by Askia Muhammad
White House Correspondent

THE WHITE HOUSE (FinalCall.com)�Flush with the taste of victory after the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and U.S. Customs Service announced an operation at sea that seized 25 tons of Colombian cocaine headed for this country, along with the arrest of 43 accused smugglers, President Bill Clinton stopped here briefly on his way back from Africa Aug. 29, before heading to Cartagena, Colombia to personally deliver $1.3 billion in anti-drug military aid to President Andres Pastrana.

"I will be joined on my trip by the Speaker of our House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), and other distinguished members of our Congress," Mr. Clinton said in a video address to the people of Colombia prior to his departure.

"We come from different political parties, but we have a common commitment to support our friend, Colombia. As you struggle with courage to make peace, to build your economy, to fight drugs, and to deepen democracy, the United States will be on your side," Mr. Clinton said.

Dissenters however, including both Republican and Democratic members of Congress, and major human rights organizations warn that Mr. Clinton may be leading this country into a Latin-American "Vietnam-style" military engagement, by aiding a fragile government whose hands are bloody with human rights violations, and which is a combatant in a 40-year-old, three-way civil war with leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitary groups.

In addition, some Colombian intellectuals argue, the real "national security interest" Mr. Clinton�s initiative is intended to protect, may be access by multi-national corporations to huge oil reserves which are located on peasant lands in rebel-controlled areas in northern regions of the country.

To be eligible for the funds, the Colombian government was supposed to meet seven human rights conditions imposed by Congress. It met only one, so Mr. Clinton signed a waiver of the other six conditions in order to release the money.

With the prospect of massive amounts of U.S. aid�82 percent of the $1.3 billion is military assistance, which equals more than the aid to all other South American countries combined�pouring into Colombia, peace talks have stalled, and the violence on all sides has increased.

The Clinton decision to waive human rights compliance drew an angry response from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Washington Office on Latin America which issued an unprecedented joint report that criticizes the Clinton administration, and condemns Colombian government and paramilitary forces for major human rights abuses in the civil war.

"Stopping the flow of drugs from Colombia to the United States is critical, but this degree of military funding risks drawing the U.S. from the drug war into Colombia�s brutal, 41-year-old conflict that most observers agree neither side can win," Rep. Tom Campbell (R-Calif.) complained at the time of the House vote on the funding. "We cannot afford another Vietnam.

"And think about this:" continued Mr. Campbell, who is opposing Sen. Dianne Feinstein�s (D-Calif.) reelection bid, "We are about to spend almost $2 billion on Colombia, when we have a reported 3.6 million addicts going untreated here at home. This makes no sense when drug treatment is estimated to be 23 times more cost-effective than crop eradication and 11 times more cost-effective than interdiction, according to a 1994 Rand (Corporation) study commissioned by the U.S. Army."

Spending the same $1.3 billion, Rep. Campbell argued�which Mr. Clinton took to Colombia�on interdiction, enhanced border controls, and drug treatment and prevention in this country, would "starve the suppliers in Colombia without putting American lives at risk."

The major counter-drug components of the U.S. initiative, according to White House documents, include: $442 million for support to counter-drug operations in the coca-growing regions of southern Colombia, including the training and equipping of three special counter-narcotics battalions of the Colombian Army which will provide security for law enforcement operations by the National Police.

According to the plan�s critics, some military analysts fear expanding the U.S. military role in fighting the war on drugs could draw this country into another protracted, Vietnam-type conflict.

In addition they complain, human rights abuses by the government and its right-wing allies may be ignored.

Another $466 million will be spent, according to the White House, for the enhancement of the capability to interdict shipments of illicit drugs from the Andean region, to include radar, aircraft and airfield upgrades and support for counter-drug intelligence gathering.

Critics point out that the major portion of that money will be spent to purchase 63 helicopters manufactured by two U.S. firms�Sikorsky Aircraft, a subsidiary of United Technologies, and Bell Helicopter Textron.

An additional $116 million will be spent for direct support to the Colombian national police to expand the illicit crop eradication program targeting coca and poppy fields, says the White House. Colombia has seen a 140 percent increase in the basic raw material for cocaine production over the last five years. Colombia is now the source for two-thirds of the cocaine on the world market, and 90 percent of the drug in the United States, along with two-thirds of the heroin supply on the East Coast in this country.

Environmentalists warn, however, that just as crop eradication in Peru and Bolivia has driven the production to Colombia, Brazil authorities are concerned that its rich Amazon rain-forest may be the next target.

Mario Murillo, producer and host of the weekly radio news-magazine "Our Americas," recently returned from spending the summer in Colombia.

In a broadcast interview, he warned that crop eradication produces a three-step environmental hazard. It produces deforestation by farmers looking for land to grow the illicit crops; fumigation of the crops by government forces, poisoning the land; which only leads to the deforestation of more forests by farmers, Mr. Murillo explained.

Ironically, Republican critics of the Clinton plan point out, the best way to conduct a drug war is by devoting more money to treatment, just as President Richard Nixon did in 1971, declaring drug abuse "public enemy No. 1." Mr. Nixon earmarked two-thirds of the then�new anti-drug funding to treatment.

The result was "national crime rates dropped, the number of drug-related arrests fell, the number of federal inmates decreased, and record numbers of addicts sought and received treatment," according to Reps. Campbell and Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.), in a "Dear Colleague" letter opposing the Colombian aid-package.

According to Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey�s annual report this year, at least 57 percent of those who want treatment for drugs can�t get it.

"Today, only 18 percent (or $3.8 billion) of the national drug budget is spent on treatment," the two Republicans continued. "Treatment for heroin addiction is a much wiser allocation of our precious national resources. Heroin addicts spend an average 200 days per year committing crimes to support their addiction. The figure drops to 11 or 12 days a year among those in treatment.

Photo: Columbian President Andres Pastrana, left, talks to President Clinton upon his arrival at the Cartagena airport on Aug. 30, 2000.