Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalAt least 54 Colombian girls sexually abused by immune US military: Report
Source: Colombia Reports
At least 54 Colombian girls sexually abused by immune US military: Report
Mar 23, 2015 posted by Adriaan Alsema
US soldiers and military contractors have sexually abused more than 54 children in Colombia between 2003 and 2007, according to a recently released historic document on the country’s conflict. The alleged sex offenders have not been prosecuted due to immunity clauses in bilateral agreements.
The 800-page independent historic report was commissioned by the Colombian government and rebel group FARC to establish the causes and violence aggravators of the 50-year-long conflict they are negotiating to end. The document is to help negotiators determine who is responsible for the 7 million victims or the armed conflict between leftist rebels and the state while they are negotiating peace.
One of the scholars that helped redact the historians’ report, Renan Vega of the Pedagogic University in Bogota, focused part of this historic document on the American military that has actively supported the Colombian state in its fight against drug trafficking and leftist rebel groups like the FARC and ELN.
According to Vega, “there exists abundant information about the sexual violence, in absolute impunity thanks to the bilateral agreements and the diplomatic immunity of United States officials.”
Read more: http://colombiareports.co/more-than-54-colombian-girls-sexually-abuses-by-us-military-report/
The CIA, the drug dealers, and the tragedy of Gary Webb
The CIA, the drug dealers, and the tragedy of Gary Webb
In 1996, journalist Gary Webb began looking into links between Nicaragua's drug-running Contra rebels and the CIA. As a recent film shows, what he found killed him
By Alex Hannaford
6:18PM GMT 21 Mar 2015
Gary Webb knew his story would cause a stir. The newspaper report he'd written suggested that a US-backed rebel army in Latin America was supplying the drugs responsible for blighting some of Los Angeles's poorest neighbourhoods – and, crucially, that the CIA must have known about it.
Dark Alliance was a series written by California-based reporter Webb and published in the San Jose Mercury News in 1996. In it, he claimed the Contra rebels in Nicaragua were shipping cocaine into the US. which was then flooding Compton and South-Central Los Angeles in the mid-Eighties after being turned into crack – a relatively new and highly addictive substance sold in 'rocks' that could be smoked. Webb also said the CIA was aware that proceeds from the sales of those drugs were being funnelled back to help fund the Contras.
Dark Alliance has been called one of the most explosive and controversial exposés in American journalism, and was the first investigative story to "go viral". Webb didn't anticipate some of this, but he wasn't prepared for the level of uproar it would cause in LA’s black communities, incredulous that their own government could in some way be responsible for the crack epidemic plaguing their homes; that it would force the US government on the PR defensive; that the mainstream press, scooped by a tiny upstart, would attack Webb rather than try to dig deeper into the scandal they uncovered; or that the fallout would eventually lead to Webb taking his own life.
Nineteen years on, the story of Webb’s investigation and its aftermath has been given the full Hollywood treatment. Kill the Messenger, based on his account of what happened and a book of the same name about the saga by journalist Nick Schou was recently released in cinemas. And with it, some believe, came the full vindication that Webb deserves.
More:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/11485819/kill-messenger-gary-webb-true-story.html
PSDB leader wants Rousseff government "to bleed" ahead of 2018 vote
PSDB leader wants Rousseff government "to bleed" ahead of 2018 vote
12:00 AM (GMT -03:00) – Mar 10 2015
During a debate Monday at the Fernando Henrique Institute, Senator Aloysio Nunes Ferreira (Brazilian Social Democracy Party, PSDB, São Paulo) was clear: he is against the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. "I do not want Dilma to get out. I want the president to bleed. I do not want a country headed by [vice president] Michel Temer.” Then he explained: if the Workers’ Party (PT) government bleeds slowly, this can derail its chances in 2018. But a country under the command of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), with a broken economy, could give back to the PT, led by former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the electoral chances of returning to power in the next election. In the same debate, recalling the so-called budget dwarfs scandal, in 1993, when the political alliance that would result in the Real Plan was formed, former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso compared that moment with the current disarray in the Rousseff government. He cited the dismantling of the power block formed by entrepreneurs — which "no longer has the funds to sustain the party" — and the frayed political system, in which the three main parties together do not account for a third of the Chamber of Deputies. "This is the time. The problem is who will seize it,” the former president said.
http://www.valor.com.br/international/news/3945202/psdb-leader-wants-rousseff-government-bleed-ahead-2018-vote
(Short article, no more at link.)
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Senator Aloysio Nunes Ferreira
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New US aggression unites Latin America
New US aggression unites Latin America
Mar Friday 20th 2015
posted by Morning Star
US policies for the region are desperately out of touch and have been roundly condemned by the countries concerned, MATT WILLGRESS reports
On March 9 US President Barack Obama signed an executive order declaring “a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela” and imposed a further round of sanctions on the South American country.
Following the introduction of sanctions earlier in the year and numerous hostile statements from leading figures in the US administration, including John Kerry and Joe Biden, this latest act of aggression has sent out a clear signal that the US has prioritised the overthrow of the elected government.
It is also remarkably similar to an order signed by Ronald Reagan in 1985 against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua, which added presidential authority to the destabilisation of a country which at the time — like Venezuela today — was trying to build a different type of society.
Others have drawn parallels to the US invasion of Panama and still more similarities between the situation in Venezuela today and the build up to Pinochet’s US-backed coup against the elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973.
More:
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-2dbb-New-US-aggression-unites-Latin-America#.VQt2xGdFCbw
Alberto Nisman Accused of Splurging on Hookers and Vacations
Alberto Nisman Accused of Splurging on Hookers and Vacations
Did Argentina Terror Prosecutor Lead 'Licentious Lifestyle?
By Hugh Bronstein
Published March 19, 2015.
(Reuters) — The Argentine prosecutor found dead after accusing the president of whitewashing a deadly 1994 bombing embezzled state funds to take prostitutes on lavish vacations, the government said on Thursday, deepening the scandal over his death early this year.
Alberto Nisman, found dead two months ago after accusing President Cristina Fernandez of trying to cover up Iran’s alleged role in the bombing of a Jewish community center, is as much at the center of controversy now as when he was alive.
A former assistant told investigators this week that he had to kick back about half his salary to Nisman in order to keep his job.
On Thursday, Cabinet Chief Anibal Fernandez told reporters Nisman was a “scoundrel” who used government funds to pay for hookers, booze and trips to the beach instead of using it to find out who planted the truck bomb that killed 85 people at the AMIA Jewish center 21 years ago.
“He was given a lot of money to clarify the AMIA case and he spent it on young women and ñoquis (Argentine slang for an employee who gets paid without working),” Anibal Fernandez said during a regular question-and-answer session. “This licentious lifestyle was very costly. Who paid for this troupe of workers who did not work?” the Cabinet chief said. “Like when he went to Cancun with a secretary ñoqui and a known prostitute? His salary could not have covered all that.”
More:
http://forward.com/articles/217006/alberto-nisman-accused-of-splurging-on-hookers-and/#ixzz3UrlU2v6f
Amazon forest trees dying younger, reducing carbon uptake
From: University of Leeds
Published March 18, 2015 05:54 PM
Amazon forest trees dying younger, reducing carbon uptake
From a peak of two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year in the 1990s, the net uptake by the forest has halved and is now for the first time being overtaken by fossil fuel emissions in Latin America.
The results of this monumental 30-year survey of the South American rainforest, which involved an international team of almost 100 researchers and was led by the University of Leeds, are published today in the journal Nature.
Over recent decades the remaining Amazon forest has acted as a vast ‘carbon sink’ – absorbing more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases – helping to put a brake on the rate of climate change. But this new analysis of forest dynamics shows a huge surge in the rate of trees dying across the Amazon.
Lead author Dr Roel Brienen, from the School of Geography at the University of Leeds, said: “Tree mortality rates have increased by more than a third since the mid-1980s, and this is affecting the Amazon’s capacity to store carbon.”
More:
http://www.enn.com/sustainability/article/48359?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EnvironmentalNewsNetwork+%28Environmental+News+Network%29
U. S. Interventions in Venezuela, Peru, and Paraguay
March 18, 2015
Where is the Truth?
U. S. Interventions in Venezuela, Peru, and Paraguay
by W.T. WHITNEY Jr.
To refute official explanations for U.S. interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean is easy sometimes. Critics recently highlighted falsehoods and contradictions given off from President Obama’s executive order of March 9 that imposed sanctions against Venezuela, and the job was done.
That document mentioned “erosion of human rights guarantees” in Venezuela, attacks on press freedom, police violence in response to anti-government protests, and arbitrary arrests. Alternative voices told the truth: private media flourishes there, U.S.-financed counterrevolutionary groups recruited anti-government agitators of last year who accounted for most of the deadly violence cited by Obama. Critics highlighted abuse of Black people’s rights in the United States and the scandals of U.S. torture, poverty, and prisons. The Guantanamo prison was mentioned repeatedly.
There are other interventions, however, with other rationalizations. These too are poorly explained, but in a different way. They seem to shift depending on circumstances, and look like they are contrived for propaganda purposes. These official justifications marked by scatter apply particularly to military incursions in the region.
The U.S. military, for example, is implementing a scheme of collaboration with Peru. The Peruvian Congress passed enabling legislation in January and February. Some 3500 U. S. Marines will be in Peru for short or long periods during the coming year. Their purpose, according to an official Peruvian military source, is instructional. The first contingent of 58 U.S. troops arrived on February 1 and will stay for a year working in five districts. Two weeks later, 67 more marines arrived for a six-week stay. On September 1, 3200 soldiers will disembark from the amphibious assault vessel “America.” That ship visited Peru in September 2014.
On September 1-6, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington calls at Puerto Callao in Peru. The U. S. Fourth Fleet, reactivated in 2008 to support missions of the U. S. Southern Command, has operational control of both vessels.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/18/u-s-interventions-in-venezuela-peru-and-paraguay/
The Paranoid Style in Brazilian Politics
The Paranoid Style in Brazilian Politics
The slow decline of the Brazilian Workers’ Party has emboldened the country’s growing right wing.
by Patrick de Oliveira
1.7.15
Patrick de Oliveira is a PhD student in history at Princeton University.
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A December cover of the conservative Brazilian magazine Veja.
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Speaking after her October reelection, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said that she didn’t think the country was divided. That might have been wishful thinking.
The 2014 campaign was the most bitter since Brazil returned to direct popular elections in 1989. Supporters of Aécio Neves, Rousseff’s opponent in the runoff election, expressed legitimate — albeit selective — indignation over the corruption scandals that have plagued the Workers’ Party (PT) in its twelve years in power. A new right-wing punditry has taken ownership of this outrage, launching tirades against the evils of big government and cynical leftist agents seeking to undermine traditional values — a discourse reminiscent of the American Tea Party.
This new Brazilian right, unlike the Tea Party, does not have a foundational moment in national history it can appropriate in order to oppose any kind of progressive politics — what Jill Lepore calls an anti-historical perspective. But its members still see even the smallest left initiative as a lethal threat to their vision of a good society.
They perceive themselves as engaged in a life-or-death struggle to protect Western civilization (narrowly understood as being sustained by the twin pillars of economic liberalism and cultural conservatism) against the specter of a scheming authoritarian left.
One of the leading figures in shaping this new right-wing discourse is Rodrigo Constantino, a blogger and columnist for Veja magazine. The morning after Rousseff’s reelection, Constantino posted on Facebook that people should find a copy of Atlas Shrugged. He followed with blog posts accusing Rousseff voters of being either ignorant or scoundrels, making it impossible to have a political discussion with them.
More:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/01/brazil-right-wing-veja/
Brazil's social media had key role in protests
Brazil's social media had key role in protests
By Pedro Ozores - Tuesday, March 17, 2015
About a million people took to the streets of dozens of Brazilian cities last Sunday to protest against President Dilma Rousseff and the major corruption scandal uncovered by the Operation Car Wash probe, while many more more chimed in on social media.
Preliminary data from Twitter Brazil says that over 1.7mn tweets with the hashtags #Dilma #protesto #manifestação and #governo were posted between Friday, when pro-government but anti-austerity measures protests took place, and Sunday, when some demonstrators called for the president's impeachment.
~ snip ~
The repercussions on Twitter were likely bigger, as the measurements took in account just those hashtags. During Sunday's protests, the hashtags #tchauDilma ("bye Dilma"
and #menosodiomaisdemocracia ("less hate, more democracy" – promoted by Rousseff's supporters) reached worldwide trending topic status.
Facebook, meanwhile, did not release any data about user activity during the demonstrations in Brazil, which were organized through social media. Users shared with their contacts on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp information on the time, venue and even the outfit to wear during the protests.
More:
http://www.bnamericas.com/news/technology/brazils-social-media-had-key-role-in-protests
(Gee, the photo shows the same kind of people in the ones shared by OBenario. How is it our own corporate media missed this important point?)
See photos:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/110838550#post3
http://www.democraticunderground.com/110838550#post5
New Venezuela Sanctions – Are They Really About Human Rights?
New Venezuela Sanctions – Are They Really About Human Rights?
12th March, 2015 - Posted by Derek Poppert -
Last week, the U.S. government slapped Venezuela with new sanctions in the name of human rights and “national security”. An executive order describing the sanctions claims the situation in the country poses an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”
To be sure, the claim that Venezuela poses an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security of the United States is self-evidently quite absurd. As for human rights, to issue sanctions from the sanctimonious place of being the voice and promoter of human rights across the world is offensive to those who can see both its falsity and the glaring double standard applied.
Indeed, these sanctions in the name of “human rights” come in the face of billions of dollars of continued U.S. military aid and arms sales to repressive and authoritarian regimes such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain - all of whom hold ghastly records of human rights violations far worse than anything that occurs inside Venezuela, including systematic repression, torture, arbitrary detention and imprisonment, stifling of dissent, lack of basic civil liberties and even, in the case of Saudi Arabia, public floggings and beheadings perpetrated by the government on a regular basis.
The hypocrisy and irony of our foreign policy shouldn’t surprise us anymore; indeed, it’s nothing new – throughout both the Cold War and the “War on Terror” we have consistently supplied friendly (i.e. capitalist and military friendly) but repressive regimes with guns, cash and support while any country remotely resembling an opposition to the neoliberal economic order was punished to the teeth. If you’re a capitalist-friendly dictator either with oil or a strategic area for military bases – and even better yet, both – human rights are but a minor side thought, perhaps mentioned and denounced, but rarely made to actually affect policy. If you’re a socialist government working against the hegemony of neoliberal capitalism, on the other hand, human rights accusations and ensuing punishments come straight to the fore.
More:
http://www.globalexchange.org/blogs/peopletopeople/2015/03/12/new-venezuela-sanctions-are-they-really-about-human-rights/
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