Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Leaked Report: Drug Traffickers Obtained Classified DEA Documents from U.S. Embassy in Bogota "At Will"

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Dear Colleague,

A major piece of the puzzle of U.S. law enforcement in Colombia
corruption has fallen into place. An anonymous source has leaked to
Narco News correspondent Bill Conroy a report from the Drug
Enforcement Administration that further strengthens allegations of
DEA and other agents collaborating with Colombian drug traffickers
and paramilitaries. It also makes some surprising claims about the
U.S.-sponsored drug crop fumigation program.

http://www.narconews.com

The report summarizes the results of a lie detector test performed on
a narco-trafficker who worked as an informant for the DEA. The narco
told the DEA that he received dozens of confidential documents from
the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá. Among the most startling revelations in
the document, which is available for download from Narco News, is this:

"One of the charges leveled in this recently uncovered document is
that 'narco-traffickers knew a day in advance, with coordinates, when
DEA/CNP [Colombian National Police] were going to fumigate the
marijuana/coca fields. Thus, they were always prepared to protect the
fields.'"

While poor peasants in the Colombian countryside watch their
livelihoods destroyed as U.S. and Colombian government planes
fumigate entire rural communities, U.S. government agents were
apparently helping the rich, powerful mafia leaders to protect their
own interests.

Conroy had already reported in a previous story that such a report
existed, but sources had told him that DEA superiors hid the results
and told the staffer who performed the test not to speak of his
findings. Indeed, in the report itself, man who performed the test
writes that he believes more questioning of the drug trafficker is in
order, but that the DEA "decided not to conduct any further polygraph
testing."

In the wake of Narco News' publishing of the orignal "Kent Memo" -
which blew the lid off the DEA's cover-up of corruption allegations -
an agency spokesman called the accusations "unfounded." Well, Conroy
continues to lay that foundation brick by brick, and the Washington
spin doctors are having a harder and harder time trying to pretend
that such overwhelming evidence does not exist.