[Marxism] Greg Palast: FARC Laptop Documents

["Dan Russell" <proletariandan@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.gregpalast.com/300-million-from-chavez-to-farc-a-fake/

Excerpt <This past weekend, Colombia invaded Ecuador, killed a guerrilla
chief in the jungle, opened his laptop – and what did the Colombians find? A
message to Hugo Chavez that he sent the FARC guerrillas $300 million – which
they're using to obtain uranium to make a dirty bomb!

That's what George Bush tells us. And he got that from his buddy, the
strange right-wing President of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe.

So: After the fact, Colombia justifies its attempt to provoke a border war
as a way to stop the threat of WMDs! Uh, where have we heard that before?

The US press snorted up this line about Chavez' $300 million to "terrorists"
quicker than the young Bush inhaling Colombia's powdered export.

What the US press did not do is look at the evidence, the email in the magic
laptop. (Presumably, the FARC leader's last words were, "Listen, my password
is ….")

I read them. (You can read them http://www.gregpalast.com/farc-documents/)
While you can read it all in español, here is, in translation, the one and
only mention of the alleged $300 million from Chavez:

"… With relation to the 300, which from now on we will call "dossier,"
efforts are now going forward at the instructions of the boss to the cojo
[slang term for 'cripple'], which I will explain in a separate note. Let's
call the boss Ángel, and the cripple Ernesto."

Got that? Where is Hugo? Where's 300 million? And 300 what? Indeed, in
context, the note is all about the hostage exchange with the FARC that
Chavez was working on at the time (December 23, 2007) at the request of the
Colombian government.

Indeed, the entire remainder of the email is all about the mechanism of the
hostage exchange. Here's the next line:
"To receive the three freed ones, Chavez proposes three options: Plan A. Do
it to via of a 'humanitarian caravan'; one that will involve Venezuela,
France, the Vatican[?], Switzerland, European Union, democrats [civil
society], Argentina, Red Cross, etc."

As to the 300, I must note that the FARC's previous prisoner exchange
involved 300 prisoners. Is that what the '300' refers to? ¿Quien
sabe?Unlike Uribe, Bush and the US press, I won't guess or make up a
phastasmogoric story about Chavez mailing checks to the jungle.

To bolster their case, the Colombians claim, with no evidence whatsoever,
that the mysterious "Angel" is the code name for Chavez. But in the memo,
Chavez goes by the code name … Chavez.>
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