EN LA RED - IN THE NET ..1a Semana de Mayo

ESPAÑOL

Juristas de prestigio, en el juicio al Estado mexicano por feminicidios

Los expertos han participado en procesos por guerras sucias en Guatemala y Argentina, entre otros - Darán peritajes el español Castresana, el estadunidense Snow y la argentina Doretti

Por Blanche Petrich para La Jornada, abril 26, 2009 - Juristas y antropólogos forenses de talla internacional, como el español Carlos Castresana, el estadunidense Clyde Snow y la argentina Mercedes Doretti –participantes en procesos judiciales emblemáticos de crímenes de lesa humanidad como las guerras sucias de Argentina, Guatemala, El Salvador y la antigua Yugoslavia– presentarán peritajes y opiniones jurídicas contra el Estado mexicano ante la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos por el caso conocido como Campo Algodonero, relacionado con el feminicidio en Ciudad Juárez.

A 3 días de la audiencia de la CIDH, en Juárez ratifican condena a un homicida.

Édgar Álvarez cumple una sentencia de 26 años de prisión

Rubén Villalpando, para la Jornadea, Ciudad Juárez, Chih., 25 de abril. - Un magistrado ratificó la condena de 26 años de prisión a Édgar Álvarez Cruz por el homicidio de Mayra Juliana Reyes Solís, una de las ocho chicas cuyos cadáveres fueron localizados en el Campo Algodonero de esta ciudad, en noviembre de 2001.
Una de las pruebas para ratificar la condena fue la confesión de Francisco Granados de la Paz, quien ante un sheriff de una prisión de Estados Unidos –donde purga una condena por delitos contra la salud y violar leyes migratorias–, dijo que junto con Álvarez Cruz asesinó a 17 mujeres y ofreció pruebas, entre ellas, un auto que era utilizado para atacarlas sexualmente y los lugares donde habían tirado los cuerpos.

El abogado Abraham Hinojos reiteró la supuesta inocencia de su defendido. La sentencia ocurre a tres días de que la Corte Interamericana de los Derechos Humanos (CIDH) se reúna en Chile para juzgar al gobierno mexicano por la falta de resultados en estos casos.

La justicia militar en México no funciona: informe de HRW

Cometen fuerzas armadas graves violaciones a derechos humanos en el combate al narco, dice

Critica proceder de Medina Mora, el Ejecutivo y la SG ante impunidad y recomendaciones

Por Víctor Ballinas para La jornada , abril, 30, 2009- En el gobierno del presidente Felipe Calderón las fuerzas armadas mexicanas han cometido graves violaciones a los derechos humanos en las tareas de seguridad pública, y estos aberrantes abusos persisten en la impunidad, debido a que la justicia militar no funciona, y debido a que las autoridades civiles tienen temor y se resisten a exigirle al Ejército plena sumisión”, sostuvieron ayer con conferencia de prensa, José Miguel Vivanco, director para las Américas, y Kenneth Roth, director ejecutivo de Human Rigths Watch (HRW).

Ambos directivos de la organización señalaron lo anterior al presentar el informe de 85 páginas titulado Impunidad uniformada, uso indebido de la justicia militar para investigar abusos cometidos durante operativos contra el narcotráfico y de seguridad pública.

DESDE SEMlac: Visite nuestras web: www.redsemlac.net y www.redsemlac-cuba.net

Reducir la brecha salarial - Gremios económicos se comprometieron con el gobierno de Colombia a disminuir la brecha salarial entre mujeres y hombres y a estimular la inclusión de las colombianas en el mercado laboral formal. Sin embargo, el pacto no tiene metas, indicadores, ni mecanismos de cumplimiento. Mediante la Agenda por la Igualdad Laboral, suscrita el pasado 6 de marzo, entre la Consejería Presidencial para la Equidad y 12 gremios de industriales y comerciantes, los empresarios se comprometieron a desarrollar doce objetivos, entre los que se destacan identificar y eliminar las diferencias salariales entre mujeres y hombres para un mismo cargo. Asimismo, se acordó promover el acceso de las mujeres a los niveles más altos de la administración y gerencia de las empresas, y a considerar las necesidades específicas de las trabajadoras. Los gremios económicos también aceptan definir y desarrollar acciones sectoriales para conciliar la vida laboral y la vida familiar, así como adelantar campañas para retirar los criterios que obstaculizan la contratación laboral de mujeres y para valorar el trabajo doméstico. Adicionalmente, el pacto contempla compromisos tendientes a brindar capacitación en perspectiva de género a los encargados de contratación en las empresas, a hacer estudios sobre la situación laboral en zonas rurales desagregada por género, y a promover la distribución equitativa de las responsabilidades familiares de cuidado entre mujeres y hombres (SEMlac).
Equidad de género en el trabajo - Una campaña, abierta por la Organización Internacional del Trabajo desde hace un lustro, tendrá repercusión este Primero de Mayo en República Dominicana cuando una marcha de trabajadoras y trabajadores proclame que "el trabajo decente es una meta y una necesidad" para todas las mujeres. Además, la demostración levantará consignas vinculadas a la crisis económica, que se siente mucho aquí por el cierre de zonas francas, los despidos, la violencia y la inseguridad social, entre otros. La fuerza manifestante estará compuesta por la membresía de tres centrales poderosas que, aunque muy afectadas por el actual desempleo, aglutinan a casi medio millón de productores y productoras, de las cuales 35 por ciento, aproximadamente, son mujeres, según informo a SEMlac Eulogia Familia, vicepresidenta de la Confederación Nacional de Unidad Sindical. Las otras agrupaciones son la Confederación Nacional de Trabajadores Dominicanos y la Confederación Autónoma Sindical Clasista. En junio, la Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT) efectuará su asamblea en Ginebra, durante la cual se pasará revista a los resultados de esta campaña mundial para que ninguna mujer deba dedicarse a un trabajo indeseado desde el punto de vista de los cánones convencionales sobre decencia. Representantes de la fuerza laboral activa dominicana aportarán las experiencias del desarrollo de esta campaña aquí, que en este momento entronca con los esfuerzos por evitar el retroceso ideológico que se avizora como resultado de la reforma constitucional en marcha (SEMlac).

Domésticas sin cobertura social - El 50 por ciento de las trabajadoras domésticas en Uruguay tienen que trabajar "en negro", pues sus empleadores no están dispuestos a inscribirlas en los servicios de Previsión Social ni a pagar los aportes correspondientes. El salario mínimo establecido por el Ministerio de Trabajo y Seguridad Social para el sector, desde enero, es de 4.500 pesos uruguayos (unos 180 dólares), a fin de cubrir 44 horas semanales de trabajo y 25 jornales en el mes. Esto equivale a un sueldo mínimo de 23 pesos uruguayos la hora (el precio de un dólar es de 24,15 pesos uruguayos). Desde febrero de este año, está vigente una nueva ley por la cual las mujeres pueden computar un año adicional de servicios por cada hijo nacido vivo, o cada hijo adoptado, siendo éste menor o discapacitado, con un máximo total de cinco años. "Se introduce el enfoque de género implementando una medida que contempla la menor densidad de cotización de la mujer a causa del tiempo destinado a los cuidados familiares", evalúa un informe del Banco de Previsión Social. Ese organismo recauda los aportes patronales y de los trabajadores destinados al pago de jubilaciones y pensiones, el seguro de desempleo y gestiona otros beneficios y programas sociales. A excepción de otros países de la región y pese a las múltiples dificultades que deben sobrellevar las domésticas, en Uruguay existe un Sindicato Único de Trabajadoras Domésticas y una organización que agrupa a los empleadores, la "Liga de Amas de Casa, consumidores y usuarios del Uruguay". Junto al Ministerio de Trabajo, desde hace menos de un año, ambas organizaciones negocian los niveles salariales y los aumentos correspondientes (SEMlac).
Dominicanas en situación de emergencia - La tercera semana de abril colocó a las mujeres y a la sociedad dominicana ante la evidencia del carácter reaccionario presente en el Congreso, en medio del proceso iniciado de reforma de la Constitución. Los legisladores votaron por un artículo 30 que declara que "El derecho a la vida es inviolable desde la concepción hasta la muerte", con lo que se condena a centenares de mujeres pobres a que sufran complicaciones de su embarazo, o tengan gestaciones resultantes de incesto, la violación o con malformaciones del feto. Esta decisión del Congreso de la República Dominicana cierra las posibilidades de avances científicos en el campo de la biotecnología, la ingeniería genética, entre otras, por lo cual médicos y otros científicos se han pronunciado en contra. Existe todavía la posibilidad de que esta decisión pueda ser revertida si, en la segunda lectura, necesaria para que el proyecto de reforma constitucional se convalide y pase a la firma del Ejecutivo, se consigue la mitad necesaria de los 210 votos de los congresistas. A eso están apostando las mujeres, los sectores profesionales de médicos, académicos, líderes sociales y un grupo numeroso de periodistas, cuyas firmas han rubricado en estos días la consideración de que lo ocurrido es una vergüenza para el país (SEMlac).

DESDE CIMAC:
Difícil detectar la violencia en los primeros años de relación - En los primeros años del noviazgo o matrimonio, la violencia se manifiesta con frecuencia, aunque no con golpes, sino de manera silenciosa, destacó la investigadora de la Facultad de Psicología (FP), Tania Esmeralda Rocha Sánchez, de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
En la conferencia “Amores que matan: mitos y realidades de la violencia en la pareja”, la especialista expuso que, aunque muchas personas viven a diario una rutina agresiva, no son conscientes de esa condición.
La académica explicó que, cuando se inicia una vida en común, los individuos pueden padecer o cometer atropellos sin siquiera percatarse, pues olvidan que los aspectos psicológicos, sexuales o materiales son otra forma de infligir daño.
"La violencia es la manera que tiene cada persona de imponer normas, puntos de vista, valores y expectativas sobre cómo debería funcionar la otra persona", definió la académica. Además -apuntó- la crueldad contra un ser cercano puede ser cosa de una vez o algo repetitivo; en ninguno de los casos se justifica la propensión a denigrar.
El abuso puede ser emocional, verbal o físico, pero también se manifiesta en conductas controladoras, como cuando arbitrariamente se aísla a la pareja de su familia o amigos.
Más allá de los golpes, hay variantes obvias de este tipo de excesos, como romper objetos de valor emocional del compañero o forzar a actos sexuales sin consentimiento. Aunque, subrayó Rocha Sánchez, también hay formas veladas de la coacción, como detentar el manejo de los bienes o de los recursos económicos.
(Solicite más información a cimac@laneta.apc.org

LOS AÑOS FEMENINOS MENOS SALUDABLES - La frase "¿qué tanto es tantito?" es una de las más perjudiciales, explicó la especialista, pues lleva a los involucrados a incurrir, inadvertidamente, en conductas deplorables y fuera de proporción, añadió.
En la última encuesta del Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e informática (INEGI, 2006), se reveló que en el Distrito Federal, 80 por ciento de las parejas reportó haber sido violentada, que siete por ciento de los hombres han sido maltratados y que 40 por ciento de las mujeres se han sentido ultrajadas emocionalmente.
Este índice resulta alarmante si se considera que, en el país, la violencia es la tercera causa de disminución del número de años saludables femeninos, apenas por debajo de la diabetes y los problemas de parto.
Rocha Sánchez comentó que éste es un fenómeno complejo y recordó que, dependiendo del contexto y momento histórico, varía el significado cultural y social de las acciones. Además, explicó que un sujeto tiene mayor probabilidad de incurrir en actitudes virulentas si ha experimentado maltrato infantil, si ha experimentado episodios fúricos de niño y si al interior de su familia aprendió que la agresión era una forma de resolver conflictos.

(Solicite más información a cimac@laneta.apc.org

Feminismos, México 2009 : Mitos y reflexiones
por Victoria Aldunate Morales - En los reportes del XI Encuentro Feminista –institucional-, sólo algunas feministas autónomas tienen nombre, otras son mencionadas como “indígenas bolivianas”. Pero el racismo y el colonialismo no andan solos, se acompañan de xenofobia y clasismo. Estos reportes también subrayan, que “una académica de origen italiano, informa” a las latinas y caribeñas, en el Encuentro Autónomo (1)…
Entre otras cosas, la corriente autónoma, con más de una década de procesos políticos diversos (pensamientos, activismos, propuestas) es mostrada como “autodenominada autónoma”, “dicotómica”, discriminadora de los hombres, rebelde sin causa, envidiosa y mediotonta…
Los lenguajes acomodaticios también hacen nata. Ahora, antónimo de autonomía llegó a ser “pluralismo”(2). Leer más

SOBRE LA INFLUENZA PORCINA

Un sistema alimentario que mata

La industria de la carne desata una nueva plaga

De Grain - México se encuentra sumido en una repetición infernal de la emergencia de la gripe (o influenza) aviar en Asia, aunque con un mayor grado de mortalidad. Una vez más, la respuesta oficial de las autoridades llega demasiado tarde y plagada de falsedades. Y otra vez más, la industria mundial de la carne es el centro de la situación y fabrica todo tipo de desmentidos a medida que se acumula evidencia sobre su papel en la crisis.
Sólo cinco años después del inicio de la crisis de gripe aviar causada por el virus H5N1 y luego de otros tantos años de una estrategia mundial contra las pandemias de influenza coordinada por la organización Mundial de la salud (OMS) y la Organización Mundial de la Sanidad Animal (OIE), el mundo está atónito con el desastre provocado por la gripe porcina. La estrategia global ha fracasado y debemos reemplazarla con un sistema público de salud en el que la población pueda confiar.

Pandemia

La gripe porcina y el monstruoso poder de la gran industria pecuaria

por Mike Davis*

The Guardian 27-4-09

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Sin Permiso, 28-4-09

www.sinpermiso.info Traducción de Marta Domènech y María Julia Bertomeu
La gripe porcina mexicana, una quimera genética probablemente concebida en el cieno fecal de una gorrinera industrial, amenaza subitáneamente con una fiebre al mundo entero. Los brotes en la América del Norte revelan una infección que está viajando ya a mayor velocidad de la que viajó con la última cepa pandémica oficial, la gripe de Hong Kong en 1968.

Robándole protagonismo a nuestro último asesino oficial, el virus H5N1, este virus porcino representa una amenaza de ignota magnitud. Parece menos letal que el SARS [Síndrome Respiratorio Agudo, por sus siglas en inglés] en 2003, pero, como gripe, podría resultar más duradera que el SARS. Dado que las domesticadas gripes estacionales de tipo A matan nada menos que a un millón de personas al año, incluso un modesto incremento de virulencia, especialmente si va combinada con una elevada incidencia, podría producir una carnicería equivalente a una guerra importante.

• • Mike Davis, cuyo libro "El monstruo llama a nuestra puerta" (trad. María Julia Bertomeu, Ediciones El Viejo Topo, Barcelona, 2006) alertó lúcida y brillantemente del peligro de una gripe aviar pandémica de alcance mundial, explica ahora cómo la gran industria pecuaria globalizada ha sentado las bases para un más que preocupante brote de gripe porcina en México. (de Sin Permiso)

• ENGLISH

TODAY IS EQUAL PAY DAY (April 28^th) : Today marks Equal Pay Day, the day that "symbolizes how far into the year a woman must work, on average, to earn as much as a man earned the previous year." Significant strides in achieving pay equity have been made this year, however, with President Obama's signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. But women in the U.S. still make just 78 cents for every dollar a man earns, although a new GAO report finds that the pay gap between men and women in the federal workforce is shrinking.. The average woman loses $434,000 over the course of her career; counterintuitively, the more education the woman has, the more money she is poised to lose. The Center for American Progress's Jessica Arons, Heather Boushey, and Lauren Smith write that "the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act ensures that workers can seek restitution for unequal pay, but the Paycheck Fairness Act, which still needs Senate approval, would take a number of proactive steps to close and eventually end the pay gap altogether." The Paycheck Fairness Act "would deter wage discrimination by closing loopholes in the Equal Pay Act," which have hindered the effectiveness of the law since it passed 46 years ago. Given the context of the current economic recession, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) told The Progress Report yesterday that wage discrimination "is now a heavier burden on women and the economic security of families." Pay equity "is not a woman's issue. This is a family issue," DeLauro said. (From The Progress Report)

Forget swine flu! What about abortion?
Sarah Palin's supporters fight Obama's nomination for secretary of health and human services.

By Katharine Mieszkowski for Salon.com, Apr. 28, 2009 | Amid growing concern about swine flu, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is expected to get the nod from the Senate today to become secretary of health and human services, despite fierce opposition from pro-life Republicans. Yet, with 60 votes needed, the vote could be a squeaker.

So far, there have been just 64 confirmed cases of swine flu in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including infections in California, Kansas, New York City, Ohio and Texas. And the administration has begun moving stockpiles of antiviral drugs to the impacted areas. Yet, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano predicted Tuesday that swine flu will appear in more states in the days ahead.
But, as the Christian Science Monitor reports, the piggy influenza outbreak has not stopped anti-choice Republicans from trying to derail Obama's pro-choice pick for public health champion. Apparently, in their view, debating abortion rights trumps having a leader in place to deal with an actual public health emergency.
As recently as Monday, Team Sarah, a group of 70,000 supporters of Sarah Palin sent out an action alert urging sympathizers to call Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican who is anti-abortion, to ask him to vote against Sebelius' confirmation.
However, it's not as if Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin herself is leading the pro-lifer charge against Sebelius. Team Sarah members may revere Palin, but the former veep candidate has no formal connection to the group, according to the Alaska Daily News.

The Fight Against Feminism - By Kathryn Joyce Posted on March 26, 2009,
Ten Questions for Kathryn Joyce on Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement, (Beacon Press, 2009).

What inspired you to write Quiverfull? What sparked your interest?

I first came across the Quiverfull movement while researching the anti-contraception movement among pro-life pharmacists claiming “conscientious objections” to dispensing birth control. I had been unaware of anti-abortion claims that birth control functions as abortion, and hadn’t known that opposition to contraception had become an important issue among Protestants and evangelicals in addition to traditional opponents among Catholic and LDS churches. Looking into some of the groups that were supportive of the pharmacists’ movement, though, I came across a surprisingly well-organized coalition of evangelical anti-contraception groups, some of whom were arguing that Christians should leave their family size and spacing in the hands of God. As I began to read a number of books that shaped the community and conviction, particularly early movement texts like Mary Pride’s The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality, and Rick and Jan Hess’ Full Quiver: Family Planning and the Lordship of Christ, I began to see a vehement anti-feminism and another, startling motivation for large Christian families as well, as the Quiverfull authors told readers that by having very large families, and teaching their children to do the same, they could win the culture wars through numbers alone.

The "feminist bridezilla" speaks! By Kate Harding for Salon.com, Friday, April 24 - I'm sitting in a Minneapolis hotel as I write this, here for the weekend so my Minneapolitan husband and I can meet with vendors about our upcoming wedding reception. We eloped in Vegas last December, with one guest, for a total cost of about $300. "Screw you, Wedding Industrial Complex!" we thought smugly -- right up until we got home and realized everyone wanted us to have a big party anyway. And truth be told, we kinda wanted one, too.

Conservatives Live in a Different Moral Universe -- And Here's Why It Matters - By Tom Jacobs, Miller-McCune.com, Posted on April 25, 2009, for Alternet. Jonathan Haidt is hardly a road-rage kind of guy, but he does get irritated by self-righteous bumper stickers. The soft-spoken psychologist is acutely annoyed by certain smug slogans that adorn the cars of fellow liberals: "Support our troops: Bring them home" and "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."

"No conservative reads those bumper stickers and thinks, 'Hmm -- so liberals are patriotic!'" he says, in a sarcastic tone of voice that jarringly contrasts with his usual subdued sincerity. "We liberals are universalists and humanists; it's not part of our morality to highly value nations. So to claim dissent is patriotic -- or that we're supporting the troops, when in fact we're opposing the war -- is disingenuous.

Religious Revolt: New Christian Sect Battles Demons, Raises the Dead, Campaigns for Sarah Palin - By Bruce Wilson, for Religion Dispatches, Posted on April 23, 2009
What is happening to Christianity? - In 1996 a team from Ted Haggard's New Life Church flew to Mali and began furtively anointing entire towns with cooking oil.
The strangeness of it gripped Dutch missionary René Holvast, who later wrote: "It was confusing and produced a growing uneasiness. It did not seem to fit our current evangelical theological and anthropological textbooks."
The team from Haggard's church was a forerunner in a missionary wave that has washed over the world since the early 1990s, bringing what Holvast calls a ‘new paradigm.'

René Holvast has theological training, but his perplexed reaction was similar to that of Alix Spiegel, a radio journalist who went to Ted Haggard's New Life Church in 1997 to do a story for This American Life. Spiegel encountered something so alluring, even overwhelming, that the secular, urban Jew was almost pulled in. (After several days at Ted Haggard's church, Spiegel called This American Life's Ira Glass who -- as if he were a deprogrammer weaning her from a cult -- had to convince Alix Spiegel that she really belonged back in her secular realm of origin, Chicago.)

"Satan's ultimate goal is to destroy the family" (From The Progress Report) : Utah County Republicans have defeated a measure titled, "Resolution opposing the Hate America anti-Christian Open Borders cabal." Delegate Don Larsen claimed that left-wing foundations were "pumping money into the Democratic Party to push for looser immigration laws and anti-family legislation" because "Democrats get most of the votes cast by illegal immigrants and people in dysfunctional families." "Satan's ultimate goal is to destroy the family," Larsen said, "and these people are playing a leading part in it." Larsen's fellow Republicans argued that the GOP shouldn't be pushing out Latinos and the resolution "would do the party more harm than good."

Rise of Right-Wing Extremism Linked to Recession - The Department of Homeland Security released a report last week that warned right-wing extremist groups are gaining new recruits by exploiting fears about the economy and the election of the nation's first black president. We speak with Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Listen/Watch/Read : http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/24/rise_of_right_wing_extremism_linked

What Do Women Want? - By Daniel Bergner for The New York Times, , January 25, 2009 - Meredith Chivers is a creator of bonobo pornography. She is a 36-year-old psychology professor at Queen’s University in the small city of Kingston, Ontario, a highly regarded scientist and a member of the editorial board of the world’s leading journal of sexual research, Archives of Sexual Behavior. The bonobo film was part of a series of related experiments she has carried out over the past several years. She found footage of bonobos, a species of ape, as they mated, and then, because the accompanying sounds were dull — “bonobos don’t seem to make much noise in sex,” she told me, “though the females give a kind of pleasure grin and make chirpy sounds” — she dubbed in some animated chimpanzee hooting and screeching. She showed the short movie to men and women, straight and gay. To the same subjects, she also showed clips of heterosexual sex, male and female homosexual sex, a man masturbating, a woman masturbating, a chiseled man walking naked on a beach and a well-toned woman doing calisthenics in the nude.

GAY AND LESBIAN RIGTHS

Two Little Boys By Charles M. Blow , April 24, 2009, for The New York Times- On April 6, just before dinner, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, a Massachusetts boy who had endured relentless homophobic taunts at school, wrapped an extension cord around his tiny neck and hanged himself. He was only 11 years old. His mother had to cut him down.

On April 16, just after school, Jaheem Herrera, a Georgia boy who had also endured relentless homophobic taunts at school, wrapped a fabric belt around his tiny neck and hanged himself as well. He too was only 11 years old. His 10-year-old sister found him.

"Nothing was done" by Sarah Hepola for Salon.com, Friday, April 24, 2009 - On April 21, Broadsheet wrote about Jaheem Herrera, the 11 year old who hanged himself on April 16. It's impossible to know what pushed Herrera to do such a thing, but members of his family spoke about homophobic bullying at school, and his story came at a time when our concern about the damage of such "childhood taunts" is particularly peaked, and occasionally controversial (see the letters section on that April 21 thread, for instance). Today, Herrera's mother Masika Bermudez gives an interview to CNN in which she describes a shy boy and good student whose humiliation at school, despite her repeated complaints to the school district, did not relent. You can read the entire story here, but the following we'll pull out as our quote of the day:

HUMAN RIGHTS

MoJo Video: Inside the Secret Cellblocks of Abu Ghraib

A soldier-narrated tour of the detainee camp during its final days.

—By Justine Sharrock Thu April 23, 2009 - With the recent release of new torture memos, and the news that Obama isn't entirely ruling out prosecutions, it's important to remember just how widespread America's use of torture has been. This video footage was taken of Abu Ghraib during its final days in 2006, after the prisoners left but before it was torn down, and evidence of the camp was buried and burned. While not as dramatic as hundreds of rounds of waterboarding, the abuse outside interrogation rooms was another cog in the torture machine. The thousands of detainees living in the sprawling tents were kept in squalid conditions, exposed to the elements and mortar fire. The soldiers who filmed this tape point out the outdoor segregation cells where detainees were kept and deprived of sleep—even years after the Bush administration said the camp had been cleaned of any abusive practices. Abu Ghraib has closed, but these two matter-of-fact video tours remind us what it was like. That chapter in American history is not over.

US to Release Photos Showing Alleged Abuses by American Personnel - by Peter Wallsten, Greg Miller and Julian Barnes, Published on Friday, April 24, 2009 by the Chicago Tribune - Washington - The Obama administration agreed late Thursday to release dozens of photographs depicting alleged abuse by U.S. personnel during the Bush administration of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Banality of Bush White House Evil - By Frank Rich for The New York Times, April 26, 2009 -We don’t like our evil to be banal. Ten years after Columbine, it only now may be sinking in that the psychopathic killers were not jock-hating dorks from a “Trench Coat Mafia,” or, as ABC News maintained at the time, “part of a dark, underground national phenomenon known as the Gothic movement.” In the new best seller “Columbine,” the journalist Dave Cullen reaffirms that Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were instead ordinary American teenagers who worked at the local pizza joint, loved their parents and were popular among their classmates.

On Tuesday, it will be five years since Americans first confronted the photographs from Abu Ghraib on “60 Minutes II.” Here, too, we want to cling to myths that quarantine the evil. If our country committed torture, surely it did so to prevent Armageddon, in a patriotic ticking-time-bomb scenario out of “24.” If anyone deserves blame, it was only those identified by President Bush as “a few American troops who dishonored our country and disregarded our values”: promiscuous, sinister-looking lowlifes like Lynddie England, Charles Graner and the other grunts who were held accountable while the top command got a pass.

Are leading Democrats Afraid of a Special Prosecutor to Investigate Torture? - by Jeremy Scahill, Published on Friday, April 24, 2009 by RebelReports - There are not exactly throngs of Democratic Congressmembers beating down the doors of the Justice Department demanding that Attorney General Eric Holder appoint a special Independent Prosecutor to investigate torture and other crimes. And now it seems that whatever Congress does in the near term won't even be open to the public. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said this week that he prefers that the Senate Intelligence Committee hold private hearings. The chair of the committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, has asked the White House not to take any action until this private affair is concluded. She estimates that will take 6-8 months.

Time to Come Clean - By Nicholas D. Kristof for The Nerw York Times, April 26, 2009 - If, God forbid, terrorists release nerve gas in movie theaters from Los Angeles to Washington tomorrow, the debate about torture will change 180 degrees. The public will turn on President Obama for having “coddled” terrorists.

In short, today’s revulsion at waterboarding is broad but fragile. And that makes it essential that the United States proceed with an independent commission to investigate harsh treatment and tally its costs and benefits.

What if Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Had Died? , By Cenk Uygur, The Young Turks, Posted on April 23, 2009, - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times. We practiced sleep deprivation on him for 11 straight days. I don't know how many times we smashed his head against a wall, slapped him in the face, put him in a stress position in a freezing room and/or put him in a coffin sized box in extreme heat. But the right-wing argues that it doesn't matter because none of this is torture. They are adamant in saying that it is not even open to interpretation.

Young Turks on You Tube - Cenk Uygur is co-host of The Young Turks, the first liberal radio show to air nationwide. © 2009 The Young Turks All rights reserved. View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/http://www.theyoungturks.com//138077/

Civil War Emerges at Fox News: ‘We Don’t F*cking Torture’ vs. ‘Torture, My Ass’ - Posted by Satyam Khanna, Think Progress on April 24, 2009 at AlterNet - . Since President Obama released the Bush administration's OLC torture memos, several Fox News pundits have launched unrelenting, full-throated defenses of torture. Bill O'Reilly dismissed waterboarding yesterday, saying, "Torture, my ass." Also yesterday, Sean Hannity volunteered to be waterboarded for charity (those who have tried it have found it to be rather unpleasant):

GRODIN: We can waterboard you?

HANNITY: Sure.

GRODIN: Are you busy on Sunday?

HANNITY: I'll do it for charity. ... I'll let you do it. I'll do it for the troops' families.

Surprisingly, Fox is not all pro-torture. In fact, there are a handful of pundits who are speaking out against torture at the right-wing network. In multiple segments over the past few days, Shep Smith has been ripping the idea of government-sanctioned torture. "We are America. We don't torture. And the moment that is not the case, I want off the train!" he declared Wednesday afternoon. Yesterday, in Fox's Strategy Room, which was only aired on the web, Smith's anger culminated in an explosion:

SMITH: WE ARE AMERICA! I DON'T GIVE A RAT'S ASS IF IT HELPS. WE ARE AMERICA! WE DO NOT FUCKING TORTURE! WE DON'T DO IT!

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

IMMIGRATION AND CIVIL RIGHTS

As many as 100 people held at the Port Isabel Processing Center, an immigration prison near Brownsville, Texas, have been on a hunger strike since last week to draw attention to alleged abuses in the facility and their extended detention without due process. Inmates say their complaints to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, or ICE, about lack of medical attention, denial of food and other abuses have fallen on deaf ears.
Listen/Watch/Read:
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/29/prisoners_at_for_profit_texas_immigration

EXCLUSIVE: Jailed Houston Imam Zoubir Bouchikhi Speaks from Private Immigration Prison
We look at the case of Sheikh Zoubir Bouchikhi, who has been held without bail at a private immigration prison in Houston for the past four months. Bouchikhi, a native of Algeria, has lived in the United States for the past eleven years and has four children, three of them American-born citizens. In 2007, he received notice that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services had denied his application for permanent residency status. He was arrested by immigration authorities in December 2008. He has been held without bail ever since. He speaks from immigration jail in his first national broadcast interview.
Listen/Watch/Read:
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/29/exclusive_jailed_houston_imam_zoubir_bouchikhi

Shocking: Today, Life in the South for Poor Latinos Is Pure Hell!- By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Posted on April 23, 2009,- According to a study released this week by the Southern Poverty Law Center, low-income Latinos in the American South are living in what one participant described as a "war zone."

The report was based on interviews with hundreds of poor Latinos -- U.S. citizens and legal and illegal immigrants alike. It paints a bleak picture of the routine abuses faced by those among a marginalized underclass. According to the authors, poor Latinos in the South "are routinely cheated out of their earnings and denied basic health and safety protections. They are regularly subjected to racial profiling and harassment by law enforcement. They are victimized by criminals who know they are reluctant to report attacks."

DISCRIMINATION AGAINST HISPANICS ON THE RISE IN THE SOUTH (From The Progress Report) : A new study from the Southern Poverty Law Center documents the rise of hate crimes and anti-immigrant discrimination against Hispanics in the South. The report "Under Siege: Life for Low-Income Latinos in the South," surveyed 500 low-income Hispanics, both legal residents and undocumented immigrants. It found that regardless of citizenship status, Hispanics are victims of wage theft, worker abuse, sexual abuse, and racial profiling. The report found that 41 percent of Hispanics reported wage theft -- being denied payment for a job they completed. Eva San Martin, "an advocate working in New Orleans," described an incident of wage theft: "The contractor raised his shirt and showed he had a gun -- and that was enough. He didn't have to say any more. The worker left." Another trend Martin observed is "amigo shopping," in which Latinos working as day laborers are attacked and robbed on the street because it is known that they have to carry cash since they cannot open bank accounts. Further, the SPLC found that more than 300 "nativist extremist" groups have been formed since 2005, attributed mostly to the immigration debate, which has "gained currency in large part because talk radio and television news programs trusted by the public have provided a platform...for fueling anger and hate against Latinos." Indeed, the report writes, "Latinos are targeted for harassment by racist extremist groups, some of which are directly descended from the old guardians of white supremacy."

Creating A Wage-Cutting Race Is Not "Humane," Good for Immigrants or Good for America - By David Sirota, for Our Future Today, April 23rd, 2009 - Following on my last post about immigration, I wanted to make sure everyone saw this important - if buried - piece from the trade press:

April 17, 2009 (Computerworld) The use of H-1B workers by U.S. companies is decreasing wages for computer programmers, system analysts and software engineers by as much as 6%, according to a study released this week by researchers at New York University's Stern School of Business and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania...
"In this paper, we simply sought to dispel the myth that globalization generates no losers," wrote Prasanna Tambe, an assistant professor of information, operations and management sciences at the Stern School, and Lorin Hitt, a professor of operations and information management at Wharton.

The high-tech industry would have us believe that the H-1B program exists to help them find workers when they can't find qualified American workers, and a mythology has emerged that claims H-1B workers have to be paid the same as domestic workers, and therefore avoids creating a wage-cutting competition.

Arizona Public Defender Blasts Militarization of Immigration Enforcement, Criminalization of Undocumented Workers * We speak with Isabel Garcia, co-chair of the Coalición de Derechos Humanos, a grassroots organization in Tucson that fights the militarization of the Southwestern border region and discrimination and human rights abuses by federal, state and local law enforcement officials affecting US and non-US citizens alike. She is also the legal defender of Pima County, Arizona, and won the Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Award in 2008 and the 2006 National Human Rights Award from Mexico's National Commission for Human Rights.
Listen/Watch/Read from Democracy Now: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/27/arizona_public_defender_blasts_militarization_of

U.S. Cities Increasing Use of Armed Mercenaries to Replace Police - By Jeremy Scahill, Rebel Reports
Posted on April 24, 2009 - The United States is in the midst of the most radical privatization agenda in its history. We see this in schools, health care, prisons, and certainly with the US military/national security/intelligence apparatus.

There are almost 200,000 "private contractors" in Iraq (more than U.S. soldiers) and President Barack Obama is continuing to use mercenaries there and in Afghanistan and Israel/Palestine. At present, 70 percent of the U.S. intelligence budget is going to private companies.

FROM THE PROGRESS REPORT – April 24, 2009 Delaying nominees: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) objected to a motion to begin debate on the nominations of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS) as Secretary of Health and Human Services, David Hayes for deputy secretary of the Interior Department, and Thomas Strickland for assistant secretary for fish and wildlife at Interior. Regarding Sebelius, McConnell said he objected because members of his caucus had not yet had time to consider her candidacy properly. However, the real reason is that a select few in the Republican caucus are attempting to delay her appointment -- at the insistence of right-wing social conservative groups -- because of her commitment to pro-choice women's health policies. The delay is reminiscent of what transpired after Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill's nomination, when a small group of Republican senators -- including John McCain (AZ), Lindsey Graham (SC), and Sam Brownback (KS) -- announced their opposition, claiming Hill "lacks experience in the Middle East." As the National Security Network's Max Bergmann pointed out, they really took issue with his desire to avoid bombing North Korea. Further, the only substantive result of delaying Hill was to hinder the Obama administration's ability to effectively and efficiently make progress in Iraq. Indeed, Gen. David Petraeus was reportedly "frustrated by the delay." A similar chain of events is likely to play out with Sebelius, Dawn Johnsen, Harold Koh, and many other key nominees. The goal in holding up Obama nominees, it should be clear by now, is not to find better qualified nominees or answer substantive concerns. Rather, it appears to be part of an attempt on the part of Republicans in Congress to "obstruct and delay" the implementation of the legislative agenda the American people voted for last November.

ON THE FLU

New from GRAIN 28 April 2009

A food system that kills - Swine flu is meat industry's latest plague

Click here for further information / the full report.

Mexico is in the midst of a hellish repeat of Asia's bird flu experience, though on a more deadly scale. Once again, the official response from public authorities has come too late and bungled in cover-ups. And once again, the global meat industry is at the centre of the story, ramping up denials as the weight of evidence about its role grows. Just five years after the start of the H5N1 bird flu crisis, and after as many years of a global strategy against influenza pandemics coordinated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the world is now reeling from a swine flu disaster. The global strategy has failed and needs to be replaced with a public health system that the public can trust.

MORE ABOUT THE ISSUE:

R G Wallace, "The Agro-Industrial Roots of Swine Flu H1N1," 26 April 2009
http://farmingpathogens.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/the-agro-i ndustrial-roots-of-swine-flu-h1n1/

GRAIN, "Germ warfare - Livestock disease, public health and the military -- industrial complex", Seedling, January 2008,
http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=533
GRAIN, "Viral times - The politics of emerging global animal diseases", Seedling, January 2008,
http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=532

The "NAFTA Flu": Critics Say Swine Flu Has Roots in Forcing Poor Countries to Accept Western Agribusiness
As the US reports its first known death from the global swine flu, the World Health Organization has raised its pandemic threat level. Several countries around the world have banned the import of US and Mexican pork products. We speak to professor and author Robert Wallace, who says the swine flu is partly the outcome of neoliberal policies that forced poorer countries to open their markets to poorly regulated Western agribusiness giants.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/29/the_nafta_flu