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.