Russian court rules to extradite Israeli wanted in Colombia for training death squads

[Judi Lynn]

Russian court rules to extradite Israeli wanted in Colombia for training death squads

The Associated Press
Wednesday, March 12, 2008

MOSCOW: A Russian court ruled to extradite a former Israeli army commando wanted in Colombia, where he has been convicted of training private armies of Colombian drug cartels and right-wing death squads, officials said Wednesday.

Yair Klein was arrested at a Moscow airport in August on an Interpol warrant.

The Russian prosecutor general's office decided to extradite Klein to Colombia, and the Moscow City Court on Tuesday upheld that decision, court spokeswoman Anna Usacheva said.

Klein — a former lieutenant colonel in the Israeli army — was convicted by a Colombian court in 2001 and sentenced in absentia to nearly 11 years in prison for his role in the 1980s training of far-right paramilitary groups responsible for mass murder and widespread land theft during a decade-long reign of terror across Colombia's countryside.

Klein also was accused of training the private army of deceased druglord Pablo Escobar on how to carry out high-profile killings such as the 1989 assassination of cartel-fighting presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan.

http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=10984346

[Judi Lynn]

1. Who Is Israel’s Yair Klein and What Was He Doing in Colombia and Sierra Leone?

Who Is Israel’s Yair Klein and What Was He Doing in Colombia and Sierra Leone?

In late April, Yair Klein was released from a Sierra Leone prison where he spent 16 months on charges that he was smuggling arms to rebels from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).

Klein is a former lieutenant colonel in the Israeli Army. In the 1980s he established a paramilitary mercenary company called Spearhead Ltd. Through this company, Klein began providing arms and training to forces in South America.

In 1989, Klein, along with several other former Israeli officers, was charged by authorities in Colombia of providing paramilitary training and arms to drug lords running international cocaine cartels. He is also accused of training Mafia assassins whose targets have included Colombian politicians. Klein is also suspected of involvement in the explosion of a Colombian airliner in November 1989.

In 1991, Klein was convicted by an Israeli court of illegally exporting military arms and information to a Colombian group. He was fined $13,400. He has denied all charges.

In 1998, Klein was officially indicted in Colombia on charges of training paramilitary units in terror tactics in the late 1980s. He was allegedly one of four Israelis hired by the late drug trafficker Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, one of the Medellin cartel’s most violent bosses.

The evidence against him includes a training video that he used to instruct death squads in Colombia. The main leaders in the infamous Carlos Castano’s paramilitary groups were trained by Yair Klein.

Massacres, assassinations of politicians and other terror tactics now used by paramilitaries in Colombia were part of the instruction that Yair Klein gave in his training camps.
(snip)

And I think it is important to distinguish the narco-terrorism of Pablo Escobar and Rodriguez Gacha during the ‘80s of the paramilitary activity with political objectives from the beginning of the ’90s, because I think that Klein is closely related to this new strategy of war. I mean that he trained the men provided by Escobar and Rodriguez Gacha in tactics like massacres, like massive retaliations, which are more linked to a dirty war than a regular warfare against guerilla groups that’s the broader framework of narco-terrorism. I mean that narco-terrorism was mainly made by car bombs and this kind of indiscriminate terrorism. But the political warfare of the paramilitary is more related to selective killing and massacres.

More:
http://www.democracynow.org/2000/6/1/who_is_israels_yair_klein_and

[Bacchus39]

2. this makes no sense whatsoever

or perhaps you can translate for us, or simply tell us why you think that it is important to distinguish paramilitary narco-terroism of the 80s with the paramilitary narcoterrorism of the 90s and this decade. politics has NEVER been diassociated with the FARC or the paras. however, the real issue is about power and control of the drug trade and other resources.



"And I think it is important to distinguish the narco-terrorism of Pablo Escobar and Rodriguez Gacha during the ‘80s of the paramilitary activity with political objectives from the beginning of the ’90s, because I think that Klein is closely related to this new strategy of war. I mean that he trained the men provided by Escobar and Rodriguez Gacha in tactics like massacres, like massive retaliations, which are more linked to a dirty war than a regular warfare against guerilla groups that’s the broader framework of narco-terrorism. I mean that narco-terrorism was mainly made by car bombs and this kind of indiscriminate terrorism. But the political warfare of the paramilitary is more related to selective killing and massacres."

[Judi Lynn]

3. Interpol seeks 3 Israelis accused of training Colombian death squads

Interpol seeks 3 Israelis accused of training Colombian death squads
The Associated Press
Published: April 3, 2007

BOGOTA, Colombia: Interpol issued an international arrest warrant Tuesday for three Israelis accused of training private armies of Colombian drug cartels and right-wing death squads.

Yair Klein, Melnik Ferri and Tzedaka Abraham were being sought on charges of criminal conspiracy and instruction in terrorism and face nearly 11 years in prison if convicted, said Oscar Galvis, spokesman for Colombia's domestic intelligence agency.

The men are accused of helping set up training camps to teach private armies working for drug lords Pablo Escobar and Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha about explosives, car bombs and high-profile killings. The armies later morphed into Colombia's right-wing death squads.

Klein, a former lieutenant colonel in the Israeli army, appeared in a 1998 video used to train far-right squads. In 1991, he was convicted and fined US$13,400 (€10,030) by an Israeli court for selling arms to Colombia's illegal groups.

Klein also spent 16 months in a Sierra Leon prison for his role in a guns for blood diamonds deal.

In an interview with Caracol television conducted in Israel and broadcast in March, Klein denied ever working with the cocaine cartels, but confirmed that he did instruct the far-right death squads in how to eliminate the leftist insurgency.

He said he was originally hired — with the Colombian Ministry of Defense's blessing — to organize security for the banana industry in the northern region of Uraba.

Many of his students went on to carry out some of Colombia's most brutal massacres.

More:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/04/america/LA-GEN-Colombia-Israeli-Mercenaries.php