Latin America
Related: About this forumReport: CIA has helped Colombia kill dozens of rebel leaders
Report: CIA has helped Colombia kill dozens of rebel leaders
By The Associated Press December 22, 2013 12:01 AM
WASHINGTON - The Washington Post is reporting that a covert CIA program has helped Colombia's government kill at least two dozen leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the rebel insurgency also known as FARC.
The Post says the National Security Agency has also provided "substantial eavesdropping help" to the Colombian government.
And the paper says the U.S. provided Colombia with GPS equipment that can be used to transform regular munitions into "smart bombs" that can accurately home in on specific targets, even if they are located in dense jungles.
The Post report is based on interviews with more than 30 former and current U.S. and Colombian officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the program is classified and ongoing
http://www.canada.com/technology/Report+helped+Colombia+kill+dozens+rebel+leaders/9315358/story.html
(Short article, no more at link.)
Judi Lynn
(160,601 posts)Covert action in Colombia
U.S. intelligence, GPS bomb kits help Latin American nation cripple rebel forces
By Dana Priest
Published on December 21, 2013
The 50-year-old Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), once considered the best-funded insurgency in the world, is at its smallest and most vulnerable state in decades, due in part to a CIA covert action program that has helped Colombian forces kill at least two dozen rebel leaders, according to interviews with more than 30 former and current U.S. and Colombian officials.
The secret assistance, which also includes substantial eavesdropping help from the National Security Agency, is funded through a multibillion-dollar black budget. It is not a part of the public $9 billion package of mostly U.S. military aid called Plan Colombia, which began in 2000.
The previously undisclosed CIA program was authorized by President George W. Bush in the early 2000s and has continued under President Obama, according to U.S. military, intelligence and diplomatic officials. Most of those interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity because the program is classified and ongoing.
The covert program in Colombia provides two essential services to the nations battle against the FARC and a smaller insurgent group, the National Liberation Army (ELN): Real-time intelligence that allows Colombian forces to hunt down individual FARC leaders and, beginning in 2006, one particularly effective tool with which to kill them.
More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2013/12/21/covert-action-in-colombia/
Judi Lynn
(160,601 posts)years ago, during Bush's occupation of the White House.
Those of us who read her writing truly remember she made these calls already, so long before this information was published.
It's absolutely wonderful, and we saw it happen.
Bacchus4.0
(6,837 posts)for years and years in their fight against the FARC.
MinM
(2,650 posts)Actually it was the Washington Post that thought it newsworthy.
Zorro
(15,749 posts)Keep it up.
Judi Lynn
(160,601 posts)Colombia Downplays Report of CIA Covert Program
BOGOTA, Colombia December 23, 2013 (AP)
By Associated Press
Colombia's government is downplaying a newspaper report that a covert CIA program helped it kill two dozen rebel leaders.
Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon said on Monday that cooperation with the US intelligence and special forces has been going on for some time and is widely recognized as having been instrumental in helping break the backs of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
The Washington Post on Sunday detailed features of a CIA program that boosted Colombia's ability to eavesdrop on FARC communications and transform regular munitions into GPS-guided "smart bombs" that were used against high-priority FARC targets.
The multibillion-dollar CIA program was funded secretly and separately from $9 billion in mostly military aid that the U.S. has provided to Colombia over the past decade.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/colombia-downplays-report-cia-covert-program-21314783
(Short article, no more at link.)
Judi Lynn
(160,601 posts)Correa slams report on CIA role in Ecuador strike
POSTED: 24 Dec 2013 02:17
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa warned Monday that reports US intelligence played a role in a 2008 Colombian attack on FARC rebels in his country could threaten regional peace efforts.
QUITO: Ecuador's President Rafael Correa warned Monday that reports US intelligence played a role in a 2008 Colombian attack on FARC rebels in his country could threaten regional peace efforts.
Over the weekend, the Washington Post reported that a secret Central Intelligence Agency program had helped Colombia kill at least two dozen leftist guerrilla leaders.
And, according to the report, it was thanks to US intelligence that the FARC number two, Raul Reyes, was found and killed in a cross-border attack on Ecuador in 2008 that left 24 dead.
Ecuador temporarily broke diplomatic relations with its Andean neighbor following the incident.
More:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/correa-slams-report-on/932486.html
Judi Lynn
(160,601 posts)Did Covert U.S. Program Targeting Rebel Leaders Help Undermine Colombias Peace Process?
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. Im Amy Goodman, as we continue our coverage of the startling new report that exposes how a secret CIA program in Colombia is responsible for killing at least two dozen rebel leaders there. The Washington Post article by Dana Priest is called "Covert Action in Colombia: U.S. Intelligence, GPS Bomb Kits Help Latin American Nation Cripple Rebel Forces."
In a moment, well go to Colombia, where well be joined on the phone by Charlie Roberts, a member of the Colombia Human Rights Committee and board chair of the U.S. Office on Colombia. But first were going to turn to the words of a man who Charlie Roberts has been closely covering, Gustavo Petro, the mayor of Bogotá. Earlier this month, Colombias inspector general, Alejandro Ordóñez, announced Petro would have to leave office over the alleged mismanagement of the capitals rubbish collection service. However, supporters say the former left-wing rebel has been the victim of a "right-wing coup." Tens of thousands of people in Colombia have taken to the streets to support Petro.
In March 2007, Democracy Now! spoke to Gustavo Petro and asked him about his past as a former guerrilla and member of M-19 who later joined the peaceful opposition.
GUSTAVO PETRO: [translated] The M-19 was a belligerent force in Colombia against the state of siege, against the dictatorial forms that Colombia had two decades ago. And it stopped, it ceased being a belligerent force, in terms of an armed movement, when it negotiated agreements that made it possible to hold a national constitutional assembly, which was held in 1991, and in which we won the elections by popular vote, and it transformed, at least in terms of the constitutionit transformed the country from a civilian dictatorship into a democracy with problems.
Unfortunately, as of 1991, the constitution of Colombia, which calls for rule of law with significant social policies with a view towards reducing inequality, while we must keep in mind that Colombia is, socially speaking, one of the most unequal countries in the world, it hasnt been implemented. Instead, at the local level and in an increasingly widespread fashion, we have seen the rise of what I call the Mafioso dictatorships. These are coercive paramilitary apparatuses that assassinate the population with a single objective, which is to accumulate and concentrate wealth in the most savage form possible, one of which is exporting cocaine to the United States.
Because of denouncing these facts; because of having spent five years of my work as a legislator to showing, with pointing out the first names and last names, how certain Colombian legislators in certain regions of the country would draft laws in the morning and at night they would order massacres; because I have been helping to reveal this intricate network of relationships between persons carrying out genocide, drug traffickers, politicians and public officials, I have received this insult from the president of Colombia, who said that I was a terrorist in civilian clothes. I was accused of being a terrorist, because I was telling the truth, because I was helping to unveil one of the darkest stories in Colombian history, the relationship between the countrys rulers and drug trafficking.
More:
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/12/24/did_covert_us_program_targeting_rebel