Rep Kaptur: Why Colombia? Why Now? One Word OIL!

[slipslidingaway]

Run time: 06:36 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmnJPMm6AyA   Posted on YouTube: April 15, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: April 17, 2008 By DU Member: slipslidingaway Views on DU: 887

 

[sasquatch]

1. Why does the Bush Crime Family do anything? OIL!!

[Tumbulu]

2. Thanks for posting this

I really appreciate the work of Rep Kaptur and even got to meet her once!

[midnight]

3. Oil is yesterdays ecomomy job. Let's move on with

today's ecomomy job-solar technology. I suppose they "the oil company's" will disband their war for oil, and make the sun thier property.

[ProfessorPlum]

4. WOW! I think I'm in love

I've never heard a politician actually tell so much truth in 7 minutes. Amazing - good for you, Kaptur!

[justinaforjustice]

9. Excellent Post of Excellent Speech

Thank you so much for posting this speech. Representative Kaptur (D.Ohio) addressed the House with force and facts about the U.S.'s "purchase of Colombia" through paying billions for its army and police in order to protect the American companies that are exploiting its resources, especially its oil and gas. Over 400 trade unionists have been assassinated since Colombia's present president, Uribe, was elected.

More trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia than all the rest of the world's countries combined. Thousands of U.S. troops have been sent to Colombia, ostensibly to fight narco-trafficking, when Uribe himself has been closely associated with top narco-traffickers.

U.S. Bases in Colombia are being used to harass the countries of Venezuela and Ecuador, both countries which seek to preserve their natural resources from exploitation by American corporations. This has made them targets for not only military incursion but massive media campaigns falsely characterizing them as communist dictatorships and narco-traffickers and supporters of terrorism. Their only crime is that they have refused to be bought off by U.S. interests to sell out their resources to U.S. corporations. How dare they refuse to become puppet states like Colombia!

Representative Kaptur is angry that while Ohio has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs as a result of free trade agreements like NAFTA, the Bush-Cheney administration is trying to push through another, similar free trade agreement with Colombia.
Representative Kaptur did mention that the chief advisers on candidate Hillary Clinton's staff are trying to help the Bush administration push it through, including her adviser in chief, Bill Clinton. Perhaps she should have.

Thank you Representative Marcy Kaptur for telling the truth about the U.S. government's interests in Colombia, one only hopes that there were at least a few Representatives in the House's chamber that were listening to your great speech.

[slipslidingaway]

5. Thanks for the replies and R's :)) n/t

[sansatman]

6. Oil Rules!

"It's strange that the business and geopolitics of energy takes up so little space on American front pages -- or that we could conduct an oil war in Iraq with hardly a mention of the words "oil" and "war" in the same paragraph in those same papers over the years. Strange indeed. And yet, oil rules our world and energy lies behind so many of the headlines that might seem to be about other matters entirely."

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174919

[slipslidingaway]

7. Yes strange indeed and welcome to DU...

"From resource wars to oil wars (the subjects of his last two books), Michael Klare, Tomdispatch's energy expert, has long been ahead of the curve when it came to ways in which our planet was being reshaped at the most basic level. Today, he offers Tomdispatch readers a peek into some of the key themes in his staggering new book, Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy. If you want to grasp the true shape of our shaky world, of where exactly we've been and where we might be going, this is a book not to be missed. It offers the profile-in-formation of a shape-shifting planet, a planet in transition and on a road to nowhere pretty. Check out as well the latest Tomdispatch brief video (produced by TD's Brett Story) -- in which Klare discusses key issues in his new book -- by clicking here. Tom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM3txwlbNHw

[Bunkie0913]

8. Well Said!

I've never even heard of this smart, articulate Rep before. Energy independence is key to our survival as a nation. It figures that she represents Ohio, my hero Dennis Kucinich is perhaps a mentor!

[slipslidingaway]

13. And see how the corporate press has explored this issue...

:(

I do not know much about her either, but glad she had the courage to speak out.

[digidigido]

10. Is there something in the water in Ohio that promotes intelligence.

Is there something in the water in Ohio that promotes intelligence. Her and Kucinich... WOW

[slipslidingaway]

14. Intelligence, compassion and a spine! n/t

[Kjaereste]

11. Ohioans sure know how to elect bright representatives.

Kudos!

[slipslidingaway]

15. Yes and welcome to DU :) n/t

[slipslidingaway]

12. Plan Colombia movie links...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=54576087422651274

or

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Plan_Colombia_Cashing_in_on_the_Drug_War_Failure/70021025?trkid=222336&lnkctr=srchrd-sr&strkid=363074980_0_0

2002

"Ed Asner narrates this documentary about U.S. involvement in Colombia's drug trafficking and civil unrest. The film examines the impact of chemical spraying and military funding and reveals alternate U.S. interests. Features interviews with Noam Chomsky, the late Senator Paul Wellstone, Colombian Presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, Congressmen John Conyers and Jim McGovern, U.S. State Department officials, guerilla leaders and others."


Washington Votes for War in Colombia

2004

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20041101/weinberg


"The United States has plowed $3.3 billion in mostly military aid into Colombia since "Plan Colombia" was passed in 2000--making it the third-greatest recipient of Washington's largesse after Israel and Egypt. Since 9/11 the focus of Plan Colombia has quietly shifted from a counternarcotics campaign to a crusade against "terrorism." And now the number of US forces on the ground is set to double..."