EMBASSY DOCUMENTS SAY HASTERT BELITTLED RIGHTS CONCERNS IN COLOMBIA

WASHINGTON - Before becoming House speaker, Rep. Dennis Hastert told
Colombian military officers that he was "sick and tired" of human rights
considerations controlling U.S. anti-drug aid, according to a newly
declassified government document.

At the time, the Clinton administration was pushing Colombia to improve its
human rights performance as a condition of receiving U.S. aid.

Leading a May 1997 congressional delegation to Colombia, Hastert also
encouraged Colombian military and police to bypass the White House and deal
directly with Congress, according to a cable signed by then-Ambassador
Myles Frechette.

John Feehery, Hastert's spokesman, said the speaker strongly supports human
rights efforts in Colombia and that the language in the cable likely
reflected that Hastert "did not have a particularly strong relationship"
with Frechette.

The Frechette cable was among 70 documents obtained by the National
Security Archive, an independent foreign policy research center. It was
posting the documents on its Web site Friday.

Some of the documents show that as early as 13 years ago, U.S. officials
had been debating whether fighting drugs and fighting leftist insurgencies
in Colombia should be linked. The debate continues today: the Bush
administration recently proposed to allow Colombia to use anti-drug
military aid to fight guerrillas.

Other documents show that in 2000, U.S. officials feared that Colombian
soldiers from a U.S.-trained counternarcotics battalion were interacting
with soldiers from Colombia's 24th Brigade, which has been linked to
right-wing paramilitaries.

Colombia's paramilitary units, whom the United States describes as
terrorists, are blamed for most of the country's massacres. The military's
historic link to paramilitaries is a major reason U.S. lawmakers have been
reluctant to expand U.S. aid.

Hastert, a Republican from Illinois, then chairman of the government reform
national security subcommittee, denounced tying aid to human rights
performance when he met with Colombian police and military officials in
1997, the cable said.

It quoted Hastert as telling Colombian military and police officials that
he and other lawmakers were "sick and tired of people who spend most of
their lives living outside the U.S. inhibiting the process by placing
conditions on military aid when the lives of U.S. children and youth are
being destroyed by drugs."

It said, "He decried 'leftist-dominated' U.S. Congresses of years past who
'used human rights as an excuse to aid the left in other countries' and
vowed that he was committed to 'correcting' that situation."

Hastert concluded by saying police and military "already knew they could
bypass the U.S. executive branch and communicate directly with the
Congress; he encouraged them to continue to do so," the cable said.

In another cable two months later, Frechette said the Hastert visit was
partly responsible for difficulties he was having in reaching an agreement
with Colombia to assure that newly arriving military aid would be subjected
to human rights conditions.

Feehery said the cables "have to be taken with a grain of salt" because of
Hastert's differences with Frechette. About bypassing the executive branch,
Feehery noted that Hastert worked closely with President Clinton in
developing the $1.3 billion Plan Colombia aid package in 2000.

Frechette, now retired from the foreign service, said in an interview that
the cable "was not intended to point fingers at Hastert." He said he was
trying to provide an honest account of the visit to the State Department.

He said it was "ridiculous and absurd" to suggest that his relationship
with Hastert colored the language. He said, though, that Hastert frequently
criticized him because he generally didn't like the Clinton
administration's policies toward Colombia.

"Hastert didn't like the policy, so he attacked me. I liked Hastert just
fine," Frechette said.