Thread: US Lied About "War on Drugs" in Columbia

Washington claims it's military aid to Columbia is aimed at drug eradication and combating "narcoguerrillas", but the US General Accounting Office reveals that:

United States General Accounting Office: Drug control narcotics threat from Colombia continues to grow

DEA reported that drug-related corruption existed in all branches of the [Colombian] government, within the prison system, and in the military.

The wife of Colonel James Hiett pleaded guilty to conspiracy to smuggle heroin from Colombia to New York, and shortly after it was reported that Colonel Hiett, who was in charge of US troops "that trained Colombian security forces in counternarcotics operations," is "expected to plead guilty" to charges of complicity:

The New York Times reports:

A United States Army colonel who once led the government's antidrug campaign in Colombia was linked yesterday for the first time to an international drug-smuggling case in which his wife has pleaded guilty.

After an investigation by the United States Customs Service, Mrs. Hiett, 36, admitted in January that she had conspired to smuggle more than $700,000 worth of heroin out of Bogota last year and had flown to New York at least twice to pick up payments for the drugs.

The latest developments come just days after the United States House of Representatives approved a $1.7 billion plan to help Colombia and other Andean countries combat drug trafficking.

Colonel Hiett's admission is sure to prove an embarrassment for the Clinton administration as it pushes for Congressional support.

The colonel's mission in Colombia, a country where American support for the military is controversial among many average Colombians, was in itself a sensitive one.

Colonel Hiett was in charge of about 200 American troops that trained Colombian security forces in counternarcotics operations, which invariably lead to military engagements with the guerrillas who control much of the rugged regions of Colombia where drugs are processed for shipment.

Furthermore, US Intelligence listed former US-backed Columbian President Uribe among important narco-traffickers:

The National Security Archive

U.S. INTELLIGENCE LISTED COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT URIBE AMONG
"IMPORTANT COLOMBIAN NARCO-TRAFFICKERS" IN 1991

Then-Senator "Dedicated to Collaboration with the Medellín Cartel at High Government Levels"

Confidential DIA Report Had Uribe Alongside Pablo Escobar, Narco-Assassins

Uribe "Worked for the Medellín Cartel" and was a "Close Personal Friend of Pablo Escobar"

Washington, D.C., 1 August 2004 - Then-Senator and now President Álvaro Uribe Vélez of Colombia was a "close personal friend of Pablo Escobar" who was "dedicated to collaboration with the Medellín [drug] cartel at high government levels," according to a 1991 intelligence report from U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officials in Colombia. The document was posted today on the website of the National Security Archive, a non-governmental research group based at George Washington University.

Uribe's inclusion on the list raises new questions about allegations that surfaced during Colombia's 2002 presidential campaign. Candidate Uribe bristled and abruptly terminated an interview in March 2002 when asked by Newsweek reporter Joseph Contreras about his alleged ties to Escobar and his associations with others involved in the drug trade. Uribe accused Contreras of trying to smear his reputation, saying that, "as a politician, I have been honorable and accountable."

The newly-declassified report, dated 23 September 1991, is a numbered list of "the more important Colombian narco-traffickers contracted by the Colombian narcotic cartels for security, transportation, distribution, collection and enforcement of narcotics operations." The document was released by DIA in May 2004 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by the Archive in August 2000.

The source of the report was removed by DIA censors, but the detailed, investigative nature of the report -- the list corresponds with a numbered set of photographs that were apparently provided with the original -- suggests it was probably obtained from Colombian or U.S. counternarcotics personnel. The document notes that some of the information in the report was verified "via interfaces with other agencies."

President Uribe -- now a key U.S. partner in the drug war -- "was linked to a business involved in narcotics activities in the United States" and "has worked for the Medellín cartel," the narcotics trafficking organization led by Escobar until he was killed by Colombian government forces in 1993. The report adds that Uribe participated in Escobar's parliamentary campaign and that as senator he had "attacked all forms of the extradition treaty" with the U.S.

Continued..

In standard US terminology, the FARC forces are "narcoguerrillas," a useful concept as a cover for counterinsurgency, but one that has been disputed by the US Drug Enforcement Agency:

DEA Congressional Testimony

To date, there is little to indicate the insurgent groups are trafficking in cocaine themselves, either by producing cocaine and selling it to Mexican syndicates, or by establishing their own distribution networks in the United States. The FARC controls certain areas of Colombia and the FARC in those regions generate revenue by ‘taxing’ local drug related activities. At present, there is no corroborated information that the FARC is involved directly in the shipment of drugs from Colombia to international markets.

Klaus Nyholm, the Director of the United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) argued that:

The guerrillas are something different than the traffickers; the local fronts are quite autonomous. But in some areas, they're not involved at all. And in others, they actively tell the farmers not to grow coca.

Continued..

Scandal mars Obama's wooing of Latin America...

Latin America rebels against Obama over Cuba
15 Apr.`12 - Unprecedented Latin American opposition to U.S. sanctions on Cuba left President Barack Obama isolated at a summit on Sunday and illustrated Washington's declining influence in a region being aggressively courted by China.

Unlike the rock-star status he enjoyed at the 2009 Summit of the Americas after taking office, Obama has had a bruising time at the two-day meeting in Colombia of some 30 heads of state. Sixteen U.S. security personnel were caught in an embarrassing prostitution scandal before Obama arrived, Brazil and others have bashed him over U.S. monetary policy and he has been on the defensive over Cuba and calls to legalize drugs.

Due to the hostile U.S. and Canadian line on communist-run Cuba, the heads of state failed to produce a final declaration as the summit fizzled out on Sunday afternoon. "There was no declaration because there was no consensus," said Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. He bristled at suggestions the summit had been a failure, however, saying the exchange of different views was a sign of democratic health.

For the first time, conservative-led U.S. allies like Mexico and Colombia are throwing their weight behind the traditional demand of leftist governments that Cuba be invited to the next Summit of the Americas. Cuba was kicked out of the Organization of American States (OAS) a few years after Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, and has been excluded from its summits due mainly to U.S. opposition.

But Latin American leaders are increasingly militant in opposing to the 50-year-old U.S. trade embargo on the island. "The isolation, the embargo, the indifference, looking the other way, have been ineffective," Santos said. "I hope Cuba is at the next summit in three years." A major U.S. ally in the region who has relied on Washington for financial and military help to fight guerrillas and drug traffickers, Santos has become vocal over Cuba's inclusion even though he also advocates for democratic reform by Havana.

CLINTON PARTIES AT 'CAFE HAVANA'

Marines join war on drugs in Guatemala...

200 US Marines Join Anti-Drug Effort in Guatemala
August 29, 2012 — A team of 200 U.S. Marines began patrolling Guatemala's western coast this week in an unprecedented operation to beat drug traffickers in the Central America region, a U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday.

The Marines are deployed as part of Operation Martillo, a broader effort started last Jan. 15 to stop drug trafficking along the Central American coast. Focused exclusively on drug dealers in airplanes or boats, the U.S.-led operation involves troops or law enforcement agents from Belize, Britain, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, Honduras, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama and Spain. "This is the first Marine deployment that directly supports countering transnational crime in this area, and it's certainly the largest footprint we've had in that area in quite some time," said Marine Staff Sgt. Earnest Barnes at the U.S. Southern Command in Miami.

It was 50 years ago when the U.S. military last sent any significant aid and equipment into Guatemala, establishing a base to support counter-insurgency efforts during a guerrilla uprising. That movement led to 36 years of war that left 200,000 dead, mostly indigent Maya farmers. The U.S. pulled out in 1978. Guatemalan authorities say they signed a treaty allowing the U.S. military to conduct the operations on July 16. Less than a month later an Air Force C-5 transport plane flew into Guatemala City from North Carolina loaded with the Marines and four UH-1 "Huey" helicopters.

After two weeks of setting up camp, establishing computer connections and training at the Guatemalan air base at Retalhuleu, the Marines ran through rehearsal exercises, Barnes said. Last week, their commander "gave us the thumbs up" to begin active operations, he said. This week the Marines have been patrolling waterways and the coastline, looking for fast power boats and self-propelled "narco-submarines" used to smuggle drugs along Central America's Pacific Coast. U.S. officials say the "drug subs" can carry up to 11 tons of illegal cargo up to 5,000 miles.

Col. Erick Escobedo, spokesman for Guatemalan Military Forces and Defense Ministry, said that so far the Marines have brought about the seizure of one small-engine aircraft and a car, but made no arrests. He said he expected the Marines to in Guatemala for about two months. If the Marines find suspected boats, Barnes said, they will contact their Guatemalan counterparts in a special operations unit from the Guatemalan navy that will move in for the bust. Barnes said the Marines will not go along on arrest missions, but they do have the right to defend themselves if fired on.

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Mexicans raise questions over CIA role in drug war
Fri, Aug 31, 2012 - Mexican politicians demanded answers from their government on Wednesday after reports that two Americans wounded when federal police opened fire on a US embassy car were working for the CIA.

The US and Mexican governments have said little about the victims’ work since last week’s shooting, a silence that has put a spotlight on the growing, but often secretive US role in Mexico’s brutal drug war. The left-wing opposition Democratic Revolution Party said it would summon government officials to a Senate hearing in order to clarify the murky role of the US CIA in Mexico. “We will ask for a hearing with the public security minister, the foreign minister and the navy to find out what CIA agents are doing in Mexico and why they are fighting each other,” Senator Mario Delgo told MVS radio.

Washington works closely with Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s government against drug smuggling under the US$1.6 billion Merida Initiative, providing training for law enforcement officials and equipment, including Black Hawk helicopters. After days of feverish speculation here about who the wounded Americans were working for, the New York Times reported Wednesday that the pair were employed by the CIA as part of an anti-drug task force. However, the Mexican daily El Universal, citing a confidential official report, said they were CIA agents who supervise instructors at a navy shooting range. The CIA and Mexican foreign ministry declined to comment. Calderon voiced regret over the incident on Tuesday and pledged an exhaustive investigation.

A US State Department spokesman would only say on Tuesday that the two were US government employees working on “law enforcement cooperation.” The pair were repatriated to the US over the weekend. According to official accounts, the two were driving with a Mexican navy captain to a military training facility south of Mexico City on Friday when federal police shot at their armored US embassy car. Authorities are holding 12 police officers over the shooting as prosecutors mull charges against them.

Unnamed US officials told the Times that there was no evidence so far that the unidentified Americans were targeted because of their affiliation. Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, a member of the Democratic Revolutionary Party, had already raised questions about the CIA’s presence on Tuesday. Analysts say the number of US security officials in Mexico has soared since Calderon launched an anti-drug offensive in 2006. More than 50,000 people have died since Mexican troops were deployed against the cartels. However, Calderon has refused to disclose the number of US law enforcement agents in Mexico. Under Mexican law, foreign agents or soldiers are forbidden from taking part in operations or carrying weapons in the country.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worl.../31/2003541640