[Peace-discuss] Even DN! nods...

[Morton K. Brussel]

Amy not infrequently misses the boat, in my opinion. Too often she  
simply wants a big news story and ignores relevant questions.

--mkb

On Oct 5, 2006, at 11:30 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:

> [News from Neptune's Incompleteness Theorem holds that "Nobody Can  
> Be Wrong All the Time," but it seems that the contrary (or is it  
> the contra-positive?) is also true, as demonstrated by Democracy  
> Now! recently.  It's still far and away the best news program on  
> the air, but it's had two sad gaffes recently -- one on Darfur and  
> another noted below.  The guy in question (a boyhood friend of  
> mine) represents a liberal imperialism at least as dangerous as the  
> neocon kind, with which he differs only tactically. --CGE]
>
>    Democracy Now Gave Plan Colombia Architect A Free Pass
>    By Sean Donahue,
>    Posted on Thu Oct 5th, 2006 at 12:11:17 PM EST
>    DEMOCRACY NOW! GAVE PLAN COLOMBIA ARCHITECT A FREE PASS
>
> An Open Letter To Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez
>
> How could two of the U.S.'s leading progressive journalists conduct  
> a lengthy interview with Rand Beers without asking him a single  
> question about his role in designing and implementing Plan Colombia?
>
> Dear Amy and Juan,
>
> You have a well deserved reputation for conducting tough interviews  
> and holding people in power accountable for their actions.
>
> So I was appalled yesterday when you conducted an extended  
> interview with former U.S. State Department official Rand Beers  
> without asking a single question about his role as one of the key  
> architects of the United States' brutal and failed policies in  
> Colombia.
>
> As head of the Assistant Secretary of State for International  
> Narcotics and Law Enforcement, Beers oversaw the disastrous aerial  
> crop fumigation program the U.S. introduced in southern Colombia.  
> The State Department hired DynCorp, a private military contractor,  
> to fly crop dusters at high altitudes over the rainforests of  
> southern Colombia, spraying a chemical cocktail that includes a  
> stronger version of Monsanto's popular and controversial herbicide,  
> Round-Up, over suspected coca fields. Beers was the public face of  
> the fumigation program, defending and advocating for it in  
> Congressional hearings and in the media.
>
> Touted as a way of stopping cocaine from entering the U.S., the  
> fumigation program targets the poorest people with the least  
> involvement in international drug trafficking--the coca growers-- 
> while leaving the cocaine processors and exporters, who make the  
> real profits in the drug trade, completely untouched. In a good  
> year, a farmer planting 5 acres of coca can bring in $4,000. Once  
> that coca is processed into cocaine and brought to the U.S. it has  
> a street value of close to $800,000. Fumigation also devastates the  
> fragile rainforest eco-system and kills food crops -- including  
> those planted through government-funded alternative development  
> programs designed to help campesinos stop growing coca.
>
> When confronted by ABC's John Stossel about the impact of Plan  
> Colombia on some of Colombia's poorest people, Beers said --
>
>     "An illegal activity is an illegal activity. And one doesn't  
> get a special pass for being poor. They have to recognize that  
> every effort to grow coca will be challenged by the government.  
> Every work effort, every dollar, every pound of sweat that goes in  
> to growing that coca may be lost."
>
> Beers was so eager to defend the fumigation program that he  
> actually lied in a sworn affadavit in an effort to quash a [suit  
> brought against Dyncorp by the International Labor Rights Fund] on  
> behalf of people just across the border in Ecuador who were hurt by  
> the fumigations. Beers claimed that there were international  
> terrorists operating in Ecuador, and that FARC (Revolutionary Armed  
> Forces of Colombia) had received training at Al Qaeda camps in  
> Afghanistan -- statements he later retracted to avoid possible  
> perjury charges.
>
> Al Giordano covered this story extensively for Narco News, and the  
> story got considerable exposure when John Kerry brought Rand Beers  
> on as one as a top policy advisor in his presidential campaign. A  
> UPI story on the incident quoted an incredulous intelligence  
> official commenting at length on Beers' bizarre claims.
>
>     "'There doesn't seem to be any evidence of FARC going to  
> Afghanistan to train,' a U.S. intelligence official said. 'We have  
> never briefed anyone on that and frankly, I doubt anyone has ever  
> alleged that in a briefing to the State Department or anyone  
> else.' [...] 'That statement is totally from left field,' said a  
> top federal law enforcement official, who reviewed the proffer. 'I  
> don't know where (Beers) is getting that. We have never had any  
> indication that FARC guys have ever gone to Afghanistan.' [...] 'My  
> first reaction was that Rand must have misspoke,' said a veteran  
> congressional staffer with extensive experience in the Colombian  
> drug war. 'But when I saw it was a proffer signed under oath, I  
> couldn't believe he would do that. I have no idea why he would say  
> that.'"
>
> I'm extremely disappointed that you didn't raise this issue which  
> goes to the core of the question of Beers' credibility.
>
> The enemy of our enemy is not necessarily our friend -- I've grown  
> increasingly uncomfortable with the tendency of many liberals and  
> peace activists in the U.S. to embrace military and intelligence  
> officials who oppose the war in Iraq out of fear that its  
> mismanagement is interfering with U.S. efforts to maintain control  
> in other parts of the world.  I find it especially distressing when  
> people on the left embrace these officials' argument that the war  
> in Iraq is interfering with the war on terror.  If Rand Beers had  
> been heeded the most likely result would have been an earlier and  
> stronger U.S. attack on Afghanistan -- something I reject just as  
> strongly as I reject the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
>
> For the most part Democracy Now! has done a good job of avoiding  
> this trap.  I urge you to bring Rand Beers back on for a tougher  
> interview -- and if he refuses, to bring on some of the journalists  
> and human rights workers who have followed his career.
>
> Sincerely,
> Sean Donahue
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