OPINION:
Unfortunately, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) seems to have lowered its standards. One need only read CFR fellow Joel Hirst’s astonishing smear of Colombia in a recent article in The Washington Times (“Deal struck to break logjam to Colombia free-trade pact,” Economy, Thursday).
Mr. Hirst called the recent U.S.-Colombia free-trade pact agreement “a shame,” effectively slamming Colombia in an area - extradition - in which Colombia is, in fact, a model U.S. treaty partner. If all U.S. extradition partners were as energetic as Colombia, fugitives truly would have nowhere to hide.
Colombians have paid an enormous price in blood and treasure to be our extradition partners. Colombian treaty negotiators have been assassinated by the cartels, and honest Colombian cops and judges have been forced from their native land by cartel death threats. While our government navel-gazed on the U.S.-Colombia free-trade agreement, Colombian policeman, soldiers, prosecutors and civilians were killed by narco-insurgents using arsenals paid for with bulk shipments of American cocaine dollars.
How could a genuine CFR fellow ignore such compelling facts? How could anyone?
RICHARD J. DOUGLAS
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counternarcotics
College Park, Md.
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