Coming
in October
From AK Press
Today's
Stories
September
19, 2003
Ilan Pappe
The
Hole in the Road Map
Bill Glahn
RIAA is Full of Bunk, So is the New York Times
Dave Lindorff
General Hysteria: the Clark Bandwagon
Robert Fisk
New Guard is Saddam's Old
Jeff Halper
Preparing
for a Struggle Against Israeli Apartheid
Brian J. Foley
Power to the Purse
Clare
Brandabur
Hitchens
Smears Edward Said
Website of the Day
Live from Palestine
September
18, 2003
Mona Baker
and Lawrence Davidson
In
Defense of the Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions
Wayne
Madsen
Wesley
Clark for President? Another Neo-Con Con Job
Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Wesley Clark and Waco
Muqtedar Khan
The Pakistan Squeeze
Dominique
de Villepin
The
Reconstruction of Iraq: This Approach is Leading Nowhere
Angus Wright
Brazilian Land Reform Offers Hope
Elaine
Cassel
Payback is Hell
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Leavitt
for EPA Head? He's Much Worse Than You Thought
Website
of the Day
ALA Responds to Ashcroft's Smear
Recent
Stories
September 17, 2003
Timothy J. Freeman
The
Terrible Truth About Iraq
St. Clair / Cockburn
A
Vain, Pompous Brown-noser:
Meet the Real Wesley Clark
Terry Lodge
An Open Letter to Michael Moore on Gen. Wesley Clark
Mitchel Cohen
Don't Be Fooled Again: Gen. Wesley Clark, War Criminal
Norman Madarasz
Targeting Arafat
Richard Forno
High Tech Heroin
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Website of the Day
The Ultimate Palestine Resource Site!
September 16, 2003
Rosemary and Walt Brasch
An
Ill Wind: Hurricane Isabel and the Lack of Homeland Security
Robert Fisk
Powell
in Baghdad
Kurt Nimmo
Imperial Sociopaths
M. Shahid Alam
The Dialectics
of Terror
Ron Jacobs
Exile at Gunpoint
Christopher Brauchli
Bush's War on Wages
Al Krebs
Stop Calling Them "Farm Subsidies"; It's Corporate
Welfare
Patrick Cockburn
The
Iraq Wreck
Website of the Day
From Occupied Palestine
September 15, 2003
Stan Goff
It Was
the Oil; It Is Like Vietnam
Robert Fisk
A Hail of Bullets, a Trail of Dead
Writers Bloc
We
Are Winning: a Report from Cancun
James T. Phillips
Does George Bush Cry?
Elaine Cassel
The Troublesome Bill of Rights
Cynthia McKinney
A Message to the People of New York City
Matthew Behrens
Sunday Morning Coming Down: Reflections on Johnny Cash
Uri Avnery
Assassinating
Arafat
Hammond Guthrie
Celling Out the Alarm
Website of the Day
Arnold and the Egg
September 13 / 14, 2003
Michael Neumann
Anti-Americanism:
Too Much of a Good Thing?
Jeffrey St. Clair
Anatomy of a Swindle
Gary Leupp
The Matrix of Ignorance
Ron Jacobs
Reagan's America
Brian Cloughley
Up to a Point, Lord Rumsfeld
William S. Lind
Making Mesopotamia a Terrorist Magnet
Werther
A Modest Proposal for the Pentagon
Dave Lindorff
Friendly Fire Will Doom the Occupation
Toni Solo
Fiction and Reality in Colombia: The Trial of the Bogota Three
Elaine Cassel
Juries and the Death Penalty
Mickey Z.
A Parable for Cancun
Jeffrey Sommers
Issam Nashashibi: a Life Dedicated to the Palestinian Cause
David Vest
Driving in No Direction (with a Glimpse of Johnny Cash)
Michael Yates
The Minstrel Show
Jesse Walker
Adios, Johnny Cash
Adam Engel
Something Killer
Poets' Basement
Cash, Albert, Curtis, Linhart
Website of the Weekend
Local Harvest
The Great Alejandro Escavedo Needs Your Help!
September 12, 2003
Writers Block
Todos
Somos Lee: Protest and Death in Cancun
Laura Carlsen
A Knife to the Heart: WTO Kills Farmers
Dave Lindorff
The Meaning of Sept. 11
Elaine Cassel
Bush at Quantico
Linda S. Heard
British
Entrance Exams
John Chuckman
The First Two Years of Insanity
Doug Giebel
Ending America as We Know It
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Blank Check Military
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Website of the Day
A Woman in Baghdad
September 11, 2003
Robert Fisk
A Grandiose
Folly
Roger Burbach
State Terrorism and 9/11: 1973 and 2001
Jonathan Franklin
The Pinochet Files
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Postcards to the President
Norman Solomon
The Political Capital of 9/11
Saul Landau
The Chilean Coup: the Other, Almost Forgotten 9/11
Stew Albert
What Goes Around
Website of the Day
The Sights and Sounds of a Coup
September 10, 2003
John Ross
Cancun
Reality Show: Will It Turn Into a Tropical Seattle?
Zoltan Grossman
The General Who Would be President: Was Wesley Clark Also Unprepared
for the Postwar Bloodbath?
Tim Llewellyn
At the Gates of Hell
Christopher Brauchli
Turn the Paige: the Bush Education Deception
Lee Sustar
Bring the Troops Home, Now!
Elaine Cassel
McCain-Feingold in Trouble: Scalia Hogs the Debate
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Hammond Guthrie
When All Was Said and Done
Website of the Day
Fact Checking Colin Powell
Hot Stories
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
William Blum
Myth
and Denial in the War on Terrorism
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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September
20, 2003
The Colombia Three
An
Interview with Caitriona Ruane
By TONI SOLO
The world wide assault on internationally accepted
legal norms by the United States and its allies develops apace.
In a nationally televised speech on September 8th, Colombian
President Alvaro Uribe violently attacked human rights defenders,
saying, "Every time a security policy is carried out in
Colombia to defeat terrorism, when terrorists start feeling weak,
they immediately send their spokesmen to talk about human rights."
His speech was followed by a communique
from the European Commission in support of human rights organisations
trying to defend justice and basic rights in Colombia. But backed
with billions of dollars of US military aid, President Uribe's
inflammatory speech promises no let up in the onslaught on basic
legal norms in Colombia. And this is so anywhere the bogus 'war
on terrorism' is needed to justify political repression.
The case of the five Cubans gaoled for
monitoring anti-Castro terrorist groups in Miami [2] and the
arbitrary detention of muslim immigrants [3] are just two of
the increasing instances of concern in the US itself. Overseas,
the prisoners in Guantanamo, the men tortured to death earlier
this year in the US-run Bagram airbase in Afghanistan and the
routine abuses in Palestine and in Iraq indicate that legality
means little to the Bush regime and its allies. In the case of
the 3 Irishmen arrested on terrorism charges in Colombia in 2001,
people around the world have had a chance to see how the sponsors
of the 'war on terrorism' manipulate justice for political ends.
Since September 2001, Caitriona Ruane
has visited Colombia for the Bring Them Home Campaign on 16 different
occasions to visit the three She has helped co-ordinate the legal
case in Ireland (with the law firm Madden-Finucane) and in Colombia
(with the Jose Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective and the Federation
for Solidarity with Political prisoners). Here she gives an overview
of how the case has been used for political ends.
Solo:
Why do you think the charges against the 3 were not dropped given
the lack of evidence?
Ruane:
I think it was obvious to the Attorney General, Luis Camilo Osorio
and his prosecutors that there never was any evidence against
the three men, these men should never have been brought to trial.
They should have been sent home two years ago. The only reason
the charges against the Niall Connolly, Jim Monaghan and Martin
McCauley were not dropped is that the Attorney General's office
in Colombia fabricated a case against the men and now cannot
admit it. Luis Camilo Osorio has brought the office of the Attorney
General into disrepute. Every human rights organisation that
monitors the situation in Colombia agrees, his role in this and
countless other cases prejudices the rule of law and justice
in Colombia. I recommend people read Human Rights Watch, United
Nations, Amnesty International and other human rights reports
to see for themselves the terrible role of the Attorney General's
office.
The role of the Procuraduria's (Solicitor
General's) office has been particularly disppointing in this
case. They called for a conviction of the three men, knowing
full well that there is no evidence. In January 2002, I travelled
with former Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, David Andrews
and Sile Maguire of the Irish Diplomatic Corps and we met with
the head of the Procuraduria. He assured us that their organisation
would monitor the trial and ensure it would be fair. They have
not done that. If there is a miscarriage of justice in this case
they are as responsible as the Attorney General's office.
Solo:
Do you think the 3 have had a fair trial?
Ruane:
No, These men should never even have been brought to trial, there
is no evidence to substantiate the training of terrorists charge.
During the investigative stage of the legal process, the men's
rights were totally violated. The prosecutor is supposed to look
for evidence for and against the men, they did not do this. In
total violation of due process they failed even to interview
defence witnesses. It was obvious from the very early stages
of this farce that the military were schooling witnesses in their
military barracks. Fortunately for the three men, these witnesses
were not schooled very well and their inconsistencies, and lies
were exposed in the court in front of the world media. The defence
provided the court with three videos of Jim Monaghan filmed in
Ireland at precisely the time one of the witnesses says that
he saw the three men training the FARC forces opposed to the
government. This legal process was a farce from start to finish.
Now the trial is over. We are waiting
for the decision from the judge and we are calling on the Colombian
Government to ensure that the judge can make a decision based
on the evidence presented to his court, free from political pressure
from the executive and the military. If this case was heard in
any court that respects due process it would have been thrown
out months ago and the men would be home with their family where
they should be.
Solo:
Do you agree that the case fits into a wider context?
Ruane:
I think that the Colombian Government fabricated this case, so
they could get more aid from the US and claim that the conflict
in Colombia is not a civil war but an international "terrorist"
conspiracy. Ex-president Andres Pastrana prejudiced the men's
case in an article written while he was in Washington. He used
the false accusations against the three men to try and get more
funds for Colombia. The current president Uribe prejudiced the
case when he referred to the three men in a Newsweek article
while trying to gain more funds to fight the civil war in Colombia.
The case of the three men was also used
by elements of British Intelligence and anti peace process unionists
to try and destabilise the peace process in Ireland. It is important
to say that the three men are suppporters of the peace process
and have publicly stated that in a declaration to the court.
The case was also used by the Colombian army and elements who
were against the peace process in Colombia.
Solo:
What has been your experience of media reporting of the case?
Ruane:
When the men were arrested two years ago, the intelligence services
in Ireland, Britain, the US and Colombia went into overdrive
and made unsubstantiated, bizarre and unbelievable allegations.
It subsequently transpired that none of these allegations were
true but unfortunately investigative journalism went out the
window and journalists published them verbatim without even verifying
their sources or stories. It was a shameful time for many "reputable"
news organisations.
This continued right through the first
18 months of the men's incarceration. It began to change once
the trial began in December 2002. Very quickly it became obvious
to all the press in the court and the international observers
that there was no case against these men and the manipulation
and fabrication was too much for most of the journalists present
to take seriously. Since then they have stopped using unsubstantiated
intelligence reports and reported the trial more accurately.
Having said that many of their editors have not given sufficient
prominence to the story, after covering it very prominently to
start with.
Early on, BBC's local North of Ireland
service was guilty of taking intelligence reports and unsubstantiated
reports without even verifying their stories. That said, they
have covered the actual trial fairly and were very professional
reporting that part of the story. They also sent a team to do
a documentary which was broadcast two or three months after the
men were arrested and it exposed the faulty US forensics in the
case.
British Independent Channel 4, which
has a reputation for "fair journalism" commissioned
a documentary which was an absolute disgrace--it was one of the
worst I have seen in the two years and for me it was disappointing
to see Channel 4 stoop to such low levels. In general, the English
media networks are more or less ignoring the story now after
the initial hysterical coverage and one cannot help feel that
this is because it is not going well for the prosecution and
they would look bad having to admit their initial stories were
baseless.
Irish State TV company RTE covered the
trial fairly and sent their senior reporter to the trial, they
also showed the video of Jim Monaghan giving a talk on peace
and reconciliation in Belfast that discredited one of the prosecution
witnesses who said he was training the FARC forces opposing the
government. But I would like to see RTE and BBC take a much stronger
stance. It is obvious to everyone that there is no case, and
that these men should be at home with their families. This is
obviously an editorial decision, not a decision for individual
journalists and I would call on the senior editorial staff of
RTE and BBC to give this case more prominence and call a spade
a spade. They should also be supporting calls for the men to
be sent home.
I feel that a lot of the world's media
is ignoring the story because they are being "advised"
to by intelligence services--if this case was going well for
the prosecution there would be much more coverage of it. The
men had already been declared guilty by most of the media. Now
that everyone can see there is no case, the same media have fallen
silent.
Solo:
What is your opinion of the handling of the case by the governments
involved?
Ruane:
Well, the Irish Government has worked closely with the Bring
Them Home Campaign. International observers and myself have had
meetings with the Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern
and the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Brian Cowen). They have
quietly lobbied the Colombian Government and at times have made
the odd public statement about the case. They have sent their
Ambassador to Colombia who has observed every stage of the trial.
The Irish Government know at every level that there is no evidence
against these men.
While I commend their quiet work--I feel
that they have not stood up for the rights of Irish citizens
in the way they should have. They are far too timid when faced
with "powerful" governments and they need to be making
more public statements. It is their job to represent Irish citizens
and stand up for their rights. They are not doing this sufficiently
and we are calling on them to be more vocal. I would recommend
that they study the way Britain helped its citizens in Greece
and Saudi Arabia and perhaps take a leaf out of Tony Blair's
book.
In Colombia ex-president Pastrana and
current president Uribe, as well as the Attorney General and
the Head of the Armed forces have interfered in this case in
a shameful way. This is hardly surprising since they tacitly
support the excesses of the Colombian Armed Forces. In this case,
they co-operated with a US Senate Foreign Relations hearing which
violated all international norms. They used this case to destroy
a very important peace process in Colombia and have illegally
detained the three Irishmen for 25 months now.
In Britain, Tony Blair made prejudicial
comments about this case from the start, he permitted his intelligence
services a free run spinning, lying and manipulating this case
to try and destroy the peace process in Ireland. He used the
case of the three men to justify his decision to unilaterally
cancel elections in the North of Ireland because they were afraid
of what the result might be. His role in this case is shameful
and continues to be.
The US government interfered directly
in a legal case in a foreign country. One of their embassy officials
carried out a forensic test on the men's clothing and belongings
in a Colombian military barracks. At trial, this test was discredited
by an internationally renowned forensic expert Dr. Keith Borer.
Official US intervention in this case has been highly irregular
and in breach of international law.
For example, the US senate foreign relations
committee held hearings in this case before the trial even started
and allowed a Colombian general to reel off his personal opinions.
Fortunately most Republican and Democrat Senators and Representatives
saw this for what it was and criticised the hearings. When questioned
the general was asked for evidence to back up his accusations
against the men--which of course he was unable to do.
Since then the US government has been
very quiet on the case with the exception of Richard Hass who
said that the men are entitled to a fair trial. We are calling
on the US government who are providing billions of dollars in
military aid to the Colombian goverment to call for independence
of the judiciary so the trial judge is free to make a decision
based on the evidence presented to his court without political
and military intimidation.
Solo:
What has been the response from ordinary people and from non-governmental
organizations?
Ruane:
The response from ordinary people in Ireland, Europe, the United
States, Latin America, Australia has been incredible and it is
what has kept us going. International observers, politicians,
lawyers, trade unionists and human rights defenders have come
over to every stage of the trial. People in Ireland have done
tremendous fundraising, and lobbying for these three men.
Pedro Mahecha, one of the men's lawyers
and myself have recently returned from a visit to the United
States, where we met with Irish Americans, Latin Americans, human
rights activists, business people, media and we got a great response.
People all over the world are watching this case. It is a test
case for Colombia.
Solo:
Do you relate the case to attempts to undermine and destroy the
human rights consensus developed since the first Geneva Conventions
and since 1945?
Ruane:
I think the erosion of civil liberties that is happening at the
moment particularly by the Bush and Blair administrations is
very worrying. Violation of law and due process does not resolve
conflict, it creates more conflict. We only have to look at the
situation in the North of Ireland for the past thirty years when
successive British governments threw due process out the window
and there was systematic, massive violation of human rights.
I urge all governments to respect international covenants and
abide by them. There is no easy answer to the problems in the
world today but violation of human rights or suspension of civil
liberties is certainly not the way forward.
Solo:
What can people do to secure the release of the 3? Do you think
this is part of a wider defence of basic human rights standards?
Ruane:
The Bring Them Home Campaign, the three men's families and the
lawyers for the three men are calling on people throughout the
world to write, e-mail and ring the Colombian Embassies throughout
the world and let them know they are watching this case. We are
asking people to call on the Colombian Government to free the
Judge from political and military pressure and that he can make
a decision based on the evidence presented to his court free
from intimidation.
Solo:
In the Irish context, what has been the effect of the manipulation
of the case by Tony Blair and Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble?
Ruane: There
have been consistent and sinister attempts to undermine the peace
process in Ireland and there have been very serious setbacks.
Cancelling of democratic elections by Tony Blair is one of these.
Having said that I have confidence that there will be change
in Ireland. Things will move forward. No one will be able to
stop that change happening. This foot-dragging by the British
government and their Unionist allies will not deter the people
in Ireland, north and south, who have worked for years to build
this peace process.
Solo:
Martin MacAuley was in the past represented by the lawyers Pat
Finucane and Rosemary Nelson, both murdered by Protestant paramilitaries
with links to the British security forces. How do you think the
case fits in to the history of British rule in Ireland since
1970?
Ruane:
Martin McCauley is the only survivor of people targeted during
the "shoot to kill" policy of the British government
in the early 1980s. Two of his lawyers have been killed and there
have been threats against his defence lawyers and their organisations
in Colombia. President Uribe's rant against human rights defenders
is very worrying and extremely irresponsible. It is interesting
that the very forces--the British army--that tried to kill Martin
are training the repressive Colombian "security" services
in Colombia today, financed by the British tax payer.
Toni Solo
is an activist based in Central America. Contact: tonisolo52@yahoo.com
NOTES
1. Caitriona Ruane has worked for 20
years on international human rights and justice issues in Ireland,
Africa, Asia and Latin America. She is a firm supporter of the
Irish peace process.
2. For more information on this case
visit www.freethefive.org
3. COUNTERPUNCH, August 16, 2003, "Bastille New Jersey, America's Apartheid
Detention Program" by Flavia Alaya.
Weekend
Edition Features for Sept. 13 / 14, 2003
Michael Neumann
Anti-Americanism:
Too Much of a Good Thing?
Jeffrey St. Clair
Anatomy of a Swindle
Gary Leupp
The Matrix of Ignorance
Ron Jacobs
Reagan's America
Brian Cloughley
Up to a Point, Lord Rumsfeld
William S. Lind
Making Mesopotamia a Terrorist Magnet
Werther
A Modest Proposal for the Pentagon
Dave Lindorff
Friendly Fire Will Doom the Occupation
Toni Solo
Fiction and Reality in Colombia: The Trial of the Bogota Three
Elaine Cassel
Juries and the Death Penalty
Mickey Z.
A Parable for Cancun
Jeffrey Sommers
Issam Nashashibi: a Life Dedicated to the Palestinian Cause
David Vest
Driving in No Direction (with a Glimpse of Johnny Cash)
Michael Yates
The Minstrel Show
Jesse Walker
Adios, Johnny Cash
Adam Engel
Something Killer
Poets' Basement
Cash, Albert, Curtis, Linhart
Website of the Weekend
Local Harvest
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