The Bogota Three and US Terrorists

La Modelo Prison in Bogota

When President Bush attends a fundraisers in Miami he certainly needs to watch out for terrorists. But no worries they're likely to be on the invited guest list. Orlando Bosch and Virgilio Paz are just two prominent Miami Cubans who were members of a US sponsored terrorist gang active when Bush Sr was their boss as head of the CIA.

(1) Like his father and brother Jeb, George W. Bush too is politically associated with these unrepentant terrorists.

(2) Two other members of the gang, Luis Posada Carriles and Guillermo Novo, are currently on trial on terrorist charges in Panama.

(3) Rather than strengthen the rule of law President Bush has systematically trashed the very norms and institutions that uphold it. "Our terrorists" the imperial variety are all right. No need to target them in the "war on terror" which only applies to "foreign terrorists". "Our terrorists" harass the current convenient enemy formerly in Nicaragua or Angola, always Cuba, now Venezuela deal in drugs to pay for the networks, and serve as enforcers when the populations in other imperial "democracies" get out of hand.

The Irish Connection

In the summer of 2001, three Irishmen were arrested in Colombia and accused of terrorism as they left a zone controlled by the FARC armed opposition group during a truce period. A look at the background to their plight exposes the US-UK coalition's hypocrisy on terrorism.

Every sign is that the three men, now in prison in Bogota, are victims of a crude frame-up. They insist they were on a fact-finding visit carrying video equipment so as to record material for use with organizations promoting peace back in Ireland.

The men Niall Connolly, Martin MacAuley and James Monaghan are all republicans who support the Good Friday peace agreement in Ireland. MacAuley and Monaghan are ex-political prisoners. Both have promoted conflict resolution work since their release from prison. Niall Connolly is a carpenter who has worked in community development and solidarity activities in Latin America since the early 1990s.

Before they were arrested, Sinn Fein was making steady electoral progress throughout Ireland, and the Unionist leadership in Belfast was in trouble. At the time, the Ulster Unionists and British government were using the issue of disarmament to stall full implementation of the Good Friday peace agreement. In that context, the men's arrest was timely and convenient.

For death squad and drugs kingpins the velvet touch. Contrast the treatment of these three Irish solidarity tourists with that accorded to Carlos Casta–o, Salvatore Mancuso and Juan Carlos Sierra, leaders of the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), notorious paramilitary allies of the Colombian military. In 1997, the US Attorney General accused them of arranging to ship 17 tons of cocaine to the US and Europe. But no practical steps have been taken to arrest the three.

In November 2002 it was revealed that the Colombian government under President Uribe was in "ceasefire" negotiations with Casta–o and the AUC. Uribe has close links to these narcotics dealing murderers. (4) Opposition Colombian politicians see the talks with the AUC as a preliminary to the formal integration of the death squads into the Colombian military. This move has the blessing of the Bush regime.

War on terrorism bonanza

Uribe is just the latest corrupt and repressive Colombian leader to receive US support since the 1960s. With an uncooperative popular government in oil-rich Venezuela and a voracious need to control oil resources for its profligate world-polluting economy, the US government has destined $98 million to help protect a Colombian oil pipeline. A total of US$1.5 billion in military aid has been scheduled for the period 2002-2004. Colombia is the third-largest recipient of U.S. military aid after Israel and Egypt.

In Colombia, poverty indicators are among the worst in Latin America. One per cent of the elite owns 55% of the land. 15.7 million of Colombia's 44 million inhabitants are children, 39% of them in poverty. The latest figures from UNICEF conclude that 67% of the total population live below the poverty line (80% in rural areas). 11 million people live in extreme poverty, unable even to feed themselves properly.

While the country goes hungry, President Uribe plays the "war on terrorism" card, tricking billions of dollars of aid from United States taxpayers to attack his domestic opponents. Similarly, as part of the equally bogus "war on drugs" the US has waged widespread chemical and biological warfare against hapless rural populations to no avail. Drug production in Colombia has actually increased. (5) Here, as in Iraq, oil industry insiders like Vice-President Dick Cheney, President Bush and National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice unscrupulously use US military muscle and aid to promote private business interests. Drugs and terrorism are convenient pretexts.

Leading US politicians are aware of the manipulation. In March 2002, US Representative Ron Paul member of the House International Relations Committee and the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere spoke against a bill authorizing expansion of US intervention in Colombia, "I was only made aware of the existence of this legislation this morning, just a couple of hours before I was expected to vote on it.

There was no committee markup of the legislation, nor was there any notice that this legislation would appear on today's suspension calendar. This legislation represents a very serious and significant shift in United States policy toward Colombia. It sets us on a slippery slope toward unwise military intervention in a foreign civil war that has nothing to do with the United States."

The Bogota 3 case the facts and the spin

After September 11th 2001, the case against Connolly, McAuley and Monaghan became a small but significant component of the US-UK spinning of "the war on terrorism". The facts of their case are simple. They are accused of travelling using false identity papers and training anti-government FARC guerrillas. They admit the first accusation but vehemently deny the second. The three insist they used false documents because they feared being harassed had they used their real identities to travel.

The main charge is that of training FARC members in explosives and mortar technology. Soon after their arrest, US embassy personnel tested them and their belongings for explosive traces. The tests used equipment requiring special care with both calibration and with anti-contamination procedures to produce trustworthy results. These procedures were not followed and the tests showed positive. Subsequent tests carried out by the Colombian authorities using correct procedures produced opposite results.

The only other evidence presented against the three is witness testimony from two young men alleged to be former FARC members and who were under Colombian army "protection". Both so-called witnesses testified earlier this year that at different times between 1998 and 2001 they witnessed explosives and mortar training by the three men. But all three defendants have solid, respectable alibi evidence that places them outside Colombia on those dates.

No technical evidence was presented in the case to justify claims of "skills transfer" of arms technology. There is no hard evidence against the three to contradict their explanation of their visit to the FARC zone at a time when the ceasefire with the government was still in place. But they are still in prison in Bogot‡ and face long sentences if convicted. They are victims of "war on terrorism" political theatre orchestrated through a lazy, complacent news media.

Fiction and reality

The "war on terrorism" is the US government's justification for pre-emptive military attacks it deems necessary to promote US business and economic interests. Some governments collaborate out of arrogance as supporting bit-players, like the administrations of Tony Blair in the UK and Jose Maria Aznar in Spain. Others cave in to US pressure, like the Irish government. This deep cynicism and hypocrisy are nothing new.

Grotesque inequality in Colombia has caused forty years of bitter, miserable conflict a catastrophe with lessons for everyone. The three Irishmen under arrest in Bogota took an interest in Colombia before the "war on terrorism" confidence trick really began. Tony Blair's government has used the men's predicament to deceive people about British policy in Ireland just as he, Aznar and George Bush have lied about Iraq. Connolly, MacAuley and Monaghan risk becoming forgotten pawns in this cynical geo-political propaganda war.

Toni Solo is an activist based in Central America and can be reached at: tonisolo52@yahoo.com

By Toni Solo posted 15 September, 2003

DNA yours or mine?

Now they have isolated two genes that they say tells you if you're more likely to be depressed. What does that mean? It could mean that you should stay in jail because you are more likely than not to continue your offending behaviour according to a Department of Corrective Services Forensic Psychiatrist.

1. An editorial ("Exclude Volunteer Samples From Database") in an article of The Miami Herald notes that what happened to Jorge Garc’a makes the case for why police must take great care with DNA evidence. Specifically, when a volunteer offers a DNA sample and the specimen doesn't match the criminal sought by police, the sample should be discarded. It shouldn't be added to the DNA Database.

That didn't happen in Garc’a's case and, but for the grace of God and the victim who came forward to prove his innocence, Garc’a might still be languishing in jail branded as a rapist.

Although the DNA sample that Garcia willingly gave to Miami police cleared him in the ongoing Miami serial-rapist case, the specimen did link him to an unsolved 1996 rape. Miami police arrested him, then dropped the charges the next day after the victim said that he wasn't her attacker. Rather, she and Garc’a, who were in a relationship at the time, had consensual sex shortly before she was raped.

Imagine now that, for whatever reason, the victim in this old case was either unavailable, uncooperative or hostile.

She could have died, moved to another country, been angry about the relationship's termination or simply been unaware about the news of Garc’a's arrest.

How long would Garc’a have been jailed for something he didn't do? Days? Weeks? Months? How long is too long? Indeed, would he have been brought to trial on the strength of DNA evidence alone?

Asking potential suspects to volunteer DNA in order to clear them makes sense. [?] After all, police often need help in tracking down dangerous, elusive offenders, such as the Miami rapist.

[No they don't need any help and it is not recommended that people volunteer their DNA, because DNA can be planted at a crime scene as has happened.]

Updated 2009:

Corrupt police planting DNA evidence at crime scenes

Others have raised concerns about corrupt police planting DNA evidence at crime scenes.

Military lawyers await probe on DNA tampering

The Army's Criminal Investigation Command said nearly 500 forensic test results from all services dating back 10 years are under review after one of its examiners allegedly faked results. About 119 of those cases pertain to the Navy and Marine Corps.

Murder charge first for DNA data bank link, but not the same as solving the murder

As long as the the prisoners DNA wasn't planted at the crime scene. It is one thing to force prisoners to hand over their DNA and another thing to exploit it.

DNA Evidence of Bipartisanship

Last week the U.S. Congress passed the Justice for All Act, which includes provisions of the Innocence Protection Act. As of this posting, the legislation has not yet been signed by President Bush. Attached is an analysis of the legislation prepared by the Justice Project.

But police can discourage the volunteer help they rely on when they use DNA samples for purposes other than the investigation at hand.

[Or frame people for unsolved crimes to make police and government look good, under the guise of Noble Cause Corruption, so be very discouraged indeed.]

In this case, it was unfortunate that the Miami PD gave public assurances that the DNA voluntarily donated in the serial-rapist case would be discarded ''when this is over'' before knowing, in fact, that the policy of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is to enter all samples processed into its permanent Database. Such misleading signals can cause a breach in public trust with police.

True, the FDLE consent forms are clear, in English and in Spanish. Nonetheless, why should the DNA of someone who only resembles a police sketch be thrown into a Database with DNA collected from crime scenes, convicts and the criminally accused? It shouldn't be. DNA mustn't become the latest tool for a government that acts like Big Brother. [? New World Order.]

2. Michael Shirley, who spent 16 years in British prisons for the murder of a barmaid, has been exonerated by post-conviction DNA testing and released from prison today by the Court of Appeal. The three-judge bench in London quashed Shirley's conviction after hearing that new DNA evidence established he was "probably not" the man who killed the victim in Portsmouth in December 1986.

[Post conviction testing that is not going to happen in NSW, because Parliament said?]

Shirley had always protested that he did not kill the 24-year-old victim. The jury at his 1988 Winchester Crown Court trial did not believe him. Neither did the Court of Appeal the following year. But recent exhaustive DNA tests carried out on trial exhibits pointed to an unknown man who, the defense argued, was the real killer.

[May even have been a cop. Remember if the conviction is wrong then the killer is still, raping and killing!!]

Shirley, originally from Warwickshire, was an 18-year-old sailor on shore leave when the barmaid was raped and murdered. He was arrested six months later and has been in prison ever since. He completed the recommended minimum 15 years of his life sentence, but was refused parole because he still protested his innocence and was therefore regarded as having "failed to address his offending."

[Many prisoners in NSW have protested their innocence too and they've been smashed for it again.]

At the time of the crime, the victim was walking between a friend's house in Portsmouth and her home in Southsea when she was raped. Her larynx was crushed by the heel of the killer, who stamped on her body so hard that he left an imprint of the logo from the sole of his shoes.

It was the police hunt for the shoes 250 pairs of which had been sold in Portsmouth that year alone which led to the case being dubbed the Cinderella murder, [Labeled and tried by media doesn't help]. And Shirley owned a pair. He was also one of the third of all British males who share a blood group type with the murderer.

The fact that his shoes were at his parents' home in Leamington Spa, and that he had an alibi, did not dissuade police and they arrested him some six months later. He was convicted and jailed for life in 1988.

Over the years, he has sent hundreds of letters in an unflagging attempt to clear his name. In 1992 his case was cited as one of 110 possible miscarriages of justice in a dossier given to the Home Office by the National Association of Probation Officers and two civil liberties groups but nothing was achieved.

Almost two years ago, crime scene DNA evidence was found in a police storage room. The Crime Cases Review Commission referred the case to the Court of Appeal after examining the new evidence. That Court filed its decision today exonerating Shirley.

3. The Houston City Council agreed yesterday to spend $169,000 to hire a nonprofit group to run the HPD Crime Lab for the next three months. National Forensic Science Technology Center Inc. will hire managers for the lab and its DNA division before recommending to the Council in the next few weeks whether it should seek national accreditation for the lab and whether to continue DNA testing.

By Mine 22 July 03

Related:

DNA = Do Not Assume - DNA Controversies!
The national DNA database of all known offenders proposed by Prime Minister Tony Blair could mean that innocent people will be accused of crimes they did not commit.

Murder charge first for DNA data bank link, but not the same as solving the murder As long as the the prisoners DNA wasn't planted at the crime scene. It is one thing to force prisoners to hand over their DNA and another thing to exploit it.