Pubdate: Thu, 4 Jul 2002 Source: Kansas City Star (MO) Copyright: 2002 The Kansas City Star Contact: http://www.kcstar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/221 Author: James Risen, The New York Times U.S. EXPECTED TO RESUME AIR INTERDICTION PROGRAM IN DRUG WAR WASHINGTON - President Bush is expected to approve the resumption of a program to force or shoot down airplanes suspected of ferrying drugs in Latin America, U.S. officials say. The program was halted a year ago after a plane carrying American missionaries in Peru was mistakenly shot down. Plans call for the State Department to take over the program from the CIA once the president gives final approval. Air interdiction operations could begin in Colombia as early as the fall and would probably be expanded to Peru later, U.S. officials said. The Pentagon would also support the program, providing intelligence about suspected drug flights gathered from ground-based radars and from other sources, officials said. The program calls for the United States to identify and locate suspected drug planes and for Colombian and Peruvian air force planes to shoot them down if they do not respond to calls to land. U.S. officials said the governments of Colombia and Peru had expressed support for restarting the operation. The program's many critics had assumed that the mistaken killing of two Americans would make it impossible for the White House to start it up again. But the plans for resumption began months ago. In recent weeks, Colombia's incoming president, Alvaro Uribe Velez, visited Washington to urge an aggressive U.S. role in the Latin American drug war. The decision to shift the management of the program to the State Department came after CIA Director George Tenet made it clear that his agency no longer wanted any part of the operation, officials said. Since the plane's downing, Congress has placed restrictions on the CIA's involvement, officials said. The CIA said last year that a contractor, Alabama-based Aviation Development Corp., ran the program on its behalf. But Aviation Development was actually a CIA front company, and public scrutiny of the program after the downing of the missionary plane prompted the CIA to dissolve it, officials familiar with the program said. Alabama state records show that Aviation Development was dissolved in January. Secretary of State Colin Powell has expressed strong support for resuming the air interdiction operations through the State Department and has repeatedly inquired about the progress of the department's work on the program, officials said. Although Bush has not given a final green light, the administration is far advanced in its preparations for resuming the program, several officials said. The Cessna Citation surveillance jets that the CIA previously operated in the program have been upgraded and transferred to the State Department, officials said. Colombian military pilots have just completed basic training in the United States on how to fly the Citation jets and are scheduled to begin advanced training for interdiction missions as early as August. In April, the State Department awarded a contract to a Maryland aviation company, Arinc Corp., to help train Colombian and Peruvian pilots and manage the air operation, officials said. A spokeswoman for Arinc confirmed that the company had received the contract. Arinc has tried to hire back many of the workers who were involved with the program when it was run by the CIA. But some have refused, at least in part because they do not think the State Department is allotting sufficient time for training, according to persons familiar with the program. Other U.S. officials stressed, however, that the State Department planned to impose rigorous training standards on the air crews. One of the biggest changes under the new plan is that the Citation surveillance aircraft, previously flown by CIA contractor crews, would be flown by Colombian and Peruvian pilots, officials said. Arinc would have one bilingual observer on each surveillance plane, offering recommendations. But the final decision on whether to direct fighter planes to fire on suspect aircraft would be with the Peruvian and Colombian pilots. The United States would still provide the crucial intelligence for the missions, however, through an organization called the Joint Interagency Task Force-East. The task force, based in Key West, Fla., is part of the military's Southern Command. It would provide radar and other information to help the Peruvian and Colombian air forces know when to start their interceptor missions. The administration suspended the air interdiction program immediately after the April 2001 shoot-down in Peru, which killed Veronica Bowers, a missionary, and her 7-month-old daughter, Charity. Bowers' husband, James, and their son, Cory, survived. The pilot of the small Cessna, Kevin Donaldson, crash-landed it along the Amazon River despite wounds he suffered in the attack, carried out by a Peruvian air force interceptor. The administration has asked Congress to approve an $8 million compensation payment to the survivors of the attack, but officials said a final settlement was pending. The purpose of the interdiction program, begun during the Clinton administration in 1995, was to halt the shipment of semi-refined cocaine from Peru to Colombia, where it was processed into cocaine and then shipped to the United States. American counternarcotics officials realized that the "air bridge" between Peru and Colombia was a vulnerable choke point in the narcotics trade. In Peru, the American-piloted Citation surveillance aircraft helped guide Peruvian fighter jets to suspected drug flights, often after receiving intelligence from an interagency task force based in Key West. The final decision on whether to fire on the suspected aircraft was left to the Peruvians, but the American and Peruvian governments worked out procedures to protect innocent planes from attack. The program quickly had a serious impact on drug flights. Between 1995 and 2001, the Peruvian air force shot down or forced down at least 38 aircraft involved in drug trafficking and seized a dozen others on the ground. Eventually, drug traffickers began switching to ground or river transportation, U.S. officials said, and by the time the missionary plane was shot down, few drug flights were still using the air bridge. American officials said they were uncertain how much drug smuggling by air between Peru and Colombia had increased since the program was suspended last year. There is evidence of increased drug-related air traffic inside Colombia, authorities said, but they have only limited information about the volume of drug flights out of Peru. Some drug flights now try to skirt the Peru-Colombia border region by flying over Brazil, but the administration has not asked Brazil to get involved in an expanded air interdiction program, officials said. The State Department office that conducted the inquiry into the downing last year will be in charge of the new interdiction program. The State Department's August 2001 report on the incident concluded that the program lacked adequate oversight, that too many shortcuts had crept into mission procedures and that the language barrier made it difficult for the CIA contractors to have much influence over the Peruvian pilots. Officials said that before Bush could officially sign off on the program, he would have to notify Congress that the administration was confident of adequate training and effective safety procedures. The State Department and its contractor are moving ahead with training so they can assure Congress about the program soon after the president formally notifies legislators, expected to be in the fall. Since Congress imposed stricter standards on any resumption of operations in Peru, the administration may express readiness to resume air operations in Colombia first and Peru sometime later. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth