Colleagues, Let me spell it out as best I can. Mike Ruppert said a few days ago (I am summarizing here): "Well, let's see if they release Lori Berenson..." Well, look what just happened! (She's not out yet, but what she has to say when she gets out -- soon -- will be very interesting.) Mike also nominated me for Bronx Borough President, to which I make a Shermanesque statement: if elected I will not serve (most of my paisanos bronqueños have been indicted. Power doesn't interest me. Justice does.) Mike is right on in his observation that everything is going down right now. We're all sort of standing here, scratching our heads, realizing that SOMETHING is happening and that it is not according to Langley's plan. Enter Lagos, of Chile, who Washington can't touch, for historic reasons spelled out in the report below. As much as we want you to hit our web site to read this story (well, then, link to it from somewhere), I will give it to you gratis, to the 95% good people here and the 5% spooks who monitor us (they can pound sand): 1. Plan Colombia is already a disaster, even before the first shots are fired next week. 2. Read up on Simón Bolívar. 3. Washington will grow increasingly desparate and crass in trying to stem the tide. They are pissing into the wind. 4. Although Washington and Wall Street oppose a "European Union" type alliance among Latin American nations, the European Union itself is pleased as punch with the idea: Key player in the global conflict to come. 5. Read more Bolívar. Like, start with, "The War to the Death." Where he offers a very kind and enlightened way out for people who were not born Américans. Okay, here it is: the most open window into seeing what is happening in Our América, complete with details of the Covert part of Plan Colombia; Contras redux, already fracasing.... Don't forget to read the investigative report from Brazil, which appears last. Skim over everything else if need be, but read that. ...from somewhere in a country called América, -a --- August 28, 2000 Countdown to Clinton in Colombia: Details of Plan Colombia's Covert CIA Operation Mercenary project, now rejected by Chile, is likely to Receive "Logistical Support" from Argentina, according to counter-intelligence experts. Special to The Narco News Bulletin by Al Giordano A covert operation, presumably by the US Central Intelligence Agency, that has recruited Brazilian, Central American and US soldiers-of-fortune to fight clandestinely in Colombia was dealt a severe blow last week, The Narco News Bulletin has learned. The covert operation, first reported in October 1999 by the respected Brazilian newsweekly Istoé, originally had planned to use Chilean airfields to ship smuggled arms and mercenary soldiers into Colombia. During US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's recent lobbying trip to Santiago de Chile, the government of that nation announced, privately and publicly: Chile will not lend "logistical support" for that or any other military part of Plan Colombia, covert or overt. Albright, in her five-day, five-country, tour, went to Argentina where President Fernando de la Rua broke with all of Latin America by pledging "logistical support" for the $1.3 billion US-imposed Plan Colombia. In the analysis of top investigators in the field of counter-intelligence consulted by Narco News, this signals that the covert mercenary flights originally slated to leave from Chilean airstrips, are now likely to utilize Argentina's territory instead. This development -- one of many recent setbacks for Plan Colombia -- is due to the change in government in Chile. In elections early this year, the Chilean people ousted the party of General Augusto Pinochet and chose Ricardo Lagos -- former official in the government of assassinated president Salvador Allende -- as president. Allende had been deposed and assassinated in 1973 by a US-backed military coup. This story contains the facts about the illegal covert mercenary operation now underway as part of Plan Colombia. This project, hidden from the American people, must also be understood in its geo-political context. The Geo-Political Context Provoked by "Plan Colombia" Latin American leaders and members of Civil Society across the hemisphere -- with the exception of Argentina's government and Colombia's increasingly isolated President Andrés Pastrana -- have rejected US government pressures to offer military and "logistical" support to the military plan to defeat the Colombian guerrilla movements. US officials continue to deny that the goal is counter-insurgency and have thinly disguised their intervention as an "anti-drug" plan. Indeed, as Narco News reported in our July 31 interview with exiled Colombian journalist Alfredo Molano, Plan Colombia has hidden, more regional, agendas, among them to decentralize cocaine trafficking throughout South and Central America, thus bringing more pretexts to intervene in the affairs of the fledgling Latin American union. Lagos, in an interview yesterday with the Brazilian daily El Globo, threw down the gauntlet to other Latin American leaders: "One day soon, Latin America must speak with one voice," Lago told the Brasilia daily. "We are betting on continential integration." On the eve of US President Bill Clinton's August 30th visit to Cartagena, Colombia, Chilean President Lagos set his sites on more significant events that will take place in the following days: -- On August 31 and September 1, the leaders of 12 Latin American countries will meet in Brasilia. And Lagos has placed a European Union-style alliance at the top of the Summit docket. -- On September 6, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez will address the United Nations in New York City. He will arrive in New York on September 4 with high-profile media appearances and, according to today's edition of the Caracas daily El Norte, place two themes back on the American agenda: the marginalization of the poor, and the sovereignty of American nations. Chávez has increasingly frustrated efforts by Washington and official US media outlets to marginalize him: According to Human Rights Watch, Venezuela under Chávez was the only American nation to improve human rights within its borders in 1999, and drastically so. Chávez, this year, became the first American head-of-state ever to cancel an election he was bound to win handily because fair election safeguards were not yet in place. The system was corrected, a new election was held, and Chávez won a six-year term by a punishing margin. In a recent foreign policy speech, US Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush, pointed out the source of the worry among both Washington political parties: "America is right to be concerned about Kuwait -- but more of our oil comes from Venezuela." The entrance of Chile's Lagos into the fray creates distinct problems for Washington. The high visibility of the judicial proceedings against former dictator Pinochet, coupled with Lagos' image as a democratic leader strongly identified with the former Allende government, give Lagos more elbow room to organize the hemisphere into a new geopolitical power. Lagos also has many friends and contacts among US members of Congress. As a known quantity, he cannot be easily marginalized. But before Lagos took office, US officials in Washington and Langley had a different plan for Chile regarding the long-plotted Plan Colombia intervention. --- "Mercenaries Made in Brazil" Here is the text of last October's investigative report by Istoé magazine, translated from the original Portuguese to English by The Narco News Bulletin: from the Brazilian newsweekly Istoé, October 20, 1999 Original article in Portuguese can be found on the internet: http://www.istoe.com.br/brasileiros/1999/10/16/001.htm "Mercenaries Made in Brazil" "Pilots and combatants are being contracted in Rio de Janeiro to fight against the FARC and/or drug trafficking in Colombia" by Mário Chimanovitch Istoé magazine, October 20, 1999 A secret operation to recruit Brazilian mercenaries -- pilots and combatants -- to fight against the guerrilla and/or drug traffic in the jungles of Colombia is now underway in Brazil. Military aviators (reserve officers) and unemployed civil pilots who like a lot of adventure and a lot of money are being contacted in Rio de Janeiro. The pilots can make from $10,000 to $12,000 US dollars per mission. The recruitment demands references: the candidate must have known contacts and be willing to furnish them. In the past, he must have participated in risky missions, such as those that occured in Angola between 1992 and 1994, when the socialist government of the Popular Liberation Movement (MPLA) fought, and now fights again, a bloody war against the UNITA of Jonas Savimbi, strongly armed by South Africa. It is not known exactly who is behind this recruitment operation but there exist strong indications that it is being conducted by the Division of Clandestine Operations of the CIA, the US intelligence service. Istoé was able to interview two enlistees. A professional of civil aviation, currently unemployed, revealed that pilots who don't have experience flying the Hercules C-130 transport plane -- that will be used in missions bringing men, arms and supplies to forces that combat against the FARC (Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces) and against drug trafficking -- receive a kit that includes a computer simulation program about this aircraft. With or without the computer program, a pilot trains for four to six hours a day. Next, or upon enlistment, he participates in missions as co-pilot of the Hercules C-130 and as pilot of a DC-8. Once familiar with the plane, the mercenaries travel to Chile, from where they will carry out missions to Colombia, from a military base not revealed to the pilots. Before participating, he must sign a contract that obliges him, in case of death or accident, not to claim financial compensation. "The contract doesn't include life insurance. Each one goes into combat at his own risk. His family must sign a document that promises not to demand financial compensation in case of death or accident and neither to reclaim the recruit's body in case of death," he revealed. The pilot, who says he doesn't like to be called a mercenary, told Istoé that in the past he participated in Angola operatinos, the majority of times under extreme adverse conditions. "We would arrive with arms and equipment under close fire. We would land and take-off very rapidly, staying only a few minutes. We would arrive with a Hercules on airstrips that were many times precarious and under machine-gun and mortar fire. We would land and take-off immediately," he said, admitting that if he had died in an accident, his name would not be revealed. The pilot affirmed that the group being recruited now for missions in Colombia is practically the same that operated in Angola. He acknowledged that a recent by the representative of UNITA in Portugal, from where Brazilian mercenary pilots combatted against the guerrilla of Savimbi on the side of the Angolan armed forces, could be true. This fact was denied by Brazil's ambassador to (the Angolan capital of) Luanda, Jorge Taunay, when last week the UNITA began to attack Brazilian interests in Angola. According to UNITA, "Vietnam sold Tucano aircraft to Brazil for Angola, used by pilots of the government of (Angolan) President José Eduardo dos Santos, that always survives thanks to the support of foreign mercenaries who attack defenseless populations." Taunay acknowledged that Brazil, in fact, sold planes to Angola, "with the goal of training pilots and making reconaissance missions." The pilot said that "the group that is going to operate in Colombia includes Vietnam veterans who will work with others from Central America (principally Nicaragua, on the side of the Contras, and also El Salvador)." He revealed that the planes that will be used in missions against the FARC or drug traffic (C-130 and DC-8) belong to an American who executes missions for the CIA and are stored in hangars located in South Africa. "I am informed that there are ten planes, no more than six of which will be used for the Colombian operation," he said, insisting that he could not give more details or he would risk being killed. The take-offs in Chile and entrance over Colombian airspace will be "unofficial," which is to say: with the knowledge of the Colombian authorities but not officially registered.... more details (wake up América!)... http://www.narconews.com/ _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. -------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~> GET A NEXTCARD VISA, in 30 seconds! Get rates of 2.9% Intro or 9.9% Ongoing APR* and no annual fee! Apply NOW! http://click.egroups.com/1/7872/6/_/475667/_/967528769/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
