Uribe accused of paramilitary ties (U.S. Colombian ally)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Sep 7, 9:31 PM EDT
Uribe accused of paramilitary ties

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- A leftist Colombian congressman has presented video testimony from a jailed far-right militia chief who accuses former President Alvaro Uribe of sponsoring his illegal armed group in the mid-1990s.

Pablo Hernan Sierra says in the video released Wednesday that he organized an illegal militia that operated from a ranch owned by Uribe's family when Alvaro Uribe was governor of Antioquia state.

Rep. Ivan Cepeda says the video was recorded last month at the prison where Sierra is held on murder charges.

Sierra is the first former paramilitary leader to directly accuse Uribe of sponsoring the illegal militias responsible for most killings in Colombia's dirty war.



Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_COLOMBIA_URIBE_PARAMILITARIES?SECTION=HOME&SITE=AP&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. This goes into the how surprised should I act file?

[rabs]

2. Who? Mr. 82?

U.S. INTELLIGENCE LISTED COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT URIBE AMONG
"IMPORTANT COLOMBIAN NARCO-TRAFFICKERS" IN 1991

Then-Senator "Dedicated to Collaboration with the Medellín Cartel at High Government Levels"

Confidential DIA Report Had Uribe Alongside Pablo Escobar, Narco-Assassins

Uribe "Worked for the Medellín Cartel" and was a "Close Personal Friend of Pablo Escobar"

Washington, D.C., 1 August 2004 - Then-Senator and now President Álvaro Uribe Vélez of Colombia was a "close personal friend of Pablo Escobar" who was "dedicated to collaboration with the Medellín cartel at high government levels," according to a 1991 intelligence report from U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officials in Colombia. The document was posted today on the website of the National Security Archive, a non-governmental research group based at George Washington University.

Uribe's inclusion on the list raises new questions about allegations that surfaced during Colombia's 2002 presidential campaign. Candidate Uribe bristled and abruptly terminated an interview in March 2002 when asked by Newsweek reporter Joseph Contreras about his alleged ties to Escobar and his associations with others involved in the drug trade. Uribe accused Contreras of trying to smear his reputation, saying that, "as a politician, I have been honorable and accountable."

The newly-declassified report, dated 23 September 1991, is a numbered list of "the more important Colombian narco-traffickers contracted by the Colombian narcotic cartels for security, transportation, distribution, collection and enforcement of narcotics operations." The document was released by DIA in May 2004 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by the Archive in August 2000.

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We have known this for years in the Latin American Forum.

Lots more info.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB131/index.htm