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Congress ordered a reluctant Pentagon to enter the drug war in 1988, when surging cocaine traffic from South America sparked a sense of crisis in the United States .
"We should not be relaxing our efforts in the war on drugs," said Rep. Porter J. Goss, R-Fla., chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence and an important advocate for the effort. "Terrorism is the highest priority, but drugs are still insidious. "
The Pentagon's plans have been couched in indirect terms. They were signaled this summer in a memo from Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz and distributed to senior uniformed and civilian officials. He said the department had "carefully reviewed its existing counternarcotics policy" because of "the changed national security environment, the corresponding shift in the department's budget and other priorities, and evolving support requirements."
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The Pentagon will now focus its counternarcotics activities on programs that, among other things, "contribute to the war on terrorism," he added. But even before the Sept. 11 attacks, senior officials including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had bluntly stated their lack of enthusiasm for the anti-drug mission, which they contend is better handled by civilian agencies. Thus, some experts believe the Defense
Department may be taking advantage of the war on terrorism to scale back a mission they never wanted.
Lawmakers who support the Pentagon's anti-drug mission have been worried for some time by what they view as signs that the Rumsfeld team intends to scale back the effort.
Early last year, top defense officials asked thePentagon comptroller to study whether to continue the counternarcotics work and other "nontraditional" missions.
The study recommended paring the program, former Defense officials say. And some observers note that Rumsfeld has not named a permanent assistant defense secretary for special operations and low intensity conflict, who is supposed to oversee the anti-drug program. In an interview...»»
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