http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11850
Colombia: Patterson and Graham Play the Terrorism Card
Philip Smith, DRCNet
November 2, 2001
Even as Congress grows increasingly queasy about the
US drug war adventure in Colombia -- the Senate last
week voted to slash President Bush's Andean
counter-drug budget by 22 percent -- Bush
administration officials and congressional drug war
diehards are turning up the "terrorist" rhetoric in an
effort to strengthen their cause.
Senator Bob Graham (D-FL), chairman of the Senate
Intelligence Committee, pleaded with his colleagues to
vote for more Colombia aid because the Andean nation
is one of the theaters in the global "battle against
terrorism." A very "discouraged and disappointed"
Graham told the Miami Herald after the vote that the
counter-drug program in Colombia should be broadened
to include anti-terrorist activities.
Speaking at a luncheon last week, Graham elaborated.
Some 500 acts of terrorism were committed against US
citizens or economic interests last year, he said. "Of
those almost 500 incidents, 44 percent were in one
country. Was that country Egypt? No. Israel? No.
Afghanistan? Hardly a tick. Forty-four percent were in
Colombia," Graham explained. "That's where the
terrorist war has been raging."
Graham must have been heartened by US Ambassador to
Colombia Anne Patterson's announcement last week that
the Bush administration plans to provide Colombia with
"counter-terrorist" aid as part of the new US war on
terrorism. Patterson told the Associated Press that
Washington plans to help Colombia guard (US-owned) oil
pipelines, assist civilian and military
"counter-terror" investigators, and train and equip
elite anti-kidnapping and bomb squads.
"Colombia has 10 percent of the terrorist groups in
the world, according to our [State Department] list,"
Patterson told the AP. Patterson did not discuss how
she defines terrorist groups, vs. insurgencies or
armed national liberation movements, or how one might
differentiate one from the other.
"There's no question we are now focusing more on
terrorism in Colombia," Patterson explained.
"Certainly, September 11 has enabled us to do more of
these kind of things," she added, referring to broader
assistance to the Colombian state.
Another one of "these kinds of things" that Patterson
has in mind is to attempt to extradite and try
Colombian guerrillas and paramilitaries on drug
trafficking or money laundering charges in the US. "We
have focused our attention on all types of
international organized crime, including money
laundering," she told a conference on the topic in
Cartagena.
Drug traffickers have faced extradition to the US in
the past, but the US has never previously attempted to
criminalize participation in Colombia's civil war.
Now, in the name of the war on terrorism, the Bush
administration is preparing to turn up the heat on the
Colombian pressure cooker. Stand back.
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