Sunday 6/20/04

LAS LLAGAS DEL FRANQUISMO  6/20/04 Jiribila

US Lacks Votes for Immunity from War Crimes Court  6/20/04 Reuters

1.9 million black votes didn't count in the 2000 presidential election It's not too hard to get your vote lost -- if some politicians want it to be lost  6/20/04 SF Chronicle: "In the 2000 presidential election, 1.9 million Americans cast ballots that no one counted. "Spoiled votes" is the technical term. The pile of ballots left to rot has a distinctly dark hue: About 1 million of them -- half of the rejected ballots -- were cast by African Americans although black voters make up only 12 percent of the electorate. This year, it could get worse."

Affidavits portray Haiti as a chaotic drug haven  6/20/04 Sun Sentinel, FL: "Days before President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced out of Haiti, a notorious cocaine trafficker stood before a federal judge in Miami and said Aristide, once his friend, had turned Haiti into "a narco-country." "

Saturday 6/19/04

Bush told he is playing into Bin Laden's hands  6/19/04 Guardian: "Anonymous, who published an analysis of al-Qaida last year called Through Our Enemies' Eyes, thinks it quite possible that another devastating strike against the US could come during the election campaign, not with the intention of changing the administration, as was the case in the Madrid bombing, but of keeping the same one in place. "I'm very sure they can't have a better administration for them than the one they have now," he said. "One way to keep the Republicans in power is to mount an attack that would rally the country around the president." "

Destruction of Key Bridge Halts Southern Rails Muqtada Aide Declares East Baghdad an American no-go Zone  6/19/04 Juan Cole: unlike Viet Nam, where US troops could be re-supplies up and down the coast, there is only one port in Iraq, and this bridge cuts Baghdad off from it. In addition: "Shaikh Aws al-Khafaji, who is close to Muqtada al-Sadr, declared East Baghdad a no-go zone for the Americans."

Marines blamed for Haiti abuse  6/19/04 Miami Herald: "An Amnesty International report blamed the Haitian and U.S. governments for human rights abuses in Haiti."

Aristide Followers Demand His Return to Presidency in Haiti  6/19/04 PL: "Thousands of followers of overthrown Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide demanded his return to power and blamed the United States for his removal from power, official sources reported today. Some five thousand people peacefully demonstrated along the streets of the capital, accusing Washington of kidnapping the legally elected Haitian president last February 29. They also warned the authorities that they would boycott the coming general elections if the former president continues abroad.

Uruguayan Defense Minister to Visit Haiti  6/19/04 PL: "Uruguayan Defense Minister Yamandu Fau will visit Haiti July 7-8 to get acquainted with affairs linked to the deployment of UN peace forces in this country. Fau told the press his visit to Haiti responds to an invitation by his counterpart from Brazil, which is commanding the UN peace forces in the Caribbean island."

U.S. being forced to transfer some units  6/19/04 San Diego Union Tribune: "More than a dozen sailors, including eight SEALs, are being investigated after testing positive for illegal drug use, the Navy confirmed yesterday. Seven sailors assigned to the Naval Special Warfare Command, including five SEALs, failed drug tests in early May while they were on a training exercise in Thailand. Other sailors reported seeing the commandos using drugs in Pattaya, a Thai beach resort. That was enough for Rear Adm. Joseph Maguire, the Naval Special Warfare commander, to order a drug-testing sweep of 3,300 of the 4,600 men and women under his command."

Friday 6/18/04

Indigenous Group Along Colombia-Venezuelan Border Threatened by Tensions, Smuggling  6/18/04 One World: "Growing tensions between the governments of Colombia and Venezuela, as well as the persistence of fighting between left-wing insurgents and Army-backed paramilitary groups within Colombia, are threatening the welfare of a hundreds of members of the Wayuu indigenous group, descendants of the Arawaks who dominated the southern Caribbean before the European conquest of the Americas. A massacre allegedly committed by right-wing paramilitaries in the Caribbean border town of Bahia Portete two months ago reportedly killed at least 12 Indians, although 30 more, including 20 children, remain unaccounted for, according to Massachusetts-based Cultural Survival… Paramilitaries, who have long profited from drug trafficking, were, according to some accounts, invited into the region several years ago by local mafia families precisely to assert control over the trade. According to one report in the Bogota newspaper, 'El Tiempo,' the massacre was carried out in retaliation against a group that included some Wayuu from the town who allegedly stole cocaine from the paramilitaries. Another account published by 'El Espectador,' depicted the massacre as part of an ongoing struggle between the paramilitaries and a group of Wayuu over control of the port itself."

Human Rights Watch se convierte en la punta de lanza de la administración Bush contra Venezuela  6/18/04 Rebelion

Afro-American praise Chavez as national hero; symbol of freedom and independence  6/18/04 Vheadline: "National Afro Brazilian Congress president Eduardo de Oliveira says President Hugo Chavez is a national hero and a symbol of freedom and independence for the majority of Brazilians and especially Black Brazilians. "Our continent Latin America will really be free when have a dozen Chavez Frias that defend freedom and a dozen Lula da Silvas that integrate, unify and build politically and economically independent peoples." The remarks will undoubtedly create a current of adverse opinion among opposition militants in Venezuela who claim that racism isn't an issue and that President Hugo Chavez Frias is stoking racial hatred."

Thursday 6/17/04

Mass Incarceration and Rape - The Savaging of Black America  6/17/04 Black Commentator: "Mass incarceration is by far the greatest crisis facing Black America, ultimately eclipsing all others. It is an overarching reality that colors and distorts every aspect of African American political, economic and cultural life, smothering the human – and humane – aspirations of the community… Yet mass Black incarceration is not a political priority for much of what passes for Black leadership. A deep and historical current in Black America feels far more shame than anger at the ever lengthening line of march through the prison gates… Each year, hundreds of thousands of young Black men and boys (and record numbers of women and girls) are immersed in the most intensely coercive environment imaginable. Older inmates and ex-prisoners uniformly report that prison rape has become exponentially more prevalent, with gangs dominating the closed world behind the bars."

Venezuela: Judicial Independence Under Siege  6/17/04 Human Rights Watch

Chalabigate: Chalabi's defenders in the Office of Special Plans as revealed by Robert Dreyfuss in The Nation (7/7/03), and now defended by neocon Michael Rubin in the National Review  6/17/04 Peter Dale Scott: "The revelations about Chalabi, together with the revelations about torture, are so serious as to face the Bush Administration with an imminent Chalabigate or Torturegate, in which we may expect a torrent of leaks from different viewpoints. I would not be surprised to see disinformation as well as information spread by both sides in the current dogfight over Chalabi. Neocons are not easily summarized. Some are disinformation veterans, like Michael Ledeen who championed the arms-dealer Ghorbanifar of Iran-Contra n the 1980s as eagerly as he has championed Chalabi recently. Michael Rubin, in contrast, is intelligent and unpredictable."

Free-speech lockdown  6/17/04 SF Bay View: "California prisons are a reporter’s nightmare - will new legislation change that?"

Gov. Bush’s visit to Haiti raises economic hopes to distressed nation  6/17/04 Sun Sentinel, FL

Wednesday 6/16/04

Here Come the Death Squad Veterans  6/16/04 Alternet: "As violent attacks continue in Iraq, corporate America is turning to Latin America to "outsource" protection services to veterans of the region's 'dirty wars'."

Dennis Hastert  6/16/04 Disinfopedia: next in line should Bush and Cheney be impeached or resign.

COUP D'ETAT: The Real Reason Tenet and Pavitt Resigned from the CIA on June 3rd and 4th Bush, Cheney Indictments in Plame Case Looming  6/16/04 From the Wilderness: "The criminal investigation of the Plame leak was investigated after a September 2003 formal request from the CIA, approved by George Tenet. Not only was Plame's cover blown, so was that of her cover company, Brewster, Jennings & Associates. With the public exposure of Plame, intelligence agencies all over the world started searching data bases for any references to her (TIME Magazine). Damage control was immediate, as the CIA asserted that her mission had been connected to weapons of mass destruction. However, it was not long before stories from the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal tied Brewster, Jennings & Associates to energy, oil and the Saudi-owned Arabian American Oil Company, or ARAMCO. Brewster Jennings had been a founder of Mobil Oil company, one of Aramco's principal founders. According to additional sources interviewed by Wayne Madsen, Brewster Jennings was, in fact, a well-established CIA proprietary company, linked for many years to ARAMCO. The demise of Brewster Jennings was also guaranteed the moment Plame was outed. It takes years for Non-Official Covers or NOCs, as they are known, to become really effective. Over time, they become gradually more trusted; they work their way into deeper information access from more sensitive sources. NOCs are generally regarded in the community as among the best and most valuable of all CIA operations officers and the agency goes to great lengths to protect them in what are frequently very risky missions. By definition, Valerie Plame was an NOC. Yet unlike all other NOCs who fear exposure and torture or death from hostile governments and individual targets who have been judged threats to the United States, she got done in by her own President, whom we also judge to be a domestic enemy of the United States. Moreover, as we will see below, Valerie Plame may have been one of the most important NOCs the CIA had in the current climate."

Henry Waxman  6/16/04 House.gov: would handle articles of impeachment against Bush.

Henry Waxman: Iraq Intelligence and Nuclear Evidence  6/16/04 House.gov

French and UN troops invade home of mayor of Milo, Haiti  6/16/04 SF Bay View: "Since this year’s Feb. 29 coup d’état, foreign troops in Haiti have absolutely refused to respect or be bound to Haitian law, its Constitution or sovereignty. The U.S. Marines and now French and U.N. soldiers seem instead to be establishing a record of terrorizing people targeted for arrest in the dead of night and treating Haitians, even a 5-year-old Haitian child, as in the So Anne’s home invasion, like criminals, especially if they are affiliated with the Lavalas party, which remains Haiti’s strongest and most popular democratic party and movement. What is most disturbing about this pattern is the single-minded focus on arresting primarily Lavalas voices with a well-known popular support base and credible reputations. Even under the new U.N.-led troops, the pattern is continuing with this current hunt for Mayor Moise of Milo."

Tuesday 6/15/04

Diablos Danzantes de Corpus Christi de Venezuela  6/15/04 AfroCubaWeb

Disease, hunger dog Haiti flood victims  6/15/04 ENN: "Doctors are fighting to prevent multiple epidemics among survivors from the drowned Haitian town of Mapou, one of the worst-hit areas in floods that killed about 2,600 people three weeks ago. A small team of doctors from Cuba and from the Paris-based Doctors Without Borders are fighting outbreaks of mosquito-borne fevers like malaria and dengue in Mapou, which is still under water following the May 24 floods."

Is the money supply really growing that fast?  6/15/04 Investors.com

Iraqi Resistance Report June 10 - June 13, 2004  6/15/04 Jihad Unspun

Reagan-Bush: el factor religioso  6/15/04 Jiribilla: "Los funerales de Ronald Reagan, que introducirán al ex presidente de Estados Unidos en el nicho del mítico folclore imperial, servirán al actual jefe de la Casa Blanca, George W. Bush, para reforzar la doctrina del destino manifiesto y su teología de la guerra sin fin, con la mirada puesta en millones de votantes cristianos neoconservadores católicos y protestantes y evangélicos fundamentalistas, que podrían asegurarle un nuevo mandato al frente de la Oficina Oval."

Financial Markets Forecast and Analysis  6/15/04 Safe Haven: "the Federal Reserve has confirmed our Stock Market Crash forecast by raising the Money Supply (M-3) by crisis proportions, up another 46.8 billion this past week. What awful calamity do they see? Something is up. This is unprecedented, unheard-of pre-catastrophe M-3 expansion. M-3 is up an amount that we've never seen before without a crisis - $155 billion over the past 4 weeks, a $2.0 trillion annualized pace, a 22.2 percent annualized rate of growth!!! There must be a crisis of historic proportions coming, and the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States is making sure that there is enough liquidity in place to protect our nation's fragile financial system. The amazing thing is, the Fed's actions mean they know what is about to happen. They are aware of a terrible, horrific imminent event. What could it be?"

Defining M1, M2, and M3 and its relation to inflation  6/15/04 Wordiq

Monday 6/14/04

DIABLOS DANZANTES DE CORPUS CHRISTI DE VENEZUELA  6/14/04 del Patrimonio Cultural, Venezuela: "CANDIDATO A LA SEGUNDA PROCLAMACION DE LAS OBRAS MAESTRAS DEL PATRIMONIO ORAL E INMATERIAL DE LA HUMANIDAD…

Whistleblowers ask federal workers to come forward with 9/11 evidence  6/14/04 GovExec: "Two government whistleblowers on Monday called on federal workers to come forward if they have information that could help investigations of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The request was made by Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI translator who alleges that the government knew more details about the 9/11 plot than it has admitted, and Daniel Ellsberg, a former Marine who leaked the Pentagon Papers about the Vietnam War to the media in 1971."

The Flooding and the Coup - An interview with Paul Farmer  6/14/04 Znet: "In central Haiti there have been no Marines, and there are no Haitian policemen. Many of the latter were shot by the "rebels," who are really the former military who came in across the border near us. And although I hear there are Chilean troops in Hinche (in the Central Plateau) the other cities and towns you visited are all pretty much in the hands of former Haitian military. They are the people who in the past stole our ambulances, took members of our staff hostage, etc. They've been pretty tame recently, but then again, who is there to stand up to them?"

"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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6/14/04 - 6/20/04