cannabisnews.com: Colombia Rebels Could Be Target in Terror War U.S.





Colombia Rebels Could Be Target in Terror War U.S.
Posted by FoM on April 24, 2002 at 18:29:32 PT
By Donna Leinwand, USA Today
Source: USA Today
When the United States' top drug cop visited here recently, he traveled in bulletproof vans. Police with automatic weapons ringed the hotel where he slept. He was warned that if he left the city limits, he risked being kidnapped by rebels.In short, Asa Hutchinson, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), found himself in something akin to a war zone. This capital city is surrounded by anti-government insurgents who often finance their civil war with profits from trafficking in cocaine and heroin.
If Hutchinson and the rest of the Bush administration have their way, the United States would equate the rebels with international terrorist groups such as Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and include them in the international war on terror.This would allow the democratically elected Colombian government to spend the money that Washington sends to fight drugs to fight the rebels, too.''There used to be a distinction between drug traffickers and insurgency groups in Colombia,'' Hutchinson said during his visit in March.''Now that the proof is clear that the terrorists are engaged in trafficking as well, our support for Colombia should recognize that the traffickers are also terrorists,'' he said.President Bush has requested sending $538 million in military and police aid to Colombia in 2003. For this year, Congress authorized $343 million.Until now, Congress has seen its relationship with Colombia through the lens of the drug war. Hutchinson's trip last month became part of an adminstration campaign that was launched last fall to demonstrate that Colombia's problems stretch far beyond cocaine and heroin. Everywhere Hutchinson went and everyone he talked to seem to push the administration's point that the rebels' tactics are terrorist acts.''We've had bombs go off,'' a DEA agent based in Bogota told Hutchinson during a breakfast briefing one day. ''You cannot leave the city. If you drive north or south, you are going to see a guerrilla. If they know you're an American, you're going to get kidnapped.''Hutchinson visited police officers wounded in gunfights with rebels who were running drugs. He met widows of Colombian police officers who had died at rebel hands while gathering intelligence on drug smugglers.The Colombian National Police showed him a video of the dismantling of a drug lab run by rebels. They recounted stories of abductions, car bombs and sabotage, all of which they said were linked to rebel groups.President Andres Pastrana, who had refrained from calling the insurgents terrorists until peace negotiations broke down on Feb. 20, told Hutchinson straight out on March 26 that ''narco-trafficking is financing the violence and the terrorism in Colombia.''Three insurgency groups in Colombia are on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations. Most powerful is the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a Marxist group known by its Spanish initials FARC. On Monday, government officials say the FARC abducted a state governor and a former defense minister from a peace march. FARC rebels also hold hostage presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and 12 state lawmakers they kidnapped during recent attacks.The Colombian government also contends with attacks from the National Liberation Army, a leftist group known as the ELN, and the United Self-Defense Forces, a right-wing paramilitary group.U.S. authorities say all three groups are involved in the drug trade.Government figures released in March indicated that coca leaf cultivation, grown primarily in areas where the government has lost control to the rebel groups, reached an all-time high in 2001. Much of the drug is bound for the USA.The administration launched its campaign to redirect aid from fighting the drug war to the broader war against the rebels last fall. Anne Patterson, the U.S. ambassador to Colombia, began calling the rebels a threat to hemispheric security. Hutchinson began referring to them as ''narco-terrorists'' in his public pronouncements. The National Drug Control Strategy issued by the White House in February listed Colombia, along with Afghanistan, as a place where illegal drug profits fund terrorism.In March, Attorney General John Ashcroft issued the first indictments against FARC guerrillas for shipping cocaine into the USA.In the same month, Secretary of State Colin Powell asked Congress to give the Bush administration authority and money to ''deal with the counterterrorist aspects of the fight that the Colombian people are waging against terrorist organizations.''Complete Title: Colombia Rebels Could Be Target in Terror War U.S. Officials Pushing Link with Narcotics Trafficking Source: USA Today (US)Author: Donna Leinwand, USA TodayPublished: April 24, 2002Copyright: 2002 USA Today a division of Gannett Co. Inc.Contact: editor usatoday.comWebsite: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nfront.htmRelated Articles & Web Site:Colombia Drug War Newshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/colombia.htm Official: No Combat Role in Colombiahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12629.shtmlDrug Czar Urges Action on Andean Trade Bill http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12620.shtml
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Comment #2 posted by qqqq on April 24, 2002 at 23:02:10 PT
...and,,,Also;;;;;
.."Colombia Rebels Could Be Target in Terror War..."   ..Oh my,,,who knew??!...
..this headline is about like .;
..;.."Penis could be involved in recent pregnancy!".......
..or...."Butt is likely to be charged with taking shit!"..
..Fart to be indicted for causing bad smell"...
..."Colombian Rebels",,will be the Palestinians of South America!......Dont forget,,"Rebels", are now "terrorists"!. and you know what happens to "terrorists".....they are not for us,,so they are against us. .They will be wiped from the face of the earth,,,so,,if you are not a terrorist,,make sure you dont hang out with any rebels like George Washington,or Paul Revere.........as I said once before,,,,rebellion will no longer be tolerated in the world!,,All rebels are terrorists,,and terrorists must be "brought to justice".
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Comment #1 posted by SoberStoner on April 24, 2002 at 22:01:48 PT:
A missed opportunity
Too bad the FARC rebels (who are only trying to free their contry from the oppresive grasp of the 1% of the population that controls 90% of the wealth in their country, sound familiar?) didnt welcome Assa to their country the way he welcomes himself to theirs. A nice healthy dose of defoliant in his face would have made a nice picture on the front page of Time or Newsweek. Of course then we would HAD to have declared war on them, but as you can see, we already have: ''Now that the proof is clear that the terrorists are engaged in trafficking as well, our support for Colombia should recognize that the traffickers are also terrorists,'' he said."if you aren't with us, you are against us"And since FARC loves blowing up our precious oil pipelines, they are against us, and must be evil...I remember hearing about FARC in the 80's and thinking what horrible people they must be...now the more i hear about them, the more i realize they have more in common with our founding fathers than our government does...they only want to be free and have their country rely on it's own resources, not be subserviant to a controlling nation half a planet away that knows or cares nothing about the people of that country, only about what they can pillage from these people.Even the greatest fiction writer could not write a story like the one being written by our own government and have it published..it would be too unbelievable.SS
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