|
As Congress finishes work on the Farm Bill, ask
Senate
Majority Leader Tom Daschle to include $21.3 billion
in new
funding for USDA conservation programs.
You can take action on this
alert either via email
(please see directions below) or via the web at:
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/dfb/wk8bxn4978x3dk
Visit the web address below and tell your friends to
take action on this important campaign!
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/dfb/forward/wk8bxn4978x3dk
We encourage you to take action
by April 14, 2002
Help Farmers
Help the Environment
----------------------
***************************
Action Network from Environmental Defense
finding the ways that work
***************************
While Congress concludes negotiations on the new Farm
Bill, Senate leaders are calling for far less money
than is needed to adequately support the voluntary
conservation programs. These programs help farmers
protect land, water and wildlife. Environmental Defense
and other conservation organizations believe that effective
federal conservation programs require $21.3 billion
over 5 years - or $4.4 billion annually -to meet the
needs of the backlog of farmers who request this assistance.
Instead, Senator Daschle is supporting only $3.7 billion
annually.
Take action! Urge Senator Daschle to support fully
fundeding critical farm conservation programs as Congress
negotiates differences between the Senate and House
Farm bills.
MORE:
Since last fall, over 100,000
Environmental Defense
Action Network members have sent
messages to Congress
in support of reforming federal
farm programs. Such
reforms would make more money
available to farmers
for voluntary conservation
programs.
Seventy
percent of the American landscape is farmland,
ranchland
or private forest, and the Farm Bill presents
the only
opportunity for Congress to reward farmers
who act to
help the environment. Farm Bill conservation
programs
provide farmers with tools to address many
of the
nation's most pressing environmental challenges
-- poor
water quality, habitat loss, and sprawl.
The Farm Bill also creates a chance to reform farm
programs to meet the economic needs of all farmers
and all regions. Today, only 40 percent of America's
farmers are eligible to receive USDA subsidies that
mainly support production of feed grains, rice and
cotton in a handful of states. Most of these subsidies
are concentrated in the hands of the nation's largest
farmers so that many large farm states receive only
a tiny fraction of annual USDA spending.
In contrast, conservation payments
flow to all ALL
farmers and all ALL regions.
Unfortunately, most farmers
who seek USDA financial
assistance for restoration
and conservation efforts are
turned down rejected due
to inadequate funding. Congress
must include $21.3
billion in new funds to make
conservation the centerpiece
of the new farm bill, as
Senate Agriculture Committee
Chairman Tom Harkin has
pledged.
Urge
Senator Daschle to strengthen funding for conservation
programs in the new Farm Bill. By making conservation
the centerpiece of the next Farm Bill, Congress can
reward farmers when they help the environment, while
addressing the income needs of all farmers and all
regions.
To learn more about Environmental Defense's efforts
to reform federal farm conservation programs, visit
http://www.environmentaldefense.org/system/templates/page/issue.cfm?subnav=4
For more information,
contact Scott Faber at sfaber@environmentaldefense.org.
----------------------
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA THE WEB:
If you have access to a web browser, you can take action
on this alert by going to the following URL:
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/dfb/wk8bxn4978x3dk
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA
EMAIL:
Just choose the "reply to sender" option on your
email
program, and edit the letter below as you wish. Do
not delete "-YOU MAY EDIT THE LETTER BELOW-" and "-END
OF LETTER-". Please do not add your name and address
to your letter. Our system automatically does this
for you.
We STRONGLY encourage you to make edits directly to
our sample letter below, and put the alert talking
points into your own words. An individualized letter
is worth ten computer generated letters. Of course,
hundreds of unedited letters will still create a large
impact, so please reply even if you don't have time
to personalize the letter.
Your letter will be addressed and sent to:
Senator Tom Daschle
-------YOU MAY EDIT THE LETTER
BELOW---------
I strongly oppose
efforts to reduce new USDA conservation
funding below
$21.3 billion, and I urge you to focus
new conservation
funding on proven initiatives like
the Wildlife Habitat
Incentives Program, Wetland Reserve
Program and the
Farmland Protection Program.
The
Farm Bill will be the only chance Congress has
to reward
farmers when they take steps to help the
environment.
Where 70 percent of the American landscape
is farmland,
ranchland or private forest, the environmental
significance of Farm Bill conservation programs is
clear. Unless we provide farmers with adequate tools,
many of the nation's most pressing environmental challenges
-- poor water quality, habitat loss, and sprawl --
will be unmet.
The Farm Bill also creates a chance to reform farm
programs to meet the economic needs of all farmers
and all regions. Today, only 40 percent of America's
farmers are eligible to receive the vast majority of
USDA farm subsidy payments, and most of these subsidies
are concentrated in the hands of the nation's largest
farmers. Consequently, many large farm states receive
a tiny fraction of annual USDA spending.
In contrast, conservation payments
flow to all farmers
and all regions. Unfortunately, most
farmers who seek
USDA financial assistance for
restoration and conservation
efforts are turned down
away rejected due to inadequate
funding. Congress must
include $21.3 billion in new
funds to make conservation
the centerpiece of the new
farm bill, as Senator
Agriculture Committee Chairman
Tom Harkin has
pledged.
Farmers who
are willing to do their part to help the
environment
cannot be expected to shoulder the burden
alone. By
making conservation the centerpiece of the
next Farm
Bill, Congress can reward farmers when they
help the
environment and help the income needs of all
farmers and
all regions.
-------END OF LETTER-------------------------
March 11-17, 2002
As long as the sun keeps shining the
"Positive Energy" keeps flowing. Time for
Greenpeace's
CLEAN ENERGY NOW! Campaign weekly update.
+++ CLEAN ENERGY NOW! WEBSITE
UPDATE: CHECK OUT NEW 2002
CAMPAIGNS!!! +++
The website for Clean Energy Now! has recently been
updated to better inform you about our current
goals.
Find out about some of our campaigns
currently underway -
including: a San Diego
bond initiative for solar power;
clean energy goals for
buildings in the University of
California system;
impeding Sempra's exploitation of
Mexico; and opposing
investments by Edison International
in coal-fired power
plants in Thailand. Stop by our
website at http://www.cleanenergynow.org
+++ GREENPEACE ACTIVISTS SEND CLEAR
MESSAGE TO CANADA'S
FEDERAL MINISTERS +++
On March 13, Greenpeace activists scaled the Vancouver
Convention and Exhibition Center to address a massive
contradiction in government
policy. "[Environment]
Minister Anderson says
Canada wants to ratify Kyoto, while
at the same time
[natural resources minister] Dhaliwal says
offshore oil
drilling could be an option in BC" explained
Gavin
Edwards, a Greenpeace campaigner. A banner reading
"Keep Kyoto. No offshore drilling" flew on top of
the
Convention Center as an international group of
ministers,
industry and renewable energy experts
attended Globe 2002,
an environment and energy
conference.
To read more click,
go to: http://www.greenpeace.ca/e/index.html.
+++ WIND POWER RISES OUT OF A SLUMP
+++
The U.S. wind power industry received some good news
this Monday, receiving a two-year extension of a key
federal tax credit after months of delay. The extension
of the wind energy Production Tax Credit, a crucial factor
in financing new wind power projects, should re-kindle
the
momentum in the wind power
industry. Unfortunately, the
lack of a
consistent US policy for wind energy has already
hurt
its growth with delays in project development. A
repeat of last year's record growth is not
likely. In
2001, 1,700 megawatts of new wind
generation equipment
worth $1.7 billion was installed in
the US, more than
double the previous record year of
1999. American Wind
Energy Association
projects that wind will provide 6% of
the nation's
electricity by 2020; the percentage might
sound low,
unless you consider that currently less than
0.5% of the
nation's electricity is provided by wind power.
Check out Reuters for the full story:
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=search&StoryID=687014.
---------------------------------
The "Positive Energy" newsletter and our website,
http://www.cleanenergynow.org, will give you good news
about ways to achieve clean air, climate justice, and renewable energy solutions
to our ongoing energy crisis
To: All Activists
From: Steve Holmer
Date: March 18, 2002
Subject: Calendar of Upcoming Events
For a complete list of upcoming
events please see
http://www.americanlands.org/forestweb/calendar.htm
Congressional Recess March 25 - April 5
Congress will be out of session from
March 25 - April 5. This is an
excellent time
to meet with your Representative and Senators to discuss
your forest protection priorities. With the
roadless area conservation
rule under attack and
roadless legislation likely to be introduced in
Congress
this year, now is a particularly good time to ask your elected
officials to support legislation protecting National Forest
roadless
areas.
Please contact me with any feedback from these meetings so
we can keep
track of where your elected officials stand
on our issues. For
additional information
about meeting with lawmakers over the
congressional
recess, please contact me at 202/547- 9105 or
mailto:wafcdc@americanlands.org Thanks.
Buffalo
Stampede on Washington DC April 4
Activists from the Buffalo Field Campaign, Fund for Animals,
the
Endangered Species Coalition and the Humane Society
are converging on
Washington April 4 to protest the
ongoing slaughter of Yellowstone bison
and to demand
that the agencies stop ignoring the public's will and
implement a plan to protect the bison. There will
be a rally at the
Department of Agriculture beginning at
noon. Please contact The Fund
for Animals for
more information at 301/585-2591,
mailto:bfc@wildrockies.org or see http://www.wildbison.org
Labor and Environment Alliance Meeting April 6-7 - Portland,
Oregon
The third annual
membership meeting of the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs
and the Environment (ASJE) will be held on Saturday and
Sunday, April
6-7, at Portland State University in
Portland, Oregon. The weekend's
activities
will be focused on building cooperation between labor and
environmental activists through presentations and
discussions on
economic globalization, toxics, energy
policies, economic recovery,
corporate accountability,
and more. Hands-on workshops will also cover
the culture of the labor and environmental movements, skills
development, and building "blue-green" relationships at
the community
level. Please see http://www.asje.org for more
information on ASJE and
the annual meeting.
Staples
National Day of Action April 11
In recent years Staples has became one of the largest and
fastest
growing forest destroyers in the
world. No other industry consumes as
much
wood as the paper industry, and few companies have been built
around destructive paper products like
Staples. It's time to end the
destruction,
and turn Staples and their paper industry buddies into
sustainable companies.
We've recently seen the power of grassroots
action. Last month, Staples
announced it
would begin selling a tree free paper (90% post consumer
recycled, 10% hemp/flax) in over 1000 stores this
Spring. Activists
across the country deserve
huge credit for creating the pressure for
change at
Staples.
However, Staples needs
to make a long-term commitment to our forests --
real
change that goes to the core of their business, not efforts that
could be canceled any day. Most importantly,
Staples needs to agree to
the Paper Campaign's Demands:
stop selling paper from ancient forests
and U.S. public
lands, increase the average post-consumer recycled
content of their paper to 50% and to stop selling products
that are 100%
virgin fiber. There lies true
environmental stewardship and
sustainability.
On April 11th grab your friends,
head to your local Staples store and
let them know that
getting over 90% of their paper from trees is not
acceptable. We need your help! With over 12,000
square miles of forests
heading into pulp mills each
year, Staples needs to stop selling our
forests.
Last November, grassroots activists
organized over 200 actions across
the country, making it
one of the largest protests ever against
corporate
forest destruction. If you organized an action in November,
it's time to crank it up a notch. If you didn't, come and
join the fun!
Who wants to be on the
sidelines as we win one of the biggest victories
for the
forests yet?
For more
information, materials, and to let us know you re getting
involved contact:
ForestEthics: mailto:paper@forestethics.org, toll-free
1-866-FEthics
Dogwood Alliance:
mailto:kelly@dogwoodalliance.org, 828-251-2053
Free the
Planet!: mailto:michelle@freetheplanet.org, 202-547-3656
Eastern Forests Direct Action Camp,
May 28 - June 3, Southern Indiana
The National Forest Protection Alliance, Katuah Earth
First!, the
Dogwood Alliance, Heartwood, Buckeye Forest
Council, and Southern
Appalachian Biodiversity Project
are inviting all activists, forest
dwellers, concerned
citizens, and others ready and willing to act on
behalf
of our forests are invited to attend. We want to focus on
evolving non-violent direct action tactics.
We are looking for folks from the
Northwoods (Great Lakes and New
England), Central
Appalachia, Southern Appalachia (Katuah!), the Great
Coastal Swamps, the Piedmont, the Pine Barrens, the
Allegheny Plateau,
the Ozarks and the Midwest to join us
in southern Indiana as we share
skills, techniques and
ideas for defending our forests. We will be
offering workshops in: Nonviolence, Climbing,
Blockades, Organizing,
Medic Training, Security Culture,
Market Campaigns, Forest Watch, Media,
Legal, Street
Theatre, Banner Making, and more.
Please Note: YOU MUST APPLY TO
ATTEND! For more information contact:
Susan Curry, Eastern Field Coordinator, National Forest
Protection
Alliance, 434-971-5990, 434-970-1806 fax
mailto:scurry@firstva.com, http://www.forestadvocate.org
Steve Holmer
Campaign Coordinator
American Lands
726 7th Street SE
Washington,
D.C. 20003
202/547-9105
202/547-9213 fax
mailto:wafcdc@americanlands.org
http://www.americanlands.org
For Immediate Release: March 19, 2002
Contacts: Brian Vincent,
American Lands, 202/547-9098
Michael Finkelstein, Alaska Rainforest Campaign,
202/550-5613
Gary Macfarlane, Friends of the Clearwater,
208-882-9755
BUSH ADMINISTRATION
TAKES WRECKING BALL TO ROADLESS AREA PROTECTIONS
Washington, D.C. - The American Lands Alliance sharply
criticized the
Bush Administration today for
systematically undermining a plan intended
to protect
roadless areas on National Forests. The roadless area
conservation rule, signed by President Clinton in January
2001, had
banned logging, roadbuilding, and other
development activities in nearly
60 million acres of the
nation's most wild forests. Unfortunately, the
Bush White House has worked aggressively to erode that
policy, first by
delaying implementation of the rule
then issuing directives that have
essentially dismantled
the plan. As a result, timber sales and other
destructive projects are now moving forward, including
projects in
Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, and
other states around the nation.
American Lands called on
the Administration to keep its promise to
uphold the
roadless rule and to immediately cancel all roadless area
timber sales and projects.
"The Bush Administration has taken a wrecking ball to the
roadless area
policy," said Brian Vincent of the
American Lands Alliance. "And the
Forest
Service has wasted no time in readying its demolition crew to
level the last of our nation's most wild, untouched
forests."
The Forest Service
spent three years writing a policy to spare roadless
areas in National Forests from logging, mining, and
roadbuilding. The
agency held 600 public
meetings and received 1.6 million comments, which
supported the policy by more than 95
percent. Despite such an open and
extensive
planning process, unprecedented public participation and
support, the Administration claims there wasn't adequate
public process.
"Last May Secretary of Agriculture Anne Veneman promised to
support the
roadless rule and earlier last spring
Attorney General John Ashcroft
pledged that he would
enforce the policy," said Randi Spivak, Executive
Director of American Lands. "Since then the
Administration has broken
both of these promises by
undermining the rule and failing to defend the
policy in
court when it was challenged by the timber industry."
Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth
has issued a series of directives
that have eviscerated
the roadless conservation rule. For example, the
Chief has eliminated the requirement that there must be a
"compelling
need" to build roads in roadless areas;
given the Forest Service added
discretion to determine
if an environmental impact statement and thereby
weakening protections for roadless areas.
Meanwhile, the Forest Service is
preparing destructive projects
throughout the
country. For example, the agency is planning to log 33
roadless areas in Alaska's Tongass National
Forest. The Service is in
the final process
on two of the most controversial sales on the Tongass,
the Gravina Island and Threemile sales. Over the
next five years, the
agency plans to cut as much as 1.3
billion board feet of timber from
sensitive areas of the
Tongass. In addition, the Forest Service has
proposed salvage logging in the Duncan Canyon roadless area
in
California's Tahoe National Forest. In
Idaho, the Forest Service is
planning to log roadless
areas on the Nez Perce and Clearwater National
Forests. (See attached list for summaries of some
of the roadless area
sales and projects from around the
country.)
"Its ridiculous - the
Bush Administration continues to spend millions of
taxpayer dollars to cut pristine roadless areas of the
Tongass," stated
Michael Finkelstein, Campaign Manager
for the Alaska Rainforest
Campaign. "The Bush
Administration should listen to the American people
and
embrace the Roadless Rule."
ROADLESS AREAS AT RISK
Below are examples of timber sales
in roadless areas. This list
represents only
a small sample of the many projects the U.S. Forest
Service is planning. The conservation community
is compiling a
comprehensive list of projects that will
be available in the next
several weeks. We
thought this short list would assist you with any
stories you are writing about the roadless area policy.
ALASKA - See http://www.americanlands.org/bush_attacks_on_roadless.htm
for a facthseet on 33 roadless sales on the Tongass
National Forest
(scroll down to Alaska).
CALIFORNIA
Duncan Canyon Roadless Area, Tahoe National Forest
Last summer a wildfire swept through part of Duncan Canyon,
leaving
large areas completely burned, and other areas
with little damage. As a
result the Forest
Service has begun to create a "restoration" plan.
Among other actions, the Forest Service is proposing to use
commercial
helicopter logging to remove large
fire-killed trees from over 1,000
acres of the Duncan
Canyon Roadless Area. The rationale for this action
is purely to obtain revenue to use to restore the
forest. This project
is in clear violation of
the roadless rule. The Tahoe National Forest,
east of Sacramento and west of Lake Tahoe, has the second
lowest percent
of designated wilderness of all 17
California National Forests. Most of
the
wildness remnants left in the Tahoe are found within remaining
roadless areas. Duncan Canyon roadless area is
one of the area's
jewels. Blessed with
ancient forests and numerous rare old growth
dependent
species, including California spotted owl and northern
goshawk. The area also is suitable habitat for
Pacific fisher and
American pine marten.
Contact: Ed Pandolfino,
Sierra Foothills Audubon Society, (916)
652-7315
COLORADO
Salt Creek and Priest Mountain Roadless Areas, Grand
Mesa-Uncompahgre-Gunnison National Forest
Salt Creek and Priest Mountain Roadless Areas are located in
the Sheep
Flats area on the northwest portion of the
Grand Mesa, which has no
designated wilderness and very
few remaining roadless areas left. The
Sheep Flats area
is dominated by old-growth Englemann spruce/subalpine
fir and aspen forests as well as meadows, wetlands, and
riparian areas,
which provide historic habitat for many
rare and declining species,
including lynx, boreal toad,
northern leopard frog, and Colorado river
cutthroat
trout. The large and robust old-growth systems in the Sheep
Flats area are poorly represented within the larger
landscape area, and
should be left intact to maintain
adequate old growth habitat for
species like lynx,
marten, wolverine and goshawk across the landscape.
The Forest Service has proposed logging within these
roadless areas.
The Sheep Flats Timber Sale
originally included four smaller timber
sales. The GMUG
approved Phase I of Sheep Flats in October 2001, which
consists of one timber sale outside roadless area
boundaries. The
remaining three Sheep Flats
timber sales (the Grove Creek, Valley View
and Leon
timber sales) would log nearly 11 million board feet and almost
three square miles of forest within the Salt Creek and
Priest Mountain
Roadless Areas, bulldozing 15 miles of
new roads. Some of the most
pristine parts of
these roadless areas would be destroyed in the timber
sale, as would over 1,600 acres of old-growth forest.
Contact: Harlin Savage,
American Lands Alliance, 303/473-9525,
hscolorado@indra.com
IDAHO
Mallard/Larkins, Siwash, and
Pot Mountain Roadless Areas, Clearwater
River Basin.
The Middle Black project areas includes parts of three
roadless areas,
Mallard/Larkins, Siwash, and Pot
Mountain all in the Clearwater River
Basin. The Clearwater Basin includes 6 million
acres with four roadless
areas over 200,000 acres each
in size. This is one of the most
important
wildland areas left in the lower 48 states. This pilot
stewardship proposal would cut 7,500 acres total, with 6,500
acres
within three roadless areas. The
biological diversity and the richness
of the area makes
this priceless in terms of natural resource values.
Wolves, elk, moose, goshawks, lynx, bull trout and
wolverines are just
some of the wildlife in the
area. This area includes low level inland
rainforests that are rapidly declining in the U.S.
Contact: Gary Macfarlane,
Friends of the Clearwater, 208-882-9755,
gary@wildrockies.org
Steve Holmer
Campaign Coordinator
American Lands
726 7th Street SE
Washington, D.C. 20003
202/547-9105
202/547-9213 fax
mailto:wafcdc@americanlands.org
http://www.americanlands.org
It has become apparent that given the current make-up of Congress, any energy plan that can pass will be destructive to our nation’s energy security, air quality and natural areas. At this point, it would be better for Congress to go home than pass an energy plan. The Senate should suspend debate on the issue, and wait until after the elections to try again.
Dick Cheney’s secret meetings with Enron officials and other key industry insiders resulted in an energy plan heavy on drilling and subsidies. A few senators, led by Senator Daschle (D-SD), made a valiant attempt to pass a plan incorporating real solutions for energy security, but industry insiders undermined those efforts. An attempt to raise fuel efficiency standards for cars and SUVs just lost badly. The bill we’re left with is an energy executive’s wish list.
And pro-drilling lawmakers haven’t called it quits yet. More amendments are expected, none of them good. Proposals to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and to further reduce investment in renewable sources of energy are expected as debate continues. This bill has little left to support, and plenty to oppose.
Urge your senators to oppose the energy legislation currently under consideration. We’re better off with no plan at all than this flawed bill.
IN THIS POST :
1. EMERGENCY COLOMBIA NATIONAL CALL-IN DAYS: March 19-21st :
Don’t Let
Bush Lift Human Rights Restrictions on U.S.
Aid to Colombia!
2. Come to the Colombia Mobilization in
DC April 19-22!
3. LA Times: A Colombian Town Caught in
a Cross-Fire – OXY’s Role in the
Imfamous Santo domingo
Massace
* * * * *
The slippery slope of US involvement
in Colombia is about to get slicker
and deadlier as the
Bush administration asks Congress sometime THIS WEEK
to
remove restrictions on US military aid to Colombia. This disturbing
news isn’t mission creep--it’s mission
gallop. Remember when US
military involvement
in Colombia was supposed to be about the ‘war on
drugs’? Good thing the Bush administration has
switched rationales
because recent studies have revealed
that Colombia’s coca production has
actually INCREASED
25% since Plan Colombia was implemented.
If it wasn’t already clear that the
main addiction US policy makers are
concerned about in
Colombia is America’s fossil fuel addiction then
Bush’s
$98 million package to further militarize OXY’s Cano Limon
pipeline should have clarified the real
agenda. Now with this latest
Bush initiative
to remove the last remaining restrictions against deeper
US military involvement in counter-insurgency, (against what
Washington
now labels “narco-terrorists”) US policy is
at the point of no return.
The latest proposal would mean: no more constraints that
military aid
must only be used for counter-narcotics, no
more human rights conditions
for the Colombian military,
and no more limits on the number of US
military
personnel allowed in the country. This proposal would allow US
money and intelligence to be used for counter-insurgency and
would
worsen Colombia already escalating Civil
War. See the Washington Post
article
for more background:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29575-2002Mar14.html
Check out the action alert below to see how you can help
stop further US
military involvement in
Colombia.
Colombia’s
state oil company, Ecopetrol has taken advantage of the US
green light for war-mongering to push a new wave
of oil exploration.
Ecopetrol announced last
week that work on NEW EXPLORATORY WELLS IN THE
SIRIRI
AND CAPACHOS BLOCKS WILL BEGIN IN 90 DAYS! The entire Siriri
block falls on U’wa homeland, where last July OXY spent $60
million
looking for oil at the Gibralter 1 test well to
no avail. The Spanish
company Repsol-YPF has
already announced results from a test well on the
southern corner of U’wa land which may proceed towards full
scale
production soon.
What does it all mean for the U’wa? Tragically, what the
U’wa have
always warned—that new oil exploitation in the
areas around their
ancestral homeland will bring the
violence of Colombia’s civil war to
their doorstep—is
rapidly becoming a reality. The Bush policy shift
towards counter-insurgency combined with the new oil push on
U’wa land
are setting the stage for a very dangerous
confrontation. As the U’wa
continue their
absolute and non-violent opposition to any oil drilling
on their land, they need the support of activists in the
U.S. and around
the world more than ever!
Don’t let the U’wa lands and culture
be the next collatoral damage in
Bush’s “War on
Terror”. Stop Bush’s oil war now!
To support the U’wa struggle for survival and the efforts to
end U.S.
military aid to Colombia contact Kevin Koenig
at Amazon Watch at
510-419-0617 or
kevin@amazonwatch.org.
* * * * *
1. MAJOR SHIFT IN US POLICY TOWARD
COLOMBIA PROPOSED!!!
COLOMBIA MOBILIZATION EMERGENCY
NATIONAL CALL-IN DAYS: March 19-21st
What we have feared is now becoming reality. We
must all participate in
a major, national response
against the Bush administration’s new
proposal to lift
restrictions on US aid to Colombia and allow for
US-sponsored counter-insurgency in Colombia (details and
talking points
below).
ACTION
Tuesday, March 19th- Thursday, March 21st have been
designated EMERGENCY
NATIONAL CALL-IN DAYS by Witness
for Peace and the Colombia
Mobilization. Every single Senator and
Representative must be flooded
with calls and faxes:
saying NO to Bush’s proposal to lift restrictions
and
YES to the McGovern Dear Colleague letter (talking points below).
1. Send this alert to
everyone you know.
2. Call your Senators and
Representative on Tuesday (or as
soon as you receive this). Even if your
Senators/Reps are strong on
this issue, they need your
support right now!
3. Have all your friends
and family call on Wednesday.
4. Make sure all their
friends and family call on Thursday.
5. Anything else you can
think of! E.g. take some cell phones to
the
local grocery store or mall, set up a table, and ask people walking
by to make calls or sign letters that you then fax in.
Congressional switchboard: 202-224-3121. Find out
your Rep:
www.house.gov/writerep and Senators
www.senate.gov.
BACKGROUND
The Bush administration plans to ask Congress sometime the
week of March
18 to remove restrictions on US military
aid to Colombia. This would
mean: no more
constraints that military aid must only be used for
counter-narcotics, no more human rights conditions for the
Colombian
military, and no more limits on the number of
US military personnel
allowed in the
country. This proposal would allow US money and
intelligence to be used for
counter-insurgency. See today’s Washington
Post article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29575-2002Mar14.html
This language will be
included in a larger bill that the administration
expects to submit to Congress next week asking for
additional funds for
global and domestic anti-terrorism
efforts. This bill will go first to
the
appropriations committees in the House and Senate and then to the
full House and Senate.
TALKING POINTS
Many members of
Congress have good intentions, and want to support an
end to violence in Colombia. But adding more
military aid is not the
way to do it. Tell
your Senators and Representative that you and
members of
your community are against US military involvement in
Colombia and are particularly against this expansion.
1. Representative Jim McGovern will
be circulating a Dear Colleague
against the new Bush
proposal to lift restrictions. Ask your
Representative to sign on to that Dear Colleague ASAP.
2. Sending more military aid to
Colombia is not going to help protect
civilians. The Colombian military still maintains
close ties with
paramilitary groups, who are on the US
terrorist list and who commit
upwards of 70% of civilian
killings in Colombia. Human Rights Watch,
Amnesty International, and the Washington Office on Latin
America
released a report in February proving the human
rights situation in
Colombia is EVEN WORSE than a year
ago.
3. Sending
military aid to Colombia brings the US into another Vietnam
quagmire. Colombia is the size of 53 El
Salvadors, and the amount of
money necessary to defeat
the FARC militarily will be tremendous, and
perhaps
incalculable. This civil war has been going on for over
40-years and a political solution is the only way
out.
4. Real
solutions. US support for a negotiated peace process with the
FARC and the ELN, and real pressure on the Colombian
government to break
ties with the paramilitaries, will
go much further at protecting
civilians than increased
military aid will. Violent actions on the part
of the FARC have a tremendous human cost, but supporting a
military that
collaborates with the paramilitaries has a
huge human cost as well.
*** GET
READY!!! The Colombia Mobilization starts in one month and is
obviously more important than ever! This is our
best chance to really
show Washington that we oppose
continued and increased military aid to
Colombia. Start getting ready by checking out
www.colombiamobilization.org.
* * * * *
2.
JOIN the National Mobilization on Colombia - April 19-22, 2002
Washington, DC (www.colombiamobilization.org)
4/19: School of the Americas Watch
(SOAW)Vigil & Lobby Action at the
Capitol
4/20: Colombia Teach-In: Workshops, Strategy Caucuses,
Skills &
Nonviolence Training
4/21: Rally, Action Planning, Nonviolence Training
4/22: Colombia Solidarity March & Nonviolent Direct
Action
US military aid to
Colombia over the last couple of years has violently
inflamed a 40-year-old civil war and poisoned the people and
biodiversity of the Amazon River basin, without reducing
the supply or
abuse of illegal drugs in the US one bit.
NOW, hawks in Washington want
to increase and expand US
involvement in Colombia to direct
counter-insurgency and
corporate protection. We can- and must- act to
change
these policies! This April we will meet and share, protest and
lobby, reflect and march.
The National Mobilization on
Colombia is a coalition of over 60
organizations and
thousands of individuals working to transform US
policy
toward Colombia and the Andean region.
Workshops, Teach-ins, and Panel discussions on:
Labor, Peace process, Women's issues, Afro-colombian,
Indigenous/oil,
Refugees and displaced, Plan Colombia
connections to FTAA/Plan Puebla
Panama, World Bank/IMF
and debt, Nonviolence training, Drug War, War on
Terrorism and Counterinsurgency, Fumigation, Grassroots
Media, Human
Rights violations, International Corporate
interests
WHAT TO DO IN MARCH!
Start organizing NOW to come to
the Mobilization and BRING OTHERS with
you! The first step is to get an organizing
packet at
www.colombiamobilization.org or by calling
Witness for Peace at
202-588-1471. Then…
Promote the Event SPREAD
the WORD! Post the flyer! E-mail your
networks!
Transportation It’s never too early to start
thinking about how you
will be getting to Washington DC.
Many bus and van rental companies are
booked up months
in advance. Call now for reservations.
Sponsor a local Nonviolence Training and Legislative
Advocacy Training
Schedule a training
between February and April to prepare your group for
Direct Action and to Lobby effectively. To be connected with
a local
trainer or invite a national trainer to your
area, contact
elecompte@soaw.org or (202)234-3440.
Where will I stay? Make
arrangements for housing while your group will
be in
Washington DC. Check http://www.colombiamobilization.org for some
housing suggestions.
The Colombia Mobilization has the following missions:
1. We call for an end to
U.S. military aid to Colombia and the
Andean region
2. We call for an end to
U.S. funding of counter-narcotic aerial
eradication in
Colombia and the Andean region.
3. We call for dramatic
expansion of drug treatment and prevention
in the United
States.
4. We call for the United
States to support comprehensive
sustainable economic
development alternatives throughout the Andean
region,
as well as efforts for peace that include the full participation
of civil society.
5. We call for the United
States to help alleviate the conditions
of refugees and
those people internally displaced because of the
conflict.
6. We are committed to
nonviolence in our own actions as well as
supporting
exclusively nonviolent, negotiated political solutions to the
conflict in Colombia. We do not support or
endorse any armed actor in
the Colombian conflict.
More updates and actions on Colombia
can be found at:
www.witnessforpeace.org
* * * * *
3. LA
Time: A Colombian Town Caught in a Cross-Fire
See http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-031702swamp.story
for videos, documents, etc.
A Colombian Town Caught in a Cross-Fire
The bombing of Santo Domingo shows how messy U.S.
involvement in the
Latin American drug war can be.
By T. CHRISTIAN MILLER
Times Staff
Writer
March 17 2002
SANTO DOMINGO, Colombia -- Death
came to Santo Domingo as its people
celebrated life.
Villagers were gathering for a
street fair that bright December morning,
but a battle
had broken out between the Colombian army and leftist
rebels in the nearby jungle.
The villagers heard a military helicopter roar overhead.
Seconds later,
an
explosion
ripped through this collection of wood huts on the edge of
Colombia's northeastern plain.
Two children were cut down as their grandmother made them
breakfast. A
father was eviscerated as his sons watched.
A nursing mother was nearly
decapitated, her 3-month-old
baby still in her arms.
In all,
11 adults and seven children died in Santo Domingo on Dec. 13,
1998.
On the
surface, the attack seems to be another bit of homemade carnage
in Colombia's long, bloody guerrilla war, notable, perhaps,
only for the
number of children who died.
But according to Colombian military
court records, the U.S. government
helped initiate
military operations around Santo Domingo that day, and
two private American companies helped plan and support them.
There is no evidence that the
U.S. government or American companies knew
that their
aid might lead to the destruction of a village. But more than
three years later, no one has been held accountable for the
deaths.
Civilian prosecutors accuse a Colombian air
force helicopter crew of
dropping a U.S.-made cluster
bomb while supporting the troops engaged in
battle. The
military claims that guerrillas accidentally detonated a car
bomb in the town.
The investigation is bogged down in jurisdictional disputes.
U.S.
pledges to help have languished.
An examination of the incident by
the Los Angeles Times reveals an
alarming picture of the
Colombian conflict just as the U.S. prepares to
become
more deeply involved.
According
to a videotape admitted as evidence in a closed military
tribunal, Colombian court documents and interviews with more
than three
dozen military officers, witnesses and
experts:
• The events leading to
the battle outside Santo Domingo and the
explosion began
when a U.S. government surveillance plane detected an
aircraft allegedly carrying weapons for the guerrillas. In
doing so, the
plane may have violated rules that
restrict American activities in
Colombia to
counter-narcotic operations.
•
Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum, which runs an oil complex 30
miles north of Santo Domingo, provided crucial assistance to
the
operation. It supplied, directly or through
contractors, troop
transportation, planning facilities
and fuel to Colombian military
aircraft, including the
helicopter crew accused of dropping the bomb.
• AirScan Inc., a private U.S. company owned by former Air
Force
commandos, helped plan and provided surveillance
for the attack around
Santo Domingo using a high-tech
monitoring plane. The U.S. Coast Guard
is investigating
whether the plane was flown by a U.S. military pilot on
active duty. Company employees even suggested targets to the
Colombian
helicopter crew that dropped the bomb.
• In a violation of U.S. guidelines,
the U.S. military later provided
training to the pilot
accused of dropping the bomb, even after a
Colombian
prosecutor had charged him with aggravated homicide and
causing personal injury in the Santo Domingo operation.
AirScan officials deny involvement
in the incident, saying their plane
was used only to
survey Occidental's oil pipeline, and the company is
not
accused of any illegal activity. Occidental officials say they
routinely supply nonlethal equipment for military operations
in
northeastern Colombia but they could neither confirm
nor deny their role
on the day of the explosion.
Regardless, the incident touches on
many of the issues that make
Colombia's war so
problematic for the United States.
Until now, U.S. involvement was supposed to be black and
white: The U.S.
government provided military training
and aid to wipe out the vast
fields of coca plants and
poppy flowers that produce the majority of
illegal drugs
on America's streets.
But
leftist rebels have increasingly financed their war with drug
profits, meaning that operations against guerrillas and
against
narcotics often blend seamlessly. And since the
breakdown of Colombia's
peace process in February,
rebels have unleashed a campaign against the
country's
infrastructure, including the pipeline that moves Occidental's
oil, bringing private industry ever closer to the war.
The Colombian military brigade that
oversaw the operations around Santo
Domingo is in line
to receive enhanced training and equipment as part of
the Bush administration's $98-million proposal to help
protect oil
facilities in the region.
Events in Santo Domingo also reveal
a contradiction in U.S. attitudes.
Even as Washington
insists that Colombia vigorously pursue human rights
abuses, it has shown little interest in investigating the
possible role
of American citizens.
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.)
sponsored amendments to the last two U.S
aid packages to
Colombia that require suspension of aid to any military
unit suspected of human rights violations, unless the
government is
actively pursuing a case against the
accused.
"Three years have
passed, and we have yet to see anyone prosecuted for
the
needless deaths of 18 people or the flagrant attempts by Colombian
military officers to cover up the crime," said Leahy, now
the chairman
of the Foreign Operations subcommittee of
the Appropriations Committee.
This is perhaps what is most important to the people of
Santo Domingo.
While the war raged around them for
years, the town's 200 people mostly
avoided the
violence, until Dec. 13, 1998.
Now they are surrounded by it. Early this year, a resident
who had been
a key witness against the Colombian
military in the case was
assassinated by suspected
right-wing paramilitary fighters.
"Nothing can fix what happened," said Margarita Tilano, a
44-year-old
grandmother whose daughter and two
grandchildren died in the 1998
attack. "We
want justice, nothing else."
The
United States
On Dec. 7, 1998,
according to military court records obtained by The
Times, Colombian army intelligence intercepted a scratchy
radio
conversation between two commanders of the
country's largest rebel army,
the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
Colombian army officers have said that they interpreted the
coded
conversation to mean that the FARC high command
was sending a small
plane loaded with weapons to land
near Santo Domingo. In return for the
weapons, the local
rebel commander would hand over 2,200 pounds of
cocaine
that his men had recently seized from drug traffickers.
What made the rebel operation
particularly important to the Colombian
military was
that German Briceño, a top local FARC commander, was
suspected of overseeing it.
Briceño, better known as Grannobles, is the brother of the
FARC's
military commander and a vicious, if not adept,
leader. Two months after
the Santo Domingo incident, he
is believed to have ordered the
kidnapping and killing
of three Americans who were working to protect
the
rights of indigenous people.
The
reported involvement of drugs allowed the Colombian military to call
for help from U.S. Customs P-3 Orion surveillance planes
that normally
track clandestine drug flights.
On Dec. 12, at 2:45 p.m., according
to court records, a P-3 packed with
high-tech monitoring
equipment detected a Cessna 206 heading toward
Santo
Domingo.
The Cessna landed north
of the village. Men in civilian clothes swarmed
the
plane and began unloading boxes.
Within five minutes, the plane was airborne again. The
Colombian
military pounced. A company of soldiers from
the 18th Brigade was sent
to pursue Grannobles on the
ground, while the air force intercepted the
Cessna and
forced it to land.
No drugs were
found on the plane--not even after prosecutors performed
tests able to detect microscopic traces of cocaine. An
internal
Colombian air force control tower log recorded
the mission as an attempt
to block an "arms
delivery"--there was no mention of narcotics.
Even though it is unclear whether drugs were ever part of
the rebels'
operation, current and former U.S. Embassy
officials said the United
States was right to aid the
mission despite the restrictions limiting
U.S. aid to
counter-narcotics operations.
The Cessna was flying from a known drug zone, they said, and
they
believe that no drugs were loaded onto the Cessna
because the pilot
realized he was being watched.
The search for Grannobles on the
ground fared even worse. Helicopters
transporting the 70
soldiers of Dragon Company took heavy fire as they
landed. Then, as the troops fought to cross a bridge about
700 yards
north of Santo Domingo, one soldier was killed
and four were wounded.
"We heard
[the commander] on the radio. He was desperate. He said,
'They're killing us,' " Lt. Guillermo Olaya, the air force
liaison with
the army, said in military court testimony.
"Hour after hour, the combat
grew more intense."
Oxy and AirScan
At 9 a.m. the next day, worried air
force and army commanders gathered
in a tiny room to
plan an operation to rescue Dragon Company, according
to
military court testimony and interviews with pilots involved in the
operation.
The location of the meeting was Occidental Petroleum's Cano
Limon oil
complex about 30 miles north of Santo Domingo.
Occidental has long been
active in Colombia. In 1983, it
discovered a billion-barrel oil field.
To develop the
site, Occidental and a Spanish oil company with a
minority interest entered into a 50-50 partnership with
Colombia's state
oil company, Ecopetrol.
But in discovering oil, Oxy walked
into the middle of Colombia's
decades-old internal
conflict with two guerrilla armies, the FARC and a
smaller group called the National Liberation Army.
Both made Oxy, its workers and the
oil pipeline a target. There have
been more than 900
attacks against the pipeline since 1985.
To stop the attacks, Oxy decided to undertake the unusual
mission of
bolstering a foreign military force by
strengthening the under-equipped
and underfunded local
army unit, the 18th Brigade, current and former
Oxy
officials said. In effect, Oxy became the unit's quartermaster.
Oxy or its contractors provided
troop transport helicopters, fuel,
uniforms, cars and
motorcycles. It even paid for leave tickets and
better
rations to improve morale, according to the Oxy officials and
local military commanders.
The company also provided cash to the military, about
$150,000 a year,
according to one rough estimate by a
top Oxy official. Both the in-kind
and cash aid, a total
of about $750,000 a year, was strictly limited to
logistical support. Oxy insisted that its help not be used
for arms.
But as a result, the
army had more money available to combat the leftist
guerrillas throughout Arauca state, where Santo Domingo is
located, as
well as improve security along the pipeline.
The 18th Brigade has been
accused of abuses, including cooperation with
violent
paramilitary groups in the kidnapping and murder of suspected
guerrilla sympathizers. The recent killing of Angel Riveros,
who was a
key witness for the prosecutors in the Santo
Domingo attacks, is a case
in point. Local human rights
groups say the killers passed through a
military
roadblock maintained by the 18th Brigade before the Jan. 24
shooting. Brigade officials deny responsibility.
"We've had serious problems with
the military in Arauca in terms of
human rights and in
the way the military deals with paramilitaries,"
said
Robin Kirk, a Colombia expert for Human Rights Watch.
Oxy has given classes to military
officers on human rights and required
its workers to
sign contracts promising to respect international norms.
But it hasn't implemented other steps, such as insisting on
an
independent review of the human rights record of the
military units they
are supporting.
Oxy officials say they have little
control over such matters. They say
relying on the
military is better than having their own armed security
service.
"We
have military protection because we must have it, because we have no
alternative," said Guimer Dominguez, the president of Oxy's
Colombia
operations. "Unfortunately the armed forces are
short in some areas, and
in this sense, we give them
nonlethal support."
Part of this
support, according to interviews and court testimony, was
"Room G" at Oxy's Cano Limon complex, where the military
commanders
gathered on the morning of Dec. 13, 1998.
Tucked in a corner of the complex,
the room was surrounded by sandbags
and equipped with TV
monitors and computers. Room G, according to those
present, served as the planning center for the operation in
Santo
Domingo, thanks, in part, to a second U.S.
company, an obscure and
low-profile firm called AirScan.
Based in Rockledge, Fla.,
AirScan came to Colombia in 1997 as a
contractor for
Oxy, according to Oxy officials. One of the Colombian
army's deficiencies was that it simply couldn't find the
highly mobile
guerrillas.
AirScan owned a fleet of small planes equipped with
high-tech monitoring
devices, such as infrared cameras,
that could track guerrilla activity
along the pipeline.
The company had a handful of
contracts for aerial surveillance and
monitoring, some
of them with U.S. Air Force bases such as Vandenberg
and
Cape Canaveral.
The founders of
AirScan, Walter Holloway and John W. Mansur, both have
backgrounds as air commandos, the Air Force version of
Special Forces.
Mansur, 61, the company's chief
executive, retired from the Air Force in
1987 as a
highly decorated colonel, having served as a military
assistant to the secretary of the Air Force and as the
commander of the
Air Force's Eastern Space and Missile
Center at Patrick Air Force Base,
near AirScan's
headquarters.
Mansur impressed
Oxy officials.
The AirScan
pilots "were not gung-ho jocks. They were very
professional,"said a former Oxy official. "They were not
mercenaries in
the classic sense."
The Switch-Over
The reconnaissance flights didn't
stop the guerrillas, who recognized
that being spotted
by AirScan didn't mean the army was on its way. They
actually began waving at the AirScan pilots.
Colombian military officials began
pressuring Oxy to use AirScan to
conduct intelligence
patrols far away from the pipeline, according to
former
Oxy and State Department officials.
Toward the middle of 1997, about six months after Oxy's
contract with
AirScan began, one top Oxy official
approached the U.S. Embassy to ask
what sort of limits
should be put on providing intelligence to the
Colombian
military. The response was simple: Stick to the pipeline.
"I said, 'Look, you're getting into
a dirty area, it's very dangerous,'
"one former State
Department official recalled. " 'If you do flights
like
mercenaries, then you'll be responsible.' "
To avoid trouble, Oxy officials say, they ended their direct
involvement
with AirScan by transferring its contract.
Instead of Occidental,
AirScan ended up having a
contract with the Colombian air force that was
paid for
by Ecopetrol, Oxy's Colombian partner in the pipeline.
For its part, AirScan said it
patrolled only the pipeline during the
time of the
bombing in Santo Domingo, 30 miles away.
"The focus of AirScan activity was simply pipeline
surveillance," Mansur
wrote in a brief statement to The
Times. "This was the only activity in
which AirScan
crews or aircraft were engaged."
Pilots involved in operations around Santo Domingo disputed
that
account, testifying that AirScan played a far
larger role that day.
In
interviews, pilots also said that AirScan flew missions all over
Arauca, which at 9,000 square miles is about the size of New
Hampshire.
It frequently provided intelligence on
guerrilla patrols and helped pick
out targets, they
said, and even celebrated kills when an air force
pilot
successfully blew up a guerrilla squad.
"They would say, 'Good job, you got him,' " said one of the
Colombian
military helicopter's crew members who is
accused in the Santo Domingo
bombing. In an interview,
he said he was on dozens of missions with
American
pilots working for AirScan, including one who identified
himself as a Navy SEAL.
AirScan's role became so vital that military forces insisted
on a patrol
before almost every battle, according to the
crew member. Once, a
low-flying AirScan pilot took
ground fire and had to have his fuel tank
replaced when
he returned to base.
"If there
were confrontations between the army and guerrillas, they were
always there," the crew member said, referring to AirScan.
"They were
our eyes."
"They frequently strayed from their missions to help us in
operations
against the guerrillas," said another of the
accused crew members. "The
plane would go and check and
verify [guerrilla] patrols and say, 'Hey,
there are
people here.' "
That is exactly
what two AirScan crew members did during the Santo
Domingo operation, according to Colombian pilots involved in
the
exercise.
The Briefing
The briefing at Oxy's Cano Limon oil complex on the morning
of Dec. 13,
1998, was convened so that Colombian
military officials from the 18th
Brigade and the air
force could figure out how to save Dragon Company,
which
had been pinned down since the night before.
Most of the information supplied at the briefing came from
AirScan
employees Joe Orta and Charlie Denny, who had
been flying since 6:33
a.m. with Colombian air force
Capt. Cesar Gomez, according to testimony
and interviews
with those present, as well as a flight log obtained by
The Times from military court files.
Gomez was on the AirScan plane to
guarantee a Colombian military
presence on a mission
flown by Americans. He was also the military's
designated liaison with Oxy, Gomez testified in court.
Although he was supposed to be in
control, he testified that he only sat
in the back of
the plane and watched the developing operation on a small
monitor.
The
AirScan plane, which was flying with Colombian air force markings,
"provided day and night aerial surveillance of [Santo
Domingo] and
adjacent villages in support of the
counter-guerrilla forces," Orta
wrote in his summary of
the Dec. 13 flight.
Orta and
Denny used video of the area around Santo Domingo that they had
made earlier in the morning to show nests of guerrilla
soldiers to the
Colombian military officers present,
according to those who attended the
briefing.
They pointed out guerrillas who they
said could be seen in the town,
mingling with civilians,
according to one of the accused crew members
present at
the briefing.
The AirScan crew
never indicated that guerrillas had taken up positions
in the town, but they did suggest attacking a concentration
of
guerrillas in a stand of jungle a few hundred meters
away, according to
military court testimony and
interviews with several pilots present.
After the briefing, Gen. Luis Barbosa, the local army
commander, decided
to request air support for a company
of troops to land and reinforce
Dragon Company.
"The [AirScan pilots] helped us
throughout the operation, taking a
quantity of videos
where you could see the town, the movement of the
guerrillas and the movements of the troops," said Olaya, the
air force
liaison with the army.
Orta's identity is something of a
puzzle. Colombian Foreign Ministry
records show that a
man named Barbaro Jose Orta was given a six-month
temporary visa to work in Colombia for AirScan beginning in
February
1998. There is no indication that his visa was
renewed before December
1998.
U.S. military files also show that
in 1998, a man named Barbaro Jose
Orta was an
active-duty member of the U.S. Coast Guard's Search and
Rescue team in Miami, assigned to coordinate rescue
missions.
A photograph of Orta
in those files was picked out of a stack of
photographs
by two Colombian military pilots involved in the operation
as the man who called himself "Joe" Orta. And one of Barbaro
Jose Orta's
family members, who spoke briefly with The
Times, confirmed that Barbaro
Orta usually goes by the
name "Joe."
The military records
also show that Barbaro Orta was on authorized leave
between Dec. 9 and Dec. 19, 1998. But there is no indication
that he
sought permission to work a second job or that
he asked permission to go
abroad, both of which were
required at the time for active-duty
officers.
Though Barbaro Orta left the service
in November 2000, Coast Guard
officials have opened an
inquiry into whether Orta was the AirScan
pilot, after
being contacted by The Times. Barbaro Orta, still in U.S.
military service as a member of the Puerto Rican Air
National Guard, did
not respond to numerous attempts to
contact him through his military
postings or through his
family.
"If [Barbaro Orta] was
on board the aircraft, it was without the
knowledge or
authorization of the U.S. Mission in Colombia," said an
embassy official in Colombia.
As for the other American AirScan crewman, neither the
Foreign Ministry
nor the Colombian customs agency has a
record of anyone named Charlie
Denny entering Colombia.
The Pilot
Once Colombian military commanders
gave the go-ahead, Lt. Cesar Romero
and his crew began
preparing their Huey helicopter for combat.
Normally, Romero, co-pilot Johan Jimenez and technician
Hector Hernandez
flew transport routes, moving food and
troops between battles.
But
this time, their Huey was mounted with a World War II-era AN-M41
cluster bomb, given to the Colombian military by the United
States in
the 1980s, according to Colombian air force
officials. Romero, who has
no blemishes on his service
record, had twice before dropped such
devices.
The bomb, comprising six bomblets,
is mounted on a metal rack. Each
bomblet weighs 20
pounds and is packed with 2.7 pounds of explosives.
The rack attaches to the side of the helicopter. When the
target is in
sight, a wire is pulled and the bomb falls
out. The individual bomblets
separate, hit the ground,
and bounce about an inch and a half high. Then
they
explode, sending chunks of metal at 2,800 feet per second in all
directions from a steel coil wrapped around the charge.
The bomb, last used by the U.S. in
Vietnam, has an effective diameter of
about 30 yards,
meaning anybody within 15 yards of it is likely to be
killed.
About 9:30 a.m., Romero's Huey and four other helicopters,
including a
Russian-made MI-17 that military officials
say was provided by Oxy
through a contractor--took off
for Santo Domingo from Cano Limon. They
carried relief
troops, the cluster bomb, Brazilian-made Skyfire rockets
and heavy machine guns.
According to pilots present at the scene and military court
records,
they were joined on site by the AirScan plane,
which also took off from
Oxy's oil complex and was
filming the entire operation. Colombian
military pilots
said in court testimony that throughout the day, the
plane and helicopters returned to Cano Limon to refuel and
review new
mission plans in Room G.
There is a dispute over the
targeting of the cluster bomb. Some say
Romero was
supposed to consult with ground troops before dropping it.
But Romero said he talked only with the AirScan pilots and
the pilot of
an armed H500 Hughes helicopter also at
the scene.
"The coordinates
were made directly with the armed helicopters that were
in the area and the Skymaster plane that was crewed by
American pilots,"
Romero told a military judge last
year. "The troops were communicating
directly with the
armed helicopters and the Skymaster."
A Colombian UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was also airborne.
It had been
donated by the U.S. primarily for use in
anti-drug missions. It began
firing rockets into the
jungle. The Huey pilots have testified that they
heard
the AirScan pilots warn the Black Hawk pilot, "Careful, you're
shooting at civilians!"
For his part, Romero said he focused on his target: a thick
stand of
jungle 1,000 to 1,200 meters north of Santo
Domingo, 200 meters west of
the road where the Cessna
had landed the afternoon before.
The Huey circled the area twice to be sure of the target,
then Romero
started the countdown: "Three, two, one,
now!" he shouted. Hernandez
pulled a steel cable and
the bomb fell away.
The Bomb
Neither Romero nor his
co-pilot can recall seeing the bomb hit. The
pilots
have been consistent with this account for three years.
The only problem: There is no
stand of jungle 1,000 to 1,200 meters
north of Santo
Domingo, and 200 meters west of the road where the Cessna
landed. There is only open field.
Santo Domingo is a nothing place,
some three dozen wooden shacks hard
against a curve in
a two-lane highway. There is no electricity. No
phones. No running water. Just big sky, open
savanna and thick jungle.
Most
of the people raise cattle or grow corn. Others have small stores.
The Colombian government has no permanent presence, so FARC
guerrillas
move openly through town. Unlike other parts
of Colombia, drugs are not
a big part of the economy,
though coca is grown and cocaine is produced
in the
region. The road where the Cessna touched down is one of the
primary clandestine landing strips.
Once a year, in December, when the
crops are harvested and Christmas is
coming, the town
holds a two-day street fair to raise money for civic
projects. In 1998, the aim was to put a concrete floor in
the two-room
schoolhouse and add doors.
On Dec. 12, family and friends
from hamlets throughout the region began
arriving to
play in a soccer tournament, watch a beauty contest and eat
barbecue.
But in the afternoon, they began to hear gunfire, then
explosions,
coming nearer. Aircraft flew overhead
throughout the night, shooting
into the jungle.
Some people decided to stay,
fearful they would be caught in the
cross-fire. Others left. Still others tried to
leave but turned back
because of their own fear, or
because soldiers stopped them, warning
that it was too
dangerous.
The next morning,
Dec. 13, the town's community leader and bus driver,
Wilson Garcia, then 44, decided to go to the nearest town
that had a
phone, about 15 miles away, to call the Red
Cross for help. Before he
left, he told townspeople to
wave white rags to show the aircraft above
that they
were civilians.
"Just stay
calm," he said.
So people
remained. There was Nancy Castillo, who'd given birth to a
baby girl just three months before. Salomon Neite, 58, a
farmer who was
about to retire and hand over his land
to his two sons. Luis Martinez,
25, a soccer fanatic
with a wife and child. Edilma Pacheco, 27, was
working
at the local store as a clerk. Giovanny Hernandez, 16, had come
from a nearby town for the fair.
When the aircraft appeared about
9:30 a.m., people followed Garcia's
advice. They began waving white rags above their
heads. Some even lay
down on the pavement, hoping to
better demonstrate their neutrality.
About 10 a.m., Garcia's daughter Alba, then 16, and many of
her friends
were in the street near a broken-down red
truck, a 1955 Chevrolet parked
across from the town's
drugstore.
They watched as a
helicopter came into view, then turned to pass over
Santo Domingo from south to north. As it drew overhead,
Alba looked up
and saw about four dark objects falling.
"Look," she said to a friend.
"They're throwing rolls of paper at us."
Then, darkness.
Santo Domingo had just been bombed.
A tape of the operation viewed by
The Times--identified by those
involved as a tape made
by AirScan--does not capture this moment. The
camera is
focused on a field less than half a mile away where relief
troops were landing. But the survivors have vivid,
slow-motion memories
of what happened.
The front of the red truck was
smashed in by a direct hit, its right
front fender
falling to the ground. Smoke filled the air. A woman
screamed, "They killed my children!" People began fleeing
the town on
foot.
Alba woke to find herself bathed in blood, her arm nearly
severed.
Across the street, at
the drugstore, Maria Panqueva was knocked flat by
a
piece of steel that hit her leg. The woman standing next to her, Nancy
Castillo, was killed while nursing her 3-month-old, the top
half of her
head nearly sliced off. The baby was found
lying next to her, screaming.
In a nearby house, Margarita Tilano was stunned by the
noise. Then she
heard screams. Her daughter, Katherine
Cardenas, 7, and granddaughter,
Edna Bello, 5, were
dead. Her grandson, Jaime, 4, was wounded and would
die
on the way to the hospital.
Down the street from the blast, Amalio Neite, 22, was blown
six feet
from where he had been standing. He turned to
see his brother holding
his father, Salomon, writhing
on the ground, a hand over his abdomen to
keep in his
intestines.
Eighteen people
died and more than 25 were wounded, some of them
crippled for life. Today, Alba cannot move her left arm
above her head.
Its scars resemble the crude stitching
on a rag doll.
At the eastern
edge of Santo Domingo, Olimpo Cardenas was about 150
yards away with his back to the explosion. When it
occurred, he turned
around to see dead and wounded
everywhere.
Cardenas jumped on
a motorcycle and rode out of town to the home of a
friend who owned a Ford flatbed truck. The two men drove
back slowly. At
10:20 a.m. they pulled up in front of
the drugstore, where many of the
dead and wounded had
been taken.
They loaded up
about seven of the victims.
As
they left town, they saw another helicopter hovering above them.
About 200 meters, or about 219 yards, away from town, they
heard a burst
of gunfire, and saw earth and concrete
flinging up next to them. Then
the helicopter flew off.
Cardenas, who had gotten out
of the truck, stayed until he was sure
everyone had
left town. Then he walked out on foot.
"I was the last one out," he said. "The place was a ghost
town."
The Investigation
The dead and wounded began
arriving at hospitals in the afternoon. Most
told a
similar story: At 10 a.m., a military helicopter had dropped a
bomb on Santo Domingo.
But separate investigations by the Colombian air force and
army
concluded that the carnage was not the military's
fault. They said that
guerrillas had installed a car
bomb inside the red truck, the epicenter
of the damage.
They said the plan was to lure Dragon Company into Santo
Domingo, then detonate the bomb. But after troops arrived
to reinforce
Dragon Company and save the unit, the bomb
went off by mistake, killing
the villagers.
The military said that conclusion
was based on both testimony and
forensic proof--both of
which were later called into question.
Fragments from the town tested positive for chemicals
commonly found in
homemade explosive materials,
according to court records. Two FARC
deserters who gave
themselves up after the bombing blamed the incident
on
their former comrades. Another witness, a local man who reported
seeing the FARC at work on the truck, recently recanted,
saying a
military officer from the 18th Brigade had
paid him to lie.
Air force
officials also said a cluster bomb would have destroyed
structures or left large craters, a puzzling claim since
AN-M41s have a
relatively small charge designed to kill
people, not destroy buildings.
"I think, and it's only a suspicion . . . that the
guerrillas put the
bomb there," Gen. Hector Fabio
Velasco, the head of the Colombian air
force, said in
an interview last year.
Olaya,
the air force's local link to the army, refused to turn over
documents to civilian federal prosecutors when they arrived
Dec. 17,
according to military court records.
Velasco continued to insist that
no bombs had been used in the
operation, even after air
force officials had sent notice to
headquarters about
the use of the cluster bomb. Velasco later explained
that the air force classifies cluster bombs as low-power
explosives, not
as bombs.
The military's insistence that the combat and the air force
bombing
occurred far from town is also in question.
Using a satellite-guided measuring
device accurate to within a few
meters, The Times
traveled to Santo Domingo several times to measure
distances mentioned in the military's accounts of the
incident.
The military has
said in interviews and military court testimony that
the fighting began where the Cessna had landed, about 6
kilometers, or a
little more than 3.5 miles, from Santo
Domingo.
The actual distance
between Santo Domingo and the landing site, based on
the coordinates supplied by the military to the court, is 3
kilometers,
according to a hand-held Global Positioning
System that can measure
distances between geographic
coordinates.
The pilots
indicated on a map that they dropped their bomb in a stand of
jungle 1,000 to 1,200 meters from Santo Domingo, 200 meters
west of the
road. But that stand of jungle is at
maximum 650 meters away.
As to
the testimony of more than 30 survivors, military officials said
they were probably lying--either out of fear or sympathy
for the
guerrillas.
Colombian military officials weren't the only ones clouding
the story.
Days after the
bombing, Leahy fired off a letter from his Senate office
demanding information. Then-Ambassador Curtis Kamman
responded with a
detailed note that only further
confused matters.
Kamman made
no mention of the involvement of the U.S. P-3 plane on the
day before the incident, though he said Colombian air force
planes had
done surveillance of the Cessna that landed
outside Santo Domingo,
initiating the operation.
He also told Leahy that embassy
officials had viewed a five-hour tape of
the incident,
which showed that Santo Domingo had remained "intact" at
the time people in the town reported being bombed. The tape
"directly
refut[ed]" their claims, he said, and
supported the military's story of
a guerrilla car bomb
that had exploded at another time.
Kamman said in an interview that he did not know the origin
of the tape
and had "no information" on AirScan's
involvement in the incident.
But if the tape was the same one viewed by The Times--and
there is no
evidence that any other aircraft filmed the
operation--it is unclear how
embassy officials missed
the wreckage of the red truck and the loading
of bodies
on the truck. Both are visible on the tape.
The Breakthrough
By June 1999, almost all the investigations were over or
dormant. The
general conclusion: The guerrillas and the
people of Santo Domingo had
attempted to pull a fast
one, and they had failed.
Still, civilian investigators were not convinced. The first
forensic
examinations of Santo Domingo had been done in
the days after the
bombing,
when combat was still going on. Two teams of experts had
been shot at.
No
team spent
more than 90 minutes in the town.
So the investigators--a federal prosecutor and the
procuraduria, a sort
of inspector general--requested a
more thorough look. Teams went back to
Santo Domingo in
June 1999 and February 2000.
In June, they determined that the red truck had been hit
from above by
an explosive device. In February, they
compared metal fragments that
remained in the town's
wooden buildings to fragments of an exploded
AN-M41.
The two sets of metal were similar. They also discovered six
craters in and near the town, corresponding with the six
bomblets,
according to military court files.
Then, in perhaps the biggest
breakthrough, federal prosecutors dug back
through the
evidence to find metal fragments taken from the bodies of
two bombing victims.
They sent these fragments, taken from a 42-year-old woman
and a
16-year-old boy, to the FBI via the U.S. Embassy.
They also sent some of
the fragments they had found in
their February hunt.
On May 1,
2000, the FBI produced its report. The fragments were
"consistent" with a U.S.-made AN-M41. One piece had "NO E
BOM" stamped
on the side. The phrase "NOSE BOMB FUZE"
is printed on AN-M41 cluster
bombs.
The FBI analysis also found that
there were no signs that the cluster
bombs had been
delivered through an "improvised" delivery system--i.e.,
it had not been modified to be used as a car bomb.
This was enough to convince
prosecutors they had a case. They accused
the crew of
the Huey of aggravated homicide and aggravated personal
injury, although they left open the question of whether the
crew had
bombed the village on purpose or accidentally.
Then, because the act was
committed in a military setting, they turned
the case
over to the air force to reopen its investigation of the
crew--Romero, Jimenez and Hernandez.
But the military made little
progress in the investigation. Velasco, the
air force
general, told reporters in Colombia that more than $1 million
had been spent by unknown parties to manipulate evidence to
make his
pilots appear responsible.
After nearly a year, fearing that
the military was not conducting an
impartial
investigation of itself, the civilian prosecutors asked to
regain control. The case has been tied up in jurisdictional
wrangling
ever since. The most recent decision places
the investigation in the
hands of the military.
"The military was hiding the
truth," said one former prosecutor who was
involved
with the case. "We knew the investigation wouldn't happen if it
stayed with the military."
Defense lawyers for the men now say they believe that the
bomb fragments
were not taken from townspeople, but
guerrillas. Under this theory, the
guerrillas were
killed after the cluster bomb dropped on them in the
jungle. Their comrades then transported the bodies into
Santo Domingo.
They point out
that there are no photos of the bodies during the
autopsies, that not much blood was found at the scene and
that some of
the bodies arrived nude, perhaps meaning
they were stripped to hide
their identity.
"There has been too much
international pressure to condemn these men,"
said
Ernesto Villamizar, a top Bogota lawyer who represents one of the
pilots. "This is going to be a very long process, and at
the end, the
truth will come out that the munitions
dropped from this helicopter had
nothing to do with the
deaths in Santo Domingo."
Military officials also question whether the fragments
analyzed by the
FBI actually came from the explosion in
Santo Domingo, citing doubts
over the chain of custody.
"The FBI said, yes, this is a
fragment, but that doesn't mean anything,"
Velasco
said. "There isn't any proof that these fragments were really
from there."
Despite the charges against him, Romero has advanced in
rank to captain.
Jimenez believes that he was denied
promotion because of the
investigation. Nonetheless, both men are now
regularly flying combat
missions with the Colombian air
force.
Romero continued to
receive training in the U.S., despite strict
regulations that prevent instruction when there is even the
suspicion of
human rights violations.
The U.S. Embassy said Romero
received a refresher flight-simulation
course at
Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, in September
2000--three months after the prosecutor's May ruling
ordering an
investigation against him for possibly
killing 18 civilians, and only
one month after the
military reopened its investigation into the
incident.
Embassy officials said they
were unaware of the investigations at the
time of
Romero's training. No formal system exists to exchange data
between the embassy and the prosecutor's office on
suspected human
rights violators, and embassy officials
say there are no plans to
implement one.
An Error?
For all the investigation that has
been done, one central question
remains: If the
Colombian air force did drop a cluster bomb on Santo
Domingo, was it deliberate or a mistake?
Those who believe the bombing was
a war crime point out that visibility
was perfect on
Dec. 13, 1998, that the townspeople had clearly signaled
they were civilians, and that at least two helicopter
pilots testified
they had seen them.
So even if the pilots believed
there were guerrillas in town, they had
to have known
that innocent people would be killed if a bomb was
dropped. Finally, it is difficult to make such a
mistake with an
AN-M41, a simple gravity bomb. To have
hit Santo Domingo, the bomb had
to have been launched
very close to it.
"The
military has never said it was an error. If it was a mistake, why
aren't they just admitting it?" said one lawyer monitoring
the case who
did not want to be identified because of
its sensitivity.
But many of
the same facts also argue for the possibility of error.
Romero has always said he dropped the bomb 1,000 to 1,200
meters from
the town. Two other pilots, however, said
they believed the bomb was
dropped between 500 and 600
meters from town.
If Romero's
helicopter was at the height and speed he said it was, the
bomb would have traveled about 500 meters from where he
launched it,
according to an analysis done by the
Federation of American Scientists,
using testimony from
the case. That means that if Romero was heading in
the
direction of the town, something he denies, the bombs easily could
have landed in Santo Domingo.
If it was an error, some believe, the Colombian military is
still
culpable.
"There's a pretty fine line between intent and tragic
accident," said
David Stahl, a Chicago attorney who is
on the advisory board of the
Center for International
Human Rights at Northwestern University. "I
think what
happened is the Colombian armed forces put themselves in a
situation where a tragic accident was all but certain to
happen."
There are still
crucial details that could clear up the mystery. For
instance, the Huey pilots said they never flew over Santo
Domingo.
Romero said the helicopter was north of the
village and flying west. The
co-pilot said they dropped
the bomb while heading northwest.
But the pattern of the impacts found by civilian
investigators, and the
recollections of survivors,
contradicts that testimony.
Survivors say the helicopter that passed over the village
just before
the explosion was traveling from south to
north. The analysis by the
American scientists
indicates the helicopter that dropped the bomb most
likely passed over the town, and was probably headed either
northeast or
southwest.
"The key discrepancy is the direction. You can't match [the
pilots'
testimony about their direction] with the
direction of the bomb," said
Michael Levi, a physicist
who did the analysis.
The
Americans who worked for AirScan might be able to resolve the
confusion. But two lawyers involved with the
case said AirScan has told
the military court that the
men no longer work for the company and that
it has no
information on their whereabouts.
Oxy officials, meanwhile, said they have never investigated
what role
the company and its facilities might have
played. Nonetheless, they
rejected any ties to the
disaster.
"We're truly sorry
about what happened--though we don't know the
details--but in no way can we feel that we have any
responsibility,"
Dominguez said.
Human rights advocates say the
U.S. government is duty-bound to conduct
its own
investigation into the role played by Orta and Denny.
So far, the U.S. has not done
that. After being asked by the
procuraduria's office,
embassy officials in Bogota checked their records
and
found that one of the men had registered his U.S. home address with
the embassy during a stay in Colombia. They refused to turn
over that
information to Colombian authorities.
Embassy officials said they are
prevented by the Privacy Act from
releasing any
information. But, they said, if they receive a request
from the prosecutor's office, which currently does not have
jurisdiction
over the case, they might be able to help
by working through existing
treaties.
At least one State Department
official has expressed reluctance to
pursue the U.S.
pilots. "Our job is to protect Americans, not
investigate Americans," one human rights group quoted the
official as
saying.
Nor has the embassy made much progress with promises it has
made to have
a copy of the tape its diplomats viewed
independently analyzed. In 1998,
Kamman said the tape
he had seen would be reviewed for further analysis.
Current Ambassador Anne W. Patterson made that same promise
in a letter
to Leahy in July 2001.
Human rights groups find it
strange that the United States, which has
urged
Colombia for years to investigate possible human rights
violations, is not doing the same.
"If the U.S. government is serious
about promoting human rights, we
think they have the
legal duty to seriously investigate human rights
violations," Stahl said. "So far, we've been
disappointed."
Northwestern's
human rights center staged a mock trial of the Santo
Domingo incident in 2000. They found the Colombian
government
responsible for the bombing.
Conclusion
For most of the three years since
the bombing, the people of Santo
Domingo were seen as
liars, leftist sympathizers or guerrillas. It was
only
in recent years that some government officials came to believe
them.
The
tape proved to be an asset for them. The times and events recounted
by the townspeople--who never saw the tape until recently
and could not
have known what it contained--are
consistent with what the tape shows.
The tape does show
people with white material above their heads or in
white clothing wandering the streets during the morning.
The red truck
does suffer damage between 9:45 and 10:10
a.m. And people can be seen
loading what appear to be
bodies onto a truck about 10:30 a.m.
To be sure, there are inconsistencies among the more than
two dozen
witnesses. Some say the bomb that struck
Santo Domingo left a trail of
smoke--an accurate
description of the Skyfire rockets that other
helicopters were firing at the guerrillas.
The tape does not corroborate the
account of machine-gun bursts from a
helicopter as the
injured fled town in the flatbed truck. Though there
are small holes in the road where the people said the
helicopter fired
at them, the video does not show the
truck driver swerving, nor dirt or
concrete being
kicked up.
In December, the
town held a ceremony to commemorate the third
anniversary. There was a small parade, and one
of the judges of the
informal tribunal at Northwestern
University flew in from Chicago.
Victims and human
rights workers gave speeches in the main square of
Tame, the biggest nearby town.
Some families have split over the stress of lost children,
shattered
lives and the fight for recognition.
Margarita Tilano and Olimpo
Cardenas separated, for
example, and now live in different towns.
Nancy Castillo's husband left soon after her death, and her
baby girl,
now 3, is being cared for by relatives. Alba
Garcia lives with her
grandmother in a nearby town.
Most of those who remain in Santo
Domingo dismiss the investigations. A
civil suit is
inching along, filed by 24 of the families. The average
claim seeks damages of $5,000. The biggest is for $43,000.
"We want there to be justice,
for sure," said Maria Panqueva, the
drugstore owner.
"But we have lost the most beautiful thing we had: the
trust in what's right."
Still others are worried about the future. For three years
now, the
people of Santo Domingo have challenged the
Colombian military.
That sort
of defiance may be enough to make them targets of Colombia's
violent paramilitary groups, which have recently moved into
Arauca,
allegedly with the support of local military
officers.
The groups are known
for the massacres of civilians they accuse of being
rebel sympathizers. So far, Santo Domingo has not been
touched. But in
the surrounding area, more than 60
people have been killed by
paramilitary fighters since
August, allegedly including Riveros, the
witness, and a
congressional representative.
Those who remain in Santo Domingo worry about what
nightmares may come.
"I have
talked and talked and talked and talked. I have talked to
investigators, to the military, to the press, to human
rights groups.
And I have told everyone the same
thing," said Tilano, who lost a child
and two
grandchildren in the bombing.
"If you want to do justice, do your work well," she said,
"so there will
be no more massacres of children, so
defenseless people won't be killed,
so they don't shoot
at us anymore."
___
Times special correspondents Ruth
Morris, Zoe Selsky and Mauricio Hoyos
contributed to
this report.
---------------------
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rhinos, elephants, great apes,
and neotropical
migratory birds-I urge you to include funding for the
Multinational Species Conservation Fund in your personal
request to
the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee. I
ask that this request for
the FY 2003 appropriation
include $2 million each for the Asian
Elephant Fund,
the African Elephant Fund, and the Great Ape Fund, $3
million for the combined Rhino-Tiger Fund, and $5 million
for the
Neotropical Migratory Bird Fund, for a total of
$14 million for
international conservation programs.
These funds are urgently
needed. Tiger, rhino, and elephant
populations continue to be threatened by poaching for body
parts, and
their habitat is under extreme pressure from
burgeoning human
populations in Asia and
Africa. Meanwhile, failing economies, civil
unrest, and growing poverty have undermined the capacity of
range
state governments to protect their
animals. While some populations of
African
elephants, greater Asian one-horned rhinos, and Siberian
tigers are doing better-thanks to the support of
Congress-Asian
elephants are still declining in the
wild, four of the five species of
rhino are under
severe pressure, and fewer than 6,000 wild tigers
remain. Habitat destruction and overexploitation
have pushed
populations of the world's great
apes-gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos,
and orangutans-to
alarmingly low levels. Illegal hunting of African
elephants and great apes for the bush meat trade is taking
a major
toll on some populations. Many
neotropical migratory birds are listed
as endangered or
threatened, due to shrinkage of habitat in Latin
America, North America, and the Caribbean.
The Multinational Species
Conservation Fund has been extremely
effective in
arresting the decline of rhinos, tigers, and elephants
and in encouraging local and international matching
contributions from
governments and private
organizations. It has also generated good
press, elevated these issues politically around the world,
and helped
shape a positive image of the United States
in the countries where
these modest but effective
programs are implemented. Continued
support
from the United States not only helps conserve highly
threatened species, but also makes friends for America in
the
countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America where
these species
reside.
Please do all you can to increase funding for this
program. Thank
you.
Sincerely,
Your name and address
will be inserted here
***********************END OF LETTER
TEXT*********************
______________________________________________________________________
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______________________________________________________________________
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has
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and has more than
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Dear Friend,
As she roams the wilderness, the
tiger is the epitome of majesty and grace. She is resilient, doing everything in
her power to survive and care for her young. Unbeknownst to her, she is
vulnerable, threatened by a clandestine and powerful predator: humans.
Humans have preyed upon tigers for
centuries. Nearly every part of this precious animal is believed to have a
prescribed benefit, with cures claimed for ailments ranging from epilepsy to
laziness. As a result of this trade and other threats, the world's tiger
population has plummeted from 100,000 in 1900 to less than 6,000 today. Sadly,
every day, this species is pushed even closer to extinction.
Tigers are not the only ones in
danger. Elephants, tortoises, exotic birds and millions of other precious
animals and plants are illegally bought and sold each year for use in everything
from medicine and food products to jewelry and home furnishings.
Since its inception more than 25
years ago, the TRAFFIC Network has provided the World Wildlife Fund
with an effective and powerful weapon against wildlife smugglers who want to
endanger our wildlife for profit. Your donation dollars go to emergency efforts
such as these - wherever they are needed most. Together, we can continue to save
endangered species throughout the world today...so we can ensure that we leave
our children a planet where tigers still roam wild. Donate now and make a
difference.
A Bi-weekly Update from Defenders of
Wildlife:
Working to Save Wildlife and Wild Lands
ENERGY POLICY: 'Americans
should be outraged' by Senate vote
SHOOT, SHOVEL AND SHUT UP:
Idaho considers law to allow killing of wolves
EVERY OTTER MATTERS: Another
sea otter killed by gunshot
COMEBACK CROCODILES: Sightings
may signal recovery of endangered species
FOREST CATASTROPHE: Global
warming could destroy the boreal
ORCA ORPHAN: Scientists look
for ways to take baby whale home
SUCCESS STORIES: DEN helps
protect Northwest Hawaiian Islands
ADOPT AN ANIMAL: Help save
wildlife for Mother's Day
1. ENERGY POLICY:
'Americans should be outraged' by Senate vote
In the first in a series
of important votes on national energy policy, the Senate acted to please
the auto industry by rejecting stronger auto fuel efficiency standards
that would have saved oil and reduced pollution. The New York Times wrote,
"Americans should be outraged." Click here http://www.defenders.org/newsroom/fuel.html to learn how your senator voted. Now, Big Oil's
political allies are turning up the pressure to open the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge to drilling. The fate of America's greatest wildlife
sanctuary will be decided soon. To make your voice heard in Congress, go
to www.SaveArcticRefuge.org. Tell your senators that you won't tolerate
destroying this magnificent wilderness and harming wildlife.
To learn how Arctic
drilling will affect polar bears, click here for our popular animation:
www.SaveArcticRefuge.org/video.
2. SHOOT, SHOVEL AND
SHUT UP: Idaho considers law to allow killing of
wolves
Idaho's anti-wolf extremists are pushing a bill in
the state legislature to permit killing the endangered animals "when it is
reasonable and necessary and done in defense of privately owned property."
Defenders of Wildlife fears the vaguely worded legislation would
legitimize "shoot-shovel-and-shut-up" vigilantism. Idaho's gray wolves are
the beneficiaries of one of the most successful wildlife recovery programs
ever. More than 200 now are roaming freely across a panoramic
high-mountain landscape. Defenders of Wildlife pays ranchers for livestock
lost to wolves. Go to www.savewolves.org to learn more about threats to
wolves.
3. EVERY OTTER MATTERS:
Another sea otter killed by gunshot
www.saveseaotters.org.
4. COMEBACK CROCODILES:
Sightings may signal rebound for endangered
species
In a possible milestone
for endangered species, sightings of American crocodiles are increasing in
south Florida's waters. Wildlife scientists are optimistic because it
could mean that the endangered cousins of the American alligator are
making a comeback, thanks to the efforts of conservationists working to
preserve the species' dwindling habitat. The decline of crocodiles was
once considered all but inevitable. Their population is now estimated at
between 400 and 1,000 adults. To read about efforts to save the
Everglades, some of the last remaining habitat of the crocodile, click
here http://www.defenders.org/wildlife/eglades/everglades.html.
5. FOREST CATASTROPHE:
Global warming could destroy the boreal
The latest evidence
indicates that global warming could lead to the destruction of more than
half the world's boreal forests, according to the World Commission on
Forests and Sustainable Development. These northern woodlands make up
one-third of the Earth's forests, and a winter temperature rise of as
little as 5 degrees Fahrenheit could lead to catastrophic fires, droughts
and pest infestations, the commission reported. For more on the boreal
forest crisis, click here http://www.defenders.org/magazinenew/Summer2001/canada.pdf.
6. ORCA ORPHAN:
Scientists look for ways to take baby whale home
Scientists are working
to save an orphaned baby whale swimming in the Puget Sound. They're
considering using a Hovercraft to ferry the whale home to Canada. The 1
½-year-old orca was born to a pod that returns each summer to the waters
around northern Vancouver Island. But its mother died, the rest of the pod
rejected the baby, and it showed up alone in Puget Sound last month. Since
then, the whale has been following a ferry, rubbing up against logs and
capturing Seattle's heart. To learn about threats to whales, go to
www.saveourwhales.org.
7. SUCCESS STORIES: DEN
helps protect Northwest Hawaiian Islands
Thanks to you, the Bush
administration has decided not to roll back protections for the coral
reefs and wildlife of the unspoiled Northwest Hawaiian Islands. More than
5,000 DEN members sent e-mails in support of saving this underwater
wilderness as a marine reserve. The islands contain nearly 70 percent of
all coral reefs within U.S. waters and are home to 7,000 marine species,
including the critically endangered Hawaiian monk
seal.
8. ADOPT AN ANIMAL: Help
save wildlife for Mother's Day
With Mother's Day coming
up, have you started looking for that perfect gift to tell your mother how
much you love and appreciate her? Adopt an animal today for your mother
and help save imperiled animals for future generations. Adopt an adorable
polar bear, wolf pup, sea otter, whale, dolphin, brown or black bear or
"Harry Potter" owl today. Click here: http://www.defenders.org/adopt.
HAVE A CERTIFICATE OF
DEPOSIT COMING DUE?
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available through MBNA America Bank, N.A., for Certificates of Deposit
Accounts, Individual Retirement Accounts, and Money Market Deposit
Accounts. All have the full protection of FDIC insurance up to $100,000
per depositor.
For more information go
to: http://www.mbna.com/goldportfolio/rates/defenders or call MBNA toll free at 1-800-900-6653. If you
call, please mention priority code HAO6Q so that they know you are a
Defenders' supporter entitled to the special
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