NP - The Good News Re. The War Against Terrorism

[David Morris]

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/294/nation/Pentagon_eases_its_war_on_drugs+.shtml

WASHINGTON - Citing a need to redirect resources to the war on terrorism, the
Pentagon has quietly decided to scale back its effort to combat international
drug trafficking, a central element of the national ''war on drugs'' for 14
years. 

Officials are still deciding how to pare the $1-billion-a-year program, but
they want to reduce deployment of special operations troops on counternarcotics
missions and cut back the military's training of antidrug police and soldiers
in the United States and abroad. Also, they want to use intelligence-gathering
equipment now devoted to counterdrug work for counterterrorism as well.

But the military's counternarcotics effort is popular among some on Capitol
Hill, where the retrenchment plans could run into trouble. The plans have not
yet been spelled out for lawmakers; however, Defense Department memos and
interviews with current and former officials make the Pentagon's intentions
clear.

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
government.

''We should not be relaxing our efforts in the war on drugs,'' said
Representative Porter J. Goss, Republican of Florida, 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 the 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.'' The Pentagon will focus its antidrug
activities on programs that, among other things, ''contribute to the war on
terrorism,'' he said.



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