“Hope is essential for peace and stability. Men and women everywhere need incomes to support their families and they need the satisfaction of doing something worthwhile and   meaningful in their lives.”

                                                                                              Senator George Mitchell
                                                                                              Oversaw the Good Friday Accord

After 52 years of fighting, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Colombian government signed a deal to bring peace to the country. Yesterday history was made in the Julio Cesar Turbay Ayala Convention Center in the city of Cartagena. The city that Pedro de Heredia founded in 1533 became the city of peace when Colombian President Juan Manual Santos and FARC Commander Rodrigo Londono, use a bullet pen to end the fighting. Both men were dressed in white shirts

                                                “The horrible night has ceased.”

                                                                                                President Juan Santos

In May 1964, Manuel Marulanda a member of the Colombian Communist Party and Jacobo Arenas formed what would later be known as the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). After the period in Colombia referred to as “the Violence,” the Colombian government cracked down on a communist peasant collective in the mountain region of Marquetalia. On May 27, 1964, forty-eight communist guerillas led by Manuel “Sure Shot” Marulanda fought the Colombian Army forces in Marquetalia. Guerrilla fighters gathered in the First Guerrilla Conference after this battle and declared they would defend the people from the government and would now be called the Southern Bloc.

With the Second Guerrilla Conference in May 1966, the group took the name the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Evolving out of the communist leftist movement in Colombia, the FARC took much of its early identity and ideology from the works of Lenin, Marx, Simon Bolivar, and Che Guevara. Jacobo Arenas sought to structure the FARC more as an army and improve the weapons the FARC would use on the battlefield. But the FARC would evolve and undertake kidnappings, assassinations, bombings, extortions, and become a major player in the cocaine trade. The FARC grew with its proceeds from kidnappings, drug, mining, and taxing operations. Over the years, the terror increased in Colombia as the FARC conducted attacks on soldiers, police, politicians, citizens and foreigners. Foreigners including missionaries, petroleum engineers, businessmen, and non-governmental organizations working in rural areas were often targeted for kidnappings.

On January 16, 1994, members of the FARC’s Fifty-Third Front kidnapped two American missionaries from the New Tribes Mission School in Villavicencio, Colombia. The FARC had demanded $2 million dollars for their release. The two Americans, Steve Welsh and Timothy Van Dyke were shot at point-blank range in 1995. Welsh had arrived in Colombia in 1981 and Van Dyke, his wife and four children arrived in 1989. From 1996 to 2005 a person was kidnapped every eight hours on average. Kidnappings were one of the major undertakings of the FARC. On February 20, 2002, members of the FARC hijacked a domestic flight carrying Senator Jorge Eduardo Gechem Turbay. Three days later they kidnapped Senator and Presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. The FARC held three Americans contractors, Marc Gonsalves, Tom Howes and Keith Stansell hostage for 1,967 days when their aircraft crashed in a FARC held area. Starved, marched through the jungles of Colombia, the three were finally rescued in a daring piece of deception and boldness along with a dozen others including Ingrid Betancourt.

Over the years, the government and the FARC have undertaken numerous attempts at peace. On May 2, 1999 President Pastrana and Manuel Marulanda agreed to talk peace. The government agreed to a demilitarized zone for the FARC that consisted of 16,000 square miles. President Alvaro Uribe Velez campaigned to take the fight to the FARC and that is what he did cancelling the demilitarized zone after the FARC hijacked an airplane and kidnapped a Senator from it.

From 1997 through 2001, the IRA sent a number of mobile training teams to Colombia to train the FARC on explosives, mortars, missiles and urban warfare. In exchange for millions of dollars the Provisional IRA sent training teams to Colombia. On August 11, 2001, three IRA individuals, James “Mortar” Monaghan, Niall Connolly, and Martin McCauley were arrested in Bogota, after they returned from training FARC cadre for five weeks. Monaghan was skilled in the design and manufacturing of homemade mortars. The FARC used mortars in the May 2001 attack on the Presidential Palace in Bogota during the inauguration of President Uribe. In 2002, homemade mortars were also used in the FARC’s attack on the town of Bellavista which killed 119 people. The mortar was identical to the IRA’s Mark 15 developed by James Monaghan.

On March 1, 2008, Colombian troops attacked a camp one mile over the Ecuadoran border and killed senior FARC commander Raul Reyes. His death was a significant blow to the FARC leadership. Then on March 25, 2008, Manuel “Sure Shot” Marulanda, the founder and leader of the FARC died of a heart attack. The FARC’s seven-person leadership council “the Secretariat” appointed Alfonso Cano as the new leader in May 2008. Three years later, Cano was killed by the Colombian military. In November 2011, Rodrigo Londono Echeverri became the Commander of the FARC. Better known as Timoleon, he had risen through the ranks of the FARC since joining in 1993. The United States has a $5 million-dollar reward on Rodrigo Londono Echeverri for the distribution of hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States. For the last fours the FARC and the Colombian government have been negotiating the end of this fifty-four years of conflict that has killed over 220,000 individuals.

                      “Let no one doubt that we will now pursue politics without weapons.”

                                                                                                 Rodrigo Londono Echeverri                                                                                                                                                            FARC Commander

Whether Rodrigo Londono becomes the Gerry Adams of Colombia remains to be seen. However, the first steps to a long lasting peace begins one step at a time. The signing of the Peace Agreement is an impressive step in the right direction. The next six months will determine whether this peace agreement has any chance to take hold in a country that has known only war and conflict for the last fifty-two years.

On October 2, 2016, the people will have the opportunity to vote on the peace agreement. As one Colombian citizen stated “we are tired of war.” The FARC will have to turn in their weapons within the next five months and begin their reintegration into society. Then the countryside will have to be cleared of the thousands of mines that have been set out during this conflict. Governance, economic opportunities, a pivot away from illicit drug trade and hope for the Colombian people all must be addressed in the short term. But what the Colombian people now have is hope for the future. And hopefully the rest of the world sees that terrorism and war sooner or later burns out and that the true genius of men is for compromise. Now if only a few other people in conflict can learn this lesson without spending so many years killing.

 

On the morning of Saturday, September 17, 2016, as runners gathered for the Seaside Semper Five Marine Corps Charity 5K race, a terrorist had another idea-to kill runners at a road race. The race provides resources for the Marine Corps and Marine Special Operation Command (MARSOC) Foundation to help those who have sacrificed the most. The terrorist placed three pipe bombs in a trash can along the race course. The One Mile Fun Run race was to start at 9 a.m. followed by the 5K Race but due to heavy onsite registrations the race’s start was delayed. Because of the delay no runners where by the trash can that contained the explosive device. One of the three pipe bombs detonated causing the race to be cancelled.

The One Mile Fun Run is usually run by kids. Clearly the terrorist had no problem targeting not only the charity run but also seemed to want to target the fun run. Ahmad Khan Rahami wrote in his journal “in the streets they plan to run a mile.” I think back to Martin Richard, an eight-year old spectator who was out to watch the Boston Marathon with his family. Richards, was killed, his sister lost a leg and his mom had severe brain injuries when Dzhokhar Tsarnaev left a backpack with a pressure cooker bomb among the spectators watching the finish of the race.

Ahmad Khan Rahami sought to follow in the footsteps of the Tsarnaev brothers. Just as the Tsarnaev brothers had no qualms about killing and injuring kids, families, runners, and spectators, Rahami wanted to start his killing spree by attacking a road race. In 2014, over 8 million individuals finished 5K races across America. We have now had two instances, the Boston Marathon and the Seaside Semper Five race where terrorists have attacked a road race in America. Ahmad Khan Rahami was manipulated and motivated by the words of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s Anwar Al-Awlaki, who was killed in a drone strike in Yemen and Abu Muhammad Al-Adnani, the deceased Islamic State’s spokesman. Rahami wrote in his journal “You (USA Government) continue your (unintelligible) slaughter against the mujahidean be it Afghanistan, Iraq, Sham (Syria), Palestine . . . .”

The Tsarnaev brothers used pressure cooker explosive devices to attack the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, killing 3 and injuring 264 individuals. The two terrorist brothers learned to build their pressure cooker bombs after going online to Inspire Magazine. Inspire, a colorful propaganda effort was the work of Anwar Al-Awlaki and Samir Khan of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen. Rahami also used pressure cooker bombs at the West 23rd Street attack and at West 27th Street. The Tsarnaev brothers killed an MIT Police Officer Sean Collier and engaged police in a gun battle. Ahmad Rahami shot two Linden police officers who suffered non-life threatening wounds before he was shot and apprehended. Rahami mindset is clear with his own statement in his journal stating “I beg (unintelligible) for shahadat (martyrdom) & Inshallah (God willing) this call will be answered.”

Rahami’s handwritten journal gives some insight into the mindset of a radicalized terrorist in our backyard and the dangers these individuals pose even at an athletic event such as a road race. Rahami closes his journal entries with “Inshallah (God willing) the sounds of the bombs will be heard in the streets. Gun shots to your police. Death to Your OPPRESSION.”

Rahami clearly has never been a runner. He doesn’t know that obstacles for runners are just part of the course. Hills, rain, cross winds, weather, pain are just part of the race. He doesn’t know that running is addictive. The Seaside Semper Five Race was a charity fundraiser to raise funds for the Marine Corps and the Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC) Foundation. Rahami clearly doesn’t know anything about the Marine Corps. The motto of MARSOC is unconquerable spirit. This race has an unconquerable spirit and this Sunday, September 25th, the race will go on. For as Roger Bannister stated “the human spirit is indomitable.”

This Sunday the sound of a starting gun will be heard in Seaside, New Jersey followed by the sounds of runner’s feet making their way along the race course. Spectators will cheer even more loudly for the runners. Police officers will ensure the course is safe for all. And I suspect, next year record numbers of runners will sign up to run this great race just as record numbers signed up to run the Boston Marathon in 2014. The American Spirit truly is indomitable. For more information about the race see the link below or make a donation to the MARSOC Foundation and support those who are “Always Faithful.”

http://www.seasidesemperfive.org/index.html

For the last fifteen years we have honored those who lost their lives on this day because of horrific acts of terrorism. Today, take a moment and remember all those victims, heroes and people who fifteen years ago did not seek out heroism. Some of them were heroes in how they lived their lives and touched others. Remember those brave individuals, the first responders who rushed in to give aid and assistance. Our thoughts and prayers for you and your families. September 11th, 2001 was a long day that will never be forgotten. General George Patton once said, “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.” Today, we should take Gen. Patton’s words to heart and thank God for the heroes and victims of September 11th. For they have touched us all with their lives and how they lived.