Pubdate: Fri, 17 Mar 2006
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 2006 News World Communications, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/492
Author:  Jerry Seper
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

HOUSE OKS MILLIONS FOR COLOMBIA'S ANTI-DRUG EFFORT

The House yesterday approved an amendment calling for $99.4 million 
in emergency anti-drug funds to assist in Colombia's war against 
narco-terrorists by replacing 23 aircraft that have been shot down or 
crashed since 2000 and buying three new ones for the Colombian 
National Police and the country's navy. The money was included as an 
add-on to a pending $72.4 billion appropriations bill for the war on 
terrorism and passed 250-172 amid a flurry of votes on several 
spending projects. It faces formal approval in the House and then 
will be sent to Senate for a vote.

Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana Republican and chairman of the House 
International Relations subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, said 
the money would be used in interdiction efforts in the Caribbean and 
Pacific Ocean, from where tons of cocaine and heroin are moved each 
year to the United States, and the efforts would "bolster 
counternarcotic assistance to Colombia."

The amendment was co-sponsored by Rep. Henry J. Hyde, Illinois 
Republican and chairman of the International Relations Committee; 
Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, Virginia Republican and chairman of the 
House Government Reform Committee; Rep. Mark Souder, Indiana 
Republican and chairman of the Government Reform subcommittee on 
criminal justice, drug policy and human resources; and Rep. Steve 
Chabot, Ohio Republican and chairman of the House Judiciary 
subcommittee on the Constitution.

Last week, senior congressional and Colombian officials told The 
Washington Times that a Bush administration decision to divert money 
for Colombian drug interdiction and eradication programs to the war 
on terrorism had opened up the southern U.S. border to a new flood of 
heroin and cocaine. Colombia is the source for about 90 percent of 
the cocaine that ends up each year in the United States, as well as a 
majority of the heroin.

Colombian officials said escalating violence along the U.S.-Mexico 
border was being fueled by the increase in drugs from Colombia.

The funds, Mr. Burton said, would overcome the loss of U.S. and 
allied drug interdiction assets in recent years, providing assistance 
that would help prevent illegal drugs from reaching Mexico and the 
creation of crime and violence along the U.S. border, which "expands 
into our cities and communities here at home." In a letter to Rep. 
David Dreier, California Republican and chairman of the House Rules 
Committee, Mr. Burton said more than $50 million in aid had been 
provided to Africa -- also outside President Bush's supplemental 
request -- and asked that "our effort to be helpful to the Colombian 
government of Alvaro Uribe, our best friend in the Andean region, be 
provided the same opportunity."

In the past three years, a senior congressional aide said, homeland 
security demands in the United States had resulted in a 70 percent 
reduction in the aircraft available to the Colombian and U.S. navies 
for interdiction efforts.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman