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Show Friday, July 11, DAILY HERALD 2008 Hostages Continued from A 1 s ed more than 5,000 rebel phone conversations, investigators told The Associated Press. They allegedly heard Conde and her negotiate shipments of everything from assault rifles to condoms for distribution to about a third of the FARCs estimated 9,000 fighters, including the 1st Front that held the hostages. "We're not talking just about finances, communications equipment, food and weapons but also medical supplies, medicines and people who cared directly for the wounded," said Luis Ernesto Tamayo, the security official who ran the Colombian side of the operation. He ' "V : 1 wouldn't say whether hostages were discussed in any of the intercepted conversations. Many of the calls went to a rebel "call center" in the gateway city of Villavicen-cio- , where radio communications from the jungle were relayed to international phone circuits. It was in Villavicencio that Conde, 35, allegedly operated several front companies. Located where the Andes mountains open out onto Colombia's southeastern plains, the city's airport was a key conduit to airstrips in zones. In addition to Miami a major shop Associated Press file photo DNA tests have cleared John and Patsy Ramsey of their daughter, JonBenet, who died in 1 996. JonBenet Continued from A 1 into the national DNA databank. The nation's DNA tracking system is beset with a huge backlog that could take years to clear. And in the meantime, law enforcement officials say, crimes are going unsolved. "It's very, very frustrating because this tool is so powerful," said Norm Gahn, a Milwaukee prosecutor who helped pioneer the practice of filing charges against unidentified sex offenders based solely on their DNA profile. Investigators in the JonBenet case said this week that tests on a few invisible skin cells have convinced them they have the DNA profile of the man who killed the beauty queen in her Boulder home in 1996. But so far they haven't found a match. L. Lin Wood, an attorney for JonBenet's father, John, said he is confident someone will be arrested someday: "DNA will get the killer of JonBenet." How long it might take depends on whether the killer has any major brushes with the law that would make him subject to a mandatory DNA test. It might also depend on how quickly state or local police or an outside laboratory can analyze the sample, extract the DNA profile and get it entered into the national databank. An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 DNA samples from convicted offenders nationwide were still waiting to be added to the federal government's database in 2003, the most recent numbers available, according to a study funded by the U.S. Justice Department. Since then, the total number of offender profiles in the FBI's Combined DNA Index System has grown nearly fourfold, from 1.5 million to 5.8 million. But experts believe the backlog is still as big as ever because more states have begun requiring DNA samples from defendants. All but three states Idaho, Nebraska, and New Hampshire now require convicted felons to submit DNA, according the death of to Lisa Hurst, a consultant for a Washington state law firm that specializes in DNA issues. At least 12 states require DNA samples from anyone merely arrested for a felony, including California, whose law goes into effect next year. In April, the Justice Department announced that all people arrested by federal law enforcement agencies would be required to submit a DNA sample via a cheek swab. Shrinking the backlog has been daunting. "It's a matter of personnel, training that personnel, the space to do the testing and just the sheer cost of it," Hurst said. State crime labs are struggling to catch up, knowing how valuable the DNA profiles are. Wyoming authorities took a DNA sample from Diego e in 2001 after a kidnapping conviction, but it languished for seven years. When it was finally processed and added to the federal database in January of this year, it was quickly matched to the 1997 slaying of Susannah Chase, a University of Colorado student who was sexually assaulted, beaten with a baseball bat and left to die in an alley in Boulder. 38, is now charged with murder. Wyoming has a backlog of 7,000, down from 10,000 at the start of the year, said Steve Holloway, director of the State Crime Laboratory. The samples large cotton swabs in sealed envelopes, waiting to be sent to an outside laboratory fill about 36 file drawers. "This is the No. 1 priority, to get that backlog caught up," Holloway said. "Every time we get more of those samples into the database, we're getting roughly a 2 percent match rebel-dominat- A7 ping destination for Latin Americans she had suppliers and buyers in at least seven countries and territories including Brazil, Venezuela and the three Guyanas, the U.S. investigator said. The FARC units operating in her area were major cocaine exporters. "A big part of the business was drugs for arms," the American official said. Conde allegedly acquired supplies that ran the gamut from devices to personal beauty accessories, according to Colombian and U.S. court death-deliverin- g documents. They included: Two ICOM V-- 8 military grade portable radios; I 20 high-teccompasses and assorted GPS devices; 350 satellite phone minutes from the United States; I Rifles, rifle scopes, pistols, shotguns, bomb fuses and ammunition; Instruments "for surgery and body h reconstruction." On Feb. 2, authorities pounced on Conde, arresting her as she entered Colombia from Venezuela, where she'd gone to give birth. They rounded up a total of 39 alleged members of her supply and communications network, Including three doctors one of them a Cuban and two of Conde's three female deputies. The arrests, which began in 2006, no tably included the capture of Jose Maria Corredor at a jungle camp. He allegedly shipped in hundreds of assault rifles from Venezuela in exchange for cocaine. "With this operation we neutralized a great deal of the rebels' logistical and financial support," Tamayo said. So much were rebel supply lines squeezed that Betancourt could notice it in captivity. She said upon being rescued that over the past year, "we've eaten very little, with very little variation in the food," adding that there was trouble getting boots and underwear. "Logistics could be in trouble," she said. News coverage of Conde's arrest the army chief was widely quoted as saying she was wanted for extradition to the United States almost certainly prompted her boyfrien, hostage jailer Gerardo Aguilar, to seriously limit if not shun radio communications, officials say. Conde and 10 others had been indicted in the District of Columbia in September on charges of conspiracy to provide support to a foreign terrorist organization. The group included Aguilar, alias "Cesar," and Alexander Farfan, alias "Enrique both of whom were captured in the Ga-fas- ," July 2 rescue mission and also face charges of hostage-takinand terrorism. The United States is seeking their g Olmos-Alcald- Olmos-Alcald- e, - if V ., mm r rate." Another complicating factor is when the DNA is collected. In Illinois, for example, samples aren't taken until convicted felons get out of prison, Hurst said. "You're talking years" between the arrest and the time the DNA gets into the database, she said. "Here's the scary thing: They're giving samples as they're walking out the door." if I ft. V J ,v- t i Your Insurance Superstore! 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