October 16, 2001
Narco News 2001
U.S.
Official Reveals
Colombia
as Target
State Dept.'s
Taylor at OAS:
The Andes is in
Military's Sites
By Agence France Press
Translated from original
Spanish by The Narco News Bulletin
Washington,
October 15, 2001: The terrorist organizations
that operate in Colombia are also targets of the global anti-terrorist
campaign launched by the United States after September 11th,
said Francis Taylor, anti-terrorism coordinator of the State
Department.
"All the resources" available
to the United States will be used in that campaign, including,
"where appropriate, as we have done in Afghanistan, the
use of military force," Taylor told journalists today in
the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS)
in Washington, DC.
The high functionary spoke briefly with
the press after giving a closed-door report about the development
of the anti-terrorist campaign to a meeting of the Inter-American
Committee Against Terrorism (CICTE, in its Spanish acronym).
Questioned about whether the campaign
will include the Colombian guerrillas, which the State Department
characterizes as terrorist organizations, as a target, Taylor
responded affirmatively.
"The Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN), and the
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), are on the list
because they participate in terrorist activities.
"They will receive the same treatment
as any other terrorist group," he said, "in terms of
our interest in pursuing them and putting an end to their terrorist
activities."
"All the groups on our list are terrorists,
and a subject to this anti-terrorist campaign," the high
functionary reiterated.
Taylor declined to explain if the anti-terrorist
campaign would lead to raising the level of military assistance
to the Colombian government. He also would not get into details
about how the United States differentiates between anti-terrorism
operations and anti-insurgency operations, which Washington has
promised not to involve itself with in Colombia.
Taylor said that the United States anti-terrorist
strategy in the Western Hemisphere is the same that it will apply
throughout the world, and "it will include the use of all
the resources in our power as well as those available to the
countries in the region" that condemn terrorism and have
promised to cooperate with Washington.
Those elements include political cooperation,
exchange of intelligence information and the use of financial
tools available to the U.S. Department of Treasury and those
of other government "to identify and destroy the financial
schemes that these criminals use," he added.
It will also include, "where appropriate,
as we are doing in Afghanistan, the use of military force, if
that is appropriate to put an end to their activities,"
said Taylor.
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