In an interview, Pentagon counter-drug chief Andre Hollis emphasized that the Pentagon wants to retain parts of the program that have worked well but that all the pieces are being examined to determine if each "is still a
priority mission. The top priorities now are to defend the homeland and to win the war on terrorism."
Over the years, Hollis said, the counter-narcotics mission has multiplied into 179 separate sub-programs, a number he called "surreal." He said his first assignment when he came to the job in August 2001 was to conduct a
"bottom-up review" that would distinguish what the Pentagon does well in counter-narcotics from "what we shouldn't be doing, or that didn't need to be done anymore."
In particular, Hollis said, Defense wants to reduce
the burden on special operations forces, which are relatively few in number and in heavy demand for terrorism-related missions. And when possible, he said, the department wants to double up on the use of
intelligence-gathering equipment.
If, for instance, a National Guard helicopter is flying along the
California-Mexico border "looking for drug activity, there's no reason why they can't also be looking for terrorists," he said.
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But a former senior Defense official, who asked for anonymity, said the counter-drug operations would inevitably get short shrift if forced to share equipment with anti-terrorism operations.
The
Pentagon spent about $1 billion on drug-related operations in fiscal 2002, out of a total federal counternarcotics outlay of $19 billion.
The Pentagon has a bigger anti-drug budget than the Coast Guard, Customs Service or the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and accounts for a significant share of federal money spent to fight drugs abroad. Most of the Pentagon's anti-drug efforts are in the Western Hemisphere, notably the Andean region, Central America and the Caribbean. Its efforts in Mexico are more limited. The military also offers training and gathers intelligence in Southeast Asia, notably Thailand. While it retrenches elsewhere, the Pentagon intends to continue its growing effort in Colombia, where U.S. military trainers and intelligence personnel have been helping a weak government wage a four-decade war with drug-dealing rebels. The Bush...»»
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