Rebutting the WaPo op-ed on Colombia by adding context

ok, i promised earlier that i would post more on colombia and here it is... first, take a look at this animated video from amnesty usa...



(click image to go to amnesty's web site and play video)

then read this...

Amnesty International today made public for the first time a list of more than 100 cases of serious human rights abuses, including massacres and enforced "disappearances" implicating Colombian security forces and paramilitary groups, and urged the U.S. Congress to review the cases ahead of President Alvaro Uribe's visit to Washington May 2-4. Amnesty International is calling on Congress to withhold U.S. military funding to Colombia until these cases are investigated and those responsible are brought to justice.

The cases are excerpted from documents containing details of more than 150 cases of human rights violations that Amnesty International presented to the U.S. State Department in 2006 during consultations in which human rights organizations urged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice not to certify that the Colombian government and armed forces were making sufficient progress on human rights. The victims named in the list were either killed or forcibly "disappeared" between January 2005 and June 2006.

look, i'm not saying who has the handle on the absolute truth here, i just want to demonstrate the total lack of relevant context that newspapers like the washington post consistently and, i believe, purposefully omit... and, like in today's op-ed that i posted on earlier, when they DO include some context, as in the reference to human rights watch, it's often a mere mention and offered in a not-quite-but-almost derogatory tone...

Human Rights Watch, which has joined the Democratic campaign against Mr. Uribe, claimed that "today Colombia presents the worst human rights and humanitarian crisis in the Western hemisphere" -- never mind Venezuela or Cuba or Haiti.

we deserve better... a LOT better...

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