Excerpt from State Department daily briefing, March 25, 2002

Excerpt from State Department daily briefing, March 25, 2002

Daily Press Briefing
Richard Boucher, Spokesman
Washington, DC
March 25, 2002

Q Did you see Bob Novak's column this morning in the Washington Post, where he accused the State Department or rather the U.S. embassy in Colombia of deliberately keeping information from the assistant secretary for Inter-American Affairs, Otto Reich?
That's his -- (inaudible word).

MR. BOUCHER: I saw the column. I kind of fail to understand what it was based on, or what he thought it was based on. I do have copies of the two cables that our embassy in Bogota sent in as soon as we learned of the kidnapping of one American citizen, and then the death of two others.

Q (Off mike.)

MR. BOUCHER: Oh, absolutely. We got cables on the 19th from our embassy about events that occurred on the 14th, and then it was at that time that we found out about the kidnapping of the father which apparently had occurred in December, but prior to that the family had not requested any U.S. government assistance in this case. I would say that just today, the family has asked us to assist and we'll see them tomorrow. We're happy to help them. We want to help them. Our embassy's been reporting on this situation as the facts became known to them, and we will continue to try to work with the family and the Columbian authorities to find out what happened.

Q The five-day lag between the 19th and the 14th, the cable and the incident, that was because of?

MR. BOUCHER: That's usually a matter of gathering information; that you have to find out what happened before you can write about it. I know that's -- at least let me say that's true in my profession.