Wikileaks: the Colombia cables
Wikileaks: the Colombia cables
The United States dumps more money into Colombia than any other country in Latin America. War profiteers like Lockheed Martin, SAIC, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and many other military & intelligence contractors, lobby Congress and their shills at the Pentagon & CIA to engage in 'special programs' in Colombia; with provisos stipulating that the money 'cycle back' to U.S. military contractors.
essentially, billions of corporate welfare dollars are funneled to crony U.S. military contractors each year to keep the phoney War on Drugs fiasco/boondoggle propped-up, at the expense of working class Americans.
Julian Assange interview (regarding the US' War on Drugs in Colombia) with Semana.com
JA: "Colombia, in particular, is an interesting country for us. We've had a long history of exposing information about the FARC, the AUC and Colombian government involvement with those two issues. But it's not just about Colombia, it's about the (special) relationship between the United States & Latin America.
Colombia is the country in which the U.S. is pumping through more money in the past few years than any other country in Latin America. The U.S. approach to Colombia should not be seen as a 'U.S. approach'.
What it's about is that there are several powerful companies & lobbies in Washington, such as Lockheed Martin, SAIC, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman... military and intelligence contractors who lobby Congress and their contacts (shills) within the Pentagon and the CIA to engage in 'special programs' in Colombia, with written provisos to make sure that the money actually cycles back to them (the military contractors) in the United States.
So it's about transferring money from the U.S. tax base, that is, predominantly from middle-class people, back to ('defence' contractor) company shareholders and senior executives, people who are already rich.
For example, by appearing to give the Colombian government AID to buy helicopters - but then attaching provisos that the helicopters must be of a 'particular type' - that only a U.S. weapons manufacturer can provide. That is what's really going on in Colombia, as far as military subsidies and what the United States calls the War on Drugs."