U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Wednesday to review preparations for the October presidential election and go over reconstruction and counter narcotics programs. During a daylong visit, he planned consultations with Afghan and United Nations officials, as well as meetings with senior U.S. military officials. Before flying to the Afghan capital, he said U.S.-led coalition forces are preparing a coordinated effort to attack the narcotics trade in the country, recognizing that drug income could be used to fund insurgents and terrorists in the country. He offered few specifics, but noted the British government previously has taken the lead in working with President Hamid Karzai's administration to address the drug trade in Afghanistan. "There are plans being finished now," Rumsfeld said Tuesday, in Oman for the first of several visits to U.S. allies in the region. "I don't want to get into whose troops will do what." Rumsfeld pointed to the drug war in Colombia as a partial model for efforts in Afghanistan. There, U.S.-trained military forces attack narcotics smuggling routes while the Colombian government tries to eradicate coca growth in the farmlands through aerial spraying. The costly Colombian campaign, a US$3.3 billion (2.7 billion), five-year military aid package known as Plan Colombia, has provided Colombian forces with training, equipment and intelligence. It has led to a huge increase in drug seizures, and closer judicial cooperation between the countries has led to the extradition of 120 alleged drug traffickers to the United States for trial in two years. --MORE 1235 Local Time 0935 GMT
