CIP Memorandum: Bush Administration supplemental request, March 26, 2003

CIP Memorandum: Bush Administration supplemental request, March 26, 2003

MEMORANDUM

March 26, 2003
To: Interested Colleagues
From: Ingrid Vaicius, Associate, Center for International Policy
Re: Bush Administration supplemental request

On March 25 the Bush administration sent to Congress a request for supplemental funding "to cover military operations, relief and reconstruction activities in Iraq, and ongoing operations in the global war on terrorism." The request (available online in Adobe Acrobat format at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/amendments/supplemental_3_25_03.pdf) includes military and police assistance for at least nineteen other countries. According to El Tiempo, Colombia's leading newspaper, Colombia would receive close to $100 million from this request - bringing total U.S. military and police aid in 2003 to an astounding $600 million.

Of this $100 million, Colombia would get $34 million from the Defense Department's "Drug Interdiction and Counter-Drug Activities" account. The request rather vaguely states that this funding will be used to "fund increased operational tempo in Colombia's unified campaign against narcotics trafficking and terrorist activities." In the past, Defense Department counter-drug aid to Colombia has consisted of training, non-lethal equipment upgrades, intelligence and minor base construction.

An additional $34 million would go to Colombia under the heading of the "Andean Counter-Drug Initiative," managed by the State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. These funds, the request states, would "support extension of police authority to areas of the country that currently have little or no law enforcement presence, enhanced presidential security, bomb squad equipment, and for the unified campaign against narcotics and terrorism."

Also, an estimated $36-37 million would go through the State Department-managed Foreign Military Financing program, the aid program that is currently providing aid to help Colombia's military defend the Caño Limón-Coveñas oil pipeline in northeastern Colombia.

In addition to all of this, the supplemental request includes various provisions that might allow more money to go to Colombia's security forces in the name of fighting "the global war on terrorism." The "Department of Defense Operation and Maintenance Defense Emergency Response Fund," for instance, could "use up to $50 million for the limited purpose of supporting military operation or activities of foreign nations in furtherance of the global war on terrorism." Also, the State Department's "General Provisions" category includes $150 million to assist indigenous forces that help U.S. military forces in carrying out military activities, including those that will further the global "war on terrorism."