Letter to US News and World ReportStop aiding Colombians to Death!To the Editors, On March 4, 1999, three US activists working with the U'Wa people to stop the oil drilling project, were murdered by FARC, the leftist guerilla group in Colombia. The murders were the result of US and oil company backed militarization in the region. One of the oil companies active in the region is Occidental Petroleum. Al Gore's influence over Occidental includes his father's former seat on Occidental's Board of Directors. It also includes the $500,000 in Occidental stock he inherited from his father in 1997. Occidental is a major contributor to the Clinton and Gore campaigns. While the supposed "doves" are caught in this dilemma of self-interest, hawkish senators abound. Most recently the US senate approved $1.6 billion in 'aid' to Colombia's military, leading many to see Colombia as the next potential Vietnam war. Where is the U.S. media while this situation is escalating into another terrible counter insurgency war, conducted as always on a pretext -- this time that Americans are being saved from drugs? Andy Deck Stop War Escalation in Colombia! To the Editors, The billions of 'aid' that are being sent to Colombia are part of a tired old arms-sales gambit that oppresses third world people. I urge you to expose our misguided foreign policy. It is producing another counter insurgency war -- masked as a drug war -- in Colombia. In the Baltimore Sun: Colombia has received nearly $1 billion in anti-narcotics aid since 1990. U.S. tax dollars are magnificent fertilizer: coca production is skyrocketing -- doubling since 1996 and forecast to increase another 50 percent in the next two years. Colombia now supplies roughly three-quarters of the heroin and almost all the cocaine consumed in the United States.If we are really to fight the drug war, it must be through rehabilitation and education, not by pumping arms into third world countries. These issues are being under-reported. It is shameful that American tax dollars are being spent in ways that will increase the suffering of the Colombian poor. Alternative programs suggested by Senator Slade Gorton were struck down, but the American public is not being confronted with the decisions. The people need to see this as an important election year issue. Please report on these matters before the exodus of Colombian poor begins, before the bloodshed escalates in the name of higher arms sales and more secure oil reserves. Stop Colombia-Vietnam 2000! Andy Deck Letter to Senators and the Vice PresidentDear Senators Moynihan and Schumer, and Mr. Vice President,The billions of 'aid' that are being sent to Colombia are part of a tired old arms-sales gambit that oppresses third world people. I urge you to steer our foreign policy clear of another counter insurgency war -- masked as a drug war -- in Colombia. In the Baltimore Sun: Colombia has received nearly $1 billion in anti-narcotics aid since 1990. U.S. tax dollars are magnificent fertilizer: coca production is skyrocketing -- doubling since 1996 and forecast to increase another 50 percent in the next two years. Colombia now supplies roughly three-quarters of the heroin and almost all the cocaine consumed in the United States.If you really want to fight the drug war, fight it through rehabilitation and education, not by pumping arms into third world countries. These issues are being under-reported in AP, NBC, ABC, CBS, and TimeWarner/CNN circles, where pro-war sentiments usually prevail. Still many Americans know that these sorts of trumped up wars are bogus and the time frame for 'pulling them off' in the interests of Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop-Grummon, GE, et al, is becoming short. The war of awareness may not be won by the forces of violence. The power of new technologies to disseminate information about what is happening around the world can work on behalf of the poor, too. Don't give our tax money to the Colombian government on a pretext!
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