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-Caveat Lector- But there was a catch: The jungle territory where they landed was thick with fighters of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the largest guerrilla group, known by the acronym FARC
Washington�s quiet war in Colombia 3 more U.S. contractors die in operations vs. drugs, rebels By Aram Roston
NBC NEWSApril 2 � While world attention is focused on the conflict in Iraq, the United States is also deeply, and quietly, involved in a battle in the jungles of Colombia. In that conflict, Washington employs a small army of private contractors who assist Colombia�s government in its fight with leftist rebels and drug lords. In the past seven weeks, four Americans and one Colombian have been killed in the conflict while under contract with the U.S. government. Three others have been taken hostage.THE LATEST U.S. casualties in the simmering conflict came March 25 when a Cessna 208 operated by private contractors on behalf of the U.S. military crashed, killing all three U.S. crew members. It was the second disaster in Colombia involving that type of aircraft in just two months.
That flight was in turn part of a search-and-rescue effort trying to track down three U.S. employees of the same company who were taken hostage after their aircraft crashed Feb. 13 in rebel-held jungle territory.
These disasters have cracked open a window on a small private army of pilots, commandos and maintenance personnel involved in a secretive military and intelligence operation in Colombia run on behalf of the U.S. government. These contractors are smack in the middle of a campaign against leftist guerrillas and drug traffickers.
�We never use the �m� word,� one veteran pilot says, meaning �m� as in �mercenary.� But it is a job. �Where else can a guy with a high school education earn more than $100,000 a year?� the pilot says. �If you don�t mind living on a base with other smelly guys, sharing a room with six other guys.�
Under a U.S. program to back Colombia�s battle with narcotics producers and traffickers, Washington has allocated $2 billion worth of military equipment and training to the Colombian military, which is also at war with guerrilla groups. In March, in a little-noticed item in the emergency spending request sent to Congress for Iraq war funding, the White House asked for an extra $105 million for operations in Colombia.
The rules of the program limit the number of U.S. military personnel operating in Colombia. To fill out the ranks, the United States uses civilian subcontractors.
QUESTIONS ABOUT PLANES, CONTRACTORS
But the two disasters have raised questions about the use of the single-engine Cessnas frequently used by contractors and about the use of the contractors themselves in the air surveillance operations in Colombia.
�It�s amateurish,� says one special operations forces veteran who has spent years operating in Colombia. �They have rules and regulations they don�t follow. It�s all by the seat of their pants.�
The dangers were dramatically highlighted in the first incident on Feb. 13 this year when 56-year-old contract pilot Thomas Janis flew a single-engine Cessna 208 packed with sensitive electronic gear on a �jungle penetration radar� mission.
Pilots, though not necessarily Janis himself, had complained for months that flying the Cessna 208 � a single-engine plane � over rebel-held territory in a combat zone was dangerous. They wanted to use the more powerful King Air, which has twin 850-horsepower engines.
With him on the mission over the emerald green jungle were three other Americans and Colombian police sergeant. The private company conducting the mission was Northrop Grumman�s California Microwave Inc., which had technically been hired by the U.S. Department of Defense. Intelligence expert and author James Bamford says the company is known for its work for the CIA and NSA.
At 14,000 feet that day, flying over mountainous terrain, Janis� plane suffered engine failure. Sources say he alerted the air traffic controller at an outpost called Larandia, just 17 miles away, and he attempted a crash landing in the jungle. If he had had a twin-engine plane, he might have been able to fly all the way to Larandia, another pilot says.
As it was, �they found a decent crash-landing site near a ridge,� says a source familiar with the disaster.
But there was a catch: The jungle territory where they landed was thick with fighters of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the largest guerrilla group, known by the acronym FARC.
Larandia, the nearby outpost, a former plantation, houses Colombian army troops and U.S. contractors, who try to maintain a semblance of normal life in the jungle. The post has two small restaurants, a small gym, a running track by the airstrip and little else in the way of diversion. That day when the men learned something had gone wrong, they scrambled into the air to help.
Among the men stationed at Larandia, sources say, were two tough-looking Americans � employees of Dyncorp, a major contractor for the State Department � who specialize in search and rescue (SAR). Sources describe them as extremely fit and well-trained in tactics and emergency medical aid. They are tough-looking characters who wrap jungle-green �do-rags� around their heads, wear camouflage gear and tote M-4 automatic carbines into the jungle to pull out downed pilots. �They�d give their lives for us,� says a pilot who has flown secret missions.
So on that day in February, after the Cessna plane went down, in nearby Larandia the two SAR specialists went into action, sources say, and boarded a Colombian army helicopter. Accounts differ, but one source says that they circled over the smoking wreckage of the U.S. plane for hours. They didn�t land.
The cause of the delay is unclear. But sources say eventually, before landing, the private commandos� helicopter returned to Larandia. The men changed helicopters and then returned to the crash site. In all, sources say, it took more than three hours after the crash for the two search-and-rescue specialists to get onto the ground near the site. By then, sources say, Janis, the pilot, as well as the Colombian police sergeant, had been executed by guerrillas. The three surviving Americans, who were apparently technical surveillance experts, had been taken captive.
Janis had taken a round right under the jaw, and the sergeant had been shot in the chest. The U.S. contractors looking at the bodies got their orders, sources say. They were to leave the bodies in situ, there in the hot jungle, temporarily, guarded by the Colombian army, until investigators could look at the body.
�They weren�t happy,� says the source. The bodies were pulled out the next day.
It was only after his death that Janis lost his anonymity.
His wife, Judith, waited for news. �I went 36 hours without hearing anything,� she sobbed in an interview. Still, she says, he was doing what he wanted. ��I knew the dangers, he knew the dangers, but he was a soldier, and that�s what he did.�
The three Americans taken captive by FARC are still missing, and their names have not been released. The Colombian army launched a massive operation to encircle the guerillas and rescue the captives. The U.S. Southern Command sent about 40 SAR specialists to help in the hunt, but so far there has been no trace of the missing Americans.
Some of the pilots are upset that their warnings about single-engine planes were not heeded. A source says that in an after-action meeting, a State Department official ran into a ranking pilot with Dyncorp, one of the chief contractors, a company that has had repeated complaints about the Cessna 208s. According to the source, the official simply nodded and said, �I know, I know.�
And then Tuesday, a month and a half after that disaster, California Microwave�s other single-engine Cessna 208 refueled at Larandia. �It had gassed up. It had a full tank,� says a State Department spokesman. It took off in the darkness in the mountainous terrain to scour the jungle with its high-tech electronics gear, not in search of coca growers, but to find any trace of the missing American hostages. Shortly after takeoff, it crashed into the ground and exploded. The bodies of the three crew members have been recovered. Like their missing colleagues, these private participants in Colombia�s war remain nameless.
A spokesman for California Microwave, Jack Martin, referred all questions to the government. Asked if the company had any responsibility for the pilots, he answered that �the aircraft was provided and operated by a subcontractor.� Still, he said, the company is �deeply saddened by the news.�
The State Department�s remaining Cessna 208 in Colombia, a plane operated by Dyncorp, has been grounded.
Aram Roston is a producer for NBC�s investigative team.
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