Chiquita Brands Sued For Sponsoring Terrorism

If this is your first time visiting National Terror Alert you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. The National terror Alert feed features breaking news, alerts and bulletins on demand and it's free of charge..
You will only see this message on your first visit to the site. Thanks for visiting!

Family members of people killed by militant groups in Colombia are suing Chiquita Brands International. The lawsuit accuses the banana company of sponsoring terrorism.

The suit, filed anonymously in Washington, contends that ten unnamed Chiquita employees and a Colombian subsidiary aided and abetted terrorists by providing arms, funding and other support to paramilitary forces responsible for 144 murders.

A Chiquita spokesman says the company hasn’t seen the lawsuit, but denies the allegations. The spokesman says the company paid to protect the lives of employees and their families.

In March, Chiquita admitted to paying terrorists to protect its banana operation in Colombia. A Justice Department investigation into Chiquita’s financial dealings with paramilitary groups resulted in a corporate conviction for one count of doing business with a terrorist organization and a $25-million fine.

High Tech Gadgets To Protect New York From Terrorism

Police helicopters will be able to read license plates. Officers will carry backpacks designed to detect dirty bombs. And blimp-like detectors may hover over the city, scanning for chemical and other threats.

Those are some of array of high-tech gadgets that will help secure the city against terrorism, the Police Commissioner said yesterday.

“There is no environment across the nation that compares to New York City,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at a Manhattan forum hosted by the firm CIT Aerospace. “We have the highest number of critical assets in the smallest amount of physical space.”

The September 11 attacks and more recent scares – such as a plot to blow up the aviation fuel system at John F Kennedy International Airport — have cemented a belief at the nation’s largest police department that “technology must match the actual problems we face,” Kelly said.

Read More