According to Associated Press reports, in a letter to US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Mr Rumsfeld requested that the helicopters be removed by next year October in light of the fact that the US military's resources are being stretched thin by ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Operation Bahamas Turks and Caicos (OPBAT) currently uses seven Army Blackhawk helicopters.
"OPBAT now competes with resources necessary for the war on terrorism and other activities in support of our nation's defence; with potential adverse effects on the military preparedness of the United States," Mr Rumsfeld said in his letter.
However, thus far, no formal decision has been made to terminate army support at this point.
Dr Brent Hardt, Deputy Chief of Missions at the US Embassy in the Bahamas told The Tribune yesterday that Mr Rumsfeld's request was just one aspect of several ongoing internal deliberations about who is to supply the main support for the OPBAT mission.
"Even should a decision like that be made (to remove the helicopters), the expectation is that the mission would be assigned to some capable US agency to take on that mission," Dr Hardt said.
OPBAT, he said, will continue regardless and will have a strong air presence.
"The ambassador (John Rood) is fully committed to this. In fact he is going to Washington later this month to reinforce the importance of OPBAT," Dr Hardt said.
He pointed out that in addition to officers of the Royal Bahamas Police and Defence Force, OPBAT is staffed by representatives of many US government agencies – from the US Coast Guard to US Customs — but based on priorities elsewhere in the world, officials are reassessing how US Army assets are to be deployed.
"In the past couple of years the Army has, given their heavy involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, indicated that they would wish another agency to take over their part in this mission and that has been an ongoing debate and so far they have continued to do that mission," Dr Hardt said.
While he admitted that continuing to have Army helicopter support is vital, support for OPBAT remains firm.
"Obviously the army is very capable and has a tremendous record of reliability and capability so it would be our preference that the army continue to do that mission. At this point, our support for OPBAT is firm and strong and we don't anticipate a cut back in OPBAT's capability to ensure the effectiveness of the mission here," he said.
The US does not ignore the fact that OPBAT has been very successful in stopping and preventing the flow of drugs through the Bahamas and into Florida.
Since 2000, the programme has resulted in seizure of more than 25 tons of cocaine, 82 tons of marijuana and the arrests of 786 people, according to DEA statistics from April.
However, these numbers are not as impressive as those during the drug boom days of the 1980s when up to 90 per cent of the cocaine smuggled into the US from Latin America came into Florida through the
Bahamas and Caribbean. This fact has led some US law makers to call for cuts in OPBAT's budget saying that the modern day low numbers, show that the Bahamas is no longer as significant of a drug entry point as it was in the 80s.
However, Dr Hardt said that OPBAT provides a critical deterrent to traffickers looking to utilize the Caribbean Vector to smuggle drugs into the US.
"One of the things you look at, although the volume of drugs being intersected is less than in the 1980s, it is precisely because this operation is so successful.
"If you think back to the way things were in the 1980s, in South Florida and drugs coming through the Bahamas, the flows were much higher in that 'Miami Vice' era, if you will, and that has been turned around so OPBAT has been a real success story," Dr Hardt said.
By RUPERT MISSICK Jr Chief Reporter
