"Teddy Bear"
Unstuffed
"Get De Greiff"
Lobby Stumbles Again
January 1, 2001
Narco News 2001
The Narco News
Bulletin: narconews.com
"The Name
of Our Country is América" - Simón Bolívar
Colombian Hero Still
Towers Over His Attackers
Gustavo
De Greiff Started the Legalization Debate
US Authorities
Attacked the Colombian Attorney General
Now,
a Career Criminal Recycles the Untrue Attacks
A Fact
Check is in Order
by Al Giordano
Updated
January 3rd: De Greiff Speaks
Another
career criminal is trying to gain release
by telling false stories that his captors want to hear.
This time it is Roberto Escobar, with
the unfortunate criminal nickname of "Osito," that
is to say, "The Teddy Bear," who, in a new book written
from captivity, "My Brother Pablo," is repeating charges
against former Attorney General Gustavo De Greiff that were disproved
more than six years ago.
How do we know the charges are false?
Because the publisher of Narco News
reported the 1994 Boston Phoenix story that documented
the falsity of the exact same claim now being recycled by "The
Teddy Bear" in an attempt to get out of jail.
According to El Tiempo of December
22, 2000, "Teddy Bear" Escobar claims in his book:
… that the drug capo
(Pablo Escobar) delivered $500,000 dollars to De Greiff to "change
his position" in the case of Dandeny Muñoz Mosquera,
"La Quica," one of the hitmen of the Medellin cartel
and prisoner in the United States.
"La Quica" is
imprisoned in the United States accused of being the material
author of the attack against the Avianca airplane from Bogotá
to Cali on November 27, 1993, when 107 passengers and crew died.
According to "The
Teddy Bear," Pablo Escobar sent one of his lawyers, Salomón
Lozano, from Medellín to Bogotá to meet with then
Attorney General Gustavo De Greiff.
"Pablo decided to
personally contact Gustavo De Greiff, the Attorney General of
Colombia. Dr. Losana, criminal attorney, was received in his
office on 35th Street near the National Park."
"With his lawyer,
he sent to Dr. De Greiff a letter with precise instructions.
The letter from my brother offered him $500,000 dollars in exchange
that De Greiff would change his posture in the case of "La
Quica" and sent a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno
exonerating "La Quica" of all responsibility for the
attack.
"De Greiff complied
with his part and Pablo with his. Days later he sent him the
money in cash in two leather suitcases," says the book.
Back
in 1994, the same accusation was made
by members of Janet Reno's Justice Department and by US Senator
John Kerry, egged on by an errant staff member who had once told
Senator Tim Wirth in front of witnesses, "we gotta get De
Greiff."
They wanted to "get" De Greiff
-- whom the US government had previously praised as a drug war
hero for apprehending the Medellín Cartel boss Escobar
-- because, in 1993, De Greiff had called for the legalization
of drugs as the only way to beat the cocaine cartels.
De Greiff thus became the first Latin
American leader to openly challenge US drug policy. And the Narco-State
-- a system that needs censorship to survive -- attacked him
viciously for it.
The US Justice Department got an informant
to claim that De Greiff held a "secret meeting" with
attorneys for a drug trafficker and terrorist. And they claimed
that "secret meeting" led to a letter by De Greiff
to the trafficker's defense attorney in New York exonerating
the terrorist.
Now, "The Teddy Bear" Escobar
has distorted the story farther, claiming that the letter to
the attorney was a letter to US Attorney General Janet Reno,
and that a bribe was involved.
"The Teddy Bear" offers no evidence.
Just his word as an internationally renowned criminal and little
brother to a criminal legend.
The 1994 story, "Friendly Fire: John
Kerry Stumbles in the Drug War," (May 4, 1994, The Boston
Phoenix) documented:
- That the "secret
meeting" was not secret and in fact public documents were
immediately sent to other Colombian government officials reporting
on the meeting.
- That the meeting was
required by Colombian law, which stated that the Attorney General
must meet with attorneys of any defendant seeking amnesty under
the law.
- That the "Amnesty
Law" was approved with the endorsement of the US government.
De Greiff himself had nothing to do with the passage of that
US-backed law. De Greiff, as attorney general, adhered strictly
to the law.
- That the letter in question
was solicited not by Reno, but by a New York defense attorney
for "La Quica." The defense had written to the Colombian
attorney general with a request known as "derecho a petición"
under Colombian law. That's something similar to the discovery
process in US courts, in which a defendant has a right to exculpatory
information. De Greiff was then required by the laws of his country
to disclose that there was not sufficient evidence in Colombia
to convict the defendant of the airplane bombing.
Because
sunlight is the best disinfectant,
The Narco News Bulletin repeats these facts before lazy
and unethical "journalists" start repeating the recycled
lies as CNN Español has already done.
De Greiff is the man who broke the Medellín
Cartel. He also stood up to the US government.
"The Teddy Bear" is a typical
criminal informant, singing whatever tune he thinks that the
Clinton and Pastrana governments want to hear in order to gain
his release.
"The Teddy Bear" is also extremely
stupid, because he chose to recycle a charge that was already
disproved with documents.
The songs of professional informants like
Roberto Escobar or Sarkis
Soghanalian sing volumes about the corrupted priorities of
the US and other governments.
Governments don't often admit their real
agendas. The professional criminal-informants, however, reveal
the motives of Washington and other capitals through the lies
that they choose to tell. The statements by informants like "The
Teddy Bear" or Soghanalian are, in a sense, more revealing
than any State Department news briefing session. Whereas governments
have interest to hide their true agendas, snitches respond to
the true priorities of governments and end up spilling the beans.
"The Teddy Bear" is singing
this song because he knows that US officials are desperate to
silence the growing Latin American drug legalization movement.
They wish to remind leaders like President
Jorge Batlle of Uruguay -- and some heads of state that agree
with his pro-legalization position but have not yet spoken --
of how they smeared De Greiff. And "Teddy Bear" Escobar
thinks he can get out of jail by pleasing the corrupt Narco-States
of Bogotá and Washington with his song against De Greiff.
The censorious drug warriors count on
lazy and unethical "journalists" like some at CNN Español,
which recently repeated these recycled and discredited charges.
But De Greiff - who, in 1997 became Colombian
Ambassador to Mexico over the loud objections of the US government
- is still standing, his credibility intact.
Kerry, Reno and the others in Washington
backed away from this trumped-up charge six years ago because
they had already embarrassed themselves by getting caught in
their falsehood.
The Narco News Bulletin extends its congratulations to Gustavo De Greiff
for his continued honesty, forthrightness and courage in the
face of these attacks.
De Greiff is a statesman. His critics
are professional informants, or worse, dishonest politicians
waging a dirty war against their own people.
Narco News, yesterday, reached De Greiff
at the Colegio de México, where he is a respected academic
leader. De Greiff said, "I have requested of the Colombian
Prosecutor General that he conduct an investigation on this matter."
"Except for revenge or trying to
win favor from DEA," he noted of Escobar's possible motives,
"I can not imagine how
anyone can invent such lies."
Review De Greiff's response, also published
that same day in El Tiempo, and note its openness and
forthrightness:
Yesterday, De Greiff,
former Ambassador to Mexico, where he resides, emphatically denied
the accusations by Escobar and said that it was a lie and that
he is ready to appear at any moment before Colombian authorities.
"All that I have to say is that the statement of this individual,
a crook, is absolutely and totally false as it pertains to me."
"My life is open
to any investigation by any legal authority in my country."
"Certainly, he is
attempting revenge for the decisive role of the Attorney General,
of my conduct in the dismantling of the so-called Medellín
cartel that ended in the death of the brother of the accuser,"
said De Greiff.
History
continues to shine upon Gustavo De
Greiff, a bona fide drug war hero, the man who laid the groundwork
that Uruguay President Jorge Batlle can walk today.
The latest maneuver, getting a crook to
repeat discredited charges, reveals the desperation of the drug
warriors in trying to censor and silence the truth about the
failed war on drugs.
Thus, as they lose the war, they have
lost another battle to distort the facts and the truth. Gustavo
De Greiff is a thousand times bigger than his dishonest accusers.
That's why they attack him. It's the envy and jealousy that the
corrupt and small have for the great and honest men and women
of history.
Keeping Historic
Memory Alive in Our América