BOOK QUESTIONS SOLDIERS' ROLE IN WAR AGAINST DRUG CARTEL

Mark Bowden, the author of "Black Hawk Down," was visiting a military
office in 1997 when he noticed a framed photo of a dead barefooted fat man
surrounded by happy Latin American soldiers.

The author asked about the picture.

His military acquaintance said the photo showed the death, four years
earlier, of Pablo Escobar, king of the Colombian cocaine cartel.

Bowden had been working on his book about the special operations soldiers
who fought and died in the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, in October 1993.
In "Black Hawk Down," he delved into the secretive world of Delta Force,
the Fort Bragg counterterrorist unit.

The glimpse of the Escobar photo sparked Bowden's curiosity about the
secret role of U.S. soldiers in the operation. Bowden started
investigating. The result is a newly published book, "Killing Pablo: The
Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw."

Officials at U.S. Special Operations Command in Florida declined to comment
on the book.

"It makes interesting reading," said Col. William Darley, a command
spokesman. "I know of nobody that helped him out with it."

As in his earlier book, Fort Bragg special operators are among the stars of
the show.

Bowden details how the Delta Force's Col. Jerry Boykin and Lt. Col. Gary
Harrell went to Colombia to work with Colombian forces in the battle
against Escobar. Both soldiers went on to become generals. Boykin is now
commander of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort
Bragg.

In places, the book verges on high comedy. In one account, U.S. special
operators used top-secret sophisticated spy gear to pinpoint Escobar's
location only to have the Colombians launch a raid that was so noisy,
massive and obvious that Bowden likens it to "stalking a deer in a bulldozer."

In the end, the Colombians take credit for killing the feared drug lord,
but Bowden leaves the reader wondering to what extent U.S. special
operators may have secretly been involved.