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Old 01-23-2004, 04:36   #1
Jimbo
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Anyone here know about a place called Colombia?

Colombia Sees Gains in Its War With Rebels
By Carol J. Williams
Times Staff Writer

January 21, 2004

BOGOTA, Colombia — For years, eerily abandoned highways testified to Colombians' fear that anyone rich enough to go by car into the countryside was a target for guerrillas raising funds for their insurgency through ransoms.

Over the last month, however, almost a third of Colombia's 44 million people hit the road to visit family and friends for the holidays, many venturing from crowded cities for the first time in a decade.

No one in the 17-month-old government of conservative President Alvaro Uribe is ready to declare victory in the 40-year war against the leftist guerrillas, whose factions still hold more than 5,000 hostages, including politicians, industrialists, foreign tourists and middle-class citizens mistaken for pescas milagrosas — "miraculous fish" that would yield riches.

But last year, government forces trained by U.S. advisors captured top rebel commanders, destroyed half the coca crop that bankrolls the guerrillas and retook most of the Switzerland-sized territory ceded to the rebels under an ill-fated 1998 peace plan. Rebel desertions, up 80% last year, according to the Defense Ministry, have thinned the insurgents' ranks and provided police and prosecutors with information to find and convict key guerrillas.

"It's going to take several more years. We can't say we have won, because they still have a lot of power. But in the strategic sense, there has been a shift to our side," said Gen. Carlos Alberto Ospina, commander of the Colombian armed forces, which lately have racked up what even government critics acknowledge are impressive gains.

The Jan. 3 capture of Ricardo Palmera, the highest-ranking rebel figure nabbed in the civil war, provided a resounding victory in Uribe's campaign to unmask the fighters for the criminals he says they've become and wrest back the countryside from them. Colombian authorities say Palmera helped oversee the illicit finances of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — at 20,000, the biggest group, known by its Spanish acronym, FARC.

Colombian troops also have captured about a dozen "brigadier-general-level commanders" within the main left-wing rebel groups and right-wing paramilitary vigilantes, said a U.S. official here, elaborating on a Defense Ministry memo about the damage inflicted on the insurgents in 2003.

Waging more than 2,300 battles against the rebels during the year, government troops killed nearly 3,000, captured 10,000 and seized cocaine with an estimated street value of $2 billion, the Defense Ministry said. Officials concede, however, that about 30,000 members of various factions remain in the mountains and jungles.

Uribe supporters and detractors alike attribute the gains to deep investment in the army as well as a five-year, $3-billion U.S. aid plan. Although they are aware that even one successful guerrilla attack could undermine last year's advances, officials exude confidence that the army and police will continue to roll up the insurgents, whom the public no longer views as romantic idealists.

"We finally had the political will that was lacking for so many years," Ospina said in an interview. "The main factor is our president's attitude and the people's support."

Coinciding with the blow against the guerrillas was a substantial drop in crime and violence. Homicides dropped 22% last year to a rate of about 50 per 100,000 — still high in comparison with less-troubled neighbors but the lowest rate for Colombia in 18 years. The number of victims of rural massacres fell 37%, according to the Security and Democracy Foundation, an independent think tank here in the capital.

Those accomplishments "have brought a substantial improvement in the perception of security within the population," the foundation reported in its annual security assessment.

What began as a leftist fight for equality and justice inspired by the Marxist ethos popular throughout Latin America in the 1960s metamorphosed after the collapse of the Soviet Union into a drug-running terrorist enterprise dedicated to maintaining Colombia's position as the cocaine capital of the world, charged Defense Minister Jorge Alberto Uribe, who is no relation to the president.

"People learned to live with it, like a big wart on your nose that you get used to," he said of Colombians' tolerance of the chaos and insecurity around them. "This guy running the country now — Uribe, the good one — has changed the whole outlook of the country."

Colombians are showing their support with approval ratings for the president exceeding 70% and their recent exodus into regions still infested by rebels.

"I think that the improved security on the roads is more important than many of the captures, as traveling by car inside the country used to be quite an adventure," said Otty Patiño, head of the Observation for Peace social research group and a leading figure in Polo Democratico, a left-of-center party opposed to Uribe. "By dismantling various fronts that were situated around the capital, the government has generated relief for those who use the roads."

Like 14 million of his countrymen, Patiño spent the recent holidays on a car trip visiting family. The roads to the Pacific Coast province of Valle del Cauca came to life during the vacation season, he recalled, with farmers setting up their fruit and snack stands to earn money. That return of rural commerce has government officials predicting 3.5% growth in the economy this year.

But Patiño contends that the government has exaggerated the significance of some rebel captures to win popular applause. He warned that the FARC retains an intact leadership and is savvy enough to lie low until the government offensive subsides.

Other analysts see the security improvements as more durable in light of the stepped-up government investment in Plan Colombia, a U.S.-supported blueprint for wiping out the insurgency and the drug trade. They warn, however, that the gains are fragile and that FARC still boasts quantities of fighters, weapons and money sufficient to engage government forces for years to come.

"FARC has not renounced its aim of taking power and wants political, social and economic change. But it has lost popular support by resorting to drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion to finance its military operations," said Alfredo Rangel, head of the Security and Democracy Foundation.

"I don't think there is any ideology involved in FARC," said the U.S. official, who requested anonymity for security reasons. "Maybe there was 40 years ago, but it has evolved into a criminal organization, and the people know that."

Many Colombian observers fear that having the rebels and drug kingpins on the run could provoke a wounded-bear syndrome. Guerrillas have executed several hostages in recent months, some in reaction to the president's spurning an offer to swap prisoners.

Although the risk of hostage executions remains ominous, Ospina, the army commander, said that the president had signaled his readiness to negotiate with rebels who laid down their arms and that the amnesty program was luring growing numbers of insurgents out of the underground.

The general suggested that leniency would be in order for FARC members who had been forcibly conscripted. "The FARC is 99% composed of people captured from the fields," he said, "uneducated people who don't know what they're doing. People who are just trying to escape poverty."
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Old 01-25-2004, 17:00   #2
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Looks like it is getting a bit harder to be a FARC commandante, at least in Cundinamarca!

We'll see if they can stick it to them out in Caqueta and Meta.
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Old 01-25-2004, 21:02   #3
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It's a very good school in NYC, right? LOL
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Old 02-02-2004, 09:23   #4
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A Different POV

People's Weekly World Newspaper, 01/29/04 11:05


The beginning of the new year coincided with a new, menacing increase in U.S. hostilities against the Colombian guerrilla movement, particularly against the 40-year-old Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). A number of signs point to a possible U.S. invasion of that country in the months ahead.

Since 2000, the U.S. government has poured over $2 billion in military aid into Colombia to “combat narco-trafficking.” According to critics of the program, such aid has been a thinly disguised way of fighting one of Latin America’s oldest and most deeply rooted movements for independence and social justice. The FARC commands a rebel army of approximately 18,000.

Under the U.S.-backed “Plan Colombia,” the Colombian military has been equipped with scores of Black Hawk helicopters, armored personnel carriers, drone aircraft, and other counterinsurgency equipment. Colombian troops have been trained by elite, U.S. “special forces” units in anti-guerrilla warfare technique. But it appears that the Pentagon may be readying its own forces for a direct military intervention from outside.

On Jan. 3 the Mexican newspaper La Jornada published an expose by reporter Carlos Fazio describing the Pentagon’s quiet military occupation of Ecuador near the Colombian border. Fazio details the dramatic growth of the Manta naval and air base, located on Ecuador’s Pacific coast, only an hour’s flight from Colombia.

U.S. Orion C-130 spy planes depart from Manta each day and fly over Colombia on reconnaissance missions.

The base “is under the exclusive jurisdiction of the U.S. Armed Forces’ SouthCom (Southern Command),” he writes, and is a “command center directing key mercenary operations under contract to Dyncorp, a Pentagon private subcontractor, conducting the installation of three logistics centers in the provinces of Guayas, Azuay and Sucumbios.” Currently Manta is home to 162 U.S. officers and 231 employees of Dyncorp.

The three logistic centers were authorized last September, Fazio says, by Ecuador’s foreign minister, Patricio Zuquilanda, in a secret agreement with the U.S. military attaché in Quito, Arnold Chacón. The stated purpose of these centers is to serve populations affected by natural disasters caused by El Niño.

Miguel Morán, leader of the Tohalli movement, an organization opposed to the base, said, “Ecuador is already a U.S. base, not only Manta. They inaugurated seven military detachments in Amazonia and are now after key ports. … The construction of the logistic centers is a smokescreen to conceal military activity.”

Fazio reports that Gen. Wendell L. Griffin, SouthCom Planning and Strategy Director, and U.S. special envoy for Western Hemispheric Affairs, Otto Reich, visited Ecuador recently and, in the case of Griffin, toured the border near Colombia. Many see that visit as a sign that “Washington is accelerating preparations to unleash military skirmishes inside Colombian territory” and that Ecuador will serve as a “U.S. aircraft carrier in an undercover war of aggression,” Fazio says.

Launching the invasion from Ecuador, he says, would facilitate giving the action a multinational or multilateral cover, one that Ecuadorian President Lucio Gutierrez would readily vouch for.

Meanwhile, Colombian government repression of trade unionists and right-wing paramilitary attacks on villages deemed sympathetic to either the FARC or the other guerrilla movement, the ELN, continue. Just after New Year’s, a group of 500-800 armed men in the uniform of the “United Self-Defense of Colombia,” a fascist-like group allied to big landowners in the country, reportedly terrorized several villages in the Arenal municipality. Two villagers were killed, many were savagely beaten, and more than 200 families fled the area out of fear.

On Jan. 2, one of the FARC’s top commanders, Simon Trinidad, 53, was seized in Quito by U.S. and Colombian security agents. While initial news reports said that he was in Quito for medical treatment, the FARC said that Trinidad was there for a secret diplomatic initiative, seeking to arrange a meeting with United Nations General-Secretary Kofi Annan, UN Special Adviser James LeMoyne, and representatives of the French government to discuss a prisoner of war exchange.

Trinidad is a distinguished political leader of the FARC, and was a top negotiator in peace talks with the Colombian government in 2002. Those talks eventually broke down.

The FARC leadership sees Trinidad’s arrest as part of a larger picture of “ever-increasing interference of the U.S. government” in Colombia’s affairs, and urges worldwide solidarity with the Colombian people.

The author can be reached at malmberg@pww.org.
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Old 02-02-2004, 09:26   #5
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Gaviria's Risky Foray into Colombia's Peace Process

By Marcela Sanchez
Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, January 29, 2004; 4:10 PM


This city awoke to a storm of sorts this week that had nothing to do with snow or freezing rain. It was a diplomatic commotion triggered by the sudden and risky move of Cesar Gaviria, secretary-general of the Organization of American States.

Gaviria and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe announced over the weekend that the OAS would send a mission to monitor Uribe's initiative that intends to disband Colombia's illegal self-defense groups, aka paramilitaries, and help them re-enter society. With that, Uribe gained what he so urgently needed -- international backing for his peace plan.

Gaviria did not bother to tell his bosses at the OAS that he planned to negotiate the deal. Instead, by fiat, more or less, he committed the member states and the organization to virtually irrevocable support for a proposal that even the Colombian Congress has yet to approve and that many in the international community, including the United Nations, still question.

Gaviria's haste is cause for concern. Yet next Wednesday, when he is scheduled to explain his actions to the OAS Permanent Council, its members will likely give Gaviria a slap on the wrist for his presumptuous move, followed by a resolution approving his agreement with Uribe.

But if this is all they do, OAS ambassadors will have squandered the opportunity to question Gaviria about the current initiative and whether the OAS should be backing a process that doesn't address the culture of impunity at the core of Colombian paramilitary violence.

The paramilitaries are some of Colombia's most vicious killers, responsible for the murders of hundreds of leftist politicians, labor leaders and innocent civilians. They have been collaborating with drug traffickers for years. Opposite the leftist guerrillas, paramilitaries have stood on the front lines of Colombia's long and brutal internal conflict. Both groups are considered terrorist organizations by the United States and some of their leaders face extradition to the United States for drug trafficking.

But unlike the guerrillas, the paras have a twisted claim of legitimacy -- the dirty little secret behind Colombia's dirty war. The proliferation of armed self-defense was long ignored by polite society, and not long ago Colombian laws granted them legal status.

As it stands, Uribe's initiative tries to offer the fighters and their leaders a deal attractive enough for them to lay down their weapons. But a real effort to dismantle the paramilitary legacy in Colombia needs to do much more than disarm those who pull the triggers.

Those who legitimized paramilitary activity into law, those who supported their actions financially or by conveniently looking the other way as they committed their atrocities, must own up to their responsibility in a public manner. It is exactly this segment of Colombian society that must demonstrate real contrition to pave the road to lasting peace.

If anyone understands what's at stake, Gaviria ought to. It was Gaviria, as president of Colombia less than 15 years ago, who negotiated a deal with drug traffickers who feared extradition to the United States so intensely that they declared war against all Colombians. The deal was initially very tough and required traffickers to confess to every crime and be prepared to face long prison sentences.

But the traffickers balked and continued their car-bomb war killing scores of people and effectively coercing Gaviria into accepting their own terms of surrender. The negotiations ended with Pablo Escobar, the leader of the ruthless Medellin Cartel, banished to "La Catedral,'' a Colombian "prison" of unmatched luxury, replete with Jacuzzis, large-screen televisions and computers.

Eventually, Escobar got bored and escaped, only to be killed on the rooftops of Medellin by Colombian police. Gaviria had successfully hunted Escobar down. But lopping off the main branch didn't get to the root.

In fact, many Colombians would say, it took the scandalous, partially narco-financed election of Gaviria's successor, Ernesto Samper, for Colombians to seriously address another of Colombia's dirty secrets: the penetration of drug trafficking into Colombia's society and institutions.

Gaviria has taken a disrespectful, arrogant and unilateral action to deliver OAS' support to Colombia. The haste of Gaviria's move should well raise some eyebrows, and not for the egos he may have hurt by his audacity.

The crucial question now is what kind of process Uribe is willing to deliver for Colombia's future. Haste and history should make us wary of half measures and of the motivations of a part of Colombian society that would rather not face the truth of their culpability in Colombia's conflict.

Marcela Sanchez's e-mail address is desdewash@washpost.com.
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Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimal food or water, in austere conditions, training day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon and he made his web gear. He doesn't worry about what workout to do - his ruck weighs what it weighs, his runs end when the enemy stops chasing him. This True Believer is not concerned about 'how hard it is;' he knows either he wins or dies. He doesn't go home at 17:00, he is home.
He knows only The Cause.

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Old 02-02-2004, 09:43   #6
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Re: Don't Know Much

Quote:
Originally posted by Cazador 01
Looks like it is getting a bit harder to be a FARC commandante, at least in Cundinamarca!

We'll see if they can stick it to them out in Caqueta and Meta.
Capturado cabecilla de milicias del frente 42 de las farc

29 de enero de 2004 (SNE) La Policía Metropolitana de Bogotá capturó a Oscar Giovanni Rojas Arias, alias 'Orejas', presunto jefe de las milicias urbanas de la zona de Viota (Cundinamarca) del frente 42 de las Farc.

El guerrillero está sindicado de participar en la toma guerrillera al municipio de Pulí en abril de 2003 y la emboscada a una patrulla de la policía en Quipile (Cundinamarca) el 7 de enero del año pasado, donde murieron ocho uniformados y fueron heridos tres más.

...
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Story goes on for a few more paras, but maybe too much Spanish for an English-language forum?
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Old 02-02-2004, 09:50   #7
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And if you want your very own illustrated list of FARC and other guerrilla/terrorist leaders (in PDF format):

http://www.mindefensa.gov.co/actuaco...a_colombia.pdf

Number 16 on page 3 they identify as Ermilo Cabrera Diaz (a. Bertulfo), but I'm pretty sure that's Mandy Patankin (a. Inigo Montoya).

Dave
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Old 02-02-2004, 11:25   #8
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Talking Announcement from you Spin Doctor

Please refrain from using the phrase "Dyncorp Merc's" in all future traffic. It is not of Equittable benifit to all. They should be refered to as

"Lombardi's Army of Northern Virginia"
"Non-Compounded D- Boys"
or by their Spanish Acronym GDSC (Gente Delta Sin Cuartel)

I now return you to your program LOL

In all seriousness, Dyncorp and Mercs thrown together has become the Mongul Hoards of the 21st Century in the Liberal Media.
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Old 02-02-2004, 11:48   #9
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This is a good month for me.

1966/02/15 - In Patio Cemento (Santander) the Colombian Army KIAd Camilo Torres Restrepo in his first op. (May he rot in hell).

1998/02/14 - Colombia - Manuel Perez Martinez died of hepatitis (may he rot in hell).

Yep, good month for me, bad month for the ELN and renegade Catholic priests.

I may stay drunk celebrating all month.
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Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimal food or water, in austere conditions, training day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon and he made his web gear. He doesn't worry about what workout to do - his ruck weighs what it weighs, his runs end when the enemy stops chasing him. This True Believer is not concerned about 'how hard it is;' he knows either he wins or dies. He doesn't go home at 17:00, he is home.
He knows only The Cause.

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Old 02-02-2004, 12:19   #10
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Just remember is also "Mes de la historia de las negritas" so head on down to Tumaco and do some learn one on one all about their history and culture LOL
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Old 02-06-2004, 05:31   #11
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BBC Article on connections being made between the FARC and just about every other disruptive group down there:

Article HERE
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Old 02-06-2004, 17:05   #12
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Quote:
Originally posted by Spartan
BBC Article on connections being made between the FARC and just about every other disruptive group down there:

Article HERE
Makes for good press; long reach before opposition
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Old 02-19-2004, 23:49   #13
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Colombia General Wants Rebel to Surrender
Thu Feb 19, 5:18 PM ET

By JUAN PABLO TORO, Associated Press Writer

BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombia's armed forces chief on Thursday urged Colombia's top rebel commander, who reportedly is dying of prostate cancer, to surrender.


Gen. Carlos Alberto Ospina told a news conference that the military is unable to confirm a magazine report that Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda, 73, is expected to live only a few more months.

Marulanda is the commander and a co-founder of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Along with a smaller leftist rebel group, the FARC continues to wage a war against the government in which some 3,500 people are killed each year.

The monthly magazine Diners said in an article that appeared Tuesday that Marulanda was dying of cancer and no longer wanted treatment.

"In case this is true, the best thing he could do to take advantage of his remaining days is to put right all the damage he has caused and help end the war quickly by surrendering," Ospina said.

The writer of the magazine article is the veteran and highly respected Colombian journalist Patricia Lara. She said her information came from "very reliable sources" close to the FARC.

Marulanda has not been seen in public since August 2001, when he attended peace talks in southern Colombia. The government broke off the talks six months later after FARC rebels hijacked a plane and kidnapped a senator who was aboard.

Since the end of the peace talks, the government has gone on the offensive, entering strongholds of the FARC and the National Liberation Army, or ELN, in the country's remote jungles and Andean mountains.
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I need to get me a job doing this intel stuff! I've been saying for a year I thought he was either dead or dying. I like being right - a lot.
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Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimal food or water, in austere conditions, training day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon and he made his web gear. He doesn't worry about what workout to do - his ruck weighs what it weighs, his runs end when the enemy stops chasing him. This True Believer is not concerned about 'how hard it is;' he knows either he wins or dies. He doesn't go home at 17:00, he is home.
He knows only The Cause.

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Old 02-26-2004, 11:00   #14
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U.S. General Warns on Colombian Rebels

AP
Thu Feb 26, 3:45 AM ET

By VANESSA ARRINGTON, Associated Press Writer

BOGOTA, Colombia - A top U.S. general visiting Colombia warned that leftist rebels may launch a new offensive to offset mounting losses on the battlefield, a day after guerrillas killed 11 soldiers in the nation's south.


AP Photo



Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Wednesday that more kidnappings and attacks by insurgent groups were likely as "they see all that your (Colombian) armed forces and police are doing, and as they recognize that your elected officials are getting stronger and stronger in the war against terrorism."


During Pace's two-day visit, suspected members of the nation's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, attacked the town of Santa Maria in Huila state. At least eleven soldiers and four guerrillas were killed in the fighting, which began late Tuesday.


Simultaneously, police foiled an attempted mass kidnapping by suspected FARC rebels disguised as army commandos in the nearby city of Neiva, Huila's provincial capital, police said.


The rebels raided an upscale apartment building late Tuesday with plans to abduct up to 20 residents, but only made off with three after being spotted by a police patrol, police said. As they fled, the rebels tossed a grenade at the patrol, injuring two officers and a civilian.


President Alvaro Uribe immediately demanded the resignation of Gen. Hector Martinez Espinel, who commands all army forces in Huila, the president's office said Wednesday. Uribe has repeatedly warned that he will not hesitate to fire military commanders who fail to show results. It was not clear exactly when Espinel will give up his command.


Pace, who served as the U.S. military commander for Latin America and the Caribbean from 2000 to 2001, applauded Uribe's stepped-up campaign to crush the insurgents, saying that Colombia is "much, much improved" since his last visit here two years ago.


He said the lack of support by average Colombians was also weakening the FARC and the main right-wing paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC.


"I hope the FARC and the AUC realize that the Colombian people want them to stop what they're doing," said Pace, speaking at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota during a two-day visit to Colombia.


Under the so-called Plan Colombia, the United States has donated nearly $2.5 billion in mostly military aid over the last four years to fight Colombia's outlawed groups and drug trafficking.


Pace declined to offer details on how the United States and Colombia intend to retrieve three American military contractors kidnapped by the FARC in February of 2003 after their plane crash-landed in the jungles of southern Colombia.


"We do not want our enemy to know what we're thinking," he said.
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Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimal food or water, in austere conditions, training day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon and he made his web gear. He doesn't worry about what workout to do - his ruck weighs what it weighs, his runs end when the enemy stops chasing him. This True Believer is not concerned about 'how hard it is;' he knows either he wins or dies. He doesn't go home at 17:00, he is home.
He knows only The Cause.

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Old 03-18-2004, 15:50   #15
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COLOMBIA

AUTHORITIES CAPTURE REBEL COMMANDER

BOGOTA -- Colombian authorities captured a top rebel commander who was allegedly instructing a group of youths to carry out suicide attacks against President Alvaro Uribe and other government officials, the country's secret police chief said Wednesday.

Luis Hipólito Ospina, alias ''The Muslim,'' a senior member of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was arrested Tuesday in the capital, Bogotá, said Jorge Noguera, the head of the secret police known as the DAS.

Noguera said Ospina, who reportedly speaks Arabic, German and English and has traveled extensively abroad, was trying to indoctrinate 22 youths into launching suicide attacks.

Neither the FARC nor Colombia's smaller Marxist group, the National Liberation Army, or ELN, have carried out a suicide strike in 40 years of civil war.
--------------------

Wonder where this bastard learned German and Arabic?
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Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimal food or water, in austere conditions, training day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon and he made his web gear. He doesn't worry about what workout to do - his ruck weighs what it weighs, his runs end when the enemy stops chasing him. This True Believer is not concerned about 'how hard it is;' he knows either he wins or dies. He doesn't go home at 17:00, he is home.
He knows only The Cause.

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