The FARC-NGO connection

Mary Anastasia O'Grady:

As the U.S. prepares to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan on a mission that will include defending a civilian population in a narco-economy, Colombia's experience with drug traffickers and terrorism may be instructive.

The testimony of the former second in command of the 5th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which operates in the banana-growing, drug-trafficking region known as Urabá, could serve as Lesson One.

Ex-guerrilla commander Daniel Sierra Martinez—known by the nom de guerre "Samir"—turned himself in to Colombian authorities in December 2008 in response to President Álvaro Uribe's national reconciliation offer. In exchange for a reduced prison sentence, he had to come clean about what he did in over two decades in the FARC. Last week Colombian authorities agreed to let him sit down with me and talk about his rebel experience.

Samir gave me an earful about the FARC's cocaine business and its exploitation of civilians in zones designated by "nongovernmental organizations" as "peace communities." He also told me that the supposed peaceniks who ran the local NGO were his allies and an important FARC tool in the effort to discredit the military.

In a September 2003 speech, President Uribe expressed his concern about the possibility that some "human rights" groups are actually fronts for terrorists. The international left, including Sen. Chris Dodd (D., Conn.), jumped all over the Colombian president for making that claim. But Mr. Uribe's comments were supported by information gathered by Colombian intelligence. Now, testimony from Samir, and countless others who have come in from the jungle, gives Mr. Uribe's charges further backing.

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Samir says that the peace community was a FARC safe haven for wounded and sick rebels and for storing medical supplies. He also says that suppliers to the FARC met with rebels in the town, where there were also always five or six members of the Peace Brigades International.

According to Samir, the peace community helped the FARC in its effort to tag the Colombian military as a violator of human rights. When the community was getting ready to accuse someone of a human-rights violation, Samir would organize the "witnesses" by ordering FARC members, posing as civilians, to give testimony.

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There is more.

The same thing is happening with the Palestinians and the NGOs. That is one reason I sometimes refer to them as human rights wackos. Many are really left wing sympathizers and front groups.

While the truth is slipping out, do not expect many in the left wing media to acknowledge it.