Has Oliver Stone totally lost his mind?

[Blue_Roses]

Director Oliver Stone joins hostage rescue team

VILLAVICENCIO, Colombia (AP) -- With its fearsome record of kidnapping and violence, Colombia's largest guerrilla army might seem a nightmare group to encounter. But not to Oliver Stone. The American filmmaker is jumping at a chance to meet with a group the U.S. classifies as a terrorist organization.

Leaving the glamour of Hollywood far behind, Stone arrived in the steamy Colombian city of Villavicencio on Saturday as part of a mission led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to retrieve three hostages held for years by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

"I have no illusions about the FARC, but it looks like they are a peasant army fighting for a decent living," Stone said in an interview with The Associated Press at his hotel bar. "And here, if you fight, you fight to win."

Stone is part of an international delegation expected to fly by helicopter as early as Sunday into the country's eastern jungles, an area the size of France, to collect the captives: former congresswoman Consuelo Gonzalez, Clara Rojas and her young son Emmanuel, who was fathered by one of her guerrilla captors.

When asked if he's concerned the heavily armed guerrillas could turn on him, he joked: "Well, if they took us, they would be swapping three hostages for 10," referring to himself and observers from five Latin America countries, France and Switzerland, along to supervise the release. "If I were them, that would make sense.

"But seriously, no, I'm not worried. The FARC knows there would be universal condemnation if they did that," said Stone, whose arrival has ramped up the media circus that surrounds the pending handover.

--snip--


The famous director's presence in this violent country, struggling through its fifth decade of civil conflict, is a worry to his Colombian and Venezuelan guides. They prohibited him from leaving his hotel in Villavicencio, a town rocked in recent years by turf battles between rival drug traffickers and far-right death squads.

Chavez personally invited Stone to join the rescue delegation after the pair, who say they are mutual admirers, met for the first time last week in Caracas.

Dispatching rescue helicopters from Venezuela on Friday, Chavez joked that Stone was President Bush's emissary to the operation, while Stone called Chavez "a great man."

more...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/12/30/stone.colombia/index.html


:wtf:

[JackRiddler]

1. Why? For doing a courageous and right thing?

What would you recommend to him?

[99th_Monkey]

2. Rec. I admire Stone's courage and look forward to his new film

maybe called "The REAL Enemy In Columbia: The Bush Crime Family"

[liberalmuse]

3. It appears he has.

Wonderful!

[99th_Monkey]

4. LOL - a perfect response. n/t

[Warren Stupidity]

5. Perhaps you might want to explain why you think this is insane?

I'm sure it is obvious to you, but perhaps not to the rest of us.

[UndertheOcean]

6. Yeah , putting his life behind what believes in , rather than only being a keyboard warrior

he definitely lost his mind (sarcasm)

[Cha]

7. Rec'd~ I bow

to Oliver Stone's courage.

[undeterred]

8. The line between reality and art is a thin one for artists.

[greyl]

17. What line? nt

[HamdenRice]

29. The line between fantasy and reality

A line that most of us are able easily to discern.

[greyl]

30. We're talking about art, so you need not apply. nt

[bvar22]

9. Stone has more to fear from the Right Wing Bush supported government

than he does from FARC.

Kudos to Stone.

[JackRiddler]

10. Might as well kick this...

In further tribute to Stone's courage - and your weird way of highlighting it.

[Blue_Roses]

21. look, no need for shitty snide remarks...

I admire his courage for doing what I think is a VERY dangerous thing, however "weird" you may think it.

My response to his "courage" is something that threw me and your response doesn't have to be so caddy.

Geeze... some people are so fucking defensive on this board...:eyes:

[JackRiddler]

24. Don't try to reverse this...

Sorry, you're the one who posted something entirely ambiguous. Given the attacks on Chavez (and sometimes Stone), including on this board, I wasn't the only one who interpreted it as a slam on Stone for helping Chavez. Now that you're clearing this up and telling us you were expressing admiration for his courage, it's obvious we agree and there's no cause to blame the misunderstanding on me or to be nasty.

[KaptBunnyPants]

11. WTF is a good adjective to describe the title of this post.

nm

[leftchick]

31. indeed

Stone is being courageous. Bravo!

[JanMichael]

12. Not in the slightest. Oligarchic assholes have ruled S. America for centuries.

They exploit the poor and screw over any attempts to lift those in poverty up.

Stone is simply trying to participate in some multi-national goodwill acts.

Actually I'm not a big fan of his work but it looks like we have something in common with Chavez.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

13. Oliver Stone has long had...

a deep interest in the many American-created situations in the Central and South America. His screenplay for the film "Salavdor" looked at our participation in that very ugly war. He knows that region has been trying to birth a socialist revolution for several decades, always thwarted by the US and our surrogates.

It makes perfect sense he is involved with this, and that he would be an admireer of Chavez.

[Ghost Dog]

18. Has anyone here seen Stone's documentary "Comandante" on Fidel Castro?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WywoXMYAJLg

"Documentary on Fidel Castro by Oliver Stone. It was pulled out of cable broadcasting and only shown outside the US. "

[truedelphi]

14. There is probably no good side in the turmoil in Columbia

But the side that the Bush admin. labels as "terrorist" may well be looking out for the average person than
the state sponsored terrorists.

[UTUSN]

15. Yip, I'm CRUSHED, but why should I be?!1

I'm a left-winger, despite my socialist brethren flaming me.


Huguito is an A-hole, exactly the same as Shrub, except from the other end of the spectrum.



My Oliver is fantastic------------ Alexander, The Doors, JFK, NIXON, 4th of July, Midnight Express, whatever, whatever...


Oliver: Huguito is NOT WORTHY.

[scarletwoman]

16. Might I point out that Oliver Stone has actually met and talked with Chavez?

Perhaps he is in a better position to judge Hugo than you.

Just a thought...

[riverdeep]

19. No one's hands are clean, here.

I have no idea why people think if you're anti-Bush, you're automatically on the side of good. FARC's supposed motives are noble, people power, an end to corporate plunder, and the like. But the methodology is often horrific. Kidnapping and torture, and the use of child soldiers being especially offensive. The young girls who are soldiers are often raped and forced abortions are employed if there's an 'accident'. If the children try to escape, if they are caught, they may be killed outright. They also subsidize their efforts through the drug trade, but since our own government does that, what can you say. We don't yet use child soldiers and we do torture, but there are many in this nation that oppose it just for these reasons.

America does have a role to play here, decriminalization of drugs would render the power of drug lords moot, and something like an actual non-corrupt government could take hold. Also, the powers that be here want to see the economic model of privatization take hold all over the entire hemisphere; putting a resistance to that and allowing the people to decide their own governance would be a start.

[JackRiddler]

20. No, but that shouldn't be an excuse for blindness.

To acknowledge the impact of imperialism in no way whitewashes the FARC, who are probably as bad as you say. And yet quite minor-league as bad guys, in comparison to the Colombian government, the big drug lords who hold the power, the right-wing militias, and the overall situation created by Plan Colombia and the U.S.-driven drug war madness.

To end the era of U.S. intervention in Colombia (and in Latin America) will not hand power to the FARC, but give all parts of the people a new chance to finally work out peace and prosperity on their own.

It begins with the end of the drug war, no doubt. That's central to the worst problems both here and there.

Back to the topic: all we see here is Stone stepping forward to help Chavez's initiative to gain release for hostages held by the FARC. How is this not a good thing?

[Blue_Roses]

22. It's not a BAD thing...

it's a RISKY thing. My thoughts are that I HOPE nothing happens to him. What's with the defensiveness?

:shrug:

[High Plains]

25. Got a link for that rape and abortion stuff? Or even the torture?

The FARC is a guerrilla army, true, and it has been guilty of human rights violations. But I have never heard some of the claims you are making. Please elaborate.

[riverdeep]

28. Here are a few.

"Human Rights Watch described the FARC-EP's responsibility for serious abuses, including killings of civilians, hostage-taking, the use of child soldiers, grossly unfair trials, the cruel and inhuman treatment of captured combatants, and the forced displacement of civilians. Human Rights Watch also cited the FARC-EP's continuing use of prohibited weapons, including gas cylinder bombs, and its attacks against medical workers and facilities in blatant disregard of international humanitarian law."

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2001/07/09/colomb77.htm

" In its human rights report for 2000, the U.S. State Department described appalling conditions facing child soldiers fighting with the guerrillas: "The FARC lured or forced hundreds of children into its ranks...Once recruited the children are virtual prisoners of their commanders and subject to various forms of abuse. Sexual abuse among girls is a particular problem."

http://www.crimesofwar.org/colombia-mag/child.html

"Nevertheless, many children found membership in guerrilla and paramilitary organizations difficult, and the MOD reported an increase in the number of minors deserting illegal armed groups. As of July, at least 230 children had surrendered to state security forces during the year. FARC child deserters reported that local guerrilla commanders threatened to kill their families should they desert or attempt to do so.

http://www.cdi.org/document/search/displaydoc.cfm?DocumentID=903&StartRow=1&ListRows=10

"A recent study of Colombian girls in the FARC revealed that approximately 40% who volunteered had sought to escape abuse in the home and hoped to achieve greater gender equality. Instead, these girls found they were expected to provide sexual services, were treated harshly for being female and sometimes punished through sexual means. One girl described: "...they abused women a great deal, they treated them like bitches and so on...they passed by and called them bitches, whores, that's what they shouted at them. And the girls that answered back defiantly, they came and said this broad is in heat, they came and she got 'la vaca.' What is 'la vaca'? That means a gang rape involving twenty, twenty-five guys."

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:3awofPCHqicJ:www.reliefweb.int/rw/lib.nsf/db900SID/LGEL-5RPBPA/%24FILE/csusc-exploit.pdf%3FOpenElement+farc,+child+soldiers&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=27&gl=us&client=firefox-a

In addition, watch 'Child Warriors' on The History Channel on Friday Jan 4th, at 8a and 2p. About half the show is about a woman who was in FARC and what her and others like her had to go through. She describes having a forced abortion. She got out when she stepped on a land mine and blew half her leg off, being of little use to the force.

http://www.history.com/shows.do?episodeId=262528&action=detail

[killbotfactory]

23. Stone has been interested in Latin American politics for a long time

His first film, "Salvador", dealt with the dictatorship in El Salvador in the 1980's. It's a good film.

He also had to documentaries where he interviews Castro, "Comandante" and "Looking for Fidel". I posted links to them where you can view them online, along with other documentaries about Columbia, here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x1659

[Marrah_G]

26. He will make an excellent hostage!

[AlphaCentauri]

27. Glad to see third party witnesses in there to get a different perspective

than the usual advertisement selling news