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Israeli ex-military suspected of trafficking on Colombia's coast
Israeli ex-military suspected of trafficking on Colombia's coast
Monday, 06 February 2012 07:46
Arron Daugherty
Israeli ex-military personel living in Colombia are being investigated for suspected drug trafficking, money laundering and the exploitation of minors, Colombia's Prosecutor General announced Sunday in local media.
The group, based in the Caribbean city of Taganga, has also been accused of links to neo-paramilitary drug traffickers "Los Urabeños, in a separate but connected investigation.
According to the Prosecutor General, authorities have been monitoring the "criminal network" for the past year, following suspicions raised by local police and community leaders.
At least 8 are being investigated. They say they are legitimate investors.
More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/22024-8-israelis-under-investigation-in-colombia.html
3 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
...including using Colombia's rightwing death squad context to "train" operatives for Iraq, Afghanistan and other places. Such ops could well have included Israelis and could well have left residual personnel who have, for one reason or another, branched off from official (though covert) crime into their own lucrative ops.
Possibly related: Last year, H. Clinton's State Department "fined" Blackwater for "unauthorized" "trainings" of "foreign persons" IN COLOMBIA "for use in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tip of the iceberg, I suspect. (And I don't believe the word "unauthorized."
"The Israeli advisors - reportedly consisting of three senior generals, a lower ranking officer, an unnamed Argentinean officer and three translators - were hired under a reported US$10 million contract by the Colombian Defense Ministry to advise on how to improve the army's intelligence gathering capabilities. Santos reportedly approached former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami last year about the deal." --from your second citation, above
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First of all, that $10 million likely came from U.S. taxpayers (from a total of at least $7 BILLION in U.S. military funding to Colombia). But what is perhaps more important, and is certainly intriguing, is that illegal domestic spying was (president and mafia boss of Colombia) Alvaro Uribe's specialty. His spying network has been linked both to the rightwing and military death squads and the Bush Junta-appointed U.S. ambassador, William Brownfield (who had an American liaison to Uribe's spy agency, DAS). Uribe's illegal spying operation targeted judges and prosecutors, and was also apparently being used to draw up "hit lists" for the death squads and the Colombian military to murder (these included many labor leaders, human rights leaders, peasant activists and other advocates of the poor).
The above paragraph provides the first clue I've seen about the technology that was being provided to the DAS for these illegal and horrendous activities. Could it be the technology mentioned in connection with these "Israel advisors"?
The civilian and military components of the Colombian government--like our own civilian and military components--are closely intertwined in every way, with the above long list of private corporations (in your first citation) intricately intertwined with governance. This is a hallmark of fascist rule. We have never seen it so manifest as with the Bush Junta. Uribe's criminal administration operated like a "little Bush Junta," imitating the crime and looting methods of Uribe's mentors in Washington DC.
For instance, Bush-appointed U.S. ambassador Brownfield apparently had a "war room" in the U.S. embassy for direct video feeds of certain military operations. The most well known was the faked up "rescue" of hostage Ingrid Bettancourt, but another is likely the immensely bloody and unnecessary dropping of 500 lb. U.S. "smart bombs" on the FARC hostage release camp on the Colombia/Ecuador border in early 2008, which slaughtered 25 sleeping people without trial and abruptly ended all efforts to negotiate a peace in Colombia's 70 year civil war. It also nearly started a war between the U.S./Colombia and Ecuador/Venezuela.
Brownfield also busied himself negotiating and signing (with Uribe) a secret U.S./Colombia military agreement that, among other things, granted total diplomatic immunity to all U.S. military personnel and all U.S. military 'contractors' in Colombia. Though this agreement was later declared unconstitutional by the Colombian supreme court, I think it points to certain covert goings on, for instance, why did U.S. military personnel and all their 'contractors' suddenly need "total diplomatic immunity" more than a decade into the U.S. military presence in Colombia?
This provision would have included bad actors like Blackwater and CACI, and the private paramilitaries of any of that long list of U.S.-based transglobal war profiteer corporations, and it might also have included the Israelis (if their funding was penciled in as authorized by somebody in Washington). In any case, Brownfield, a supposed representative of civilian government, was deep into the military establishments of both Colombia and the U.S. Intelligence technology provided to the military--or intelligence developed by U.S. dollars and technocrats and the Colombian military--would likely find its way to DAS.
Whether U.S. (Bushwhack) aid to Uribe's illegal spying and their aid to Colombian military spying are directly connected we can't know for sure. (They are certainly indirectly connected, since the military and the rightwing paramilitary death squads who were carrying out Uribe-directed assassinations are closely linked.) I've been wondering when the Colombian prosecutors' investigation of Uribe would stumble upon the Bush Junta involvement in all this crime. The first link (that I know of) was a recent witness in those investigations who said that an "American" was reporting on DAS's spying to the U.S. embassy. Are these "Israeli" advisors a second link?
A third link could be the H. Clinton State Department's "fining" of Blackwater for "unauthorized" "trainings" of "foreign persons" IN COLOMBIA "for use in Iraq and Afghanistan." The "fine" occurred last year but the occasion for the fine likely pre-dated Obama/Clinton and occurred during the Bush Junta/Uribe crime spree in Colombia. I think that this "fine" was part of a bigger U.S. cover up of Bush Junta crime in Colombia--and was likely imposed (and doctored up with the word "unauthorized" and issued as a State Dept. press release because somebody else (Colombia's prosecutors?) got onto the precipitating event and disclosure was threatened. (Did U.S. 'contractor' "trainees" tag along on some of the Colombian military/paramilitary "turkey shoots" against the peasants for which Colombia has now become infamous?)
The above and other evidence points to the murder and mayhem in Colombia being a preferred milieu for "training" conscienceless killers to be used elsewhere. I also suspect that the USAF/CIA drone aircraft--for spying and killing, without risk to pilots--were first tested in Colombia. (In fact, the 500 lb "smart bomb" drops on Ecuador may have been by drone. The Ecuadoran military said that the Colombian military had neither pilot nor plane to carry out that operation. It was done with pinpoint accuracy after a technological coup locating the camp. Maybe there wasn't a pilot; just a drone. The drone operator could have been located anywhere but right now I'm fancying Ambassador Brownfield with a joy stick in the U.S. embassy basement.)
Note: The Obamites have since kicked Brownfield upstairs, to run all U.S. "war on drugs" ops in Latin America. Granted, this may have occurred as the result of blackmail (by freshman Senator Jim DeMint, SC-Diebold) and may be connected to other immunities that were extracted from the Obama team on Bush Junta war crimes. Brownfield is one of the chief architects of the cover ups in Colombia. In short, they had no choice. But--sheesh!--it's as if a hundred million skunks were unleashed in our nation's capitol, with the Bush Junta's exit. The stink is so bad that it kills peoples' souls.
-----------------------
First of all, that $10 million likely came from U.S. taxpayers (from a total of at least $7 BILLION in U.S. military funding to Colombia). But what is perhaps more important, and is certainly intriguing, is that illegal domestic spying was (president and mafia boss of Colombia) Alvaro Uribe's specialty. His spying network has been linked both to the rightwing and military death squads and the Bush Junta-appointed U.S. ambassador, William Brownfield (who had an American liaison to Uribe's spy agency, DAS). Uribe's illegal spying operation targeted judges and prosecutors, and was also apparently being used to draw up "hit lists" for the death squads and the Colombian military to murder (these included many labor leaders, human rights leaders, peasant activists and other advocates of the poor).
The above paragraph provides the first clue I've seen about the technology that was being provided to the DAS for these illegal and horrendous activities. Could it be the technology mentioned in connection with these "Israel advisors"?
The civilian and military components of the Colombian government--like our own civilian and military components--are closely intertwined in every way, with the above long list of private corporations (in your first citation) intricately intertwined with governance. This is a hallmark of fascist rule. We have never seen it so manifest as with the Bush Junta. Uribe's criminal administration operated like a "little Bush Junta," imitating the crime and looting methods of Uribe's mentors in Washington DC.
For instance, Bush-appointed U.S. ambassador Brownfield apparently had a "war room" in the U.S. embassy for direct video feeds of certain military operations. The most well known was the faked up "rescue" of hostage Ingrid Bettancourt, but another is likely the immensely bloody and unnecessary dropping of 500 lb. U.S. "smart bombs" on the FARC hostage release camp on the Colombia/Ecuador border in early 2008, which slaughtered 25 sleeping people without trial and abruptly ended all efforts to negotiate a peace in Colombia's 70 year civil war. It also nearly started a war between the U.S./Colombia and Ecuador/Venezuela.
Brownfield also busied himself negotiating and signing (with Uribe) a secret U.S./Colombia military agreement that, among other things, granted total diplomatic immunity to all U.S. military personnel and all U.S. military 'contractors' in Colombia. Though this agreement was later declared unconstitutional by the Colombian supreme court, I think it points to certain covert goings on, for instance, why did U.S. military personnel and all their 'contractors' suddenly need "total diplomatic immunity" more than a decade into the U.S. military presence in Colombia?
This provision would have included bad actors like Blackwater and CACI, and the private paramilitaries of any of that long list of U.S.-based transglobal war profiteer corporations, and it might also have included the Israelis (if their funding was penciled in as authorized by somebody in Washington). In any case, Brownfield, a supposed representative of civilian government, was deep into the military establishments of both Colombia and the U.S. Intelligence technology provided to the military--or intelligence developed by U.S. dollars and technocrats and the Colombian military--would likely find its way to DAS.
Whether U.S. (Bushwhack) aid to Uribe's illegal spying and their aid to Colombian military spying are directly connected we can't know for sure. (They are certainly indirectly connected, since the military and the rightwing paramilitary death squads who were carrying out Uribe-directed assassinations are closely linked.) I've been wondering when the Colombian prosecutors' investigation of Uribe would stumble upon the Bush Junta involvement in all this crime. The first link (that I know of) was a recent witness in those investigations who said that an "American" was reporting on DAS's spying to the U.S. embassy. Are these "Israeli" advisors a second link?
A third link could be the H. Clinton State Department's "fining" of Blackwater for "unauthorized" "trainings" of "foreign persons" IN COLOMBIA "for use in Iraq and Afghanistan." The "fine" occurred last year but the occasion for the fine likely pre-dated Obama/Clinton and occurred during the Bush Junta/Uribe crime spree in Colombia. I think that this "fine" was part of a bigger U.S. cover up of Bush Junta crime in Colombia--and was likely imposed (and doctored up with the word "unauthorized"
and issued as a State Dept. press release because somebody else (Colombia's prosecutors?) got onto the precipitating event and disclosure was threatened. (Did U.S. 'contractor' "trainees" tag along on some of the Colombian military/paramilitary "turkey shoots" against the peasants for which Colombia has now become infamous?)
The above and other evidence points to the murder and mayhem in Colombia being a preferred milieu for "training" conscienceless killers to be used elsewhere. I also suspect that the USAF/CIA drone aircraft--for spying and killing, without risk to pilots--were first tested in Colombia. (In fact, the 500 lb "smart bomb" drops on Ecuador may have been by drone. The Ecuadoran military said that the Colombian military had neither pilot nor plane to carry out that operation. It was done with pinpoint accuracy after a technological coup locating the camp. Maybe there wasn't a pilot; just a drone. The drone operator could have been located anywhere but right now I'm fancying Ambassador Brownfield with a joy stick in the U.S. embassy basement.)
Note: The Obamites have since kicked Brownfield upstairs, to run all U.S. "war on drugs" ops in Latin America. Granted, this may have occurred as the result of blackmail (by freshman Senator Jim DeMint, SC-Diebold) and may be connected to other immunities that were extracted from the Obama team on Bush Junta war crimes. Brownfield is one of the chief architects of the cover ups in Colombia. In short, they had no choice. But--sheesh!--it's as if a hundred million skunks were unleashed in our nation's capitol, with the Bush Junta's exit. The stink is so bad that it kills peoples' souls.