Excerpt from White House press briefing, March 14, 2002

Excerpt from White House press briefing, March 14, 2002

Press Briefing by Ari Fleischer
The James S. Brady Briefing Room

Q Yes. Ari, I have one other subject that did not come up in international affairs, but -- with Colombia. Secretary of State Powell recently gave testimony in Congress in which he said that the -- the budget will be sent up there asking for less rigid language in the aid to Colombia so maybe some of it can be used to fight terrorism, not just counternarcotics. Does the president have a view on this?
MR. FLEISCHER: The administration has consulted with the Congress on this matter and about the serious concerns that we have involving providing help to the government of Colombia as it faces the threats from within, from the FARC. And the United States in these consultations, as Secretary Powell has said, the administration has determined that we seek new and more explicit legal authorities for State and DOD assistance to Colombia to support the government of Colombia in its unified campaign against narcotic trafficking, terrorist activities and other threats to its national security. So we have made that determination; we're going to continue to observe all the requirements of current law as we work with the Congress to try to figure out the appropriate way to bring more help to the government of Colombia.

The Congress has been very productive, very helpful. Many people in the Congress had some good ideas about how to proceed, and we're going to continue to work them.

Q But the restraints are in place, like the number of troops; I've seen 400 as the maximum. You can't help officers that violate human rights, and some of those will still be kept --

MR. FLEISCHER: Yeah, it's principally the burden of the Leahy amendments, which restrict or bind the activities that can be undertaken. Of course, that is the law of the land, and the law of the land will be obeyed. But we have gone to the Congress and said we do seek to make some changes now to help the government of Colombia.