Reply #167: My error, you're right. US-Colombian policies were merely toxic in '96. [View All]

[JohnOneillsMemory]

Clark was at Southern Command overseeing policy in Columbia and doing the PR work for the School of the Americas scandal in 1996-1997.

But your right. That was a sloppy implication on my part.

In 1996-1997 the US was doing heavy spraying in Columbia with a toxic chemical that Monsanto had to settle a claim on and change their false advertising of safe use. This was the same poison that Wellstone got sprayed with when he visited in 2000.
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/Columbia/REHN713.html

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According to the GAO, the U.S. State Department escalated its support for aerial spray campaigns in 1996, and during the 1997-98 period, over 100,000 hectares (254,000 acres) of the Colombian countryside were sprayed. But during this same period, net coca cultivation in Colombia increased 50 percent.<2, pg. 16-18>

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But medical reports link exposure to glyphosate herbicides with short-term symptoms including blurred vision, skin problems, heart palpitations, and nausea. Studies have also found associations with increased risk of miscarriages, premature birth, and non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Formulations in which glyphosate is combined with other ingredients can be more acutely toxic than glyphosate alone.<6, pgs. 5-8> Monsanto, a major manufacturer of glyphosate-based herbicides, was challenged by the Attorney General of New York State for making safety claims similar to those now being repeated by the U.S. State Department. In an out-of-court settlement in 1996, Monsanto agreed to stop advertising the product as "safe, non-toxic, harmless or free from risk."<4,6>

Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, a vocal critic of the "drug war" military aid, visited Colombia last week. During his visit he was treated to a demonstration of aerial crop eradication, in the course of which the Colombian National Police managed to spray Senator Wellstone himself with herbicides. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, this accident occurred shortly after the U.S. Embassy in Colombia circulated materials explaining that the spray was guided by "precise geographical coordinates" calculated by computer. Colombian police said the accident had occurred because the wind blew the herbicide off course.<7>

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But what still stands is the expensive weapon-heavy human rights-thin militarism also going on under Clinton/Dem/'Blue' that makes my point that the Pentagon and its military industrial complex is our problem, not just the GOP.