http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/all-the-presidents-nazis_b_102022.html
McCain Backer's Firm Pleaded Guilty To Funding Terrorist Group In
Colombia
July 2, 2008 03:07 AM
Read More: Charlie Black Chiquita, John Mccain Carl Lindner Jr, Lindner
Chiquita, Lindner Fundraiser, Lindner Jr Mccain, Mccain Chiquita Banana,
Mccain Colombia, Mccain Colombia Trip, Mccain FARC, McCain Fundraiser,
Mccain Terrorist Groups,
The co-host of a recent top-dollar fundraiser for Sen. John McCain
oversaw the payment of roughly $1.7 million to a Colombian paramilitary
group that is today designated a terrorist organization by the United
States.
Carl H. Lindner Jr., the billionaire Cincinnati businessman, was CEO of
Chiquita Brands International from 1984 to 2001, and remained on the
company's board of directors until May 2002. Beginning under his tenure,
Chiquita executives paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the United
Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (known by the Spanish acronym AUC), which
is described by George Wa****ngton University's National Security Archive
as an "illegal right-wing anti-guerrilla group tied to many of the
country's most notorious civilian massacres."
Following a Justice Department indictment last year, Chiquita admitted to
illegally funding the paramilitaries and agreed to pay a $25 million
fine. Chiquita's payments to the AUC began in 1997 and lasted seven
years; roughly half of the funds came after the group was designated a
Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department in 2001.
According to the Justice Department, the payments "were reviewed and
approved by senior executives" of Chiquita, who knew by no later than
September 2000 "that the AUC was a violent, paramilitary organization."
Late last week, Lindner co-hosted a $25,000-per-person fundraiser for
McCain and the Republican Party in the wealthy Indian Hills neighborhood
of Cincinnati, Ohio. The event raised about $2 million; Lindner also
serves on McCain's Ohio Victory Team.
While Lindner was CEO of Chiquita, the company began sending money to the
AUC through its ****pping subsidiary Banadex. A re****t by the Organization
of American States states that Banadex also engaged in arms trafficking,
helping to deliver 3,000 Nicaraguan AK-47 rifles and millions of rounds
of ammunition to the AUC in 2001. According to federal prosecutors, when
company officials realized the arrangement was illegal, they switched to
making the payments in cash.
"We believe they saved people's lives," a Chiquita spokesman told Time
magazine last year, alleging that the company was simply trying to avoid
violence against their employees.
Chiquita's funding of violent paramilitaries does not end with the
right-wing AUC. The fruit giant "had been making similar payments to the
leftist FARC and ELN guerrillas" since 1989, also on Lindner's watch.
Those payments ended in 1997 as "control of the company's banana-growing
area ****fted" to the AUC, according to the Associated Press.
McCain, who is currently visiting Colombia to promote free trade, has
described FARC as "one of the worst" terrorist groups and accused his
opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, of being unwilling to sup****t Colombian
President Uribe's anti-terrorist efforts.
That the Arizona Republican is raising funds from a man whose company
once paid that very same terrorist group seems likely to sully his
charge.
Aides to the Senator did not return request for comment, though they have
repeatedly argued that the campaign does not have direct connections to
companies represented by such fundraisers or advisers and, as such,
should not be held accountable for their actions or presumed to be
persuaded by their interests.
However, in the past, McCain has done favors on Lindner's behalf. Last
May, the Wa****ngton Post re****ted that in the late 1990s, McCain
"promoted a deal in Arizona's Tonto National Forest involving property
part-owned by Great American Life Insurance, a company run by billionaire
Carl H. Lindner Jr., a prolific contributor to national political parties
and presidential candidates."
Moreover, McCain's chief political adviser, Charlie Black, lobbied for
Chiquita on two separate occasions in 2001. According to records, Black
was paid $80,000 to work on foreign trade issues.
Black, as the Huffington Post re****ted on Tuesday, has represented other
controversial clients with operations in Colombia. From 2001 through
2007, his work brought his firm more than $1.6 million in lobbying fees
from Occidental Petroleum, a company whose security arm was accused of
bombing a Colombian village and killing 17 civilians in 1998.
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