The Defense Department wants defense appropriators to restore $57.9 million in counternarcotics support to Colombia requested in President Bush's fiscal year 2004 budget plan, stating reductions would "devastate" current efforts to fight the illegal drug trade there. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's "aggressive actions have provided a window of opportunity to achieve successes in Colombia," the Pentagon states in a Sept. 5 package of appeals to Congress on the FY-04 defense appropriations bill. The House and Senate passed bills that would...
