COLOMBIAN AID LINKED TO US WAR ON TERROR

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans, seeking to boost American military aid for
the Colombian government's battle against leftist rebels and drug
traffickers, sought to tie the struggle in Colombia to the US war on
terrorism yesterday by charging that the Irish Republican Army was training
the left-wing insurgents there.

A report by the staff of the House International Relations Committee, which
has a Republican majority, alleges that the IRA "has well-established
links" with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and that
the Irish group's members have been teaching FARC rebels the tactics of
"urban terrorism," including the use of explosives.

"In light of the long history of very strict IRA discipline against
free-lancing by its membership, the only real question remaining in the
committee's inquiry concerns what the Sinn Fein leadership [IRA's political
wing] knew of these IRA activities in Colombia, and when did they learn of
them," said the report, the product of a nine-month investigation. The
inquiry followed the arrest in Colombia last August of three Irish
nationals who, Colombian authorities said, were connected with the IRA or
Sinn Fein and who were training FARC members in the use of explosives.

"What you saw was an attempt to utilize the accusations as an attempt to
develop support for lifting the restrictions on our aid to the Colombian
military," said Representative William D. Delahunt, Democrat of Quincy, who
has maintained a longtime interest in Colombia and Latin American affairs.
"There was a convergence of multiple agendas. They have to make an effort
to make [Colombian terrorism] appear global in scope."

US military aid to Colombia is currently limited to combating the illegal
drug trade, but Bush administration officials and many House Republicans
want to let the Colombian government use the hundreds of millions of
dollars in aid against the left-wing insurgents there. Delahunt said that
would be a major change in US policy.

A confidential staff memo to the committee chairman, Representative Henry
Hyde, Republican of Illinois, was even stronger than the public report
released yesterday, calling the alleged IRA members' involvement in
Colombia "a threat to US security. "

"Events in Colombia make it clear that global terrorist networks are
interchangeable, aggressive, and know no boundaries or borders," said the
April 15 memo, obtained by the Globe.

The memo recommended that Hyde ask the State Department to formally declare
the IRA a terrorist organization. Hyde backed off the idea the night before
the hearing, said a Democratic lawmaker involved in negotiations with the
chairman.

The IRA released a terse statement yesterday saying it had "sent no one to
Colombia to train or engage in any military cooperation with any group,"
and that "the IRA has not interfered in the internal affairs of Colombia
and will not do so."

Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, also denied the allegation that his party
was aiding FARC, and refused an offer to appear before the committee yesterday.

GOP lawmakers have proposed giving Colombia $538 million in aid next year
but without the current restrictions that the money be used only to fight
drug trafficking. The FARC and other insurgent groups are believed by both
Colombian and US officials to be using drug-trafficking profits to finance
their campaigns.

Under questioning by Delahunt and several other committee members, both Asa
Hutchinson, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency, and Mark F. Wong,
the State Department's acting coordinator for counterterrorism,
acknowledged they had no direct proof that the IRA sanctioned the alleged
activities of the three Irish nationals detained last year.

General Fernando Tapias, head of the Colombian armed forces, told the panel
that the number of Irish nationals allegedly aiding rebels may be as high
as 15. The government suspected seven individuals of helping Colombian
rebels; three are awaiting trial, two left before they could be detained,
and two others who were released for lack of evidence, Tapias said.