Oscar Heck: I don't trust the Colombian government for one second ... and neither should anyone else!

VHeadline commentarist Oscar Heck writes: Yesterday, May 26, 2008, dailypress.com published an article written by Andres Oppenheimer, an Argentinean-born and US-trained "journalist" who is now Latin American editor and syndicated foreign affairs columnist with The Miami Herald.

I love catching liars and manipulators by the collar

The article in question is entitled, "World needs to react to Chavez's and Correa's support of terrorist group."

Apart from making a misleading comment, the article begins with flat-out speculation, stating, "Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his Ecuadorean counterpart, Rafael Correa can scream and yell as loud as they want, but the fact is they've been caught red-handed supporting a terrorist group [FARC] trying to topple the democratically elected government of Colombia."

(Note that it is only the USA, Canada, Colombia and the EU that classify the FARC a "terrorist" group. That leaves most of the world that does not classify the FARC as terrorists. Search "FARC wiki" and references. The total population of the countries which classify the FARC as terrorists represents about 875 million, or about 13% of the world's population. Thus, overall, it can be said that only a minority considers the FARC terrorists.)

The speculation is "caught red-handed supporting" [the FARC]. I have printed out the entire Interpol report regarding the computers supposedly found at a FARC camp in Ecuador a few weeks ago by the Colombian military after they bombed the camp, killing several FARC members and several innocent people in another nearby camp (that was on March 1, 2008).

The report with all its appendices is 102 pages long.

Now, from the Interpol report, it is quite clear to myself or any intelligent and/or honest being that Interpol in no way suggests that the information contained within the computers (and external hard drives, etc.) is authentic. It simply states (confirms) that the information contained within the computers, hard drives, etc., were not modified after they were supposedly found at the FARC camp. I quote, from the Interpol report (page 9):

"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 files."

In fact, the Interpol report states (page 6): "Specifically, Colombian authorities sought Interpol's independent computer forensic technical assistance to examine the user files on the eight seized FARC computer exhibits and to determine whether any of the user files had been newly created, modified or deleted on or after March 1 2008."

In other words, Interpol was hired not to read the files (they didn't, according to the report), nor to determine if the information contained was real, but they were hired only to confirm whether or not the files contained within the computers were in some way modified [by the Colombian government] after the computers were found.

In other words, Interpol was not hired to determine if the computers were plants or not. In other words, those computers could have been planted at the scene by the Colombian government and/or CIA agents or whoever.

There is nothing I can find within the Interpol report that confirms that the computers were owned by FARC members. On page 10, section 1.1:2, the report states (pre-forensic investigation), "The eight seized FARC computer exhibits belonged to Raul Reyes …" but that statement simply says, as is mentioned several times in the report, that Interpol assumes that the computers (etc.) belonged to Raul Reyes.

That is, they believe the Colombian government's story that these computers were the property of Raul Reyes and the FARC.

The request from the Colombian government to Interpol never asked for Interpol to confirm that the computers were in fact property of Raul Reyes and FARC members ... simply, I believe, because it would be almost impossible to confirm that and, if it were possible to confirm, it would take years of investigation and millions of dollars ... or ... because Interpol is in on the scam and further and deeper investigation may just reveal that the computers and the information contained within were CIA/Colombian government/Blackwater plants.

You can read the report yourself.

I continue with Oppenheimer's distortions of reality. "Last week, after Interpol, the top international police body, issued a much-awaited report certifying the authenticity of 37,872 computer files from Colombia's FARC guerrillas -- containing hundreds of references to Venezuela's and Ecuador's active support for the armed rebel group.

"I don't know where Oppenheimer gets his information from ... maybe a gnome whispered it to him while he was sitting on the throne?

The actual number of files reviewed by Interpol were (if I added correctly): 282, 339 (excluding email addresses). See page 27 of the report.

How can I trust Oppenheimer if he is lying to me?

Now, I don't know where he gets "containing hundreds of references to Venezuela's and Ecuador's active support."

Certainly not from the Interpol investigation since Interpol did not read the files.

• So where did he get that information from?

Maybe from a purple bullfrog … or the CIA set-up team?

Who knows, but I wouldn't trust a word that Oppenheimer regurgitates.

Then he says: "Pretty much like he did a few months ago ... when a Venezuelan delegation was caught trying to smuggle $800,000 in cash into Argentina for his political allies in that country..."

Oppenheimer wants you and I to think that the "Venezuelan delegation" was a Venezuelan government delegation ... which is not at all the case. Manipulator! The person who smuggled the money was a wealthy Venezuelan US citizen who was on the same plane with several members of PDVSA, Venezuela's state-owned oil company. The case is still up in the air and nothing has been proved.

The Venezuelan opposition, and much of the anti-Chavez US mainstream media, have implied that the money was being shipped on behalf of Chavez to support Cristina Fernandez' presidential campaign at the time -- which is totally irrational.

As Venezuela's VP said, if Chavez had wanted to send money to Fernandez, he would have brought it with him on the government plane the next day, since he was traveling then … avoiding customs.

(Note: There are other ways to ship "stuff" … and this is done through diplomatic cargo, which is in general, completely exempt of review, taxation, inspection, etc. It is customarily done to ship "secret stuff," supplies, food, and booze – in no-booze countries like Saudi Arabia - from one country/embassy/consulate to another. Even though alcohol is strictly illegal in Saudi Arabia, the American, Italian and other embassies in Saudi Arabia were fully stocked with imported whiskey and other "stuff." I know, I was there.)

Then he provides more details, "The probe carried out by Interpol's headquarters in Lyon, France, involved 64 police officials from 15 countries..."

I don't know (again) where he gets this information from. I searched the internet for other references to these figures, but I can't find any. He could not have found this information in the Interpol report, because there is no such reference. Let me see ... maybe he has "confidential sources" ... like tooth fairies or hobbits?

"The FARC laptops amount to one of the biggest ... The documents have led to the seizure of $480,000 in FARC funds in Costa Rica and a cache of 66 pounds of non-enriched FARC uranium outside Bogota."

I know of the story about the $480,000 (which is really uneventful and has nothing to do with present FARC operations) ... but the thing about the uranium?

I tried finding references to this "story" and only found stuff at Foreign Policy (a super-conservative think tank), on Bloomberg (a news agency) and on a few blogs ,,, but nothing in the media in general.

I quote from Bloomberg: "March 27 (Bloomberg) -- Colombian authorities are investigating what the country's biggest guerrilla group planned to do with 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of depleted uranium seized in a raid on the outskirts of Bogota. The depleted uranium, found yesterday in a rural area outside the city, poses no health risk and can't be used to build a dirty bomb, said Charles Ferguson, a nuclear affairs analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington."

(FYI: So far, as far as I have researched, no direct link between the FARC and the supposed uranium has been confirmed. The link is being assumed based on the authenticity of the so-called FARC computers, also an assumption. All this could very realistically be a set up. Think Iraq and the so-called weapons of mass destruction.)

What really gets to me is that we are expected to believe this stuff, we are expected to believe the Colombian government when the Colombian government has lied in public on so many occasions about so many things.

For example, in the fall of 2007, they said they would not try to follow (or spy on) Chavez and his people, nor try to follow (or spy on) FARC members while negotiations between the FARC and Chavez took place to release hostages held by the FARC.

The FARC held their part of the bargain and released some hostages, but the Colombian government, a few weeks later killed several FARC members including at least on of its leaders who was involved in the negotiations, Raul Reyes.

This killing happened while Chavez was in the process of opening new negotiations with the FARC for additional releases of hostages.

I don't trust the Colombian government for one second ... and neither should anyone else.

Then Oppenheimer states things that I am quite sure are lies. When this information first came out from the Colombian government (and its pro-government private media), there was no mention of the dollar sign … which now, people like Oppenheimer spread liberally within their articles.

I would challenge Oppenheimer and his gang to provide on single piece of verifiable evidence for stuff like this:

"Among hundreds of other revelations, the files contain eight references to $300 million in assistance that Chavez promised FARC, as part of a long relationship that might have started when FARC gave $105,000 to Chavez when he was in prison after his 1992 coup attempt. Other documents refer to a $100,000 FARC contribution to Correa's 2006 presidential campaign."

Then he really goes off into la-la land and says, "The certification of the documents' authenticity raises many thorny questions," and proceeds to say things like:

"Will the OAS convene a general assembly under the group's 2002 Inter-American Convention Against Terrorism, which forbids member countries from giving safe haven or money to terrorist groups? And will the U.N. Security Council invoke its Resolutions 1373 and 1566 — which say the same — to condemn Chavez and Correa?"

The documents' authenticity was not confirmed by Interpol, Oppenheimer. Why does he lie to people? In fact, as I pointed out above, Interpol explicitly states that it cannot confirm the authenticity of the documents (and its sources). Why does he lie?

Anyone can now follow the Interpol link which I provide above and confirm that Oppenheimer is in fact a liar. His statements cannot be error, otherwise that would put him in a class of idiots, which I'm sure he is not.

Oppenheimer is just a dishonest and manipulative opportunist, and like so many of his ilk, ruthless, for he does not care in the least how many innocent people he negatively affects due to the potential repercussions produced by his filthy words.

Think of all the set-up lies said against Iraq, those "weapons of mass destruction" that Saddam Hussein and his "evil terrorist" lot supposedly had.

Oscar Heck
oscarheck111@yahoo.com