Monday February 4 12:37 AM ET
US Preparing to Revise Colombia Drug War - Report
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House plans to step up U.S. military assistance to Colombia's security forces in a revised war on drugtraffickers but American troops will not go into combat in the South
American nation, The Washington Times reported on Monday.
The newspaper, citing unidentified U.S. officials, said the administrationcould submit to Congress later this month its plan for training Colombian troops and wiping out the coca crop, from which cocaine in derived.
The report said the plan would rely heavily on Army Special Forces or Green Berets attached to the 7th Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. But sources told the newspaper there were no plans to have the Green Berets, used extensively in the war in Afghanistan, directly enter Colombia's long-running war against drug cartels.
The report said the Pentagon and the State Department were debating the size and the scope of the plan, which would help Colombia establish a second anti-narcotics brigade.
The U.S. would also train local troops to protect the country's oil pipelines, frequent targets of leftist rebel armies that have been at war with the Colombian government for decades.
U.S. officials told the newspaper that the proposal also called for increased intelligence sharing with Colombia.
The Bush plan follows up former President Bill Clinton's ''Plan Colombia'' initiative.
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