Investor’s Business Daily posts on the Washington Post’s editorial, and calls their Yellow Journalism,
Just days before the U.S.-Colombia free trade pact heads for a vote, the Washington Post publishes a story claiming Colombia’s miracle is a sham. This is a smear unworthy of the name “journalism.”
Topping the front page in its Sunday edition with “A case of aid gone bad in Colombia,” the Post attempted to rewrite history by claiming the U.S.’s $8 billion Plan Colombia military program that broke the back of its drug cartels was really … a waste.
Pay no attention to the safety, security and economic growth that have made Colombia such an attractive partner for a free trade treaty expected to go to a vote in September. And definitely pay no attention to the 80%-plus popularity of President Alvaro Uribe among Colombians who see him as their Lincoln.
The Post would have you believe Plan Colombia and Uribe’s extraordinary leadership are tainted by corruption, that U.S. military aid should end and that a trade pact is out of the question. The Post’s smear job is nothing but a last-ditch effort to discredit Uribe and derail free trade.
The Post claims American cash, equipment and elite training were used in spying operations against Colombia’s Supreme Court, political opponents and civil society groups.
Quoting three jailed Colombian officials, two ex-U.S. diplomats who served well before Plan Colombia, an anonymous embassy official, Wikileaks and two no-comments from CIA and Uribe spokesmen, there’s not a single fact supporting a claim that U.S. money was wasted or abused. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: The State Department explicitly denies misuse of its aid, and notes that the allegations have been stale for years.
The Post even admits that Colombian prosecutors claim no U.S. wrongdoing.
