>Sender: >To: >X-Original-Message-ID: <039601bf2dd9$c0de98f0$9acf69cf@pacbell.net> >From: "Peter McWilliams" >Subject: The Drug War's first hot war heats up >Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1999 05:19:45 -0800 >X-Mozilla-Status: 9001 >X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 > > >The Cold War had two major hot spots: Korea and Vietnam. The Drug War seems >to be ramping up its first hot war at an amazing pace. > >Let's all turn to hymn 27 in the Drug War Book of Common Preyer and sing >along. > >AMAZING PACE >(Tune; "Amazing Grace") > >Amazing pace >How sweet the sound >To Gen'ral MA-caff-REE! > >He once was lost >But now he's found >A hot war-- >That's his speed. > >Through many failures >Fluffs and frauds >He has already come >With no less money >To jail your honey >Than when he first begun. > >Amazing pace >How sweet the speed >The Gen'ral's drug of choice. > >Addiction reigns >He takes the reins >And mainlines >Guns and gore > >Feel free to add extra stanzas. Maybe we can get Judy Collins to record it! >It's about time we started writing and singing peace songs again. For those >who werent around for the Vietnam War peace marches, they were lots of fun. >Now it's Peace On Drugs. > >Enjoy, > >Peter > > > > > >Colombia: Bogota Bomb Kills Seven Drug-cartel Link Feared >URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n1224.a11.html >Newshawk: John Smith >Pubdate: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 >Source: Seattle Times (WA) >Copyright: 1999 The Seattle Times Company >Contact: opinion@seatimes.com >Website: http://www.seattletimes.com/ >Author: Seattle Times news services > >BOGOTA BOMB KILLS SEVEN; DRUG-CARTEL LINK FEARED > >BOGOTA, Colombia - A car bomb exploded on a busy Bogota avenue today, >killing at least seven people and injuring 41 in an attack police suspected >was either the work of Marxist rebels or powerful drug gangs enraged by the >Supreme Court's decision this week to approve the extradition to the United >States of two reputed drug kingpins. > >The bomb destroyed a two-story house and a restaurant in an upscale >neighborhood and blew out the windows of banks, hotels and three seven-story >apartment buildings across the avenue about 150 feet away. It appeared most >of the victims were passers-by. > >Mayor Enrique Penalosa said the blast, which appeared to have no specific >target other than civilians, seemed to be related to the government's >decision to resume extraditions. > >It was the worst terrorist attack in Bogota since an anti-extradition >campaign of bombings led by the Medellin cocaine cartel, in which hundreds >of civilians died and government officials were assassinated until the >cartel was broken up in 1993. The late Medellin cartel drug lord Pablo >Escobar declared at the time: "We prefer a tomb in Colombia to a cell in the >United States." > >Colombia's Supreme Court, in back-to-back rulings handed down in less than >24 hours this week, approved sending two of about 50 reputed drug >traffickers named in extradition warrants to stand trial in the United >States. > >The high court approved the U.S. request for 38-year-old Fernando Jose >Flores, whose arrest last August could make it possible for the United >States to put the jailed leaders of the Cali cocaine cartel on trial. > >The decision to extradite Flores, a 308-pound-man nicknamed "Fatso," >followed the approval Tuesday of the extradition of another Colombian to the >United States: Jaime Orlando Lara, a suspected heroin kingpin. > >The extradition requests must now be approved by President Andres Pastrana, >who is widely expected to grant them. A former kidnap victim of the rival >Medellin cartel, Pastrana has tried to woo Washington's support by vowing to >fight drug traffickers. > >Lara and Flores would be the first Colombians extradited to the United >States since the South American country's 1991 constitution outlawed the >practice in a concession during the Medellin terror campaign, then >reinstated it in December 1997. > >A former director of the state security agency, Fernando Brito, said he >believed drug traffickers were responsible "because of the method used, in >an open space where anyone passing by could be killed." > >"These methods were used in the past to pressure the government" not to >extradite alleged drug traffickers to the United States, where they face far >stiffer jail terms than in Colombia, Brito said. > >Investigators had speculated that another bomb that exploded in central >Bogota yesterday was the work of leftist guerrillas, who have stepped up >kidnapping and extortion schemes in the last year to raise fresh funds for >their long-running war against the government. At least 35,000 people have >died in the last 10 years of fighting. > >Colombia, which is estimated to supply 80 percent of the world's cocaine and >has become a major supplier of heroin to the United States, was twice >decertified or "blacklisted" by Washington earlier this decade for failing >to crack down hard enough on the drug trade. > >Meanwhile, the Clinton administration promised a major effort yesterday to >overcome budget obstacles in Congress to providing Colombia more aid for >combating its skyrocketing cocaine production. > >President Clinton, seeking to reassure Colombian authorities who want $1.5 >billion in U.S. funding as part of a $7.5 billion anti-drug plan, issued a >statement saying that fighting the drug war is "very much in America's own >national interest." > > >================================================================ > >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: