Didn't make my printed paper:
"Colombia inquiry implicates US aid in abuses of power; Funds allegedly used for spying, political activities" by Karen DeYoung and Claudia J. Duque, Washington Post / August 21, 2011
BOGOTA - The Obama administration often cites Colombia’s thriving democracy as proof that US assistance, know-how and commitment can turn around a potentially failed state under terrorist siege.
The country’s US-funded counterinsurgency campaign against a Marxist rebel group - and the civilian and military coordination behind it - are viewed as so successful that it has become a model for strategy in Afghanistan.
But new revelations in long-running political scandals under former President Alvaro Uribe, a close US ally during his eight-year tenure, have implicated American aid, and possibly US officials, in egregious abuses of power and illegal actions by the Colombian government under the guise of fighting terrorism and drug smuggling.
That would be nothing new for this government.
American cash, equipment and training, supplied to elite units of the Colombian intelligence service during the past decade to help smash cocaine-trafficking rings, were used to carry out spy operations and smear campaigns against Supreme Court justices, Uribe’s political opponents and civil society groups, according to law enforcement documents obtained by The Washington Post and interviews with prosecutors and former Colombian intelligence officials.
The revelations are part of a widening investigation by the Colombian attorney general’s office against the Department of Administrative Security, or DAS. Six former high-ranking intelligence officials have confessed to crimes, and more than a dozen other agency operatives are on trial....
US officials have denied knowledge of or involvement in illegal acts committed by DAS, and Colombian prosecutors have not alleged any American collaboration. But the story of what DAS did with much of the US aid it received is a cautionary tale of unintended consequences....
Prosecutors say the Uribe government wanted to “neutralize’’ the Supreme Court because its investigative magistrates were unraveling ties between presidential allies in the Colombian congress and drug-trafficking paramilitary groups.
Some of those charged or under investigation have described the importance of US intelligence resources and guidance, and say they regularly briefed embassy “liaison’’ officials on intelligence-gathering activities. “We were organized through the American Embassy,’’ said William Romero, who ran the DAS network of informants.
So are the CIA drug-running operations.
The CIA declined to comment on any specific allegations or the description of its relationship with DAS provided by Colombian officials. Uribe, speaking through his lawyer, Jaime Granados, declined a request for an interview, but the former president has denied overseeing illegal activities.
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