Hostages' Families Fear Military Rescue

Lauren Stansell holds a plaque made by the Northrop Grumman Corporation with the names of three American hostages, Keith Stansell, her dad, Tom Howes and Marc Gonsalves, at her grandparents home Saturday, March 3, 2007, in Bradenton, Fla. Lauren's dad is one of three Northrop Grumman Corp. contractors, who were on what U.S. officials describe as a drug surveillance mission over Caqueta, a rebel stronghold, when their plane crashed in the jungle Feb. 13, 2003, and they were captured by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and heard from only once since then. (AP Photo/Craig Litten) (Craig Litten - AP)

Over the past seven years, the U.S. has pumped $4 billion into Colombia to combat the FARC and bring down the world's largest cocaine industry. The 15,000-strong peasant army, whose principal source of income is the drug trade, has been branded a terrorist organization by the United States.

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Steps not taken

Current and former officials closely involved with the hostage situation spoke of administration shortcomings in numerous interviews with the AP over the past two months. They agreed to speak on condition of anonymity, either because they were not authorized to talk publicly or for fear of retribution from their employers.

They say the administration has failed to:

_Deploy Foreign Emergency Support Teams to Colombia. The Washington-based special squads are made up of counterterror experts and crisis workers from the departments of State, Justice, Defense, and the 16-agency intelligence community. They are routinely deployed when a U.S. citizen is taken hostage overseas.

The State Department said the teams were not deployed because there wasn't enough information about the hostages' location or whether they were alive.

_Aggressively gather intelligence in Colombia about the physical and mental health of the three men, where the FARC might be holding them, how frequently they are moved and other information that would help the administration decide how to proceed.

Intelligence resources are limited in Colombia, the officials say, because of the administration's focus on disrupting terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.

In a Jan. 23 letter to Northrop Grumman vice president James F. Pitts, National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley said the Bush administration has "increased resources devoted to this issue in Bogota," including "fully leveraging all intelligence and available national resources." A copy of the letter was obtained by the AP.

_Regularly send FBI negotiators to Colombia to work with third-party intermediaries _ like the International Red Cross or the Catholic Church _ who might appeal to the rebels. The United States generally does not negotiate directly with terror organizations.

FBI spokesman Rich Kolko said the negotiators were in Colombia shortly after the hostages were captured and have since provided guidance to U.S. and international officials. FBI negotiators and investigators, as well as agents in Bogota, "have been engaged in this case since the beginning," Kolko said.