http://www.liveleak.com/browse?q=Bogot%C3%A1 Sat, 18 May 2013 20:47:19 -0400 Liveleak http://edge.liveleak.com/80281E/u/u/ll2/logo.gif http://www.liveleak.com/browse?q=Bogot%C3%A1 Mon, 23 May 2011 19:07:57 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=829_1306191201 Javier Vargas Happened in Bogot'a Colombia, three armed thieves rob a Store, when a provider try use his phone to call for help is discovered for one of the thieves shooting him to death... http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=829_1306191201 Javier Vargas Grocery Store Armed Robbery Thieves, robbery, store, Bogot'a, Colombia, Kill, shoot, gun Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:33:08 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a6c_1310070458 ommadawn She's a trained lawyer and mother of four. And she's never going to make it through airport security. Unless she becomes a pilot perhaps. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a6c_1310070458 ommadawn Meet The Vampire Lady lawyer,paralegal,vampier,legal,harvard,mother,piercing,tatu,tattoo,Bogot'a, Colombia Wed, 25 May 2011 17:02:08 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6b2_1306356520 Offware1 Footage of an assault while one of the three robbers take the cash the others back him up, an employee runs away and a thief go after him, one customer try to use his cell phone and get shot when is discovered http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6b2_1306356520 Offware1 Store Robbery one customer killed Robbery, Store, Bogot'a, Colombia, Kill, shoot Fri, 27 Apr 2012 01:26:31 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=011_1335503999 HumanRightsAlert Compilation of reports regarding: . "Cocaine One" April 10, 2006 - a plane busted in a rural airport in the Yucatan, Mexico, with 5.5. tons of cocaine on board. . "Cocaine Two" September 24, 2007 - a plane crash in Yucatan, Mexico, with close to 4 tons of cocaine on board. The distinctions between Mexican cartels, US government and US banks have been blurred for a long time... Points of interest: . CIA wholesale drug trafficking, which started under Reagan's "Say no to drugs", and that according to US government lasted only from 1982-1992, is still going on full blast. . The absolute refusal of the US government to stop the "War on Drugs", regardless of objections by the United Nations and Latin American nations is more comprehensible, given the US government's stake in the business. . The fact that all sources are either non-US media, or US-based alternative media, but no "mainstream" media coverage, is of course also interesting for all those believing that there is Freedom of the Press in the United States. . The connections to Reagan and Dubya do not mean that Corruption is conservative... it is Corruption for Corruption sake. LINKS: 00-00-01 96-08-18 CIA Drug Trafficking of Crack Cocaine to Los Angeles County, By Gary Webb, San Jose Mercury News http://www.scribd.com/doc/47751292/ 00-00-01 97-12-00 US Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General, December 1997 Special Report:CIA Drug Trafficking to Los Angeles, California s http://www.scribd.com/doc/29071814/ 10-10-13 Extra Constitutional Zones - Excerpts From Discussion on the OAK Board http://www.scribd.com/doc/39302595/ ____________ CIA Torture Jet crashed with 4 Tons of COCAINE A Gulfstream II jet that crash landed in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula in late September bearing a load of nearly four tons of cocaine. This particular Gulfstream II (tail number N987SA), was used between 2003 and 2005 by the CIA for at least three trips between the U.S. east coast and Guantanamo Bay - home to the infamous "terrorist" prison camp - according to a number of press reports. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oszATUJ4IRE&feature=player_detailpage http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/december2007/131207_b_cocaine.htm "We've all heard the rumors that the CIA are the reason that the United States/Canada is awash with cocaine.... is it time to connect the dots now that one of their planes has crash landed with four tons of coke in it?".... So the Arnprior OPP posted a blurb in the Guide stating "Report drug dealers". Well shouldn't we be seeking out the kingpins in Govt. namely the CIA! The most famous example of Govt. involvement in drugs (British) was the Opium war in China in the 1800 s. So on the heels of that here's extreme example of Govt. gone awry: ____________ CIA Plane Crashes in Mexico Seventeen months after an American-registered DC9 airliner was busted with 5.5 tons of cocaine, a major international scandal is brewing over a second drug trafficking incident in Mexico's Yucatan involving an American-registered jet owned by a dummy front company of the kind usually associated with the CIA. A weekend visit to "Donna Blue Aircraft Inc" of Coconut Beach FL., the company which FAA records show owned the Gulfstream II business jet (N987SA) which crash-landed with 3.7 tons of cocaine aboard in Mexico's Yucatan two weeks ago, has revealed that the company's listed address is an empty office suite with a blank sign out front. There was no sign of Donna Blue Aircraft, Inc., at the address listed at the Florida Dept. of Corporations, 4811 Lyons Technology Parkway #8 in Coconut Beach FL. ....... However, there were, oddly enough, a half-dozen unmarked police cars parked directly in front of the empty suite. http://www.madcowprod.com/10092007.html It seems that one of the planes logged on this list of "CIA Prison Planes" has been in a little accident - It crash landed in Mexico after running out of Jet fuel en route to the US. The authorities were more than a little surprised when they found four tons, yes you heard me right, four tons of cocaine on board. The men flying the plane have disappeared - including one woman, the CIA refuses to comment, and the mainstream press don't want to touch the story http://current.com/green/88787561_cia-plane-crashes-in-mexico-a-story-with-a-twist-in-the-tale.htm _________________________ LA VOZ DE AZTLAN Los Angeles, Alta California October 3, 2007 MEXICO: Jet plane that crashed with 4 tons of cocaine tied to the CIA On September 24 a Grumman Gulfstream II jet airplane crashed near Cancun, Mexico with 4 tons of cocaine. The jet plane had been circling around the town of Tixkokob when it apparently ran out of fuel. Citizens of Tixkokob called authorities and Mexican army helicopters arrived to find the jet plane in three pieces and with 4 tons of high grade cocaine. Mexican authorities have determined that the shipment of cocaine was to be delivered to Mexican drug cartels and have now focused on who owned the jet plane. Their preliminary findings of who owned the Gulfstream II jet plane with, tail number N987SA, now threatens to open up another Iran/Contra - CIA Crack Cocaine type scandal. Apparently the same jet plane N987SA was used by the CIA to transport Muslim prisoners to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in 2003, 2004 and 2005. The CIA is known to use a number of front corporate entities to hide their operations. Also, when registering their planes, they utilize a complex series of "change of ownership" filings with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in order to make it very difficult to trace the true owner of the planes they use in their operations. The Gulfstream II jet plane with tail number N987SA was initially traced to William Achenbaum, a wealthy New York real estate tycoon. Mr. Achenbaum says that the jet plane was being managed by Air Rutter International that according to the New York Post is owned by Arik Kislin of Long Island in New York (See New York Post 'CRASH JET HAD AIR OF MYSTERY' ). Kislin and Achenbaum are principals of the Hotel Gansevoort in New York. (See New York Post 'SHADY 'INN' CROWD' ) Arik Kislin is the nephew of Semyon Kislin that the Center for Public Integrity alleges is a powerful Russian Mafia member. (See http://publicintegrity.org/report.aspx?aid=323 ) The Kislin family have made very large contributions to the political campaigns of Rudy Giuliani. William Achenbaum says that he sold the plane in August to a Florida company called Donna Blue Aircraft run by Brazilians Joao Luiz Malago and Eduardo Dias Guimaraes. The two Brazilians in turn say that they sold the jet plane on September 16 to Clyde O'Connor and Greg Smith of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The Federal Aviation Administration however is saying that it was never informed of the sales and that they never issued any certificates. (Update: The FAA has now posted a temporary registration certificate to Donna Blue Aircraft dated 08/31/2007 that was to expire on 09/30/2007 but still no certificate for Clyde O'Connor or Greg Smith ) Two days after the alleged purchase, the Gulfstream II left Fort Lauderdale to Cancun, Mexico and then to R'io Negro, Colombia. The jet plane loaded with the 4 tons of cocaine than left to Cancun where it crashed on September 24. The Gulfstream II jet plane (tail number N987SA) travels to and from Guantanamo, Cuba: 30.05.03 from Oxford, CT (USA) to Guantanamo 30.05.03 from Guantanamo to Washington 12.04.04 from Washington to Guantanamo 20.01.05 from Washington to Guantanamo 20.01.05 from Guantanamo to Washington http://www.aztlan.net/cia_russian_mafia.htm ________________________ DAILYKOS WED DEC 12, 2007 AT 04:21 PM PST CIA Torture Jet wrecks with 4 Tons of COCAINE This Florida based Gulfstream II jet aircraft # N987SA crash landed on September 24, 2007 after it ran out of fuel over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula it had a cargo of several tons of Cocaine on board now documents have turned up on both sides of the Atlantic that link this Cocaine Smuggling Gulfstream II jet aircraft # N987SA that crashed in Mexico to the CIA who used it on at least 3 rendition flights from Europe and the USA to Guantanamo's infamous torture chambers between 2003 to 2005. Avi'on usado por la CIA y la DEA traficaba drogas (Airplane used by the CIA and the DEA dealt drugs) BOGOTA G.GUILLEN / El Nuevo Herald Un jet ejecutivo que el gobierno de Estados Unidos us'o durante a~no para extraditar delincuentes desde Colombia y talibanes desde Europa a la base de Guant'anamo, Cuba, es el mismo que have dos meses se precipit'o a tierra en una selv'atica zona de la pen'insula de Yucat'an, M'exico, con un cargamento de 3.3 toneladas de coca'ina que, al parecer, fueron cargadas en Medell'in, en donde hizo el 'ultimo despegue. El avi'on, un Gluf Stream II, de matr'icula norteamericana N987SA, era c'elebre en Colombia porque durante a~nos en 'el fueron embarcados en Bogot'a centenares de delincuentes para ser puestos en poder de la justicia estadounidense. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/12/19210/608/933/420107 _______________ Bush Fundraiser Linked to CIA Drug Plane WORLD EXCLUSIVE Oct 29, 2007 by Daniel Hopsicker A MadCowMorningNews investigation has uncovered links between the ownership of the drug-running Gulfstream (Cocaine Two) and the other American-registered plane busted carrying a multi-ton load of cocaine in Mexico recently, the DC9 (Cocaine One) airliner caught with 5.5 tons of cocaine in Mexico 18 months ago. Recently-released FAA records from the Gulfstream II business jet that went down in Mexico a month ago with four tons of cocaine reveal that before it was "parked" in the name of a New York real estate developer with ties to the Russian Mob, the plane was owned by a secretive Midwestern media baron and Republican fund-raiser, who had a business partner who, incredibly, owned the other American drug plane, the DC9, recently busted in Mexico. Stephen Adams was in business with Miami attorney Michael Farkas, who founded SkyWay Aircraft, which owned the DC9 busted in Mexico 18 months ago with 5.5 tons of cocaine aboard. Moreover at the same time the Bush Ranger extraordinaire Stephen Adams owned the Gulfstream (N987SA) in 1999 and 2000, he was personally buying over $1 million of billboard ads for George W. Bush for his 2000 Presidential election bid. Meet the New Boss (Same as the old boss.) According to SEC filings, Stephen Adams and Michael Farkas jointly controlled Holiday RV Superstores, Inc., which was used by arms merchant and CIA-fixer Adnan Khashoggi in a complicated securities fraud which stole as much as $300 million from investors and taxpayers. Khashoggi, under indictment for felony fraud in the case and currently a fugitive from justice, is himself involved in the DC9 scandal through his lieutenant Ramy El-Batrawi, also a Farkas business partner, and the former owner of one of the two twin DC9's used for god only knows what. The links between recent owners of the two drug planes, discovered during an examination of FAA registration records, suggest a continuing criminal conspiracy to engage in massive drug trafficking, involving Republican fund-raisers Adams and Senator Mel Martinez, Saudi arms dealer Khashoggi, prominent oligarchs in the Russian Mob, dirty San Diego defense contractor Titan Corp., as well as elements of American military and civilian intelligence. The politically-explosive implications of the scandal may explain why American officials have been reluctant to move against, or even name, the true owners of the planes and basically "turned a blind eye" to the American involvement exposed by the drug trafficking seizures. "Like hiding the salami, only easier" Our interest in the FAA records of the Gulfstream had been quickened by the suspicion that the plane's several recent ownership changes had been nothing more than sham transactions, a sophisticated game of "hide the pea" designed to conceal the aircraft's true owners. The registration had rapidly passed through the hands of two Brazilians operating a dummy front company called Donna Blue Aircraft ( or, for aficionado's of the 'boys' seemingly endless cleverness in naming front companies, d/b/a for short ). The Brazilians then supposedly "flipped" the plane, just two weeks before it crashed, to Greg Smith and Clyde O'Connor, the pair of hapless pilots, based at the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, being fitted for "I'm The Patsy!" t-shirts. Neither of the two pilots, we had soon learned, has the financial wherewithal to have paid the $2 million in cash claimed by the Brazilian men. But apparently they didn't need it. Their bill of sale states they bought the Gulfstream for the princely sum of $100. The usual statement, the one we've seen in virtually every other FAA bill of sale, states $100, OVA, meaning Or Other Valuable Consideration. Not this one, though. Either the boys got the real plane cheap, or no one thought they'd ever be filing the paperwork. Either way, the New York Post was writing when it reported that the crashed jet had an "air of mystery." Who owned the plane? Its "complicated." Smith later claimed to an aviation executive at the airport that notorious convicted drug smuggler Don Whittington, for whom both did work as contract pilots, had engineered the transaction. And neither of the federal agencies with apparent jurisdiction-the DEA and FAA-has so far offered any answers about how the American-registered red-white-and-blue Gulfstream business jet, whose recent owners are politically very well-connected, could have wound up carrying so much Colombian coke. Would a $500 million bank heist receive a similar cold shoulder? And like the story of the American-registered DC9 caught in Mexico carrying 5.5 tons of pure cocaine, the recent Gulfstream crash with 4 tons was almost completely ignored in the American mainstream media. And the few media sources who did report the big Mexican bust ended up scratching their heads and using words like "complex" and increasingly complicated" to describe the "thorny" issue of who owned the plane. "The complex sale of the Gulfstream II jet and its end in the Mexican jungle highlight the increasingly complicated illicit drug trade," read the McClatchy Newspapers' account on September 29, 2007. On the other hand, the two McClatchy reporters virtually glow with a passionate certainty about whose cocaine had been on the plane. It belonged to Mexico's most notorious drug trafficker, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Guzman, a man with a $5 million bounty on his head in Mexico, is presumably sitting in for Pedro Escobar, who is too dead to be blamed with any believability. "Where have you gone, Pablo Escobar?" But all accounts agree that the plane's journey began in Rio Negro, Colombia, which is the international airport for Colombia's famous city of Medellin. Medellin today is controlled by Colombia's current President Alvaro Uribe, long suspected of "involvement" in the drug trade in the same way that New England Patriot's quarterback Tom Brady is suspected of "involvement" in the NFL. And speaking of Escobar, a recently declassified 1991 American intelligence report by the Defense Intelligence Agency on Colombia's biggest drug traffickers says that President Alvaro Uribe, today a staunch ally in Washington's war against drug trafficking, was at that time a close associate of Escobar, Colombia's most powerful drug lord, as well as an ally of other cocaine traffickers then engulfing his country. Making the list with Escobar and Uribe were familiar names like former Panamanian president Manuel Noriega, currently jailed in Miami on drug-trafficking charges, and... Saudi arms merchant Adnan Khashoggi. Thus it should come as no surprise that more cynical observers view with suspicion the fact that the ownership of the American-registered plane has apparently become a bit of a sticky wicket. Yet another mystery for the ages. And it will likely remain one, unless the scandal grows to the point where the public demands answers, or some unexpected event occurs, like the Mafia's Appalachin Conference in upstate New York in 1956, where a conclave of Mob bosses was underway when it was discovered and penetrated-not by the FBI's J Edgar Hoover, who denied the Mafia even existed-but by an alert New York State Trooper. American academics like Dr. Alfred McCoy have led the way in pointing out the hypocritical attitude nurtured by U.S. officials. Peter Moskos, for example, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and a former police officer, says it is hard to fathom how perhaps billions of dollars could be handled by the drug cartels without high-level players on U.S. soil. "There has to be someone on this side making the big bucks off it - it is not the low-level drug dealer on the corner," Moskos said. Still, no one has had the temerity to point towards the power circles around current President George W Bush as a likely place to look for an American Tony Montana, the Miami drug baron portrayed by Al Pacino in the classic movie Scarface. But help may be coming from an unlikely source. Repeat after me: "There is no American Mr. Big. " The bemusement of leaders and newspapers in Latin America about the hypocrisy foisted on Americans by their feckless press has taken on an increasingly sharp tone. When the U.S. government talks about cocaine cartels operating in Mexico or Colombia, officials tick off the names of the foreign drug lords, their preferred smuggling routes, and sometimes even the tattoos they sport. But when it comes to what is going on in the United States - the world's biggest consumer of illegal drugs - U.S. federal agents and police deny that an American Mr. Big even exists. "Where is the Pablo Escobar of Texas," Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos, who was once kidnapped by Escobar, said on a recent visit to Houston. "I would love to know." Former Mexican President Vicente Fox shared Santos' concern. "That is the question I always ask myself," Fox said recently during a speaking tour of the U.S. "Who permits the drugs to cross the border, and who transports the drugs to the markets of this great nation?" We don't know either, but we have our suspicions. The recently-busted drug running Gulfstream has been linked to CIA renditions. The DC9 flew painted with a bogus but official-looking Seal, as if it were from the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security, without protest from the Coast Guard's major air facility in the Caribbean Basin, which was located just a few hundred yards away. Thus both planes had a drug trafficking edge: the Gulfstream from being known to have flown CIA renditions and the DC9 from being painted to impersonate a plane from U.S. Homeland Security. From our earlier series on the seized DC9: "The DC9 airliner dubbed "Cocaine One" actually "belongs" to an older and much larger organization than SkyWay, composed of individuals whose association with one another pre-date both SkyWay's 2002 inception and 2005 demise." Alas, the revelation is not new, as shown by a newspaper quote from 1989 about the Iran Contra Scandal... "It was reported in Senate hearings in 1988 that many pilots used by U.S. government officials to transport arms to the contras were also known drug smugglers. Drug pilots George Morales and Gary Betzner testified to landing planeloads of arms for the contras in Costa Rica and then returning to the United States with planeloads of drugs. "Both of these men also testified to landing at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport in Florida and at Ilopango Air Base in El Salvador with U.S. protection - even during the period that they were also smuggling drugs." Nothing new under the sun... It is apparent that the 'boys" are still using the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. And perhaps, instead of using weapons flights to provide protection, they may now be using the transfer of prisoners to the American naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba to cover their trips to Colombia. Ignition. Rendition. Perdition. Ever wonder where all the money goes? Other than the odd million here or there, that is, for billboards for George W. Bush. SOURCE: http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message456708/pg1?regp=bm9fMTMzNTQ5Nzg5MQ== _______________ Teknosis, KNOWLEDGE AS-A-WHOLE 'COCAINE ONE' DC9 OWNER STILL A MYSTERY / POSSIBLE CIA CONNECTION Hear interview with Daniel Hopsicker: http://mp3.rbnlive.com/Greg/0606/20060601_Thu_Greg2.mp3 Re:,. 'COCAINE ONE' DC9 OWNER STILL A MYSTERY Problems Emerge with "Former" Owner's Story ' WORLD EXCLUSIVE June 5 2006--Venice,FL. by Daniel Hopsicker Eight weeks after Mexican soldiers at a rural airport in the Yucatan discovered 5.5 tons of cocaine onboard an American-registered DC9 painted to resemble aircraft from the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security, Mexican and U.S. law enforcement officials seem no closer to publicly identifying either the owner of the plane, or the tons of cocaine. Some suggest they may not be trying very hard. If true, this is yet another indication that suspicions of CIA involvement in the drug flight are on target. In fact, in the strange brew of companies through whose hands the twin DC9's have passed, we will soon see even more unmistakable signs of companies known to be CIA fronts and people considered to be Bush Family retainers. Even so, our suggestion that CIA involvement in an imbroglio over 5.5 tons of cocaine led to Porter Goss' surprise resignation as CIA Director just a few weeks later provoked someone to chastise us for not offering proof. CIA involvement is the proof that Porter Goss, had been placed in an embarrassing and ultimately untenable position, and that he was sacked for committing what is regarded as the cardinal sin... Goss, a spook extraordinaire since the Bay of Pigs fiasco, was (finally) caught holding. "Starting at power forward for your American Drug Lords..." Especially before the scandal potentially grows out of hand, this seems grounds for dismissal, even among the jaded keepers of well-tended Cayman Island accounts. Losing 5.5 tons of cocaine on an airliner traceable to your Government Agency certainly does not appear to have been, for Mr. Goss, an especially good career move. And there's potentially much worse to come... A probe into the tangled skein of companies and individuals in what has clearly been a continuing operation lasting at least a decade has revealed glimpses of what until now has been the most elusive species on Earth: The American Drug Lords. How is it possible that the owner of a DC9 airliner caught with 5 tons of cocaine can remain hidden for two months? The untimely bust came at a certain low ebb for the owner/operators of "Cocaine One." This favorable conjunction of the stars is about to allow a privileged glimpse into corruption so vast it can only be what Prof Peter Dale Scott called the "deep politics" of what sociologists refer to as "state-sponsored crime." Pull up a chair. Going way way wrong at the worst possible time "The Feds have never wanted to clean up the sloppy way airplanes are registered," one aircraft broker told us. "Registering a plane with the FAA is just a joke. They don't even make you use a tax I.D. number or social security number to register a plane. You don't even have to have your signature notarized." "The result is that nobody can ever tell with any certainty what the hell is going on. Apparently that's the way they like it." Since April 11, the day things went way wrong in a small town in the Mexican state of Campeche, the mystery of the plane's ownership has only deepened. Recently the last registered American owner of the DC9, Frederic Geffon of Royal Sons Inc insisted he bore no responsibility at all for the plane's recent misadventures. In a May 5, 2006 interview with the Tampa Tribune following up a story they'd run the previous day, Geffon said he sold the plane 10 days before it was seized by Mexican authorities, to a man named Jorge Corrales, who he identified as a Simi Valley, Calif., aircraft broker. But the MadCowMorningNews has learned that there is a problem with Geffon's explanation: The California "aircraft broker" who Geffon says bought the aircraft(N900SA)-for resale to a client identified only as a "Venezuelan company"-does not appear to be in the business of buying and selling planes. Tangled Web City, Next Exit A LEXIS-NEXIS newspaper database search yielded no mention of Corrales and Associates. A Google search failed to find an aircraft broker named George or Jorge Corrales, or a Corrales and Associates. A visit to the three major online venues used to sell airplanes confirmed the assertion... We could find no evidence indicating that Jorge "George" Corrales is an aircraft broker A search for broker/dealers selling McDonnell Douglas DC9's in California at The Controller, for example, reveals just three DC9's for sale, from just two dealers. An aircraft dealer at the Venice Airport told us, "There is a very small group of people involved in the market for jet airliners world-wide. If you had a party and invited every DC9 buyer in the world you could easily fit them all inside my hanger." OK Aviation is the listing broker for two of the three DC9's currently for sale in California. So we called OK Aviation's owner, Jack Kendall. He knew the other DC9 dealers in the state, he told us. No, he'd never heard of George Corrales or Corrales & Associates. Maybe the paperwork is still in the mail A search for aircraft brokers and dealers in California at Trade-A-Plane reveals no listing for Corrales & Associates. And it's a free listing. A check of ASO's list of Southern California aircraft brokers and dealers turned up a Titan Aviation in San Diego, we were interested to learn, as well as an Air America Inc. But no Corrales and Associates. Frederic Geffon told the Tampa Tribune he sold "Cocaine One" to an aircraft brokerage which apparently doesn't even exist. The Tampa Tribune story quoted FAA spokesman Roland Herwig stating that the FAA received a copy of a letter from Royal Sons, dated April 7, asking that the plane be exported to Venezuela and that the FAA officially took Royal Sons' name off the books three days after the cocaine bust. "We don't get involved with the sale of aircraft, only their registration or deregistration," Herwig told the Tribune. Geffon himself, while insisting that the plane with 5.5 tons of coke wasn't his, was otherwise suspiciously close-mouthed. Who you gonna believe...Me? Or your lying eyes? Apparently Geffon knows all the words to the hit song "It Wasn't Me." But not much else... "Geffon provided the Tampa Tribune with a copy of what he says is a bill of sale he turned over to his title company," the paper reported. "It had no information about the purchaser." Corrales "did not want me to know" who bought the aircraft "and I didn't care anyway," Geffon said. Corrales contradicted this statement. He said that he did not know why Geffon claims not to know who purchased the DC-9. He said Geffon absolutely knew who had purchased the aircraft. When people lie, its almost always for a reason... "It was a Venezuelan company," Corrales told the Tampa Tribune. "Royal Sons got a crew that flew the aircraft" to Venezuela, and obtained the permits needed to fly the plane out of the country. Geffon denied it. He said he only "hired someone to find a flight crew to take it down there." Frederic Geffon was having no trouble resisting the urge to fall all over himself clearing up any misunderstandings... 'Men in Europe' may be difficult to assemble all at once "Geffon would not identify that individual, saying only that the man is in Europe and unavailable for comment," the paper reported. "Corrales, who owns Corrales and Associates, disagrees." Although the paper didn't say so, it was a classic Mexican stand-off. And, as the Tampa Tribune's Howard Altman noted wryly, the Federal Aviation Administration was not about to untangle the knot. Still, compared with the little information which has managed to trickle out about the case, Altman's story contains a major scoop: "A man in Europe unavailable for comment" has the answers to who owned the massive cocaine haul. All we need do to find the owner of "Cocaine One" is take all the males on the European Continent, subtracting those who are available for comment, to give us the subset of "Men in Europe" in whose ranks today can almost certainly be found the man who knows who was using a DC9 tricked out to resemble a U.S. Government plane to smuggle tons of cocaine. That was simple. All we need now is a stadium big enough to sort them all out. I have no comment on my no comment More bad news for the now rapidly-emerging official story: There is no Corrales & Associates in California. The 'supposed' aircraft broker who bought the DC9 in the nick of time from people in St Petersburg FL has been "suspended" from operation for several years by the California Division of Corporations. Thus, Corrales & Associates cannot legally do business in the state of California. However, there is a Jorge Corrales, or rather a George Corrales, listed in the Simi Valley phone books. We phoned to ask if he had any proof that he buys and sells airplanes for a living. "Mr. Corrales, we've been unable to find any evidence that you are in the business of buying and selling airplanes," we began. "Can you point to anything to prove you are?" "I have no comment at this time," he told us tersely. Why is that? Who did you sell the DC9 to in Venezuela? "I can't comment on that." "Aren't you leaving yourself open to charges that you yourself may be involved in drug trafficking? If you get arrested for running 5 tons of cocaine...will you have a comment then?" There was a loud click. The line went dead. We thought: How very rude. A murky mystery; A "great deal of concern" Hovering at all times at the edge of the 5.5 ton cocaine scandal is the company responsible for painting twin DC9's in what clearly appears to have been a deliberate deception: SkyWay Aircraft. Next we will learn about the founder of what became SkyWay Aircraft, Miami attorney Michael Farkas. But we can't resist teasing the story a little bit now. Farkas, as you might well imagine, isn't just anyone... For example, he currently owns a North Miami company which wants to market Israeli antimissile defense systems to U.S. aircraft manufacturers, after obtaining rights to a system developed by a subsidiary of Israel Aircraft Industries, Israel's biggest defense contractor. But before engaging in the popular sport of blaming the Jews it might be useful to recall that we've already seen Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi's involvement. Oddly enough, fifteen of SkyWay Aircraft's biggest investors are from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. One of them even appears to be the head of the Kuwaiti National Guard. While presiding over SkyWay's bankruptcy, Federal Judge Paul M. Glenn said, "I have a great deal of concern about this case. There is a great deal we don't know." Two years ago, Judge Glenn called this case "murky." Since then, very little appears to have changed. NEXT (FINALLY): An ultra-nationalist Israeli party & the head of the Kuwaiti National Guard REF: http://madcowprod.com/ SOURCE: http://tekgnosis.typepad.com/tekgnosis/2006/06/cocaine_one_dc9.html _____________ & 5.5 tons of cocaine WORLD EXCLUSIVE April 24 2007 CIA and Narco-Republicans by Daniel Hopsicker,911 truthie The first anniversary of the April 10 2006 seizure in Mexico's Yucatan of a American-registered DC9 caught carrying 5.5 tons of cocaine passed virtually unnoticed last week. It shouldn't have... Porter Goss resigned less than a month later, the same day the FBI executed a search warrant at the house of the No. 3 official in the Central Intelligence Agency, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, soon to go on trial for corruption with accomplice Brent Wilkes. Not since the downing of a C-130 military cargo plane over Nicaragua in 1986 with Eugene Hasenfus onboard-kicking off the Iran Contra Scandal-has an aviation incident been remotely as important or as fraught with significance. And not since the massive cocaine smuggling through Mena, Arkansas has the CIA's hand been so flagrantly caught in the cookie jar. Shocking details come as no surprise In a series of stories beginning today, and continuing over the next ten days, the MadCowMorningNews will report the results of a year-long investigation into the secret history of this operation. Some of the highlights include: . SkyWay Aircraft of St Petersburg, FL., the company which owned the DC9 airliner stuffed to the top of the overhead bins with cocaine, was a CIA front. . SkyWay's genesis can be traced to In-Q-Tel Inc., a secretive, Arlington, Va., investment group owned, operated, and financed out of the black box budget of the Central Intelligence Agency. SkyWay was part of a network of companies, three of which-L-3 Communications, Net Command Tech Inc, and Triton Network Systems Inc.- were cited by Elliot Spitzer, then the Attorney General of New York State, for being used by Wall Street brokers in "pump and dump" schemes which cost unwary investors tens of millions of dollars. . The suspicious involvement of L-3 Communications subsidiary Titan Corp of San Diego, the biggest donor to Southern California Congressmen convicted or being investigated by fired San Diego U.S. Attorney Carol Lam. . The Israeli connection to SkyWay, including the involvement of an Israeli tele-com firm, Tadiran, accused of being involved in worldwide espionage, and which owned the headquarters of SkyWay in Clearwater, Florida. . The involvement of Gulf Arab financiers, including an overseas bank, Banque Francaise de l'Orient, long associated with the Saudi bin Laden family. . Evidence of Republican party involvement in the network, which included the free use of one of the smuggling aircraft by the current head of fund-raising for the national Republican party, U.S. Senator Mel Martinez, who "traveled to nighttime rallies in luxury," the St. Petersburg Times reported, "on a DC-9 owned by Skyway Global, a Clearwater security company whose owners are Martinez supporters." Still more shocking details Over the next ten days, we'll present evidence for each of these heady claims, and attempt to find the answer to what is still a major mystery: Why haven't U.S. authorities arrested the owners of an American-registered plane busted with 5.5 tons of cocaine? The story began here: The drug trafficking operation was flying an airliner carrying 128 suitcases...but no passengers. There was no attempt to camouflage their activity. Mexican soldiers unloaded the American-registered DC9, whose cargo consisted of 128 identical black suitcases stuffed with cocaine, onto the hot asphalt runway in Cuidad del Carmen, an out of the way airport nestled in the middle of the Yucatan jungle. In what may have been someone's idea of a joke, each suitcase bore a stamp on its side, with the single word"Privado." The DC9 sported a distinctive Seal on its fuselage: blue-and-white with gold trim surrounding an eagle clutching twin olive branches, making it virtually indistinguishable from official U.S. Government planes belonging to the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security. Even veteran plane-spotters were fooled. Walking on water in Tampa This was perhaps not much of a stretch: SkyWay's Chairman, Glenn Kovar, boasted of long-standing ties to the CIA. And today he and his son are operating another front company called "Homeland Security Tracking Enforcement." Although owned by SkyWay, the airliner was registered toRoyal Sons Inc., a company controlled by an aircraft broker from Tampa, FL. named Frederic Geffon. Geffon partnered with SkyWay in the company's three planes, two DC9's and a Cessna, then illegally appropriated them when SkyWay went bankrupt in 2005, to the annoyance of SkyWay's Federal Bankruptcy Trustee, who filed suit to get the planes returned. "Geffon was under court order to not let the planes leave the St Petersburg-Clearwater Airport," stated a source close to the Bankruptcy proceedings. "The Airport Tower had even been ordered not to let the plane take off." "Geffon was in direct violation of the court order when that DC9 took off for Venezuela," the source stated last week. Yet Frederic Geffon has suffered no legal sanction at all, either for violating the court order, or for owning a plane busted with a plane filled with a box-car's worth of cocaine, evidence that, legally speaking, Frederic Geffonwalks on water. More- http://www. madcowprod. com/04242007.html http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=011_1335503999 HumanRightsAlert "Cocaine One" and "Cocaine Two" - ongoing CIA wholesale drug trafficking... CIA, Drug Trafficking Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:07:55 -0500 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=25c_1325092751 vjiced ( Biography + Documentary ) Jacobo 'Arbenz Guzman (September 14, 1913 - January 27, 1971) was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as Defense Minister of Guatemala from 1944-1951, and as President of Guatemala from 1951 to 1954. He was ousted in a coup d''etat engineered by the United States government and CIA , and was replaced by a military junta, headed by Colonel Carlos Castillo. He went into exile after the coup and died in Mexico in 1971. Born in 1913 Quetzaltenango, he was the son of a Swiss German pharmacist who immigrated to Guatemala in 1901. His family was relatively wealthy and upper-class; his childhood has been described as "comfortable". 'Arbenz excelled in the academy, and was deemed "an exceptional student". He became " first sergeant" , the highest honor bestowed upon cadets, that only 6 people received from 1924 to 1944. His abilities earned him an unusual level of respect amongst the officers at the school, including Major John Considine, the U.S. director of the school , and of other U.S. officers who served at the school. 'Arbenz graduated in 1935. he dictators that ruled Guatemala during the late 19th and early 20th century were generally very accommodating to U.S. business and political interests . So unlike other Latin American nations, such as Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba, the U.S. did not have to use overt military force to maintain dominance in Guatemala, and the Guatemalan military/police worked closely with the U.S. military and State Department to secure U.S. interests. The Guatemalan government exempted several U.S. corporations from paying taxes, privatized and sold off publicly owned utilities, and gave away huge swaths of public land. Guatemalan dictator , General Jorge Ubico In 1930, the dictator General Jorge Ubico came to power, backed by the United States , and initiated one of the most brutally repressive governments in Central American history. He created a widespread network of spies and informants, and had large numbers of political opponents tortured and put to death. A wealthy aristocrat (with an estimated income of $215,000 per year, in 1930s dollars) and a staunch anti-communist, he consistently sided with landowners and urban elites in disputes with peasants. He implemented a system of debt slavery and forced labor, and passed laws allowing landowners to execute workers as a "disciplinary" measure. He also openly identified as a fascist; he admired Mussolini, Franco, and Hitler, saying at one point: "I am like Hitler. I execute first and ask questions later." Ubico was disdainful of the indigenous population, calling them "animal-like", and stated that to become "civilized" they needed mandatory military training, comparing it to "domesticating donkeys". He gave away hundreds of thousands of hectares to the United Fruit Company (UFCO) and exempted them from taxes, and allowed the U.S. military to establish bases in Guatemala. U bico's repressive policies and arrogant demeanor eventually led to a widespread popular insurrection, led by middle-class intellectuals, professionals, and junior army officers. On July 1, 1944 Ubico resigned from office amidst a general strike and nationwide protests. Initially, he had planned to hand over power to the former director of police, General Roderico Anzueto , who he felt he could control. But his advisors noted that Anzueto's pro-Nazi sympathie s had made him very unpopular , and that he would not be able to control the military. So Ubico instead chose to select a triumvariate of Major General Bueneventura Pi~neda, Major General Eduardo Villagr'an Ariza, and General Federico Ponce Vaides. The three generals promised to convene the national assembly to hold an election for a provisional president , but when the congress met on July 3, soldiers held everyone at gunpoint and forced them to vote for General Ponce , rather than the popular civilian candidate Dr. Ram'on Calder'on . Ponce, who had previously retired from military service due to alcoholism, took orders from Ubico and kept many of the officials who had worked in the Ubico administration. Opposition groups began organizing again, this time joined by many prominent political and military leaders, who deemed the Ponce regime unconstitutiona l. Among the military officers in the opposition were Jacobo 'Arbenz and Major Franciso Javier Ara~na . Ubico had fired 'Arbenz from his teaching post at the Escuela Polit'ecnica , and since then 'Arbenz had been in El Salvador, organizing a band of revolutionary exiles. On October 19, 1944 a small group of soldiers and students, led by 'Arbenz and Arana, attacked the National Palace , in what later became known as the "October Revolution". Ponce was defeated and driven into exile, and 'Arbenz, Arana, and a lawyer name Jorge Toriello established a junta and declared that they would hold democratic elections before the end of the year. The winner of the 1944 elections was a philosophy professor named Juan Jos'e Ar'evalo. Ar'evalo ran under a coalition of leftist parties known as the Partido Acci'on Revolucionaria ("Revolutionary Action Party", PAR), and w on 85% of the vote in elections that are widely considered to have been fair and open. Ar'evalo implemented social reforms such as minimum wage laws, increased educational funding, near-universal suffrage (excluding illiterate women), and labor reforms; but many of these changes only benefited the upper-middle classes and did little for the peasant agricultural laborers that made up the majority of the population. Although his reforms were relatively moderate, he was widely disliked by the United States government, Catholic Church, large landowners and employers (such as United Fruit Company) , and Guatemalan military officers, who viewed his government as inefficient, corrupt, and heavily influenced by Communists At least 25 coup attempts took place during his presidency, mostly led by wealthy conservative military officers. During the 1944 revolution, Arana had demanded that he be appointed as the Chief of Staff , in exchange for loyalty to the Ar'evalo government. However, Ar'evalo did not trust Arana, and installed 'Arbenz as the minister of defense, to act as a check on Arana. Over time, tensions rose between Arana and Ar'evalo, peaking when Arana was mysteriously killed in a Guatemala City gun battle on July 18, 1949, ultimately leading to a failed revolt that was put down by troops led by 'Arbenz. Election and inauguration Before his death, Arana had planned to run in the upcoming 1950 presidential elections. His death left 'Arbenz without any serious contenders in the elections (leading some, including the CIA and U.S. military intelligence, to speculate that 'Arbenz personally had him eliminated for this reason). 'Arbenz got more than 3 times as many votes as the runner-up , Miguel Yd'igoras Fuentes. Fuentes also claimed that electoral fraud was committed which favored 'Arbenz, however scholars have pointed out that while fraud may possibly have caused 'Arbenz to gain more votes, it was not the reason that he won the elections. The election of 'Arbenz alarmed U.S. State Department officials, who stated that Arana "has always represented only positive conservative element in Ar'evalo administration", that his death would "strengthen Leftist materially", and that "developments forecast sharp leftist trend within government." In his inaugural address, 'Arbenz promised to convert Guatemala from "a backward country with a predominantly feudal economy into a modern capitalist state". He declared that he intended to reduce dependency on foreign markets, and to dampen the influence of foreign corporations over Guatemalan politics. 29] He also stated that he would modernize Guatemala's infrastructure, and that he would do so without the aid of foreign capital. Land reform By 1950, a handful of U.S. corporations controlled Guatemala's primary electrical utilities, the nation's only railroad, and the banana industry , which was Guatemala's chief agricultural export industry. By the mid-1940s, Guatemalan banana plantations accounted for more than one quarter of all of United Fruit Company's production in Latin America. Land reform was the centerpiece of Arbenz' election campaign. The revolutionary organizations that had helped put 'Arbenz in power put constant pressure on him live up to his campaign promises regarding land reform. 'Arbenz continued Ar'evalo's reform agenda and, in June 1952, his government enacted an agrarian reform program. Arbenz set land reform as his central goal as only 2 % of the population owned 70 % of the land. IMPORTANT MUST READ On June 17, 1952 'Arbenz' administration enacted an agrarian reform law known as (Decree 900). The law empowered the government to create a network of agrarian councils which would be in charge of expropriating uncultivated land on estates that were larger than 672 acres (2.7 km2). The land was then allocated to individual families. Owners of expropriated land were compensated according to the worth of the land claimed in May 1952 tax assessments (which they had often dramatically understated to avoid paying taxes). Land was paid for in twenty-five year bonds with a 3 percent interest rate. Arbenz himself, a landowner through his wife, gave up 1,700 acres (7 km2) of his own land in the land reform program. Coup Instability, combined with 'Arbenz's relative tolerance of Guatemalan Party of Labour (PGT) and other leftists influences, prompted the CIA to draw up a contingency plan entitled Operation PBFORTUNE in 1951. It outlined a method of ousting 'Arbenz if he were deemed a Communist threat in the hemisphere. The United Fruit Company - now renamed Chiquita - a U.S.-based corporation , was also threatened by 'Arbenz's land reform initiative. United Fruit was Guatemala's largest landowner , with 85% of its holdings uncultivated, vulnerable to 'Arbenz's reform plans. In calculating its tax obligations, United Fruit had consistently (and drastically) undervalued the worth of its holdings . In its 1952 taxes, it claimed its land was only worth $3 per acre . When, in accordance with United Fruit's tax claims, the 'Arbenz government offered to compensate the company at the $3 rate BUT the company claimed the land's true value was $75/acre but refused to explain the precipitous jump in its own determination of the land's value. In 1952, the Guatemalan Party of Labour was legalized; Communists subsequently gained considerable minority influence over important peasant organizations and labor unions, but not over the governing political party and won only four seats in the 58-seat governing body. The CIA, having drafted Operation PBFORTUNE , was already concerned about 'Arbenz's potential Communist ties . United Fruit had been lobbying the CIA to oust reform governments in Guatemala since Ar'evalo's time but it wasn't until the Eisenhower administration that it found an ear in the White House. In 1954, the Eisenhower administration was still flush with victory from its covert operation to topple the Mossadegh government in Iran the year before. On February 19, 1954, the CIA began Operation WASHTUB, a plan to plant a phony Soviet arms cache in Nicaragua to demonstrate Guatemalan ties to Moscow. As it happened, WASHTUB was unnecessary. In May 1954, Czechoslovak weaponry arrived in secret into Guatemala aboard the Swedish ship Alfhem . The ship's manifests had been falsified as to the nature of its cargo. The U.S. took this as final proof of 'Arbenz's Soviet links. The Czechoslovaks supplied, for cash down, obsolete and barely functional German WWII weaponry. "The direct contacts between the Soviet Union and the 'Arbenz Government consisted of one Soviet diplomat working out an exchange of bananas for agricultural machinery, which fell through because neither side had refrigerated ships. The only other evidence of contact the CIA found after the operation were two bills to the Guatemalan Communist Party from a Moscow bookstore, totalling $22.95." The 'Arbenz government was convinced a U.S.-sponsored invasion was imminent: it had previously released detailed accounts of the CIA's Operation PBFORTUNE (called the White Papers) and perceived US actions at the OAS convention in Caracas that year as a lead-up to intervention. The administration ordered the CIA to sponsor a coup d''etat, code-named Operation PBSUCCESS that toppled the government. 'Arbenz resigned on June 27, 1954 and was forced to flee, seeking refuge in the Mexican Embassy. After the coup, Frank Wisner organised an operation called PBHistory to secure 'Arbenz Government documents. PBHistory aimed to prove Soviet control of Guatemala and, in so doing, hopefully provide actionable intelligence with regard to other Soviet connections and personnel in Latin America. Wisner sent two teams who, with the help of the Army and Castillo Armas's junta, gathered 150,000 documents . Ronald M. Schneider, an extra-Agency researcher who later examined the PBHistory documents, found no traces of Soviet control and substantial evidence that Guatemalan Communists acted alone, without support or guidance from outside the country. Later life He initially stayed in Mexico, and then he and his family moved to Switzerland. The Swiss government would not allow him to stay unless he gave up his Guatemalan citizenship. Refusing to do so, 'Arbenz moved to Paris, and then to Prague. Czechoslovak officials were uncomfortable with his stay, unsure if he would demand the government to repay him for the poor quality of former arms from the Second World War that they had sold him in 1954. After only three months, he moved again, this time to Moscow. He tried several times to return to Latin America, and was finally allowed to move to Uruguay in 1957. citation needed ] In 1960, after the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro asked 'Arbenz to come to Cuba, to which Arbenz readily agreed. In 1965, his eldest and favorite daughter, a fashion model named Arabella, committed suicide, shooting herself in front of her boyfriend, the Matador Jaime Bravo, in Bogot'a, Colombia. 'Arbenz was devastated by her death. He was allowed to return to Mexico to bury his daughter and, eventually, was allowed to stay. On January 27, 1971, 'Arbenz died in his bathroom, either from drowning or scalding . ( Source : wikipedia and youtube ) http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=25c_1325092751 vjiced C.I.A Hit list - Jacobo Arbenz - (President of Guatemala) C.I.A , intervention Guatemala , coup , Documentary , Corporatocracy , U.S.A Tue, 03 May 2011 11:17:47 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f3a_1304435551 jorkrott The student of art at the Universidad del Bosque made http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f3a_1304435551 jorkrott Student died by wearing a bag over his head for art activity Suicide,death,died,student,boy,accident Thu, 31 Mar 2011 11:11:17 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=459_1301583909 jorkrott A video of a security camera recorded the moment in which a shoots robber and his accomplice at a cashier in a supermarket Bogot'a. Although the images clearly show the double murder, five months after the episode the investigation has slow progress. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=459_1301583909 jorkrott Robber kills his accomplice, then goes on kill the cashier security camera,murder,killer,cashier,investigation Mon, 07 Mar 2011 07:38:34 -0500 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=adc_1299501419 jorkrott Demolished by controlled explosion, building on the street 26. This is Fernando Sor building, located on calle 26 and carrera 37 in Bogot'a. The engineers installed 25 kilos and ordered indugel the eviction of 6 blocks. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=adc_1299501419 jorkrott Demolished by controlled explosion Bogota Demolished,controlled,explosion,Bogota Sat, 18 Sep 2010 03:51:22 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=832_1284796169 Snusmumrikken Over the past several years, entities closely linked to the private security firm Blackwater have provided intelligence, training and security services to US and foreign governments as well as several multinational corporations, including Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and banking giants Deutsche Bank and Barclays, according to documents obtained by The Nation. Blackwater's work for corporations and government agencies was contracted using two companies owned by Blackwater's owner and founder, Erik Prince: Total Intelligence Solutions and the Terrorism Research Center (TRC). Prince is listed as the chairman of both companies in internal company documents, which show how the web of companies functions as a highly coordinated operation. Officials from Total Intelligence, TRC and Blackwater (which now calls itself Xe Services) did not respond to numerous requests for comment for this article. One of the most incendiary details in the documents is that Blackwater, through Total Intelligence, sought to become the "intel arm" of Monsanto, offering to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm. Governmental recipients of intelligence services and counterterrorism training from Prince's companies include the Kingdom of Jordan, the Canadian military and the Netherlands police, as well as several US military bases, including Fort Bragg, home of the elite Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), and Fort Huachuca, where military interrogators are trained, according to the documents. In addition, Blackwater worked through the companies for the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the US European Command. On September 3 the New York Times reported that Blackwater had "created a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts after the security company came under intense criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq." The documents obtained by The Nation reveal previously unreported details of several such companies and open a rare window into the sensitive intelligence and security operations Blackwater performs for a range of powerful corporations and government agencies. The new evidence also sheds light on the key roles of several former top CIA officials who went on to work for Blackwater. The coordinator of Blackwater's covert CIA business, former CIA paramilitary officer Enrique "Ric" Prado, set up a global network of foreign operatives, offering their "deniability" as a "big plus" for potential Blackwater customers, according to company documents. The CIA has long used proxy forces to carry out extralegal actions or to shield US government involvement in unsavory operations from scrutiny. In some cases, these "deniable" foreign forces don't even know who they are working for. Prado and Prince built up a network of such foreigners while Blackwater was at the center of the CIA's assassination program, beginning in 2004. They trained special missions units at one of Prince's properties in Virginia with the intent of hunting terrorism suspects globally, often working with foreign operatives. A former senior CIA official said the benefit of using Blackwater's foreign operatives in CIA operations was that "you wouldn't want to have American fingerprints on it." While the network was originally established for use in CIA operations, documents show that Prado viewed it as potentially valuable to other government agencies. In an e-mail in October 2007 with the subject line "Possible Opportunity in DEA-Read and Delete," Prado wrote to a Total Intelligence executive with a pitch for the Drug Enforcement Administration. That executive was an eighteen-year DEA veteran with extensive government connections who had recently joined the firm. Prado explained that Blackwater had developed "a rapidly growing, worldwide network of folks that can do everything from surveillance to ground truth to disruption operations." He added, "These are all foreign nationals (except for a few cases where US persons are the conduit but no longer 'play' on the street), so deniability is built in and should be a big plus." The executive wrote back and suggested there "may be an interest" in those services. The executive suggested that "one of the best places to start may be the Special Operations Division, (SOD) which is located in Chantilly, VA," telling Prado the name of the special agent in charge. The SOD is a secretive joint command within the Justice Department, run by the DEA. It serves as the command-and-control center for some of the most sensitive counternarcotics and law enforcement operations conducted by federal forces. The executive also told Prado that US attach'es in Mexico; Bogot'a, Colombia; and Bangkok, Thailand, would potentially be interested in Prado's network. Whether this network was activated, and for what customers, cannot be confirmed. A former Blackwater employee who worked on the company's CIA program declined to comment on Prado's work for the company, citing its classified status. In November 2007 officials from Prince's companies developed a pricing structure for security and intelligence services for private companies and wealthy individuals. One official wrote that Prado had the capacity to "develop infrastructures" and "conduct ground-truth and security activities." According to the pricing chart, potential customers could hire Prado and other Blackwater officials to operate in the United States and globally: in Latin America, North Africa, francophone countries, the Middle East, Europe, China, Russia, Japan, and Central and Southeast Asia. A four-man team headed by Prado for countersurveillance in the United States cost $33,600 weekly, while "safehouses" could be established for $250,000, plus operational costs. Identical services were offered globally. For $5,000 a day, clients could hire Prado or former senior CIA officials Cofer Black and Robert Richer for "representation" to national "decision-makers." Before joining Blackwater, Black, a twenty-eight-year CIA veteran, ran the agency's counterterrorism center, while Richer was the agency's deputy director of operations. (Neither Black nor Richer currently works for the company.) As Blackwater became embroiled in controversy following the Nisour Square massacre, Prado set up his own company, Constellation Consulting Group (CCG), apparently taking some of Blackwater's covert CIA work with him, though he maintained close ties to his former employer. In an e-mail to a Total Intelligence executive in February 2008, Prado wrote that he "recently had major success in developing capabilities in Mali that are of extreme interest to our major sponsor and which will soon launch a substantial effort via my small shop." He requested Total Intelligence's help in analyzing the "North Mali/Niger terrorist problem." In October 2009 Blackwater executives faced a crisis when they could not account for their government-issued Secure Telephone Unit, which is used by the CIA, the National Security Agency and other military and intelligence services for secure communications. A flurry of e-mails were sent around as personnel from various Blackwater entities tried to locate the device. One former Blackwater official wrote that because he had left the company it was "not really my problem," while another declared, "I have no 'dog in this fight.'" Eventually, Prado stepped in, e-mailing the Blackwater officials to "pass my number" to the "OGA POC," meaning the Other Government Agency (parlance for CIA) Point of Contact. What relationship Prado's CCG has with the CIA is not known. An early version of his company's website boasted that "CCG professionals have already conducted operations on five continents, and have proven their ability to meet the most demanding client needs" and that the company has the "ability to manage highly-classified contracts." CCG, the site said, "is uniquely positioned to deliver services that no other company can, and can deliver results in the most remote areas with little or no outside support." Among the services advertised were "Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence (human and electronic), Unconventional Military Operations, Counterdrug Operations, Aviation Services, Competitive Intelligence, Denied Area Access...and Paramilitary Training." The Nation has previously reported on Blackwater's work for the CIA and JSOC in Pakistan. New documents reveal a history of activity relating to Pakistan by Blackwater. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto worked with the company when she returned to Pakistan to campaign for the 2008 elections, according to the documents. In October 2007, when media reports emerged that Bhutto had hired "American security," senior Blackwater official Robert Richer wrote to company executives, "We need to watch this carefully from a number of angles. If our name surfaces, the Pakistani press reaction will be very important. How that plays through the Muslim world will also need tracking." Richer wrote that "we should be prepared to a communique from an affiliate of Al-Qaida if our name surfaces (BW). That will impact the security profile." Clearly a word is missing in the e-mail or there is a typo that leaves unclear what Richer meant when he mentioned the Al Qaeda communiqu'e. Bhutto was assassinated two months later. Blackwater officials subsequently scheduled a meeting with her family representatives in Washington, in January 2008. Through Total Intelligence and the Terrorism Research Center, Blackwater also did business with a range of multinational corporations. According to internal Total Intelligence communications, biotech giant Monsanto-the world's largest supplier of genetically modified seeds-hired the firm in 2008-09. The relationship between the two companies appears to have been solidified in January 2008 when Total Intelligence chair Cofer Black traveled to Zurich to meet with Kevin Wilson, Monsanto's security manager for global issues. After the meeting in Zurich, Black sent an e-mail to other Blackwater executives, including to Prince and Prado at their Blackwater e-mail addresses. Black wrote that Wilson "understands that we can span collection from internet, to reach out, to boots on the ground on legit basis protecting the Monsanto name.... Ahead of the curve info and insight/heads up is what he is looking for." Black added that Total Intelligence "would develop into acting as intel arm of Monsanto." Black also noted that Monsanto was concerned about animal rights activists and that they discussed how Blackwater "could have our person(s) actually join group(s) legally." Black wrote that initial payments to Total Intelligence would be paid out of Monsanto's "generous protection budget" but would eventually become a line item in the company's annual budget. He estimated the potential payments to Total Intelligence at between $100,000 and $500,000. According to documents, Monsanto paid Total Intelligence $127,000 in 2008 and $105,000 in 2009. Reached by telephone and asked about the meeting with Black in Zurich, Monsanto's Wilson initially said, "I'm not going to discuss it with you." In a subsequent e-mail to The Nation, Wilson confirmed he met Black in Zurich and that Monsanto hired Total Intelligence in 2008 and worked with the company until early 2010. He denied that he and Black discussed infiltrating animal rights groups, stating "there was no such discussion." He claimed that Total Intelligence only provided Monsanto "with reports about the activities of groups or individuals that could pose a risk to company personnel or operations around the world which were developed by monitoring local media reports and other publicly available information. The subject matter ranged from information regarding terrorist incidents in Asia or kidnappings in Central America to scanning the content of activist blogs and websites." Wilson asserted that Black told him Total Intelligence was "a completely separate entity from Blackwater." Monsanto was hardly the only powerful corporation to enlist the services of Blackwater's constellation of companies. The Walt Disney Company hired Total Intelligence and TRC to do a "threat assessment" for potential film shoot locations in Morocco, with former CIA officials Black and Richer reaching out to their former Moroccan intel counterparts for information. The job provided a "good chance to impress Disney," one company executive wrote. How impressed Disney was is not clear; in 2009 the company paid Total Intelligence just $24,000. Total Intelligence and TRC also provided intelligence assessments on China to Deutsche Bank. "The Chinese technical counterintelligence threat is one of the highest in the world," a TRC analyst wrote, adding, "Many four and five star hotel rooms and restaurants are live-monitored with both audio and video" by Chinese intelligence. He also said that computers, PDAs and other electronic devices left unattended in hotel rooms could be cloned. Cellphones using the Chinese networks, the analyst wrote, could have their microphones remotely activated, meaning they could operate as permanent listening devices. He concluded that Deutsche Bank reps should "bring no electronic equipment into China." Warning of the use of female Chinese agents, the analyst wrote, "If you don't have women coming onto you all the time at home, then you should be suspicious if they start coming onto you when you arrive in China." For these and other services, the bank paid Total Intelligence $70,000 in 2009. TRC also did background checks on Libyan and Saudi businessmen for British banking giant Barclays. In February 2008 a TRC executive e-mailed Prado and Richer revealing that Barclays asked TRC and Total Intelligence for background research on the top executives from the Saudi Binladin Group (SBG) and their potential "associations/connections with the Royal family and connections with Osama bin Ladin." In his report, Richer wrote that SBG's chair, Bakr Mohammed bin Laden, "is well and favorably known to both arab and western intelligence service " for cooperating in the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Another SBG executive, Sheikh Saleh bin Laden, is described by Richer as "a very savvy businessman" who is "committed to operating with full transparency to Saudi's security services" and is considered "the most vehement within the extended BL family in terms of criticizing UBL's actions and beliefs." In August Blackwater and the State Department reached a $42 million settlement for hundreds of violations of US export control regulations. Among the violations cited was the unauthorized export of technical data to the Canadian military. Meanwhile, Blackwater's dealings with Jordanian officials are the subject of a federal criminal prosecution of five former top Blackwater executives. The Jordanian government paid Total Intelligence more than $1.6 million in 2009. Some of the training Blackwater provided to Canadian military forces was in Blackwater/TRC's "Mirror Image" course, where trainees live as a mock Al Qaeda cell in an effort to understand the mindset and culture of insurgents. Company literature describes it as "a classroom and field training program designed to simulate terrorist recruitment, training, techniques and operational tactics." Documents show that in March 2009 Blackwater/TRC spent $6,500 purchasing local tribal clothing in Afghanistan as well as assorted "propaganda materials-posters, Pakistan Urdu maps, etc." for Mirror Image, and another $9,500 on similar materials this past January in Pakistan and Afghanistan. According to internal documents, in 2009 alone the Canadian military paid Blackwater more than $1.6 million through TRC. A Canadian military official praised the program in a letter to the center, saying it provided "unique and valid cultural awareness and mission specific deployment training for our soldiers in Afghanistan," adding that it was "a very effective and operationally current training program that is beneficial to our mission." This past summer Erik Prince put Blackwater up for sale and moved to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. But he doesn't seem to be leaving the shadowy world of security and intelligence. He says he moved to Abu Dhabi because of its "great proximity to potential opportunities across the entire Middle East, and great logistics," adding that it has "a friendly business climate, low to no taxes, free trade and no out of control trial lawyers or labor unions. It's pro-business and opportunity." It also has no extradition treaty with the United States. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=832_1284796169 Snusmumrikken Blackwater`s Black Ops Blackwater, XO, Al-Qaida, Pakistan, CIA Tue, 03 Aug 2010 10:10:07 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a6f_1280844267 jorkrott Google traslate: The assassin, Jaime Humberto Montoya, of the "Black Eagles" which was recorded on a video as a pilot murdered in Bogota, confessed his crime and revealed that he received 10 million pesos for the crime. RCN News obtained new recordings in which the murderer confesses the crime and celebrate the macabre operation.----- El sicario, Jaime Humberto Montoya, de las "'aguilas negras" que qued'o grabado en un video mientras asesinaba a un piloto en Bogot'a, confes'o su crimen y revel'o que recibi'o 10 millones de pesos por el crimen. Noticias RCN obtuvo nuevas grabaciones en las que el asesino confiesa el delito y celebra la macabra operaci'on. RCN COlombia http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a6f_1280844267 jorkrott Murder by a gunman in Bogota Murder, Shot, Crimen, Asesino, Asesinato, Muerte, Herido, Piloto, Crime, Pilot, confesion, macabro, heridos, sicario, hitman, Tue, 30 Dec 2008 02:32:50 -0500 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=216_1230622186 red_pill The Dignity, a Free Gaza boat on a mission of mercy to besieged Gaza, is being attacked by the Israeli Navy in international waters. The Dignity has been surrounded by at least half-a-dozen Israeli warships. They are firing live ammunition around the Dignity, and one of the warships has rammed the civilian craft causing an unknown amount of damage. Contrary to international maritime law, the Israelis are actively preventing the Dignity from approaching Gaza or finding safe haven in either Egypt or Lebanon. Instead, the Israeli navy is demanding that the Dignity return to Cyprus - despite the fact that the ship does not carry enough fuel to do so. Fortunately, no one aboard the ship has yet been seriously injured. There are 15 civilian passengers representing 11 different countries (see below for a complete list). At approximately 5am (UST), well out in international waters, Israeli warships began surrounding the Dignity, threatening the ship. At 6:45am (UST) we were able to establish brief contact with the crew and were told that the ship had been rammed by the Israeli Navy in international waters, and that the Israelis were preventing the ship from finding safe harbor. We heard heavy gunfire in the background before all contact was lost with the Dignity. It is urgent that you TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION! URGENT! Israeli Navy Attacking Civilian Mercy Ship! TAKE ACTION IMMEDIATELY! The Dignity, a Free Gaza boat on a mission of mercy to besieged Gaza, is being attacked by the Israeli Navy in international waters. The Dignity has been surrounded by at least half-a-dozen Israeli warships. They are firing live ammunition around the Dignity, and one of the warships has rammed the civilian craft causing an unknown amount of damage. Contrary to international maritime law, the Israelis are actively preventing the Dignity from approaching Gaza or finding safe haven in either Egypt or Lebanon. Instead, the Israeli navy is demanding that the Dignity return to Cyprus - despite the fact that the ship does not carry enough fuel to do so. Fortunately, no one aboard the ship has yet been seriously injured. There are 15 civilian passengers representing 11 different countries (see below for a complete list). At approximately 5am (UST), well out in international waters, Israeli warships began surrounding the Dignity, threatening the ship. At 6:45am (UST) we were able to establish brief contact with the crew and were told that the ship had been rammed by the Israeli Navy in international waters, and that the Israelis were preventing the ship from finding safe harbor. We heard heavy gunfire in the background before all contact was lost with the Dignity. It is urgent that you TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION! CALL the Israeli Government and demand that it immediately STOP attacking the Dignity and endangering the lives of its passengers! CALL Mark Regev in the Prime Minister's office at: +972 2670 5354 or +972 5062 3264 mark.regev@it.pmo.gov.il CALL Shlomo Dror in the Ministry of Defence at: +972 33697 5339 or +972 50629 8148 mediasar@mod.gov.il BACKGROUND INFORMATION The Dignity departed from Larnaca Port in Cyprus at 7pm (UST) on Monday 29 December, bound for war-devastated Gaza with a cargo of over 3 tons of desperately needed medical supplies donated by the people of Cyprus. At our request, the ship was searched by Cypriot Port authorities prior to departure, to certify that there was nothing "threatening" aboard - only emergency medical supplies. TAKE ACTION IMMEDIATELY TO STOP THE ISRAELI NAVY FROM ENDANGERING THE DIGNITY AND ITS PASSENGERS! Civilians aboard the Dignity being threatened by the Israeli military: (UK) Denis Healey, Captain Captain of the Dignity, Denis has been involved with boats for 45 years, beginning with small fishing boats in Portsmouth. He learned to sail while atschool and has been part of the sea ever since. He's a certified yachtmaster and has also worked on heavy marine equipment from yachts to large dredgers. This is his fourth trip to Gaza. (Greece) Nikolas Bolos, First Mate Nikolas is a chemical engineer and human rights activist. He has served as a crewmember on several Free Gaza voyages, including the first one in August. (Jordan) Othman Abu Falah Othman is a senior producer with Al-Jazeera Television. He will remain in Gaza to report on the ongoing military onslaught. (Australia) Renee Bowyer Renee is a schoolteacher and human rights activist. She will remain in Gaza to do human rights monitoring and reporting. (Ireland) Caoimhe Butterly Caoimhe is a reknowned human rights activist and Gaza Coordinator for the Free Gaza Movement. She will be remaining in Gaza to do human rights monitoring, assist with relief efforts, and work on project development with Free Gaza. (Cyprus) Ekaterini Christodulou Ekaterini is a well-known and respected freelance journalist in Cyprus. She is traveling to Gaza to report on the conflict. (Sudan) Sami El-Haj Sami is a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, and head of the human rights section at Al-Jazeera Television. He will remain in Gaza to report on the ongoing military onslaught. (UK) Dr. David Halpin Dr. Halpin is an experienced orthopaedic surgeon, medical professor, and ship's captain. He has organized humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza on several occasions with the Dove and Dolphin. He is traveling to Gaza to volunteer in hospitals and clinics. (Germany) Dr. Mohamed Issa Dr. Issa is a pediatric surgeon from Germany. He is traveling to Gaza to volunteer in hospitals and clinics. (UK/Tunisia) Fathi Jaouadi Fathi is a television producer and human rights activist. He will remain in Gaza to do human rights monitoring and reporting. (USA) Cynthia McKinney Cynthia is a former U.S. Congresswoman from Georgia, and the 2008 Green Party presidential candidate. She is traveling to Gaza to assess the ongoing conflict. (Cyprus) Martha Paisi Martha is a senior research fellow and experienced human rights activist. She is traveling to Gaza to do human rights work and to assist with humanitarian relief efforts. (UK) Karl Penhaul Karl Penhaul is a video correspondent for CNN, based out of Bogot'a, Colombia. Appointed to this position in February 2004, he covers breaking news around the world utilizing CNN's new laptop-based 'Digital Newsgathering' system. He is traveling to Gaza to report on the ongoing conflict. (Iraq) Thaer Shaker Thaer is a cameraman with Al-Jazeera television. He will remain in Gaza to report on the ongoing military onslaught. (Cyprus) Dr. Elena Theoharous, MP Dr. Theoharous is a surgeon and a Member of the Cypriot Parliament. She is traveling to Gaza to assess the ongoing conflict, assist with humanitarian relief efforts, and volunteer in hospitals. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=216_1230622186 red_pill Israeli Navy Attacking Civilian Mercy Ship Israel,Navy,Civilian,War Crime Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:38:19 -0500 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=00f_1225744699 lasrever "President Alvaro Uribe on Wednesday fired numerous army officers, including three generals, over the killing of civilians. His government said at least some of the murders were aimed to falsely boost combat body counts. An internal military probe determined the officers, including two division commanders, were guilty at least of negligence that included permitting soldiers to conspire with criminals in what Uribe called "the murder of innocents." It was the Colombian military's biggest shakeup in years over human-rights abuses and comes as civilian prosecutors investigate a rise in alleged army killings of noncombatants with the aim of exaggerating unit performance against leftist rebels. Uribe made the announcement at a news conference with his top commanders, armed forces chief Gen. Freddy Padilla and Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos. They said the cases would be turned over to the chief prosecutor's office. Public uproar The number of officers sacked was not clear. The Associated Press put the total at 19, including three generals and four colonels; Reuters said 27 were purged, including three generals. Officials offered no details of particular crimes, though Santos said "outside criminals who enjoyed impunity were used to obtain irregular results" that violated "military doctrine and honor." Armando Borrero, a former Colombian national security adviser, said it appeared the abuses were not isolated cases but rather "something long in the planning." Uribe ordered the probe after a public uproar over the deaths of 11 men who disappeared from the poor Bogota suburb of Soacha early this year and whose bodies were found in August and September in common graves in a northeastern combat zone. "Innocent people in urban slums were apparently tricked, abducted, and killed" in "a gruesome trafficking in cadavers allowing officers to claim high body counts," said Colombia analyst Adam Isacson of the Washington-based Center for International Policy. 'My conscience is clean' One of the generals fired on Wednesday, 30th Brigade commander Paulino Coronado, told The Associated Press after nine of the Soacha men's bodies were found that they had been killed in combat with rebels of the leftist National Liberation Army. He could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday. The other two fired generals were Jose Joaquin Cortes, Coronado's boss as commander of the 2nd Division, and Roberto Pico Hernandez, chief of the 7th Division, which is based in Medellin, Colombia's second city, the AP reported. The two divisions cover some of Colombia's most turbulent regions. The 2nd Division's territory includes the area near Venezuela's border where the Soacha men's bodies were found. Coca cultivation is rampant and guerrilla activity high there. The 7th oversees the Uraba banana-growing region on the Caribbean coast where activity by far-right paramilitaries and drug traffickers is pronounced. Reached by the AP, Gen. Pico denied any wrongdoing. "My conscience is clean," he said. "I think this is something unjust because I have worked, dedicated everything to my army, including even not taking good enough care of my family." Human-rights abuses Wednesday's purge came a day after Amnesty International urged the United States and other nations to halt military aid to Colombia until security forces reduce killings of civilians and the country heeds U.N. recommendations for ending its long-running civil conflict. Last month, the AP obtained a report from the chief prosecutor's office that said 803 members of Colombia's armed forces - including 99 officers - were under investigation in such killings. The Colombian military's checkered human rights records includes frequent close collaboration over the years with illegal far-right paramilitaries, which the U.S. State Department branded terrorist groups in 2001 - and the May 2006 murder of 10 elite anti-drug police in an ambush by an army unit suspected of being in the service of drug lords." MSNBC, Oct.29, 2008 *** "Julian Oviedo, a 19-year-old construction worker in this gritty patchwork of slums, told his mother on March 2 that he was going to talk to a man about a job offer. A day later, Oviedo was shot and killed by army troops about 560 kilometers to the north. He was classified as a subversive and registered as a combat kill. Colombia's government, the Bush administration's top ally in Latin America, has been buffeted by the disappearance of Oviedo and dozens of other young, impoverished men and women whose cases have come to light. Some were vagrants, some were street vendors or manual laborers. But their fates were often the same: They were catalogued as insurgents or criminal gang members and killed by the armed forces. Prosecutors and human rights researchers are investigating hundreds of such deaths and disappearances, contending that the Colombian security forces are murdering civilians and making it look as if they were killed in combat, often by planting weapons on or near their bodies or dressing the corpses in guerrilla fatigues. With soldiers under intense pressure in recent years to register combat kills to earn promotions and benefits like time off and extra pay, reports of civilian killings are climbing, prosecutors and researchers said, pointing to a grisly facet of this country's long internal war against leftist insurgencies. The deaths have called into question the depth of Colombia's recent strides against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and have begun to haunt the military hierarchy. On Wednesday, President Alvaro Uribe's government announced that it had fired 25 officers and soldiers - including three generals and four colonels - in connection with the deaths of Oviedo and 10 other young men from Soacha, whose bodies were discovered in unmarked graves in a distant combat zone. The purge came after an initial shakeup last Friday, when the army command relieved three colonels. At a news conference Wednesday, Uribe said that an internal military investigation appeared to have uncovered "crimes that in some regions had the goal of killing innocents, to make it seem as if criminals were being confronted." The wave of killings has heightened focus on the U.S. Embassy here, which is responsible for vetting Colombian military units for human rights abuses before they can receive aid. A study of civilian killings by the Fellowship of Reconciliation and Amnesty International, two rights groups, found that 47 percent of the cases reported in 2007 involved Colombian units financed by the United States. "If the responsibility of the army is to protect us from harm, how could they have killed my son this way?" Blanca Monroy, 49, Oviedo's mother, asked in an interview in her cinderblock home here. "The official explanation is absurd, if he was here just a day earlier living a normal life," she said. "The irony of it all is that my son dreamed of being a soldier" for the government. Even before the most recent disappearances and killings, prosecutors and human rights groups were examining a steady increase in the reports of civilian killings since 2002, when commanders intensified a counterinsurgency financed in no small part by more than $500 million a year in U.S. aid. But more than 100 claims of civilian deaths at the hands of the security forces have emerged in recent weeks alone, from nine different parts of Colombia. Cases have included the killing of a homeless man, a young man who suffered epileptic seizures and a veteran who had left the army after his left arm was amputated. In some cases, victims' families spoke of middlemen who recruited poor men and women with vague promises of jobs elsewhere, only to deliver them hours or days later to war zones where they were killed by soldiers. "We are witnessing a method of social cleansing in which rogue military units operate beyond the law," said Monica Sanchez, a lawyer at the Judicial Freedom Corporation, a human rights group in Medellin. The group says it has documented more than 60 cases of "false positives" - a subset of the civilian killings in which individuals were killed and then presented as guerrillas in the province of Antioquia. Researchers also have obtained thorough descriptions of some killings in the small number of cases - less than 50 - that have resulted in convictions this decade. One April morning in 2004, for instance, soldiers approached the home of Juan de Jesus Rendon, a 33-year-old peasant farmer in Antioquia, and shot him in front of his son, Juan Esteban, who was 10 at the time. The soldiers placed a two-way radio and a gun near Rendon's body, court records show, and told his son that his siblings would suffer the same fate unless he said his father had fired at the soldiers. "I still fear this can happen again," Vilma Garcia, 35, Rendon's wife, said in an interview in Medellin, where she and her children fled after her husband was killed. The five soldiers involved were recently convicted on charges of homicide and torture, in connection with the threats to her son. "The soldiers think we are poor and worthless," she said, "so nobody will care how we are killed." The civilian killings have opened the United States to increased criticism because it is required to make sure Colombian military units have not engaged in human rights violations before supplying them with aid. "If we are receiving aid and vetting from a government in Washington that validates torture, then what kind of results can one expect?" asked Liliana Uribe, a human rights lawyer in Medellin who represents victims' families. A senior official at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota said the reports of civilian killings, both in past years and in recent months, were a matter of concern. "If the facts in some cases do show that parts of the armed forces were taking part in murder, then there should be mechanisms to prevent this from happening and mechanisms to ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice," said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The official said the units involved in the most recent killings - the 11 men from Soacha - had not received aid because they had been deemed not credible to receive it. But the official did not confirm or deny the contention that almost half of the reports of civilian killings in 2007 involved units that had received U.S. aid, explaining that a case-by-case review of the episodes had not been carried out by two American contractors hired by the State Department to help vet Colombian military units for human rights abuses. Reports of civilian killings rose to 287 for the 12-month period from mid-2006 to mid-2007. That is an increase over the 267 reported in same period from 2005 to 2006 and the 218 reported from 2004 to 2005, according to the Colombian Commission of Jurists, a human rights group in Bogot'a. Altogether, the attorney general's office in Bogot'a said it was investigating the killings of 1,015 civilians by security forces in 558 episodes unrelated to combat. Prosecutors said the number of new cases under investigation climbed to 245 in 2007 from 122 a year earlier. The increase in reports of civilian killings spurred the Defense Ministry to issue a directive last year explicitly prioritizing the capture of rebels above combat kills. In an interview, General Freddy Padilla, the commander of Colombia's armed forces, said the policy shift, while largely intended to prevent human rights abuses, also had strategic objectives. "A terrorist captured alive is a treasure, while a dead terrorist is just one-day news," Padilla said, citing the example of Nelly 'Avila, a FARC commander who surrendered this year and began collaborating with her captors. "A terrorist converted into an informant is useful as long as he or she lives." Until the latest wave of killings, it appeared that the new policy was starting to work. The Center for Research and Popular Education, a Jesuit-led group in Bogot'a that maintains a database on human rights violations, documented 87 reports of false positives in the second half of 2007, a 34 percent drop from the first six months of that year. But the cases in Soacha and elsewhere suggest that the problem may be more systemic than once thought. Some human rights researchers contend that the killings are tolerated by some senior officers in the army who chafe at greater scrutiny at a time when security forces have made significant gains against guerrillas, including the killing or capture of several top FARC commanders this year. Jenny Carolina Gonz'alez contributed reporting from Bogota." International Herald Tribune, Oct.29, 2008 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=00f_1225744699 lasrever Pres. of Colombia purges military death squads (Oct.29, 2008) death squads,right-wing death squads,paramilitary,military death squads,american hypocrisy,war on drugs