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Vol. 12 Issue 33…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…August 16, 2009

Intuit's Vibe

Terrorists

By Thomas Hubbard

Foreigners send agents, surveillance

to photograph your land, spy on your peoples

strategize against your national defenses

map the resources under your earth

determine profits to be taken

from you and your children

foment unrest in your streets, destroy your culture.

Foreigners send their corporations

to take your natural resources

they manipulate your government

they set up puppet leaders who

impose odious rules on you

give away your national property

they install shipping and pipelines

to carry off your wealth leaving you with crumbs.

Foreigners send their missionaries to convert your children

in the guise of "helping" you

they violate your religion in the streets of your town

they build their churches on the land of your father

they teach their ways to your children

in schools built on your land.

Foreigners send death across your skies

not just one or two explosions, no

countless explosions, bombs smart, dumb, clustered

dropping from airplanes, delivered by missiles

killing, maiming, destroying,

flattening whole cities spreading ruin over your countryside.

Foreigners send helicopters, tanks

to spread death in your streets

they tear down every place of shelter

they defile your places of worship

bring ruin to your institutions

pollute the water you drink, spoil the air you breathe

dump their sewage where they please

then ridicule your suffering.

Foreigners send their armies to murder your neighbors

they abuse your families; they kick down your doors

they enter your house and drag grown men outside

they threaten with assault rifles

they curse your women and children

they spread your belongings in the street.

When you fight back, when you resist with whatever

side-arms, home-made booby traps

any antiquated weapons you can carry

when you hate them,

when you show them a minute fraction of the suffering they spread

then they imprison you for questioning and torture.

They call you a terrorist because you defend yourself

against impossible odds, rifles against tanks, and

occasionally, when their attention lapses

you give them what they have given you

and they cry out that you are unfair, you are monsters,

you are inhuman, you are terrorists.

They did the same to my people.

They do the same to any people who are not like them,

who will not be enslaved, who will not be dispossessed,

who will not suffer corporate filth

to over-run, suck dry and ruin the land, the country.

They call it "spreading freedom."

They call it "Democracy."

In private, they call it "huge profits," and

laugh as they count the money.

Bit of History

Salvador Allende Gossens (1908-1973)

The son of Salvador Allende Castro and Laura Gossens, Salvador Allende was born June 26, 1908 in Valparaíso, Chile. With a long tradition of political involvement in progressive and liberal causes, his family belonged to the Chilean upper-class. His father and uncles participated in the reformist efforts of the Radical Party in the 19th and early 20th centuries. His grandfather founded one of the first lay schools in Chile when the Catholic Church claimed hegemony over education. The family also had roots in Chilean freemasonry; Allende's grandfather, a physician, served as a Most Serene Grand Master of the Masonic Order.

After graduating from Liceo Eduardo de la Barra high school in Valparaíso, Allende earned a medical degree in 1926 from the University of Chile. He qualified as a surgeon in 1932.

While working for the public health service (1933), Allende published Higiene Mental y Delincuencia (Crime and Mental Hygiene) and helped create the Socialist Party of Chile. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies (1937) and served as Minister of Health in the Popular Front government elected in 1938 on the slogan "Bread, a Roof and Work!" Allende was general secretary of the Popular Front, which was renamed Democratic Alliance, from 1943 to 1970. He married Hortensia Bussi with whom he had three daughters.

While serving as Minister of Health, Allende wrote La Realidad Médico Social de Chile (The social and medical reality of Chile). In 1945, he became senator for the Valdivia, Llanquihue, Chiloé, Aisén and Magallanes provinces; then for Tarapacá and Antofagasta in 1953; for Aconcagua and Valparaíso in 1961; and once more for Chiloé, Aisén and Magallanes in 1969. Allende became president of the Chilean Senate in 1966. During his senate tenure, Allende consistently defended the interests of the working classes, attacked capitalism and imperialism, defended the Cuban Revolution, and vocally supported the guerrilla movements in Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s.

Allende ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 1952, 1958 and 1964. His socialist beliefs and friendship with Cuban president Fidel Castro made him unpopular with successive US administrations from John F. Kennedy to Richard Nixon; they believed there was a danger of Chile becoming a communist state and joining the Soviet Union's sphere of influence. While Allende had close ties to the Chilean Communist Party from the outset of his political career, he publicly condemned the Soviet invasion of Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968). He later made Chile the first government in the Americas to recognize the People's Republic of China (1971).

In the 1970 presidential election, the Communist Party appointed him as the alternate for its own candidate, the world-renowned poet Pablo Neruda. Allende won the Chilean presidential election as leader of the Unidad Popular ("Popular Unity") coalition. He received a narrow plurality of 36.2 percent. Since no candidate obtained a popular vote majority, the Chilean Constitution required Congress to choose one of the two candidates with the highest number of votes as the winner. Tradition called for Congress to select the candidate with the highest popular vote.

On October 20, while the senate was in negotiations between the Christian Democrats and the Popular Unity, General René Schneider, Commander in Chief of the Chilean Army, was shot, and later died, while resisting a kidnap attempt by a group led by General Roberto Viaux. The kidnaping plan had been supported by the CIA, although U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger claimed the plans were ordered postponed at the last moment. However, the evidence showed CIA director Richard Helms followed orders directly from President Nixon to do whatever was necessary in order "to get rid of him," referring to Allende. Nixon gave Helms a blank check in ridding Chile of Allende's presence and "making the economy scream."

A defender of the "constitutionalist" doctrine that the army's role be exclusively professional, General Schneider saw the army's role as solely to protect the country's sovereignty and not interfere in politics. For a time, after his death, which met with widespread disapproval, military opposition to Allende ended. Parliament selected him to the presidency on October 24.

On November 3, 1970, Allende assumed the presidency after signing a Statute of Constitutional Guarantees proposed by the Christian Democrats in return for their support in Congress. Upon assuming power, Allende began to carry out his platform of implementing a socialist program called La vía chilena al socialismo ("the Chilean Path to Socialism"). This included nationalization of large-scale industries (notably copper mining and banking), and government administration of the health care system, educational system (With the help of an American Educator, Jane A. Hobson-Gonzalez from Kokomo, Indiana), a program of free milk for children in the schools and shanty towns of Chile, and an expansion of the land seizure and redistribution already begun under his predecessor Eduardo Frei Montalva, who had nationalized between one-fifth and one-quarter of all the properties listed for takeover).

Under Richard M. Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the US blocked financial aid to Chile and other Third World countries that nationalized industries. Anaconda and Kennecott mining companies and International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT) were among the US enterprises with property in Chile. The IMF ceased to aid Chile. Its people suffered, amplifying internal divisions. Industrialists and landowners frustrated reform. Factory and farm workers protested the slow pace of the new programs. Others blamed Allende's reforms for the high inflation rate.

On September 11, 1973, US-backed forces trained at the School of the Americas (SOA) overthrew Chile's government, killing Allende. The coup suspended constitutional government. Under General Augusto Pinochet, the junta arrested, tortured and killed more than 30,000 Chileans in a matter of months. On September 26, 1973, SOA graduates killed Allende's exiled foreign minister Orlando Letelier and his aide, Ronnie Moffitt, a few blocks from the White House in Washington, D.C. (Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org and www.answers.com)

America's Bloody Hands

By John Burl Smith

Following a secret order of the Supreme Court of Honduras issued on June 26, 2009, President Manuel Zelaya was arrested in a predawn raid. Soldiers stormed the presidential residence while Zelaya slept, took him to an air field, loaded him on the presidential jet and dispatched him to San José, Costa Rica. Roberto Micheletti was sworn in as President and declared a so-called "state of exception," which suspended civil liberties. Dozens of officials, including the Foreign Minister, were rounded up, as the coup plotters consolidated power.

The coup d'etat in Honduras raised the specter of a time when America rode roughshod over the western hemisphere through the infamous School of the Americas (SOA) and the CIA. A throwback to "Cold War" "domino thinking," the Honduran coup was strangely reminiscent of the US backed 1955 Guatemalan coup. It bears the earmarks of that bygone era, most notable among this dastardly duo's dirty deeds are the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, the 1965 US occupation of the Dominican Republic, the 1966 Green Beret intervention in Guatemala, the 1973 US-backed coup d'etat in Chile, Operation Condor launched by the US in 1975 to install and back military dictatorships in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay, the well-documented dirty wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua paid for by official US cocaine-trafficking in the 1980s, the 1983 US invasion of Grenada, the 1987 US military "drug war" intervention in Bolivia, the 1988 US-backed electoral fraud in Mexico, the US invasion of Panama in 1989, the ongoing multi-billion dollar US Colombia intervention that began in 2000, the 2002 US-backed coup attempt in Venezuela, the 2004 US-backed coup in Haiti, the 2006 US backed electoral fraud in Mexico, and currently Plan Mexico in 2008.

The aforementioned events earned the School of the Americas the title "school of coups" in Latin America. Whenever there are massacres, cases of torture or other human rights abuses, a direct connection to the SOA has been documented. For this reason the Georgia-based US military school's name has been changed to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). As the SOA, it trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers, many of which became some of the most infamous dictators, "death squad" leaders and others charged with torture and human rights abuses to date. The CIA is the actuary, developing plots, recruiting principles and funding operations. Honduras has over 50 graduates of SOA which have been intimately involved in coups, assassinations and human rights abuses.

For instance, 1975 SOA graduate Gen. Juan Melgar Castro became the military dictator of Honduras. During 1980-1982 another SOA graduate, Policarpo Paz Garcia, headed the dictatorial regime. He intensified repression and murder through the infamous Battalion 3-16, one of the most feared death squads in all of Latin America.

Leader of the coup, Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, commander of the armed forces, is really the man running the country. Gen. Velásquez trained at the SOA at least twice -- in 1976 and 1984. His chief accomplice in the coup, Air Force Gen. Luis Javier Prince, trained at SOA in 1996. Gen. Suazo played a key role in the crisis by overseeing the thief of opinion poll ballot boxes and hiding them on an air base. The Air Force also held Zelaya on one of its bases until he was sent to Costa Rica.

An additional 88 Hondurans were scheduled for training this year at WHINSEC, formerly SOA, which graduated over 400 Hondurans from 2001-2008 and five of these students are a part of the military clique running the country. However, if their training occurs, it will violate the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act which requires the US military to cease all aid and training to any country that has undergone a military coup.

Moreover, a very important bill, HR 2567 is before Congress that will suspend all operations at the school and authorize a full investigation into its past activities and its hundreds of graduates who have been involved in atrocities and coups. Going back to the 1950s, eleven dictators have trained at the SOA. Whenever there's been a coup, like the one in Honduras, a direct connection to the SOA has been documented.

President Obama must support this bill, if his pledge to improve Latin American relations at the Summit of the Americas meant anything. But, rather than reversing Bush's decision to reactivate the Navy's Fourth Fleet in the Caribbean, there is legislation in Congress to expand the military's role in South America.

President Obama has the power through an executive order to shut down America's school of coups and assassins which has America hands so bloody. Mr. Obama should realize that as president when a country sets up operations to assassinate foreign leaders that same operation can be turned on him. (Sources:www.cbsnews.com, www.allgov.com, www.democracynow.org and http://dprogram.net)

Politic Y2K9

Who Pushed the Button

By John Burl Smith

The military coup in Honduras that overthrew the democratically-elected president, Manuel Zelaya on June 28, 2009 harkened back to the "Banana Republic" days of the 1950s. Back then, US corporations controlled South American countries with help from the US government (the CIA) to eliminate competition and maintain slave wages. The lack of a forceful condemnation of the coup from President Barack Obama and his statement that he "can't push a button and make the coup regime go away" beg the question, "who pushed the bottom to make it happen?" Adding to speculation that the US' hand wielded the dagger that found its way into Zelaya's back, astute observers are not asking if Obama's hands are dirty, rather does he know who really made the call in the first place?

Outside the Beltway, fingers are being pointed at two US companies with CIA and State Department ties. This is an old familiar tale that began earlier in the year when Chiquita Brands International, Inc. (formerly United Fruit) and Dole Food Company severely criticized Zelaya, who demanded a 60% increase in Honduras' minimum wage, which would cut into their corporate profits. Honduras and Haiti set the bottom line for minimum wages, and if Honduras raised its hourly rate, the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean would surely follow suit.

Immediately, a coalition of corporations (textile manufacturers and exporters) that rely on cheap labor began funding opposition groups. Americans need only remember that in 1954 Chiquita (United Fruit) and the CIA toppled Jacobo Arbenz, Guatemala's democratically-elected president, who raised wages. Also, International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT) through Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger and the CIA killed Salvador Allende, Chile's democratically-elected president over wages in 1973. Everyone remembers the CIA ouster of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004, after he proposed a minimum wage increase similar to that of Zelaya.

Lobbyist Lanny Davis, personal lawyer to former President Bill Clinton and campaigner for US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and lobbyist Bennett Ratcliff, another hired gun with Clinton ties, are currently advisers to Honduran coup officials. Both Davis and Ratcliff have Chiquita ties. The powerful Washington law firm, Covington & Burling LLP, and McLarty Associates are in the game through old Clintonike, Eric Holder, US Attorney General. While a Covington partner, Holder defended Chiquita, which was found guilty of hiring "assassination squads," the US government listed as terrorist groups. Chiquita agreed to pay a $25 million fine in 2004.

This is where it seems "strange bedfellows" share rooms in a whorehouse. Former Covington lawyer and George Bush's UN Ambassador, John Bolton, who is a fierce opponent of granting greater profits to countries for their resources, is also in the mix. After leaving government in 2006, Bolton joined the Project for the New American Century -- (PNAC) of dubious Iraq War fame-- to promote corporate hegemony in Honduras and elsewhere.

Rounding out this cabal of shame is McLarty Vice Chairman John Negroponte, former UN Ambassador, US Ambassador to Honduras (1981-1985), former Deputy Secretary of State, and Director of National Intelligence. He played a major role in the US-Iran Contra secret war in Nicaragua and has consistently opposed policies of democratically-elected pro-reform Latin American presidents. These three McLarty associates symbolize the insidious power that brought down Zelaya, its bipartisan composition, and how Obama's button pushing is a part of this neocon coup.

As with 9-11 and the Iraq War, can the world believe that the Secretary of State and the President of the United States were asleep at the wheel and unaware of events unfolding in Honduras when their friends, associates, former government officials and US corporations were involved up to their eyeballs? Plausible deniability is the name of this game. No one is buying what they are denying. Hilary was suspect from the beginning; now Obama's credibility has been shattered.

The best way to ascertain the truth is to follow the money. Although Congress and the administration claims to have cut $20 million (about ten percent) of U.S. aid to Honduras and put the rest on hold, those funds have been quietly redirected through the back door. Not only is Clinton attorney Lanny Davis lobbying on behalf of the Honduran dictatorship, Secretary Clinton sits on the board of directors of the Millennium Challenge Corp (MCC) -- funded by the U.S. government -- which poured $17 million into Honduras oligarchy interests between April and July of this year. Honduran Central Bank records reveal that since the June 28 coup d'etat -- in a little over a month -- MCC has subsidized the coup forces in Honduras with $6.5 million dollars.

The hands that push buttons also open cash draws. The US cannot afford to fund education, jobs programs or increase aid to the urban poor, but it can afford to keep spending billions on wars and killing. What is the difference between this and Bush? (Sources: www.nytimes.com, www.southernstudies.org, www.huffingtonpost.com and http://blogs.abcnews.com)

Hood Notes

It's Not about Zelaya

By David L. Wilson

Manuel "Mel" Zelaya is a rancher and business owner who wears large cowboy hats and, in November 2005, was elected president of Honduras, an impoverished Central American country with a population of 7.5 million. On June 28 of this year the Honduran military, backed by the country's elite, removed Zelaya from power. He instantly became a focus of attention for the U.S. media -- his statements were examined, and his appearances at the United Nations and regional meetings were dutifully covered. Most media depicted him as a major "leftist strongman" seeking to extend his term of office in the style of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.

U.S. journalists generally present world events as the actions of a few important individuals, a sort of Greek drama without the chorus. Latin American politics especially are viewed as a parade of good guys and bad guys -- Fidel Castro, August Pinochet, Hugo Chávez, Alvaro Uribe. Which is good and which is bad depends on your perspective.

The current Honduras coverage is no exception. Most working people in this country, pressed by the worst economic crisis of their lifetime, understandably change the channel or click on another website. If you want celebrity news, the death of Michael Jackson is far more gripping than the overthrow of Mel Zelaya.

But was this coup really about a leftist strongman? "What Zelaya has done has just been little reforms," Rafael Alegría, the leader of the local branch of the international group Vía Campesina ("Campesino Way"), explained to the Mexican daily La Jornada. "He isn't a socialist or a revolutionary; these reforms, which didn't harm the oligarchy at all, have been enough for them to attack him furiously."

The local elite and the US media insist that the non-binding referendum Zelaya wanted to hold was a power grab. In reality Hondurans would simply have been asked whether they wanted to vote in the November general elections on a constituent assembly to rewrite the 1982 Constitution. If this actually came about, the new Constitution might well allow presidential reelection, but it's not easy to see how any constituent assembly could finish its work in time to keep Zelaya in office after his term expires on January 27, 2010.

A more likely motive for the coup lies in the Honduran oligarchy's fear of what would happen if the people got a chance to write their own Constitution.

Not many people in the United States are aware that over the past few decades Hondurans have created, under very adverse circumstances, a vibrant grassroots movement: campesino organizations like Vía Campesina; three labor confederations, often competing, sometimes cooperating; a strong indigenous movement; Afro-Honduran groups like the Honduran Black Fraternal Organization (OFRANEH);human rights monitoring groups like the Committee of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees in Honduras (COFADEH); environmental groups; community radio stations; an anti-militarization movement; women's groups; student groups; and a nascent LGBT movement.

Early this year, Honduran teachers went on strike for back pay and held a sit-in at the education ministry. The Civic Council of Grassroots and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) organized a 12-day mobilization to protest the destruction of forests. Hundreds of indigenous Chortí blocked access to the Copán archeological park, probably Honduras' most important ancient Mayan site, to press demands for land.

None of these were one-time protests -- they continued long-term struggles, some going back for years. And these same groups, which frequently support each other and coordinate their actions, are the ones that have confronted the coup and the subsequent repression with massive and spirited protests throughout the country.

The growth of social movements in Honduras reflects a pattern. Everywhere you look in the hemisphere, the protagonists of the drama are increasingly "the people from below" -- los de abajo, as Mariano Azuela called the subjects of his novel of the 1910 Mexican Revolution.

In the first months of 2009, general strikes by virtually the whole population of the "French overseas departments" of Guadeloupe and Martinique forced President Nicolas Sarkozy to agree to an increase in the minimum wage -- and inspired workers' struggles in European France. Starting in April, militant protests by indigenous Peruvians in the Amazon region, backed by urban unionists, shook the pro-U.S. government of President Alan García. In June students battled United Nations troops in Haiti, the only country in the Americas more impoverished than Honduras, in support of workers' demands for a higher minimum wage.

These struggles get little media attention here, but they have a direct bearing on los de abajo of our own country. Working people in the United States understand the effects of outsourcing industrial work to other countries, and they know about the pressure undocumented workers put on the wages of the native born. What they don't know is how these phenomena are linked to U.S. foreign policy.

Some 100,000 Hondurans now work in their country's maquiladora sector, which assembles apparel and automotive parts largely for the U.S. market. About 300,000 Hondurans live and work in the United States itself, according to the 2000 census. Hondurans don't actually want to do backbreaking labor for minuscule pay in maquilas in San Pedro Sula, much less risk their lives crossing the border to work in the sweatshops of Los Angeles and New York. It is repression by the U.S.-backed military and oligarchy and the hardships resulting from US-promoted economic policies and U.S.-dominated trade deals like the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) that have forced Hondurans into these jobs.

It doesn't do U.S. workers any good to rail against foreign countries and "illegal" immigrants. If people here are serious about defending their standard of living, they have no choice but to oppose their government's foreign policies and to support their counterparts in countries like Honduras. Unions like United Electrical Workers (UE) and organizations like the National Labor Committee, US LEAP, Students Against Sweatshops, and the Maquila Solidarity Network are already active in this work. We need to back them -- and maybe learn some lessons from Latin America about how to fight for our rights. (Source: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/wilson040709.html)

News You Use

Shooter (2007)

By Dot

Last weekend, we watched Shooter, which opens with a military sniper scene. I dislike war films, so I was reticent about watching it. Shooter is not about war per se.

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Danny Glover, Ned Beatty, Michael Peña, Tate Donovan and Kate Mara, Shooter is based on the novel Point of Impact written by Stephen Hunter. The screenplay was written by Jonathan Lemkin. Directed by Antoine Fuqua and produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura, the Paramount Pictures film was released in 2007.

Shooter is an action/thriller about a retired US Marine sniper named Bob Lee Swagger (Mark Wahlberg). Following the tragic loss of his spotter in the opening scene, Swagger is living in exile in a mountain retreat when he is called upon by Colonel Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover), who appeals to his patriotism, to employ his skill with a high powered rifle to prevent the assassination of the president. Swagger is framed for what appeared to be a failed assassination attempt in which the Ethiopian archbishop standing next to the president is killed.

Wounded as the assassination team ties up all the loose ends, Swagger manages to escape. For help, he turns to Sarah Fenn (Kate Mara), widow of his late spotter and close friend Donnie Fenn, who was killed on a mission in Africa. She saves his life. Meanwhile, rookie FBI agent, Nick Memphis (Michael Peña), is blamed for Swagger' escape and is disciplined for negligence. Convinced the official story has too many inconsistencies, Memphis realizes that Swagger may not have been the shooter.

Realizing Memphis is too close to learning the truth, the assassination team kipnaps him and attempts a staged suicide; Swagger saves Memphis and they team up to discover the truth behind the archbishop's assassination -- an attempt to cover up the genocide of an Ethiopian village on behalf of US corporate oil interests. Behind the murderous plot is a corrupt US Senator played by Ned Beatty.

Shooter is art imitating life. While the ending is not realistic, given bad guys in real life often get away with mass murder, Shooter is an entertaining glimpse at the kinds of CIA operations that take place in our name on foreign and domestic soil. There is a lot of killing, so it may be inappropriate for the very young or the squeamish. For everyone else, it is well worth the cost of a movie rental.

Disgruntled wants to know: This week Michael Vick, the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback, signed a two-year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles. The National Football League (NFL) indefinitely suspended Vick after he pleaded guilty to bankrolling a dogfighting operation in Virginia. He served nearly two years in prison for the crime. The response to the opportunity the Eagles' contract provides for Vick to play professional football again has been mixed. Some people are adamantly opposed to giving him a second chance because of the kinds of things reportedly done to dogs. According to Susan Cosby, CEO of the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, "Philadelphia is a city of dog lovers and most particularly, pit bull lovers. To root for someone who participated in the hanging, drowning, electrocution and shooting of dogs will be impossible for many, no matter how much we would all like to see the Eagles go all the way." While Cosby was making this statement and others voicing even more vitriol at the prospect of Vick making a living playing in the NFL, they were silent on the killing of innocent people by unmanned CIA drones in Pakistan and other places where the US is engaged in imperial wars, including Afghanistan and Iraq. Philadelphia is supposed to be the "city of brotherly love," but there is no outrage over the torture and murder of innocent men, women and children that took place under the Bush administration and continues under Obama. Where is the public passion about and media coverage of the mistreatment of humans and the demand that those responsible be held accountable that have been showered on Michael Vick for dogfighting?

Disgruntled feels: Fleeced! When it comes to the American consumers' relationship to the financial industry, we are akin to sheep. Worse than Bernie Madoff, these legal shearers - banks, insurance companies and others that make money off money - regularly fleece or take us to the cleaners. They pocket the proceeds and plan more plunder. We recently learned their take this year for overdraft fees alone will exceed $38 billion. According to Moebs Services, a research company, the bulk of this record revenue harvest will come from about 10 percent of the 130 million checking accounts in the country. These consumers are the most financially stretched, have the lowest credit scores and are least able to afford overdraft fees. Ironically, at a time when banks can borrow at near zero percent interest and have been given a huge infusion of cash via the government bailout or Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), they are the greediest. The highest overdraft fees are charged by the largest banks, including Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo. Consumer advocacy research shows the banks incur very low loss rates on overdrafts, yet the fees are nearly double those reported in 2000. The most plausible explanation for the exorbitant fee is greed and without consumer protection we get regularly fleeced.

Disgruntled says: In 2007, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) declassified hundreds of documents detailing some of the agency's worst illegal abuses from the 1950s to 1970s. Dubbed "Family Jewels," the 693 pages detail CIA illegal acts, including assassination plots, domestic spying and wiretapping, kidnapping and human experiments. At the time of its release, CIA Chief Michael Hayden gave us the impression that the documents told the story of another time and another agency. We were led to believe today's CIA is vastly different. While Hayden was weaving that tortured tale for public consumption, the CIA was engaged in many of the same practices detailed in "Family Jewels," including torture, assassinations and domestic spying. Under the Bush administration, the CIA contracted Dr. Jim Mitchell and Dr. Bruce Jessen to devise an interrogation strategy for suspected al Qaeda operatives that included waterboarding, a technique under international law that has also been considered torture. The doctors reportedly got rich inflicting pain. Videotapes of their torture techniques were conveniently destroyed by the CIA. We would be far too gullible to believe the agency has changed when its mission remains essentially the same. One has only to examine US foreign policy in Latin America to realize it is the same old CIA up to its same old dirty tricks of installing dictators to protect US business interests.

Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and Phone Calls

Email www.newsworld.com 638 Ways to kill Castro...Some claim that there are 50 ways to leave your lover, but how many ways are there to kill off a political enemy? According to the former head of Cuban Intelligence, Fabian Escalante, there are no less than 638. 638 Ways To Kill Castro is a political documentary exploring the history of the relationship between the U.S. government and Cuba, told via the countless attempts to kill Fidel Castro. From exploding cigars to femme fatales; a radio station rigged with noxious gas to a poison syringe posing as an innocuous ballpoint pen, those who tried to kill Castro reveal every conceivable method of assassination. On the trail of Castro's would-be killers, the filmmakers meet a series of extraordinary characters, including two men accused of being terrorists, but living free in America. Orlando Bosch, who many consider to be the greatest terrorist in the northern hemisphere, is found living peacefully in his Miami home, with his adoring family. Antonio Veciana, the Cuban American who got the closest to killing Castro on three occasions, now runs a marine store in Miami. Both men were supported and funded by the US, and the CIA even sought the help of the Mafia, hoping they would be able to succeed where Bosch and Veciana had failed. An exciting detective thriller, 638 Ways To Kill Castro is a Silver River production for Britain's Channel 4.

Email www.ipsnews.net Latin America: Afro-Descendants Marginalized and Ignored...Diego Cevallos.... There are almost four times as many people of African descent in Latin America and the Caribbean than indigenous people, yet the poverty and discrimination they suffer are largely ignored, despite the fact that they are just as severe, or even worse, than the conditions facing the region's aboriginal inhabitants. The indigenous population, which comprises an estimated 40 million people, has taken on an increasingly active political role in Latin America. By contrast, the 150 million Afro-descendants in Latin America and the Caribbean have extremely limited political power and lack cohesive organizations to represent their interests. Their situation also receives far less attention in international forums and academic research. Available studies reveal that over 90 percent of the descendants of slaves brought from Africa to the Americas during the colonial era live below the poverty line, have access to only the most poorly paid jobs, and have low levels of formal education. They also face intense discrimination based solely on the color of their skin. Blacks remain the most excluded sector of the population, even more so than indigenous people, noted Quince Duncan, a Costa Rican researcher with the International Scientific Committee of the Slave Route Project.

Email www.ap.com Birmingham major pardons civil right protesters...The mayor of Birmingham is issuing a blanket pardon for thousands of people who were arrested in the Alabama city during the civil rights protests in the 1960s. Mayor Larry Langford announced the pardon during a City Council meeting Tuesday. He said it's for those arrested for nonviolent protests. A longtime civil rights leader, Calvin Woods, accepted the pardon on behalf of thousands of people arrested during demonstrations against racial segregation in the city. But the mayor says he expects many people to refuse to request certificates of pardon because they consider their arrest records to be a badge of courage. Some 2,500 people, many of them children, went to jail during protests in Birmingham in 1963. The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was among them.