Don’t Order GIs Into Drug Fight: Carlucci to Congress : ‘Can’t Tell Good Guys From Bad’

Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci today strongly resisted any broad expansion of the Pentagon’s role in the war on drugs, saying the military is not trained “to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys” but “to shoot everything that comes over the hill.”

At the same time, he said he will propose a drug-free workplace for defense contractors.

Carlucci, who detailed some steps he said the Defense Department could take to beef up its anti-drug work, also said he was vehemently opposed to getting military officers involved in arresting civilians for drug smuggling.

His testimony, and that of Air Force Gen. Robert Herres, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. Frank Kelso, commander of the Atlantic Fleet, came at a rare joint hearing of the Senate and House Armed Services committees.

Attack on Lawmakers

The defense secretary sharply attacked lawmakers who handle the emotional election-year issue with soaring rhetoric and claim, contrary to testimony from experts, that simply throwing the Pentagon at the drug-smuggling problem will solve it.

“I would submit there are significant distinctions between law enforcement and the military,” Carlucci said. “The military is trained and equipped to shoot everything that comes over the hill.

“The military is not trained and equipped to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys. The military is trained and equipped with weapons of mass destruction. . . . Statements like ‘we’re at war’ aren’t terribly helpful. . . . Just because people say it’s a national security problem doesn’t automatically make it a defense responsibility.”

Arrest Powers Considered

The Senate has proposed extra Pentagon surveillance, intelligence and communications help for civilian law enforcement agencies, as well as limited arrest powers outside U.S. territorial waters. The House bill demands much more, ordering the Pentagon to seal the nation’s borders to smugglers with broad new military arrest powers.

The joint panels are trying to develop a provision to get the Pentagon more involved in drug interdiction as they reconcile different approaches in the House and Senate versions of the 1989 defense authorization bill.

Carlucci said the Pentagon is looking at an expanded anti-drug role for the National Guard, conducting more exercises in areas where smugglers move their illicit product, boosting its radar coverage of the Caribbean, getting radar data to civilian law enforcement and transferring 20 excess helicopters to civilian agencies.

He also used the hearing to announce his “intention to issue a regulation requiring that defense contractors provide a drug-free workplace,” including mandatory drug testing for employees handling classified information or dealing with safety issues.

The Pentagon already cooperates extensively with law-enforcement agencies, and Coast Guard officers sometimes sail with Navy ships to provide authority for arrests when a drug-smuggling craft is found.