This World Private War Tx Date: 9th November 2004 This script was made from audio tape � any inaccuracies are due to voices being unclear or inaudible 10.00.00 Music 10.00.05 Max Jourdan February the thirteenth, two thousand and three. A single engine Cessna packed with secret surveillance equipment is on a dangerous mission over the jungle. 10.00.12 Music 10.00.16 Max Jourdan On board some highly skilled crew; decorated war heroes who flew in Vietnam. Their mission; to seek out cocaine labs and guerrillas. 10.00.23 Music 10.00.29 Max Jourdan What�s about to happen will expose a litany of failures, a lead to claims of corporate greed at the heart of America�s privatised military machine. 10.00.36 Music 10.00.46 Title Page PRIVATE WAR 10.00.54 Max Jourdan America�s fighting battles on many fronts and that�s created a bonanza for private contractors. From Bosnia to Afghanistan and Iraq; they�re doing everything but the fighting. 10.01.06 Max Jourdan In Colombia they�re at the heart of America�s war on drugs. 10.01.11 Max Jourdan I�m on a Colombian military base to see some of America�s private army of contractors hired to destroy cocaine. 10.01.19 Max Jourdan America has spent three point three billion dollars here. Most of it on military hardware and troop training. It was from a base like this that the Cessna took off on its ill-fated mission. 10.01.33 Max Jourdan I was shown around on condition that we didn�t reveal the men�s faces. It could put their lives in danger. 10.01.40 Max Jourdan The basic thing is you�ve got some spray planes and around the spray planes you�ve got, what, gun ships? 10.01.45 Man We have gun ships, we have a search and rescue helicopter and we have what we call our quick response force. 10.01.51 Max Jourdan The spray planes regularly get shot at. The job is well paid but dangerous. 10.01.56 Man We could take this aircraft here for instance and well, here�s one impact, another impact. Here, there�s where they came out. They patched here and here and over here. 10.02.09 Max Jourdan The attacks on the spray planes show just how blurred the line has become between the war on drugs and the fight against Colombia�s guerrillas. 10.02.17 Man Oh yeah! On this other side here. There�s one over there. 10.02.25 Max Jourdan Pinpointing the coca fields, and the guerrillas, is done through aerial surveillance. The eight point six million dollar contract is in the hands of the Northrop Grumman Corporation. 10.02.42 Music 10.02.45 Max Jourdan On the morning of February the thirteenth, two thousand and three, the Northrop Grumman Cessna was flying directly above elite units of FARC guerrillas when its engine cut out. 10.02.53 Music 10.02.54 Aston Reconstruction 10.02.57 Max Jourdan The plane crash landed on the side of a hill. 10.02.59 Music 10.03.03 Max Jourdan Two of the crew were killed by trigger happy guerrillas; the other three were taken hostage. 10.03.07 Music 10.03.13 Max Jourdan For eighteen months they have been the prisoners of the FARC; a seventeen thousand strong revolutionary army fighting for control of Colombia. 10.03.27 Max Jourdan A Colombian journalist was recently allowed access to the guerrilla hideout, to film the survivors. 10.03.38 Aston KEITH STANSELL Hostage You sit day in and day out and I look at my two friends here and at the end of the day we think to ourselves, we�re alive another day. Will we be alive tomorrow? Do we have a future? 10.03.51 Aston MARC GONSALVES Hostage Mum I�ve got your message and I thank you for doing what you had to to get that message sent to me. I love you too and I want you to know that I am being strong. Don�t worry about me, just continue on with life and I�ll be there one day. 10.04.07 Max Jourdan And for relatives watching at home, this was the first proof of life of their loved ones. 10.04.13 Aston JO ROSANO Hostage�s mother One day he said to me; Mum, there�s a company down in Colombia that offered me this much money. I would have to be there twenty-eight days and fourteen days home and I would have to be flying a small plane. And that�s when my heart jumped. And I said; Marc, what if they shoot at you? And he said; No don�t worry mum, they won�t. 10.04.34 Music 10.04.37 Max Jourdan The hostages spoke of their miraculous escape. 10.04.39 Music 10.04.41 Keith Stansell I heard the engine just make a distinct sound as far as quitting. It just, it quit; it got real quiet. The pilot, Tom Janis, who is deceased, said; Sir, that's an engine failure. 10.04.56 Keith Stansell All just talked very quickly to each other, we didn�t have much time. I made contact on the radio with our base and I declared a Mayday and I said; we�re going to crash. I remember when we hit the ground, the airplane opening up and dirt and debris flying inside. 10.05.17 Keith Stansell At the same time I exited the aircraft I looked and I heard gunshots and the FARC were on the ground. They were shooting into the air; they did not shoot at us. 10.05.28 Max Jourdan In an emergency such as this every second counts. 10.05.32 Max Jourdan Just five minutes flying time away is a military base. It has search and rescue helicopter gun ships with crews specially trained for exactly this kind of emergency. And they were ready to go. 10.05.43 Helicopter 10.05.47 Max Jourdan All they needed was an order to launch. 10.05.50 John McLaughlin We could have got them out. We had many cases where we effected rescues and even pried guys out of very difficult contact situations with the FARC. 10.06.00 Helicopter 10.06.02 Max Jourdan As the Cessna crew prepared to crash land, the search and rescue teams waited for an order to launch from their superiors. Fifteen minutes later they were still waiting. 10.06.11 Helicopter 10.06.15 Max Jourdan John McLaughlin was Commander of the State Department Air Wing. He�s agreed to talk to us on camera for the first time. 10.06.22 Aston JOHN McLAUGHLIN Ex-Commander US State Dept Air Wing The problem there was the absence of a pre-approved agreement among all the participants on how to launch a rescue team to get out in an emergency situation to get out and pick those guys up. 10.06.37 Helicopter 10.06.44 John McLaughlin By the time they arrived overhead the crews of the gun ships observed the other three fellows being led away by the FARC. 10.06.51 Helicopter 10.06.54 Max Jourdan The plight of the Cessna crew led to suspicions that their civilian status had left them vulnerable. 10.07.01 John McLaughlin The fact that we were dealing with contractors rather than active duty US military personnel had something to do with it. If you had military guys flying the mission they would have the full weight of DOD behind them ensuring that all the things needed for air safety would be in place before they take on such a mission. 10.07.20 Max Jourdan So were these guys just out on a limb basically, would you say? 10.07.23 John McLaughlin To some extent, yes. 10.07.24 Music 10.07.26 Max Jourdan Within days of the crash Northrop Grumman, the hostages employers, set about distancing themselves from the programme. The project managers quickly formed a new company and transferred all the men to it. 10.07.39 Max Jourdan They named it CIAO. Spelt out it reads C I A O. 10.07.43 Music 10.07.47 Soldier Subtitle The commandante says you are CIA agents 10.07.55 Keith Stansell No! No! We�re civilian contractors. This company Ciao; is that it? C I A O; it looks like almost a Spanish word. It seems that our contract was awarded after we crashed so we don�t know who they are. We never worked for them. The government of the United States awards contracts to big companies and they send people down here to work and that�s what we did. 10.08.31 Max Jourdan This is Tommy Schmidt, another Northrop Grumman pilot. His task was to look for the hostages. 10.08.39 Aston SHARON SCHMIDT Tommy had been shot down five times in Vietnam and always rescued by his comrades and he couldn�t allow his comrades to be on the ground and not at least make the attempt to rescue them. 10.08.55 Max Jourdan Tommy Schmidt was told by e-mail he was being transferred from Northrop Grumman to work for the new company CIAO. 10.09.04 Sharon Schmidt Tommy was very upset; using the initials CIA in a name and would never have stood for it. 10.09.13 Max Jourdan A few days later Tommy was sent on a night mission in search of the hostages. His plane crashed on a ridge as it took off in the dark, killing everyone on board. 10.09.26 Sharon Schmidt Tommy believed that what he was doing in Colombia was the right thing and he tried as hard as he could to stay out of dangers way. 10.09.37 Max Jourdan To add insult to injury Northrop Grumman claimed that Tommy had no longer been working for them. 10.09.43 Sharon Schmidt Tommy had a contract with Northrop Grumman that had nine months to be renewed. There is no contract between my husband and C I A O. 10.09.56 Music 10.09.59 Max Jourdan According to legal documents, just hours after the crash, vital paperwork was taken from Tommy�s apartment in Bogota. 10.10.06 Music 10.10.09 Sharon Schmidt It was my apartment too and without my permission removed items that I believe would have proved that my husband did in fact work for a subsidiary of the Northrop Grumman Corporation. 10.10.24 Max Jourdan Within a month Northrop Grumman had lost two planes. Five of its men were dead and three had been taken hostage. 10.10.32 Max Jourdan And even before the dead were buried it was off- loading its Colombian mission to yet another sub- contractor. 10.10.40 Max Jourdan Who is Northrop Grumman? And what was wrong at Northrop Grumman? 10.10.44 Voice over Information, transmitted to all the right people. So, if a tree falls here, everyone will know. Northrop Grumman; defining the future. 10.10.57 Max Jourdan Northrop Grumman is America�s fifth biggest defence contractor with annual sales of twenty-six billion dollars. It makes everything from nuclear warships to spacecraft. 10.11.07 Music 10.11.07 Voice over Information warfare; bring it on. 10.11.11 Max Jourdan Northrop Grumman is also the company that created the B2 Stealth Bomber. 10.11.15 Music 10.11.17 Voice over Northrop Grumman; defining the Future. 10.11.22 Max Jourdan And this is where it came to get the planes it used in Colombia; a scrap yard. 10.11.31 Max Jourdan Why was the space age company behind the Stealth Bomber shopping for planes here? 10.11.37 Music 10.11.39 Max Jourdan No one at Northrop Grumman or CIAO was willing to see me. But there was a whistle blower. He�d flown US anti-drug missions for thirty years before becoming lead pilot for Northrop Grumman in Colombia; Douglas Cockes. 10.11.53 Douglas Cockes Max; I�m Doug. Good to see you. 10.11.56 Max Jourdan He told me the planes were perfectly airworthy; the problem was the choice of single engine plane flown over mountains and jungle at night. 10.12.02 Music 10.12.03 Aston DOUGLAS COCKES Former Northrop Grumman pilot A couple of times I was told the profit on the contract for Northrop Grumman was thirty-four percent. Now they could have had maybe a thirty percent profit and had a twin engine aeroplane, reduced the risk by ninety-seven percent. They weren�t interested in losing that two percent profit or whatever the percent was that they�d lose. I really can�t fathom what they were thinking. Was it really just an extra four or five hundred thousand dollars in a twenty-nine billion dollar corporation? I can�t imagine that. 10.12.31 Pilot on radio 10.12.34 Douglas Cockes It was inexcusable that they chose a single engine aeroplane. In a hostile environment, even if you survived the crash, since our targeting was usually lab, drug lab related and they were usually protected by the guerrillas, the odds were we�re gonna be crashing and if we survived the crash we get to try and deal with the guerrillas. If we had a twin engine aeroplane there would have been, if you lost an engine it would be a non-event. Just feather the engine, continue the flight to the nearest suitable landing airport, land the aircraft and everybody goes home safe. 10.13.10 Music 10.13.12 Max Jourdan Doug wrote warning letters to his bosses at Northrop Grumman. He was accused of having a negative attitude and the missions still got more dangerous. 10.13.20 Music 10.13.22 Douglas Cockes Dear Sirs; this rebuttal letter addresses fundamental breakdowns in safety of flight and� 10.13.26 Douglas Cockes The failure to address these safety concerns will catch up to the company and could possibly result in loss of human life and significant� 10.13.35 Max Jourdan It wasn�t long before Doug got an answer. He was demoted. And soon after he quit. 10.13.43 Douglas Cockes These are warning signs that are telling us if we don�t change the operation we could kill people. And we did. We did. 10.13.53 Music 10.14.00 Max Jourdan It�s been eighteen months since the hostages were taken and there�s no sign of an imminent release. 10.14.05 Music 10.14.07 Max Jourdan Jo Rosano, the mother of one of the hostages, has come to Bogota in an attempt to get the Colombian government to negotiate for her son�s release. 10.14.14 Music 10.14.18 Jo Rosano It seems like the US government isn�t doing much of anything to get the release of these men. These men were doing the dirty work for the US military and here we are a year and a half down the road and nothing�s happened. These men are still captives. 10.14.44 Demonstration 10.14.47 Max Jourdan Her first stop; a demonstration outside Colombia�s Congress building. 10.14.50 Demonstration 10.14.57 Max Jourdan Relatives of the three thousand hostages held by the guerrillas are angry their government isn�t doing more to get them released. 10.15.05 Max Jourdan Some of these families have not seen their loved ones for seven years or more. 10.15.10 Jo Rosano Since I heard of my son�s capture, I�ve been trying to do public awareness that maybe the US government will wake up and say; yes, we will help these men. 10.15.20 Demonstration 10.15.23 Jo Rosano You know the United States gives Colombia billions of dollars to fight this so-called war on drugs when all the drugs are still coming into the United States. So where is this money going? You know. 10.15.40 Music 10.15.43 Max Jourdan I wanted to find out more about the drug war Jo�s son and the others were involved in. 10.15.47 Music 10.15.49 Max Jourdan What are the contractors trying to achieve? And just what are the US tax payers getting for their three point three billion dollars? 10.15.56 Music 10.15.58 Max Jourdan I travelled south to find out. 10.15.59 Music 10.16.05 Max Jourdan No sooner had I arrived in this small town than I heard an explosion; a pregnant woman had stepped on a landmine. She�d lost a leg. 10.16.17 Aston LUIS ALFREDO VILLAR Voice over We�d stepped off the road to shelter from the rain. All of a sudden there was a bang. 10.16.26 Max Jourdan That night Villar�s wife lost her baby. Ten days later, I was told she too had died. 10.16.36 Max Jourdan A reminder of Colombia�s forty year conflict being fought out between government forces, the FARC guerrillas and more recently right-wing paramilitaries. 10.16.51 Max Jourdan Thirty thousand people a year are killed. And the cocaine trade provides most of the funding for both the guerrillas and the paramilitaries. 10.17.01 Max Jourdan And it�s militarised vast parts of the country. Despite all the troops and the military hardware about five hundred and eighty tons of cocaine were produced last year in Colombia. 10.17.13 Max Jourdan Most of it went up American noses. 10.17.19 Max Jourdan The Colombian and US administrations believe victory will come if they can destroy the drug trade. 10.17.26 Aston PHYLLIS POWERS US Embassy, Bogota Narcotics is funding the counter-insurgency here. So when we�re fighting narcotics in Colombia, we are fighting the terrorism that has gripped this country for so many years. 10.17.38 Phyllis Powers Last year we sprayed a hundred and thirty thousand hectares which gave us a reduction in coca cultivation of sixteen percent. In two thousand and two we sprayed another hundred and thirty thousand hectares for an additional twenty percent reduction in coca cultivation. So we�re at about a thirty-two percent reduction over the last two years. 10.17.57 Max Jourdan Given the sheer scale of the drug problem, the death of the pilots and the hostage taking might be seen as a small price to pay. 10.18.05 Max Jourdan But cocaine is still just as easily available in the States and the price hasn�t changed. And the impact of the spray planes on the ground puts a different gloss on the American statistics. 10.18.17 Music 10.18.21 Max Jourdan I met some of the farmers in Putumayo; Colombia�s biggest coca growing region. 10.18.25 Music 10.18.28 Max Jourdan They were happy to show me their coca. 10.18.30 Music 10.18.32 Max Jourdan Fanny Ruales told me she can�t afford not to grow it. 10.18.39 Aston FANNY RUALES Coca Grower Voice over Let�s hope the government comes up with another way out apart from fumigation. There are so many people around here in need of a better solution. I�m not saying we should be allowed to grow coca because I know that�s not possible but they should find an alternative. 10.18.57 Max Jourdan Fanny also grows a range of food crops to feed her family. Without basic infrastructure coca is her only guaranteed source of ready cash. 10.19.08 Max Jourdan It�s easy to spray big coca fields from the air, but with small patches like this close by, untold amounts of food crops are also being destroyed. 10.19.23 Aston JOSE PAZ Farmer Voice over All those woods have died off with the fumigation. 10.19.29 Max Jourdan Most of Jose�s palm plantation is withering away after being sprayed. He doesn�t grow coca, but his neighbour does. 10.19.44 Jose Paz Voice over If they kill my crops again I�ll have no choice but to turn to coca because it�s the only crop that can be saved if you cut it back as soon as it�s been sprayed. 10.19.57 Aston MAX JOURDAN Jose made a complaint six months ago to the authorities about the fumigation and the fact that his substitution crops have been fumigated and it�s been six months and he�s had absolutely no answers. 10.20.16 Max Jourdan Jose told me the complaint procedure is too complicated for farmers and they rarely get compensated for the loss of their food crops. I got the clear impression that the spraying programme is alienating the people here from the authorities. 10.20.33 Max Jourdan The American tax payer dollars are not winning many hearts and minds around here. 10.20.43 Aston OMAR ORTIZ Farmer Voice over The spray gas finds its way into the house. It�s a horrible gas; it burns your nose and eyes. It contaminates the water and it affects the children. They come up in boils. 10.21.03 Aston MARIA ORTIZ Farmer Voice over Our field here; it�s all been sprayed. There was nothing left; no grass, no crops. Everyone had to leave their homes with their farm animals who got sick. 10.21.15 Max Jourdan Tests by an independent laboratory show the formulation of herbicides used in Colombia is different to that used elsewhere. And that it�s many times more concentrated. Yet the locals are told it�s perfectly safe. Less harmful than nicotine, salt, or aspirin. 10.21.37 Max Jourdan I met a doctor who told me a different story. He said the local conditions played a part in all this. 10.21.46 Aston Dr EVERARDO CUASQUER La Hormiga Hospital Voice over This is a humid area with many tropical diseases and a high degree of malnutrition so the people here are not so able to withstand chemicals such as herbicides sprayed from the air. When they spray we see a rise in the number of people coming in sick; people with respiratory complaints, skin complaints and miscarriages. 10.22.08 Music 10.22.13 Max Jourdan Back in Bogota Jo Rosano has managed to secure a meeting with the US Ambassador. 10.22.18 Music 10.22.19 Jo Rosano The American people don�t know anything. They don�t know where their tax dollar is going and why. Like me; I didn�t know anything until this happened to my son. 10.22.32 Max Jourdan Jo believes more would have been done for her son Marc if he�d been a soldier and not just an employee; a claim the Ambassador denied to me. 10.22.41 Aston Ambassador WILLIAM B. WOOD US Embassy, Bogota The United States has no higher priority than the safe return of the American hostages in a manner consistent with US law and policy. US law and policy provides very briefly, that we will not engage in any negotiation or support any action that rewards terrorist action. 10.23.08 Max Jourdan Jo has had the same message; she�d wanted the Ambassador to negotiate with the FARC to get her son and the other hostages released but he refused. 10.23.17 Jo Rosano They�re just a bunch of liars and that�s all there is to it and I will never ever, ever, ever speak to another government official. They�re basically telling me that they�re going to stay there to die. 10.23.34 Jo Rosano The Americans are using contractors because if something like this happened it would never make the news. We would never hear about it. This way they have less accountability as to what is going on and don�t have to follow the rules. 10.23.49 Music 10.23.53 Max Jourdan Some members of the US Congress believe the work of contractors in military situations should be beyond the reach of private business. 10.24.02 Max Jourdan Congresswoman Janice Schakowsky is trying to pass a bill limiting their use. 10.24.09 Aston JANICE SCHAKOWSKY US Congress There is nothing more that defines a function of government than, than war activities. Absolutely not. Military activities always, I believe, have to be in the public sector in order to have the kind of proper oversight and accountability that not only tax payers but just Americans ought to demand. 10.24.34 Max Jourdan I asked the US Ambassador about the military side of the contractors� missions. 10.24.39 Ambassador William B Wood We don�t have any contractors carrying out military missions. I don�t understand what the words �military kind of missions� means. We certainly have people who fly aeroplanes. And we certainly have people who are looking for coca. We certainly have people who fly spray planes to eradicate coca. Those aren�t military missions. 10.25.02 Janice Schakowsky It�s very hard for a person like me, as a member of the United States Congress, to get copies of those contracts. We have been told that there is proprietary information, private information, company information, that prevents the disclosure of those contracts to members of congress. Now understand; this is all tax payer funded, this is coming out of the pockets of Americans. 10.25.30 Max Jourdan The war on drugs goes on; seemingly without end. 10.25.35 Max Jourdan Whatever the rights and wrongs of the spray programme, there are plenty who say companies who answer to shareholders and not generals or Congress, should play no part. 10.25.47 Douglas Cockes When you have a contract world that operates in an environment of no oversight, no accountability, it is a lethal combination. 10.26.01 Max Jourdan Sharon Schmidt is now suing Northrop Grumman for the death of her husband. The final slap in her face was being told his company life insurance was null and void. 10.26.11 Music 10.26.14 Sharon Schmidt When I tried to collect the personal accident insurance that Tommy had paid for, I was told that I could not be paid for the insurance because my husband did not work for Northrop Grumman. 10.26.29 Max Jourdan Northrop Grumman wouldn�t be interviewed but issued a statement saying it regretted the plight of the hostages and the deaths of its employees. 10.26.37 Music 10.26.39 Max Jourdan It has made an offer to Sharon Schmidt; but there are strings attached. 10.26.44 Sharon Schmidt Northrop Grumman offered me three hundred and fifty thousand dollars but in taking that money I had to agree not to ask any more questions and the whole point of all of this is the answers to our questions and I refused their offer. 10.27.03 Music 10.27.05 Max Jourdan CIAO refused to take our calls and our requests for an interview have been turned down. We understand they�ve now switched to flying twin engine planes. 10.27.14 Music 10.27.16 Doug Cockes I think about the guys all the time, I think both the dead and the living. If I could just talk to one of the people that could have made the change from single engine to twin engine, what would you ask them or what would you say and I would just ask them how they sleep at night? You know, how, do they hear the screams of the guys in crash two or do they ever feel the thoughts that are going through Tom Janis and Sergeant Cruz too just before they were executed? 10.26.46 Keith Stansell I have a message for the company that we worked for. I know that being human is always not the most important thing. Just remember one thing when you see the three of us here; we did a good job for you, please take care of our families. We see here in this press release, I�m going to be honest in front of everybody here, that, that our contract has been changed to a company that we don�t know about after our crash. I understand the business side of it but those of you in our office and those of you in our old company that know us, maybe we won�t make it home but remember there�s three people here with a family, please do the right thing for our families. Have some integrity. Stand up and do what�s right for our families. Take care of us. 10.28.32 Music bbc.co.uk/thisworld Credits 10.28.32 Reporter MAX JOURDAN Composer PHILIP CHAMBON Camera BRUNO SORRENTINO Dubbing Mixer CLIFF JONES VT Editor ROD HUTSON Production Team JULIA DANNENBERG SARAH HANKS LADONNA HALL Production Manager JANE WILLEY Unit Manager SUSAN CRIGHTON Film Research NICK DODD Fixer (Colombia) CAROLINA OSMA Investigation by EUGENIA ANASTASSIOU Assistant Producer YEZID CAMPOS Picture Editor JANET SPILLER Executive Producer KAREN O�CONNOR 10.28.53 Producers MAX JOURDAN BRUNO SORRENTINO 10.28.56 thisworld Series Producer SANDY SMITH bbc.co.uk/thisworld BBC � BBC MMIV 10.29.01 End BBC This World: Private War 1