Posted on 02/08/2003 1:03:05 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
BOGOTA - In dramatic testimony, a former Colombian guerrilla, Edwin Giovanni Rodríguez, testified Friday in a packed courtroom that he witnessed three suspected members of the Irish Republican Army testing weapons in Colombia's former demilitarized zone.
James Monaghan, Niall Connolly and Martin McCauley were arrested in August 2001 at Bogotá's El Dorado airport on charges of using false passports. The three men were later found to have IRA links and are on trial for allegedly helping train the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the country's largest insurgent group.
Surrounded by heavy security, Rodríguez, 25, testified wearing a bulletproof vest after being transported from prison in Villavicencio, where he is serving a four-year sentence.
Rodríguez, the ex-chauffeur for FARC commander Jorge Briceño described three men whose names he could not confirm who he claimed to have seen in the former demilitarized zone starting on Feb. 5, 2001.
`GRINGOS'
He could not confirm their nationality but said they were known as ''gringos,'' a term used to refer to anyone who didn't speak native Spanish. On Feb. 5, Rodríguez said he was instructed to pick up a person he later recognized as Monaghan in a village in Caquetá and take him to a place called La Y, about three miles away from the demilitarized zone, then controlled by the FARC.
Though he never knew their names, Rodríguez said he recognized the three after they appeared on a television broadcast while he was in prison.
''I know them because when they were captured Jorge Briceño addressed 120 units and said they have already given us what we wanted and from now on they're on their own,'' Rodríguez testified.
Rodríguez said he saw Monaghan frequently because he ferried him to a classroom, where he, along with the two other foreigners, instructed 120 guerrillas in explosives. Though Rodríguez was never inside the classroom, he stood guard outside and apparently overheard what was said inside. After the lessons were complete, Rodríguez testified that he ''was asked to take [Monaghan] to test what had been taught and this was in Los Pozos,'' about two hours from the classroom.
BLASTS
At Los Pozos, Rodríguez claimed to have seen grenades and mortars exploding. Car bombs that could be activated by remote control were also tested, Rodríguez said.
Though he never drove the other foreigners, Rodriguez testified he saw them teaching in the classroom and testing weapons at Los Pozos between Feb. 5 and Feb. 25, 2001.
Rodríguez joined the FARC in February 1999 and deserted after being transferred for crashing Briceño's car while drunk. He said he had been repeatedly threatened since agreeing to testify and feared for the safety of his wife and child, whom he said he has not been able to contact since Wednesday.
The defense sought to challenge Rodríguez's memory of dates, and indeed, at moments the witness seemed confused and blamed it on his illiteracy.
Rodríguez said, for instance, that he thought the foreigners were arrested in April, when they were actually held in August 2001. The defense said it would present witnesses to refute the charge that any of the Irishmen were in Colombia in February 2001.
''These three men were not in Colombia on those dates,'' said Caitriona Ruane, the leader of a ''Bring Them Home'' campaign that brought a delegation of Irish observers to Bogotá. The trial will resume with defense witnesses on March 25.
In an attempt to limit the political damage, Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, had earlier declined an invitation to appear before a hearing of the committee today on the IRA's relationship with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia [Farc] narco-terrorists. "Colombian authorities assert that not only has the IRA operated in the former safe haven on behalf of the Farc, but also the Iranians, Cubans, and possibly Eta [Basque terrorists], among others," a summary of the committee's report said.
The inquiry was launched last summer after James Monaghan and Martin McAuley, both convicted of IRA offences, and Niall Connolly, Sinn Fein's representative in Cuba, were arrested in Bogota and charged with aiding the Farc. "Colombia is a potential breeding ground for international terror equalled perhaps only by Afghanistan, and the IRA findings are the strongest among these global links because of the arrests of the three Irish nationals and the accompanying evidence," said the summary.***
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Terrorists active in U.S. 'backyard': Latin America hotbed for both al-Qaida, Hezbollah***Both al-Qaida and Hezbollah are active in the common border area of Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, according to an earlier statement of Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in hearings before the Foreign Appropriations Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, cited in a report from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The activities of the Irish Republican Army, Iran, Cuba and various international terrorist networks operating in Colombia may turn that Latin American nation into a "breeding ground for international terror equaled perhaps only by Afghanistan," according to the committee report.
Further to the south in Latin America, Hezbollah and the terrorist Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) are operating in the tri-border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. The suspected activities of these groups include counterfeiting U.S. currency and drug smuggling, with the area in which they function described as a "haven for Islamic extremists" by the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Asa Hutchinson, in testimony before the House International Relations Committee. "The situation in the tri-border area [of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil] highlights the ease with which terrorist organizations can infiltrate and assimilate in other countries and go relatively undetected for an extended period of time," Hutchinson stated.
The linkage among various terrorist groups and nations associated with support of terrorism in Latin America combines considerable financial resources and technological expertise. In addition to the vast oil wealth of Iran, the South American terrorist network can rely upon South American drug money to finance its activities. Colombia alone produces 90 percent of the cocaine and "at least" 70 percent of the heroin sold in the U.S., according to estimates of the House International Relations Committee.***
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Death threats scare off two star witnesses in IRA trial *** The prosecution of three alleged IRA men accused of training Colombia's Marxist rebels was thrown into turmoil yesterday when the two key witnesses against them refused to come to court, saying their lives would be in danger. Amid chaotic scenes the trial was adjourned until February.
"The witnesses Edwin Giovani Rodriguez and Jhon Alexander Rodriguez, as guerrilla deserters, have received threats against their lives and so will not be attending the court," said a witness statement read out in court. The testimony of the two men is crucial to the prosecution's case as they say they saw Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan with guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).
The three Irishmen, all with links to the IRA or Sinn Fein, are charged with travelling on false papers and training rebels in terrorism techniques. Alexander Rodriguez has been presented by a source in the prosecutor general's office as the crucial part in the prosecution's case. He is an Farc deserter, and acted as the driver and bodyguard of guerrilla commander Fabian Ramirez, in whose territory the training was alleged to have taken place. The legal source indicated that he is the key witness who allegedly saw the Irishmen training the rebels in explosives, although there are others who claim they saw them with guerrilla commanders.***
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Feb 8, 2003 - Bombing in Colombia kills at least 20 Bombing in Colombia kills at least 20 (AP)
[Full Text] BOGOTA, Colombia - A powerful bomb rocked an exclusive club in Bogota Friday night, killing more than 20 people, leaving about 100 injured and setting the 10-story building on fire.
Bogota Mayor Antanas Mockus said a theory that the explosion may have been an accident had been discarded by investigators, who determined that explosives caused the blast.
It was the worst terrorist attack in Colombia since Pablo Escobar's Medellin drug cartel unleashed a wave of terrorism in the 1980s and early 1990s to avoid extradition to the United States.
The blast showered bricks and mortar onto a busy boulevard, caving in the roofs of cars that were passing by. Victims were taken to several hospitals. There was no immediate total casualty count.
Leftist rebels have recently begun bringing their four-decade-old war from the countryside into the cities, but no group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack on the 10-story El Nogal Club in north Bogota. The club is frequented by politicians and business executives.
The blast was heard for miles in Bogota, a city of 7 million. Experts estimated that at least 450 pounds of explosives were used.
"It was a huge explosion. I thought an airplane had crashed outside," said Luis Moreno, who lives across the street from the club on Seventh Avenue and whose apartment building's windows were shattered.
The explosion blew out the walls of an interior parking garage at the club, raining rubble onto the street below. Paramedics were seen giving CPR to a man lying in the debris.
"We were having dinner when the bomb went off," a man, his faced blackened from smoke, said as his wife was carried away on a stretcher by paramedics. Scores of people stumbled from the wrecked building, many with their faces streaked with blood.
Jorge Velandia, who works at the club's miniature golf course, said the blast opened up a hole in one of the floors, and people tumbled through.
Several children were among the injured. Witnesses had said children were to put on a ballet show at the club Friday night. Their fate was not immediately known.
Black smoke poured from the building, and flames licked out from upper windows. Two hours after the blast, firefighters had the blaze under control.
The club features restaurants, a gym and rooms for overnight guests.
"We felt an explosion that shook the whole building," said Alfonso Espejo, a doctor employed by the club. "It was almost impossible to breathe in the smoke."
Catalina Ortiz told Radionet that she was driving with her daughter and husband on the main street in front of the club when she felt the explosion and thought her car had been hit.
"When I looked back I saw the club was on fire, with a ball of fire coming out of the third or fourth floor. While I was looking back, things began to fall out of the building," she said.
The destruction recalled the drug wars of a decade ago. Since Escobar was killed by police in 1993, Colombia's cities have largely been immune from the violence in the countryside.
President Alvaro Uribe, who is cracking down on the leftist insurgency, visited the scene at midnight with his top security officials.
The attack was the second blow to hit Colombia in as many days.
On Thursday, a small plane carrying Minister of Social Welfare Juan Luis Londono and four other people disappeared on a domestic flight. Suspected rebels fired on a helicopter searching the Andean mountains of central Colombia for the plane on Friday.
The helicopter was hit four times but was able to return safely to its base and no one was injured.
Civil aviation spokesman Martin Gonzalez said the search operation would continue despite the danger in the area, which is controlled by rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
The FARC and a smaller rebel group -- the National Liberation Army -- are fighting the government and a handful of outlawed paramilitary groups.
U.S. Army special forces arrived in Colombia last month to train a brigade of Colombian soldiers in counterinsurgency tactics. [End]
Wait until the bomb that goes off this country includes the signature of the IRA in addition to that of AlQada.
Now that they're working together, those "charities" for the Irish should also be put on the list, and some of the figureheads for those also picked up and interrogated.
Goodmorning backhoe.
Colombian officials have blamed the bombing on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by the Spanish initials FARC. Ramirez said FARC militants are accustomed to life in the jungle, where, she said, they have no access to the techniques of car bombs and other intricate operations.
Reflecting the growing guerrilla propensity for carrying the civil war to urban centers, Ramirez said police were able to thwart six car bombings in Bogota in December alone. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe suggested at the time that there may have been an ETA or IRA role in the bombing attempts. Colombian authorities established an IRA link with the FARC several years ago when they took into custody three foreign members of the IRA. Colombia's civil war has persisted for 38 years. ***
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