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)

Last month, the Justice Department won a conviction in a drug case against Nayibe Rojas "Sonia" Valderama, a FARC financial officer. A second rebel _ Ricardo Palmera, also known as Simon Trinidad _ is scheduled for trial in Washington late this month on drug and kidnapping charges related to the three Americans.

Asked about the possibility of swapping Trinidad and Valderama for the Americans, officials across the administration said that would be too big a concession to a terror group.

This week, Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon, who oversees Western Hemisphere affairs, said the U.S. would "be very happy" if Uribe could negotiate a humanitarian accord that would result in the hostages' release.

In his interview Thursday with the AP, Uribe said Colombia has made a great effort to secure a prisoner swap, but no deal can be made unless the leftist rebels drop their demands for a military-free zone for negotiations. Uribe also insists that any rebels freed in the deal must leave Colombia or enter a government-run reorientation program.

"We have also demonstrated here that Colombia's military knows how to do rescues delicately and with prudence," Uribe said.

"Sometimes there have been disagreements on how to proceed," said Stephen Lucas, spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command, which has been involved in the situation for the Pentagon. "It's a friendly arrangement, but sometimes the answer is, 'No, we're not going to do it that way.' ... We are talking about a sovereign nation. The bottom line is, the government of Colombia will decide what is done."

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The rescue option

The letter from Hadley, the national security adviser, indicates the U.S. government is leaning toward a rescue as the best way to save the Americans.

Writing to acknowledge the four-year anniversary of their capture, Hadley said he aimed to "reiterate our commitment to rescuing our American citizens and update you on our efforts to bring them home safely." He also noted the government's efforts "to locate and rescue our Americans."

Northrop Grumman, the government's second-largest defense contractor, was not comforted.

Thanking Hadley for his correspondence, Pitts wrote back on Feb. 12, calling himself "concerned with the letter's exclusive focus on military rescue as an option for securing our employees' safe return." He urged the government to step up its diplomatic options.

"With four years having passed since the kidnapping, and given the inherent dangers in a military rescue, it is critical that other options be pursued," Pitts wrote in his letter, a copy of which was obtained by the AP.

In a January trip to Bogota, Shannon of the State Department said the U.S. supports a Colombian military rescue of the Americans. "We have a lot of confidence in the (Colombian) government and the security services here in finding a way to free the hostages and we want to work together to achieve this," Shannon said.

The FARC has killed hostages during past rescue attempts, and Northrop Grumman and the three Americans' families have pleaded with the government to reject that option. Last weekend, seven elite Colombian commandos were killed, cut down by machine-gun fire, in a jungle raid on a FARC base as they descended from a helicopter on ropes.

David Heyman, a counterterror specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said rescue missions "are inherently very, very dangerous," and noted that the United States has had mixed success in carrying them out.

Mariana Howes, Tom's wife, has stopped telling her 10-year-old son that his father will come home.

Tommy Howes Jr. was 5 when his father was taken hostage. Mariana Howes, of Merritt Island, Fla., says the government no longer tells her anything about what it is doing to free her husband, so "my hope is not very high."

Thomas Jr. "doesn't know the whole story," she said. "He still thinks (his father) is coming back sometime. I've tried not to talk about it lately because I don't know if he's coming back or not."