HUMAN RIGHTS AND AMERICA -- POST COLD WAR

Virtual Truth Commission

1989
July 1989: U.S. State Department announced plans for subsidized sales of military equipment to Colombia, allegedly "for antinarcotics purposes." The training program for Colombian officers became the largest in the hemisphere, and U.S. military aid to Colombia in 1998 amounts to about half the total for the entire hemisphere. Colombia: Culture of Fear

1990

"Who are the Real Terrorists?", citing several sources including William Blum, Killing Hope: U. S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, Monroe, Maine: common Courage Press, 1995

1991

In 1991, congress enacted sec. 2011 of title10 of the US Code (Joint Combined Exchange Training) providing the commander of the Special Operations Command with broad authority to pay the deployment and training costs of SOF training abroad with foreign security forces. The law imposed only two requirements, that the primary purpose be to train US SOF forces and that an annual report on the prior year's training operations be submitted to Congress by the Defense Department. The law also permits payment for 'incremental expenses' (rations, fuel, ammunition, and transportation), of the host country if that nation is unable to pay them. John Rudy and Ivan Eland, Special Operations Military Training Abroad and Its Dangers, Cato Institute, June 22, 1999

1991 Pentagon begins internal review of Project X. Robert Parry, "Lost History: 'Project X' and School of Assassins. The Consortium (a paid subscriber service)

Report on CIA anti-subversive trainingIn a report published this week, Assassination Squads in Colombia , the organisation says CIA agents went to Colombia in 1991 to help the military to train undercover agents in anti-subversive activity. The paramilitaries terrorise remote rural areas such as the Antioquia region in northwest Colombia by staging public killings of suspected rebel sympathisers, many of whom are innocent.

Indonesia/East Timor. Massacre at Santa Cruz, 1991. Involved Kopassus troops headed by US-trained commanders Prabowo Subianto (son in law of General Suharto) and Kiki Syahnakri, who was appointed as martial law administer for East Timor in 1999. 270 peaceful protestors, many of them schoolchildren, were murdered by Kopassus shock troops as they paraded through Dili. Trucks were seen dumping bodies in the sea. Led to Congressional action curtailing aid to Indonesia. "US trained butchers of Timor", The Guardian, London. Cited by The Drudge Report, September 19, 1999.

October 20, 1991. Timothy McVeigh, wrote his sister Jennifer that "he and nine other soldiers had been taken to a private intelligence briefing at Fort Bragg, where they were told they could be required to particiapte in government-sanctioned assassinations and government-sponsored drug trafficking. The government has always denied it carries out such assassinations and drug trafficking. "Why would Tim (characteristically nondrinker), super-successful in the Army (private to sergeant in 2 years) (Top Gun) (Bronze Star) (accepted into Special Forces) all of a sudden come home, party HARD, and just like that, announce he was not only 'disillusioned' by SF (Special Forces) but was, in fact, leaving the service?" he asked. The answer, he wrote, lay in what he learned at Fort BRagg, where he and the nine others were told they might be ordered to help the CIA "fly drugs into the U. S. to fund many covert operations," and to "work hand-in-hand with civilian police agencies" as "government-paid assassins." He wrote, "Do not spread this info, Jennifer, as you could (very honestly, seriously) endanger my life." New York Times News Service, "McVeigh calls government 'evil king' in letter to sister", Baltimore Sun, July 1, 1998, p. 14A.

1991. Colombia instituted secret Colombian military intelligence reorganization plan called Order 200-05/91 in which the military institutionalized the key role of civilians in its intelligence-gathering apparatus...Working under the direct orders of the military high command, paramilitary forces incorporated into intelligence networks conducted surveillance of legal opposition political figures and groups, operated with military units, then executed attacks against targets chosen by their military commanders......Human Rights Watch has also documented the disturbing role played by the United States in the military-paramilitary partnership. Despite Colombia’s disastrous human rights record, a U.S. Defense Department and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) team [beginning in 1990] worked with Colombian military officers on the 1991 intelligence reorganization that resulted in the creation of killer networks that identified and killed civilians suspected of supporting guerrillas. Eyewitnesses have linked the new network run by the Colombian navy to the murders of at least fifty-seven people in and around the city of Barrancabermeja in 1992 and 1993, in incidents documented here. Human Rights Watch Report: Colombia’s Killer Networks--The Military-Paramilitary Partnership

1991 U. S. Military Interventions: KUWAIT/1991/Naval, bombing, troops/Kuwait royal family returned to throne. IRAQ/1990-1991/Bombing, troops, naval/ Blockade of Iraqi and Jordanian ports, air strikes; 200,000+ killed in invasion of Iraq and Kuwait; no-fly zone over Kurdish north, Shiite south, large-scale destruction of Iraqi military. . S. Brian Willson, "Who are the Real Terrorists?", citing several sources including William Blum, Killing Hope: U. S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, Monroe, Maine: common Courage Press, 1995

1992

1992 -- responding to continuing violations of human rights in East Timor by the Indonesian military, Congress banned all funds for training assistance to Indonesia under the Pentagon's International Military Education and Training (IMET) program and new weapons sales under the Foreign Military Sales program. However, the Pentagon continued to fund training for Indonesian special forces under the Joint Combined Exchange and Training (JCET) program. IMET pays for Indonesians to come to the U.S. for training whereas JCET training is performed in the designated "recipient" country. The "fundamental requirement" for any JCET mission is that U.S. troops "derive the majority of benefits from the training as opposed to the host country." Twenty-eight JCET exercises have been conducted with Indonesian troops since 1992. While JCET activities in Indonesia do not violate U.S. laws, they do seem to contradict the intent of Congress to cut off military support to Indonesian forces until their human rights record improves. What incensed some in Congress is that the Indonesian unit training with U.S. troops under JCET is the same one accused of many recent human rights violations - including the deaths of the six students. Colonel Daniel M. Smith, USA [Ret], Director of Operations, Center for Defense Information, U.S. Military Support for Indonesia: "Engagement" Gone Awry? Weekly Defense Monitor Volume 2, Issue 21 May 28,1998

1992 U. S. Military Interventions: LOS ANGELES/1992/Troops/Army, Marines deployed against anti- police uprising. SOMALIA/1992-94/Troops, naval, bombing/U.S.-led United Nations occupation during civil war; raids against one Mogadishu faction. YUGOSLAVIA/1992-94/Naval/NATO blockade of Serbia and Montenegro. . S. Brian Willson, "Who are the Real Terrorists?", citing several sources including William Blum, Killing Hope: U. S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, Monroe, Maine: common Courage Press, 1995

1993 - December. Human Rights Commissioner Leo Valladares Lanza, human rights special prosecutor in Honduras, charged that the Honduran army's Battalion 3-16 was a death squad trained by military personnel from the US, Taiwan and Argentina. [ENH 8/9/99 from Reuters, 8/10/99 from Reuters, 8/14/99 from EFE; AP 8/12/99; El Pais (Madrid) 8/14/99 from correspondent] Weekly Americas News Update #498, 8/15/99, by Nicaragua Soliarity Network of Greater New York, 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

1993 U. S. Military Interventions: BOSNIA/1993-?/Jets, bombing/No-fly zone patrolled in civil war; downed jets, bombed Serbs. . S. Brian Willson, "Who are the Real Terrorists?", citing several sources including William Blum, Killing Hope: U. S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, Monroe, Maine: common Courage Press, 1995

1993-1994. Haiti. Emmanuel Constant leader of FRAPH death squad that murdered hundreds of Haitians in 1993-1994. "Haiti: US makes a mockery of justice", Source: Haiti Briefing, #29, Aug 1998, Haiti Support Group, London, UK, Contact haitisupport@gn.apc.org

In 1993, the United Nations Truth Commission Report linked graduates of the School of the Americas to many notorious killings. The New York Times, Washington Post and the newsmagazines followed with scathing articles. In 1996, the White House Oversight Board issued a report that supported many of Father Roy's contentions about the school. That same year, the Pentagon released formerly classified reports indicating that graduates were trained in killing, extortion, physical abuse for interrogations, false imprisonment and other methods of control. Tim Goodman, Examiner Television Critic, Stark 'School of Assassins' sways with fact, San Francisco Examiner

In 1993, Arthur Brown, CIA chief of station, Rangoon, Burma. (Yangon, Myanmar). Working with Military Intelligence of the Burmese narco-dictatorship, destroyed efforts of the DEA to help eradicate opium among the Wa people. Dennis Bernstein and Leslie Kean, People of the Opiate: Burma's dictatorship of drugs. From The Nation, December 2, 1996.

1994

Chiapas 94", a comprehensive counterinsurgencyplan that included creation of paramilitary groups, the 'neutralizing' of the Zapatistas, censorship of the media, and muting any effects of human rights groups and NGOs. Extensive training of Mexicans at School of the Americas, Fort Benning, and Counterinsurgency School, Fort Bragg, follows. S. Brian Willson, The Slippery Slope: U. S. Military Moves into Mexico, Section IV: Militarization and Repression in Mexico

1994. In Haiti, U. S. troops removed 160,000 pages of documents from the Haitian Army and FRAPH offices. Washington insists they will be returned only after the names of US citizens have been excised, apparently for the illegitimate purpose of covering up US complicity in political murder and other abuses. The former US Ambassador to Haiti has stated that information identifying US citizens has already been removed from 113 pages. The Haitian government has asked for the return, in their entirety, of the documents, which contain important evidence needed for the prosecution of cases against the military and paramilitary leaders....The Haiti Support Group joins Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch/Americas, and the independent expert of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, in demanding the immediate and unconditional return of the documents. "Haiti: US makes a mockery of justice", Source: Haiti Briefing, #29, Aug 1998, Haiti Support Group, London, UK, Contact haitisupport@gn.apc.org

1994 U. S. Military Interventions: HAITI/1994-?/Troops, naval/Blockcade against military government; troops restore President Aristide to office three years after coup. . S. Brian Willson, "Who are the Real Terrorists?", citing several sources including William Blum, Killing Hope: U. S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, Monroe, Maine: common Courage Press, 1995

1995

Ricky Donnell Ross arrested while picking up $1 million worth of cocaine in LA. Ross, Los Angeles drug dealer, supplied by Blandon Reyes with smuggled contraband powder, had quickly capitalized on existing heavy street use of PCP, heroin, and other durgs in South Central LA to introduce a cheap new drug known as crack..."not only did the CIA know that its Contras were unleshing a virulent drug in America's ghettos via Blandon and Ross, but the agency allowed it to happen because it needed the money to fund Ronald Reagan's war against socialism." Jill Stewart, "Just Another Big Embarassment Under Shelby", Phoenix New Times. Washington Post's rebuttal: Roberto Suro and Walter Pincus, "The CIA and Crack: Evidence is Lacking of Alleged Plot." Friday, October 4, 1996, p. A01, Washington Post. "if Freeway Ricky Ross had become a born-again Christian and gone to build Habitat for Humanity Houses, crack would still have happened."

In 1995, I made a pilgrimage to the Vietnam Wall, where I renounced my Bronze Star in protest of the atrocities my government had committed in Central America. I have now become a veteran of my third, and perhaps most dangerous war -- a war against the criminals within my own Government. Heads have to roll for those who are responsible and still employed by the government. They will be the first targets in an effective drug strategy. If not, we will continue to have groups of individuals who will be beyond any investigation, who will manipulate the press, judges and members of our Congress, and still be known in our government as those who are above the law. Written Statement for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, April 27, 1998 of Celerino Castillo III (DEA, Retired), author of Powderburns: Cocaine, Contras and the Drug War

1995. Mexican President Zedillo requests sophisticaed array of U. S. military equipment to reinforce capacities of the army, allegedly for the drug war. However, drug training and military equipment are equally applicable to counterinsurgency operations. S. Brian Willson, The Slippery Slope: U. S. Military Moves into Mexico, Section IV: Militarization and Repression in Mexico

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