US Certifies Human Rights Record of Colombia, Freeing $55 Million

I thought this might be an April Fools joke considering the already huge, but still developing paramilitary-military scandal that is rocking Uribe's Government to the core (see below). But since only a half dozen US newspapers have even reported on the story, I should not expect this usually routine US announcement to raise any eyebrows among any 'normal' people.

If police and military working with terrorist groups to commit war crimes is not bad enough to warrant some pause in the billions we send their police and military, we have another (again unreported) human tragedy unfolding in the Narino region, where thousands of civillians are displaced and without water - right now. The UNHCR has had to issue a plea to the Colombian Govt to get their act together.

If you want to read an interesting piece of artful bureaucratic twisting and concealing, check out the actual 53 page State Dept. report that officially certifies the Colombians as 'all clear' on the human rights front. I pity the poor folks in Foggy Bottom that had to write this up.

The report has tedious detail, listing out the 178 Admirals, Colonels and whoever else that was removed from the armed forces in 2006. But there is not a single word on the extremely serious allegations against the Chief of the Armed Forces (Gen. Montoya) that appeared on the front page of the LA Times 2 weeks ago, based on a leaked CIA report. about Not a word about the document in US posession that says that the fine General signed his name to a plan where the military would stand watch and protect while a terrorist group murdered and 'disappeared' nearly 100 slum dwelling civillians.

As for the 2,000 (99%) of Colombian labor union leaders who've been killed with impunity, don't fret - the US Government did not forget you. They certified that your Government "has taken action" to find your killers - though actual progress is another matter, as the weak language suggests.

If I need to spell it out the point again, just imagine if Colombia's President Uribe was one of those 'bad-left' Latin socialists, or that the paramilitary 'terrorists' were not right-wingers. State would not be the Department charged with coming up with bullcrap to justify terrible US policy, it would be Defence possibly getting to implement Bush's supposed Afghanistan doctrine.

PS - Sorry for the tone. I get angry when the press writes hundreds of stories about every Chavez or Castro hiccup, but next to nothing about the most serious human rights abuser in the hemisphere - a country that our Government makes excuses for and recieves billions of our taxpayer money.

Published: Tuesday April 10, 2007
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has concluded that Colombia is fulfilling US requirements on human rights and can receive 55 million dollars in military aid, her spokesman said Tuesday.

Rice certified to Congress on April 4 that Colombia's government and armed forces "are meeting statutory criteria related to human rights and severing ties to paramilitary groups," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

The release of the 55 million dollars, budgeted in fiscal year 2006, depended on Rice's ruling.
...
Colombia is Washington's top ally in South America, receiving four billion dollars in US aid since 2000 through Plan Colombia to combat drug trafficking and left-wing rebels that have battled the government for four decades.

Colombia: Military's Terrorist Links Leaked to LA Times

After ordering my gorgeous eggs and bacon stuffed arepa at the new Venezuelan cafe nearby, I was astonished to open my Sunday LA Times and see as the lead FRONT PAGE story a huge development in the Colombian human rights scandal that was already boiling at a boil.

A whistle blower in the US Government leaked a CIA report that said the ally's Armed Forces chief, Gen. Mario Montoya, worked extensively with the country's (terrorist) right-wing paramilitary groups. An operation in Medellin where dozens went killed and missing is at the center of these allegations.

Exactly 76 news organizations have picked up on this groundshaking report 18 hours after its release, compared to the more than 100 that are reporting on Hugo Chavez's Sunday radio show proncouncements. The Colombian Government has acted quicker and (sort of) responded to the allegations. The general in question did not deny the gist of the story, but said he never broke the law. He and the Colombian Govt. both (conveniently) urged the LA Times to give up the evidence. The Times and CIA have already said they publicly will not do, on national security grounds.

I wrote the Times a commendation letter for even printing the story, as the top Sunday story no less. I also urged them to not protect the Bush Administration, and cooperate subsequent US and Colombian investigations on the story. The Colombian and US people (who contribute billions to this military), deserves nothing less.

Some details are as follows:

The (CIA) intelligence report includes information (on the Medellin massacre) from another "allied Western intelligence service" and indicates that U.S. officials have received similar reports from other "reliable" sources, the Times said.

The Times said the CIA document was made available to the paper by a source who declined to identify himself except as a U.S. government employee. He said he was disclosing the information because he was unhappy that Uribe's government had not been held more to account by the Bush administration.

The CIA did not dispute the authenticity of the document, although agency officials declined to confirm it, the paper said.