Outgoing Customs Chief Blasts War on Drugs as ‘Fainthearted’

Outspoken U.S. Customs Commissioner William Von Raab plans to leave office next Monday with an angry blast at the “fainthearted” drug-fighting efforts of key Bush Administration officials, including his boss, Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady.

In an interview Thursday with The Times, Von Raab--whose hopes of being promoted to director of the White House Office of Drug Control Policy, assistant secretary of state or ambassador went unfulfilled--gave a preview of attacks that he is expected to make Monday against Treasury, Justice and State Department officials.

“There is a latent passivism that exists with respect to the drug war, a fear of getting into another Vietnam, of getting into a battle that we cannot win because we won’t make the kinds of serious sacrifices necessary to win. And that includes political sacrifices,” he said.

“There are too many people in some of the departments who are fainthearted, and a faint heart is not going to win this war,” said the customs chief, who has crusaded against drug-trafficking for more than eight years with bold, controversial initiatives.

Slouched on a sofa in his office with his hands clasped behind his head and his feet up on a table, Von Raab assailed Brady for failing to make drug control a condition of a recent debt-reduction plan with Mexico.

Without directly criticizing Secretary of State James A. Baker III, the customs chief attacked State Department officials as “conscientious objectors” to the drug war. And he charged that the Justice Department is mostly interested in defending its turf against encroachment by customs and other agencies in anti-drug efforts.

“I don’t know whether (Atty. Gen. Dick) Thornburgh or the mice are running the shop, but they’ve gotten out all their memos restricting everybody else’s jurisdiction,” Von Raab said.

Von Raab said that William J. Bennett, who heads the drug policy office, is being “undermined” by “political jockeying” and “backbiting.” However, he spoke favorably of Bush, Bennett and Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp. He expressed hope that a drug-fighting plan being developed by Bennett for presentation Sept. 5 would be effective.

“I have the utmost confidence in Bill Bennett and the President to take this rather fainthearted collection of Cabinet secretaries and forge them into a vital drug program,” Von Raab said. “I like the kind of bold steps that I think he (Bennett) wants to take. I pray for him.”

A statement by a Brady spokesman said that “Mr. Von Raab’s judgment may be affected by the decision to appoint a new customs commissioner, but there is no basis for his comment about Treasury’s commitment to the war against illegal drugs.”

Von Raab, who stirred a furor two years ago by bluntly accusing high Mexican officials of drug corruption, took on U.S. officials offended by his brash statements.

“I’m not outspoken. They are mealy-mouthed,” Von Raab said, “because rarely have I ever said anything that anyone has disagreed with. They say, ‘Well, you should say it in a different way.’ Well, there’s only one way to say it, and that’s to say it.”