October 7, 2017

Sonic Attacks in Cuba: Who Benefits?

OCTOBER 6, 2017
by JOHN KIRK – STEPHEN KIMBER

Consider this. The United States government doesn’t know who’s responsible for the so-called acoustic attacks on its embassy personnel in Havana. Then consider this. Cuban president Raúl Castro didn’t simply claim his government had nothing to do with the incidents, he did the unthinkable and invited the FBI to investigate. FBI agents haven’t been able to figure it out. Neither have American acoustics specialists or medical experts. Even Canada’s Mounties, whose own diplomats reported similar attacks, are stymied.

Despite the fact no one has identified either culprit or cause, the Trump administration is pre-emptively creating conflict with Havana. Why? And who benefits from that?

On October 3, the State Department announced it was expelling two-thirds of Cuba’s Washington embassy personnel, less than a week after it announced it was withdrawing sixty per cent of its own diplomats from Havana, and warning Americans against traveling there. The department called the moves “reciprocity,” but didn’t explain for what, since the Cubans haven’t expelled anyone.

The State Department insists it isn’t blaming the Cuban government for the attacks; it’s simply trying to protect American diplomats and tourists. Ironically, the U.S. Foreign Service Association, representing American diplomats around the world, opposes Washington’s directive. So do travel companies and airlines ferrying eager American visitors to the island in increasing numbers. So presumably do Americans generally, the majority of whom support improving relations with Cuba. While over 600,000 Americans visited Cuba last year, it’s worth noting not one has so far complained of symptoms similar to those reported by the diplomats.

More:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/10/06/sonic-attacks-in-cuba-who-benefits/

October 7, 2017

Beautiful Revolutionary: Che Guevara Remembered

OCTOBER 6, 2017
“Beautiful Revolutionary”: Che Guevara Remembered
by DANA COOK

Fifty years ago—on October 8, 1967—the Argentine guerilla leader who played a key role in the Cuban Revolution was captured by the Bolivian military, with help from the CIA. He was executed the next day. In the following, Pablo Neruda, Maureen O’Hara, Jerry Rubin, I.F. Stone and others write about their encounters with the revolutionary icon who most know only from his image on tee-shirts. Susan Sontag and Jesse Ventura tell why he was their idol.

(Compiled by Dana Cook)

‘Ideological differences’
Herbert Matthews, journalist (New York Times)

I was in the Cabanas Fortress of Havana to greet Guevara when he entered the capital in triumph at the beginning of January 1959, and I came to know him fairly well until the time he disappeared on the quixotic quest that was to fail but, as with the hero of Cervantes’ story to whom Che likened himself, was to immortalize him. Our meetings were always long arguments in the small hours of the night when he would defend Marxism and the measures that the Castro government was taking—while I disagreed. In two of his books which he autographed for me, he expressed friendship despite our “ideological differences.”

from A World in Revolution: A Newspaperman’s Memoir, by Herbert L. Matthews (Scribner’s , 1971).

Freedom fighter
Maureen O’Hara, actor and singer

…we arrived in Havana on April 15, 1959 [to make the film Our Man in Havana, based on the Graham Greene novel].

…I stayed close to the Capri Hotel, our home base. You would meet everyone important in the revolution there sooner or later because it was a popular place to go for dinner or coffee or to smoke a cigar. I enjoyed interesting conversations with Che Guevara there…I would see him in the restaurant and he’d come to my table to say hello and eventually would sit down and join me. Che would talk about Ireland and all the guerilla warfare that had taken place there. He knew every battle in Ireland and all of its history…

…I believe he was far less a mercenary than he was a freedom fighter. I think he was a product of his grandmother and her teachings. I look back on how young [31] and idealistic Che was when I made that picture. It’s hard to believe that he had already helped to topple a dictator and liberate a nation. Today he is a symbol for freedom fighters wherever they are in the world and I think he is a good one. When word came of his capture and execution, I was deeply saddened…

More:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/10/06/beautiful-revolutionary-che-guevara-remembered/

October 5, 2017

Ancient Stone Carvings Capture Maya Ballplayers in Action

By Laura Geggel, Senior Writer | September 29, 2017 10:09am ET


The long-lost Maya ruins of Tipan Chen Uitz in Belize are only beginning to give up their secrets, with the latest discovery being something of a home run: Archaeologists found two table-size stone panels, depicting elite ballplayers, that likely would have greeted subjects walking by the palace, according to a new study.

The discovery of these two panels reinforces the idea that the Maya people would have placed a lot of importance on the ballgame, and suggests that it helped the Maya connect with different communities in their vast network, the researchers said.

"[These monuments] speak to the extent to which Tipan was embedded in these very complex political relationships between ruling elites across the Maya area," said study senior researcher Christopher Andres, an adjunct research associate at Michigan State University who specializes in Maya archaeology. [Photos: See the Maya Ballplayers Carved into the Stone Panels]

Andres and his colleagues learned about the Tipan site while working on another archaeological project in Belize, in 2009. Some locals said they knew about an undocumented Maya site in the jungle and agreed to take them there.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/60552-maya-ballplayer-stone-panels-discovered.html



Tipan Chen Uitz Mayan ball court

Another Mayan ball court:



More images:
http://imgarcade.com/ancient-mayan-ball-court.html

October 5, 2017

Keep Out! How the U.S. Is Militarizing Mexicos Southern Border

by Jeff Abbott
October 2, 2017



A group of people cross the Suchiate River from Guatemala to Mexico in August 2014. This has been a popular crossing point for migrants heading north. Photo by the author.


Marvin Garcia looks out over the Suchiate River from the Guatemalan side of Mexico’s southern border. For twenty-one years, he has ferried numerous people across this river who were making their way to the United States. But the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States has changed that.

“In past years, there were many people crossing the river to migrate northwards,” Garcia, forty-four, told me. “But now with the politics in the United States, and the number of people being deported, the number has drastically declined here.”

An elderly man, who declined to give his name, added, “But we know that people are still going because we see them being deported in buses.”

. . .

“As a result of the politics of Trump, there is a very significant decrease in the number of migrants heading north,” said Enrique Vidal Olascoaga, an analyst with the San Cristóbal de las Casas-based human rights organization Voces Mesoamericanas. “But there is a significant increase in the violence and brutality against migrants. There are fewer migrants, but greater violence against them.”

More:
http://progressive.org/magazine/keep-out-jeff-abbott-by-jeff-abbott-how-the-u-s-is-militariz/

October 5, 2017

Are white shooters called 'lone wolves,' by default?

Errin Haines Whack, Associated Press
 Updated 6:41 pm, Wednesday, October 4, 2017

When Stephen Craig Paddock — a white American — was identified as the gunman who rained bullets on multitudes at a Las Vegas concert, he was quickly characterized as a "lone wolf."

Had he been of another race or ethnicity, would he have been branded a terrorist, instead — or would aspersions have been cast on his minority group?

The question has been raised again and again in recent days, as critics suggested that the conversation around our nation's tragedies is often framed in divisive, racial code words. If whites are blamed, they say, it is as individuals; for minorities, it is suggested that their crimes are part of a larger narrative.
 
"For whites, it's 'just something that happened,'" said Texas Southern University professor Sharlette Kellum-Gilbert. "When it's of another race, 'this is how they are,' and there are calls for law and order."

More:
http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Are-white-shooters-called-lone-wolves-by-12253107.php

October 4, 2017

US homeland security agents accepted bribes, prostitutes from Colombia crime lords

Source: Colombia Reports


written by Atticus Ballesteros October 3, 2017


At least two Homeland Security agents took cash and prostitutes from Colombian crime lords in exchange for erasing their criminal records, according to the US Department of Justice (DOJ).

In a story befit for the ages, the two agents, one named Christopher Ciccione and the other unnamed, enjoyed a lavish evening in Bogota with fine wine, a suitcase full of cash, a famous singer, prostitutes, and an army colonel–all in exchange for helping at least two major crime lords.

Both agents reportedly worked for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Miami, Florida.

A good cop turned bad

According to a Department of Justice indictment released last week, Special Agent Christopher Ciccione worked through a Colombian intermediary, Juan Velasco, to organize a bribery scheme with crime lord Jose Piedrahita, an infamous narcotrafficker and assassin associated with the Cali Cartel.

Read more: https://colombiareports.com/us-homeland-security-agents-accepted-bribes-prostitutes-colombia-crime-lords/