The big U.S. defense contractors taxpayer rip-off in Colombia

From The Associated Press, 6/15/07:

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-colombia-us-contractors,0,2826688.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

U.S. Contractors Thrive in Colombia

By TOBY MUSE

Associated Press Writer

BOGOTA, Colombia --

U.S. defense contractors are receiving nearly half the money allotted

by Washington to fight cocaine trafficking and leftist rebels in

Colombia, throwing into doubt their mission to train Colombians to

replace them.

When U.S. defense contractors were first hired by the U.S. government

in 2000 to help the Colombian government under the multibillion-dollar

Plan Colombia aid package, American officials assumed the contractors

would be gradually replaced as they trained Colombians.

But a recent State Department report obtained by The Associated Press

shows more U.S. aid going to private companies, igniting criticism of

the spending in Congress.

"We need to be working ourselves out of a job in Colombia but these

contracts are creating dependency on U.S. contractors and are not

helping build a sustainable or peaceful Colombia," said Congressman

Sam Farr, a Democrat from California.

Colombia, the largest recipient of U.S. aid outside of the Middle East

and Afghanistan, is in the midst of five-decade civil conflict that

pits rebels against far-right death squads and the government, a

battle in part funded by the world's largest cocaine industry.

The State and Defense departments spent about $300 million on private

contractors in 2006, just under half of the roughly $630 million in

U.S. military aid for Colombia, the largest recipient of U.S. aid

outside of the Middle East and Afghanistan.

In 2002, private contractors got about $150 million of the roughly

$400 million destined for Colombia's security forces.

The past decade has seen a major increase in U.S. government use of

military contractors around the world, with billions spent in Iraq and

Afghanistan.

But it was in Colombia that the policy got its trial run.

"The drug war in general, but Colombia in particular, was the testing

ground for the use of military contractors," said Adam Isacson, an

analyst with the liberal Center for International Policy think tank.

Last year, Falls Church, Va.-based Dyncorp International Inc., whose

pilots fumigate coca fields with armored crop dusters, took in $164

million for work in Colombia, according to the recent State Department

report, or a quarter of all aid destined for Colombia's military and

police.

That was double what Dyncorp got in 2002.

Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin Corp., which does much of the

maintenance for Colombia's air fleet, saw the value of its contracts

more than triple over the same four years to about $80 million.

Critics already were questioning the effectiveness of U.S. aid in

Colombia.

Despite record drug eradication efforts -- the bulk of it carried out

by the contractors -- a U.S. survey earlier this month found coca

planting in Colombia rose for a third consecutive year in 2006.

Now they are asking why private U.S. companies are still performing

functions they were supposed to be training Colombians for.

"The Colombians should assume more responsibility," said Patrick

Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who chairs the Senate subcommittee on

foreign aid.

"With the right training they could do the job better and cheaper."

Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said Colombia wants to "take more

control of Plan Colombia. We think we can do it cheaper and more

efficiently."

Dyncorp did not return telephone calls seeking comment and a spokesman

for Lockheed Martin referred inquiries to the State Department.

A 2002 report detailing Dyncorp's mission explained that a "primary

responsibility" of contractors was to train Colombians, but that such

training would occur some time in the future.

Virtually identical language was used again in the report for 2006.

________________________________________________

uh huh

Harry