U.S. OFFICIALS DENY DIRECT COLOMBIA AID

BOGOTA -- The U.S. State and Defense departments said Thursday that they do
not provide direct support for counterinsurgency operations in Colombia and
that neither employs mercenaries here.

Their remarks followed a Dallas Morning News report Wednesday that discussed
the damage done by repeated Colombian guerrilla offensives to government
anti-drug efforts. The report, based on interviews with intelligence and
anti-drug operatives in Colombia, said the Clinton administration had
launched a multimillion-dollar covert program to help bolster the Colombian
armed forces after a series of devastating defeats by the guerrillas.

The story said that the covert program employs active-duty U.S. military
personnel, mercenaries and private contractors, and that some U.S. personnel
are involved in live-combat training, among other activities.

State Department officials did not return phone calls before the article was
published, and U.S. Ambassador Curtis Kamman declined an interview request.

A State Department spokeswoman said Thursday that neither the State
Department nor its contractors in Colombia are involved in activities such
as those mentioned in the Morning News article.

"These contractors are not mercenaries," she said. "They are not engaged in
counterinsurgency operations or any other activity not fully sanctioned by
the U.S. Congress and the executive branch."

The Defense Department said in a statement that it has "no covert
counterinsurgency program in Colombia" and that the Pentagon "employs no
ex-military personnel, private contractors or mercenaries to conduct any
covert counterinsurgency program in Colombia."

The Central Intelligence Agency declined to comment.

"We don't discuss covert actions or activities," a spokeswoman said.

Copyright 1998 The Dallas Morning News

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst