I have no idea what is going on here. Do you?
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — On the eve of a visit by President Bush, the U.S. Embassy confirmed that U.S. and Colombian soldiers had entered a stronghold of leftist rebels who are holding three Americans hostage.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Marshall Louis said only that “U.S. personnel accompanied Colombian forces in the south, and that’s all I can say about it.”
U.S. troops are not permitted to engage in combat in Colombia but are allowed to accompany and advise Colombian units.
Bush is due to arrive in Bogota around noon Sunday as he continues his seven-day, five-country Latin American tour. (Watch how Bush is trying to improve the United States’ image )
Colombia’s largest newspaper, El Tiempo, reported Saturday that U.S. and Colombian soldiers arrived in the southern town of Cartagena del Chaira, a stronghold of the rebel group FARC, by helicopter on January 28 about 30 minutes after rebels shot and wounded a woman.
The rebels fled but the government troops took two people away for questioning. When the two returned two days later they said they had been interrogated about the U.S. hostages, according to El Tiempo.
Marc Gonsalves, Tom Howes and Keith Stansell, who are U.S. military contractors, were captured by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in February 2004 when their surveillance plane went down.
Their fate is expected to be on the agenda when Bush meets with President Alvaro Uribe on Sunday.
Colombia, which receives $700 million a year from the U.S. in mostly military aid.
Why is it that we have the “best” relationship with the one nation in S. America that is the home of the worst drug related problems in the region? Just sayin.
CNN version.
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I Want A New Drug
This is all just theater, isn’t it? Like when Cheney is headed into Pakistan last January and questions are being raised about Is Musharraf Our Friend? and what happens but suddenly a “major Taliban figure” is arrested and well golly gee guess they’re on it and then the Americans leave and things go back to normal.
Drugs, big money, really big money, all cash, flying everywhere. What Halliburton pulls out of DOD for Iraq is nothing compared to what is being pulled out of the War on Drugs. Black bag ops, billions upon billions laundered a million different ways and as long as those with the power get their cut no problem, no problem at all, the prison industry, law enforcement, CIA, military, dictators, princes and presidents, everyone gets a taste and the drugs just keep coming. Cross the powerbrokers, as did Noriega, and your ass lands in a Federal pen or the cemetery. Who gets the short straw? Addicts and drug dealers, who could possibly care about them? Little people of color, disposables, throwaways, grist for the mill, fertilizer for the crops.
As foul a stench as is the war in Iraq, the War on Drugs is far worse; a pox on humanity that goes on and on and never ends. Until we get that one right and put a stop to the madness, we are not fit to call ourselves decent or civilized.