The Bush administration will provide up to $20 million this year to help Colombia disarm and re-train former members of groups on the State Department’s terrorism list, a move that could have implications for the broader U.S. war on terrorism.
Without fanfare or comment on the decision, President George W. Bush on Monday signed into law legislation allowing U.S. assistance in disarming and demobilizing former members of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and the National Liberation Army, or ELN.
All three are on the U.S. State Department’s list of “foreign terrorist organizations.” The AUC is in the process of demobilizing but the FARC and the ELN are not.
Under a little-noticed provision in the legislation, up to $20 million would be used to provide job training and education to ex-fighters, and to help verify that recipients of U.S. assistance have left the groups.
The U.S. Congress barred the Bush administration from making cash payments to individuals, and will require the administration to certify that Colombia is cooperating in the extradition of top drug traffickers who have been indicted in the United States.
The decision follows a more than two-year legal debate between the departments of State and Justice over whether U.S. taxpayer funding for the demobilization program would violate a U.S. ban on providing “material support” to groups on the terrorism list.
That ban was tightened after the September 11, 2001 attacks with the passage of the Patriot Act, and some American diplomats and State Department officials told lawmakers they feared they could face criminal charges for taking part in the Colombia program.
But a secret legal opinion issued by the Justice Department in June provided the administration with the legal cover it needed to proceed with the assistance, administration and congressional officials said.
The decision could have significance beyond Colombia, setting a precedent for the United States to participate in efforts to disarm groups in other parts of the world that the State Department has labeled “terrorist organizations.”
The Bush administration has called for disarming Hamas in the Palestinian territories and Hizbollah in Lebanon.
“It may make it easier to fund demobilization and re-integration programs elsewhere in the world,” said Adam Isacson, a Colombia expert with the Center for International Policy in Washington.
“Now you have a precedent of the United States actually helping these guys come in from the cold. There’s more flexibility,” Isacson added.
Without fanfare or comment on the decision, President George W. Bush on Monday signed into law legislation allowing U.S. assistance in disarming and demobilizing former members of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and the National Liberation Army, or ELN.
All three are on the U.S. State Department’s list of “foreign terrorist organizations.” The AUC is in the process of demobilizing but the FARC and the ELN are not.
Under a little-noticed provision in the legislation, up to $20 million would be used to provide job training and education to ex-fighters, and to help verify that recipients of U.S. assistance have left the groups.
The U.S. Congress barred the Bush administration from making cash payments to individuals, and will require the administration to certify that Colombia is cooperating in the extradition of top drug traffickers who have been indicted in the United States.
The decision follows a more than two-year legal debate between the departments of State and Justice over whether U.S. taxpayer funding for the demobilization program would violate a U.S. ban on providing “material support” to groups on the terrorism list.
That ban was tightened after the September 11, 2001 attacks with the passage of the Patriot Act, and some American diplomats and State Department officials told lawmakers they feared they could face criminal charges for taking part in the Colombia program.
But a secret legal opinion issued by the Justice Department in June provided the administration with the legal cover it needed to proceed with the assistance, administration and congressional officials said.
The decision could have significance beyond Colombia, setting a precedent for the United States to participate in efforts to disarm groups in other parts of the world that the State Department has labeled “terrorist organizations.”
The Bush administration has called for disarming Hamas in the Palestinian territories and Hizbollah in Lebanon.
“It may make it easier to fund demobilization and re-integration programs elsewhere in the world,” said Adam Isacson, a Colombia expert with the Center for International Policy in Washington.
“Now you have a precedent of the United States actually helping these guys come in from the cold. There’s more flexibility,” Isacson added.
