ISSUE / WHOSE HELICOPTERS? : Anti-Drug Aircraft Grounded by Congress-White House Squabble : The dispute centers on whether to lend or give the fleet to Peru and Bolivia. A resolution could take months.

In the war on drugs, no one in this capital wants to be on the wrong side. But a stubborn squabble between Congress and the Bush Administration this week halted deliveries of weapons both sides agree are crucial to the fight.

At issue is a fleet of helicopters slated for the front line in a new U.S.-backed assault against drug traffickers in South America. In the mountainous terrain where coca-growers thrive, the whirlybirds often can be the only way to get around.

The question now is who should own them. Amid the self-congratulations last fall when Congress signed off on the broad outlines of the White House plan, no one gave the subject much thought. But with the chopper convoy now overdue, that left-over debate in the back rooms of the federal government threatens to hold up the drug fight in the Andes.

The Administration, it seems, has promised Peru and Bolivia that they can have the helicopters for themselves: no strings attached. But Congress refuses to go along. Its key players want the Pentagon to loan the helicopters but remain free to reel them back if something goes awry.

With each side citing contradictory laws, the result is a stalemate not unusual in Washington. All involved insist that they are working toward the same noble goal. But once the battle lines are drawn, the means can quickly become more important than the end.

Background

The helicopters are included in a massive $125-million package of military assistance for Peru, Bolivia and Colombia as part of an unprecedented U.S. effort to extend its drug war to the nations that are the source of cocaine.

The overall plan was approved by Congress in November, but specific bilateral negotiations were put off until after the mid-February summit in Cartagena, Colombia.

The final pacts--setting aside roughly equal shares of aid for the three countries--have only now been completed.

Money should begin to flow soon. It is a different story for the separate helicopter budget--$8 million for 11 Huey UH-1 and UH-60 gunships that the Administration proposes to turn over to Peru and Bolivia. Quite bluntly, Congress has said no.

The main obstacle is Rep. Lawrence J. (Larry) Smith, a fast-talking Florida Democrat who heads a House Foreign Affairs narcotics task force.

When Mexico was discovered in the mid-1980s to have used State Department-provided anti-drug aircraft for non-drug flights, Smith drafted 1986 legislation that was designed to eliminate future fiascoes.

Its key provision requires the State Department to retain title on any aircraft it makes available to foreign governments for counter-narcotics purposes. Even though the new Administration proposal would switch the gift-giving to the Pentagon, Smith contends that the spirit of the law still applies.

“What if something goes wrong down there?” Smith asks. “We couldn’t ask for the helicopters back.”

Opposing Views

Not all of the congressman’s colleagues share his view. “We should get on with it,” says Rep. Lawrence Coughlin (R-Pa.). But barring a change of mind by Smith, his law has spun a legal tangle through which the helicopters cannot pass.

Hoping to untie the knot, Administration officials cite an arms export control act, which appears to prohibit the Defense Department from loaning equipment abroad. Their contention: The Pentagon by law has no choice but to hand over title for the helicopters to Peru and Bolivia.

Besides, they argue that because Peru is ever-wary of appearing to be a Yanqui client, it will agree to fully enlist in the drug fight only if the helicopters are turned over without any strings attached.

The Prospects

Not untypically, each side sees one perfect solution: that the other concede. If that happens, the helicopters could be in action over the Andes by mid-May.

But what is far more likely is prolonged legal wrangling while experts vie to prove that the Pentagon either must or cannot loan its drug-fighting choppers abroad. And if that happens, negotiators say, Peru and Bolivia may be in for a long wait.

The hold-up on the helicopters, one congressional official warns, could persist for “weeks if not months.”