http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/0224/colombia.html
Colombia seeks 6 ETA, IRA members - reports

February 24, 2003

(22:11) Colombian authorities are searching for six members of the Basque separatist group ETA and the Irish Republican Army.

It is reported they are suspected of taking part in the bombing of the upmarket El Nogal club in Bogotá two weeks ago that left 36 dead.

The attack, which also injured 160 people, was blamed on FARC rebels.

They have recently stepped up urban attacks and are increasingly targeting the country's upper middle classes.

A former FARC member is said to have told investigators that the ETA and IRA members entered Colombia along its 2,219 km border with Venezuela.

Investigators believe more than 150 kg of C4 explosive and ammonium nitrate were used in the blast.

Police were investigating whether the bombing was planned with the help of one of more of El Nogal's 400 employees.

1. Exclude them from our government & SinnFein/IRA help to massacre 115
people.
2. SinnFein/IRA are finished in the USA
3. SinnFein/IRA help to massacre another 21 people.
4. Testing weapons in the jungles of Colombia
5. FARC Soldier tells all
6. Summary of Investigation of IRA Links
to FARC Narco-Terrorists in Colombia
COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
U.S. House of Representatives
------------------------- -----------------------------

SinnFein/IRA help to massacre 115 people.
Another 115 people massacred, most of them women and children who were
seeking refuge in a church, and still Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern do
nothing. One now must start asking "WHY" when the world is united in the
fight against terrorism these 2 idiots seem to support it. And as for
SinnFein/IRA and supporters they use the pathetic excuse that its nothing to
do with them, its all been story manufactured by those in opposition to the
GFA.

The time has come SinnFein/IRA MUST BE EXCLUDED FROM ANY ROLE IN GOVERNMENT,
IN ULSTER AND IN SOUTHERN IRELAND. The world has all the proof that it needs
so Blair and Ahern must travel the same the road as the United States
Government, who are refusing visas and will designate SinnFein/IRA a
terrorist organization in October, resulting in them being banned from even
entering the USA.

And of our Politicians, get out to the States, take Michelle Williamson and
other victim's with you, let the people know what its really like here,
Ophra and other coast to coast shows will be glad to have you so what are
you waiting for. Remember this Blair will only respond to massive world and
public opinion, that means pressure from the US and others. Tell our story
what do we pay you to do? remember you work for us so get started or we will
sack the lot of you.

For the moment the British and Irish governments are under no pressure in
relation to Colombia. They can take shelter, with perfect propriety, behind
the sub judice rule: the men have to be considered innocent until they have
been tried and convicted .But once the men are tried and convicted - the two
Governments will no longer have the shelter of the sub judice rule. They
will be told by the US Government quietly at first and then if necessary
more strongly that an organisation proved to be hostile to the United States
must not be countenanced by any Government friendly to the United States.
That means that Sinn Fein should not be accepted any longer by the two
Governments as a partner in the governance of Northern Ireland unless Sinn
Fein publicly repudiates all connection with the IRA. And repudiation, since
Sinn Fein exists primarily to serve the IRA, is extremely unlikely. Both
Governments will feel the pressure, but the pressure will fall primarily on
the Government of the Republic. This has to be so because the criminals
concerned are Irish citizens and the IRA's arms are known to be stored in
Ireland contrary to Irish law, but with the tacit consent of the Irish
Government, which has allowed the weapons to be inspected there.

The American Government has known all about that for years, and has been
content to turn a blind eye to it. But that was before it became known that
Sinn Fein-IRA had been involved in secret military operations against the
United States. A great line was crossed there, and the United States could
no longer tolerate collusion by the British and Irish Governments with Sinn
Fein-IRA. But the prime pressure will fall on the Irish Government both for
the reasons stated above and because the British Government, unlike the
Irish Government, is in military alliance with the United States.

Indeed it appears as Britain's most reliable military ally, and therefore
will not be subjected to much direct pressure. Ireland is not a military
ally, and therefore the primary pressure will fall on the Government of
Ireland. If the Government of Ireland calls for the expulsion of Sinn Fein
at the behest of the United States, the Government of Great Britain is
certain not to object. So Bertie Ahern is going to feel the heat, once the
trials in Colombia are over. Sinn Fein-IRA are well aware of the troubles
looming up for them and that is why they have been accumulating brownie
points, almost feverishly. Hence Sinn Fein's tribute to all the war dead,
and hence the IRA's apology to the innocent victims of its military
campaign.

Bertie Ahern will be in some difficulty, but hardly of an insuperable kind.
There is some anti-Americanism around in Ireland, but mostly of a subliminal
deniable kind. And there is quite a lot of active sympathy with Sinn
Fein-IRA among rank-and-file Fianna Fail supporters. None the less, few
Fianna Fail people, and fewer still other Irish people, would look with
equanimity on a breach between Ireland and America - which would also mean a
breach between the Irish in Ireland and people of Irish descent in America.

In these rather frustrating circumstances, Bertie Ahern, would give in to
the Americans, but only after a mild show of recalcitrance. He would try to
get Sinn Fein to repudiate the Colombian Three. Only after he tried and
failed - as he would fail - to get that repudiation, would he see to it that
Sinn Fein was removed from the Executive of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
And this move would be likely to be supported by all members of the Dail,
with the exception of Sinn Fein, and possibly also the Greens.

--------------------------- ---------------------------

SinnFein/IRA are finished in the USA

In dealing with SinnFein/IRA, Clinton made clear that he wished to see a
breakthrough on Ireland. However, he also repeatedly made clear that he
viewed his role as a good faith mediator, bringing all sides on board.
Ironically, having made such advances, Sinn Fein now accepted the
intervention of Kennedy and others, who had supported an SDLP or Dublin
agenda and condemned Irish Republicans. The imprimatur of such new allies
offered the benefit of increased financial contributions and increased
political influence but with strings very clearly attached. There allies
were not pro-Republican and any involvement would be tied to business,
ceasefires and ultimate transformation of Sinn Fein into an establishment
political party.Ultimately these influences would be part of the political
alliances, which made acceptance of Stormont inevitable.

Bush has no high regard for the Irish issue. He presides with a Reagan-type
cabinet style, where his Vice-President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State
Colin Powell and political allies such as James Baker do not merely
influence but control policy.

There is little expectation that Bush would personally invest substantial
time, commitment and prestige to Ireland. St. Patrick’s Day at the White
House consisted of celebratory shamrocks and toasts, minus the behind the
scenes presidential diplomacy and negotiation. A second sharp contrast
between the Clinton and Bush Administration is the expected return to the
primacy of the State Department on Irish issues.

For decades the American State Department dominated American’s foreign
policy on Ireland. The American State Department officials worked with
British counterparts on a wide range of international situations and crafted
what was hyped as a special relationship. Plainly speaking the special
relationship meant that America would defer to the British on Irish policy
in exchange for cooperation elsewhere.

Clinton took control of the policy from the State Department, and allocated
the area of responsibility to the National Security Council, as a first step
in transforming American policy.

Now that step is being reversed by the Bush Administration. The State
Department headed by Colin Powell again sets Irish policy. It was the State
Department, which set the pro-British policies of the Reagan-Bush years to
the State Department signals a seismic shift back to that pro-British
perspective. This seismic shift was cemented by the appointment of senior
State Department official Richard Haass as an ambassador at large to
Ireland, and a ban on the Sovereignty Movement and Irish Republican
Prisoners Welfare Association.

In this context Bush Administration policy towards Ireland must be
considered The Bush Administration’s first priority will be British
interests. The Stormont deal and process is a safe issue, which may bring
some political credit without a significant effort or political risk. From
the U.S. point of view the IRA’s alleged training of FARC is of immediate
concern. Latin American narco-terrorists like FARC’s are believed to be
responsible for some 90 percent of the cocaine and 70 percent of the heroin
sold in America. U.S. Southern Command has said that it "recognized a viable
terrorist threat in Latin America long before Sept. 11," adding, "If not
further exposed and removed, that threat poses a serious potential risk to
our own national security as well as to our hemispheric neighbors."
SinnFein/IRA, one of the world’s most dangerous and successful terrorist
groups, has indeed trained FARC, that risk has multiplied exponentially.
Charges that such training has occurred must be investigated thoroughly and
cannot be held to ransom because of a peace process that will be put at far
greater risk by any failure to move against such cross-pollination among
terrorists. As such incidents show, the globalization of terrorism is larger
than al Qaeda.

The Bush Administration may therefore be expected to look to the British,
and play down the Colombian arrests because it serves British interests to
keep Sinn Fein inside the Stormont Deal process. However Bush sees that
American interests are being affected by a strong connection with FARC and
he would have little hesitation in penalising Sinn Fein albeit within limits
circumscribed by British interests. There are the calculations, which will
dominate for better or worse, American policy and the Stormont Deal, under a
Bush administration.

------------------------- -------------------------

SinnFein/IRA help to massacre another 21 people.

IRA-trained Colombian rebels were responsible for the mortar attacks that
killed 21 people last week, security forces in the South American country
said last night. "There is no doubt that behind these attacks is the
training of the IRA," said General Reynaldo Castellanos, a divisional
commander, in the capital Bogota. His statement reinforces the allegation by
Gen Jorge Enrique Mora, head of the Colombian military. Rebels of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) were blamed for the attacks
last Wednesday as President Alvaro Uribe took office. After the attack,
police found 16 remote controlled devices and more than 100 other mortars
ready to be launched in safe houses just over a mile from government
buildings.

They are awaiting trial in October accused of training Marxist guerrillas in
the use of explosives and urban terrorism. Since February, the Farc forces
have taken their 38-year war from the countryside into the cities.Their most
audacious urban operation yet was unleashed last Wednesday.They fired
mortars at the presidential palace just as the new president, an
Oxford-educated Right-winger, was being sworn in.Colombian and British
security experts said the Farc operation had all the hallmarks of the IRA
and brought to mind the mortar fired at Downing Street in 1991. "It seems to
be a classic IRA operation," said a former British army officer, a bomb
disposal expert who specialised in IRA mortars.

"The first set of rounds was designed to distract the security forces, focus
their attention far from the principal target." The first attack involved
mortars fired in the north of the capital aimed at the Military Academy.
This drew in the security forces and focused attention from the main event
at the presidential palace. The operation was the first time in Colombia
that mortars had been set off by radio control, with sophisticated weapons
placed by urban militias acting with a new efficiency. "This may be new for
the Colombians," said the British expert. "But these are elements that we
have experienced for many years. "There are few terrorist organisations that
have this level of mortar expertise. They are the IRA and, perhaps to a
lesser extent, Eta." Jairo Parra, an explosives expert with the DAS,
Colombia's version of MI5, the quality of the mortars represented a
"technological leap" for the guerrillas.

-------------------------- ------------------------------

Testing weapons in the jungles of Colombia

The IRA has been testing weapons in the jungles of Colombia. Luis Camilo
Osorio said recent attacks by FARC guerrillas had employed techniques
similar to those used by the IRA. His comments have provoked anger among
supporters of three Irish republicans being held in the South American
country for the past year. Jim Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly
are awaiting trial accused of training Colombian Marxist guerrillas. In an
exclusive interview with the BBC, Mr Osorio said he believed the IRA was
linked to the rebel group. "A recent attack in a town where 115 people were
massacred, most of them women and children who were seeking refuge in a
church, was carried out using these techniques - long distance mortars.
"These are techniques we are certain were taught by this group," he said.
"We are talking about a type of cylinder with explosives and we are talking
about a type which consists of a series of oblong tubes where you put
rockets similar to those used by the IRA."
------------------------------ -------------------

FARC Soldier tells all

The prosecution is relying on four FARC defectors who say the Irishmen
visited the territory several times since 1998. Once, it is alleged, they
brought crates of missiles on a private plane. They are also said to have
trained FARC personnel in explosives. The witnesses will never appear in
public because, as FARC defectors, their lives are at risk. Their identities
are being concealed by a witness protection plan. But we managed to track
down another FARC deserter. We drove to a farm in the countryside to meet
him. 'Julio' was very nervous. He was a foot soldier in FARC for six years.
He does not intend to complicate his life by taking the stand. But he spoke
to us because he believes that FARC has killed many innocent people. 'For
me, this is injustice.' He alleged that last summer three foreigners came
to the demilitarised zone to give instruction in military ideology and
explosives. Julio did both courses over about a month. The foreigners came
from Ireland.

He pointed to a picture of James Monaghan, 'the grey-haired one', who, he
alleged, had been the tutor on explosives. Niall Connolly, 'the bearded
one', had lectured in revolutionary politics. He had seen Martin McCauley
in the distance but had personally had nothing to do with him. The Irishmen
mingled with the FARC leaders, but were 'very cold' and 'psychologically
distant' towards the lesser ranks. 'They do not value one's life,' he said.
The soldiers were taught advanced explosive techniques, working with
ammonium nitrate, black and white gunpowder and super-amphor. 'These four
chemicals are essential for a lethal explosion,' he said.

The guerrillas' leaders were impressed, he alleged, because the foreigners
showed them how to make the most of widely available resources. Monaghan
showed them how to mix the fertiliser with black gunpowder in a combination
that makes the blast 'more powerful than any usual explosion'. The courses
also involved remote-control detonators. He cited an attack last April,
detonated by remote control . It had a known IRA signature, a secondary
device. 'It had the capacity to destroy five or six blocks. I was
astonished.' Niall Connolly's course consisted of lectures in revolutionary
ideology. He frequently quoted Che Guevara and 'Bolívar's ideology and how
we should behave regarding the masses'. He explained: 'The idea is to get
the peasants engaged on our side. If a large number of peasants take our
side, we will come to power effortlessly.'

In San Vicente, the capital of the former FARC safe haven, Colonel de la
Cruz, the commanding officer at the local military base, alleged the FARC
leaders had driven the Irishmen around the region in stolen four-wheel
drives. He claimed the Irishmen had given explosives training at FARC bases
in Los Pozos, La Sombra and La Macerena and produced aerial photographs.
Connolly had been in Colombia at least once before. In April 2001 he led a
mission there, again on a false document. Stamps on the false passport in
the name of David Bracken seized by the Colombians showed he was widely
travelled in other Latin American countries.

In 1998, with Monaghan, he entered Nicaragua. In Managua we met a former
Sandinista fighter who spoke to us on condition of anonymity. He said
Connolly had a 'big reputation' in revolutionary circles and had attended
Sandinista conferences. He believed Connolly was a staff officer at an
elite training school in Cuba which ran clandestine courses for overseas
revolutionaries beneath a military base at Cienfuegos. Connolly gave
training in explosives techniques and military intelligence.

------------------- -----------------------------

Summary of Investigation of IRA Links
to FARC Narco-Terrorists in Colombia
COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
U.S. House of Representatives

On August 11, 2001, two members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), along
with a representative of Sinn Fein, the IRA’s political wing, who was known
to be stationed in Cuba and reportedly on the payroll of the Cuban Communist
Party, were arrested by Colombian authorities at the El Dorado airport in
Bogota after leaving territory in southern Colombia controlled by the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a designated foreign
terrorist organization. The three men were carrying false identification
documents (passports) and were found to have traces of explosives on their
clothing and on items in their luggage. Two of the Irish nationals were the
IRA’s leading explosives engineer and a mortar expert.

The Irish nationals were first detained by Colombian authorities and were
initially charged by the Fiscalia, the Colombian prosecutor’s office, for
using false travel documents. The three claimed they were in Colombia to
monitor ongoing peace efforts in that country between the government of
President Andreas Pastrana and various rebel groups. The three were later
formally indicted by the Fiscalia in February, 2002 and charged with
training FARC terrorists in explosives and using false passports to cover
their true identities while in Colombia.

In addition to having positive forensic trace evidence of explosives on
their belongings, the three Irish nationals have been identified by a FARC
defector who surrendered to the Fiscalia in 2001. This individual reportedly
identified photographs of three Irish nationals as the same individuals from
whom he received explosives training in the FARC safe haven. Committee
investigators are aware of additional corroborating witnesses in addition to
this FARC defector, and as a result, Colombian authorities believe they have
developed a strong criminal case against the three Irish nationals.

The initial case against the Irish nationals was developed by Colombian
military intelligence, and both the U.S. and the British embassies in Bogota
responded to inquiries from Colombian authorities regarding the three after
their arrest on August 11. Because two of the three were traveling on
falsified British passports, the first information about the arrests was
received by the British embassy in Bogota when a weekend duty officer
received a call from Colombian authorities. The initial British response to
the arrests was to conduct routine consular work and to request assistance
from the U.S. embassy in Bogota.

The obvious question, of course, is that if the IRA were legitimately
concerned with the peace process in Colombia, why would the detained Irish
nationals have needed false passports to conceal their identities, and why
would the IRA have sent experts in explosives? Following the arrest of the
Irish nationals, the Colombian government, in fact, changed its procedure
for entry of foreigners into the FARC safe haven, requiring a license from
its peace envoy, until the demilitarized zone (DMZ) was finally closed on
February 20, 2002.

The claim by the three Irish nationals that their activities in the DMZ were
related to the peace process does not appear to be supported by the facts.
The Colombian government, which organized and tracked mediation efforts by
outside groups and individuals including numerous Europeans, did not know of
the three’s activities in the FARC safe haven.

Committee investigators interviewed ambassadors representing the group of
ten nations working in support of the Colombian government’s peace process
with the FARC. These diplomats were in the FARC safe haven in Colombia at
the very same time in July/August, 2001 that the three Irish nationals were
in the DMZ. None of these diplomats recognized these Irishmen by name or by
the photos that committee investigators showed them, nor had they been aware
of any FARC links to the Irish or the Irish peace process. Additionally,
they said the FARC leadership with whom they met to discuss the peace
process never mentioned the Irish peace process or these Irish nationals.
However, a senior Latin American diplomat interviewed said he was not
surprised that the IRA may have been brought in to train FARC in urban
warfare techniques to counter the $1.3 billion in U.S. counter-drug
assistance, including helicopters, provided to Colombia beginning in FY
2000.

Events in Colombia make it clear that global terrorist networks are
interchangeable, aggressive, and know no boundaries or borders, threatening
anyone and any nation. The situation in Colombia illustrates the growing
phenomenon of proceeds from illicit drugs playing a major role in financing
the activities of global terrorist networks. The FARC is believed by
knowledgeable Colombians to take in as much as $2 million a day in illicit
drug proceeds. British sources suggest, although there is no hard evidence,
that the IRA may have received as much as $2 million for the explosives
training they provided to the FARC. There also may be some ideological
alliances, as some in Colombia believe. There is no evidence of any payment
in drugs by the FARC for the IRA training.

Colombian authorities believe that at least five and as many as 15 IRA
individuals have been traveling in and out of Colombia since at least 1998.
According to Colombian authorities, the arrests in August, 2001 are merely
the first publicly-exposed IRA activity in Colombia. However, more alarming
than the number of IRA-related individuals who have visited Colombia is the
stature of some of these individuals who Colombian authorities identified as
senior IRA explosive experts and technicians.

Colombia produces 90 percent of the cocaine and at least 70 percent of the
heroin sold in the United States. Largely because of this serious drug
threat, the U.S. has a significant presence in that country to assist the
Colombian authorities in fighting that threat.

The FARC is formally designated as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) by
the U.S. Department of State. It is thought to be "the most dangerous
international terrorist group based in this hemisphere," according to a
State Department official. The FARC narco-terrorists openly target American
civilians in Colombia, kidnaping and killing them. U.S. federal indictments
were issued on March 18, 2002 against several FARC leaders based on evidence
of conspiracy to traffic drugs to the United States.

Improvements in the FARC’s ability to carry out terrorist bombings which
Colombian authorities link to the IRA’s activity directly impact our
national interests in Colombia. The country is already the third largest
recipient of U.S. aid, and of particular concern is the large American
presence (DEA, special forces, contractors, embassy personnel, etc.) related
to drug-fighting efforts in Colombia. Hundreds of temporary duty personnel
(TDY) are in Colombia on any given day. As American assistance increases and
the U.S. enlarges its direct counter-terrorism role against the FARC, more
Americans could be at risk from the IRA terrorist training of the FARC
identified by Colombian authorities.

In light of the long history of very strict IRA discipline against
freelancing by its membership, the only real question remaining in the
committee’s inquiry concerns what the Sinn Fein leadership (IRA’s political
wing) knew about these IRA activities in Colombia, and when did they learn
of them. These were the questions posed in Chairman Henry Hyde’s March 13th
invitation letter to Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein. In a brief
meeting, a senior Sinn Fein leader was adamant about the group’s lack of
knowledge of these events in Colombia. Only time and history can ultimately
judge this response. However, since the congressional staff’s most recent
return from Colombia, the IRA has suggested an answer to the questions in
its April 8th statement on its much welcomed and constructive second arms
decommissioning: "...the IRA is a highly disciplined and committed
organization...we are relying on the discipline and commitment of our
support base and volunteers."

Some apparently would hope this matter would disappear so as to not impede
shared governance in Northern Ireland. The United States does not have the
luxury of turning a blind eye when American lives and national interests are
put at risk by IRA activity in Colombia. Colombian authorities believe that
the rapidly escalating casualties they have suffered from terrorist attacks
since the FARC safe haven was ended in early 2002 are in substantial measure
attributable to these IRA training activities.

HIRC Investigation

At the request of a bipartisan group of members, the committee’s
investigative staff has conducted an extensive nine-month inquiry,
interviewing Colombian officials, advisors, and police. Committee
investigators also conducted inquiries in Cuba, Mexico, the United Kingdom,
Ireland (including Northern Ireland), and the United States. In the wake of
the August arrests of the three Irish nationals, Investigative Counsel John
Mackey has conducted dozens of interviews, met with numerous experts from
law enforcement and intelligence services here and abroad, and reviewed
documents and materials. Absent the excellent work of Colombian military
intelligence leading to the arrests of the three Irish nationals in August,
2001 and their excellent follow-up along with that of the Colombian police
and the Fiscalia, the IRA activity in Colombia would likely have continued
unnoticed, indefinitely.

Conclusions:

The IRA has had well-established links with the FARC narco-terrorists in
Colombia since at least 1998. More Irish nationals than just the three
arrested in Colombia in August, 2001 may have been involved in visiting
Colombia for possible terrorist activities. It appears they have been
training in the FARC safe haven in explosives management, including mortar
and possibly car-bomb urban terrorist techniques, and possibly using the
rural jungles of the safe haven as a location to test and improve the IRA’s
own terrorist weapons and techniques.

Explosives management training for the FARC by the IRA, and possibly by
other foreign-based terrorists suspected by the Colombians, such as Cubans,
Iranians, ETA (the Spanish Basque terrorist group), among others, has
markedly improved the FARC’s proficiency in urban terrorism in the last few
years. ETA has had past relations with the IRA, is active in both Cuba and
Colombia, and may provide the link which brought the FARC and IRA together.
(Note: The Sinn Fein representative arrested August, 2001 in Colombia was
Cuban-based and Spanish-speaking.)

New techniques in urban terrorism are being employed by the FARC in car
bombings which target police explosives teams and other first-responders
whose job is to dismantle or neutralize these deadly devices. (The police
have lost more than 10 percent of their bomb technicians to bombings in the
last 12 months.) This is a typical IRA method of operation. The use of
mobile mortars on trucks and pickups, which the FARC is getting increasingly
effective at using, is also strikingly similar to known IRA explosive
techniques and practices. Neither committee investigators nor the Colombians
can find credible explanations for the increased, more sophisticated
capacity for these specific terror tactics now being employed by the FARC,
other than IRA training.

IRA training is now having a severe and adverse impact on Colombian life.
Apparently IRA explosives management training techniques are resulting in
more effective explosives attacks against the Colombian urban infrastructure
including bridges, power lines, reservoirs, and other facilities. The
training provided by the IRA and exposed by the arrests last summer has been
followed by numerous bombings and other terrorist attacks. The military and
police casualties mount daily, weakening Colombian democracy further. One
police Colonel from Narino Department (a FARC stronghold) told us of an
unprecedented loss of three police bomb technicians and 19 police officers
who were killed by FARC mortars in just the last 18 months alone.

Colombian authorities assert that not only has the IRA operated in the
former safe haven on behalf of the FARC, but also the Iranians, Cubans, and
possibly ETA (Basque terrorists), among others. Colombia is a potential
breeding ground for international terror equaled perhaps only by
Afghanistan, and the IRA findings are the strongest among these global links
because of the arrests of the three Irish nationals and the accompanying
evidence. It is likely that in the former FARC safe haven, all of these
terrorist groups had been sharing techniques, honing their terrorism skills,
using illicit drug proceeds in payment and collectively helping to challenge
the rule of law in Colombia, the oldest democracy in South America.

Recommendation

As the forces of global terrorism, illicit drugs, and organized crime
converge upon Colombia to produce new challenges to the international
system, the United States must reassess its current policy permitting
military assistance provided under Plan Colombia to be used exclusively for
counter-narcotics programs. The threat of drug-financed terrorism and
organized crime of a global reach, illustrated by developments in Colombia,
must be addressed by changes in U.S. law that will permit American
assistance for counter-terrorism programs.
--------------------------- -------------------------

Bye all, Keep Safe, Tim, UPMJ.

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IRA/Cuban/Venezuelan Involvement in Colombia
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/8/19/211055.shtml
Robert Villa
Monday, Aug. 20, 2001 BOGOTA, Colombia – On Saturday, Aug. 18, orders for the capture of 40 foreigners with criminal and terrorist records who have entered Colombia were issued by the attorney general's office. While the names were not released, the countries of origin were announced to be Cambodia, China, Croatia, Cuba, El Salvador, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine and Yugoslavia.

In the past week, the involvement of urban terrorism experts from the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and various Cuban and Venezuelan military operatives specializing in artillery and anti-air operations has alarmed Colombia's military. Rumors of involvement of the Basque independence guerrilla group, ETA, have also surfaced but have yet to be confirmed.

Despite repeated concerns regarding the true commitment of both Cuba and Venezuela to the peace process, the current president of Colombia, Andres Pastrana, has been die-hard on involving both groups in negotiations, due to their ideological closeness to the guerrillas.

The President’s Peace Commission even planned for the eventual participation of a contingent of Cuban soldiers that would be members of a U.N. verification team in northern Colombia. The team would have been responsible for verifying the good conduct of the guerrillas in a distension zone controlled by the Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN).

Negotiations with the ELN failed last week, however, due to the government's failure to produce a timeline acceptable to the guerrillas.

A U.N. verification team was never created for the present distension zone already occupied by the Frente Armada Revolucionaria de Colombia (FARC). That zone, created in 1999, has since become the national headquarters for FARC training, kidnapping, coca growing and military operations.

Formerly, the United Nations and the European Union both had given their support to the creation of the zone, putting aside concerns about illicit activities, but in the past month and a half, a U.N. vehicle has been stopped by the FARC and a member of a U.N. team kidnapped, three Germans have been kidnapped and held in the zone, and many U.N. and E.U. diplomatic missions are making plans to leave. Denmark has already closed up shop.

The appearance of foreign insurgents in Colombia is nothing new. Since the 1948 creation of the Organization of American States, which occurred in Bogota, foreigners have been attempting to overthrow the Colombian government, long a strong ally of the United States. On April 9, 1948, a popular Liberal Party leader was assassinated just as the OAS's first meeting to organize was being convened. The result was massive rioting that shook Bogota for several days, leaving nearly 5,000 dead.

The leaders of the FARC, which traces its origins back to this time, have always lamented that they did not take advantage of the opportunity presented by the rioting, known as the Bogotazo. A young Fidel Castro took part in the rioting. At the time he was supposedly affiliated with a group of Peronistas who were participating in a youth conference.

No one knows for sure who pulled the trigger in the assassination, but speculation has long centered around Soviet involvement because the U.S.S.R. feared that the OAS would create an unshakeable sphere of U.S. influence in the Americas.

Cubans have been involved in Colombia since the 1960s, when a group of leftist students, professors and priests took to the mountains, following the foco theory of Fidel Castro, Ernesto "Che" Guevara and the other proponents of the Cuban revolution. The foco theory insisted that a Communist revolution could be inspired by taking to the mountains, instructing the natives on the importance of overthrowing the regime, and then coming down from the mountains to take the cities.

The ELN dates from this epoch, and while the great majority of the young idealists who founded the ELN were killed in Colombia as they were in other Latin American countries where the foco theory was attempted, Cuban aid long sustained the organization.

Based in northern Colombia, Cuba has lately been involved in the peace process, which had continued unabated until last week in Caracas, Venezuela, under the watchful supervision of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Those talks were broken off last week, however, and in the past few days the ELN has launched a series of attacks crossing through Venezuelan territory to attack Colombian border posts.

General Fernando Tapias, commander of Colombia's armed forces, stated that "the objective of the FARC is to strengthen its war against the cities, and they know that they need to learn new strategies and technology." Their "urban offensive," declared last month, was inaugurated with an attack on several of the government's maximum security prisons. The FARC stated that if the government refused a prisoner exchange as part of the peace negotiations, the guerrillas would simply seize the prisons.

There is little question that the FARC has the funds available to pay for international aid in training its soldiers. The Colombian attorney general's office placed the guerrillas' income for the year 2000 at between $500 and $700 million. One military official stated that "they have the money and drugs sufficient to pay for the most sophisticated weapons, training and the highest technology in the world for communications and terrorism."

Three IRA explosives experts were detected leaving from three distinct points in Europe by European intelligence, and were followed closely by Colombian officials until they attempted to leave the country, whereupon they were apprehended. The Colombian police have reviewed their records and found that the same three IRA operatives have repeatedly entered the country since 1991.

The incident has sparked unrest in the United Kingdom as well as in Colombia, due to concerns that the IRA is taking payments in arms or drugs. The IRA has resisted the last few British proposals for disarmament.

Colombia's police in charge of immigration have now raised earlier estimates of at least 20 Cuban military experts to close to 30. This development is also disturbing, due to the supposed commitment of Cuba to the Colombian peace process. Working together with these Cubans are "at least 10" Venezuelan ex-military personnel.

Artillery experts from the two countries are probably training the guerrillas in the creation of new rocket attack methods. For the last 20 years, the FARC and ELN have both used a homemade gas canister rocket that, due to its inaccuracy, has wreaked more havoc on civilians than on military bases.

Anti-aircraft missile experts from Cuba and Venezuela are probably working on the seven anti-aircraft missile bases that have been detected under construction in the distension zone. Armaments tracking detected the arrival of Stinger and Redeye anti-aircraft missiles from Syria several years ago. More shipments of anti-aircraft missiles and launchers have probably been made by the Russian mafia, closely linked to the FARC because of its unique ability to pay in highly lucrative cocaine, which Russia distributes throughout Europe.

A partially completed submarine was discovered last year in central Colombia. The small but highly sophisticated sub was designed to transport drug shipments. The engineering plans were in Russian.

The final destination of the IRA terrorists is still uncertain. Within five days the Colombian attorney general's office should determine whether they will be tried in Colombia or deported. The Bush administration has still made no comment on the case, other than to say that it supports the Pastrana administration's continuing efforts for peace and that it will be watching how the case progresses.

Cuba, for its part, is denying the presence of Cuban troops. Cuban chancellor Aymee Hernandez said in Havana, "It’s a great fallacy, the whole world knows that there are no Cubans there [in Colombia]."

Telegraph
Shining Path back as Farc exports terror
(Filed: 13/09/2003)

Flush with drug money, rebels linked to IRA are stretching their tentacles across South America, reports Jeremy McDermott in Lima

Carlos agreed to meet in a hotel in central Lima. There was no question of a real name or any photographs.

"Carlos" joined the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, Colombia's Marxist rebels, more than 16 years ago and served four years on the front lines. Now he has moved to the Peruvian capital, but he is anything but retired.

Instead he is working clandestinely in Peru, as Farc builds up a support base and establishes relations with the remnants of its brutal Peruvian cousin, the Shining Path.

"We have now recruited 1,200 former members of the Shining Path to our organisation, led by a Peruvian woman known as The Czech," Carlos said.

The 17,000-strong Farc, the richest insurgent group in the world, flush with money from the drugs trade and kidnapping, is now looking to stretch its tentacles across South America.

It is thought to be not the first time Farc has had dealings with other terrorist groups.

Three alleged IRA members are awaiting verdicts on charges of training Farc in the use of explosives and urban terrorism, and security forces have long noted close similarities between Colombian rebel car bombs and those of the Basque separatist group Eta.

At its peak the Shining Path had 10,000 guerrillas under arms, controlled large areas of Peru and threatened to defeat the government.

But with its feared leader, Abimael Guzman, captured 11 years ago with most of the organisation's leaders, those elements still fighting have become little more than armed gangs, without direction or money.

Guzman is being held in Callao, a maximum-security prison on the Peruvian coast outside Lima.

In recent years the 500-odd remaining fighters he once led have been limited to the odd ambush on police patrols in remote highland areas, frequently without causing casualties. But that is changing.

"They have no ideology, these remnants of the Shining Path," said Col Benedicto Jimenez of the anti-terrorist police which captured Guzman. "But that does not mean they are not a threat."

There are growing signs that the Shining Path is no longer a spent force, but has acquired a new source of money and a new direction.

Three months ago, in an action all too common in Colombia but unprecedented in Peru, a Shining Path column kidnapped 71 workers employed by an Argentine company, Techint, that is building an oil pipeline in Peru. The hostages were released unharmed after the guerrillas had relieved them of weapons, dynamite and supplies, and amid rumours of a £125,000 ransom.

Techint admitted that there had been negotiations but insisted that no ransom had been delivered. In Colombia there is one kidnapping registered every four hours, most by the guerrillas who are estimated to earn more than £80 million a year from the trade.

A month after the Techint kidnapping, seven Peruvian security personnel were killed and 10 wounded in a well-planned attack on a military patrol in the rugged highlands of Huanta, central Peru.

It was the Shining Path's most successful operation in years, but Carlos insisted that Farc was not responsible.

"At the moment the work and the organisation is mainly political, not military," he said. "The people here know we are not a terrorist group as the gringos [Americans] like to portray us.

"There is a core group of 20 members of the Bolivarian Movement [Farc's political wing) working here," he added. "We also have cells in Argentina, Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile and Bolivia." He insisted that their activities were political, not military.

At the same time as the Colombian rebels spread across the border, so do drugs. In Colombia, most of Farc's £300 million-a-year income comes from taxing the drugs trade.

But an unprecedented eradication campaign has been mounted by America, involving spraying glyphosate chemicals, a relative of the Agent Orange defoliant used in Vietnam, over the vulnerable Amazon basin.

Fleeing the defoliant campaign, Farc is seeking to secure a cut from the growing drug cultivation in Peru, and has established 5,000 acres of coca plantations of its own along the border between the two countries.

"It is difficult to say how quickly drug cultivation is growing," said Patrice Vandenberghe of the United Nations office on drugs and crime in Lima. "But it is certainly increasing, both coca [the raw material for cocaine] and poppy [used to make heroin]. More than ever before we are seeing drug processing laboratories in Peru."

It is no coincidence that the remnants of Shining Path have more money than before. In another new parallel with Farc's modus operandi, they have taken to paying for food and supplies where once they simply stole them at gunpoint.

"They are shifting tactics," said Educardo Toche of the Peruvian think tank Desco. "They are now paying for food and giving political lectures to communities where before they used only terror."

President Alejandro Toledo of Peru, with an approval rating languishing at around 12 per cent, is concentrating all his efforts on simply clinging to power.

The Peruvian defence ministry declined interview requests to discuss the resurgence of the Shining Path or contacts with Farc. But a senior army officer agreed to meet on condition of complete anonymity.

"I believe these allegations of Farc involvement in Peru. I have seen enough evidence to support this," he said. "But the security forces have their heads buried in the sand, and there is not the political will to face the new insurgent threat."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/09/13/wfarc13.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/09/13/ixworld.html

This article lines out the effects of the IRA world wide terrorism network.

June 5, 2002 Printer-Friendly Version
http://www.cdi.org/terrorism/farc-ira.cfm

Underlying recent allegations of collusion between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) is the oft-neglected fact that al Qaeda is not the only international terrorist network. Long before Osama bin Laden’s Islamic organization achieved notoriety through its attacks in America on Sept. 11, 2001, other terrorist groups established operational bonds with their counterparts and sponsors across the world. Such collaboration flourished in the 1990s, and members of the international terrorism community are believed to have trained in many countries, often — but not always — with local government approval. The list of countries in which such training has occurred includes: Afghanistan; Bosnia-Herzegovina; Chile; Colombia; Iran; Iraq; Lebanon; Libya; Mexico; North Korea; Pakistan; Peru; Russia; South Africa; Sudan; Syria; and Turkey.

As this indicates, reports that foreign terrorists have been operating within Colombia are neither entirely new nor particularly surprising. Colombian groups such as FARC have long been known to contract military experts and terrorists from overseas, with European terrorist organizations reported to have often brokered such deals. The Red Army Faction is believed to have been especially active in such activities, using mostly Middle Eastern contracted trainers. Former British, Israeli, and U.S. military personnel are also reputed to have been involved in such training in the past. According to Gen. Fernando Tapias, chairman of the Columbian Joint Chiefs of Staff, nationals from Iran, Iraq, Nicaragua, Ecuador, El Salvador, Venezuela, Israel and Germany have been identified by FARC informants and deserters as carrying out recent training for the Columbian terrorist group.

Such statements tally with that made in March by the acting commander in chief of U.S. Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Gary D. Speer, who stated that links existed between Latin America and transnational terrorist organizations including the IRA, Hezbullah, Hamas, Islamyya al Gama’at (IG), and the Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA). Speer also said that Southern Command had long been monitoring terrorist activities in the region, including such incidents as the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in 1992 and the Jewish-Argentine Cultural Center in Argentina in 1994 (attributed to Hezbullah), the capture of the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Peru by the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movements (MRTA) in 1996, and the pattern of narco-terrorism in Colombia generally. However, The IRA training of FARC members represents an alarming development, not least as the Irish group is widely held to be among the most proficient practitioners of terrorism in the world. Moreover, if claims that such training has occurred are believed, it may cost the IRA heavily in terms of the support it has traditionally enjoyed in the United States, and lead to the organization being viewed as having a global reach.

Allegations of a FARC-IRA connection arose after the arrest of three Irishmen in Bogotá in August 11, 2001. The men, James Monaghan, Martin McCauley, and Neil Connolly, were traveling using false passports, and found to have traces of explosive on their belongings. All three were subsequently charged with training FARC members in the use of explosives. Security sources in both the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic say the men are IRA members. Monaghan is believed to have designed the IRA homemade mortar. Originally developed with Libyan help in the early 1970s, the primitive Mark I prototype has evolved into the much more sophisticated Mark 18 "barracks buster," named for its effectiveness in targeting security force bases in Northern Ireland. Monaghan’s skill in making this weapon has earned him the nickname "Mortar Monaghan." Similarly, MaCauley and Connolly are reported to be among the IRA’s best explosive experts.

Connolly is believed to have initiated contact with FARC through the Spanish terrorist group ETA five years ago, and known to be the official representative in Cuba of the Sinn Fein, IRA’s political wing. The appointment was initially denied but later admitted by the party. Sinn Fein’s President Gerry Adams claimed that Connolly was appointed without his knowledge or that of the international department of Sinn Fein, while confirming that "one of our [Sinn Fein’s] senior members asked Niall Connolly to represent the party in Cuba." When asked by Columbian authorities, Monaghan, MaCauley, and Connelly had initially insisted that they were in FARC’s semi-autonomous safe-haven as eco-tourists, but later claimed to be in Columbia to view the peace process and exchange experiences on this and the one in Northern Ireland.

Adams denied that any training had taken place and refused to attend an April hearing into any FARC-IRA connection, saying he did not want to prejudice the trial of the three captive Irishmen. U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said at the hearing that there had been a "quantum leap in the FARC’s terrorist proficiency on the ground and in urban warfare, which the Columbian authorities believe is attributable to IRA training." This improvement in FARC’s capabilities is apparent from the huge expansion in attacks in the past 18 months that has left 400 Columbian Army and police personnel dead. The attacks saw a shift to economic and urban targets as well as the increased use of car bombs — a development that has caused the death of 10 percent of the country’s bomb disposal experts since January. Columbian forces have also been increasingly targeted by ‘secondary devices’ — explosive devices used to ambush anyone responding to other, more apparent bomb threats. Longer range mobile mortars such as those pioneered by Monaghan have also recently become a new weapon in the FARC arsenal. Such strategy, tactics, and equipment bear remarkable similarities to those used by the IRA, greatly heightening the suspicion that Monaghan, McCauley, and Connolly were in Columbia for reasons other than eco-tourism or an exchange of experience on peace negotiations. Moreover, indications that the IRA retains international links with other terrorist groups do not stop in Columbia.

There have also been reported links between the Irish terrorists and their Palestinian counterparts. According to a former British Army bomb disposal expert with extensive Northern Ireland experience, the improvised explosive devices recently diffused by him in the Jenin refugee camp are identical to those he had only previously seen used by the IRA. Paul Collinson, who now works for the Red Cross, says the Palestinian devices were also placed using IRA-style tactics he had seen used in Armagh, Londonderry, and Belfast. Collinson, who has worked on bomb disposal in the Palestinian territories, as well as in Afghanistan, Columbia, and Egypt, says this is the first time he has seen IRA weaponry and tactics used outside of Northern Ireland. Links between the IRA and Palestinian groups is not a new concern for Israel. The Irish group is known to have established contacts with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the 1970s, as well as meeting with other such groups in Libya in the 1980s. Moreover, according to reports as recent as last month, the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, has asked British security services to check on movements of IRA operatives in an attempt to identify a sniper who killed three civilians and seven soldiers in 25 minutes.

Sinn Fein denies that the IRA has trained FARC, as does the Irish terrorist organization itself, claiming that the whole episode has been fabricated by those who wish to derail the peace process in Northern Ireland. Such an argument, while not implausible, fails to explain why Monaghan, McCauley, and Connolly used aliases and traveled with false passports. Such subterfuge appears unnecessary were the men there to engage in talks on a peace process. Moreover, dispatching three known explosives experts on such a mission rather than Sinn Fein politicians who are skilled in peace negotiations seems a rather curious course of action, albeit somewhat less bizarre than the notion that the three men should be engaged in eco-tourism in the heart of FARC country. For the Columbian authorities to muddy the contentious issue of their receiving U.S. aid for their war against terrorism by raising the emotive issue of a FARC-IRA connection without due cause also lends such claims a certain legitimacy. Certainly, the IRA has enough enemies to ensure that some will use the current allegations as an opportunity to inflict a serious public relations blow upon the Republican terrorists. Against this must stand the powerful, if circumstantial, evidence against the three Irishmen currently imprisoned in Columbia.

Looked at through a post-Sept. 11 prism, that the IRA would train such terrorists in America’s back yard appears tantamount to a political, and possibly military, suicide. However, the links currently being investigated appear to have been established long before terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon created a hostile strategic environment in which terrorist groups now operate. Moreover, Sinn Fein has weathered the risk of damaging it levels of support in the United States before, such as when Adams visited Cuba last December. British intelligence claim that the IRA may have earned as much as $2 million for training FARC, perhaps a conservative estimate as the Columbian terrorist group’s annual income from illicit drugs sales is estimated at $1 billion. Such financial incentive may have convinced the IRA that training FARC was worth the risk, especially if reports from Russia’s intelligence services that the Irish group has recently purchased a shipment of the new AN-94 assault rifle prove true. Such armaments do not come cheap, especially if undertaken while decommissioning selected stockpiles of existing weapons. Moreover, the FARC-held region of Columbia offers the IRA an unsurpassed training area to perfect its own weapons and tactics. This is more vital than ever now that the political expediencies of the Northern Ireland peace process effectively put the IRA's historical training areas in the Irish Republic out of bounds. The risk of the Irish authorities discovering that the IRA are engaged in terrorist training while ostensibly observing a ceasefire outweigh the benefits of the organization's engaging in such activities. Using Columbia as a testing ground carries far less risk. It is also possible that the IRA may simply have become overconfident that the support they enjoyed in America was something they could depend on whatever the case may be. Sept. 11 may have changed that forever.

From the U.S. point of view the IRA’s alleged training of FARC is of immediate concern. Latin American narco-terrorists like FARC’s are believed to be responsible for some 90 percent of the cocaine and 70 percent of the heroin sold in America. U.S. Southern Command has said that it "recognized a viable terrorist threat in Latin America long before Sept. 11," adding, "If not further exposed and removed, that threat poses a serious potential risk to our own national security as well as to our hemispheric neighbors." If the IRA, one of the world’s most dangerous and successful terrorist groups, has indeed trained FARC, that risk has multiplied exponentially. Charges that such training has occurred must be investigated thoroughly and cannot be held to ransom because of a peace process that will be put at far greater risk by any failure to move against such cross-pollination among terrorists. As such incidents show, the globalization of terrorism is larger than al Qaeda.

Selected sources

Committee on International Realtions, U.S. House of Representatives, "Summary of Investigation of IRA Links to FARC Narco-Terrorists in Columbia," April 24 2002 http://www.house.gov/international_relations/findings.htm

Maj. Gen. Gary D. Speer, United States Army, Acting Commander in Chief, United States Southern Command, "Posture Statement Before the 107th Congress", 5 March 2002. http://www.defenselink.mil/dodgc/lrs/docs/test02-03-05Speer.rtf

Thomas Hunter, "Bomb School: International Terrorist Training Camps," Janes Intelligence Review, March 1997.

Various articles from: BBC Online; Daily Telegraph (UK); Washington Post; and, Washington Times.

By Mark Burgess
CDI Research Analyst
mburgess@cdi.org