Colombian FARC rebels, al-Qaeda joining forces to smuggle cocaine into Europe, says DEA

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NY Daily News

BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombian guerrillas have entered into "an unholy alliance" with Islamic extremists who are helping the Marxist rebels smuggle cocaine through Africa on its way to European consumers, a U.S. official told Reuters.

Interdiction efforts have made it more difficult to send cocaine straight from Colombia and other Andean producer nations to the United States and Europe.

So criminal organizations including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, are going through Africa to access the European market. And they are doing it with the help of al-Qaida and other groups branded terrorists by Washington, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

"In the mid to late 1990s when the Europeans became better at maritime interdiction, off the coasts of Portugal and Spain for example, traffickers started moving their routes southward. So the next progression was to Western Africa," said Jay Bergman, DEA director for the Andean region of South America.

Three West African men accused of ties to al-Qaida were extradited to New York in December on drug trafficking and terrorism charges.





Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/01/05/2010-01-05_colombian_farc_rebels_alqaeda_joining_forces_to_smuggle_cocaine_into_europe_says.html

[thunder rising]

1. Right ... I'll wait for the movie.

[RamboLiberal]

2. Or a Tom Clancy book made into a movie n/t

[Zorro]

3. Can't be true

Everyone knows that FARC is an organization of revolutionary freedom fighters committed only to empowering the people.

[GillesDeleuze]

4. sarcasm noted. however... its very unlikely.

The organizational behavior of FARC, especially with its developing alliance with longtime rivals, the ELN, does not lend itself to working with people who draw lots of attention on the global political scene.

[EFerrari]

37. This is a rerun of a story Rumsfeld was pushing in 2001-02.

Be skeered!

[mudplanet]

21. Oh my goodness! You mean the revolutionaires that are struggling

to change the political environment in Colombia, in which if you are active in a union, or active in trying to improve conditions for poor people, you can be picked up by the government (or government armed and supported) thugs, tortured and murdered and dumped in a ditch, are selling cocaine to underwrite their struggle! I'm outraged! Let's give billions more dollars to Colombia's government so they can murder more union members and social activists! Now that's a moral stance!

[Crowman1979]

5. This is just another BS excuse to keep funneling money for this so-called "Drug War".

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

52. This one definitely seems like a stretch

Nowadays, it seems everyone is attempting to connect their particular bad guy to al-Qaeda in order to give their cause more importance. Pretty ridiculous.

[Proletariatprincess]

6. I don't buy it.

Sounds like a big lie to me. The DEA has been linking drug interdiction to terrorism for years. Phoney war on drugs, phoney war on terror.

[Blue State Bandit]

17. Self-fulfilling prophecy?

Al-Qaeda learned how to operate asymmetrically from their CIA handlers in the lead-up to the GWOT.

Is it that hard to imagine that they would use the same funding tactics that their old handlers used?

Sounds like the right-wingers are losing the drug war (or should I say, control of the drug trade).

[winyanstaz]

7. No one believes this bullshit anymore....

The whole planet knows it is our own government agencies that are the drug smugglers of the planet. Everyone knows WE are the terrorists of the world.
These assholes are going to have to get a new boogyman.

[Peace Patriot]

8. LOL! Somebody's budget is hurtin'!

I read somewhere the other day that the CIA's budget is $1.5 TRILLION (or some such figure), and that doesn't even count their drug revenues.

So, this headline got me to thinking of the old "Spy vs. Spy" cartoon in Mad magazine. How fast do you think the CIA is running to catch up with this FARC/Al Q drug thing in Europe, to rip it off, only to stumble over the DEA, which is already onto it, didn't bother to tell them about it, and is sitting, having a toke in some toke cafe in Amsterdam, and sticks out his foot, as the CIA spy hurries by, looking this way and that for FARC and Al Q. CIA spy lands on his nose, pulls out his glock, starts shooting the legs off the tables in the cafe, trying to get the leg that tripped him; all the cafe tabletops are suspended in the air for a moment, then crash to the sidewalk and all their cups of coca leaf tea with them, except for the ones that the customers have in their hands, which they calmly continue raising to their lips to sip; meanwhile, CIA guy is rolling under the cars going by in the street, trying to catch sight of the leg that tripped him, to shoot it, but DEA guy is fast speeding out of view, and whipping round a corner into an alley, from whence he tosses little explosive nano-nails into the car traffic, exploding everybody's tires, and one the vehicles crumples down on CIA guy, and the last thing we see is his hand and his glock sticking out from under a car, while DEA guy is completing a transaction in the alley....

:rofl:

[EFerrari]

12. DEA needs better writers!

LOL

[Zorro]

15. Oh yeah the CIA's budget is $1.5 TRILLION

Hey, you read it somewhere the other day.

Gotta be true.

[Peace Patriot]

22. Yeah I did. Really. Here it is (or I read some ref to this).

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Central_Intelligence_Agency
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7391203

Black budget

"The CIA has the unique legal ability among all US government departments and agencies to generate funds through appropriations of other federal government agencies and other sources 'without regard to any provisions of law' and without regard to the intent behind Congressional appropriations. Every year, billions of dollars of Congressional appropriations are diverted from their Congressionally sanctioned purposes to the CIA and DoD based intelligence agencies without knowledge of the public and with the collusion of Congressional leaders. The covert world of ‘black programs’ acts with virtual impunity, overseen and regulated by itself, funding itself through secret slush funds, and is free of the limitations that come from Congressional oversight, proper auditing procedures and public scrutiny." The CIA black budget is annually in the vicinity of 1.1 trillion dollars – a truly staggering figure when one considers that the DoD budget for 2004 will be approximately 380 billion dollars.

------------------

Lots of comment at the DU site pooh-poohing this figure, but then Cassandra2010 comments, providing this analysis from scoop.co.nz:

----

Conclusion

The method used in guiding the analysis in this report is to simply follow the money trail created by the CIA’s black budget that enables a number of important insights to be drawn by the institutions playing key roles in generating, protecting and distributing black budget funds. Critical in this analysis has been the experience of individuals and companies such as Catherine Fitts and Hamilton Securities that experienced what evidence indicates was a CIA orchestrated covert campaign to discredit the financial tracking reforms that threatened to make more transparent the financial flows of HUD and other government agencies. The systematic accounting problems experienced by HUD and other agencies points to the existence of an unofficial black budget of up one trillion dollars annually. The size of the black budget and the CIA activities used to generate funds for it, point to a vast secret network of projects that is funded outside of the normal Congressional appropriation process. Consequently, what follows is a discussion of some of the primary conclusions that can be drawn and arguments made concerning the CIA’s ‘unofficial’ black budget and the Manhattan II project it has been argued to fund.

It is worth repeating that the CIA is legally authorized by Congress to transfer, “without regard to any provisions of law”, funds from other government agencies for the generation of a black budget. There is strong evidence that the CIA uses this power to disregard law to complement whatever funds it can generate through Congressional appropriations, with funds gained through the drugs trade and organized crime that is laundered through different government agencies. The total annual sum of the black budget is best estimated in the form of accounting anomalies in the main departmental recipient of all black budget funds, the DoD, and is in the vicinity of 1.1 trillion dollars that funds a network of classified intelligence activities and covert operations that collectively form a second Manhattan Project.

The oversight of Manhattan project occurs outside of the conventional oversight system that can be easily compromised by partisan politics. The oversight system that has evolved has been very successful in dividing different functions for Manhattan II in ways that balance institutional rivalries between national security organizations without compromising secrecy. Thus the CIA generates the black budget that in turns transfers these funds to projects that are institutionally located in the military intelligence and special operations units of the DoD. The various military intelligence agencies in turn hire private contractors and/or provide the necessary military resources for these covert programs to be conducted in national laboratories, military bases, private corporations or other classified locations. The program managers of each of the classified projects associated with Manhattan II answer directly to an ‘executive committee’ that is outside of the regular oversight process in DoD, CIA, Congress and the Executive Office. The Joint Chiefs of Staff have control of the testing and applications of Manhattan II products that are conducted in collaboration with the intelligence community. The respective intelligence, defense and appropriations committees in the US Congress provide legitimacy for Manhattan II and the black budget that funds it by not revoking the budgetary powers allocated to the CIA through the 1949 CIA Act. Finally, the Executive Office through the National Security Council issues the necessary executive orders/NSC directives to coordinate the functions and activities in all the branches of government in order to secretly run Manhattan II. Thus each branch of the national security system plays an important role in Manhattan II, without being fully in control of it, thereby insuring a division of powers according to different functions required for Manhattan II. Effective oversight of Manhattan II, however, comes from an ‘executive committee’ that is immune to the partisan political process and whose oversight power and control of resources makes it virtually a ‘shadow government’.

It needs to be emphasized that the ‘unofficial’ black budget and Manhattan Project have legally evolved in ways to respond to a national security contingency that is yet to be revealed to the American public. The classified adversary that this elaborate secret system has been developed to respond to is arguably a potential threat that warrants an extraordinary network of covert programs that dwarf the original Manhattan Project and annually consume as much as 1.1 trillion dollars in a non-transparent manner. More disturbingly, the importance of Manhattan II is such that the CIA has evidently used organized criminal networks and the drug trade as sources to partially fund Manhattan II.

It is unclear when the full scope and impact of Manhattan II will be disclosed to the American public. However, the consequences in terms of increased loss of trust in federal government agencies, loss of morale among senior agency officials instructed to cover up black budget transactions, non-transparency in the flow of government appropriations, targeting of policy makers and business leaders who discover the fraudulent accounting and money laundering that occurs with the black budget, all warrant a serious examination of the need for maintaining the secrecy of Manhattan II and the black budget that funds it. Finally, the classified adversary against whom Manhattan II is directed requires immediate declassification due to the inherent dangers of dealing with what appears to be an undisclosed security threat in a non-transparent and unaccountable manner, and totally outside of the moral/legal restrictions that emerge from vigorous public debate in democratic societies.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0401/S00151.htm

(Cassandra2010 says: "Lots of footnotes for anyone who wants to take the time and examine the matter in greater detail."

[Zorro]

25. You're a laff riot!

And the CIA is funding its $400 billion shortfall by using "organized criminal networks and the drug trade"!!!!

Hey, it must be true. It's on the internet!

Seriously, there are thousands of real patriots in the national agencies. You're delusional if you think they aren't dedicated to the ideals of the founding fathers.

[Peace Patriot]

26. The CIA and DEA are "dedicated to the ideals of the founding fathers"?

:rofl:

[EFerrari]

29. Didn't you know the Founders idealized torture, drug running and death squads?

:rofl:

/oops

[Zorro]

32. So you're declaring that government employees aren't patriotic?

Interesting.

[EFerrari]

35. Zorro, I have a confession to make: I AM HUGO CHAVEZ FARC REP AT DU!

There. I feel much better now.

[Bacchus39]

38. everyone knows that n/t

s

[Socal31]

44. I can't say I am shocked.

[EFerrari]

45. Now that's out in the open, you can go back to looking for commies under your bed.

[Socal31]

48. I am going to go out on a limb here and say...

that there is a vast space between Mr. McCarthy and a Hugego lover like yourself. And I, like most people, fall in that space. Trying to pin someone to the other end of the spectrum, because they don't agree with you, is debate 101 and doesn't fool anyone.

[EFerrari]

49. Precisely my point. It's the same quality of debate as name calling

isn't it? :)

[ngant17]

58. this guy has been on my ignore list for a long time

so that I now actually forget who he/she is, except that I only see "ignored" in the DU postings. It's a track record earned long ago.

[ngant17]

59. this has got to be a joke

no Islamic Allah-fearing organization is going to associate on any working level with godless, communist Marxists. Oil and water don't mix.

Unless Al Cia-da is not what it really appears to be.

[Peace Patriot]

31. The Wall Street Urinal is on the internet, and I don't believe a word they print.

It's not whether it's on the internet or not. It's whether or not the source has interesting and generally reliable reporting, investigations and analysis. I've found Scoop to be a lot more interesting and reliable than the crapola that is consistently shoved down peoples' throats by any corpo-fascist 'news' monopoly that you can name.

I got the figure slightly wrong. It's $1 trillion to $1.1 trillion, not $1.5 trillion, but then, gimme a break, it was New Year's! After a few glasses of champagne, the trillions of U.S. taxpayer dollars going down the toilet just sort of all run together. I'm not much of a drinker.

[Zorro]

34. OK

Scoop may be more interesting, but I would question its reliability if they're promoting a $1.1 trillion dollar budget with a shortfall being made up by drug running.

I know such assertions have a certain allure, but frankly they have no basis in reality. As I mentioned, there are thousands of patriots in government service, and such activities could never be completely hidden.

[erikdane]

41. LOL. best laugh of the day

Thank you. I needed a good laugh. :rofl:

[Bacchus39]

19. $1.5 trillion!!! wow thats alot of money, I wouldn't say they are hurting PP n/t

s

[Peace Patriot]

24. I didn't mean the CIA was hurtin'. I meant the DEA was hurtin'.

And the DEA gets onto this new fat source of revenue, and gets there first, and the CIA comes nosing around trying to gobble it up, too, and thus...

Spy vs. Spy!

(The DEA is hurtin' cuz they've been kicked out of country after country in Latin America, and these uppity little countries run by uppity little brown people in sandals are actually doing a boffo job of cocaine interdiction, and that's just drying up more DEA funds, and even Mexico is starting to balk at all the bloodshed and waste of the corrupt, failed, murderous US "war on drugs" and even saying things like "Let's legalize marijuana." So the DEA's got to jack up the threat and connect it to Al Q, to compete with the CIA for our dwindling tax dollars, and find some more booty to trade.)

[Bacchus39]

30. well, maybe the CIA can give the DEA a little of that $1.5 trillion budget. how about that?

since according to you they have about the same budget as the rest of the US government combined, you'd think they could spare some change.

[FarCenter]

9. Molasses to rum to slaves?

In this case what is flowing in the opposite direction and by what route? What do the Columbians get in return?

[RaleighNCDUer]

10. Seems to me that if FARC had access to cocaine revenue

they'd have won their war years ago.

[Mudoria]

11. Good for the people of Colombia they haven't won I'd say..

[RaleighNCDUer]

13. Yes, much better that the country be in the hands of oligarchs and drug lords

than in the hands of the people.

[Bacchus39]

20. the FARC are most definitely in the narco business

as well as kidnapping, extortion, and of course murder.

[RaleighNCDUer]

23. So says the DEA and the CIA.

I say again, if you are in a multi-billion dollar enterprise you DON'T hide out in the jungles - you occupy the seats of government.

[Zorro]

27. As does the UN and European Union

But what do they know?

[RaleighNCDUer]

36. Who is 'The UN and European Union'?

There are 180+ countries in the UN, and 27 countries in the European Union - who do you claim speaks for all of them?

Give me some names, some organization, some agency who has evidence that is NOT gleaned from US sources.

Seriously. If FARC has access to that kind of money, why don't they have SAMs shooting down government planes? Why don't they have armored units fighting the army? Why do they resort to kidnapping for ransom and extortion? - they don't pay nearly as well as flying a couple hundred pounds of coke to LA would.

You are swallowing the bullshit the government is feeding you. How's it taste?

[Zorro]

46. Here ya go

Here's what the EU has to say about FARC: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/es/oj/2005/l_272/l_27220051018es00150017.pdf

And the UN? (Well, technically the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights): http://www.hchr.org.co/publico/comunicados/2004/cp0423.pdf

How's that crow taste?

[EFerrari]

50. Hold it. This is what Amnesty International says about Colombia:

Many hundreds of thousands of people continued to be affected by the ongoing armed conflict. Civilians were the main victims of the conflict, with Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendants and campesinos (peasant farmers) most at risk; many lived in areas of economic and strategic interest to the warring parties. All parties to the conflict – the security forces, paramilitaries and guerrilla groups – were responsible for widespread and systematic human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law (IHL). While some indicators of conflict-related violence, such as kidnapping and hostage-taking, continued to improve, others deteriorated. There was an increase in internal displacement and an upsurge in threats against human rights defenders and in killings of trade unionists. Killings of civilians by the security forces remained high. Paramilitaries continued to operate, despite government claims to the contrary. The killing of dozens of youths by the army led to the sacking of senior members of the military and forced the resignation of the head of the army, General Mario Montoya. Several high-profile hostages regained their freedom after years of captivity at the hands of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC), but hundreds of people were still being held hostage by the FARC and the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional, ELN). The FARC were again thought to have been responsible for bomb attacks in urban areas. There was some progress in judicial investigations into emblematic human rights cases, although impunity remained a serious problem. The extradition of paramilitary leaders to the USA on drugs-trafficking charges undermined human rights investigations in Colombia.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/colombia/report-2009

Much more at the link.

[RaleighNCDUer]

66. I wouldn't know -

the first document lists a number of persons and groups the EU (or a committee speaking for the EU) accuses of drug dealing - there is no evidence given.

The fact is, FARC extorts money (collects taxes) from drug dealers. FARC does not run drug labs, handle distribution or export of cocaine. IOW, they are as involved in the drug trade as the Miami PD is, which funds itself from confiscations.

The second article, I saw no reference to drugs - my Spanish is not all that good, but it seemed to be condemning a FARC massacre - I couldn't get if those killed were peasants who objected to paying the extortion imposed on coca growers or what, and I don't know where the mentions of displaced persons fits it.

Back to the first list, if it doesn't include the CIA it is not a definitive list of drug dealers. It in fact looks like a list made up by the CIA.

Both these documents are from 5-6 years ago, when the Bush administration was pushing the 'drugs support terrorists' meme.

How about some REAL evidence? Arrests, trials and convictions would be nice.

[Bacchus39]

33. the FARC have an army to support

I've already listed the ways they generate revenue. Narcotrafficking, kidnapping extortion, and protection money extortion.

they can't just depend on sympathetic leaders from other nations to bankroll them. and they can't raise the funds selling stuffed arepas in Bogota.

the certainly have their sympathizers in the Colombian congress. Mainly the POLO party.

[ChangoLoa]

56. They admit they tax cocaine trafficking. nt

[ChangoLoa]

55. Everybody has access to cocaine money in Colombia

In fact, in some rural areas in Colombia, cocaine is THE money (circulating currency). In the areas controlled by the FARC, there is a tax on trafficking that they perceive openly. They recognize it and justify it as a necessary evil and by saying that their enemies, paramilitary and government, do the same... which is true.

[RaleighNCDUer]

67. True enough - but 'taxing' (IOW, extorting money from) traffickers

is hardly the same as running the operation themselves. From everything I've read, FARC has kept its hands relatively clean of the drug trade. In fact, as I remember it, back in the 80s Pablo Escobar tried to buy his way into the government by offering the Medellin cartel's backing against FARC - because FARC was disrupting his business. The Paras do the same thing - and many of them are directly involved in trafficking.

I don't know how badly FARC has screwed up, given that they don't control the media reports about them and 90% of what we hear is anti-revolutionary propaganda, but it does seem that they have lost their way some. It is possible that they will degenerate into a simple criminal organization, the way the mafia did (which also started out as an insurgent revolutionary group). But they're not there yet.

[EFerrari]

14. Some say they use chupacabras as mules!

[Zorro]

16. Just because

"Three West African men accused of ties to al-Qaida were extradited to New York in December on drug trafficking and terrorism charges..." doesn't mean there's a direct FARC tie.

They may have received their cocaine from Venezuelan sources.

[EFerrari]

28. Or maybe from your buddy Bigfoot.

[RaleighNCDUer]

40. What a surprise - a baseless anti-Chavez insinuation, too. nt

[Flaneur]

43. Or from Uribe's paramilitary buddies.

[Bacchus39]

18. not surprising, the FARC is just a murderous drug mafia. of course they deal with other scum

they may attempt to hide behind a political agenda, but they are just a criminal organization.

[Peace Patriot]

39. So is the Colombian government and Alvaro Uribe, sixty of whose closest political associates

(including relatives) are under investigation, indicted or in jail for their ties to death squads and drug trafficking. And Colombia gets $6 BILLION of our tax dollars in military aid, to shoot union leaders, peasant farmers, teachers, human rights workers and anyone who objects to the narco-thug government.

You're always beating on the FARC. But it is the Colombian military and its deaths squads who are responsible for 92% of the murders of union leaders in Colombia, according to Amnesty International--about half of that 92% by the Colombian military itself, and the other half by its closely tied rightwing paramilitary death squads. Why don't you beat on them--on the murderers of thousands of innocent people? You approve of the murder of innocent people--of people who were merely trying to exercise their civil rights, or were doing nothing at all except farming on land that some big drug lord or Monsanto wants?

Let me hear your condemnation of Colombia's human rights record--the second worst human rights record on earth. Let me hear you call Colombia's government and military "scum" for murdering thousands of innocent people, and displacing 2 to 3 million peasant farmers--the second worst human displacement crisis in the world, outside of Sudan.

Until you do, your constantly ragging on the FARC, and calling them "scum" and calling them a mere "criminal organization," rings completely hollow. You won't even acknowledge the much more massive crimes on the rightwing side of that civil war. I, at least, have stated time and again that I do not approve of FARC's murders or kidnappings. The Colombian government and military are far more criminal, and you ignore their crimes.

I think Colombia's civil war is a tragedy that needs to be brought to a peaceful end . I wish to God that my own government would help do that--instead of exploiting the situation for war profiteering and worse--and larding these criminals with billions of dollars that are needed here, and that are doing NOTHING to solve that problem, only making it far, far worse.

I have asked you before: What is your solution? More killing? 40+ years of a civil war isn't enough? Herd all the brown-skinned people--the poor, the peasant farmers--into refugee camps and urban slums, and periodically shoot their leaders? Cuz that's where Colombia is heading, very fast--toward outright nazism, concentration camps and genocide. The U.S. should be using its clout in Colombia to end this civil war, and it is doing the opposite--funding one side of it--the worst side. That is not a solution. That is a war crime.

[Bacchus39]

42. Union leaders aren't the only ones who are murdered in Colombia

I absolutely recognize the cancer of the paramilitaries. the demobilization was a positive step for sure. The FARC did not agree to the terms of course. did the paras go away?? absolutely not.

Corruption is not endemic to Colombia. pick any latinamerican country and it is rife with corruption. I've already said that Uribe shouldn't run. The process is more important than the leader. I believe that true of any nation. But countries get to elect whoever they choose according to their own processes. Venezuela, Honduras, Colombia whichever country.

Ok, the paras and military who engage in extrajudicial killings are scum. just as the FARC are. That isn't too difficult to say PP. Colombia has a poor human rights record.

On the other hand Colombia has wisely tied its allegience to the US no matter the administration, rather than with wannabe Simon Bolivars from neighboring countries. I don't see Colombia blaming the US for all its problems.


I would love to see Obama broker a lasting peace in Colombia. I do not believe for one minute though that the FARC would accept any type of negotiations or agreement spearheaded by the US no matter who the US president is.

[ShortnFiery]

47. Perhaps we should clear up our OWN Corrupt Government before we go playing WAR in

covert fashion in Latin America again?

Just a thought. :(

[EFerrari]

51. It's too late. We're already there.

A huge disappointment. At least BushCheney mostly ignored the region. :(

[AlphaCentauri]

53. So recreational drug users are paying tribute to Al Qaeda

they used to finance the contras in Nicaragua

[Bacchus39]

54. well, it could be.

many recreational drugs are produced in the US htough. marijuana, meth, LSD.

I tend to believe that cocaine users or any drug user isn't particularly concerned with the origin of the drug or what types of associations drug cartels have with other criminal enterprises. are drug users speaking out against the violence in Mexico???

what's your take?

[AlphaCentauri]

68. Recreational drug users don't care if they are financing a right wing paramilitary

army or a religious fundamentalist group, as we know for the most part right wing groups have been doing the drug trade but when recreational drug users want them to be legal they ask the left to do so, I'm just guessing they see drug trade as part of the right wing free enterprise.

[IndianaGreen]

64. The only murderous drug mafia are our graduates from Ft Benning's SOA/WHINSEC

Their human rights record is dismal.

[bemildred]

57. Emmanuel Goldstein sighted in Colombian jungle hanging out with peasants. nt

[LanternWaste]

60. It sounds like a good idea on their part though...

It sounds like a good idea on their part though. It would have been reasonable simply to put out "diplomatic" feelers to each other as the conventional goals are similar-- destabilization of the west and a concomitant weakening of the west's sphere of influence. Shared resources, intelligence, comm networks, etc.

Granted, though FARC is the very thing the religious extremists find abhorrent and vulgar with western culture, I could still see them playing this on a short-term secular level (the enemy of my enemy and all that), placing results over dogma ig the benefit is great enough. And, as many of the religious extremists use money from the regional opium trade, it doesn't seem to be too much of a stretch to me.

I'm not going to immediately discount this, but I'm not completely buying it either.

ed;sp

[harun]

61. Sorry, not buying this BS.

[murdoch]

62. FARC

Initially, FARC banned farmers from growing coca. Eventually they relented, and I don't really blame them. Where was the cocaine coming from before then? All of this is looked at as laughable outside of the US.

Of course the US only goes after coca in FARC regions, and makes the most token of raids in the areas of the country where the Colombian elite are making a fortune on coca.

It is ridiculous really - the US ships the deadly tobacco drug all around the world, who is going to stop that? Of course, all of this has nothing to do with coca. The US is sending men and arms to Colombia for the same reason it is sending arms to Nepal for the same reason it is in the Middle East.

The US has been making excused for messing with Colombia since Teddy Roosevelt. The US started a war with Colombia and stole northern Colombia to form the Panama Canal. By the 1950s the reason for US interference was "Marxism". Then it was "drug war". Now Americans are scared of Al-Qaeda so they link it all to Al-Qaeda terrorism. Plenty of liberal democrats here will trumpet the latest reason given from the imperial trumpeters just like good little Joe Bidens.

[IndianaGreen]

63. DEA is so realiable... look how they are winning the never ending War on Drugs

Another authoritarian federal bureaucracy with a self-serving agenda.

We are doomed!

[conspirator]

65. Don't forget the grey aliens from zeta reticuli. They are in the same conspiracy too nt

[bitchkitty]

69. In other news, Dora the Explorer visits Yemen - terrorist ties exposed! n/t