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BOGOTA - Colombia rejected a US newspaper report today that the CIA had intelligence showing the country's army chief collaborated with right-wing militias accused of atrocities, drug-trafficking and massacres.
The Los Angeles Times report cited a CIA report about Colombia's army commander, Gen. Mario Montoya, and a paramilitary group jointly planning and conducting an operation in 2002 to wipe out Marxist guerrillas from poor areas around Medellin.
The report came as the White House is asking Congress to approve extending approximately US$700 million ($996.86 million) a year in mostly military aid from Washington to Colombia's government to help fight rebels and the illicit drug trade.
Montoya has a close association with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and would be the highest-ranking Colombian officer implicated in a scandal over links between the outlawed militias and some of Uribe's political allies.
In a brief statement, Colombia's government rejected the report and called for any charges with proof to be presented before judicial authorities.
"Colombia's government rejects accusations made by foreign intelligence agencies against army commander General Mario Montoya, that have been filtered through the press, without evidence being presented to Colombian justice and the government," it said.
Most of Colombia's paramilitaries have demobilized under a peace deal with Uribe, but revelations are surfacing about ties to the political elite as investigators probe crimes. Rights groups have long charged that some military officers have co-operated with the militias in a brutal counter-insurgency campaign.
Eight pro-Uribe lawmakers and a state governor have been arrested on charges they colluded with paramilitary commands, which were set up in the 1980s to help fight Marxist rebels. US officials brand the militia drug-trafficking terrorists.
Uribe has said he welcomes the investigations to cleanse the government of criminal influence.
At least 14 people were killed during the Medellin operation, and opponents of Uribe allege that dozens more disappeared in its aftermath, it reported.
The intelligence report includes information from another Western intelligence service and indicates that US officials have received similar reports from other reliable sources, the Times said.
The Times said the CIA document was made available to the paper by a source who declined to identify himself except as a US government employee. He said he was disclosing the information because he was unhappy that Uribe's government had not been held more to account by the Bush administration.
The CIA did not dispute the authenticity of the document, although agency officials declined to confirm it, the paper said.
Replying to a question by Reuters, CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said the Times report included "unconfirmed material" from another intelligence service and made it "less likely that friendly countries will share information with the United States."
The allied intelligence agency said its informant was a yet-unproven source and cautioned that the report was to be treated as raw intelligence, the paper said.
But the document also included a comment from the defence attache of the US Embassy in Bogota, Col. Rey A. Velez: "This report confirms information provided by a proven source," the Times said.
- REUTERS
