The Bush Administration's massive emergency supplemental bill for global counter-terrorism will reach the House floor sometime this week or the week after (Senate action will come shortly).  This bill will give the administration the funding to engage in an unending war against "enemies" of every kind,  from Colombia to Iraq to the Philippines to....

For example, this bill has a section on Colombia which, if passed, would add some $35 million more in military aid for this year (including a $6 million down payment on a project to protect an oil pipeline owned by Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum) and would expand what past and current aid can be used for.

Last week, the House Appropriations Committee maintained that human rights and fumigation restrictions be kept in place on aid to Colombia.   Currently, US aid in Colombia is limited to counter-drug activities in a small area in the south; but the expanded mission would allow the aid to be used to "fight terrorism" anywhere in Colombia, and will likely go to support the Colombian government's war against the FARC.  This is a massive shift in policy that will pull the US further into Colombia's civil war.  It rewards the brutal human rights record of the Colombian military.  The administration does not want it debated.  Many congressional offices tell us that they are still waiting to hear from constituents on this issue.  We need to make our voices heard!

ACTION
Call or write your representative before May 16.
202-224-3132 (Congressional Switchboard)
www.congress.org (enter your zip code)

Ask to speak with your rep's foreign policy staffer.  Urge him or her to oppose the entire global counter-terrorism bill because it supports global war without restrictions.  Also urge them to support the Skelton-McGovern Amendment, or any other amendment, which stops monies focused upon expanding the US mission in Colombia.

SUGGESTED MESSAGE
"My name is...., and I live in (..town & state).  I am calling about the Emergency Supplemental Bill on Counterterrorism, which will voted on next week.  I ask that Representative .......... oppose the Bill in its entirety because it expands the war beyond all reasonable limits.  I also ask that s/he support the Skelton-McGovern Amendment that would remove part of the bill that expands the US mission in Colombia from  counter-drugs to counter-terrorism.  Also, please support other amendments that limit military aid to Colombia.  Funding the Colombian military will not help protect civilians against violence, and could make things worse."

ADDITIONAL TALKING POINTS
1) The Colombian military maintains close, high-level ties to brutal right-wing paramilitary groups, who are responsible for the majority of civilian killings in Colombia each year. The paramilitaries are on the US terrorist list.  It does not make sense to send anti-terrorism aid to a military that works with a terrorist group.
2) The Colombian military often ignores civilian pleas for protection, instead giving the paramilitaries free reign to go into areas with a FARC presence.  But the paramilitaries also target civilians-- human rights workers, teachers, union leaders, etc-- who are not affiliated with the FARC.  As long as the military allows these brutal killings to take place and refuses to uphold its duty to protect civilians against violence by any armed actor, our aid is not going to help.  Rather than making the military more 'efficient' or 'professional,' the aid sends a terrible message that it's ok for a military to ignore the security of its own civilians and use illegal militias to fight their war.  While FARC violence is atrocious and intolerable, funding the Colombian military for their war against the FARC at this point will not help protect civilians against violence, and could make things worse.
3) As US aid expands to cover counter-terrorism as well as counter-drug activities, the chances that our tax dollars will get into the hands of the paramilitary groups also expand.
 4) The war between the FARC and the government has been going on for 40 years, and 400,000 civilians have died.  To try to defeat the FARC militarily is clearly a difficult task, and US aid is not going to make the difference.  Colombia is 53 times the size of El Salvador, where US counterinsurgency efforts in the 1980s cost $6 billion and 70,000 Salvadoran
civilians lost their lives.  Are we willing to risk a bloodbath of unimaginable proportions in Colombia?  A negotiated political solution will go much further at limiting violence against civilians than more military aid will.