Colombia seeks Israelis accused of training death squads

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Haaretz/Associated Press

Last update - 22:58 03/04/2007

Colombia seeks Israelis accused of training death squads
By The Associated Press

Interpol issued an international arrest warrant Tuesday for three Israelis accused of training private armies of Colombian drug cartels and right-wing death squads.

Yair Klein, Melnik Ferri and Tzedaka Abraham were being sought on charges of criminal conspiracy and instruction in terrorism and face nearly 11 years in prison if convicted, a spokesman for Colombia's domestic intelligence agency said, speaking on the condition that he not be identified.

The men are accused of helping set up training camps to teach private armies working for drug lords Pablo Escobar and Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha about explosives, car bombs and high-profile killings. The armies later morphed into Colombia's right-wing death squads.

Klein, a former lieutenant colonel in the Israeli army, appeared in a 1998 video used to train far-right squads. In 1991, he was convicted and fined US$13,400 (10,030) by an Israeli court for selling arms to Colombia's illegal groups.




Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/845082.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Who Is Israel's Yair Klein and What Was He Doing in Colombia and Sierra Leone?

Thursday, June 1st, 2000
Who Is Israel's Yair Klein and What Was He Doing in Colombia and Sierra Leone?

~snip~
In late April, Yair Klein was released from a Sierra Leone prison where he spent 16 months on charges that he was smuggling arms to rebels from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).

Klein is a former lieutenant colonel in the Israeli Army. In the 1980s he established a paramilitary mercenary company called Spearhead Ltd. Through this company, Klein began providing arms and training to forces in South America.

In 1989, Klein, along with several other former Israeli officers, was charged by authorities in Colombia of providing paramilitary training and arms to drug lords running international cocaine cartels. He is also accused of training Mafia assassins whose targets have included Colombian politicians. Klein is also suspected of involvement in the explosion of a Colombian airliner in November 1989.

In 1991, Klein was convicted by an Israeli court of illegally exporting military arms and information to a Colombian group. He was fined $13,400. He has denied all charges.

In 1998, Klein was officially indicted in Colombia on charges of training paramilitary units in terror tactics in the late 1980s. He was allegedly one of four Israelis hired by the late drug trafficker Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, one of the Medellin cartel's most violent bosses.

The evidence against him includes a training video that he used to instruct death squads in Colombia. The main leaders in the infamous Carlos Castano's paramilitary groups were trained by Yair Klein.
(snip/...)

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/07/0232255

&w=395

Yair Klein and one of his Colombian paramilitary employers, Carlos Castaño,
who was recently discovered to have been killed on the orders of his own brother.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~snip~
On Sept. 18, 1989, the security services of Colombia, investigating the assassination of Colombian Presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán, requested the extradition of Israeli Reserve Lt. Col. Yair Klein. Klein, among others, had been documented as having trained the Medellín cocaine cartel's assassination squads that killed Galán. Ze'evi was one of the foremost of the active and former IDF leaders linked to Klein's business front Hod Hyanit ("Spearhead"), that had contracted with the Medellín Cartel.
(snip)

http://www.wlym.com/www.larouchepub.com/other/2001/2841gen_zeevi.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~snip~
Yair Klein (also known as Jair Klein) is an Israeli ex military and mercenary, who established a private mercenary company called Spearhead Ltd.

Through Spearhead Ltd, Klein provided arms and training to armed forces in South America.<1>

Klein was accused of training several members of Colombian paramilitary groups and the militias of drug traffickers such as Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha and Pablo Escobar Gaviria during the 1980s.

Klein was convicted in 2002 by a Colombian court, and the Colombian government has made unsuccessful attempts to obtain his extradition from Israel. In a 2007 interview, Klein claims that he was brought to the country by the police in order to train its members, and stated he would like to be back in order to aid destroying the FARC guerrillas.

He also criticized the demobilization of the paramilitaries, saying it was “stupid” to do so while the guerrillas remained a threat. <2>

Yair Klein spent 16 months Sierra Leone prison between 1999 and 2000 on charges that he was smuggling arms to rebels from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).
(snip)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yair_Klein

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~snip~
Israel has a long history of involvement with the Colombian and other cartels in Latin America. Former Israeli Army and intelligence officers supplied the drug barons with weapons and trained their private armies, including special assassination squads, throughout the 1980s.

One of the more notorious of these Israelis, a lieutenant colonel in the army reserve named Yair Klein, was convicted by an Israeli court in 1991 for illegally exporting arms to the Colombian cartels. He was fined $40,000. In 1998, Klein, a balding ex-paratrooper, was indicted in Bogotá on charges of training Colombian paramilitaries in terrorist tactics in the 1987-89. He was allegedly one of four Israelis hired by Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, one of the Medellin cartel's most violent bosses, who was later assassinated.

Klein turned up in war-torn Sierra Leone running guns to rebels. He was arrested there in January 1999 and freed 16 months later. His current whereabouts are unknown, but Israeli arms dealers are still working with Colombian paramilitaries.

On May 7, Nicaraguan and Panamanian authorities launched an investigation into how 3,000 AK-47 assault rifles and 5 million rounds of ammunition shipped from Nicaragua by two Israeli-owned arms companies to Colombia on Nov. 10, 2001, and wound up in the hands of the United Defense Forces of Colombia, a group the US government has branded as terrorist.
(snip)

http://www.the7thfire.com/new_world_order/zionism/mossad/Israeli_art_students_and_ecstasy-running.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~snip~
A retired Israeli army officer, Yair Klein, has provided military material and training in Liberia and Sierra Leone since 1996, according to West African sources and the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aharonoth. Israel convicted Klein in 1991 of illegally selling arms and training to Colombian groups that the Colombian government says were fronts for the Medellin cocaine cartel.

Klein competed with Morgenstern last year for a helicopter contract in Sierra Leone while seeking mining rights, according to Yedioth Aharonoth. Sierra Leone arrested Klein last January and is trying him for alleged fraud in the proposed purchase of a helicopter from Belarus.
(snip)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/oct99/sierra16.htm

[rman]

2. Israeli Diplomat Carrying Large Quantity Of Explosives Arrested In Argentina

Signs Of The Times
Israeli Diplomat Carrying Large Quantity Of Explosives Arrested In Argentina
23/08/2006
Red Kalki

http://www.signs-of-the-times.org/signs/editorials/signs20060914_IsraeliDiplomatCarryingLargeQuantityOfExplosivesArrestedInArgentina.php

Last week, (mid August 2006) a very serious event transpired at the Buenos Aires international airport which the local mainstream press did not however bring to the attention of the public. Today, Red Kalki, relying on reliable sources, brings this matter into the open.

On Wednesday 9th August 2006, Ezeiza airport police arrested an important Israeli diplomat carrying a considerable quantity of explosives. The Zionist representative was en route to Chile and was detained minutes before boarding a plane. Despite his protests, airport police arrested him and informed the Argentine interior ministry of the situation which ordered that the situation be contained.

more...

--

original:

Altermedia.info
23/8/2006
Detenido en Ezeiza un diplomático israelí que llevaba una considerable cantidad de explosivos
http://es.altermedia.info/general/detenido-en-ezeiza-un-diplomatico-israeli-que-llevaba-una-considerable-cantidad-de-explosivos_1583.html

[anotherdrew]

24. maybe our favorite fascists are about to start another round of gladio-like bombings?

[anotherdrew]

25. sounds like another Michael Meiring type.

May 16, 2002: CIA Operative Hurt While Posing as Terrorist Bomber in Philippines?

US citizen Michael Meiring is suspected of being a CIA operative after injuring himself in an explosion in his own hotel room. Meiring claimed a grenade was thrown into his room, but a Philippine government investigation determined the center of the blast came from an assembled bomb kept in a metal box owned by Meiring. Hotel employees said Meiring told them for weeks not to touch the box while cleaning the room. Additionally, an ID card with his picture on it found in his room lists him as an officer in the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), a Muslim rebel militant group. One hour after the bombing in his room, a bomb explodes in a marketplace in the same region, injuring four people. In the two months prior to this explosion in his room, there were several other other explosions in the same region, killing 37 people and injuring 170 more. In 2003, a group of Philippine soldiers will mutiny, in part because they believe these bombings were done with the secret approval of the Philippine government, and not done by rebel groups as the government claims (see July 27-28, 2003). A number of Philippine officials speculate Meiring may have been a CIA agent. Those who knew him said that he referred to himself as a CIA agent, but said it stood for “Christ In Action.” He had frequently visited the Philippines for at least ten years. He claimed to be a treasure hunter, and had a company called Parousia International Trading (in Christian theology, Parousia is a term for the second coming of Christ). He also had ties to right wing extremists in the US (see 1992-1993). He was said to be very well connected in the Philippines, being visited in his hotel room prior to the explosion by congressmen, a governor, and military officials. He was also connected to militants in the MNLF, Abu Sayyaf, and other groups. He was said to have met with top leaders of these militant groups starting in 1992 (see 1992-1993). One source who knew him said that earlier in the year he had predicted a series of bombings and that his predictions “always came true.” Meiring was already a major suspect in the production and distribution of counterfeit US Treasury bills. Over the last few years, billions of dollars worth of fake US Treasury bills were confiscated in the region. Four days after the explosion, FBI agents take him out of the hospital where he was recovering from severe burns and amputations. According to the Philippine Immigration Deputy Commissioner, agents of the US National Security Council then take him to the capital of Manila. The Financial Times will later report that he returns to the US and is handed over to the CIA. The Guardian will later comment, “Local officials have demanded that Meiring return to face charges, to little effect. BusinessWorld, a leading Philippine newspaper, has published articles openly accusing Meiring of being a CIA agent involved in covert operations ‘to justify the stationing of American troops and bases in Mindanao.’ The Meiring affair has never been reported in the US press.” In 2004, a Houston TV station will trace Meiring back to the US, where he still lives, despite the Philippine government wanting him to be extradited to face a variety of charges related to the explosion (see December 2, 2004).

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=michael_meiring_1
details from various reports here:
http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/2004/10/michael-meiring-blast-from-past.html

[Judi Lynn]

26. So this South African white racist worked for the CIA and raised hell all over the world

and was never mentioned in our own media, even when he blew himself up, losing both of his legs in a bomb accident?

From "May 16, 2002: CIA Operative Hurt While Posing as Terrorist Bomber in Philippines?" in your first link:

The Guardian will later comment, “Local officials have demanded that Meiring return to face charges, to little effect. BusinessWorld, a leading Philippine newspaper, has published articles openly accusing Meiring of being a CIA agent involved in covert operations ‘to justify the {recent} stationing of American troops and bases in Mindanao.’ The Meiring affair has never been reported in the US press.” {Guardian, 8/15/2003}

Makes you wonder how many MORE there are of whatever this is!



South African CIA Michael Meiring

Interesting to note that as soon as he blew himself up, he was spirited right the hell out of the Phillipines back to the States.

[anotherdrew]

27. yeah someone spirited him away and back to the US after he was caught making bombs

I'm not convinced it was truly FBI that did it, but it was some bunch with FBI badges at least.

as for it not being reported in the US, some reporter who was working on it got a call from the man his-self, he left some lovely threats.

We've got some serious house-cleaning to do. This name should come up in congress ASAP.

here's something to look into that he may be connected to through the first org linked below:

The National Heritage Foundation (NHF), based in Falls Church, Virginia
a big old front?
===
and this just in:
Meiring was found in the US while he was changing his last name to "Van De Meer"
this site: http://rhinoed.org/pages/regents/regents4.htm (note the _rhino_) lists a 'regent':
a Michael Meiring - Natural therapies for infections, background in international financial affairs
this similar newagie site: http://www.nema-online.org/mvdm1.html
has a crappy little page that reads:
Institute of Progressive Medicine
Professor Michael Van de Meer, M.D.

connection?

[Judi Lynn]

28. I just saw the remarks by Naomi Klein in your second link:

At the time, Naomi Klein seemed the only Western observer paying informed attention, and was certainly the only one who was informed by the widely-unknown Meiring story:

...the soldiers were not the first to accuse the Philippine government of bombing its own people. Days before the mutiny, a coalition of church groups, lawyers and NGOs launched a "fact-finding mission" to investigate persistent rumours that the state was involved in the Davao explosions. It is also investigating the possible involvement of US intelligence agencies.

These suspicions stem from a bizarre incident on May 16 2002, in Davao. Michael Meiring, a US citizen, allegedly detonated explosives in his hotel room, injuring himself badly. While recovering in hospital, Meiring was whisked away by two men - who witnesses say identified themselves as FBI agents - and flown to the US. Local officials have demanded that Meiring return to face charges, to little effect. BusinessWorld, a leading Philippine newspaper, has published articles openly accusing Meiring of being a CIA agent involved in covert operations "to justify the stationing of American troops and bases in Mindanao".

Yet the Meiring affair has never been reported in the US press. And the mutinous soldiers' incredible allegations were no more than a one-day story. Maybe it just seemed too outlandish: an out-of-control government fanning the flames of terrorism to pump up its military budget, hold on to power and violate civil liberties. Why would Americans be interested in something like that?
{snip}

http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/2004/10/michael-meiring-blast-from-past.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is deeply interesting. It will still be interesting once more people start getting more concerned about what is being done in their names, as well.

She's a great writer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That Heritage Foundation thing is very odd, isn't it?

[anotherdrew]

29. he may have passed away

I found this:
http://www.kauaiworld.com/articles/2006/12/31/print_only/news10.txt
Downs Michael Van De Meer died Dec. 19, 2006, at the age of 62. An internationally published freelance journalist, he traveled extensively throughout the world. Most recently he worked with Lions Club International to provide medical equiment for vision care in Nepal. He served on the Board of the Kekahu Foundation and hosted a musical/discussion show called “Out of the Box: An Answer to the New World Order” on KKCR Kaua‘i Community Radio.
===

maybe not the same person but Michael Van De Meer is not a common name at all, and the age would be about right.

oh and there was some 'interesting' activities in Nepal recently
and what was going on at KKCR? (Kekahu Foundation runs KKCR)

http://poinography.com/index.php?p=3532
11/25/2006
Anybody have insight into KKCR?

I noticed a letter to the Garden Isle News editors today that alleges an ongoing pattern of “illegal” elections of board members for the community radio station KKCR.

In the weak moments of our early growing pains, a selfish and arrogant group of people took over the board, illegally changing definitions in the bylaws to remove voting rights of the general membership and establishing themselves in sole control. One of them is still on the board. To this day, there has never been an annual general membership meeting or a vote by the subscribing members, who have been reduced to being only cash cows and cheerleaders for fund-raising.

[ShortnFiery]

3. Heaven help us ...

if both the Arab World and the Latino World unite against us, i.e., USA, UK and Israel. :scared:

Oppression and collective punishment only work for a short period of time. Like parents who beat their children, sooner rather than later, the children grow up. At the age of 12, I grabbed the belt out of my mother's hands and said, "What are you going to do now."

As a child (helpless) who was constantly beaten with whatever instrument that was at hand, the comparison to the downtrodden peoples seems quite apt and my sentiments empathetic. It's the SHAME and DISRESPECT that is un-forgiven, not just the killing. However, amends can be made if we, the occupiers, CHOOSE ANOTHER PATH. If we continue to KILL, just because we have the most bad ass WAR MACHINES in the world, there's going to be hell to pay if the disenfranchised peoples of the world unite.

We must do our level best to treat ALL PEOPLES of the world with respect. Most important we must help to END THESE OCCUPATIONS and thereby allow the natives self-determination and hope for the future.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Excellent illustration. Sorry to hear it comes from your own experience.

I've been there, too, but didn't rise to the challenge as you did. It would have been such a significant moment in your life.

It would be so much better if parents treated their children with respect from the first. It would have ripples that would have transformed the world, I am completely certain, when respect for others in built-in.

In your case, it was self-taught, I'm sure. :thumbsup:

[ronnie624]

23. Thank you for your analysis.

I am grateful for your presence at DU.

[happydreams]

5. K&R! Sure would be interesting to see where this leads.

Training local thugs is a Mossad--CIA mainstay; as is drug peddling.

But they were probably just "rogue" elements. :eyes:

[happydreams]

6. Escobar's link to Poppy...

.....The truth about the Cocaine years (which we still are in) has much to do with IranContragate, a three-way tie between the CIA/ the Shah and Nicaragua. This White House operation emerged from the White House, it's true, but not from dim-bulb Ronald Reagan but from his industrious V.P. George Bush, a career CIA officer. Bush started the Contras to harass Nicaragua and prevent Danny Ortega's Marxist-Leninist socialists from creating a New Cuba. You know, the kind of Republic that sends more teachers, doctors and food-growing techs to the third world than God himself? Bush funded the Contras with cocaine receipts.

The star gambit of the period was that triangle between the Shah, the Contras and Bush. The CIA had supported the Shah from way back. They couldn't always give him cash so they did the next best thing. They gave him a money-printing set — a U.S. intaglio press, silk paper, mint Green #1 ink, and genuine U.S. printing plates. Mini-treasuries were apparently a perk of tyrants who chummed with the Agency. This printing press was known to Bush so next, Bush offered a favor to cocaine king Pablo Escobar (his prime supplier) — to LAUNDER 8 billion dollars of coke receipts, i.e. make them into legal, spendable, investable money. How? Well, it was imaginative. Bush took 8 billion from Escobar, which was deposited into a Panama bank in Escobar's name. But Bush did a fast one. He took 4 billion in GOOD coke-dusted hundred dollar bills to Iran and told the Shah he could have real dollars if he'd give him back 8 billion of the Shah's freshly printed, funny money. The Shah had presses going day and night for a few weeks, then Bush brought 8 billion back to Escobar's vault, in their U.S. Panama bank. Then, Bush purloined the other half of Escobar's good money and gave it to a Latin American politician, Nana DeBusia of Guyana where it was laundered in accounts under the signatures of Bush and Casey earmarked for use by the Contras. This was the real Iran Contragate — the story that never surfaced. ...

http://www.serendipity.li/cia/fifty.html

[Judi Lynn]

7. Colombia seeks Israelis' arrests

Last Updated: Wednesday, 4 April 2007, 09:22 GMT 10:22 UK

Colombia seeks Israelis' arrests

International arrest warrants have been issued for three Israeli men wanted in Colombia in connection with the alleged training of paramilitary fighters.
Yair Klein, Melnik Ferry and Tzedaka Abraham are accused of giving military training in the 1990s to landowners' and drug-traffickers' private armies.

Prosecutors say those trained went on to carry out some of the country's most notorious political assassinations.

Some of the fighters went on to form a right-wing paramilitary group, the AUC.

Prosecutors have also accused the three men of working for the then powerful Medellin drugs cartel to create a personal army for its leader, Pablo Escobar.
(snip/...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6524835.stm

[Judi Lynn]

8. Yair Klein, offering "security" to Israel diamond merchants in Sierre Leone:

~snip~
The Lebanese dealers later claimed (probably correctly) that rumors of their bin Laden association were spread by business rivals seeking to discredit them. Just who those rivals might be can perhaps be inferred from the fact that the UN found a group of ex-Israeli Air Force pilots moving smuggled diamonds from Angola, Sierra Leone, and Liberia and that one of the first acts of a post-conflict government of Sierra Leone was to arrest Israeli Reserve-Colonel Yair Klein. Klein, who had won undying fame in the late 1980s for training narco-militias on behalf of Colombian drug lords, had arrived in Sierra Leone to sell "security services" to Israeli diamond traders trying to recover territory lost to the Lebanese Shiah in an earlier round of diamond wars.
(snip)

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=NAY20070319&articleId=5118

[annabanana]

9. Colombia seeks Israelis' arrests

Source: BBC News

International arrest warrants have been issued for three Israeli men wanted in Colombia in connection with the alleged training of paramilitary fighters.
Yair Klein, Melnik Ferry and Tzedaka Abraham are accused of giving military training in the 1990s to landowners' and drug-traffickers' private armies.

Prosecutors say those trained went on to carry out some of the country's most notorious political assassinations.

Some of the fighters went on to form a right-wing paramilitary group, the AUC.



Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6524835.stm

---

more at link

[Peace Patriot]

10. This is a huge and politically interesting scandal in Colombia, quite apart from

the Israeli trainers issue. The drug trafficking, mass murders of leftists and peasants, AND a plot to assassinate Hugo Chavez, have been directly connected to the top echelons of the rightwing Uribe regime, including the chief of the military--upon which the Bush Junta has larded billions of our taxpayer dollars in military aid. I continue to believe that a connection to the Bush Junta will be made--re the assassination plot against Chavez and additional plots to destabilize the Andean democracies (Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador--all with leftist governments that oppose the murderous US "war on drugs"). Uribe is desperately trying to distance himself from these Colombian scandals. In addition, Latin American leaders seemed to have formed a consensus stance on this kind of interference in Latin American countries. Even the rightwing president of Mexico publicly lectured Bush about it, on his recent tour.

The times they are a-changin'!

[Bacchus39]

11. the assassination of Chavez is a figment of his imagination

the paranoid luncatic.

here is some more info from Colombia to chew on that our Colombia "expert" hasn't posted yet.


Colombia captures fugitive militia boss

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070404/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/colombia_paramilitary_captured;_ylt=AncHW9mZ34ywemG51YbQp.W3IxIF

BOGOTA, Colombia - Authorities captured a fugitive right-wing warlord Tuesday accused in massacres and of running a murderous criminal band involved in drug trafficking and extortion, officials said.

Ever Veloza, one of the few top paramilitary bosses who fled into hiding rather than embrace a government peace deal, was arrested in the turbulent banana-growing Uraba region on the Caribbean coast, police said.

Better known by his alias "Hernan Hernandez," Veloza once commanded the Banana and Calima blocs of the United Self-Defense Forces, known by its Spanish initials as AUC.

The two blocs are blamed for hundreds of murders of human rights activists, suspected rebel sympathizers and union activists, and Veloza already faces charges in the April 11, 2001, massacre of 26 peasants in the southwestern town of Naya.

[annabanana]

12. I don't see how anything in your link

makes anything in his post any less likely.

p.s. what is a "luncatic?"

[Peace Patriot]

17. The plot to assassinate Chavez was recently revealed by the Uribe's righthand man,

the former head of Colombian intelligence, after his arrest for his connections to these rightwing paramilitaries.

Chavez is not paranoid. There REALLY WAS a plot to kill him, fermenting in Colombia, connected the top echelons of their government.

[Judi Lynn]

18. It would have been hard to miss the material written about Noguera's

connection to one of the plots to kill Hugo Chavez, wouldn't it? It has been mentioned sufficient times for absolutely anyone to pick it up:

But the most dangerous scandal for Uribe comes from the arrest of Jorge Noguera, his former campaign manager and, from 2002 to 2005, head of the DAS. Former DAS colleagues have told investigators of Noguera's close collaboration with Jorge 40 - which included lending him Uribe's personal armoured vehicle - and with other paramilitary leaders. The accusations include an assassination plot against Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez, the murder of political opponents, electoral fraud, doctoring police and judicial records to erase paramilitary cases. Noguera worked directly to Uribe and when the investigations began, the president appointed him consul in Milan. The supreme court has forced his return.
(snip)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2028970,00.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

According to García's statements to prosecutors and journalists, for approximately three years the DAS worked in extremely close contact with several paramilitary groups, particularly the "Northern Block" led by paramilitary commander "Jorge 40." He claims that these links were established by Jorge Noguera, then director of the DAS and currently the Colombian Consul in Milan. Among García's many detailed allegations, which have received extensive coverage in Colombia, are:

• Extrajudicial executions of labor union leaders: García states that during this period the DAS provided the paramilitaries with lists of labor union leaders and academics, many of whom were subsequently threatened or killed.
  
  
• Electoral fraud: According to García, Noguera collaborated with the paramilitaries to carry out massive electoral fraud when he was Uribe's campaign director in Magdalena state during the 2002 presidential elections. García alleges that the fraud resulted in 300,000 additional votes for Uribe. A similar plan, he claims, had also been implemented in congressional elections in several northern states. If proven, his allegations would confirm recent studies attributing highly unusual voting patterns in the 2002 congressional elections to electoral fraud.
  
  
• Political assassination in Venezuela: García recently said in an interview that the DAS collaborated with paramilitaries in a plot to assassinate several Venezuelan leaders, including President Hugo Chavez and a prosecutor, Danilo Anderson. More than 100 alleged paramilitaries were arrested near the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, and a few months later, Anderson was killed. Based on testimony by one of those arrested, Venezuelan authorities have charged former DAS director Noguera with knowledge of the alleged plot.
  (snip)

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/04/17/colomb13196.htm

[Bacchus39]

33. oh yeah, Garcia the guy in jail making the claims

in jail for taking bribes. very credible.

[Judi Lynn]

20. I posted that article Tuesday, the day before you posted in here. n/t

[IndianaGreen]

13. Were these Israelis acting as mercenaries, or were they agents of their government?

If acting as mercenaries, Israel should extradite them if they are in Israel. If acting as agents of their government, Israel has some explaining to do.

[Judi Lynn]

14. There are some truly gross N.Y. Times story leads in this link. Don't want to

knock myself out paying 4.95 for any one of them just to get a story to post, however. This one is particularly odd:

Israeli Tied to Suspect Colonel Is Discovered Slain in Miami

AP (NYT); National Desk
Late Edition - Final, Section A, Page 13, Column 1, 533 words
DISPLAYING ABSTRACT - LEAD: An Israeli businessman linked to a mercenary suspected of training gunmen for Colombia's leading drug traffickers was found slain at Miami International Airport on Wednesday, his body stuffed into the trunk of a car, the police said today. An Israeli businessman linked to a mercenary suspected of training ...
(snip)

http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=per&v1=KLEIN%2C%20YAIR&v2=%20

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This guy has been busy. As you can see from these leads, he did some of these jobs when he was still considered a reserve officer for Israel.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Israel Charging Officer In Antigua Camp Case (During Bush the Elder's pResidency)

Israel Charging Officer In Antigua Camp Case

AP
Published: May 14, 1990

LEAD: A senior Defense Ministry official said today that a police complaint would be filed charging a reserve colonel with holding unauthorized talks on the establishment of a military training camp in Antigua, the Caribbean island.

A senior Defense Ministry official said today that a police complaint would be filed charging a reserve colonel with holding unauthorized talks on the establishment of a military training camp in Antigua, the Caribbean island.

But the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the complaint did not link the reserve colonel, Yair Klein, with Israeli weapons sent to Antigua for use at the camp and later diverted to a Colombian drug trafficker. Colonel Klein has said he tried to set up a training camp for Panamanian rebels opposed to Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega. The camp apparently never went into operation.

The Defense Ministry disclosure came as a Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Israel regretted Colombia's decision to suspend a 28-year-old agreement allowing Israelis to enter the country without visas. The Colombian move on Friday was in protest against the weapons diversion.
(snip/...)

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE0D8133DF937A25756C0A966958260

[michaelwb]

32. At the very least something is odd

I find it hard to think of just giving a $40,000 fine to a person who illegally supplies weapons to drug crime cartels - as anything but a "wink - nudge."

[Judi Lynn]

16. "Israeli Spook Trained Colombian Paras"

~snip~
12. ISRAELI SPOOK TRAINED COLOMBIAN PARAS
Israel's role in establishing Colombia's bloody paramilitary network is revealed in the strange case of a veteran Israeli military officer who went missing in Africa two years ago. On Feb. 9, 1999, Colombia's Administrative Security Department (DAS) asked the Foreign Relations ministry to request the extradition of Israeli Reserve Lt. Col. Yair Klein, arrested that January in the African nation of Sierra Leone. Klein and three other Israelis--Abraham Tzedaka, Isaac Shoshani Meraiot and Terry Melnyk--were facing charges of "instructing and training terrorists," carrying a maximum of 14 years in prison. Klein's group was accused of having trained right-wing paramilitary death squads from 1987 to 1989--including the notorious Self-Defense Forces of the Magdalena Medio region (AMM) and Death to Kidnappers (MAS), a "private justice" group headed by drug trafficker Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha. Klein's group reportedly trained the paramilitaries for the assassinations of presidential candidates Jaime Pardo Leal and Luis Carlos Galan, and the 1989 bombing of Avianca flight HK-1803 that left 111 people dead. (El Colombiano , Feb. 10, 1999; Yediot Aharanot , Jan. 28, 1999)

Klein was reportedly arrested a few weeks earlier by the Nigeria-led Economic Community of West African States Ceasefire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) forces, then attempting to restore order in war-torn Sierra Leone. ECOMOG accused Klein of selling weapons to both government and rebel forces in Sierra Leone. In an interview with Reuters at a Sierra Leone prison, Klein denied any connection to the country's rebels. Asked about reports that Colombia was seeking his extradition, Klein accused the US of spreading rumors. Israel's foreign ministry reported that there are no extradition agreements between Sierra Leone and Colombia, but that it would continue diplomatic efforts to win Klein's release. (Yediot Aharanot, Jan. 28)

According to journalists Andrew and Leslie Cockburn, Klein maintained that his commercial venture Spearhead, Ltd.--which offered "instruction and training" for "anti-terror combat units"--"was authorized by the Israeli Ministry of Defense and required permits from the ministry for each 'project' the company undertook, including those in Colombia. Spearhead received a glossy full page in the official Ministry of Defense publication, the Israel Defense Sales Directory." (Antifa Info Bulletin Supplement, July 5, 1998)

In a 1997 interview in the Colombian weekly magazine Semana, Colombian paramilitary Alonso de Jesus Baquero ("Vladimir") admitted to being a top student of Klein's. "They taught us the English and German tactic, which was that the enemy had to be exterminated from the roots," said de Jesus. "Then we went out like maniacs to pursue the collaborators and the armed branch of the FARC." (Semana, July 14-21, 1997)
(snip/...)

http://ww4report.com/static/42.html#andean12

[Judi Lynn]

19. An interview with this scum conducted in his own language, with Spanish dubbing.

Not so informative for those of us who aren't fluent in either, but it's interesting hearing his high, nasal, George E. Jessel voice, and seeing he prefers to be viewed in near darkness, looking like an ugly version of Marlon Brando's Armageddon creation, Colonel Walter E. Kurtz:



http://www.canalcaracol.com/sala_videos.asp?hid_id=/videos/Programacion/Informativos/HablandoClaro/HClaroMar5.wmv&id=10076&subseccion=51&seccion=28&zona=2

[Judi Lynn]

21. Colombia's star witness is living in fear

Colombia's star witness is living in fear
Former intelligence official unravels paramilitary secrets

By Juan Forero
The Washington Post

April 5, 2007
BOGOTA, Colombia – Sitting in a dreary 7-by-5-foot cell, Rafael Garcia predicts that he'll soon be murdered. It's a common threat in one of Colombia's toughest prisons, but it's made all the more real for the uncommon prisoner.

Garcia is a star witness for prosecutors, revealing secret links between Colombian officials and right-wing paramilitary groups. His testimony has helped trigger the biggest political scandal faced yet by the government of President Alvaro Uribe, the Bush administration's closest ally in Latin America and recipient of more than $4 billion in American aid.

Once a high-level official in the government's intelligence agency, Garcia has outlined for investigators how the intelligence chief, Jorge Noguera, funneled classified documents to paramilitary commanders, and how those commanders rigged elections to place their allies in Congress, giving an organization designated a terrorist group by the State Department unprecedented influence in government.

The information provided by Garcia and others has led to the arrests of Noguera, eight congressmen and the governor of Magdalena state. Another 15 current and former congressmen, as well as other local officials and military officers, are under investigation.

Garcia is serving an 11-year prison sentence for money-laundering, conspiracy and falsifying and destroying documents. Despite help he has given investigators, Garcia said recently that authorities have denied his requests to be in a witness protection program. Already, a handful of mid-level paramilitary commanders with deep knowledge about the paramilitary structure have been murdered.

"As long as I'm in a Colombian jail, my death is only a matter of time," Garcia, 43, said as he sat on the narrow bed in his cell at La Picota prison in Bogota.
(snip/...)


http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/caribbean/sfl-hcolgarcia05xapr05,0,4543025.story?coll=sfla-news-caribbean

[donkeyotay]

22. You'd think this thread you're posting would be on the news,

but in this strange world we're living in, the media misses bits like this:

Garcia is a star witness for prosecutors, revealing secret links between Colombian officials and right-wing paramilitary groups. His testimony has helped trigger the biggest political scandal faced yet by the government of President Alvaro Uribe, the Bush administration's closest ally in Latin America and recipient of more than $4 billion in American aid.

Bush's "closest ally in Latin America and recipient of more than $4 billion in American aid" is involved in death squads. Funny, how it looks. I can't hardly say more. It looks bad.

[Peace Patriot]

30. Just now caught up with your comment, Donkeyotay. I agree. I think there likely IS

a connection. I mean, look who Bush put in charge of Latin American affairs in the State Dept. --John "Death Squad" Negroponte! My strong suspicion: The plot to assassinate Chavez (and--I hadn't heard this before--OTHER South American leaders) WAS a Bush Junta plot, in the typical old paradigm of the CIA (now purged by the Bushites, and Bush toadies put in charge) colluding with local fascists to kill populist South American leaders and supplant them with brutal fascist coups and military dictatorships, then to start torturing and killing their supporters (union organizers, grass roots activists, indigenous leaders) and bringing down the "Iron Curtain" of oppression. I further strongly suspect that Latin American leaders became aware of this plot, have achieved a consensus about not tolerating this kind of interference in Latin American affairs any longer, and put some conditions on Bush for his visit-no Chavez bashing, for one. The Latin American leaders' reaction to be told by Condi Rice that they must "isolate" Chavez and Venezuela was remarkable. Nestor Kirchner (Argentina), in the course of publicly refusing to do this, said, "Hugo Chavez is my brother." Rafael Correa (Ecuador), when asked what he thought of Chavez's remark to the UN that Bush is "the devil," laughingly replied that it "is an insult to the devil." (His poll numbers zoomed and he then won 60% of the vote in the presidential election). Brazil's Lulu pointedly visited Chavez for a state visit two weeks before the Venezuelan election in December (just after the UN remark).

The times they are a-changin'!

[anotherdrew]

31. the fact he's lived this long is a good sign

maybe... maybe they've actually got some facilities now under control that they can trust and are safe from fascist finks

[Judi Lynn]

34. This guy's going to be an information geyser, if the paramilitaries, the military,

and the Alabama-based Drummond Company don't find a way to knock him off!

From an article published today:

April 11, 2007
Ala. coal exec denies link to Colombian paramilitaries

By Jay Reeves
The Associated Press

~snip~
A key witness in the lawsuit, former federal intelligence official Rafael Garcia, has said he saw Jimenez deliver a briefcase full of money to a representative of the local paramilitary warlord, Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, to pay for the murders.

In his sworn testimony, Drummond said the killings didn't make the company reconsider doing business in Colombia, and the lawsuit's allegations about the slayings didn't cause him to question Jimenez.

"I knew he had nothing to do with it, so there was no such questions like, 'What do you know about this, Augusto?' He knew nothing," said Drummond.

Drummond's company quietly lobbied the U.S. State Department in an apparent bid to have the suit thrown out, according to court records and an attorney in the case, but the government did not intervene.
(snip/)

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070411/NEWS02/704110363/1009