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INTERPOL in Colombia 3 + 3 = 8

Charlie Hardy | 27.05.2008 13:09 | Anti-militarism | Terror War

I have just finished reading INTERPOL's report on the computers that the government of Colombia says it found in an encampment of the FARC-EP on March 1. Reading the report I am once again fascinated with what experts can do with computers. But I am shocked that the world's best known detective agency cannot add three plus three.

INTERPOL In Colombia 3 + 3 = 8

by Charlie Hardy - May 20, 2008


I have just finished reading INTERPOL's report on the computers that the government of Colombia says it found in an encampment of the FARC-EP on March 1. Reading the report I am once again fascinated with what experts can do with computers. But I am shocked that the world's best known detective agency cannot add three plus three.

On pages 10 and 11 of the report in English, Interpol begins a description about how it came to be involved in the work. It says that on March 4 it received a request from Colombian authorities asking for Interpol's "independent computer forensic technical assistance to examine the user files on the eight seized FARC computer exhibits".

In Appendix 2, they show a letter that they received from Brigadier General Oscar Adolor Narnjo Truillo, Director General of the National Police of Colombia. In the letter General Naranjo requests that INTERPOL evaluate "three (3) computers and three (3) USB devices." Adding three and three, I arrive at a total of six pieces of computer hardware not eight as INTERPOL mentioned.

The next day Mr. Ronald K. Nobel, the Secretary General of Interpol, sent a letter (Appendix 3) to Ms. Maria del Pilar Hurtado Afanador, the directress of the D.A.S (Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad) in Bogota accepting the invitation to go to Colombia to establish the terms of the agreement. In the letter he, again, mentions six pieces of hardware: "three (3) computers and three (3) USB keys."

But on March 6 Ms. Hurtado sends him a letter (Appendix 4) asking that Interpol look at "the three lap-top computers, the three USB keys and two hard-disk drives." On March 4 there were only six items to look at, but for some reason two hard drives were found someplace by March 6.

Throughout their report, INTERPOL speaks of eight pieces of hardware, but I find no place where it questions why the government originally asked them to check only six pieces. It would seem to me that any reputable detective group would ask for such an explanation.

For multiple reasons, the INTERPOL report doesn't fit my description of good detective work that I learned from Dick Tracy, Columbo and G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown.

Throughout the report INTERPOL speaks of the hardware as belonging to Raul Reyes, although they never present any proof of this. This in itself shows prejudice on the part of INTERPOL. The two experts that reviewed the hardware do not speak Spanish. Who were the experts that decided the computers and materials belonged to Reyes? There is a photo in the report showing Reyes sitting in front of a computer. That's proof that the computers and hardware belonged to him? Dick Tracy would have looked for fingerprints, not only of Raul Reyes (which actually could have been put on the computers after he was dead) but of the authorities who touched the computers also. Father Brown would have wondered how the Colombian authorities could find so rapidly documents that said the FARC-EP helped finance Chávez's political campaign in the '90s and that, as president, Chávez had offered them three hundred million dollars. And I think Columbo would have had more than one question to ask Ms. Hurtado before he walked out the door of the D.A.S. office.

By the way, speaking of Colombian authorities, the report says: "Colombian law enforcement authorities have openly stated to INTERPOL's computer forensic experts that an officer in their anti-terrorist unit directly accessed the eight seized FARC computer exhibits under exigent and time-sensitive circumstances between 1 March 2008, when they were seized by Colombian authorities, and 3 March 2008." In my opinion that sentence was included to show how the Colombian government cooperated with INTERPOL in the task it was given. But I cannot believe that simply "an officer" did everything with the computers during those first three days. To me it is another indication of the the way Colombia has distorted what has happened in the events surrounding those days of the attack on Ecuadorian territory.

And referring to Ecuador, President Rafael Correa has said that if we are to believe what the FARC-EP has supposedly said about Ecuador than we should also believe what they have to say about President Uribe's links to drug trafficking and to the para-militaries. Now that INTERPOL has made back-up copies of everything on these eight pieces of hardware, it would be nice if Colombia would share them with Venezuela and Ecuador so that these countries, which seem to be mentioned so frequently in the computers, could see if any mention is made about Colombia in them.

But in any case, it would seem to me that anyone with common sense would put little credibility into whatever comes out of these supposed pieces of evidence. Where did the computers come from? Who did they belong to? Who put the information into them? Even if they were used by Raul Reyes and even if he did enter some items into them, is it possible that an infiltrated person also put items into the computers? There are a multitude of who, what, when, where, why, and how questions that are not answered in the report. More seriously, they are not even asked.

But if you are looking for someone to answer the questions, I wouldn't call on INTERPOL. Where are Dick Tracy, Father Brown and Colombo now that we need them?

Finally, I would suggest reading the the report itself, an article that appeared on Venezuelanalysis.com and a commentary by Eva Golinger.



-30- (Charles Hardy is author of Cowboy in Caracas: A North American's Memoir of Venezuela's Democratic Revolution, published by Curbstone Press. Other essays by Hardy can be found on his personal blog Cowboyincaracas.com . You may write him at  cowboyincaracas@yahoo.com . )


 http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/charlie-hardy...


 http://snipurl.com/29wqb


 http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x4482


Charlie Hardy

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Colombia: Interpol entre laptops, lapsus y narcoparapolítica

27.05.2008 14:02

Colombia: Interpol entre laptops, lapsus y narcoparapolítica

Lucy Roessler


Cuando el pasado 15 de Mayo, Mr Ronald Kenneth Noble, en su calidad de director de Interpol, entregó en apasionada conferencia de prensa su reconocimiento “independiente y profesional” a las aseveraciones del gobierno colombiano acerca de los afamados computadores, a una buena parte de la humanidad le quedó suficientemente claro que el organismo policial supranacional había decidido meterse en la política profunda.
Pues de haber andado Mr Noble por Colombia en misión exclusivamente policíaca, lo que hubiera debido hacer antes que nada, era haberle colocado esposas a quienes ocupaban respectivamente su diestra y siniestra en la publicitada conferencia. Nadie pudiera esperar que el director de un organismo policial de extensión global como Interpol no vaya a estar enterado de las múltiples ramificaciones que el DAS y el general Naranjo de la Policía Nacional Colombiana tienen con la narcoparapolítica y ni falta hace en estas líneas detallar las innumerables conexiones y actividades de ambas instituciones en este terreno, que llegan a estar presente y tan cerca –solo por citar un caso- en la misma casa familiar del mencionado general.
Pero Mr Noble optó, obedeciendo órdenes superiores, por la política de prestar su aval a quienes han desangrado Colombia durante décadas, e inundado el planeta con aquella droga que supuestamente debiera él estar tratando de detectar.


¿Y qué nos dice Mr Noble, a nombre de Interpol?


Ya en el primer punto del “resumen” que puede leerse en la página seis del informe oficial (1) se expresa que:

“Las autoridades colombianas solicitaron a INTERPOL la realización de un análisis forense de tres ordenadores portátiles, dos discos duros externos y tres llaves USB decomisados en el campamento de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) situado en Ecuador, en una zona fronteriza con Colombia, el 1 de marzo de 2008 (en adelante denominados “pruebas instrumentales de carácter informático decomisadas a las FARC”).”

La misión “independiente y profesional” a la que se refería Mr Noble en su conferencia, comienza certificando la acción militar realizada por Colombia en territorio de Ecuador y garantizando con un acto de fe, que los mencionados elementos que el gobierno colombiano pedía investigar a Interpol habían sido obtenidos en el campamento donde fueran masacrados Raúl Reyes y sus compañeros. Algo que sencillamente Interpol no está en condiciones de probar por más que quisiera.
Es probable que Mr Noble no tenga tiempo para ver la famosa serie “Los Expertos” u otras similares, en donde se nos muestra repetidamente en cada uno de los capítulos, cómo se hace necesario para iniciar cualquier investigación de carácter policial el que se conozca, entre otros muchos detalles, la procedencia verdadera de las pruebas a investigar. Es lo básico.
Pero he aquí que Mr Noble en vez de recurrir a algún método científico de validación... nos invoca a que como él recurramos a la fe, no en un ser supremo, como pudiera ser legítimo para muchos, sino a la fe nada menos que en el régimen narcoparapolítico colombiano.
Con ello Mr Noble continúa metiéndose paso tras paso en el delicado terreno de la política-narcoparapolítica y alejándose de la profesionalidad que debe pretender poseer cualquier organismo policial.


Prosigue el resumen entregado en el informe, y dando por sentado que nos hemos tragado la “rueda de carreta” del primer punto con:

“Concretamente, las autoridades colombianas solicitaron la asistencia técnica independiente de INTERPOL en materia de investigación informática forense para que examinara los archivos de usuario contenidos en las ocho pruebas instrumentales de carácter informático decomisadas a las FARC y para que determinara si alguno de dichos ficheros de usuario se había creado, modificado o eliminado el 1 de marzo de 2008 o después de esta fecha.”

Ya nos avisa que lo que se trata es de “determinar” si hubo creación, modificación, eliminación de ficheros de usuario... sin siquiera considerarnos con el respeto de comprobar antes que nada, si lo anterior señalado se ajusta a los hechos reales. A estas alturas muchos ya estarán pensando que a quien le hicieron comulgar con “ruedas de carreta” fue precisamente a Mr Noble, pues si no se ha podido probar objetivamente la procedencia real de los computadores y otros elementos, sencillamente no se puede continuar adelante con ningún tipo de investigación ni “determinación”, dado que al faltar los elementos probatorios básicos se caería en el terreno de la especulación, y se entraría de lleno en el de la manipulación.
Esta falta de seriedad demostrada hasta aquí por el informe firmado por Mr Noble sería más que suficiente para invalidar cualquier otra argumentación o “prueba” que se quisiera entregar al respecto, pero dado que el mencionado funcionario policial insiste en meterse en política al lado de la narcoparapolítica, hagamos como que le seguimos el juego.


En un débil intento por aparecer investigando desde una posición “independiente y profesional”, pero sin dejar de recurrir a la fe, nos advierte en la página siete del mencionado informe que:

“El alcance del análisis forense de carácter informático de INTERPOL se limitaba a: a) establecer los datos reales que contenían las ocho pruebas instrumentales de carácter informático decomisadas a las FARC, b) comprobar si los archivos de usuario habían sido modificados de algún modo el día 1 de marzo de 2008 o en fechas posteriores, y c) determinar si las autoridades de los organismos encargados de la aplicación de la ley colombianos habían manejado y analizado las citadas pruebas de conformidad con los principios reconocidos internacionalmente para el tratamiento de pruebas electrónicas por parte de las fuerzas del orden.”

Y a continuación en la página ocho:

“Conclusión N° 2b: Entre el 1 de marzo de 2008, fecha en que las autoridades
colombianas incautaron a las FARC las ocho pruebas instrumentales de carácter
informático, y el 3 de marzo de 2008 a las 11.45 horas, momento en que dichas pruebas fueron entregadas al Grupo Investigativo de Delitos Informáticos de la Dirección de Investigación Criminal (DIJIN) de Colombia, el acceso a los datos contenidos en las citadas pruebas no se ajustó a los principios reconocidos internacionalmente para el tratamiento de pruebas electrónicas por parte de los organismos encargados de la aplicación de la ley.”

Sin embargo, al avispado director general de Interpol ni se le pasa por la mente que con sus propias palabras estaría reconociendo el caso como maleado, y que un organismo como el suyo, de respetarse a sí mismo, no podría seguir adelante con el juego. Pero Mr Noble, intentando cubrir la chapucería nos dice que si bien hubo un acceso a los datos desajustado de principios... podemos tranquilamente seguir jugando.
No obstante, por lo menos en este artículo, llegaremos hasta aquí con la fabulación ofrecida.


¿Más lapsus de Interpol?


Sin detenernos a analizar la parte aparentemente sustancial del informe: la sección de análisis informático, descrito al detalle mínimo, ni la agotadora labor que los técnicos de Interpol realizaron con el material de procedencia desconocida entregado por el gobierno colombiano, vale la pena dirigir la atención hacia otras partes del informe que entregan ciertas apreciaciones necesarias de analizar y que nos deben poner alertas sobre posibles situaciones a venir.

En la página nueve, el informe expresa:

“La verificación realizada por INTERPOL de las ocho pruebas instrumentales citadas no implica la validación de la exactitud de los archivos de usuario que contienen, de la interpretación que cualquier país pueda hacer de dichos archivos, ni de su origen. Es perfectamente sabido que, a efectos de los organismos encargados de la aplicación de la ley, las conclusiones sobre la veracidad o exactitud del contenido de cualquier prueba se establecen en el marco de un procedimiento judicial de ámbito nacional o internacional, o bien por parte de una comisión especialmente designada y con jurisdicción sobre el asunto en litigio.”

Vaya, ¡por fin! Interpol insinúa la posibilidad de que pudiera hacerse justicia más allá y en otra dirección que la que le está pidiendo el gobierno colombiano. Este párrafo, insertado en medio de todo lo demás, y que ha pasado por alto la mayoría de los análisis que en torno al informe se han realizado hasta ahora, indica claramente que, si bien Interpol ha aceptado analizar las “pruebas instrumentales” en el contexto que se le ha pedido, haciendo apología del accionar gubernamental junto a otras flores, no están validando las informaciones contenidas en las mismas pues ese terreno le corresponde a la justicia “nacional o internacional”. Aquí Interpol, como Poncio Pilatos, procede a lavarse las manos.
Esta aparente contradicción en el texto del informe pudiera reflejar mucho más de lo que hasta ahora conocemos.¿Estará tratando Mr Noble de entregarnos un mensaje oculto entre líneas?

Avancemos la lectura saltándonos hasta la página 53 del informe. Allí aparece la copia fotográfica de la carta que el general Naranjo de la PNC le enviara a Mr Noble el 4 de Marzo, solicitándole la colaboración de Interpol. Es preciso leerla con detenimiento pues a veces las cosas obvias se pasan por alto, considerándolas como algo secundario o simplemente no fijándonos en detalles que en realidad ayudan a dar luces sobre el meollo del problema.
Con sorpresa leemos en esta carta que el famoso general solicita a Interpol, la “valoración oficial de tres (3) computadores y tres (3) dispositivos de almacenamiento USB...” algo que obviamente no calza con la cantidad de dispositivos denunciados en todas las instancias.
Pudiéramos pensar que el general Naranjo, nervioso y apurado por la situación, redactó en forma errónea una carta de tamaña importancia, la cual sin revisión concienzuda se filtró de dicha forma hasta las manos del director de Interpol. Pero más adelante, en la página 57, podemos leer que Interpol recibió oficialmente sin chistar, la misión histórica de revisar esa y no otra cantidad de dispositivos.
Responde Mr Noble a la solicitud -que como se recordará le fuera remitida paralelamente y por vías distintas por la PNC del general Oscar Naranjo y el DAS de María del Pilar Hurtado-, diciendo: “Concretamente, han pedido Vds. a Interpol que les proporcione ayuda especializada en materia de investigación informática forense en relación con los datos almacenados en tres (3) ordenadores y tres (3) llaves USB que...”

Por más vueltas que queramos darle a este “lapsus”, cometido en primer lugar por la PNC y el DAS y avalado con la confirmación del director de Interpol, tendremos que asentir que NO es posible que estas cartas hayan sido colocadas en el informe oficial de Mr Noble por casualidad u error. Sencillamente Interpol está delatando algo sucio “entre líneas” con esta medida de aparente descuido, y dejando constancia con las cartas-pruebas mencionadas, que ellos fueron oficialmente contactados por estos organismos del gobierno colombiano para investigar originalmente nada más que seis dispositivos, y que después les fueron entregadas ocho “pruebas” que tuvieron por alguna razón, que aceptar obligadamente y examinar. ¿Qué órdenes superiores les hicieron seguir adelante a pesar de la notoria incongruencia?
Sería interesante que Mr Noble se atreviera algún día a explicar personalmente este comprometedor “lapsus”; pero para nosotros es necesario seguir adelante y analizar ahora mismo cómo y porqué es que Interpol aceptó seguir el juego a este extremo, arriesgando no solo su propio prestigio sino la validez general de toda la faramalla que aceptaron mostrar.
A nadie causaría extrañeza que tratándose de organismos gubernamentales narcoparapolíticos colombianos, les de lo mismo decir o pedir un día una cosa y después otra; quienes están ya cebados y se codean diariamente con la muerte, la mentira y la corrupción tienen incorporados muy dentro, el desparpajo y el cinismo como para ni arrugarse haciéndolo. Así funcionan las mafias.


El martes trece de la narcoparapolítica


Mientras tanto, sorprendidos, asustados e indignados están los narcoparapolíticos recientemente extraditados. No esperaban la que según ellos ha sido una “traición” de sus socios del gobierno y tiemblan de imaginar que si les condenan en los EEUU, se les alejará la posibilidad de que puedan acabar sus días bajo el sol colombiano. Así lo han hecho saber insinuando que estarían dispuestos a colaborar con la justicia estadunidense para aclarar no solo lo referente al narcotráfico, sino lo que les pidan. Habría que preguntarse entonces si verdaderamente le ha servido al gobierno colombiano alejarlos por ahora de la escena nacional, cuanto más esta gran cantidad de “notables” y el revuelo mediático que levantan donde quiera se encuentren, hará imposible que la justicia estadunidense pueda rebajar de categoría sus crímenes y reducirlos nada más que a un asunto de drogas. La extradición de estos narcoparapolíticos verdaderamente le ha colocado al gobierno de Uribe la soga al cuello.
En cualquier caso diversas organizaciones de Derechos Humanos, tanto de Colombia como de los EEUU, junto a familiares de las víctimas encontrarán la forma adecuada para impedir que la distancia equivalga al silencio y la impunidad. Se trata que los extraditados sean presionados desde todas partes para que aún desde las cárceles de EEUU puedan confesar todo lo que conocen de la narcoparapolítica.

Tanto la extradición de estos mafiosos como la antes mencionada conferencia de Interpol se sucedieron en un lapso de pocos días; generalmente se procede así cuando se pretende generar un hecho político que incida en la realidad obligando a que esta se tuerza en la dirección esperada. Dos hechos aparentemente opuestos en cada extremo de la realidad política pero que en la práctica están indisolublemente ligados desde hace más de medio siglo. Lo interesante del caso es que mientras el gobierno colombiano respira algo aliviado por la distancia que ha puesto entre los narcoparamilitares y los escándalos nacionales y agradece desde el alma la aparente ayuda de Interpol, pareciera que por detrás, entre bambalinas, otra salida es la que se planea desde las alturas imperiales.
Por un lado, Interpol avala el montaje gubernamental en torno a los computadores, evidentemente con la intención de ayudar a comprometer con las FARC a todos aquellos que como conejos serán extraídos desde los mágicos gigabites de los mismos. Sobretodo interesa comprometer en el actual contexto regional a los gobiernos de Venezuela Bolivariana y Ecuador, y dentro de Colombia a personalidades de influencia como Piedad Córdoba y otros; la lista de acusaciones debe ser sin dudas casi interminable, y 600 gigabites alcanzan para todo, cuanto más habiendo tenido la precaución de datar algunas informaciones con fechas extensibles hasta el 2010.
Mr Noble en todo esto se vuelve a lavar las manos, pues nos dice que en su cometido “profesional” ni siquiera se le habría ocurrido leer de reojo alguna línea comprometedora con estas personas y países... esa tarea sucia se la deja al gobierno colombiano el cual por supuesto es el maestro de ceremonias adecuado.
Interpol, que ni corto ni perezozo contribuye al propósito imperial de involucrar a los países, organizaciones y personas que hoy están en la mira de Washington, separa aguas al mismo tiempo de las maquinaciones del gobierno colombiano pues sabe que otros días se avecinan. Interpol debe tener a estas alturas ya preparado lo que declararán cuando les pregunten sobre qué más conocen acerca de “Colombia”, y se puede esperar que no trepidarán en involucrar sin misericordia al gobierno.
Ya veíamos que respecto a la extradición de los narcoparapolíticos la situación para el gobierno colombiano no era tampoco de las más esperanzadoras puesto que si los extraditados se deciden a comenzar a hablar, Uribe y los suyos engrosarán la población penal no solo de las cárceles en Colombia sino las del propio EEUU. Bien pocos integrantes del gobierno colombiano actual podrían eludir un proceso judicial que contemplara seriamente los diversos aspectos de la narcoparapolítica.
¿Pero porqué serían los EEUU quienes se interesaran en colocarle este cascabel (o soga al cuello) a su gato predilecto?


Las alternativas para el gobierno de los EEUU


No sería la primera vez que del mismo modo como desde el imperio se han instaurado dictaduras u otros regímenes similares disfrazados con otra mención... se cambiaran los que hasta ayer eran los favoritos. En cualquier caso el cambio es nada más que de maquillaje, debajo del cual todo queda igual. La idea es escoger al que sea el más adecuado, para cumplir el cometido de mantener a nuestros pueblos en la oscuridad de la dominación.
En esto los gobernantes de EEUU y sus incontables agencias de Defensa y Seguridad son expertos. El caso más paradigmático al respecto es quizás el de Chile, en donde -historia conocida-, la dictadura de Pinochet fue “sacrificada” justo en el momento cuando ya no daba para más, y heredó sus fueros un modelo de neodemocracia que mantuvo en funciones lo mismo que había sido instaurado por la dictadura, pero con un rostro sonriente que ilusionó a los chilenos entonces con la consigna de “la alegría ya viene”... aún esperan Mapuches, víctimas y millones de desposeídos que la escurridiza alegría venga en forma de justicia y verdad.
Pudiera ser que el imperio haya decidido reproducir ahora en Colombia algo parecido; después de todo es el Chile actual una obra maestra de permanencia sistémica en donde tras una vitrina luminosa de democracia representativa y bonanza económica para unos pocos, son reprimidas de un modo efectivo hasta ahora, todas las demandas importantes de su pueblo.
En el caso de Colombia se tendría que hacer una batida a fondo contra aquello que pudiera hacer peligrar los planes imperiales: la narcoparapolítica y sus representantes por un lado, y por otro la insurgencia guerrillera, así como los sectores más activos en la movilización por la defensa de los derechos populares.


Colombia hoy


Mientras redacto estas líneas, el cerco militar a campamentos guerrilleros donde posiblemente se encuentren también algunos secuestrados continúa estrechándose; la alternativa que les presenta el gobierno es clara: o se rinden incondicionalmente o son borrados del mapa todos por igual. El momento no puede ser más delicado pues el gobierno sabe que cualquier respuesta de las FARC está enmarcada en esta realidad.
Conociendo de sobra la impudicia de las FFMM y del gobierno, no sería extraño que los mismos intentasen con cualquier pretexto precipitar un desenlace fatal; ellos no están por el diálogo ni por acuerdos de ningún tipo y la muerte de los rehenes sería achacada a la responsabilidad de quienes les retienen. Un aniquilamiento de rehenes y guerrilleros en este contexto dejaría a las FARC a las puertas de una derrota estratégica, la misma que durante décadas no han podido alcanzar ni el imperio ni sus acólitos colombianos.
Una situación como la descrita significaría también en el corto plazo el fin del gobierno actual colombiano; el momento sería aprovechado para desmantelar las estructuras que la narcoparapolítica consolidó durante años. Otra vez los planes imperiales cantarían victoria en nuestro continente.

Denunciar y actuar en todas las instancias populares, sin perder ni un solo momento.




(1) Informe Interpol:
 http://www.interpol.int/Public/ICPO/PressReleases/PR2008/pdfPR200817/ipPublicReportNoCoverES.pdf

Lucy Roessler


interplod - currently useless but worth mentioning its NAZI past all the same.

27.05.2008 14:17

Nice article. Well worth reading. I reckon everyone agrees that the alledged "Reyes computer evidence" would be non-admissable in an internationally observed court of law. But that won't stop it being used as a geopolitical tactic as already demonstrated in money seizures and sabre rattling diplomacy between Colombia and her neighbours. After all, many want to put Uribe in the dock of the international tribunal so it is to be expected that his lot find evidence to put the accusors in the same dock.

"tit for tat" as they say.

I mentioned Interplod briefly in my initial assessment of the reports of Tirofijo's death in that hollow hour and four minutes before the BBC published their first report.  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/399496.html?c=on#c196271
And of course noted that they (Interplod) had lowered Osama Bin Laden and raised Tirofijo founder of FARC on their most wanted list on the 21st of May. Despite as we now know the latter being dead as we might look forward to, the former rehearsing for the movie version of "Staring at Goats" [to star George Clooney!]

"a trivial history of INTERPLOD" for your entertainment as well as illumination."

But what most people miss about Interplod, perhaps understandable because most people have never been on an Interplod list, is that it is quite a useless outfit which has been long superceded by international co-operation agreements, devalued by failed extraditions and manipulated by intelligence services & lastly but not least - sidelined by the FBI since they decided to enforce their warrents wherever on whomever.

All the same a potted history of Interplod makes eyebrow perky reading. The organisation which began in 1923 was called the "International Criminal Police Commission" and like many interwar bodies found its HQ up the Alps. Interplod chose Vienna Austria instead of the Swiss alps. Which meant that come the anschluss with nazi Germany, Interplod and all its files passed to the 3rd Reich in 1938. Oh well they were delighted. So much so that they moved Interplod to Berlin in 1942. By that stage of the war of course neither the British or US really contacted Interplod anymore but significantly most of the member states from South America did.

Interplod lied at the back of the unpresented evidence used against NAZI-ism for a variety of reasons. (There weren't enough paperclips to go around and not enough plod could speak Argentinian Spanish or Paraguayan Stroessner German). And so it wasn't surprising that as early as 1945 the International Criminal Police Organization, (or INTERPLOD reconstituted) was established by "the European Allies of World War II. With officials from Belgium, France, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. Its new headquarters were established in Saint-Cloud, a town on the outskirts of Paris. They remained there until 1989, when they were moved to their present location, Lyon."

Oddly enough JM le Pen was elected for representative of Saint Cloud after inheriting a castle there as part of an estate which formed the base of his fortune. Trivia...

So the long and short of it is this - if you want to put an international arrest order on someone, don't bother going to Interplod. You might like to go to the FBI but note that in doing you might get up the nose of the people who are protecting your villain from detention. Best thing is to go "outside the law" intervigilante style and simple ask the CIA to a rendition. This is costly though. You will have to cover airmiles and hours of research time to ensure your flighpath has been covered by US presidential executive agreements establishing bilateral ties and secrecy.



[edit]

ipsiphi


Colombia Solidarity website disappeared?

28.05.2008 01:57

Does anyone know what has happened to the website for Colombia Solidarity? ( http://www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk/)

Postman Pat


About Colombia

28.05.2008 08:05

The War Machine: Or How to Manipulate Reality

By Eva Golinger

Sunday, May 18, 2008


Interpol’s Creativity

Since 2002, the Pentagon has been seeking evidence that intimately relates President Chávez and his government with the FARC. Top secret documents from the Department of Defense (that we have desclassified under FOIA) evidence that the Pentagon has been unable to find proof of a clandestine, subversive relationship between the Venezuelan government and the FARC. The sources used in some Pentagon documents that attempt to show such a relationship are completely unreliable, since they are mass media outlets from Venezuela and Colombia, such as Globovisión, Caracol, El Universal and El Nacional – all of whom are aligned with the opposition to Chávez.

When the Colombian government bombed the FARC camp in Ecuador on March 1, killing two dozen people in an illegal incursion onto Equatorian territory that was condemned by the Organization of American States (OEA) and only supported by the United States (suprise!), it was all they could do to produce evidence they had been seeking for six years. Just hours after the illegal invasion and massacre (during which 5 innocent Mexican visiting students were killed), the head of Colombia’s National Police, General Naranjo, was announcing they had “found” a “laptop” that belonged to Raul Reyes, the FARC commander killed in the bombing, and that the computer contained information that showed a link between President Chávez and several members of his government, and the handover (or offering) of weapons and money to the FARC. (Now we would have to ask how the Colombian police found that key information so quickly amongst the more than 39,000 word files and several million documents contained on the computers that the INTERPOL report says it would take 1,000 years to read). All of sudden, evidence was found that not even the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency or the world’s top spies could encounter during years of secret missions, agent recruiting and handling and psychological operations; that Chávez was going to sell uranium to the FARC to make dirty bombs; that Chávez promised somewhere between $250-$300 million to the FARC; that he gave them weapons; and that together they sought to overthrow Uribe’s government and install a FARC marxist state.

That mysterious machine contained anything the Empire could ever have dreamed up to bury the Venezuelan government and declare it over and done with.

But, there was a big problem: since the machine had been in the hands of the Colombian government – confessed adversary of its Venezuelan neighbor – and the “Documents” that evidenced the relationship with President Chávez were actually just texts written in Word, without signature or seal, there was little faith in their credibility. How easy it is to just write a document in Word on some computer and say it was written by someone else! Word documents don’t have original signature. If they had found – say – a diary or a journal written by the hand of Raul Reyes, then the situation would be quite different, but a bunch of texts in Word? Emails? In today’s world, electronic information is unreliable. Computers can been manipulated from a remote source. Any decent hacker or computer techie can enter into a system and alter whatever, without leaving fingerprints.

So, Colombia did the intelligent thing. They said – lets let an uninvolved third party evaluate the computers to determine whether they have been manipulated or not by us. And that’s when Interpol came along.

The Secretary General of the International Police (INTERPOL), Ronald Kenneth Noble, is an ex US Government employee, and he was First Undersecretary of the Department of Treasury in charge of the Secret Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Center for Federal Law Enforcement Training, the Network of Financial Crimes Control and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (which, by the way, is the entity in charge of enforcing the blockade against Cuba and the prohibition of US citizens to travel there). Noble has been Secretary General of INTERPOL for 8 years (two terms), and it was he who was in charge of supervising the authentication of the “evidence” obtained by the Colombian government in the FARC camp.

INTERPOL was charged with a pretty limited and subjective mision, that was to “Examine the user files on the eight seized FARC computers and to determine whether any of the user files had been newly created, modified or deleted on or after 1 March 2008.” INTERPOL did not occupy itself with verifying the origin, accuracy or source of those files or computers, which means that reasonable doubt still remains regarding the true authorship of that data. INTERPOL took for granted that the machines and the evidence pertained to Raul Reyes and the FARC, which in legal terms prejudices the entire investigation because it shows that from the beginning, INTERPOL had already taken the side of the Colombian government.

INTERPOL’s report
states specifically that the scope of their forensic examination was limited to a) determining the actual data contained in the eight seized FARC computer exhibits, b) verifying whether the user files had been modified in any way on or after 1 March 2008, and c) determining whether Colombian law enforcement authorities had handled and examined the eight seized FARC computer exhibits in conformity with internationally recognized principles for handling electronic evidence by law enforcement.” [Interpol Report, page 7].

Subsequently, INTERPOL’s report confirms that the “verification of the eight seized FARC computer exhibits by INTERPOL does not imply the validation of the accuracy of the user files, the validation of any country’s interpretation of the user files or the validation of the source of the user files.” [Interpol Report, page 9].

So, INTERPOL only examined and verified whether the data contained on the computers had been created, modified or deleted after March 1 when it was publicly in the hands of the Colombian government. And although in their own report, INTERPOL concludes that access to the machines between March 1 and March 3 by the Grupo Investigativo de Delitos Informáticos of the Colombian Judicial Police (DIJIN) “did not conform to internationally recognized principles for handling electronic evidence by law enforcement” [Page 31], Secretary General Noble justifies that violation and the modifications made by the DIJIN as part of the difficulties encountered by those law enforcement who “are first on the scene”.

INTERPOL says its role was “exclusively technical” yet Secretary General Noble began his press conference on May 15 with a very partialized political discourse in favor of the Colombian government and condemning the FARC as drugtraffickers and terrorists. When asked by a journalist from TELESUR whether he could confirm the source of the evidence, Noble blurted our “I can say with certainty that the computers came from a FARC terrorist camp…” The journalist asked if they belonged to any person in particular, and Noble responded “yes, the now dead Reyes…”

If we return to page 9 of the INTERPOL report we can clearly read the statement: “the verification of the eight seized FARC computer exhibits by INTERPOL does not imply the validation of the accuracy of the user files, the validation of any country’s interpretation of the user files or the validation of the source of the user files.”

So, how did Mr. Noble know the computers belonged to Raul Reyes if INTERPOL did not analyze their origen?

In the end, INTERPOL can say that technically those computers were not modified or altered after March 1, but that tells us nothing concrete that could serve as legal evidence in a court of law. We don’t know the source of those machines. We don’t know who created the documents, text and data on those computers. There is no way whatsoever to authenticate the information contained on the thousands of Word documents and emails on those computers. They could be stories, wishes, dreams, prayers or fantasies. What they are not is actual hard core proof of a crime.

And as no surprise, the US government has expressed its “concern” over the INTERPOL report and the “ties between the Venezuelan government and the FARC.” (The US government is always “concerned” when it comes to Venezuela. First, Ambassador Donna Hrinak expressed her “concern” over President Chávez’s statements criticizing the US bombing in Afghanistan in October 2001, and months later came the coup d’etat against Chávez. Then it was Ambassador Charles Shapiro who expressed his “concern” about the political crises and the divisions in the country and soon after we had the economic sabotage of the oil industry in December 2002. Later we had Ambassador William Brownfield saying he was “concerned” about the increase in drug transit and the threat to freedom of expression, and we had street violence, an increase in funding to the opposition, and the White House certified Venezuela as a nation “not cooperating” with counterdrug measures and the war on terror. And now what?)

First, the spokesperson for the Department of State, Sean McCormack stated on May 16 that “this is a motive of concern for us. It’s a concern for the people of Colombia and the government of Colombia…Right now our intelligence community is analyzing the INTERPOL report…You don’t have to look far beyond the many news reports that we have seen recently based on the information found in those laptops and other information…” (Right, when the news media says something in sync with Washington’s foreign policy, it’s pointed to as a valid source, but when they criticize Bush’s policies on Irak or discover inconsistencies with the administration, then they say the media are biased and unrealiable).

The next day, the normally low profile (for now) US Ambassador in Venezuela, Patrick Duddy, appeared on Globovisión declaring that “elements of concern” exist in the documents found on Raul Reyes’ laptop and that “we respect what Interpol has presented and we remind you that there is already a ton of material that has come out in the press and there are elements of conern, but also there is a lot of information and the agencies that have access to it will analyze it.” Of course his statement is identical to that of the Department of State, and that’s no coincidence – that’s because the embassies all receive a “Western Hemisphere Press Guidance” sheet telling them exactly what to say!

So, the next step will be when the CIA, the Pentagon and other official Washington representatives “certify” the information on the computers and launch all kinds of additional accusations towards Venezuela – now with “proof”, even if invented. Wasn’t the power point presentation that Colin Powell so assuredly presented before the UN Security Council regarding the weapons of mass destruction in Irak considered “proof”? So, now we have laptops with non-authenticatible documents that will be used as “evidence” to place Venezuela on the state sponsors of terror list or worse, justify some kind of military incursion onto Venezuela territory to safeguard the world from terrorists.

The Fourth Fleet of the Navy has already been activated, something not seen since World War II, and will be patrolling and coordinating military activity in the Latin American region. Last month, SOUTHCOM launched Operation Enduring Freedom – Caribbean and Central America – which deployed an elite batallon of National Guard and navy ships into the region to prepare strategies to detect and defend against terrorist threats in the region.

In the end, INTERPOL achieved what Washington hasn’t been able to do for years: invent the way to “validate” some kind of bogus evidence against Venezuela that will jusfity US aggressions and possibly the next military intervention.


 http://www.chavezcode.com/2008/05/war-machine-or-how-to-manipulate.html

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Extradition of Paramilitary Leaders Undermines Para-Politics Investigation

by Garry Leech

May 13, 2008

In the early hours of May 13, Colombian security forces transported 14 high-ranking paramilitary leaders from their prison cells to an aircraft that whisked them out of the country and to the United States. Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe had ordered that the paramilitary leaders be extradited to face drug trafficking charges in the United States because, as Interior Minister Carlos Holgumn stated, “In some cases they were still committing crimes and reorganizing criminal structures” from their prison cells. The paramilitary leaders were engaged in a demobilization process that called for them to confess their crimes in return for reduced jail sentences. In their testimonies, several paramilitary leaders revealed links between the right-wing militia organization and elected officials and multinational corporations. By extraditing the paramilitary leaders, President Uribe has ensured that they will do no further harm to himself and his political allies as he has effectively stymied future investigations into the so-called para-politics scandal.
Sixty-one elected officials, the majority of whom are political allies of President Uribe, are currently under investigation for ties to right-wing paramilitaries belonging to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). Thirty of the officials are already in prison, including the president’s cousin and former senator Mario Uribe. Much of the evidence linking the politicians with the AUC has come from testimonies provided by paramilitary leaders as part of the demobilization process.
For President Uribe, the demobilization of the AUC—the country’s principal violators of human rights—was supposed to represent a peace feather in his cap. The original goal of the demobilization was to have the paramilitary leaders serve prison terms as short as 22 months—once the negotiating process was considered as time served and good behavior was taken into account. In return, the paramilitary leaders would demobilize all their fighters, confess their crimes and completely dismantle their criminal organizations, including their drug trafficking networks—or at least appear to do so.
However, due to international pressure and virulent protests from sectors within Colombian civil society, Uribe was forced to revise the plan to provide the AUC leaders with a virtual amnesty, instead insisting that they serve eight years in prison. The paramilitary leaders responded by threatening to withdraw from the process. Uribe then ordered them transferred from the ranch in northern Colombia where the negotiations had taken place to maximum-security prisons.
The original plan hatched between Uribe and the AUC leaders began to unravel as animosity between the government and the paramilitaries intensified. Demobilized paramilitary leaders soon began revealing ties between the militia and elected officials allied with the country’s president. The para-politics scandal has not only undermined the legitimacy of the Colombian government, it has also hurt Uribe’s efforts to sign free trade agreements with the United States and Canada.
With the paramilitary leaders safely ensconced in maximum-security prisons, there was no need to secretly whisk them out of the country in the middle of the night. Even if they were still managing their illegal activities from within their prisons cells—and they likely were—the Uribe administration could have allowed the AUC leaders to complete their testimonies before announcing its intention to extradite them. However, to do so would have ensured that Uribe and his political allies would have become further enmeshed in the para-politics investigation.
The most effective way of silencing the paramilitary leaders was to extradite them to the United States where they will stand trial on drug trafficking charges. Meanwhile, their human rights abuses and links to Colombian officials will be considered irrelevant to the cases against them and so will remain secret. In all likelihood, as has occurred with FARC guerrilla leader Simón Trinidad since he was extradited to the United States, the paramilitary leaders will be kept in seclusion making it impossible for them to make public any new evidence that could prove uncomfortable for Uribe and his political allies. Furthermore, the Bush administration is more than happy to oblige Uribe efforts to thwart justice given that the Colombian leader is Washington’s closest ally in Latin America.
President Uribe likely knew that any prior announcement of his intention to extradite the paramilitary leaders would have resulted in a significant backlash from the political opposition, criminal investigators and human rights organizations, all of who would demand that he allow the testimonies to continue. With some of the most prominent paramilitary leaders, including AUC chief Salvatore Mancuso, now in US prisons, it will prove much more difficult for prosecutors to effectively investigate the links between politicians and the right-wing death squads. Claudia Lopez, an independent investigator, acknowledged this new reality when she declared, “They’ve taken away all the witnesses.”

 http://www.colombiajournal.org/colombia282.htm






Some Websites related with Colombia:


 http://www.chavezcode.com/

 http://www.colombiasolidarity.blogspot.com/

 http://www.narconews.com/Issue52/article3084.html

 http://lachiva.apirg.org/index.php

 http://www.colombiasolidarity.org/en/node/7

 http://www.colombiasupport.net/news/

 http://www.colombiajournal.org/

 http://home.comcast.net/~nscolombia/

 http://sumoud.tao.ca/?q=taxonomy/page/or/90

 http://www.latinlasnet.org/node/189

 http://www.solidarity-us.org/guestworkers

 http://www.lasc.ie/index.html

 http://www.wsm.ie/story/3908





Nancy


titbits from commercial press coverage of the last 24 hours.

28.05.2008 14:19

Last night the minister of defence of the Colombian state offered what at first would seem to an olive branch to FARC in comments to press expressing hope of "sincere and honest" negotiations leading to an end of conflict. But that olive branch turned khaki within minutes of being broadcast on the regional "union radio" with statements from the USA's spokesperson Mr Mc Cormack.

The USA (true to form and consistent with it) is opposed to any sincere and honest negotiations leading to an end of conflict.

Meanwhile Senator Piedad Cordoba one of 11 civilians facing charges of "farco-politics" based on evidence in the "Reyes computers" continues her visit to Venezuela whence she had spoken last Sunday oof both FARC's founder's death and the selection of FARC's new leader.  http://www.unionradio.com.ve/Noticias/Noticia.aspx?noticiaid=242539 A lot of attention is going her way and a comprehensive digest of her comments and analysis will soon be published on this site.

Then this morning (European time) Uribe got tough and followed up his minister of defence's comments by issuing what seems like an ultimatum of "disarm or be destroyed" to FARC as alledgedly the olive or khaki branch had been rejected.

Things then got interesting and fun again considering the subject of this thread (the Reyes computers) when Colombia announced that FARC and specifically its new leader had been planning attacks in Madrid, Spain. The same news as reported in "El Pais" the Spanish daily also reported a reward being offered by the Colombian state for the location of the grave of the founder of FARC. The reward is valued at 5 billion pesos or 1.7 million Euros or 1,287,920 sterling pounds.

This you will agree is an awful lot of money.

 http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/FARC/planeaban/atentar/Madrid/informacion/hallada/ordenador/Raul/Reyes/elpepuint/20080528elpepuint_7/Tes

___________________this might be considered human interest fluff :-

If you're still new to this subject and this game you might like to ponder how much that awful lot of money is.It might be noteworthy that most cocaine deals are now done in Euros rather than US dollars which has had marginal effects on the strength of the European currency but since most heroin trades are done in Sterling the local cash of united kollectives is still quite hard. One million dollars though is a useful benchmark for calculation being 43 cubic inches (8" x 6" x 13") about the size of a 15" television and weighing almost 20 pounds (9 kilos). Thus one billion dollars or sterling comes in at about ten 15" Telly's size or 90 kilos, the weight of one fat geezer. Euros having a 500€ note are slightly easier to get through customs (one factor which makes them attractive to villains) but not even the daft would consider 1.7 million an easy amount of money to pick up and walk off with down the street or through customs at Gatwick.  http://www.cockeyed.com/inside/million/million.html Thus the reward is quite probably one of two things :-

1) fake propaganda.
2) intended for the sort of chap or chapette who holds a bank account which boasts facilities for transfers without questions asked over 6 figures.

You might like to consult your private financial advisor if you doubt you qualify but aside from offshore banking companies the most likely candidate for organising such services is a private bank with global presence. Of these the largest with local presence is UBS.  http://www.ubs.com/
 http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/FARC/planeaban/atentar/Madrid/informacion/hallada/ordenador/Raul/Reyes/elpepuint/20080528elpepuint_7/Tes




ipsi


Photos Allegedly From FARC PC Undermine Colombian Credibility

28.05.2008 21:45

Photos Allegedly From FARC PC Undermine Colombian Credibility

May 23rd 2008, by Daniel Denvir - NACLA


A series of photos allegedly found on the laptops of Raúl Reyes, the FARC leader killed when the Colombian government bombed and raided a FARC encampment across the Ecuadoran border, appear to have actually been taken by Colombian intelligence agents—or by allied police or intelligence agents—in Quito, Ecuador. The photos were supplied to the Bogota daily El Tiempo by an anonymous Colombian intelligence source on Monday March 3, just two days after the raid on the encampment.
Credible doubts about the provenance of the photos are potentially explosive, as they suggest that a piece of evidence that the Colombian government claimed originated from the FARC laptops actually came from another source, and also because they indicate the presence of Colombian intelligence in Quito. In the attack’s aftermath, Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa initiated a major shakeup of the country’s armed forces following allegations of significant CIA and other foreign-intelligence penetration.
The photos, taken down about a week after they were uploaded, briefly formed part of a broad and systematic media campaign on the part of the Colombian government to link the Ecuadoran and Venezuelan governments to the FARC. The campaign has been waged through a combination of public denunciations and anonymous leaks to news outlets in Colombia, the United States, and Spain.
The photos were taken inside and outside of Quito’s Casa de Cultura arts and convention center during the international conference of the Continental Bolivarian Coordinating Committee (CCB) the week before the attack. The CCB is a small left-wing organization with ties to the FARC and chapters throughout Latin America.
The photos, which now appear to be intelligence photos, were included in a Web gallery on El Tiempo’s Web site of photos purportedly found on Reyes’s laptop. When I came across the photos my first question was “Why would the FARC take intelligence photos of their supposed allies?”
The individuals photographed include two Basque separatists: Batasuna representative Iñak Bil de San Vicente and Askapena representative Walter Wendelin. (Batasuna is the political arm of the armed Basque nationalist separatist group ETA. Askapena is a support organization for Basque prisoners.) Also captured in the photos are Carlos Casanueva, a member of the Chilean Communist Party’s Central Committee; Lucía Morett, a visiting Mexican student who was injured in the attack (four other Mexican students were killed); Venezuelan Communist Party deputy and Central Committee secretary general Oscar Figuera; Chilean Communist Youth member Manuel Olate, who, along with fellow Chilean Valeska López, visited the FARC encampment just before it was bombed; an unnamed Italian CCB delegate; and at least five other unidentified people.
After weeks of contradictory and incomplete answers from El Tiempo, I traveled from Quito to their Bogotá office to ask some questions in person. El Tiempo reporters had at first confirmed that the photos were from the FARC laptops and were unsure of why they were removed from El Tiempo’s Web site. El Tiempo Justice editor Jhon Torres then told me that they were not from the laptop and that a retraction had been issued. (I was unable to find a retraction in any of El Tiempo’s March or April archives. Journalistic ethics require news outlets to issue corrections if doubts emerge as to the validity of evidence used to support an article.)
In an interview this past Tuesday, Torres told me that the photos were removed from the Web site because of doubts that they were really found on the FARC laptops. According to Torres, however, their intelligence source has not changed his claim that the photos are from the laptops.
Torres also claimed that all of the people captured in the CCB photos were also in photos found on Reyes’ laptops. I was unable to confirm this through a review of photos that have been released, and Torres was unable to provide me with photos confirming this statement.
Torres played down the notion that the Colombian government purposely leaked false information, hypothesizing the photos’ inclusion to be an accidental “infection” and characterizing their intelligence source as a lone actor rather than part of a media campaign orchestrated by the Colombian government.
Torres also confirmed that El Tiempo has not issued any retractions regarding the photos—contradicting his earlier statement—saying that they simply removed them from the Web site. This even though the paper ran a story on March 7 titled “Trace of ETA in Reyes’ PC,” including the photo of Batasuna members Walter Wendelin and Iñak Gil at the CCB conference. The article does not mention that the photo was taken at the conference, and it is possible that El Tiempo was unaware of this fact. The rest of the photos were only posted as part of the Web gallery and were not used in the newspaper’s print edition. Torres acknowledged that, “perhaps we could have done a better job clarifying our opinions of the photos.”
I am still reporting this story. Further information will be posted on the NACLA Web site.


Daniel Denvir is an independent journalist in Quito, Ecuador and an editor at the forthcoming journal Caterwaul Quarterly ( http://www.caterwaulquarterly.com). Denvir is a 2008 recipient of NACLA's Samuel Chavkin Investigative Journalism Grant.

Source:

NACLA


 http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/3483

 http://www.venezuelanalysis.com

Nancy