cannabisnews.com: U.S. Drug Crop Duster Crashes in Colombia
U.S. Drug Crop Duster Crashes in Colombia
Posted by CN Staff on September 22, 2003 at 07:44:23 PT
By The Associated Press
Source: Associated Press
A U.S. plane crashed while fumigating cocaine-producing crops in volatile northern Colombia on Sunday, killing the American pilot, the army said. The crash in Catatumbo, an area filled with coca crops, appeared to be an accident and not a rebel attack, as officials had believed earlier. "Initially, there was talk of the plane being hit, but then those who went to the site said there were no (bullet holes)," Defense Minister Martha Lucia Ramirez told reporters. "We are not sure what caused the accident."
Army Gen. Jairo Duvan Pineda told RCN Television the weather was bad at the time of the crash.The pilot was a U.S. citizen originally from Costa Rica. Officials didn't release his identity or say where he lived.Rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, are fighting for control of Catatumbo against the army, another rebel group and outlawed paramilitary fighters.Colombia is the world's biggest producer of cocaine, and the coca crops generate huge profits for the illegal groups.The U.S. government has given billions of dollars in aid and training to the Colombian military to support its nearly four-decade war against leftist rebels and to wipe out cocaine and heroin production.Source: Associated Press Published: September 22, 2003Copyright: 2003 Associated Press Related Articles & Web Site:Colombia Drug War Newshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/colombia.htmUS Civilians Wage Drug War from Colombia's Skieshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14652.shtmlICI Pulls Out of Cocaine War http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10191.shtmlToxic Drift: Monsanto and Drug War in Colombiahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10137.shtml
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Comment #16 posted by goneposthole on September 24, 2003 at 02:23:34 PT
too bad there are airplanes
they can be used by man to wreak too much havoc, death and destruction. Time to ban them?http://homepage.ntlworld.com/steveseymour/joeviallscouk/transpositions/concorde.html
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Comment #15 posted by VitaminT on September 23, 2003 at 13:47:06 PT
I gotcha Kapt
my mistake for calling it a jet. I guess the point is when the subject is crop dusters most people think Bi-Plane or something equally non threatening.I defer to your knowledge of military aircraft because I know that my own is marginal at best and because you may have had someones &%$# ! elbow in your eye once or twice in your life! LOL!cheers
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Comment #14 posted by kaptinemo on September 23, 2003 at 09:02:12 PT:
Sorry, VT, it ain't
The OV-10A is a twin-airscrew machine, not a jet...but it IS used for all kinds of skullduggery by spook agencies due to it's unusual characteristics; it can fly as slow as 55 miles an hour if necessary and carry as many as 5 airborne troops VERY uncomfortably ("Get yer &%$# ! elbow out of my eye, dammit!).And it can be outfitted with all manner of light ordinance. And these are supposed to be CIVILIAN planes doing the spraying?Here's a pic:NORTH AMERICAN OV-10A "BRONCO"
http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/modern_flight/mf48.htm
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Comment #13 posted by VitaminT on September 23, 2003 at 07:41:14 PT
Curious Headline
The OV-10A "Bronco" is no ordinary "crop duster" It's a military aircraft, I believe built on the same airframe as the A-10 Thunderbolt anti-tank aircraft familiar to anyone who watched much of the Iraq war coverage.Most people don't think of this sort of Jet when they think "Crop Duster."$.02
See a picture of this harmless little Crop Duster
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on September 23, 2003 at 06:47:25 PT
Motavation
Thanks for understanding.
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Comment #11 posted by Motavation on September 22, 2003 at 23:58:09 PT:
FoM
I am sad, that you felt uncomfortable with my post and had to remove it. I respect that this is your website and your judgement. I refrained from using profanity in my post, so I certainly thought I wasn't out of line. I assure you FoM, you're the last person I want to make feel "uncomfortable". If you would like to tell me, what made you "uncomfortable" please email me.
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Comment #10 posted by lag on September 22, 2003 at 17:09:33 PT
The GCW
Kucinich is the man. I am going to be behind him for the primaries. The problem is that a lot of democrats I have heard from dismiss him as, I guess being a bleeding heart.I want to know about the chicken and the egg. Is life the way it is because that's how nature just intended it to be, the 'strong' feeding off of the 'weak'? Or has our perception been manipulated by the way the man wants it to be, and thus we are in this fixed mindset that money makes the world go round, and that it is the core basis for all of our decisions? This is reminiscent of the stoner and the cheech and chong movie...what came first? And once these walls are created, is there anyway to tear them down?Would animals be so cruel had they the thoughts about them? I am intrigued to think that while we put down animalistic behavior as being the basest form of behavior, yet, to me, the human behavior seems to be the most base. So, where do us humanists fit in the world? Human behavior and money don't make sense...so what does, and why does it only seem to make sense to those without the power? Spray love not war!
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Comment #9 posted by The GCW on September 22, 2003 at 16:39:04 PT
Peace instead of War & fumigation.
FOR KUCINICH & PEACEYesterday's International Day of Peace united thousands of Kucinich supporters and
potential supporters in house parties from the tip of Florida to "the end of the road
system in Homer, Alaska" -- and will add hundreds of thousands of dollars to our
campaign coffers. Many also participated in a conference call, in which Dennis
spoke eloquently of how our campaign "can help America achieve a
transformation" away from the Bush Administration's thinking -- unilateralism,
'pre-emptive war,' nuclear fist strike and the building of new nuclear weapons.Thank you to all who participated in one of the biggest days of organizing by any
campaign in this election season. Let's make Nov. 2, 2004 a Peace Day at the polls. DENNIS COAST TO COAST...AND BACK
Dennis campaigned this weekend from New England to an event at the Mexico
border near San Diego where he spoke out for immigrants' rights and against trade
deals that favor corporate rights over human rights. Then to Peace Day parties in
L.A. Tomorrow, Kucinich is back on the East Coast, joining the Dalai Lama at a
New York City event on the "Ethical Revolution." Don't miss the next presidential debate, this Thursday from New York City,
televised live on CNBC 4-6pm Eastern (re-aired on MSNBC at 9pm Eastern). "KUCINICH FIRES UP NEW HAMPSHIRE CROWD"
That's the headline of the AP report on Kucinich's visit to Manchester, which
quoted him as saying that he is "the only one who can beat Bush!" AP continued:
"The Ohio congressman elaborated, saying he offers the most stark contrast to
President Bush's policies and has a long record of beating Republican incumbents.
Kucinich also said his campaign is the most inclusive, attracting young people as
well as members of the Green Party, Natural Law Party and Libertarians. 'I can
bring out the vote,' he said."A WORD FROM DR. PATCH ADAMS
One vote Kucinich has just brought out is Dr. Patch Adams, the social-change agent
made famous in the movie starring Robin Williams. Patch says: "I have been a
political activist for 40 years, always voting, yet I never got active in a campaign
because I never felt the candidate was progressive enough and often voted for the
least dangerous. Dennis has the intelligence and courage to make love a value.
Please vote for him. Together we can do it."DOLLARS FOR PEACE
Presidential campaigns are costly. Many of you have already donated. Thank you.
If you haven't, now is the time -- in advance of the Sept. 30 filing deadline. Your
donation means double to our campaign thanks to federal matching funds. Any
amount helps: https://www.kucinich.us/contribute.phpFor more info: http://www.kucinich.us Please forward this email to friends.
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on September 22, 2003 at 15:27:45 PT
Motavation
I really felt uncomfortable with your post and I waited and thought about it but I removed it on a judgement call of my own. We don't need to bring him into the discussion.
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Comment #6 posted by kaptinemo on September 22, 2003 at 11:02:27 PT:
Bang on target, E_J
Yes, it was Zumwalt, former Chief of Naval Operations, the Navy's top position. And his son died riddled with all manner of cancers...thanks to exposure to dioxin, the primary component of Agent Orange.What comes around, goes around...
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Comment #5 posted by E_Johnson on September 22, 2003 at 10:38:50 PT
Didn't Zumwalt lose his son to defoliator poison?
Who was it in Vietnam who ordered defoliation, and then saw his own son die from cancer because of it -- wasn't that Admiral Zumwalt, does anybody remember?His son died from cancer caused by Agent Orange. His son's illness was discussed as part of the SHOCKING realization by American news media that the government could actually LIE about the safety of products used by the military on civilians and soldiers.
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Comment #4 posted by Max Flowers on September 22, 2003 at 10:17:38 PT
Payback's a bitch, ain't it Mr. Spook Pilot?
It would have been nice if the pilot in the news story were able to feed the insects of the jungle, but no doubt his Army/CIA buddies extracted his remains for an "honorable" burial somewhere stateside and there will no doubt be a bunch of drivel intoned at the funeral about how he was doing good for his country and died in that service, blah blah blah...
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Comment #3 posted by goneposthole on September 22, 2003 at 09:49:00 PT
Where does the money go?
A buck, a yen, a mark, a pound...it makes the world go round.http://www.worldpolicy.org/globalrights/samerica/1999-Colombia.html
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on September 22, 2003 at 08:43:34 PT
About Chemical Poisons
Last night I watched a fascinating program on National Geographic. It was about Killer Whales in the Monterey Bay.I am getting more and more upset about the use of chemical pesticides and herbicides. It was alarming to know that these whales might all die because of chemicals.An invisible specter may be haunting the rich web of life in Monterey Bay. Killer whale populations have declined rapidly, and Black suspects that deadly toxins called PCBs have worked their way into the food supply. Already, alarmingly high concentrations of PCBs have been found in other marine mammals along the Pacific coast—including those mammals on which the killer whales feed. Could it be that the whales are being poisoned by the animals they hunt so relentlessly? http://www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/explorer/exp110302.html
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on September 22, 2003 at 08:20:06 PT:
Live by the sword, die by the sword...
Make your DynCorp-supplied $80K a year paycheck by spraying highly toxic chemicals on helpless women and children? Then DIE for your DynCorp supplied 80K a year paycheck by spraying highly toxic chemicals on helpless women and children!Overly harsh? Cruel? Being mean? Then I suggest that those being so critical of my view take a look at this:Drug war pilot
http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/2669.htmlFrom the article:*The man said he was a former Vietnam War copter pilot who "enjoyed using forward-mounted guns" to "make Swiss cheese out of the gooks" in Vietnam. For his Colombian assignment, which he started three years ago as a contract worker, he learned to fly modified crop dusters and helicopters."'Nam was fun, but this Colombia thing is a lot more fun and it's real high tech," he said. "They can't really shoot back at you except with machine guns and small arms, and they aren't as well-organized as the gooks were. I'm getting the equivalent of $100 an hour to sit out in the jungle and occasionally kill weeds."*and ..."Command will load the maps onto the onboard computer at the start of every mission," he explained. "We go out basically on auto pilot, and the computer turns on and off our sprayers whenever we are in position over the target crops. We can hit within five foot accuracy, and the computer is programmed with weather information, humidity, wind speed and direction, terrain type, even where the villages are, so we don't waste the spray and so we can minimize drift and bleedover."*Yepper, another big believer in faultless technology; he's not to blame, he's not responsible, oh, no, the people further up the food chain make these decisions. Like 'daylight precision bombing' from 30,000 feet up, and only one bomb in five hits the target, if you're lucky. He's just a taxi driver. I'm sure Reichsmarshall Goering and his Nurmeburg docket buddies are laughing uproariously from Hell right now.But this really gets me:* I'd told the pilot that I'd heard that the spraying operations are creating a widespread ecological and human disaster.
Director of Colombia`s National Police: pulling out a coca plant north of Bogota. "That's a load of communist bullshit," he said, choking on his beer. "We aren't spraying anything more than what people spray to kill weeds on their gardens. The missions are so tightly controlled, the aircraft and the telemetry are high tech. All this stuff has been studied and studied by the government and we wouldn't be using it if it hurt people. Nobody is getting sick from what we do, even if the stuff goes right on 'em, all they have to do is wash it off. I've been spraying thousands of gallons a year for the last three; do I look sick to you?"*and*"We dropped defoliators in 'Nam and it worked good, maybe caused a few boys to get sick, but that's war. Same thing is gonna happen here. We will kill every goddamned plant in the country if we have to. It's worth it to prevent more of our people from getting hooked on their goddamned drugs. These Latins are trying to have a war against us, and that's why they are sending the dope to our country, to make us weak and take us over. I for one, am gonna make sure it doesn't happen."*Of course, if it wasn't for the 'price supports' provided by prohibition, this wouldn't have to happen, anyway.With fate being what it is, it is entirely possible that this mercenary is the same one who is now food for bugs in a Colombian jungle. What comes around, does indeed go around.
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