Title: U.S. Soldiers Feared Dead In Colombia Plane Crash What is the basis ofr any journalist to say these soldiers were on an "anti-drug" flight?
on what basis do they say that FARC firecely opposses Washington's "anti-drug policy?
for that matter, on what basis do they say that the FARC is communist?
I say this because i have evidence that one man recruited to kill Barry Seal was a FARC
guerrilla working for the Colombian government--in an arrangement he testified they'd
worked out long ago, in a hit perpetrated by US military intell, at the behest of George bush,
and carried out by Oliver North,some funny kind of communist to be working for ollie north.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/ts/story.html?s=v/nm/19990726/ts/colombia_plane_13.html --------------------
Monday July 26 1:56 PM ET
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Yahoo! News Top Stories Headlines U.S. Soldiers Feared Dead In Colombia Plane Crash
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Drug TradeBy Karl Penhaul
BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Five American soldiers and two Colombians were feared dead after a U.S. anti-drug plane crashed into mountains in a rebel-held area of southern Colombia, top U.S. counternarcotics official Barry McCaffrey said Monday.
It was thought to be the first time U.S. troops were killed in Colombia's U.S.-backed drug war. But McCaffrey said the accident would not undermine Washington's commitment to helping the world's top cocaine-producing nation stem the tide of narco-trafficking.
``They have located the wreckage and it's under observation,'' McCaffrey told a news conference after meeting Colombian businessmen in Bogota.
``The evidence so far would indicate that the five brave American aviators and two Colombia air force officers have probably lost their lives in a fatal accident,'' he added.
The De Havilland RC-7 reconnaissance aircraft disappeared from radar screens before dawn Friday as it flew over southeast Colombia -- a stronghold of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas and a region rife with illegal plantations of coca leaf, the raw material for cocaine.
Wreckage has been located at an altitude of about 7,000 feet in jungle-clad mountains that divide southern Putumayo and Narino provinces, close to the border with Ecuador, according to Lt. Jane Campbell, of the U.S. army's Miami-based Southern Command.
Dense fog prevented ground rescue teams from reaching the crash site. Campbell said no aircraft could land at the site and rescuers would have slide down on ropes from helicopters in order to obtain ``100 percent confirmation'' that the wreck the De Havilland.
There was no sign marauding FARC rebels, fiercely opposed to Washington's anti-drug policy, were close to the crash site.
The five U.S. soldiers -- two captains, a warrant officer and two enlisted men -- who are feared dead were part of a group of about 240 U.S. personnel based in Colombia at any one time, most of them involved in counterdrug operations.
The crash and McCaffrey's three-day visit came at a critical juncture for the fight against drugs in Colombia, which saw a two-fold increase in cocaine production despite receiving $280 million in U.S. counternarcotics aid this year.
Despite being the world's third-largest recipient of U.S. aid, Colombia has seen cocaine production double to about 165 metric tons annually over the last four years and heroin output rise about 20 percent to 6 tons.
U.S. and Colombian officials blame spiraling production on the growing links of Marxist rebels, and to some extent their right-wing paramilitary rivals, in the drug trade.
``It's quite clear that drug production is up dramatically and that many, in particular FARC units, benefit financially from association with criminal drug organizations,'' McCaffrey said, adding the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN) and ultra-right death squads were also involved in drug running.
Colombian authorities estimated the FARC and ELN earned $2.3 billion from the drug trade between 1991 and 1998 and used most of the proceeds to buy weapons.
The FARC deny sponsoring narco-trafficking, saying they support impoverished peasants who have no alternative but to grow coca leaf or opium poppies and concede they levy a ''revolutionary war tax'' on drug traffickers.
The FARC, and a number of political analysts, have accused Washington of meddling in Colombia's counterinsurgency operations under the pretext of fighting the drug war.
Earlier Stories
- Fog Hampers Search For U.S. Plane Downed In Colombia (July 26)
- US Plane Wreck Seen In Rebel-Held Colombia Jungle (July 26)
- U.S. Plane Appears To Have Crashed In Colombia (July 25)
- U.S. Plane Appears To Have Crashed In Colombia -US (July 25)
- No Sign Of Missing U.S. Plane As McCaffrey Arrives (July 25)
- U.S. Hunts Spy Plane Lost Over Colombia Rebel Zone (July 25)
Jul 25 | Jul 24 | Jul 23 | Jul 22 | Jul 21 | Jul 20 | Jul 19 | Jul 18 | Jul 17 | Jul 16
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