Reply #5: Could be just standard operating procedure for installing another puppet in another US client state

[Peace Patriot]

--the U.S. State Department trying to protect the 'legacy' of their boy Uribe and his hand-picked successor, Santos, who was Defense Minister during the murders of many thousands of Colombians by the Colombian military and its closely tied rightwing paramilitary death squads. Clinton has much reason to want to suppress the bloody hell that Uribe and Santos have inflicted in Colombia. The narrative she wants is that, 'tut-tut, there may have been some bad things that happened under Uribe, but forget about those, it's a new day for 'free trade for the rich,' democracy, democracy, DEMOCRACY, election, election, ELECTION, Santos, Santos, SANTOS, whee-ee-ee-ee-ee!'

But I think there's more to it than just the dreadful cosmetics of U.S. clientelism. I think that the Obama administration, especially CIA Director Leon Panetta, are party to some deal protecting Bush Jr. and his handlers (Cheney, Rumsfeld and others) from investigation and prosecution for their many terrible crimes. Maybe this was part of the price Obama paid to enter the White House. In any case, these criminals' massive crimes extend around the world and the bloodshed and mayhem in Colombia was a particular pet project of theirs. Is banning this well-known, and highly regarded, journalist--a man who lives with the constant threat of death by the Uribe/Santos forces--a means of keeping Bush Junta crimes in Colombia swept under the carpet? (Another means has been extradition to the U.S. federal prison system of those who may have tales to tell--prosecution of them here for drug crimes, to get them away from the prosecutors in Colombia who have been investigating more serious crimes--death squads, terror, and official connections to the carnage).

It's bad enough that the murders of thousands of union leaders, human rights workers, community organizers, political leftists, peasant farmers and others, and the displacement of 4 to 5 MILLION peasant farmers--in fact, a reign of terror in Colombia--has been paid for by you and me, with $7 BILLION of our tax dollars (and counting), and that the U.S. military is now basically occupying Colombia with the intention of militarily dominated the region. What may be even worse is that some of these horrors in Colombia--such as the massacre in La Macarena, nearby to a U.S. military base, the bombing of the FARC guerrilla hostage negotiator's camp just inside Ecuador's border, the wiretapping of the President of Ecuador, and who knows what else, may have included U.S. military, U.S. military 'contractor' and embassy crimes.

That provision in the recent, secretly negotiated U.S./Colombia military agreement for total diplomatic immunity for all U.S. military personnel and all U.S. 'contractors' in Colombia really stands out to me as a red flag. It was negotiated by the Bushwhack ambassador to Colombia (still in place), Wm Brownfield, with Uribe, and caused enormous consternation among Latin American leaders on several issues, including the U.S. use of SEVEN military bases in Colombia and ALL civilian infrastructure. The matter is being reviewed by the Colombian Supreme Court. It contains egregious violations of Colombia's sovereignty. But the total diplomatic immunity for U.S. soldiers and 'contractors'--no matter what they do in Colombia, or have done--takes the cake. Why was this needed? Why was it secretly negotiated? What was/is this about? It strikes me as highly suspicious.

There may be two things that Clinton fears from this journalist--dirt on Uribe/Santos; and dirt on the Bush Junta.