On Mon, 30 Mar 1998, TallerPat wrote:

> Rumor has it that the kidnappees (including Pete and Tom) were released -
> anyone know if there is any truth to that rumor? I would certainly hope so!

I don't know when Pat wrote that, but I talked to Tom Fiore's father at
about 9 PM today (Monday) and he hadn't heard any such thing.

I just read most if not all of the mail I got on the subject (thank you
to everyone, especially John, who forwarded so much information),
skipping other posts for the time being. I forwarded them to a friend of
mine who is a journalist specializing in Latin American issues (to
over-simplify almost to the point of being incorrect). He told me a few
things about the FARC.

They may not like the U.S. government, but they realize that U.S.
citizens are not responsible for what the government does, so they're not
likely to hurt Tom, Pete, and the other two (sorry to not remember their
names, but I KNOW Tom and Pete, especially Tom) just for revenge against
the U.S. FARC has a relatively decent human rights record, but I'm not
sure what that's relative to.

He did tell me a rather optimistic story: Seems the FARC kidnapped a
journalist friend of his, handcuffed and blindfolded him and disappeared
with him into the jungle, where they treated him like a guest and
released him several days later. That makes me optimistic about the
future well-being of the four kidnapped birders.

I'd read in several reports about many other birders having been
kidnapped and released, just the four (and earlier, the Italian) were
kept. Tom's father didn't know anything about 22 other kidnap victims,
so I wonder about that part of the newspaper reports.

I told Tom's father Joe (himself an excellent, friendly, long-time
birder - he found the Swainson's Warbler that spent two weeks in Central
Park, for example) that I had the number of someone in New York who is
in contact with the FARC. Whether he'll ask me about that later, I don't
know. Joe seems to be holding up quite well, by the way. His manner
sure made ME feel better, at any rate.

Oh, and Tom told me he knows Spanish quite well, though he doesn't claim
to be fluent. He lives at home, and hopefully the FARC will learn that
and realize that a CIA agent isn't likely to be still living with his
parents. When I read that they were considering that he was a spy, I
almost laughed out loud, but I didn't dare for fear it wouldn't be a
healthy laugh.

Happy bird-day,
Ken

Ken Gale
New York City
nuffsaid at escape.com