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Pastimes : NNBM - SI Branch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (21359)	1/18/2003 6:22:47 PM
From: Mannie	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 104155

And to ensure we don't get too focused on just Iraq & N. Korea.. Saturday, 18 January, 2003, 03:12 GMT US troops engage further in Colombia US troops will train in Arauca for three months The United States has deployed troops in eastern Colombia in an area rich of oil and widely seen as a stronghold of Marxist rebels. US special forces have begun training Colombian troops in counter-insurgency techniques in the province of Arauca. The army is trying to protect an oil pipeline which has been attacked 200 times in the last two years alone. It is the first time the US military has been directly involved in Colombia's 39-year civil war. The BBC correspondent in Bogota says that with a possible war in Iraq looming, and political unrest in Venezuela, Colombia's oil has become strategically important. This has prompted Washington to overcome its reluctance to get involved in the Colombia's internal strife. Colombia is the United States' 10th largest supplier of oil. Ambassador's visit About 70 US soldiers will spend three months training 6,500 Colombian soldiers in counter-insurgency and intelligence gathering techniques. "The plan is to start training in two weeks. The US special forces will require a lot of equipment so there will be a lot of flights coming to Arauca in the next days," a US official told the Reuters news agency. The official said that under US law the special forces would not be allowed to enter into combat. The assistance, aimed at protecting the 780km (490-mile) long Cano Limon pipeline, is part of the US's $98m aid package to Colombia. US ambassador Anne Patterson went to Arauca on Friday to meet troops, in conditions of tight security. She travelled by helicopter, because of the risk of bomb attacks on road transport. Colombian Defence Minister Martha Lucia Ramirez said the extended US involvement would "make our actions against these groups much more effective and allow us to obtain the result we want, which is to hit these groups hard". Elaborate security precautions have been taken to protect the lives of the American servicemen in the towns of Arauca and Saravena, where Marxist guerrillas have declared the US troops military targets. The principal US aim is to ensure that the oil that lies in such abundance under its plains can be exported northward by the American multi-national Occidental Petroleum.

To: stockman_scott who wrote (21359)	1/19/2003 10:12:04 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 104155

Last night, I spoke with my ER doc who went to Iraq. He said the trade sanctions are really hurting the people. They recognize the difference between Americans and our government, aren't really upset with the people. He said they asked him to tell our government not to kill them and, more importantly, not to kill their children. Maybe some quiet night, I can get him on the net, or maybe he has a little diary or something he will let me distribute. What we have is a pretty sad and tragic situation. I will cop to being more concerned about the effects of a war on us, but it was so sad listening to him say "Ask the Americans not to kill my son".etc. Rat PS Pretty amazing numbers for the demonstrations; getting to be the size of the biggest ones during Nam, and no shots have even been fired.Unfortunately, it looks like the Shrubites are reacting the way I thought they would; doesn't mean a thing to them. My hope is a) I get to one of these B4 the war, and b) the opposition here stirs up the Brits enuf to keep Blair out of it. Shrub can't see the people, but I'll bet you Thamester and a lot of others did. Rat