jueves, 30 de julio de 2009

Lo vimos, lo vivimos...

por Soledad Jarquín Edgar en Mujeres y Política

Hace unos días se presentó un nuevo libro sobre el movimiento político-social de 2006, se llama Lo vimos, lo vivimos. Es el recuento de un movimiento que despertó a un pueblo. Un libro impulsado por un grupo de mujeres y hombres muy jóvenes, distinto a los otros que hay sobre el mismo tema, porque fue escrito por las y los protagonistas de aquellos días difíciles.

En el libro se encuentran 20 testimonios, narrados en diferentes técnicas periodísticas y de literatura, resultado del taller de Periodismo Creativo que medios alternos como Revolucionemos Oaxaca, junto con la Universidad de la Tierra, impulsaron en octubre del año pasado. Uno de los resultados, dicen sus autores y autoras, es que fue curativo.

Sin duda, en la obra puede palpar la sensación de invalidez que sintió la gente frente al uso y abuso de la fuerza policiaca. También está vigente el reclamo y con palabras se da forma material al miedo profundo. Refleja la indignación de la sociedad oaxaqueña y las batallas ganadas que no alcanzaron para salir victoriosos de la guerra. En los textos, hay una crítica a la sensación de traición por parte de algunos líderes de la Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca y de la Sección 22 del Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación.

En la obra no se ve a la APPO, en cada palabra lo que se puede observar son mujeres y hombres contando su propia historia y haciendo con ello la historia colectiva de un movimiento que cimbró todo el poder local y federal, es decir, a la clase política, la que gobierna hoy porque las y los electores no quieren ejercer el privilegio de votar. En Oaxaca el abstencionismo en el pasado proceso electoral fue del 58.8 por ciento y el PRI, dirigido por Jorge Franco (a quien se acusa de ordenar el violento desalojo magisterial la madrugada del 14 de junio) ganó con el 16 por ciento del padrón electoral.

En Lo Vimos, lo vivimos están contados los sucesos como el fallido desalojo del plantón magisterial en el Zócalo y que originó, días más tarde, la creación de la APPO; el enfrentamiento del 2 de noviembre entre policías federales en CU y la intromisión de los pefepos el 25 de ese mismo mes, la última batalla; la violenta persecución de maestros y maestras en Santa María Coyotepec y sus rostros de muerte-miedo corriendo para no ser alcanzados por habitantes azuzados por el poder para levantar el plantón frente a lo que entonces operaba como “Casa oficial”.

En el libro, las mujeres también escriben sus vivencias, como la que podría definirse la marcha de las ciudadanas el 1 de agosto, llamada la marcha de las Cacerolas y la toma de las instalaciones de la Corporación Oaxaqueña de Radio y Televisión para dejar sin instrumento de difusión al gobierno estatal.

Los testimonios reflejan las ganas que alguna parte de la sociedad oaxaqueña, tenía de cambiar el destino de Oaxaca, intención que ya no se vio el pasado 5 de julio. Pero también refleja el desencanto, las vidas lastimadas, la traición de dirigentes convertidos en diputados o que viven fuera del país, como señala Ramón López Reyes, quien en poesía cuenta la Contraofensiva del 25 de noviembre de 2006, cuando “la noche esparce el incienso picante”.

Es la historia de un movimiento escrito por sus protagonistas directos, que muestran la carne viva del Oaxaca oprimido desde hacía mucho tiempo, por varias generaciones, señala Ildefonso Reyes Soto, en Conocer Oaxaca, algo fascinante.

Las autoras y autores se visibilizan, muestran su existencia, toman su lugar en la historia y ésta ya no tiene regreso, se quedará en el para siempre. Esa veintena de narraciones serán la mejor defensa contra quienes aseguran que nada pasó entonces, que eran una bola de revoltosos encapuchados, es más que ni siquiera eran de Oaxaca, es finalmente el sentimiento que mueve esta obra, dejar un testigo y que ese testigo pueda trascender el tiempo.

Sin héroes ni heroínas Lo vimos, lo vivimos narra las vivencias de personas desde el que pegó propaganda en las paredes y la que llevó café a las barricadas, como escribe Itandehui Santiago Galicia, en Voces al aire, donde ella misma se descubre solidaria y combatiente, redescubre su derecho a ser escuchada. Están ahí los marcharon por las calles y gritaron consignas hasta quedarse sin voz, las que temblaron de miedo frente al miedo de los otros y luego con ese miedo que les ardía en la conciencia hicieron vallas humanas frente a los pefepos.

En este libro de las ciudadanas y los ciudadanos están los y las que rompieron los muros de sus casas y encontraron la ciudadanía en las calles siguiendo el hilo de la protesta. Por eso, leer Lo vimos, lo vivimos, es la mejor noticia de los últimos días, en que se hace oficial lo que ya sentíamos, el aumento de la pobreza en México o los sangrientos episodios cotidianos del “combate” al narcotráfico, el fallido ejercicio de la democracia o el circo de que finalmente el tri ganó la Copa de Oro y que muchos mexicanos festejan hasta quedar sin sentido. Yo creo –ingenuamente- que lo hacen anestesiados, para no mirar la realidad.

Cinismo oficial: que las mujeres resuelvan la crisis

Por Sara Lovera en Palabra de Antígona

La crisis económica que afecta al sistema capitalista, que según los analistas, será larga y profunda, anuncia más desempleo, la dependencia económica de los países de menor desarrollo y fenómenos sociales hoy poco claros.

La crisis es tal que los defensores del capitalismo salvaje, los mismos que promovieron los mercados globales y la producción al más bajo costo, ya están bien asustados, tanto que pude escuchar en una reunión de “expertos”, que se pide a gritos que el Estado vuelva a la rectoría e intervención de la economía en sus países.

Lo grave es que parece irreversible el daño tremendo que la globalización mandatada por los 9 grandes y poderosos del mundo ha hecho al valor del trabajo, al respeto de los seres humanos, a las ideas de solidaridad en la distribución de la seguridad social y de la riqueza, hoy situada en grandes concentraciones en unas cuantas familias de cada país.

Los datos nacionales del aumento de la pobreza y los anuncios paralelos de la reducción del gasto hasta en 50 mil millones de dòlares al presupuesto, a la mitad del año, me hacen temblar. ¿Dónde se aplicará la restricción? ¿En la política social, la educación y la salud? Sin duda, los renglones sustantivos del desarrollo humano, precisamente en los tres aspectos que han lacerado a profundidad la vida de las personas, pero particularmente a las mujeres como se examinó aquí en México la semana pasada.

El análisis de lo que la crisis ha hecho con las mujeres y cómo éstas han hecho, aún desgarrando sus vidas, para detener la explosión social, fue convocado por el Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres con la colaboración de organismos de Naciones Unidas y de la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe, (CEPAL).

Lo que dijo ahíla señora Alicia Bárcena, secretaria ejecutiva de CEPAL fue aleccionador: las mujeres salvan siempre las crisis. Claro que sí, son como ella misma dijo, un cerco de contención, son las principales conciliadoras, Son las que trabajan doble, las cuidadoras, las primeras recortadas en las listas de desempleados, pero las que sacan fuerzas, de quién sabe donde, para atender a las otras y otros, son las que se vuelven más pobres, atentan contra su salud y no tienen seguridad social.

Ahí mismo el responsable de la planeación de la Secretaría de Hacienda, Miguel Messmacher, admitió, cínicamente, que ellas, en empleos terciarios, sin historia de seguridad social, sin sindicatos, no perderán más de lo que ya han perdido.

Ellas, convertidas en un “ejército de reserva” como se denominaba hasta hace poco. Las mujeres, “centro de la familia”, como dice la derecha gobernante en México, salvarán la crisis, sostiene Alicia Bárcena. Supongo que lo harán vaciando su sangre y sus pulmones, porque en esa reunión quedó claro que la política social que no está dirigida a mejorar la producción y el empleo, que atiende pobres superficialmente, además de que no funciona reafirma el carácter subordinado de las mujeres.

A ello, las expertas llaman transferencias condicionadas de recursos. La política de Solidaridad a Oportunidades, que “empoderó” a las mujeres transfiriéndoles “becas” para sus hijos, a cambio de que ellas, en la época de Progresa fueran a controlar su reproducción y en la época de Oportunidades condicionadas de votar por el PAN o por el PRI, o a realizar labores de la comunidad que son obligaciones del Estado.

En fin, que el golpe de la crisis afectará la condición de las mujeres, pero no por razones exclusivamente económicas sino porque se profundizará su dependencia de género, su subordinación, su discriminación, su falta de oportunidades. Encima se afectarán sus derechos logrados lentamente.

Las mujeres que trabajan, hasta el 47 por ciento en México, de todas formas su principal empleo es el servicio doméstico, el comercio informal y la industria maquiladora en las zonas francas del país.

Según las cifras oficiales proporcionadas en el seminario de referencia, la pobreza aumenta la muerte materna en las regiones marginadas, la disminución de los servicios públicos incrementa la carga de trabajo de ellas, agudiza la angustia de las mujeres frente a las dificultades de desarrollo de su prole y las que quedan en espera del dinero que envían sus maridos del extranjero verán disminuido ese recurso ha grados desafiantes.

La solidaridad inclusiva, se explica, se ha ido al caño. La imposición de seguros individuales o la inexistencia de cualquier seguro para las empleadas sin derechos, las dejan mas vulnerables que en otros tiempos y en otros países.

Parece que el recuento es nefasto. Lo que no logré entender es cómo no se ligó, en tan profundo seminario, la crisis material con el franco aumento de la violencia contra las mujeres, cuando sí se reconoce que la crisis en los hogares es gigante. Cómo no se examinó que la violencia dentro de las familias también es reflejo de la crisis, la violencia en las calles y en lo que llaman crimen organizado.

Lo que si se admite, con poca claridad, es el fracaso del sistema capitalista, el que ha producido, sólo en México, 37 millones de indigentes, como decía el expositor de Hacienda. Por ello, no se logra entender que es necesario cambiar el modo, el sistema como funciona actualmente el capital. Es natural, a ello no llegan ni las expertas más comprometidas ni los análisis de la CEPAL.

Escuché a Alicia Bárcena dándonos la misma receta de los señores del poder: hay que pagar más impuestos, reducir el gasto y esperar que ello produzca mayores inversiones para que se detenga la caída del empleo. Y escuché otros diagnósticos como el de Rocío Gaitán, presidenta del Inmujeres, quien dijo que es necesario reconocer las barreras y obstáculos de nuevo cuño para las mujeres y la mayor carga que tendrán en tiempos de crisis. No sólo por ir a recoger leña al campo o ser indígena, sino porque siendo profesionales no consiguen desarrollarse. Muchas migran llevando sus saberes a otros países.

Lo increíble es que Rocío Gaitán, funcionaria pública decía eso, mientras en otro escenario se anunciaron los recortes, el aumento de recursos para los militares y los decretos que deslindan a Felipe Calderón de responder, como jefe supremo del Ejército a las violaciones a los derechos humanos que están cometiendo los soldados en su campaña contra el crimen y deja a la milicia la tarea de defenderse, por lo que es ahí donde se canalizarán los recursos, políticos, económicos y sociales. Esos poquitos que deja la crisis.

Para enfrentar la crisis, que cada mexicano y mexicana se las arregle. Además, como diría la Secretaria Ejecutiva de CEPAL, ellas siempre lo resuelven, son las “conciliadoras” sin igual. Y entonces no se quejen, organícense, como dijo una ponente.

saralovera@yahoo.com.mx


En la Red - In the Net ---4a semana de julio

ESPAÑOL

Desde Semlac:

ESPAÑOL

Desde Semlac
Colombia: Alarmante aumento de niños y niñas combatientes

Por Ángela Castellanos Aranguren (1.020 palabras/3.510 caracteres) Pese a los informes y resoluciones de la Organización de Naciones Unidas, el reclutamiento forzado de menores en Colombia por parte de los grupos armados al margen de la ley no sólo continúa, sino que ha aumentado y la edad de enrolamiento de niñas y niños es cada vez menor. "A través de nuestro trabajo en terreno y con desplazados, vemos un reclutamiento intensivo de menores de edad por las FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) en algunas regiones del país", afirmó a SEMlac Jorge Rojas, presidente de la Consultoría para los Derechos Humanos y el Desplazamiento.

Venezuela: La masculinidad hegemónica en tela de juicio
Por Ángela Castellanos Aranguren (945 palabras/4.888 caracteres) - "Mi expectativa de lo que debe ser un hombre es uno sensible, comprometido, revolucionario, en contraposición al machista, irresponsable, descuidado, misógino y homofóbico. En Venezuela estamos lejos de lograr que haya hombres con un sentido de la masculinidad diferente y, aunque puede haber cada vez más de ellos que quieren ser así, siguen siendo, lamentable y gravemente, una minoría". Quien habla no es una mujer soñando con su hombre ideal sino el asesor de planes y proyectos del área de equidad de género y masculinidades del Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres en Venezuela, Héctor Gutiérrez García.

Chile: Congreso aprueba entrega gratuita de anticoncepción de emergencia
Por Tamara Vidaurrázaga (521 palabras/2.763 caracteres) La Cámara de Diputados de Chile aprobó por amplia mayoría la distribución gratuita de la Píldora de Anticoncepción de Emergencia (PAE) en los servicios públicos de salud, en medio de los gritos a favor del movimiento de mujeres y en contra de organizaciones conservadoras. Un total de 73 votos a favor, 34 en contra ,de los sectores de derecha, y dos abstenciones, fue el resultado de una larga y tensa sesión, en la que se discutió el proyecto de ley enviado por el gobierno para regular la entrega de información y distribución de los métodos anticonceptivos en general, incluyendo a la PAE. ".

Paraguay: Polémica por contratación de gay y transexual en la función pública
Por Marta Escurra (571 palabras/2.869 caracteres) Jenny Lovera y Eduardo Figueredo ni se imaginaban el revuelo que causarían en esa fría mañana en la que fueron presentados a la prensa paraguaya como dos nuevos empleados de la Secretaría de Acción Social (SEN). El propio ministro de la SEN, Camilo Soares, lideró el acto de presentación. ¿Qué tenía de "novedosa" la contratación? Se trataba de la primera vez que un ente estatal unía a sus filas a dos personas abiertamente declaradas transexual y gay, respectivamente.

Cuba: Hemingway, Leopoldina, María Ignacia y yo (II parte)
Por Ilse Bulit (1.127 palabras/5.635 caracteres)Ernest Millar Hemingway nació en Oak Park, Illinois, en julio de 1899. María Ignacia, en La Habana, Cuba, en septiembre de 1890. El invisible lazo de una piel olivo los comunicó. Un budista sen, más poeta que budista, dijo: "el aleteo del ala de una mariposa mueve las estrellas". En vocabulario científico lo afirman ahora los estudiosos de la Física Cuántica. José Martí, el misterioso cubano del siglo XIX, lo resumió en esta frase: "las ciencias confirman lo que el espíritu presiente". Y yo presiento que las palabras de una mujer admirada, traídas al recuerdo de un cerebro enfermo, pueden inducir al suicidio.

ENGLISH

Basiji tells all: Abuse, rape, forced marriage/ An Iranian militiaman says women are being sexually abused on the streets of Tehran – by Tracy Clark-Flory for Salon.com, Jul. 22, 2009 | Sexual harassment, forced marriage and rape -- it's just par for the course for Basiji militiamen. In a provocative article in the Jerusalem Post, an anonymous member of Iran's paramilitary details widespread abuses against young women amid the recent crackdown on opposition protests, as well as violence he previously committed against women awaiting execution.

Pentagon Enlists Feminists for War Aims - by Tom Hayden, Published on Monday, July 20, 2009 by Huffington Post - Over a decade ago a young woman approached me on the California Senate floor with a petition against the Taliban. Women are being repressed, tortured and killed by religious fundamentalists, she said. I signed on. The Taliban seemed like a Ku Klux Klan aimed at women. I was disgusted that the State Department and oil companies would negotiate with them over pipelines, with cursory regard for women's rights. I still feel that way. But I had no idea then that I was joining The Feminist Majority in a coalition with the Pentagon to invade and occupy Afghanistan.

US Military Presence Continues To Imperil Lives of Afghan Women - by Lucinda Marshall, Published on Tuesday, July 21, 2009 by CommonDreams.org - I have a vintage 1960’s poster on my wall that says, “War is not good for children and other living things.” Those sentiments were true then, have always been true and and are certainly still true today. As the Feminist Peace Network website has noted since it began in 2001, military actions of all kinds also perpetrate specific forms of violence against women, including:

Everything That Happens in Afghanistan Is Based on Lies or Illusions - By Ann Jones, Tomdispatch.com. Posted July 20, 2009 - Kabul, July 2009 -- I've come back to the Afghan capital again, after an absence of two years, to find it ruined in a new way. Not by bombs this time, but by security.

Protecting the Rights of Afghan Women is AlterNet's Top Take Action Campaign This Week -By Byard Duncan, AlterNet. Posted July 21, 2009. - The Afghan parliament is expected to soon approve revisions to its marriage law that will do very little in the way of improving women's rights. Despite recent demands that the country radically rework its policies on issues such as polygamy and a woman's right to work, Afghanistan's government is signaling a continued adherence to regressive traditions.

When the Women of Afghanistan Speak, Does Howard Dean Listen? - By Siun Posted on July 18, 2009 - Governor Howard Dean was just on Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! to discuss healthcare and did a great job of explaining the need for a public option – but sadly he fell back on tired pro-war propaganda when he addressed Goodman’s questions on Afghanistan (transcript from Rethink Afghanistan – full rush transcript will be available later at Democracy Now):

Not a Victim, but a Hero - By Nicholas D. Kristof for The New York Times, July 26, 2009, Meerwala, Pakistan - After being kidnapped at the age of 16 by a group of thugs and enduring a year of rapes and beatings, Assiya Rafiq was delivered to the police and thought her problems were over. Then, she said, four police officers took turns raping her. The next step for Assiya was obvious: She should commit suicide.

Crisis in the Operating Room - By Nicholas D. Kristof for The New York Times July 30, 2009- Karachi, Pakistan - Afterward, they comforted each other with the blasphemy: “It was God’s will.” It was the first pregnancy for Shazia Allahdita, 19. I was in the operating room at a public hospital here in Karachi as surgeons performed a Caesarean section on her to try to save her life

Surgeon General Pick's Stance on Abortion May Clash With Church's - By Cheryl W. Thompson
for Washington Post , Saturday, July 18, 2009 - Regina M. Benjamin grew up in the Roman Catholic Church and attended a Catholic elementary school in her home town of Daphne, Ala., nestled along the Gulf Coast. Benjamin, President Obama's pick to be surgeon general, attends Mass regularly and has received an award from Pope Benedict XVI and another inspired by Mother Teresa. But the Alabama country doctor also backs Obama's position on reproductive health issues, a position that potentially could put her at odds with the Catholic Church.

An Abortion Battle, Fought to the Death - By David Barstow for The New York Times, July 26, 2009 - Wichita, Kan. — It did not take long for anti-abortion leaders to realize that George R. Tiller was more formidable than other doctors they had tried to shut down. Shrewd and resourceful, Dr. Tiller made himself the nation’s pre-eminent abortion practitioner, advertising widely and drawing women to Wichita from all over with his willingness to perform late-term abortions, hundreds each year.

Rachel Maddow: 87% Of U.S. Counties Have No Access To Abortion Clinic
By Tana Ganeva, AlterNet - Maddow breaks down all the obstacles to getting an abortion in the U.S. Readmore»

Right-Wing Lobbyists Try Scare Tactic of Abortion to Thwart Health Reform - By Dana Goldstein, The American Prospect. Posted July 15, 2009. - "I certainly would like to prevent, if I could legally, anybody having an abortion, a rich woman, a middle-class woman, or a poor woman. Unfortunately, the only vehicle available is the -- Medicaid bill." Those were the words of Illinois Sen. Henry Hyde, on the floor of Congress in 1977. Just four years earlier, Roe v. Wade had legalized abortion across the country. Almost immediately, opponents of reproductive rights began seeking out ways to limit access to the procedure

Fox Refuses to Air "Family Guy" Abortion Episode - By Amanda Terkel, Think Progress - The episode will likely be distributed on DVD. Read more»

White House Focuses on Violence Against Women - By Susan Loubet, The Women's Media Center. Posted July 13, 2009.- The Obama Administration announced a new position on June 26 -- White House advisor on issues of domestic violence and sexual assault. Fittingly, the announcement came from Vice-President Joe Biden, who, when he was senator and chair of the Judiciary Committee, had been the original drafter of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Named to the new position is Lynn Rosenthal, who was key to galvanizing support across the country for the reauthorization of VAWA in 2005.

His Maternal Instinct - By Nicholas D. Kristof for The New York Times, July 19, 2009 - Karachi, Pakistan - She is an illiterate woman from the tribal areas of Pakistan who almost died in childbirth a year after marrying at the age of 12. She suffered a horrific injury during labor called a fistula that left her incontinent and smelly, and for the next 13 years she was confined to her house — never stepping outside for shame at the way she was leaking wastes.

The Senate voted yesterday to extend hate crimes legislation to include "people attacked because of their sexual orientation or gender." The bill will also "make it easier for federal prosecutors to step in when state or local authorities are unable or unwilling to pursue hate crimes." The House passed a similar bill in April.

FROM MEDIA MATTERS - Crazy uncle Pat goes after Sotomayor : Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings took place this week, which provided one final opportunity for her conservative critics to dust off the same set of attacks they unsuccessfully employed shortly after her nomination was announced. It also provided MSNBC's Pat Buchanan with an opportunity to once again test how much vitriol and hatred the peacock-branded cable network is willing to broadcast under the label of "political analysis."In the span of a few days, Buchanan declared Sotomayor to be a "militant liberal Latina" of limited intellect who had never written any law review articles and who harbored "a lifelong resolve to discriminate against white males." (White men are never prejudiced, in case you were wondering.) After again explaining how Sotomayor is nothing more than an "affirmative action" pick who had been "appointed because she's a Latina, and a Hispanic, and a woman," Buchanan said he didn't "understand" the idea of affirmative action for Hispanics, seeing as they had never suffered through slavery. "This has been a country built, basically, by white folks," he finally told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, for which she roundly rebuked him. "You're playing with fire," she said during a heated exchange, adding, "[Y]ou're living in the 1950s." Which brings us back to the question Media Matters' Jamison Foser posed just six short weeks ago: What would Pat Buchanan have to say to get himself fired from MSNBC?

Pat Buchanan: "This Has Been A Country Built, Basically, By White Folks"- Last night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow debated her colleague Pat Buchanan on the role of affirmative action in the Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor. When Maddow pointed out that 108 of 110 Supreme Court justices have been white, Buchanan responded, "White men were 100 percent of the people that wrote the Constitution, 100 percent of the people that signed the Declaration of Independence, 100 percent of the people who died at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, probably close to 100 percent of the people who died at Normandy. This has been a country built basically by white folks."

Shatner's dramatic reading of Palin – By Alex Kopelman for salon.com, July 28, 2009 - There really was only one man up to the task of reading former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's farewell speech the way it should have been read:William Shatner, of course. So God bless Conan O'Brien for giving him the chance.

Palin’s Resignation: The Edited Version (Vanity Fair) - Palin’s Resignation: The Edited Version-If you watched Sarah Palin’s resignation speech, you know one thing: her high-priced speechwriters moved back to the Beltway long ago. Just how poorly constructed was the governor’s holiday-weekend address? We asked V.F.’s red-pencil-wielding executive literary editor, Wayne Lawson, together with representatives from the research and copy departments, to whip it into publishable shape. Here is the colorful result.

Palin Legal Donations May Have Violated Ethics Law, Report Finds - By Kimberly Kindy and Phillip Rucker for Washington Post , July 22, 2009 - An independent investigator has determined that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) may have violated state ethics laws by soliciting and accepting private donations to pay $500,000 in legal debts.

Behind Sarah Palin's Wacky Pentecostal Faith - By Anthea Butler, Religion Dispatches. Posted July 25, 2009.- When God is treated like "on-demand cable," the most fervent believers will have trouble adhering to basic rules of propriety, let alone values. Read more»

Naomi Klein: Let's Put an End to Sarah Palin-Style Capitalism - By Naomi Klein, The Progressive
Capitalism can survive this crisis. But the world can't survive another capitalist comeback. Read more»

Sex and power inside "the C Street House" / Sanford, Ensign, and other regulars receive guidance from the invisible fundamentalist group known as the Family - By Jeff Sharlet for Salon.com, Jul. 21, 2009 - Editor's note: Sharlet is the author of the bestselling "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power." | I can't say I was impressed when I met Sen. John Ensign at the C Street House, the secretive religious enclave on Capitol Hill thrust into the news by its links to three political sex scandals, those of Gov. Mark Sanford; former Rep. Chip Pickering, R-Miss., who allegedly rendezvoused at the C Street House with his mistress, an executive in the industry for which he then became a lobbyist; and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.

Twelve Women Who Changed the Way We Look at Sex- by Melanie Berliet for Vanity Fair, July 22, 2009 - Are Americans prudes? Some people think so. After all, the country that gave the world Elvis’s hips, free love, and Porn Valley is also a land founded by Puritans, given to legislating what goes on in the bedroom, and perpetually outraged by the sexual dalliances of politicians (though, to be fair, even the Italians are getting fed up with presidential philandering).

The Joy of Sex Toys: How Vibrators Stopped Being 'Shameful' Secrets - By Liz Langley, AlterNet
Once considered shameful, the vibrator has become a common part of most people's sex lives. Turns out we like sexual pleasure. Read more»

Million-Dollar Baby: How Much Would You Pay for a Baby If You Couldn't Have One?0- By Vanessa Richmond, AlterNet - Is there a fairer way to compensate surrogate mothers? Too often, surrogacy is about a wealthy couple hiring poor a woman to breed for them. Readmore»

Women and Power: Connecting Across the Generations - By Marianne Schnall, Patty Goodwin, AlterNet - The media narrative of different generations of feminists being at each other's throats could not be more wrong. Read more»

Beyond Attica: The Untold Story of Women's Resistance Behind Bars - By Hans Bennett, AlterNet
As the incarceration rate of U.S. women skyrockets, an important book shines new light on the struggles of women prisoners. Read more»

FROM THE PROGRESS REPORT: During her visit to India, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that stereotypes perpetuated by our respective entertainment industries create false impressions. "If Hollywood and Bollywood were how we all lived our lives, that would surprise me," Clinton said. "People watching a Bollywood movie in some other part of Asia think everyone in India is beautiful. And they have dramatic lives, and happy endings. And if you were to watch American TV and our movies," she said with a twinkle in her eye, "you'd think we don't wear clothes and we spend a lot of time fighting each other."

GAY AND LESBIAN RIGHTS

According to a report by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), HBO scored highest among 15 networks for its representation of gay characters last season. "Television shows that weave our stories into the fabric of the series present richer, more diverse representations," said Rashad Robinson, GLAAD's senior director of media programs.Citing discouraging poll numbers, proponents of marriage equality are considering delaying a campaign to overturn California's ban on same-sex marriage until at least 2012. "[W]e will step up to the plate -- with resources and talent -- when the time is right," said philanthropist David Bohnett. "The only thing worse than losing in 2008, would be to lose again in 2010."

HUMAN RIGHTS

Democracy Now! Broadcast Exclusive: Declassified Docs Reveal Military Operative Spied on WA Peace Groups, Activist Friends Stunned *Newly declassified documents reveal that an active member of Students for a Democratic Society and Port Militarization Resistance in Washington state was actually an informant for the US military. The man everyone knew as "John Jacob" was in fact John Towery, a member of the Force Protection Service at Fort Lewis. The military's role in the spying raises questions about possibly illegal activity. The Posse Comitatus law bars the use of the armed forces for law enforcement inside the United States. The Fort Lewis military base denied our request for an interview. But in a statement to Democracy Now, the base's Public Affairs office publicly acknowledged for the first time that Towery is a military operative. "This could be one of the key revelations of this era," said Eileen Clancy, who has closely tracked government spying on activist organizations.
Listen/Watch/Read: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/28/broadcast_exclusive_declassified_docs_reveal_military

Reports on U.S. Detention Policy Will Be Delayed - By Peter Finn for Washington Post y, July 21, 2009 - The Obama administration is delaying completion of reports examining U.S. detention and interrogation policy, officials said Monday, in a sign of the formidable issues it faces in grappling with how to handle terrorism suspects as it prepares to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Army Adding 22,000 Soldiers To Meet War Needs, Gates Says - By Pauline Jelinek and Jason Straziuso for Associated Press, July 21, 2009 - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced Monday that the size of the Army is being increased temporarily by 22,000 soldiers to help meet the needs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other missions around the world.This is the second time since 2007 that the military has determined it doesn't have a large enough force. Gates had already increased the size of the Army and Marine Corps shortly after taking the Pentagon job.

IMMIGRATION

Obama Admin Expands Law Enforcement Program 287(g), Criticized for Targeting Immigrants and Increasing Racial Profiling * The Obama administration has expanded the controversial 287(g) program, which allows local law enforcement agencies to enter into agreements with Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, effectively giving local police the powers of federal immigration agents. The agreements have been widely criticized for increasing racial profiling and singling out immigrants for arrest without suspicion of crime. We speak to Aarti Shahani of Justice Strategies and Roberto Lovato of New America Media.
Listen/Watch/Read: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/29/obama_admin_expands_law_enforcement_program

Byzantine World of Immigration Detention - by William Fisher, Published on Thursday, July 23, 2009 by Inter Press Service - New York - Duarnis Perez, a native of the Dominican Republic, became a U.S. citizen at 15 when his mother was naturalised. But he didn't know that meant he was also a citizen. He thought he was an illegal immigrant, and so did the authorities. He was deported and subsequently arrested trying to sneak back into the U.S. from Canada. Perez spent almost five years in prison for unlawful reentry. But when he was released in 2004, an official of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) reviewed his file and told him he had been a citizen all along.

The Obama administration is vastly expanding a federal effort, started in Houston under President Bush, "to identify and deport illegal immigrants held in local jails." The program is being used in 70 counties across the country, though "federal officials say that while they are pleased with their new ability to identify illegal immigrants, they do not have enough agents to deport all of those identified."

Obama Accused of Continuing Bush's Racial Profiling of Immigrants - By Roberto Lovato, AlterNet-
While Obama's racial diplomacy with Skip Gates is making the headlines, rights groups say that he has expanded Bush's racist immigration policies. Read more »

Immigration and Obama: Change We Can Believe in or More of the Same? - By Roberto Lovato, AlterNet - Rights groups say that the Obama administration's continuing the racial profiling begun by his predecessor. Read more»

HONDURAS:

National Exclusive...Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, Wife of Ousted Honduran President, Calls on US to Aid Her Husband's Return Home: "We Want Justice, We Want Peace, We Demand the Return to Democracy" * After a failed attempt to return to Honduras over the weekend, ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has complained that US condemnation of the coup against him is waning. Zelaya had tried to cross back into Honduras from Nicaragua on Friday but stayed for less than an hour. We speak with the wife of the ousted Honduran president, First Lady Xiomara Castro de Zelaya. She's spent the past day trying to get to the border with Nicaragua, and she joins us now from the town of Jacaleapa.
Listen/Watch/Read: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/27/national_exclusive_xiomara_castro_de_zelaya

US Revokes Visas for Honduran Coup Officials; Human Rights Abuses Escalate *The US has revoked the visas of four officials serving in the Honduran coup government. Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya had asked the Obama administration to revoke the visas in order to increase international pressure on the coup regime.
Listen/Watch/Read: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/29/us_revokes_visas_for_honduran_coup

Despite Pledge to Cut Military Ties to Coup Regime, US Continues to Train Honduran Soldiers at School of Americas *While the European Union cut off aid to the coup regime in Honduras, the United States continues the money flow, and while the US says it has cut military ties, the National Catholic Reporter reveals Honduran army officers are still receiving military training at the notorious School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia.
Listen/Watch/Read: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/21/despite_pledge_to_cut_military_ties

"From Arbenz to Zelaya: Chiquita in Latin America" * "When the Honduran military overthrew the democratically elected government of Manuel Zelaya two weeks ago there might have been a sigh of relief in the corporate board rooms of Chiquita banana," writes journalist Nikolas Kozloff. "Earlier this year the Cincinnati-based fruit company joined Dole in criticizing the government in Tegucigalpa which had raised the minimum wage by 60%." Kozloff goes on to trace Chiquita's "long and sordid" political history in Central America.
Listen/Watch/Read : http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/21/from_arbenz_to_zelaya_chiquita_in

Time for President Zelaya to Return to Honduras - by Medea Benjamin, Published on Thursday, July 23, 2009 by CommonDreams.org - It’s been almost a month since the military rousted Honduran President Zelaya from his bed at gunpoint and whisked him away--in his pajamas--to Costa Rica. It’s been almost a month since the Organization of American States called for Zelaya’s unconditional return. The efforts at mediation by Costa Rican President Arias have come to naught. It’s time for Zelaya to go home and get back to the job he was elected to do: President of Honduras. And the U.S. government should help him do that.

School of Coups - by Father Roy Bourgeois & Margaret Knapke, Published on Thursday, July 23, 2009 by Foreign Policy In Focus - The day after Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was deposed, President Barack Obama cautioned against repeating Latin America's "dark past," decades when military coups regularly overrode the results of democratic elections. Obama went on to acknowledge, in his understated way, "The United States has not always stood as it should with some of these fledgling democracies."

Over 55 Organizations and Scholars Call on Obama Administration to Warn Honduran Regime Against Further Violence

CONTACT: Latin American Experts
Dan Beeton, (202) 239-1460

Washington - July 20 - 56 representatives of organizations and academic experts on Latin America and scholars issued the following statement today:

The Obama administration's recent statements are endangering the lives of Hondurans, including the president Manuel Zelaya. From the Wall Street Journal, July 18, 2009:

"A senior U.S. official said Friday the Obama administration continues to stress to Mr. Zelaya its opposition to him trying to return. The official said Washington fears another attempt by Mr. Zelaya could reignite political tensions while undercutting efforts to find a negotiated settlement. 'Zelaya is well aware of our position," the official said.'"

Such statements are very disturbing, especially combined with the fact that the administration has not issued a single warning to the coup government, which has already shot and killed peaceful demonstrators, that such human rights abuses are unacceptable.

In fact, there has not been a single statement from the Obama administration since President Zelaya was overthrown on June 28, condemning the violations of human rights and civil liberties committed by the coup government. These violations include shootings and beatings; arrests, intimidation and deportation of journalists; and the closing of independent radio and TV stations. These abuses have been documented and condemned by the Inter American Commission for Human Rights [1], by human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch [2], Amnesty International [3], the Committee to Protect Journalists [4], Reporters Without Borders [5], and a report from the Honduran Committee for the Relatives of the Disappeared Detainees [6].

President Zelaya is, as President Obama has pointed out, the legitimate president of Honduras. He is also a Honduran citizen, and has the right to return to his country. The United States government should be defending democracy in Honduras, and the civil and human rights of its citizens - not trying to make it look as though those who defend these rights are doing something wrong.

The Obama administration's position puts it outside the consensus of the hemisphere and the world, which has called - through the OAS and the UN General Assembly -- for the "immediate and unconditional" reinstatement of President Zelaya. The repeated refusals [7] of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, when asked by the press, to say that the United States government also seeks Zelaya's reinstatement [8] have further muddied the waters about where the administration stands. Such ambiguity feeds the resolve of the dictatorship to try and run out the clock on President Zelaya's remaining months in office.

The United States has trained and funded the Honduran army; the generals who led the coup were trained at the School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, Georgia; the Obama administration by its own admission was in discussions with the Honduran military up to the day before the coup. All of this places greater responsibility on the administration to help reverse this coup. Yet the administration has refused to take even modest steps such as freezing the bank accounts of the perpetrators, despite appeals from the legitimate government of Honduras and from civil society.

We call on President Obama to condemn the human rights abuses committed by the dictatorship, and to make it clear that violence against the civilian population is a crime that will not be tolerated by the international community; and to make it clear to his own State Department that the United States government stands with the Honduran people and all other governments, for the immediate and unconditional return of the elected President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya.

Signed,

Tim Anderson
University of Sydney
Australia

William Avilés
Associate Professor of Political Science
University of Nebraska, Kearney

Nikhil Aziz, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Grassroots International

Elizabeth Bast
International Program Director
Friends of the Earth U.S.

Jules Boykoff
Associate Professor of Politics and Government
Pacific University

Oscar A. Chacón
Executive Director
National Alliance of Latin American & Caribbean Communities

James D. Cockcroft
Honorary Editor
Latin American Perspectives

Lauren Coodley
Professor of History
Napa Valley College

Pablo Delano
Professor of Fine Arts
Trinity College
Hartford CT

Arturo Escobar
Professor of Anthropoology
UNC, Chapel Hill

Linda Farthing
Journalist, independent scholar

Mario D. Fenyo
Professor of History
Bowie State University

Luis Figueroa
Associate Professor of History
Trinity College
Hartford, Connecticut

Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Executive Editor
BlackCommentator.com

Dana Frank
Professor of History
University of California, Santa Cruz

Gavin Fridell
Assistant Professor, Department of Politics
Trent University

Gilbert G. Gonzalez
Professor Emeritus
University of California, Irvine

Manu Goswami
Department of History
New York University

Greg Grandin
Professor of History
New York University

Peter Hallward
Professor of Modern European Philosophy
Middlesex University, UK

Art Heitzer
Chair
National Lawyers Guild Cuba Subcommittee

Doug Hertzler
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Eastern Mennonite University

Katherine Hoyt
Co-Coordinator
Nicaragua Network

Forrest Hylton
Assistant Professor, Political Science and International Relations
Universidad de los Andes (Bogota)

James Jordan
Coordinator Campaign for Labor Rights

Gil Joseph Farnam
Professor of History and International Studies
Yale University

Chuck Kaufman
Co-Coordinator
Alliance for Global Justice

Benjamin Kohl
Associate Professor and Undergraduate Chair Geography and Urban Studies
Temple University

Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus (Economics)
Simon Fraser University, Canada

Eric LeCompte
SOA Watch

John Lindsay-Poland
Latin America Program Director
Fellowship of Reconciliation

Florencia E. Mallon
Julieta Kirkwood
Professor of History
University of Wisconsin

Luis Martin-Cabrera
Assistant Professor, Literature
University of California, San Diego

Frederick B. Mills
Professor of Philosophy
Bowie State University

Kirsten Moller
Executive Director
Global Exchange

Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy

Diane M. Nelson
Department of Anthropology
Duke University

Héctor Perla Jr.
Assistant Professor of Latin American & Latino Studies
University of California, Santa Cruz

Adrienne Pine
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
American University

Beatrice Pita
Faculty Supervisor for lower division
Spanish Dept. of Literature
University of California, San Diego

Vijay Prashad
George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies
Trinity College

Peter Ranis
Professor Emeritus
CUNY Graduate Center

Gerardo Renique
Associate Professor, Department of History
City College of the City University of New York

Milla Riggio
James J. Goodwin Professor of English
Coordinator, Trinity-in-Trinidad Global Learning Site
Member, Executive Board of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics

William I. Robinson
Professor of Sociology
Global and International Studies
Latin American and Iberian Studies
University of California-Santa Barbara

Rosaura Sanchez
Professor, Department of Literature
University of California, San Diego

T.M. Scruggs
School of Music
University of Iowa

Kent Spriggs
Counsel
School of the Americas Watch

Richard Stahler-Sholk
Professor, Political Science
Eastern Michigan University

Miguel Tinker Salas
Professor of History
Pomona College

Steven Topik
Professor of History
University of California Irvine

Alberto Toscano
Lecturer in Sociology
Goldsmiths, University of London

Maurice L. Wade
Professor of Philosophy, International Studies, and Graduate Public Policy Studies
Trinity College
Hartford, CT

Jeffery R. Webber
Assistant Professor, Political Science
University of Regina, Canada

Mark Weisbrot
Co-Director
Center for Economic and Policy Research

John Womack, Jr.
Professor of History Emeritus
Harvard University


How does asylum for abused women actually work?

Give me your tired, your poor, your battered

By Lynn Harris for salon.com

Jul. 21, 2009 | As you may have read, the Obama administration has opened a "clear, although narrow, pathway" for batteredwomen seeking asylum in the United States.

What's "clear," in contrast to years of legal muddling -- and "outright resistance from the Bush administration" to recognize claims filed by such women -- is a new conclusion by senior lawyers at the Department of Homeland Security that a Mexican woman repeatedly brutalized by her husband, along with other applicants who have experienced domestic violence, "could qualify for asylum."

"This really opens the door to the protection of women who have suffered these kinds of violations," Karen Musalo, director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, told the New York Times. (She recently took up the now-invigorated case of that Mexican woman, known as "L.R.")

Broadsheet spoke with Musalo to help answer some of the questions that news reports and bloggers have raised about this development.

Why do abused women seeking asylum need to show that they are (as the Times paraphrased it) "treated by their abuser as subordinates and little better than property" and that domestic violence is widely tolerated in their countries? Why is evidence of the abuse itself not sufficient?

As Musalo explains, it's because in order to receive asylum, they must show not only that they were abused, but also that they're members in some way of a "particular social group" as defined in the law. Per the 1951 Geneva Conventions, a refugee is defined as a person "outside of his or her country of nationality who is unable or unwilling to return because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion."Since gender is not a category unto itself, victims of gender-based violence may be shown to fit into the "social group" category. (The U.N.'s Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women promote "acceptance of the principle that women fearing persecution or severe discrimination on the basis of their gender should be considered a member of a social group for the purposes of determining refugee status.")

Therefore, says Musalo, "The way the law's been interpreted is that you need to show that women are perceived in that society as having lesser rights and that it's seen as acceptable for them to be abused or persecuted because of their gender."

It's been reported that this legal development does not involve cases of female genital mutilation. Why not?

"It's the opposite of what people are inferring," says Musalo; this is not an oversight or an affront. This development does not bring to bear on FGM because cases involving FGM have actually been accepted under asylum law since the 1996 case of Fauziya Kasinga of Togo, which Musalo litigated. That case did not establish FGM as a specific ground for asylum, but it did establish that those fleeing FGM do belong to a particular "social group."(Trivia: after the Board of Immigration Appeals initially denied Kasinga's petition Kasinga, a 3-judge panel on the 2nd circuit disagreed with its application of the relevant law and sent it back for reconsideration. One member of that panel was a certain Wise Latina.)[Correction:Broadsheet conflated two cases here. In the Kasinga case, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA)found that fear of future FGM was a basis for asylum. The case was not appealed. It was another case, Bah v. Mukasey, in which the issue of past FGM as a basis was raised. It was that case that was denied by the BIA; then the BIAwas reversed by the 2nd Circuit in a panel on which Judge Sotomayor sat.]

There are a lot of battered women in the world. (According to some reports, between one-quarter and one-half of all women worldwide have been abused by intimate partners.) According to the Times, immigration officials had been "reluctant to open a floodgate of asylum petitions from battered women across the globe."What about the concern that the U.S. won't be able to accommodate so many more asylum seekers?

"Ah, the shibboleth of the 'floodgates,'" says Musalo. Canada (for one) has accepted gender-based asylum petitions, including those related to domestic violence, since 1993, yet there's been "no perceptible skyrocketing of claims." The same is true of FGM-based petitions in the US, post-Kasinga. "The reality is that it's not easy for women to get out of their own countries, and it certainly isn't easy for them to enter other countries -- which they have to do illegally -- to apply for asylum," says Musalo, who adds that in fact, the number of asylum-seekers in the U.S. has significantly decreased. The UN's refugee agency (UNHCR) has even expressed concern about plummeting numbers worldwide.

Why did the government make this move now?

"This has been a hotly contested issue for 15 years," says Musalo. "But now we have a new administration and the case in question was probably at a place where the Department of Homeland Security could use it to make their position known. Yet there was still enough controversy that they did it in the form of a brief and not something broader [like a regulation] that would be binding in a different way."

Why is this issue so controversial?

For immigration "restrictionists,"says Musalo,anything that has the potential to broaden the definition of asylum is anathema," says Musalo. But of course, this one's also about women. "Some people really can't get past the male paradigm of what a refugee is: a male dissident who puts his body in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square or writes literary tracts defying his regime," she says. "They can't get their heads around the fact that refugee protection is also for women -- and that women's rights are human rights. This is not some really adventurous claim; the UNHCR is already there, and many countries already offer gender-based asylum. The U.S. has really been quite tardy in addressing this issue in a way that's consistent with a recognition of the need to protect women's rights." This is in part, she says, because the agencies with joint jurisdiction (Homeland Security and the DOJ) have not managed to find enough consensus to move forward on regulations that were proposed nine years ago.

"This is a great development and the Obama administration should get credit for it. But the agencies have had a change to put forth regulations and they haven't," she says. All of the principles of gender-based asylum law, she says, need to be clear and binding. And where regulations haven't come from agencies, laws need to come from Congress.

As Musalo and Esta Soler argued in Saturday's Washington Post,"The filing of one brief is no substitute for clear national policy. It's time we put our regulatory house in order and assured victims of gender-based violence that they can count on justice in the United States ... If federal agencies don't do it through regulation, it's time for Congress to do it through legislation. We need Obama administration officials to do the job and do it right. Unless they do, [women] fleeing brutal gender-based violence will spend more years -- or even decades -- in limbo. We can do better."


Dick Cheney's "Executive Assassination Ring".

Was British Weapons Expert Dr. David Kelly a Target ?

By Tom Burghardt *

Revelations that the Central Intelligence Agency launched a world-wide assassination program, and then concealed its existence from the U.S. Congress and the American people for eight years, carries an implication that death squads may have been employed against political opponents.
The Wall Street Journal reported July 13 that "A secret Central Intelligence Agency initiative terminated by Director Leon Panetta was an attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill al Qaeda operatives, according to former intelligence officials familiar with the matter."

Investigative journalist Siobhan Gorman writes, "The precise nature of the highly classified effort isn't clear, and the CIA won't comment on its substance."

The Washington Post however, revealed July 16 that the assassination plan was sanctioned by President Bush. Unnamed "intelligence officials" told the newspaper that "a secret document known as a 'presidential finding' was signed by President George W. Bush that same month, granting the agency broad authority to use deadly force against bin Laden as well as other senior members of al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups."

According to Post reporter Joby Warrick, Bush's finding "imposed no geographical limitations on the agency's actions" and that the CIA was "not obliged to notify Congress of each operation envisaged under the directive." This implies that targets could be hit anywhere, including on the soil of a NATO ally or inside the United States itself.

According to the Los Angeles Times the program "was kept secret from lawmakers for nearly eight years at the direction of former Vice President Dick Cheney."

Despite these reports and hand-wringing amongst congressional Democrats, there's something fishy here. After all, isn't the whole point of America's "global war on terror" to "capture or kill" al-Qaeda suspects? What's so secretive or controversial about that?

The descriptions of the operation that have so far emerged however, bear a striking resemblance to charges laid earlier this year when investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said that the Bush administration stood-up an "executive assassination ring."

During a "Great Conversations" event at the University of Minnesota in March the veteran journalist told the audience: "After 9/11, I haven't written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven't been called on it yet. That does happen."

The program was allegedly shut down by Panetta on June 23, a day after leaning of the agency's clandestine initiative. What make these revelations all the more significant is that the CIA Director only learned of the program fully four months after assuming office.

"The implications," socialist analyst Bill Van Auken writes, "are clear. The CIA maintained the secrecy ordered by Cheney even after the latter had left office, and continued to conceal the existence and nature of the covert operation not only from Congress, but from the Obama administration itself."

But was the program shut down? The Washington Post further revealed that the plan, allegedly "on the agency's back burner for much of the past eight years, was suddenly thrust into the spotlight because of proposals to initiate what one intelligence official called a 'somewhat more operational phase'."

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, a former top aide to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell hints that the program was in a "somewhat more operational phase" years earlier, despite repeated denials by CIA officials and congressional staffers.

Wilkerson told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show July 14, "What I suspect has happened is what began to happen while I was still in the government, and that was we're killing the wrong people. And we're killing the wrong people in the wrong countries. And the countries are finding out about it, or at least there was a suspicion that the countries might find out about it, and so it was shut down. That's my strong suspicion."

According to Wilkerson, the teams may have been dispatched under deep cover, using Joint Special Operations Command as a cut-out, a confirmation of charges made by Seymour Hersh in March. When U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was queried by the State Department, "after some hemming and hawing, which was Rumsfeld's forte, he finally admitted that he had dispatched some of these teams," Wilkerson explained.

Powell's former aide told Maddow, "It's laughable that the CIA has never lied to Congress. "They lie to Congress on a routine basis." Much the same can be said of General Powell who lied to the entire world "on a routine basis" during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.

It must also be said there is precedence for the CIA's alleged death squad activities during the Bush era. In Vietnam for example, the CIA and U.S. Special Forces jointly ran a secret assassination program that targeted Vietnamese dissidents. As author Douglas Valentine revealed in his definitive study, The Phoenix Program, Operation Phoenix "was a computer-driven program aimed at 'neutralizing', through assassination, kidnapping, and systematic torture, the civilian infrastructure that supported the insurgency in South Vietnam."

Those programs never died and have since morphed into above top secret "Special Access Programs" used with deadly effect in Central- and South America during the 1980s and across the Middle East today.

One Scandal Leads to Another

The latest scandal comes on the heels of revelations that the Bush administration's massive secret surveillance programs targeting the American people went far beyond well-publicized warrantless wiretapping.

A new 38-page declassified report issued July 10 by inspectors general of the CIA, National Security Agency, Department of Justice, Department of Defense and the Office of National Intelligence, collectively called the acknowledged "Terrorist Surveillance Program" and cross-agency top secret "Other Intelligence Activities" the "President's Surveillance Program."

The IG's report failed to disclose what these programs actually did, and probably still do today under the Obama administration. Shrouded beneath impenetrable layers of secrecy and deceit, these undisclosed programs lie at the dark heart of the state's war against the American people and perhaps, other regime opponents.

The CIA's Office of Inspector General said that "the program was an additional resource to enhance the CIA's understanding of terrorist networks and to help identify potential threats to the U.S. homeland," and that the "PSP was one of many tools available to them, and that the tools were often used in combination." However, "some officers told the CIA OIG that there was insufficient legal guidance on the use of PSP-derived information." (pp. 33-34)

But with a thin reed provided by President Bush's executive orders, presidential findings and 2001 congressional authorization for war against al-Qaeda, why would there be "insufficient legal guidance"? If "PSP-derived information" was used to target alleged al-Qaeda operatives there wouldn't be need for additional legal guidance. If however, the CIA "was very deeply involved in domestic activities" as Seymour Hersh averred, and used NSA information for political dirty tricks it would be a violation of the CIA's charter, one that comes with serious consequences including jail time.

Investigative journalists James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, who broke the NSA spy story in The New York Times in 2005, reported July 11 that intelligence officials "'had difficulty citing specific instances' when the National Security Agency's wiretapping program contributed to successes against terrorists."

True enough as far as it goes, but perhaps these programs were highly efficacious in silencing those who were deemed politically suspect, even within the defense and security apparatus itself.

While major media in the United States insist that the Agency's assassination program was meant to target al-Qaeda assets, one question inevitably raises its head: did the CIA and allied intelligence services murder political opponents? Were covert actions carried out by the CIA--at home or on the soil of America's allies--"against people they thought to be enemies of the state," as Hersh revealed?

More pointedly, was the British bioweapons expert Dr. David Kelly, who leaked information to the press that the British and American governments had falsified the case for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, murdered for exposing the fraudulent evidence for war or worse, planning an exposé on the West's continued development of offensive biological weapons?

The David Kelly File

Dr. David Kelly was an unlikely dissident. In fact Kelly wasn't a dissident at all, but a prominent figure in Britain's bioweapons defense establishment.

The former head of the microbiology department at Porton Down, the UK's secret biological and chemical warfare research facility, at the time of his 2003 death Kelly was a consummate insider, a trusted keeper of state secrets; dangerous and deadly secrets that could topple governments.

A civilian employee of Britain's Ministry of Defence (MoD), Dr. Kelly was a biological weapons expert and former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq. His off-the-record conversations with journalist Andrew Gilligan about the British government's fraudulent claim that Iraq possessed "weapons of mass destruction" set off a firestorm that continues to smolder.

While David Kelly wasn't a spy, he did enjoy unprecedented access to the world of secret intelligence. Indeed, according to author Gordon Thomas Kelly had helped orchestrate the defection of a top Russian microbiologist Vladimir Pasechnik (who turned up dead in 2001, allegedly from a stroke) and played a part in the FBI's investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States by trying to identify the origin of the Ames strain used in the fatal mailings.

In 2008, the multiyear, multimillion dollar "Amerithrax" investigation was closed when the Bureau claimed that Dr. Bruce Ivins was the killer. Ivins, a top anthrax expert at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Ft. Detrick in Maryland committed suicide. According to the FBI version, the scientist killed himself just as the Bureau was about to arrest him for the crime.

Many were unconvinced that Ivins was the anthrax "lone gunman." Indeed, Sen. Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a target of the 2001 attacks, charged FBI Director Robert Mueller with staging a cover-up.

During 2008 hearings, Leahy angrily chided Mueller: "If he is the one who sent the letter, I do not believe in any way, shape or manner that [Ivins] is the only person involved in this attack on Congress and the American people. I do not believe that at all. I believe there are others involved, either as accessories before or after the fact, I believe there are others who can be charged with murder."

Richard Spertzel, Ivins' former boss at Ft. Detrick told investigative journalists Bob Coen and Eric Nadler, "He's dead and they can close the case and he can't defend himself. Nice and convenient isn't it?"

Thomas claims that Kelly had worked with two American scientists, Benito Que and Don Wiley, who also turned up dead under highly suspicious circumstances.

It was originally claimed by authorities that Que was bludgeoned to death during an attempted carjacking in Miami. "Strangely enough," The Toronto Globe & Mail reported in 2002, "his body showed no signs of a beating. Doctors then began to suspect a stroke."

Wiley, according to the Canadian newspaper "was an expert on how the immune system responds to viral attacks such as the classic doomsday plagues of HIV, ebola and influenza." After planning a trip to Graceland with his son police "found his rental car on a bridge outside Memphis, Tenn. His body was later found in the Mississippi River. Forensic experts said he may have had a dizzy spell and have fallen off the bridge."

As it turned out, the pair were "engaged in DNA sequencing that could provide 'a genetic marker based on genetic profiling'." Thomas writes: "The research could play an important role in developing weaponized pathogens to hit selected groups of humans--identifying them by race. Two years ago, both men were found dead, in circumstances never fully explained."

Coincidence, or something more sinister?

By summer 2003, it was obvious that Saddam Hussein's regime did not possess WMDs and that the entire pretext for invading Iraq was based on a lie, concocted by the American regime, and in particular by Vice President Richard Cheney and the neoconservative mafia in control of America's defense and security apparatus.

Tasked to the Defence Intelligence Staff, Kelly read a draft of the Joint Intelligence Committee's (JIC) dossier on Iraq's reputed WMDs. He was unhappy with many of the report's conclusions, according to multiple press reports. He disputed the infamous claim that the Iraqi Army was capable of launching battlefield biological and chemical weapons within "45 minutes" of an order from Saddam. This dubious claim, one of many, was inserted into the report at the insistence of MI6 political masters acting through the JIC.

During a trip to Iraq in June 2003, Kelly inspected what were alleged by the Bush administration to be "mobile weapons laboratories," a claim infamously made by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell at the United Nations in February 2003. The Observer reported that a British scientist, who turned out to be David Kelly, told the newspaper: "They are not mobile germ warfare laboratories. You could not use them for making biological weapons. They do not even look like them. They are exactly what the Iraqis said they were--facilities for the production of hydrogen gas to fill balloons."

One of the key pieces of evidence to emerge was the JIC's, and Kelly's, involvement with Operation Rockingham, a secret program for weapons inspections in Iraq.

Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter told the Sunday Herald that Operation Rockingham was a "dirty tricks" unit "designed specifically to produce misleading intelligence that Saddam has weapons of mass destruction to give the UK a justifiable excuse to wage war on Iraq."

Describing the unit as "dangerous," Ritter told investigative journalist Neil Mackay, "Rockingham was spinning reports and emphasizing reports that showed non-compliance (by Iraq with UN inspections) and quashing those which showed compliance. It was cherry-picking intelligence."

A political firestorm ensued, which threatened the viability of Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour government. Heads would have to roll; one of those heads as it turned out, would be David Kelly's.

After an appearance before Parliament's Foreign Affairs Select Committee on July 15, 2003, Kelly was visibly upset by his shoddy treatment by MPs. In an email to New York Times reporter Judith Miller, a serial-fabricator who had stitched-up evidence that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear weapons program, Kelly said there "were many dark actors playing games."

During the whitewash known as The Hutton Inquiry, a British ambassador David Broucher reported a conversation he had with Kelly in Geneva. The ambassador asked Kelly what would happen if Iraq were invaded? The bioweapons expert replied, "I will probably be found dead in the woods."

Two days after giving testimony before Parliament he was.

"A Wet Operation, a Wet Disposal"

In The Strange Death of David Kelly, Liberal-Democratic MP Norman Baker builds a strong case that the scientist was murdered. Despite Lord Hutton's dubious findings that Kelly killed himself, several troubling facts intruded to upend the British government's apple cart. To summarize:

The lack of fingerprints found on the knife allegedly used by the scientist to slit his wrists; the lack of blood found at the scene, despite a verdict that he had sliced open an artery; unexplained contusions on Kelly's scalp; the position of the body discovered by searchers differed markedly from that alleged by detectives; bottled water, knife and wristwatch said to be found by detectives were not observed by the searchers who actually discovered the body; eight computers removed from Kelly's home and office by MI6 agents; missing dental records; the level of painkillers found in Kelly's stomach was "less than a third" of what is considered a fatal overdose by medical experts. On and on it goes...

One source told Baker that Dr. Kelly's death was "a wet operation, a wet disposal," a term used in intelligence circles to denote an assassination.

Six years after Kelly's murder, a group of British doctors have announced that "they were mounting a legal challenge to overturn the finding of suicide," The Mail on Sunday reports.

A 12-page opinion concludes: "The bleeding from Dr Kelly's ulnar artery is highly unlikely to have been so voluminous and rapid that it was the cause of death. We advise the instructing solicitors to obtain the autopsy reports so that the concerns of a group of properly interested medical specialists can be answered."

One motive which may have led to Kelly's murder was that the scientist was writing a book "exposing highly damaging government secrets before his mysterious death," The Sunday Express reported July 5.

According to published reports, Kelly intended to reveal that he had warned Prime Minister Tony Blair "there were no weapons of mass destruction anywhere in Iraq weeks before the British and American invasion." Despite warnings that the book would breach Britain's draconian Officials Secrets Act, Kelly sought advice on how he might bring his findings into a publishable form.

These reports also suggest that Kelly threatened to "lift the lid" on a larger scandal, "his own secret dealings in germ warfare with the apartheid regime in South Africa."

Investigative journalists Bob Coen and Eric Nadler in their book Dead Silence: Fear and Terror on the Anthrax Trail and a companion 90-minute documentary, Anthrax War, provide startling evidence that Kelly's death is linked to a secret world of germ warfare research.

Indeed, according to Coen and Nadler, David Kelly's secret dealings included a connection with Dr. Wouter Basson, the cardiologist who was the former head of the South African apartheid regime's clandestine biological and chemical warfare program, Project Coast.

During Basson's 1999 trial and subsequent acquittal, evidence presented by some 150 witnesses, including operatives linked to South African snatch-and-kill squads, tied Basson to chemical and biological research used in extrajudicial executions by the apartheid regime. It was further alleged that Project Coast had conducted active research into the fabrication of "ethnic weapons" that would specifically target South Africa's black population.

In Anthrax War, Basson states that his findings were shared with foreign scientists, including those affiliated with weapons research in Britain and the United States. According to a 2001 piece in The New Yorker,

Basson had already put the fear into American intelligence during his T.R.C. [Truth and Reconciliation Committee] appearance, where he handed over fourteen pages of notes from a visit to the United States in 1981. American Air Force officers had been eager to develop joint "medical projects" with South Africa, he wrote. ... Basson says that in 1995 his life was threatened on the street by a C.I.A. agent. The American Embassy in Pretoria admits privately that the United States government is "terribly concerned" that Basson may start talking about his sources of information and technology. The Embassy hopes that an impression of "unwitting coöperation" is all that emerges in the way of an American connection. (William Finnegan, "The Poison Keeper," The New Yorker, January 15, 2001)

Coen and Nadler uncovered evidence that Kelly had discovered a "Porton Down-South Africa connection" linked to a global bioweapons black market. The investigative journalists told the Express, "We have proved there is a black ­market in anthrax. David Kelly was of particular interest to us because he was a world expert on anthrax and he was involved in some degree with assisting the secret germ warfare programme in apartheid South Africa."

Andrew Mackinlay, a British MP blamed for humiliating Kelly "to the point of suicide" started "asking questions in the House of Lords" after the scientist's death "about Kelly's relationship with these bad actors in Pretoria, even making inquiries about South African links to Pasechnik's Regma firm."

Founded in 2000 by the deceased scientist, Regma Bio Technologies was headquartered on the Porton Down campus and had signed a contract with the U.S. Navy for anti-anthrax research.

What Mackinlay discovered about the entire operation was highly disturbing to say the least. His inquiry sparked "the convening of an extraordinary 'handling strategy meeting' involving thirteen officials from different government agencies. But any and all information about UK-South African germ work was withheld from the MP."

Mackinlay told Coen and Nadler, "This is one of the most closely guarded secrets of the British government."

The question is, did David Kelly threaten to reveal these "closely guarded secrets" in the book he was preparing, and was this a motive for certain "dark actors" to eliminate a person now considered "an enemy of the state"?

These programs are not Cold War relics. Biological weapons research continues today and remain one of America's most deadly secrets. As the 2001 anthrax attacks which employed a weaponized version of the bacteria to sow terror, and subsequent FBI cover-up illustrate, such programs remain fully operational.

The evidence suggests that Dr. David Kelly, as Norman Baker avers "may have signed his own death warrant" by threatening to reveal this secret underworld menacing all humanity with unimaginable horrors.

That an out-of-control agency like the CIA has the means, motives and opportunity to silence critics and that "no geographical limitations" were placed "on the agency's actions," should give pause to a society that considers itself a democracy.

Media revelations so far have suggested that the CIA and Special Operations Forces were assembling teams to "put bullets in [the al Qaeda leaders'] heads" as The Wall Street Journal reported.

But perhaps the Obama administration's trepidation in exploring this and other Bush-era programs through congressional hearings or the mechanism of a special prosecutor has much to do with fear of opening a proverbial can of worms.

One never knows where such an investigation might lead.

Tom Burghardt is a researcher and activist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to publishing in Covert Action Quarterly and Global Research, an independent research and media group of writers, scholars, journalists and activists based in Montreal, his articles can be read on Dissident Voice, The Intelligence Daily, Pacific Free Press and the whistleblowing website Wikileaks. He is the editor of Police State America: U.S. Military "Civil Disturbance" Planning, distributed by AK Press.

* From Antifascist Calling... and Global Research, July 17, 2009

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