Uribe lobbies U.S. lawmakers on aid, trade deal

[Joanne98]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With support of U.S. President George W. Bush, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe sought to convince U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday to approve more military and anti-narcotics aid and back a trade deal.

Bush and Uribe held a working breakfast at the White House to discuss strategy before the Colombian leader headed to Capitol Hill for talks with lawmakers.

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont last month ordered frozen $55.2 million in military aid to Colombia over concerns about human rights and accusations that Colombia's army chief colluded with illegal paramilitaries.

The frozen aid is part of assistance to the armed forces that needs approval by Congress, which monitors improvement of Colombia's human rights situation. The Bush administration recently certified that Colombia had made progress on rights.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0231233120070502

[Selatius]

1. Fuck no. We also need to pull out troops and so-called "military advisors" out of there too

The best way to fight the drug war is to end it. Bring it out into the open and take it away from the cartels. Legalize it. Regulate it. Save lives.

[Laughing Mirror]

2. Oh no we can't do that. We need war, wars, perpetual wars

We are a glorious military empire. Without war we are nothing.

[gratuitous]

3. We'd like to help you out, Alvaro

Well, no we wouldn't, you bloodthirsty little fascist, but we have a real convenient excuse: See, the United States bought a couple of wars a few years ago, and the upkeep and overhead is just tremendous. We'd sure like to help you out (not), but as you can see, we're pretty strapped ourselves, what with having to bribe young people into joining the military, paying "independent contractors"* to do the jobs we don't have the military personnel to do, and all the unexpected expenses like taking care of the wounded (who knew our people could get hurt in a war?). Try us again the second Tuesday of next week, mmmkay?

*Some people would call them mercenaries, but that's such an unpleasant if accurate word.

[Judi Lynn]

4. I've heard Colombia is actually supplying some of the mercenaries, too!

You really don't want ex-paramilitaries running amock outside their own country, after seeing the havoc they have created taking their chain saws to villagers, year in, year out.

Worse than bloody monsters.

Getting a new lease on life disembowling Iraqi citizens must seem like frosting on the cake to them!

[Judi Lynn]

5. From the Cuban "exile" pandering Miami Herald:Bush praises Colombia's Uribe as "friend"

Posted on Wed, May. 02, 2007
Bush praises Colombia's Uribe as `friend'
BY PABLO BACHELET
[e-mail]



SAUL LOEB/AFP-GETTY IMAGES
President Bush listens as Colombian President Alvaro Uribe
speaks to the media Wednesday on the south lawn of the
White House. Uribe is in Washington to push a free-trade
pact between the United States and Colombia.

~snip~
Many Democrats, the AFL-CIO and human rights groups want Congress to reject a free-trade agreement over human rights issues.
(snip)

But even the administration has had doubts over abuses in Colombia.

The State Department held up for almost a year a rights certification to free $55 million in aid to Colombian armed forces over concerns the government was not aggressive enough in prosecuting members of the armed forces accused of massacres or links with paramilitary groups. When the State Department last month awarded the certification, Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who sits on the Appropriations Committee, put a hold on the money until his office received an explanation from the State Department.

Uribe will do much of the explaining during his three-day visit.

He is meeting with Democratic Reps. Charles Rangel of New York and Sander Levin of Michigan, key members of the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees trade matters, and John Sweeney, the head of the AFL-CIO, which has hinted it might accept agreements with Panama and Peru if labor language is included but not Colombia because too many union leaders are killed there.
(snip/...)

http://www.miamiherald.com/579/story/93864.html

[acmavm]

6. What's wrong with this picture? We're in debt up to our eyeballs

to China, our deficit is at a historical high, we have two catastrophic military fiascos to pay for, and people are still coming begging for money.

Screw that. I won't even go into the fact that this guy is as big a thug as the ones running our country. That's a given and another subject.

But the people in THIS DAMN COUNTRY need to have a little money spent on them. Health care, the poor, New Orleans, the aged, and on and on and on...