Document Details U.S. Aid Proposed For Mexico

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Washington Post

Document Details U.S. Aid Proposed For Mexico
Aircraft a Major Focus Of Anti-Drug Package

By Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, October 27, 2007; Page A08

TIJUANA, Mexico, Oct. 26 -- More than a third of the Bush administration's proposed counternarcotics aid package for Mexico would be spent on aerial surveillance and the rapid deployment of troops, according to a breakdown of the plan.

President Bush is proposing the purchase of eight transport helicopters and two surveillance planes. The $500 million aid package also would include $60 million to revamp the information management and forensics systems of the Mexican attorney general's office and to train police, court personnel and prison managers.

The plan breakdown, titled "Overall Justification Document" and obtained by The Washington Post, is the most detailed glimpse yet of a secretly negotiated aid package that some members of Congress say should have been shared with them long ago.

The plan, which Bush announced Monday, is part of a $46 billion war funding bill that the White House is pressing Congress to approve before its holiday break. While the breakdown, which has been given to key congressional offices, provides a list of spending proposals, it has rankled some congressional aides because it lacks crucial details about how the aid would be managed and how information would be shared between Mexican and U.S. law enforcement agencies.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/26/AR2007102602289.html?hpid=sec-world

[bemildred]

1. More boodle for the drug war loons. nt

[thoughtanarchist]

2. Why is foreign aid to Mexico a part of the WAR funding bill?

Putting aside for the moment of the merits of how this aid to Mexico is apportioned, why the hell is this in the war funding bill?

I wonder what else is getting funded by these emergency appropriations supplementals?

[seasat]

3. If they spent that amount in helping Mexico develope economically,

then they'd go a lot further in reducing the illegal drug trafficking. Imagine what that kind of money could do for building schools, improving infrastructure, and promoting new businesses in Mexico. If the poor folks down there had another source of income they wouldn't be as involved in drug trafficking or trying to cross illegally into the US.