On Sept. 28 Robert Bonner announced he would retire as commissioner of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). He served for four years, first as head of US Customs, then as head of CBP after Customs was merged into the Department… Read moreBorder Czar out; ICE nominee probed
The Republican-controlled Senate voted Oct. 5 to impose restrictions on the treatment of terrorism suspects. Defying the White House, senators voted 90-9 to approve an amendment to prohibit the use of “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” against anyone… Read moreSenate defies Bush on torture
Hamed Abderrahmane, a Spanish national freed in February from over two years in detention at the US base at Guantanamo, Cuba, was sentenced on Oct. 5 by a Madrid court to six years in prison for belonging to a “terrorist… Read more“Spanish Taliban” convicted
Vice President Dick Cheney said that the US must be prepared to fight the War on Terrorism for decades. Speaking to US military personnel at the Association of the US Army in Washington DC, he said that the only way… Read moreCheney: “decades of war”
More bicycles than cars were sold in the United States over the past 12 months the US Chamber of Commerce reports, with rising gas prices prompting commuters to opt for two wheels instead of four. Not since the oil crisis… Read moreBicycle sales overtake cars
Mexico was jolted by revelations this week by Defense Secretary Gen. Ricardo Clemente Vega linking elite Guatemalan commandos to a Mexican drug cartel operating on both sides of the US-Mexico border. In an appearance before the Mexican Senate, Gen. Clemente… Read moreGuatemalan commandos linked to Mexican cartels
Steve Larson, a recent graduate of the University of Puget Sound, is presently in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, working with Common Ground Collective, a community self-help organization. This letter, online at United for Peace of Pierce County, reports… Read moreLetter from New Orleans
The Washington Post reports Sept. 29 that a group of Turkish women’s rights activists confronted Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes with harsh criticisms of the US-led invasion of Iraq, turning a session designed to highlight the empowering of women into… Read moreTurkish women blast US envoy
A defendant in the ongoing trial of the alleged organizers of the May violence in Andijon, Uzbekistan, testified Sept. 26 that the US Embassy in Tashkent might have financed it, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Uzbek Service reported. Tavakkal Hojiev told… Read moreUzbek terror defendant: US behind unrest
From the Sept. 27 NY Times, reprinted in the International Herald Tribune: A Spanish court on Monday convicted a Syrian man of conspiring to commit the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, and found 17 other men guilty… Read moreSpain convicts 9-11 suspect, rebukes US
Controversy is raging in Paraguay, where the U.S. military is conducting secretive operations. 500 U.S. troops arrived in the country on July 1st with planes, weapons and ammunition. Eyewitness reports prove that an airbase exists in Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay, which… Read moreUS military presence in Paraguay worries Bolivian left
On Sept. 15 a state judge in Zihuatanejo in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero ordered the release of Felipe Arreaga Sanchez, a leader in the campesino environmental movement who had been held in prison since November 2004. Judge Ricardo… Read moreMexico: peasant ecologist freed
