Archive for the ‘Conflict’ Category

by Stephen Lendman

Palestine is belligerently occupied. Threats continue against Iran and Syria as well as Lebanon, specifically Hezbollah, elected partner in the nation’s unity government, bogusly designated a US State Department Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), what Israel also calls it, repeating veiled and overt warnings, suggesting violence or an impending attack.

Why not, after so many earlier in 1978, 1982, 1993, 1996, and 2006. Also numerous incidents besides:

– refusing to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 425 by occupying South Lebanon belligerently and illegally for 18 years until mostly, but not entirely, withdrawing in May 2000 – still holding Sheba Farms, the 14-square mile water-rich land near Syria’s Golan, also illegally occupied since 1967; in addition, Ghajar, the Lebanese village bordering Golan;

– during its occupation, using a proxy Christian South Lebanon Army as enforcer, UNIFIL Blue Helmets giving them and the IDF free reign instead of maintaining peace, how UN forces always operate, as paramilitaries against people they’re supposed to protect; and

– for over 40 years, repeatedly violating Lebanon’s territory, often daily, including 12 Israeli jet overflights on August 19.

Hezbollah – Israel’s Pretext for Incursions, Violence and War

Hezbollah was born out of Israel’s 1982 Lebanon invasion, its horrific war slaughtering around 18,000 people, mostly civilians, including in the Sabra and Shatila camps, what journalist Robert Fisk called “one of the most shocking war crimes of the 20th century.”

In 1999, it was put on the FTO list, removed after condemning the 9/11 attack, then added back by Dick Cheney after bogusly linking it with Al Qaeda.

Throughout his tenure, George Bush (and other administration officials) called Hezbollah, Iran and Syria “the root cause” of Middle East terrorism, despite Israel being the only threat, a notorious regional menace.

In mid-July 2010, Rep. Sue Myrick (R. NC) was over the top accusing the organization of being a threat on the US-Mexican border, saying:

“Our intelligence sources have really clarified that they are in Mexico, that there is an operation that is quite large in place there, and it’s very frightening to me because this is national security. We know some of them have gotten across the border in the past….They are starting to target the United States and that’s my concern.”

She also linked Hezbollah with Mexican drug cartels, DEA assistant intelligence administrator Anthony Placido saying “There are numerous reports of cocaine proceeds entering the coffers of Islamic radical groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas” – reports as credible as Saddam’s WMDs.

Hezbollah, in fact, is politically legitimate, former Lebanon President Emile Lahood calling it “an integral part of the Lebanese government….(also) part of our military (and) social order,” what former Prime Minister Rafik Harriri confirmed. It’s also a social, charitable, educational, and medical organization, involved in establishing over 50 hospitals, over 100 schools, many libraries, and providing other essential social services, why it has broad support, especially among Shiites, comprising over 35% of Lebanon’s population.

In addition, its military wing is for defense, not belligerency, but it’s prepared to respond effectively when attacked, what Israel learned painfully in the 2006 war, outfoxed and humiliated despite a vastly superior force. It’s a lesson the IDF never forgot and wants to avenge, as well as conceal its own terrorist history, by far the region’s most extensive with tentacles reaching globally.

An early 2007 American University of Beirut study documented 6,672 Israeli terrorist acts against Lebanon and Palestine alone from 1967 – 2007 (plus thousands more since then), unrewarded by inclusion on America’s FTO list, Israeli influence getting others on it, including Hezbollah and Hamas, Palestine’s legitimate government.

Without evidence, Hezbollah’s rap sheet includes the 1983 US Lebanon Embassy and Marine barracks bombings, highjackings, hostage taking, rocket attacks against Israel, suicide bombings, and more, charges the organization vehemently denies, saying it responds only in self-defense against militants, not civilians, its leader Hassan Nasrallah stating:

“Hezbollah remains on the US and Israel ‘terrorism’ list for purely political reasons and to punish the organization for its resistance to Israeli aggressions against Lebanon and (America’s) plans for the region.”

Expecting its members to be charged with assassinating former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005, he accused Israel of the crime, presenting visual and audio material as evidence. They included Israeli surveillance footage (intercepted in real time) of routes he used to be able to target his motorcade, Nasrallah saying:

“We have definite information on the aerial movements of the Israeli enemy the day Hariri was murdered. Hours before….an Israeli drone was surveying the Sidon-Beirut-Junieh coastline as warplanes were flying over Beirut. This video can be acquired by any investigative commission to ensure it is correct. We are sure of this evidence, or else we would not risk showing it.”

He also said an Israeli spy “confess(ed) in front of a camera that he had repeatedly tried to falsely convince Hariri that (Hezbollah) intended to assassinate him.” Though not a smoking gun, this information warrants serious investigation, especially given Israel’s history of similar acts, inside and outside the region.

According to Lebanese University Professor Hasan Jouni, an international criminal law expert, Nasrallah’s evidence was exceptional, saying:

“Logically and legally, in this stage, any new finding should be investigated by the general prosecutor. Sayyed Nasrallah submitted tangible evidence of the Israeli potential role in Hariri’s assassination.” It appears incriminating. “Furthermore, the previous investigations which were circulated here and there should be revised.”

Antoine Airout, North Lebanon Bar Association head, agreed, saying: “Sayyed Hasrallah’s revelations are very serious and objective,” especially given Israel’s long-term interest in destroying Lebanon to seize portions for itself. Hariri’s assassination furthered that goal.

In late July, Nasrallah further disclosed the arrest of nearly 100 Israeli spies who’d infiltrated Lebanon’s military and security sectors, including Ret. Army Brig. General Fayez Karam, once head of its antiterrorism/counterespionage units.

In his recent article titled, “Israel Takes Control of Lebanon,” investigative journalist Wayne Madsen covered the same issue, saying:

He’s “learned from (his) Lebanese intelligence sources that the Lebanese government is coming to realize that Israeli intelligence penetration of all political groups in the country is worse than originally believed.”

“The Israeli espionage network also extends to Syria. Lebanese sources report that former Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam, who accused Syrian President Bashar al Assad of ordering (Hariri’s) assassination, is tactically backed by Israel and the United States.” He heads the National Salvation Front (NSF) effort to oust Assad, getting Israeli, American, French and German help to do it.

For decades, the US/Israeli partnership ruthlessly pursued its joint regional imperial project, including assassinations, state terrorism and wars. Murdering Hariri indeed furthered their goal, and if an August 28 Press TV report is right, more is planned, the Iranian English language network saying:

“Israel is reportedly preparing to strike arms depots and weapons manufacturing plants in Syria, claiming they belong to….Hezbollah….Tel Aviv (having) escalated its military presence in” Golan and Lebanon’s Shebba Farms, according Haaretz, “citing a report in the (August 28) edition of the Kuwaiti daily Al Rai. (It) quoted European sources as saying that recent Israeli reconnaissance flights (over) Lebanese and Syrian airspace, are indications that Israel is ready to start a war in the area (against) targets….far inside Syrian territory….”

Targeting Lebanon – Stoking Tensions, Threatening More War

In early 2010, Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak warned Hezbollah to “avoid entering conflict with us, (adding that) We need to constantly prepare for a change in the status quo, though we don’t know when it will occur. We don’t want for it to happen, and it might not, but we will not be afraid to react if we have to fight back.”

Thinly veiled fighting words with July 23 elaboration, provocatively telling the Washington Post that Israel will hold the Lebanese government responsible for Hezbollah’s actions, saying “we will see it as legitimate to hit any target that belongs to the Lebanese state, not just to the Hezbollah” – the same 2006 blitzkrieg strategy causing vast destruction, billions in damage, killing over 1,000, injuring thousands more, and displacing one-fourth of Lebanon’s four million population, the vast majority being civilians, including 300,000 children, Israel’s “Dahiya Doctrine” strategy.

Named after the Beirut suburb destroyed in 2006, it’s how past and future wars will be fought, including Cast Lead, applying disproportionate force against civilians and non-military infrastructure, carried out with overwhelming intimidating force in violation of fundamental international law, prohibiting collective punishment and attacks against non-combatants, Israel’s preferred targets.

On a mid-April US visit, Jordan’s King Abdullah II expressed concern, telling a “Congressional Friends of Jordan Caucus” that he fears “imminent” conflict again with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

At the same time, AFP reported that Washington “voiced alarm” about Syria’s “possible sale of Scud missiles to Hezbollah militants, warning it would put Lebanon at ’significant risk.’ ” On April 13, Israeli President Shimon Peres accused Syria of doing it, saying it “claims it wants peace while at the same time it delivers Scuds to Hezbollah whose only goal is to threaten the state of Israel” – false and Peres knows it.

In response, an unnamed US official said a sale was suspected but not verified. Syria flatly denies it, and unmentioned was American aid to Israel, more than to all other nations combined, including annual billions of dollars in military aid, additional amounts when requested, plus the latest weapons and technology, enough to destabilize the entire region and beyond, given Israel’s capacity and inclination to wage war aggressively and illegally.

It’s bloodstained history confirms what US major media reports suppress – that no outside threat or attack on its territory occurred since the October 1973 Yom Kippur war, nearly 37 years ago after which Israel repeatedly attacked Lebanon and Occupied Palestine. It also menaces the entire Middle East, its goal being to divide, conquer and control it, a future article dealing solely with that topic.

At the end of the 2006 Lebanon war, UN Security Council Resolution 1701 called for a full cessation of hostilities on both sides, specifically that Hezbollah cease “all attacks” and disarm, Israel given freedom to respond to perceived threats. In other words, it can claim bogus ones justify war, Hezbollah denied comparable discretion.

Since passage, Hezbollah refused to disarm, but committed no aggressive acts. For its part, Israel breaches the resolution daily, including regular airspace, territorial, and sea encroachments. In early 2010, Michael Williams, UN special envoy to Lebanon said:

“To the best of my knowledge, there is probably no other country in the world which is subject to such an intrusive regime of aerial surveillance,” other intrusions and spying. In fact, none besides America, Israel’s paymaster/partner and early mentor, both countries the world’s most bellicose and aggressive, what Hezbollah understands and will respond.

Lebanon’s government also, saying it supports its right to defend sovereign state territory, Foreign Minister Ali al-Shami calling Israel a “permanent menace” with good reason.

Further, Syria said it will act if Lebanon is attacked, adding it considers a threat to Beirut’s security one to its own. Hamas’ Ali Baraka also avowed to back Hezbollah if attacked, stoking more tension, what Israel’s expert at exploiting, manufacturing threats when none exist.

On August 2, the George Soros-funded International Crisis Group published a report titled “Drums of War: Israel and the ‘Axis of Resistance,’ ” saying:

More war, if it comes, will be “far more devastating and broader in scope,” the regional dynamics dangerously explosive, so any “miscalculations” may launch it, including against Syria.

Despite a deceptive quiet, “Beneath the surface, tensions are mounting with no obvious safety valve.” Hezbollah’s readiness and “escalating Israeli threats (could) trigger the very outcome” so far avoided.

With “no effective forum for communication, (there’s) ample room for misunderstanding and misperception. Meanwhile, (Israel has waged) an underground war of espionage and assassinations….now a substitute for more open confrontation.”

“There is scant reason for optimism on the peace front,” not helped by America talking only with one side (Israel), “keeping another at arm’s length (Syria), ignoring a third (Hezbollah) and confronting the fourth (Iran).”

As a result, “the world should cross its fingers that fear of a catastrophic conflict will continue to be reason enough for the parties not to provoke one.”

Not explained is that Israel and America alone pose threats, the same ones for over 40 years, what all regional states know and fear, hoping they won’t end up like Iraq – destroyed by imperial lawlessness, the fake August 19 “combat” troop pullout just PR cover for permanent occupation, or as one Iraqi official said: “This is about America’s midterm elections,” Washington’s presence is here to stay, even Newsweek calling it a “nonevent,” saying:

“The departure of the last ‘combat troops’ from Iraq (more a strategic retreat than victory lap) is hardly the end of American combat there. (What about the other) 50,000….staying behind? They didn’t exactly send their (formidable weapons arsenal) out with that Stryker brigade. And they’re not going to transform themselves into the Peace Corp overnight,” or, in fact, ever.

The region’s strategic importance assures permanent war, America’s presence, and continued danger for everyone there – cursed, not benefitting from oil.

A Final Comment

Besides bordering on Israel, Lebanon’s resources make it vulnerable, namely its water and natural gas reserves, one reason for the 2006 war, South Lebanon to the Litani River especially important. Also the Wazzini springs feeding into the Hasbani River tributary of the Jordan River. It flows into Israel two miles downstream from the Wazzini, then into the Sea of Galilee that’s Israel’s largest fresh water source.

Israel covets the 20-mile stretch from its border to the Litani to use Lebanese water for its own needs, a considerable supply if controlled, besides what’s gotten from Golan, seized from Syria in 1967 and still held.

The Tamar and Leviathan offshore natural gas fields are also key, located off Israel’s north coast and Southern Lebanon. Tamar contains an estimated 8.5 trillion cubic feet supply, Leviathan another 16 trillion, and on August 29, Israel National News.com said it may hold four billion or more barrels of oil, making it a richer than ever prize.

The London-based Lebanese newspaper As-Safir said if Israel attempts to siphon gas from Lebanese waters, conflict could result. The paper’s Israel affairs analyst, Hilmi Mousa, said Leviathan “lies mostly off Lebanese shores and in international waters between the sea border of Palestine (and Cyprus waters). However, Israel received a guarantee from Britain, which has no rights in Palestine, to search for oil in the area near the Lebanese shores. The map of deposits, as published in the Israeli economic papers, shows the scope of the deviation into Lebanon’s international waters,” ones Lebanon surely will protect.

Yet Mousa headlined, “Israel preparing to steal gas fields in Lebanon’s waters,” saying doing so “will quickly turn into a new conflict (in which) Lebanon….will defend its rights in the water.” Other sites include Rut and Alon, also off Lebanese shores or in areas far from Israel. The situation bears watching given the possibility that Israel may attack Lebanon and Hezbollah, needing or inventing a pretext to do it, an old trick it may use again, Lebanon perhaps the next target.

by Stephen Lendman

In an August 2 speech to disabled veterans, Obama touted his planned withdrawal, saying:

“As a candidate for president, I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end….Shortly after taking office, I announced our new strategy….for a transition to full Iraqi responsibility. And I made it clear that by August 31, 2010, America’s combat mission in Iraq would end. And that is exactly what we are doing – as promised, on schedule.”

At two or more recent fundraisers, he repeated the “pledge:”

“We are keeping the promise I made when I began my campaign for the presidency: by the end of this month, we will have removed 100,000 troops from Iraq, and our combat mission will be over.”

Unmentioned was combat readiness remaining, paramilitary army additions replacing those leaving, shifting Iraq forces to Afghanistan, increasing hostilities against Pakistan, committing daily war crimes throughout the region, planning more conflicts ahead, continuing America’s permanent war agenda, glorifying them in the name of peace, destroying generations of US youths by a never-ending cycle of imperial wars, not liberating ones.

No matter. US cable channels hailed the Iraq pullout like VJ day, none more cloyingly one-sided than MSNBC, devoting an entire evening for “embedded” coverage – “in bed with” for Studs Terkel (1912 – 2008), to report propaganda, not truths, regular media fare, round the clock on cable TV, MSNBC reporter Richard Engel exiting with troops in a specially equipped “Bloom-mobile” (named for NBC’s late correspondent David Bloom), host Rachael Maddow in Baghdad, and Keith Olbermann anchoring coverage in New York, a trio doing what they do best – deceiving, not informing viewers, defending imperial wars, not condemning them.

According to MSNBC news executive Phil Griffin, the decision to go wall-to-wall was a “no-brainer,” saying “We’ve got something unique and it’s an important story. We said, ‘Let’s go for it,’ ” so they did in embarrassing overload, misrepresenting and suppressing the real Iraq story. More on it below.

On August 19, New York Times writer Steven Myers hailed the wind down “even though Baghdad remains without the permanent government” that Obama’s strategy envisions, the “stalemate” casting a shadow over the 50,000 troops remaining in an “advise and assist” role.

A supposed “agreement” plans their withdrawal by end of 2011, the State Department then taking over in charge of an army of contractors, including thousands of paramilitaries for private security, hired assassins like Blackwater USA, rebranded as Xe Services LLC to hide the company’s dark past, continuing unabated under its new name.

Doubling or tripling them won’t matter. Daily violence rages, in July at the highest level in the past two years, media reports downplaying or suppressing the facts, pretending a liberated Iraq is now healing, enhanced by our presence and commitment to “democracy,” what’s not tolerated at home or anywhere abroad, especially in countries we attack, destroy, and occupy.

Saddam’s Iraq no longer exists, the country divided into the Basra south, Kurdish north and Baghdad center, a puppet government serving US interests. In addition, two decades of war and sanctions killed, maimed or otherwise harmed or displaced millions, causing horrific depravation and an epidemic of cancers, typhoid, dysentery, cholera, hepatitis, other diseases, and newborn deformities from scores of pollutants, including depleted uranium (DU), chemicals, toxic metals, oil, bacteria, and other poisons, America’s deadly legacy.

Twenty years of war, sanctions, and occupation demolished Iraq. The Gulf War was an economic and environmental disaster, destroying power and chemical plants; factories; dams; water purification facilities; sewage treatment and disposal systems; oil wells, pipelines, refineries, and storage tanks besides ravishing the entire country and its people, the result of gratuitous destruction and slaughter.

In 2003, it was repeated, a “shock and awe” blitzkrieg intermittently continued even with US forces withdrawing. Throughout the country, thousands remain on super-bases, equipped with sophisticated weapons to reign death and destruction from land, sea or air, leaving rubble and a deadly cocktail of oil, gasoline, heavy metals, DU, pesticides, benzene, and other chemicals and pollutants. Also, a GMO-contaminated food supply; water too unsafe to drink; sanitation, electricity, and decent housing in short supply; and most Iraqis deprived of adequate medical, education and other essential services.

Today’s Iraq is nightmarish, portrayed as democratically liberated, Obama’s bravado as stage-managed as Bush’s declared victory on the US carrier Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, a captive audience assembled to cheer failure and imperial war crimes.

Iraqis live them daily, devastated by one of history’s greatest ever crimes, ongoing for two decades, what the major media won’t touch, instead delivering “in bed with” “mission accomplished” reports, inventing their own version of reality.

Nightmarish human depravation and suffering prove otherwise. Most Iraqis are unemployed or underemployed, impoverished, and without basic services. Under permanent occupation, the country is being strip-mined for profit, its resources stolen, its people exploited and abused, compounded by a poisoned environment, daily violence, major media suppressed crimes, thousands detained, tortured and ill-treated without charge under horrific conditions.

Obama’s promise to withdraw all US forces by December 2011 will also be broken. As long as the region’s oil rich and strategically important, America’s there to stay, Iraqis to be used, abused, and cheated until they succeed in driving us out.

The hated occupation motivates them to resist, cleric Moqtada al-Sadr vowing to “rise up and fight to the death,” Abu Mohammed (in charge of the Sadrist cemetery) saying if US forces aren’t out by end of 2011, “we will fight and give our blood. This will be our solution,” one they expect will be needed knowing Washington came to stay, a status millions of Iraqis won’t tolerate nor should they.

Some Final Thoughts

Echoed by shameless major media trumpeting, Obama’s bravado is brazenly bogus, the staged-managed Iraq pullout more retreat than success.

The occupation’s now rebranded, yet US combat readiness remains, accompanied by daily violence, atrocities, and depravation. They plague Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and US-financed proxy wars in Somalia, Yemen, Colombia, and elsewhere, realities the major media suppress, as well as the war at home on human need, not addressed or discussed.

Since 2001 alone, trillions of dollars have been wasted on militarism and war making, badly needed funds domestically at a time of deepening depression.

As a result, growing millions of Americans are hemorrhaging – suffering from unemployment, lost savings, homelessness, ill health, hunger, hopelessness and despair, another unreported story, media stooges hailing a “recovery” for Wall Street, not Main Street.

Unsurprisingly, US workers are experiencing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, perhaps surpassing its severity before it ends because US leaders don’t give a damn, mindless of human suffering, their audacity of power corrupted, brutal and uncaring, Obama as bad as the rest.

by Stephen Lendman

Colombia, America’s closest South American ally, is a corrupted narco-state, a repressive death squad faux democracy, threatening regional neighbors, and reigning terror against trade unionists, human rights workers, campesinos, pro-democracy organizations, independent journalists, and legitimate resistance groups like the FARC-EP. Established in 1964, James Petras calls it the “longest standing, largest peasant-based guerrilla movement in the world,” persisting valiantly for decades. 

Thanks to Plan Colombia and other support, the state is heavily militarized, more than ever now serving as Washington’s land-based aircraft carrier against regional targets, including neighboring Venezuela.

The Pentagon got expanded access, former President Alvaro Uribe agreeing to US forces on seven more military bases (three airfields, two naval installations, and two army facilities), as well as unrestricted use of the entire country as-needed for internal and external belligerency, including out-of-control violence and human rights abuses, the region’s most extreme to keep two-thirds of Colombians impoverished, millions displaced, corruption endemic, wealth concentration growing, and corporate predators freed to exploit and plunder.

Also to facilitate record amounts of Colombian cocaine from government-controlled areas reaching US and world markets, new President Juan Manuel Santos embracing the “Uribe Doctrine,” now his. It’s extremist, hard right, corrupt, brutal, corporate-friendly, and militarized in lockstep with Washington.

As Uribe’s Defense Minister, James Petras explained that Santos was an assassin, deploying military forces and paramilitary death squads “to kill and terrorize entire population centers, (murdering) over 20,000 people….falsely labeled ‘guerrillas.’ ”

UN Special Rapporteur Report on “Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions”

Mandated by the Human Rights Council (HRC), Special Rapporteur Philip Alston issued his March 31, 2010 report, based on his June 8 – 18, 2009 Colombia mission, understating the reality by citing “important gains,” yet nonetheless damning, saying “very serious problems remain.” Calamitous for most Colombians more accurately describes them.

Under Uribe and Santos, they’re virulent, security and paramilitary forces “carr(ying) out a significant number of premeditated civilian murders,” fraudulently called “combat” deaths. Killings rage “around the country,” military commanders under pressure to show results by “kill counts.”

A culture of violence with impunity plagues Colombia, the military adopting a “you’re either for us or against us” doctrine, stigmatizing civilians as potential enemies to be targeted and eliminated. Paramilitaries also share fault, “carr(ying) out many killings and the numbers are rising.”

As a signatory to international human rights law conventions, including Geneva and its Additional Protocols, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Colombia is legally obligated, international treaties automatically state laws under its Constitution’s Article 93, ones the Uribe, Santos and other past governments spurned with impunity.

Calling resistance fighters “terrorists,” the phenomenon of “false positives” amounts to “unlawful killings of civilians, staged” to look legitimate, including by arresting them at home, by patrols, at roadblocks, or though other means. Sometimes, “informers” rat on them for a reward, usually monetary. Once assassinated, faked legitimacy is established by planting weapons on the scene, changing their clothes to combat fatigues, and other deceptions. If family members later know, they’re intimidated to silence, on threat of disappearing or death.

Government officials are in denial, claiming “civilian victims were in fact guerrillas or criminals,” calling unlawful killings a few “isolated cases.”

Clear evidence, however, shows a widespread problem, government and paramilitary forces responsible, a pattern “repeated around the country. There have been too many killings of a similar nature to characterize them as isolated incidents carried out by individual rogue soldiers or units, or ‘bad apples.’ ” The entire security apparatus is involved, eyewitnesses and soldier testimonies confirming it.

Cold-blooded murder and extrajudicial assassinations are state policy, many thousands affected, the practices continuing unchecked. In 2009, the Ministry of Defense issued bogus human rights mandates throughout the Armed Forces, for show, not serious change.

At best, it’s “too early to confirm the extent or nature of a drop in allegations. Past experience in Colombia shows that many (killings) remain unreported for long periods of time due to witness fear, lack of knowledge about how to make complaints and navigate the justice system, and significant communication and geographic impediments to making complaints.”

In regions visited, conditions look “significantly less positive” than reported, lack of accountability a key factor, impunity for state killers “as high as 98.5%. Soldiers (paramilitaries and police) simply (know) that they (can) get away with murder” because of no serious effort to prosecute or convict.

Yet, “important steps to reduce paramilitary killings and violence,” were attempted, including demobilizing and reintegrating the AUC. However, “the full picture of the demobilization….shows an alarming level of impunity for former paramilitaries.” In addition, no one has been sentenced nor a full accounting of crimes produced. As a result, truth and justice has been sacrificed, including for victims, “denied the right to restitution and reparation.”

In 2009, helpful legislation didn’t pass because of internal opposition, the failure and demobilization flaws causing a “rise in killings by new illegal armed groups (IAGs), composed of paramilitaries who didn’t demobilize and others joining new groups. They “may have spread across Colombia and, in the aggregate may number in the thousands.”

The “incontrovertible reality remains that (vulnerable people) continue to be disproportionately killed or threatened and are especially” at risk. Government efforts to curb violence are weak and ineffective, unmasking a faux democracy.

High level complicity and a culture of impunity are at fault, why Colombia remains the world’s most dangerous country for trade unionists, and one of the most hazardiys for human rights workers, pro-democracy supporters, independent journalists, or anyone challenging state power, Santos as militant, corrupted, and extremist as Uribe, most Colombians the worse off for it.

A Final Note

On August 17, the Constitutional Court of Colombia, its highest judicial branch, ruled 6 – 3 against granting the Pentagon more military bases (the October 2009 agreement), calling the deal unconstitutional because legislators didn’t approve it.

Chief Justice Mauricio Gonzales said the agreement is “an arrangement which requires the state to take on new obligations as well as an extension of previous ones and as such should be handled as an international treaty, that is, subject to congressional approval.”

The decision doesn’t affect previous US-Colombian accords, so until resolved, highly likely in America’s favor, US forces can be moved temporarily to permitted bases, effectively negating the high court ruling, a Santos congressional majority expected to affirm it.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.