After mentioning Luis Posada and the US’s double standard regarding terrorists that it has sponsored in the past, I came across a piece on Salon.com this morning entitled The coddled "terrorists" of South Florida about Alpha 66 which was a very interesting read. It included some rather telling passages as well… "That's sheer bullshit," counters Wayne Smith, who was chief of mission at the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba under Presidents Carter and Reagan from 1979 to 1982, making him the de facto U.S. ambassador to ...More »

In a speech yesterday in the UAE, President Bush called Iran the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. Now, to some, that might not sound unseemly, but it shouldn’t be overlooked that Iran is the UAE’s number one trading partner, which Bush completely failed to mention in the speech. Nor did he mention that the UAE is one of the most important conduits for Iranian imports despite US Sanctions, the fact that a significant Iranian ex-pats community that plays a central role in commerce in ...More »

Since the scandal involving the destruction of CIA tapes surfaced I have been trying to compile information regarding it. I have, thus far, made a few entries regarding the issue, but wanted to delve further into it having found some very interesting information. First, Michael Ratner, the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights and noted human rights lawyer, has made numerous points regarding the tapes that are of value. The first is actual quite simple. If the CIA was worried that the tapes could ...More »

There are numerous things to touch on this morning. Here are some of the stories that I have been following… Chavez Says He Will Step Down At End Of Term After last week’s defeat of proposed constitutional reforms, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said that he will step down when is term is up in 2013. Chavez has vowed to keep fighting to have the reforms passed, requiring a petition of 15% of voters to secure the possibility of a new referendum. Vancouver Airport Reforms Announced The Vancouver ...More »

Every so often someone speaks a little truth to power and pulls the crimson velvet curtain from the Kabuki Theater that passes itself off as United States foreign policy. The recently elected president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, has done just that. Correa has proclaimed that the United States may renew their lease of Eloy Alfaro Air Force Base in Ecuador on one condition... that Ecuador be allowed to open a military base in Miami... I'm quite sure that friendly and generous proposition brought down the house ...More »

I want to clarify that the focus of this entry is the practice of counter-intelligence and the very real historical ramifications that it has had with regards to Latin America. John Pilger’s entry posted today on the The Guardian’s Comment Is Free blog entitled “The old Iran-Contra death squad gang is desperate to discredit Chavez” is an interesting read. In it, Pilger confronts some of Latin America’s harsh realities and, having also made a documentary entitled The War On Democracy, which “shows that the principles of ...More »

You have to absolutely adore hypocrisy. Unfortunately, that’s the only word one can think of with regards to Haiti given Canada’s complicity in the coup d'état that removed Aristide from power in 2004. First, I will not entirely condemn the Prime Minister, being that his government wasn’t in power when the coup took place, nor was it in power when the Ottawa Initiative on Haiti took place in Montreal. But even that only provides the thinnest of ice on which to skate. With regards to ...More »

Next week the Prime Minister will travel to Colombia and Haiti. One is the home of a right-wing government with direct connections to paramilitaries responsible for human-rights abuses. The other is home to a supplanted government that we helped put in place after participating in the overthrow of the democratically elected leader of that country in 2004, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Colombia Free trade is worth more than lives. Well, the lives of those deemed of less importance than those that free trade agreements benefit. Colombia has, for years, ...More »

Rosa Brooks On The Posada Hyporcisy From today’s Los Angeles Times… “LIKE PIRATES, terrorists are supposedly hostis humani generis — the “enemy of all mankind.” So why is the Bush administration letting one of the world’s most notorious terrorists stroll freely around the United States? I’m talking about a man who was — until 9/11 — perhaps the most successful terrorist in the Western Hemisphere. He’s believed to have masterminded a 1976 plot to blow up a civilian airliner, killing all 73 people on board, including teenage members ...More »

Like a secret river flowing below the headlines, US actions regarding Somalia have garnered little attention since they began. As Eric Margolis reported in a piece on the 16th… “In a striking irony, F-18 fighter-bombers from the carrier "USS Eisenhower," deadly AC-130 gunships from the US base at Djibouti, and Special Forces units attacked Somalia from sea, air and land. Other US units and FBI agents deployed on the Kenya-Somalia border. As America’s latest foreign war began with air strikes from the giant carrier that bears ...More »