>X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Unverified)
>Subject: Fw: America Says It's Intensifying The War On Drugs. The
>Truth Is Sinister - Manchester Guardian
>
> Tony "boy" Blair has already expressed "enthusiasm" for the
>plan - in other words mass murder, as usual for the bumboy at #10.
>Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy - the world's leading
>hypocrite -has also demonstrated that Canada will fall into line as
>yet another bent-at-the-knees recipient. That's a magnificent
>mansion that Prime Minister Jean " pepper guy" Chretien has at his
>lake. RR
-----Original Message-----
>Date: Saturday, June 24, 2000 2:52 PM
>Subject: America Says It's Intensifying The War On Drugs. The Truth
>Is Sinister - Manchester Guardian
>
>The Manchester Guardian Wednesday, June 21, 2000
>
>Colombia: America Says It's Intensifying The War On Drugs. The Truth
>Is Sinister - by Isabel Hilton
>
> Meeting in London this week, senior officials from the EU, the US
>and Japan were discussing how much backing they should give to an
>aid package for Colombia. Colombia certainly needs assistance. The
>question is whether the help on offer will make matters better or
>worse.
> Just to recap on what ails Colombia: an undeclared civil war that
>has lasted 30 years, displacing up to 40% of the population. Last
>year there were 402 massacres, many committed by paramilitary gangs
>working in conjunction with the Colombian army, others by guerrilla
>forces. The government has effectively ceded a third of the country -
>mainly the south - to the FARC, the largest guerrilla army, with
>whom it has initiated peace talks. Oh, and there's cocaine, of
>course - a trade that keeps the war going, corrupts the government
>and the judiciary and ensures the attention of the US.
>
> That might be a good thing, except that it is the wrong kind of
>attention. The document under consideration in London is called Plan
>Colombia. President Andres Pastrana first announced it as a
>development plan for his country when he visited Washington two
>years ago, shortly after his election. Even before taking office,
>Pastrana had flown to meet rebel leaders - showing that he wanted to
>negotiate and that he acknowledged that a real end to violence
>required social justice. Social justice, in turn, demands
>development, and the plan he brought to Washington was a collection
>of economic and social programmes that he hoped would transform the
>areas in conflict. He called it a Marshall plan for southern
>Colombia, hoping that his country's patent need would elicit a
>generous response.
>
> In the event, the international community pledged nothing to the
>plan. The US, however, offered to expand military assistance for
>counter-narcotics operations until, last year, Colombia became the
>world's third-largest recipient of US military aid. Meanwhile, Plan
>Colombia has been redrafted. Social and economic concerns come last.
>Top of the list is more military aid aimed, the US would have us
>believe, at suppressing the cocaine trade.
>
> There are two problems with this. Firstly, all the many wars that
>have been declared on drugs have ended in defeat. Secondly, the areas
>that the US proposes to target are, funnily enough, those controlled
>by the FARC, or, as Washington calls them, the narco-terrorists.
>There is no mention of counter-narcotics operations against the
>paramilitaries - despite the fact that the DEA itself described
>Carlos Castano, the self-proclaimed leader of the paramilitary death
>squads, as a trafficker linked to a powerful cartel.
> The redrafted Plan Colombia has little to do with Pastrana's vision
>and everything to do with the US desire to get involved in counter-
>insurgency in Colombia. The role of the EU would be to pay to
>alleviate some of the suffering this would cause.
>
> Latin America hands are thinking they have seen something like this
>before. Where else did the US pour vast sums into a corrupt army
>working closely with psychopathic death squads? Where else did it
>pretend to believe that the men who shot dead an archbishop as he
>celebrated mass had nothing to do with government security forces?
>Twenty years on, have lessons been learned from El Salvador?
>
> Apparently not. There are already US "advisers" in Colombia in
>numbers that are beginning to reach El Salvador levels. Evidence
>collected by the New York based Human Rights Watch links half of
>Colombia's 18 brigade-level army units to paramilitary activity.
> These units operate throughout the country, including areas in
>receipt of US military aid. In 1997, 1998, and 1999, the Colombian
>government's own investigations demonstrated that army officers
>worked closely with paramilitary groups, sharing intelligence,
>carrying out joint operations and supplying weapons. Their targets
>included human rights workers and academics who had documented
>atrocities. The officers named remain in their posts.
>
> Nowhere in the latest version of Plan Colombia is there mention of
>curbing paramilitary activity or bringing to justice those
>responsible for civilian massacres and disappearances.
>
> What will be the result of Plan Colombia? The US estimates it will
>create another 10,000 refugees. Aid agencies believe there could be
>10 times that. Aerial spraying of coca with herbicides and
>bacteriological agents will destroy legitimate crops, create more
>forced migrants and wreak ecological damage - all without denting
>the traffic one iota. US helicopter manufacturers, on the other
>hand, think it is a fine idea. Tony Blair has also expressed
>enthusiasm for the plan and offered to mobilise EU support. For
>Colombia's sake, I hope he changes his mind.
>
> ************
>
>from: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 08:57:52 GMT
>X-Authentication-Warning: appletree.guardian.co.uk: mail set sender
>to postmaster using -f
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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>
> / Fall reported in teen drug use /
>
>Illegal drug-taking among British youngsters has dropped for the
>first time since the 1960s, according to a survey, writes Jeevan
>Vasagar .
>The authors of the study, published in the British Medical Journal,
>describe the result as a startling turnaround since 1995, when
>research showed that British teenagers had the highest rates of drug
>use in the world.
>
>The latest figures, based on answers to questionnaires by more than
>2,600 boys and girls aged 15 and 16, show that use of Ecstasy halved
>among girls and dropped by nearly two-thirds among boys. One-third
>of girls and almost two-fifths of boys admitted having used illicit
>drugs. Cannabis was the most popular drug, and more than one in 10
>said they had abused glues or solvents. Scottish teenagers admitted
>to higher rates of drug use than those in any other part of Britain.
>The report's co-author Martin Plant, director of the Edinburgh-based
>Alcohol and Health Research Centre, said one reason for the drop
>might be that drug use had reached a "natural saturation point".
>
>The Guardian Weekly 8-6-2000, page 9 " JC
>
>
>
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