Part II: The Forgotten Hostages
Somewhere in the jungles of Colombia, three Americans are being held under heavy guard -- homesick and running out of hope.
The men are hostages of the FARC, a revolutionary army trying to take over the country. FARC wants to trade the Americans for prisoners that the Colombian government is holding.
But after almost eight months, freedom still seems far away.
"I 100 percent miss my family. I'm kind of a hardass, I apologize. But in my life, the two things that hit me in my heart are my children and my fiancee," says Keith Stansell.
Life as a hostage means day after day of fear, grief and boredom.
"A day in the life of a captive? Empty, that's what would sum it up for me," says Thomas Howes.
"We haven't been allowed to play chess or that sort of stuff together. So Marc and I have made a deck of cards out of notebook paper. I pass hours and hours. If I have a morning when I'm just not a happy person, I'll play solitaire until the unhappy feelings go away. Switching off the mind, and just passing the hours."
That's why the arrival of journalist Jorge Botero and his camera was so important to these men. Some of the news that Botero brought in was about the company they had been working for. The three were employees of California Microwave, a company contracted by Northrop Grumman to do the drug surveillance flights over Colombia.
On tape, Stansell tries to explain contract business to his captors: "The government of the U.S. awards contracts to big companies. And they send people down here to work and that's what we did. California Microwave Systems is a small company that is controlled by Northrop Grumman, which is a very big company. And we are employees."
What the three men didn't know was that ten days after their plane went down, California Microwave handed over the mission, their contract, to a newly formed company named Ciao.
The three learned this from a press release Botero brought them, which Stansell read to his friends: "Three years ago, the Pentagon awarded a contract to conduct surveillance in Colombia to California Microwave, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman. Shortly after plane went down, California Microwave transferred the contract, along with the planes and pilots, to a new company called C-I-A-O … chow."
When their captors overheard the hostages talking about the new company, the FARC made it clear that the new name sounded suspiciously like the CIA.
"C-I-A-O. This happened after the crash. We don't know who these people are," says Stansell. "We're civilian contractors."
60 Minutes II went to Northrop Grumman and asked about its new subsidiary, Ciao, which is now apparently in charge of planes and pilots in Colombia.
Northrop Grumman would not answer our questions, and no one would answer the door at Ciao's small headquarters in Maryland.
Northrop Grumman did, however, issue a statement saying the company will "continue to use every means available to us in seeking the release by the FARC of these three civilian non-combatants so that they might be safely reunited with their families."
On the tape, the hostages take pains to tell the company not to forget them or their families.
"I have a message for the company that we work for, just remember one thing when you see the three of us here. We did a good job for you. Just take good care of our families. We see here in the press release that our contract has been changed to a company that we don't know about after our crash," says Stansell.
"I understand the business side of it. But for those of you in our office and those of you in our old company that know us, maybe we won't make it home. But remember, there are three people here with a family. Please do the right thing for our families. Have some integrity. Stand up and do what's right for our families. Take care of us."
Northrop Grumman has continued to pay the mens' salaries, and stay in touch with the families. But there is criticism of the way the State Department ran the drug surveillance -- using civilian contractors for the high risk work of flying over the Colombian jungle.
Was the program as safe as it could be?
"We put a lot of faith in that motor and it failed. Would we ever do it again? I don't think the three of us would ever again fly a single engine in the mountains of Colombia," says Howes.
When Anne Patterson was the U.S. ambassador to Colombia, she oversaw the civilian contractors working there -- including the three men captured after their plane crashed, and the three other Americans killed in another plane crash while they were out looking for the hostages.
Did Patterson know that single-engine aircrafts should not be used for these kinds of missions?
"Sure, we heard that. Of course, we heard that. But the Cessna has an excellent safety record. It's been used in many, many parts of the world," says Patterson. "Colombia is an incredibly dangerous place. The spray planes for instance, they have been shot at 100 times this year. We're in a very risky operation. I want to be clear about that. What we're doing is very dangerous, and regrettably, accidents happen."
It is no accident that thousands of Americans are now working in Colombia. The U.S. has pumped billions into what's called "Plan Colombia," and the program has landed the U.S. in the middle of the Colombian mess.
President Uribe of Colombia was in the United States again just last week, asking for more financial help in his war against FARC. So far, he has refused to negotiate with the guerrillas or meet their demand for a prisoner exchange. Just today, the U.S. State Department decided to up the reward for the Americans to $5 million.
The U.S. fight against drugs in Colombia is important, according to former Republican Congressman Bob Barr, who was sent there on a fact-finding mission.
"The State Department is accountable because they are the ones calling the shots in Colombia, and we really have to demand that the State Department do more than put a happy face on what's going on down in Colombia," says Barr. "You know, the time for smoke and mirrors is gone. We're spending a lot of money. We're losing lives, we're losing aircraft down there and we have American hostages. And the current team in terms of having the state department in charge of the military aspects of the war against drugs down there has proven not to work. It's time for a change."
"I think the American people ought to be very angry. They ought to be upset. The families of those hostages ought to be angry and Congress ought to be," adds Barr. "Congress ought to be asking some very tough question and demanding some very good answers."
In the tape, the captors make a plea to the U.S. government not to send in a rescue team to save them. Instead, they ask for a negotiation.
"We would never do anything to put their lives at risk. Let me say that right away," says Patterson. "Because I did just watch the tape and I found it frankly very, very moving indeed. We would not do anything to put their lives at risk."
But in the jungles of Colombia, the hostages wonder if anything at all is being done.
"Since the crash, has there been any progress in the talks for an exchange for us? Any talks at all occur," asks Stansell.
"I'm not a politician and I don't understand all the politics. But I would say this. I would ask for a diplomatic solution. And I would ask to be exchanged so we could go home. I'm tired of death. I have friends of mine that have died. I've seen death. I don't wanna look at it anymore. I like life. That's what I want."