter last
summer, it has taken no action to reinstitute the intelligence
sharing or flights.

Under the proposals being discussed, that intelligence cooperation
would be reactivated and expanded to include information on guerrilla
activities outside the bounds of counterdrug actions. A battalion of
as many as 1,000 Colombian troops would be trained as a
rapid-reaction force to protect infrastructure, and consideration
would be given to providing additional equipment to the Colombian
army for that purpose.

Officials said the assistance could be justified under "force
protection" doctrines already in place. That justification would be
made easier, they said, by President Bush's inclusion of all three
Colombian insurgency groups on the administration's new lists of
international terrorist organizations.

Whether the anti-terrorist rationale would fly with Congress "has yet
to be tested," said one official.