Eva Golinger: U.S. Privatizes Colombian War with its Transnational Mercenaries

For
the year 2009 the State Department of the United States will invest
approximately $520 million in Plan Colombia. More than half of this money went
to private North American contractors charged with developing, promoting and
furthering irregular warfare in Colombian territory and in Latin America; this
was revealed to the Bolivarian News Agency by the lawyer and researcher Eva Golinger.

"This
constitutes the total privatization of the war in Colombia through the
utilization and financing of transnational mercenaries that have no legal
obligation to respond to any judicial system in the world. In other words, they
enjoy complete immunity," explained Golinger.

Golinger
explained that in certain declassified government documents she found a list of
31 American contractors that maintain relations with the State Department. This
list contains the amounts of financing awarded by the administration in
Washington to advance the war in Colombia.

"What
jumps out here is their areas of responsibility and the amount of money which
they receive for a period of 12 months," says Golinger.

Even
though these are American companies contracted by the State Department, they
are not subject to any American legal code, according to Golinger.

"As
part of a bi-national accord, in Colombia they have total immunity, that is to
say, they respond to nobody for their crimes, actions and operations," she
emphasized.

Of
the 31 companies on this list, Golinger has limited herself in this opportunity
to mention the most important and those with a long history of belligerence in various
parts of the world.

The Transnationals of War

The
first on the list is Lockheed-Martin, one of the largest companies of the
military-industrial complex in the United States. It is dedicated to producing
weapons and technology, including war planes.

"Its
contract includes $53 million in financing for the period of one year to
provide logistical support and technical assistance to the national police of
Colombia, in addition to training personnel for special operations," said Golinger.

Another
company is Dyn Corp International, which also forms part of the American
military-industrial apparatus. The State Department provides it with $164
million in financing to provide pilots, technicians and logistical support to
the Colombian army.

"Similarly,
the Arinc company, a private contractor of the military-industrial apparatus,
received $8 million dollars to maintain, manage and train the Colombian
national police in the task of intercepting signals and obtaining equipment
associated with espionage," she says.

Also,
Oackley Network received $5 million for the provision of software for
monitoring the internet and to assist in espionage programs conducted by the
crime division of the Colombian national police.

Similarly,
one also encounters on the list ITT, a transnational telecommunication company
that participated in the coup d'état against [Chilean president] Salvador
Allende.

"In
2007 it received some $7 million to operate a hemispheric radar system, offer
logistical support and provide radar equipment in Colombian territory that
operate via satellite," said Golinger.

Echelon Espionage

Another
company with global reach is the Rendón Group, which acquired a contract for
$3.4 million to give communicational support to Plan Colombia and to counter
narcotics operations.

"The
Rendón Group, being a company of the Pentagon, is one of the most well known
groups of experts in psychological operations dedicated to designing this type
of campaign… it is this company that manages a great part of the media campaign
against Venezuela and Ecuador," Golinger commented.

Moreover,
she sustained that the contract stipulates the use of the Echelon system, the
largest known espionage system, invented in the 1970s by the U.S. National
Security Agency (NSA).

"It
is a satellite system that has the capacity to monitor all worldwide communications.
They enter a specific word in the system, and this is linked to the rest of the
communications systems. If they find that someone used that word on the
telephone, cell phone, or computer, attention is directed toward that place. It
gives the exact location and permits the conversation to be monitored," she
commented.

In
conclusion, Golinger expressed that the financing implies a continuation of the
escalated offensive and imperialist aggression against the region.

"We
saw the coup d'état in Honduras, the resurgence of the Colombian-Venezuelan
conflict and the concern on the part of the countries of the Bolivarian
Alternative for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) over the [new U.S.] military
bases [in Colombia]… This is not the end of it," she affirmed.

Translated by Zachary Lown for
Venezuelanalysis.com