INTERPOL CLARIFICATION: Never Determined Authenticity of Laptops

[magbana]

EXCERPT FROM VENEZUELA INFORMATION OFFICE News Summary - June 13, 2008

Interpol clarified its recent report on laptops Colombia claims contain evidence that Venezuela gave material support to the FARC. According to Venezuelanalysis, Interpol representatives told Ecuadorian leaders that its investigation "does not determine if the computers provided were found in the guerrilla camp of the FARC during the incursion on March 1st, if they effectively belonged to Raúl Reyes, and even less so their contents." This news clarifying Interpol's findings was not reported in the U.S. press.

"INTERPOL Clarifies it Never Determined Authenticity of Laptops that Implicate Venezuela" Venezuelanalysis
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3547

June 12th 2008, by James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com

Ecuadorian Presidential Advisor Fernando Bustamante met with INTERPOL in New York last week, during which INTERPOL confirmed that the Colombian government's assertion that the computer files it has belonged to the FARC had not been proven.
Ecuadorian Presidential Advisor Fernando Bustamante met with INTERPOL in New York last week, during which INTERPOL confirmed that the Colombian government's assertion that the computer files it has belonged to the FARC had not been proven.
Mérida, June 12, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)-- Representatives of the International Police Organization (Interpol) told Ecuadorian Presidential Adviser Fernando Bustamante in a meeting last week that its investigation of laptop computers which Colombia claims belonged to the FARC "does not determine if the computers provided were found in the guerrilla camp of the FARC during the incursion on March 1st, if they effectively belonged to Raúl Reyes, and even less so their contents," according to a recent missive released by the Ecuadorian Foreign Relations Ministry.

Bustamante, the chief advisor to Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, met with INTERPOL representatives last Tuesday during a United Nations conference in New York. At the meeting, INTERPOL "confirmed that their forensic informational analysis does not imply the validity or the exactitude of the user files that contain," the Ecuadorian government disclosed.

Today, Venezuela's Vice-President, Ramón Carrizalez, echoed Bustamante's evaluation when he said about the computer files, "This is an information that no serious person can validate. Anyone who knows how to read and write and who has some common sense will notice that these are proofs that cannot be used anywhere in the world."

The Colombian government claims the files prove that Venezuela financed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and that Ecuador provided refuge for the insurgents. Colombia also claims to have found the computers in the wreckage of a FARC camp inside Ecuador that the Colombian armed forces bombarded last March 1st, killing FARC second-in-command Raúl Reyes, to whom Colombia says the computers belonged.

INTERPOL clarified to Bustamante that the report was an act of "independent technical assistance" and that it only confirmed that after March 3rd, Colombia complied with international standards for the treatment of evidence. Proper handling of the evidence could not be determined for the period between the attack and March 3rd.

"Between March 1st and 3rd... there are no indications that user files have been created, modified, or eliminated, but neither is there evidence that demonstrates that this has not been done," INTERPOL told Bustamante.

Based on this clarification, the Ecuadorian government reiterated Tuesday its "position of not granting any legal validity to the information found in the computers supposedly belonging to Raúl Reyes." Ecuadorian Foreign Relations Minister María Isabel Salvador previously set this policy in mid-May when the INTERPOL report was first released.

The Ecuadorian government also reiterated its concern over Colombia's manipulation of the results of INTERPOL's report to make it look like the report proved the accusations against Venezuela and Ecuador, a falsity that has been perpetuated by the mainstream international media.

Bustamante suggested that Ecuador should have been allowed to participate in the investigation, to which the INTERPOL delegates replied that Ronald Noble, the General Secretary of INTERPOL, would be willing to visit Ecuador to discuss the details of the report.

Meanwhile, President Correa echoed Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's recent call for the liberation of all FARC hostages yesterday after meeting with the father of a Colombian soldier who has been held prisoner by the FARC for 10 years.

Correa also asserted that Ecuador "is not going to ask anybody's permission the humanitarian action that is incomplete," referring to the process of humanitarian hostage releases underway before Colombia's March 1st attack, which ended the humanitarian exchange.

FARC: Uribe is Planning to Assassinate Chavez

FARC leader Iván Márquez, who had met with Chávez to discuss hostage release last year, alleged in a communiqué last weekend that President Uribe "attempted and continues trying to kill" Chávez and Correa with the help of the United States.

The Colombian Department of Security Administration (DAS) has already infiltrated Caracas with 100 paramilitary forces to assassinate Chávez, and a similar plan exists for Correa, Márquez alleged.

In the statement, Márquez also railed that the laptops examined by INTERPOL are fake and used by Uribe to threaten neighbors and to cover up the political scandal in Colombia in which Uribe allies have recently been convicted of contracting paramilitaries to perform politically motivated assassinations.

Ecuador and Colombia expressed their willingness to renew diplomatic relations last Friday with arbitration by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's Carter Center, which commented that both presidents were open to "the possibility of immediately re-establishing diplomatic relations between both governments without preconditions."

[Judi Lynn]

1. So good to see this spelled out clearly. This information was virtually buried earlier, wasn't it?

It will take a while but eventually the truth IS going to prevail, after all.

Very happy to save this information for future reference. Thanks to magbana for some great reading material!

[Zorro]

2. Keep right on deluding yourselves

Those laptops are the real deal, and you know it.

Truth hurts, doesn't it?

[JohnnyCougar]

3. Yeah, you know it.

Tell me, have you seen the laptops? What makes you think they are real? I'm talking logical arguments and factual evidence here, not elaborate delusional fantasies that Colombia makes up and the New York Times repeats without challenge.

[Zorro]

4. INTERPOL reaffirms key findings of its examination of seized FARC computers

The headline in its entirety reads: INTERPOL reaffirms key findings of its examination of seized FARC computers in response to efforts to distort conclusions.

<snip>

Following the publication of ‘INTERPOL’s Forensic report on FARC computers and hardware seized by Colombia’ on Thursday, 15 May 2008, there have been many inaccurate and misleading statements made in relation to INTERPOL’s findings.

The most recent misinterpretation of the report’s conclusions was contained in a press release issued by Ecuador’s Ministry of Foreign Relations on Tuesday, 10 June following a meeting with INTERPOL officials from its New York office at the United Nations. Ecuador's press release gives the false impression that some ‘new’ information was brought to light during its meeting with INTERPOL representatives. INTERPOL believes that Ecuador has misinterpreted the key findings of INTERPOL's report and the content of discussions with INTERPOL staff.

For example, Ecuador’s press release inaccurately suggests that INTERPOL had not established whether the eight seized exhibits forensically examined by INTERPOL’s computer forensic experts had been recovered by Colombian authorities on 1 March 2008 from a FARC camp or belonged to Raul Reyes.

In fact, during the preparation of its report INTERPOL requested and was provided with documents and information relating to the chain of custody of the exhibits seized by Colombian authorities on 1 March 2008. Based on a review of all the information and material provided by Colombia, including a classified oral briefing, INTERPOL was able to satisfy itself, and clearly stated in its report, that the seized computer exhibits it was requested to forensically examine were taken from the FARC terrorist camp on 1 March 2008 and belonged to Raul Reyes. This finding was inextricably linked to INTERPOL's determination as to whether there was any manipulation or alteration of data contained in those seized computer exhibits.

The INTERPOL report clearly states that the overall conclusion of its experts was that ‘no user files have been created, modified or deleted on any of the eight FARC computer exhibits following their seizure on 1 March 2008’ (paragraph 99). The report also makes clear that after detailed and careful computer forensic analysis – comprehensively documented within the text - the experts excluded the possibility that the user files were tampered with after 1 March 2008, including the period between 1 and 3 March 2008.

<snip>

More at: http://www.interpol.int/Public/ICPO/PressReleases/PR2008/PR200826.asp

That factual enough for you?

[JohnnyCougar]

5. So basically it reaffirms that there's no evidence.

Thank you. The files have not been altered, but we don't really know if they are accurate. And they still don't say anything about Chavez giving money to FARC.

Thank you for clearing that up, Zorro.

[Zorro]

6. Oh but you don't know what they really say, do you?

I doubt if the Colombian authorities have released all 48,000 files to you, so it's rather presumptuous to assert that "they still don't say anything about Chavez giving money to FARC" at this time.

I suspect there's a fair amount of information about Chavez' relationship with FARC in those files, which could be an explanation about Chavez' about-face regarding FARC over the past week. He may well know he's about to be exposed as being a state sponsor of a terrorist organization in a neighboring country, and is working to mitigate that impending revelation.

[EFerrari]

7. I bet he eats kittens for breakfast, too.

lol

No one in Latin America credits US State department propaganda as you do, Zorro. Maybe State could use your help.

[Zorro]

8. You're quite welcome to your opinion of Chavez' innocence

It will make it that much more entertaining if and when he's exposed as a state sponsor of terrorism.

[EFerrari]

9. Then expect to be bored.

Your own government is sponsoring terrorism around the world when it's not enacting it. And people who follow these issues in Latin America recognize propaganda when we see it.

[Zorro]

10. Care to identify where the US is sponsoring or enacting terrorism?

Or are you just repeating some mindless jingoistic rhetoric?

[JohnnyCougar]

11. Wrong.

Chavez did not do an about-face. He said the same things in January about how FARC should give up their armed struggle. That was before this whole crisis began.

I know it's hard to look at things objectively with the Chavez-hate blinders on, but do us all a favor and take them off just for 20 minutes here. The way you simply repeat obviously false anti-Chavez talking points is boring.

[Zorro]

12. If you're bored with reading my comments

then don't read them or comment about them. Duh.

"Repeat obviously false anti-Chavez talking points"? Nothing false about my opinions; I have a very clear understanding of Chavez and the effect of his policies, which apparently you do not share.

But I'm not the only one that has a negative impression of Saint Hugo; his ex-wife also weighs in on the policies of her former husband:

<snip>

...The 43-year-old Rodriguez has been an outspoken critic of the president since their 2004 divorce.

She told reporters Saturday that under Chavez, democracy in Venezuela has been replaced with "nepotism, inefficiency and intolerance."

...
<snip>

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080614/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_chavez_ex_wife_1

So you going to tell me that she doesn't have a clear understanding of Chavez and the effect of his policies, also?

[Judi Lynn]

13. Good gawd. Ex-wife? What a shock. She doesn't like him. I wonder if that's normal, for estranged

loved ones to despise their partners, or family members over a relationship gone bad? Do you think this has happened with other divorced people? Hmmmm.

Might be something to think about, if you only could.

How many idiots can this world comfortably contain, anyway? Looks as if we reached a safe level long ago.

[Zorro]

14. Certainly she would have an agenda

Doesn't mean she isn't right.

Your casual dismissal of her opinions is a blatantly sexist attitude. And casual insults are something you should avoid, but apparently haven't learned yet.

But don't let me stop you.