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Plainsman1963

Rumsfeld wants to end support of Bahamas drug ops
06-08-06 | Armytimes.Com | Curt Anderson

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wants to end Army helicopter support for a joint U.S.-Bahamas drug-interdiction program that over the past two decades has resulted in hundreds of arrests and the seizure of tons of cocaine and marijuana.

The Army?s seven Black Hawk helicopters and their crews form the backbone of Operation Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, which the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration credits with helping drive cocaine and marijuana smugglers away from the Bahamas and its easy access to Florida.

But in a May 15 letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Rumsfeld said it was time after more than 20 years to shift the equipment elsewhere. The military is being stretched thin by the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and other commitments around the globe.

The Bahamas anti-drug program, Rumsfeld wrote, "now competes with resources necessary for the war on terrorism and other activities in support of our nation?s defense, with potential adverse effects on the military preparedness of the United States."

The letter asks Gonzales to help identify "a more appropriate agency" to provide the air support. Rumsfeld said he wants to complete the military pullout from the program by Oct. 1, 2007.

The DEA is the other major player in the program, but it has only one helicopter in the Bahamas. The Coast Guard has three Jayhawk helicopters assigned to the program, but DEA officials said the equipment would be insufficient to provide quick response along the vast, 700-island Bahamas chain.

"We would need some resources to be able to do that," Mark R. Trouville, chief of DEA's Miami field office, said in an interview. The Miami DEA office oversees U.S. anti-drug efforts in the Caribbean and Latin America.

The Justice Department, of which DEA is a part, declined comment Wednesday on Rumsfeld?s letter. Trouville said discussions were under way regarding which agency might assume the military?s role in the Bahamas.

Officials at the Pentagon and the U.S. Southern Command in Miami did not immediately return calls Wednesday.

When the program began in 1982, up to 90 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the U.S. from Latin America came into Florida through the Bahamas and Caribbean. Now, most of the cocaine moves across the U.S. southwestern border, in part because of the pressure on traffickers operating off Florida's coasts.

"If we start letting our guard down here now, and we reduce our presence here, it will be more economical (for smugglers) to come back this way. And certainly the state of Florida is ground zero for that," Trouville said.

Since 2000, the program has resulted in seizure of more than 25 tons of cocaine, 82 tons of marijuana and the arrests of 786 people, according to DEA statistics from April.

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Plainsman1963

Hoosiers protest end of drug-chopper plan
06-08-06 | FortWayne.Com

Two Hoosier lawmakers have asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to reverse his plan to end Army helicopter support next year for a program that intercepts drug deals in the Bahamas.

In a letter last month to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Rumsfeld said it was time after more than 20 years to shift the equipment elsewhere. The military is being stretched thin by the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and other commitments around the globe.

“If you withdraw the assets,” Reps. Mark Souder, R-3rd, and Dan Burton, R-5th, wrote to Rumsfeld with three other Republicans, “no other agency is capable of filling the void, and another smuggling route will be left significantly undermanned.”

Since 2000, the U.S.-Bahamas program has resulted in seizure of more than 25 tons of cocaine, 82 tons of marijuana and the arrests of 786 people, according to DEA statistics from April.

The Army’s seven Blackhawk helicopters and their crews form the backbone of Operation Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, which the Drug Enforcement Administration credits with helping drive cocaine and marijuana smugglers away from the Bahamas and its easy access to Florida.

The Bahamas anti-drug program, Rumsfeld wrote, “now competes with resources necessary for the war on terrorism and other activities in support of our nation’s defense, with potential adverse effects on the military preparedness of the United States.”

He said he wants to complete the military pullout from the program by Oct. 1, 2007.

The DEA has only one helicopter in the Bahamas. The Coast Guard has three Jayhawk helicopters assigned to the program, but DEA officials said the equipment would be insufficient to provide quick response along the vast, 700-island Bahamas chain.

When the program began in 1982, up to 90 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the U.S. from Latin America came into Florida through the Bahamas and Caribbean. Now, most of the cocaine moves across the U.S. southwestern border, in part because of the pressure on traffickers operating off Florida’s coasts.

Sylvia A. Smith of The Journal Gazette contributed to this story.

reggie_the_dog

"But in a May 15 letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Rumsfeld said it was time after more than 20 years to shift the equipment elsewhere. The military is being stretched thin by the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and other commitments around the globe.

The Bahamas anti-drug program, Rumsfeld wrote, "now competes with resources necessary for the war on terrorism and other activities in support of our nation?s defense, with potential adverse effects on the military preparedness of the United States."
"

why would the Bush family want to make it easier to import cocaine into Florida? Does Jeb need to come up with some big bucks quick for a 2008 presidential campaign?