In Ecuador, U.S. troops on ‘A passive detection mission’

[unhappycamper]

In Ecuador, U.S. troops on ‘A passive detection mission’
By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Monday, April 28, 2008

MANTA, Ecuador — For up to 12 hours a day, crews from the 552nd Air Control Wing out of Oklahoma circle high above the west coast of South America looking for drug smugglers.

But when they find one, there are limits to what they can do.

“It’s purely a passive detection mission,” said Lt. Col. Robert Leonard, head of the operational squadron at Forward Operating Location Manta. “A big misconception is that our aircraft are armed, but we have nothing here at the FOL that can be offensive.

“Everybody understands that a truckload of cocaine can be moving up the road behind the FOL, and we’re going to report that to the embassy and local law enforcement, but we can do nothing about it.”

For the last decade, U.S. servicemembers have been performing counternarcotics work at Manta, at FOL Comalapa in El Salvador and at FOL Curacao. In 2007, the three posts ran more than 1,100 missions to help seize more than $4.2 billion in illegal narcotics flowing out of South America.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=54378



uhc comment: Now that the 4th Fleet has stood up, expect many more articles warning us about the 'dangers' of South America.