Update: Haaretz: Israel tells nationals: Leave Sinai immediatelyHere's some background on Israel and Columbia, on how up to two million Columbians have been displaced from their lands as a result of the armed conflict there, which is ultimately over resources for transnational corporations, and how Israel "helps." Oh and we "help" too.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1106759.html
The Counter-Terrorism Bureau in the Prime Minister's Office warned Israelis to exercise caution when traveling abroad during the Jewish holidays, due to the assessment that Hezbollah may try to attack Israeli citizens, and urged citizens in Sinai to leave immediately.
In issuing its report on Tuesday, which it does regularly before Rosh Hashanah and Passover every year, the bureau stated the bulletin "did not involve new warnings, but rather a current assessment." It cautioned Israelis to be vigilant regarding anything unusual, and to refrain from traveling to Muslim countries subject to specific travel warnings. These countries include Jordan, Morocco and Egypt (including Sinai). Particularly high-level warnings have been issued regarding Sinai. An estimated 40,000 Israelis are currently there, most of them Israeli Arabs on vacation before Ramadan begins on August 20.
Other countries subject to travel warnings include Colombia, especially in light of specific information about the potential for attacks on Israelis providing security assistance to the Colombian government. High-level threats also have been issued for the Kashmir region, Mindanao in the Philippines, and parts of southern Thailand.
Religious pretexts are obvious, such as the supposed “promised land” put forth by the Zionists in order to influence the international Christian community and justify (under “divine right”) the usurpation of Palestinian lands. In this case, for their [Colombian] brothers, the pretexts include the displacement and usurpation of lands belonging to Colombian farmers for the benefit of the Colombian oligarchy and the North American transnationals – something that cannot be of religious character, not to mention the absurdity in the paraphrase: “A land without people, for an oligarchy and transnationals without land.” No, this time, the justifications are different but the methods remain the same. For instance…Click through to judicial-inc for the details.
But to get more specific to the reference in Haaretz, the Columbian government hired some Israeli military officers to help fight the FARC guerillas (ie: "terrorist" types who resist the rape of Columbia by the Columbian oligarchy and North American transnationals?). And these Israeli military officers are nothing but thugs and criminals surprise surprise.
This article is from September 2007 (excerpts):
Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos has acknowledged that Bogota had quietly hired a group of former Israeli military officers to advise local defense officials on their counter-insurgency tactics against leftist Fuerza Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, the Colombian daily Semana newspaper reported on 10 August....The Israeli advisors - reportedly consisting of three senior generals, a lower ranking officer, an unnamed Argentinean officer and three translators - were hired under a reported US$10 million contract by the Colombian Defense Ministry to advise on how to improve the army's intelligence gathering capabilities. Santos reportedly approached former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami last year about the deal.Mmm hmm. I'm sure they perfected all their "special interrogation techniques" and how to "debrief guerillas" on Palestinians before bringing this "invaluable assistance" to the Columbian government. So whatever the "specific information about the potential for attacks on Israelis providing security assistance to the Columbian government" reported in Haaretz this week, as if it's all completely innocent, it may have to do with the fact that Israelis have helped make Columbia a hell-hole for a couple million Columbians. And maybe some people in Columbia don't like Israelis very much, and maybe they have damn good reasons for feeling this way.
The Israeli group operates from Tolemaida in Cundinamarca Department, 240 kilometers from the capital Bogota, where the Colombian army runs its "Lancero" counterinsurgency-training course, with Colombian army instructors being assisted by US military personnel. The Israeli forces specialize in debriefing former guerrillas; previously, civil servants without specialized knowledge handled the interrogations, while the Israelis provide specialized interrogation techniques to improve the flow of intelligence from the de-briefings. But Deputy Defense Minister Sergio Jaramillo said the Israelis' assistance was invaluable: "They are like psychoanalysts; they ask us the material questions and help us see all the problems we weren't aware of before," according a 10 August report from the Israeli news service Ynet.
Hey expertise is expertise. With enough money you can buy all the expertise you need. But you know something, most experts are just mercenaries.Israel is now Colombia's top weapons supplier, with the bulk of the armaments being used against FARC and another leftist group, the Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (National Liberation Army or ELN). Israeli weaponry includes drones, light arms and ammunition, surveillance and communication systems and specialized bombs capable of destroying coca fields. The irony is that Colombia's armed forces occasionally clash with right-wing paramilitaries and drug cartel gunmen trained in the late 1980s by rogue Israeli mercenaries, one of whom was detained in Russia earlier this week on an Interpol warrant. The news throws a most unwelcome spotlight on the Colombian government's efforts to avail itself of Israeli expertise. In 1987, right-wing paramilitaries hired Israeli former Lieutenant Colonel reservist Yair Klein and members of his private "security" company Hod He'hanitin (Spearhead Ltd.) as advisors on the country's leftist insurgency with tacit approval from the government of President Virgilio Barco Vargas.
Klein is wanted by Colombia's law enforcement agencies after being convicted for training a terrorist group in 1990 - a group supported by Colombian drug dealers. The former Israeli army lieutenant colonel was convicted of terrorist activities and the training of gunmen from among local residents on territory not under the control of the official authorities." Klein was a former paratrooper and commando in the Israeli Army who left military service in 1985. His involvement in Colombia's interminable guerrilla war began in 1987 when Colombia's former justice minister Jose Manuel Arias Carrizosa approached Israeli contacts. Carrizosa had been named president of the Asociacion de Bananeros de Colombia (AUGURA), and its members in Uniban, Colombia's main banana and plantain export company, were looking for a way to cope with extortion by FARC guerrillas
....Over the next two years, Klein and his personnel trained right-wing vigilante paramilitaries belonging to affluent landowners, who would eventually become the nucleus of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC.) AUC quickly moved beyond its original intent of providing protection to wealthy landowners to becoming deeply involved in drug trafficking, and had support from elements in the army and the police, and Klein apparently shifted to providing expertise to the drug traffickers as well.
The only reason I point all this out today (because I'm no expert on this particular pail of worms) is due to the reference in Haaretz. Because if something happens to some Israelis in Columbia, for example, given that the Israeli Counter-Terrorism Bureau in the Prime Minister's Office had some unspecified (wink wink) but nonetheless specific information, I just thought it would be useful to know what kind of Israelis have helped the Columbian government in the past before we have a hue and cry about the poor innocent victims, targets of anti-semitism. Oh yeah, and if something happens let's not be too quick to blame it all on Hezbollah either, traveling all the way to Columbia to whack a couple of innocent Israelis. Give me a break. They could do that in their own back yard for pete's sake, why go to the trouble to do it in Columbia? To *prove* what a dangerous world-wide terrorist organization they are and thus justify a war that oh by the way Israel wants? Hmm? A war that will get a bunch of innocent Lebanese civilians killed? Hmm? Cui bono? With a small investment of my personal time I now *know* that if I hear a narrative about Hezbollah striking Israelis in Columbia, it's a big stinking pile of crap. It's exactly such a narrative that only makes sense to people who have preconceived ideas like all Muslims are terrorists and Israel has every right to defend itself and Jews are always victims -- in other words it only makes sense if you've been brainwashed into believing every talking point sponsored by the Jewish State.
The narrative sets up quickly. It's not going to be too difficult to get millions of Americans who rely on corporate media believing that the Israelis have been victimized yet again, even if it makes no sense. But as soon as you peel back the lid a tiny bit you'll find stuff like this. It's so easy to poke holes in the official stories. So easy. If only people make a very small effort they will see that the corporate media lies. That doesn't mean it's easy to find the *truth* about what happened in any particular event, but a big part of the truth is simply understanding how much the media lies. Like with 9/11, it doesn't matter so much which theory of 9/11 you subscribe to as long as you understand that the official story is a giant crock of shit. If you know that bin Laden has been dead for instance, you can immediately dismiss any so-called expert, military or otherwise, who still talks about capturing him as a liar. It's a very simple process of elimination. If they lie about one thing, and something so important, they cannot be trusted. Period. Why bother? I mean, what does it mean to be an "expert" today? It means you have been compensated very well to have certain opinions, and they're probably lies, at least some of them. The more ethical will insist on having *some* truth to tell, but the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Ha. Compromise is the name of the game.
People have to make a little personal effort. That's what it takes to break free of the illusion, a little effort, a little desire for the truth. Nobody has been exempted from caring. We have to care, and by caring we find our way over the threshold, outside into the disinfecting sunlight. You might stagger and be blinded for a while but it passes. And we're probably going to have another opportunity to go through this miserable terrorism narrative exercise very soon, and the sickening truth is that truly innocent people die every single day waiting for Americans to find their way to the door.
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People have to make a little personal effort. That's what it takes to break free of the illusion, a little effort, a little desire for the truth. Nobody has been exempted from caring. We have to care, and by caring we find our way over the threshold, outside into the disinfecting sunlight.
and such a great truth.