-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! U.S. Pilots in Colombia Say They're Not 'Rambo' By Ibon Villelabeitia BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - They've been maligned as a gang of ``Godless Rambos.'' Rumors abound about their top-secret lives. Marxist guerrillas have dubbed them a ``front for U.S. imperialism'' and declared them military targets. But Bob, Mark, Keith and Thomas say they are just ordinary crop dusters -- whose target is the world's biggest cocaine industry. In rare interviews this week, a group of U.S. citizens working for State Department contractor DynCorp spoke to reporters about spraying the herbicide glyphosate on fields of coca -- the raw material for cocaine -- in war-torn Colombia. The company, based in Reston, Va., plays a key role in the U.S.-funded ``Plan Colombia'' -- a carrot-and-stick strategy designed by President Andres Pastrana to wipe out drug crops in the South American nation and hit rebels economically. Citing security concerns, the men agreed to be interviewed on condition of not having their full names printed. The four -- all in their forties and with some gray hair -- wore T-shirts, sipped coffee and spoke about work, life and family. Mark, a stocky Southerner whose twin-engine plane has come under fire several times by guerrillas and drug traffickers, said flying was just another job. ``It works for me. It's very difficult to find this job in the United States,'' said Mark, a four-year DynCorp veteran who worked as a crop duster back home before coming to Colombia. ``Here it's a year-round aerial application. In the United States it is seasonal unless you travel around all the time. I get to be with my family when I'm not here,'' said Mark, who is married and has one child. FRONT LINE OF U.S-FUNDED WAR DRUG The United States is pouring $1 billion in mostly military aid into Colombia to support Pastrana's drug offensive. DynCorp has 335 employees here, including crop dusters, helicopter pilots, mechanics and paramedics. But with staffers on a rotating schedule, DynCorp has no more than 90 to 100 U.S. citizens working in Colombia at any one time, said Keith, DynCorp's manager in Colombia. Critics of the U.S. aid -- including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the country's oldest and most powerful guerrilla army -- have dubbed the anti-cocaine plan a front for U.S. imperialism. Colombia, the world's No. 1 producer of cocaine, is gripped by a 37-year-old insurgency that has killed 40,000 people in the last decade. Under the aid -- which includes 16 Blackhawk troop-carrying choppers to protect spraying missions -- no more than 300 U.S. contractors are allowed in Colombia at any one time. But as drug fields expand -- fueling more war -- some U.S. officials are saying the ceiling might need to be raised. In Colombia, DynCorp's men are frequently portrayed by the local press as a gang of rowdy and out-of-control combat veterans who are supposed to spraying coca crops but who sometimes end up tangling with rebels. Last month, Colombia's leading newsmagazine Semana ran a cover story proclaiming the ``gringo mercenaries'' a ``band of Godless and lawless Rambos.'' LAWLESS IMAGE But Keith, who has worked as a crop duster since his teens spraying forests in Maine and in Virginia, dismissed all that press as ``false mysticism.'' He said they file meticulous reports to the State Department and the Colombian police about their missions and that most of their pilots have a civilian rather than a military background. DynCorp's pilots said they are all well paid, some earning up to $100,000 a year. Their schedule allows them to work two weeks and take two weeks off to spend time with their families back home. Thomas, a retired Army helicopter pilot who flies search and rescue missions for DynCorp, said he was working for the Postal Service when he got a call from a friend. ``He asked me if I was interested in coming down and I jumped at the chance.'' Although they are issued pistols and have undergone survival classes, the men played down the danger of spraying herbicide from altitudes as low as 55 feet (16.5 meters) over fields protected by well-armed rebels and drug traffickers. A terrain of thick jungles and plunging ravines makes the job harder. Mark, who flies an OV-10 twin engine, recalls having an engine shot out two years ago while flying over FARC-strong Caqueta Province, in southern Colombia. ``The engine quit immediately. I had to fly 75 miles (120 km) back to the base with one engine,'' he said. Three U.S. DynCorp pilots have been killed flying in Colombia: two in a training crash in 1998 and one when he hit a tree during a spraying mission in 1997. ``We don't do this because of the thrills. We are like any other corporation that works here,'' said Mark. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
