US Government Misled Public on Critical Role in Colombia’s 2008 Illegal Cross-border Attack
Published on Saturday, January 4, 2014 by The Americas Blog/CEPR
US Government Misled Public on Critical Role in Colombia’s 2008 Illegal Cross-border Attack
by Alexander Main
“The territory of a State is inviolable; it may not be the object, even temporarily, of military occupation or of other measures of force taken by another State, directly or indirectly, on any grounds whatever.”
- Article 21, Charter of the Organization of American States
In the pre-dawn hours of March 1, 2008, the Colombian military launched a carefully planned air and ground attack against a small FARC guerilla camp located in the thick tropical forest surrounding the Putumayo River. The attack – which killed top rebel leader Raúl Reyes and at least 21 other camp inhabitants – might have been just another bloody chapter in Colombia’s 50-year-old civil conflict had it not been for one important detail: the camp was located in Ecuador, over a mile from the Colombian border. Colombia had not asked for Ecuador’s permission to carry out the incursion, nor provided its neighbor with any warning that it would take place. As a result, a major diplomatic crisis ensued with three countries suspending relations with Colombia and most of the region strongly condemning the illegal violation of Ecuador’s territory. Only one government – that of the United States – openly supported Colombia’s need to “respond to threats posed by [the FARC] terrorist organization.”
The Washington Post has now revealed, in an in-depth article on CIA covert action in Colombia, that U.S. support for Colombia’s March 1 operation wasn’t just rhetorical. The CIA – which maintained control over the “smart” GPS-guided bombs that were used in the operation – had given Colombia “tacit approval” to carry out the bombing. Prior to the operation, U.S. officials had unlocked the bombs’ GPS system using a special “encryption key” they had designed to ensure that “the Colombians would not misuse the bomb.” According to the Post’s sources, which include current U.S. and Colombian officials, the discovery that Reyes, their main target, was located in Ecuadorean territory was “awkward” since:
to conduct an airstrike meant a Colombian pilot flying a Colombian plane would hit the camp using a U.S.-made bomb with a CIA-controlled brain.
The Air Force colonel had a succinct message for the Colombian air operations commander in charge of the mission. “I said, ‘Look man, we all know where this guy is. Just don’t f— it up.’”
U.S. national security lawyers viewed the operation as an act of self-defense. In the wake of 9/11, they had come up with a new interpretation of the permissible use of force against non-state actors like al-Qaeda and the FARC. It went like this: If a terrorist group operated from a country that was unable or unwilling to stop it, then the country under attack — in this case, Colombia — had the right to defend itself with force, even if that meant crossing into another sovereign country.
More:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/01/04-3
= new reply since forum marked as read
The source for this MODIFIED LIMITED disclosure, about U.S./Colombia violations of international law and cold-blooded murder, is the Washington Psst, which, I'm convinced, cuts & pastes faxes from Langley and prints them as 'news.'
I'm surprised that Alexander Main of CEPR takes it at face value.
You've got to read the Psst like the Russians read Pravda under Stalin. It consists of densely packed lies--layers and layers of lies--that require deconstruction. First, you need to ask, WHY are they "disclosing" something that might shave some pennies off the war profiteers' profits (billions and billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars for the corrupt, failed, murderous U.S. "war on drugs"
?
Believe me, there is a Psst/CIA motive. Possibly something worse is about to be disclosed south of the border, and this is a pre-emptive "disclosure." (It portrays the U.S. (Bush Junta) as permitting this horrendous slaughter, rather than running the operation--providing pilot, plane and bombs, which is what the Ecuadoran military suspected, at the time. That may be the "modified limited hangout--that the Bushwhacks just winked at it; didn't do it.)
Then there are Monsanto & pals' designs on illegal drugs. There is lots of evidence that Big Ag/Big Pharma has a Big Plan, now in motion, to legalize, monopolize and GMO-ize the recreational, herbal and/or addictive drugs that we've spent billions and billions of dollars, and murdered thousands of people, to "eradicate." It is a trillion+ dollar revenue stream. The big Corps are muscling in.
This "modified limited hangout"--that the U.S. permitted Colombia to use U.S. technology to murder people in Ecuador--may be part of a 'house cleaning' process--for instance, evidence of the internal war in our CIA/MIC establishment between the raw killers (Bushwhacks) and the more subtle killers (a la Panetta)--in a sense, military vs corporate methods. It could be a back-stabbing of the (U.S.) individual or group that ran that Ecuador operation.
We should also remember that Raul Reyes was leader of a PEACE group within the FARC. Reyes was trying to start a peace negotiation to end Colombia's 70-year civil war. Spanish, French and Swiss officials were on their way to that camp, that day, to receive FARC hostages (possibly including Ingrid Betancourt). (The officials were warned off.) The Ecuador military reported that they found dead bodies in pajamas. The camp had been asleep when it was bombed. Also, the Ecuador military reported that Colombia did not have the pilot, the plane, the bombs or the technology to carry off that slaughter. (My suspicion: Dyncorp, which was running the U.S. military base in Ecuador; this was just before the Ecuadorans evicted the U.S. base.)
Then there is the "miracle laptop"--the alleged Reyes laptop, allegedly seized in tact from the blasted camp site (500 lb. U.S. "smart bombs" that allegedly contained "evidence" that the leftist presidents of Venezuela and Ecuador were "terrorist-lovers" (were helping the FARC to obtain a "dirty bomb," were funding the FARC, were being funded by the FARC, etc.). There was a whole Rumsfeldian "Big Lie" campaign in the months following the slaughter at Reyes' camp.
Layers and layers.
Main/CEPR describes this Psst piece as an "in-depth article on CIA covert action in Colombia."
CEPR is an excellent and reliable source for information on Latin America, and they may feel that, like folks dying of thirst in the searing desert of the corpo-fascist media, a drop of water-truth is better than nothing. But I say: Beware, beware of disinformation! WHAT is being covered up? ARE we being DEPRIVED of information, manipulated, bamboozled, misled, lied to, by "modified limited hangouts"?
We should always ask this about Psst "disclosure" articles, and, given the state of things in the media, we should ask it about all corpo-fascist monopoly 'news' sources. We should never ever forget that it was the New York Slimes who brought us the war on Iraq. They are no better than the Psst, though they have a slicker style.
Speaking of "disclosure", Alexander Main worked for the Venezuela Information Office in DC. The VIO was a Venezuelan government financed entity responsible for quickly responding to negative news about Ven in the English speaking press. You won't find that in his bio on CEPR.
Just as the US raided the Bin Laden compound in Pakistan, Colombia raided the terrorist camp in Ecuador. Did Main criticize the Bin Laden raid too? I don't hear too many people lamenting that the US took Bin Laden out.
No hostages were at that camp as far as I know, or at least not the ones in the Betancourt group. Colombia would not have bombed obviously and obviously they were not there. So that part of PP's tale doesn't add up. The US did indeed provide the hardware and technology behind the strike. I bet the pilot was Colombian though. They've received enough training to undertake their own activities.
PP claims "The Ecuador military reported that they found dead bodies in pajamas." However, she is incredulous about how a laptop could survive an air raid but doesn't give a second thought to pajamas.
Interestingly, Chavez pretty much through the FARC under the bus once his invovlement with them was made known. Previously, he praised rebel leaders, but after the Ecuador raid he disavowed them. I doubt that is coincidence.
laptop? there's no laptop.
Hugo enjoying a special moment with his FARC ally.
