U.S. Denies Role in Peru Arms Case

[Judi Lynn]

U.S. Denies Role in Peru Arms Case
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: January 23, 2004


Filed at 7:09 p.m. ET

CALLAO, Peru (AP) -- Investigators on Friday reiterated a call for a U.S. diplomat and an alleged CIA agent to testify in the trial of former spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos, who is charged with organizing the sale of 10,000 assault rifles to Colombian guerrillas.

Special investigator Ronald Gamarra told reporters that the two men met with Montesinos in 2000 -- a year after the weapons were delivered -- to confront him with copies of the arms sale contract.

``They had information about the arms sale and had a conversation with the head of Peruvian intelligence,'' Gamarra told reporters outside of the courtroom on the trial's second day. ``That is why we solicited their testimony.''

Rumors abound over whether the CIA played a role in sending weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the theory being that it would escalate violence and justify U.S. intervention in the neighboring nation.
(snip/...)

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Peru-Montesinos-Trial.html
(Free registration required)

[salin]

1. That last snip from the article is a bit chilling

folks should read this.

[Judi Lynn]

2. It IS chilling, isn't it?

It would take a long time to actually get all the puzzle pieces arranged correctly, but I've heard Montesinos was involved with the CIA for years.

Looked quickly in google, found the following odd factors immediately:

(snip) Background
In the summer of 2000, Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori was fighting an uphill battle for an unprecedented third term against Alejandro Toledo, a former World Bank official who was the first indigenous Peruvian to challenge seriously the presidency. Toledo led the opinion polls and seemed poised for a solid victory. When the votes were counted and Fujimori declared the victor, Peruvians and foreign observers alike suspected fraud. After all, Fujimori was only able to run after his appointees in the Supreme Court issued an “authentic interpretation” voiding a constitutional term limit. (:crazy:) Many Peruvians attributed Fujimori's come-from-behind victory to fraud orchestrated by the notorious intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos. Observers from the United States and Europe reported to their capitals that democracy in Peru was dead.

Within weeks of the election, arms and bribery scandals rocked the Fujimori regime. In 1998, arms dealer Sarkis Soghanalian had brokered the sale of 60,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles from Jordan to the Peruvian army. The first 10,000 weapons were mysteriously diverted to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the leftist rebels who control much of Colombia. The FARC is the main target of the “Plan Colombia,” a $1.3 billion package of American military and economic aid to Colombia.

At an August 21, 2000 press conference, Fujimori and Montesinos announced that a rogue group of former Peruvian army officers had diverted the guns to the Colombian rebels. They unveiled an elaborate diagram of the arms deal they dubbed “Plan Siberia,” the supposed FARC countermeasure to Plan Colombia. The press conference was designed to showcase the regime's anti-corruption efforts and bolster public approval. Instead, it sparked an investigation that would reveal Fujimori and Montesinos as the center of government corruption and ultimately force Fujimori to resign in disgrace.
(snip)

http://www.publicedcenter.org/stories/peru-arms/

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(snip)
Peru's Montesinos in Court for FARC Gun-Running

Updated 8:42 PM ET January 20, 2004


By Jude Webber

CALLAO NAVAL BASE, Peru (Reuters) - A court trying Peru's former spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos on charges of smuggling guns to rebels in Colombia approved requests on Tuesday by lawyers for testimony by top CIA officials.

Montesinos, an ally of Washington in the fight against drugs in Peru, is accused of arming leftist guerrillas fighting the government in neighboring Colombia in 1999, just before the launch of a U.S. anti-narcotics crackdown there.

A defense lawyer for Montesinos, 58, who effectively ran Peru from the shadows for a decade as right-hand man to disgraced ex-President Alberto Fujimori and was arrested in June 2001, asked that CIA Director George Tenet testify.

State attorney Ronald Gamarra, requested testimony from the head of the CIA in Lima at the time as well as a senior U.S. diplomat and an FBI agent. (snip)

Investigators say the issue of how much the CIA knew about the arms deal will be crucial; they say Montesinos had links with the agency dating back to the 1970s but that the CIA has so far given no testimony to judges in the case. (snip)

~~~~ link ~~~~

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(snip) Ronald Gamarra, the country's anti-corruption prosecutor, said he believes Montesinos had support from the US Central Intelligence Agency in the arms deals.

Prosecutors did not have "solid proof" of the connection, Gamarra said in a weekend interview with the daily El Comercio. However there were "many indications that could prove this relationship."

Montesinos' goal was to "ingratiate himself once again with the CIA," which at the time was attempting to "radicalize the fight against the FARC," Gamarra told the newspaper.

Gamarra however bemoaned the CIA's failure to help out in this investigation, "despite the requirements of Peruvian law."

Anti-corruption prosecutor Luis Vargas told Colombian radio network RCN that there is information showing that CIA agents collaborated with Montesinos in gun smuggling operation.
(snip)

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/040121/1/3heu9.html







Not to be overlooked, Montesinos created death squads in Peru. Not something which usually has been acknowledged in our own media, in what little we have read about him.

[dArKerArrow]

3. Swallow some truth.