Interdiction of Drug Planes in Colombia to Resume (Shootdowns)

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/19/international/americas/19CND-DRUGS.html?hp

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld announced today that President Bush has approved the resumption of an American-supported program in which Colombian fighter pilots can force or shoot down airplanes suspected of ferrying drugs.

The program, called Airbridge Denial and a key component in Washington's war on drugs in South America since 1995, was suspended here and in Peru after a Peruvian fighter shot down a private plane in 2001 that was carrying American missionaries.

Now, after more than two years of preparations to install safeguards to prevent another mistaken downing, the United States and Colombia will work together to identify drug planes and force them down, American officials said. A much more limited program will be implemented in Peru, officials said, but that is still months away.

Mr. Rumsfeld, traveling with reporters on a one-day trip to Colombia, said, "There are plenty of ways that illegal trade can move — land, sea or air — and if you're not attentive to the air, it becomes a preferred method" of the traffickers.

The White House, preoccupied with a bombing against the United Nations headquarters in Iraq, issued a statement saying President Bush had authorized the resumption of the program. Mr. Bush, the statement said, had determined that Colombia "had put in place appropriate measures to protect against loss of innocent life."

so now they have an excuse to kill Columbian politicians that they do not agree with, just as some journalists have been killed in Iraq.

Isn't that why those missionaries in Peru got shot down "accidentally"? Collatoral damage in the war on drugs.

we have a policy of supporting their shooting down small planes based on "suspicion"?

what the holy flying fuck? can these assholes just get raptured to their joyless hell and leave the rest of the planet alone? god knows (or would, if he existed) we'd keep fighting, but at least most of us have some sort of logic behind our fucking madness.

Send the Taliban another $43 million check, like Bush did in May 2001?

who, under the color of the U. S., direct the Colombian AF which planes to shoot down.

Aren't you PROUD that the Republican Congress keeps these mercenaries taking sides in the home-grown conflicts inside Colombia , the Philippines,and some places in SE Asia?? Watch that flag wave, y'all!!

August 20, 2003 E-mail story Print


THE WORLD
U.S. Takes Aim at Drug Planes
Rumsfeld, in Colombia, announces the revival of a controversial shoot-down policy.


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THE WORLD

SURVEILLANCE

COLOMBIA

COLOMBIA UNITED STATES DRUG TRAFFICKING SURVEILLAN

RUMSFELD DONALD H

DRUG TRAFFICKING

UNITED STATES

AIRPLANES











By T. Christian Miller, Times Staff Writer


BOGOTA, Colombia — The White House announced on Tuesday the resumption of a controversial U.S.-backed program to shoot down suspected drug planes in Colombia.

The announcement came during a brief visit to Colombia by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, underscoring growing U.S. participation in Colombia's four-decade internal conflict that pits leftist rebels against the government and right-wing paramilitary groups.

"We're proud to be a partner with Colombia in addressing the global war on terror," Rumsfeld said at a news briefing in a hotel surrounded by rifle-toting Colombian soldiers. "We're committed to helping to the extent we're able in seeing that this war — which is a war — is won."

More than anything, Rumsfeld's visit was designed to signal the Bush administration's commitment to Colombia.

The U.S. has long been active in the battle against drugs in Colombia, but since the Sept. 11 attacks has quietly shifted from fighting narcotics to battling the rebels who seek to overthrow the Colombian government.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-rumsfeld20aug20001428,1,7011285.story?coll=la-headlines-world

Sorry, I just tried to remove the nonsense from the article I posted above, and it was too late to get under the 1 hour deadline.

Reminds me to check HARDER before posting. Please excuse. Thanks.