[R-G] Spies Without Borders: The CIA and the Raid on Ecuador

[Anthony Fenton]

  May 2, 2008
The CIA and the Raid on Ecuador
Spies Without Borders
By WILLIAM BLUM
http://counterpunch.com/blum05022008.html


When Andreas Papandreou assumed his ministerial duties in 1964 in the  
Greek government led by his father George Papandreou, he was shocked  
to discover an intelligence service out of control, a shadow  
government with powers beyond the authority of the nation's nominal  
leaders, a service more loyal to the CIA than to the Papandreou  
government.

This was a fact of life for many countries in the world during the  
Cold War, when the CIA could dazzle a foreign secret service with  
devices of technical wizardry, classes in spycraft, vital  
intelligence, unlimited money, and American mystique and propaganda.  
Many of the world's intelligence agencies have long provided the CIA  
with information about their own government and citizens.

The nature of much of this information has been such that if a private  
citizen were to pass it to a foreign power he could be charged with  
treason. [William Blum, Killing Hope, pages 217-8.]

Leftist Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa declared in April that  
Ecuador's intelligence systems were "totally infiltrated and  
subjugated to the CIA," and accused senior Ecuadoran military  
officials of sharing intelligence with Colombia, the Bush  
administration's top (if not only) ally in Latin America.

The previous month missiles had been fired into a camp of the  
Colombian FARC rebels situated in Ecuador near the Colombian border,  
killing about 25. One of those killed was Franklin Aisalla, an  
Ecuadorean operative for the group. It turned out that Ecuadorean  
intelligence officials had been tracking Aisalla, a fact that was not  
shared with the president, but apparently with Colombian forces and  
their American military advisers.

"I, the president of the republic, found out about these operations by  
reading the newspaper," a visibly indignant Correa said. "This is not  
something we can tolerate." He added that he planned to restructure  
the intelligence agencies so he would have greater direct control over  
them. [New York Times, April 21, 2008.]

The FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) is routinely  
referred to in the world media as "Marxist", but that designation has  
not been appropriate for many years. The FARC has long been basically  
a criminal organization -- kidnapings for ransom, kidnapings for no  
apparent reason, selling protection services to businesses,  
trafficking in drugs, fighting the Colombian Army to be free to  
continue their criminal ways or to revenge their comrades' deaths.

But Washington, proceeding from its declared ideology of "If you ain't  
with us, you're against us; in fact, if you ain't with us you're a  
terrorist", has designated FARC as a terrorist group. Every stated  
definition of "terrorist", from the FBI to the United Nations to the  
US criminal code makes it plain that terrorism is essentially a  
political act.

This should, logically, exclude FARC from that category but, in  
actuality, has no effect on Washington's thinking. And now the Bush  
administration is threatening to add Venezuela to its list of "nations  
that support terrorism", following a claim by Colombia that it had  
captured a computer belonging to FARC after the attack on the group's  
campsite in Ecuador.

A file allegedly found on the alleged computer, we are told, suggests  
that the Venezuelan government had channeled $300 million to FARC, and  
that FARC had appeared interested in acquiring 110 pounds of uranium.  
[New York Times, March 4, 2008]

What next? Chavez had met with Osama bin Laden at the campsite?

Amongst the FARC members killed in the Colombian attack on Ecuador  
were several involved in negotiations to free Ingrid Betancourt, a  
former Colombian presidential candidate who also holds French  
citizenship and is gravely ill. The French government and Venezuelan  
president Hugo Chavez have been very active in trying to win  
Betancourt's freedom. Individuals collaborating with Chavez have twice  
this year escorted a total of six hostages freed by the FARC into  
freedom, including four former Colombian legislators.

The prestige thus acquired by Chavez has of course not made Washington  
ideologues happy. If Chavez should have a role in the freeing of  
Betancourt -- the FARC's most prominent prisoner -- his prestige would  
jump yet higher. The raid on the FARC camp has put an end to the  
Betancourt negotiations, at least for the near future.

The raid bore the fingerprints of the US military/CIA -- a Predator  
drone aircraft dropped "smart bombs" after pinpointing the spot by  
monitoring a satellite phone call between a FARC leader and Chavez. A  
Colombian Defense Ministry official admitted that the United States  
had provided his government with intelligence used in the attack, but  
denied that Washington had provided the weapons.[9] The New York Times  
observed that "The predawn operation bears remarkable similarities to  
one carried out in late January by the United States in Pakistan."[10]

So what do we have here? Washington has removed a couple of dozen  
terrorists (or "terrorists") from the ranks of the living without any  
kind of judicial process. Ingrid Betancourt continues her  
imprisonment, now in its sixth year, but another of Hugo Chavez's evil- 
commie plans has been thwarted.

And the CIA -- as with its torture renditions -- has once again  
demonstrated its awesome power: anyone, anywhere, anytime, anything,  
all laws domestic and international be damned, no lie too big.

William Blum is the author of Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA  
Interventions Since World War II, Rogue State: a guide to the World's  
Only Super Power. and West-Bloc Dissident: a Cold War Political Memoir.

He can be reached at BBlum6 at aol.com