Kenneth H. Bacon, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, press briefing, January 13, 2000

Kenneth H. Bacon, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, press briefing, January 13, 2000

DoD News Briefing

Thursday, January 13, 2000 - 1:32 p.m.
Presenter: Mr. Kenneth H. Bacon, ASD PA

Bill?

QYes, thank you, Ken. What can you say about the -- either the administration's policy on military aid to Colombia, insofar as dollars? Is this something that's got to be appropriated first? Are the helicopters going to be sent as is? What details can you provide?

MR. BACON: Well, I don't have a lot to add to what I said on Tuesday, and obviously Secretary Albright and Director McCaffrey talked about this at some length.

The new program is $1.278 billion over two years. Most of that money will be spent by the State Department. The military part of that is about 10 percent, $144 million.

The helicopters will be provided by the State Department. There will be 15 Blackhawk -- 15 Huey helicopters and 30 Blackhawk helicopters. And they will be providing those over the next two years, as I understand it.

The military will focus primarily on training, on radar upgrades, and on setting up a forward operating location in Ecuador. This will replace some of the bases that we had in Panama. It would be one of the ways we're replacing those bases.

Our training will be limited to work with a counterdrug battalion, in fact, two new counterdrug battalions that will be set up by the Colombian army. Our training will be limited to helping the soldiers learn to police and stop narcotics growing and trafficking in Colombia. It will not be -- we will not provide any training in counterinsurgency, it will only be counternarcotics. And as I say, there are -- as you know, we have worked with the Colombian military to train a counterdrug battalion comprised of people who have been vetted to make sure that there are no human rights violators in there, in cooperation with their embassy. I believe the first battalion is trained up and may have just started operations. Under this new plan, we will train two more counterdrug battalions.

QBut you can do it, initiate it and get into this program, with monies that are already available?

MR. BACON: Well, no. We're making a request to Congress, and that's what the administration announced on Tuesday. And the request will be an emergency supplemental, I believe, of $905 million in the current fiscal year, and then the balance will be in the next fiscal year, and Congress will have to buy on to this.

Yes?

QThe White House said it was 33 Hueys in their release that they put out that day. Is that wrong?

MR. BACON: My memory is that it was 30 Black Hawks and 15 Hueys. But I'll double check that. I mean, whatever they said, I'm sure is right.

As of March 13, 2000, this document is also available at http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jan2000/t01132000_t0113asd.html