-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- Dave Hartley http://www.asheville-computer.com/dave U.S. Senate skeptical on Colombia drug aid package Updated 7:08 PM ET February 24, 2000 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A plan by the Clinton administration to boost anti-drug aid to Colombia met a wall of skepticism Thursday in the U.S. Senate, where some members fear deeper involvement might lead to a Vietnam-like quagmire. Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee also said they wanted tougher conditions on a proposed $1.6 billion aid package for Colombia to make sure that the nation's army stopped committing human rights violations. The administration has asked Congress to approve the two-year plan, comprised of mostly of military assistance, to fight drug traffickers and Marxist guerrillas who protect them. Most of the world's cocaine and much of the heroin consumed in the United States are produced in southern Colombia where rebels control much of the countryside in Latin America's longest left-wing armed uprising. "Who goes in if this thing blows up?" asked Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican. "Tell me this is not Vietnam again." U.S. Southern Command chief Gen. Charles Wilhelm, a Vietnam veteran, dismissed the concern. "When I go to Colombia, I do not feel a quagmire sucking at my boots," he answered at a hearing on the Colombia aid package. The bulk of the aid would buy 30 Blackhawk helicopters to equip three U.S.-trained army battalions that would spearhead a military and police drive into the southern Colombian provinces of Caqueta and Putumayo. Wilhelm said Colombian President Andres Pastrana's strategy to pacify his country by cutting off drug money financing the guerrillas was the right way to go. "I believe it will work," Wilhelm said. "A HIGH HURDLE" But Stevens said the more lawmakers looked at the Colombian plan, the more flawed it appeared. "I'm prepared to listen, but candidly, it's a high hurdle," said Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican. Specter said the Clinton administration was spending $18 billion a year to fight drug trafficking and stop consumption in the United States with little to show for it. "Where have you been for seven years?" said Sen. Mitch McConnell, pointing at a chart showing a surge in drug use by adolescent Americans since 1992. McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, criticized Pastrana for allowing a large demilitarized zone in Colombia. The move was a concession to the main guerrilla movement, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, to get peace talks going last year. Senate Democrats questioned the involvement of the Colombian army with right-wing paramilitary death squads responsible for massacres of peasants. Sen. Frank Lautenberg said he was inclined to support rapid aid for Pastrana, but said he had serious concerns about Colombia's failure to investigate and prosecute crimes committed by paramilitary groups. The New Jersey Democrat said those gunmen had taken on the military's "dirty work" in Colombia's civil war, in which more than 35,000 Colombians have died in the past decade. Paramilitary groups have killed leftists and suspected rebel sympathizers with impunity for more than a decade. A report issued Wednesday by New York-based Human Rights Watch said the Colombian army had not severed its ties to the paramilitaries as promised by the Pastrana government. The report said one army brigade created a paramilitary squad in the southern Cauca Valley as recently as last year, providing arms, uniforms and intelligence. It also accused another brigade of following and harassing rights workers. U.S. military aid to Colombia is subject to the 1997 Leahy Amendment, introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, which bans assistance to units with a record of human rights violations. At Thursday's hearing, Leahy said he could not back the aid plan for Colombia without strict conditions to ensure military personnel who violate human rights or abet paramilitaries are prosecuted in civilian and not military courts. "I'm a skeptic at this point," Leahy said. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soap-boxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
