Assassination Attempt On Bush Is Reported
BOGOTA, Colombia -- President Bush was targeted for assassination by a Colombian rebel group last week when he visited the Caribbean port city of Cartagena, a top Colombian official said Saturday.
"According to informants and various sources, we had information indicating that various members of the FARC had been instructed by their leaders to make an attempt against President Bush," Defense Secretary Jorge Alberto Uribe told reporters, referring to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. He would not reveal details of the threat.
American officials with the Secret Service said they did not "comment or release information regarding our protective intelligence and protective methods."
Jonathan Cherry, a Secret Service spokesman, said: "We do not discuss any alleged threats to our protectees."
White House spokesman Jim Morrell also declined to comment on the alleged plot. "We have full confidence in the fine work of the Secret Service and their work with the security officials on the ground when the president travels," he said.
The 17,000-member FARC, which has fought a 40-year guerrilla war against the government, has long accused the United States of backing business interests in this Andean country while ignoring the 60 percent of the population that lives in poverty.
THE MIDDLE EAST
• GAZA CITY -- The Palestinian Authority said it will disband a small security unit tainted by accusations of abuse, an initial step toward reforming its network of overlapping and competing security forces.
Palestinian reformers, as well as Israeli and U.S. officials, have long demanded a major overhaul of the Palestinian security services but faced stiff resistance from Yasser Arafat, who used the security network to maintain his hold on power.
The stalled U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan also called for a restructuring of the forces but coupled that with a call for a crackdown on militant groups, a demand the Palestinians have opposed, saying it could spark a civil war.
AFRICA
• EL FASHER, Sudan -- Sudan said it had lifted all restrictions on aid workers and revoked a state of emergency in the troubled North Darfur state, after rebels pulled out from a town they occupied last week.
The United Nations condemned last week's attacks on Tawilla, where rebels took control and killed dozens of policemen. International leaders said the attacks violated security protocols signed earlier this month between the warring parties in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.
• KIGALI, Rwanda -- Rwanda can and will strike Rwandan rebels in Congo if little is done to disarm them, but the government is not spoiling for a fight, President Paul Kagame said after meeting his Congolese counterpart. Congo's foreign minister, Ramazani Baya, called Rwanda's threats a provocation and said Congo might be forced to respond.
