Mission Creep?

CNN/TIME
Sunday, 27 February 2000
ANNOUNCER: CNN & TIME. Tonight, Mission Creep?: Deep in the jungle,
American troops train Colombian forces. But for what? 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

ROBERT WHITE, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO COLOMBIA: We are now undertaking a
counterinsurgency program in Colombia, but it is masquerading as a
counternarcotics operation. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

GEN. CHARLES WILHELM, MARINE CORPS COMMANDER: I do not buy into any of the
slippery slope theories. We've got a good policy. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

ANNOUNCER: U.S. aid to Colombia and the blurred line between civil war and
the war on drugs. 



CNN & TIME, with Jeff Greenfield and Bernard Shaw. 

BERNARD SHAW, CO-HOST: Good evening, and welcome to CNN & TIME. 

Crime in America right now is on the decline, but what about drug use?
Well, that's a very different story. Currently, there are some 5.7 million
addicts in the United States, the highest number ever on record. Where are
the drugs coming from? Well, U.S. officials say nearly 80 percent either
originate or pass through the South American nation of Colombia. 

JEFF GREENFIELD, CO-HOST: In an effort to stem the flow of narcotics into
this country, the Clinton administration has proposed and Congress is
considering a $1.6-billion plan to assist Colombia's war on drugs. But the
Colombian military isn't just fighting drug traffickers. It's also in the
midst of a 40-year-old conflict with leftist guerrillas. 

Could American aid aimed at battling the narcotics trade draw the United
States into the quagmire of Colombia's civil war? Has it already begun to
happen? 

Here's Mike Boettcher. 

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) 

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Deep in Colombia's southern
jungle, at Tolamida (ph) Base, American soldiers supervising and training
Colombian troops. Under U.S. Southern Command, they've been sent here, they
are told, to train Colombia's military in its war against the drug trade.
But the American mortar, night-vision equipment, and Black Hawk helicopters
appear more typical of guerrilla warfare than a war against drugs. 

Last December, when this 900-man battalion completed its American training
at Tolamida Base, it deployed to a forward camp even farther into the
jungle called Tresas Quinas (ph), the Three Corners. The battalion's label
may be counterdrug, but to the Colombian commander here on the front line,
the enemy is clear. General Montoya commands Tresas Quinas. 

In slide after slide, Montoya describes the enemy he says his counterdrug
battalion must face, not peasant coca growers or notorious drug lords but
the heavily armed leftist guerrilla army called the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym the FARC. 

FARC is the largest and oldest insurgency in South America. It now controls
nearly 40 percent of Colombia, including the sparsely populated jungle area
surrounding Tresas Quinas. In recent years, the FARC has been accused by
the U.S. and Colombian governments of making huge profits from Colombia's
booming drug trade. 

No U.S. personnel were visible when CNN & TIME reached Tresas Quinas, but
they are here. U.S. military sources familiar with the base say that, when
visitors are not around, American intelligence officers, called subject
matter experts, are, and with nightfall, all but three or four leave for
safety reasons. 

Base commander Montoya says it's only a matter of time before the FARC
guerrillas attack. 

GEN. MONTOYA, TRESAS QUINAS COMMANDER: Over on the base, we've (INAUDIBLE)
lines of fire so that they don't assault us. Our biggest fear is that
they'll hit us with mortars. 

BOETTCHER: Despite possible risk to U.S. personnel, General Charles
Wilhelm, who oversees U.S. forces throughout the region, insists that
Americans will be kept away from the front lines. 

GEN. CHARLES WILHELM, MARINE CORPS COMMANDER: But we control who is there,
we control where they are, and we control what they do. The assistance that
we provide the Colombian security forces is limited to the counterdrug
function. We're not involved in the insurgency. That's a Colombian issue. 

BOETTCHER: U.S. Ambassador Curtis Kamman acknowledges the fight against
drug traffickers and the fight against the FARC are intertwined. 

CURTIS KAMMAN, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO COLOMBIA: We don't deny that much of this
would probably entail strengthening the Colombian ability to go after the
guerrillas, but it's different from taking on as a national goal of the
United States, as a national responsibility to go after the guerrillas in
Colombia per se. 

BOETTCHER: Though countless DEA and FBI contractors have been in Colombia
since the 1980s as part of the ongoing U.S. drug control strategy, the new
$1.6-billion aid package presently before Congress includes a much
different commitment: a military commitment. What is not clear is whether
the official count of U.S. personnel involved in the operation reflects the
full extent of U.S. military involvement. 

WILHELM: On any given day, our presence will normally run in a range of
about, oh, 130 to 200. 

KAMMAN: In the country at any given moment, it runs between 150 and 200
U.S. military personnel. 

BOETTCHER: But the count of Americans in uniform on the ground in Colombia
is only one piece of the complex puzzle of American commitment.
Intelligence sources say that about one thousand additional U.S. personnel
are directly involved in the military aspects of this new U.S.-backed
Colombian operation on any given day. 

Intelligence sources claim the daily head count of Americans in uniform
does not reflect, for example, retired U.S. special forces working for
civilian companies, companies hired by American military and intelligence
agencies to support the Colombian operation, nor does it include military
intelligence teams who conduct clandestine operations in Colombia -- for
example, squads known as special mission units which report directly to
Washington. 

Also not counted intelligence survey teams that secure areas in advance of
U.S. personnel, and other Americans whose feet never touch the ground in
Colombia but who are at risk because they constantly fly over it are also
not counted in the daily troop stream (ph) figures. 

Detailed in documents are at least 15 intelligence-gathering aircraft
manned by American crews which routinely fly over Colombia's conflict zone.
With code names like Corporate Share, Senior Scout, Guard Rail, and
Ironclad, their mission is to intercept radio traffic, conduct radar
surveillance, and use infrared sensors to keep tabs on drug traffickers and
the armed groups that protect them. 

Last July, an RC-7B U.S. surveillance aircraft crashed in guerrilla-held
territory killing five Americans and two Colombians. The U.S. craft was on
a narcotics reconnaissance mission, and secret documents seen by CNN & TIME
reveal that some identifiable Department of Defense aircraft will be
replaced with CIA and leased civilian planes. 

Finally, documents shown to CNN & TIME set out proposed U.S. plans to
increase money and support for other Colombian military projects, including
construction of seven additional bases and upgrading another three. 

Ambassador Thomas Pickering is undersecretary of state for political
affairs and one of the chief architects of the new U.S.- backed Colombian
plan. 

(on camera): We'll start with the numbers thing first. We've spoken to
intelligence sources who say, "Look, that number of uniformed people is
correct, that there are others down there, people flying aerial
surveillance missions, contractors, retired special forces people, special
mission units. If you add all of those various groups, really our
commitment is much larger, even though they may not be in uniform." 

THOMAS PICKERING, UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE: Mike, I -- I would be... 

BOETTCHER: A thousand people. PICKERING: I would be cautious, and I think
it's a mistake to start adding "It might be thises" and "It might be
that's." I think that we will be as transparent as we possibly can be with
all of you as we go along, and the questions obviously that I won't go into
-- and no one will ever go into -- is intelligence, but I believe that our
intelligence will be proportional to the task. 

BOETTCHER: Is there a numbers game that's played, sir? 

PICKERING: No, and I -- I think it's a mistake to believe so. I don't think
that any of us believe that we have to play the numbers game, and I think
we're all sensitive to that. I think the -- if you're looking for kind of a
mission creep or Vietnamization, let's be frank and straightforward. 

BOETTCHER (voice-over): Sources in Washington and Colombia say that whether
it involves dollars or personnel, aid for Colombia is an exercise in
semantics and a numbers game. 

ROBERT WHITE, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO COLOMBIA: I know that they are
claiming that they won't have more than 200 military personnel there. 

BOETTCHER: Former Ambassador Robert White supervised early U.S. counterdrug
efforts in Colombia in the 1970s, and he witnessed the last big
controversial U.S. buildup in Latin America while serving in El Salvador in
the early 1980s. White says that official troop stream figures don't
reflect the true numbers. 

WHITE And they already have 200 to 300 military personnel in Colombia.
There's also a couple of hundred of contract civilians, and wherever
sophisticated equipment like Huey helicopters or Black Hawk helicopters go,
I assure you that American advisers and technical people follow. There's no
way that they cannot. 

BOETTCHER: If Congress approves the Colombian aid package, most of the new
American resources, counted and uncounted, will not be focused on major
drug transshipment points along Colombia's coast or directed at other
coca-rich regions in the country. Instead, much of the new American push
will be used to support the tiny base of Tresas Quinas in the middle of
FARC territory, home of two of Colombia's major coca-growing provinces.

Meanwhile, several hundred miles to the North, right-wing paramilitary
groups allegedly working hand in hand with elements of the Colombian
military appear to have escaped the crosshairs of the American counterdrug
effort. The U.S. State Department accuses both the paramilitary and members
of the army of serious human rights violations in Colombia. 

(on camera): There are paramilitary groups also involved in -- in
protecting drug cartels. Is that correct? 

KAMMAN: Absolutely. They have in recent years become a very major factor in
the violence in the country and in charging a fee to the narcos to help
them produce and transport their illegal product. BOETTCHER: Yet three
U.S.-trained counterdrug battalions, about 3,000 Colombian troops, along
with their supporting battery of U.S.- supplied helicopters, are scheduled
to operate out of Tresas Quinas facing FARC guerrillas in a potential
jungle battlefield. 

WHITE: I can tell you this from having talked to the Colombian military,
from having talked to the Colombian politicians, from having talked to many
just ordinary citizens, there's nobody in Colombia that believes that this
is a counter operation -- a mili -- a counternarcotics operation. They all
believe it's a -- a military war against the FARC. 

BOETTCHER: Now, Mr. Secretary, the centerpiece of this new proposal before
Congress are the counterdrug battalions being trained in Colombia. There'll
be three. But that -- why put all of the eggs, so to speak, those three
eggs, those three battalions in one location? 

PICKERING: Why did we choose the South? Because if you look at the figures,
it is in the South where there is, A, no government control and, B, the
largest expansion of cocaine production without government control. 

BOETTCHER: But you go down there and talk to the Colombians and people in
the country and General Montoya right there on the front line in Tresas
Quinas -- he says his enemy is the FARC. 

PICKERING: His enemy is the FARC because the FARC is the major patron of
drug activities in his area of military operations. 

BOETTCHER (voice-over): The FARC's de facto capital is the Village of San
Vicente located deep in the southern part of Colombia. After a violent
government crackdown in the 1980s, the FARC has reemerged as a 17,000-man
army which U.S. officials describe as the richest, most heavily armed
guerrilla force in the hemisphere. Following 1999 peace talks, the
Colombian government ceded to the FARC autonomous control of a region about
the size of Switzerland. 

CNN & TIME met senior FARC commander and spokesman Raul Reyes at an
undisclosed location in the region his army controls. He denied charges the
FARC is involved in the drug trade. 

RAUL REYES, FARC SENIOR COMMANDER: This is absolutely false. It is an
enormous accusation, and the United States knows that it is a flagrant lie.
They know it fits their strategy to fight the insurgency. The FARC has
never done any favors for the narcotraffickers. Our goal is to fight for
the farmers, the people. 

BOETTCHER: But Colombia army chief of staff General Fernando Tapias (ph)
claims the guerrilla army is awash in drug money. 

GEN. FERNANDO TAPIAS, COLOMBIA ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF: They have been able to
increase their arms, bring in sophisticated equipment in large quantities,
tons of explosives, access to satellite communications, and have
sophisticated intelligence-gathering operations because of the money they
make from the drug trade. 

BOETTCHER: Reyes warns that if Congress votes Colombia a massive aid
package, the FARC will interpret it as a declaration of war. 

REYES: It would lead to a war because the reality is that, if the Colombian
military get more aid from the U.S., there will be more conflicts, and the
prospect of peace will be further from reality. 

BOETTCHER: Andres Pastrana is the president of Colombia. 

(on camera): The FARC is saying that this U.S. package in aid and men is a
declaration of war. 

ANDRES PASTRANA, PRESIDENT OF COLOMBIA: I don't think so, and I don't think
that they should be apprehensive. If they're not involved in the drug
business, there is nothing to worry about. 

BOETTCHER: But you believe they are involved in the drug business. 

PASTRANA: Not directly. We don't have the real evidence. We know that there
are times that they have said to the world that they are not involved in
the drug business, so if they're not involved, they should be confident
that these arms that are -- that these military equipment that is going to
be given to us by the U.S. package is not going to be used against them or
used if they are not really in the drug business. If they have any type of
relationship with the business, they could be -- or this equipment is going
to be used against them. 

BOETTCHER: The FARC told us that they view this funding from the United
States as a declaration of war. Have we evaluated the possibility that this
could escalate? 

PICKERING: We have no interest in declaring war on the FARC. We have an
interest in Colombia surviving to be democratic, and the FARC is obviously
determined to try to prevent that. 

BOETTCHER: Is the counterdrug effort and the counterinsurgency effort
undertaken by the Colombians -- are those intertwined? Can -- can you
separate those, and does it catch us in the middle of a very dangerous
situation, sir? 

PICKERING: I think not. I think that where the problem is worst is where we
are helping the most, but, unfortunately for the guerrillas and the
paramilitaries, it's where they have gotten in deepest. 

(voice-over): We asked General Wilhelm how the U.S. military can avoid
being drawn into the conflict with the insurgency. 

WILHELM: I do not buy into any of the slippery slope theories. We've got a
good policy. The policy is clearly understood by the people who are
executing it, and I think we've put prudent safeguards in place to make
sure that the health and welfare of our forces are protected. 

WHITE: The Colombian military are not going to be able to carry the war to
the guerrillas, and if the guerrillas will roll back the army and shoot
down our helicopters, and the question is will we swallow this bitter pill
of political military defeat or will we gear up for an even greater effort,
and I think you know from history, from Vietnam and from Central America,
that the more likely way is that we'll -- we'll gear up and go in even
deeper. 

(END VIDEOTAPE) 

GREENFIELD: The United States is already heavily invested in Colombia even
without the $1.6-billion counterdrug package. Colombia is the third largest
recipient of U.S. aid, behind only Israel and Egypt. 

When we come back, cops accused of crossing the line. Police scandals from
New York to Los Angeles. 

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