From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 6 13:07:26 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 13:07:26 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Weekend Intl News from RHC - June 4, 2005 Message-ID: <200506061707.j56H7QX32150@olm.blythe-systems.com> [The following international stories are from RHC's June 4 Weekend News Update but were not posted to their website until the morning of June 6. -NY Transfer] Weekend News Summary from Radio Havana Cuba - June 4, 2005 (posted June 6, 2005) * Evo Morales: Call for Referendum Does Not Solve Current Crisis * Two US Soldiers Troops Killed in Afghanistan * Palestinian President Postpones Parliamentary Elections * Pentagon Confirms Soldiers Desecrated the Koran * FAO Proposes Urban Agriculture to Conquer Hunger Evo Morales: Call for Referendum Does Not Solve Current Crisis La Paz, June 4 (RHC)- In Bolivia, Evo Morales, leader of the Movement toward Socialism (MAS), stressed that the presidential call for a referendum for more regional autonomy and a constituent assembly does not solve the current political and social crisis. Bolivian President Carlos Mesa has announced that both events would be held simultaneously on October 16th. This announcement was made after Congress failed to take up the two issues -- a failure that further worsened the situation in the Andean country, ranked as South America's poorest. The Bolivian activist and political leader said that although the president's call includes the demands of grassroots organizations, it is illegal because it is up to Congress, according to the Constitution, to decide such an issue. Evo Morales insisted that the Bolivian president is simply trying to put an end to protests and wondered what would happen if Congress meets next Tuesday and does not ratify the presidential call. The protests, which began on May 16th, are demanding the creation of a constituent assembly and the nationalization of the country's vast natural gas wealth. "The Bolivian government," said Morales, "must begin to take possession of the oilfields as stated within the law." Two US Soldiers Troops Killed in Afghanistan Kabul, June 4 (RHC)-According to reports from Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, a bomb killed two US troops and wounded a third as they were driving in a military convoy near the Afghan-Pakistan border. Sources also reported on Saturday that fighting between Afghan forces and Taliban rebels left three insurgents dead. A US military statement says an Afghan interpreter was also wounded in the blast that killed the two American soldiers when a US armored vehicle was hit on Friday in Urgun district in Paktika province. The two deaths reportedly brought to 147 the number of US troops killed in and around Afghanistan since what is called "Operation Enduring Freedom" - the US-led invasion of the country -- began in October 2001. In a separate statement, the US military said Afghan army forces on Friday captured a suspected bomb maker and former Taliban member in the west of the country. Meanwhile, three suspected rebels died in fighting on Friday. One was killed and another wounded when they didn't stop their motorbike at a security checkpoint in Kandahar province and were fired on, according to local government officials. The other two were reported killed in an hour-long firefight in neighboring Zabul province. After a winter pause, rebels and other militants opposed to the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai have ramped up their insurgency with a series of bombings and other attacks. Palestinian President Postpones Parliamentary Elections Havana, June 4 (RHC)-- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday announced a delay in parliamentary elections, angering the militant group Hamas which is putting up parliamentary candidates for the first time. In a public statement, Abbas said he had decided to postpone the July 17th poll to allow time to resolve a dispute over proposed reforms to the voting law. "A date for the legislative election will be set in a future presidential decree after the completion of the necessary legal procedures and consultations over an election law," the announcement said. Hamas, which is poised to make a strong showing in the vote, called the postponement a "violation of the Palestinian national interest" and of understandings it reached with Abbas to abide by a truce he declared with Israel in February. Fatah officials said last week the parliamentary poll was likely to be put off because of discord within the party over reforms to the voting law sought by Abbas to give smaller factions like Hamas a better chance of gaining seats. Abbas has encouraged Hamas, which is sworn to destroying the Jewish state, to enter mainstream politics in the hope of shoring up the fragile four-month-old ceasefire and broadening his popular mandate for peace talks with Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has rejected Abbas's efforts to bring militants into the political process as appeasement and said he will not resume talks on Palestinian statehood until Abbas disarms militants and dismantles their organizations. Pentagon Confirms Soldiers Desecrated the Koran Washington, June 4 (RHC)-- While US military officials insist that guards at the Guant?namo Bay prison for so-called terrorist suspects have not flushed a detainee's Koran down the toilet, they have admitted that the Muslim holy book was splashed with urine. The Pentagon confirmed that a soldier deliberately kicked the Muslim holy book, and that an interrogator stepped on a Koran. In other confirmed incidents, a guard's urine came through an air vent and splashed on a detainee and his Koran and a two-word obscenity was written in English on the inside cover of a Koran. The findings, released on Friday evening, were among the results of an investigation last month by Brigadier General Jay Hood, the commander of the detention center. Hood said that of nine "mishandling" cases that were studied in detail after reviewing thousands of pages of written records, five were confirmed to have happened. The allegations of Koran desecration stirred worldwide controversy and led to widespread anti-American demonstrations throughout Muslim nations. FAO Proposes Urban Agriculture to Conquer Hunger Rome, June 4 (RHC)-- The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has proposed urban agriculture to fight hunger in the world, in a communiqu? issued Friday, on the occasion of the 2005 World Environment Day on June 5th. The FAO document, entitled "Green Cities," points out that urban crops are gaining more importance to feed the population, with the current rapid city growth. The document adds that such a system provides food to nearly 700 million people -- a fourth of the world urban population. It also notes that the world's population growth through 2030 will concentrate in urban areas of underdeveloped countries. Twenty-five years from now, nearly 60 percent of that population will live in cities. The FAO report highlighted that urban agriculture provides the possibility to produce food at home or through a cooperative, while significantly reducing costs for poor families. It also emphasized that surplus-production sales could also generate income that could be used to buy other kinds of food. compiled by NY Transfer from http://www.radiohc.cu From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 6 13:08:03 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 13:08:03 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Weekly News Update #801, 6/5/2005 Message-ID: <200506061708.j56H83P32214@olm.blythe-systems.com> WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #801, JUNE 5, 2005 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Brazil: Sao Paulo Pride Sets Record 2. Panama: Strike Over Social Security 3. Chile: Students Protest Tuition Law 4. Bolivia: Prez Fails to Ease Protests 5. Peru: Cocaleros Clash With Cops 6. Dominican Republic: More Haitians Deported 7. Haiti: Port-au-Prince Violence Flares 8. Haiti: High Prices Protested 9. Guatemala: Campesino Leader Kidnapped 10. Nicaragua: Agreement for Nemagon Victims 11. Paraguay: US Troops Set Up Shop ISSN#: 1084-922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. If this issue was forwarded to you, please write to wnu at igc.org for a free one-month subscription. The Update is produced by an all- volunteer team and is funded solely through subscription contributions. For a one-year subscription (52 issues) via email, we ask for a suggested donation of $25. Make checks or money orders payable to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012 (for tax deductible donations or to send money from overseas, contact us for details.) Your support is appreciated. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly Immigration News Briefs and other services focused on Central America (Centr-Am News) and Colombia (Colombia Week). In addition, discounted combined subscription rates are available for John Ross' "Blind Man's Buff (formerly "Mexico Barbaro") and the weekly Nicaragua News Service. Contact us for info. Feel free to reproduce these updates, or reprint or re-post any information from them, but please credit us as "Weekly News Update on the Americas," and include our full contact information so people will know how to find us. Send us a copy of any publication where we are cited or reprinted. We also welcome your comments and ideas: send them to us at the street address above or via e-mail to wnu at igc.org. *1. BRAZIL: SAO PAULO PRIDE SETS RECORD According to a provisional count by Brazilian Military Police, 1.8 million people attended Sao Paulo's ninth annual Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Parade on May 29; organizers put the number at over 2 million. Beginning in 1997 with some 2,000 participants, the event is now the world's largest pride parade [see Update #751]. Organizers were pleased with the huge turnout but emphasized the work to be done in fighting homophobia. "We also rank first in violence against gays, so from gay bashing to murder we have a lot of problems in this country," Antonio Carlos da Silva told the BBC. Another parade organizer, Pedro Almeida, told AFP news agency: "A homosexual is murdered here every two days--just for being homosexual." The parade's main demand was for passage of a bill legalizing gay unions; the bill has been tied up in Congress for 10 years. "A part of Brazil's homosexual community voted for [President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva] in the 2002 presidential election because we hoped he would push this law," Almeida said, "but nothing has moved forward." [El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 5/30/05 from AP; BBC News 5/30/05; La Jornada (Mexico) 5/31/05 from AFP] Brasilia's Pride Parade was scheduled for June 5. One of the organizers, Welton Trindade, said the event would include criticism of Chamber of Deputies president Severino Cavalcanti for failing to act on proposed gay rights legislation. "There are 15 bills in all dealing with our citizenship that are blocked in the Chamber," he said. [Correio Web (Brazil) 6/3/05] *2. PANAMA: STRIKE OVER SOCIAL SECURITY On June 1, some 100,000 Panamanian workers, students and retirees marched in Panama City to protest reforms to the Social Security Agency (CSS). The marchers came from all over the country, including a contingent from Darien province--the poorest in the country, bordering Colombia--carrying a banner reading "Darien Presente. No to the reforms of death." Congress passed the packet of 180 reforms in a third and final vote just after midnight on the morning of June 1, and President Martin Torrijos Espino signed the law around 11am, just hours before the already scheduled march. The Congress is dominated by the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD). Between 2007 and 2015, the reforms will gradually increase the retirement age for women from 57 to 60 years, and for men from 62 to 65 years. Over the same period, the law will increase from 180 to 300 the number of monthly payments workers must make in order to collect a pension, meaning that while full-time workers currently can retire after 15 years of work, by 2015 they will have to work 25 years before they can collect a pension. Torrijos insists that the reforms are necessary because the system has a $4 billion deficit which is growing by $700,000 a day. The movement against the CSS reforms is led by the National Front for the Defense of Social Security (Frenadesso), which began an open-ended strike on May 27 supported by the National Federation of Public Employees (Fenasep). [AP 6/2/05; La Prensa (Panama) 6/1/05; Resumen Latinoamericano 6/4/05 from Propuesta Socialista (Panama); La Jornada (Mexico) 5/29/05 from DPA, AFP, 5/31/05 from DPA, AFP] Protests against the CSS reforms had been building for more than a month [see Update #797]. On May 24, police arrested 217 construction workers and 119 students during protests against the CSS reforms in Panama City. Minister of Government and Justice Hector Aleman said the protesters were "causing damages to private property and putting the lives of innocent people in danger." Another 72 students were arrested the previous day, May 23. [Resumen Latinoamericano 5/28/05 from Univision] Over the weekend of May 28, under pressure from the protests, Torrijos met with business leaders and the National Council of Organized Workers (Conato) to discuss softening the reforms. Conato represents private sector unions which are not supporting the strike. [LJ 5/31/05 from DPA, AFP] In its second debate on the law, which ended at 4:30am on May 30, Panama's Congress made 142 changes to Torrijos' original proposal--including setting the retirement age for women at 60 instead of 62. Later on May 30, the 9,000 employees of the CSS ratified their support for the strike, as did doctors at public hospitals, thousands of school teachers and university professors and members of the combative Only Union of Construction and Similar Workers (SUNTRACS). On May 30 SUNTRACS members and teachers joined striking CSS workers in blocking roads in several Panama City neighborhoods and in the provinces of Cocle, Bocas del Toro, Chiriqui, Veraguas and Colon. [LJ 5/31/05 from DPA, AFP; LP 5/30/05] A delegation of four government ministers began negotiations with strike leaders on June 3, but the talks failed after four hours. [LP 6/4/05] On June 3, SUNTRACS members set up blockades along several main avenues in Panama City to protest the CSS reforms. Three construction workers were wounded at the barricades: two were shot from a vehicle at one roadblock, and one was run down by a vehicle at another. A journalist was also injured. Protesters set up roadblocks again at several sites on June 4, but dispersed when riot police arrived. Protesters said they would resume blockades on June 6. [LJ 6/5/05 from AFP; Resumen Latinoamericano 6/4/05 from Propuesta Socialista] On June 4, after a six-hour meeting by strike leaders, Frenadesso announced that the general strike would continue, and called on Panamanians to engage in a civil disobedience campaign against the CSS reforms starting on June 6. Proposed actions include refusing to pay water or electricity bills, turning off the electricity for a half hour starting at 8pm each day, and boycotting the national lottery, casinos, bingo halls, discos, bottled water, alcoholic beverages and cigarrettes. Frenadesso also urged Panamanians to reject a planned referendum on the broadening of the Panama Canal, free trade agreements and the Puebla-Panama Plan. [LP 6/5/05] *3. CHILE: STUDENTS PROTEST TUITION LAW On May 30, agents from Chile's militarized Carabineros police forcibly removed students who had been occupying two state university buildings for three weeks. Police arrested 23 students at the Metropolitan University of Education Sciences (UMCE) and 19 students at the University of Chile's Physical Education Department. The UMCE rector requested the police intervention. At the University of Chile's main building, students are continuing an occupation they began at the beginning of May. Chilean students have been mobilizing for months against a new law which grants government tuition loans to students at private universities, a move seen as a first step in the privatization of higher education. The government claims the loans will come from private banks, backed by the government, and will not affect state funding for public universities. An estimated 2,000 students have been arrested in protests over the past three months, and many have been stripped naked and beaten by police in jail, according to the Communist Youth organization, which supports the protests. Repression against the students has reached "points only seen during the military dictatorship" [of 1973-1990], the group charges. [La Jornada (Mexico) 5/31/05 from correspondent; Prensa Latina 6/4/05] On May 4, the same day Congress passed the tuition bill, nearly 20,000 students rallied against the law in Santiago's Almagro park. The students marched against the law again in Santiago on June 1, the day Socialist president Ricardo Lagos signed it into law; at least five people were arrested. [Prensa Latina 6/4/05; Santiago Indymedia 5/5/05, 6/2/05] Students at the private Arcis University are also opposing the law; they joined the student strike on May 19 after a two-day occupation at Arcis, and staged a march on May 27. They say the law will force students to enter into debt contracts with private banks. [Prensa del Internacionalismo Obrero 6/1/05 via Santiago Indymedia; Santiago Indymedia 5/30/05] *4. BOLIVIA: PREZ FAILS TO EASE PROTESTS Some 15,000 campesinos, students and other protesters filled the Plaza Murillo in La Paz on May 30 to demand nationalization of Bolivia's natural gas resources and the seating of a constitutional assembly. Police did not repress the protests, which on May 30 were mainly limited to La Paz and the adjoining city of El Alto. [La Jornada (Mexico) 5/31/05 from AFP, DPA] The next day, May 31, more than 50,000 people gathered in La Paz for what Associated Press called the biggest demonstration since the latest round of protests began on May 16 [see Updates #799, 800]. Rural school teachers, members of El Alto's neighborhood organizations, Aymara indigenous campesinos from the Altiplano region of La Paz department and other protesters closed off access to the center of the capital, blowing up sticks of dynamite and blocking all the major intersections with burning tires. Police used tear gas and clashed with the marchers, especially the El Alto university students. In El Alto itself, everything was closed by a civic strike which began May 23. As night fell, thousands of protesters remained in La Paz, and police used more tear gas and rubber bullets to try to disperse them. At least 10 people were wounded by rubber bullets and seven people were arrested. [LJ 6/1/05 from correspondent; El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 6/1/05 from AP] On June 1, more than 10,000 rural and urban public school teachers marched again through La Paz, as did a huge contingent of small business owners and vendors from El Alto and the Aymara campesinos from the Altiplano. By the afternoon of June 1, the protests in La Paz had calmed, but in the communities of Ayo Ayo and El Tholar in the Altiplano, Aymara campesinos began blockading the roads that connect the capital with cities to the south and east. The roads linking La Paz with Chile and Peru to the north and west had already been blocked since May 28. In Cochabamba, campesinos and factory workers led a massive march through the center of the city on June 1 for the same consensus demands of nationalization and a constitutional assembly. In Santa Cruz de la Sierra, where the wealthy business class has been pushing demands for regional autonomy, rightwing paramilitary thugs from the Union of Crucenista Youth attacked a campesino march arriving from the north of Santa Cruz department. Local police broke up the fight with tear gas. [LJ 6/2/05 from correspondent] Transport workers in La Paz began a two-day strike on June 2. [Miami Herald 6/4/05 from correspondents] At 11pm on June 2, after the Bolivian Congress failed for the second consecutive day to reach agreement on bills to convoke a constitutional assembly and a national referendum on regional autonomy, President Carlos Mesa Gisbert announced he was issuing Supreme Decree 28195, which sets Oct. 16 as the date when Bolivians will elect representatives for the constitutional assembly and decide the regional autonomy question in a referendum. The decree must be ratified by Congress in order to be valid. In his televised announcement, Mesa emphasized that the constitutional assembly is the best forum to reconsider the hydrocarbons law which took effect on May 17 and to take up the issue of nationalization. La Paz mayor Juan del Granado, a former leftist, played a key role by meeting with Mesa earlier in the day and pressing him to issue the decree. "If this decision is not ratified by Congress," announced Del Granado, "all the institutions of La Paz will go on hunger strike." [LJ 6/3/05 from correspondent] Abel Mamani of the El Alto Federation of Neighborhood Committees (FEJUVE) said on June 3 that the decree is "illegal" and fails to address "the main demand of the social organizations, which is the nationalization of the hydrocarbons." [AP 6/3/05] Movement to Socialism (MAS) leader Evo Morales also blasted Mesa's decree as "absolutely anti-constitutional" and called it a "show" with which the president seeks to "demobilize the people." [LJ 6/3/05 from correspondent] Leaders of the Santa Cruz business class are likewise dissatisfied with Mesa's decree; they insist the autonomy vote be held on Aug. 12. [Miami Herald 6/4/05 from correspondents] Earlier on June 2, Morales and other MAS deputies had blocked Congress from simultaneously considering the bills on regional autonomy and the constitutional assembly, as it had agreed to do the night before. MAS said Congress must first pass the constitutional assembly bill. Congress president Hormando Vaca Diez, a senator from Santa Cruz, blasted the move by MAS, and citing inadequate conditions, suspended legislative sessions until June 7. Hundreds of campesino coca growers (cocaleros) from the Chapare region of Cochabamba department--Morales' base of support--gathered outside the Congress building and tried to keep the legislators from leaving. They managed to beat up one senator, Gonzalo Chirveches. [LJ 6/3/05 from correspondent] On June 3, as the transport strike paralyzed La Paz for a second day and protesters blockaded more than 40 highways in eight of Bolivia's nine departments, leaders of the Catholic Church announced they would seek to mediate a solution to the conflict. [AP 6/3/05] Also on June 3, the Confederation of Urban Teachers of Bolivia announced it was rejecting the government's latest salary offer and would maintain the open-ended national general strike which started May 6. The same day, La Paz teachers took Deputy Education Minister Celestino Choque hostage in an effort to force him to explain why the Education Ministry claimed that unionized teachers earn high salaries and bonuses. [Los Tiempos (Cochabamba) 6/4/05 from unspecified news agencies] In Santa Cruz department, Radio Erbol reported that nearly 2,000 campesinos had seized the gas wells of the Chaco company to demand nationalization and the constitutional assembly. [Resumen Latinoamericano 6/3/05 from Bolpress] In San Pablo, Trinidad, a group of military and police agents were attacked with gunfire as they tried to dismantle a blockade from the San Pablo bridge on the highway linking Trinidad to Santa Cruz. Three people were killed. Presidency Minister Jose Galindo said the troops were ambushed by hired professionals. [Los Tiempos 6/4/05 from La Prensa (La Paz) & unidentified news agencies] As of June 4, highways were blocked at more than 55 points in seven Bolivian departments, with La Paz and Oruro departments having the most blockades. Early on June 4, the Assembly of the Guarani People (APG) set up a blockade along the Camiri-Santa Cruz route, joining the demands for a constitutional assembly and nationalization of the gas. The APG is also demanding the creation of a 10th department in the Chaco region of Bolivia, to include four provinces currently located in Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca and Tarija departments. In Cochabamba department, cocaleros say they will blockade a main highway through the Chapare on Jun 6 if the nationalization issue is not resolved. [La Razon (La Paz) 6/5/05; Resumen Latinoamericano 6/3/05 from Bolpress] In other news, in a May 25 operation organized by the Santa Cruz departmental government, military troops and police agents forcibly evicted members of the Bolivian Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) from the Los Yuquises estate in Santiesteban province, Santa Cruz department. No injuries were reported. From May 8 to 12, the Los Yuquises squatters had held hostage a group of 60 people who were hired to attack them [see Update #798]. [Bolivia Press (from Centro de Documentacion e Informacion Bolivia, CEDIB) 5/27/05; Alai-amlatina 5/25/05; Bolpress 5/25/05] *5. PERU: COCALEROS CLASH WITH COPS On May 29 in Tocache province, in the Huallaga valley of San Martin in north central Peru, at least 3,500 campesino coca growers (cocaleros) armed with sticks surrounded a group of 230 police agents charged with carrying out coca leaf eradication operations. According to police, the resulting clash left 17 agents hurt--one by a bullet, the rest by beatings. Twenty cocaleros were injured; Tocache mayor Nancy Zagerra said three of them are in serious condition with bullet wounds. [LJ 5/31/05 from DPA] The 230 anti-drug police agents had arrived in the area on May 26, along with 50 workers from the Control and Reduction of Coca Crops in the Alto Huallaga (CORAH) project. On May 28, the anti- drug forces set up camp in the village of 5 de Diciembre, where according to cocalero leader Nancy Obregon they forced the campesinos from their homes and destroyed their crops, even after the campesinos showed them documents from the state-run National Coca Company (ENACO) demonstrating that the crops were legal. "They said those [documents] were no good and they threw everyone out. The people have had to sleep outside," said Obregon. Outraged at the incident, Obregon organized nearly 4,000 cocaleros to confront the agents at their camp the next day. [La Republica (Lima) 5/30/05] On May 31 a representative of the Office of the Defender of the People, Manlio Alvarez Soto, traveled to Tocache from Tingo Maria, in neighboring Huanuco region, to meet with the cocaleros and gather information about the conflict. Alvarez also visited two of the wounded cocaleros in the Tingo Maria hospital, where they were taken for treatment. [LR 6/1/05] On June 3, some 6,000 cocaleros from Monzon and Alto Huallaga marched in Tingo Maria in support of the Tocache cocaleros. [LR 6/4/05] Obregon said the cocaleros will start an open-ended strike on June 27. [LR 5/30/05] *6. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: MORE HAITIANS DEPORTED The Dominican government resumed mass deportations of Haitians and people thought to be Haitians at the end of May, according to unnamed Dominican military sources. The army arrested a total of 102 Haitians in border regions on May 29 and May 30, the sources said. Another 30 Haitians traveling in a bus near the border were arrested and sent back to Haiti on May 31. On June 4 Juan Isidro Perez, an Immigration Bureau official in the north of the country, said 130 Haitians had been deported from the city of Santiago. It was not clear whether there had been another series of detentions or he was referring to people who had been arrested in the May 29-30 sweep. [El Caribe (Santo Domingo) 6/1/05, 6/4/05, from EFE, posted on AlterPresse] [The Dominican government reportedly deported some 3,000 Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent May 9-17, then suspended mass deportations because soldiers were "exhausted; see Update #799.] *7. HAITI: PORT-AU-PRINCE VIOLENCE FLARES As many as 23 Haitians were killed and more than a dozen homes were burned during operations by the Haitian National Police (PNH) in the impoverished Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Bel-Air on June 3 and 4. Unidentified pro-government sources said the victims were bandits, but residents told the Agence Haitienne de Presse (AHP) news service that the victims were civilians. The armed people who regularly fight the police had had time to leave the area, they said. Some residents claimed the police were purposely driving people out of Bel-Air, a stronghold of the left-populist Lavalas Family (FL) party of deposed president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in preparation for elections scheduled for the fall. [Agence Haitienne de Presse 6/5/05; Radio France Internationale 6/5/06] On June 3, the day the Bel-Air operation started, Brazilian general Augusto Heleno Ribeiro, who heads the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), had criticized indiscriminate police sweeps. At a forum sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Haiti (CCIH), Heleno said these operations result in innocent victims; he didn't want to have to answer war crime charges at the International Criminal Court, he added. [AHP 6/4/05] The Bel-Air operation followed a sharp increase in violence in Port-au-Prince. Around noon on May 31, dozens of armed men stormed the huge Tet Bef (Cow's Head) market in central Port-au- Prince, shooting at police and merchants and then setting the market's two buildings on fire with Molotov cocktails. At least nine people were burned to death and two more were shot dead. Witnesses said the attackers claimed to be Aristide supporters. "The same guys who come here to shoot and scare us and call for Aristide to come back are the ones who did this," Rachel Pierre, a soap vendor, told the Miami Herald. "They'll do whatever it takes to stop the elections." Other merchants said armed Aristide supporters had regularly extorted cash from them. In other violence on May 31, the honorary French consul for the northern city of Cap-Haitien, Paul-Henri Mourral, was shot while he was driving near the Port-au-Prince international airport; he died of his wounds in the evening. The French embassy treated the killing as a common crime and indicated the attackers may not have known that Mourral, the owner of the Hotel Roi Henri Christophe in Cap-Haitien, was a French official. According to the Agence France Presse wire service, more than 620 people have died in shootings in Haiti over the last seven months, most of them in Port-au-Prince. Many Haitians suggested the May 31 killings were part of a destabilization campaign, with FL supporters and opponents blaming each other for the crisis. Coincidentally, the Brussels- based International Crisis Group released a report on May 31 saying a broad range of "spoilers" who benefit from lawlessness are responsible for the growing violence in the capital, starting with drug traffickers and money launderers, followed by pro- Aristide gangs, business families that pay few taxes, and "politicians not yet ready for elections or fearful of a possible Lavalas success." [MH 6/2/05 from correspondents; AHP 5/31/05, 6/1/05; El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 6/2/05 from AFP] *8. HAITI: HIGH PRICES PROTESTED A number of Haitian groups held a sit-in in front of the Commerce Ministry in Port-au-Prince on May 27 to demand that the interim government cut the price of gasoline in order to lower the costs of staples such as rice, sugar and cooking oil. Renaming the building the "High Cost of Living Ministry," the protesters noted that the price of gasoline had more than tripled since September 2000. "The working masses can't take the exorbitant cost of living any more," said Camille Chalmers from the Haitian Platform to Advocate for an Alternative Development (PAPDA). He called for better fiscal management and taxation mechanisms. Students from the State University of Haiti (UEH) also blamed "free trade" policies. In Haiti everything is imported, they said, including the prime minister--a reference to interim prime minister, Gerard Latortue, who maintains a permanent residence in Florida. Student leader Josue Vaval called for a mobilization by the poorest households. [AlterPresse 5/28/05] The sit-in was sponsored by a number of organizations representing women, teachers, students, peasants and unionists. The groups--many of which strongly oppose the Lavalas Family (FL) party of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide--had been holding sit-ins at the ministry every Friday since May 6. Protests around economic issues heated up on May 11 when several hundred students marched in Port-au-Prince to oppose rising crime and deteriorating economic conditions. Frictions broke out between two student groups over demands for the resignation of the interim government and an end to the military occupation by the Brazilian-led MINUSTAH. But the two groups made a de facto truce when MINUSTAH troops fired in the air as the march passed the prime minister's office. Some students threw rocks at the soldiers and deflated the tires of an official vehicle. On May 12 the president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Haiti (CCIH), Reginald Boulos, told a radio program that the students were reviving the class struggle. "We will not accept that certain sectors revive this struggle at a time when people are talking about unity and national reconciliation," he said. [AHP 5/6/05, 5/11/05, 5/20/05, 5/27/05] *9. GUATEMALA: CAMPESINO LEADER KIDNAPPED An unidentified group of armed men intercepted and abducted Maria Antonieta Carrillo, a local leader of Guatemala's Campesino Unity Committee (CUC), on May 28 in the village of La Arenera, Puerto de San Jose municipality, in the southern department of Escuintla, according to a communique the CUC released on May 29. "We hold the government and the business sector responsible," the CUC said. "This act is part of the repressive policy [Guatemalan president Oscar] Berger has mounted against the indigenous and campesino movement." According to the CUC, La Arenera is a leading community in the "struggle for land and for campesinos' labor rights" in an area which has the highest concentration of large sugar plantations in the country. The kidnapping came at a time when human rights organizations say they are the victims of a wave of intimidation. A little more than a week before, a source in Unity for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders told the Cuban wire service Prensa Latina that 656 threats or attacks against activists and social organizations had been reported from the beginning of the year to May 13. The most frequent targets were groups that oppose privatization, human rights violations, increased mining and the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), a trade pact pushed by the US [see Update #799]. [PL 5/29/05; El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 5/29/05 from AP] *10. NICARAGUA: AGREEMENT FOR NEMAGON VICTIMS On May 13 members of the cabinet of Nicaraguan president Enrique Bolanos signed an agreement with leaders of several thousand former banana and sugarcane workers whose health has been damaged by exposure to the pesticide Nemagon (dibromo chloropropane, DBCP), principally in the 1970s. The 19-point agreement includes free health care for the former workers and a housing project for some of the former workers who have nowhere to live. The government is to provide 80 passports and help get necessary visas for workers to testify in a lawsuit they have brought in the US against the companies that employed them and the makers of Nemagon [see Update #732]. The government also agreed to provide 300 coffins annually for the communities where the victims live. Victorino Espinales, a representative of the Nemagon victims, said he was content with the agreement, which formalizes promises the government made on Mar. 18 after some 5,000 victims marched on Managua and camped out in a park near the National Assembly [see Update #791]. Hundreds had remained to make sure the government lived up to the promises. Most finally went home on May 14, in buses provided by the government, after spending 73 days in the park. Some 300 protesters remained in Managua "to ensure that the government doesn't simply forget about the agreement," Espinales said. [Nicaragua News Service 5/17/05, Vol. 13, #19 from La Prensa, El Nuevo Diario] *11. PARAGUAY: US TROOPS SET UP SHOP On May 27, Servicio Paz y Justicia (SERPAJ) Paraguay condemned an agreement approved by the Paraguayan Congress which will allow US troops into the country for an 18-month training and advisory mission from June 1, 2005 through December 31, 2006. The agreement grants full immunity from prosecution to all US personnel involved in the mission. Congress approved the agreement--apparently at the end of last year--with no debate and behind closed doors, and the public was largely unaware of it, according to SERPAJ Paraguay. "No one knows the extent of these accords and the dangers of a US strategy to violate them," the group warned. SERPAJ also noted that the type of instruction that US troops will provide to the Paraguayan military is unclear, "which is very dangerous to us, especially taking into account that it was US soldiers who taught torture and other forms of human rights violations in courses at the School of the Americas under the National Security Doctrine." US soldiers are already a common sight in the Chaco region of Paraguay, reports Stella Calloni, a correspondent for the Mexican daily La Jornada. [La Jornada (Mexico) 5/31/05 from correspondent; TerritorioDigital.com 6/1/05] END ======================================================================= Weekly News Update on the Americas * Nicaragua Solidarity Network of NY 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012 phone: 212-674-9499 fax: 212-674-9139 email: wnu at igc.org ======================================================================= From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 6 13:14:25 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 13:14:25 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Haiti News Updates - June 3-5, 2005 Message-ID: <200506061714.j56HEP332399@olm.blythe-systems.com> sent by The Freedom Archives - June 6, 2005 Haiti News Updates - June 3-5, 2005 Up to 25 People Killed as Police Raid Haiti Slums By REUTERS PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - As many as 25 people were killed in police raids on Friday and Saturday in the slums of Haiti's capital after the government said it would get tougher on gangs, morgue workers and witnesses said. Clerks at the morgue in the General Hospital said they had taken in 17 bodies on Saturday and three bodies on Friday after the raids in Bel-Air and other Port-au-Prince slums, centers of support for ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. A Reuters journalist also saw five other bodies in two different areas of Bel-Air. Residents said the dead were shot by police and accused police of setting slum homes on fire. Police officials had no immediate comment on the death toll and it was not clear whether all the victims were killed in the raids, or if some were shot as gang members returned fire. Haiti's interim government, backed by a 7,400-strong United Nations peacekeeping force, has sought to stabilize the impoverished Caribbean country since Aristide fled into exile as armed rebels closed in on the capital in February 2004. Human rights groups have accused the Haitian police of summary executions and abuses against supporters of Aristide -- allegations denied by the government. Justice Minister Bernard Gousse and other officials said on Friday authorities planned tougher action against armed gangs in pro-Aristide slums, where victims of a recent wave of hundreds of kidnappings are often said to be held. At least 740 people have been killed in criminal and political violence in Haiti since September. A French diplomat was shot to death this week while driving in the capital. ``The police arrived, they started shooting. There were other people shooting too, but they managed to flee,'' said Ronald Macillon, a Bel-Air resident. ``The police killed a lot of people and set several homes on fire,'' Macillon said. Several other witnesses gave similar accounts. A spokesman for U.N. troops in Bel-Air, Col. Carlos Barcelos, told Reuters the Brazilian contingent based in that slum did not take part directly in the raids, but put up checkpoints and secured the outside perimeter. The Central Director for the Administrative Police, Renan Etienne, told Reuters he could not say how many people were killed or comment on allegations police set homes on fire, as he had not yet received police reports. *************** Update from the OAS XXXV General Assembly "About 1,500 protestors from several organizations marched near the Convention Center to express their support for former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide as the delegates were meeting." June 5, 2005 Miami, Florida HAGC delegates criticized the US Immigration Policy vis-?-vis Haitian Nationals at the XXXV OAS General Assembly in the dialogue between member states and civil society organizations. On this dialogue, the Haitian Government kept its silence on issues related to Haiti and Haitian Refugees. Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and the new OAS General Secretary expressed their preoccupation with the current crisis in Haiti. The Florida Governor in a private conversation with an HAGC delegate suggested that if 100 marines are sent to Haiti until the elections are held, the situation would improve. A recent article in the Washington Post suggest that a battalion of the US army could do the job but Pentagon Officials are resisting in committing US soldiers in a mission without a clear exit strategy. The suggestion of the governor to commit troops until elections are held may well define the exit strategy for the Pentagon. In the meantime OAS continues to push very hard for the upcoming elections to take place. The Brazilian Minister of Racial Equality, Matilde Reibero and Commissioner Clare Roberts, the Special Raporteur for the Organization of American States with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and Representatives from Global Rights will meet with Members of the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition on Monday, June 3rd, 2005 at 12:30 PM at the Marriott Hotel Marina 1880 SE 17 Street Atlantic Ballroom in Fort-Lauderdale. This meeting is open to the public, no credentials are needed to attend. HAGC will propose that the Inter-American Commission send an investigative in several countries in the region to make inquiry about human rights of Haitian Refugees. To RSVP, participants can call 305-785-4248. Delegates of the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition will meet also with the Jamaican Ambassador on Wednesday, June 8, 2005 at the Hyatt Hotel in Fort Lauderdale to discuss issues related to Haitian Refugees currently detained in refugee camp in Jamaica. Another meeting is being scheduled with the Dominican Ambassador to discuss the situation of the Haitian migrants working in the bateys of Dominican Republic. About 1,500 protestors from several organizations marched near the Convention Center to express their support for former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide as the delegates were meeting. The protests ended without incident. No one knows what tomorrow will bring. Federal, State and local law enforcement agencies are completely mobilized and look ready for any eventuality. Broward County appears to be a in a state of siege with deployment of federal agents at every corner in the streets. If you plan to come in the neighborhood, it is advisable that your driver license is in good standing and be aware that your automobile is subject to be searched by police and federal agents. AFP via Yahoo - June 4, 2005 http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050604/ts_afp/haitiunusviolence_050604090849 Haiti interim premier wants to talk with UN before troops mandate renewed Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue called on the United Nations to re-examine its peacekeepers' mandate after a fresh wave of violence in Haiti, suggesting their presence was inadequately geared to helping Haiti's plight. Latortue also hit out at the United States for deporting criminals to Haiti once they had served sentence in the United States, saying he plans to ask Washington to suspend repatriations until the situation in Haiti stabilizes. "We can't have all these (UN) troops in the country and witness the deterioration of the situation," Latortue told reporters. "Before the extension of the mission's mandate (at the end of June) we will go next week to New York to make contact with the UN secretary general Kofi Annan and the Security Council," he said. Latortue's comments came amid controversy at the United Nations over how long an extension of UN peacekeepers may be granted, with China opposed to a year's extensions, mainly due to tensions over friendly relations between Haiti and China's rival Taiwan. Numerous critiques of peacekeepers' efforts have been launched, amid claims that UN troops have failed to intervene in violence targeting Haitian police. "What is the point of deploying" often French-speaking troops "in regions where nothing is going on, where there is no problem, when in Port-au-Prince where there are lots of problems there are no troops deployed?" asked Latortue. "The question of how they are distributed needs re-examining," he said. The UN peacekeeping force in Haiti, MINUSTAH, has 6,700 troops, and an international police force of 1,622. In the Haitian capital, some 2,000 peacekeepers are present, with backup announced this week of a battalion that has been serving in Jacmel in the south. At a news conference, Haiti's Justice Minister Bernard Gousse also called for a "permanent presence of MINUSTAH at police stations and in troublespots" in the capital. Latortue suggested Haitians recently repatriated from the United States were among the culprits for a wave of kidnappings in recent weeks. He called them "criminals, professional hitmen who become kidnappers" once in Haiti. Oftentimes the most problematic individuals are people who were "not born in Haiti but whose parents are Haitian," he said. It is in the United States "where they have learned to be criminals," he said. And while the United States deports such individuals to Haiti where they cannot be expected to serve a second sentence, Washington calls on their "non-essential (diplomatic) personnel to leave" the country, Latortue charged. Violence this week saw the shooting to death of the French honorary consul, and the killing of at least 10 people in an arson and firearms attack in Haiti's capital, police said. The attack on the market and on a police station nearby also wounded four police, one of them seriously, police spokeswoman Gessie Coicou said. The market is close to the Cite Soleil shantytown of 300,000 people, a stronghold of supporters of Jean Bertrand Aristide, who resigned as president and fled the country in February 2004. A group of Brussels-based crisis experts this week called the security situation in Haiti "explosive", saying that pushing for elections scheduled for late 2005 is "perhaps overly ambitious." Meanwhile, the United Nations, struggling to agree a new longer-term mandate for its 7,400-strong peacekeeping force here, in a stop-gap measure Tuesday renewed its mandate for 24 more days. *** AHP News - June 5, 2005 - English translation (Unofficial) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ At least 23 people have been killed and more than a dozen homes set on fire during raids by the police in the populist district of Bel-Air ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Port-au-Prince, June 5, 2005 (AHP)- At least 23 people were killed and more than a dozen homes set on fire during operations conducted Friday and Saturday by patrols from the Haitian National Police (PNH) in the populist district of Bel-Air in Port-au-Prince. At least 17 residents of this district were killed on Saturday alone. Various officials of the PNH reached by telephone Saturday refused to comment on the deadly raids. However pro-government sectors claimed that those who were killed were bandits. Numerous family members and close friends of the victims declared for their part that the victims were members of the civilian population, because the people who are used to exchanging gunfire with the police had time to flee the area, they said. "The police know full well (who the victims are) but their objective, in targeting the entire population, is to empty the populist districts in anticipation of the elections, whose progress is stalled", said several indignant residents of Bel-Air. Severely criticized by the interim government and by close supporters of the regime because of the "refusal by the UN Mission (MINUSTAH) to support the raids by the police in the populist districts reputed to be supportive of President Aristide, the MINUSTAH military commander, Augusto Heleno Ribeiro, declared Friday that he would never order a massacre in the populist districts. The interventions must never be made blindly in the populist districts, he said. The creation of innocent victims must be avoided, he replied to his accusers during a meeting organized by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Haiti (CCIH). The spokesperson for the Brazilian UN troops, Colonel Carlos Barcelos, tried Saturday to distance himself from the police raids of the past 48 hours, indicating that "the troops of MINUSTAH did not participate directly" (in these operations). Violence and insecurity have reached disturbing proportions in recent weeks, marked above all by killings and abductions in which various sectors of the population are said to be involved, including police officers, police spokesperson Gessy Cameau Coicou indicated recently. However, it if first and foremost the inhabitants of the populist districts, notably the residents of Bel-Air and Cite Soleil who are accused of responsibility for all the violence due to the fact, they said, that they are calling for the return of President Aristide, who as forced to leave Haiti on February 29, 2004 and is currently living in exile in South Africa. Following the arson attack Wednesday at one of the main public markets in the capital, (the T?te Boeuf market), which left some 10 people dead and caused substantial property damage, the interim Minister of Justice, Bernard Gousse announced that the authors of the acts of violence as well as the places where they are located, would be struck. He also announced that the Swat Team specialized unit of the Haitian national police had received the support of members of a foreign Swat Team, however he refused to identify the country of origin of the reinforcements. The interim Prime Minister, G?rard Latortue for his part said that his government is in the process of preparing a proportional response to the bandits who set fire Tuesday to the T?te Boeuf market. Latortue had declared however that he would avoid resorting to blind repression in his fight against the bandits. He announced measures aimed at helping the victims and called on those responsible for the security of the country to assume their responsibilities, and announced at the same time some changes in the team in charge of security for the country. According to police sources, the interim authorities are aware that former Haitian soldiers, as well as individuals who had been forcibly deported from U.S. prisons, and groups of civilians who had taken up arms in February 2004, are still very active. Indeed, former Haitian soldiers have returned to their base in Pernales (Central Plateau) along the Haitian-Dominican border, from which they launched attacks in 2004 and held the population hostage under the Aristide government. AHP June 5, 2005 12:30 PM *** Haiti Information Project June 5, 2005 Haiti's police ratchet up violence, dismiss human rights concerns Port au Prince, Haiti (HIP) - Haitian police continued attacks against a pro-Aristide neighborhood for a third straight day. The area, known as Bel Air, has been a launching site for recent large demonstrations demanding the return of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It is also said to be a home to what Haitian police have alleged is a growing "urban guerilla" movement to destabilize the government before upcoming elections. According to several residents, the police raids began on Friday evening and have been followed by several waves of armed assaults on the community. Residents also reported being unable to flee indiscriminate shooting by the police without running into roadblocks and checkpoints set up by U.N. forces surrounding the area. Many complained of arbitrary arrests of relatives by U.N. forces collaborating with the Haitian police as they tried to escape the gunfire. Journalists entering the neighborhood were shown huge pools of blood where victims were reportedly shot without warning and early reports indicate that more than 30 people have been killed during the police raids. Gunfire could still be heard throughout Bel Air Sunday night as police launched another deadly assault. "They are killing us. They are trying to slaughter us all," shouted an unidentified woman whose home was burned to the ground after police set fire to the area. More than 12 homes were reportedly burned to the ground in what many human rights observers have described as a "scorched earth" policy being used by the Haitian police. The police raids come one day after a spokesman for Aristide's Lavalas movement in Haiti's capital, Mr. Sanba Boukman, condemned a recent attack and firebombing against a popular market in Port au Prince. At least 10 people are reported to have died in last week's blaze that was started after unidentified gunman began shooting in the area. This prompted U.S. Ambassador James B. Foley to join Haiti's business elite in calling for tougher measures to be used against what they have characterized as "armed gangs loyal to Aristide." Haiti's latest wave of violence and insecurity began after the Haitian police fired on thousands of peaceful demonstrators in the capital demanding the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Feb. 28 and April 27. At least 11 unarmed demonstrators were killed in the two attacks forcing U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to echo demands of human rights organizations for an official investigation. The U.S.-installed government of Gerard Latortue has dismissed the allegations despite statements made by Brazilian General Heleno Ribera and video footage taken by a local television station confirming the unprovoked attacks. The video footage also shows members of Haiti's police force planting guns on corpses to justify the slayings on April 27. Recent violence in Haiti's capital has also decreased the chances of holding elections scheduled to begin in October of this year. The body overseeing the election process, the Provisional Election Council, announced on May 30 that only 60,000 people have registered out of an eligible 4.5 million potential voters since the process began more then a month ago. The current crisis in Haiti also prompted an editorial in a California newspaper on Saturday, the Contra Costa Times, to conclude, "Rushing to hold elections in the midst of anarchy is a formula for disaster. The United States must use its leverage to force the Latortue government to negotiate with Aristide and Lavalas. Aristide remains the country's most influential political figure and there will be no solution to the current crisis without his participation." Such positions are said to infuriate U.S. policy makers who are accused along with France and Canada of fomenting a coup against Aristide Feb. 29, 2004. The Haiti Information Project (HIP) is a non-profit alternative news service providing coverage and analysis of breaking developments in Haiti. For more information visit: http://www.teledyol.net/HIP/about.html Contact: HIP at teledyol.net *** Contra Costa Times - June 3, 2005 http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/11805459.htm EDITORIAL U.S. mistakes in Haiti Long before "Operation Iraqi Freedom" there was "Operation Restore Democracy." That U.S. invasion nearly 11 years ago was supposed to restore Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had been ousted in a military coup, liberate the Haitians from their barbaric military, and, most importantly, stop the exodus of Haitian boat people to Florida. President Clinton sent 23,000 American troops. Although Republicans worked furiously against it, Aristide was returned to power. Clinton proclaimed that democracy had been restored. The problem, however, is that it's impossible to restore something where it never existed. More than a decade after the U.S. withdrew its troops and moved on, Haiti has lapsed into total anarchy. Violence -- both random and politically motivated -- has always been a serious problem. Now, it is out of control. Armed gangs roam the streets with Uzis, carjacking and kidnapping people at will. Rival groups rampage through the slums terrorizing the residents. The ill-equipped police and U.N. peacekeepers have been unable to quell the violence. Human rights groups say that 620 people have been killed since September. Aristide, once again in exile, claims 10,000 have died since a coup in February 2004 forced his departure during his second term. The U.S. State Department has told all American citizens to leave Haiti and sent its non-emergency personnel in Port-au-Prince packing. The U.S.-installed puppet Prime Minister Gerard Latortue objected bitterly: "It's a hard blow that the Americans have dealt to us." The whole thing does remind one of rats leaving a sinking ship. The United States, along with Canada and France, bear a large share of the responsibility for the current mess in the former French colony. It was the United States that encouraged a band of killers from the Dominican Republic -- former soldiers in the Haitian military implicated in several massacres of Aristide supporters -- to invade Haiti. There is strong evidence that the U.S. supplied their weapons. Instead of protecting Aristide, who despite his many flaws, is still Haiti's democratically elected president, the U.S. forced him onto a plane bound for the Central African Republic. Today, most of the fighting appears to be between the supporters of the Lavalas party who want Aristide to return and supporters of the former military. According to human rights groups, the Latortue government has killed hundreds of Lavalas supporters and forced many others into hiding. Lavalas gangs also have done their share of killing. The United States insists Haiti will hold elections in October. Lavalas, the largest political party, has said it will not participate. Rushing to hold elections in the midst of anarchy is a formula for disaster. The United States must use its leverage to force the Latortue government to negotiate with Aristide and Lavalas. Aristide remains the country's most influential political figure and there will be no solution to the current crisis without his participation. *** AHP News - June 3, 2005 - English translation (Unofficial) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The MINUSTAH military commander affirms that he will never order a massacre in the populist districts but reaffirms the commitment of his troops to combat all who terrorize the population ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Port-au-Prince, June 3, 2005 (AHP)- General Augusto Heleno Ribeiro, military commander of MINUSTAH, declared once again Friday that he will never order a massacre in the populist districts. Augusto Heleno Ribeiro made these comments during a debate organized under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Haiti (CCIH) concerning the problem of insecurity and the role of MINUSTAH in Haiti. According to the UN commander, interventions must not be conducted blindly in the populist districts. Innocent civilian casualties must be avoided, he said, in response to those who are asking MINUSTAH soldiers to crack down on the residents of the poor districts accused of responsibility for acts of insecurity. " There is no prescription for this type of crime", said Gen. Ribeiro, adding that he would never wish to have to answer for crimes before the International Criminal Court. He declared that the violence taking place in the populist districts is closely connected to the misery of the inhabitants. "When, in these neighborhoods, people are unable to have a hot meal even once per day, it is completely normal for there to be acts of violence", said Gen. Augusto Heleno Ribeiro, who reaffirmed the commitment of his troops to fight against those who sow terror in the Haitian capital by reinforcing patrols in the areas where tension is highest. The Brazilian general said he is counting on the collaboration of all dynamic sectors of the country in the effort to establish a climate of lasting peace in Haiti. Commander Ribeiro also indicated that the situation in Haiti s extremely complex and that the problems are not easy to resolve. "If Haiti's problems could be resolved easily, that would have happened a long time ago", decalred the Brazilian general, affirming that it is time to rebuild the country along a path that includes respect for human rights, not carnage. The President of the CCIH for his part took issue with the remarks suggesting that much of the violence in Haiti is related to extreme poverty. He alleged that the MINUSTAH military commander knows that the violence is being perpetrated by what he called "political gangs linked to Lavalas". Many Haitians living in the populist districts have been killed in recent months during demonstrations in which they called for the release of political prisoners or for better living conditions without their having been any serious investigation carried out to apprehend those responsible who are linked to the police, according to families of the victims and human rights organizations. According to many sectors, in addition to Lavalas activists, who are accused of responsibility for all acts of violence committed in Haiti, numerous other groups are in possession of weapons. These include the former Haitian soldiers who vanished into the undergrowth along with their weapons, as well as people who were forcibly deported to Haiti, and gangs reputed to be close to sectors of the former opposition to Aristide. A senior official from OPL (the Organization of the People in Struggle), Paul Denis, on Monday attributed the acts of violence to several sectors, while declaring that it would be too easy to impute responsibility for all the violence solely to the Lavalas sector. He said also that there sectors who do not wish to see a strong State nor authorities who are capable of assuming their responsibilities. These sectors feel more at ease in a climate of disorder and anarchy in their quest to occupy the spaces of power and make money under bad conditions, just as they have always done, and without fear of being caught by the justice system, said Mr. Denis. AHP June 3, 2005 2:30 PM ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The interim Prime Minister considers that a good number of the MINUSTAH Soldiers feel closer to the people from the shantytowns than they do to people from civil society and the government ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Port-au-Prince, June 3, 2005 (AHP)- Interim Prime Minister G?rard Latortue asserted Friday that some members of MINUSTAH feel more at ease with the inhabitants of the shantytowns, particularly the people of Bel-air and Cit? Soleil, for sociological and psychological reasons, he said. "A number of them can feel much closer to the people of these districts than they do to members of the government and civil society", said Mr. Latortue. The head of the interim government did not elaborate on these remarks, however many members of the military force of MINUSTAH come from poor countries and shantytowns. Mr. Latortue said that these are problems to be solved. With this in mind, he announced that he will soon visit the United Nations to discuss possible changes at the level of the UN forces. AHP June 3, 2005 2:40 PM ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A murder and new cases of kidnapping in Port-au-Prince ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Port-au-Prince, June 3, 2005 (AHP)- A Haitian business man was killed this Friday in Port-au-Prince. The owner of the shop named "Elegancia ", Pierre Guillaume Amazan, was killed by armed individuals in Delmas as he was driving his children to school. At the same time, close to ten kidnapping cases were reported in the capital. Four shopkeepers and the cashier from an electronics store were abducted this Friday. Four members of the same family were also kidnapped. At the same time, a student from the Sainte-Rose School in Lalue was abducted and then released after a ransom was paid. As of this Friday, the family of Jean G?rard Gilbert, the director of the Classic Training Center, who was kidnapped Wednesday had heard no more news about him, despite having paid the ransom that was demanded by the kidnappers. The school director's wife, Maryse Gilbert, said that according to the latest information received from the kidnappers, her husband was said to be in a coma. Interim Prime Minister G?rard Latortue blamed the kidnappings on ex-prisoners who have arrived in Haiti through a program of forcible deportation from the United States. He called for an end to these deportations, judging that most of these individuals have learned to kill and steal outside Haiti. On Thursday, several people suffered gunshot injuries Thursday during clashes between Haitian police officers and a group of heavily armed individuals in the Poste-Marchand district. Heavy weapons fire was heard in several other parts of the capital, notably in the Bel-Air, Nazon and Lalue districts and in the vicinity of the National Palace. AHP June 3, 2005 1:20 PM ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ha?ti's kidnappings: The interim Justice Minister announces the arrival of foreign units to reinforce the PNH Swat Team ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Port-au-Prince, June 3, 2005 (AHP)- Interim Justice Minister Bernard Gousse has announced a series of measure designed to combat kidnappings. The kidnappers must no longer feel safe in the Haitian capital, declared Bernard Gousse. Foreign units have arrived to reinforce the ranks of the national Swat Team in order to put an end to this scourge, he said. Bernard Gousse also appealed for reinforcements for the office of the Inspector General of the Haitian National Police (PNH) in order to carry out investigations into certain police officers who are serving as informants to the bandits. For his part, interim Prime Minister G?rard Latortue singled out former prisoners who have been forcibly deported from the United States as being the principal authors of the kidnappings. Mr. Latortue said that steps will be taken to press the U.S. government to end these deportations. AHP June 3, 2005 4:35 PM ------------------------------------------------------------------------ G?rard Latortue announces that his government is preparing to provide a proportional response to the bandits who set fire to the T?te Boeuf market ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Port-au-Prince, June 3, 2005 (AHP)- Interim Prime Minister G?rard Latortue said Thursday that his government is in the process of preparing an appropriate response to the bandits who set fire to the T?te Boeuf market. Mr. Latortue declared, however, that he will avoid engaging in blind repression in the fight against the bandits. He announced measures aimed at helping the victims and called on those responsible for the country's security to assume their responsibilities while at the same time he announced changes in the nation's security team. . The Minister for Women's Affairs and Women's Rights, Adeline Chancy, for her part informed the public of a Wednesday meeting with the Mayor of Port-au-Prince, Ms. Carline Simon and her assessor, Yanick M?zil, in connection with the fire at the T?te Boeuf market. About 10 people were killed in that fire Tuesday's. Substantial property damage also took place. Adeline Chancy said that her Ministry is directly concerned by this tragedy because most of the victims are women. The Minister for Women's Affairs committed herself to supporting, she said, every effort by the government to assist these victims, and called on the interim regime to reinforce security measures to enable the victims to resume their activities. For his part, the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Fritz K?nol, said that the interim government will do everything it can to help the victims of the tragedy at the T?te Boeuf market. According to Mr. K?nol, the Ministry of the Economy and Finance has already been approached with a view to developing a program that will allow all the victims to be reached, beginning with the small retailers. AHP June 3, 2005 1:50 PM ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The President of the CEP admits for the first time that some dates on the election calendar may have to be moved back ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Port-au-Prince, June 3, 2005 (AHP)- Max Mathurin, provisional President of the provisional Electoral Council, acknowledged for the first time Thursday that the scheduled dates set for the elections might not hold. "We can always move back the date scheduled for the municipal and local elections", declared Mr. Mathurin in response to questions from a radio station in the capital. The CEP is not a slave to any date, he said. The CEP's provisional president also recognized that the voter registration process is not going along very well because, he said, of the climate of insecurity that prevails in the country. Only some 56.000 voters have registered since the start of the process a little over a month ago, with only two months left to go in the registration period. The new secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Jos? Miguel Insulza, warned Thursday that the growing insecurity in Haiti is threatening the democratic process in the country. Jose Miguel Insulza, who took office on May 26, declared that the representatives of OAS member states will discuss the Haitian crisis with UN officials during the OAS General Assembly from June 5-7 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. "The diplomats will discuss the role of the OAS in organizing the general elections called in order to fill the vacuum caused by the forced departure from Haiti of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. AHP June 3, 2005 11:00 AM ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yvon Feuill? affirms that he decided to take a seat on the commission preparing the national dialogue in order to test the good faith of the government on a series of issues ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Port-au-Prince, June 3, 2005 (AHP)- Haitian Senator Yvon Feuill? affirmed Friday that he agreed to take part in the preparatory commission for the national dialogue in order to test the good faith of the interim government on a range of questions including the arbitrary imprisonment of Lavalas party leaders and activists. Provisional President Boniface Alexandre inaugurated the commission Tuesday at the National Palace, naming it the Independent Preparatory Commission of the National Dialogue". Yvon Feuill? said he recognizes that his presence in this commission is not unanimously supported within Fanmi Lavalas. He said he is sitting on the commission to defend three issues: the release of the political prisoners, the creation of a government of national union, and the return of constitutional order in the country. For their part, the grassroots activists of Fanmi Lavalas have disapproved of the presence of Senator Yvon Feuill? on this commission, which they call "the Commission of Anti-National Dialogue". The spokesperson for the Lavalas activists of Cit? Soleil, Ren? Monplaisir, said that no one has been appointed by the party to represent it in confused structures. "How can one speak of dialogue when they continue to kill us in the populist districts, when our rights are being trampled and when the detention centres are jammed to overflowing with political prisoners", asked Ren? Monplaisir. AHP June 3, 2005 11:25 AM ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lavalas activists denounce the arson attack at the T?te Boeuf market and calls for the formation of an independent commission of investigation ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Port-au-Prince, June 3, 2005 (AHP)- Lavalas activists spoke out Friday in condemnation of the criminal arson attack that ravaged the T?te Boeuf market on Tuesday and caused 10 deaths. A spokesperson for the activists of Cit? Soleil, Ren? Monplaisir, called for the creation of an independent commission of inquiry to investigate and shed light on this barbarous act. According to Ren? Monplaisir, the fire at the T?te Boeuf market was the work of certain sectors seeking to justify the continuation of persecution and repression in the populist districts. He denounced the fact that it is always the disadvantaged classes who are the target of these sectors. AHP June 3, 2005 11:55 AM ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Radio Galaxie declares that it has received threats - the following is a press release issued by the newsroom ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "The Management of Radio Galaxie, targeted with persistent threats A plot aimed at kidnapping or attempting to kill one or several members of the management team of Radio Galaxie has been organized and is set to be put into action shortly by unidentified armed groups, according to various messages received by the station, some threatening, others conciliatory and urging prudence. What is disturbing is that the authorities in the country, the PNH and MINUSTAH first and foremost, were contacted by letter three days ago. These authorities, who often hide behind the excuse that they were not informed in a timely manner, have as of Friday June 3rd, not even deigned to call the Station; it is just like refusing to assist a person in danger, a display of contempt which places the staff of the Radio in terrible distress. In at least two circumstances, one of the senior directors of the Radio has barely escaped being kidnapped; the first time he was able, by reflex, to thwart the maneuvers of armed men trying to force their way into his vehicle as he was on his way home. On a second occasion, he was saved thanks to the miraculous assistance of a vigilant friend at the Radio Station who, risking his own life, courageously opposed the actions of four assailants who lay in ambush outside his vehicle to attack him as he left a friend's house after a visit. Without wishing to give in too quickly to a kind of alarmist feeling, the rampant insecurity together with the staggering increase in criminal acts reported in diverse corners of the country, and with a particular intensity in the metropolitan area - a situation before which the citizens are completely disarmed and all the more abandoned to their own fate - we are nevertheless issuing this invitation to pay scrupulous attention to these items of information. The motive of those passing the instructions in this plot and of the possible authors of these planned crimes aimed at chopping off the head of Radio Galaxie is thus far unknown. For the moment, one is reduced to suppositions. Perhaps the Management of Radio Galaxie is being targeted by the new "growth industry" of our time, which is in search of ransom payments and easy money, that is, the industry consisting of the kidnapping of ordinary citizens, an industry always in search of fresh prey. To think this way would however, strangely enough, be mistaken. Radio Galaxie, because of its philosophy guided by a passion to communicate, by an obsession to serve the public well, by its concern for excellence at all times, has never been and can not be a lucrative enterprise; its members and its directors are artists placing the quality of the Radio's production above all else; thus it is not necessary to point out that the station has only been able to get by from the beginning because of its passion for sports and music which motivates the entire staff, Perhaps one is trying to attack the rigorously professional profile of Radio Galaxie? There can be no doubt that this profile, made of objectivity, jealously cultivating its independence, deliberately refusing to yield to the sirens' calls and to play the game of petty, partisan and self-interested calculations, placing itself resolutely above the fray, buttressing itself by the truth as if it were a compass, disturbs and angers more than one person. But this line we have drawn, we adhere to it and we will adhere to it until the end toward and against everything. Perhaps one is also aiming through these cowardly acts that are planned, to strike a blow that could grab hold of people's imaginations and further traumatize public opinion at a time when there may be a need for those who sow the seeds of grief, operating with complete impunity, to instill new momentum into their strategy of orchestrated terror with a consummate art? Perhaps also is this a question of minor chieftains (caciques) lurking in the shadows to take advantage of the outrageously deleterious atmosphere which rages with an alluring constancy for some time in the country and which spares almost no one as it attacks citizens who have committed the sole mistake of failing to worship them and of having always refused to align themselves and bow down before them? It is always the case that these macabre plans are part of a long criminal drama that has, alas, gone on too long already! It would also be irresponsible for us to take them lightly! Thus, we denounce them. Here we are, even more aware of the fact that, in these troubled moments through which the country is passing, Radio Galaxie has, over the course of its history paid a heavy tribute to the defense of freedom of _expression and to the dream, shared by millions of compatriots, of making Haiti a normal country, and putting heading irrevocably toward modernity. For about 14 years, our station has been shedding warm tears, and continues to do so, at the abduction and then the brutal disappearance which to this day remains unexplained, of one of its co-directors and co-founders, F?lix Lamy. To this very day, his murderers walk the streets. And his family (having taken refuge through a long exile since December 10, 1991, in the U.S.) and his friends are still waiting for justice to be rendered to him. Well beyond this, throughout its short period of existence, the radio station has been sacked, its equipment destroyed on at least two occasions; worse yet, the compensation promised by agreements, notably the Governor's Island agreement, in the form of restitution of materials and equipment, have never been honored. c At this crossroads in the life of the country, we appeal to the public authorities and above all to the solidarity of the people, for an end to this descent toward the inferno toward which Haitian society seems to be plunging irresistibly, in order that the country, at last rid of its demons, may recover hope once more and live; One does not kill an idea! By the Newsroom of Radio Galaxie. CHARLES constel" Forwarded by the Haitian Lawyers' Leadership Network "Men anpil chay pa lou" is Kreyol for - "Many hands make light a heavy load." Join our International Solidarity - THE FREE HAITI MOVEMENT. For info, see: http://www.margueritelaurent.com/photogallery/haitisolidarityday.html and, http://www.margueritelaurent.com/solidarityday/infoforsponsors.html Help stop the slaughter in Cite Soleil, Bel Air and throughout Haiti, now. Learn more: "Bandit King in Cite Soleil" http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/presswork/interviewdread.html There's no time to waste. All the nationalities are down there in Haiti, in the form of UN troops, quietly liquidating young Black brothers who will not accept the recolonization of Haiti and return of the bloody Haitian bourgeiosie and army back to power. Even after death, our indignities and sufferings don't stop, because their families can't afford to bury them and their bodies are just dumped in mass graves, left to rot in the streets or morgue: http://www.margueritelaurent.com/solidarityday/pictures/orel_01.html Keep up to date with Ezili Danto Witness Project that publishes the voices and pictures from the streets of Haiti of this hidden genocide: http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/testimonies/personaltestimonies.html http://www.margueritelaurent.com/solidarityday/pictures/hsd_pictures.html The Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 (415) 863-9977 http://www.freedomarchives.org From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 6 13:16:51 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 13:16:51 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] CARICOM Seeks Greater Democracy in UN Security Cncl Message-ID: <200506061716.j56HGpR32512@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com CARICOM for Greater Access of Small Nations to UN Security Council Nassau, Jun 6 (Prensa Latina) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) wants the United Nations (UN) Security Council to be more open and democratic, giving greater access to small states, reports the Caribbean Media Corporation. The issue of the expansion of the Security Council arose at the 8th meeting of the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR), which ended over the weekend. COFCOR, which determines foreign relations pursued by CARICOM has thrown its support behind proposals to expand the Security Council, CMC highlights in its report. The Council of Caribbean Ministers agreed that the UN?s Security Council should be more broadly representative of the international community as a whole, Antigua?s Minister of Information, Broadcasting and Communications, Dr. Edmond Mansoor, was quoted as saying. "Expansion of both the permanent and non-permanent categories of the Council would be justifiable. In this regard, the Council agreed that CARICOM would wish to see increased accessibility for small states," he added. There are 15 member countries on the Security Council. Five of these are permanent members, while the other 10 seats are rotated among the general membership of the UN. The permanent members are the US, Russia, China, Britain and France. mh From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 6 13:22:42 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 13:22:42 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Cuba: Environment News Updates - June 6, 2005 Message-ID: <200506061722.j56HMg532763@olm.blythe-systems.com> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu World Environment Day Celebrated in Cuba Holguin, June 6 (AIN) The main activity for World Environment Day in Cuba was held in the eastern city of Holguin in recognition for its positive results in preserving the ecosystem. The reduction of contaminants, the recovery of its soils and the increased wooded areas are among the achievements of the province which led the Cuban authorities to select it to commemorate World Environment Day. World Environment Day was instituted by the UN General Assembly on December 15, 1972 with the objective of creating an international awareness on the need to protect nature for future generations. The slogan used during the commemoration on the island was Cuba: "Green for a sustainable future." *** Cuban Environmental Policy Seeks Sustainable Development Guantanamo, June 6 (AIN) Cuba is developing a society with social justice, equality, human dignity, sovereignty and sustainable development, said a Cuban expert during celebrations for World Environment Day in the eastern city of Guantanamo. The island has important and effective environmental laws that include a high sense of state responsibility, said provincial environment director, Mario Montero, who also represents the island at various international conventions on drought and desertification. The official explained that the recovery of thousands of hectares affected by salinity in the central valley of Guantanamo and the preservation of the Toa and Guantanamo Guaso river basins are among the advances of the environmental protection policy. On the occasion of World Environment Day on June 5, Cuba's Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment awarded the National Environment Prize to the Industrial Citrus Company located in the eastern municipality of Contramaestre, the Jose Marti Pedagogical Institute and the Provincial department of Environmental Services in Guantanamo. Guantanamo's Environmental Services attends the Alejandro de Humboldt National Park and the Cuchillas de Toa Biosphere Reserve which was recognized in 2001 as a World Heritage Site. The group from Guantanamo is also in charge of the Hatibonico Ecological Reserve, an area which belongs to the Sierra Maestra National Park, internationally recognized for its abundant variety of fauna and the elevations known as Los Monitongos. *** Contamination Reduced in Pinar del Rio Province Pinar del Rio, June 6 (AIN) The western Cuban province of Pinar del Rio has reduced different types of pollution by 3.3 percent as a result of environmental protection work. Among the province's municipalities that stand out is Vi?ales, for its achievements in forest management and protection of the Cuyaguateje River Basin, the largest in the western part of the island. Another key factor has been the positive response of tourist resorts located in the region to finding solutions to the problems of interacting with the environment. To improve the quality of life of the population of the Vi?ales National Park, a program of sustainable development is underway with support from the government of Canary Islands, Spain. On World Environment Day, the island's western province reports 39.4 percent of its surface covered with forests, despite the affects of four hurricanes in recent years. One of the most important tasks of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, and with the cooperation of other institutions, is the recovery of the south-western valley, damaged by the salinity in its soils and underground waters, in addition to an accelerated soil erosion that has saw reduced land productivity. The efforts are aimed at repopulating the affected places with endemic species aimed to maintain the equilibrium of nature and culture in the region. Environmental preservation efforts in Pinar del Rio also include Sierra del Rosario and the Guanahacabibes Penninsula, two of the six world biosphere reserves on the island. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 6 13:26:25 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 13:26:25 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Cuba Hosts Congress on Culture and Development Message-ID: <200506061726.j56HQQ000420@olm.blythe-systems.com> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu Cuba Hosts Congress on Culture and Development Havana, June 6 (AIN) Intellectuals from around the world are gathering in Havana for the 4th International Congress on Culture and Development. Supported by UNESCO, the congress will focus on issues such as folklore, popular culture, exclusion and marginalized persons and neo- liberal "capitalism with the gloves off" economic policies. Some 500 poets, sociologists, writers, academics, historians, anthropologists, ethnologists, economists and culture officials are expected to attend the forum, which is held every two years. The director of the Casa de Las Americas cultural institution, Roberto Fern?ndez Retamar, and writers Lisandro Otero and Miguel Barnet are among the prominent Cubans to be present. The congress runs until Thursday and includes workshops and conferences and a panel discussion on the anti-globalization thinking in today's world. Participants will also attend several Cuban music concerts and tour Cuban cultural centers, the Art Instructor's School and the Latin American School of Medicine. *** Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Cuba Hosts 4th Culture and Development Congress Havana, Jun 6 (Prensa Latina) The 4th International Congress on Culture and Development begins Monday in this capital, with the attendance of some 500 national and foreign figures. The aim of the event, to run until June 9 at Havana?s International Conference Center, is to analyze cultural policies, diversity and heritage. The forum will be divided into six professional groups, in which attendees will analyze folklore, popular culture, neoliberal domination, diversity, gender, race and minorities, as well as the role of heritage and culture regarding tourism. Foreign figures attending the meeting include US actor Danny Glover and political scientist James Cockcroft, Italian novelist Valerio Massimo Manfredi, Venezuelan narrator Luis Brito and Brazilian actress Leticia Spiller, among others. Among the Cubans are Roberto Fernandez Retamar, Lisandro Otero, Marta Arjona, Miguel Barnet, Julio Garcia Espinosa, Reynaldo Gonz?lez, Eduardo Heras, Eusebio Leal, Rogelio Martinez Fure, Eliades Acosta and Desiderio Navarro. The International Congress on Culture and Development comes from a document signed in Mexico in 2003, which called for reflection on problems related to survival of the human species and its culture. mh/iff/pqj/mf From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 6 13:31:33 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 13:31:33 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] ILO: Cuban Achievements in Labor, Social Justice Message-ID: <200506061731.j56HVXu00574@olm.blythe-systems.com> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu Cuba's Achievements in Labor, Social Justice Showcased at ILO Conference Havana, June 6 (AIN) Cuba has achieved full employment and social security for its entire population - all without disregarding the need for solidarity with its African, Asian, Latin American and Caribbean brothers and sisters, said Cuba's minister of labor. Cuban Minister Alfredo Morales -speaking about the island's social development achievements at the International Labor Organization conference underway in Geneva, Switzerland- said guaranteeing employment for youths is not only possible in Cuba, but it is also a strategic initiative. The island has identified human resources as its principal treasure, after having given careful attention to education and ongoing training, he said. No child in Cuba is obligated to work to survive and our new social programs are yielding results by improving the population's quality of life, creating jobs for our youths and providing everyone with opportunities to pursue a university education, explained Morales. The Cuban minister said that over 33,000 Cuban doctors, teachers, sports experts are offering their services in 106 countries around the world; while more than 18,000 youths from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the United States are enrolled free higher education programs on the island. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 6 13:33:17 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 13:33:17 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Salvadoran Bishop Speaks at Havana anti-Terror Forum Message-ID: <200506061733.j56HXHj00642@olm.blythe-systems.com> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu Salvadoran Bishop Vows Never to Forget Terrorist Crimes Havana, June 6 (AIN) A Salvadoran bishop said that after participating in the International Forum against Terrorism held in Havana, he would return to his country convinced more than ever that such crimes must not be forgotten. Medardo Gomez, himself a victim of death squads, said he had always preferred to hide his pain and suffering, as well as his agonizing memories. Touched deeply by forum, however, he spoke openly of his bitter experiences. The Salvadoran bishop expressed concern that some sectors of the Catholic and Protestant churchs have joined in with US imperial plans and so-called low-intensity psychological campaigns. These groups receive large sums of money in exchange of their using of religious faith to win people over to the ideals of "free market" capitalism. Bishop Gomez also criticized the relationship between the Miami- based Cuban-American extremists and the ultra-right ruling circles in El Salvador. He cited recent elections in that Central American nation in which representatives of such circles in the US came to El Salvador with the aim of intimidating the people and pressuring them to vote for their preferred candidate. Bishop Gomez said that like himself, many other religious leaders who advocate Christian faith in favour of justice and peace, have been the targets of ongoing state terrorism in El Salvador, where numerous priests have been murdered, arrested or forced into exile. The Church to which I am committed advocates helping people, therefore we must not forget or hide the truth, concluded the Bishop in recent statements to the Cuban newspaper Granma. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 6 13:36:25 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 13:36:25 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] MH's Jim DeFede at Havana anti-Terror Forum Message-ID: <200506061736.j56HaPF00754@olm.blythe-systems.com> [sent by Walter Lippmann (cubanews) The Miami Herald - June 5, 2005 http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/11818022.htm In My Opinion The cry in Havana: Posada is a murderer By Jim DeFede HAVANA -- Mar??a Rojo Alvarez was 10 when her mother showed up unexpectedly at her school on the afternoon of Oct. 6, 1976. "She was very emotional, very nervous," Maria recalled. ``She told me my father was dead." It was hard for her mother even to say the words, and she wouldn't be able to say them again. So the school principal told Maria to retrieve her youngest brother, 5-year-old Camilo, from his kindergarten class. There was no time for tears as Maria walked alone down the hallway to her brother's classroom. "I knew at that moment I was going to have to be the strong one," she recalled. ``I understood immediately my mission would be to help raise my brothers." Entering her brother's kindergarten class, Maria walked up to her brother and said matter-of-factly, ``Papi est?? muerto." Daddy is dead. As she tells me the story, her brother reaches over and takes hold of his sister's hand, just as he did on that day 29 years ago. "When she came to me that day in the classroom, I couldn't comprehend what she was saying," Camilo said. ``I couldn't understand how my father could possibly be dead. How could it be? How could it happen?" Mar??a and Camilo's father was Jes??s Rojo Quintana, one of the 73 victims aboard Cubana de Aviaci??n Flight 455 when it crashed into the sea after a bomb exploded on board shortly after the jet took off from Barbados on its way to Cuba. Jes??s Rojo Quintana was 33. Among the victims were Cuba's national fencing team. Camilo is wearing a white T-shirt with the face of his father emblazoned on the front. Maria is wearing her own white T-shirt, but this one has the face of another Cubana victim, Manuel A. Rodr??guez Font. "His family is all dead now," she said. ``But I didn't want his name to be forgotten, so I decided to wear it for him." The three of us are gathered in a room alongside El Palacio de Convenciones, the city's convention center where the Cuban government is hosting a three-day conference on international terrorism. As we talk, a television in the room is broadcasting live from inside the hall. Cuban President Fidel Castro's image fills the screen as he directs a panel titled ``Terrorism: The Miami Connection." The conference is a media show to keep the spotlight on the U.S. government and Luis Posada Carriles, a man many people believe masterminded the bombing of Flight 455 in 1976, as well as more recent attacks, including a series of bombings at Havana hotels in 1997 that killed an Italian tourist, Fabio di Celmo. THE FULL TREATMENT There have been speeches and panel discussions and even political cartoons. In one three-minute cartoon, Posada's head morphs into a steaming potato that falls into the hands of President Bush, who promptly tosses it to members of his Cabinet. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice immediately throws it back to Bush. "Posada is a hot potato," Castro said, laughing, after the video played. There is little doubt that Castro is relishing the discomfort being felt in Washington over what to do with Posada. The Venezuelan government has said it intends to ask for his extradition so that he can be retried on the Cubana massacre. (Posada was acquitted twice in Venezuela but escaped from prison in 1985 while the case was being appealed.) The United States has strongly suggested it will refuse Venezuela's request, believing Venezuela might in turn ship Posada to Cuba to stand trial. That could be politically disastrous for President Bush. Although there have been no significant protests on behalf of Posada, a recent poll by Sergio Bendixen suggests that Posada enjoys surprising support among Cuban Americans in South Florida. The survey of 300 Cuban Americans last month found that 61 percent believed Posada to be a patriot while 15 percent considered him a terrorist. (The margin of error was plus or minus five percentage points.) While Bush tries to figure out what to do, Castro accuses the United States of being hypocritical in its war on terrorism. The Cuban government's willingness to allow me, a writer for the much-hated Miami Herald, into the country to cover the conference is proof of that government's confidence. (This is only the second time in more than seven years Cuba has granted the Herald a visa.) Unfortunately, in the United States, and particularly in South Florida, this has led people to view the Posada case as merely a contest between Castro and Bush. What Americans fail to realize is how strongly Cubans in Cuba view Posada. Leaving the government-sponsored conference, and without any government minders or escorts, I wanted to see just how deeply these feelings ran among ordinary Cubans. "He's a murderer," Mario, 69, told me as he waited for a bus in Havana's Central Park. ``I'm not a revolutionary. I do not support the government. But I tell you that my idea, and the idea of the majority of Cubans, is that Posada Carriles is a terrorist and he must be brought to justice." At a small fruit-and-vegetable market a short distance away, Osvaldo Hern??ndez, 37, and Carlos Cardosa, 36, became agitated when I mentioned Posada's name. "The victims on that plane, the Italian at the hotel, they were innocent victims," Hern??ndez said while sorting through a bin of small and discolored tomatoes. ``They had nothing to do with politics." "If the American people have enough common sense, they should see him for what he is, a terrorist," Cardosa added. Time and again, the same thoughts were expressed. William LeoGrande, dean of the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington and a respected expert on Cuba, said he encountered the same anger toward Posada by Cubans on the street during a recent visit to Havana. He said the feelings were very similar to the emotions felt on the island during the Eli??n Gonz??lez affair. On his most recent trip to Cuba, he arrived the day Castro led more than 100,000 people on a march in Havana demanding that the United States arrest Posada and extradite him to Venezuela. PEOPLE `ENERGIZED' "The marches weren't large because the people were ordered to march by Castro," LeoGrande said. ``They were large because the people are truly energized by this event. It could have been their son or daughter on the fencing team. It could have been their mother or father on that plane. The anger Cubans feel has that same immediacy as it did with Eli??n." Even among dissidents, Posada carries little support. One man, who asked that his name not be published, said the United States was doing a terrible job handling Posada, because it had allowed Castro to claim the high ground in the war on terrorism. "Every time Castro can find an excuse to attack the United States, he uses it in order to distract from the problems we have here," the man said. ``The United States has to find a way out of this." On Friday at the convention center, I met with Giustino di Celmo, father of Fabio di Celmo, the Italian killed in one of the hotel bombings in 1997. He was in a reserved seat near the front of the hall, not far from where Castro was sitting. At age 85 he is still filled with fire. "Posada said he slept like a baby after he killed my son," Giustino said, referring to an interview Posada gave to The New York Times in which he took credit for the hotel bombing. ``But if I ever have a chance to put my hands on him, I'll cut him to pieces." He then invited me to join him for pizza next week. He operates a pizza parlor in Havana in memory of his son. "For you, I'll make it a big pie," he said, patting my belly. The families of the victims from the Cubana de Aviaci??n disaster are readily apparent in the hall, since many of them are wearing buttons and items of clothing bearing their loved ones' pictures. They are strikingly reminiscent of the American families of 9/11 victims we've grown accustomed to seeing. When I mention this to Carlos Alberto Cremata Malberti, whose father died on the Cubana flight, he nods. "This was our September 11, that's what you have to understand," he said. ``We want justice and the only justice is Posada on trial." Although it has been 29 years, the pain doesn't fade. "I'm going to confess something to you," Cremata said. ``I dream that my father is still alive. They only recovered eight of the 73 bodies. Most of us were left with nothing to bury. So I dream that my father is still alive, that he is somewhere, doing some sort of very delicate mission. It is a hope that helps me to live." Camilo Rojo Alvarez -- whose 10-year-old sister told him their father was dead -- understands what Cremata is experiencing. POIGNANT CONNECTION Today, Camilo is 33, the same age his father was when he died. And like his father, he has three children, two boys and a girl. "When I am with my children, playing with them, I think about my father and how much I miss him," Camilo said. ``I want to give to my children all of the things those terrorists didn't let my father give to me when I was growing up -- love and attention." Recently, he was swimming off the beach with his 9-year-old son. 'He asked me, `Are we close to my grandfather,' " Camilo recalled. ``He knew that the plane crashed into the water and he knew that his grandfather's body had never been recovered. And so I said, `Yes we are with him. He will always be with us.' ``Our days on the beach now are not sad, they are good days. But I realized the pain that I have been feeling isn't just limited to me and my brother and my sister. It is a pain that goes from generation to generation." From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 6 13:42:46 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 13:42:46 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Interviews w/Salvadoran Bombers of Cuba Hired by Posada Message-ID: <200506061742.j56HgkS01002@olm.blythe-systems.com> posted by Walter Lippmann (cubanews) The Miami Herald - June 6, 2005 http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/11824050.htm In My Opinion Bomber initially thought task was `heroic mission' by Jim DeFede HAVANA -- As he explains precisely how he planted a string of bombs at hotels around the Cuban capital in the summer of 1997, Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon mentions the Hotel Nacional. The Nacional? ``Nacional, si, bomba." I tell him that's where I'm staying. He laughs and then smiles and shrugs. Among Cubans, Cruz Leon is known simply as "The Salvadoran," the man who placed six of the dozen or more bombs that rocked Cuban tourist sites that year, including the bomb at the Copacabana that killed Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo. He was captured not long after the Copa bombing and was sentenced to death in March 1999. His sentence is under appeal -- which means the Cuban government values him more alive than dead, at least for now. In his first interview with a U.S. newspaper since his conviction six years ago, Cruz Leon talked about his life in Cuba's Guanajay Prison, the death of di Celmo, and his feelings toward Luis Posada Carriles, the man responsible for sending him on what he once believed was a ``heroic mission." Our meeting takes place away from the prison, in a house used by Cuban state security in Siboney, a neighborhood on the west side of the city. Dressed in jeans, a polo shirt and sneakers -- as opposed to his normal prison uniform -- and with his hair neatly trimmed, Cruz Leon appeared healthy. A former member of El Salvador's military, Cruz Leon was 26 when he was recruited in San Salvador for the bombing campaign. He said he was approached by another Salvadoran, Francisco Chavez Abarca, who was familiar with what Cruz Leon described as his ``spirit of adventure." "He also knew I had right-wing thoughts," Cruz Leon said. Cruz Leon never met Posada, but as a Herald investigation discovered in 1997, Chavez worked for Posada and was one of the first people recruited by Posada to initiate the bombing campaign. Cruz Leon said he was to be paid approximately $2,000 for each bomb detonated. He was given a list of hotels, but it was up to Cruz Leon to decide the exact location inside each building. Cruz Leon claimed he balked at first because he didn't want anyone to get hurt. He told me that Chavez responded by saying: ``Well, try to put it in the lobby in a place where you won't kill anybody, but if there are people that die, that's the price. If there are people that die, they die." `A HEROIC MISSION' After his first set of bombs went off in July 1997, he felt great. "I thought that I had accomplished a heroic mission," he said. ``I thought it was an action against the evil." He returned a few weeks later to plant a second string of bombs -- one of them at the Copacabana. He learned someone died in that blast only after being arrested two days later by Cuban police. While Cruz Leon was awaiting trial in Cuba, Posada came forward to take credit for the bombings in a series of newspaper and television interviews. Posada expressed little sympathy over Cruz Leon's arrest or his fate. "He's not Cuban," Posada said dismissively. ``He did this for money." Cruz Leon told me he was stunned by Posada's words. "I would say to him that he should look backwards and see how much damage he has done and to stop," he said. ``He should pay the same way I am paying for a death I caused." He paused and then added, ``I am not in a position to make any judgment about anybody, and I want to make clear that I cannot make the statement that I know for sure that [Posada] has done everything he has been blamed for." But if Posada is guilty, Cruz Leon said, ``he deserves to pay for it." In an interview with The New York Times, Posada said he slept like a baby after learning the Italian tourist had been killed in the Copacabana bombing. "I don't sleep like a baby, you can be sure of that," Cruz Leon told me. ``I know that my hands are full of blood." `WE WERE FOOLS' The person in the cell next to him at Guanajay Prison is another Salvadoran, Otto Rene Rodriguez Llerena. He planted one bomb in 1997 and was caught smuggling C-4 explosives into Cuba in June 1998. He, too, has been sentenced to death. A former officer in the Salvadoran military, Rodriguez Llerena was selling cars at San Salvador's largest dealership when he was approached by Posada, who was hiding in El Salvador under the name Ignacio Medina. He has consistently identified pictures of Posada as the man who hired him. "We were fools," Rodriguez Llerena tells me in a separate interview at the state security house. He said Posada agreed to pay him $1,000 for each bomb, and $100 for every pound of C-4 he could smuggle into Cuba. He agreed, he said, because he had money problems. He had fathered children with different women and couldn't pay all of their bills. He said he feels Posada exploited his weakness. "I cannot say if he is a freedom fighter or a terrorist," Rodriguez Llerena said. ``In my personal case I am angry, because whether he is a freedom fighter or not, he used me. My mistake was letting him use me." Today, Rodriguez Llerena says he is being used by the Cuban government. He said Cuban state television never shows his statements of remorse. "They only put on TV what is politically necessary and useful for them," he said. Now both Cruz Leon and Rodriguez Llerena spend their days in a special unit segregated from the rest of the prison population. They say they have a small garden where they grow vegetables and a television set where they watched the news about Posada's entry into the United States and his arrest by Homeland Security. Actually, Rodriguez Llerena said, the two men don't talk much about Posada. "It's a painful subject," he said. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 6 14:32:31 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 14:32:31 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Brazil's Govt Defeats Opposition but Pays Dearly Message-ID: <200506061832.j56IWV502167@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Brazilian Government Defeats Opposition but Pays Dearly Rio de Janeiro, Jun 6 (Prensa Latina) The Brazilian government?s political battle over its desire to create a Parliamentary Investigation Commission (PIC) triumphed over the opposition but paid dearly, according to Monday reports. The Constitution and Justice Commission of the Chamber of Deputies will start Tuesday debating the PIC constitutionality to investigate accusations of corruption at the Post Office Enterprise, which the governmental vote may prevent from becoming effective. The proposal will go into the Chamber?s full meeting, and if defeated again, the opposition, which is already collecting signatures, could attempt to constitute the PIC only with the Senate. "If worse comes to worst, the Planalto (executive headquarters) will bury the PIC, which could turn into the opposition rostrum," O Globo newspaper journalist Helena Chagas said. However, experts believe the victory over the opposition may have slightly reduced the rating of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and increased people?s concern over corruption. The Brazilian administration seeks to avoid electoral implications for the image of Lula in the October 2006 presidential elections. Lula summoned his team today to examine the situation and establish guidelines for the debate to be held at the Constitution and Justice Commission of the Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday. He is also slated to review the issue tomorrow, while opening the 4th World Forum to Fight Corruption, which comes just at the right time for the government. mh/ecq/as/mf From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 6 14:36:38 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 14:36:38 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Peru 2001 Missionary Plane Shootdown & US Secret Ops Message-ID: <200506061836.j56IacL02320@olm.blythe-systems.com> Special to WORLD WAR 4 REPORT, June 10, 2005 Reprinting permissible with attribution http://WW4Report.com [A tragic air accident on Peru's northern coastline in August of 2001 cost the lives of two exemplary pilots, one Peruvian and one American. It received little notice at the time. But a WW4 REPORT investigation into the incident has exposed a series of blunders, mysterious official silence from both Lima and Washington, and finally a trail of corruption extending from the hand of Peru's former intelligence czar Vladimir Montesinos--now convicted on multiple corruption charges--to the U.S. State Department. The regime of Peru's authoritarian President Alberto Fujimori, ousted in November 2000, is now widely recognized to have allowed drug flights to get through, and the U.S.-coordinated program to shoot the flights down was officially suspended after the embarrassing downing of an innocent missionary plane in April 2001. But training for the program apparently continued at least through 2003 and the State Department won't talk. The father of the Peruvian pilot killed in the 2001 accident wants to know why. And since your tax-dollars may be funding a clandestine military operation in South America that violates official policy--you should too.] PLAN COLOMBIA'S SECRET AIR FORCE PROGRAM IN PERU: A Father Waits for Justice as Deadly Accident Reveals Air-Interception Exercises by Peter Gorman "If you want to talk about corruption, the United States is continuing to sacrifice youth such as my son in the name of stopping cocaine. But this is not what they are doing. This is a charade." So says Carlos Lama Borges, a retired Peruvian Air Force captain whose pilot son's body was found washed up on a desert beach four years ago. Despite evidence of faulty equipment in his son's plane, a Peruvian government investigation blamed the pilot in the accident, prompting Lama to file a lawsuit against the Peruvian armed forces and U.S. military contractors to discover the truth. For his effort, his home was burglarized, and materials related to the case stolen. The ongoing case, ignored by both the U.S. and Peruvian media, may reveal that a controversial air-interception program launched under Plan Colombia continued well after its official suspension. In 1990, Washington and Peru entered into an agreement--formalized as a bilateral treaty in 1993--whereby the U.S. would aid Peru's armed forces in the location, identification, interception and/or neutralization of small aircraft suspected of carrying coca base from Peruvian territory to finishing laboratories in Colombia. The Airbridge Denial Program, as it was known, defined the role of U.S.-contracted planes and pilots (and later, radar operators) as one of location and identification, with the Peruvian Air Force (FAP) calling the shots on which planes were to be intercepted or shot down. The actual shooting was also to be the responsibility of the Peruvians. A similar program with the same name was also utilized in Colombia with the same public protocol. That either the Peruvians or Colombians were actually given the green light to call the shots on shootdowns has been disputed by former DEA agent Celerino Castillo, who was one of the US men involved in a precursor program to Airbridge Denial in Peru in the 1980s. Castillo, in conversation with this reporter, claimed that despite the Peruvians being given the final word on paper, the shootdown orders "always originated with the U.S. That was not something we were going to trust to anyone else." Castillo, a Bronze Star winner in Vietnam who served with the DEA in Peru in 1984 and '85, said the real authority was with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, whose men accompanied the DEA flights that in turn accompanied the FAP flights. "I flew on those shoot-down missions. Nobody, I mean nobody, shoots down anything unless the CIA says so. n those days we flew on helicopters and the Peruvian soldiers would lean out the window with FN rifles and blast holes from above drug smugglers' planes. I was on those flights. Yes, the Peruvians did the shooting but it was always the U.S. who gave the OK." Several Peruvian pilots involved with the program, speaking on condition of anonymity, concurred with Castillo's assessment. Between the years 1990 and 2001, official FAP reports claim to have intercepted and forced down or shot down a total of 101 drug-carrying planes. Whether that number is accurate has long been open to debate, as it omits all reference to planes that were forced or shot down which were not found to be carrying drugs. If those are included the total would probably be considerably higher. But the program probably never would have come under public scrutiny if not for some deadly incidents which cost innocent lives. The first actually resulted in the program's suspension, following an investigation and demands for justice from the survivors. BUNGLE IN THE JUNGLE On April 20, 2001, at roughly 10:35 AM, a Cessna 185 pontoon plane carrying three missionaries and an infant was misidentified as a suspected drug-carrying plane by US pilots contracted by the CIA as part of the Airbridge Program and shot out of the sky outside of Pevas, in the Peruvian Amazon. The pilot, Kevin Donaldson, had his leg shattered by a gunshot fired by a Peruvian fighter jet, a Cessna A-37B Dragonfly, but managed to bring the plane down into the Amazon safely. James Bowers, like Donaldson a missionary with the Association for Baptist World Evangelism, as well as Bower's son Cory, escaped unharmed--but his wife, Veronica Bowers, and their infant adopted daughter Chastity, were both killed by a single bullet that passed through the mother's head and then killed the baby. Donaldson believes the same shot set the engine alight and ricocheted into his leg. The shootdown occurred on the eve of newly elected President George Bush's first appearance at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec. In the weeks leading up to the summit, the president of Uruguay, Jorge Battle Ibanez, had announced his intention to call for an end to the failed War on Drugs. Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Vicente Fox of Mexico had announced their intentions to second Ibanez' call. If they proceeded with their plan, George Bush--who had inherited Bill Clinton's Plan Colombia and intended to expand it--would have not only been upstaged, but the entire Plan Colombia could have been thrown into a political tailspin. The shootdown, therefore, was either tragic serendipity--or carried out on orders that a drug plane be encountered and shot down that day to give Bush a "victory" to trumpet in Quebec. If it was the former, the shootdown involved absolute stupidity on the part of the two CIA-contracted pilots who identified the plane as a possible drug flight, as the Cessna was known throughout the region and had filed a flight plan and was following it to the letter. If it was the latter--if an order was given take down a drug flight to undermine Ibanez' position at Quebec--then any plane would have served the purpose, and it was simply bad luck that Donaldson and the Bowers happened to be in the sky that morning. As both Donaldson and his wife later maintained, the plane was repeatedly strafed while listing upside down in the river. A photographer in Iquitos, the Amazon port city where the plane was brought, reported that only one bullet out of over 60 came from anywhere other than the bottom of the plane. Did the CIA contractors know the plane was not carrying drugs? Was the strafing was intended to ignite the plane's remaining fuel, causing an explosion which would have erased all trace of its occupants and identification number, allowing Washington to claim the plane was a drug flight? In any event, the plane did not explode--but the shoot-down did upstage the call for an end to the Drug War by the three South American presidents. The shoot-down also caused Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) to call for Congressional hearings into the Airbridge Denial Programs in both Peru and Colombia. The programs were suspended immediately. At the subsequent hearings it was decided that both programs would be revamped--with better procedures in place to protect innocent planes--before the suspensions would be lifted. A U.S. investigation into the shoot-down placed the blame on the Peruvian pilots and poor communications; the Peruvian investigation exonerated the Peruvian pilots, while blaming the U.S. personnel and, again, poor communications. Both countries agreed to financial settlements with survivors. (See postcript below.) DEATH PLUNGE ON THE PACIFIC On August 19, 2003, more than two years after the suspensions began, the White House announced that President Bush had approved resumption of the Colombian Airbridge Denial Program within three days. Among the changes to the program was that the State Department, through Plan Colombia, would take over the training of Colombian pilots and the flying of the identification planes, effectively taking it out of the hands of the CIA. The subcontractor DynCorp, which had been assigned the mission of identifying the drug flights for the CIA, lost that contract. (The company continues to carry out aerial fumigation flights in Colombia.) However, a new State Department contract went to ARINC, a Maryland-based aviation company that regularly contracted with the U.S. Department of Defense--particularly in the areas of providing communications, electronics and night-vision capacity to fighter craft. According to an ARINC press release dated April 24, 2002, over a year before the program was resumed in Colombia, the company was "awarded a competitive contract by the U.S. Army Communications and Electronics Command to act as contractor for the U.S. Airbridge Denial Program in Colombia and Peru." The release said the contract was to run "through July 28, 2003." Yet the Airbridge Program has never been officially resumed in Peru. In fact, ARINC was working with the Airbridge Denial Program long before the missionary plane shoot-down. A contract between the FAP and ARINC dated June 2, 2000, secured by WW4 REPORT, has ARINC in charge of upgrading Peru's fleet of Cessna A-37B Dragonfly jets and training FAP pilots in interception techniques and tactics. Calls to ARINC and Flight Test Associates, an Oklahoma company subcontracted by ARINC to run the pilot training program, verifies that the contract was ongoing even prior to 2000. No White House announcement of the continued training after the Amazon shoot-down was made, however, and no one outside a small group of people involved it was aware of its existence. Nonetheless, the training did continue after the shoot-down, and on August 23, 2001, several months after the Airbridge Program was suspended, FAP pilot Lieutenant Miguel Angel Lama Barreto, 28, and USAF Lt. Col. (r) Arnold Balthazar, 47, plunged into the Pacific Ocean just north of Piura, on Peru's northern Pacific coast, while executing drug-plane interception practice maneuvers in a Dragonfly. Both Lama and Balthazar died in the crash, caused when their jet stalled and their ejection equipment failed. Lama's body, still strapped into his seat in the ejection position, was recovered two days later. Balthazar's body has never been recovered. A team of U.S. Navy divers brought in from Hawaii searched for more than eight days before search was called off. Lt. Miguel Angel Lama was one of Peru's brightest pilots, specializing in flight maneuvers in the Dragonfly. A drug-plane interdiction instructor, he was the son of FAP Captain Carlos Lama, a highly respected pilot in the Peruvian Air Force. Miguel is referred to in official Peruvian materials as "an instructor's instructor." Arnold Balthazar's resume reads like an induction speech at the Air Force Hall of Fame. A cum laude graduate of the University of Portland, OR, which he attended on an Air Force ROTC scholarship, he graduated from USAF Pilot Training in 1978, became an Air Combat Maneuvering Instructor the same year, training in basic interceptions. He became a Flight Commander in 1982 and an F-15 instructor pilot the same year, a position he held, with increasing responsibilities, until 1988. Between 1988-1991 he was Chief of Weapons and Tactics at Hickam AFB in Hawaii, during which time he was selected by the USAF Chief of Staff Gen. Merrill McPeak to brief Joint Chiefs of Staff Chariman Gen. Colin Powell, Secretary of the Air Force Donald Rice and Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney on the F-15's capability and employment during Operation Desert Storm. Balthazar retired from the Air Force in 1991, joining the Air National Guard and working out of the Air Force Reserve Test Center in Tucson, AZ, from 1991-1998. He retired as a lieutenant colonel USAF. Awards he earned during his career included the Wing Top Gun F-15 Award in 1988, the Pacific Air Force's Outstanding Performer of the Year Award in 1991; and the Lt. Gen. Claire Lee Channault Award as the USAF's Outstanding Aerial Tactician of the Year in 1995--the only time the award has been presented to someone not on active duty in the Air Force. He also developed no-cabin-light night-flying systems currently in use in the Air Force, and developed an F-15 Training Plan that was included in USAF manuals "in its entirety". In short, both Lama and Balthazar were superior pilots who should not have crashed and died while performing an exercise. But they did. And they did it while exercising for a program that was supposed to be suspended. Unraveling their deaths leads to a web of corruption as well as an abyss of incompetence. THE TRAIL Following his retirement Balthazar became an owner/operator of Lead Turn Enterprises, a flight-test, navigational training, air-to-air engagement and aviation systems consulting firm. He contracted with Flight Test Associates of Tucson, AZ, to install his night-vision system in FAP interceptor planes in 1999, and had a second contract with Flight Test Associates as a counter-drug intercept instructor for Colombian and Peruvian instructor pilots that ran from 1999-2000. Flight Test Associates was itself subcontracted by ARINC, already established as a contractor for both aircraft upgrades and intercept training for the Defense Department. Balthazar's partner in the intercept training, USAF Captain (r) Neville Sonner, was employed directly by Flight Test Associates. After the missionary shoot-down, someone--though neither the State Department, DoD, ARINC or Flight Test Associates will admit it was them--decided that one of the key ingredients to maximize the safety of non-drug flights was to have Peruvian pilots pull up alongside all planes suspected of carrying drugs and make eye contact with the pilots. Eye contact would theoretically allow the pilots to make a judgement as to whether the suspect plane was being piloted by someone who looked like a drug-smuggler or a missionary and respond accordingly. For some aircraft--those capable of flying at speeds the A-37B is capable of--this was a wacky but physically possible maneuver. For others--like the single-engine Cessna that Kevin Donaldson was flying when it was hit--eye contact with the pilot of an A-37B was impossible: Donaldson's plane had a top speed of 137 mph when empty; with five passengers it couldn't hit 125 mph. The A-37B, on the other hand, with a top speed of over 500 mph, stalls at under 140 except when the flaps are in a take-off or landing position. On the flight in question, FAP pilot Miquel Lama and Balthazar were practicing exactly this intercept maneuver with a second plane piloted by FAP Lt. Nilton Lopez Zuniga and Sonner. They had already practiced three maneuvers; the fourth called for the planes to drop in altitude to under 3,000 feet, slow to 140, intersect, and then for one of them to try an evasive maneuver. Lopez and Sonner did just that; when Lama and Balthazar turned to chase, their plane stalled. Moments later Sonner claimed he saw the cockpit roof fly off the stalled plane; he expected to see both pilots eject and parachute to the sea. He and Lopez took their plane up to 9,000 feet to be able to identify the exact points where the parachutes landed, but there were no parachutes. The ejection seats failed and both pilots crashed into the Pacific still strapped into the plane. A Peruvian military investigation into the accident quickly blamed it on "pilot error"--blaming Lama and Balthazar for their own deaths. But Lama's father, retired FAP pilot Carlos Lama, demanded a Peruvian congressional investigation and launched a lawsuit against both the FAP and ARINC. His legal demands unleashed a mountain of official paperwork--nearly 1,000 pages, including the contracts between the FAP and ARINC, Balthazar's training logs in Peru, US Embassy and DoD paperwork, and a host of other materials. Initially, Lama was trying to ascertain whether ARINC's "aircraft modernization" contract held them responsible for modernizing the ejection equipment and parachutes in his son's plane--equipment that was more than 29 years old. Some of that remains unclear: the paperwork suggests that the FAP was responsible for changing the equipment, but that GRUCAM, the U.S. Defense Department military liaison program in Peru--which had contracted ARINC--was to provide that equipment with monies from Plan Colombia. ARINC's Bob Warner, who heads up the corporation's Oklahoma City office, claims that the modernization contract "had us there to install night vision cockpits but nothing in our contract called for us looking into the ejection seat apparatus." When asked about the accident, Warner said "The flight that went down was not one of the modernized aircraft," then quickly added that "I cannot speak to the accident in which the pilots died. There's a lawsuit going on related to that and my lawyers have told us not to talk about it." But Carlos Lama's investigation turned up more than he'd anticipated. Shortly after his investigation into his son's death began his home in Lima was subject to a robbery in which all of his initial notes and nearly everything he owned pertaining to his son was looted. "They took pictures, his military things, paperwork, his letters telling me about the intercept program--everything. I was supposed to stop looking. No one wants anyone looking too deeply into this." There were reasons for his feelings. One of the names that comes up on three separate contracts that connect the U.S. Embassy in Lima to GRUCAM and the DoD as well as to ARINC, Flight Test Associates and the FAP is a retired Peruvian Air Force major, Jose Luis Gamboa Burgos, listed as the official representative of ARINC and FTA in Peru. The address he lists as the official address of both ARINC and FTA in Peru is that of his brother, Luis Felipe Gamboa Burgos--today recognized as a major player in Peru's cocaine mafia. While there has never been any proof that the lawyer Jose Luis Gamboa is dirty, his brother Luis Felipe is another story--and the use of his address as the official location in Peru of a DoD subcontractor raises eyebrows. A former security officer in the FAP, Luis Felipe left the military (and his five brothers who were still in it at the time) in 1989 to become an aide to Vladimiro Montesinos, a former Peruvian army captain with School of the Americas training who was then working on the presidential campaign of Alberto Fujimori. The following year, Fujimori was elected to his first term as Peru's president and Montesinos became the power behind the Fujimori throne as well as the CIA's man in Peru, earning $1 million a year from the Agency for ostensibly helping Peru eliminate the coca trade. Montesinos actually used that money to create a secret police force--the National Intelligence Service (SIN)--that helped coordinate all of the coca base shipments moving from Peru to Colombia for finishing and export. Between 1990 and 2000, Montesinos became the jefe to whom all those who wanted their shipments protected paid protection money. Those who didn't pay, with few exceptions, found their shipments being discovered and confiscated by the Peruvian narcotics police with the help of the DEA--or their planes shot out of the sky by the FAP with the help of the CIA. Montesino's SIN rarely missed anything. To help him coordinate his efforts, after Fujimori's election, Montesinos hired Luis Felipe Gamboa to work with CORPAC--the Peruvian corporation that runs all commercial aviation in the country, including security. Rumors began to spread almost instantly that Gamboa was helping cocaine leave the country by circumventing security, through his work with CORPAC. It wasn't until several years had passed, however, that he was indicted for security fraud, a charge that appears to have disappeared as quickly as it came up. He nonetheless left CORPAC and went to work as a liaison between the FAP and Montesinos. Not long after he began working with Montesinos, Luis Filipe Gamboa suggested that his wife, Maria del Carmen Lozada Rendon de Gamboa would make a good congresswoman, and in 1995 she was elected to Peru's Congress. She had a reputation for strong-arming her colleagues, but nothing came of it until July, 27, 2001, when she was impeached after it was revealed that she had received the monies used in her 1995 election campaign from Montesinos. She was removed from Congress on August 18, 2001 and remains under investigation for influence peddling and spying for Montesinos in Congress. During the investigation of Carmen Lozada Gamboa, it became public record in the notorious "vladi-videos"--secret videos of Vladimir Montesinos meeting with top Peruvian politicians whose relase were instrumental in the downfall of the Fujimori regime--that her husband had been receiving between $3,000 and $5,000 monthly from Montesinos for more than 10 years from 1990 to spy on CORPAC and later the FAP for the SIN. He became a fugitive shortly after his indictment and remains in hiding. When questioned by WW4 REPORT on the propriety of using the address of a man who was (at that time) a suspected cocaine mafioso and spy, ARINC's Bob Warner responded: "He [Jose Luis Gamboa] was a fellow vetted and recommended to us by the US embassy. He was a former officer in the Peruvian Air Force. I think this ends this conversation." More than two-dozen calls to the State Department over a three-month period asking about Luis Felipe's connection to ARINC and their having cleared the use of his address as ARINC's Peruvian location--as well as inquiring as to why there continued to be Airbridge Denial exercises when the program had been shut down indefinitely--went unreturned. Calls to the former GRUCAM commandant who signed off on at least one contract between ARINC and the FAP that named the indicted Luis Felipe Gamboa's address as ARINC's official Peruvian address, were met with a genteel response from his spokesman, Lee Rials. "Col. Perez doesn't remember that contract. He probably signed off on thousands of things while he was Group Commander down in Lima and he just doesn't remember it." Rials is probably telling the truth for Col. Gilberto Perez, who is now the Commandant of the Western Hemisphere Institite for Security Cooperation (formerly known as the School of Americas) at Fort Benning, Georgia. The question of who signed off on the vetting of Jose Luis Gamboa as ARINC's representative is a valid one, and that of ARINC's official Peruvian headquarters being in the home of his brother Luis Felipe, a man who was spying for Montesinos, even more so. Luis Felipe would be privy to flight schedules and missions, the number of U.S. planes in the air on a given day, even what pilots were working in Peru at a given time as well as a host of other information that would be invaluable to someone moving drugs through the air. That the State Department refuses to return calls addressing the issue after several months of calling would appear inexcusable. IN THE END What began as a father's concern that his son was being wrongfully blamed for pilot error in the accident that cost his life, is certainly more than that. How much more is difficult to ascertain given that no one will answer the questions. And there are several. First: Who authorized the Airbridge Denial Program practice exercises to continue after the program was suspended indefinitely? Second: Who decided it was in the interests of the pilots to look into the eyes of the pilots they were intercepting, potentially requiring them to fly at stall-speed? Third: Who was actually supposed to modernize the ejection systems? A second stall occurred over Piura on Feb. 10, 2004 while the pilots performed the same maneuver as Lama and Balthazar, but in that crash both pilots ejected successfully. ARINC's Warner says his company's contract ran out at the end of 2003, and so denies any knowledge of it. In a second suit, Carlos Lama brought a civil action against the Peruvian government for continuing to perform the dangerous maneuver; Peruvian authorities claimed they were no longer carrying out such maneuvers, and dismissed the case. Fourth: Who allowed Luis Filipe Gamboa's address to be utilized as the official Peruvian address of ARINC and FTA--and why didn't anyone notice that that would be the equivalent of putting the fox in charge of the henhouse? No one is liable to take the responsibility for any of those decisions. Carlos Lama has already been offered a settlement by the Peruvian FAP for the loss of his son's life, but he has turned it down, preferring to find out who was responsible rather than taking the money to shut up. His lawsuit against ARINC is proceeding but may not get far: ARINC has apparently never officially registered as a company in Peru and therefor not only has avoided paying taxes, but has avoided having any assets to lose either. And it is doubtful that the DoD will permit any lawsuit to be pursued in the U.S. that would require the release of classified documents--which involve much of ARINC's work in Peru. "My Angel is gone," says Carlos Lama. "I just want to find out who is responsible, but I don't know if they will let me. They have too much to protect and don't want light in those dark corners." POSTSCRIPT: The Missionary Plane Shootdown Settlement The April 20, 2001 shoot-down of a plane carrying American missionaries over the Peruvian Amazon by the Peruvain Air Force (FAP) after it was identified by CIA-contractors as possibly carrying drugs continues to have ramifications in both Peru and the US. US Payment for the Shoot-down: In 2002, the US, which maintained that the wrongful shoot-down was the result of a problem with Peruvian communications, nonetheless agreed to pay the survivors and their families a total of $8 million dollars. The monies were paid out in this way: James Bowers: $3,270,000. Cory Bowers (James and Veronica's son): $1,000,000. Kevin Donaldson (surviving pilot of plane): $1,000,000. Barbara Donaldson (Kevin's wife): $1,000,000. Garnett Luttig, Sr (Veronica's father): $ 575,000. Charlotte Luttig (Veronica's mother): $ 575,000. Garnett Luttig, Jr.(Veronica's brother): $ 290,000. Patrick Luttig (Veronica's brother) : $ 290,000. In addition, Peru agreed to reimburse the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism $100,000, for medical expenses incurred as a result of Kevin Donaldson's wounds, and $43,561 in reimbursement for expenses incurred in the funerals of Veronica and Charity Bowers. The Peruvian government also agreed to refurbish or replace the plane that was shot down and to contribute to the building of a recreation center for the association in Iquitos, to be open to the public. The final decree ordering and accepting the above payments, which was signed in Peru on March 21, 2002, also included a gag order, which effectively prevents Kevin and Barbara Donaldson--who initially stated that the downed plane continued to be strafed while upside down in the Amazon--from repeating that claim. RESOURCES: Peter Gorman's October 2001 story on the Iquitos shoot-down from Narco News http://www.narconews.com/Issue15/junglebungle.html Peter Gorman's wesbite http://www.pgorman.com/ From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 6 14:37:33 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 14:37:33 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Bolivian Church Talks with Social Movement as Protests Go On Message-ID: <200506061837.j56IbXg02437@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Bolivia?s Church Talks with Social Movement; Protests Go on La Paz, Jun 6 (Prensa Latina) Bolivia?s Catholic Church is meeting Monday with grassroots organizations to tackle the current country?s social and political crisis, as protesters vow to continue their demonstrations for constitutional reforms and nationalization of the oil and natural gas industry. Santa Cruz bishop Monsignor Sergio Gualberti formally announced the start of the dialogue on Sunday night, after two-day talks to advance elections as a way out of the crisis. The church wants to get involved in a bid to stop protests taking place in La Paz so they are not extended to other regions. However, Deputy Evo Morales, leader of Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), insisted that the solution lies on the country?s transformation in order to accede to the popular demands of a constituent assembly and of nationalization of hydrocarbons. On the other hand, President Carlos Mesa proposed to hold early elections, a move governing party deputy Hugo San Martin stated that advancing ballots will not solve the crisis and will destabilize the government. He insisted on the need for Congress to approve the joint presidential meeting slated for October 16 and the autonomic referendum. Monday?s reports carry that demonstrators have rejected calls by the Catholic Church to end their protests, and thousands are expected to march on La Paz on Monday where they plan to hold a popular assembly. The country's main roads remain blocked, affecting fuel provision to La Paz, in the fourth week of protests. mh/iff/mrs/mf From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 6 14:39:34 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 14:39:34 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Chemical Warfare Threatens Colombia's Environment Message-ID: <200506061839.j56IdYv02514@olm.blythe-systems.com> Special to WORLD WAR 4 REPORT, June 10, 2005 Reprinting permissible with attribution http://WW4Report.com COLOMBIA: CHEMICAL WARFARE EXPANDS Ecologists Warn of Disaster as U.S. Sprays Glyphosate in Threatened National Parks by Daniel Leal and combined sources In the past few months, the people of Quibdo, capital city of the Colombian Pacific coast department of Choco, have observed daily the landing at their local airport of helicopters and small aircraft, packed with "gringos" from Plan Colombia and their Colombian associates. They have come with one objective: to spray the illicit crops located in the huge territory of Choco. In the Feb. 11 edition of the Colombian news magazine Semana, Choco journalist Alejo Restrepo, writes that biodiversity and watersheds of the region are threatened by this chemical assault. For centuries, indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombians have preserved the natural environment of Choco, one of the richest areas in flora and fauna of the country. Their way of life, based on fishing and small-scale cultivation of yucca and banana, is now threatened. Restrepo especially protests the decision to approve the spraying of glyphosate without an environmental impact study. Bismarck Chaverra, director of the Choco-based Institute for Environmental Studies of the Pacific, interviewed in that same issue of Semana, reported 347 documented cases of people with acute respiratory and dermatological diseases in Choco, with 70% of the affected children under three years old. Chaverra's group is part of a coalition of Colombian and international environmental and human rights groups that oppose the spraying. A February petition against the spraying in Choco has been signed by Friends of the Earth Latin America, the Open Society Institute, Washington Office on Latin America and the biodiversity protection organization Grupo Semillas, as well as several Colombian groups. Also of special concern is potential damage to Colombia's 50 national parks, which cover 10 million hectares, according to Ecolombia, a network of Colombian environmental groups. Ecolombia also notes the irony that this threat comes just as the parks are increasingly being opened to "eco-tourism" interests. Ecolombia protests this policy as a "privatization" of the nation's parks. The group writes that "the national parks are the genetic bank of Colombia. To privatize them or bombard them with poison would be much more grave than to put the National Library to the flame." In late March 2004, Senator Jorge Enrique Robledo of Independent Workers Revolutionary Movement (MOIR) led a significant number of Colombian legislators in issuing a formal statement of protest against the spraying. The Transnational Institute, a global group of activist scholars, notes that spraying in the national parks would constitute a violation of several treaties to which Colombia is signatory, including the Biodiversity Convention, ILO Convention 169 on the rights of indigenous peoples, the Ramsar Convention on wetlands, and articles 97 and 80 of the Colombian constitution, which protect natural resources. Under such pressures, the administration of President Alvaro Uribe agreed to suspend spraying in the parks last March pending further study. In the 2003 Colombia aid package approved by the US Congress under the Andean Counterdrug Initiative, conditions were also imposed mandating protection of water sources and protected areas, and restitution for damaged property and legal crops. The measure required that funds for the aerial eradication only be made available if the Department of State certified to Congress that certain condition are being met. In December 2003, the Deparment of State issued a study to Congress, "Report on Issues Related to the Aerial Eradication of Illicit Coca in Colombia," officially certifying that the conditions were being met. In February 2004, the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA), a hemispheric alliance of environmental law professionals, issued a statement contesting the certification and urging Congress to "withhold funding for the chemical eradication program until DoS demonstrates full compliance with the conditions." AIDA stated: "A thorough look at the DoS report demonstrates that the...conditions have not been satisfied. For example, DoS fails to demonstrate that the spraying does not pose unreasonable risks of adverse effects on the environment, or that complaints of harm to health or legal crops are appropriately evaluated and fair compensation provided." But Congress did not act, and the Uribe administration has just announced its intention to resume spraying in three national parks: Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, a northern park declared a biosphere reserve in 1986 by UNESCO; and Catatumbo and La Macarena, both in the cloud forests of the eastern Andean slopes. Colombia's deputy interior minister Mario Iguar?n told reporter Yadira Ferrer of Tierram?rica, a Mexico-based trans-American environmental journal, that the renewed spraying is permitted by Resolution No. 0013, issued in 20003 by the Colombian National Narcotics Council (CNE). The Resolution allows fumigation of nature reserves where there is evidence of illicit crops and little possibility of eradicating the drug plants by hand. Colombian environmental groups have filed a motion to annul the resolution before the Council of State, the highest juridical body for administrative decisions, but Iguar?n argued that it does not have the power to suspend the operations. In Ferrer's May 14 account, Iguar?n also noted the March study by the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), an OAS body, finding that glyphosate does not have significant environmental impacts. The report, requested by the US, Colombia and the United Kingdom, investigated the human health and environmental effects of the glyphosate mixture used for drug eradication in Colombia. The report concluded that human health risks from exposure to the spray mixture--glyphosate mixed with a surfactant, Cosmo-Flux--were "minimal," while the risk of direct effects for wildlife were judged to be "negligible." But the US Office on Colombia, a coalition of NGOs, notes that buried deep in the 121-page report are concerns about the impact of the spraying on aquatic organisms and amphibians. The report points out that the environmental "toxicity of the mixture of glyphosate and Cosmo-Flux was greater than that reported for formulated glyphosate itself." (This contrasts with the toxicity of the mixture for humans, which was found to be consistent with the levels reported for glyphosate alone.) The report states that "aquatic animals and algae in some shallow water bodies may be at risk" from "direct overspray of surface waters." The report recommends the eradication program "identify mixtures of glyphosate and adjuvants that are less toxic to aquatic organisms than the currently used mixture." There was no immediate response from US or Colombian governments to this recommendation. Colombia praised the report. "This scientific study shows us the way. We are doing the right thing and we are going to continue the spraying program," said Colombian Interior Minister Sabas Pretelt. Ferrer's story questioned the report's findings that the herbicide's risk for the environment "is not significant." Santiago Salazar C?rdova, coordinator of a commission of Ecuador's Environment Ministry that advises the Foreign Ministry on drug fumigation policy, protested to Ferrer that the report failed to define what would constitute a "significant" threat. Spraying in Colombian areas near the Ecuador border has been a source of tension with Quito, which has formally protested to the Uribe government. Salazar also said the study was conducted between September and March, "too little time to talk in terms of cancer-causing effects, for example..." Iguar?n admitted the ideal option would be manual eradication of drug crops, a method the government hopes to use on some 3,000 hectares of protected areas. But he insisted that it is necessary to fumigate some 75,000 hectares, which include areas of the national parks where the presence of armed groups impedes access by land. The decision to fumigate in the parks may cost Colombia development aid from EU countries. The Colombian daily El Espectador reported April 28 that the Netherlands asked the national parks director, Julia Miranda, to confirm the decision to fumigate in the protected areas, because the measure "could be motive to request the suspension of activities financed by this Embassy." Juan Mayr, a former environment minister, told Ferrer the 2003 CEN resolution has created "one of the gravest situations that can happen in regards to the environment in Colombia" and is "an attack against the collective heritage of the Colombian people." Peasants and Bari indigenous peoples who inhabit the threatened areas are also protesting the planned fumigations. The Bogota daily El Tiempo reported May 16 that 11 peasant organizations from the Rio Guayabero region and La Macarena National Park issued a statement calling for manual eradication rather than spraying. Gustavo del Rio, spokesman for the Association of Peasant Environmentalists of the Ariari and Guayabero Rivers (ACARIGUA) said that spraying will only cause the peasants to start planting coca in other areas, destroying more forest. He said that the peasants would be willing to eradicate the crops manually if the government were to provide them with alternatives for survival and eventual relocation outside the park area, where farming is officially forbidden. Spraying has apparently already begun in Sierra Nevada National Park. Elber Dimas, a community leader from the corregimiento of Guachaca, located on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada, told El Tiempo that that children are suffering from diarrhea and skin problems as a result of exposure, and that some Kogui and Wiwa Indians have been forced to abandon their communities due to the spraying. Col. Oscar Atehortua, commander of the Counternarcotics Police North Region, assured that the spraying is taking place outside the national park and the indigenous reserves. There are two opposite international perspectives on what has to be done in Colombia to address the roots of the coca phenomenon. The first, dictated by the US, calls for simple eradication of the crops, by force and by chemical spraying. The second, promoted by the European Community, is to address the injustice of the Colombian social structure, and investing in the needs that drive peasants to plant coca. But Uribe is now jeopardizing relations with the EU to pursue a national agenda that calls for privatization and free trade as well as forcible eradication of illicit crops. Free trade and the eradication program were said to be the top items on the agenda in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's five-hour meeting with Uribe in Bogota April 26. RESOURCES: Alejo Restrepo Mosquera in Semana, Feb. 11 http://semana2.terra.com.co/archivo/articulosView.jsp?id=84740 Bismark interview in Semana, Feb. 11 http://semana2.terra.com.co/archivo/articulosView.jsp?id=84735 "El Choco Tambien es Colombia," petition online at Rebelion http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=11667 Ecolombia page on threat to national parks http://www.ecolombia.org/parques.htm TNI Drugs and Democracy program page on Colombia http://www.tni.org/drugscolombia-docs/thedebate-e.htm Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA) statement http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:Z8z58__oJ40J:www.aida-americas.org/template s/aida/uploads/docs/AIDA_on_DOS_2003_certification.pdf+Resolution+No.+0013+colombia&hl=en AIDA homepage http://www.aida-americas.org/aida.php Yadira Ferrer in Tierramerica, May 14 http://www.tierramerica.net/2005/0514/iarticulo.shtml US Office on Colombia Info-Brief on the CICAD report http://usofficeoncolombia.org/InfoBrief/042505.htm CountryWatch summary of article from El Tiempo, May 16 http://aol.countrywatch.com/aol_wire.asp?vCOUNTRY=54&UID=1521182 From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 6 14:40:59 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 14:40:59 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Colombia: Peace Initiatives Under Attack Message-ID: <200506061840.j56Iexd02628@olm.blythe-systems.com> Special to WORLD WAR 4 REPORT, June 10, 2005 Reprinting permissible with attribution http://WW4Report.com COLOMBIA: PEACE INITIATIVES UNDER ATTACK Uribe's "Counter-Guerilla" Campaign Targets Indigenous Models for Demilitarization by Bill Weinberg The carnage in Iraq has pushed several other US military commitments from the headlines. Afghanistan, with 18,000 US troops, jumps to mind. But nearly forgotten is Colombia, where the US has 800 military troops and 600 more private contractors on the ground. The troops, largely advisors from Army Special Forces, are ostensibly barred from combat missions, but they intimately direct Colombian army operations. And the parallels with Iraq are increasingly obvious for those who care to look. As in Iraq, US forces have been implicated in torture and attacks on civilian communities. As in Iraq, US-backed forces and increasingly ruthless insurgents alike are making life unsustainable for local people caught between both sides. And perhaps even more so than in Iraq, civilian initiatives for peace and local autonomy are themselves being targeted by all sides in the conflict. In recent weeks, the government of President Alvaro Uribe has launched a major counter-guerilla offensive, a showcase of his Orwellian "democratic security" program. The offensive itself is called the Patriot Plan, in apparent emulation of the US anti-terrorist legislation. One frontline in this contest is Toribio, a Nasa Indian village in the mountains of conflicted Cauca department, where residents have proclaimed their own right not to participate in the war. Toribio maintained a precarious autonomy until it was occupied by government troops in August 2003, and secured from guerilla attempts to take the town after several weeks of fighting. This April, the guerillas again mounted an offensive to drive the army from Toribio, and the town has since been a war zone once again. Ezequiel Vitonas, a former mayor of Toribio and a leading voice in the Association of Indigenous Councils of North Cauca (ACIN), was in New York City in May for the annual meeting of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. "We have a policy of not involving ourselves in the conflict of country," Vitonas says. "We seek to protect our form of self-government and self-determination. We have our own forms of participation in which everyone in the community is consulted. We have our own health and education systems, and solidarity economics based on collective work. But this project is not liked by either the left or the right. Our community process doesn't fit their ideologies and interests." The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) attacked Toribio on April 14, and the government sent in the new US-trained High Mountain Battalion, an elite force of battle-hardened troops, backed up by a larger force of regular troops from the army's Third Brigade based in Cali. Military planes and helicopters circled above. On the following day, Uribe himself arrived in Toribio, accompanied by Cauca governor Juan Jose Chaux Mosquera--the latest in a series of grand-standing moves to govern from the war zones. Over the next two weeks, bullets flew through the village intermittently. A young child was killed, some 20 residents wounded and as many homes destroyed. Hundreds of residents have been forced to flee, and many are now being held in public buildings converted into makeshift refugee centers in Santander de Quilichao, a town some 50 kilometers down winding mountain roads on the Pan-American Highway. Vitonas claims residents saw North American soldiers in camouflage directing the Colombian troops on the operations. Residents also reported mysterious black-uniformed troops--probably special anti-guerilla units of the National Police in the fighting. And the neighboring villages of Silvia, Jambal?, Caloto were also occupied by government forces. Despite guarantees for indigenous self-government in the Colombian constitution, the Nasa's model for autonomy is under attack by the government nearly explicitly. Toibio's indigenous-language community station, Radio Nasa, was ordered closed by the government last August. Army troops invaded the premises and took away the equipment. A narrow bureaucratic rationale was used, but Vitonas has no doubt of the real reasons. Says Vitonas: "The government demands we broadcast army statements with their war language. We refuse, and they threaten us. And then the armed insurgents do the same and demand that we present their position, instead of respecting our position. So we also refuse to do that. We don't want to express their views, we want to express our own and expect them to support that. And this brings about the difficulties." The move also came three weeks before last September's historic cross-country march of 60,000 Indians and their supporters on Cali to demand armed groups respect their autonomy. But indigenous technicians devised mobile bicycle-powered transmitters that actually broadcast live from the march, with the signal bounced throughout the region by Radio Payumat, a bilingual Spanish-Nasa community station in Santander de Quilichao. (Payumat is a Nasa salutation.) Then, students in Cali put the live transmissions on the Internet. The march called for the establishment of a popular congress, with representatives from indigenous and campesino councils from throughout the country to determine a way our of the war and advance a new economic model. Uribe has staked his future to Colombia's entry into the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), with concomitant privatization of the nation's oil, mineral and energy sectors. Uribe accused the marchers of "putting forth lies" and having a hidden "political objective"--a barely-veiled reference to the guerillas. In early March, indigenous communities in Cauca held a consulta, or series of community meetings, in which they overwhelmingly rejected FTAA. This move precipitated further tension over the Nasas' independent radio initiative. Uribe's agriculture minister, Andres Felipe Arias Leiva, again responded to the consulta with a veiled accusation that it originated with the guerillas: "certain sectors are taking advantage of fears," and thereby undermining "our struggle against terrorism." On March 9, Arias Leiva arrived at Radio Payumat to tell the "truth" about the FTAA. The station responded with a letter from the indigenous councils demanding an apology and retraction for his earlier statements. The statement also noted that the councils had invited government representatives to debate on the FTAA since the September march on Cali, to no avail. Arias Leiva refused to back down, and Radio Payumat refused to grant him access to their airwaves. Violence continues in Toribio and surrounding communities. On May 21, DAS--the Administrative Security Department, or secret police--raided home of Vicente Otero, ex-mayor of Caldono village and a key organizer of the consulta that rejected the FTAA. Otero wasn't home, but his home was roughly searched, a child there threatened--and some 20 other residents of Caldono arrested on suspicion of guerilla collaboration. They are now being held by the Third Brigade in Cali. DAS has announced it has arrest orders for some 200 residents of Caldono. Vitonas brought three demands to UN in May. The first was for international recognition of the indigenous guard, an unarmed civil defense body made up of village residents. In the prelude to the September march, Toribio's Mayor Arquimedes Vitonas--Ezequiel's cousin, who has been officially honored by the UNDP for his efforts to preserve indigenous knowledge--was kidnapped by the FARC with other Nasa leaders. They were released days later when hundreds of indigenous guard members marched on the guerilla camp where they were being held. His other demands were for a UN special rapporteur to monitor indigenous rights in Colombia, and Colombian government reparations for war damage to indigenous communities. Peasant peace initiatives are under attack throughout Colombia. In February, eight civilians, including community leader Luis Eduardo Guerra and three children, were massacred in the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado, a village in northern Uraba region which eight years ago declared its lands as a neutral and demilitarized zone. Witnesses identified the killers as members of the Colombian military, and peace community members saw the army's 17th and 11th Brigades in the area around the time of the murders. Since the massacre, Uribe's administration has done little to investigate the murders, but the president wasted no time in accusing the peace community leaders of being "auxiliaries of the FARC." Army and National Police forces have flooded San Jose. All but five of the 100 families that formed the Peace Community have been forced to abandon their homes and land. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees is helping to manage a camp which has been formed by displaced residents. Uribe has still not replied to demands from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to secure the safety of San Jose's residents. Statements such as Uribe's make the residents a target not only for the army, but its own (ostensibly outlawed) paramilitary auxiliaries. Gloria Cuartas, an advocate for the peace community and ex-mayor of the local municipality of Apartado, reports receiving threatening telephone messages since she has been publicly demanding justice for the massacre. On May 23, Colombia's attorney general did announce charges against four army commanders for failure to prevent paramilitary incursions into San Jose de Apartado. Paramilitaries have carried out numerous attacks on village residents over the past two years. After the massacre, SOA Watch, the group that monitors the US Army's School of the Americas (now officially the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), reported that the commander of the 17th Brigade of the Colombian army received training at the SOA. Gen. Hector Jaime Fandi?o Rincon attended the "Small-Unit Infantry Tactics" course in 1976. Tolemaida, a key military base outside Bogota, has taken on a reputation as Colombia's Abu Ghraib. The Bogota daily El Espectador reported claims January 8 that last October US military officers and private contractors had overseen a session at the base in which three young girls from a nearby village were tortured and raped. The sessions were apparently videotaped, and the tapes then distributed in the local village of Melgar, where the girls were from. They were subsequently ostracized and forced to flee the village with their families. The most disturbing thing about the allegations is that the girls were not even suspected of anything; they had been lured to the base in exchange for money and a promise of visas to enter the US, and apparently used in a simple torture demonstration. El Espectador wrote in an editorial: "The recording of these acts of sadism and the public diffusion of the images is part of the message the invaders must establish that the subjugated people are inferior and deserve any kind of inhuman treatment." The piece also noted that even if Uribe were to pursue the case, Colombia has no recourse to the International Criminal Court, having signed on to an agreement with the United States not to recognize its jurisdiction over any US personnel. "The marginal of the planet must find a way to unite to promote our own methods of development," Ezequiel Vitonas says. But this is becoming a greater challenge every day as Colombia's war escalates, with Pentagon direction, in a strategy which seeks to polarize and eliminate any political space not beholden to armed factions. RESOURCES: Association of Indigenous Councils of North Cauca (ACIN) http://nasaacin.net/noticias.htm Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado http://www.cdpsanjose.org/ SOA Watch on the San Jose de Apartado massacre http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=1024 El Espectador on torture at Tolemaida http://www.elcorreo.eu.org/esp/article.php3?id_article=4747 See also: "Colombia: Peace Community Under Occupation" by Virginia McGlone, WW4 REPORT #108 http://www.ww4report.com/peacesanjosedeapartado For more on Gen. Fandi?o Rincon see WW4 REPORT #107 http://www.ww4report.com/node/284 From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 6 15:04:22 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 15:04:22 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] OAS & USA: Venezuela Not the Only Skeptic Message-ID: <200506061904.j56J4Mr03344@olm.blythe-systems.com> [At the OAS meeting in Ft. Lauderdale, Condoleezza Rice mouthed the standard words about "democracy" and "freedom" in her usual brazen fashion. Latin American nations, well aware that this is really about the Bush regime's insatiable appetite for US control over the region, were not impressed. Venezuela is only one of many formerly compliant states in the OAS resisting a return to the iron grip of US hegemony over Latin America. Ultimately what must happen is for the US to be drummed out of the OAS so that no more meetings will be held on US soil, but the power of the US and the lure of its dollars and military support are still strong among many of the USA's corrupt client states. Resisters might start by walking out whenever a US goon stands up to speak. -NY Transfer] excerpted from Venezuela News Update - June 6, 2005 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Venezuela_News/ The New York Times - June 6, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/06/international/americas/06oas.html Latin Nations Resist Plan for Monitor of Democracy [sic] By Joel Brinkley FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., June 5 - The major nations of Latin America have told the United States that they cannot support an American plan to establish a permanent committee of the Organization of American States that would monitor the exercise of democracy in the hemisphere, Latin American diplomats said Sunday. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who arrived here on Sunday afternoon to serve as chairwoman of an O.A.S. meeting where the American plan is on the agenda, expressed frustration with their view, saying, "We have to have a discussion of how the organization can be effective if it does not have a mechanism that can help at times of crisis." If the organization fails to approve the American proposal, it would be a significant diplomatic defeat for the United States - from a region that for decades has generally gone along with Washington's requests. The United States is negotiating with the other countries, though diplomats and officials said they made little progress on Sunday. Last month, senior administration officials said they intended to push for approval of the proposed resolution during the foreign ministers' meeting here, which runs through Monday. But, perhaps anticipating that approval was far from certain, Ms. Rice said to reporters on her plane, "All of the answers are not going to come out of this meeting." Several ambassadors of Latin American states said last month that they would be unlikely to support the measure because they saw it as a thinly veiled attack on Venezuela, which has been at odds with the United States for several years. In Caracas on Sunday, President Hugo Ch?vez clearly had the same view. On Venezuelan television, he said: "So, they're going to monitor the Venezuelan government through the O.A.S.? They must be joking." "The times in which the O.A.S. was an instrument of the government in Washington are gone," he added. Latin American ambassadors have been consulting among themselves about the proposal since the United States made it Wednesday at an O.A.S. meeting in Washington. Several said they opposed the idea of forming a committee that could intervene in the internal affairs of nations - perhaps even their own. Apprised of that, Ms. Rice, said: "Of course, the organization has intervened in the past. It intervened in Peru." In 2000, the O.A.S. declared elections in Peru illegitimate and sent a mission to mediate the crisis. "This is not somehow a set of ideas that the United States has, and is going to impose on anyone," she added. The ambassadors from 10 major states, including Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Peru and Uruguay, met here on Saturday night and decided they could not support the plan as drafted, two of them said Sunday. The two ambassadors said they particularly opposed a part of the proposal that says the organization should "develop a process to assess, as appropriate, situations that may affect the development of a member state's democratic political institutional process or the legitimate exercise of power." One ambassador, who declined to be identified because he did not want to offend the United States, noted that the organization's charter emphasized "non-intervention, self-determination and respect for individual personalities" in member states. The American proposal grew out of a remark that Jos? Miguel Insulza, the newly elected secretary general of the organization, made in April at the urging of the United States. Clearly alluding to Venezuela, he said states that did not govern democratically should be held accountable by the organization. In the weeks since then, the State Department has been drafting the proposal to create a committee that would listen to testimony from citizens groups that have problems with their governments. The ambassador who declined to be identified said the nations could not accept that infringement on their sovereignty, but added: "We have a constructive attitude. We will work on language that is more acceptable." Gonzalo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman, said: "We are in the midst of the process. It is too soon to make a judgment. This is not a process that is going to be finished overnight." *** Reuters via The New York Times - June 5, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-latam-oas.html U.S., Venezuela Clash as OAS Meeting Begins FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Reuters) - The United States called on Sunday for new ways to support ``fragile" democracies in the Western Hemisphere but was immediately accused by Venezuela of seeking to impose a ``global dictatorship." The United States hopes to use a three-day meeting of the 34-member Organization of American States that began on Sunday to advance its idea of allowing private groups to help monitor and promote democracy by raising their concerns with the OAS. ``When you look at some of the fragile democracies that there are, it's very clear that the institution needs to be better capable of dealing with them," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters as she flew to Florida. U.S. officials have talked of allowing ordinary citizens, rights groups and other nongovernmental organizations to bring their concerns directly to the OAS and of empowering ad hoc groups and elder statesmen to step in during crises. ``Together we must insist that leaders who are elected democratically have a responsibility to govern democratically," Rice said at the gathering's opening session. She did not directly mention Venezuela but Washington and other critics of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez say that although twice elected, the Venezuelan president is showing authoritarian tendencies in office. Speaking before the conference began, Chavez accused the United States of trying to impose a ``global dictatorship" and said that it, not Venezuela, should face OAS scrutiny. ``So, they're going to try to monitor the Venezuelan government through the OAS, they must be joking!" Chavez said, speaking on his weekly ``Hello President" TV and radio show. 'GLOBAL DICTATORSHIP' ``If there is any government that should be monitored by the OAS, then it should be the U.S. government, a government which backs terrorists, invades nations, tramples over its own people, seeks to install a global dictatorship," he said. His latest anti-U.S. outburst reflected the tense state of relations between Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, and the United States, its biggest oil client. Rice sought to play down expectations the OAS meeting would result in agreement on any mechanisms to protect democracies and said as its host, she wanted to listen to others. She also expressed hope a free and democratic Cuba would soon rejoin the OAS. Cuba was suspended from the body two years after President Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution took the island down a communist path. Ministers at the meeting did not hear much from protesters who were kept about 100 yards from the convention center in the seaside resort of Fort Lauderdale, which was encircled by hundreds of police and sealed off by roadblocks. The OAS historically has been hamstrung by its tradition of operating by consensus, which gives any country an effective veto over collective action in a region where Washington's motives are suspect because of its history of interference. It has failed to calm the political instability in Bolivia, Ecuador and Haiti -- three countries where Rice said ``the institutions of democracy have perhaps brittle roots." Bolivian President Carlos Mesa is facing crippling protests by indigenous groups, Ecuador's former President Lucio Gutierrez was fired by Congress in April amid protests, and in Haiti, former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced into exile last year by an armed revolt and U.S. and French pressure. Despite the fierce rhetoric from Chavez, a U.S. official said Rice greeted Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez and thanked him for his comments at a private meeting of OAS ministers on Sunday afternoon. But in a gesture sure to anger Chavez, Rice plans to meet Maria Corina Machado, a prominent opponent of the Venezuelan president, on Monday, six days after President Bush welcomed her to the White House. *** South Florida Sun Sentinel - June 5, 2005 FOR MANY, OAS FALLS FAR SHORT NO SHORTAGE OF THORNY ISSUES AS GENERAL ASSEMBLY CONVENES By Alva James-Johnson and Ruth Morris Ernesto Ackerman wanted the Organization of American States to help rid Venezuela of an elected president he considers a dictator. Parnell Duverger longed for the organization to hold Haiti's former president to democratic ideals. In both cases, the OAS fell short of their desires, leaving Ackerman and Duverger feeling betrayed. "One of the main reasons for OAS is to establish democracy in all of [the Americas]," said Ackerman, founder of Independent Venezuelan American Citizens. "We as Venezuelans are expecting them to take charge of the problem we're having right now." Ackerman and Duverger are among local residents who will pay close attention when the OAS meets today through Tuesday to deliberate the thorny details of democracy. Thousands of diplomats and journalists are gathering for the meeting at the Broward County Convention Center. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Gov. Jeb Bush will formally welcome representatives of 34 member nations from throughout the hemisphere at tonight's opening ceremonies. President Bush will arrive in Fort Lauderdale Monday to address delegates on the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement. The treaty would grant the Dominican Republic and Central American nations tariff-free trading, similar to provisions between Mexico and the United States in NAFTA. The meeting is expected to also draw hundreds of protesters, demonstrating against issues including free trade and the political situations in Haiti and Venezuela. Several democratically elected leaders have been deposed in Latin America since the OAS's 2001 charter calling for the diplomatic body to intervene when democracies comes under threat. Democracies at risk During a news briefing Saturday, OAS General Secretary Jose Miguel Insulza said the OAS will look at ways to react more quickly when democracies hit shaky ground. "It's a question of seeing how to act in step with the problems to see how we can get ahead of the risks," he said. He also stressed Haitian elections, slated for October or November, must stay on track despite escalating violence between gangs loyal and opposed to former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. "We have not discussed the possibility of a postponement," he said. "We think it's very important to have the elections soon." During the OAS meeting, he said, delegates would look for ways to break through animosities to get Haiti's political forces speaking to one another again, increase the flow of pledged restoration funds and create jobs. Not everyone in South Florida is caught up in OAS events. Betty Walls, 67, of Deerfield Beach, said she's more concerned about socioeconomic issues in her predominantly African-American neighborhood, where she can't even get authorities to erect a "children playing" sign to slow down speeding cars. She said the conference will focus on fledgling democracies in other countries, "but we're not stable here. Don't nobody see that?" "I feel like they're making too much of a fuss about it," she said of the conference. "It's a great thing, but it should be for all the people, African-Americans, Haitians, everybody." At Strictly the Best, a music shop in Miramar, Bruce Britton said his mostly Caribbean customers aren't interested in the OAS meeting. "It just seems like another conference where they get together and decide things that we don't really have any say about," he said. "Most people are just trying to keep their heads above water this isn't a priority right now." Nevertheless, others think that having the OAS General Assembly here -- only the second time in the United States -- is important because of the political, social and economic instability in some of the countries represented by South Florida's large and growing Latin American and Caribbean populations. Caribbean interests Many Caribbean nationals are interested in the election of the OAS assistant secretary general, which will occur during the Fort Lauderdale event. The front-runner is Albert R. Ramdin, a Surinamese diplomat backed by the Caribbean community. He is running against Nicaragua's former foreign affairs minister, Ernesto Leal. Haiti is one of the OAS's biggest challenges. It's a country still wracked by violence 17 months after the ouster of former Aristide, and a concern to South Florida's 300,000 Haitian immigrants. "The Haitian community in particular should welcome the deliberations here," said Anthony Bryan, professor emeritus at the Caribbean Studies department of the University of Miami. "The OAS has had a very long and eventful involvement in trying to resolve the Haitian political situation." Jean-Robert Lafortune, chairman of the Haitian American Grassroots Coalition in Miami, said his organization would be one of several civic groups meeting with OAS diplomats this morning to discuss the mistreatment of Haitian refugees in other Caribbean countries, Haiti's upcoming elections and lack of security. "We would like the OAS to press the Haitian government to restore peace in the country," he said. "It's a quagmire the way the situation is down there." When Haiti reached a political impasse in the country's 2000 legislative elections, OAS Assistant-Secretary Luigi Einaudi traveled to the country repeatedly to try to broker an agreement between the government and opposition leaders. The effort failed and the political tension continued, eventually leading to Aristide's ouster in February 2004. Duverger, of Fort Lauderdale, is a Haitian-American economics professor at Broward Community College. He says he thinks that the OAS let Aristide stay in power too long. "The OAS should have used the case of Haiti to establish stronger rules to protect democracy in the Americas," he said. Some in the Venezuelan community in South Florida are also disappointed with OAS actions. During the country's crippling general strike in 2003, the OAS tried to broker a resolution between the government and the opposition. The negotiations led to a recall referendum against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in August 2004. The president survived with 59 percent of the vote, which the opposition does not accept. "OAS got involved because we wanted a referendum, but we know the referendum was a whole fraud," said Ackerman, of Independent Venezuelan American Citizens. "There's no democracy in that." The OAS and the Carter Center, an Atlanta-based human rights organization headed by former President Jimmy Carter, both monitored the elections and declared the balloting legitimate. Two anti-Chavez groups based in South Florida met Saturday morning at a Fort Lauderdale hotel with U.S. Assistant Secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean Roger Noriega, raising speculation by analysts that the United States is focused on Venezuela. "We wanted to talk about the image being presented in U.S. universities by Chavez's Bolivarian circles," said Ackerman of IVAC. Noriega invited the group to Washington, D.C., and told them that "'we have many friends in the Bush Administration,'" Ackerman said. Singling out venezuela A representative for Venezuelan Awareness Foundation said they asked Noriega to help Venezuelans who come to the United States seeking asylum, said member Patricia Andrave. Analysts said the meeting underscored the United States' singling out Venezuela. "This is supposed to be a meeting of official representatives," said Eduardo Gamarra, director of Florida International University's Latin American and Caribbean Center. "What kind of message is the U.S. trying to send?" During Saturday's news briefing, OAS General Secretary Insulza steered clear of several questions about heightened tensions between Venezuela and the United States. The strained relations have been billed as an ominous undercurrent to the meeting, which comes only a week before the Texas arraignment of Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles. Venezuela wants Posada extradited to stand trial for a 1976 airline bombing -- a request the United States has said it will deny. [Staff Writer Sandra Hernandez contributed to this report.] From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 6 15:25:15 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 15:25:15 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Posada Spins More Tales to Miami Herald Message-ID: <200506061925.j56JPFF03826@olm.blythe-systems.com> [The privileged "prisoner" gets to make "almost unlimited" phone calls and has a private room. The Miami Herald has no interest in interviewing the hundreds of less-famous asylum-seekers languishing in US immigration prisons, but the psychopath Posada is given a forum to spin his tales for an avid gusano audience in Miami. Corral and Chardy, at least, report these with obvious skepticism.-NY Transfer] The Miami Herald - June 6, 2005 http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/11824238.htm Posada discusses life as a federal detainee An interview with Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles shed light on his plans if given asylum -- an angle reported Saturday. Now he talks about his U.S. detention. BY OSCAR CORRAL AND ALFONSO CHARDY EL PASO - Luis Posada Carriles, the anti-Castro militant known for a life full of secrets and a debonair attitude, sat in an immigration courtroom surrounded by guards. He wore a red jumpsuit and a plastic ID bracelet instead of his usual expensive watch. Posada, 77, is a federal detainee in El Paso, charged -- like thousands of other undocumented migrants -- with illegally entering the country. It's a sudden transformation from the almost mythic warrior of Cuban exile lore to illegal migrant. Posada's situation is far from normal. He is sought by Cuba and Venezuela as an alleged terrorist, and he is being treated as a special prisoner here. He has his own room. He lives in self-imposed isolation, instead of sleeping in dormitories and sharing cafeteria meals with the other detained migrants, in part to avoid any confrontations. A naturalized Venezuelan citizen, Posada is wanted by Venezuela in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. He was acquitted twice of that crime in Venezuela and escaped from prison in 1985 while awaiting a prosecutor's appeal. Cuba accuses Posada of orchestrating a string of bombings in Havana in 1997, one of which killed an Italian tourist. Six people were injured in the explosions. While his attorneys want him shipped to a Florida facility, Posada said Friday -- in his first interview with a U.S. publication since his detention -- that it might be better for him to be in Texas, away from all the talk and "accusations" about him swirling in Miami, as he pursues his request for asylum in the United States. "It was more convenient for me to be outside of Miami so I don't receive all those accusations and foolishness," he said. ``I have the right, well, it's not a right, but a privilege, that they give me asylum." It was a far cry from the last time Posada spoke to the media, the day he was detained in Miami-Dade County May 17. He had donned a fashionable white linen suit, dark tie and a blue tailored shirt for a news conference. He'd slipped into the United States weeks before, visiting friends in South Florida and indulging in his passion for painting. His presence caused an international stir and embarrassed U.S. security agencies. During a Herald interview May 11, Posada sipped peach juice and soaked in the breeze from the balcony of a luxury Biscayne Bay condominium. On Friday, Posada spoke at length about his life in custody, supposed contacts with a dissident Cuban military officer and a secret trip to Cuba that he says he made a few years ago. Posada also claimed he had information that Fidel Castro will fall soon in a popular revolt. The interview was monitored by a Homeland Security media spokeswoman, along with one of his attorneys, who advised Posada via speakerphone not to answer certain questions. The storyteller and firebrand remained undaunted. He still crackled with anti-Castro rhetoric and offered no apologies for his behavior since sneaking into the country. FEELS THREATENED Posada said he always feels threatened because of what he called Castro's obsession with hunting him down -- though he noted that for now he feels safe in detention. "I'm always under threat," he said. ``But they never found me. Castro is most nervous when he doesn't know where I am." ``Fidel Castro is a monster of malice." Just a few years ago, Posada claims, he sneaked into Cuba to meet with a dissident Cuban military officer. He refused to provide details other than to say that it happened in Baracoa, an old town in eastern Cuba. "It's very delicate," he said. Posada also addressed speculation in certain exile and intelligence circles that Castro is using him to harm the image of the Cuban exile community. The speculation is based on a perception that Posada's alleged exploits typically fail and help Cuba portray itself as a victim of exile terrorism. The allegations range from his allegedly meeting with Cuban spies to having a family member linked to the Cuban government. In a 1991 interview, Posada told The Herald that two brothers and a sister had accepted jobs as professionals in communist Cuba. He said he hadn't spoken with his siblings since 1960, fearing contact would bring them harm. FAMILY Posada declined to discuss family connections in Cuba. He acknowledged the possibility that some of his Cuban government contacts may be spies. But he insisted that he doesn't serve the interests of the Cuban regime. Although he wouldn't answer questions about allegations he participated in several terrorist acts, he readily rejected rumors that he was in Dallas on the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. "Let me answer that," he told his attorney. "I was pumping gas dressed as a lieutenant of the American Army in Fort Benning [Georgia] when that happened," he said. ``How was I going to be in Dallas? What's going on is that they blame me for everything." After the 1961 failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, Posada and many exiles received U.S. military training for possible future action against Cuba. That training also was meant to defuse their anger toward Washington over the invasion's defeat. Posada said he still hopes to return to a free Cuba. He predicts that Cuba will soon be rid of Castro. "Fidel Castro will fall violently," he said, basing his assessment on what he described as secret contacts within the Cuban government. ``But how will he fall? A coup? God knows what will happen. Cuba is on the verge of all of that. The people will rebel." PRISON ROUTINE Ensconced inside a barracks-like compound surrounded by chain-link fences, razor wire and desert, Posada wakes up before dawn, checks his blood pressure, and eats a light breakfast of milk or juice. He forgoes the regular offerings of sausage and eggs. Then he prays, he said, asking God for the liberation of Cuba. On Wednesdays, he attends Mass in a chapel. "I don't ask much for myself," he said of his supplications. After prayers he reads Spanish and English publications but refuses to watch television. Without painting supplies, he has not been able to pursue his hobby, which he'd like to develop into a career if released from detention. He spends a half-hour each day in a small yard. The sun has imprinted his arms with a subtle farmer's tan. Lunch consists of hamburgers or chicken, followed by an hourlong nap. More readings and prayers follow in the afternoon, an early dinner, then bed by 9 p.m. He refers to his red jumpsuits as his ``baseball player outfit." "There are no pastelitos here," Posada said longingly, referring to the Cuban pastries found almost anywhere in Miami. But he noted that immigration officials treat him well in detention. Posada's view never varies from the guards posted outside his room. He is allowed to make almost unlimited calls to the outside world using prepaid cards or calling collect. "They've offered to let me join the general population if I find myself too locked up, but I prefer to be alone," Posada said. ``What am I going to do mingling with the rest of the population here?" From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 10:12:44 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 10:12:44 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Hungry US Agribusiness Flocks to Cuba Trade Meeting Message-ID: <200506071412.j57ECig28422@olm.blythe-systems.com> AP via The Ledger (Florida) - June 6, 2005 http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050606/APF/506060808 Conference spotlights Southeast farm exports to Cuba by GARRY MITCHELL Associated Press MOBILE, Ala. - Some lively dialogue about U.S. policy on Cuba is expected as farm exports from the Southeast take the spotlight at a two-day conference in Alabama's port city, chosen for the session because of its "sister city" cultural and shipping links to Havana. The fourth National Summit on Cuba, to be held Friday and Saturday, is sponsored by the World Policy Institute based at the New School University in New York. Previous summits have drawn about 300-350 participants. "We are creating a forum for an intelligent and balanced discussion of U.S.-Cuba relations," said summit spokeswoman Lissa Weinmann, a researcher at the institute. She said the agenda for the meeting is "wide-ranging, but the focus is on trade." Some Cuban officials, who cannot attend, are expected to participate by phone or possible video hookup and answer questions from the audience. Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks is one of the 40 speakers, including other trade counterparts from states on the Gulf of Mexico. Sparks has made five trips to Havana since taking office in 2000. "We're very proud of the relationship we've been able to build," Sparks said. Trade with Cuba is profitable for Alabama farmers, he said, citing sales of poultry, soybeans, wood and cotton products. Sparks said he has respect for the Bush administration, but he's critical of trade sanctions on Cuba in effect since 1963. The government has attempted to isolate the communist island economically and deprive it of dollars, according to a U.S. Treasury Department publication. Economic studies indicate Southern states took the hardest hit from the embargo, Weinmann says. The Mississippi Delta rice business, for example, lost some $150 million annually. Sparks is among critics of the administration's rule that requires cash payments in advance for farm sales to Cuba. Sparks said it's "just another strong-arm tactic to try to stop us from doing business with Cuba." "It's been somewhat of an obstacle. We've been able to work around it temporarily," Sparks said of the Treasury Department regulation. But he said Alabama farmers haven't lost any money on trade deals with Cuba. "Cuba has lived up to every agreement they signed," he said. "President Fidel Castro has never tried to put me on the spot. He's been very respectful of the administration." A phone call and e-mail to the State Department seeking comment on the Mobile meeting were not returned. While the conference will focus on trade and U.S.-Cuba policy, Weinmann said she expects "spirited, good dialogue" on other issues, including the saga of Elian Gonzalez, which she said "raises a lot of passion." Elian was found clinging to an inner tube off Florida's coast in late 1999. Then 5, Elian was among three Cubans who survived an attempt to reach the United States by sea. His mother perished with 10 others. Elian was placed with relatives in Miami, who waged an unsuccessful seven-month custody battle to keep him in the United States. He returned to Cuba with his father in the summer of 2000. "Part of what we want to investigate through these summits is, why would the administration want to curtail relationships?" Weinmann said. "We always seem to come back to a very vocal group in Miami," a reference to anti-Castro Cuban exiles. The summit comes with Republican-led legislation pending that would eliminate a strict ban barring most travel by U.S. citizens to Cuba. Supporters say allowing "people-to-people" contact is the best way to bring political change to Cuba. Weinmann said attempts in the last four years to pass the measure have been defeated in a congressional conference committee. She said a separate GOP bill related to agricultural trade with Cuba could be considered this summer in Congress. National Summit on Cuba: http://www.nationalsummitoncuba.org From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 10:13:02 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 10:13:02 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Lifting Blockade Could Mean 100,000 Jobs in US Message-ID: <200506071413.j57ED2I28484@olm.blythe-systems.com> Mobile, Alabama Register - June 7, 2005 http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1118135889146610.xml&coll=3 Cuba summit set as benefits debated Professor: Lifting embargo could bring 100,000 U.S. jobs By ANDREA JAMES Business Reporter Lifting the trade embargo on Cuba could create 100,000 new jobs and $6 billion in increased exports for the United States, according to research by local economics professor Semoon Chang. Chang plans to share those numbers Friday with about 300 people expected to gather for the fourth-annual National Summit on Cuba, set this year in Mobile. Chang, who directs the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of South Alabama, said lifting the trade sanctions would add about 1,700 jobs in Alabama. "Some of them will be jobs in agriculture, but there will be all kinds of jobs," Chang said, adding that the automobile assembly and tourism industries would also benefit. The two-day summit, organized by the World Policy Institute based at the New School University in New York, is intended as a "balanced discussion" of the nation's often controversial relationship with Cuba's communist government, led by Fidel Castro. Many local groups are co-sponsoring the activities held Friday at the Arthur R. Outlaw Convention Center and Saturday at Spring Hill College, including the city, the Alabama State Port Authority and the Mobile Airport Authority. Chang said his research is based on U.S. Department of Commerce trade statistics and export data between U.S. states and countries in Central America and the Caribbean. Florida would benefit most from lifted sanctions, followed by Louisiana. Alabama would be one of the top 10 states to trade with Cuba, Chang said. "Many U.S. businesses are hurt because we are not able to sell products to Cuba," Chang said. "Lifting sanctions will be good for both countries. Economically speaking, I cannot find a single reason why you have to keep sanctions." Pro-trade advocates, including many Southern business and political leaders, argue that Alabama is primed to ship automotive, timber, paper and manufactured products to Cuba. Mobile Mayor Mike Dow, who is an avid supporter of open trade, is scheduled to welcome the delegates Friday. Dow said that U.S. farmers and merchants are losing out while the rest of the world trades with Cuba. "I'm afraid that this issue with Cuba has been pushed aside and has not been addressed by America at large," Dow said. "When all the smoke clears, all this issue is about is the South Florida Cuban American lobby, lobbying to keep the embargo in place for decades." The United States allows limited, so-called humanitarian, trade with the island, sending about $400 million in agricultural products there annually, Chang said. "The whole Cuba trade issue is important to us as a port because we're positioned to be a major player in that market," said Alabama state docks director Jimmy Lyons. Sister city status: The city started campaigning to bring the trade summit to Mobile two years ago, according Dow. Although trade with Cuba is controversial -- the Bush administration accuses Castro's government of numerous human rights violations -- Dow said the summit is bound to bring positive publicity to Mobile. "The press coverage is beyond what we've imagined, and the interest is incredible," said Lissa Weinmann, a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute. Weinmann said one reason the summit is being held in Mobile is the Port City's sister city status with Cuba's capital of Havana. "It's always surprising to me the degree of interest in Cuba," Weinmann said. "We are finding that particularly being in Mobile and in the Gulf area because of the historic ties to the Gulf island." Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks is one of the numerous speakers on the Friday agenda, joined by his trade counterparts from other Gulf Coast states. Trade with Cuba is profitable for Alabama farmers, said Sparks, citing sales of poultry, soybeans, wood and cotton products. Some Cuban officials, who cannot attend, are expected to participate by phone or possible video hookup and answer questions from the audience. All opposed, say nay: The U.S. trade embargo has been in place for almost a half-century. In recent years, Congress has attempted to lift the embargo, but threats of a presidential veto killed any legislation before it could be signed into law. President Bush has said that he supports opening trade with Cuba only after it has a new, democratic government, and when human rights are "fully protected." Consequently, many of Alabama's Republican politicians are stuck between the administration's stance and the hope of positive economic impact that Chang predicts. For example, "Senator Shelby opposes lifting the trade embargo on Cuba," said Virginia Davis, a spokeswoman for Shelby. "He believes it is vital to American interests that the U.S. maintains a resolute policy towards Cuba." U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Mobile, had been scheduled to introduce the keynote speaker at the summit, but his office said Monday that Bonner will not attend. Bonner has a scheduling conflict, according to his spokesman, Matt Rhodes. Bonner was not available Monday to comment on trade with Cuba, Rhodes said. [The Associated Press contributed to this report.] (c) 2005 The Mobile Register From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 10:13:37 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 10:13:37 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Iraq Carnage Report from Prensa Latina - Jun 6, 2005 Message-ID: <200506071413.j57EDbk28546@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Rebels Hit the Iraqi Police with Mortar Fire Baghdad, Jun 6 (Prensa Latina) Insurgents in northern Iraq launched a wave of mortar attacks against police stations in the city of Mosul, while a suicide bomber caused 11 casualties on local security forces in Tikrit. The US Central Command reported Monday the death of another American soldier, who died from wounds he suffered when a car-bomb went off Sunday in the oil-rich locality of Kirkuk, to the north of Baghdad. The US has lost 1,671 servicemen since the onset of the war 26 months ago. In another action, a suicide rebel detonated his explosive charge next to an army and police checkpoint in a southern portion of Tikrit, wounding three military. Also in that northern city, another insurgent set a bomb off in front of the gate to a US military base, killing one serviceman and injuring another four. Meanwhile, in Baghdad a car-bomb exploded in front of the Hai al Amerl barracks in the south-western part of the capital, wounding three members of the Iraqi special forces. Also in the capital, an American security guard was shot dead on Sunday as he drove through the capital. The insurgents have continued their actions despite Operation Lightning in Baghdad, a mass military exercise designed to prevent suicide bombing and other armed attacks. mh From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 10:15:46 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 10:15:46 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] US Founded Al Qaeda, Protects Posada: Russian Lawmaker Message-ID: <200506071415.j57EFkM28677@olm.blythe-systems.com> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu US Founded Al Qaeda and Protects Posada, says Russian Legislator Havana, June 6 (AIN) Luis Posada Carriles must be extradited to Venezuela and tried by the country where he committed or planned his crimes, said Russian lawmaker Nicolai Leonov. Leonov, who participated in the recently concluded International Forum against Terrorism, for Truth and Justice, accused the United States of protecting terrorists it considers its allies. He said that Cuba has been a major victim of terrorism and its noble attitude in fighting terrorism is recognized around the globe. The Russian lawmaker denounced the United States for being the only country that uses terror as a political weapon in modern times. He noted that while everyone points a finger to accuse Al Qaeda, the real founders of that network were the US secret services. Leonov said the forum held last week in Havana was fruitful, and allowed many to be brought up to date on the current situation of the Cuban Five, held as political prisoners in the United States. He pointed out that the event was aimed at raising international awareness on terrorism, to which Cuba has been a leading victim. The case of Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, currently under the protection of the United States, was widely discussed. Washington would prefer the world be kept in the dark about the Posada Carriles case; however the forum was able to make a dent in the silence, said Leonov. He added that Posada Carriles has confessed his participation in several criminal actions and inexplicably the White House does not consider him a terrorist. "It is quite clear that he must be extradited," pointed out Leonov. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 10:19:41 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 10:19:41 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Tampa "Terrorism" Trial for Persecuted Professor Message-ID: <200506071419.j57EJft28788@olm.blythe-systems.com> sent by The Freedom Archives http//www.freedomarchives.org The Washington Post - June 5, 2005 Trial to Reveal Reach Of U.S. Surveillance Wiretaps to Be Used Against 4 Terrorism Suspects By John Mintz Washington Post Staff Writer For a decade, FBI agents covertly monitored every telephone call and fax sent and received by Florida university professor Sami al-Arian as he communicated with alleged top leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group about its suicide bombings of Israelis, shaky finances and high-level turf struggles. Starting tomorrow, many of those 20,000 hours of phone calls and hundreds of faxes will be revealed in a federal courtroom in Tampa, where al-Arian and three other alleged members of the terrorist group will be tried on charges of conspiracy to commit murder through suicide attacks in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The trial, expected to last at least six months, will provide a rare view of what the government contends are the clandestine operations of a terrorist group. It is the first case in which vast amounts of communications monitored under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) will make up the bulk of the evidence in a criminal prosecution of alleged terrorists -- demonstrating the enormous power the government now wields under that counterterrorism law. The wiretaps, approved in 1993 through 2003 on as many as 10 phones by a secret FISA court, were originally intended for use only by FBI agents conducting open-ended "intelligence" probes, and not for use in criminal trials. But after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the enactment of the USA Patriot Act and a ruling by the supersecret FISA court of appeals allowed much greater use of intelligence material in investigations such as this one. Many civil liberties experts express grave concern about U.S. officials' introduction into criminal court of years of wiretaps approved by FISA judges under a lower standard of proof than that demanded by criminal-court judges. But U.S. District Judge James Moody has rejected defense attorneys' arguments that the information should not be heard in court. Using FISA wiretaps in court is "a serious problem" that puts defendants at a disadvantage, said David Cole, a Georgetown University expert on the law related to terrorism. "Unlike with criminal wiretaps, FISA doesn't give defendants any meaningful chance to challenge the validity of the tap." U.S. officials say al-Arian and three associates who worked with him at a cluster of institutes affiliated with the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa were secretly top leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, sharing duties with other leaders in Syria. Attorneys for al-Arian, a USF professor of computer engineering until he was fired in 2003, and the other defendants contend that their clients do not condone the terrorist group's violent tactics, and that U.S. prosecutors are criminalizing their opposition to Israeli policies. The U.S. government declared the Palestinian Islamic Jihad a terrorist organization in 1995, making any association with it illegal. Defense attorneys have said that any promotion of the organization by al-Arian and others before then was protected political speech. "The government has a major leap trying to connect people talking on the phone in Tampa, and doing fundraising, with bombs exploding in Israel 6,600 miles away," said lawyer Stephen Bernstein, who represents defendant Sameeh Taha Hammoudeh, a former USF student. "The government is trying to say, 'If you have an interest in a subject, and if you talk about it with other people, then you must have been involved in it.' " Moody has also ruled that he will limit defense attorneys' efforts to bring up during the trial the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in their bid to dramatize the Palestinians' plight and their right to resist what they see as Israeli oppression. The defense asserts that the U.S. government has embraced the Israeli government's intelligence findings on the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and that the group represents no threat to the United States. Lawyer Kevin Beck, who represents defendant Hatim Naji Fariz, manager of an Illinois-based Muslim charity, said there will be clashes in court over "the context and meaning of some conversations," including some in which he said officials unfairly assert the defendants spoke in code about the terrorist group. The prosecutors' case "is built on assumption built on assumption built on assumption, with some hearsay," he said. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, founded in Egypt in 1979 and largely funded by Iran, has devoted itself to two missions: the destruction of Israel and the creation of a Muslim Palestinian state. The group is bitterly opposed to peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians and has often stepped up attacks when talks show promise. It has also targeted sites symbolic of coexistence, such as a Haifa restaurant co-owned by Jews and Palestinians, where an operative of the terrorist group exploded a bomb that killed 21 people in 2003. The al-Arian case has been the subject of intense controversy for a decade. It is a kind of proxy battle for the Middle East conflict, and it has stirred emotions as raw as those in Israel and the Palestinian territories. In October 1995, after years directing a campaign of deadly attacks on Israelis, Fathi Shiqaqi, then the head of the terrorist group, was assassinated in Malta by the Israelis. His successor was Ramadan Shallah, a longtime top official of al-Arian's USF-affiliated think tank in Tampa. Al-Arian and others at the think tank, the World and Islam Studies Enterprise (WISE), said they had no idea Shallah had ties to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Weeks later, federal agents raided the homes and offices of al-Arian and his associates. Al-Arian denied any wrongdoing or any link to the terrorist organization, and for years academic-freedom activists supported his contention that he was being pilloried for being an anti-Israel Muslim activist. Much of that controversy died when al-Arian and eight other people, including Shallah, were indicted in 2003. The indictment included lengthy quotes from FISA intercepts indicating that al-Arian had been in close contact for years with Shiqaqi, Shallah and other top group leaders about the group's most secret internal operations. U.S. officials were allowed to use the FISA intercepts in the case because the USA Patriot Act of 2001 and a FISA appeals court decision in 2003 had torn down the long-unbreachable wall between FBI criminal investigators and intelligence personnel. The legal wall had previously prevented FBI intelligence agents from sharing any information about the FISA taps with agents pursuing criminal cases. Conviction on the main charges -- including conspiracy to commit racketeering through the murder of Israelis, money laundering and other crimes -- could bring life sentences for al-Arian, Hammoudeh, Fariz and a fourth defendant, Chicago dry cleaner Ghassan Zayed Ballut. All four also are accused of extortion as part of that conspiracy, on the theory that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad threatens Israelis with death if they do not leave Israel. Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor, said he believes that is an unprecedented use of the extortion law, but he added that it appears to be legally sound. McCarthy said the case most resembles a classic Mafia trial, in which prosecutors charge that simply by being in, say, the Gambino family, all the defendants conspired to commit the array of crimes that each committed individually. "You've got to convince the jury the entity is evil," he said. Prosecutors said they intend to place on the witness stand dozens of Israeli survivors of Palestinian Islamic Jihad attacks. To illustrate the effects of an attack, officials may also play videotapes they made of a bus being blown up in Florida. Five of the nine indicted defendants are overseas and not in custody and will not be tried. They are Shallah, who still runs the organization from Syria; Abd al Aziz Awda, its original spiritual leader; al-Arian's brother-in-law, Mazen al-Najjar; leading Muslim scholar Bashir Nafi; and Muhammed Tasir al-Khatib, the group's alleged treasurer. In the early- to mid-1990s, al-Arian, Shallah, al-Najjar and Nafi were all at the WISE think tank in Florida, and U.S. officials said they were four of the 10 members of the terrorist group's worldwide Shura Council, or top leadership body. Last month, Assistant U.S. Attorney Walter E. Furr III said in court that the Tampa group was a Palestinian Islamic Jihad "cell" that acted as "the communications center" for the Syria-based group by, among other things, disseminating announcements of its suicide attacks. Al-Arian's alleged role as a conduit of information among group leaders is outlined in the intercepted conversations and faxes. The intercepts also detail the alleged roles of al-Arian and the other WISE defendants in straightening out the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's financial problems, as well as the arguments with various group leaders about how much to tell their Iranian financial patrons about the embezzlement allegedly committed by the group's treasurer. Al-Arian's attorneys note that he was well known for advocating that Muslims participate in U.S. politics. Al-Arian worked hard to get himself invited to gatherings of powerful officials, meeting with President Bill Clinton and with then-presidential candidate George W. Bush in 2000. Those meetings "seem to belie the notion that Dr. al-Arian was in any way considered by anyone in the intelligence or law enforcement communities to be any kind of threat," his attorney, William Moffitt, said in a court document. ? 2005 The Washington Post Company *** sent by Walter Lippmann (CubaNews) AP via The Miami Herald - June 6, 2005 http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/11824300.htm Opening arguments set for professor accused of aiding terrorists MITCH STACY Associated Press TAMPA, Fla. - More than two years after his high-profile arrest, fired University of South Florida computer science professor Sami Al-Arian is getting his day in court. Al-Arian, 47, and three co-defendants face a 53-count indictment that includes charges of racketeering, conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists. Five other men have been indicted but are not in custody. Prosecutors allege the men used an Islamic academic think tank and a Palestinian charity founded by Al-Arian as fundraising fronts for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is on a State Department list of terrorist organizations. The group is blamed for more than 100 deaths in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Al-Arian and his co-defendants have denied the charges, saying that they are being persecuted for their unpopular views. They could get life in prison if convicted on charges that include racketeering, providing material support to terrorists and money laundering. Opening arguments were to begin Monday. In a hearing last month, a prosecutor told U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr. that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad once had 40 percent of its overall leadership operating out of a cell in Tampa. The Tampa cell managed the affairs of the terrorist enterprise, raised money and served as a communications center, Assistant U.S. Attorney Terry Furr said. The Tampa leaders were part of a "terror cycle," he said, in which attacks in Israel would be committed, and then the group would claim responsibility and use them to raise money for more terrorist assaults. Court documents show the government built its case by reaching back through decades of intercepted telephone calls, faxes and other documents gathered by FBI foreign intelligence agents dating back to 1984. A jury of six men and six women along with 10 alternates were chosen last month amid objections of defense attorneys who argued that the trial should be moved out of Tampa. In asking for the change of venue, Al-Arian's attorneys said he could not get a fair trial because of years of pretrial publicity and his emergence as a high-profile issue in last year's U.S. Senate campaign. Democrat Betty Castor, a former president of the University of South Florida, was criticized for not firing Al-Arian, and Mel Martinez won despite counter allegations that powerful Republicans earlier associated with Al-Arian in seeking Muslim votes in Florida. Both sides used Al-Arian's image against the other in televised campaign ads. Standing trial with Al-Arian are Sameeh Hammoudeh, 44, a former instructor and student at USF and an administrator at the Islamic Academy of Florida; Ghassan Zayed Ballut, 43, a small business owner who lived in Tinley Park, Ill.; and Hatem Naji Fariz, 32, manager of a medical clinic in Spring Hill, Fla. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 10:20:58 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 10:20:58 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Court Rules Against Medical Marijuana Message-ID: <200506071420.j57EKwb28911@olm.blythe-systems.com> AP via The Washington Post - June 6, 2005 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/06/AR2005060600666_pf.html Court Rules Against Pot for Sick People By GINA HOLLAND The Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Federal authorities may prosecute sick people whose doctors prescribe marijuana to ease pain, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, concluding that state laws don't protect users from a federal ban on the drug. The decision is a stinging defeat for marijuana advocates who had successfully pushed 10 states to allow the drug's use to treat various illnesses. Justice John Paul Stevens, writing the 6-3 decision, said that Congress could change the law to allow medical use of marijuana. The closely watched case was an appeal by the Bush administration in a case involving two seriously ill California women who use marijuana. The court said the prosecution of pot users under the federal Controlled Substances Act was constitutional. "I'm going to have to be prepared to be arrested," said Diane Monson, one of the women involved in the case. In a dissent, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said that states should be allowed to set their own rules. Under the Constitution, Congress may pass laws regulating a state's economic activity so long as it involves "interstate commerce" that crosses state borders. The California marijuana in question was homegrown, distributed to patients without charge and without crossing state lines. "Our national medical system relies on proven scientific research, not popular opinion. To date, science and research have not determined that smoking marijuana is safe or effective," John Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy, said Monday. Stevens said there are other legal options for patients, "but perhaps even more important than these legal avenues is the democratic process, in which the voices of voters allied with these (California women) may one day be heard in the halls of Congress." California's medical marijuana law, passed by voters in 1996, allows people to grow, smoke or obtain marijuana for medical needs with a doctor's recommendation. Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state have laws similar to California. In those states, doctors generally can give written or oral recommendations on marijuana to patients with cancer, HIV and other serious illnesses. "The states' core police powers have always included authority to define criminal law and to protect the health, safety, and welfare of their citizens," said O'Connor, who was joined in her dissent by two other states' rights advocates: Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Clarence Thomas. The legal question presented a dilemma for the court's conservatives, who have pushed to broaden states' rights in recent years. They earlier invalidated federal laws dealing with gun possession near schools and violence against women on the grounds the activity was too local to justify federal intrusion. O'Connor said she would have opposed California's medical marijuana law if she were a voter or a legislator. But she said the court was overreaching to endorse "making it a federal crime to grow small amounts of marijuana in one's own home for one's own medicinal use." Alan Hopper, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney, said that local and state officers handle 99 percent of marijuana prosecutions and must still follow any state laws that protect patients. "This is probably not going to change a lot for individual medical marijuana patients," he said. The case concerned two Californians, Monson and Angel Raich. The two had sued then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, asking for a court order letting them smoke, grow or obtain marijuana without fear of arrest, home raids or other intrusion by federal authorities. Raich, an Oakland woman suffering from ailments including scoliosis, a brain tumor, chronic nausea, fatigue and pain, smokes marijuana every few hours. She said she was partly paralyzed until she started smoking pot. Monson, an accountant who lives near Oroville, Calif., has degenerative spine disease and grows her own marijuana plants in her backyard. In the court's main decision, Stevens raised concerns about abuse of marijuana laws. "Our cases have taught us that there are some unscrupulous physicians who overprescribe when it is sufficiently profitable to do so," he said. The case is Gonzales v. Raich, 03-1454. ? 2005 The Associated Press From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 10:24:30 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 10:24:30 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Update on Ward Churchill Witchhunt Message-ID: <200506071424.j57EOU529001@olm.blythe-systems.com> sent by The Freedom Archives - June 6, 2005 Update on Ward Churchill by Natsu Saito Dear friends and colleagues, My apologies for not keeping you updated on a more regular basis regarding the ongoing efforts to discredit and/or fire Ward Churchill. Although the national media coverage has abated, the local media continues to attack Ward relentlessly and much of our energy has been absorbed into the current phase of the University's "investigation." There are a number of recent developments: Status of the "Investigation": As you know, in response to the political pressure brought on the University in late January, Interim Chancellor Philip DiStefano formed an ad hoc committee to examine Ward's "every word," to see if he had crossed some mythical boundary of free speech. In late March the ad hoc committee concluded the obvious - that what Ward had written or said publicly was all constitutionally protected _expression. In the meantime, however, it was open season in the media, where all manner of allegations have been thrown about. At first we attempted to respond to them, but soon realized that (a) Ward's responses were not being reported accurately, if at all, and (b) as soon as one round of spurious allegations was rebutted, another took its place. It is an endless game, pursued by forces with apparently endless resources. Not surprisingly, the University felt it had to take some action against Ward in retaliation for his political positions, regardless of the First Amendment and principles of academic freedom. The Interim Chancellor's committee thus declared it had an "obligation" to investigate the allegations which had emerged and referred several of these to the University's Standing Committee on Research Misconduct (SCRM). The SCRM is currently reviewing charges of "academic and ethnic fraud" (discussed in more detail below) and is scheduled to make its initial report by June 23. The SCRM can decide to send any of these allegations to the Privilege and Tenure Committee for further investigation and possible punitive action, including dismissal. Ward has continued to teach, finishing not only the spring semester but teaching a condensed "Maymester" course as well. He won a 2005 teaching award, voted on by students, but its sponsor (the alumni association) is withholding the award "pending the outcome of the investigation," despite the fact that the allegations have nothing to do with teaching. Illegitimacy of the SCRM's Current Investigation: On its face, the continuation of this investigation in any form is unconstitutional, arising as it does from the University's blatant attempt to suppress Ward's constitutionally protected speech. The pretextual nature of the inquiry is further illustrated by the fact that the current allegations are (a) factually unsupported, (b) all based on conduct well over a decade old and, in some cases, previously investigated by the University itself, and (c) come from political adversaries of extremely questionable credibility (to be charitable). I take the liberty of quoting recent e-mail correspondence from Noam Chomsky to a CU employee which I think embodies the response the University should have made under the circumstances: "Without reservations, I support Churchill's right to free speech and academic freedom, and regard the attack on him as scurrilous-and by now craven cowardice as well, as the state authorities and other critics pretend that the issue is (suddenly) his academic credentials and ethnic origins. That's a real disgrace. "As for his work, I've never read this article [on 9/11] and have no interest in doing so-in fact, would not do so as a matter of principle in the present context, for reasons that go back to the Enlightenment origins of defense of freedom of speech. I was interviewed by Colorado newspapers, and told them basically what I've just written. "I was then asked what I thought of his earlier work, and told the truth: that I found it serious and important, stressing again that these comments have precisely nothing to do with the outrageous events now underway. "I have no idea what the plagiarism and other issues are, [but] if the charges were serious, they would have been brought up before. For what it's worth, there's no indication of that in anything of his I read-that is, nothing more than is standard in scholarship..... "Such matters are sometimes raised in the context of political persecution, by cowards who are desperately seeking to conceal what they are really doing. Seems pretty transparent in this case. Why now and not before?" Professor Noam Chomsky, e-mail correspondence of April 13, 2005 Needless to say, the University has not chosen a principled response of this sort. Despite the illegitimacy of the current process, Ward has submitted to the SCRM a detailed response to each allegation. He has not yet released these responses publicly, preferring to give the Committee a chance to consider them before they are tried in the press. I have, however, attached an excerpt of Ward's cover letter to the Committee and some summary responses to the specific allegations. The Allegations Currently Being Investigated: "Ethnic Fraud" Most offensive, of course, is the charge that Ward fraudulently misrepresented his American Indian identity in order to gain credibility for his scholarly work. First, it must be noted that in 1994 the same political adversaries (these are the people who also accuse Ward of being an FBI agent, a CIA operative, etc.) raised the same issue. At that time the University determined that Ward had legitimately self-identified as an American Indian for employment purposes. So, the very existence of the current investigation raises interesting questions - is there a different standard of identity for research and employment? If so, what is it? Who gets to decide? And if one isn't informed of the standard to be applied, how could one fraudulently avoid compliance? The University has refused to answer these questions, apparently leaving it up to a randomly selected faculty committee to function as a racial purity board. Again, the facts which are a matter of public record are being blatantly ignored. Ward has identified as American Indian since he was a small child, based on his family's understanding of its history. He has been recognized as such by the Indian community in Denver, as well as much broader American Indian communities, for decades. (One only need view his speech at CU broadcast on C-SPAN to see this.) And he is an enrolled associate (not honorary) member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, a status which requires confirmation of Cherokee descent by the Band's genealogist. One of the many disturbing consequences of the University deciding that it can adjudicate one's "race" has been the toll taken on the United Keetoowah Band. Initially they responded accurately to inquiries - saying that Ward was an associate member - but were then bombarded by reporters and subjected to an unrelenting e-mail campaign of harassment. Eventually they attempted to allay this pressure by disavowing Ward. This forced him to counter with evidence of his enrollment which, in turn, pushed them into changing their position yet again. (Ward's statement on this question is attached.) In the meantime the Band's already meager resources have been diverted, preempting their delivery of social services and causing turmoil and division. Apparently this is acceptable "collateral damage" in the eyes of those attempting to silence Ward. "Academic Fraud" The SCRM is investigating two sets of "academic fraud" charges. One is misleadingly labeled "plagiarism," and I've attached a summary of Ward's responses on these claims. The other is allegedly about Ward's interpretation of the U.S. Army's participation in the spreading of smallpox to Indians and about the implementation of "blood quantum" requirements pursuant to the 1887 General Allotment Act. Ward has provided the Committee with plenty of facts to back up his analysis but it's important to note that this is at most a dispute over historical interpretation, not fraud. More significantly, these charges are part of an insidious attempt to discredit a particular line of criticism of the sanitized version of American history which is generally taught. Ward, of course, is one of the most prolific scholars in this field; if his scholarship can be discredited, anyone who takes a similar position with respect to the U.S. government's treatment of American Indians will be vulnerable as well. Related Developments During this process, CU-Boulder's Department of Ethnic Studies has come under continuous attack. Our faculty, staff and students have been subjected to all manner of harassment, much of it explicitly racist. We have been targeted by local politicians as well as the likes of David Horowitz. Throughout this process, no University official has stepped forward to condemn the racism directed at the Department or to provide us with any support. I've attached an Open Letter from the Department describing some of this and including a sampling of the e-mails we have received. Adrienne Anderson, a CU instructor in environmental studies and ethnic studies, has been terminated and her classes cancelled because of her success in exposing the environmentally devastating misconduct of corporations CU is closely affiliated with. The City of Longmont has harassed and tried to fire one of its employees, Glenn Spagnuolo (not coincidentally one of our co-defendants in the Columbus Day protests), for statements made on a radio talk show in connection with his support of Ward. One of our students, Dustin Craun, is being prosecuted for attempting to read a statement on behalf of CU students at the February 3 "open meeting" of the CU Board of Regents. (By way of contrast, other CU students who recently chained themselves outside the Chancellor's office to protest sweatshops are not being prosecuted.) Most significantly, Shareef Aleem, a Denver activist who was forcibly prevented by the police from speaking at the same Regents meeting is charged with felony assault and faces a 16-year prison term. My final attachment is Shareef's statement on this matter; Ward and I urge you to actively support Shareef's defense in any way you can. The Big Picture As Ward has said from the beginning, this is not about him; rather, he is the current target of opportunity in a much broader assault on freedom of political _expression and action. Karl Rove is well known for his strategy of attacking the enemy's strongest point, not its weakest, and Ward is a strong one. If he can be silenced, who won't be? In one sense it's part of the larger attempt to discredit all of the political movements of the 1960s and '70s which directly challenged the status quo. Young people who want to be politically active today are being told that all of those efforts failed; that only approved and symbolic (i.e., ineffective) forms of protest will be allowed. It is also part of a pervasive movement to undermine critical thinking in educational institutions. Governor Owens and numerous Colorado legislators are active in Lynne Cheney's American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) and in David Horowitz' attempts to stifle "liberal" professors in the name of students' rights to "academic freedom." Academics around the country are being targeted, as evidenced by the recent "investigations" of Professor Joseph Massad and other Middle Eastern scholars at Columbia. As we have examined the purging of other intellectuals, the same patterns emerge - widespread media frenzy, endless rounds of unfounded allegations, a process designed to wear down those who advocate critical perspectives and discredit them by any means necessary. The University of Colorado has capitulated to political pressure and there is no sign that it will not continue to do so. We cannot take any comfort in the fact that the University has acknowledged that Ward Churchill's speech is constitutionally protected. It is, in fact, far more dangerous to allow dissent to be silenced through the subterfuge of investigating various "frauds." The pressure continues; those who fueling the attacks, such as our local Clear Channel radio station, seem to have unlimited resources to spend on this campaign. So, we fully expect to face yet another "investigation" after the current allegations have been refuted -- at which point you'll likely be getting updates about our federal lawsuit. The good news is that we have had amazing support at CU, in the Denver community, and around the country. Despite well-organized rightwing campaigns, Ward's e-mail has consistently been more supportive than not. Our students and the Ethnic Studies Department have remained strong despite all of the attempts to divide us. Tens of thousands of people have signed petitions of support, thousands have written letters, and numerous organizations of academics have denounced CU's investigation of Ward. Despite nothing but negative media spin, everywhere we go there is evidence of strong grassroots support, from security personnel to parking lot attendants, waiters, and random people on the street. As a Delta skycap told me last week, "you don't have to be clairvoyant to see through the bullsh*t." Again, thank you for your interest and support. If you have any questions or would like more information, please feel free to contact me. Natsu Taylor Saito June 3, 2005 The Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 (415) 863-9977 www.freedomarchives.org From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 10:27:04 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 10:27:04 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Posada's Venezuelan Torture Victims Demand Investigation Message-ID: <200506071427.j57ER4c29136@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Posada Carriles Venezuelan Torture Victims Demand Investigation Caracas, Jun 6 (Prensa Latina) The Venezuelan Committee for Terrorist Luis Posada Carriles? Extradition announced Monday it will request a fiscal investigation about tortures and assassinations in this country by the criminal when he was a Political Police (DISIP) officer. Jesus Marrero, coordinator of that organization, told Prensa Latina they have located at least four people with specific information about Posada?s participation in mistreatment, torture, and assassinations in the ?70s. Marrero, who was tortured under the orders of the criminal of Cuban origin with Venezuelan nationality, explained that the process is barely beginning, but is an expression of justice to be done. Posada is responsible for blowing up a civil aircraft in 1976, which caused the death of 73 people from several nationalities. He has been a fugitive since 1985, when he escaped from a Venezuelan prison to evade a trial on that act of terror. Thus, the Venezuelan government has requested his extradition from the United States, which has been denied by that country?s authorities. Regulo Calzadilla, an ex DISIP officer, writer of the book entitled "Verdades Emergentes", asserted that he heard the criminal boasting about having assassinated at least four people. Calzadilla himself denounced that he was tortured by Posada Carriles, then known as Captain Basilio, when he was arrested by the DISIP after an internal investigation, due to the loss of some documents. The cases of Brenda and Marlene Esquivel are among those currently coming to light. Those sisters denounced they were tortured and humiliated under Captain Basilio?s orders. mh/iom/ml/mf From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 10:30:18 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 10:30:18 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Intvw: Mexican Journalist on Posada's Route to US Message-ID: <200506071430.j57EUIp29268@olm.blythe-systems.com> Progreso Weekly - June 2, 2005 http://www.progresoweekly.com/index.php?progreso=ramy2&otherweek=1118034000 "Posada sailed for Miami on the `Santrina'" Mexican journalist Ren?n Castro, of the Por Esto daily, says in an exclusive interview. By Manuel Alberto Ramy Radio Progreso Alternativa/Progreso Weekly Havana Bureau The former mayor of Isla Mujeres* saw him, as well as the president of the fishing cooperative of the island. He was wearing white bermuda shorts, a guayabera shirt of the same color and sandals. Other people also identified him. The subject of Posada Carriles' entry into the United States is still an issue of interest; it is controversial and possibly could complicate the legal process due to the involvement of other people in the crime of smuggling of illegal aliens. For his part, Posada Carriles claimed at a press conference that he entered U.S. soil by land, from Mexico. Yet, Havana officially insists that he came to the U.S. by sea on the Santrina. The newspaper that has closely investigated the issue is Por Esto, a daily published in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. Ren?n Castro is the journalist who has led the team of several colleagues that did the research for a series of reports on the matter. The following exclusive interview was broadcast by Radio Progreso Alternativa on Friday, June 2, and which Progreso Weekly publishes in this written version. Manuel Alberto Ramy (MAR): How did your investigation on the Santrina begin? Did you have any previous information of the relation of the boat and its crew with Luis Posada Carriles, or was it a coincidence? Ren?n Castro (RC): We began our investigative reporting that led us to confirm the presence of Luis Posada Carriles on Mexican soil due to an accident - the damage on a reef where the Santrina ran aground on the early morning of March 14. At 7 a.m. that same day, the boat and the crew were rescued by members of the fishing cooperative at Isla Mujeres, who warned the Mexican Navy who participated in the rescue. Consequently the boat is taken to the concrete pier at Isla Mujeres and there a routine check is made by Mexican authorities. Up to that moment it is routine case. What began to call our attention was the fact that from the moment the crew of the Santrina went ashore there was reticence with the media. MAR: How did that happen? RC: When they were walking down the pier, Santiago ?lvarez was heading the group (you can see that in the photographs we took). When our reporter Yolanda Guti?rrez, who is the first to arrive, approaches him, he evades her rudely and hides behind Jos? Pujol, who is the skipper of the boat. Pujol, in an insulting and rude manner, pushes her aside and struts past, flanked by Navy and Public Security personnel, and heads for the Port Authority. There they gave their depositions and remained isolated for 6 to 7 hours, which is customary in these cases, and the following day the Port Authority allows the media to contact them. Reluctantly, angrily and rudely, they agree to answer a few questions, among them the reason for their presence in Isla Mujeres and why hadn't they used the Port Authority's services to enter the reef area, the second in importance in the world. Jos? Pujol, in an uncivil tone, said that they were an international ecological foundation and were on a test run, because the Santrina was going to be a school ship, a fact that later ecologists in Quintana Roo and Mexico refuted, because there is no record of the foundation they mentioned. Afterwards they stayed only the necessary time to get provisions and repair the boat in a place called Port Island, and immediately left for Miami, Florida. Six people came in, but according to eye witnesses' and official accounts, seven people left. The claim is not a Por Esto invention; these are testimonies of people who saw all the maneuvers and the suspicious entry of strangers to Isla Mujeres. Let's go back to how we first heard of this situation and how it evolved, until we were able to denounce what Mexican authorities tried to suppress: the entry to Mexican soil of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles and his exit on the Santrina. A month later, on April 14, Fidel Castro makes a declaration to international media about the presence of the Santrina that, according to what he knew at the time, had gone to Isla Mujeres to rescue Luis Posada Carriles. It drew our attention and I went to Lieutenant L?pez Bridge, on the Mexican border with Belize, where I began my research with people working the border post and people who claim that Luis Posada Carriles had entered Mexico on March 6 or 7. MAR: Are you telling me that he entered Mexican territory at Chetumal? RC: That's right. When he entered Mexico a car was waiting for him with people that looked like Cubans and who took him to Cancun, with a 1 or 1 ? hour stopover to eat at a town called Felipe Carrillo Puerto. Six hours later they arrive at Cancun. Posada stays there for some days, hidden in a warehouse where a gang that smuggles Cuban illegal aliens keeps people that leave Cuba and arrive in Cancun. That's a fact that I hope to confirm in order to make a parallel investigation. Later on, Posada leaves for Isla Mujeres, where he stays the following five days. We don't know the exact number of days that he was at each place, Cancun and Isla Mujeres, but the island's life long chronicler and former mayor, Fidel Villanueva Madrid, saw him at Isla Mujeres' Harbor Marina. MAR: He saw Posada Carriles? RC: He saw him strolling by, looking at the boats being repaired. And he was also seen by Francisco Gait?n, the president of the Isla Mujeres fishing cooperative, who gave us the same version of the story two days later, that he had seen him at the seaside promenade wearing white Bermudas shorts, a white guayabera shirt and the typical sandals that tourists wear in the area. MAR: How were those two people that you mentioned able to identify Posada Carriles? Because he is not in the media every day. RC: The fact is that Posada Carriles looks very much like a close friend of Fidel Villanueva's, who is the manager of the Isla Mujeres' port. Villanueva comes up to him and taps him on the shoulder, believing he was his "compadre", and Posada turns around and says to him with a Cuban accent: "Hey, chico, you take me for someone else." "When this thing blows up and I saw his picture", said Fidel Villanueva, "I told myself, `I saw this guy, I talked to him'". That's the most authentic and most truthful version I know. MAR: When you wrote in Por Esto that people at Isla Mujeres had seen Posada walking down the street, did you mean those two witnesses? RC: Francisco Villanueva, Francisco Gait?n and some other people. We had as many as ten depositions of people that have been living there for many years, some of them native to the island. There is nothing that can mislead us. MAR: Did you show photographs to those witnesses? RC: Yes, we did. Por Esto has the largest readership on Isla Mujeres, so when we referred to the photographs that we had published they recognized him and said they had seen him. "This gentleman was here; he went to such and such place; he was strolling by the seaside promenade. He was at Mocambo, near the Posada Hotel." And they made us think that maybe 2 or 3 people weren't enough. But if 7 or 8 more people claim to have seen him, heck, I think that we weren't wrong. MAR: After those days that Posada Carriles spent in Isla Mujeres, what happened? RC: He was there as a tourist, he was resting until they came on the Santrina to rescue him. That's what happened, we have no report that he carried out any action that could have been a crime. There is nothing to point that out. He was waiting for people that were coming to rescue him. That's all Posada Carriles did on Mexican soil. MAR: There were people on another boat at the time that the Santrina, after being repaired, sailed for Miami from Isla Mujeres. Were you able to document that information? RC: I don't believe in that hypothesis and we didn't even mention it in our newspaper because that would have altered our research that Posada Carriles himself partly corroborated, because it was convenient for him. Posada Carriles never could have left Mexico through that route, because of the violent events in our country, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico, from Tamaulipas to Quintana Roo. Don't forget that in November 2004, drug traffickers executed 12 people. It's much harder to enter the United States through our north border, unless you are connected to the mafia that flourishes there trafficking in illegal aliens. Posada Carriles traces the land route that takes to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, in the North, to enter the United States through Texas, which is the same route used by the gang that smuggles in illegal Cubans. Let me tell you this: the Quintana Roo sea border, the Mexican sea border is most unprotected at its northern area. Every day an average of two shark fishing launches enter the country with approximately 1.5 tons of cocaine that mostly goes to the United States. So if Colombians can bring drugs to supply their Mexican partners, don't you think that it would be much easier to enter and leave by sea route at any moment? We detected the Santrina because it had an accident on a reef, because they were unfamiliar with navigation in the area. Otherwise, we would never have known anything. That's why I believe that taking the chance of another boat protecting them, I don't think it's true. Indeed there was a Cuban-American cell that helped him during his stay in Quintana Roo, but in a different manner, supplying him with resources, harboring him, because it seems that he didn't stay at a hotel. We checked with the Mexican Hotel Association and there is no report of even one Cuban-American or a single Cuban that closely resembled his characteristics. MAR: So according to your investigation he left for Miami on the Santrina? RC: Undoubtedly. And additionally, something called our attention. A few days ago, Mr. Peirot, the Secretary of the Navy, declared that they had a report of Posada Carriles' presence at the Santrina, and now one of his subordinates is saying that that's not true. MAR: What's your interpretation of the fact that the Assistant Secretary of the Navy denies his superior's previous statement 48 hours later? That, together with the fact that the Secretary's statement was published only in local and state media, such as El Sol de Zacatecas, but that El Sol de M?xico, which is the parent national newspaper of the chain did not run the item. RC: Let me give you an example. Have you ever heard of a case where a statement by the CEO of a company is publicly refuted by an assistant manager? I think that these are contradictions due to the jitteriness of the federal government when it tried to evade its responsibility about Posada's stay in Mexico. I believe Mr. Pierrot should answer that question. But we are aware of that and knew beforehand that what the Secretary of the Navy said is true. What the Rear Admiral said was not even fit to print, because I believe it's in the interest of other people, and the federal government should answer to Mexican and international public opinion. There are many unanswered questions and I think it's time for them to do it, because this international conflict is threatening security and our relations with the Cuban government, and even with the U.S. government. [Manuel Alberto Ramy is the Havana correspondent of Radio Progreso Alternativa and the Spanish edition editor of Progreso Semanal/Weekly.] * Tiny Isla Mujeres (Women Island), on the Caribbean coast of Mexico, is a 15 minute ride away from Cancun by ferryboat. Its main economic activity is tourism and fishing. According to the 1990 census, its population was 10,666 inhabitants. Copyright 2005 Progreso Weekly, Inc. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 10:38:59 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 10:38:59 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Dominican Editor Tears Up His US Visa Message-ID: <200506071439.j57Ed0l29579@olm.blythe-systems.com> [Threatened by a US official for coverage in his newspaper, an editor in the Dominican Republic tore up his US visa and threw it in the garbage. This is exactly what journalists, businesspeople and -- yes -- students should be doing the world over. When the US is openly recognized and treated as a pariah for its murderous and illegal behavior, something may chane.-NY Transfer] sent by Simon McGuinness Regarding "Report No Evil: Media Blackout on State Terrorism," June 4, 2005 http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20050530/018005.html Brevity has compromised this AIN report, which fails to convey the full meaning of the speaker from the Dominican Republic, Roberto Santana. My notes of the presentation [at the Havana International Conference against Terrorism] indicate the conversation between the US embassy official and the editor of the newspaper as follows: The US embassy official requested a meeting with Radames Gomez, the editor of El Nacional daily newspaper in the Dominican Republic following his decision to reprint news about the Iraq War from Arab sources on the page opposite news from US sources, as they were unable to verify either. This was unacceptable, he was told by the US official. The editor calmly explained his reasoning to the representative of the US government. The official asked him if he had an entry visa for the United States (the editor was aware that other Latin American journalists had been threatened with exclusion from the USA and other countries friendly to the USA). The editor reached into his desk, took out his passport, opened it to the page containing his US visa and asked the US embassy official if that was what he was looking for. The official confirmed it was. The editor then tore the US visa out of the passport in front of the US official and threw it into the wastebasket. He then told the official that he would not be threatened and ordered him off the premises. The suggestion that he might have torn up his passport is wrong and could be interpreted as an unpatriotic act. It was in fact exactly the opposite. The editor realised that it was the existence of a US entry visa in the passport that made it offensive to his view of Dominican Republic sovereignty and compromised his journalistic independence. Both were restored when he removed the offending US visa. Simon McGuinness, Dublin. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 10:40:05 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 10:40:05 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Terrorists 'using Guantanamo as a recruitment aid' Message-ID: <200506071440.j57Ee5w29694@olm.blythe-systems.com> sent by Simon McGuinness The Independent - 06 June 2005 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=644566 Terrorists 'using Guantanamo as a recruitment aid' By David Usborne in New York Senior Democrats are calling for the closure of America's detention centre in Guantanamo, Cuba, saying it has become a "propaganda and recruitment tool" for terrorists in the wake of continued allegations of prisoner abuse. A leading senator, Joseph Biden of Delaware, suggested the time had come to consider a gradual closure of the facility, arguing its worsening reputation around the world was helping to recruit people bent on hurting the US. "This has become the greatest propaganda tool that exists for recruiting of terrorists around the world. And it is unnecessary to be in that position." For a start, the senator argued, there should at least be an independent commission established to address the value of keeping Guantanamo. "The end result is, I think we should end up shutting it down, moving those prisoners." "Those that we have reason to keep, keep. And those we don't, let go." The White House spent the weekend trying to play down a Pentagon report confirming instances of abuse of the Koran, the Islamic holy book, at the camp in Guantanamo, chastising the media and placing the blame on a few rogue US guards acting in disregard of American policy. The furore comes just two weeks after the Bush administration assailed Newsweek magazine for suggesting that guards had flushed a copy of the Koran down the lavatory. The magazine withdrew the claim, saying it was unsure of its sources but not before it had triggered anti-American rioting in Afghanistan and several other Muslim countries. But, on Friday, the Pentagon concluded there had indeed been some scattered cases where the Koran had been desecrated in the facility, though none flushed in a lavatory. In one case, a guard's urine had splashed on a Koran. Also recorded were cases where the books had been kicked or stamped on by guards and interrogators or made wet when guards threw water balloons into cells. The revelation triggered a familiar White House response. Blaming lower-ranking soldiers was also the strategy at the outbreak of the abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. "It is unfortunate some have chosen to take out of context a few isolated incidents by a few individuals," presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said in a statement from George Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. He noted that the report said there were in fact more cases of the book being desecrated by inmates than by guards. (Although why that should be is not explained.) Conditions at Guantanamo, where suspects are held without charge and without access to legal representation, are rapidly becoming a public relations nightmare for the White House. Last week, Amnesty International likened the high-security facility to the Gulag, prompting a swift response from President George Bush. He called the characterisation "absurd". Meanwhile, the President faced new difficulties in forcing through the confirmation of John Bolton as his choice for new US ambassador to the UN as reports emerged accusing him of unfairly forcing the resignation of a UN official in 2002 who was head of the international body responsible for monitoring chemical weapons proliferation around the world. The Associated Press said Mr Bolton flew to Vienna to orchestrate the ousting of a Brazilian, Jose Bustani, from the directorship of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, in part because he was planning to send chemical inspectors into Iraq which threatened to get in the way of US plans to invade the country. With British help, a vote to remove Mr Bustani succeeded by a hair's breadth but was later censured. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 10:42:24 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 10:42:24 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Chair of GOP at a Loss to Explain Downing St Memo Message-ID: <200506071442.j57EgOL29769@olm.blythe-systems.com> AfterDowningstreet.org - June 5, 2005 http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=50 Chair of Republican Party Put at a Loss by Downing Street Minutes By David Swanson www.afterdowningstreet.org On June 5, 2005, Ken Mehlman, Chairman of the Republican Party, was asked about the Downing Street Minutes on "NBC News' Meet the Press." To my knowledge, this was the first serious treatment of the matter on any U.S. network news show. It still remains for a news program to report on the matter on its own behalf, as opposed to asking a Republican guest to comment on it. The transcript is here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8062380 and below with commentary: MR. RUSSERT: Let me turn to the now-famous Downing Street memo. This was a memo, July 23, 2002, from the head of British intelligence to Prime Minister Blair; in effect, notes taken from a briefing that was given to Prime Minister Blair after the head of British intelligence came back from a trip to Washington. It says this: "[The head of British Intelligence] reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, though military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." This is July of 2002. We didn't invade until March of 2003. And the prime minister of Great Britain is being told by the head of his intelligence that he went to Washington and believes that a decision had already been made and that the administration was fixing or manipulating the intelligence to support the policy. MR. MEHLMAN: Tim, that report has been discredited by everyone else who's looked at it since then. Whether it's the 911 Commission, whether it's the Senate, whoever's looked at this has said there was no effort to change the intelligence at all. [Mehlman is pretending to claim that these bodies have investigated the Downing Street Minutes and discredited them, while really claiming that these bodies discredited the idea that the Bush administration cooked the intelligence to fit its desired policy. This amounts to claiming that a new piece of evidence can be dismissed on the grounds of what authorities allegedly concluded PRIOR TO discovering the new evidence. This is absurd.] The fact is that the intelligence of this country, the intelligence of Britain, the intelligence of the United Nations, the intelligence all over the world said that there were weapons of mass destruction present in Iraq. [With regard to the United States and Britain, the whole point is to determine whether their "intelligence" was dishonest. The United Nations certainly never agreed with it; nor did "the world." The United Nations rejected the evidence presented by the United States, and worldwide opposition to the war was more powerful than ever before in history much of it focused on the belief that the Bush Administration was lying.] We knew that Saddam Hussein had used weapons of mass destruction before. [Because we sold them to him.] We still know that there was a weapons of mass destruction program. [When? Just before the war? Or a program in some past year that had long since been dismantled? The former claim would be a lie, the latter an irrelevance.] He was evading the sanctions, and he had plans to reconstitute the program. [Actually, of course, he had complied with the sanctions and informed the world of that fact, and complied with investigations.] We also knew that Saddam Hussein had uniquely invaded his neighbors, had uniquely supported terrorists and we all know today that we are safer because he's been removed from power. [Actually, there is nothing unique about invading one's neighbors. Just ask Haiti. Hussein did not support Al Quaeda in any way. That lie has been endlessly debunked. And terrorist incidents have increased since the war started which more of us would know if the Bush Administration had not ceased releasing annual statistics on the matter. In any event, the over 1600 US soldiers and 100,000 Iraqis who have been killed are not safer they're not anything.] So I believe that that individual report not only has been discredited [by whom? when? where? on what grounds?] but that the overall reasons for removing Saddam Hussein were broader than that, they were correct, and we're now safer and certainly the people of Iraq are safer now that Saddam Hussein has been removed from power. [For the points of view of some actual Iraqis on this, see www.uslaboragainstwar.org ] MR. RUSSERT: I don't believe that the authenticity of this report has been discredited. MR. MEHLMAN: I believe that the findings of the report, the fact that the intelligence was somehow fixed have been totally discredited by everyone who's looked at it. [Again, he means PRIOR TO emergence of this piece of evidence a dubious assertion in itself.] MR. RUSSERT: There--let me go back to another sentence from that report. "There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action." Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, now head of the World Bank, said the other day, "The war never ended," and the concern many Americans have, Mr. Mehlman, is that we now have 1,669 Americans who've died bravely in Iraq, 1,532 of those after the president said major combat operations were over. We have 12,762 Americans wounded or injured, 12,000 of those after the president said major combat was over. This memo seems to suggest that the head of British Intelligence told Prime Minister Blair that there was little discussion in Washington to plan for the aftermath of military action. MR. MEHLMAN: I would respectfully disagree with that finding. I think that there was clearly planning that occurred, planning that occurred to deal with the results of the war. If you remember after the first Gulf War, whether it was the breaching of the dams that we saw all over Iraq, that didn't happen. Whether it was the fires that we saw, that didn't happen this past time. Plans were made for after the war. There's no question that there has been an insurgency. The insurgents understand the stakes of the situation in Iraq. They understand that if we're successful, their efforts to promote terrorism around the world, their efforts to defeat democracy and freedom will be hurt. And there's no question-- therefore, we need to deal with these insurgents. [Plans were clearly made to safeguard the oil, but that hardly addresses Russert's citation of figures of deaths. Nor does Mehlman give any explanation of what in the heck he means by suggesting that Iraqis resisting the occupation are trying to "promote terrorism around the world."] But the president has mentioned repeatedly that he thinks every day about it and meets with the families of the men and women who have given their lives in Iraq. [Meets with them every day? How many families has he met with? More than one? Clearly he has not met with members of Gold Star Families for Peace or Iraqi Veterans Against the War or Military Families Speak Out or Military Families Against the War or Veterans for Peace. These organizations are working to end the war and are almost certainly not comforted to hear that Bush thinks about "it."] They've given their lives for an incredibly noble cause. [Oil?] We did plan for the future. There are some things you can plan for. There are some things that are harder to plan for, but I believe we're doing a very important mission in Iraq, which is defeating the terrorists, promoting democracy and you've seen throughout this spring what the effects of that democracy have been in other Arab nations. [Again, the reference to "terrorists" appears to be an attempt to dishonestly connect Iraq to 9-11. Saudi Arabia, the home of most of the 9-11 terrorists, is a US ally and the furthest thing from a democracy.] MR. RUSSERT: The primary rationale given for the war, however, was the elimination of weapons of mass destruction. And again I refer you to the memo of the prime minister's meeting. "It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than half that of Libya, North Korea and Iran." MR. MEHLMAN: Well, the president, I think, was responsible in saying we need to simultaneously prepare for war and also try to avoid that war. [But we now have official government minutes showing that he was not doing that. He was only telling us that he was doing that. He was lying to the American people and to Congress.] There were simultaneous efforts at the diplomatic stages that were made and yet at the same time it would have been irresponsible for us to say we're going to wait and then plan for war later because we wouldn't have had as effective an effort as we did to remove Saddam Hussein from power, so we needed to do both at the same time. [The point is not that the Pentagon was planning how it would fight a war if it had to do so, but that Bush had already determined to go to war and to lie about why it was necessary.] I would also, though, disagree, as I said a moment ago, with the notion that Iraq was somehow less of a threat. Iran and North Korea hadn't invaded their neighbors. Iran and North Korea hadn't used weapons of mass destruction. Iran and North Korea hadn't, in the same way that Saddam Hussein had, been paying off suicide bombers in Israel and in the Palestinian territories. Iran and North Korea are serious challenges. So was Saddam Hussein, and removing him makes the world safer, makes America safer. [So, the chairman of the Republican Party is better qualified than top intelligence officials to rank the members of the "axis of evil"? Why, then was the bogus justification for attacking Iraq its fictional pursuit of nuclear weapons? Meanwhile North Korea's actual possession of such weapons was not considered a danger? Please. And the comments about Iraq invading neighbors are out of place. Iraq was not threatening to invade anyone. The United States invaded Iraq while pretending that Iraq was threatening the United States. In the past, if the past is relevant, the United States has invaded far more countries than Iraq has.] From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 10:45:36 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 10:45:36 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] The significance of Posada's entry method to US Message-ID: <200506071445.j57EjbM29881@olm.blythe-systems.com> Speculation on the Significance of Posada's Entry Method to US by Tom Crumpacker It's possible that Posada and his Miami friends were having discussions with the US prior to his entry in March. Why else did he come here? If he needed money or a place to hide in Central America or elsewhere, his Miami friends could easily have sent or provided it. In the last several months Homeland Security has been allowing Cubans to walk across the bridges in Texas border towns, present their birth certificates, answer some questions, then pass on through with work permits. He didn't need to be "smuggled" across. Posada's not been charged with illegal entry, only with not reporting to them immediately on entry. Mexican witnesses and officials confirm what the Cubans say, that he was picked up South of Isla Mujeres by Alvarez's boat and came to Miami by sea. Maybe the Feds wanted to get him away from Miami and its immigration judges as a bargaining chip in their negotiations, or maybe they believe his story, although hardly anything he has said recently is believable. When in jail in Caracas in 1976, according to CIA reports, he threatened another Watergate if forced to talk. In the past, CIA and other US agencies have gone to great lengths to help him, and they seem to be doing so now. They've gotten him out of jail twice and given him some good jobs in El Salvador and Guatamala. I think the fact that he came by boat suggests that he has not been acting alone; rather it has been some group in Miami that has been negotiating with the Feds. If not, if he has been acting alone, it seems that it might be possible for someone, i.e. an historian, to interview him and get some truthful info about some past events. Before our government hides him away somewhere. Tom Crumpacker From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 10:51:35 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 10:51:35 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] News Summary from RHC - June 6, 2005 Message-ID: <200506071451.j57EpZe30102@olm.blythe-systems.com> News Summary from Radio Havana Cuba - June 6, 2005 * Cuba Hosts 4th Culture and Development Congress * World Environment Day Celebrated in Cuba * Contamination Reduced in Western Pinar del Rio Province * Salvadoran Bishop Vows to Never Forget Terrorist Crimes * US Founded Al Qaeda, Protects Posada Carriles: Russian Legislator * Cuba's Social Progress Showcased at International Labor Conference * President of Cape Verde Begins Working Visit to Cuba * More Dirt Found on Washington's UN Ambassador-to-be * Investigators Probe Banking Scheme Used by Billionaire Bush Donors * Palestinians Protest on Anniversary of Israeli Seizure of Jerusalem * United States Has Secret Jails Around the World: Rights Group * French Trade Unions Warn New Prime Minister of Protests Cuba Hosts 4th Culture and Development Congress Havana, June 6 (RHC)-- The 4th International Congress on Culture and Development kicks off on Monday in Havana with the participation of some 500 national and foreign delegates. The delegates to the event, which will run until June 9th, will analyze cultural policies, diversity and heritage. The forum will be divided into six working groups, in which participants will analyze folklore, popular culture, neoliberal policies, diversity, gender, race and minorities, as well as the role of heritage and culture regarding tourism. According to Prensa Latina News Agency, foreign figures attending the meeting include US actor Danny Glover and political scientist James Cockcroft, Italian novelist Valerio Massimo Manfredi, Venezuelan narrator Luis Brito and Brazilian actress Leticia Spiller, among others. Among the Cubans are Roberto Fernandez Retamar, Lisandro Otero, Marta Arjona, Miguel Barnet, Julio Garcia Espinosa, Reynaldo Gonz?lez, Eduardo Heras, Eusebio Leal, Rogelio Martinez Fure, Eliades Acosta and Desiderio Navarro. The International Congress on Culture and Development comes from a document signed in Mexico in 2003, which calls for a reflection on problems related to the survival of the human species and its culture. World Environment Day Celebrated in Cuba Holguin, June 6 (RHC)--The main activity for World Environment Day in Cuba was held in the eastern city of Holguin in recognition for its positive results in preserving the ecosystem. The reduction of contaminants, the recovery of its soils and the increased wooded areas are among the achievements of the province which led the Cuban authorities to select it to commemorate World Environment Day. World Environment Day was instituted by the UN General Assembly on December 15, 1972 with the objective of creating an international awareness on the need to protect nature for future generations. The slogan used during the commemoration on the island was Cuba: Green for a sustainable future. Contamination Reduced in Western Pinar del Rio Province Pinar del Rio, June 6 (RHC)-- The western Cuban province of Pinar del Rio has reduced different types of pollution by 3.3 percent as a result of environmental protection work. According to AIN News Ageny, among the province's municipalities that stand out is Vi?ales, for its achievements in forest management and protection of the Cuyaguateje River Basin, the largest in the western part of the island. Another key factor has been the positive response of tourist resorts located in the region to finding solutions to the problems of interacting with the environment. To improve the quality of life of the population of the Vi?ales National Park, a program of sustainable development is underway with support from the government of Canary Islands, Spain. On World Environment Day, the island's western province reports 39.4 percent of its surface covered with forests, despite the affects of four hurricanes in recent years. One of the most important tasks of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, and with the cooperation of other institutions, is the recovery of the south-western valley, damaged by the salinity in its soils and underground waters, in addition to an accelerated soil erosion that has saw reduced land productivity. The efforts are aimed at repopulating the affected places with endemic species aimed to maintain the equilibrium of nature and culture in the region. Environmental preservation efforts in Pinar del Rio also include Sierra del Rosario and the Guanahacabibes Penninsula, two of the six world biosphere reserves on the island. Salvadoran Bishop Vows to Never Forget Terrorist Crimes Havana, June 6 (RHC)-- A Salvadoran bishop said that after participating in the International Forum against Terrorism held in Havana, he would return to his country convinced more than ever that such crimes must never be forgotten. According to AIN News Agency Medardo Gomez, himself a victim of death squads, said he had always preferred to hide his pain and suffering and his memories. However, deeply touched by the forum, he said he spoke openly of his bitter experiences. The Salvadoran bishop expressed concern that some sectors of the Catholic and Protestant churches have joined with US imperial plans and so-called low-intensity psychological campaigns. These groups, he said, receive large sums of money in exchange of their using religious faith to win people over to the ideals of "free market" capitalism. Bishop Gomez also criticized the relationship between the Miami-based Cuban-American extremists and the ultra-right ruling circles in El Salvador. He cited recent elections in that Central American nation in which representatives of such circles in the US went to El Salvador to intimidate the people and pressure them to vote for the candidate preferred by the Cuban American Mafia in Miami. Bishop Gomez said that like himself, many other religious leaders who advocate the Christian faith in favour of justice and peace, have been the targets of ongoing state terrorism in El Salvador, where numerous priests have been murdered, arrested or forced into exile. The Church to which I am committed advocates helping people, therefore we must not forget or hide the truth, concluded the Bishop in recent statements to the Cuban newspaper Granma. US Founded Al Qaeda, Protects Posada Carriles: Russian Legislator Havana, June 6 (RHC)-- Luis Posada Carriles must be extradited to Venezuela and tried by the country where he committed or planned his crimes, said Russian lawmaker Nicolai Leonov. According to AIN News Agency, Leonov, who participated in the recently concluded International Forum against Terrorism, for Truth and Justice, accused the United States of protecting terrorists it considers its allies. He said that Cuba has been a major victim of terrorism and its noble attitude in fighting terrorism is recognized around the globe. The Russian lawmaker denounced the United States for being the only country that uses terror as a political weapon in modern times. He noted that while everyone points a finger to accuse Al Qaeda, the real founders of that network were the US secret services. Leonov said the forum held last week in Havana was fruitful, and updated many on the current situation of the Cuban Five, held as political prisoners in the United States. He pointed out that the event was aimed at raising international awareness on terrorism, of which Cuba has been a leading victim. The case of Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, currently under the protection of the United States, was widely discussed. Washington would prefer the world be kept in the dark about the Posada Carriles case; however the forum was able to make break that silence, said Leonov. He added that Posada Carriles has confessed his participation in various criminal actions and that inexplicably, the White House does not consider him a terrorist. "It is quite clear that he must be extradited," stressed Leonov. Cuba's Social Progress Showcased at International Labor Conference Havana, June 6 (RHC)-- Cuba has achieved full employment and social security for its entire population - all without disregarding the need for solidarity with its African, Asian, Latin American and Caribbean brothers and sisters, said Cuba's Labor Minister, Alfredo Morales. The Cuban Minister, speaking about the island's social development achievements during the International Labor Organization conference underway in Geneva, Switzerland- said guaranteeing employment for youths is not only possible in Cuba, but is also a strategic initiative. The island has identified human resources as its principal treasure, after having given careful attention to education and ongoing training, he said. No child in Cuba is obligated to work to survive and our new social programs are yielding results by improving the population's quality of life, creating jobs for young people and providing everyone with opportunities to pursue a university education, explained Morales. The Cuban minister said that over 33,000 Cuban doctors, teachers and sports experts are offering their services in 106 countries around the world; while more than 18,000 youths from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the United States are enrolled free-of-charge in higher education programs throughout the island. President of Cape Verde Begins Working Visit to Cuba Havana, June 6 (RHC)-The President of Cape Verde, Pedro Verona Rodr?gues Pires began a working visit in Cuba on Monday and is expected to meet with President Fidel Castro. During the meeting with the Cuban leader, the African leader will discuss bilateral and cooperation ties and exchange ideas on regional and international issues. The Cape Verde Head of State will place a floral wreath before the monument of Cuba?s National Hero, Jose Mart? at Havana?s Revolution Plaza. More Dirt Found on Washington's UN Ambassador-to-be Washington, June 6 (RHC)-- John Bolton, the White House pick for the next US ambassador to the United Nations, is still finding his name in the news -- with a report that he orchestrated the firing of the head of an international arms-control agency. According to reports from Washington, Bolton flew to Europe in 2002 to confront Jos? Bustani and demand he resign, then arranged his removal -- an action that a United Nations court has since judged as illegal. A former Bolton deputy stated that the US undersecretary of state felt Bustani "had to go," particularly because the Brazilian was trying to send chemical weapons inspectors to Baghdad. That might have helped defuse the crisis over alleged Iraqi weapons and undermined a US excuse for invading the Arab country. Bustani, who says he got a "menacing" phone call from Bolton at one point, was removed by a vote of just one-third of member nations at an unusual special session of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), at which the United States cited alleged mismanagement in calling for his ouster. The United Nations' highest administrative tribunal later condemned the action as an "unacceptable violation" of principles protecting international civil servants. The OPCW session's chairman now calls it an "unfortunate precedent" and Bustani a "man with merit." Heinrich Reimann, a retired Swiss diplomat, said that "many believed the US delegation didn't want meddling from outside in the Iraq business." Bolton's handling of the multilateral showdown takes on added significance now as the nominee looks for US Senate confirmation this week as Washington's top representative to the United Nations. Bolton is said to be deliberately keeping a low profile during his confirmation process on Capitol Hill. The White House nominee for the UN job has been strongly criticized for bullying a number of US officials and trying to get them fired. Bustani, a senior official with the United Nations, told reporters that Bolton used a threatening tone with him and "tried to order me around." The Iraq connection to the OPCW affair comes as fresh evidence surfaces that the Bush administration was intent on launching an invasion of the Arab country and not pursuing diplomatic action against Saddam Hussein's regime. An official British document, disclosed last month, said Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed in April 2002 to join in an eventual US attack on Iraq. Two weeks later, Bustani was ousted, with British help. In 1997, the Brazilian arms-control specialist became founding director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), whose inspectors oversee destruction of US, Russian and other chemical weapons under a 168-nation treaty banning such arms. The agency, based in The Hague, also inspects chemical plants worldwide to ensure they are not put to military use. After UN arms inspectors had withdrawn from Iraq in 1998 in a dispute with the Baghdad government, Bustani worked to bring Iraq and other Arab countries into the chemical weapons treaty and send inspectors to Baghdad. Bustani's inspectors would have found nothing, because Iraq's chemical weapons were destroyed in the early 1990s. That would have undercut the US rationale for an invasion because the Bush administration by early 2002 was claiming, without any hard evidence, that Baghdad still had such an arms program. In a March 2002 white paper, Bolton's office said Bustani was seeking an "inappropriate role" in Iraq and that the matter should be left to the UN Security Council -- where Washington has a veto. A former aide to Bustani, Bob Rigg, said that the United States wanted his boss out because "they couldn't rely on OPCW to come up with the findings the US wanted." Investigators Probe Banking Scheme Used by Billionaire Bush Donors London, June 6 (RHC)-- According to a story by the London-based The Independent, several US agencies are investigating a tax-shelter plan run out of the Isle of Man. The scheme, devised by one of America's biggest banks and used by two billionaire donors to George W. Bush's re-election campaign among others, is being probed for possible breaches of securities and anti-money-laundering rules. The investigating agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, believes that up to $100 million of tax was saved through one scheme alone, and as much as $700 million in taxes may have been avoided over an 11-year period. The scheme involved executives and corporations handing over stock to trusts that they declared they neither owned nor controlled. When the options were cashed in, no tax was payable. However, the IRS changed the rules in 2003 to say that tax should be paid anyway. In the previous 11 years, tax schemes were marketed by Bank of America to at least 42 corporations. Earlier this year, the Manhattan District Attorney, Robert Morgenthau, started probing allegations that some of these trusts were controlled by the people passing on the stock options. Investigators have reportedly contacted the regulators on the Isle of Man, asking for information on one particular scheme used by two Texan billionaire brothers, Charles and Sam Wyly. The two brothers, who are involved in computing and retailing, not only gave over $200,000 to President Bush's re-election campaigns, but also bankrolled TV advertisements attacking his rivals, John Kerry and Senator John McCain. Sam Wyly describes himself as "the entrepreneur's entrepreneur" and came to prominence when he unsuccessfully tried to oust the board of Computer Associates in 2001 -- only a year after the brothers sold their Sterling Software business to the group for four billion dollars. Isle of Man authorities have passed documents to US investigators relating to 20 different entities linked to the Wyly brothers that are registered in the Irish Sea tax haven. One, Devotion Ltd, is a holding company with two directors and no employees; it is run, according to SEC filings, from a remote farm on the island. Another director, who lives in a terraced house, signed a transfer document for $25 million. At one point, Isle of Man entities owned 20 percent of the shares in Sterling Software, as well as 12.8 percent of another Wyly group, Michaels Stores and 42 percent of a third, Green Mountain Energy. Authorities have said they are cooperating fully with the US investigations, as has Bank of America. A spokesman for the Wyly brothers' lawyers said "they felt they only did what was appropriate." Palestinians Protest on Anniversary of Israeli Seizure of Jerusalem Jerusalem, June 6 (RHC)-- Palestinian demonstrators took to the streets to protest yet another anniversary of the Israeli seizure of Jerusalem. Zionist police stormed into Jerusalem's disputed mosque compound and Israel was placed on high alert for possible attacks either by Palestinians on the 38th anniversary of the 'Six Day War' in 1967 or by Jewish extremists opposed to the planned Gaza Strip pullout. According to reports from Jerusalem, a confrontation broke out when a group of Israelis began a guided tour of the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which also shelters the Dome of the Rock and is revered by Jews as the Temple Mount. A police spokesman said that a small Jewish group of about 10 to 15 people started a tour and hundreds of young Palestinians came out of the mosque and threw stones at them. Israeli security forces responded by using teargas and stun grenades. The President of the Palestine National Authority, Mahmud Abbas, denounced what he called unwarranted violations of the sacred site. Saying that Palestinians are accustomed to this treatment, Abbas told reporters in Ramallah that the Israeli government and international community "must put an end to these serious and unjustified violations that risk reaping regrettable consequences." Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei lashed out at what he called a "horde of extremist and criminal settlers" who attacked Al-Aqsa and stormed the esplanade. He said that the Palestinian residents of Jerusalem simply defended themselves. Meanwhile, a leading newspaper reported that Israel has done nothing to stop illegal settlement building in the West Bank in the three months since a government-commissioned report demanded an immediate halt to the practice. During the first five months of this year, according to Haaretz, there were 197 cases of illegal Jewish construction in the West Bank. About two-thirds of these took place after the report was published in March. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office has said Israel will deal with the evacuation of wildcat settlement outposts only after the army leaves Gaza. In other news, Israeli soldiers used tear gas to break up a demonstration by Palestinian villagers and foreign activists protesting in the northern village of Marda against the government's controversial West Bank barrier. United States Has Secret Jails Around the World: Rights Group Washington, June 6 (RHC)-- The head of a major international human rights group says that the Guant?namo Bay detention camp is part of a worldwide network of US jails, some of them secret, where prisoners are mistreated and even killed. William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty's Washington-based branch, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," said that "the US is maintaining an archipelago of prisons around the world, many of them secret prisons, into which people are being literally disappeared, held in indefinite, incommunicado detention without access to lawyers or a judicial system or to their families." He went on to say that "in some cases, at least, we know they are being mistreated, abused, tortured and even killed." Schulz's comments were the latest in a series of accusations and denials between Amnesty and the White House. London-based Amnesty International's report, released May 25th, cited "growing evidence of US war crimes" and labeled the US detention facility at Guant?namo Bay as "the gulag of our times." The White House has responded with outrage. President George W. Bush called the comments "absurd" and Vice President Dick Cheney said he was offended by Amnesty's assertions. Schulz also answered questions Sunday about previous remarks in which he labeled Rumsfeld and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as "alleged high-level architects of torture." On the Fox News program, the head of Amnesty International said that "any nation that is party to the Geneva Conventions... is obligated under international law to investigate those who are alleged to be involved with the formulation of a policy of torture or with its carrying out." Also appearing on a Sunday morning television program, Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he thinks the Guant?namo Bay prison imperils the nation and should cease operating. The senior senator, speaking on ABC's "This Week," said that the torture and abuse "has become the greatest propaganda tool that exists for recruiting of terrorists around the world." Biden called for an independent commission to review operations at Guant?namo and other US military-run prisons and make recommendations to Congress -- but, in the end, he said "we should end up shutting it down." Other human rights groups have strongly condemned the actions at the detention center of Guant?namo Bay. In a 2004 report, the International Red Cross called the psychological and physical coercion used at Guant?namo "tantamount to torture." Human Rights Watch said US interrogators had inflicted religious humiliation on Muslim detainees -- a violation of the Geneva Conventions. French Trade Unions Warn New Prime Minister of Protests Paris, June 6 (RHC)-- French trade unions have warned new Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin that he must act fast to solve France's economic problems or face the threat of strikes. Leaders of the powerful unions delivered their message to Villepin, who met them one-on-one in advance of a key policy speech he plans to make before the lower house of parliament on Wednesday. The head of the CFTC union, Jacques Voisin, told reporters that they made it clear to the prime minister: "Touch the labor code and it's the streets." The big CGT union said there would be "tension" if Villepin let workers down by trying to adjust the labor code that protects them or by adopting pro-market policies. Jean-Claude Mailly of the Force Ouvriere trade union said organized labor would listen attentively to Villepin's speech on Wednesday, but added: "Either dialogue will be established, without any questioning, or we will mobilize." Villepin has promised to cut unemployment, widely identified as the main concern of voters who rejected the European Union's constitution on May 29th. The rejection of the EU charter prompted President Jacques Chirac to reshuffle his government. One week after his appointment, Villepin faces the tough task of satisfying the conflicting demands of employers and workers. Businesses want France's labor protection laws made more flexible to increase productivity. Unions are demanding better salaries and working conditions and reject recipes they feel are too pro-market. Hundreds of thousands of workers have protested in recent months -- hitting the streets over employment, salaries and work conditions, and many voters mentioned concerns over unemployment and the economy as their grounds for voting against the government over the EU constitution. The CGT union has urged power and gas workers to strike on Thursday and Friday to press wage demands and protest against planned privatizations. Workers at the state SNCF rail company staged a 36-hour strike last week. compiled by NY Transfer from http://www.radiohc.cu From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 11:09:48 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 11:09:48 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Ronald Reagan: A War Criminal's Legacy (Boyle on CD) Message-ID: <200506071509.j57F9mo30461@olm.blythe-systems.com> sent by Francis Boyle Ronald Reagan: RIP http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/storeref.aspx?refby=rise5 R.I.S.E. - Radio Internet Story Exchange Ronald Reagan: A War Criminal's Legacy Kellia Ramares Interviews Prof. Francis A. Boyle Yesterday's Reaganites = Today's neocons: Interview with Francis A. Boyle, Professor of International Law and human rights lawyer on Reaganite/Neocon war crimes & police state tactics. This is a long interview with Prof. Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois School of Law at Urbana-Champaign. Boyle deconstructs the myth of Reagan as the man who brought down the Soviet Union. Boyle also details Reagan's war crimes, and how many of yesterday's Reaganites are today's neocons, who are committing war crimes abroad and building a police state at home. Boyle analyzes the Reaganite/Neocon mind from a unique perspective: a progressive who was educated to be a neocon. He knows what makes them tick. R.I.S.E. is the Internet endeavor of Kellia Ramares, whose audio work has appeared on KPFA - FM (Pacifica), Free Speech Radio News, WINGS- Women's International News Gathering Service and WIN - Worker's Independent News. She's also an Associate Editor for Online Journal. Your purchase of R.I.S.E. CDs helps this alternative journalist pay the bills. Thank you. http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/storeref.aspx?refby=rise5 Product Number: 6485244 $14.99 From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 11:12:10 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 11:12:10 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Indonesia: Pentagon Exploits Tsunami Message-ID: <200506071512.j57FCBR30586@olm.blythe-systems.com> Adopted for WORLD WAR 4 REPORT, June 10, 2005 Reprinting permissible with attribution http://WW4Report.com INDONESIA: THE TSUNAMI'S DEADLY FALLOUT Pentagon Exploits Humanitarian Mission to Rebuild Military Ties by John M. Miller In the immediate aftermath of the massive tsunami that swept through the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26, George W. Bush, safe on his Texas ranch, offered a paltry $35 million in aid to the affected countries. Bush was widely criticized for his hesitation. One U.N. official called the United States "stingy," prompting Bush to up the aid to approximately a billion dollars. The U.S. military showed no such hesitation, immediately dispatching ships loaded with aid from its own budget. But in the process the Pentagon seized a number of opportunities that in long run may harm the very people it was purportedly helping. Within days, a Navy strike force with initial orders to head to the Persian Gulf instead loaded up with humanitarian supplies in Guam and was soon diverted to tsunami relief duty. U.S. forces were quickly on the move, anchoring off the coast of Aceh, the area most devastated by the disaster. The relief mission provided an opportunity to conduct an operation without land bases through "sea-basing," a strategy designed to allow U.S. forces to operate free from the constraints of land bases and allies. The effort in Aceh was mainly confined to helicopter transport of relief to villages cut off by the disaster. U.S. troops spent very little time on the ground. Indonesia was wary of too many foreign eyes in Aceh, where a decades-long counter-insurgency war continues despite the crisis. In addition, nationalist Indonesians were reluctant to allow the deployment of U.S. troops on any Indonesian soil. Nonetheless, the Pentagon leadership seized the opportunity to rebuild relations with officers of the Indonesian military forces, called TNI, for Tentara Nasional Indonesia (National Army of Indonesia). Contacts have been limited since the early 1990s, when Congress began to restrict U.S. military assistance to Indonesia because of serious human rights violations in occupied East Timor. The Pentagon also saw in the relief efforts a new excuse to campaign to lift remaining restrictions and fully restore military ties. The U.S. Air Force flew in mechanics to repair several of Indonesia's aging C-130 military cargo planes. In announcing the supply of parts, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Jan. 6 that he hoped that "if we can get this taken care of, the government of Indonesia will use the planes for the intended purpose ? and would not use them in a way not intended, i.e. going after the GAM." The GAM is Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, the Free Aceh Movement, which has been conducting a guerrilla war for independence from Indonesia since the 1970s. Indonesian officials portrayed the supply of spare parts as a major shift in U.S. policy, but Indonesia has been allowed to purchase C-130 parts at least since 2002. Instead of buying the parts, Indonesia preferred to repeatedly misrepresent their availability in an effort to get the United States to remove all restrictions on weapons sales. Sharing the goal, the Bush administration rarely bothered to correct the misrepresentation publicly. Throughout the joint relief effort, senior administration officials, led by then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz described the Indonesian government and military as fully cooperative in the relief effort but argued that the operation would have gone more smoothly if only military relations were normal. What was needed, they said, was restoration of the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program. Wolfowitz, Indonesia and IMET Congress first voted to restrict IMET for Indonesia after Indonesian troops wielding U.S.-supplied M-16 rifles massacred East Timorese protesters in Santa Cruz cemetery, Dili, on November 12, 1991. That was the first cut in military aid to Indonesia. Through the 1990s, decisions by Congress and the Clinton administration gradually restricted other forms of assistance to Indonesia in a rare instance of human rights concerns affecting weapons sales. During that decade, as restrictions on Indonesia tightened, Wolfowitz, a former ambassador to Indonesia, help lead the charge against the restrictions, defending the Indonesian regime and exaggerating its very limited efforts to prosecute some mainly low-ranking soldiers, usually in response to intense international pressure. All military ties with Indonesia were severed in September 1999 as the TNI and its militia proxies razed East Timor after the East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence. At that time, Congress placed some of these restrictions into law. Renewable annually were bans on IMET and sales of lethal military equipment. Conditions for lifting these bans have varied, but have largely focused on transparency in Indonesia's military budget and accountability for human rights violations, as all senior Indonesian officials responsible for crimes against humanity in East Timor have escaped successful prosecution. Under the Congressional restrictions, IMET could be restored with State Department "certification" that Indonesia was meeting conditions. Then, when George W. Bush assumed the presidency, Wolfowitz was appointed to the Pentagon. One of his goals was normalization of military relations with Indonesia. The Pentagon saw an opening after the attack of September 11, 2001, arguing that Indonesia, as the country with the largest Muslim population, was an important front in the war on terror and the Indonesian military was needed to fight terror in the region. Yet under most definitions, the TNI itself conducts terrorist activities; using violence against civilians for political ends has been its modus operandi for decades. A 2002 study for the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA, notes that the Indonesian army has become "a major facilitator of terrorism" due to "radical Muslim militias they? organized, trained, and financed." In the wake of the tsunami, the Indonesian military helped transport some of these militia to Aceh, ostensibly to help with the relief effort, but handy if needed to intimidate foreigners or create an impression of internecine conflict to deflect blame from their own operations. Both are tried and true tactics from East Timor and elsewhere. But the Pentagon's allies in Congress were willing to set aside those criticisms, authorizing a post-9-11 Pentagon counter-terrorism training program open to Indonesian officers with no restrictions, although IMET and the sale of weapons remains banned. The Papua Killings Congress balked at completely lifting the IMET ban after three teachers, two from the United States and one from Indonesia, were murdered on land operated as a mineral concession of the U.S. multinational Freeport MacMoran (and under the control of TNI forces) in West Papua in August 2002. Instead, Congress declared that the ban could be lifted conditioned on certification of Indonesian cooperation in solving the crime. This past February 26, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice certified that Indonesia was cooperating with the FBI and was therefore eligible for full IMET. The certification came just days before the State Department issued its annual human rights report, which detailed how in 2004 Indonesia's "security force members murdered, tortured, raped, beat, and arbitrarily detained civilians." The main argument for certification was an indictment for the murders drawn by a U.S. grand jury (under a legal doctrine retaining jurisdiction over the murder of U.S. citizens abroad) in June 2004 against Anthonius Wamang, an Indonesian. The FBI has said the investigation remains open but has essentially ignored any evidence that implicates the TNI in the killings, and instead blames Free West Papua Movement (or OPM for Organisesi Papua Merdeka), the local pro-independence guerrillas. But according to local human rights investigators, Wamang has extensive ties to the Indonesian military as a business partner of Kopassus, the Indonesian army's notorious special forces. The TNI is largely funded by profit-making enterprises, and Wamang markets timber and gold in a joint venture with Kopassus. In August 2004, Wamang told Australian television that he obtained the ammunition for the attack from members of the Indonesian military. He has also said that these officers knew that he was about to carry out an attack in the Freeport concession. The TNI routinely uses proxies to stage attacks, in hopes of covering up their role. Furthermore, for the first six months after the indictment was unsealed, Indonesian police did not update U.S. investigators, nor has Wamang been indicted or apprehended in Indonesia. Nonetheless, Indonesia claims to be cooperating with U.S. authorities in the case. Given this lack of progress, rights organizations say the State Department's certification of cooperation is false and misleading. In announcing the restoration of IMET, the State Department said it "expects that Indonesia's resumption of full International Military Education and Training will strengthen its ongoing democratic progress." It is hard to see how bolstering Indonesia's least democratic institution can do this. Even Indonesia's "reformist" Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono told the New York Times Feb. 7, 2005 that the military "retains the real levers of power" and "from the political point of view, the military remains the fulcrum of Indonesia." On June 23, 2004, while serving as Jakarta's ambassador in London, Sudarsono wrote in the Jakarta Post, "Six years of civilian-based party politics has not resulted in any measurable degree of effective 'civilian supremacy,' much less 'civilian control.'" Revolt in Aceh Aceh, on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra, is the site of one of Asia's longest-running wars. For three decades, the GAM has fought for independence from Indonesia. On Dec. 9, 2002, an internationally-brokered cease-fire agreement was signed between Indonesia and the GAM, but it collapsed on the following May 19, when then-Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri declared martial law in Aceh. A few hours later Indonesia launched its largest military operation since the 1975 invasion of East Timor. Aceh's status was changed to "civil emergency" one year later, but the TNI remains in charge, and the reality on the ground has not changed. Hercules C-130 military transports, OV-10 Broncos, F-16 fighters, and other U.S. equipment have all been used during military operations in Aceh. Support in Aceh for independence from Indonesia is widespread and growing because of the brutality of Indonesian security forces, as well as the desire for a fair share of Aceh's vast natural resource wealth. The TNI generally assumes the average Acehnese is pro-independence and supports the guerrillas. For the notoriously corrupt TNI, the tsunami is an opportunity to assert further its control, as well as make some money--by pilfering aid, charging fees at road checkpoints, et cetera. Despite the natural disaster, Indonesia has continued the civil emergency and offensive operations. Prior to the tsunami, Indonesia severely restricted the presence of foreigners in the territory. After the disaster it delayed for several days allowing foreign aid agencies in. The government regularly sets deadlines for most of them to leave. While so far, it has backed down from these threats, Indonesia did force out the UN's refugee agency in March, arguing that there are no "refugees," only "displaced persons." Norbert Vollertsen, a German doctor who has worked in North Korea, gave a strong sense of the repressive atmosphere in Aceh in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, in which he wrote, "I feel almost as if I am back in North Korea again. The military road blocks, heavily armed police tanks at every street corner and thousands of soldiers everywhere all remind me of the 18 months I spent in the Stalinist state." Abuses of humanitarian assistance by the TNI--including withholding food and other relief from civilians who lack proper identification or are alleged to support independence--are regularly reported. Reports also describe the TNI as creating obstacles to local organizations and volunteers who are trying to distribute humanitarian assistance. The Indonesian government says it has killed hundreds of rebels since the tsunami hit. Human rights groups say most of the dead were unarmed civilians. The GAM says that they have seen little let-up in military activity, despite declared post-tsunami ceasefires by both sides. The Indonesian military also transported fundamentalist Islamic militias into Aceh, ostensibly to help with the relief effort. The groups, the Islamic Defenders Front and the Laskar Mujahidin (the military wing of the Indonesian Mujahidin Council), have a history of attacking opponents of the military, threatening foreigners and exacerbating conflicts, including the Christian-Muslim inter-religious conflict in Indonesia's Moluccan Islands. Lessons Learned Most Acehnese have welcomed the foreign help, civilian and military. Many see the outsiders as far more efficient and less corrupt than the oppressive Indonesian government and military they so distrust. They also hope that the outside presence will temper the TNI's worst abuses and shed light on the brutal repression in the province. Most of the US, Australian and other foreign militaries allowed into Aceh after the disaster are now gone, except for a brief return after a massive aftershock hit in March. What remains is an intense debate over who will control the reconstruction and how long outside aid agencies will be allowed to remain, as the TNI awaits a full return to business as usual. As Aceh moves from the disaster relief phase to reconstruction, the struggle has begun over who will control the planning and the vast sums pledged internationally. Acehnese and Indonesians monitoring the effort fully expect any money given directly to the government to be stolen. They doubt the TNI will be shut out of the lucrative rebuilding effort. History tells them that much aid will be siphoned off, despite government pledges to the contrary. "Every disaster in Indonesia is always colored by corruption, with lots of aid disappearing," one Acehnese corruption watcher told Australia's Courier Mail. The U.S. Navy sees their intervention as much more than a successful effort in helping the disaster-stricken people of Aceh. Rear Admiral Christopher Ames, the commander of the Expeditionary Strike Group that arrived so quickly off the coast of Aceh, told the New Yorker Feb. 7, "We've talked about this idea of sea-basing for several years, of being able to project power anywhere in the world without asking permission." He added, "What we're doing here validates the beauty of it." For the Bush administration, the campaign to restore military assistance to Indonesia clearly received a real boost from the relief effort. Added to their rotating arguments for re-engagement is the need to support the TNI in humanitarian missions. This comes even as some in Indonesia are questioning the dependence on the TNI in dealing with Indonesia's frequent natural disasters--floods, forest fires, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions. Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare recently announced a plan to create an alternative capacity by creating a "a ready-for-dispatch team, such as the National Guard in the United States, whose members are trained like troops, so we don't need to disturb the military." Despite renewed peace talks now underway, the Acehnese and others in Indonesia may end up regretting the long-term impact of the U.S. military help. The restoration of military training and the expansion of other contacts can only serve to embolden the Indonesian military and increase their suffering. [John M. Miller is Media and Outreach Coordinator of the East Timor Action Network and Treasurer of the War Resisters League. This article is adopted from a version appearing in the April edition of the Non-Violent Activist, the magazine of the War Resisters League at http://www.warresisters.org/nva0305-2.htm ] RESOURCES: For more information on Aceh and Indonesia: East Timor Action Network (ETAN), (718)596-7668, etan at etan.org; http://www.etan.org. Opposes U.S. assistance to the Indonesian military. For news and analysis of the situation in Aceh, see Aceh Eye (http://www.acheh-eye.org) and AcehKita (http://www.acehkita.com/en/). For information on human rights throughout Indonesia, see TAPOL (http://tapol.gn.apc.org/) and IndonesiaAlert! (http://www.indonesiaalert.org/). See also: WW4 REPORT's March 31 post on Indonesian army atrocities in West Papua http://ww4report.com/node/348 WW4 REPORT's last updates on Aceh: http://ww4report.com/94.html#southeast1 http://ww4report.com/93.html#subcontinent2 http://ww4report.com/92.html#southeast2 http://ww4report.com/91.htm1#southeast1 http://ww4report.com/90.html#southeast1 From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 11:13:32 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 11:13:32 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] US Economy: Plastic Totalitarianism Message-ID: <200506071513.j57FDWj30688@olm.blythe-systems.com> Special to WORLD WAR 4 REPORT, June 10, 2005 Reprinting permissible with attribution http://WW4Report.com PLASTIC TOTALITARIANISM Bankruptcy, "Anti-Terror" Laws Make Americans Captive Wards of Credit Industry by Chesley Hicks "Bankruptcy should always be a last resort in our legal system. If someone does not pay his or her debts, the rest of society ends up paying them. In recent years, too many people have abused the bankruptcy laws. They've walked away from debts even when they had the ability to repay them. This has made credit less affordable and less accessible, especially for low-income workers who already face financial obstacles." If someone other than Dubya, who uttered these words upon signing the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, had said that, I might've thought, Yes, you must pay for what you buy. My mind might've switched away from our country's shrinking wild forests and shriveling civil liberties to images of absconded executives drinking mimosas in their Caribbean mansions after sinking a company and leaving behind employees without jobs, health care, and earned pensions. I might've thought of a deadbeat Dad on the lam with his new girlfriend in the sports car they bought and put in her name; or remembered the girl I knew in college who came from a wealthy family, spent her hearty cash allowance on drugs, and ran up credit card bills buying booze, clothes, and all the records I ever wanted before defaulting on her credit cards when her parents wouldn't pay the bills. "The law will also allow us to clamp down on bankruptcy mills that make their money by advising abusers on how to game the system." Bush also said. Yeah, screw the slimy swindlers! I might say. But this was Bush talking. So instead I assume that the would-be ire roused in the self-righteous, bill-paying part of me probably reflects what a portion of the rest of the country believes when they hear Bush decree. The Republicans are masters at making you look with indictment over your shoulder to see if your neighbor might be getting over with your tax money or having ungodly sex in your country, while they go whole-hog with your money, land, and freedom. Though the Bush administration will blithely propound the most preposterous of subterfuges to keep you glaring in the wrong direction, there's usually some grain of truth in their ruse to give it enough traction to stand for as long as they need the public to look away from reality. In reality, the new bankruptcy law might very well put the breaks on the deadbeat dad, and teach the profligate college student a hard lesson in fiscal responsibility. But the percentage of bankruptcy filers who got there through wanton indulgence is not representative. A study published in February by the Harvard Medical and Law Schools found that "Half of personal bankruptcies are predated by medical problems, even among the insured--75.7% had insurance at the onset of illness. Even middle class, insured families often fall prey to financial catastrophe when sick. In 2001, 1.458 million American families filed for bankruptcy." Anyone who is honestly interested in understanding the current dynamics of bankruptcy should look foremost at our volatile economy and a woefully imbalanced health care system. "America is a nation of personal responsibility where people are expected to meet their obligations. We're also a nation of fairness and compassion where those who need it most are afforded a fresh start," Bush also said. Help the truly needy and keep everyone honest, I might've said... except: As for those abusing the system, while Repubs are bearing down on low- and middle-income debtors, the mimosa-sucking executive can keep sucking because there's a nifty little loophole in the bill that allows the protection of substantial assets from creditors even after a bankruptcy filing. It's called the asset-trust provision, and according to a March 2 New York Times article, "For years, wealthy people looking to keep their money out of the reach of domestic creditors have set up [offshore asset protection trusts]. But since 1997, lawmakers in five states--Alaska, Delaware, Nevada, Rhode Island and Utah--have passed legislation exempting assets held domestically in such trusts from the federal bankruptcy code. People who want to establish one of these trusts do not have to reside in any of the five states; they need only set it up through an institution located there." The trusts cost thousands of dollars to establish and maintain, making them an option only for wealthy people, earning the asset-trust provision the title "millionaires loophole." Bush is sooo predictable. With that in mind, go online and look over the list of amendments that were rejected during the Senate hearing that ultimately passed the new bankruptcy bill: amendments with names like "To exempt debtors whose financial problems were caused by failure to receive alimony or child support, or both, from means testing," or "To modify the bill to protect families." Reading the list of amendments clearly intended to make the bill more equitable but cynically rejected, you'll see that the "millionaire loophole" was no oversight. Read between the lines and you'll also see who really benefits from the new bill: the country's largely unregulated credit industry. The supporters of the new bankruptcy bill, including credit behemoth MBNA, the sixth highest contributor to Bush's 2004 campaign, claim that by tightening bankruptcy laws, more money will be made available to a broad spectrum of people seeking credit and loans. While this might sound good in theory, the reality is that the credit industry is helping to create an underclass of people permanently stuck the debt cycle. According to Business Daily Bulletin of May 15, citing data from the Federal Reserve, "A year ago, approximately 1.59 million people filed for personal bankruptcy, 700,000 more filings than a decade ago. Consumer debt also continues to rise, currently hovering at $2.12 trillion, 100 percent greater than a decade ago." We live in a debt culture. Many Americans begin their young adult lives in debt, paying back school loans. Over the last decade, most of us have probably noticed the proliferation of credit card culture. Credit card companies offer feeless cards, free airline miles, student accounts that don't require a parental cosign, retail tie-ins, and zero-percent introduction rates. For the financially secure, this has been an opportunity to sometimes get something for nothing. For the growing numbers of financially insecure Americans, it's been a lure into debt indenture. For the credit companies it's been a windfall. In 1996, the credit card industry made $1.7 billion dollars on late fees. In 2002, it made $7.3 billion. With the inclusion of other new fees: balance transfer fees, over-the-limit fees, cash advance fees, and foreign exchange fees, the number rises. In 1995 the industry made $8.3 billion in collected fees. In 2004 it made $24 billion. Add to this the spoils collected via unchecked usury--that is, arbitrarily applying fees to any transaction, and inflating the fees every chance it gets--and you've got an industry that's so far in the black, it's benighted the entire system. For those of you with cards, scrutinize the fine print. You'll find that payment periods have shrunk from 30 to 20 days; grace periods have been eliminated, and a single late payment will result in the raising of your rates to 18, 29, or 35 percent. Some reports say that creditors are sending bills closer to their due dates in order to increase the odds of the bills being paid late. Creditors can also arbitrarily raise the rates on your non-delinquent accounts if they find out you were late paying off another account owned by another creditor. Despite laws, including 1971's Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), which protect consumers from unfair and inaccurate collection of personal information to form credit profiles, or "scores," it is only within the last year that consumers have been allowed unfettered access to these reports (see www.annualcreditreport.com). Still, information can be traded between credit card companies, insurance companies, landlords and other entities that handle your money. Even the recent privacy act (the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999) hasn't been able to entirely lift the black veil. Insurance credit-evaluation policies, in particular, remain inscrutable. While the collection of credit data for risk-assessment is meant to provide for judicious lending that will ultimately supply more money to more people who will benefit from it, its flaws assist in keeping low- to mid-income people in debt. For instance, an employed mother who uses a credit card to get through a medical crisis, and misses or pays late one credit card bill, might find rates for other cards, with which she has not been late, rise due to those creditors having checked her updated credit score. If she subsequently should try to get her sixteen year-old son car insurance, she might find she is only offered high insurance rates, due to her now flawed record. So she's now not only paying off her original medical bills, she's now been sucked into a higher monthly overhead than she ever had. One that includes a credit card debt that exponentially grows, thereby insuring that she will owe more and more money every month. In this way, debtors become trapped. For instance, with minimum (2%) monthly payments, a debt of $5000 with an 18 percent interest rate will take 46 years to pay off, having accrued $13, 931 in interest. Chances are, the mother, having missed a payment or two, will have even higher rates. But because she and her husband have jobs that place them at or above the median income level in their state, they are ineligible under the new law for chapter 7, or clean-slate bankruptcy. Instead, they have to file chapter 13, which requires, among many other things, that the mother take a course in debt management--at her expense. That mother is probably not going to get too excited about the free airline miles she's earned. The implications of this scenario have raised red flags everywhere. On the one hand it is recognized as beating down regular Americans during a time of financial uncertainty. It also places a glaring spotlight--for those looking anyway--on the runaway power of consolidated credit agencies. Some credit card companies, like Citigroup, now create their own internal credit reports. And as companies such as Citigroup and Chase own so many other companies that handle money across the culture spectrum, they're allowed access to more information than most consumers realize. With such groups acting as lenders, creditors, and insurers, one wonders how far off we are from finding our health insurance rates raised because there are too many liquor-store, steakhouse, or whitewater-rafting trip purchases on our bills. In a climate where companies are allowed to deny health insurance to--or even fire--employees who smoke, this doesn't seem so remote. So my inner fiscal pragmatist and conceder to capitalism says: credit is a good that you don't have to purchase. I know people who don't use credit at all, ever. But these are people who either have a spouse who does use credit or have made the choice to not own anything for which they can't pay in full upfront--a tall order for most people just starting out, as the credit experts say that having no credit history is as bad as having bad credit history. It also assumes a certain degree of cultural detachment: no online tickets, show bookings, payments, or retail, etc. Should you choose to use only a debit card instead, you'll still be subject to the same kind of tracking and lack of credit history; and for folks seeking to buy a home or car or invest in beginning a new business--the embodiment of the American entrepreneurial spirit--buying with a loan or credit is usually the only option, and one upon which our economy relies. That someone drawing upon these resources should be setting themselves up for the extreme, fiscally fatal punishment allowed in the event they even lightly transgress is deeply insidious. That the government is going to such lengths to sanction and protect this voracious, totalitarian practice is cause for revolt. ... And speaking of senate bills: On May 10, the Senate passed legislation, subsequently signed into law by Dubya, called the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005. It is, indeed, an emergency appropriations bill that approves funds for, among other items, the Iraq war and tsunami relief. However, rolled into this rushed-to-pass legislation was also the REAL ID Act of 2005, which seeks "to establish and rapidly implement regulations" for a national ID system, ostensibly, of course, to protect Americans from terrorists. However, among the Act's stacks of flaws is the reality that there is little evidence to suggest harder-to-forge legal IDs would do anything to deter people already working outside law. Proposals for the ID include using RFID tags--which can be read from several feet away--to store personal information on the card. Supporters say the REAL ID isn't a national ID card, because states can refuse to follow the law. Yet the ID law states that federal agencies must require the card--and federal agencies control air travel, post offices, banking and other daily life institutions. It's tough to say what is more disturbing: the historically redolent implications of having to carry "papers" with you everywhere, all the time; or the fact that there was little debate over the bill before it slithered through the House and Senate. Though convincing arguments against the ID's efficacy abound, it could be the threat of common criminals that most thwart its implementation, as critics say such a digitized, info-packed ID will provide one-stop shopping for identity thieves. Of course the threat of identity-theft hasn't slowed the crush of credit hegemony. So where is it going to end? Maybe here: During the recent Senate session, the Washington Post reported May 18 that both Dems and Repubs resoundingly agreed on one thing: "With startling unanimity, they agreed that without some combination of big tax increases and major cuts in Medicare, Social Security and most other spending, the country will fall victim to the huge debt and soaring interest rates that collapsed Argentina's economy and caused riots in its streets a few years ago." Of course reports say that the money lost in tax cuts for the rich could cover the amount needed to repair the deficit, but we don't tend to riot over that sort of thing here. We'll see. In the meantime, I know that Chicken Little never helped anyone. There are numerous websites that will connect you to people and organizations offering detailed information on the bankruptcy law, the credit industry, and REAL ID. These measures will probably face challenge in the courts, where their final outcomes will be defined by attrition. So staying informed and active can only help. RESOURCES: Info on the credit industry: Consumer Reports http://www.consumerreports.org Demos, a nonpartisan think-tank http://www.demos-usa.org/pub125.cfm Credit Card Nation, a Web-based financial literacy group http://www.creditcardnation.com Detailed breakdowns of the bancruptcy law: A CommonDreams article by David Swanson http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0331-33.htm Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) page on the law http://www.pirg.org/consumer/bankrupt/index.htm#intro PBS article on credit scores http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/more/scores.html Why the REAL ID won't work: Security technologist and blogger Bruce Schneier http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/05/real_id.html From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 11:26:56 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 11:26:56 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] "War on Terror" Targets LatAm Indigenous Groups Message-ID: <200506071526.j57FQuw31212@olm.blythe-systems.com> [The USA's so-called "War on Terror" threatens to become the latest incarnation of Operation Condor, the CIA-supported transnational counterintelligence program of murder, terror and repression that propped up Latin American military dictatorships in the 1970s and '80s. Indigenous movements working to preserve their lands, and their national resources, are now being targeted by the USA.] IPS via Common Dreams - June 6, 2005 http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0606-03.htm 'War on Terror' Has Latin American Indigenous People in Its Sights by Gustavo Gonz?lez Inter Press Service SANTIAGO, Chile - The "war on terror," identified in Amnesty International's annual report as a new source of human rights abuses, is threatening to expand to Latin America, targeting indigenous movements that are demanding autonomy and protesting free-market policies and "neo-liberal" globalization. In the United States "there is a perception of indigenous activists as destabilizing elements and terrorists," and their demands and activism have begun to be cast in a criminal light, lawyer Jos? Aylwin, with the Institute of Indigenous Studies at the University of the Border in Temuco (670 km south of the Chilean capital), told IPS. Pedro Cayuqueo, director of the Mapuche newspaper Azkintuwe, also from the city of Temuco, wrote that the growing indigenous activism in Latin America and Islamic radicalism are both depicted as threats to the security and hegemony of the United States in the "Global Trends 2020 - Mapping the Global Future" study by the U.S. National Intelligence Council (NIC). NIC works with 13 government agencies, including the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), and is advised by experts from the United States and other countries. Cayuqueo described the report as "a veritable x-ray" of potential "counterinsurgency scenarios" from now to the year 2020. In the process of drafting the report, NIC organized 12 regional conferences around the world, one of which was held in Santiago in June 2004. The reporter said the emergence of increasingly organized indigenous movements and the strengthening of their ethnic identities become, in that view, targets of "the so-called low-intensity warfare doctrine, a renovated version of the National Security Doctrine" that formed the basis of U.S. interventionism in Latin America from the 1960s to the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. The indigenous question would thus appear to form part of what the United States sees as future threats to its hegemony. In Latin America, the Andean subregion is seen as the "hottest" area, because of the growing political role played by well-organized indigenous movements in Bolivia and Ecuador, but also because of the impact on indigenous peoples of armed conflict and drug trafficking in Colombia. Farther south in the Andes mountains, Mapuche organizations in southern Chile and Argentina have become more and more radical in recent years in their claims to their ancestral territory, demands for autonomy and the creation of indigenous reserves, and defense of the environment, which is threatened by transnational mining and forestry corporations that are granted tax breaks and other incentives by governments. "The indigenous nations exercise and preserve a profound democratic essence in their organizational and decision-making structures, but transnational corporations foment their exclusion from society and push indigenous people to violence, which could translate into armed struggle," Aymara leader Juan de la Cruz Vilca told IPS in Bolivia. In Bolivia, 70 percent of the population of 9.2 million identify themselves as indigenous, and the indigenous movement, along with other sectors, is demanding a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution and "re-found the republic" to grant self-determination to the country's 36 native groups, added de la Cruz Vilca. The activist, the former president of Bolivia's Confederaci?n Sindical Unica de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia, a peasant farmer union, accused foreign oil companies of backing the demands for regional autonomy put forth by business and large landowners in the wealthy eastern regions of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Pando and Beni, where the country's natural gas reserves are concentrated. "Behind that movement lies a hidden plan aimed at generating a violent reaction by the indigenous movements, in order to justify external military intervention," he maintained. "It's true that indigenous peoples are a threat, from the point of view of the political and economic powers-that-be. They see us as terrorists, but we aren't, because our struggle is open, legal and legitimate," said Ricardo D?az, an indigenous lawmaker with the leftist Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), the strongest opposition party in Bolivia. In Ecuador, indigenous people account for an estimated 40 percent of the population of nearly 13 million. For the first seven months of the government of Lucio Guti?rrez, who was removed from his post by Congress on Apr. 20 after a week of protests, the Pachakutik Movement, the political arm of the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), formed part of the administration. CONAIE president Luis Macas told IPS that if his movement, "which guides the indigenous struggle along peaceful channels, didn't exist, the poverty in which our communities, and the Ecuadorian people in general, are steeped could become a breeding-ground for the emergence of organizations that could try to change the social situation through violence, but that hasn't happened," said Macas. "We are not a threat to the world, or to the United States. On the contrary, we hold out a hope, an alternative for humanity," said Feliciano Valencia, coordinator of human rights in the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca, in the southwestern Colombian province of Cauca. The shamans (traditional healers) "had warned that very difficult times lay ahead, with a black cloud hanging over our territories," the Nasa indigenous leader commented to IPS, saying the Colombian government was already following policies aimed at the persecution of social and indigenous movements even before the "Global Trends 2020" report was issued. The Nasa people number around 150,000, making them the second-largest indigenous group in Colombia, which is home to 90 aboriginal communities that make up around two percent of the population of 44 million. Although Colombia's 1991 constitution granted autonomy to indigenous peoples in their reserves, that provision is not respected, and there are continuous occupations of land by the military and irregular armed groups, said Valencia. He also protested the spraying of coca and poppy crops and the displacement of indigenous peoples from their land by those interested in getting their hands on natural resources. Chilean Deputy Minister of Planning Jaime Andrade Huenchucoy, the government agent in charge of indigenous affairs, told IPS that the native peoples in his country represent no threat of destabilization or terrorism, as described in the NIC report. Jos? Santos Millao, one of the Mapuche members of Chile's National Corporation of Indigenous Development, remarked to IPS that the U.S. intelligence services "suspiciously or stupidly" cast the protests of indigenous peoples as part of "terrorist" tendencies, in order to distort their "legitimate demands." In Chile, 6.4 percent of the population of 15.2 million identify themselves as indigenous members of six ethnic groups, although other estimates put the proportion at 10 percent. In neighboring Argentina, meanwhile, native peoples make up between 1.5 and 2.0 million people, out of a population of 37 million. In both Chile and Argentina, the Mapuches comprise the biggest indigenous group. The land conflicts that are currently raging began with the arrival of the foreign mining, oil, forestry and water companies, Mauro Mill?n, leader of the Mapuche Tehuelche Organization of Argentina, told IPS. "The United States is trying to depict the reaction of the Mapuche people in defense of their land as an internal security problem facing our countries," he said. In an interview with IPS, Rafael Gonz?lez, spokesman for the Committee of Campesino Unity in Guatemala, said that "since the Sept. 11 (2001) terror attacks (on New York and Washington), anyone who criticizes the establishment is dubbed a terrorist" by the U.S. government. In the view of anthropologist Pedro Ciciliano at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the NIC report is "exaggerated and fraught with errors typical of U.S. intelligence based on biased information." "Indigenous people can be considered a threat, because they are poor and are pressing for their rights, but they don't represent a terrorist threat," the anthropologist told IPS. In Brazil, where 400,000 indigenous people represent 0.2 percent of the population, it is absurd to say their demands and protests have a destabilizing effect, said Jairo da Silva, deputy coordinator of the indigenous council of the northern state of Roraima, and Paulo Mald?s, a political adviser to the Missionary Indigenist Council, which has ties to the Catholic Church. Mald?s commented to IPS that Latin America's indigenous people are in the midst of an "ethnic reconstruction," which explains why the declining workers' movement has been increasingly eclipsed by associations of rural workers and peasant farmers. He cited the case of Bolivia, where miners, previously linked by a powerful, well- organized labor union, have been overshadowed by coca farmers. With respect to ethnic diversity, "the real destabilizing factor is the narrow-minded attitude of some states, like the Chilean state, which refuse to recognize the country's multi-ethnic nature and to design mechanisms that permit it to be expressed," said lawyer Aylwin. "A state that recognizes that multi-ethnic nature and establishes political and territorial rights for indigenous people to allow them to develop within their own cultures has much fewer problems in terms of stability than states which deny that reality," he argued. [With additional reporting by Marcela Valente (Argentina), Franz Ch?vez (Bolivia), Mario Osava (Brazil), Constanza Vieira (Colombia), Kintto Lucas (Ecuador) and Diego Cevallos (Mexico). ] ? Copyright 2005 IPS - Inter Press Service From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 12:17:45 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 12:17:45 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Tampa Terror Trial & Tainting of the Jury Pool Message-ID: <200506071617.j57GHjA32515@olm.blythe-systems.com> sent by MichaelP (activ-l) - June 6, 2005 [Many of you know/knew the author as a news reporter for community-owned radio station KBOO (90.7 FM in Portland, Oregon streamed at http://www.kboo.fm/listen.php] New Standard http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/1849 Biases Highlighted in Case of Alleged Islamic Jihad Supporter by Andrew Stelzer As their hearing nears, Middle Eastern men accused of illegally supporting a Palestinian militia face widespread prejudice that advocates fear will inevitably taint deliberations by a jury selected under questionable circumstances. TAMPA, FLORIDA , MAY 26 - The trial of four Middle Eastern men accused of aiding a terrorist group is about to begin in Florida, but some observers fear the jury pool may already be tainted by four years of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim rhetoric in the news media and last year's senate campaigns. The lead defendant, former University of South Florida (USF) professor Sami Amin Al-Arian, has been in jail for more than two years awaiting trial. He stands accused of using a think tank as a front to raise funds for the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, which the US State Department declared a terrorist organization in 1995. Many potential and eventual jurors expressed prejudice against Al-Arian, Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent. In addition, Al-Arian and his three co-defendants, Sameeh Hammoudeh, Hatim Fariz and Ghassan Ballut, are facing life in prison on a range of charges, including providing material support to a terrorist group, violating economic financial sanctions, extortion and immigration fraud. Al-Arian started a research institute at USF called the World and Islam Studies Enterprise (WISE) in 1991.The FBI immediately began investigating Al-Arian, along with the institute's head, Ramadan Shallah, on suspicion that WISE was assisting terrorist organizations. Since he moved to the US in 1975, the Kuwaiti-born Palestinian Al-Arian had been an outspoken advocate for a Palestinian state and an opponent of the US-aided Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. He spoke frequently at anti-war rallies and interfaith dialogs, especially after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, in an attempt to build bridges between Muslims and other Americans. The investigation of WISE came up empty, and Al-Arian returned to the University after being forced to take leave while the investigation was underway. But by their own admission, federal agents tapped Al-Arian's phones through much of the late 1990s. Shortly after the September 11 attacks, Al-Arian appeared on a popular Fox News program, The O'Reilly Factor, where he debated conservative host Bill O'Reilly about the reasons for the attacks and spoke about the Palestinians' right to self-determination. Following the show and prompting by O'Reilly, a flood of calls to the University resulted in Al-Arian's suspension. The administration fired him in February of 2003 - a move that met with condemnation by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) as a violation of his rights to due process and academic freedom. THE 'TAINTING' OF A JURY POOL As a result of the media hype surrounding Al-Arian's trial, his lawyers argued unsuccessfully that the case should be moved out of the Tampa Bay area because it would be impossible to find an unbiased jury. Al-Arian's attorneys were warned that they were not allowed to question witnesses about the history of the Palestinian struggle for independence. A recent survey buttressed that claim. Of 400 Tampa Bay area residents polled by the Florida Survey Research Center at the University of Florida at Gainesville, 81 percent had heard about Sami Al-Arian, and an additional 15 percent had heard about the case but did not know Al-Arian's name. More than a third of the respondents said they had heard about Al-Arian during the 2004 Senate race. His case was used as point of attack in a substantial smear campaign against Betty Castor, the Democratic nominee and former USF president. In the 2004 primary election, a group called the American Democracy Project slammed Castor for not kicking a "terrorist" off campus on her watch, since she had opted merely to suspend Al-Arian with pay while he was under investigation. Castor's defense against the attacks further served to implicate Al-Arian in the public eye. She did not mention, in her own defense, that Al-Arian had not been found guilty and had not even stood trial. Instead, she tried to turn Al-Arian's case around against the GOP, pointing out that Al-Arian had appeared with President Bush at a public event, had been invited to the White House, and that "Something was wrong with intelligence that there was not an indictment for seven years after this situation first arose." Castor's own messages against her general election opponent, Republican Mel Martinez, fed off the public fear of Al-Arian as a terrorist. TV spots accused Martinez, who had been Bush's Florida state campaign chairman in 2000, of allowing "suspected terrorist Sami Al-Arian to campaign with President Bush years after Al-Arian was suspended by Betty Castor." She used pictures of Al-Arian and Bush together at the Plant City Strawberry festival to incriminate Martinez. Al-Arian's Attorney, William Moffit, describes the politicians' allegations as a "disgrace." "They need to be chastised for it," he told The NewStandard. "It is absolutely amazing to me that they can have that much disregard for the judicial processes of the United States." Al-Arian, a prominent supporter of president Bush in 2000, served as an advisor to both the Clinton and Bush Jr. administrations and made many visits to the White House. His defense lawyers have said high-ranking government officials may be called to testify in the case. Although the questioning of potential jurors was kept highly secure, and members of the press are barred from discussing any details of the six men and six women chosen to serve, journalists who were present at jury selection reported that many potential and eventual jurors expressed prejudice against Al-Arian, Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent. Yet presiding US District Judge James S. Moody reportedly allowed an average of just one minute per juror and seemed satisfied if potential jurors answered "yes" when asked "can you put your biases aside for this trial." The U of F survey reinforces the notion that Al-Arian would very likely receive a less biased jury outside of Tampa. The same survey conducted in Miami found that only 24 percent of respondents had heard of Al-Arian; in Atlanta, one of the locations suggested by the defense team as a logical location for the trial, only 10 percent said they had heard him. OTHER IRREGULARITIES ABOUND The Palestinian-Israeli conflict has already played a prominent role in the case. According to government attorneys, Israeli law enforcement and intelligence agencies are providing thousands of pages of documents to aid the prosecution. The government also plans to bring witnesses from Israel who have been victims or had family members killed by terrorist attacks carried out by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The Israeli daily Ha'aretz reports there will be over 100 Israelis flown into Florida, including investigators who took testimony at the sites of the attacks and personnel who collected body parts and dealt with the dead. However, during pre-trial motions, Al-Arian's attorneys were warned that they were not allowed to question witnesses about the history of the Palestinian struggle for independence unless prosecutors did so first. Defense attorney Moffit argued that without context, the jury could never understand Al-Arian's motivations for his legal activism. Pleading with the judge, Moffit said that "trying to explain Dr. Al-Arian without some understanding of what is happening here is like attempting to explain Nelson Mandela without knowing what apartheid is about," reports the Associated Press. The rights group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has decried the treatment of Al-Arian and Hammoudeh in jail. Instead of being kept in a Tampa area holding facility, as is common for defendants awaiting trial, they were held at the maximum security Coleman Federal Penitentiary, 75 miles away from their families. "Remember that these are pre-trial detainees," Nihad Awad, CAIR's national executive director, reminded the media in a May 2004 plea to have the two moved closer to Tampa. "They seem to have been treated as convicted criminals." According to CAIR, prison officials were ordered to stop strip-searching Al-Arian and Hammoudeh last year. But, in what Bedier called "a deliberate act to break [Al-Arian] down," Al-Arian told family members that prison officials strip-searched him in front of other prisoners after a videoconference with the judge, even though Al-Arian had been under direct supervision the entire time since he had left his cell. Al-Arian's wife, Nahla, says that officials had also denied her husband visits with his family and restricted his phone privileges to 15 minutes each month. "This is not the way they treat even convicted felons, who have the freedom to call every day," she said at a press conference last May. A study by CAIR, which annually tracks anti-Muslim incidents, also found that violence against Muslims has been on the rise in Florida since 2001, mirroring a national trend. The highest number of incidences by type in 2004, according to CAIR's most recent report, was "discriminatory application of the law." In Tampa, the organization is worried that the hype surrounding the trial will spark an increase in hate crimes against Muslims and Middle Easterners. "People are receiving their cues from the government," said Becky Steele of the central Florida ACLU. "And the message from the government that we're receiving is that Muslims are perceived as the enemy." From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 12:18:55 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 12:18:55 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Librarian Stands Up to FBI and Wins Message-ID: <200506071618.j57GItx32588@olm.blythe-systems.com> WorldNet Daily - May 26, 2005 http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44445 LIFE WITH BIG BROTHER Librarian stands up to FBI Refuses to turn over list of users who checked out bin Laden book A librarian in Washington state stood up to the FBI after it demanded internal patron information and she won. Joan Airoldi, director of the library district in Whatcom County, Wash., between Seattle and Bellingham, told her story in an op-ed piece in USA Today. "It was a moment that librarians had been dreading," Airoldi writes in the opening of her column. She explains that in June, an FBI agent stopped into one of the district's branches and requested a list of people who had borrowed a biography of Osama bin Laden. "We said no," Airoldi wrote. "We did not take this step lightly. First, our attorney called the local FBI office and asked why the information was important. She was told that one of our patrons had sent the FBI the book after discovering these words written in the margin: 'If the things I'm doing is considered a crime, then let history be a witness that I am a criminal. Hostility toward America is a religious duty and we hope to be rewarded by God.'" It turns out that quote is quite similar to a line from a bin Laden statement uttered during a 1998 interview. The library told the FBI it would have to go through legal channels to request the information, which it did. A week later, the agency served a subpoena on the library demanding a list of everyone who had borrowed the book since November 2001. Wrote Airoldi: "Our trustees faced a difficult decision. It is our job to protect the right of people to obtain the books and other materials they need to form and express ideas. If the government can easily obtain records of the books that our patrons are borrowing, they will not feel free to request the books they want. Who would check out a biography of bin Laden knowing that this might attract the attention of the FBI?" The library trustees, Airoldi explained, had to balance privacy rights with its desire to help the government fight terrorism. It decided to fight the subpoena in court, and 15 days later the FBI dropped its demand. Airoldi mentioned the experience heightened her sensitivity to the ramifications of the USA Patriot Act: "There is a shadow over our happy ending. Our experience taught us how easily the FBI could have discovered the names of the borrowers, how readily this could happen in any library in the USA. It also drove home for us the dangers that the USA Patriot Act poses to reader privacy." The librarian explains that since the passage of the Patriot Act in October 2001, the FBI has the power to go to a secret court to request library and bookstore records considered relevant to a national security investigation. It does not have to show that the people whose records are sought are suspected of any crime or explain why they are being investigated. In addition, librarians and booksellers are forbidden to reveal that they have received an order to surrender customer data. Concludes Airoldi: "Fortunately for our patrons, we were able to mount a successful challenge to what seems to have been a fishing expedition. If it had returned with an order from a secret court under the Patriot Act, the FBI might now know which residents in our part of Washington State had simply tried to learn more about bin Laden. "With a Patriot Act order in hand, I would have been forbidden to disclose even the fact that I had received it and would not have been able to tell this story." In an e-mail praising Airoldi, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership warned of what it perceives as Patriot Act dangers. "If somebody else's margin scribble in a library book is enough to put you on the FBI's suspect list, then do you have more liberty or less?" the group asks. "Secret courts with unreviewable court order powers are these more a feature of free countries or of police states?" The firearms group, believing "conservative" commentators are too supportive of the Patriot Act, concluded: "We salute Library Director Joan Airoldi's courage, and that of her library's board, in standing up for the rights of Americans. We challenge the conservative media community to applaud Ms. Airoldi also. Regretfully, we expect the conservative media folks to ignore the story totally, and that is a sad commentary indeed." (c) 2005 WorldNetDaily.com From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 12:32:37 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 12:32:37 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Bolivian President Resigns Message-ID: <200506071632.j57GWcB00476@olm.blythe-systems.com> NarcoNews - June 6, 2005 10:33 PM est http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/6/6/223313/0055 Mesa Offers Resignation By Jean Friedsky After a combative day on the streets of La Paz and more than two weeks of turmoil in Bolivia, President Carlos Mesa has offered his resignation from the Presidency. He appeared tonight at approximately 9:45pm, live from the Presidential Palace, to let his country and the world know that he no can longer lead a nation in such a divided and tumultous state. He affirmed that he had been a strong leader who had tried everything he could to bring about agreement on the controversial issues, but that at this point, his time had come to an end; he can do no more. He pleaded that Bolivians' find a solution for the current conflict through dialogue, rather than protests. His resignation, however, is dependent on the Congress accepting his decree. As such, he assured the nation that his resignation does not create a power vacuum because he will continue to govern until there is Congressional approval. He reminded us all that he "was born in Bolivia, lives in Bolivia, and will continue to be in Bolivia" for the duration of this crisis. Far from marking an end to this battle, Mesa's resignation will only initiate a new chapter. Should Mesa's resignation be accepted, the right-wing President of the Senate Hormando Vaca Diez will assume power. This would further inflame the already enraged protesters that have been marching and shutting down the nation for the past two weeks. However Santa Cruz and the Bolivian elite will do what they can to maintain the power that could be coming their way. And, clearly, Mesa's resignation does nothing to change the status of Bolivia's gas reserves, nor does it address the proposals of a Constitutional Assembly or a referendum on Autonomy. All it does is open up more questions. It comes as no surprise that Mesa made his speech tonight. The volume and intensity of protest and police response today demonstrated that this lucha (struggle) was reaching a breaking point in which something needed to happen. Whether that was a military coup, a resignation from Mesa or the initiation of a military/civil government, we didn't know. Now, we have the first concrete action taken by the governmetnt. What remains to be seen is what the people do in response... Stay tuned, (as my esteemed colleague Luis Gomez likes to say), kind readers. It's about to get interesting... Comments: Evo Morales: Mesa's Resignation Not Enough by Al Giordano on Mon Jun 6th, 2005 at 11:00:52 PM EST ATB news agency ("After The Bell," a Spanish-language business journal) has just reported that Bolivian Congressman Evo Morales says that President Carlos Mesa's resignation (or "offer that Congress accepts his resignation - to report this precisely, that's the same thing Mesa did on March 7th and in the end did not resign) "is not enough. Here is a translation of the report: Evo Morales, leader of Bolivia's leading opposition party Movement Toward Socialism (MAS, in its Spanish initials), said today that the resignation of the country's president, Carlos Mesa, announced today, is not enough, and also called for the resignation of the Senate President and Speaker of the House. Morales told the press that the country's presidency must be taken over by the president of the Supreme Court "to set the dates for new elections." The Bolivian Constitution says that in case of the resignation of the president the post must be taken by the Senate President or the Speaker of the House. If both decline to take the job, the executive branch falls into the hands of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court... Impacting... [Giordano's comments below on The New York Times and Juan Ferero's byline may be mistaken. For years, the Times has had a policy of not giving their reporters more than one byline in any one day's issue. Thus, if a reporter has two stories in the same paper, s/he is given a byline on only one of them. The other will credit only "The New York Times." Exceptions to the policy are rare, although with the advent of frequently updated web publishing, things have changed somewhat. The reason for this rule is unknown; it might be based on the fact that a byline is seen by the Times as a rare prize, or it could be that the Times doesn't want to make it look as if they have too few reporters covering stories in any one region. In this case, Forero was writing not from La Paz, but from Bogota, and the story is datelined Bogota. They were scooped by Reuters, and other news agencies, so it's a bit embarrassing that they covered the story late, and from outside Bolivia. In any case, Forero has nothing to do with byline decisions, which are made in the "bullpen" (editor's desks).--NY Transfer] Forero Asleep in Bogota, Hides Byline by Al Giordano As Luis G?mez, Jean Friedsky, and the rest of the Narco News team is on the ground in Bolivia (the first to report that the country's president might resign, and to report that he did resign today), New York Timesman Juan Forero - responsible for watching Bolivia - stayed at home in his office in the Colombian capital. His report of tonight provides a strong hint that he knows he dropped the ball: The byline says only "By The New York Times." Sorry Juanito. With your inflated budget and the amount of lead time you had to be there to report the big story, you blew it again. Forero Slips in a Byline! by Al Giordano on Tue Jun 7th, 2005 at 12:39:40 AM EST (User Info) Heh. My oh my, Am?rica has a'changed. Sometime after I noticed (and posted) that Juan Forero's byline did not appear on the NY Times story linked above, the Times added his byline and some new text by him. Check it out: ...the next in line to take over would be the president of the Senate, Hormando Vaca D?ez. Mr. D?ez, however, would not be a palatable choice for most Bolivians, political analysts say, nor would the third in line to the presidency, Mario Coss?o, the president of the lower house of Congress. The next choice, the Supreme Court president, Eduardo Rodr?guez, does have political support. Under the constitution, he could then call early elections, a scenario that has the support of Evo Morales, Bolivia's most influential protest leader. I guess the Narco News bandwidth is broadcasting loud and clear into Bogota tonight... and the new American reality - that of Bol?var's "country called Am?rica" - is finally sinking in after five years. And all this, emanating from Bolivia, happened today parallel to a resounding defeat suffered today by George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice at the Fort Lauderdale, Florida session of the Organization of American States (OAS) where the new law of the land - authentic democracy - was spit back in Georgy and Condi's faces by an Am?rica united... and on fire. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 12:37:03 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 12:37:03 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] FBI Persecutes Scientist: Butler Update Message-ID: <200506071637.j57Gb3N00685@olm.blythe-systems.com> The Village Voice - May 20, 2005 http://www.villagevoice.com/ VIAL PROSECUTION WASHINGTON, D.C.--Tucked away near the bottom of the contents page of the current issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, among the studies on kidneys and colitis, there is a listing for an extraordinary article that for the first time suggests the often complacent scientific community has begun to fight the Bush government's crackdown on civil liberties. Signed by a string of 14 eminent scientists, this article is a brief for the defense of the distinguished Dr. Tom Butler, whose work on oral rehydration is known and widely respected throughout the world, having helped save the lives of millions of children suffering from uncontrolled diarrhea. It is also a call to the scientific world, which so often shrinks from any political action, to stand up and fight. In short, here is Butler's case as set forth in the article: In January 2003, Butler, working to discover antibiotics that could effectively combat bioterror strikes of the plague, could not locate 30 vials of plague specimens. He reported this to the safety officer at Texas Tech University, where he had worked for many years. The university notified the FBI, and 60 agents soon arrived. Butler was interviewed by the agents without the presence of a lawyer -- he waived his rights to legal counsel because for years he had worked with military and federal agencies, and he wanted to help the FBI allay public fears. Butler was interrogated hour after hour with no sleep. He had been promised that the questioning would prevent legal action. But when the agents were finished, he was handcuffed, led away to jail, and accused of lying to the FBI. After spending six nights jailed, Butler was allowed to post bond of $100,000, which then was increased to $250,000. He was put under house arrest with electronic monitoring. He couldn't use his computer or otherwise contact colleagues who had been put on a witness list. He was offered a plea bargain: six months in jail and a guilty plea. Wanting to clear his name, Butler refused. The possibility of bio-terrorism was absurd, and the government did not pursue it. Instead, the Justice Department buried Butler in a blizzard of charges having no relation to bioterrorism or the loss of the vials. These included illegal transportation of plague bacteria, tax evasion, embezzlement, and fraud. In all there were 69 charges carrying a maximum sentence of 469 years in prison and $17 million in fines. At trial, government prosecutors called Butler an "evil genius" and compared him to "a cocaine dealer." And as it does in so many detainee cases, the government suggested -- but never charged -- that terrorism was involved, that he lied to the FBI, and that he put the public at risk. The jury acquitted Butler of lying to the FBI and tax evasion, but he was found guilty of technical charges involving an express mail package of "lab specimens" sent to collaborators in Tanzania. He was also convicted of administrative charges connected with drug company grants that the university had encouraged him to seek. Members of the Texas Tech administration testified against Butler, while his colleagues supported him. The result of this Justice Department foray into "terrorism" was that this eminent scientist was stripped of his professorship, tenure, salary, and medical license. He has spent his life savings and retirement funds to defend himself. Butler is married and has four children but no longer any income. Even the federal judge in his case, Sam Cummings -- renowned as "Hanging Sam" -- went out of his way to push the federal sentencing guidelines downward, pointing out, among other things, "There is not a case on record that could better exemplify a great service to society as a whole." Butler, 63, is in his first year of a two-year sentence. The case is on appeal; a hearing is scheduled for June 8. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 12:37:44 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 12:37:44 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Forum Theater performance/demonstration, 6/19 NYC Message-ID: <200506071637.j57GbiD00761@olm.blythe-systems.com> Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB) 451 West Street New York, New York 10014 (212) 924-1858 toplab at toplab.org http://www.toplab.org The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory presents a Performance/Demonstration of Forum Theater Sunday, June 19, 2005 from 5:00 to 9:00 pm at The Brecht Forum 451 West Street (West Side Highway, between Bank and Bethune Streets) New York City Contribution: sliding scale--$6, $8, $10 Open to all; no pre-registration necessary This performance/demonstration of Forum Theater techniques will be presented by members of the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory's 2005 Internship Program and TOPLAB facilitators. If you've been wondering what this is all about but were not able to commit to attending an entire weekend workshop, now is the time to find out. An innovative approach to public forums, Forum Theater is rooted in the Brasilian popular education and culture movements of the 1950s and 1960s. It is designed for use in schools, community centers, trade unions and solidarity and popular organizations. Workshop participants (the actors) are asked to tell a story, taken from daily life, containing a political or social problem of difficult solution. A skit depicting that problem is improvised and presented. The original solutions proposed by the protagonist must contain at least one social or political error. When the skit is over, the audience discusses the proposed solution, and then the scene is performed once more. But now, audience members are urged to intervene by stopping the action, coming on stage to replace actors, and enacting their own ideas. Thus, instead of remaining passive, the audience becomes active "spect-actors" who now create alternative solutions and control the dramatic action. The aim of the forum is not to find an ideal solution, but to invent new ways of confronting oppression. In Brasil and other parts of Latin America, as well as in India and Africa, Forum Theater has been used with peasant and worker "audiences" as training in labor and community organizing and participatory democracy. toplab at toplab.org http://www.toplab.org Democratizing technology: TOPLAB runs the GNU/Linux OS on its computers and is 100% free of proprietary software. ***** "There is not the slightest notion of ethics, credibility, standards of justice, humanitarian feelings, nor of the elementary principles of solidarity and generosity in the world you seek to impose on us today. Billions of human beings live in subhuman conditions--starving, without enough food, medicine, clothes, shoes or shelter and without even a minimum amount of knowledge or enough information to understand their tragedy and that of the world in which they live." --Fidel Castro, in a letter to George W. Bush -30- From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 12:38:46 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 12:38:46 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] UCS: Oppose New Nuclear Weapons Today Message-ID: <200506071638.j57Gck400828@olm.blythe-systems.com> Union of Concerned Scientists - June 7, 2005 http://www.ucsaction.org Oppose New Nuclear Weapons Today The Bush administration has asked for $8.5 million in the 2006 budget for research on a "Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator" (RNEP). This new nuclear weapon, also known as the nuclear "bunker buster," is being promoted as a useful tool in attacking deeply buried command centers or underground stores of chemical and biological weapons. But numerous scientific critiques, including one by the National Academy of Science, find that in many cases such a weapon would be ineffective. In addition, the nuclear blast and radioactive fall-out could kill millions of innocent people in surrounding areas. In the coming weeks, both the House and Senate will consider funding for this new nuclear weapon. Please tell your Representative and Senators to reject all funding for the dangerous nuclear "bunker buster". TAKE ACTION: To automatically send the letter below to your senators and representative, hit "Reply" and then "Send" in your email program. To customize your letter, learn more about the issue, or if this message was forwarded to you visit, http://www.ucsaction.org/ctt.asp?u=3370317&l=94528 To illustrate the technical realities of the RNEP weapon, the Union of Concerned Scientists has produced an animation that shows both the weapon's technical shortcomings and the consequences of its use. Click here to view the animation: http://www.ucsaction.org/ctt.asp?u=3370317&l=94555 LETTER: I am greatly opposed to the Administration's proposal to budget $8.5 Million for research on a Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP). I am deeply disturbed by this proposal. This nuclear weapon is not needed, appears to set the U.S. on a new course of developing nuclear war fighting weapons, and sends a counterproductive message to the international community at a time when we are trying to discourage other nations from developing nuclear weapons. I hope that you will deny all funds for the RNEP or nuclear "bunker buster" program. As you know, the Administration's FY06 budget requests $8.5 million for RNEP, which is intended to destroy deeply buried bunkers and/or underground stores of chemical or biological weapons. However, a recent National Academy of Sciences study (http://www.ucsaction.org/ctt.asp?u=3370317&l=94521) concludes that the weapon would be of limited use in destroying deep bunkers or underground stores of biological or chemical weapons, and that its use could kill millions of people. To illustrate the technical realities of the RNEP weapon, the Union of Concerned Scientists has produced an animation that shows both the weapon's technical shortcomings and the consequences of its use. I strongly recommend that you and your staff consider and use this important resource-it can be found at: http://www.ucsaction.org/ctt.asp?u=3370317&l=94522 Finally, I believe that Congress needs to match their words with their actions when addressing the cause of nuclear proliferation. If we are calling on other nations to refrain from building nuclear weapons, we should refrain as well. Our focus should be on decreasing our already bloated and unnecessary nuclear stockpile. The international community is currently meeting at the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference at the UN. This is an excellent time for the Congress to defund this program and send a strong nonproliferation message. I look forward to hearing your position on this important issue and hope that you deny all funding for the RNEP program. Thank you. (your name and address will be inserted) From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 12:40:56 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 12:40:56 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] RAWA: Afghanistan Situation Much Worse than Reported Message-ID: <200506071640.j57Geux00956@olm.blythe-systems.com> sent by Dan Clore (activ-l) - June 7, 2005 ZNet - May 28, 2005 http://www.zmag.org RAWA's View of Afghanistan Protests by RAWA Afghan Women's Mission Afghan Women's Mission recently asked RAWA (the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) what they thought of the anti-US protests in Afghanistan, the desecration of the Koran, and the prisoner abuses. The answer of RAWA member Selay is printed below: /(edited for English, removed salutations)/ The recent wave of demonstrations are not something new. Actually in the past one year many Afghan cities witnessed such huge demonstrations mainly organized by people who oppose the policies of Mr. Karzai and want to show their opposition to his pro-warlord actions. People are fed up with many critical social issues and come out on the streets to protest. When people see that Karzai shakes hands with the most dirty enemies of the Afghan people, who first of all should appear in a court of justice; when people see that millions of dollars given in the name of the reconstruction of Afghanistan goes into the pockets of warlords and no one asks about their brutality (on the contrary Mr. Karzai frequently installs them in key posts); they have no other option but to protest and in many cases it takes a violent form. The situation in Afghanistan is far more disastrous then what you may imagine. The Karzai administration has done nothing positive but just works hard to gather all the top fundamentalist criminals around himself. Even these days he is trying to portray some key Taliban leaders as "moderates," and tries to share power with them. A few days ago through Sibghatullah Mojadeddi, the government announced amnesty for Gulbuddin and Mullah Omar if they surrender. All these policies are contrary to the wishes of our people who want justice and the prosecution of top fundamentalist leaders. People are furious but are powerless. Mass protest is the only type of weapon people have to put pressure on the government. Therefore in such a situation people display their anger by such demonstrations. They find any excuse to come to the streets. In the latest protests, the gross majority of people dont care about the report of Newsweekit is just an excuse for them to protest. And of course the fundamentalists, especially the party of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Al Qaeda, try to make use of these protests and guide it according to their own wishes. It would be very wrong, however, to stamp these protests as being pro-Al Qaeda. The US and Afghan governments certainly try to raise propaganda that Al Qaeda is behind it. These protests are the continuation of a larger wave which started one year ago all over Afghanistan, and its main reason is the treacherous policy of Mr Karzai and the pro-fundamentalist stand of the US government. People are very much disappointed with what is going on in Afghanistan over the past few years. They were given many promises but none of them were put into practice. Regarding the desecration of the Koran: of course we are of the opinion that such acts are disgusting because it hurts millions of Muslims around the world. In fact we are against any kind of disrespect and profanity to the sanctity of any religion. However, the desecration of the Koran alone can't move people to protest on such a large scale. Afghans are not more Muslim than the people in other nations that they would risk their lives for it while the Muslims in most other countries did not commit any actions against the Newsweek story. Abuse and torture of prisoners is simply an inhuman act. We are in favor of internationally known principles regarding treatment of prisoners. Abuse and torture of prisoners in US custody in itself shows the futility of the US government's hue and cry about human rights. It shows that the US government's claims about human rights are there just so it can bomb countries to gain its own interests. Many of the victims in the US custody in Bagram are ordinary people who have been arrested under the name of Al Qaeda and Taliban. The US government shakes hands with the real criminals like Mullah Motawakal etc., but tortures our helpless people. Such tortures are reported by the media to be in Guantanamo and Bagram but in fact it is very common in all US bases across Afghanistan. Whenever they arrest anyone, they remove their clothes and torture them. They know that for Afghans to be naked is the worst torture and a way to weaken their morale. If the situation in Afghanistan continues like this, we will see larger and more violent protests by the people. Of course the Taliban and Al Qaeda will try to make use of this situation more then others. Unfortunately, democratic-minded forces of Afghanistan are very weak and not being supported by the international community and are not in a position to lead these protest in the best possible way. For many days there has been news that the US government wants to legitimize its permanent presence in Afghanistan and to make its base here for the next 60 years. This news intensified the protests even more. Karzai gathered Loya Jirga members and fundamentalist leaders like Sayyaf, Rabbani etc. to discuss the issue. In the meeting Sayyaf and Rabbani in their speeches welcomed the idea, but there were some opposition from other members. Though all members were given 2 minutes time to speak they did not allow Malalai Joya to speak! But we think these protests are a positive sign and show that our people have the consciousness not to accept any government that is in place to fulfill the interests of the US government. It shows Afghans will not accept the occupation of the US forces for long. Fortunately the gross majority of the protesters were students and young people, which shows our young generation has learnt much from the past history of Afghanistan. Visit RAWA's website at http://www.rawa.org Find out how you can work in solidarity with RAWA at http://www.afghanwomensmission.org From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 12:42:36 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 12:42:36 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Chomsky: Privatization, the "Free Market" & Democracy Message-ID: <200506071642.j57GgaY01052@olm.blythe-systems.com> sent by Bob Richards - June 7, 2005 Znet Blog http://blog.zmag.org/index.php/weblog/entry/privatization_of_services_the_free_market_democracy/ Privatization of Services, the "Free Market" & Democracy by Noam Chomsky Privatization of ?services? (water for example) is both for corporate profit and for undermining democracy. In both cases, virtually by definition. Thus such privatization removes matters of crucial public concern from the public arena, where the public can in principle play a role (and sometimes does), to private tyrannies from which the public is in principle excluded. That?s an attack on democracy, by definition. Just how the goals of profit and undermining democracy enter into particular decisions probably varies, and would be almost impossible to determine, because hostility to democracy is so deeply engrained that those who make the decisions could well be unaware of what they are doing, even though it is entirely on the surface. Not unusual The justification is that it is more profitable, at least as long as people shut up. Period. Water is in fact a luxury by state capitalist moral standards?and the term ?moral? is the right one. The market theories of Ricardo, Malthus, etc., were quite clear on this: people have no rights other than what they can acquire on the market. If they can?t survive, ?go somewhere else??which they could in those days, as the population was being removed or exterminated in the US and other former colonies. These economic principles were declared by the founders of modern economics to be as certain as those of Newton. It?s true that sometimes the public is too stupid to understand the elementary logic. Thus in the 1820s, when market principles were imposed in England, the army was spending much of its time putting down riots, which pretty soon led to Chartism, labor organizing, and other dangerous attempts to introduce working democracy. And since the science is more supple than Newtonian physics, it was able to shift to more social democratic principles. Same in Bolivia. When people demonstrated their incapacity to comprehend that your children have no right to drink water if you don?t earn enough, there was a virtual revolt, army massacres, and overthrow of the government. Sometimes people are just too stupid, and can?t comprehend Newton?s principles. We don?t have to go to Bolivia to understand the point. Take the US, where we live As noted in last week?s Gallup poll health care is the leading financial concern for the population, and only an ?astounding? 6% of the population think it?s working (quote from Gallup analyst). Majorities (often large, depending on how questions are asked) think the government should guarantee health care to the population?even that it is a high-ranking ?moral issue? (far above those trumpeted in the doctrinal system). It?s no secret that the US has far and away the most inefficient health care system in the industrial world, with far higher costs and among the poorest outcomes. It?s hardly coincidental that it is the only system that is privatized to such an extent, therefore introducing massive bureaucracy, supervision, paper work, subordination to big pharma, and other factors that raise costs and reduce performance. And it is leading to a major fiscal crisis: to the marginal extent that Social Security faces a eventual fiscal crisis, it?s largely due to escalating health care costs. But the system is untouchable. When polls tell us that 2/3 of the population want a national health care system, as elsewhere, the press reports that government involvement of any kind has ?no political support??which is true, on the prevailing elite assumption that the government is to be run by financial industries, etc., with the public irrelevant. Why is the system untouchable? Because in fact it is working very well for the privileged. Health care is effectively rationed by wealth, and if large parts of the population can?t afford seriously needed health care?as is the case?that simply doesn?t matter. Also, the inefficiencies contribute to private gain. So what?s the problem? Health care is no more a luxury than water, at least by human standards. But by state-capitalist standards, values are quite different. There?s much prating about Bush?s ?moral values.? We determine values by actions, not pretty words, which are cheap. The values are transparent: shine the shoes of the rich, stuff their pockets with cash, and let the rest fend for themselves. Free market theory?which is to a large extent irrelevant to the economy anyway?tells us nothing about adjustment of market to needs. There was a very weak argument to that effect in Adam Smith, who based his (rather nuanced) approval of markets on the principle that under conditions of perfect liberty, markets would tend towards perfect equality. But the assumptions are so radically remote from reality that the argument would be irrelevant even if it were sound. It?s rather like the recent proof by Harvard?s president (so his supporters in the press report) that relative absence of women in academic sciences can?t be the result of discrimination, because discrimination can?t exist. Easy to prove: in a market society (which we are, by doctrinal fiat), if some group were subjected to discrimination, they could be hired more cheaply, and the institution that hires them would therefore out-compete its rivals. QED. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 12:43:02 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 12:43:02 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Peltier Hearing to Address Lakota Nation Sovereignty Message-ID: <200506071643.j57Gh2t01170@olm.blythe-systems.com> sent by The Freedom Archives - June 7, 2005 http://freedomarchives.org/mailman/listinfo/news_freedomarchives.org Leonard Peltier Defense Committee FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - June 3, 2005 PELTIER HEARING TO ADRESS LAKOTA NATION SOVEREIGNTY As Mark Felt, one of the main responsible FBI officers overseeing illegal counterintelligence programs targeting the American Indian Movement and other groups in the 60s and 70's, is hailed as a hero for catalyzing the toppling of the Nixon administration, Leonard Peltier approaches his fourth decade of unjust imprisonment. Today, from the perspective of the U.S. government, everything is excusable in the war theatre, even as the world questions U.S. policies and actions that point unequivocally to human rights abuses. A puppet government, people murdered and terrorized, that was the climate in the Pine Ridge reservation in 1975 when two FBI agents were killed in a shootout. Leonard Peltier and fellow warriors responded to the call for protection from the Oglala Lakota people, but he was blamed for the deaths of the agents and is serving two consecutive life terms for that. However, his defense team has been granted a hearing to correct his illegal sentencing. The basis for this motion is that the United States District Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction under the statutes upon which Mr. Peltier was convicted and sentenced. The statutes in question require that the crime take place "within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States". Since the deaths of the agents occurred on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation which is neither "within the special maritime [or] territorial jurisdiction of the United States", the Peltier defense team is asking the Court to grant Mr. Peltier's motion and vacate the illegal sentences imposed upon him. If the Court does not recognize the Pine Ridge Reservation as sovereign "then one must wonder, what does sovereignty mean?" stated Barry Bachrach, attorney for Leonard Peltier. "Sovereignty seems to be a concept that is given merely lip service. It is raised when the government does not want to get involved, and infringed when the government wants to take action." As Bachrach further stated, "This hearing is important because Mr. Peltier was never charged with crimes over which the United States had jurisdiction. The history of the constitution, and the statutes implicated, unequivocally establish that Mr. Peltier was not convicted under the Indian Crimes Act, which is the only possible authority under which the government could have tried and convicted Mr. Peltier. Whereas here, the court had no jurisdiction to convict Mr. Peltier under the crimes for which he was convicted, those convictions must be set aside as a matter of law." The hearing will take place on Wednesday June 15th, 2005 at 2:00 PM at the Quentin N. Burdick U.S. Courthouse in Fargo, North Dakota (655 1st Ave. North - 4th Floor, Courtroom 1). FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: RUSS REDNER, LPDC DIRECTOR, 915-533-6655 or TOLL FREE 866-534-6151 BARRY BACHRACH, LPDC ATTORNEY, 508-926-3403 RAQUEL ROBLES BURNET, LPDC HEADQUARTERS, 785-842-5774 THE COURT DOCUMENTS WILL BE AVAILABLE SOON FOR VIEWING AT: http://www.freeleonard.org and http://www.leonardpeltier.org The Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 (415) 863-9977 http://www.freedomarchives.org From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 12:44:19 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 12:44:19 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Geldof calls up fleet for G8 protest armada Message-ID: <200506071644.j57GiJN01435@olm.blythe-systems.com> The Scotsman, Tuesday 7 June 2005 http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=622332005 sent by Simon McGuinness Now Geldof calls up fleet for G8 armada by FERGUS SHEPPARD Bob Geldof yesterday sparked new fears of G8 chaos as he invited thousands of French protesters to descend on Edinburgh, promising a Dunkirk-style flotilla of small ships to carry them across the Channel. Already reeling from Geldof's call for a "million-man" march through the city's streets, Lothian and Borders Police warned protesters to stay away if they had no accommodation. And the coastguard service, which was not told in advance of Geldof's plans, also expressed concern that his armada would be crossing some of the world's busiest seaways. One Scottish politician also said he was worried that Geldof's plan was being "made up as it goes along". Speaking in Southampton, Geldof urged British boat owners to form a mass flotilla and cross the Channel to pick up French supporters of the anti-poverty campaign on 3 July - the day after the first Live 8 concerts. "What we are asking people to do is not recreate D-Day, but recreate Dunkirk, which is one of the great national legends of our country where normal people got in their boats to rescue our soldiers, 380,000 of them, who were surrounded and came back to fight another day," he said. He chose Swanwick Marina to launch what organisers have already dubbed Sail 8. "We are asking people to get into their boats in their thousands and pick up the people of France who wish to participate," he announced. The Anglo-French collaboration will involve the French equivalent of the Make Poverty History Campaign, known as "Please Excuse". NRJ, a French commercial radio network, has given its backing. The Irish singer's appeal received a powerful endorsement from record-breaking British yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur, who is also planning to join the crossing. Dame Ellen said she supported the "Sail 8" event "because all of us are responsible for the world and the environment we live in". Speaking to Geldof from her yacht off the coast of France, she said: "Anyone who has qualifications and a safe boat to go across the Channel, July is a good time to do it. There are many ways to cross the Channel - the Channel Tunnel, the ferries; it just doesn't have to be boat owners." Ex-Boomtown Rats singer Geldof urged hoteliers, ferry companies and coach owners to offer their services to French visitors who wanted to support what Live 8 calls its Long Walk To Justice. Geldof has called for one million people to converge on Edinburgh by 6 July to exert massive pressure on the G8 leaders gathering at Gleneagles in Perthshire. Geldof initially appeared to suggest that Perthshire-based Stagecoach was providing 60 coaches to take French protesters to Scotland. Stagecoach said later it was in discussions to provide up to 1,000 cheap seats for demonstrators, but they were return seats from London to Edinburgh. The prospect of more protesters reaching Edinburgh raised new fears yesterday. David McLetchie, the Scottish Tory leader, said: "There must be great concern on the part of the public that this event seems to be being made up as it goes along." Lothian and Borders Police stressed that people should only come to Edinburgh if they were attending an organised event and had somewhere to stay. "If people just came and swelled the streets with nowhere to go and no focus, that starts putting a real pressure on the city," a spokesman said. "If people are disgruntled, and there aren't enough public loos and places for them to eat, that makes it difficult." Meanwhile, Solent Coastguard issued a statement warning that the Channel was "one of the busiest waterways in the world" and covered the two main shipping lanes to Europe. A spokesman said: "If people are going to go to sea to support this campaign, they should make sure that their vessels are capable of carrying out the journey and that the preparations are done beforehand. "Not everybody will heed that warning. You will always get the odd idiot out there and you can prepare for a journey but, with a lot of vessels on the water, there's always going to be accidents happening." Geldof claimed that shipping companies, the coastguard, lifeboat rescue and marine safety organisations would all be alerted ahead of the proposed Channel crossing. "We live in a world of timidity and this isn't the time for timidity. If you don't think it will make any difference you are wrong. We urge you to take due caution but not to take unnecessary caution," he said. Geldof's call for a million protesters in Edinburgh sparked concern last week among police commanders. Donald Anderson, Edinburgh Council's leader, said yesterday: "We are working with organisers to prepare for a large number of visitors and to ensure that large crowds are well managed. "Our message remains the same. We urge anyone planning to come to Edinburgh to think ahead and act sensibly. Make proper travel arrangements and find somewhere to stay before you arrive." From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 13:17:47 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 13:17:47 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Juan Cole on Disbanded Iraqi Army, the Zarqawi Myth Message-ID: <200506071717.j57HHlQ03707@olm.blythe-systems.com> sent by Steven Robinson (activ-l) - June 7, 2005 [Two postings by Cole, one on the disbanding of an Iraqi army and another on the "Zarqawi Myth." -SR] Informed Comment by Juan Cole - June 5, 2005 http://www.juancole.com/ Bombings, Shootings in Balad, Tikrit, Samarra, Mahmudiyah Sunni Clerics Condemn Marginalization of their Community, Protest US Al-Sharq al-Awsat reports a suicide attack on an Iraqi military checkpoint in Balad Saturday, which killed three Iraqi soldiers and wounded a third. Guerrillas shot dead an Iraqi policemen from the rapid response team on a bridge in Samarra on Saturday. Iraqi police undertook a sweep of Mahmudiyah and Latifiyah, south of Baghdad near Hilla. They killed 3 guerrillas, wounded 5, and captured 19. A suicide bomber in Tikrit north of Baghdad detonated his payload late Friday afternoon in front of a US military base, killing 5 Iraqi soldiers and wounding 7. Another suicide bomber, in Baghdad, targeted a police patrol and wounded two Iraqi policemen seriously. The Gulf Daily News also reports on the virtual desertion of a unit of the Iraqi military: "Meanwhile, an Iraqi army unit has been disbanded after it refused to attend a US training course in Baghdad, former members of the unit said yesterday. The soldiers said they feared reprisals from locals if they were seen to have co-operated with the Americans." I wouldn't say this incident is cause for optimism about "Iraqization" or the hope that Iraqi troops will take over security provision from Americans. Rod Nordland of Newsweek draws the curtain back about how bad the living situation is in Iraq and what widespread and irreversible damage the Abu Ghraib scandal did to American standing among the Iraqi public. His recounting of all the things that are wrong (unreliable electricity and water, lack of security, etc., etc.) is all the more convincing because he admits he began by being a supporter of the war. Parliamentarian Dr. Raja al-Khuzai, who served in the Interim Governing Council, is visiting India. Her remarks to an Indian reporter on the situation in Iraq are revealing of the conflicted feelings the new political elite in Iraq has about the current situation. They are delighted that Saddam is gone, but they mourn the lack of security and they complain that the US military never bothered to learn Iraqi culture and humiliates Iraqis every day. And she is relatively pro-American! Hamza Hendawi of AP explores the implications of the transformation of the Sadrist movement of Muqtada al-Sadr into a social services and political organization. (Since the militia was just young Sadrist men with guns, it could be reestablished at any moment, it should be remembered). Al-Hayat reports that Shaikh Iyad al-`Izzi, a member of the political office of the Iraqi Islamic Party, preached at the Abu Hanifah Mosque in Baghdad Friday against "Operation Lighting," the sweep of Baghdad neighborhoods recently launched by the Defense and Interior ministries of the Iraqi government. Al-`Izzi said, "It is a lightning bolt that has fallen upon our children and our cities... They are arresting our youths on the basis of their (Sunni Arab ethnic) identity... There can be no national unity without the Sunnis... and no united Iraq if we are marginalized and made to vanish and driven away." There was a demonstration at the mosque after Friday prayers by hundreds of Sunnis angry over the arrest by the US last Monday of Muhsin Abdul Hamid, the leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party, who has been generally cooperative with the Americans. Shaikh Mahmud al-Sumaid`i said in his sermon at Umm al-Qura Mosque that "the decision-makers and the government" must halt "the humiliation of the people." He warned, "If one sect is marginalized for the benefit of another, and the role of one sect is cancelled for the sake of another, the country will never see the light of stability.." Shaikh Salah al-`Ubaidi of the Sadr Movement warned of the dangers of the country being partitioned as a result of "the escalation among the sectarian groups." Lt. Col. Mazhar al-Mawla criticized Operation Lightning from another point of view. He said that there was still poor coordination between the ministries of interior and defense. He also confirmed that no foreign Arab fighters had so far been arrested in the sweep of select Baghdad neighborhoods. He said the operation might be extended, since so far it has not produced the hoped-for results. He said the major successes have been finding and destroying some workshops in Doura and elsewhere used for the construction of car bombs. (Since any garage can function as such a workshop, this achievement is a fleeting one.) The Washington Post reports that US and Iraqi forces stumbled upon a huge underground bunker in Anbar province that was being used as a headquarters and arms storage site by the guerrillas. The complex is said to be the size of 3 football fields. You wonder how many such bunkers the Baath had established around Iraq. No one should think that the capture of this one will put much of a dent in the guerrilla war. All the ordnance can be replaced fairly easily, and there are other places to hide. *** The Zarqawi Myth Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (actually Ahmad al-Khalayleh of Zarqa) has been elevated by the Bush administration to an almost mythic position as the fomenter of much of the violence in Iraq. It isn't true. Most of the violence in Iraq is being undertaken by Baathists or Iraqi nationalists trying to drive the US out. I haven't commented much about the alleged activities of Zarqawi, mostly reported from anonymous and easily manipulated web sites. He was said to have had a meeting with lieutenants, maybe in Syria, maybe in Anbar. He was said to be at Ramadi. Ramadi was apparently locked down by the US military as a result. He was said to be wounded at Ramadi. Now some sites are saying he is dead. Those that maintain that he is still alive argue over he should "step down" in favor someone else to head up "Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia." It turns out that the "meeting in Damascus" scenario is probably just propaganda. The Baath Party in Syria has a deep fear of Sunni fundamentalists. He is an unlikely ally for them. I don't trust those jihadi web sites. I think someone is jerking the US press around, and it could be anybody, including USG. [This is indeed informed comment. The Jihadist political current is probably infiltrated through and through with CIA informers and assets, given the role the U.S. Government played in creating it during the Afghan War in the 1980s.-SR] It doesn't matter, anyway. We historians don't believe in the great man theory, unlike the Bush administration. Zarqawi leads a social movement of several hundred persons, if he exists at all. If he is killed, the social movement will just go on. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 13:18:32 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 13:18:32 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Car Bombs in N. Iraq Kill at Least 18 Message-ID: <200506071718.j57HIWW03772@olm.blythe-systems.com> BBC News Online - 7 June 2005 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4616465.stm Car bombs hit northern Iraq town At least 18 people have been killed in a series of bomb blasts around a town in northern Iraq, police say. Four devices exploded within minutes of each other, three of them suicide bombs near army checkpoints in and around the troubled town of Hawija, near Tikrit. Some victims were Iraqi soldiers. Insurgents often target local and foreign security forces. A suicide bomb attack was also reported near a police patrol in the Shula district of northern Baghdad. At least 27 people were reported hurt, but no-one is thought to have been killed. The US military reported on Tuesday that two marines had been killed since Sunday in roadside bombs near the western city of Falluja. 'Co-ordinated attacks' The attacks in Hawija began with a roadside blast in the town. Within seven minutes that was followed by suicide car bombings at checkpoints in Bagara and Dibis - towns close to Hawija - and at a checkpoint in Hawija itself. At least 19 people were reported wounded in the blasts. "I was standing some distance from the checkpoint when I heard a big explosion and I was thrown onto the ground," Lt Sadiq Mohammed, 26, who was injured in the Dibis attack, told AP. "This is a terrorist act because real resistance should only target American troops, not Iraqis trying to protect their country." The car bombings appeared to be co-ordinated, police Col Ahmed Hammoud told the Associated Press news agency. Town sealed He said that they were all carried out in a similar way, with the drivers waiting in queues of traffic before blowing themselves up at the checkpoints. A fourth car, which had been packed with explosives and left in a nearby village, was being dealt with by Iraqi troops and US soldiers. Casualties from the attacks were transported to the main hospitals in Hawija and Kirkuk, Yarub al-Sumaidi, a medic in Hawija's general hospital, told AFP news agency. US forces have now sealed the town and Apache helicopters are flying overhead, the agency reported. On 11 May, a suicide bomber struck outside an army recruitment centre in the town killing 32 and wounding 28. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 13:21:55 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 13:21:55 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Iraq's Insurgency Proves Its Staying Power Message-ID: <200506071721.j57HLtj03913@olm.blythe-systems.com> [The Army, which is dealing with the reality of Iraq every day, and not the Bush Regime's fantasyland Iraq, has published this piece on the "politically savvy" resistance.] Gannett News Service via Army Times - June 6, 2005 http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-895732.php Iraq's politically savvy insurgency proves its staying power By John Yaukey The insurgent stronghold of Fallujah fell in November. The parliamentary elections Jan. 30 came and went. Iraq's new elected government took power in April. Each was touted as a major victory against Iraq's insurgents. And yet Iraqi forces, backed by U.S. troops, are now conducting the largest offensive in Iraq since Baghdad fell two years ago. The mission is to root out what has become an insurgency with proven staying power and evolving sophistication especially capable of exploiting political vulnerabilities. May saw a bump in U.S. casualties -- the highest since January -- as insurgents ramped up a car bombing campaign largely responsible for killing 79 U.S. troops and hundreds of Iraqis. So far, more than 1,600 U.S. forces have been killed in Iraq, and American taxpayers have spent more than $190 billion - with no end in sight. Experts say the insurgents will get a major opportunity at creating political chaos this summer and fall as Iraq's recently assembled constitutional committee attempts to draft the document that will guide Iraq to a second round of elections at year's end. "The real struggle for power in Iraq is going to be over the constitution," said David Phillips, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of "Power Sharing in Iraq." It will define the country's future for decades to come." The troops' view For the 138,000 American troops in Iraq, the rebounding insurgency and the looming constitutional drama raises once again the question of how much longer the campaign will last as some units are facing third tours of duty. But then, experts say, that's the question the insurgents want lingering. "The insurgents are trying to wage a protracted fight, because they know they can't win a short conflict," said Marine Corps Col. Thomas Hammes, author of an acclaimed book on modern insurgency warfare titled "The Sling and the Stone." "So that raises the question: Can we sustain the force long enough for our side to win?" President Bush and Pentagon officials have said they're determined to make sure Iraqis can secure their own country before U.S. troops leave. That might explain why hopeful talk of significant troop reductions by year's end - that began circulating at Pentagon briefings shortly after the successful Jan. 30 elections - has disappeared. Vice President Dick Cheney recently predicted on CNN that fighting in Iraq should end before the administration leaves in 2009. If U.S. forces leave that year, the war will have lasted six years. Dangerous summer Ever since the transfer of sovereignty from American civil authorities to the Iraqis on June 28, the insurgents have struck especially hard at political targets. The delay in forming the interim government in the late spring gave the insurgents the opening for the current wave of violence that has lasted weeks. For the upcoming constitutional process to succeed, Iraq's majority ruling Shiites must negotiate power sharing with the Sunni Arabs, now fueling much of the insurgency, and the Kurds who want to retain their autonomy. Not yet fully under way, the constitutional process could drag on for nine months if all the time-extension provisions are enacted. If the 101-member constitutional committee cannot produce a draft by August, it can seek a six-month extension. But American commanders clearly would prefer the Iraqis complete the task sooner rather than later. The sooner the post-constitutional elections can be held, the sooner the Sunnis, who stayed out of January's elections, can re-enter the political process with the hopeful result of a reduction in violence. If the constitutional process bogs down in debate, or worse, "it will serve as great stage on which to launch sectarian violence," said Thomas Sanderson, with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently said he was encouraged by the political process so far. "The (Shiites) are reaching out to the Sunnis and allowing them to come into the constitutional drafting process in a very constructive and healthy way," Rumsfeld said. "So there's an awful lot good that's happening in that country." Initially, only one member of the 55-member constitutional committee was a Sunni, but the committee was expanded so 18 of the now 101 members are Sunnis. That said, noted Iraq war analyst Anthony Cordesman cautioned against trying to read too much into the early signs of anything in an insurgency. "Insurgencies involve patterns that can play out over years and sometimes decades," Cordesman writes in the early draft of his book, "Iraq's Evolving Insurgency." "It is easy to claim trends towards security, but generally far more difficult to make them valid or real." From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 13:23:18 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 13:23:18 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Tunnel Vision in Iraq Message-ID: <200506071723.j57HNIM03994@olm.blythe-systems.com> Electronic Iraq - June 7, 2005 http://electroniciraq.net/news/1994.shtml Tunnel Vision By Tom Fox "Iraqis always seem to have lots of guns in their houses." A U.S. Army colonel was making reference to how prevalent gun ownership is in Iraq. We were meeting with him in his office in the Green Zone. Draped across his high back chair was an ornate leather holster with his service revolver. "Our young technician can barely keep up with the demand." The colonel described the work of a sergeant who is an expert in constructing artificial limbs. The colonel said proudly that no one in Iraq has the equipment or expertise that this young man has. Yet there did not seem to be an acknowledgement of why there is such a demand for artificial limbs in Iraq at this time. "The Iraqi NGOs we work with have a lot of trouble developing a level of trust between them." He noted that when his office organizes a conference of NGOs in the Green Zone often they don't want to follow the set agenda but need to express their lack of trust for the U.S. military and for each other. Yet he failed to mention the years of totalitarian rule by Saddam followed by two years of anarchy, neither of which would tend to develop trust in any institutions. "All of us took a nine hour seminar on understanding Iraqi culture when we got here a year ago." The colonel said his unit would be going home at the end of the month after a year in Iraq. As is the case with many U.S. military and civilians working in the Green Zone, the colonel said he has never set foot on a street in Baghdad. He has never been inside the home of an Iraqi family nor has he seen any of the historical or cultural sites of the country. It would seem easy to characterize the colonel as hypocritical and bigoted. I am not the greatest judge of character but I kept having an image of him on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon holding up a tube from a roll of paper towels and describing what he saw. We are all finite creatures with a very limited field of vision. But what I do (and it is my sense that the colonel does this also) instead of opening up my field of vision to include things that I don't understand or agree with is to make my field of vision even narrower. "Out of sight, out of mind" is an old saying that seems rather apt in this case. The colonel seemed very confident that the vision of the world he described was an accurate and complete one. And this was true. Within his extremely limited world-view, his vision was indeed clear. But what about the vast universe he was not seeing? What about the vast universe I'm not seeing? How do we all expand our vision to see things we don't want to see? How do we stop putting "out of sight" things we don't agree with? I wish I had an answer but I don't even know where to start. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 13:24:25 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 13:24:25 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Failed Breakout from Abu Ghraib Gulag Sparks Riot Message-ID: <200506071724.j57HOPY04060@olm.blythe-systems.com> excerpted from Abunimah News - June 7, 2005 Agence France Presse - 7 June 2005 Failed breakout at Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq leads to rioting BAGHDAD (AFX) - Reports are only just emerging that rioting erupted in the US-run Abu Ghraib prison on Baghdad's western outskirts on Sunday night, after a detainee tried to escape under the cover of a heavy sandstorm, the US military said. 'The disturbance occurred shortly after a detainee, using the hours of darkness and a heavy sandstorm, was caught trying to escape,' a statement said. 'Detainees in several of the compounds began throwing rocks at the portable light generators and the guards,' it said, adding that the incident occurred on Sunday, shortly before midnight. Four guards and six detainees were injured in the disturbance and treated at the scene. All detainees were accounted for after the disturbance ended, the statement said, without providing further details. In May, three detainees escaped from Abu Ghraib -- the scene of graphic photographs of abuse of Iraqi prisoners by their US warders that made headlines around the world in April last year. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 13:27:50 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 13:27:50 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] NATO to Send More Troops to Afghanistan Message-ID: <200506071727.j57HRop04202@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com NATO to Deploy More Troops in Afghanistan Brussels, Jun 6 (Prensa Latina) The North Atlantic alliance, NATO, will deploy extra troops from Spain, Romania and the Netherlands in Afghanistan to reinforce its peacekeeping forces for the September legislative elections, confirmed diplomats here on Monday. The Dutch government had announced Friday it would deploy a 750-strong marine battalion to northern Afghanistan. Spain and Romania had also come forward with a battalion each, according to NATO sources. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force has around 8,300 troops based in the capital Kabul, north and west. They add to the 18,000-strong US-led force fighting Afghan insurgents in the south and the east. Diplomatic officials recalled NATO had sent additional battalions for last October?s presidential elections. Alliance Strategists believe the Sept. 18 parliamentary polls poses a greater security challenge with some 3,000 candidates registered to stand for election across the country. Mh From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 13:29:08 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 13:29:08 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Venezuela Seizes Israel-Bound Missiles Message-ID: <200506071729.j57HT8h04266@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Venezuela Seizes Israel-Bound Missiles Caracas, Jun 6 (Prensa Latina) The Venezuelan Public Ministry commenced investigation into five Israel-bound missiles being transported in a plane of German airline Lufthansa at the Maiquetia International Airport. On Monday, a communiqu? from the Attorney General's office said the rockets entered the country from Colombia on May 26 to be transported to Tel Aviv, Israel. According to the police, those missiles are used by Mirage and F-16 fighters, and are included in the war armaments of the Colombian Army. Attorney Gilberto Landaeta said an executive of the airline was detained and would appear in court. Members of the General Direction of Intelligence and Prevention Services found the armaments in a container. ecq/wap/jwp From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 13:31:45 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 13:31:45 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Bush Pushes CAFTA at OAS Meeting Message-ID: <200506071731.j57HVjH04451@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Bush Pushes Free Trade with Central America in OAS Assembly Fort Lauderdale, US, Jun 6 (Prensa Latina) US president George W. Bush, pushed today for the approval of the Central American and Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), in spite of the opposition found in the region, including in Washington. Addressing the 35th General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), Bush presented CAFTA as "his country?s commitment with democracy and prosperity of its neighbors", althoush he highlighted the benefits this agreement will bring to US foreign trade. "US exports still face customs barriers today", which would be eliminated by the treaty, said the president, after stressing the Central American market represents 44 million consumers for the US economy. In spite of White House pressures, over the last weeks rejection became more evident from many US legislators, who are afraid the treaty would generate the loss of thousands of US jobs. Republican and Democratic leaders assured several industries and farmers from the US would go bankrupt when they could not compete with products from the South. The parliaments of Costa Rica, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic have not signed onto the project, of which Bush has become one of the main standard-bearers. In his speech before the foreign ministers of 34 member nations of the OAS, Bush said the democratic advances in the hemisphere cannot be considered a fact. "We should take an intelligent decision to ensure the future", argued Bush, although he did not go into details about the interfering proposal pushed by Washington to monitor the governments of the region. The formula was rejected this Monday by Venezuela?s minister of foreign relations, Ali Rodriguez Araque, who in a speech prior to that of the US president assured the OAS should promote democracy and not become an intervening group. ef/et From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 13:32:55 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 13:32:55 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Venezuela Blasts US Meddling in the OAS Message-ID: <200506071732.j57HWtd04518@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Venezuela Rejects OAS Interference by US Fort Lauderdale, US, Jun 6 (Prensa Latina) Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez Araque rejected Monday Washington?s interference in the Organization of American States (OAS), asserting it would violate its statutes. The foreign minister said in his speech at the 35th General Assembly of the regional forum in Florida that the OAS should be promoter of democracy and not an organization for US interference. The United States is boosting a mechanism to monitor democracy in the region, a project strongly rejected by Latin American countries. "They are trying to reform the OAS, including structures that are not stipulated in its statutes," the Venezuelan official reminded. President George W. Bush presented today Washington?s new scheme to the OAS gathering in Fort Lauderdale. Rodriguez Araque said the institution is not authorized to assess democracies in the region. "The people of our countries are those authorized to give opinions about that topic," he asserted. He said establishment of a mechanism of that kind would put the OAS at risk, because it violates its articles 1, 2, 3, and 4, which are in favor of non-interference by member-states in other countries? internal affairs. Rodriguez Araque called to protect not only people?s political and civil rights, but also cultural and social liberties, because poverty and democracy are incompatible, he asserted. mh/arc/rob/mf From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 13:35:48 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 13:35:48 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Uruguay Moves to Investigate Political Disappearances Message-ID: <200506071735.j57HZmG04640@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Uruguayan Officers Tasked to Investigate Political Disappearances Montevideo, Jun 6 (Prensa Latina) Impunity in Uruguay seems to be trembling as President Tabare Vazquez asks Army generals Carlos Diaz and Pedro Barneix to investigate deaths and disappearances during the 1973-1985 dictatorship. Tabare Vazquez approved the entry of Argentine and Uruguayan experts into the Army to investigate the possible burial of remains of murdered political detainees. The issue was confirmed by the former Commission for Peace (2000- 2004), which gathered information from families of the victims and from several current and retired army members. Now the movement has grown among ex-army members and the police, as generals Diaz and Barneix "are collecting very interesting data," the Uruguayan president told a local radio. The first place they entered was the mechanized infantry battalion 13, an area where nine bodies are said to be buried. Teacher Elena Quinteros and Argentine teenager Maria Claudia Irureta Goyena, who was kidnapped while she was pregnant in Buenos Aires in 1976, could be buried there. mh/ecq/obr/mf From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 13:37:53 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 13:37:53 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Minister Denounces Conspiracy against Ecuadoran Economy Message-ID: <200506071737.j57HbrB04816@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Ecuadoran Minister Denounces Conspiracy against the Government Quito, Jun 6 (Prensa Latina) Ecuadoran Economy Minister Rafael Correa denounced a conspiracy against his economic plan both at home and abroad. In his view, the aim of the plot is to generate bad news at the stock markets, attack domestic stability and provoke a price fall of shares and debt actions to the benefit of the share holders of Ecuadoran debt. He added that the share holders of Ecuadoran debt and alleged finance agents are trying to hurt the country's image and secure a speculative purchase of the stocks involved in the foreign debt. Since Correa assumed office, he has clashed with business interests due to the economic changes he has proposed, including giving support to the indigenous population rather than paying the foreign debt. The Minister censured attempts to reform the distribution of funds for social, productive investment and foreign debt reduction (FEIREP) created to invest in expanding production, and the social and educational sectors. He called Congressional attempts to reject the reforms to the Feirep under an alliance between the Social-Christian Party and Patriotic Society parties irresponsible, describing them as obsolete and failed political parties. sus/emw/lgo/jwp From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 13:38:49 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 13:38:49 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] New Protests in Panama against "Reforms" Message-ID: <200506071738.j57HcnE04945@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com New Protests in Panama against "Reforms" Panama, Jun 6 (Prensa Latina) Panamanian social organizations called Monday for new protests against the reforms to the Social Security Fund (CSS), amid an increasing unease in that Central American country. CSS National Defense Front General Secretary Andres Rodriguez said the strike that started May 26 has the objective of bringing the country to a halt to abolish the regulation the government approved. The reformed pension law came into action on June 2, after rapid progress through the legislature after its presentation to the National Assembly on May 18, where the governing party has 43 of the 78 seats. That regulation increased the age for women's retirement to 60, and men?s to 65, to be introduced gradually between 2007-2015. It also increased the amount of money employees have to pay to be able to retire, the monthly amount devoted to salaries, and other measures that include employers' contribution. Negotiations between the government and FRENADESSO, composed of 50 unions and popular organizations, failed Friday because President Torrijos opposed cancellation of the changes approved in the CSS. Those opposing the reform have increased actions such as strikes and road blocks in recent days, while the police intensified repression, including the use of tear gas. sus/iom/obf/jwp From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 13:39:22 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 13:39:22 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Bolivians Demand Nationalization of Oil Message-ID: <200506071739.j57HdNB05007@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Oil Nationalization Key Demand of Massive Demonstration in Bolivia La Paz, Jun 6 (Prensa Latina) The largest demonstration in two decades in Bolivia called Monday for the nationalization of oil. The demonstration totally filled the central plazas San Francisco and the Heroes, overflowing into adjacent streets, and according to veteran reporters, had a magnitude comparable with the welcome for president Hern n Siles Zuazo, with the recovery of constitutionality in 1982. The protest contradicted official and conservative statements on the sole involvement of radical minorities, including neighbours and unionists from El Alto Municipality, along with locals, peasants, miners, teachers, and the middle and high classes. The speakers agreed to go ahead with the protests until their demands, the nationalization of oil and the holding early general and legislative elections, are met. Popular leader Abel Mamani said the people want concrete action, like the nationalization of oil, and conditioned his involvement on open talks with the Church in El Alto, and announced another huge march towards La Paz. After the concentration, groups of demonstrators resumed the siege of the Plaza Murillo, where the police repressed them with tear gas. A television broadcast planned for noon by President Carlos Mesa was canceled in the middle of the disturbances, in which demonstrators broke store windows and car windscreens. Government Conflict Prevention director, Gergorio Lanza, said the capital can only stand the effects of the crisis for another three days: the city is afflicted by fuel and food shortages and road blocks have finally isolated La Paz, and affect another 60 percent of the country. ef/emw/mrs/jwp From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 13:43:03 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 13:43:03 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Cuba Elected to 3-Year Term on ILO Council Message-ID: <200506071743.j57Hh3605251@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Cuba Elected Member of ILO Administrative Council Geneva, Jun 6 (Prensa Latina) Cuba was elected a full member of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Administration Council, for a three-year mandate up to 2008. The elections, held every three years, took place within the framework of the 93rd International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, attended by Cuban Labour Minister Alfredo Morales, who headed the Cuban delegation. The ILO Administrative Council is comprised of 56 full members (28 governmental representatives, 14 workers organizations representatives and 14 employing institutions representatives) plus 66 associate members. Ten of the governmental places are permanently occupied by Germany, Brazil, China, France, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the US. Monday's elections were to elect representatives from another 18 countries. Cuba has been on the Administrative Council for seven three-year periods, six of them as an associate member, and only once as a full member, during the 1987-1990 period. Morales said the election of Cuba reflects a recognition of the Caribbean island's achievements, such as full employment, youth employment, protections for working mothers, aid and social security, attention to the disabled and other areas that have been promoted in the environment of the battle of ideas that the Government has developed to improve the quality of life of all the population. He explained Cuba?s election to this body has a special significance, as it occurred despite several manoeuvres by the US to torpedo the Cuban candidacy and its efforts in several foreign capitals to impede Cuba's election. ef/tac/lma/jwp From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 13:51:12 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 13:51:12 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Cuba Financing Restoration of Hemingway Estate Message-ID: <200506071751.j57HpDA05458@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Cuba Finances Restoration of Havana Hemingway Museum Havana, Jun 6 (Prensa Latina) The President of the National Council of Cultural Heritage (CNPC in Spanish), Marta Arjona, announced today that the Ministry of Culture is financing the restoration of the House-Museum Ernest Hemingway in this capital. In statements to Prensa Latina Arjone, who is also a member of the International Council of Museums and Sites, stressed the advisory work done by a group of architects who, without doing any structural modifications, are currently working on the roof and other parts of the building. Arjona added that since last February, the residence of the Vigia estate (about 8 miles southeast of downtown Havana) is being restored with a budget of $270,000. Last Thursday the estate, located in San Francisco de Paula, where Hemingway lived between 1940 and 1961, was included in the annual list of US historical places which are most at risk of disappearing. This was the first time property outside the US has been added to this inventory. "We do not accept that it be included in that list," stressed the CNPC president, who spoke to Massachusetts Congressman James McGovern to object to the listing. McGovern is the head of the group of US experts collaborating with the CNPC to restore and preserve nearly 1,500 documents belonging to the Hemingway Museum. Regarding the next visit of US specialists to the island to assess the condition of the Vigia estate, Arjona said, "We haven?t been officially notified, and although we are prepared to receive them, the trip would not make any sense, as the US is not paying anything for the work." A crew of the ABC TV network today filmed the restoration work in progress in the San Francisco de Paula estate. Hemingway, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954, found in Cuba sources of inspiration to write some of his most famous works, including "Islands in the Stream" and "The Old Man and the Sea." During his 21-year stay at the Vigia estate, Hemingway received visits from a number of famous movie stars, among them actors Ava Gardner and Gary Cooper. ef/pqj/agv From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 13:52:26 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 13:52:26 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Cuba Expands Reforestation Program Message-ID: <200506071752.j57HqQW05526@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Cuba Expands Reforestation Project Havana, Jun 6 (Prensa Latina) Cuba is one of the few countries in the world with a sustained growth of its forestation, which is now 23.6 percent, reported local press on Monday. Jose Diaz Duque, Vice Minister of Science, Technology and Environment of Cuba, stated that the island increased its forestation with trees of different species by 40,000 hectares (98,842 acres) during 2004. Another achievement of Cuba in preservation of the environment is reduction of contaminant loads by 3.5 percent, something that does not occur in other nations due to pollution. The Cuban eastern province of Holguin, where World Environment Day was celebrated the previous day, was distinguished among the 14 Cuban provinces, as it attained first place in the development of an integral environmental protection program. Reduction of contaminant loads, restoration of soils and the increase of forestation up to 31 percent of its total, are among the achievements motivating the choice of Holguin as host for the 2005 commemoration. tac/ap/jwp From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 13:57:03 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 13:57:03 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Cuban Agent Reveals Posada's Terrorist Instructions Message-ID: <200506071757.j57Hv3U05661@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Cuban Security Agent Discloses Posada Carriles' Terrorist Plans Havana, Jun 6 (Prensa Latina) Percy Francisco Alvarado, an agent of the Cuban State Security who infiltrated US-based terrorist groups for years, asserted Monday he received instructions from Luis Posada Carriles to launch attacks in Havana. Alvarado?s remarks to Juventud Rebelde newspaper coincided with the commemoration of the 44th anniversary of the founding of the Cuban Interior Ministry. Speaking to the paper Francisco Alvarado, who was nicknamed Fraile, said Posada Carriles personally taught him to handle explosives in November 1994. "His idea was that I, as his mercenary pupil, would be able to detonate the explosives. He assured me I would be well paid to set them off in Cuba, where I brought them on November 29," denounced the intelligence operative. Percy Francisco Alvarado was "agent 44" for the Miami-based Cuban-American National Foundation. If he had blown up the Tropicana Nightclub, he might have killed 80 foreign tourists there. Alvarado, also a member of the Interior Ministry, was ordered to analyze the vulnerability of facilities such as thermoelectric stations and refineries, and the headquarters of the Communist Party's Central Committee. "In addition, they told me to bring counterfeit currency to try to destabilize and devastate the domestic economy," the agent said. The counter-revolutionary group also instructed Alvarado to contact so-called dissidents in Havana and to bring them technical equipment for espionage and provide information for further terrorist attacks. sus/ecq/jrr/jwp From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 14:45:04 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 14:45:04 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Pentagon Clamps Down on Recruitment Stats Message-ID: <200506071845.j57Ij4x06857@olm.blythe-systems.com> [The news the Army Times is reporting indicates clearly that there is major rebellion growing in the ranks... all the way up to the officer corps.] Army Times - June 3, 2005 http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-892069.php DoD assumes responsibility for releasing recruiting stats Individual services no longer authorized to announce numbers at beginning of the month By Laura Bailey Times staff writer The Army and Marine Corps, as they struggle with recruiting shortfalls, will no longer announce their monthly recruiting numbers at the beginning of each month. Instead, the Defense Department will approve the release of recruiting statistics for all four services. Normally, each service releases its monthly statistics at the beginning of each month, but a spokesman for Marine Corps Recruiting Command said on Wednesday that he was no longer authorized to do so. In April, the Corps missed its contracting goal by 260 contracts falling 9 percent shy of its goal to enlist 2,971 recruits marking the fourth month in a row that the Corps missed its contracting goal. But whether the Corps was able to turn that around in May will not be known until the Defense Department releases the statistics June 10, said Maj. David Griesmer. The change will ensure consistency and give Pentagon officials time to review the data, Air Force Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said on Wednesday. We just wanted to release all the information at the same time. Its all the numbers at once, instead of one service coming out on this day of the month and another service coming out on another day of the month, Krenke said. Under the old system, the individual service statistics were released before Pentagon leadership could review them, she said. She said the Defense Department will begin releasing recruiting statistics for all of the services and the Guard and reserve, which handled them separately before. But another Pentagon spokesman contacted Marine Corps Times on Friday and said that the Defense Department was not taking over the releasing of the information. Jim Turner said the services will continue to release their own statistics but were merely coordinating the release date for the 10th of each month. Of all the services, the Army is struggling the most to meet its recruiting goals. In April, it made just 58 percent of its active accession mission. Its goal for that month was to ship 6,600 recruits, but only 3,821 recruits shipped up for service. For the Corps, the shortfalls began in January, when it missed its contracting goal for the first time in almost a decade. While the amount of new contracts has fallen short, the Corps shipping goal the number of recruits who actually show up at boot camp each month has not yet suffered. Corps officials have said that as long as the contracting shortages do not continue, the Corps could still make its goals for the year. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 14:48:27 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 14:48:27 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] America's rising religious zealotry Message-ID: <200506071848.j57ImRv06970@olm.blythe-systems.com> [Two items on the galloping influence of Christian fundies in the US.] sent by Sanjoy Mahajan (activ-l) [Not much depth in the article but an important topic. That the topic is widely discussed in the mainstream European newspapers suggests that European public opinion increasingly opposes American values (invading Iraq, cooking the planet, or foisting GM foods on it). One theory mentioned is that other countries have experienced religious conflicts and are suspicious of mixing religion with public policy. It relates to another theory, that in the 17th and 18th centuries England and Holland exported their fundamentalists, telling them: "We've had enough of religious wars. If you want to found a theocracy, do it in the New World." So the Puritans were not fleeing religious persecution, but were fleeing in order to institute religious persecution.-Sanjoy] The Independent - June 7, 2005 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=644838 In God we Trust: America's rising religious zealotry by Andrew Buncombe in Washington Some snapshots of religious zeal in the US: there are churches in Texas where 20,000 worshippers pray every Sunday; Alabama's most senior judge was dismissed for refusing to remove the Ten Commandments from his court; the re-election of George Bush returned with the support of thousands of evangelicals lured to the polls by local laws banning homosexual marriage. Such images leave little doubt about the importance of religion in a country where more than 40 per cent of the population say they regularly attend church. But a survey has underlined the huge gulf between the US and other industrialised countries on the influence of religion in everyday life. Despite the separation of church and state being enshrined in the US constitution, more than 40 per cent of US citizens said religious leaders should use their influence to try to sway policy-makers. In France, by contrast, 85 per cent of people said they opposed such "activism" by the clergy. "These numbers are not surprising," Daniel Conkle, who teaches law and religion at Indiana University, told The Independent. "The US, in separating church and state, has not followed with the notion that it includes a separation of religion and politics. "In other words, it's believed the institutions of church and state should be separate but there has never been a consensus that religious values should somehow be separated from public life or kept private." The survey, carried out for the Associated Press by Ipsos, found that, in terms of the importance of religion to its citizens, only Mexico came close to the US. But unlike in the US, Mexicans were strongly opposed to the clergy being involved in politics an opposition to church influence rooted in their history. The survey which questioned people in the US, Australia, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, South Korea and Spain found that only 2 per cent of people in the US said they did not believe in God. In France and South Korea the number of people who said they were atheists stood at 19 per cent. The survey has again highlighted the gap between the US and Western Europe, where Pope Benedict XVI has complained that growing secularism has left churches empty. It has also reopened the debate among academics as to the reasons for the difference. Some specialists, such as Roger Finke, a sociologist at Penn State University, point to the long history of religious freedom in the US and say it has created a greater supply of options for citizens than in other countries. That proliferation, they argue, has inspired wider observance. "In the United States, you have an abundance of religions trying to motivate Americans to greater involvement. It makes a tremendous difference here," said Mr Finke. Others argue that rejecting religion is a natural result of modernisation and the US is an exception to the trend. And then there are those who argue Europe is an anomaly and that people in modernised countries inevitably return to religion they yearn for tradition. Gregg Easterbrook, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think-tank, said: "By a lot of measures, the US is the most religious of the industrialised nations." In terms of church attendance the US is not exceptional. A survey carried out by the University of Michigan found that, while more than 40 per cent of people in the US said they went to church, in Nigeria the number was 89 per cent and in the Philippines it was about 68 per cent. In South Africa and Poland, the figure stood at 55 per cent. But the US appears to be exceptional among industrialised nations because of the numbers who believe religion should influence policy-makers. One survey respondent, David Black, from Osborne, Pennsylvania, said: "Our nation was founded on Judaeo-Christian policies and religious leaders have an obligation to speak out on public policy, otherwise they're wimps." Experts said many countries, unlike the US, have experienced religious conflicts that have made people suspicious of giving clergy any say in policy. "In Germany, they have a Christian Democratic Party, and talk about Christian values but they don't talk about them in the same way that we do," said Brent Nelsen, from Furman University in South Carolina. *** AP via The New York Times - June 5, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/national/05perry.html Bill-Signing at Religious School Is at Issue By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AUSTIN, Tex., June 4 (AP) - Gov. Rick Perry plans to visit a Christian school on Sunday to sign abortion legislation that drew strong backing from conservative religious groups and, while there, to talk in support of a proposed state constitutional amendment that would forbid gay marriage. The choice of location for the signing, Calvary Christian Academy in Fort Worth, is being praised by conservative Republicans as a major victory. Critics call it inappropriate. "I think it's wrong," said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, which describes itself as a mainstream voice countering the religious right. "As I recall, Jesus threw the money-changers out of the temple," Ms. Miller said, "and I wonder how long it will be before people of faith get fed up with opportunistic political campaigning in their houses of worship." The bill to be signed by Mr. Perry, a Republican in his first full term, requires parental consent for girls younger than 18 to have abortions. The governor will also sign a resolution in support of the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, a proposal that goes before the state's voters in November. Governor Perry said that the church school was a fitting venue for action on both matters. "The two issues talk about values," he said. "A church is an appropriate place to come together and celebrate a victory for the values of the people of Texas." Robert Black, a spokesman for the governor, said the signing would take place not at a pulpit but rather in the school gym. "No one seemed to protest the governor signing a bill at a business or a hospital," Mr. Black said. "It's not a political event. It's a bill-signing." From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 14:54:49 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 14:54:49 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Iraqi Collaborators of US Face Death or Exile Message-ID: <200506071854.j57IsnO07175@olm.blythe-systems.com> [These days, the US doesn't even wait for the last chopper flight out to betray its local collaborators. No wonder they're getting pasted in Iraq! -NY Transfer] The New York Times - June 5, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/international/middleeast/05damascus.html Iraqi Ex-Employees of U.S. Face Death Threats or Exile By KATHERINE ZOEPF DAMASCUS, Syria, June 4--Nashwan Hassan Ahmed's belief in the American mission in Iraq never wavered. Hired fresh out of Baghdad University, he served for 18 months as an interpreter for American forces in Mosul. Former colleagues recall him working bravely and tirelessly, side by side with troops on dangerous nighttime hunts for insurgents, and in the offices and conference rooms where the details of reconstruction projects were hammered out. Nashwan Ahmed, or "Nash" to G.I.'s in Iraq, is stranded in Syria. The days were long, but Mr. Ahmed, now 24, said he did not care, "because I felt that I was trying to help Iraq stand up again, and because I felt I was like a brother to them." By "them," Mr. Ahmed meant the American soldiers he lived with, and who came to call him Nash. He spent mornings with them at the shooting range and evenings playing video games. He learned to like lasagna and root for the Atlanta Braves. Then the threats started. Because of his work with American troops, some Iraqis saw Mr. Ahmed as a collaborator. Mr. Ahmed said his family was harassed and abused, and they moved three times in an effort to hide from insurgents. When Mr. Ahmed begged his American bosses for help, he was told they could do nothing. He said he finally realized that for his family's safety, he would have to leave Iraq. Alone, he crossed the border into Syria in January. Mr. Ahmed is one of a growing group of Iraqis who used to work as interpreters, drivers or cooks for American forces in Iraq but have fled to Syria because the insurgency branded them as traitors. In recent months, Iraqis who are known to have worked with American troops have been killed and kidnapped in large numbers. They were once among the most enthusiastic Iraqi supporters of the American-led invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein. But now, they say, they feel confused and abandoned in a society that, with its ubiquitous banners bearing Syrian Baath Party slogans and huge portraits of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, and his family, reminds them at least superficially of Mr. Hussein's Iraq. Ajmal Khybari, an official in Damascus with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said that though their numbers, in relative terms, are small - perhaps no more than a few hundred - these former American employees represented a highly visible subgroup of the Iraqi refugees who continued to arrive in Syria and Jordan. They bombard American consular officials with their visa requests but, despite their idiomatic English and their reference letters from American commanders, without relatives in the United States, their chances of being admitted are slim. The United States Embassy in Syria often suggests that they apply to the United Nations for refugee status and resettlement, but only a small fraction of Iraqi refugees complete the long registration process. "We've processed 16,600 Iraqi refugees in Syria," Mr. Khybari said. "But let me speak from the heart here. We are really talking about a million refugees living between Syria and Jordan, and the donor community isn't paying any attention to them. The problem is growing, because Iraq continues to be a refugee-producing country." At the time of the Iraqi election in late January, officials with the International Organization for Migration estimated that there were about 400,000 Iraqi refugees living in Syria. The Syrian government now puts the figure at closer to 700,000. The Iraqis, for their part, say they continue to hope that Syria is a temporary stop. Some of them seem bewildered to learn that, no matter how good their relationships with their American bosses were, there is no mechanism to help them. Binyamin Shamoon, 36, who came to Damascus in August 2004, said he quit his job as a laundry worker at an American base in Baghdad after he received an anonymous letter that contained a threat to bomb his house. The letter demanded only that he give up his job, but Mr. Shamoon said he did not feel safe until he brought his family to Syria. "We would like to go to the U.S.," he said. "But there is no program that helps us. This seems strange to me. It's because of our work with the Americans that we had to flee our country." American soldiers returning from Iraq say they often worry about the safety of their Iraqi colleagues, but have no way to help them. Erik Schiemann, 27, a former infantry captain with the 101st Airborne Division, said he had been sending e-mail to Mr. Ahmed, his interpreter in Mosul, with information about community colleges in the United States, in the hopes that Nash might one day get a student visa. "There's no other way for us to really bring him to the States, or help him with visas," Mr. Schiemann said. "I think the best thing I can do is to keep in touch with him and to try to help him on his future path." "He's just a great guy," Mr. Schiemann said of Mr. Ahmed. "Everyone in our company knew him as Nash. Sometimes we'd have missions at night, very dangerous stuff, and our troops are out there with body armor. And Nash would be right there with the guys, totally unarmed, but working side by side with them." At least twice in the past, the United States has made special arrangements to assist Iraqis whose American affiliations have brought them into danger. During the 1990's, more than 12,000 Iraqis, many of them former soldiers, were brought to the United States as refugees. Separately, in 1996, several thousand Iraqis, mainly Kurds who had worked for American aid groups in Iraq were airlifted to Guam and then resettled in the United States. The situation is different now, said a State Department official in Washington who would speak only on the condition of anonymity. "We never had anything to do with governing Iraq in the past," the official said, explaining that Mr. Hussein's government presented such a certain danger that special measures were required then to protect Iraqis with American connections. The official added that while the department has not specifically studied the issue of Iraqi contractors who have become refugees, in the normal course of events, the United Nations would likely refer some of them for resettlement in the United States. However, the process can take several years. Though the total number of Iraqi refugees in Syria and Jordan may be approaching a million, as Mr. Khybari suggested, it is difficult to estimate exactly how many used to work with American forces. Samer Zora Borka, 28, who worked as an interpreter for the American military in Baghdad, said he knew at least 15 former employees who were living in a Damascus suburb. Mr. Borka said many Iraqis in his situation felt anger and disappointment at their former employers, but that he tried to avoid such feelings. "The American soldiers love to use the word family," he said. "They kept saying it. About the unit, I mean. They'd say, 'We're family, we work as a family.' " Mr. Borka smiled and added, "And I guess we used to believe them." Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 14:55:33 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 14:55:33 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Doctors Warn of Cholera Risk in Iraq Message-ID: <200506071855.j57ItXR07273@olm.blythe-systems.com> IRIN via Reuters - May 26, 2005 http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/ed66c7045a77898e3e57da2f67366551.htm IRAQ: Doctors alert for a possible cholera outbreak in summer season BAGHDAD, 25 May (IRIN) - Health experts in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, warned of a possible cholera outbreak this summer, saying they have seen an increase in cases so far this year and called for urgent action to prevent it from spreading. Dr Duraid al-Khatoon, a paediatrician at the Children's Teaching Hospital in the capital, told IRIN that as of January 2005 at least one case of cholera in children has been reported every day and that 90 percent of the cases were living in suburbs where sewage treatment is non-existent. He added that last year less than 10 cases were reported by the hospital monthly, representing a three-fold increase in the disease. "We have entered the summer season and the water and sewage treatment in Baghdad still requires urgent repair. Children are developing cholera from these sources and all my patients are being told not to drink water unless it has been boiled and to keep children from playing in streets," al-Khatoon added. Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal disease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. A person can become infected by consuming water or food contaminated with the bacterium. Common sources of infection are raw or poorly cooked seafood, raw fruit and vegetables or other food that has been contaminated during preparation or storage. Dr Abdul Jalil, director of the country's Infectious Diseases Control Centre (IDSC) told IRIN that the loss of large amounts of fluids can rapidly lead to severe dehydration causing death. Sometimes, in serious cases, death can occur within three to four hours if the patient is not adequately treated. He added that had been only two fatal cholera cases in Iraq since 2003. Jalil highlighted the last cholera outbreak in August 2003, when 187 cases were reported in the southern city of Basra, because of poor sewage and water treatment. "Many suburbs of the capital still have poor sewage treatment that can lead to contamination of food. Our water is not treated properly and the government should deal with it because a healthy population means a healthy country. The Ministry of Public Works [MoPW] is moving slowly to solve this problem and it's affecting the health of Iraqis," Jalil added. Local officials told IRIN that Baghdad still has old sewage and water pipes which haven't been repaired. The pipes often run beside each other and lack of electricity has caused water to be pumped at low pressure, causing sewage to seep into the fresh water delivery system. Reconstruction in the country has been hampered by insecurity as Coalition forces and Iraqi troops and police battle insurgents in the centre of the country. The World Health Organization (WHO) in Iraq is working in partnership with the Ministry of Health (MoH) to prevent another cholera outbreak in the country by distributing tablets for water purification and prevention projects in the suburbs of the capital. Omar Rubaie, a senior official from the Ministry of Municipality and Works (MoMW), told IRIN that insurgency had delayed the completion of their work, following attacks on water pipes and general insecurity. "Insurgency should be better tackled so that we can work rapidly and with safety and then services can be offered easily to Iraqi people," Rubaie added. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 14:58:44 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 14:58:44 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Downing St Memo Slowly Trickles into Mainstream Media Message-ID: <200506071858.j57Iwi607384@olm.blythe-systems.com> LINKS sent by Shanti Renfrew - June 7, 2005 AfterDowningStreet.org - June 6, 2005 http://www.afterdowningstree.org The Downing Street Minutes are slowly beginning to show up in the U.S. "mainstream" media: AfterDowningStreet.org Co-Founder Steve Cobble on C-SPAN's Washington Journal on June 4, 2005. http://www.dembloggers.com/story/2005/6/4/91722/14702 Chair of Republican Party Put at a Loss by Downing Street Minutes (MSNBC, June 5, 2005) http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=50 Bush Lies Should Get Him Tossed Out (The Capital Times, June 3, 2005) http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=46 Protest Draws Attention to Memo (St. Petersburgh Times, June 4, 2005) http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=39 Administration's Offenses Impeachable (Bangor Daily News, Maine, June 3, 2005) http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=35 But much is still being said only outside the "mainstream". Stop the Next War Now! http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=51 A Lie of Historic Proportions http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=49 Teach-In on War Turns to Demand for Truth http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=48 From Watergate to Downing Street: Lying for War http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=47 Downing Street Memo Could Touch Bolton Confirmation http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=45 What's Up With the Downing Street Memo? http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=44 Follow the Memo: Can Redford and Hoffman Play the Entire Blogosphere in the Downing Street Memo Movie? http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=42 Memo to Mainstream Media http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=40 White House Declines to Dispute Downing Street Memo http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=38 Sore Throat http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=37 The Real Lessons of Watergate http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=34 Catch these upcoming radio shows: Catch David Swanson on Outrage Media on WGBN in Freeport NY, June 6, 9:30 p.m. ET. http://www.outragenation.com/ Catch Bonifaz on the Bernie Ward Show, KGO Radio San Francisco, June 6, 10 p.m. PT. http://www.kgoam810.com/complexshowdj.asp?DJID=3284 Catch Bonifaz on the Lizz Brown Show, June 7, 8 a.m. CT. http://www.lizzbrown.com/ Creative Posters and Flyers Help Spread Word: Members of the AfterDowningStreet.org coalition have produced and contributed 15 highly creative posters and flyers. Print some out, make copies, and spread them around your part of the world: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownload&cid=2 In Solidarity, David Swanson http://www.afterdowningstreet.org david at davidswanson.org From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 15:00:00 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 15:00:00 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] French Fried Friedman Message-ID: <200506071900.j57J01D07469@olm.blythe-systems.com> GregPalast.com - June 2, 2005 http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=434&row=0 French fried Friedman by Greg Palast The Nouvelle Globalizer Vicente Fox got a well-deserved boot in the derriere for saying Mexicans come to America for taking jobs "not even Blacks want to do." But Thomas Friedman earns plaudits and Pulitzers for his column which today announces that East Indians are taking jobs the French are too lazy to do ["A Race to the Top," New York Times, June 3]. His fit of racial profiling was motivated by his pique over France's rejection of the globalizers' charter for corporate dominance known as the European Constitution. It's not the implicit racism of Friedman's statement which is most irksome, it's his ghastly glee that "a world of benefits they [Western Europeans] have known for 50 years is coming apart," because the French and other Europeans "are trying to preserve a 35-hour work week in a world where Indian engineers are ready to work a 35-hour day." He forgot to add, "and where Indian families are ready to sell their children into sexual slavery to survive." Now, THERE'S a standard to reach for. In his endless series of pukey peons to globalization, Friedman promises that free trade, an end of regulation, slashing government welfare, and privatization of industry will lead to an economic nirvana. Yet all he and his globalization clique can point to as the free market's accomplishment is the murderous competition between workers across borders to cut their wages for the chance to work in the new digital sweatshops. Friedman praises the New India, freed of the shackles of Old India's socialist welfare state. I've seen the New India: half a billion people in dirt huts supporting a tiny minority's right to shop in air- conditioned malls. It is a Fritz Lang film in Hindi. There is, of course, a hopeful, growing India where the much-heralded cyberwork is based. But, Mr. Friedman, please note these brains for hire are found in Karnataka and Kerala, states whose cussed adherence to social welfare makes them more French than France and nothing like Thatcherized dog-eat-dog Britain or Reaganized America. The computer wizards of Bangalore (in Karnataka) and Kerala are the products of fully funded state education systems where, unlike the USA, no child is left behind. A huge apparatus of state-owned or state- controlled industries, redistributionist tax systems, subsidies of necessities from electricity to food, tight government regulation, and affirmative action programs for the lower castes are what has created these comfortable refuges for Oracle and Microsoft. And the successful Indian states, unlike the dreadful free-market Uttar Pradesh, have labor unions so tough they make the French CGT look like a luncheon club of baguette biters. A few years ago, I dropped in on a fishing village in Kerala in Southern India. Most fisherman worked from motorless dugout log boats. Their language is Malayalam, but a large banner slung between two cocoanut trees announced in English, "WordPerfect applications class today." After they brought in the catch, the locals practiced programming on cardboard replicas of keyboards. What made this all possible was not capitalist competitive drive (there was no corporate "entrepreneur" in sight) but the state's investment in universal education and the village's commitment to development of opportunity, not of a lucky few, but for the entire community. The village was 100% literate, 100% unionized, and 100% committed to sharing resources through a sophisticated credit union finance operation. This was the communal welfare state at its best. Microsoft did not build the schools for programmers-- the corporation only harvested what the socialist communities sowed. The economist Amartya Sen won the Nobel Prize in 1998 for predicting that Southern India, with its strong communalist social welfare state, would lead the economic advance of South Asia--and do so without the Thatcherite sleight-of-hand of pretending that riches for the few equates to progress for the many. When I asked the fishermen on their way to programming lessons what the West could do to encourage their efforts, they did not suggest privatizing Kerala's social security system. Rather--and this was before the Seattle demonstrations of 1999 brought the World Trade Organization to the West's attention--they called for the abolition of the WTO and greater protection for their wooden fishing fleet against the foreign factory boats marauding in their waters. With protective trade barriers, they could do as the US did for a hundred years: build up local resources and industry that creates the infrastructure of growth. And the programmers themselves do not dream, Mr. Friedman, of stealing work from indolent Frenchmen or slothful Seattle geeks. Indians are not in love with the new method of braindrain by satellite. They would hope for the opportunity to write code in their own languages for their own industries. Friedman ends with the typical globalizer's warning that, "it's a bad time for France and friends to lose their appetite for hard work," or they will lose their jobs to Indians and Chinese willing to work for noodles. What Friedman means is that the French should give up their taste for old age pensions, universal health care, top-quality public education, protection of their skies and waters, and all those things we used to call advances but now, according to the Friedman world order, stand in the way of progress. It is too bad that the Times' opinion columns have not been outsourced to India. Were it so, a Keralite might explain to Friedman that human advances are measured not by our willingness to crawl lower and lower to buy ourselves a job from Bill Gates, or by counting the number of Gap outlets in Delhi, but by our success in protecting and nurturing liberte, egalite, and fraternite among all humanity. [Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, THE BEST DEMOCRACY MONEY CAN BUY which contains his investigation of globalization, "Sell the Lexus, Burn the Olive Tree." Subscribe to Palast's columns at www.GregPalast.com.] From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 15:03:14 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 15:03:14 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] London, Madrid Demos to Demand US Extradite Posada Message-ID: <200506071903.j57J3EI07632@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com March Planned in Madrid to Demand US Extradite Posada Madrid, Jun 7 (Prensa Latina) A solidarity with Cuba march will take place next Thursday in front of the US embassy in Madrid, in order to demand the extradition of Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela. Organizers are spreading a document, which will be read in the protest march, denouncing the US government?s maneuvers to protect the mastermind behind the mid-air explosion of a Cubana airplane with 73 people on board off the coast of Barbados, as well as other acts of terror. They requested all friendship organizations to create initiatives, not only for the June 9 rally, but to run a campaign to extradite the criminal to the South American nation so he is tried and condemned there. Organizers will also insist on the release of five Cubans imprisoned in United States for trying to hinder terrorist actions against the island. The demonstration will condemn the media silence the Spanish and European press have maintained on the Posada Carriles case and the public denouncements the Cuban government has done about this issue. The rally will be attended by all members of the capital?s solidarity and friendship organizations and those from autonomic communities within the country. mh/iff/Lma/mf *** sent by Cort Greene Hands Off Venezuela - June 6, 2005 http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/bush_give_up_terrorists060605.htm Bush: Give up the terrorists! By Hands Off Venezuela London Protest Outside the US Embassy (Grosvenor Sq, London) Monday 13th June 4-7pm "America has a message for the nations of the world: If you harbor terrorists, you are terrorists. If you train or arm a terrorist, you are a terrorist. If you feed a terrorist or fund a terrorist, you're a terrorist, and you will be held accountable."-George W. Bush, 21st November 2001 Cuban-Venezuelan Luis Posada is wanted for blowing up an airliner in 1976, killing 73 people. He was arrested last month in the US, which is refusing to hand him over to Venezuela, where he escaped from jail. His partner in crime, Orlando Bosch, was given a presidential pardon by Bush the Elder and now lives in Miami, where they have named a street after him. In Colombia this year a total of seven US soldiers (including a colonel) have been arrested for, between them, selling ammunition to right-wing paramilitaries and attempting to smuggle cocaine into the US. Before the Colombian judiciary could blink, they were whisked out of the country to prevent further embarrassment and have not yet been charged with any crime. Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada used to be President of Bolivia, before he ordered the massacre of peaceful protesters in 2003 and fled to Miami to escape the furious backlash. Bolivians want him tried for crimes against humanity, but that doesn't seem likely while he's protected by the US government, who immediately granted him political asylum. Notice a pattern? The problem for Bush is that these cases all reveal the ugly underside of US foreign policy in Latin America. Declassified FBI documents prove Posada was a CIA agent (specialising in explosives) while also freelancing for the Las Vegas mafia. After escaping Venezuelan jail in 1985 he worked for Oliver North supplying arms to the US-backed Contras in their war against the left-wing Sandinista government in Nicaragua. His terrorist career continues in Cuba (where he had been a policeman under the Batista dictatorship) with a string of hotel bombings during an international youth festival in 1997, resulting in several injuries and the death of an Italian tourist. In an interview with the New York Times the following year Posada practically boasted about this terrorism. He was part of the infamous Operation Condor, which co-ordinated right-wing military dicatorships in the region for the US government, and has tried to assassinate Castro at least twice: once in Caracas in 1971 (while head of DISIP, the Venezuelan political police) and again in 2000 in Panama, where he served four years in jail before being pardoned by the outgoing president (who now lives in Florida). On Monday 13th June, there will be an immigration hearing in El Paso, Texas, to decide Posada's fate. The case has become a major headache for George Bush, as Posada is hailed as a hero amongst the rich right-wing Castro-hating Miami Cubans who form a key component of his (and especially his brother's) base of support. However, refusal to extradite Posada will clearly make a mockery of the whole "War on Terror". Posada is a 77-year-old man who has lead a lifetime of terrorism directed against progressive movements in Latin America. The embarrassing fact that this terror was in line with US foreign policy and supported by the US government doesn't make harbouring him any less hypocritical. Join the international outrage over these double-standards and protest outside the US embassy in London on this day from 4pm to 7pm. Music, food and an open-mic, with speakers from Hands Off Venezuela, Bolivia Solidarity Campaign, Colombia Solidarity Campaign and others. Pass it on! www.handsoffvenezuela.org www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk www.boliviasc.org.uk From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 15:04:17 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 15:04:17 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Manila Protest Demands Extradition of Posada Message-ID: <200506071904.j57J4HD07696@olm.blythe-systems.com> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu Filipino Protestors Demand Extradition of Posada Carriles Havana, June 7 (AIN) In a demonstration in front of the US embassy in the capital city of Manila, protestors in the Philippines demanded the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela. Demonstrators burnt US flags, blocked main thoroughfares and shouted slogans against US President Bush in open rejection of US tolerance in the case of the terrorist. Posada Carriles has admitted his involvement in the bombing of Cuban tourist facilities and is wanted in the 1976 bombing of a Cubana airliner that claimed 73 lives. During the protest rally, participants lied down in the street feigning death to symbolize the victims of the aircraft bombing and of other terrorist actions against Cuba. Venezuela's extradition request for Posada Carriles has made headline news in the Philippines. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 15:05:36 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 15:05:36 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] US Has No Legal Alternative to Handing Over Posada Message-ID: <200506071905.j57J5al07801@olm.blythe-systems.com> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu No Legal Way Out for the US But to Turn in Posada Havana, June 7 (AIN) Impunity can only by granted to Posada illegitimately, commented a noted Cuban legal expert, speaking on the extradition of terrorist Posada Carriles from the US to Venezuela. There is no legal way out for the US government, the attorney said Lawyer Rodolfo Davalos pointed out that all legal documents - ranging from the 1981 Inter American Convention on Extradition executed in Caracas, to any bilateral or unilateral judicial instruments signed in the Americas - grant Venezuela a priority claim in the extradition of the criminal. The lawyer mentioned other UN legal instruments against terrorism, such as UN Resolution 1373 passed by the Security Council in September 2001. This resolution specifies that all countries must provide other nations the greatest amount of assistance in connection with criminal proceedings relating to terrorist acts. The Cuban jurist commented that the US government's decision to reject a petition for the preventive arrest of Posada Carriles has stirred up considerable concern. Davalos pointed out that considering the long list of legal violations committed by the US "we cannot dismiss the possibility of the 'miraculous emergence' of a new state demanding the transfer of Posada to be judged for a real or even made up crime in order to supersede Venezuela's right to try the international criminal." "A just and public trial would be prevented if something like that happens," he said. And at the same time the Bush administration will try to prevent revelations about ties with Miami-based rightwing organizations, particularly the relation between the US government and Posada. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 15:07:01 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 15:07:01 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Brazilians Demand End to US Blockade, Release of Cuban 5 Message-ID: <200506071907.j57J71107872@olm.blythe-systems.com> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu Brazilians Demand End to US Blockade and Release of Cuban Five Havana, June 7 (AIN) Brazilian delegates to the 4th International Culture and Development Congress said on Monday in Havana that they will continue their fight against Washington?s blockade of Cuba and for the release of the five Cubans held as political prisoners by the US. The Brazilians paid a visit to the Cuban Friendship Institute and affirmed their ties with the Cuban people. Maria Shirley dos Santos, member of the Sao Paulo Committee in Support of the Cuban Five, noted that the island is a home to the world?s revolutionaries and that humanity?s highest value is that of solidarity. Among songs and verses, singers Beth Carvalho and Tunai said the fight against terrorism should be universal. They denounced the United States for protecting the fugitive terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, one of the masterminds behind the bombing of a Cuban airliner on October 6, 1976 killing all 73 people on board. Cuban actress Corina Mestre, singers of the new song movement Augusto Blanco, and Jesus del Valle (Tatica) and Carlos Ruiz de la Tejera quoted Jose Marti, Carilda Oliver Labra, Dulce Maria Loynaz, Vinicius de Moraes o Thiago de Melo to express the mutual affection. Among the Brazilian visitors are actress Leticia Spiller, from the soap opera Esplendor; Cecilia Conde representatives of the Culture Secretariat in the state of Rio de Janeiro and sociologist Teodoro Buarque de Hollanda. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 15:13:51 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 15:13:51 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Bolivians Skeptical of Mesa Resignation Offer Message-ID: <200506071913.j57JDpS08025@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com * Bolivia's Opposition Skeptical of President's Offer to Resign * Bolivian Brass on the Fence while Masses Roar * Chronology of Bolivian Political Crisis Bolivia's Opposition Skeptical of President's Offer to Resign La Paz, Jun 7 (Prensa Latina) Bolivia?s President Carlos Mesa has submitted again his resignation to Congress, which is pondering where and when to meet to decide on the country?s future government. However, opposition leaders are doubtful over Mesa?s announcement, recalling that on March 7 he also presented his resignation to have the legislative house reject it a few hours later, a maneuver seen as a political gambling to stay in power and try to stall social protests. Congressman Evo Morales, who heads the opposition Movement toward Socialism (MAS, in Spanish) that is the main motor behind the protests, warned that Mesa?s resignation is only half believable because at no time did he mention it was irrevocable. Morales stressed that to make people believe the heads of both houses of Congress, Hormando Vaca Diaz and Mario Cossio, should also resign and let the Supreme Court president Eduardo Rodriguez take the presidential office and call for elections before the end of the year. Overwhelmed by mass demonstrations in demand or constitutional reforms and nationalization of the oil and natural gas industries, Mesa told national television late last night that ?this is as far as I can go?. He had taken office 20 months ago after his predecessor Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada was also driven out of office, also by massive protests over control of Bolivia?s natural reserves. Congress leader Vaca Diaz called for a meeting Tuesday to elect Mesa?s successor. He?s next in the line of succession, followed by Cossio, who?s the president of the House of Deputies. Magistrate Rodriguez is third in the line of power and the only official with legal right to call for new elections. In his remarks, Vaca Diaz indicated alternative venues for lawmakers to meet were being considered, including Sucre and Santa Cruz, massive demonstrations had forced last week a congressional debate on constitutional reform to shut down. Mesa was forced to flee his office Monday as protesters threatened to overwhelm the police force guarding the Quemado presidential palace. The Catholic Church presented itself yesterday as mediator in the political crisis hitting the country, Latin America?s poorest, but without much success. The opposition as well as social and union leaders are protesting against the growing participation of foreign companies in the national economy, especially controlling the country?s vast gas reserves, second largest after Venezuela?s. The current wave of protests broke out after Congress passed a bill that opposition, social and union leaders uphold will grant foreign transnationals with more power over Bolivia?s natural resources. Some 80,000 people, including Quechua and Aymara Indians, farmers, miners and unionists surrounded the presidential palace on Monday and the nearby congressional building to demand a transformation of government. mh *** Bolivian Brass on the Fence while Masses Roar La Paz, Jun 7 (Prensa Latina) Protests and other problems continue Tuesday in Bolivia, though President Carlos Mesa has even offered to resign. Meanwhile, Evo Morales, leader of the MAS (Movimiento al Socialismo) Movement, warned the protests that began May 16 will go on until demands for the nationalization of hydrocarbons and a constituent assembly are met. Abel Mamani, president of the Federation of Neighborhood Boards in El Alto municipality, confirmed La Paz will witness a new demonstration similar to Monday?s, considered the country?s largest ever in two decades. Mamani said he suspects the presidential offer to leave -the third in three months- could be a move to disperse the population, and reiterated protests will continue even under the interim president who could replace Mesa. Morales, Mamani, and the executive secretary of Bolivia?s Workers Union (COB), Jaime Solares, rejected the possibility that Mesa will be replaced either by Congress President Hormando Vaca Diez or Chamber of Deputies? Chairman Mario Cossio. Analysts agree the current crisis would worsen were either Vaca Diez or Cossio -linked to Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada?s past regime- to assume the presidency. Meanwhile, Evo Morales urged Congress to hold the session in this city and, like the rest of social leaders, rejected Vaca Diez? proposal that protests are suspended. mh/dig/mrs/mf *** Chronology of Bolivian Political Crisis La Paz, Jun 7 (Prensa Latina) Bolivian President Carlos Mesa offered his resignation after one year and seven months in power, amidst protests led by indigenous, union, farmers and social groups. Prensa Latina News Agency provides a chronology of the most important events marking Mesa?s 19-month presidential term: -October 17 2004: Hounded by a critical social and political crisis and the lack of support from parties within the government coalition, former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada presented his resignation to Congress; -October 18: Sanchez de Lozada sent a letter to Congress to ratify his resignation and fled to Miami. Then Vice President Carlos Mesa was sworn in as new Bolivian leader. Sanchez de Losada escaped from the country amid social turmoil leaving 80 dead; -October 19: The Army backed President Carlos Mesa, who postponed the designation of his cabinet and vowed to form it with people alien to political parties; -October 22: Mesa postponed the appointment of a key Hydrocarbon Minister, saying he "needs more time" to reach "the greatest possible consensus" on the person who will take the post; -October 23: The Bolivian president named chemical engineer Alvaro Rios Roca new Mining and Hydrocarbon minister; -October 24: The World Bank stated Bolivia?s gas export project should move forward; -December 30: The government announced fuel increases, which the general population strongly condemned. Opposition and coca farmers? leader Evo Morales called for early elections. Surveys indicated Mesa?s rating were high but Congress was controlled by traditional parties and regional social movements; -March 6 2005: Mesa announced to Congress that he would resign, and held Morales and Abel Mamani responsible for the environment of uncertainty following the announcement of road blockages and demonstrations; -May 1: Mesa?s rating plunged six points (65 percent) in main cities, according to the Apoyo firm survey; -May 2: New demonstrations in favor of hydrocarbon nationalization included workers, shopkeepers and farmers protesting in La Paz and El Alto, who condemned pressures from transnationals and the government; -May 3: The Chamber of Deputies debated Senate?s reforms to the hydrocarbon law, amid strikes demanding to this industry?s nationalization; -May 5: A front made up of farmers and indigenous organizations denounced that the oligarchy from eastern Santa Cruz had promoted secession and confrontation; -May 5: The administration turned down Attorney General Pedro Gareca?s ruling to try Mesa and Hydrocarbon Minister Guillermo Torres; -June 3: La Paz faced a lack of bread, meat and fuel, due to effects from protests calling for a Constituent Assembly and the hydrocarbon nationalization; -June 3: Demonstrators gathered in front of the Army Joint Chief of Staff and asked General Marcelo Antezana to oust Mesa; -June 5: Mesa requested the Catholic Church?s mediation in the social and political crisis; -June 6: El Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement toward Socialism, MAS) supported the proposal to advance elections to resolve the domestic plight. It said people?s demands should be met; -June 6: Social protests forced Mesa to resign but he will remain president until Congress analyzes his resignation; mh/ecq/ocs/mh From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 15:17:14 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 15:17:14 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] News from Cuban Conference on Culture & Development Message-ID: <200506071917.j57JHEd08142@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com * Scholar Highlights Need for a "Culture for Peace" * Mexican Writer Proposes Radical Redefining of Culture * Cuban Culture Congress Gives Minorities Voice Scholar Highlights Need for a "Culture for Peace" Havana, Jun 7 (Prensa Latina) Mexican ethnologist Juan Ba?uelos stressed here today the need to rethink the concept of culture from a relation between peoples supported by ethics. Participant in the 4th International Congress on Culture and Development, being held at Havana?s Convention Palace -with the attendance of personalities from the 5 continents- called on to support, in the first session, the struggle of the excluded and alienated. He pointed there is no peace in Mexico, capitalism is rampant and Chiapas has become a state to essay an ecological tourism inside the reality of the Puebla Plan-Panama, by transforming 60 million persons into maquilas. Addressing the panel of Cultural Diversity, he affirmed the right to truth has been violated by his country?s government while the causes and those responsible have not been investigated, and demanded an effective and serious research into the issue. Ba?uelos insisted on the need to rethink the world from a culture for peace and human emancipation point of view and recalled that idea, from the Mayan perspective, supposes a deep synthesis of what goes on in the region, where language means freedom, the freedom of naming the world and create it again. Each people -he said- lives sustained by myths which are in the roots of its survival. The myths -he insisted- are not fables nor fantasies, but the inventory of humanity. On his part, professor Marcos Roitman affirmed a wide vocabulary is necessary to designate the world, to understand and explain it. According to him, the youth handles every time less vocabulary, reducing its capacity to understand the world and have led them to assume life as we are living it. In the field of social sciences -he pointed out- nine out of 10 concepts are redefined from the United States and that is very serious because it serves it to enunciate its hegemonic interests. If one has no words to describe the world -he reflected-, others will do it for us and we won?t be able to face the challenge. "Words like globalization, debt and others are manipulated by imperialism according to its egotistical plans". Roitman insisted that "we cannot let others build our debates and decide our agendas for us. We should rely on our logic because, if not, terrorism will define them for us." Another speaker, Luis Fernando Sarmiento, representative of the Regional Center for Book Development for Latin America and the Caribbean, remembered that centuries ago the German city of Strasbourg became a first-line scenario when Johannes Guttenberg designed the mimeograph. It was an important leap after the invention of writing, he recalled. With that invention the cultural industry was founded, the impact of the printing press became a detonant for the social and cultural movement of the great masses. After stressing that diversity generates changes in everything it touches, he added the contents with the most impact are those based in a market strategy. The state?s role is important -he affirmed- if conditions for the survival of the cultural industry are to be created. Sarmiento concluded he is convinced that the existence of those industries gives way to the expansion of culture, although he warned about the dangers of piracy and the violations of author rights. sus/ef/jjs/ag *** Mexican Writer Proposes Radical Redefining of Culture Havana, Jun 7 (Prensa Latina) Professor, writer and researcher Pablo Gonzalez Casanova, former president of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) said it is necessary to redefine culture from a radical and deep perspective. Gonzalez Casanova is participating in the 4th International Congress on Culture and Development opened Monday at Havana International Conference Center with the participation of 426 delegates and representatives of international organizations from 39 countries. The Mexican writer told Prensa Latina that the proposed redefinition is already seen in Cuba in contrast with the intolerable, unfair, repressive and excluding policies that the imperialism is imposing to the world. The writer considers that ?the battle of ideas and culture is our main possibility to free from the mental chains imposed by media control.? Gonzalez Casanova said he was optimistic about future results of the meeting, whose slogan is ?think of the world from a cultural viewpoint.? Cuban poet Cintio Vitier greeted the delegates with the message ?unity means diversity.? mh/ima/ag/mf *** Cuban Culture Congress Gives Minorities Voice Havana, Jun 7 (Prensa Latina) Minorities excluded by neoliberalism and capital like landless peasants, strikers and marginalized sectors will have their voice heard in the ongoing 4th International Congress on Culture and Development taking place at Havana?s International Conference Center. The forum started Monday with the participation of 426 delegates and international organizations from 39 countries with the slogan ?think of the world from a cultural viewpoint.? Mexican writer Carlos Montemayor opened Tuesday?s session with participants centering debates on gender, race and minority problems. Ecuadorian researcher Blanca Chancoso will speak about a polemical issue that it is expected to attract the main attention of the day. US actor Danny Glover will lead a discussion session regarding marginalization, exclusion, poverty, racism and indigenism with the attendance of Uruguayan Romero Rodriguez, Venezuelan Jesus Garcia and Brazilian Mercio Gomez. Mexicans Juan Ba?uelos and Victor Flores Olea will assume another hot issue on the options for empowering for the excluded. The issue of gender discrimination and sexual orientation will also be present at the event. Writer Pablo Gonz?lez Casanova, ex President of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), will speak about ?folklore, the imaginary and the anthropological perspective on culture from the city, the neighborhood and the community.? mh/ima/ag/mf From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 15:18:59 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 15:18:59 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] FTA Flounders in Ecuador Amid Intense Protest Message-ID: <200506071918.j57JIxZ08211@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com FTA Flounders, Students Storm in Ecuador Quito, Jun 7 (Prensa Latina) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiators from Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and the United States begin a second day of discussions in Guayaquil, Ecuador, at a snail?s pace and after intense protests by student and grassroots groups. Ecuadoran President Alfredo Palacio was supposed to attend the official opening but sources say Vice President Alejandro Serrano Aguilar will do so on his behalf. The Ecuadoran media described the talks started on Monday as slow, and even the dialogue about textile trade was stagnant because Colombia hopes the agreement will allow for more flexible importing of goods from countries that will not sign the agreement. Ecuador disagrees. Negotiations continue today amidst groups of students, civilians and environmentalists protesting against the signing of the FTA. One student criticized the fact that the day current president Alfredo Palacio was sworn in he promised to call a referendum on the signing of the Free Trade Agreement, but in a yo-yo turnaround, he now has reservations. mh/ima/mf From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 15:20:56 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 15:20:56 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Brazil: Political Crisis at Decisive Point Message-ID: <200506071920.j57JKuo08322@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Brazilian Political Crisis Enters Decisive Day Rio de Janeiro, Jun 7 (Prensa Latina) Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva inaugurates the 4th World Meeting against Corruption Tuesday, which could be decisive to thwart a crisis in the country. The event comes at just the right time for President Lula to expound his government?s advances in the anti-corruption fight and stressed new actions already underway. Today, the Constitution and Justice Commission of the Chamber of Deputies analyzes setting up the Investigating Parliamentary Commission (CPI) the opposition proposed three weeks ago following denunciations of alleged postal corruption. It was almost sure that the CPI would not be approved, but the political panorama worsened Monday when the Folha de Sao Paulo daily published accusations that the ruling Workers? Party allegedly gave money to parliamentarians from the Progressive (PP) and Liberal (LP) Parties to support the government. The parties involved in the accusations denied them, but the opposition took advantage of this situation to fuel its campaign. The PT and top government officials have denounced that the CPI would be used for destabilization and electoral goals, aimed at weakening the government and reducing Lula?s high chances for reelection in October 2006. mh/dig/as/mf From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 15:22:09 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 15:22:09 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Violence against Haitians Grips Dominican Republic Message-ID: <200506071922.j57JM9L08390@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Violence against Haitians Grips Dominican Republic Santo Domingo, Jun 7 (Prensa Latina) Two fatally knifed Haitians, included a 76-year-old preacher, and four people wounded in their sleep was the result Tuesday of a new outbreak of violence against immigrants from the neighboring nation gripping northeast Dominican Republic. The two bodies were sent to Haiti, while the four injured people were transferred to a local hospital. They are still under police custody, preventing further attack. One of the four wounded Haitians said a group of hooded armed men attempted to murder them, shooting at the shacks of over 15 Haitians. According to authorities, the crime is linked with the violence sparked off against Haitians in early May. mh/iff/prl/mf From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 15:24:00 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 15:24:00 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Colombian Paramilitaries Pressure Congress Message-ID: <200506071924.j57JO0J08459@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Colombian Congress: Put Off Paramilitary Project Bogota, Jun 7 (Prensa Latina) Colombian lawmakers have urged the government to postpone the discussion of its controversial Justice, Peace, and Reparation Plan, which provides a legal framework for demobilizing paramilitary groups. To be passed as law, the government initiative has only to survive debates and be passed by the Senate and House of Representatives. But parliamentarians asked for delaying sessions due to evident pressures by leaders of the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), which claim to have 35 percent of control in Congress. For the international community, the legal proposal under discussion does not favor the necessary truth, justice, and reparation the peace process needs. However, pro-government officials and legislators denied Congress is permeated by paramilitarism, and say doubts are unfounded. mh/dig/ale/mf From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 15:26:41 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 15:26:41 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Cuban Farmers' Struggle Against Drought Continues Message-ID: <200506071926.j57JQft08623@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Cuban Farmers Bucking Drought Havana, Jun 7 (Prensa Latina) Farmers are fighting the continuous drought in the eastern Cuban province of Las Tunas by sowing 1,482 acres of sugar cane to feed cattle. The measure is expected to increase food provisions for the November-April dry season, and constitutes a measure to palliate the lack of rains in the region, whose historic 1,100 millimeter average per year is the lowest in Cuba. Among other actions to protect cattle, the territory will take 60,000 animals to areas that may provide food and water. Presently, the Caribbean island has over 2,000 reservoirs (a 9.6 billion cubic meter capacity), clearly exceeding the 20 small dams the country possessed before 1959. National Hydraulic Resources Institute Director Aymee Aguirre reported domestic reservoirs only held 27.1 percent of their full capacity in April 2005. Aguirre said that recent rains in Las Tunas, La Habana province, the Isle of Youth, Matanzas, Villa Clara and Cienfuegos had not reached the predicted levels. The lack of rains has caused millions in losses, killed thousands of heads of cattle and devastated crops. In 2004, the national rain average came in at 952 millimeters, accounting for 69 percent of the historic average. mh/ecq/ro/mf From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 15:27:46 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 15:27:46 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Ibero-American Ombudsman Demands Posada's Extradition Message-ID: <200506071927.j57JRle08697@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Ibero-American Ombudsman: Extradite Posada Caracas, Jun 7 (Prensa Latina) The president of the Ibero American Ombudsman Federation, German Mundarain, reiterated Tuesday that Luis Posada Carriles must be extradited to Venezuela to comply with national and international laws. The international expert told Prensa Latina that the terrorist of Cuban origin is absconding from Venezuelan justice and must be handed over to continue the legal process in which he was being tried for the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976, which killed 73 people. The Venezuelan Ombudsman, who worked as an expert in the Organization of American States (OAS), reminded "We are the only country with legal jurisdiction over this case." Posada held Venezuelan citizenship when he masterminded the plane bombings and other acts of terror. Posada Carriles, an expert in explosives and a US intelligence agent, organized in Venezuela the bombing of the airliner jointly with another terrorist of Cuban origin, Orlando Bosch, using two Venezuelan mercenaries to place the bombs. The Ombudsman said the Venezuelan Attorney General Office could clinch the investigation after accusations received over human rights? violations, torture and crimes perpetrated by Posada when he was the head of the special operation unit of the Political Police (DISIP) in Venezuela in the 1970s. Victims of terrorism during the governments of Rafael Caldera and Carlos Andres Perez are demanding justice for the atrocities carried out by Posada Carriles, according to Mundarain. mh/ima/ml/mf From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 15:28:31 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 15:28:31 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] US Air Raids Kill Iraqi Civilians Message-ID: <200506071928.j57JSVX08775@olm.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com US Air Raids Kill Iraqi Civilians Baghdad, Jun 7 (Prensa Latina) At least seven civilians died Tuesday during a US air raid against a residential area in the eastern Iraqi locality of Rawa, while in Baghdad the resistance keeps its mounting attacks against Iraqi and foreign occupation forces. The bombing early today destroyed three houses and a cement factory, Al Sharquiya local channel reported. Radio stations commented this is not the first time US invaders use force to annihilate alleged targets of rebels, with devastating consequences for the civilian population. Meanwhile, in Baghdad?s Al Shula neighborhood, a car bomb exploded at the path of an Iraqi police patrol, wounding 19. In another action, four Iraqi soldiers died in Hawiya city, north of Baghdad, when three explosive-laden vehicles exploded almost simultaneously in a Pentagon military base and three checkpoints of the National Guard. As many as 20 people died and nearly 40 were wounded in those coordinated actions, the Interior Ministry reported. In Fallujah, the US Central Command confirmed today a US soldier died Sunday when a home-made bomb exploded during a patrol round, amounting the number of US deaths in 26 months of aggression and later occupation to 1, 677, mainly due to rebel attacks. mh/dig/joe/mf From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 15:31:18 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 15:31:18 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Feds Suppress Scientific Paper on Basis of "Terror" Message-ID: <200506071931.j57JVIr08887@olm.blythe-systems.com> CNN - June 6, 2005 http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/06/milk.terror/index.html Feds: Science paper a terrorist's road map Health agency seeks to halt scholarly publication Milk trucks could be likely targets for terrorists, according to a paper on biological terrorism. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The federal government has asked the National Academy of Sciences not to publish a research paper that feds describe as a "road map for terrorists" on how to contaminate the nation's milk supply. The research paper on biological terrorism, by Stanford University professor Lawrence M. Wein and graduate student Yifan Liu, provides details on how terrorists might attack the milk supply and offers suggestions on how to safeguard it. The paper appeared briefly May 30 on a password-protected area of the National Academy of Science's Web site. Journalists use that area of the Web site to get advance copies of articles slated for publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. People who downloaded the Wein-Liu paper called the Food and Drug Administration for comment, and the FDA notified the Department of Health and Human Services, which asked the academy to stop the article's publication. The paper "is a road map for terrorists and publication is not in the interests of the United States," HHS Assistant Secretary Stewart Simonson wrote in a letter to the science academy chief Dr. Bruce Alberts. The paper gives "very detailed information on vulnerability nodes" in the milk supply chain and "includes ... very precise information on the dosage of botulinum toxin needed to contaminate the milk supply to kill or injure large numbers of people," Simonson wrote. "It seems clear on its face that publication of this manuscript could have very serious public health and national security consequences." Simonson wrote that acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Lester Crawford was joining him in the request to halt publication. Officials of HHS and the academy said they are to meet Tuesday to discuss the article. "The academy has been dealing with the issue of scientific openness versus national security since 9/11," said academy spokesman Bill Kearney. "The academy [members] are strong advocates of scientific openness while ensuring that nothing is done to aid terrorists." Kearney said the NAS routinely vets papers for security concerns before publishing them and had vetted the Wein-Liu paper. After HHS raised concerns, the NAS decided to "take a step back and make sure that we weren't putting out anything that we're uncomfortable with," he said. NAS is a private, nonprofit society of scientists and engineers chartered by Congress to advise the government on science and technology. HHS spokesman Marc Wolfson said Wein showed a draft of his paper last fall to HHS staffers, who expressed concern about the level of detail in the paper. "He, at that time, indicated that he was going to work it over a bit and he'd be back to us, back to HHS, if and when he submitted it for publication. That was the last we ... heard from him," Wolfson said. Wein told CNN he would withhold comment until after the HHS and NAS meeting. A week ago, The New York Times published an op-ed article by Wein outlining a possible attack scenario. Under the most likely scenario, he wrote, a terrorist would buy toxin from an overseas black market laboratory, fill a one gallon jug with a sludgy substance containing a few grams of botulin, and pour it into an unlocked milk tank, or into a milk truck at a truck stop. He wrote that the FDA guidelines for locking milk tanks should be made mandatory, and said the dairy industry should improve pasteurization to eliminate toxins. Wolfson said he cannot recall another instance in which HHS has asked a scientific publication to withhold an article on national security grounds. (c) 2005 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 15:34:02 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 15:34:02 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Selling Washington Message-ID: <200506071934.j57JY2G08986@olm.blythe-systems.com> sent by Andy Pollack - June 7, 2005 [There's a very bizarre story by Elizabeth Drew in the New York Review of Books complaining about Republicans forcing Democratic lobbyists out of their jobs in pro-business trade associations. There's two parts to the author's complaint: the first and bizarre part is the author's whining about these poor pimps losing their right to be gainfully employed lobbying for corporate malefactors. The second, and more important part, is HOW the Republicans are doing it. Drew paints a picture of the Republican party telling business who their lobbyists will be! This is important factual data on an alleged shifting of power between particular ruling class figures and corporations on the one hand, and a party which is purporting to represent the interest of that class as a whole on the other. An example of the consequences of this shift is that the party has supposedly forced businesses to sign on to Social Security "reform" when their narrow economic interests wouldn't have led them to do so. Even if Drew exaggerates the extent of the power shift, this is very useful data on power relations within the ruling class.-AP] (full story at: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18075) New York Review of Books, 52:11 - June 23, 2005 issue Selling Washington By Elizabeth Drew As the criminal investigation of the Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff was underway this spring, a spokesman for the law firm representing him issued a statement saying that Abramoff was "being singled out by the media for actions that are commonplace in Washington and are totally proper." Abramoff has since said much the same thing. The lawyer was half right. Like many other lobbyists, Abramoff often arranged for private organizations, particularly nonprofit groups, to sponsor pleasant, even luxurious, trips for members of Congress, with lobbyists like himself tagging along and enjoying the unparalleled "access" that such a setting provides; i.e., they get to know congressmen and sell them on legislation. They take over skyboxes at sporting events, inviting members of Congress and their staffs. But Abramoff has differed from other lobbyists in his flamboyance (he owned two Washington restaurants, at which he entertained), and in the egregiously high fees he charged clients, in particular, Indian tribes in the casino business. The Senate Indian Affairs Committee, headed by John McCain, found last year that Abramoff and an associate, Michael Scanlon, a political consultant and former communications director for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, received at least $66 million from six tribes over three years. Abramoff also instructed the tribes to make donations to certain members of Congress and conservative causes he was allied with. And he was careless?for example in putting on his credit card charges for DeLay's golfing trip to the St. Andrews golf course in Scotland in 2000, with a stop in London for a bit of semi-serious business to make the trip seem legitimate. It's illegal for a lobbyist to pay for congressional travel, but Abramoff is reported to have paid for three of DeLay's trips abroad. A prominent Republican lobbyist told me that the difference between what Abramoff did and what many other lobbyists do was simply "a matter of degree and blatancy." Abramoff's behavior is symptomatic of the unprecedented corruption?the intensified buying and selling of influence over legislation and federal policy ?that has become endemic in Washington under a Republican Congress and White House. Corruption has always been present in Washington, but in recent years it has become more sophisticated, pervasive, and blatant than ever. A friend of mine who works closely with lobbyists says, "There are no restraints now; business groups and lobbyists are going crazy?they're in every room on Capitol Hill writing the legislation. You can't move on the Hill without giving money." This remark is only slightly exaggerated. For over ten years, but particularly since George W. Bush took office, powerful Republicans, among them Tom DeLay and Senator Rick Santorum, of Pennsylvania, have been carrying out what they call the "K Street Project," an effort to place more Republicans and get rid of Democrats in the trade associations and major national lobbying organizations that have offices on K Street in downtown Washington (although, of course, some have offices elsewhere). ... The Republican purge of K Street is a more thorough, ruthless, vindictive, and effective attack on Democratic lobbyists and other Democrats who represent businesses and other organizations than anything Washington has seen before. The Republicans don't simply want to take care of their friends and former aides by getting them high-paying jobs: they want the lobbyists they helped place in these jobs and other corporate representatives to arrange lavish trips for themselves and their wives; to invite them to watch sports events from skyboxes; and, most important, to provide a steady flow of campaign contributions. The former aides become part of their previous employers' power networks. Republican leaders also want to have like-minded people on K Street who can further their ideological goals by helping to formulate their legislative programs, get them passed, and generally circulate their ideas. When I suggested to Grover Norquist, the influential right-wing leader and the leading enforcer of the K Street Project outside Congress, that numerous Democrats on K Street were not particularly ideological and were happy to serve corporate interests, he replied, "We don't want nonideological people on K Street, we want conservative activist Republicans on K Street." The K Street Project has become critical to the Republicans' efforts to control all the power centers in Washington: the White House, Congress, the courts?and now, at least, an influential part of the corporate world, the one that raises most of the political money. It's another way for Republicans to try to impose their programs on the country. The Washington Post reported recently that House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, of Missouri, has established "a formal, institutionalized alliance" with K Street lobbyists. They have become an integral part of the legislative process by helping to get bills written and passed?and they are rewarded for their help by the fees paid by their clients. Among the results are legislation that serves powerful private interests all the more openly?as will be seen, the energy bill recently passed by the House is a prime example ?and a climate of fear that is new. The conservative commentator David Brooks said on PBS's NewsHour earlier this year, "The biggest threat to the Republican majority is the relationship on K Street with corporate lobbyists and the corruption that is entailed in that." But if the Republicans are running a risk of being seen as overreaching in their takeover of K Street, there are few signs that they are concerned about it. When the Republicans first announced the K Street Project after they won a majority in Congress in the 1994 election, they warned Washington lobbying and law firms that if they wanted to have appointments with Republican legislators they had better hire more Republicans. This was seen as unprecedentedly heavy-handed, but their deeper purposes weren't yet understood. Since the Democrats had been in power on Capitol Hill for a long time, many of the K Street firms then had more Democrats than Republicans or else they were evenly balanced. But the Democrats had been hired because they were well connected with prominent Democrats on Capitol Hill, not because Democratic Congresses demanded it. Moreover, it makes sense for lobbying firms that want access to members of Congress to hire people with good contacts in the majority party?especially former members or aides of the current leaders. But the bullying tactics of Republicans in the late 1990s were new. DeLay, Santorum, and their associates organized a systematic campaign, closely monitored by Republicans on Capitol Hill and by Grover Norquist and the Republican National Committee, to put pressure on firms not just to hire Republicans but also to fire Democrats. With the election of Bush, this pressure became stronger. A Republican lobbyist told me, "Having the White House" has made it more possible for DeLay and Santorum "to enforce the K Street Project." Several Democratic lobbyists have been pushed out of their jobs as a result; business associations who hire Democrats for prominent positions have been subject to retribution. They are told that they won't be able to see the people on Capitol Hill they want to see. Sometimes the retribution is more tangible. The Republican lobbyist I spoke to said, "There's a high state of sensitivity to the partisanship of the person you hire for these jobs that did not exist five, six years ago?you hire a Democrat at your peril." From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 7 16:33:10 2005 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 16:33:10 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] In Havanan Int'l Conference on Rice Cultivation Message-ID: <200506072033.j57KXAr11339@olm.blythe-systems.com> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu Cuba Presents Experiences in Rice Cultivation and Preservation Havana, June 7 (AIN) Cuba will present its experience in the cultivation, use and preservation of rice during the 3rd International Conference on Rice underway in Havana. Over five days, experts from several countries will be dis