Editorials
Monday, February 22, 1999

Mexico’s drug record
gets Clinton approval

PRESIDENT Clinton's visit to Mexico last week produced a declaration from him that "Mexico should not be penalized" for its performance in the war against drugs. That was a clear signal he plans to certify to Congress that Mexico continues to qualify as a reliable partner in that war.

Clinton had little choice. A negative recommendation in the annual review would result in trade and economic sanctions against Mexico and cause a crisis in relations with that neighbor -- something neither country needs.

But it is questionable that Mexico deserves recertification. According to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, 59 percent of all the cocaine from South America in 1998 was shipped to the United States through Mexico. The country is a major producer of marijuana, heroin and amphetamines.

President Ernesto Zedillo has not extradited any major drug dealers to this country or allowed U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Mexico to carry guns. In the past year, the areas of drug crops eradicated by Mexican troops and the tonnages of narcotics seized by police have declined.

In 1998, the United States spent more than $12 million training Mexican forces in anti-drug tactics and $2 million for anti-drug efforts in the country's civilian courts and law enforcement. Some observers contend that the emphasis on supporting the military's efforts are misguided and that more effort should go into cleaning up corruption among police, prosecutors and judges.

It is no secret that drug traffickers have corrupted every level of government in Mexico, up to former President Carlos Salinas, whose elder brother, Raul, is accused of making a fortune from drug payoffs. The huge extent of corruption represents a problem of staggering proportions. Rather than pretend that Mexico is really in compliance, it would make sense to change the U.S. law that requires American presidents to go through these charades.

Missile range

A few years ago the future of the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai seemed in doubt, threatened by Pentagon budget cuts. Now it has taken on a new role that should help extend its life.

The range is being used to test high-tech unmanned aircraft. The goal is to create a variety of planes that can fly above the weather for days, weeks or months, carrying scientific monitoring instruments to measure air pollution and other conditions.

The main attraction at the range is the open ocean northwest of Kauai, free of commercial aircraft. New equipment to test the Navy's theater missile defense system gives the base advanced tracking, telemetry and communications capabilities.

For the past two years the Pathfinder aircraft have been undergoing testing at the Kauai facility. On July 7, 1997, the original Pathfinder, with six electric motors wired to photovoltaic solar cells, set a world altitude record for propeller-driven aircraft -- 71,500 feet. Pathfinder Plus -- the same basic aircraft with longer wings and two more motors -- set another record Aug. 7, 1998, at 80,201 feet.

NASA is planning to import a number of other types of unmanned aircraft for testing for a program called Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology. Piloting the planes is done from communications vans beside the range runway, by watching live video feeds from the aircraft.

The ultimate goal is development of an "eternal airplane," capable of remaining aloft indefinitely. That task plus the range's main mission of missile tracking should keep it in business for years to come.

Samuel Dash’s views

SAMUEL Dash made news when he resigned as independent counsel Kenneth Starr's ethics adviser to protest Starr's appearance before the House Judiciary Committee. But Dash, who was chief counsel for the Senate Watergate Committee, defends both Starr and the independent counsel law under which he works.

In an article in the New York Times, Dash rebuts the claim that the law "authorizes the creation of an uncontrollable prosecutor with unlimited resources and time who can abuse power and persecute citizens." The law "simply creates an alternative federal prosecutor who has the same authority as the attorney general," he says, and is subject to the same rules as any federal prosecutor.

As for Starr, Dash says, he "may have wired an informer to get incriminating statements from a suspect, threatened to prosecute a minor figure to get that person to give up evidence and called a mother before a grand jury."

But these "are standard operating procedures of federal prosecutors," he points out. Starr's staff is comprised mostly of borrowed federal prosecutors, "and they have merely used the aggressive and adversarial tactics that the Supreme Court and other courts have judged to be both legal and ethical."

Commenting on the current push to kill the independent counsel law, Dash predicts that if it succeeds Congress will find it necessary to reauthorize the law at some time in the future, because it will be needed to investigate alleged crimes by the president and his top aides. He's right. With some restraints, the law should be renewed.

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Rupert E. Phillips, CEO

John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher

David Shapiro, Managing Editor

Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor

Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors

A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor