DEFENSE DEPT. TO URGE END TO BORDER PATROL

Defense Department officials will recommend permanently canceling armed
military patrols along the Mexico border in the wake of a fatal shooting of
a teen-age goatherd(er) by a U.S. Marine last year, a senior defense
official said Wednesday.

"It's not worth the legal liability for our soldiers, and the actual amount
of drugs seized throughout the performance of those missions proved to be
modest," said senior defense official who spoke on the condition of
anonymity.

A study of the military's future role along the border has not yet been
presented to Defense Secretary William Cohen. But it will advocate that
support services including road building and intelligence gathering
continue, while ground reconnaissance missions in the front lines of the
drug war end, the official said.