Monday,  June 25, 2012 • Vol. 12--No. 347 • 19 of 25 •  Other Editions

(Continued from page 18)

• ___

DEA Honduras drug killing part of new, aggressive strategy against illicit flights

• TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) -- A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent who killed a suspected drug trafficker during a raid in a remote region of Honduras was part of an aggressive new enforcement strategy that started in April and in little more than two months has caught more than half the number of illegal drug flights intercepted previously over 18 months.
• The mission, called Operation Anvil, is run with six U.S. State Department helicopters that were moved from Guatemala to northern Honduras as well as a special

team of DEA agents who work with Honduran police to move more quickly and pursue suspicious flights, according to a U.S. official in Honduras who couldn't be named for security reasons.
• With the new operation, Honduran and U.S. drug agents follow every flight they detect of unknown origin and work with non-U.S. contract pilots that don't have the restrictions on rules of engagement that the U.S. military do.
• The area of Brus Laguna, where the DEA says an agent shot a drug suspect as he was reaching for his gun Saturday, is part of the remote Mosquitia region that is dotted with clandestine airstrips and a vast network of rivers for carrying drugs to the coast.
• Saturday's incident marked the first time that a DEA agent has killed someone in Central America since the agency began deploying specially trained agents several years ago to accompany local law enforcement personnel on all types of drug raids throughout the region, said DEA spokeswoman Dawn Dearden. Operation Anvil targets illicit flights.
• ___

New book: Biden warned Afghan buildup was hollow; Obama sidelined CIA when planning drawdown

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- As President Barack Obama considered adding as many as 40,000 U.S. forces to a backsliding war in Afghanistan in 2009, Vice President Joe Biden warned him that the military rationale for doing so was flawed, a new book about Obama's expansion of the conflict says.
• The book, "Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan," also says that in planning the drawdown of troops two years later, the White House intention

(Continued on page 20)

© 2012 Groton Daily Independent • To send correspondence, click here.