Canadian embassy in Bogota targeted..

CanadaMan says on Jun 17, 2008, 06:41:

Canadian embassy in Bogota targeted

Leak suspected as paramilitary group e-mails threats to mission

Craig Offman, National Post
Published: Monday, June 16, 2008

A Colombian paramilitary group has sent threatening e-mails to Canada's embassy in Bogota because it provides asylum for former members, a leading newspaper says.

El Tiempo reported on Sunday that for the past 12 days, the Black Eagles have sent intimidating correspondence to the embassy, criticizing Canada for giving exile to former paramilitary members who have become state witnesses. The e-mails also suggest there might be a leak in the Bogota mission.

The report comes 10 days after Canada signed a much-noted free-trade agreement with the embattled South American country, and more than a month after the National Post revealed that a hit squad had planned to enter Canada on tourist visas and assassinate a former paramilitary member who had implicated a cousin of president �?lvaro Uribe Vélez for his role in various death squads.

Dozens of congressional members have already been scrutinized for their connection to paramilitary groups in Colombia, an investigation that has undercut the legitimacy of Mr. Uribe.

While not speaking directly about the report, Stockwell Day, the Minister of Public Safety, did say that in general, these kinds of scenarios arise when countries take strong positions with troubled allies.

"Anytime that a country like Canada is involved in promoting or protecting our own democracy and helping other countries struggling with their own resources, we're going to run into the possibility of a threat," he said.

"It's in helping these countries that we actually wind up pushing back the people who think they can bully or extort their way into getting their malicious goals accomplished."

Colombian Senator Gustavo Petro said paramilitary forces have infiltrated various sectors of Colombian society, from the police to the justice department, and often threaten people who oppose them.

"They also threaten foreign embassies, and it looks like the Canadian embassy is now one of them," said Mr. Petro, a leading member of the opposition.

While Canada is one of several countries whose embassies who have received similar warnings in recent months, the newspaper article referred to an unnamed source who alleged that the Black Eagles had privileged information from the Canadian embassy identifying the family of a witness, which suggests a security breach.

The El Tiempo story said "the information regarding the family was only recently collected and known only to a small group of high-level Canadians."

Neither the Colombian embassy in Ottawa nor Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade would confirm or deny details of the report, instead saying that they were aware of it.

"We have an established security infrastructure to protect Canadian government employees, information and assets," said foreign affairs spokeswoman Silvia Généreux, adding that she could not comment on security matters.

The motives of the Black Eagles are confusing, said one expert.

Usually such a group would be targeting left-wing opponents, not allies, of President Uribe. "The Canadian government is actually being used as example by the European Union and the United States as a reason to work with Uribe," said James Brittain, a sociology professor at Acadia University who has been studying the evolution of the Canadian-Colombian relationship.

"It shows how out of touch with reality, how paranoid, these people are."

National Post, with files

from Stewart Bell

and Natalie Alcoba

coffman at nationalpost.com

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Formerly WidowerfromCanada...I am engaged to a wonderful Peruviana.

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CanadaMan says on Jun 17, 2008, 06:44:

lol lol lol .. The page above is crooked and warped for some reason.. lmao


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Formerly WidowerfromCanada...I am engaged to a wonderful Peruviana.

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