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3/16/08 - 4/13/2008

Saturday 4/12/2008

TODAY'S BLACK EGYPTIANS: 2006 - An Essay through PHOTOS by Kola Boof  4/12/2008 Indiginous People of Africa and America: published 7/07 - "The true Egyptians--the Black Egyptians do still exist, and instead of debating about the "ancient" people....why do we never force the WHITE MEDIA to show images of the black ones? Why is it that in America--only the WHITE ARAB INVADER groups, the BEJA and the Noor are ever shown on television or in magazines?"

Interview with LBJ's mistress on JFK assassination - Alex Jones  4/12/2008 Prison Planet: aired 8/06

Photos: Against Apartheid in Montreal  4/12/2008 Tadamon

Friday 4/11/2008

'CIA Infiltration' Charges Prompt Shakeup in Ecuador's Armed Forces 4/11/2008 AntiWar: "Resignations and dismissals are the order of the day. Wellington Sandoval resigned as defense minister Wednesday and was replaced by Correa's personal secretary Javier Ponce. The head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Hector Camacho, army commander Guillermo Vásconez, and the chief of police, General Bolívar Cisneros, also stepped down. A high-level Ecuadorian military officer who asked not to be identified told IPS that the country is at a critical juncture, with only two possible routes: "either the military as an institution returns to its nationalist orientation or it submits itself once and for all to impositions from the US.""

Serb prisoners 'were stripped of their organs in Kosovo war' 4/11/2008 Telegraph: "Carla Del Ponte, who stepped down in January as chief prosecutor at the Hague tribunal for crimes committed in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, said investigators found a house suspected of being a laboratory for the illegal trade. A senior adviser to Hashim Thaci, Kosovo's prime minister and a leading member of the Kosovo Liberation Army which is accused of benefiting from the trade, yesterday denied the allegations. "These are horrible things even to imagine," said Bekim Collaku. "But this is a product of her [Miss Del Ponte's] imagination." Miss Del Ponte reports that the allegations were made by several sources, one of whom "personally made an organ delivery" to an Albanian airport for transport abroad, and "confirmed information directly gathered by the tribunal". "

Thursday 4/10/2008

Venezuela nationalises steel firm 4/10/2008 Al Jazeera

U.N. Official Calls for Study Of Neocons' Role in 9/11 4/10/2008 Ny Sun: "A new U.N. Human Rights Council official assigned to monitor Israel is calling for an official commission to study the role neoconservatives may have played in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks."

Wednesday 4/9/2008

Sources: Top Bush Advisors Approved 'Enhanced Interrogation' 4/9/2008 ABC: "The advisers were members of the National Security Council's Principals Committee, a select group of senior officials who met frequently to advise President Bush on issues of national security policy. At the time, the Principals Committee included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft. As the national security adviser, Rice chaired the meetings, which took place in the White House Situation Room and were typically attended by most of the principals or their deputies."

Tuesday 4/8/2008

What or who ordered US army not to interfere in Basra?  4/8/2008 Debka, Israel: Debka is a psyops site with interesting content - "Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki’s decision to launch 20,000 troops in a crackdown on the Shiite militias rife in southern Iraq took the US army and intelligence commands completely by surprise, DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s military and intelligence sources report. Because the US military command was not approached for assistance, Tehran stepped into the breach with logistical support to supply food, water, ammo, fuel and vehicles for mobility. All the Iranian military and intelligence agents and cells who were working undercover in southern Iraq, behind such fronts as charitable foundations, medical facilities and religious seminaries, were quickly mobilized. Armed with fistfuls of dollars, they hired a fleet of hundreds of trucks and pick-ups to ferry Iraqi government forces fighting to dislodge armed groups between Basra, Kut, Nasiriya, Dawiniya, Al Amara and dozens of small townships and villages. Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers distributed the vehicles among the sectors. They delivered ordnance from Iraqi army stores across the country and food to the soldiers in the South, filling the tanks of Iraqi armored vehicles. Pick-ups rounded up the wounded from the battle arenas and drove them to hospitals. IRGC agents also succored the militias, notably Moqtada Sadr’s Mehdi Army, which government forces were fighting to quell. This militia too depended on the Iranians for supplies, food and vehicles. (The al Qods Brigades are responsible for running Iran’s external terrorist organizations in Iran, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority and the Gulf.) By keeping its hand on the levers of the two Shiite antagonists, Tehran was able to govern the level and intensity of combat. This control was further exercised by attaching Iranian intelligence officers to the militia chiefs and their commands. Their biggest gun, Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, chief of the IRGC’s al Qods Brigades, was attached to the largest and most powerful militia, the Sadrist Mehdi Army. DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s sources report that the Americans stood by and did not interfere with the Iranian initiative, only ascertaining that they stayed out of four towns, Baghdad, Najef, Karbala, and Samara. The Iranians, understanding they were warned off, treated the four towns as no-go zones and moved around without restraint in the battle arenas."

Bill Clinton's Ties To Colombia Trade Deal Stronger Than Even Penn's  4/8/2008 Huffington Post: "Former President Bill Clinton has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars speaking on behalf of a Colombia-based group pushing the trade pact, and representatives of that organization tell The Huffington Post that the former president shared their sentiment. In June 2005, Clinton was paid $800,000 by the Colombia-based Gold Service International to give four speeches throughout Latin America. The organization is, ostensibly, a development group tasked with bringing investment to the country and educating world leaders about the Colombia's business opportunities."

'German firm helps Iran monitor Israel'  4/8/2008 Jerusalem Post: [The Iranians defend themselves, just as the Israelis defend themselves … against the US, with their massive surveillance of US telecoms, the more easily carried out via firms such as Comverse Infosys and Amdocs. These Tel Aviv based firms handle all phone billings in the US, as well as witetaps for the FBI.]

Colombia’s Invasion of the United States - The Uribe Regime Sends an Army of Lobbyists and Infiltrators to Washington to Impose a “Free Trade” Deal  4/8/2008 NarcoNews: "Another top Clinton campaign aide – spokesman Howard Wolfson – is an owner of the Glover Park Group, to which the Colombian government pays a $40,000 per month retainer to lobby for the US-Colombia “free trade” agreement."

Wide Net Cast by Lobby for Colombia Trade Pact  4/8/2008 NYT: "There have been all-expense paid trips to Colombia for more than 50 members of Congress, featuring coffee tastings and dinner at a posh restaurant inside an old Spanish fort. The Colombian president has visited Washington to make personal appeals. Major corporations like WalMart and Citigroup are taking up the cause. And former Clinton administration officials have landed lucrative lobbying contracts."

McCain ties with Arizona blacks strained  4/8/2008 Politico: "But the widespread perception of activists in the state’s traditional civil rights organizations and the African-American press is that McCain has consistently treated them with indifference. He had few if any important relationships with these usually Democratic-leaning institutional pillars. The main reason, say leaders of these groups, was that McCain never demonstrated much interest in building them."

UN council deplores Haiti violence, calls for aid  4/8/2008 Reuters

Calabar monarch tussle takes new turn  4/8/2008 Vanguard, Nigeria: "The lingering kingship tussle in Calabar that culminated in the crowning of Edidem Bassey Ekpo Bassey II as Obong of Calabar, Sunday has taken a fresh turn as another faction which describes itself as “The Etubom’s Conclave of the Palace of the Obong of Calabar” has declared another man as the Obong of Calabar. A release issued by the Conclave and jointly signed by the Chairman of the Etubom’s conclave, Etubom Okon Etim Asuquo III and Secretary, Etubom Micah Archibong VI in Calabar noted the proclaimation of “the Head of Adiabo Ikot Mbo Otu House, Western Calabar, Etubom Ekpo Okon Abasi-Out as Obong of Calabar.”"

Monday 4/7/2008

Nigeria: Journalist Emerges New Obong of Calabar  4/7/2008 All Africa: "Continuing, Eyo said "Bassey is a very prominent and likeable character. From all spectrum of the Efik Kingdom to the commonest man on the streets; to the highest in the kingdom, he is the most popular. His popularity is not only felt in Efik Kingdom . He is so popular among other ethnic groups up to Akwa Ibom state and beyond," Eyo said of the new Monarch. As at press time many dignitaries were trooping to the residence of the new Obong to pay home to him. Among the early callers were the former Acting National Chairman of the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP), Etubom Nya Asuquo and founding member of the South South People Assembly (SSPA), Dr. Ambrose Akpanika who is the Mkpison Ukara Ekondo Efik."

A Tale of Two Callahans - The Irish Black Thing  4/7/2008 Counterpunch

Racism in America - UN Report points to "stark racial disparities" in U.S. institutions, including its criminal justice system  4/7/2008 Global Research: "The U.S. is failing to meet international standards on racial equality, according to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) based in Geneva, Switzerland. Last Friday, after considering the U.S. government's written and oral testimony, the 18- member committee said it has found "stark racial disparities" in the U.S. institutions, including its criminal justice system. The CERD is responsible for monitoring global compliance with the 1969 Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, an international treaty that has been ratified by the United States. In concluding the CERD report on the U.S. record, the panel of experts called for the George W. Bush administration to take effective actions to end racist practices against minorities in the areas of criminal justice, housing, healthcare and education. This is the second time in less than two years that the U.S. government has been found to be falling short of its treaty obligations. In March 2006, The CERD had harshly criticised the U.S. for violating Native Americans' land rights."

Free-trade plan with Colombia likely to cause stir  4/7/2008 Houston Chronicle: "The Bush administration is set to force a vote in Congress this year over the Colombia free-trade agreement, a risky move in a presidential election year with the economy slowing down and voters souring on global trade. People inside and outside the administration expect the deal to be submitted to Congress as early as this week, setting in motion a "fast track" timetable that will require votes by September — just weeks before Election Day. A political fight is assured. The only question is, how bruising will it become?"

Colombia’s Uribe Regime Approaches Pariah Status in Washington - The Resignation of Mark Penn as Clinton’s Strategist Reveals a Long Overdue Rejection of a US-Colombia “Free Trade” Agreement  4/7/2008 NarcoNews: "That Uribe singled-out Obama is revealing: the Illinois senator’s rival for the Democratic nomination for president in the United States, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, also says she opposes the US-Colombia “free trade” pact. That clearly doesn’t worry Uribe: the Clinton organization has a long history of backing – politically and economically – the Colombian far right, its narco-politicians and paramilitary death squads, of whom Uribe is supreme leader. In 2000, then-US president Bill Clinton went on Colombian national TV to announce “Plan Colombia,” the multi-billion dollar US military intervention that keeps Uribe and his repressive regime in power to this day."

HRC Colombia ties don't stop with Penn  4/7/2008 Politico: "According to the Glover Park Group contract, which was disclosed to the U.S. Department of Justice last year, the firm was to work with ProExport Colombia, an entity of the Colombian Government Trade Bureau, in developing a strategy to promote the free trade agreement. The contract called for Glover Park to identify the key concerns of members of Congress, develop a comprehensive government relations strategy, and pinpoint reporters, academics, and business leaders who could help make Colombia’s pro-free trade argument, all in close coordination with Colombian government officials. The contract was set for five months, beginning on April 2, 2007. But it is not clear from public documents whether this is an ongoing effort. Glover Park’s report on the lobbying was to be addressed directly to the Colombian minister of trade and the Colombian ambassador to the United States, among other officials."

Bassey Ekpo Bassey emerges new Obong of Calabar  4/7/2008 Vanguard, Nigeria: "Prominent publisher and politician, Bassey Ekpo Bassey, has emerged the new Obong of Calabar with the title Edidem Bassey Ekpo Bassey II. He emerged the Obong yesterday morning at about 11.00am after he was crowned at the Efiks' Efe Asabo as the Grand Patriarch of the Efik and the new Obong of Calabar. He succeeds the late Obong, Professor Nta Elija Henshaw VI who passed on early this year. Soon after the ceremony, the new Obong Edidem Bassey who was dressed in traditional royal regalia emerged from the Efe Asabo to a roaring applause and jubilation by the residents of Cobham Town, the seat of the Efe Asabo."

Sunday 4/6/2008

Tet Happened, and No One Cared 4/6/2008 NYT: "For the majority of Americans who haven’t met any of the brave troops who’ve been cavalierly tossed into the quagmire, the war is out of sight and mind in a way Vietnam never was. Only 28 percent of Americans knew American casualties in Iraq were nearing 4,000 last month, according to the Pew Research Center. The Project for Excellence in Journalism found that by March 2008 the percentage of prominent news stories that were about Iraq had fallen to about one-fifth of what it was in January 2007. It’s a poignant commentary on the whole war that Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the nonpartisan advocacy group, was reduced to protesting the lack of coverage. That’s why it’s no surprise that so few stopped to absorb the disastrous six-day battle of Basra that ended last week — a mini-Tet that belied the “success” of the surge. Even fewer noticed that the presumptive Republican nominee seemed at least as oblivious to what was going down as President Bush, no tiny feat."

Saturday 4/5/2008

Clinton Adviser's Firm Fired by Colombian Government  4/5/2008 Bloomberg: "Colombia ended its contract with Burson-Marsteller because Penn's comments showed ``a lack of respect to Colombians,'' according to a statement on the government's Web site. Penn apologized yesterday for meeting with Colombian officials to discuss a free-trade agreement that Clinton opposes. Burson-Marsteller's contract to promote a free-trade deal with Colombia threatens to undercut Clinton's support among blue collar workers, a key constituency in the April 22 Pennsylvania primary that she must win to keep her campaign alive. Clinton and Democratic rival Barack Obama have both made trade agreements a top issue, saying they cost American manufacturing jobs."

Ecuador says CIA controls part of its intelligence  4/5/2008 Reuters: "Ecuador's president accused the CIA Saturday of controlling many of his country's spy agencies, in comments that could fray ties with Washington and drag it into Ecuador's feud with neighboring Colombia. President Rafael Correa has fired a top intelligence officer and plans to overhaul spy agencies for belatedly informing him about links between Colombian rebels and an Ecuadorean who died in Colombia's raid inside Ecuador last month that sparked a regional crisis. Many of our intelligence agencies have been taken over by the CIA," the leftist leader said during his weekly radio show. "Through the CIA, information found here was passed to Colombia to improve their position" in the dispute."

British fear US commander is beating the drum for Iran strikes  4/5/2008 Telegraph: "A strong statement from General David Petraeus about Iran's intervention in Iraq could set the stage for a US attack on Iranian military facilities, according to a Whitehall assessment. In closely watched testimony in Washington next week, Gen Petraeus will state that the Iranian threat has risen as Tehran has supplied and directed attacks by militia fighters against the Iraqi state and its US allies."

Friday 4/4/2008

U.S. Native Americans Lead Opposition to Designation of Venezuela as Terrorist Nation  4/4/2008 Indian Country Today: "Members of the Penobscot Indian Nation are spearheading opposition to a congressional resolution that would designate Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism. James Sappier, former Penobscot Indian Nation chief, and Erlene Paul, the head of Penobscot's Human Services Department, said House Resolution 1049 threatens not only a program in which the South American country has provided free heating oil to hundreds of American Indian and low-income communities for the past three winters, but would also jeopardize the good relationships tribal members have developed with Venezuelans and could impact oil imports for the entire U.S. Sappier said he has alerted the tribes involved to contact their congressional representatives to vote against the resolution. ...The resolution was introduced March 13 by Florida Republican Reps. Connie Mack and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. It asks the State Department to place Venezuela on a list of countries that provide support to terrorist organizations, a designation that would impose a number of sanctions on Venezuela and U.S. companies and individuals that do business there. Other countries on the list are North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba and Sudan."

Mark Penn and the Stealth Corporate Campaign - By Al Giordano  4/4/2008 NarcoNews

Sonny Bono 'assassinated' by hitmen  4/4/2008 The Australian: "Bono, an experienced skiier, was ambushed on the slopes by hired hitmen, who beat him to death and then staged a tree collision, Mr Gunderson said. He called for authorities to dig up Bono's remains and open a homicide investigation. His claims have reportedly been backed by top forensics experts who fear Nevada authorities were too quick to call the death a skiing accident. Investigator Bob Fletcher had also confessed he sent evidence of a 10-year study that linked top US government officials to arms and weapons dealers to Bono less than a month before his death, the Globe reported. "(Bono) was going to make it his No.1 priority... There's no doubt in my mind Sonny was murdered by someone who needed him silenced," Mr Fletcher told the paper."

Clinton Aide Met on Trade Deal - Penn Held Talks On Colombia Pact Opposed by Senator  4/4/2008 WSJ: "Attendance by the adviser, Mark Penn, was confirmed by two Colombian officials. He wasn't there in his campaign role, but in his separate job as chief executive of Burson-Marsteller Worldwide, an international communications and lobbying firm. The firm has a contract with the South American nation to promote congressional approval of the trade deal, among other things, according to filings with the Justice Department."

Colombia's Uribe Says Passage Of Free-Trade Pact Is Critical  4/4/2008 WSJ: "Failure by the U.S. Congress to pass a free-trade agreement with Colombia this year would be a serious setback for Washington's closest ally in South America, President Alvaro Uribe said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "I wouldn't know what to say. It would be very serious," said Mr. Uribe during an interview on the presidential plane Wednesday. Mr. Uribe said he can't understand why Congress would fail to pass the treaty, given that Colombia has a "historic friendship with the U.S." and, with U.S. help, has fought the hemisphere's "most serious terrorist threat." "

Thursday 4/3/2008

Hillary Clinton's Little-Noticed Israel Problem  4/3/2008 Mother Jones: "Yet even as Obama has been subjected to intense scrutiny, Senator Hillary Clinton has received virtually no attention for taking an unconventional position on Israel (albeit in a direction approved by pro-Israel hardliners). Her vow of support for Israel's claim on an "undivided Jerusalem," if enacted, would mark a major—and problematic—break with longstanding U.S. policy."

Uribe’s Attack on Obama - The Far Right’s Spokesman in Latin America Is Worried About What Could Be Long Overdue Changes in US Policy  4/3/2008 NarcoNews

Political ties to a secretive religious group  4/3/2008 NBC: "Senator Clinton’s participation is surprising to observers who have investigated Coe’s group, called The Fellowship Foundation, which critics have described as a secretive organization populated mostly by conservative Republicans. “I think in part through her involvement with the Fellowship’s prayer group she was able to meet with some of these Republican senators and get to know them on a one-on-one basis,” said Joshua Green, a Senior Editor at The Atlantic magazine. In her autobiography, “Living History,” Senator Clinton describes Coe as "a genuinely loving spiritual mentor and guide to anyone, regardless of party or faith, who wants to deepen his or her relationship with God.” She writes that “Doug became a source of strength and friendship" during her often-troubled White House years… So who is Doug Coe? He shuns almost all interview requests, including ours. But in hours of audiotape and videotape recordings obtained exclusively by NBC News, he frequently preaches the gospel of Jesus to followers and supporters. In one videotaped sermon from 1989, Coe provides this account of the atrocities committed under Chairman Mao in Communist China: "I've seen pictures of the young men in the Red Guard…they would bring in this young man’s mother…he would take an axe and cut her head off. They have to put the purposes of the Red Guard ahead of father, mother, brother sister and their own life. That was a covenant, a pledge. That's what Jesus said." In his preaching, Coe repeatedly urges a personal commitment to Jesus Christ. It’s a commitment Coe compares to the blind devotion that Adolph Hitler demanded from his followers -- a rhetorical technique that now is drawing sharp criticism."

Wednesday 4/2/2008

A Conversation with Steven Kinzer - The Folly of Attacking Iran 4/2/2008 Counterpunch: "We can easily foresee some of the terrible consequences of an American attack on Iran. First of all, Iran is the only country in the Muslim Middle East where most people are pro-American. That pro-American sentiment in Iran is a huge strategic asset to the United States. We can build on that for generations to come. We will liquidate that asset in 1 hour if we start to attack. We profess to be great enemies and harsh critics of President Ahmadinejad. He is very unpopular in Iran. He's likely to lose next year's presidential elections. He knows this. There is only one way he can become a hero in Iran and to Muslims all over the world. That is to be attacked by the United States. His provocative rhetoric is kind of calculated to try to bring on this kind of an attack. If we do bomb Iran, we will be strengthening the very regime that we claim to be opposed to. An American attack on Iran would certainly lead Iran to revenge attacks on Israel and on U.S. targets in the Persian Gulf. That will bring Israel into the conflict probably with terrible results, such as bombing attacks on Iran. It would also set off a huge explosion of anti-American violence in Iraq, probably also in Afghanistan. It would greatly destabilize Pakistan, which is probably the last country the U.S. needs to destabilize at this moment. And, if you are afraid today that nuclear scientists in Iran might share their knowledge with terrorists or the Anti-American groups, then just bomb their houses and kill their children and then see how eager they are to participate in anti-American activities."

Tehran says two U.S. Air Force bombers violated Iran air space 4/2/2008 Novosti: "Two U.S. Air Force bombers violated Iranian air space last week, a Tehran-based Arabic language news channel, Al-Alam, said Monday. The channel, referring to a spokesman for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said two U.S. bombers crossed the Iranian-Iraqi border Saturday near the city of Abadan, in the province Khuzestan. The spokesman said that it was not the first time military aircraft of the U.S. occupation forces in Iraq have violated Iran's air space, adding that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was on a working visit to the province of Khuzestan at the time of the incident."

Tuesday 4/1/2008

ACLU: Military skirting law to spy  4/1/2008 AP

Max Blumenthal Probes Hannity's History With Talk Radio's 'Angry White Men' -- and Fanning the Flames of Racial Politics  4/1/2008 Buzzflash: "Sean Hannity had had his own problems when he was a broadcaster at the University of Santa Barbara, which is a relatively liberal school in California. He claimed that he was ousted by the left-wing management there, but, in fact, he had repeatedly made vitriolic, homophobic statements on the air, claiming that homosexuality could be "corrected" and that it wasn't a biological phenomenon. So he was ousted. Then he did the right-wing radio circuit in the South, filling in for Neal Boortz, this broadcaster who said Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney looks like a ghetto slut. He's an open racist. Sean Hannity had kind of always been in the shadows of these racist figures. Now finally, he fills in for one of them on WABC, inheriting this big fan base of angry white males, including Hal Turner, who called himself Hal from North Bergen when he called in. What Hannity did was kind of outsource a lot of his racism to Turner. He'd have Turner call in and bash black people, and Hannity wouldn't say anything. And his audience would get a big rise out of it. For example, in August 1998, Hal Turner reminded Hannity that if it wasn't for the graciousness of the white man, black people would still be swinging on trees in Africa. This is something that you would rebuke if you're Sean Hannity and you really are against racism. Instead, Hannity continued taking Hal Turner's calls. In fact, Sean Hannity promoted Hal Turner's candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives."

"However the Empire Decides" - Cocaine, Colombia and the Cartels  4/1/2008 Counterpunch

Monday 3/31/2008

Congress, the Bush Adminstration and Continuity of Government Planning - The Showdown By PETER DALE SCOTT  3/31/2008 Counterpunch

McCain faces test in wooing elite donors  3/31/2008 IHT: "Even though he all but secured the Republican nomination by mid-February, McCain has so far managed to enlist only a fraction of the heavyweight bundlers of campaign contributions who helped drive President George W. Bush's two runs for the White House, an examination of McCain's fund-raising network shows. Well over half of the top fund-raisers for Bush, who raised a record $274 million for him in the 2004 primary season, stayed on the sidelines through this year's Republican nominating contests. Others wound up working for Rudolph Giuliani, who signed up the most top Bush fund-raisers, and Mitt Romney, who had about the same number as McCain."

Racial tensions here cry out for redress – former St Vincent PM  3/31/2008 Staebroek News, Guyana: "Sir James also said he feels that at the centre of government, Guyana’s racial tension “cry out for redress”. He suggested that a directly elected president and vice president would “force both sides to contemplate harmony”, with an ethnically mixed presidential and vice presidential team. Sir James felt that Guyana’s problems of the impact of race on politics are similar to those in Trinidad and Tobago. “If both your countries had their executive president and vice president elected directly by the people is it not obvious that political parties would be forced to select candidates for these offices from the different ethnic groups?” he queried. “Would not the realities of such a power structure produce economic results which must impact on fairness in society as a whole?”, he further queried."

New Backing for Obama As Party Seeks Unity  3/31/2008 WSJ: "Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota is expected to endorse Sen. Obama Monday, according to a Democrat familiar with her plans. Meanwhile, North Carolina's seven Democratic House members are poised to endorse Sen. Obama as a group -- just one has so far -- before that state's May 6 primary, several Democrats say."

Sunday 3/30/2008

France ready to take in Colombia rebels - French PM Reiterates France Will Take in Colombian Rebels in Hostage Exchange  3/30/2008 AP: "In an apparent gesture toward rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, he referred to them as "political prisoners," although Colombia says they are terrorists. France made a similar offer to take in jailed FARC members in December, but is pressing ever harder for freedom for Betancourt, who holds dual French and Colombian citizenship. She has spent more than six years as a hostage in the Colombian jungle and is reported to be gravely ill. In Bogota, Colombian presidential spokesman Cesar Mauricio Velasquez welcomed France's offer to take in rebels, calling it "very important." Velasquez said Colombia's government will "fulfill its word" of freeing jailed rebels if the FARC releases hostages."

Iranian general played key role in Iraq cease-fire  3/30/2008 McClatchy: "Iraqi lawmakers traveled to the Iranian holy city of Qom over the weekend to win the support of the commander of Iran's Qods brigades in persuading Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr to order his followers to stop military operations, members of the Iraqi parliament said."

Air Force Officer Suspended for Criticizing Bush  3/30/2008 Truth Out: published 6/02

Air Force officer disciplined for saying Bush allowed September 11 attacks  3/30/2008 World Socialist: published 6/02 - "Universally ignored by the press, however, was that the officer was not merely expressing a personal opinion. He was in a position to have direct knowledge of contacts between the US military and some of the hijackers in the period before the terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon. Lieutenant Colonel Butler, who wrote in a letter to the editor of the Monterey County Herald charging that “Bush knew about the impending attacks,” was vice chancellor for student affairs at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California—a US military facility that one or more of the hijackers reportedly attended during the 1990s."

Saturday 3/29/2008

Sheila Jackson Lee booed at Democratic convention 3/29/2008 KHOU: "Raw video of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee's speech at a local Democratic senatorial district convention in Houston Saturday in which she was booed by the crowd, many of whom are in her district. Her speech was interrupted a couple of times as the crowd voiced its displeasure with her backing Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama."

Russian intelligence sees U.S. military buildup on Iran border 3/29/2008 Novosti: ""The latest military intelligence data point to heightened U.S. military preparations for both an air and ground operation against Iran," the official said, adding that the Pentagon has probably not yet made a final decision as to when an attack will be launched. He said the Pentagon is looking for a way to deliver a strike against Iran "that would enable the Americans to bring the country to its knees at minimal cost." He also said the U.S. Naval presence in the Persian Gulf has for the first time in the past four years reached the level that existed shortly before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Col.-Gen. Leonid Ivashov, vice president of the Academy of Geopolitical Sciences, said last week that the Pentagon is planning to deliver a massive air strike on Iran's military infrastructure in the near future."

Friday 3/28/2008

Venezuela: Afro-Venezuela: The San Juan Cultural Festival, Reality Tour, Global Exchange, June 21, 2008 - July 01, 2008  3/28/2008 Global Exchange: with members of the Afro-Venezuelan Network

US gave $300m arms contract to 22-year-old with criminal record  3/28/2008 Guardian: "The Pentagon entrusted a 22-year-old previously arrested for domestic violence and having a forged driving licence to be the main supplier of ammunition to Afghan forces at the height of the battle against the Taliban, it was reported yesterday. AEY, essentially a one-man operation based in an unmarked office in Miami Beach, Florida, was awarded a contract worth $300m (£150m) to supply the Afghan army and police in January last year. But as the New York Times reported in a lengthy investigation, AEY's president, Efraim Diversoli, 22, supplied stock that was 40 years old and rotting packing material." [Another Cuban American caper?]

Venezuela bombs drug runways near Colombia border  3/28/2008 Reuters: "Traffickers often use illegal runaways to land aircraft packed with drugs en route to the United States or Europe. The army plans to destroy dozens of border runways in coming days. Chavez says U.S. accusations about his country's drugs record are untrue and aimed at discrediting him. Although he refuses to sign an anti-drug cooperation agreement with Washington, Venezuela frequently extradites Colombians accused of drug crimes to the United States."

Thursday 3/27/2008

I INTERNATIONAL MEETING OF AFRODESCENTS WOMEN AND AFROVENEZUELAN FAMILY  3/27/2008 Red Afrovenezolana: "In this context, afrodescendents families are still marked by the consequences of the terrible process of domination that submitted millions of men and women with the European insertion to the coasts of subsaharian Africa and subsequently, the transfer of Africans men and women to the American continent through the Slave Trade that imprisoned then as if it was an inherent condition. This historical process has been transmitted for a long time to diverse generations, excluding a lot of their cultural, economic, spiritual, social and political contribution to the development and of the Americas and the Caribbean. In our society we still have the established idea of a supposed “inferiority” imposed by a dominant social system, which has marked the conscience of afrodescendents and not-afrodescendents, maintaining thus a society where racism, racial discrimination and endorracism are intermingled silently, to become an obstacle of the development and enjoyment of the full rights of men and women, these last resulting the most affected in the three dimensions of a class, racist and sexist system. Nevertheless, the afrodescendent family has contributed in the construction of more human relations through the inherited values, customs, traditions and ancient knowledge. The Network of Afrovenezuelans Organizations and the Cumbe of Afrodescendents Women, opens an space with this meeting in the need to favor an analysis and debate of the situation of afrodescendent families in Venezuela, Latin America and the Caribbean, designing alternatives and discussions on the ways of conducting an appropriate development to improve life quality and question an exclusive sociopolitical system. In times of revolution, the real participatory democracy is consolidated only once inclusion of all society sectors is realized and the enjoyment of equity of opportunities and conditions."

AFRODESCENDIENTES: RETOS DEL 2007 Por Jesús Chucho García  3/27/2008 Red Afrovenezolana: "Es trascendental que en la Rfeorma constitucional se reconszac en el preambulo la constribusión afrodescendientes en el proceso histroico venezolano y abrir un capitulo sobre afrodescendientes destacando el reconocieminto a las tierras comunales, cultura, conocimientso ancestrales, educación, para que todo ello tenga repercusion en las leyes organicas. La propuesta de la creacion por Decreto Presidencial del Consejo Nacional de Educación y Cultura Afrodescendientes (el decreto esta en el despacho del presidente), Reforzar los equipos de educacion afrovenezolana (ambas propeusta estan en manos del nuevos Minsitro de Educación Adan Chavez), incluirnos en el levantamientso de indicadorse estadisticos sociales de esa compañia anonima capitalista, casi neoliberal, llamada INstituto Nacional de Estadistica ante al cual llevamos ocho años haciendole esta petición."

I'm not a Campaign Manager, but I play one on this blog..  3/27/2008 The Nappy Diatribe, Vibe

Wednesday 3/26/2008

Across Iraq, battles erupt with Mahdi Army  3/26/2008 CS Monitor: "The cease-fire is over; we have been told to fight the Americans," said one Mahdi Army militiaman, who was reached by telephone in Sadr City. This same man, when interviewed in January, had stated that he was abiding by the cease-fire and that he was keeping busy running his cellular phone store. ...On Tuesday, Rear Adm. Greg Smith, spokesman for US-led multinational forces in Iraq, blamed the elite Quds units of Iran's Revolutionary Guards for supplying the 22 107-mm and 122-mm rockets that hit the heavily fortified area of Baghdad that is home to the US Embassy. "We believe the violence is being instigated by members of special groups that are beholden to the Iranian Quds Force and not Sadr.... Although we are concerned, we know that very few Iraqis want a return to the violence they experienced before the surge," he says. "

Showing Faith in Discretion  3/26/2008 LA Times: published 9/02 - "The Fellowship does not solicit money. A handful of wealthy backers, including Detroit lawyer and GOP donor Michael Timmis, Denver oilman Jerome A. Lewis and former Maryland investor Paul N. Temple, support the Fellowship with personal contributions. Private foundations they control also contribute hundreds of thousands yearly to the International Foundation, tax records show. Other money has come through word of mouth, stock bequests, and donations from friends, estates and even foreign governments including Taiwan, which Coe said sends about $10,000 a year to the Fellowship. He said the ambassador usually delivers the check in person."

Hillary's Minister Problem  3/26/2008 The Atlantic

Tuesday 3/25/2008

Western Antarctic Ice Chunk Collapses 3/25/2008 AP: "A chunk of Antarctic ice nine times the size of Manhattan has suddenly collapsed, putting an even larger glacial area at risk. Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 220-square-mile chunk in western Antarctica. British scientist David Vaughan says it's the result of global warming."

Monday 3/24/2008

Eva Golinger's Bush v. Chavez - The Coming War on Venezuela  3/24/2008 Counterpunch: "Perhaps most frightening on the domestic front is the strategic transformation that such U.S. funding has undergone. Specifically, such funding has increasingly begun to target what had previously been considered core Chavista constituencies, such as the nation's Afro and Indigenous populations (77-78). What Golinger doesn't emphasize is the fact that this has occurred alongside a concerted effort by opposition political parties, notably the NED-funded Primero Justicia, to penetrate the poorest and most dangerous Venezuelan barrios, like Petare in eastern Caracas."

Peruvian leaders cry foul as Chávez exports healthcare  3/24/2008 Guardian: "400,000 Latin Americans take up free surgery offer."

Bush versus Chávez - Washington's War on Venezuela  3/24/2008 Monthly Review: by Eva Golinger. This site contains appendices, many from classified documents, for Golinger's book.

Álvaro Uribe, Lord of the Shadows... and of Los Pinos  3/24/2008 NarcoNews: "Exiled in Miami, she declared last year to the newspaper El País that “the narco-state Escobar dreamed of in Colombia is more real than ever.” According to her, “drug traffickers prospered in Colombia not because they were geniuses, but because presidents were sold very cheaply.” Virginia Vallejo claims that Pablo Escobar idolized Álvaro Uribe. When the man who is now president was director of Civil Aviation, he granted dozens of licenses for runways and hundreds of permits for planes and helicopters, on which the drug trade’s infrastructure was built. “Pablo used to say,” she told the Spanish newspaper, “that if it weren’t for that blessed little boy, we would have to swim to Miami to get drugs to the gringos.” She confessed to the Spanish news agency EFE that Justice Minister Carlos Holguín represents the Cali Cartel’s share in the colombian government, and that presidential advisor José Obdulio Garviria is Pablo Escobar’s cousin."

Letter calls official Spitzer story into question  3/24/2008 Raw Story: "Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz, in the Wall Street Journal, avers that the Times' explanation of Spitzer's 'capture' after a bank flagged his transactions doesn't entirely ring true to career prosecutors. "There is no hard evidence that Eliot Spitzer was targeted for investigation, but the story of how he was caught does not ring entirely true to many experienced former prosecutors and current criminal lawyers," Dershowitz wrote. "The New York Times reported that the revelations began with a routine tax inquiry by revenue agents 'conducting a routine examination of suspicious financial transactions reported to them by banks.' This investigation allegedly found 'several unusual movements of cash involving the Governor of New York.' But the movement of the amounts of cash required to pay prostitutes, even high-priced prostitutes over a long period of time, does not commonly generate a full-scale investigation." "We are talking about thousands, not millions, of dollars. We are also talking about a man who is a multimillionaire with numerous investments and purchases," he added. "The idea that federal investigators would focus on a few transactions to corporations -- that were not themselves under investigation -- raises as many questions as answers."

Sunday 3/23/2008

A 154 años de la abolición de la esclavitud ....la deuda continua - Colectivo Red Afrovenezolana  3/23/2008 AfroCubaWeb

Context of 'July 11, 1991: Arrest Reveals Links between Pakistani Government, A. Q. Khan Network, and BCCI'  3/23/2008 Cooperative Research History Commons

Context of 'June 8-August 10, 2006: FBI Shows Brief Interest in Catching BCCI Figure Linked to Bin Laden'  3/23/2008 Cooperative Research History Commons

Did U.S. Mercenaries Bomb the FARC Encampment in Ecuador?  3/23/2008 Global Research: "As diplomatic and military fallout from the March 1 Colombian raid into Ecuador escalate regional tensions, allegations from Ecuadorean sources link the unprovoked attack to the U.S. Manta airbase and charge the American mercenary firm DynCorp with piloting the planes that killed FARC commander Raúl Reyes and 24 others."

Ooni, Oyinlola Grace Ifa Conference At Harvard  3/23/2008 Guardian, UK: "The Ooni of Ife, His Royal Majesty Alayeluwa Okunade Sijuwade, Olubuse II; Osun State governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola and 10 other kings from Osun State were part of the dignitaries present at the ongoing Ifa Divination conference organised at Harvard University by Professor Jacob Olupona. Contributions for the conference came not only from Harvard University, but also from Osun State."

U.S. Pushed Allies on Iraq, Diplomat Writes - Chilean Envoy to U.N. Recounts Threats of Retaliation in Run-Up to Invasion  3/23/2008 WaPo: "In the months leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration threatened trade reprisals against friendly countries who withheld their support, spied on its allies, and pressed for the recall of U.N. envoys that resisted U.S. pressure to endorse the war, according to an upcoming book by a top Chilean diplomat."

Saturday 3/22/2008

Peru says Chavez backs domestic revolt - Peruvian Officials Accuse Chavez of Bankrolling Subversives  3/22/2008 AP

Peru says Chavez backs domestic revolt - Peruvian Officials Accuse Venezuelan Leader Hugo Chavez of Bankrolling Subversives  3/22/2008 AP: "The arrested Peruvian militants allegedly are from the Coordinadora Continental Bolivariana, a Venezuela-based leftist movement. Authorities say its Peruvian members are mostly former militants of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, which was all but decimated in 1997 after it took hostages at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima. Peruvian officials say they arrested seven members on Feb. 29, including the group's alleged leader, Roque Gonzalez, who spent eight years in prison for kidnapping a Bolivian politician. Two more alleged members were arrested on March 17 trying to carry in $65,000 from Ecuador — money Peruvian authorities suspect is Venezuelan. But Coordinadora founder Fernando Rivero told The Associated Press in Venezuela that the group is entirely autonomous. While it supports the "revolutionary struggle" of Colombian rebels to more equitably distribute wealth, it receives no support from Venezuela, he said. Garcia calls the anti-poverty centers, which have sprung up in poor Peruvian neighborhoods over the past three years, "a rallying point for everyone who is against the democratic system and national institutions," according to the Andina state news agency."

German Intelligence Was 'Dishonest, Unprofessional and Irresponsible'  3/22/2008 Der Spiegel: "SPIEGEL: As head of the Iraq Survey Group, you led the effort to follow up on the claims made by 'Curveball,' the asylum seeker from Iraq who told German intelligence that Saddam Hussein was building mobile biological weapons laboratories. Do you remember the first time you began to doubt his story? Kay: The real shock was that the CIA had never spoken to him directly. To this day, I still don’t understand. How can you hang the most dramatic part of a case for war on an individual no American agent has ever directly debriefed?"

Did the FSB Betray Victor Bout?  3/22/2008 Nachrichten Heute: "Under the rule of the former President Vladimir, Putin Mogilevich and Bout were safe in Moscow. Now, when the President-elect Dmitry Medvedev is getting ready to do some “face-saving” in Russia, the old “kings” of the criminal underworld, serving the Kremlin as useful agents, are being dumped while new, still unknown replacements will take their place."

Ecuador warns tension with Colombia could worsen  3/22/2008 Reuters: "It would be extremely grave if it is proven that a Ecuadorean died," the left-wing president said on a radio program. "We will not let this murder go unpunished."

Colombia's Rebels Face Possibility of Implosion - Chief Threat Not Deaths, but Desertion  3/22/2008 WaPo

Friday 3/21/2008

Study unlocks Latin American past  3/21/2008 BBC: "Explaining the fate of native males when the Europeans arrived, Professor Luiz-Linares said: "It is a very sad and terrible historical fact, they were basically annihilated. "Not only did the European settlers take away land and property, they also took away the women and, as much as possible, they exterminated the men."

Paramilitary Threats and Assassinations - Human Rights Takes a Beating in Colombia  3/21/2008 Counterpunch

Hillary's Balkan Adventures, Part II  3/21/2008 Fact Checker, WaPo: "When her account was challenged by one of her traveling companions, the comedian Sinbad, she upped the ante and injected even more drama into the story. In a speech earlier this week, she talked about "landing under sniper fire" and running for safety with "our heads down." There are numerous problems with Clinton's version of events… According to Pomfret, the Tuzla airport was "one of the safest places in Bosnia" in March 1996, and "firmly under the control" of the 1st Armored Division. Far from running to an airport building with their heads down, Clinton and her party were greeted on the tarmac by smiling U.S. and Bosnian officials. An eight-year-old Moslem girl, Emina Bicakcic, read a poem in English. An Associated Press photograph of the greeting ceremony, above, shows a smiling Clinton bending down to receive a kiss."

Extrajudicial slayings on rise in Colombia  3/21/2008 LA Times

Beach man told FBI of alleged Spitzer sexscapades  3/21/2008 Miami Herald: "Almost four months before Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in a sex scandal, a lawyer for Republican political operative Roger Stone sent a letter to the FBI alleging that Spitzer ''used the services of high-priced call girls'' while in Florida. The letter, dated Nov. 19, said Miami Beach resident Stone learned the information from ''a social contact in an adult-themed club.'' It offered one potentially identifying detail: the man in question hadn't taken off his calf-length black socks ``during the sex act.'' Stone, known for shutting down the 2000 presidential election recount effort in Miami-Dade County, is a longtime Spitzer nemesis whose political experience ranges from the Nixon White House to Al Sharpton's presidential campaign."

Geographic Patterns of Genome Admixture in Latin American Mestizos  3/21/2008 PLOS Genetics: "We observe a marked variation in ancestry both within and between mestizo populations. This variation in ancestry correlates with pre-Columbian Native population density in the areas examined and with recent patterns of demographic growth of the sites sampled. We also find evidence that the mixture at the origin of these populations involved mainly immigrant European men and Native and African women. Finally, mestizo populations show a differentiated Amerindian genetic background, consistent with a predominantly local Native ancestry. Mestizos thus still reveal the genetic imprint of the pre-Columbian Native American population diversification."

Iraqi crackdown backfires, strengthens Sadrists  3/21/2008 Reuters

Thursday 3/20/2008

Marguerite Laurent  3/20/2008 MargeriteLaurent.com: "...Members of the elite are now contemplating a sort of 'final solution' that amounts to little less than a strategy of open warfare - the use of foreign and domestic troops to kill off the poorest of the poor, pure and simple"

Hillary's Prayer: Hillary Clinton's Religion and Politics  3/20/2008 Mother Jones: published 9/07 - "Clinton's prayer group was part of the Fellowship (or "the Family"), a network of sex-segregated cells of political, business, and military leaders dedicated to "spiritual war" on behalf of Christ, many of them recruited at the Fellowship's only public event, the annual National Prayer Breakfast. (Aside from the breakfast, the group has "made a fetish of being invisible," former Republican Senator William Armstrong has said.) The Fellowship believes that the elite win power by the will of God, who uses them for his purposes. Its mission is to help the powerful understand their role in God's plan."

Hannity Denies Past Association With White Supremacist But Evidence Suggests Otherwise  3/20/2008 News Hound: "Another night, another high tech lynching of Barack Obama on Hannity & Colmes. It was the usual attacks on Obama over those with whom he associates. But last night (3/19/08), Sean Hannity was confronted about his own past association with white supremacist Hal Turner. First Hannity denied knowing Turner, then he said he had long ago banned Turner from his show. While it’s probably true that Hannity banned Turner, what Hannity didn’t mention is that before Turner got banned, he was regularly welcomed on Hannity’s show, even after saying on the air that if it weren’t for the graciousness of white people, "black people would still be swinging on trees in Africa." "

African Diaspora conference focuses on common issues  3/20/2008 Twin Cities Daily Planet

Chronology of the 4th Generation War Against Venezuela  3/20/2008 Venezuela Analysis

Wednesday 3/19/2008

ExxonMobil loses Venezuela case  3/19/2008 Al Jazeera: "US oil giant ExxonMobil has said it will keep fighting to get billions in compensation from Venezuela after a British judge ruled against it in a case stemming from the nationalisation of a joint oil project. The judge on Tuesday suspended a previous court order that had frozen $12bn in assets belonging to Venezuela's state oil company. ExxonMobil was also ordered to make an interim payment of $765,300 to cover legal costs within 21 days."

The Iraq War Is Killing Our Economy  3/19/2008 Alternet: "But the economic consequences of Iraq run even deeper than the squandered opportunities for vital public investments. Spending on Iraq is also a job killer. Every $1 billion spent on a combination of education, healthcare, energy conservation and infrastructure investments creates between 50 and 100 percent more jobs than the same money going to Iraq. Taking the 2007 Iraq budget of $138 billion, this means that upward of 1 million jobs were lost because the Bush Administration chose the Iraq sinkhole over public investment."

Fire and Damnation Awaits Those Who Transgress Against White America’s Civic Religion  3/19/2008 Black Agenda Report: "Wright questioned white America's civic religion, its fraudulent self-image as benevolent conqueror and justified leader of the planet. Heretics of this kind are speedily cast from the public American public discourse, despite the fact most of the planet agrees with them. What does it say about the "change" Obama "brings with him" that his "multiracial coalition" seems to depend is eagerly endorsing pernicious lies rather than speaking truth to power. Who will Obama denounce, or be required to denounce next?"

US Military Option on Iran Is Back on the Table  3/19/2008 Debka, Israel: "Our military, Washington and Gulf sources report that US Vice President Dick Cheney is again talking about possible US military action to shut down Iran’s covert nuclear program."

New Jersey: March demands reparations for African Americans  3/19/2008 Fight Back News: published 2/08 - " “Forty acres and a mule!” and “You stole us. You sold us. You owe us.” chanted here, Feb. 23, demanding reparations for African American people. The march was sponsored by the People’s Organization for Progress (POP) and the New Black Panther Party. The first chant refers to Field Order 15 issued by General W.T. Sherman in 1865. The intent was to furnish a livelihood to Black freedmen after the end of slavery. Sherman’s field order was the first attempt to give reparations to the victims of slavery. It was never successfully implemented."

Obama Campaign Removes New Black Panther Party Endorsement From Web Site  3/19/2008 Fox News: "“The page in question has been removed from our campaign Web site,” Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor told FOXNews.com after inquiries about the endorsement. “It’s our policy with any content generated by a group that advocates violence.” The blogosphere was buzzing Wednesday about whether his campaign planned to remove the Panther posting. The New Black Panthers, who inherited their name from the Black Panther Party of the 1960s, had the page on the Obama campaign’s public forums that says it is backing Obama because he “represents ‘positive change’ for all of America. Obama will stir the ‘Melting Pot’ into a better ‘Molten America,’” the group says. Obama spokeswoman Tiffany Edwards said before the campaign removed the endorsement that that section of the Web site “has nothing to do with us.”"

Study: Israeli Jews becoming increasingly racist toward Arabs  3/19/2008 Haaretz

Hillary's Nasty Pastorate  3/19/2008 The Nation: "The Family's most visible activity is its blandly innocuous National Prayer Breakfast, held every February in Washington. But almost all its real work goes on behind the scenes--knitting together international networks of right-wing leaders, most of them ostensibly Christian. In the 1940s, The Family reached out to former and not-so-former Nazis, and its fascination with that exemplary leader, Adolf Hitler, has continued, along with ties to a whole bestiary of murderous thugs. As Sharlet reported in Harper's in 2003: During the 1960s the Family forged relationships between the U.S. government and some of the most anti-Communist (and dictatorial) elements within Africa's postcolonial leadership. The Brazilian dictator General Costa e Silva, with Family support, was overseeing regular fellowship groups for Latin American leaders, while, in Indonesia, General Suharto (whose tally of several hundred thousand "Communists" killed marks him as one of the century's most murderous dictators) was presiding over a group of fifty Indonesian legislators. During the Reagan Administration the Family helped build friendships between the U.S. government and men such as Salvadoran general Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova, convicted by a Florida jury of the torture of thousands, and Honduran general Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, himself an evangelical minister, who was linked to both the CIA and death squads before his own demise."

Tuesday 3/18/2008

The Real Eisenhower: Planning to Win Nuclear War  3/18/2008 Common Dreams: "If you are looking for a Republican president to admire, you may want to scratch Eisenhower off your list. It is a shame to give up the “man of peace” that peace activists have come to admire. But the historical record on Eisenhower’s nuclear policy is so consistent and so extensive (I’ve offered only a small sampling here) that it is hard to ignore. And we ignore it at our peril, because it was a policy that put anticommunist ideology above human life, made by a man who would “push [his] whole stack of chips into the pot” and “hit ‘em … with everything in the bucket”; who would “shoot your enemy before he shoots you”; who believed that the U.S. could “pick itself up from the floor” and win a nuclear war, even though “everybody is going crazy,” as long as “only” 25 or 30 American cities got “shellacked” and nobody got too “hysterical.”

Why the Bush Administration "Watergated" Eliot Spitzer  3/18/2008 Global Research: "The spectacular and highly bizarre release of secret FBI wiretap data to the New York Times exposing the tryst of New York state Governor, Eliot Spitzer, the now-infamous "No.9," with a luxury call-girl, had less to do with the Bush Administration’s pursuit of high moral standards for public servants. Spitzer was likely the target of a White House and Wall Street dirty tricks operation to silence one of its most dangerous and vocal critics of their handling the current financial market crisis."

Venezuela's state-run oil firm demands payment in euros  3/18/2008 Kansas City Star: "Venezuela’s state-run oil firm, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, is starting to demand payment in euros. The measure is aimed at protecting revenue from a weakening U.S. dollar, Venezuela’s oil minister, Rafael Ramirez, said Tuesday."

Venezuela 1: ExxonMobil 0  3/18/2008 New Statesman

"A More Perfect Union"  3/18/2008 Truth Out: Barak Obama's speech on race, full text and video.

Monday 3/17/2008

Viewing 'Iraq Winter Soldier' Testimony  3/17/2008 Consortium News: "Nearing the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War, veterans from that conflict -- as well as the one in Afghanistan -- gathered to give first-hand testimony of the routine brutality that is being inflicted on the people of those two countries. These new "Winter Soldier" hearings -- like their predecessors during the Vietnam War -- were shunned by the mainstream U.S. news media. But, as media critic Jeff Cohen notes in this guest essay, there were independent ways for Americans to get the story."

Bush Administration Seeks to Declare Venezuela a “State Sponsor of Terrorism” - Rising Tensions May Be Tied to Covert Drug Operations Reported by Narco News  3/17/2008 Global Research: "In other words, the U.S. State Department is using Uribe's "dodgy dossier" as a pretext for sanctions and embargoes against the Bolivarian republic. If implemented, such restrictions would severely limit the ability of U.S. firms to do business with Caracas while making it nearly impossible for Venezuela to export oil to the United States or import vital spare parts necessary to keep the economy going."

VENEZUELA: Guns, drugs and thugs: the threat from Plan Colombia  3/17/2008 Green Left, Australia: published 17/11/93

U.S. Cocaine-Plane Invasion Spooking Latin America - Trail of Evidence Points to Major Covert Operation Targeting Venezuela  3/17/2008 NarcoNews: "Two Florida-based companies that have exported a total of at least 11 aircraft to Venezuelan buyers since 2003 are linked to four cocaine planes and what appears to be an elaborate covert intelligence operation, an ongoing Narco News investigation shows. The covert program, law enforcement sources contend, likely involves the CIA and components of Defense Department intelligence agencies, and is focused, in part, on penetrating, or even propping up, narco-trafficking groups in Venezuela. That country’s outspoken leader, Hugo Chávez, is regularly demonized by U.S. policymakers for, among other things, supposedly allowing his country to become a haven for narco-traffickers. The operation also appears to prioritize intelligence objectives over law enforcement goals, which means tons of cocaine might well be getting a free pass into the United States."

Jewish Labor Committee Attempts to Shut Down Boston Conference on Zionism  3/17/2008 New England Committee to Defend Palestine: "Zionists walked into a well-known center for left activists in Boston this week and managed, with a single complaint, to take away an already agreed-upon meeting space for an April conference on Palestine organized by the New England Committee to Defend Palestine. Around March 9, the local branch of a national group called the Jewish Labor Committee told the director of Encuentro 5 and the landlord of the building that houses Encuentro that the New England Committee to Defend Palestine is a "hate group" and demanded that it not be allowed to hold the conference in Encuentro's meeting space… Attacks like this are exactly the subject of the disputed conference… Zionist organizations like the JLC have more material and political power than perhaps at any time in the past. But this power is increasingly hollow, since it must increasingly assert itself by shutting down a discussion about that power--a discussion that is growing and moving into the mainstream. The JLC did not succeed by persuading Encuentro 5, but by threatening them through the building's owners. These are clearly threats that they have the power to carry out--a fact that proves what critics of zionism are saying. But this also demonstrates that while they have more material power than ever before, they have less ideological support than ever before. The legitimacy of the zionist project--the passive consent given to US support for "Israel"--is collapsing. That collapse must come before the serious fight over material power--a fight that is coming."

The difference between Jeremiah Wright and radical, white evangelical ministers  3/17/2008 Salon: "But the idea that America deserves terrorist attacks and other horrendous disasters has long been a frequently expressed view among the faction of white evangelical ministers to whom the Republican Party is most inextricably linked. Neither Jerry Falwell nor Pat Robertson ever retracted or denounced their view that America provoked the 9/11 attacks by doing things to anger God. John Hagee continues to believe that the City of New Orleans got what it deserved when Katrina drowned its residents and devastated the lives of thousands of Americans. And James Inhofe -- who happens to still be a Republican U.S. Senator -- blamed America for the 9/11 attacks by arguing in a 2002 Senate floor speech that "the spiritual door was opened for an attack against the United States of America" because we pressured Israel to give away parts of the West Bank."

Sunday 3/16/2008

Comunidad afroboliviana destaca su inclusión en nuevo texto constitucional 3/16/2008 ABI

Obama's Minister Committed "Treason" But When My Father Said the Same Thing He Was a Republican Hero 3/16/2008 Huffington Post: by Frank Schaeffer -- "Every Sunday thousands of right wing white preachers (following in my father's footsteps) rail against America's sins from tens of thousands of pulpits. They tell us that America is complicit in the "murder of the unborn," has become "Sodom" by coddling gays, and that our public schools are sinful places full of evolutionists and sex educators hell-bent on corrupting children. They say, as my dad often did, that we are, "under the judgment of God." They call America evil and warn of immanent destruction. By comparison Obama's minister's shouted "controversial" comments were mild. All he said was that God should damn America for our racism and violence and that no one had ever used the N-word about Hillary Clinton. Dad and I were amongst the founders of the Religious right. In the 1970s and 1980s, while Dad and I crisscrossed America denouncing our nation's sins instead of getting in trouble we became darlings of the Republican Party. (This was while I was my father's sidekick before I dropped out of the evangelical movement altogether.) We were rewarded for our "stand" by people such as Congressman Jack Kemp, the Fords, Reagan and the Bush family. The top Republican leadership depended on preachers and agitators like us to energize their rank and file. No one called us un-American."

"There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to Democracies as against despots: suspicion." -- Demosthenes

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World News 3/16/08 - 4/13/2008

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Copyright © 1997 AfroCubaWeb, S.A. Last modified: April 06, 2008

World News
3/16/08 - 4/13/2008

Copyright © 1997 AfroCubaWeb, S.A.
Last modified: April 06, 2008