XPost: uk.politics.misc, alt.politics.british, alt.conspiracy.princess-diana   
   XPost: alt.conspiracy, alt.conspiracy.new-world-order, alt.america   
   XPost: us.politics   
   From: o@o.org   
      
   US Govt To Increase Direct Interference in Colombia   
      
   The US Government has adopted a new pretence to justify its presence in   
   Colombia and even direct action in the country by US personnel. Once again   
   the so called war on drugs, a euphemism used by the US to justify   
   interventions in Colombia, Panama, Turkey and other countries throughout the   
   20th Century, is to be used.   
      
   The US have redefined the FARC as a drugs cartel and issued 50 arrest   
   warrants for the entire Secretariat of the FARC and a further 17 members of   
   the High Command. The arrest warrants are accompanied by the offer of 5   
   million dollars for each member of the Secretariat and 2.5 million for the   
   High Command leaders. A similar strategy has been in place for some time in   
   Colombia where it has failed miserably. It has not resulted in a single   
   arrest.   
      
   The US has used the pretext of drugs to intervene in Colombia long before   
   Clinton launched his military Plan Colombia. However, the US State Dept has   
   always refrained from saying the FARC were drug traffickers, correctly   
   describing the FARC's role as that of a tax collector on the production of   
   the leaf, and the final product. However, politics and reality are not the   
   same thing. Madeleine Albright, Clintons' sidekick famously declared that   
   she had a video which showed the FARC exchanging arms for drugs in the   
   middle of the Carribean. The video like the video of the Colombia Three,   
   training the FARC, never materialised because it simply never existed. Both   
   videos were quickly forgotten.   
      
   Amid much media publicity, the Colombian Government announced that the FARC's   
   key man in Mexico in charge of drug trafficking had been arrested. He   
   suffered a similar fate to the videos, he was forgotten about. There does   
   seem to be some evidence that the FARC in recent years have gone beyond the   
   role of tax collector, but it is anecdotal and doesn't amount to accusing   
   them of being the major drug traffickers in Colombia. Outlandish claims have   
   been made by Jessica Tandy the director of the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency)   
   that the FARC are responsible for 50% of the Cocaine produced in the world   
   and 60% of that which enters the US. This figure would mean that they are   
   producing over 400 tonnes a year. A quick look at the figures and one can   
   see that they don't add up. They claim the FARC have exported 25,000 million   
   dollars worth in 10 years, which if we accept UN figures (and the US do)   
   would mean that were responsible for 50% of the value of the entire illegal   
   drugs trade in the world including, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, hash,   
   prescription drugs sold illegally etc from Colombia to Pakistan, Afghanistan   
   and beyond. And lets not forget that the Netherlands accounts for most   
   ecstasy production even with the shift to Indonesia in recent years, where   
   the FARC are not known to have guerrilla columns. The claim and the figures   
   are inventions.   
      
   The paramilitaries have been forgotten about, despite the fact that US State   
   Dept described them as drug traffickers when it talked of the FARC being tax   
   collectors. So too have the numerous US personnel which have been arrested   
   smuggling drugs or exchanging weapons for drugs with the paramilitaries. The   
   President of Colombia who has been described in US intelligence reports has   
   having links with drug traffickers has also been forgotten (though it is   
   hard to forget that Uribe's father's helicopter was found in the largest   
   drug laboratory ever found).   
      
   The drug cartel charge is a smokescreen. But why make the charge now? The   
   answer is simple. Bush has made no secret of his desire to free up US money   
   and hardware donated in the "war on drugs" for use in general counter   
   insurgency operations. In practice this has occurred on many occasions, but   
   they need a freer hand. Now that the FARC has been redefined as a drugs   
   cartel Bush can have that freer hand. The US Attorney General has not ruled   
   out operations of the type which led to the killing of Pablo Escobar. In   
   other words it has not ruled out direct military intervention to take out   
   the Secretariat.   
      
   Plan Colombia is now considered to have failed having invested more than   
   4000 million dollars and having sprayed hundreds of thousands of hectares of   
   land under coca and land with food crops. Plan Patriota which was designed   
   to defeat the FARC militarily has also failed. Now we have a new plan which   
   gives the US greater leverage over any future government. If the FARC are a   
   drug cartel the US will block any negotiation with the them that is not   
   favourable to their interests using the excuse of their alleged role as a   
   cartel and they can now carry out strikes anywhere (including any   
   demilitarised zones that are created for negotiations) on the pretext of the   
   war on drugs.   
      
   The reality that is the largest beneficiaries of the drugs trade are the   
   western companies that supply the raw materials for the manufacture of   
   cocaine. To give the idea an idea, some of the essential ingredients are   
   sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid, acetate and potassium permangate to   
   mention a few. All of these ingredients are supplied by US and German   
   companies, none of which will ever be declared to be a cartel, as it is not   
   in US interests to do so.   
      
   Once again the Colombian people are to be subjected to increased US   
   interference in the name of a war on drugs. Tis little the Bush regime care   
   about the victims of the drugs trade.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)