For the year 2009 the State Department of the United States will invest approximately $520 million in Plan Colombia. More than half of this money went to private North American contractors charged with developing, promoting and furthering irregular warfare in Colombian territory and in Latin America; this was revealed to the Bolivarian News Agency by the lawyer and researcher Eva Golinger.
"This constitutes the total privatization of the war in Colombia through the utilization and financing of transnational mercenaries that have no legal obligation to respond to any judicial system in the world. In other words, they enjoy complete immunity," explained Golinger.
Golinger explained that in certain declassified government documents she found a list of 31 American contractors that maintain relations with the State Department. This list contains the amounts of financing awarded by the administration in Washington to advance the war in Colombia.
"What jumps out here is their areas of responsibility and the amount of money which they receive for a period of 12 months," says Golinger.
Even though these are American companies contracted by the State Department, they are not subject to any American legal code, according to Golinger.
"As part of a bi-national accord, in Colombia they have total immunity, that is to say, they respond to nobody for their crimes, actions and operations," she emphasized.
Of the 31 companies on this list, Golinger has limited herself in this opportunity to mention the most important and those with a long history of belligerence in various parts of the world.
The Transnationals of War
The first on the list is Lockheed-Martin, one of the largest companies of the military-industrial complex in the United States. It is dedicated to producing weapons and technology, including war planes.
"Its contract includes $53 million in financing for the period of one year to provide logistical support and technical assistance to the national police of Colombia, in addition to training personnel for special operations," said Golinger.
Another company is Dyn Corp International, which also forms part of the American military-industrial apparatus. The State Department provides it with $164 million in financing to provide pilots, technicians and logistical support to the Colombian army.
"Similarly, the Arinc company, a private contractor of the military-industrial apparatus, received $8 million dollars to maintain, manage and train the Colombian national police in the task of intercepting signals and obtaining equipment associated with espionage," she says.
Also, Oackley Network received $5 million for the provision of software for monitoring the internet and to assist in espionage programs conducted by the crime division of the Colombian national police.
Similarly, one also encounters on the list ITT, a transnational telecommunication company that participated in the coup d'état against [Chilean president] Salvador Allende.
"In 2007 it received some $7 million to operate a hemispheric radar system, offer logistical support and provide radar equipment in Colombian territory that operate via satellite," said Golinger.
Echelon Espionage
Another company with global reach is the Rendón Group, which acquired a contract for $3.4 million to give communicational support to Plan Colombia and to counter narcotics operations.
"The Rendón Group, being a company of the Pentagon, is one of the most well known groups of experts in psychological operations dedicated to designing this type of campaign... it is this company that manages a great part of the media campaign against Venezuela and Ecuador," Golinger commented.
Moreover, she sustained that the contract stipulates the use of the Echelon system, the largest known espionage system, invented in the 1970s by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).
"It is a satellite system that has the capacity to monitor all worldwide communications. They enter a specific word in the system, and this is linked to the rest of the communications systems. If they find that someone used that word on the telephone, cell phone, or computer, attention is directed toward that place. It gives the exact location and permits the conversation to be monitored," she commented.
In conclusion, Golinger expressed that the financing implies a continuation of the escalated offensive and imperialist aggression against the region.
"We saw the coup d'état in Honduras, the resurgence of the Colombian-Venezuelan conflict and the concern on the part of the countries of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) over the [new U.S.] military bases [in Colombia]... This is not the end of it," she affirmed.
Translated by Zachary Lown for Venezuelanalysis.com
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