Bush renews anti-drug flights in Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

Source: AFP

Bush renews anti-drug flights in Colombia

Saturday, August 18, 2007 06:00 AM
CRAWFORD, Texas (AFP) - President George W. Bush has renewed US support for efforts to interdict suspected drug-trafficking flights in Colombia, the White House announced in a statement yesterday.

It released a memorandum for US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, dated Thursday, in which Bush certified that the program should continue.

"Interdiction of aircraft reasonably suspected to be primarily engaged in illicit drug trafficking in that country's airspace is necessary because of the extraordinary threat posed by illicit drug trafficking to the national security of that country," Bush said.

Colombia "has appropriate procedures in place to protect against innocent loss of life in the air and on the ground in connection with such interdiction, which shall at a minimum include effective means to identify and warn an aircraft before the use of force is directed against the aircraft," he said.

The program was suspended in April 2001 after an incident related to the Peru air interdiction program, in which a civilian aircraft wrongly suspected of carrying illegal drugs was shot down, killing a US missionary and her daughter.


Read more: http://www.philstar.com/index.php?News%20Flash&p=54&type=2&sec=91&aid=20070817270

[ohio2007]

1. and this is why Hugo bought those fine Russian sniper rifles

imo, Hugo should take a larger role in controlling the drug traffic across his borders. It's not like Tora Bora,it's just in another part of the Amazon rainforest

[bobthedrummer]

2. i.e. protection of Wally Hilliard and associates assets by BFEE eom

[Joanne98]

3. Another attack on Chavez!

[Judi Lynn]

4. You may find this interesting:US trained Colombian soldiers jailed for working with cartel

US trained Colombian soldiers jailed for working with cartel, says human rights group
The Associated Press
Published: August 17, 2007

BOGOTA, Colombia: Seven Colombian officers accused of working for the country's biggest cocaine cartel were trained by the U.S. military to help Colombia fight leftist rebels and its illegal drugs industry, a human rights group said Friday.

The officers attended courses at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation — formerly called the School of the Americas — at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, said School of the Americas Watch group, a leading critic of the institute.

Six are in jail on charges of conspiring with the Norte del Valle cartel, the largest and most violent cocaine-trafficking organization in Colombia, and another is on the run, the group said.

School of the Americas Watch said in a statement that it matched the names of those in the scandal with its database of attendees at the institute.

More:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/17/america/LA-GEN-Colombia-Military-Scandal.php

[Judi Lynn]

5. Since one has been smoked out, and is on the run, it's good to remember

he may be wearing a disguise. Call authorities if you see this guy!

[Judi Lynn]

6. Mark Weisbrot, author, comments on the pending FTA with Colombia

Posted on Sat, Aug. 18, 2007 10:15 PM
PRO-CON: SHOULD CONGRESS OK TRADE DEALS?

Over the past three decades the United States has greatly expanded trade with — and moved factories to — countries where workers have limited rights to form unions or bargain collectively.

One of the main purposes of such commercial agreements as the NAFTA and the WTO has been to reduce wages here by throwing U.S. workers into competition with their much lower-paid counterparts throughout the world. Partly as a result of these policies, the average real wage in the United States has hardly moved over the last 30 years.

These “free trade” agreements have therefore become increasingly unpopular, and this issue helped tip the balance of Congress to the Democrats in the 2006 election.

Congress should reject the agreements with Colombia and Peru. Approving the Colombian agreement would send an especially chilling message to the world that Washington is seeking access to cheap and repressed labor.

http://www.kansascity.com/273/story/237523.html

[Bonobo]

7. "Let's Grow it Here, so We Don't Have to Grow it Over There!"