From the London Times, Feb. 12: The CIA’s top counter-terrorism official was fired last week because he opposed detaining Al-Qaeda suspects in secret prisons abroad, sending them to other countries for interrogation and using forms of torture such as “water… Read moreCIA anti-terror chief sacked for opposing torture?
At least it makes the front page of the New York Times. From the Feb. 13 edition: Years After 2 Afghans Died, Abuse Case Falters By TIM GOLDEN FORT BLISS, Tex. In the chronicle of abuses that has emerged from… Read morePentagon impunity in torture-death case
Gee, we sure wish this was getting more headlines! The first paragraph is annoyingly sarcastic (the global protests he refers to, of course, have unfortunately not occurred). But the last paragraph is spot on! Why do so few on the… Read moreTehran’s striking bus drivers: real defenders of Muslim rights
From AP, Feb. 3: Guatemala’s long-running problem with vigilantes took an unusual turn this week when police arrested seven armed Christian fundamentalists accused of extortion as they distributed religious leaflets and collected money on a local highway. Using the slogan… Read more“Social cleansing” in Guatemala
As Subcommander Marcos and other Zapatista leaders tour Mexico, their home turf in the southern state of Chiapas remains torn by ongoing low-level violent conflcts. Last month, the Good Government Junta El Camino del Futuro, one of the regional Zapatista… Read moreMeanwhile back in Chiapas…
This communique from the TDR-EP, one of the guerilla organizations active in the mountains of Oaxaca and Guerrero, indicates the profusion of armed campesino groups in the region—even if we can question TDR-EP’s claim to command many of them. From… Read moreGuerillas call truce for “Other Campaign”
The Zapatista “Other Campaign” is making its way up the Mexican isthmus. Leaving behind the Maya realms of Chiapas and the Yucatan, in recent weeks it has passed through the states of Tabasco, Veracruz and, most recently, Oaxaca. At each… Read moreZapatista “Other Campaign” reaches Oaxaca
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) served papers the week of Jan. 30 on seven US activists relating to a march and fast the group Witness Against Torture carried out in Cuba in December. The OFAC… Read moreUS strikes back against Gitmo protesters
On the morning of Feb. 10, agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Puerto Rico started a series of raids on the homes of independence activists in the cities of Mayaguez, San German, Rio Piedras and Trujillo… Read morePuerto Rico: FBI agents raid homes
A very interesting piece from the Feb. 6 Christian Science Monitor, online at RethinkVenezuela. Smells like the usual “regime change” recipe, doesn’t it? Democracy’s ‘special forces’ face heat CARACAS, VENEZUELA — A diplomatic row between the United States and Venezuela… Read moreVenezuela: US funds opposition
What, us worry? From the AP, Feb. 10: WASHINGTON — The government concluded its “Cyber Storm” wargame Friday, its biggest-ever exercise to test how it would respond to devastating attacks over the Internet from anti-globalization activists, underground hackers and bloggers…. Read moreHomeland Security holds “Cyber Storm” war game
A jazz musician and a bookstore owner? OK, could be. But this smells to us like another sleazy FBI fishing expedition in which the only “al-Qaeda” connection was the undercover federal agent. These guys may have wanted to collaborate with… Read more(Dubious) terror case opens in NYC
