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| US, Colombia Engaged in Numbers War |
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Posted by FoM on February 28, 2002 at 20:22:03 PT By Jared Kotler, Associated Press Writer Source: Associated Press 
Washington's war on cocaine in Colombia has spawned another fight -- over statistics indicating whether it's working or not. Colombian officials said Thursday they were prepared to defend new figures claiming dramatic reductions in the cultivation of coca -- the plant used to make cocaine -- against upcoming U.S. estimates that are expected to show just the opposite. "I don't think they are in a position to refute our figures, not scientifically or technically," Justice Minister Romulo Gonzalez said, referring to the CIA, whose annual crop estimates are expected within days. Colombian government drug czar Gabriel Merchan directly challenged the CIA's method for calculating Colombia's coca crop. He said the intelligence agency's projections, based on satellite images of a sample of traditional growing areas, is "work half-done." Anya Guilsher, a CIA spokeswoman contacted in Langley, Va., said she could not comment on the agency's figures until they are released. But she said the CIA stands by its methodology. This year's coca count has big repercussions, with U.S. and Colombian officials facing pressure to show results from an anti-drug war being financed with hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. aid. Washington is providing Colombia with troop training, helicopters and fumigation aircraft that fly over the main drug growing regions and dump herbicides over peasants' coca plots. On Wednesday, the Colombian government released data claiming the first reductions in Colombia's coca crop since cultivation began booming a decade ago. Colombia produces 90 percent of the world's cocaine. Colombia's total coca acreage shrunk by as much as 16.8 percent in the past 16 months to 336,000 acres, down from 402,000 acres at the end of August 2000, the government claimed. In contrast, U.S. and U.N. officials involved in the eradication campaign say they expect the CIA to show a large increase in the coca crop last year -- possibly by as much as a third. That angered officials from the U.S. State Department, which manages the spraying program in Colombia. They believe the coca crop has stabilized or even has begun falling under the stepped-up fumigation program. The State Department and the CIA recently convened a group of scientists to try and iron out their differences over how to measure Colombia's coca crop. Source: Associated Press Related Articles & Web Site: Colombia Drug War News U.S. To Be Drawn Into Colombian War? U.S. Considers Helping Colombia Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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| Comment #6 posted by FoM on March 01, 2002 at 07:18:51 PT |
| Please don't respond to that person in another thread. He was removed from posting here and decided to re-register and wants to cause trouble so we will take care of it. Thank you. Don't encouage him. He is here to flame and that is not needed or wanted. I don't mind debates but flaming isn't allowed. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #5 posted by kaptinemo on March 01, 2002 at 04:36:39 PT:
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| Anyone who was alive back then - and especially you Viet Nam Vets who can recall them - knows what I am talking about. For those who don't, a little history: The Living Room War The military held daily briefings to report on progress. Correspondents called them the "Five O'Clock Follies" http://www.cjr.org/year/01/6/1970.asp from the article: "Each evening in Saigon, public information officers held a news briefing -- correspondents mockingly called it "the Five o'clock Follies" -- to report the government's version of the day's military action. Over the years, correspondents such as David Halberstam, Neil Sheehan, Malcolm Browne, and Peter Arnett regularly pointed out discrepancies between those reports of the war's progress and what they observed firsthand in the rain forests and highlands of South Vietnam. But this part is what I constantly refer to as the military's "Lesson from Viet Nam" - coralling journalists and spoon feeding them tripe...while making sure they can't see anything the military doesn't want them to see: "Journalists enjoyed virtually unlimited access to the battlegrounds and the troops, and -- unlike World War II and Korea -- zero censorship of their dispatches. Television correspondents traveled the country at will, hitching free rides on helicopters and cargo transports. Print reporters in the battle zones used the military's field telephones to shout their stories back to Saigon. The Pentagon, dismayed by the putative results of all that generosity, decided that never again would it be so lenient. When the Gulf War broke out in 1991, journalists' movements and access were severely circumscribed. Well, another 'liar's war' is breaking out down there...and this time, amongst 'allies'. The US Guv'mint is saying that it's still necessary to spray everything that moves down there...and the Colombians are saying that everything that needed killing (no doubt, blissfully forgetting about the campesinos) is dead. Figures don't lie...but liars can figure. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #4 posted by Jose Melendez on February 28, 2002 at 22:08:13 PT:
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| Between 1988 and 1995, illegal drug cultivation and
drug-related activities increased throughout South America,
Mexico, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and other
countries. The total net area of cultivation for coca leaf and
opium poppy increased. Between 1988 and 1995, about
56,000 hectares\18 of coca plants were eradicated.
However, while the areas under cultivation have fluctuated
from year to year, farmers planted new coca faster than
existing crops were eradicated. Thus, the net area under
cultivation increased from 186,000 hectares to 214,800
hectares, or by about 15 percent. http://cannabisnews.com/news/12/thread12011.shtml#12 [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #3 posted by MikeEEEEE on February 28, 2002 at 21:05:35 PT |
| Colombian officials said Thursday they were prepared to defend new figures claiming dramatic reductions in the cultivation of coca -- the plant used to make cocaine -- against upcoming U.S. estimates that are expected to show just the opposite. The wall you hear cracking is made of lies. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #2 posted by Jose Melendez on February 28, 2002 at 21:01:14 PT:
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| see: Dog Detecting Smell Ruled Insufficient Cause To Search Passengers [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #1 posted by The GCW on February 28, 2002 at 20:30:31 PT |
| DEA: San Juan Office Inflated Arrest Figures, reflect the fact that we can not trust the U.S. Federal Gov. Not with the DEA and not with the CIA. That San Juan story may fuel more public questioning of the fact that we are being duped. http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread12119.shtml [ Post Comment ] |
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