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Newsbrief:
Congress
Defeats
Effort
to
Abolish
Cap
on
US
Troops
in
Colombia
5/14/04
A Republican effort to abolish
the congressionally-mandated limits on the number of US troops in Colombia
was defeated in Congress Wednesday. Members of the House Armed Services
Committee rejected language by committee chairman Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA)
that would have lifted the cap and declined to accept an administration
proposal that would have doubled the number of US troops there, instead
voting 32-24 to raise the current cap on US military personnel from 400
to 500.
Limits on the number of US
military personnel and civilian contractors were imposed in 2000 by a Congress
leery of being sucked into an ever-escalating involvement in Colombia's
decades-long civil war in the name of the war on drugs and now the war
on terror. Although Congress approved a $1.3 billion aid package
for what was then known as Plan Colombia, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-VA) and Rep.
Gene Taylor (D-MS) added language limiting the number of military personnel
and civilian contractors to 400 each. Taylor was also the author
of the successful amendment this year slightly raising that cap.
Two months ago, in the run-up
to voting on the Defense Appropriations Bill, administration officials
began arguing that the troop limits needed to be doubled in order to support
Plan Patriota, a huge Colombian military offensive in the country's guerrilla-dominated
south. Plan Patriota depends heavily on the logistical and intelligence
support of US personnel deployed in southern Colombia.
Rep. Hunter wanted to go
the administration one better by simply removing the caps. Neither
got what they wanted.
-- END --
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Issue #337, 5/14/04
Editorial: Always Another Angle |
Russia Enacts Sweeping Reforms in Drug Laws: No Jail for Possession |
Maryland Treatment Not Jail Bill Signed Into Law |
Canada Marijuana Decriminalization Bill Dying as Government Prepares to Call Elections, Few Mourners |
Calls for Sentencing Reform Grow in Arizona |
Announcing: "The New Prohibition: Voices of Dissent Challenge the Drug War" -- New Compendium by Sheriff Masters Features David Borden and Numerous Other Thinkers on Drug Policy |
Newsbrief: Local Prosecutor Tries to Block Atlantic City Needle Exchange, Would Be New Jersey's First |
Newsbrief: Pennsylvania Attorney General Hops on Prescription Drug Abuse Bandwagon |
Newsbrief: Ohio Appeals Court Upholds City's Harsh Marijuana Penalties |
Newsbrief: Congress Defeats Effort to Abolish Cap on US Troops in Colombia |
Newsbrief: Anti-Drug Ads Pique Curiosity, Researcher Finds |
Newsbrief: Alcohol Prohibition Coming to Nigerian State |
Newsbrief: Study Finds "No Increased Risk" for Marijuana-Using Drivers |
Newsbrief: Hip-Hop Summit Announces Mass Rally Against Drug War at GOP Convention |
Newsbrief: Finnish Green MP Causes Flap with Admission of Cannabis Use |
Newsbrief: Million Marijuana Marches, Continued -- Rocking in Rosario, Repression in Russia and Israel |
This Week in History |
Job Opportunity: Program Coordinator, International Harm Reduction Development Program, OSI |
The Reformer's Calendar
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