After company confessed to paying terrorists, Chertoff took no action

At an April 24, 2003 meeting with then-assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, a board member of banana giant Chiquita International gave a startling confession: his company was paying hundreds of thousands to a Colombian paramilitary group on the U.S. government's list of terrorist organizations.

"Roderick M. Hills, who had sought the meeting with former law firm colleague Michael Chertoff, explained that Chiquita was paying 'protection money' to a Colombian paramilitary group," the Washington Post's Carol D. Leonnig reports. "Hills said he knew that such payments were illegal, according to sources and court records, but said that he needed Chertoff's advice." More...