Excerpt from State Department Daily Briefing, October 16, 2001

Excerpt from State Department Daily Briefing, October 16, 2001
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING
Philip T. Reeker, Deputy Spokesman
Washington, DC
October 16, 2001

QUESTION: (Inaudible) said at the OAS that the counter-terrorist policy in Latin America is the same as everywhere, including where appropriate the use of force. And of course, people in Colombia jumped to the conclusion that the United States was ready to use its military forces in Colombia. Can you clarify that position a little bit, please?

MR. REEKER: I don't think I have anything particular on that. We have identified in our own process, as you know, organizations that we have designated as foreign terrorist organizations. We had designated an additional one in Colombia, the AUC, on September the 10th, in fact, just one day prior to the attacks carried out upon New York and the Pentagon. And so we have been quite clear in that process over many, many years, our views on terrorism. And I think the President has talked about this being a campaign against terrorism with a global reach. Right now, we are focused on al-Qaida and the Taliban regime, which has given al-Qaida safe harbor, has refused to turn over the lieutenants of that organization. And that is why we are perpetrating, with so many different tools at our disposal, our campaign there.

So I don't have anything to suggest anything else, other than to say we have been quite explicit in our designations of organizations like the FARC, the ELN and now the AUC in Colombia, which are clearly terrorist organizations and have perpetrated terrorist acts. In fact, just yesterday I put out a statement condemning an act perpetrated by the AUC last week that resulted in the death of, I believe, 24 civilians.

QUESTION: So the possibility of using force in this instance in Colombia is not discarded at all?

MR. REEKER: Whose force? I guess I am just not following your premise here.

QUESTION: US. The US military force against these terrorist organizations in Colombia.

MR. REEKER: I have not heard anything at all to that effect. So I think I don't believe that is something that has been discussed at all. But certainly our support for anti-terrorist efforts around the world is something that we have talked about long before September 11th. And I would just refer you to our Patterns of Global Terrorism Report where, in the case of Colombia, we specifically refer to those organizations that I just mentioned.

As of October 17, 2001, this document was also available online at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2001/index.cfm?docid=5407