[News] US Privatizes Colombian War with its Transnational Mercenaries

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Eva Golinger: U.S. Privatizes Colombian War with its Transnational Mercenaries

August 12th 2009, by ABN
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/4719

For the year 2009 the State Department of the 
United States will invest approximately $520 
million in Plan Colombia. More than half of this 
money went to private North American contractors 
charged with developing, promoting and furthering 
irregular warfare in Colombian territory and in 
Latin America; this was revealed to the 
Bolivarian News Agency by the lawyer and researcher Eva Golinger.

"This constitutes the total privatization of the 
war in Colombia through the utilization and 
financing of transnational mercenaries that have 
no legal obligation to respond to any judicial 
system in the world. In other words, they enjoy 
complete immunity," explained Golinger.

Golinger explained that in certain declassified 
government documents she found a list of 31 
American contractors that maintain relations with 
the State Department. This list contains the 
amounts of financing awarded by the 
administration in Washington to advance the war in Colombia.

"What jumps out here is their areas of 
responsibility and the amount of money which they 
receive for a period of 12 months," says Golinger.

Even though these are American companies 
contracted by the State Department, they are not 
subject to any American legal code, according to Golinger.

"As part of a bi-national accord, in Colombia 
they have total immunity, that is to say, they 
respond to nobody for their crimes, actions and operations," she emphasized.

Of the 31 companies on this list, Golinger has 
limited herself in this opportunity to mention 
the most important and those with a long history 
of belligerence in various parts of the world.

The Transnationals of War

The first on the list is Lockheed-Martin, one of 
the largest companies of the military-industrial 
complex in the United States. It is dedicated to 
producing weapons and technology, including war planes.

"Its contract includes $53 million in financing 
for the period of one year to provide logistical 
support and technical assistance to the national 
police of Colombia, in addition to training 
personnel for special operations," said Golinger.

Another company is Dyn Corp International, which 
also forms part of the American 
military-industrial apparatus. The State 
Department provides it with $164 million in 
financing to provide pilots, technicians and 
logistical support to the Colombian army.

"Similarly, the Arinc company, a private 
contractor of the military-industrial apparatus, 
received $8 million dollars to maintain, manage 
and train the Colombian national police in the 
task of intercepting signals and obtaining 
equipment associated with espionage," she says.

Also, Oackley Network received $5 million for the 
provision of software for monitoring the internet 
and to assist in espionage programs conducted by 
the crime division of the Colombian national police.

Similarly, one also encounters on the list ITT, a 
transnational telecommunication company that 
participated in the coup d'état against [Chilean president] Salvador Allende.

"In 2007 it received some $7 million to operate a 
hemispheric radar system, offer logistical 
support and provide radar equipment in Colombian 
territory that operate via satellite," said Golinger.

Echelon Espionage

Another company with global reach is the Rendón 
Group, which acquired a contract for $3.4 million 
to give communicational support to Plan Colombia 
and to counter narcotics operations.

"The Rendón Group, being a company of the 
Pentagon, is one of the most well known groups of 
experts in psychological operations dedicated to 
designing this type of campaign... it is this 
company that manages a great part of the media 
campaign against Venezuela and Ecuador," Golinger commented.

Moreover, she sustained that the contract 
stipulates the use of the Echelon system, the 
largest known espionage system, invented in the 
1970s by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).

"It is a satellite system that has the capacity 
to monitor all worldwide communications. They 
enter a specific word in the system, and this is 
linked to the rest of the communications systems. 
If they find that someone used that word on the 
telephone, cell phone, or computer, attention is 
directed toward that place. It gives the exact 
location and permits the conversation to be monitored," she commented.

In conclusion, Golinger expressed that the 
financing implies a continuation of the escalated 
offensive and imperialist aggression against the region.

"We saw the coup d'état in Honduras, the 
resurgence of the Colombian-Venezuelan conflict 
and the concern on the part of the countries of 
the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our 
America (ALBA) over the [new U.S.] military bases 
[in Colombia]... This is not the end of it," she affirmed.

Translated by Zachary Lown for Venezuelanalysis.com




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