Reply #79: More info re Maura Harty-the DynCorp connection--major contractor for "Plan Colombia"

[Peace Patriot]

DynCorp--the contractor at issue in the snooping on Obama passport records--is a notorious war profiteer in South America.

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Good for DynCorp

The premise of the policy (Plan Colombia/"war on drugs"), that revving up the Colombian military to fight the guerrillas who protect coca plantations will affect the street price of cocaine, has been thoroughly discredited. So we might ask: Who, besides the corrupt Colombian military, has benefited from the $5.5 billion appropriated for Plan Colombia since 2000? The No. 1 beneficiaries in dollars are the U.S. companies that produce Blackhawk gunships and run the program of chemical warfare in Colombia’s coca fields. These include the companies providing the U.S. government with “services” to aid the Drug War.

DynCorp Interntational has signed contracts with the State Department for about $150 million annually since 2000 for its operations in Colombia. It also also handles most of the operations at the Manta base (U.S. air base in Manta, Ecuador). The company’s corporate offices, like those of many of the growing band of mercenary outfits, are located in suburban Virginia, outside Washington. (The company’s headquarters are in Falls Church, which is adjacent to the Congressional district of Representative Frank Wolf, the ranking Republican on the House of Representatives Foreign Operations subcommittee that marks up the hundreds of millions of dollars in funds that Congress approves for DynCorp.) The company in turn has consistently given thousands of dollars to Wolf’s campaign. Such a blatant conflict of interest is another demonstration of Plan Colombia’s corrupt underlying dynamics, which should be cause for a fundamental re-casting of the policy.

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5042

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Interesting, that Maura Harty was ambassador to Paraguay, while this deadly-to-leftists Clinton policy was enacted in South America, with vast financial benefit to DynCorp--the party under suspicion for spying on Obama's passport files, with Harty now in charge of passports.

And who else did it benefit? "Plan Colombia"--larding $5.5 billion of our hard-earned taxpayer money on the worst government in South America, in military aid--has benefited;

1) the fascist thugs running Colombia (headed by President Alvaro Uribe, former go-to guy for the Medellin Cartel, now the go-to guy for the Bush Cartel), by giving them and their closely tied rightwing paramilitary death squads the means to slaughter thousands of union leaders, peasant farmers, political leftists, human rights workers and journalists--in order to remain in power;

2) Chiquita, Drummond Coal, Occidental Petroleum, and others, who have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to these rightwing paramilitaries to rid them of their "labor problem" (massive slaughter of union leaders);

3) the major drugs/weapons traffickers in Colombia (including drugs/weapons traffickers endemic in the Uribe government), who benefit by having the peasants cleared off the best coca growing land (ancient indigenous Andes herb, for chewing and tea--small farmland food producers) in favor of cocaine production (the lethal stuff) for importation to the U.S.; ultimately beneficial to Monsanto et al, for corporate biofuel production (devastating to the environment and the food supply);

4) fascist thugs all over South America, plotting coups against leftist, democratic governments, who benefit from the trained Colombian fascists and their weapons;

5) Blackwater (active in Colombia, recruiting for Iraq) and other mercenaries.

6) Donald Rumsfeld, Exxon Mobil et al, who are using the heavily militarized, fascist Colombian government to cause major trouble for targeted leftist countries with lots of oil (Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina), and who have a plan for Oil War II: South America, which is already in motion, with the recent Colombian/U.S. bombing/incursion against Ecuador, and will probably become major news when the white separatists in Bolivia declare their "independence" this May and ask for U.S. military support. These rich white separatists intend to split off the gas/oil rich provinces from the central government of Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of Bolivia (a mostly indigenous country), to deny benefit of those resources to the poor majority. Although Rumsfeld doesn't mention Bolivia in his WaPo op-ed of 12-1-07--"The smart way to beat tyrants like Chavez"--he does urge "swift action" by the U.S. in support of "friends and allies" in South America (i.e., fascist thugs planning coups), and I think he means Bolivia (at least as the initial target).

7) The highly corrupt/entrenched political elite of Paraguay--adjacent to Bolivia (and the separatist provinces)--would benefit from "Plan Colombia" by being kept in power this year with Bushite support, against the presidential candidacy of the beloved "bishop of the poor," Fernando Lugo, who is ahead in the polls. Possibly by direct intervention (such as Bushite "black ops" assassination of Lugo--a real possibility, which Lugo recently spoke about--although he didn't name Bushites, but rather the current regime in Paraguay), or by creating such havoc in the region (i.e., neighbor Bolivia) that a fair election is not possible. We could also see U.S. boots on the ground in Paraguay (where the U.S. has a military air base), in support of the rightwing separatists in Bolivia. Also, the Paraguay regime is probably getting lots of Bush/USAID-NED money to defeat Lugo with. This and covert budget money goes through the U.S. embassy, which Maura Harty was ambassador of, 1997-1999, under Clinton. No direct connection of her with dirty U.S. ops in Paraguay, currently--but she has been promoted in the Bush State Dept. since her Paraguay assignment, and Bush policies in South America form a continuum with Clinton policies, both very oppressive and exploitative.