DEA CHIEF GETS GOOD RESPONSE

The confirmation of the first woman to lead the Drug Enforcement
Administration has been met with a positive response from veteran agents
concerned about what many describe as a continuing decline in enforcement
operations and agency morale during the past two years.

Karen Tandy, an associate deputy attorney general and director of the
Justice Department's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, was
confirmed by the Senate last week as DEA administrator.

"Karen Tandy has a long history in the drug war and brings some very strong
credentials to the table," said one DEA senior agent who asked not to be
identified. "We lost some very valuable ground under the previous
administrator, but it appears we might have regained our focus."

Mrs. Tandy promised leadership that was both "proactive and bold" to
identify and eliminate the world's drug-smuggling organizations.

"I am committed to devoting all of my energy to do whatever it takes to
remove drugs as a threat to the security and the future of our great
country," she said. "I intend to enhance the vision of DEA with a
combination of focused strategies and cultivated partnerships that will
enable us to achieve maximum impact in drug law enforcement."

Mrs. Tandy is a native of Fort Worth, Texas, and a graduate of Texas Tech
University and the Texas Tech Law School. She replaces Asa Hutchinson, a
former Arkansas Republican representative named in January as
undersecretary for border and transportation security for the Department of
Homeland Security.

Mr. Hutchinson had come under fire from both senior executives and
rank-and-file agents within the DEA for what they called a lack of
leadership. Several said he used his position at the agency to promote
himself at a cost to enforcement operations and morale.

Earlier this year, the White House Office of Management and Budget also
said in a performance evaluation for the 2004 fiscal budget that the DEA,
under Mr. Hutchinson's leadership, had been "unable to demonstrate progress
in reducing the availability of illegal drugs in the United States."

The new budget called for the smallest percentage increase for the agency
since 1988.

Mr. Hutchinson dismissed the report, saying it did not reflect a lack of
success, only an inability to measure up to the standard of effectiveness.
He said the DEA needed to better define "success."

Mrs. Tandy will oversee an agency with nearly 10,000 employees, about half
of whom are agents stationed in 50 countries. The DEA's annual budget is
nearly $1.9 billion. At the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces,
she was responsible for the oversight of the DEA and the National Drug
Intelligence Center, as well as developing drug-enforcement policy and
strategies.

In that post, she managed a $500 million budget and oversaw 2,200 federal
agents and 500 U.S. prosecutors, along with state and local law-enforcement
task forces. Mrs. Tandy refocused the task force's efforts on dismantling
major drug-trafficking and money-laundering organizations, which is what
she said she intends to do at the DEA.

President Bush, who nominated Mrs. Tandy in March, has also said he will
nominate Michele M. Leonhart as deputy administrator. Mrs. Leonhart, who
leads the DEA office in Los Angeles, is a former Baltimore police officer
who joined the DEA in 1980.

Mrs. Leonhart has worked in a number of DEA offices nationwide, as a field
agent and supervisor. She has been assigned as an undercover agent in
numerous drug investigations, and initiated and coordinated several complex
conspiracy and international smuggling cases.

She oversaw the investigation that dismantled a major Bolivia-based cocaine
cartel that resulted in the seizure of $14 million in assets.

"Tandy has a good reputation and a long history in drug enforcement, and
she has surrounded herself with some very good people who also know what we
do and why," said another top DEA official. "Michele Leonhart is a known
quantity. She's one of us."