President Chavez has launched a severe attack on Interpol after the organisation concluded yesterday that the laptops supposedly belonging to Raul Reyes and picked up by the Colombian armed forces during attack on a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) camp in Ecuador have not been tampered with. Interpol director, Ronald Nobles, the Venezuelan President accuses, is an "international tramp" and "bandit." The President admits that Venezuela has had links with Interpol for a long time but he insists that he was always careful with Interpol and its contacts. Colombian President, Alvaro Uribe says the Interpol report on the laptops shows that his government has acted transparently and in good faith. Interpol has confirmed, Uribe continues, that Colombia did not alter the computers and that the Colombian police acted with transparency in accordance with international protocol. Uribe made the statement on arriving in Lima where he will attend the Latin America-European Union summit, which starts today. Uribe has already met European Commission president, Jose Manuel Durao Barroso and Andean Community of Nations (CAN) general secretary, Freddy Ehlers. Uribe insists on going through with an association agreement with the European Union, even though it has caused divisions inside CAN. Uribe insists that Peru and Colombia should go ahead with the free trade agreement, even if other CAN members aren't ready. Colombia is currently pursuing what it considers a winning and politically correct line from a EU point of view that drug-trafficking finances terrorism, while at the same time destroying the jungle and that Colombia could make a big contribution to secure the bio-fuels the world needs without destroying jungle areas and without affecting food security.
Venezuelan computer forensic specialist, Raymond Orta says Venezuelan specialists should have been invited to attend investigations of the laptops claimed by the Colombian government to have been recovered after an air raid attack on a rebel camp in which Raul Reyes and 24 other people were killed. Orta suggests that the Venezuelan committee could have verified the procedures which are currently the object of the Interpol results released yesterday. "It's important to undertake a review and to see if the corresponding protocols were followed." One of the big issues, the expert maintains, is how the physical evidence was guarded after the attack and to ascertain whether the computer that was supposedly in the camp is the same computer on which the analysis was made and how the hard disks were used. Orta points to difficulties in recovering information from hard disks that have been subject to catastrophes or mistreatment, depending on how they have been administered and processed. "What is necessary to establish the authenticity or origin of digital files is to analyze file by file ... to make any general of pronouncement about all the documents in the computer is delicate because what is needed is a specific report on each file." Forensic computer science, Orta concludes, is a criminal forensic specialty that deals with computer crime and its main objective is to capture digital evidence that can be used in courts.
A delegation from the American Society of Newspapers Editors (ASNE) based in the USA has met President Hugo Chavez during a visit to Venezuela. The organisation are in Venezuela to learn more about the country and find out how Venezuela views US media treatment of the country via its editorials. The visit has been welcomed by the Venezuelan government, which has always complained of the way the US press has reported on events in his country. The visit comes several months after Communication & Information Minister, Andres Izarra criticized Mr. Jackson Diehl, Deputy Editor, Editorial Page of the Washington Post for biased editorials against his country. In a letter Mr. Diehl, VHeadline Venezuelan News editor/publisher, Roy Carson urged him to get out of his office and visit Venezuela to see events for himself so that future editorials would be based on first hand experience and fact. Mr. Diehl did not join the delegation but the Post's executive editor, Milton Coleman and its ( anti-Chavist) correspondent for the Andean region, Juan Forero were present. The delegation also visited opposition news media sources.
Patrick J. O'Donoghue
patrick.vheadline@gmail.com
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