[A-List] US imperialism: war on drugs RIP?

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

US drugs budget is cut to fight war on terror
IAN BRUCE
The Herald, 22 October 2002

THE Pentagon is to scale back its £800m-a-year war on the narcotics trade to
free up special forces troops, reconnaissance aircraft and satellites for
the battle against international terrorism.

The US Congress ordered a reluctant military to become involved in the
campaign against large-scale cocaine trafficking in 1988, and is unhappy
about seeing a vote-winning initiative being reduced while drugs remain a
scourge.

Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defence secretary, is spearheading the move to
bleed off and redeploy cash, manpower and equipment "because of the changed
national security environment after September 11".

Even before the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the military
had been trying to shift the onus for narcotics operations to civilian
agencies like the CIA, FBI and Customs to allow withdrawal of special
forces' trainers needed elsewhere.

In the 14 years since troops were deployed to combat drug-runners and the
South American and Mexican cartels, the mission has spawned 179 separate
sub-programmes, all tying down personnel and cash.

Much of the strain has fallen on the Special Operations Command based in
Tampa, Florida. Although it has 47,000 people in its ranks, fewer than 7000
are the kind of behind-the-lines operatives who helped win the war in
Afghanistan and are now in short supply for the potential campaign in Iraq.

£800m was spent last year trying to counter the drug trade. It also supplied
special forces trainers and gathered intelligence in central America, the
Caribbean and Thailand.

Task Force 6, at Fort Bliss, Texas, is an example. Providing intelligence on
drug movements on the Mexican border, and trains 430 civilian agencies in
everything from dog-handling to marksmanship.

Colombia, the focus of the campaign to clamp down on industrial-level
trafficking by the powerful cartels, is to remain an exception to the
proposed cutbacks.

The military is not allowed to conduct raids on foreign territory but
provides surveillance and communications to allow local agencies to strike.
It draws off ships, aircraft, radar and satellite assets which might be
better used in the ongoing hunt for al Qaeda fugitives and reconnaissance
over Iraq.