TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/080789/08078900.040

Text File | 1990-09-17 | 6KB | 112 lines

NATION, Page 18

A Loose Cannon's Parting Shot

William von Raab rips into Washington's phony war on drugs

By Elaine Shannon


    Ask any of the President's men about the Bush Administration's
commitment to the war on drugs, and -- on the record, at least --
their answers will ring with phrases like "a threat to democracy,"
"highest priority," "top of our agenda."

    "Hot air," scoffs outgoing U.S. Customs Commissioner William
von Raab in a departing blast. "We are fighting an uninspired war
of attrition. A war of words. The drug issue is not a priority
right now. I don't think our Government, either in Congress or the
Administration, has the stomach necessary to win this battle."

    In his eight years as Customs commissioner, Von Raab's penchant
for independent action and colorful talk has landed him in a series
of well-publicized scrapes. He was an early and vehement critic of
Washington's see-no-evil policy toward Panama strongman Manuel
Noriega. He appalled civil libertarians by proposing to shoot down
suspected drug-smuggling planes. He infuriated the State Department
by trying to mark passports of drug smugglers caught at the border.
He promoted the "zero tolerance" program that called for
prosecuting people apprehended with small amounts of drugs and
confiscating their cars, boats and planes.

    This week Von Raab, 47, leaves office with an encouraging prod
from Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady. Treasury officials say
Brady asked Von Raab to be gone late Monday, after he presides at
a ceremony marking the 200th anniversary of the Customs Service.

    As a valedictory, Von Raab has written to Bush warning that
drug czar William Bennett's efforts are being undermined at the
Cabinet and sub-Cabinet levels by "political jockeying,
backstabbing and malaise." Von Raab has warm words for Bush but
scorns the President's cautious, pragmatic advisers, including
Brady, Secretary of State James Baker and Attorney General Dick
Thornburgh. Except for drug czar Bennett and HUD Secretary Jack
Kemp, he says, the Bush team is afraid of taking risks and making
waves.

    "Since the election, I've heard virtually nothing from the
powers that be about the war on drugs," Von Raab protests. "On
occasion there is a ceremonial session in which some official talks
to us for ten minutes, but as a practical matter, we have been
becalmed for a year now. No initiatives, no bold strokes."

    Von Raab admits that he and Brady have never got along. Brady,
he says, has treated the drug issue as a "bother" and has hardly
discussed it with him. A spokesman for Brady counters that "Mr. Von
Raab's judgment may be affected by the decision to appoint a new
Customs commissioner."

    Von Raab acknowledges that his agency has not made a dent in
the U.S. drug supply, despite some record-breaking seizures. He
contends that interdiction and domestic enforcement are doomed to
fail as long as the international market is glutted with cocaine,
marijuana and heroin. "We're not using any diplomatic energies of
consequence to try to put pressure on the producer and
transshipping countries," he complains.

    In his letter to Bush, Von Raab targets the foreign policy
establishment for special scorn: "Maybe it is time for the war on
drugs to take its place as our nation's top priority, to interfere
with banking interests and Third World debt schemes. Time to
interfere with State Department bureaucrats' quest to make the
world safe for cocktail parties." State Department officials call
Von Raab a "loose cannon" who lacks "a certain rationality." He
responds in kind, calling his Foggy Bottom critics "wimps . . .
conscientious objectors in the war on drugs."

    Some of Von Raab's positions are extreme by any standard. He
told TIME that he would support sending U.S. troops to Latin
America to clean out the Medellin cocaine cartel -- preferably with
the Colombian government's permission but without it if necessary.
"People talk about sovereignty," says Von Raab, "but what about our
sovereignty? They are chemical-weapons factories. They fly poison
out and drop it on shopping malls."

    Such talk is anathema at State and Justice, where military
intervention is viewed as a blatant violation of international law
that would inflame the Latin nations. Bennett supports limited use
of U.S. military advisers, but only for training and only at the
invitation of the host nations.

    Von Raab stresses that unilateral military action should be a
last resort. He would prefer to use trade and financial sanctions
against drug-source nations such as Mexico -- also anathema to
traditionalists at State and Treasury, who argue that punitive
economic measures would undermine Latin American economies and
drive thousands more people into the drug underground. "Before
long, there may be provisions in International Monetary Fund loans
about (protecting) elephants in Kenya and rain forests in Brazil,"
says Von Raab, "but there are no provisions on drugs."

    At Justice, Thornburgh and his aides take a dim view as well
of Von Raab's "Operation Paladin" plan to offer multimillion-dollar
bounties for drug kingpins. Officials say Von Raab is
"grandstanding" and fear bounties would invite international
kidnaping.

    Von Raab is not without allies. Bennett says admiringly that
his "style is often imperfect, but the substance is on target." An
official at the Drug Enforcement Administration who has sparred
bitterly with Von Raab on turf issues says, nonetheless, "You've
got to hand it to him. Willy has guts."

    Democratic Senator Dennis DeConcini and Republicans Jesse
Helms, Alfonse D'Amato and Pete Wilson urged George Bush and Baker
to name Von Raab drug czar or at least reward him with an
ambassadorship. They were rebuffed. But Von Raab's highly public
parting shots may soon give Bush reason to wish he had kept his
audacious Customs commissioner inside the tent.