Colombia, Israel and rogue mercenaries
Image: Jason Howe
Outside assistance with Colombian 'counterinsurgency' efforts in the form of Israeli 'expertise' has created dangerous rogue mercenaries and prolonged a bloody conflict.
By John C K Daly for ISN Security Watch (03/09/07)
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.
FARC - founded in 1964 and the Western hemisphere's longest-running guerrilla movement - countered that Israeli mercenary commandos were actually involved in combat against their insurgents in Colombia's jungles.
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.
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, the interrogations were handled by civil servants without specialized knowledge, while the Israelis provide specialized interrogation techniques to improve the flow of intelligence from the de-briefings.
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http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=18064~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Russia police nab Israeli wanted by Interpol for training militants
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"Russian police detained an Israeli man wanted by Interpol for training militants when he arrived at Moscow's Domodedovo airport, Russia's agency for fighting organized crime and terrorism reported Tuesday.
Yair Gal Klein, 61, had been sentenced in absentia to 10 years in jail by a Colombian court in 1991 for training militants for drug cartels in the late 1980s, the agency's spokesman said, citing intelligence reports.
Interpol had tipped off Russia's Interior Ministry that Klein could attempt to travel to Moscow in August. He was detained when he arrived at the airport on Monday.
"To get through passport controls in many countries without any difficulties, he changed the date of birth, his surname and the passport number," the spokesman said."
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http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/898286.html Posted by Scurrilous
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