Approved For Release 200, "89ROO0800100015-7 SG1J Pacitic War Approved Audit Urges End 'K wA% ~Pw Of Joint Task forCe hard intelligence that a particular ship is carrying drugs. In yet another criticism, the audit By Michael Isikoff found repeated attempts by the wwlington Pwt SW wtiw multi-service Pacific Command to When Congress and the Bush ad- use the drug war to fund missions ministration stepped up the drug war that had nothing to do with drugs. more than two years ago, a reluctant Out of $195 million in anti-drug Pentagon was pushed to the front funds requested more than two years fines, named as the "lead agency" for ago, $152 million was subsequently detecting and monitoring drug smug- ruled "invalid* in part because it was glers from the sea and air. 'Nunrelated to the counter-narcotics But now questions are being mission," the audit says. raised as to how useful the military's The Pacific Command later sub- annual $1.1 billion anti-drug effort mitted a revised $47 million budget has been. A blunt internal audit of request that was approved, but the the U.S. Pacific Command's anti- inspector general stiff challenged one drug operations has found tens of item: $4 million for a "secure video millions of dollars in wasted funds, teleconferencing' center for JTF 5. layers of needless bureaucracy and the deployment of random ship pa- The audit concluded the task force could use secure telephones instead. trols that have been largely "ineffec Michael A. Wermuth, deputy as- tive in finding smugglers and Of lit- sisstant secretary of defense for tle use to federal law enforcement agellk.;'ke~s. drug enforcement, said JTF 5 pro T e rt recommends thatfvffl vided important intelligence and de "eU __. orce 'a much heralded'Pe-n-- fended the Pacific Command's con- FA U-0-rc -e,5 command.and i Ifili ence cer~-__r tribution to the drug war as "very .Mrff 'col s u~( eful." me &a. s ut down.,' us a ffim8a, One o tree forces &rjaaFjd by "We're not in the process of mea- Onte;~ bask ree Secretary of Defense Richard B. suring our performance on the num- Cheney to oversee the Defense De- ber of tons of cocaine seized," he partment's anti-drug activities, the said. He cited recent congressional JTF 5 "duplicates counter-narcotics testimony indicating that federal law capabilities at other (Pacific COm- enforcement agencies were grateful mand) activities and creates unnec- for the Pentagon's help. essary operational overhead. * * ' we But Wermuth acknowledged that recommend that JTF 5 be diwstab- the Pacific Command's routine pa- lished," according to the July 9 audit trols were "not effective and that a by the Defense Department inspec- d1ccision had been made to discontin- tor general's office that was released ue theta even before the inspector this week at the request of The general's findings were transmitted. Washington Post. Although no announcement was Its findings are not entirely sur- made of such operations being prising, according to some anti-drug stopped, Wermuth said "it was analysts. Commanders and budget analysts in the Defense Dep months ago, not days." long have questioned the wisdom of But the inspector general's office military participation.in the drug war also questioned whether the use of and nowhere more so than in the. any naval assets in the Pacific makes Pacific: Trying to use military assets sense. According to the audit, JTF 5 to detect drug smugglers in the has directed its efforts against mar- ocean's 100 million square miles was itime smugglers, usually the oper- always "a particularly implausible ators of "mother ships" who off-load effort," noted Peter Reuter, a Rand their cargo to smaller boats hovering Corp. economist. off West Coats ports. These ships, Nevertheless, the Hawaii-based the audit notes, almost always carry Pacific Command last year allocated bulky marijuana, rather than easier $23 million annually through 1995 to to conceal cocaine or heroin. Those deploy radar planes as well as frig- drugs are usually smuggled aboard ates and other ships on random or 41 routine" patrols in passenger aircraft or concealed hope Of finding aboard commercial cargo ships. drug smugglers plying the Pacific. Nothing has turned up. A separate By directing its operations against General Accounting Office study re- the maritime smuggler, the audit cently found that out of more than concludes, "JTF 5 has, as a result, 200 boaidings of ships carried out by limited itself to detecting and mon- federal law enforcement officials itoring marijuana smuggling," a mis- (usually Coast Guard officers) who sion that is "contrary to the guid- accompanied Pacific Command anti- ance" of the Central Intelligence drug patrols, none resulted in sei- Agency that the military concentrate zures of drugs or the arrests of on heroin and cocaine. The CIA had smuggling suspects. concluded that programs against The inspector general's audit also marijuana "do not warrant substan found no seizures and recommended tial new intelligence' investments," For Release 2000/08tbW~ttf*IqUP!§SdgGMlqODM04OW15-7