Colombia Arrests 2 U.S. Soldiers
 

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americ...ing/index.html

Colombia arrests 2 U.S. soldiers
Government: Americans planned to supply arms to paramilitaries
From Karl Penhaul
CNN

Wednesday, May 4, 2005 Posted: 3:48 PM EDT (1948 GMT)

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian police said Wednesday that they have detained two U.S. soldiers allegedly involved in an arms-smuggling plot.

The head of the Colombian police, Gen. Jorge Daniel Castro, told reporters that in addition to the two soldiers, a former Colombian military officer was also detained during the raid Tuesday by government troops.

The raid targeted a house in a town 43 miles (70 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Bogota, and netted 22,000 rounds of assault rifle ammunition, Castro said.

Police sources said they suspect the rounds were intended for outlawed right-wing paramilitary forces.

The U.S. Embassy has confirmed the detentions. Neither the soldiers nor their ranks have been identified publicly.

The scandal is the second in a month to involve U.S. soldiers in Colombia.

In April, five U.S. soldiers from an anti-narcotics base in eastern Colombia were detained upon arrival in the United States carrying 18 kilograms of cocaine.

Most U.S. soldiers in Colombia are military advisers drawn from the elite Special Forces or Rangers units and are sent to train Colombian counter-narcotics and anti-insurgency forces.

The United States has invested $1.3 billion dollars in assistance to support Colombia's plan to achieve peace, fight crime and improve government. The State Department has said that 90 percent of the cocaine and most of the heroin in the U.S. market comes from Colombia, at a cost of $110 billion a year.

Hopefully these cases will result in actual punishments for those involved, unlike the Colonel Hiett debacle in 99-2000.

It wasn't me.

You sound guilty of something, is there something you want to admit. :D

Admit NOTHING, Deny EVERYTHING. and immediately make COUNTER-ACCUSATIONS!! :p Peregrino

It's the little touches like this that inspire me to try and achieve greater... uh, something.

Where were you Tuesday night?

You left off taking care of key witnesses Brother. :)

you just haven't been caught...yet... ;)

The problem with most of them, especially nowadays, is they won't stay bought. Besides, even renting a backhoe gets expensive! :D Peregrino

hmmm... I don't seem to recall. :cool:

First and foremost, I hope that this is some sort of misunderstanding. If it isn't, this is going to have some serious consequences (in their case, this is an understatement).

If the situation is anywhere near true, as reported, the gentlemen involved should have known better.

From what I've seen any ammunition is tightly controlled. I can see this control being even more tightly enforced during further deployments. I hope cooler heads prevail and that a knee-jerk reaction does not cause leaders in charge to assume that what happened is anywhere near common practice.

Do you know COL Hiett?

TR

Stepped on his peepee and I shot right past. Sorry Sir, I'll be more vigilant.

You got my back covered so often that policing up after you once in a while is a priviledge.

TR