unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (09/19/89)
is going to change from time to tim
Q: Does your number of Tuesday of fewer than 50 still stand?
A: It does.
Q: How many people are in these teams?
A: Military training teams vary from 2 to 12, depending on
precisely what the mission is.
Q: Clarify the 50 for me. This is 50 that are there operating
now, or 50 that will go in under the President's help for
Colombia? We were getting less than 100 a week or so ago.
A: Let's do separate those out because they are two separate
issues. In terms of supporting the President's emergency aid to
Colombia, to assist in their counter-narcotics effort, that
number stands that we've been talking about here for the last
couple of weeks. We expect the total number of people involved
there to be somewhere between 50 and 100. We don't expect them
all to be there at any given time because they will come in and
out as the trainin missions require.
If you look at these lists, they are very specific. They say
this piece of hardware requires three days of training by these
guys. So when it comes time to train on that, they go there,
they do their training, and then they leave. In some cases, the
people who help unload airplanes, which would be included in
this 50 to 100 number, will fly down with the plane, get off,
unload it, get back on the plane, and take off. They would still
be counted in that 50 to 100 number.
There are two kinds of military training teams in Colombia right
now. There are MTT's who are connected with the specific
emergency counter-narcotic effort. And there are MTT's who have
been there under previous agreements with Colombia. We have
MTT's in Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru. But currently no MTT's in
any other South American countries.
As I said in answer to Catherine's question, they usually involve
2 to 12 people on duty in the host nation anywhere from two
weeks up to six months.
Q: Can you confirm the U.S. Embassy report from Lima a couple of
days ago that there are 20 people that (inaudible)?
A: I can't confirm it, but I'm not refusing to confirm it
either. I just don't know. The thing about MTT's are they are
generally under the supervision, or have been in the past, of
the embassies. So the embassies would be, I suppose, in the
best position to know precisely how many are there at any given
time.
Q: As a matter of policy, is there any change in policy because
of course U.S. Army troops or special troops or whatever,
they're your troops. They're not U.S. embassy troops, so you
should be able to be in a position to talk about them.
A: We are. I just got through talking about them at great
length. In terms of getting into precisely how many there are
at any given time, as I said, it's something that is subject to
change. I can stand here and give you numbers that will be
invalid tomorrow.
You've been concerned, Peter, the last couple of days about how
much detail we'll go into with our military training teams. As
a general matter, I would say that we don't get into the
business of saying from what units they come because, again,
that changes. Given the mission at any given day. If it's time
to train on this thing, then we'll bring three guys from here.
Then they leave and then somebody else comes from another place.
The other thing is, we don't like to get into discussions of
where they are at any given time for obvious security reasons.
Q: You said there were two teams in Colombia, right?
A: Yes.
Q: You said, I believe, that there were teams in Colombia under
the emergency plan and under current agreement?
A: Correct.
Q: Are we to assume that one of those teams is an emergency team
and the other...
A: I don't know. Let's take that question. I don't know how to
divide it out.
Q: I'm still not too clear. You said before that these
decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis on teams.
A: Right.
Q: So in fact you are saying that there is already at least one
team in Colombia under the emergency plan. You indicated at
first that there would be future decisions made on these
emergency teams, and now you seem to indicat that there is at
least one team in Colombia under the emergency.
A: I think what I said was, and if I didn't what I should have
said was that under the President's Andean strategy in terms of
the counter-narcotics assistance to Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia,
the decision to send military training teams had been made on a
case by case basis. My assumption, by the way, in the past is
in terms of general support to those countries they've also been
made on a case-by-case basis.
In the specific case of Colombia, as you all well know, the
decision to send training teams down there is the subject of
continuing negotiations with the Colombian government. We don't
send military training teams into any Latin American country
without the consultation and request of the host country. We're
there to train them, and they're the ones who ask us for help.
Q: Again, you haven't made clear whether there is now a training
team in Colombia under the drug program...
A: That's the question we're taking, Charlie, because I don't
know the answer to that. That's what we're taking. What are
the two is your question, and we'll take it.
Q: The number you gave previously, the three training teams in
Peru, two in Bolivia, two in Colombia, they have nothing to do
with narcotics strategy?
A: Those are the counter-narcotics training teams under the
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