http://politicalmavens.com/index.php/2008/07/24/but-the-terrorists-will-not- trust-us/?print=1
But the terrorists will not trust us! By Judith <http://politicalmavens.com/index.php/author/jklinghoff/> A. Klinghoffer (bio <http://politicalmavens.com/index.php/author/jklinghoff/bio/> ) Unfortunately, too much information is being released on the methods used to fool FARC. It turns out that 2 rescuers posed as journalists. Now the journalist complain that hence terrorists will not trust us! Here is the way the Swiss used to help FARC cover up its own blunders: <http://colombiareports.com/pics/2008/07/jean-pierre_gontard.jpg%22> With the help of captured documents emails, Von Alex Baur details <http://www.weltwoche.ch/artikel/?AssetID=20495&CategoryID=100> the unsavory reality of Swiss mediation between the Colombian government and FARC. The shocker is not the fact that a Swiss professor acting as mediator turns out <http://colombiareports.com/2008/07/07/colombia-accuses-swiss-diplomat-of-fi nancing-farc/> to be a bag man for ransom payments, we all suspected as much. Much more important is the evidence that the Swiss even handed policy helps FARC look good by helping the terrorist organization cover its own blunders. Indeed, the reason terrorists look so efficient while democratic governments appear to be faltering is because the mistakes of terrorists are covered up with the help of useful idiots such as the Swiss in the case of the FARC. Consider the following story: On 18 June 2007, Alfonso Cano sent an e-mail to his boss Manuel Marulanda - alias Tirofijo - concerning a terrible mishap. At the time, Cano was still a deputy of the since deceased FARC leader. Good Evening, Comrade, Cano writes, Due to a serious mix-up our unit was attacked by our own people who thought we were from the ELN [the National Liberation Army, a rival guerilla force]; the guards holding the representatives then killed eleven of the twelve hostages, because they thought they were being attacked by the army. This grave error is going to cause us enormous problems. <http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/070628/070628_hostages _vmed_4p.widec.jpg%22> What had happened? In April 2002, in a daring action in the city of Cali, the FARC kidnapped twelve members of the regional parliament. The twelve men were taken off to the jungle by the narco-guerilla and since that time figured among the FARCs most prominent hostages along with Ingrid Betancourt. But in June 2007, just as the negotiations on a humanitarian solution seemed to be progressing and the Colombian government had released a FARC capo as a gesture of good will, the fatal blunder took place. The guards holding the hostages were mistakenly attacked by the FARC themselves. Believing that government troops were undertaking a rescue operation, they thereupon killed eleven of the twelve parliament members in cold blood. The hostages were shot in the back. (This is the FARCs preferred method of execution, since it always leaves open the option of claiming that hostages were killed while trying to escape.) In other words, the FARC leadership was dealing with a deadly incident of friendly fire which cost the lives of valuable hostages. What was to be done/ On the very day of the massacre, FARC Chef Tirofijo posed three questions to his deputy Cano: 1. Can we still keep secret the described events among the guerrilleros and the civil population? 2. Are there army forces nearby, were there clashes? 3. Can we at least keep the thing secret until our comrades are free? On the FARC chiefs assessment, one has to delay the public being informed as long as possible, but one should have a communiqué ready just in case. If the second question can be answered positively, then the solution is very simple: one will simply blame the army. And if all that doesnt work, Tirofijo concludes, we will ask the families to forgive us by way of a political argument: namely, by making the governments postponement of the humanitarian exchange [intercambio humanitario] responsible for the matter.As the FARC internal e-mail correspondence shows, over the next few days the FARC bosses engaged in a debate about optimal disinformation. On 22 June 2007, Tirofijo suggests claiming that the guards retreated with the hostages upon being attacked and that several people were killed while fleeing. Comrade Timoschenko (a known member of the secretariat) is inclined rather to blame the President without providing any further explanation. Alfonso Cano is for leaving open the identity of the attacking forces - at least for the moment. This is the version that is finally chosen. The parliament members were killed in crossfire during an attack by unknown troops, the FARC claim officially. On 15 August 2007, comrade Ivan Marquez congratulates the secretariat for its exceptional handling of the case of the parliament members. Even the OAS [Organization of American States] admits that there was in fact an exchange of gunfire. The Colombian government denied its forces were involved in any rescue attempt but to little avail. The even handed Swiss deliberately refused to give to democratic government pronouncements greater credibility than to terrorist ones. <http://www.nzz.ch/images/Calmy-Rey_1.553343.jpg%22> In an article that appeared on 13 September 2007, the Swiss daily Die Basler Zeitung summarized the attitude of the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs (EDA) as follows: The politicians kidnapped by the FARC were presumably shot by the rebels during an attack by unidentified forces. In response, Switzerland reminded the Colombian government of the necessity of negotiations and criticized army operations aimed at freeing the hostages. This is the line that the EDA under the leadership of Foreign Minister Calmy-Rey has always defended: in Colombia, there is an internal conflict between two equal parties, the rebels and the security forces. On this account, the guerilla forces are not criminals, but a social problem, which has to be solved not with arms but by dialogue. Following Calmy-Reys démarche, Colombian President Uribe complained that Switzerland was placing the Colombian government on the same level as the FARC. The result? The Swiss government helped FARC cover up its own inefficiency but also present its killing of 11 hostages as an argument for the efficacy of ransom payments and against military rescue attempts. It should be remembered that the Swiss government is not really a disinterested party. After all, its glory is firmly embedded in its own usefulness as a neutral mediator. Thus seemingly successful Norwegian role in the Israeli-PLO negotiations led to its invitation to play a similar one in Sri Lanka between the government and the Tamil Tigers. Those mediations have done little to improve the lives of the populations involved or enhance peace but they brought very low cost prestige and glory to the mediators. Hence, it should not be surprising that nothing would please European leaders than being able to play such mediating role not only in intra state conflicts but also inter great power conflicts such as the United States, Iran, China, India and Pakistan to name but a few. <http://media.ft.com/cms/e66c16fa-5422-11dd-aa78-000077b07658.jpg> The ultimate difficulty with this European ambition is not only that such a realistic foreign policy is bound to infuriate its natural allies including the US. The real difficulty is that continued European peace depends on a more peaceful world but that its even handed policy rewards strife and punishes those who seek to end it. In other words, European ambition to serve as a model of the efficacy of a region ruled by democratic consensus is undermined by the consequence of its own policy of providing aid and comfort to forces committed to doing everything they can to prevent the emergence of a similar regional or even national consensus elsewhere. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. 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