[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 100 (Wednesday, July 18, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1366]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               DOGS OF WAR BARE THEIR TEETH OVER COLOMBIA

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                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 18, 2001

  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, today I am pleased to offer for the Record 
an op-ed piece written by Ms. Arianna Huffington that appeared in the 
Los Angeles Times on Tuesday, July 17, 2001. This article regards our 
country's involvement in Plan Colombia. Before we begin debate on the 
Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, I think it is important that 
the Congress and the people of the United States reconsider our current 
policy toward our southern neighbor and third most populous country in 
South America.

               Dogs of War Bare Their Teeth Over Colombia

       For more than a year, critics of our government's drug-war 
     aid package to Colombia (now hovering at $2 billion) have 
     been warning of the mission creep that threatens to embed us 
     ever deeper in that country's 4-decades-old civil war.
       Well, the slippery slope just got greased.
       The House of Representatives is about to vote on the $15.2-
     billion foreign operations spending bill. Buried amid the 
     appropriations for many worthwhile projects such as the Peace 
     Corps and international HIV/AIDS relief is a legislative land 
     mine. It comes in the form of a couple of innocuous-sounding 
     lines that could lead to a massive escalation of U.S. 
     involvement in Colombia's unwinnable war.
       Contained in the section of the bill earmarking $676 
     million for ``counterdrug activities'' in the region are the 
     following eye-glazing provisions: ``These fund are in 
     addition to amounts otherwise available for such purposes and 
     are available without regard to section 3204(b)(1)(B) of 
     Public Law 106-246. Provided further, that section 482(b) of 
     the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 shall not apply to funds 
     appropriated under this heading.''
       Got that? I didn't think so.
       Legislative gobbledygook does not get any gookier. but once 
     the meaningless numbers and letters are decoded, and the 
     statutory dots connected, the ominous significance of those 
     provisions becomes all too clear. If approved, they make 
     possible the unlimited buildup of ``mercenaries'' and the 
     removal of any constraints on the kinds of weapons they can 
     use.
       Under current law, the number of U.S. military personnel 
     that can be deployed in Colombia is limited to 500, and they 
     are prohibited from engaging in combat. But as politicians 
     discovered long ago, there are two parts to every law: the 
     spirit of the law and the letter of the law.
       As regard Columbia, our government chose the latter, 
     carrying out a classic end-run around the prohibition by 
     funding a war conducted by mercenaries--hundreds of U.S. 
     citizens working for private military contractors like 
     DynCorp, Airscan and Military Professional Resources Inc.
       At the moment, the number of these mercenaries is capped at 
     300. But the first new provision, if it becomes law, does 
     away with this restriction. The other provision removes 
     language that says ``weapons or ammunition'' while engaged in 
     narcotics-related activities. It's a deadly cocktail: 
     unlimited private forces armed with unlimited weapons.
       Congress has always zealously guarded its rights under the 
     War Powers Act. But unless its members catch on, they could 
     approve a privatized Gulf of Tonkin resolution without even 
     realizing it's hidden in the bill. And once the dogs of war 
     are unleashed, they're awfully hard to round up again--just 
     ask Bob McNamara.
       This ongoing and furtive escalation directly contradicts 
     the government's assurances that, as Assistant Secretary of 
     State Rand Beers put it last week, ``Plan Columbia is a plan 
     for peace.''
       ``From the beginning,'' he wrote in an op-ed, ``we have 
     stated that there is no military solution to Columbia's 
     problems.'' Then why, pray, the need for offensive weaponry 
     and unrestricted number of mercenaries?
       To make matters worse, a new investigation by the Center 
     for Public Integrity found that U.S. anti-drug money spent on 
     Latin America is being ``funneled through corrupt military 
     paramilitary and intelligence organizations and ends up 
     violating basic human rights.''
       Those who scoff at the idea that our drug-fighting efforts 
     in Colombia could lead to the U.S. becoming embroiled in a 
     massive counter-insurgency war should take a look at a new 
     study by the Rand Corp. commissioned by the U.S. Air Force. 
     The study calls on the United States to drop the phony 
     ``counter-narcotics only'' pretense and directly assist the 
     Colombian government in its battle against leftist rebels: 
     ``The United States is the only realistic source of military 
     assistance on the scale needed to redress the currently 
     unfavorable balance of power.''
       There is still the chance that Congress will refuse to go 
     along with this statutory trickery. Reps. John Conyers (D-
     Mich.) and Janice D. Schakowsky (D-Ill.) are considering an 
     amendment to eliminate the new provisions.
       Turning an army of heavily armed mercenaries loose in the 
     middle of a bloody civil war is more than a misguided 
     policy--its utter insanity. It's imperative that our 
     lawmakers defuse these provisions in the bill before they 
     blow up in our faces, and the cliche of ``another Vietnam'' 
     becomes a sorry Colombian reality.

     

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