TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/091189/09118900.048

Text File | 1990-09-17 | 4KB | 70 lines

NATION, Page 26

The Israeli Connection


    Could a battlewise reserve Israeli army officer who once headed
an elite antiterror unit train hit squads for Colombia's drug lords
without knowing precisely what he was up to? Could the Israeli
government, which has contracts to sell jet fighter planes to
Colombia and has intelligence sources in that country, not know
what the officer was doing? Last week both the officer and
Jerusalem said the answer to those questions was yes.

    London also shrugged off responsibility even as it confirmed
earlier reports that eleven British mercenaries had trained drug
bomb teams in Colombia. Its Foreign Office contended that only
Colombia could punish the instructors, since British law does not
cover such foreign adventures.

    Reliable sources in Colombia, however, suggest a convoluted
Israeli involvement in the drug wars. According to their account,
reserve Lieut. Colonel Yair Klein, 46, failed in several attempts
in 1987 to persuade the Colombian government to use the services
of his private military training firm, Hod Hahanit (Spearhead). But
the gruff former paratrooper met another reserve Israeli officer,
Colonel Mariot Shoshani, in Bogota. Shoshani, a flamboyant
businessman who attended social events with a live snake peeking
out of his handkerchief pocket, knew the country far better than
Klein did. He drew Klein into a plan to help a banana firm protect
itself and its farm suppliers from leftist guerrillas. Klein
investigated but was unable to close a deal. The two Israelis then
offered to train Colombia's internal-security service (DAS) in
self-defense tactics but were turned down.

    In February 1988 the resourceful Shoshani had another idea. He
suggested that they help cattle ranchers in the Middle Magdalena
area fend off harassing guerrillas. Shoshani says he met with two
Colombian army officers and conferred with a Colombian Senator. All
urged him to provide the training. Next he and Klein met some of
the farmers, officials of their bank and the same two army
officers. It was widely known in Colombia that many ranches in the
area were owned by Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, one of the top
leaders of the Medellin drug cartel.

    The sources claim that Klein was offered $800,000 in American
dollars, to be picked up in cash in the U.S., for three training
courses of three weeks each. The first, finished in March 1988,
used four additional Israeli instructors to train about 50 men.
Klein and the instructors returned for a similar session in March
of this year. All had been officers of elite commando units. Klein
was so pleased with the training that he asked that a videotape be
made of it.

    During this session, a few of the recruits deserted and leaked
word in Bogota of what was going on. The Israeli embassy warned
Klein that he was in trouble, and in April he slipped into Brazil.
Two weeks later, DAS forces raided the training base, found the
videotape and gave it to Colombian TV. After Colombia's leading
presidential candidate, Senator Luis Carlos Galan, was killed last
month, the tapes were broadcast worldwide. The Israeli government
then ordered a belated investigation into whether Klein and other
Israelis had knowingly trained assassins.

    Klein insists he was offered only $20,000 for each course and
that he accepted the deal only after poor ranchers near Puerto
Boyaca tearfully begged him to help protect them. He told TIME,
"The best investigators in the world questioned me, and they came
to the conclusion that I was not involved in drugs." Said Israeli
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir: "It's unpleasant to hear about
Israelis involved in such ugly business, but there are Israelis all
over the world doing things the state cannot be held responsible
for."