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Bombings Could Stall U.S. Efforts in Colombia : Drug War: Officials concede that military assistance has been of little help to the Bogota government. One possible solution: improved intelligence-gathering.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

U.S. anti-drug officials fear that two devastating bombings in Colombia represent the onset of a major escalation by cocaine traffickers and could seriously complicate the Administration’s efforts to help the Colombian government win its drug war.

The traffickers are believed to be responsible for explosions aboard an Avianca airlines flight and in a Bogota street that together claimed more than 150 lives, the first time large numbers of innocent civilians have been targeted since an “all-out war” against authorities was declared by the cocaine cartels four months ago.

While defending U.S. efforts to aid Colombia so far, the anti-drug officials conceded that the largely military assistance that has been dispatched to date has done little to help the government fend off what increasingly appears to be a sustained and bloody terrorist offensive.

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For that reason, participants in Administration strategy meetings are now focusing on proposals to improve intelligence-gathering and to provide more protection for particularly vulnerable Colombian targets, sources said.

The United States must “intensify our efforts to provide them with the best intelligence we can, not only the whereabouts of the traffickers but also their terrorist intentions,” Terrence M. Burke, deputy administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said in an interview.

Michael M. Skol, deputy assistant secretary of state for South America, said that the mayhem will not “shock us into doing more for Colombia,” but “it confirms that we must do as much as we can.”

The Administration officials contended that the new terrorist attacks are an indication that the U.S.-backed crackdown in Colombia is driving cartel leaders to desperation. “This may make it harder for us,” one official said, “but it’s a sign that we’re winning.”

Other officials, however, described the new terrorist campaign as a far more significant threat. While not likely to put American citizens at risk, it could undermine U.S. strategy by causing Colombians to back away from the crackdown.

“These people have enough resources to keep up the bombings and terrorism,” one official said. “And now it appears they really don’t care who they kill in their efforts to attack a particular target.”

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Such efforts appear unlikely to be thwarted by any new barriers erected by the United States, despite the highly publicized dispatch of $65 million in emergency assistance to Colombia last August after the traffickers announced their anti-government campaign, the U.S. officials said.

The assistance package--which by law was drawn entirely from U.S. military stores--was composed largely of helicopters and attack jet planes. Other aid provided by the State Department under a $5-million judicial assistance package has gone largely toward the training of bodyguards and the manufacture of armored cars.

The tools have been judged useful in Colombian assaults against traffickers’ headquarters and in protecting Colombian judges from assassination attempts. But the officials acknowledged that the new terrorist offensive raises questions about the narrowness of the U.S. response to date.

“The narco-terrorists are not mounting battalion-style attacks on police stations,” one U.S. official said. “As we saw in Bogota, they’re blowing the hell out of them--and everything else for blocks--with terrorist bombs. They certainly couldn’t have been stopped by an A-37 circling overhead.”

Additional anti-drug assistance has been promised as part of the Administration’s new Andean strategy, which provides $261 million for Colombia, Peru and Bolivia this year. It is expected to be made up largely of military aid, but officials said Thursday that there had been some discussion of shifting more toward law enforcement.

Among steps described by one U.S. official as of potential value would be training Colombian police in anti-terrorist techniques and helping design and erect barriers around vulnerable targets.

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Despite their expressions of concern about the U.S. effort, the anti-drug officials said that they are certain the political imperative of a victory in the war on drugs means that the United States will not back away from the Colombian crackdown.

In particular, they noted that the fate of the highly touted Andean strategy is largely dependent on success in Colombia, where the prospects for progress in the anti-drug effort are believed far better than in Peru and Bolivia.

“All I hear from the highest levels of the Administration,” one senior official said Thursday, “is: ‘Colombia must succeed. They cannot fail.’ ”

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