US hostage in Colombia says would die in rescue

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N12302642.htm

BOGOTA, Colombia, Sept 12 (Reuters) - One of three Americans held hostage by Marxist guerrillas in the Colombian jungle for more than six months has warned authorities he will be killed if there is a rescue attempt, a magazine reported.

"This isn't the movies. If you come to rescue us we will die," said Thomas Howes, one of three civilian U.S. Defense Department contractors captured by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in February, according to the latest edition Cromos magazine which goes on sale on Saturday.

Photographs taken by journalist Jorge Enrique Botero in a wooden hut somewhere in Colombia's jungle showed the three men looking healthy and clean but grim, sitting at a table with guerrillas standing guard over them with assault rifles.

The three men sent video messages to their families and spoke of the boredom of captivity. They said they had not heard about the invasion of Iraq.

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