Ala. judge OKs new witness in Colombian killing case vs Drummond

Source: Associated Press

Ala. judge OKs new witness in Colombian killing case vs Drummond
By JAY REEVES
Associated Press Writer
Last Updated:April 30. 2007 3:58PM

A federal judge ruled Monday a union suing an Alabama coal producer over the killing of three labor leaders in Colombia can offer testimony from a newly discovered witness who claims the company was linked to a paramilitary group blamed in the deaths.

The Alabama-based Drummond Co. sought to bar jurors from hearing claims by Edwin Manuel Guzman. The former Colombian army sergeant contends the company was tied to paramilitaries that allegedly shot the men to death in 2001 at the direction of Drummond.
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The decision came as the United Steelworkers said it had asked U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to join the Colombian government in an investigation of alleged links between paramilitaries, Drummond and Drummond Ltd., the Colombian arm of the coal company.

The request cited a report last week by The Associated Press that a retired Colombian army colonel accused of conspiring to assassinate President Alvaro Uribe's most vocal critic worked for the U.S. Embassy two years ago. The retired officer, Julian Villate, is now employed by Drummond.



Read more: http://www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070430/APN/704301341&cachetime=5

This news is coming out over and over again in the last year or more from Colombia, a charge various people are making against BOTH the paramilitaries and the Colombian (directly aided by U.S. taxpayers' assistance: the THIRD largest foreign aid assistance from the U.S. in the world, right behind Israel and Egypt) military.

As has been written in previous articles, even the military has brought in bodies they have dressed in other clothes and pretended they were rebels, not to mention the reports that started coming out longer ago concerning the paramilitaries. THEY HAVE BEEN LYING ABOUT THE COLOMBIAN RESISTANCE. Undoubtedly as long as they are fighting, they will require big chunks of change from us suckers, the deluded fools who have to pay our income tax or go to jail!

As you have seen, if you read the articles on the Colombian paramilitaries, they slaughter the villagers relentlessly, sometimes using chainsaws, and they claim they're killing rebels, and rebel sympathizers. They never err. So many enemies!

The secret witness (in witness protection, god willing) in the trial against the Birmingham-based coal company (which closed all its Alabama coal mines, putting hordes of miners out of work, then imported the wildly cheap Colombian coal to sell to Alabamians, to add insult to injury) Drummond Company made this statement already:

Guzman has been in a witness protection program in a case involving extrajudicial killings allegedly ordered by his former commander in the region. He says paramilitaries would turn over corpses to members of his unit whom his commander would then register as guerrilla deaths.

In a decade or two, Americans (the ones who care to listen) will finally know what kind of nastiness has been going on in Colombia all this time, using their own taxes, and they won't be impressed.

Steelworkers want AG to probe Drummond links
Posted by Birmingham News business staff
April 30, 2007 2:48 PM

The United Steelworkers International union wants U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to join Colombian authorities in an investigation of links between Birmingham-based Drummond Coal Co. and paramilitaries in the South American country.

The union's request came as Gonzales and Colombian Attorney General Mario Iguaran were scheduled to meet today in Washington, D.C., about the alleged support of U.S. companies for the paramilitary group known as AUC.

"We urge the U.S. Justice Department to join Mr. Iguaran in commencing its own investigation of Drummond's paramilitary ties," Steelworkers President Leo W. Gerard says in a letter to Gonzales.

Gerard said a probe is made all the more crucial by allegations from Bogota last week that a Drummond security official, retired Col. Julian Villate, was involved in a plot to murder Sen. Gustavo Petro.

Since 2002, the Steelworkers have been involved in a lawsuit in Birmingham federal court against Drummond stemming from the slayings of union leaders Valmore Locarno, Victor Orcasita and Gustavo Soler in Colombia.
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http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2007/04/steelworkers_want_ag_to_probe.html