Pubdate: Wed, 24 Apr 2002
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2002 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author:  Karen DeYoung
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?203 (Terrorism)

LAWMAKERS DISPUTE REPORT LINKING IRA, COLOMBIA GUERRILLAS

Some Wary of Counter-Terrorism Plan

Two foreign policy issues that traditionally evoke passion on Capitol 
Hill -- Northern Ireland and Colombia -- were joined yesterday in a 
rancorous House hearing that erupted in allegations of bad faith and 
hidden agendas.

"The purpose of this committee hearing is not to determine facts, but 
to rubber-stamp" conclusions already drawn by staffers working for 
the House International Relations Committee, chaired by Rep. Henry J. 
Hyde (R-Ill.), charged Rep. William D. Delahunt (D-Mass.).

Those conclusions were encapsulated, according to Delahunt and 
several similarly irate committee Republicans, including former 
chairman Benjamin A. Gilman (N.Y.), in the hearing's title: 
"International Global Terrorism: Its Links With Illicit Drugs as 
Illustrated by the IRA and Other Groups in Colombia."

A report based on a committee investigation asserted there is strong 
evidence of ties between the Colombian guerrillas, the Irish 
Republican Army (IRA) and perhaps Iran and Cuba. As a result, the 
report said, "Colombia is a potential breeding ground for 
international terror equaled perhaps only by Afghanistan," which 
"must be addressed by changes in U.S. law that will permit American 
assistance for counter-terrorism programs" in Colombia.

The staff inquiry was led by John P. Mackey, committee investigative 
counsel, who has long supported U.S. military assistance to Colombia.

In an interview Tuesday, Mackey said that the U.S. government was 
convinced of organized IRA involvement in Colombia and that the 
explosives techniques favored by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of 
Colombia (FARC) had clear roots in IRA training. The leftist FARC is 
Colombia's largest guerrilla army.

But Delahunt, Gilman and others argued that neither the report nor 
the testimony of yesterday's committee witnesses, including Drug 
Enforcement Administrator Asa Hutchinson and the deputy director of 
the State Department's counter-terrorism office, supported Mackey's 
conclusions.

Asked by Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) whether he was privy to any 
intelligence information indicating IRA involvement, Hutchinson 
replied, "I don't have any information on this."

Another witness, Colombian Joint Chiefs of Staff head Gen. Fernando 
Tapias, said he had no information about organizational links between 
the IRA and Colombian terrorists. Nor had the Colombian government 
detected any terrorist assistance or training in his country by Iran 
or Cuba, he said.

Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.) said he feared the report would be 
used "by those who want to destroy the peace process" underway for 
the past four years in Northern Ireland. Smith said in an interview 
that he had asked Colombia, Britain and the U.S. intelligence 
community "if there is even one scintilla of evidence of connection 
between the IRA or Sinn Fein," the IRA's political arm, with the 
FARC, "and the answer is no."

The hearing came as the White House is seeking congressional support 
for a proposed Colombia policy change that would lift restrictions 
limiting U.S. military aid to counter-narcotics programs and allow it 
to be used for counter-terrorist operations there. In addition to its 
involvement with drug trafficking, the FARC increasingly uses terror 
tactics, including blowing up energy infrastructure, placing car 
bombs on urban streets and kidnapping civilians.

The administration has listed the FARC as a terrorist organization 
but has not described it in terms of the "global reach" attributed to 
organizations such as al Qaeda. It has presented no evidence of FARC 
ties to any international terrorist network or attempts to target the 
United States.

A number of lawmakers agree it is important to help friendly 
democracies fight against terrorism even if there is no direct threat 
to this country. Others have charged that the administration is 
seeking to link the Colombia situation to its anti-terrorism war as a 
backdoor way of expanding the U.S. military presence there.

Potentially fertile ground for establishing such a link appeared last 
August, when Colombia arrested two alleged IRA members and a 
representative of Sinn Fein. The Colombian government has charged 
that the three, who are still awaiting trial, were training FARC 
members to use sophisticated explosives techniques. The question 
raised since then has been whether their activities were authorized 
by Sinn Fein or the IRA, both of which have denied involvement.

British government sources have said it is unlikely that IRA members 
such as those arrested in Colombia would operate without approval 
from the IRA or Sinn Fein leadership. The allegations, and 
yesterday's hearing, received major coverage in the British and Irish 
media, many of which sent reporters to cover yesterday's hearing.

Several members at the hearing said that, despite their support for 
the Northern Ireland peace process, they would, as Smith put it, 
"throw the book" at the IRA if there were proof of involvement in 
Colombia.
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