Cheney Outlines Role of Military in Drug War: No Arrests, No Raids

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney presented an anti-drug plan today that would expand the military role in detecting narcotics and training foreign forces, but he said U.S. soldiers would not make arrests or raids.

“This can be a risky business,” Cheney said in announcing the guidelines at a Pentagon news conference. “I hope none of our people are hurt in the process, but I can’t guarantee it.”

Cheney said he ordered U.S. commanders to come up with specific plans by Oct. 15 for “a substantial Caribbean counter-narcotics task force, with appropriate airlines and ships, to help reduce the flow of drugs from Latin America.”

To Help Law Enforcement

He also ordered them to prepare a plan to “deploy appropriate forces” within the United States to help law enforcement agencies, probably along the border with Mexico.

Finally, he called for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD, to develop specific plans for increasing the detection of illegal drug traffic to the United States, and he told other commanders to work with South American countries to help stop the narcotics smugglers at the source.

‘Few Hundred’ Soldiers

Cheney would not estimate how much his plan would cost, but it was noted that President Bush earmarked about $300 million to help South America’s Andean nations in his $7.9-billion federal anti-drug plan unveiled Sept. 5.

The defense secretary said that “a few hundred” U.S. military men and women probably will be involved in the effort in Latin America and that more teams of U.S. advisers probably will be sent to Peru, Bolivia and Colombia.

Seven teams of military advisers totaling fewer than 50 people are now in those three cocaine-producing countries, according to the Pentagon.

Cheney said American soldiers would remain in a training role in such nations and would not go into combat. He also said U.S. forces would not be making arrests or shooting down U.S.-bound planes that do not heed warnings to land.

“We have no authority to shoot down aircraft coming into the United States,” he said. “I’m not eager to see that kind of authority granted to us.”