[Marxism] More evidence of FRAUD in purported Raul Reyes computer

["Anthony Boynton" <anthony.boynton@xxxxxxxxx>]

Photos Allegedly From FARC PC Undermine Colombian Credibility

May 23rd 2008, by Daniel Denvir - NACLA

http://www.worldpress.org/link.cfm?http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/



A series of photos allegedly found on the laptops of Raúl Reyes, the FARC
leader killed when the Colombian government bombed and raided a FARC
encampment across the Ecuadoran border, appear to have actually been taken
by Colombian intelligence agents—or by allied police or intelligence
agents—in Quito, Ecuador. The photos were supplied to the Bogota daily El
Tiempo by an anonymous Colombian intelligence source on Monday March 3, just
two days after the raid on the encampment.



Credible doubts about the provenance of the photos are potentially
explosive, as they suggest that a piece of evidence that the Colombian
government claimed originated from the FARC laptops actually came from
another source, and also because they indicate the presence of Colombian
intelligence in Quito. In the attack's aftermath, Ecuadoran president Rafael
Correa initiated a major shakeup of the country's armed forces following
allegations of significant CIA and other foreign-intelligence penetration.



The photos, taken down about a week after they were uploaded, briefly formed
part of a broad and systematic media campaign on the part of the Colombian
government to link the Ecuadoran and Venezuelan governments to the FARC. The
campaign has been waged through a combination of public denunciations and
anonymous leaks to news outlets in Colombia, the United States, and Spain.



The photos were taken inside and outside of Quito's Casa de Cultura arts and
convention center during the international conference of the Continental
Bolivarian Coordinating Committee (CCB) the week before the attack. The CCB
is a small left-wing organization with ties to the FARC and chapters
throughout Latin America.



The photos, which now appear to be intelligence photos, were included in a
Web gallery on El Tiempo's Web site of photos purportedly found on Reyes's
laptop. When I came across the photos my first question was "Why would the
FARC take intelligence photos of their supposed allies?"



The individuals photographed include two Basque separatists: Batasuna
representative Iñak Bil de San Vicente and Askapena representative Walter
Wendelin. (Batasuna is the political arm of the armed Basque nationalist
separatist group ETA. Askapena is a support organization for Basque
prisoners.) Also captured in the photos are Carlos Casanueva, a member of
the Chilean Communist Party's Central Committee; Lucía Morett, a visiting
Mexican student who was injured in the attack (four other Mexican students
were killed); Venezuelan Communist Party deputy and Central Committee
secretary general Oscar Figuera; Chilean Communist Youth member Manuel
Olate, who, along with fellow Chilean Valeska López, visited the FARC
encampment just before it was bombed; an unnamed Italian CCB delegate; and
at least five other unidentified people.



After weeks of contradictory and incomplete answers from El Tiempo, I
traveled from Quito to their Bogotá office to ask some questions in person.
El Tiempo reporters had at first confirmed that the photos were from the
FARC laptops and were unsure of why they were removed from El Tiempo's Web
site. El Tiempo Justice editor Jhon Torres then told me that they were not
from the laptop and that a retraction had been issued. (I was unable to find
a retraction in any of El Tiempo's March or April archives. Journalistic
ethics require news outlets to issue corrections if doubts emerge as to the
validity of evidence used to support an article.)



In an interview this past Tuesday, Torres told me that the photos were
removed from the Web site because of doubts that they were really found on
the FARC laptops. According to Torres, however, their intelligence source
has not changed his claim that the photos are from the laptops.



Torres also claimed that all of the people captured in the CCB photos were
also in photos found on Reyes' laptops. I was unable to confirm this through
a review of photos that have been released, and Torres was unable to provide
me with photos confirming this statement.



Torres played down the notion that the Colombian government purposely leaked
false information, hypothesizing the photos' inclusion to be an accidental
"infection" and characterizing their intelligence source as a lone actor
rather than part of a media campaign orchestrated by the Colombian
government.



Torres also confirmed that El Tiempo has not issued any retractions
regarding the photos—contradicting his earlier statement—saying that they
simply removed them from the Web site. This even though the paper ran a
story on March 7 titled "Trace of ETA in Reyes' PC," including the photo of
Batasuna members Walter Wendelin and Iñak Gil at the CCB conference. The
article does not mention that the photo was taken at the conference, and it
is possible that El Tiempo was unaware of this fact. The rest of the photos
were only posted as part of the Web gallery and were not used in the
newspaper's print edition. Torres acknowledged that, "perhaps we could have
done a better job clarifying our opinions of the photos."



I am still reporting this story. Further information will be posted on the
NACLA Web site.



Daniel Denvir is an independent journalist in Quito, Ecuador and an editor
at the forthcoming journal Caterwaul Quarterly (www.caterwaulquarterly.com).
Denvir is a 2008 recipient of NACLA's Samuel Chavkin Investigative
Journalism Grant.

Source:

NACLA
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