Posted on 08/22/2002 4:53:44 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
BOGOTA, Colombia -- A U.S. Defense Department medical investigation into whether Colombian policemen died of poison gas during a rebel attack detected cyanide in one of the corpses, authorities said Wednesday.
Partly as a result of the U.S. findings, Colombian prosecutors have charged commanders of Colombia's main rebel group with using outlawed chemical weapons. However, the U.S. medical investigators said in a report that cyanide was found in only one tissue sample and that they could not conclude the rebels had used poison gas.
The four officers of the Colombian National Police were said to have died slow, agonizing deaths during the Sept. 2, 2001, attack on their installation in the village of San Adolfo.
Biopsies from the four men were sent to the United States and were analyzed by the Defense Department's Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. The pathologists reported finding in one tissue sample a cyanide concentration greater than 5 milligrams per liter. A level greater than 3 milligrams per liter is considered lethal.
However, because tests of the other tissue samples were negative for cyanide and some time had elapsed between the deaths and the tests, the pathologists were unable to say whether chemical weapons were involved.
"The significance of this finding based upon the history provided is undetermined," their report said.
Survivors of the attack in San Adolfo, 230 miles south of Bogota, said rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, tossed bombs into the police compound that sent dark, gray smoke into their bunker and tunnels.
"They were suffocating -- they couldn't breathe and felt their lungs were going to explode. They were immediately blinded by the gas," police Col. Francisco Henry Caicedo, citing survivors' reports, said in an interview days after the attack.
On Friday, the Colombian prosecutor's office issued arrest warrants for the FARC leadership for "using illegal warfare methods in utilizing chemical weapons," a spokeswoman for the office told the Associated Press. Those charged include the top leader of the FARC, Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda.
If poisonous gas were used, it would be the first such known case in Colombia's 38-year civil war, which pits the U.S.-backed military and an outlawed paramilitary group against the FARC and another rebel army.
Meanwhile, suspected rebels kidnapped more than two dozen tourists in a national park on the Pacific coast, officials said Wednesday.
As many as 26 people, all of them Colombians, were taken from a beach inside Ensenada Utria park near the town of Bahia Solano, 250 miles northeast of Bogota, police in Choco state said. The mass kidnapping occurred Monday, a national holiday, when the park was full of tourists, police said. Police only learned of the kidnapping Wednesday because the area is isolated.
Police blamed the kidnapping on the National Liberation Army, or ELN, Colombia's second-largest rebel group.
A da Silva regime in Brazil could soon be followed by the success of the Communist guerrillas in Colombia and the establishment of anti-American regimes in Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador (where in January 2000 radicals toppled the government in a few days, with help from military officers recruited by Chavez, though their success was short-lived). Thus, by the end of 2003, the United States might be faced with anti-American regimes in most of South America.
If those regimes recruited only one tenth of one percent of military-aged males for terrorist attacks on the United States, this could mean 30,000 terrorists coming from the south. In addition, many Middle Eastern terrorist organizations, including the PLO, have long collaborated with Castro against the United States and its allies; they and the Iranian-backed terrorists of Hezbollah have hidden among the sizable Middle Eastern communities in Brazil and Venezuela.***
The new axis is still preventable, but if the pro-Castro candidate is elected president of Brazil, the results could include a radical regime in Brazil re-establishing its nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs, developing close links to state sponsors of terrorism such as Cuba, Iraq and Iran, and participating in the destabilization of fragile neighboring democracies. This could lead to 300 million people in six countries coming under the control of radical anti-U.S. regimes and the possibility that thousands of newly indoctrinated terrorists might try to attack the United States from Latin America. Yet, the administration in Washington seems to be paying little attention.***
Regards, Ivan
Yes, indeed.
Although he has the fanatical support of a minority, Mr Castro despises the democratic process and holds his legitimacy to derive, not from popular support, but from the sacrifice of a past generation of revolutionaries. On this side of the Atlantic, Cuba might seem rather viejo sombrero: an unfashionable cause for ageing Marxists. But it is hard to exaggerate the horror that Mr Adams's visit is provoking in Washington. Patience with the IRA, already strained by its links with Colombian narco-terrorists, snapped after September 11. Eventually, the gunmen felt obliged to recognise international opinion by decommissioning some weapons. But it is clear from his latest actions that Mr Adams now feels that the slate has been wiped clean.
Why are the republicans acting in this way? Because, quite simply, they believe they can get away with it. For 30 years, they have consorted indiscriminately with America's enemies: Syria, Libya, Eta, the PLO and most of the Cold War east bloc-sponsored paramilitaries. Yet no sanction has followed.***
IRA is linked to 'axis of evil'*** THE IRA was linked to President Bush's "axis of evil" in Washington last night when congressional investigators revealed that the Bogota authorities believed Iranian terrorists had trained in the same part of Colombia as the Provisionals. Placing the IRA within a global network of terrorism, a report by the House International Relations Committee concluded that Irish, Iranian, Cuban and possibly Spanish groups had probably "been sharing techniques, honing their terrorism skills, using illicit drug proceeds in payment".
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.***
May 10, 2001- Castro Ends Visit to Iran***In Iran, Castro is admired for his 40-year struggle against the United States. Both countries are under U.S. sanctions and, year after year, both appear on Washington's list of countries that sponsor terrorism.
In a joint statement Thursday, the two countries condemned terrorism as well as the sanctions. They also called for establishment of an independent Palestinian state and the return of all Palestinian refugees to their homeland. The statement called for cooperation at the United Nations as well as in the Group of 77 countries and the Non-Aligned Movement. Iran currently heads the G-77, an association of developing countries. They agreed also to continue cooperation in pharmaceuticals and medical training.
Before departing Iran, Castro stopped off at the north Tehran home of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, father of the Iranian revolution. He was shown a short film on Khomeini's life and visited his library before heading on to the airport. Earlier in his visit, Castro had laid a wreath at Khomeini's grave.
U.S. sanctions have been in place against Iran since the revolution. Washington severed ties and imposed sanctions after Muslim militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.***
Best Regards, Ivan
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