Saddam Hussein's Rooting Section

By PAUL GRAY/

It might cheer Saddam Hussein to learn that he has a hard core of Western supporters -- specifically, South American drug smugglers. The narcotraficantes didn't need long to figure out that the U.S. military buildup in the Persian Gulf may mean the redeployment of AWACS and other surveillance equipment away from the war on drugs. "The people we look at are in a chess game," says a U.S. customs official. "They do a constant threat update, just as we do." And the threat to traffickers figures to diminish, particularly if a hard-pressed Pentagon delays or cancels plans to improve U.S. antidrug surveillance in the Caribbean.

With reporting by David E. Thigpen