______________________________
ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN
News * Analysis * Research * Action
______________________________
- AFIB No. 260, July 30, 2000 -
FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
FREE LEONARD PELTIER!
FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS & PRISONERS OF WAR!
The term "narcoterrorism" also soon became an essential adjunct to the
doctrine of national security developed by right-wing Latin American
military forces to rationalize their repressive domestic activities and
seizures of power. At the Fourteenth Bilateral Intelligence Conference of
the general staffs of the Argentine and Bolivian armies, held in Buenos
Aires in late August 1988, military leaders concluded that "the
relationship between drugs and subversion, which generates narcoterrorism,
has become part of the East-West confrontation, with a real impact on the
national-international security of the West." They declared that
"narcoterrorism now constitutes a means of Revolutionary War" and that "the
MCI [International Communist Movement] uses narcoterrorism as a
socio-ideological procedure for provoking social imbalance, eroding
community morale, and corrupting and disintegrating Western society as part
of the strategic objective of promoting the new Marxist order." Combating
narcoterrorism would justify repressing a whole range of familiar enemies:
"trade unions, religious, student groups, etc." Above all, it would require
granting more resources and political power to military elites. -- Peter
Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall, Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies and the
CIA in Central America [Berkeley, University of California Press, 1991] p.
24.
* * *
Contents: Number 260
01. GERMANY ALERT [Berlin]: Politics, Nazi Terror Mix as Right Surges.
02. ANTI-FASCIST ACTION-STOCKHOLM [Sweden]: Björn Söderberg's Murderers
Sentenced.
03. PRESS AGENCY OZGURLUK [Turkey-exile]: Another Attack Against Political
Prisoners in Turkey.
04. THE BETHUNE INSTITUTE FOR ANTI-FASCIST STUDIES [Canada]: Denial,
Disguise, and Demagogy: The Denial of Fascism in the Service of Fascism.
05. WORLD SOCIALIST WEB SITE [UK]: US Special Council Danforth Whitewashes
Waco Massacre.
06. WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS [US]: Chile: Former Intelligence
Officials Get Life in Prison; Argentines Mark Bombing Anniversary.
07. SAN FRANCISCO LIBERATION RADIO [US]: The Elkhorn Document: Bush
Family's Historical Ties to the Nazis.
08. WORKERS WORLD NEWS SERVICE [US]: The Strange Drug War.
09. SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER: Former Contra Wins Review of U.S. Drug Ties.
10. THE NEW YORK TIMES: Roberto Suárez, 68, a Bolivian Drug Figure, Dies.
11. THE WASHINGTON POST: Reform Panel Votes Buchanan Off Ballot.
12. THE TIMES [London]: Railway Bomb Raises Neo-Nazi Terror Fears.
13. MUMIA ABU-JAMAL: Killing Kids: Shaka & International Law.
* * *
GERMANY ALERT
`The Free Flow Of Uncensored Facts'
Web: http://www.germanyalert.com
- Sunday, 30 July 2000 -
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____________________________________________________________________
POLITICS, NAZI TERROR MIX AS RIGHT SURGES
____________________________________________________________________
BERLIN (30 July 2000) -- German politicians, business leaders and editors
wish the "problem" would simply go away. Speaking out against the new
escalation in neo-Nazi terror does not win them votes, increase their
companies' profits or cause more people to read and watch the news. Not in
today's Germany, where some mainline political leaders are openly adopting
extreme rightwing positions, even in the wake of more terror attacks on
foreigners.
The politics of hate hasn't had it so easy since Hitler was in power.
Consider that a splinter bomb attack at a Düsseldorf railway station
Thursday, which left nine foreign students injured -- six of them Russian
and Ukrainian Jews -- came only a month after a regional Christian Democrat
(CDU) official announced proudly that he had sung "Deutschland, Deutschland
über alles" at a meeting of rightwing students.
Five people were badly wounded in the Düsseldorf attack. One of them was
five months pregnant and lost her baby in the terror blast. Her husband is
in critical condition.
Racism, anti-Semitism and anti-foreigner hate have been identified as the
motive for the bombing, according to prosecutor Johannes Mocken.
The level of hate and terror has gotten steadily worse recently and
authorities acknowledge that organized neo-Nazi death squads may be gearing
up for still more escalation.
Four teenagers have been blamed for murdering a homeless man in Usedom.
Three have been arrested and the fourth, believed to be the leader, is
still being sought.
Berlin is being increasingly targeted as the government completes its move
from the former west German capital, Bonn. But Berlin is also where
mainline politicians publicly adopt more and more tenets of extreme
rightwing ideology. Both Social Democrats (SPD) and the opposition CDU
demand further tightening of draconian laws controlling the influx of
foreigners. Until recently such demands were heard only from groups like
the extremist NPD and the neo-Nazi gang White Aryan Resistance.
After the train station bombing, authorities spoke darkly of "violent
individuals and small cells now trying to get in contact with one another."
In reality, the secret neo-Nazi cell system has been in effect and growing
for the past decade, and authorities know it.
Germany's Council of Jews chides the government to take firmer measures to
stem rising anti-Semitism and some voices in the SPD, Greens and socialist
PDS decry the new wave of neo-Nazi terror. But among average Germans, there
seems to be no sense of revulsion or indignation about attacks on
foreigners. No small wonder, considering that mainstream politicians,
through their vocal support for steps demanded by neo-Nazis, give the
public a clear perception that foreigners are the problem.
Copyright 2000 Germany Alert. All rights reserved.
*****
ANTI-FASCIST ACTION - STOCKHOLM
Anti-Fascistisk Aktion-Stockholm
Box 381 96
100 64 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel: +46-739 98 01 59 [new]
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.motkraft.net/afa
- Monday, 24 July 2000 -
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____________________________________________________________________
BJORN SODERBERG'S MURDERERS SENTENCED
____________________________________________________________________
Stockholm, Sweden
14 July 2000
The three nazis who murdered the Swedish syndicalist activist Björn
Söderberg have been sentenced in the High Court of Svea in Stockholm. The
sentence is of such a nature that it is not expected that the Swedish
Supreme Court will review the case in an appeal attempt.
Two nazis hae been sentenced for the murder, Hampus Hellekant and Björn
Lindberg-Hernlund. Both have received 11 years imprisonment, which is five
more years than they received in the lower court decision which they
appealed. Jimmy Niklasson, who was the get-away-driver has been charged as
an accomplish to murder and has received 3 years imprisonment.
We expect all three of these nazis to quickly request voluntary isolation
after entering the Swedish prison system. Our connections inside the walls
assure us that they will not be winning popularity contests amongst the
inmate community!
Remember Björn Söderberg's struggle on October 17th!
Mot sexism, rasism, kapitalism och homofobi
*****
PRESS AGENCY OZGURLUK
In Support of the Peoples Liberation Struggle in Turkey and Kurdistan
Witte de Withstraat 160 hs
1057 ZK Amsterdam
Tel: 020 - 6898368
Fax: 020 - 4120400
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web: http//www.ozgurluk.org
- Wednesday, 26 July 2000 -
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____________________________________________________________________
ANOTHER ATTACK AGAINST POLITICAL PRISONERS IN TURKEY
____________________________________________________________________
URGENT ACTION REQUIRED!
Özgür TAYAD
(Association for the Families of Prisoners in Turkey)
- July 26, 2000 No: 67 -
ATTACK IN BERGAMA PRISON (TURKEY)
Yesterday afternoon the Bergama Prison Administration wanted to carry out a
search of the political prisoners' wards on the pretext that "there is a
tunnel". Previously prison guards had carried out searches but this time
there were soldiers. A court case had opened concerning the photographs of
the prisoners in Burdur whose bodies show traces of torture, and the
continual threats directed towards prisoners caused the prisoners to expect
an attack.
The Prison Prosecutor at the Izmir Bar said in an interview: "The
politicals accept searches under certain conditions. It is not possible for
us to accept conditions. We will wait until morning. If a search is not
carried out it will be necessary for something to be done," thus showing
that a massacre of the political prisoners in Bergama Prison was planned.
At the moment there are soldiers, bulldozers, fire brigade vehicles and
ambulances in front of the prison. The demands of families, friends and
lawyers of the prisoners to see the prisoners have been refused, also the
state security forces are deliberately using their sirens all through the
night and all morning as a way of causing suffering to the relatives who
are waiting in front of the prison gates.The reason for this is also to
drown out the noise of the massacre. According to the latest information we
received this morning at 0840, gunshots were hearnd and the roof of the
prison has been pierced with holes. Also all the roads leading to the
prison were blocked and the relatives of the prisoners were not allowed to
come closer to the prison.
The Prison Prosecutor is telling lies. We are asking: during the whole time
the prison wardens carried out searches, why was it now necessary for
soldiers to carry out the searches? Why are bulldozers, ambulances and fire
engines kept in readiness in front of the prison? As you know we are
familiar with such scenes. We witnessed the same scenario yesterday in
Ulucanlar and Burdur. Are they now trying to convert Bergama into another
Ulucanlar or Burdur?
* * *
ATTACK ON BERGAMA PRISON. LATEST
- July 26, 2000 No 68 -
This morning at 0705, as happened in Burdur Prison, hundreds of soldiers
and police started an attack against the prisoners using bulldozers and gas
bombs.
At 1000, the walls of four dormitories were completely smashed by
bulldozers. The captives retreated to another and continued to resist to
defend themselves against torture and massacre.
This attack has been planned step by step. Most recently, when the
photographs of the captives from Burdur Prison who had been subjected to
torture were published in the press, the Bergama Prison Governor Nedim
Elbistan threatened the captives, "I will skewer you and turn this place
into Ulucanlar."
The savagery in Ulucanlar has still not been forgotten, and the entire
world has noticed what was done to our children in Burdur Prison. The
operation to massacre and torture, which was initiated in Bergama Prison,
must immediately be halted.
We call upon all those who are against torture to mobilise to stop the
attack in Bergama.
*****
THE BETHUNE INSTITUTE FOR ANTI-FASCIST STUDIES
Web: http://bethuneinstitute.org
Research Directors: David Lethbridge, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Helmut-Harry Lowen, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
- July 2000 -
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____________________________________________________________________
Denial, Disguise, and Demagogy:
THE DENIAL OF FASCISM IN THE SERVICE OF FASCISM
____________________________________________________________________
By David Lethbridge
http://www.bethuneinstitute.org/documents/denialoffascism.html
Over the last two decades, when fascist organizations began to rebuild and
mobilize, they found it necessary to engage in a tactic which has become
known as "Holocaust-denial."
Of course the leadership of the various fascist groups knew perfectly well
that the Nazis had murdered millions of Jews, Communists, Poles,
Ukrainians, Roma, homosexuals and others. But the new fascist leaders also
recognized that the reality of the Holocaust constituted a major stumbling
block to fascist recruitment. What's more, by denying the Holocaust the
fascists were able to relativize the historical actions of the Nazis
through arguing that all sides had engaged in atrocities, and in this way
to dismiss the specificity of fascist violence. The third value in
Holocaust-denial was to use the issue as a weapon against Jews and
Communists, their traditional targets and enemies. Jews and Communists, who
insisted on the reality of the Holocaust, were to be seen as perpetrating a
monstrous lie, a "blood libel" against the "Aryan" people who, now cast as
victims, had a duty to respond by organizing a new fascist movement.
Unfortunately for the fascists, Holocaust-denial has not been an altogether
successful tactic. It has now become necessary for the fascists not only to
deny the Holocaust but, in the service of fascism, to deny fascism itself.
Consider the statement of Alexis Lopez, leader of the Chilean neo-fascist
New Fatherland Society Movement, who organized an international neo-Nazi
gathering in Santiago, Chile, this past April: "We're not going to redefine
German Hitlerism. We're going to elaborate a system of thought which has
its origins in National Socialism, but which is completely removed from its
historical context. Nazism belongs to the past millenium."
Lopez maintains that the new movement will "share the values of the
spirit," and will "see in nationality and socialism legitimate and
transcendent principles to defend the identity, culture, traditions and
origins of our peoples." They will be opposed to "globalism," and will
strive for "ecological development," and will "reject any threat to life,
especially abortion." Furthermore, the new movement will "reformulate
racism, xenophobia, and discrimination, rejecting them as political
categories." "Our struggle," Lopez claims, "is for respect for difference."
And just as Holocaust-denial was necessitated by the desire to re-build a
mass movement, so too is the denial of fascism and of Hitlerism. But these
various forms of denial are in reality simply so many levels of disguise.
Unlike the professional stripper who removes one veil after another to
reveal the living flesh beneath, these new fascist pimps wrap themselves in
more and more veils, layer after layer, to prevent their true nature from
exposure. Did we murder six million? Surely not. Are we white racists? No,
not at all. Did we not attempt to destroy the workers' movement and enslave
the working class? On the contrary, we are its champions. Are we not
exponents of the most anti-human forces? No, you are quite mistaken, we
believe in spiritual values, the conservation of nature, and in respecting
the value and diversity of all human life!
It would be easy enough to say that there is nothing new here. And in a
sense that it is true. For what was Hitler's national socialism other than
the use of contemporary disguise and demagogy in order to implement the
ideology of the most reactionary factions of the bourgeois class? And these
were identified as long ago as 1850, in Marx's "Eighteenth Brumaire of
Louis Bonaparte" - as family, property, religion, and order. And certainly
Hitler's Nazis promoted themselves, quite falsely, and just like Alexis
Lopez, as the defenders of the working class, and as being "beyond both
capitalism and communism," and as rooted in the desire to harmonize the
human order with the order of nature.
And yet, on the other hand, there is something new here, and something
quite insidious. Lopez is part of a growing movement known as the
International Third Position (ITP).
ITP propaganda asserts a form of extreme nationalism. It claims to favor an
end to racism through the national and racial autonomy of peoples.
Politically, it aims at the dissolution of contemporary states and their
replacement by smaller, racially pure nations. Racial and political
separation - rather than domination and oppression - characterizes the new
fascist propaganda.
On the surface, then, racism, xenophobia, and discrimination are eliminated
by the racial and political separation of states, and the subsequent
enforcement of strict laws against immigration.
What is less openly discussed in ITP propaganda are the concrete
consequences of a policy of racial-national separation. One would suppose,
for example, that a great many people of color might resist being forced
out of such "white homelands" as Europe and North America are alleged to
be. At that point, such territories would have to be forcefully and
violently cleared of the resisting racial group.
Furthermore, to return non-white peoples to their "homeland," (a
regressive, biological concept in itself) would be to return such peoples
to lands both economically and ecologically ravaged by centuries of
capitalist-imperialist plunder, forcing them away from the industrial
wealth of the capitalist metropoles to the largely poverty stricken
perimeter.
But in a very real sense the pretence to holding non-racist and socialist
positions falls away quickly when the surface demagogy is peeled away.
While there are now dozens of ITP websites on the Internet, and at least
three in Canada, the main ITP website, run by the Italian fascist terrorist
Roberto Fiore, and long-time British reactionary Derek Holland, tells the
real story through its "links" page. There, one finds dozens of websites
run by Klansmen, Nazis, and Christian Identity white supremacists; Paul
Fromm's Canadian racist and anti-immigrant CAFE site; Afrikaner
organizations; anti-abortion and anti-gay sites; the Holocaust-denial sites
of Ernst Zundel and David Irving; and, under the heading "Twentieth Century
Heroes," such pro-Nazis and fascists as Leon Degrelle (the Belgian SS
leader), Oliveira Salazar (the fascist dictator of Portugal), and Corneliu
Codreanu (leader of the bloodthirsty Romanian Iron Guard). Indeed, common
to all the ITP websites, is a vicious white racism lurking just below the
surface and, equally common, a quite open and explicit hatred of Jews and
Communists.
And what of the alleged socialism of Lopez and of the ITP? ITP propaganda
is devoted primarily to its racial-nationalist ideology, and is
conspicuously shy in revealing its economic intentions. Despite occasional
references to the corporatism of classical fascism, or the
smoke-and-mirrors monetary policy of British bigot G. K. Chesterton, no
economic program is revealed. And this is because the claim to go "beyond
capitalism and communism" is as false in the ITP as it was in Nazi Germany.
Either the major means of production are owned by a small circle of
capitalist industrialists and financiers, or they are owned by the people
themselves - there is no third alternative, nor can there be.
In denying Hitlerism, the fascism of the International Third Position
returns to its pre-Hitlerian origins but does so in the disguise of
contemporary concerns and passions. Beneath the layers of obfuscation, the
ITP hearkens back to the nationalist racism of the British Empire, of
Houston Stewart Chamberlain, of Count Gobineau and Edouard Drumont, and the
whole dark legion of racist, antisemitic, and ultranationalist ideologues
who laid the groundwork of twentieth-century fascism and Nazism.
The International Third Position has been referred to in many quarters as a
"left-right convergence." And certainly fascism intends the use of left
issues and leftist phraseology to lure the disaffected. But beneath the
surface, there is little that is new, and little that is "left" in the ITP.
The now threadbare cloak of Hitler himself may be thrown off (only to be
picked up later, one suspects), and bright new clothes put on to suit the
current fashion and attract the young, but the political body that animates
the clothes is still the same old monster.
( A Footnote: Millionairess Rosine de Bounevialle, has recently died and
left her $3 million estate to ITP leader Roberto Fiore. De Bounevialle was
a confidante of A. K. Chesterton, member of the British Union of Fascists
and founder of the League of Empire Loyalists. De Bounevialle edited the
antisemitic journal "Candour" after Chesterton's death. "Candour" has now
become a publication of the ITP.)
Copyright 1998-2000 The Bethune Institute for Anti-Fascist Studies. All
rights reserved.
*****
WORLD SOCIALIST WEB SITE
Published by the International Committee
of the Fourth International (ICFI)
Web: http://www.wsws.org/
E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Tuesday, 25 July 2000 -
-----
____________________________________________________________________
US SPECIAL COUNCIL DANFORTH WHITEWASHES WACO MASSACRE
____________________________________________________________________
News & Analysis: North America
By Patrick Martin
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/jul2000/waco-j25.shtml
Former US Senator John Danforth issued a report on July 21 clearing federal
officials of any wrongdoing in the 1993 siege and destruction of the Branch
Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. The attack on the religious sect's
headquarters, carried out by agents of the FBI, resulted in the death of at
least 85 Branch Davidians, including 21 children.
The Branch Davidian episode began on February 28, 1993 when federal
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agents, attempting to serve a warrant
on sect leader David Koresh, attacked the compound in Waco. A gunfight
erupted and four ATF agents were killed. The ensuing 51-day siege of the
compound ended with the April 19 FBI assault that destroyed the Branch
Davidian headquarters.
Last year Danforth, a Republican from Missouri, was appointed special
counsel by Attorney General Janet Reno to head up a federal investigation
after it was revealed that FBI agents had covered up key facts about the
Waco massacre for more than six years.
The 150-page report issued by Danforth last Friday was a crude whitewash of
one of the most horrific atrocities ever committed by the US government
against its own citizens. Danforth, an ordained Episcopal minister with a
penchant for sermonizing, declared at his press conference, "The government
did nothing evil on April 19, 1993," the day federal agents used armored
cars and tear gas-filled explosives to send scores of men, women and
children to a fiery death.
"There is no evidence of any wrongdoing on the part of Attorney General
Reno, the present and former director of the FBI, other high officials of
the United States, or members of the FBI Hostage Rescue Team who fired
pyrotechnic tear gas on April 19, 1993," Danforth said. "The responsibility
for the tragedy at Waco rests with certain of the Branch Davidians and
their leader, David Koresh."
Danforth's only criticism of the FBI was that false statements by agents
about the use of pyrotechnic devices "undermined public confidence in
government and caused real damage to our country." He continued: "They
didn't tell. They knew things and they didn't disclose those things. And
the result of that is that people who want to believe the worst about
government say, 'Aha! This is something that's really bad. And if
government lies about one thing, it will lie about everything, so
everything is suspicious.'"
The ex-senator blamed the FBI cover-up for the fact that 61 percent of
Americans polled last year thought that the government had started the
fire--even though "there is no evidence to support that, really none, and
the evidence is so overwhelming on the other side." Underscoring the real
political purpose of his investigation--the rehabilitation of the FBI and
Justice Department--he declared, "All of us should be more skeptical of
those who make sensational accusations of evil acts by government."
Despite overwhelming evidence that several FBI agents lied about the use of
the exploding shells, Danforth said he had no intention of using his power
as special counsel to bring criminal charges against anyone. "There will be
no criminal prosecution," he said. "It would be overkill."
Danforth was evidently oblivious of the chilling irony in his choice of
words, given that he was referring to a tragedy in which the effort of
federal police to serve a warrant for a firearms violation led to a
massacre. Moreover, the federal government has shown no concern for
"overkill" in its prosecution of the surviving Branch Davidians. Only last
month the Supreme Court overturned as excessive the 40-year sentences
imposed on a half-dozen of the survivors, who were acquitted of attempted
murder in the death of four Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents,
but convicted on weapons possession charges.
Danforth claimed to have carried out an exhaustive investigation into the
circumstances of the raid, the siege and the final apocalypse, employing 16
lawyers and 38 investigators and spending some $12 million. He told
reporters that he and his staff had reached their main conclusions "with
100 percent certainty."
He rejected allegations that government agents started the fire at the Waco
compound, that they shot at the Branch Davidians on April 19, 1993, that
they employed US armed forces in violation of the law, and that a "massive
conspiracy and cover-up" occurred in the aftermath of the blaze that
destroyed the compound.
However, the terms of reference for Danforth's probe were so narrowly drawn
that the most important issues were not even examined. As the former
senator freely admitted, the investigation did not consider whether federal
agents were ultimately responsible for the bloodbath because of their
handling of the initial raid on the Branch Davidian compound or the events
of the final day. "The investigation was into bad acts and not bad
judgment," he said. In other words, as long as the FBI agents at Waco were
"just following orders," their actions should be considered above reproach.
A week prior to the release of Danforth's report, a US District Court jury
ruled in favor of the government in a civil suit brought by Branch Davidian
survivors of the 1993 assault. The same legal standard adopted by Danforth
was applied by District Court Judge Walter Smith Jr. in the civil suit,
leading to a speedy advisory verdict by the five-member jury clearing the
government of any responsibility for the Waco deaths.
Smith threw out large parts of the plaintiffs' case relating to the
decision to tear gas the compound on April 19, 1993 and employ tanks to
inject the gas, citing a federal tort claims act that exempts from civil
liability most decisions and policies of federal employees and agencies.
The judge also gave instructions to the jury that all but compelled it to
find in favor of the government. He told them that "every citizen has a
duty to submit to a lawful arrest or search" and that any law enforcement
officer "has a right to protect himself from an attack made upon him by one
resisting arrest and to use all reasonable and necessary force to overcome
the resistance and repel the attack."
Smith instructed the jurors to decide two questions first: Did the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms use excessive force and fire
indiscriminately during the initial raid? Did FBI agents act negligently,
going beyond their orders, in their use of tanks during the final assault?
If they decided these two questions in favor of the federal agents, the
jury was not to consider the remaining issues, including whether the
federal assault April 19 caused the fire, and whether FBI commanders were
negligent in deciding not to have firefighting equipment available on the
scene.
Dick DeGuerin, a former attorney for the Branch Davidians, said the judge's
instructions made it impossible for the jury to find in favor of the
plaintiffs in the civil suit. "It seems to ignore the creation of the
situation that caused the fire, and that is the tanks and tear gas," he
said. "Even if you accept that Koresh was evil and was controlling whether
they surrendered or not, that doesn't excuse treating all those innocent
people in the same manner they treated Koresh."
Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, also
criticized the instructions. "This isn't a negligence case, it's a
constitutional case," he said. "How do you drive a tank into a church
dozens of times and then call it negligence? The government has made the
victims into the violators."
Judge Smith did not allow the media to question the jurors, sending them
home before the verdict was announced and refusing to release their names.
The Danforth report and the verdict in the Branch Davidians' civil suit
point up the basic issue that underlay the federal siege and final assault
on the Waco compound--the determination of government officials to uphold
the authority of the state and make an object lesson of those who defy it.
Copyright 1998-2000 World Socialist Web Site. All rights reserved.
*****
WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
Nicaragua Solidarity Network of New York
339 Lafayette St
New York, NY 10012
Tel: 212-674-9499
Fax: 212-674-9139
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web: http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/wnuhome.html
- Issue No. 547, July 23, 2000 -
-----
____________________________________________________________________
Chile: FORMER INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS GET LIFE IN PRISON
____________________________________________________________________
On July 19, a three-judge panel of the Seventh Chamber of the Santiago
Appeals Court sentenced three former officers of the National
Investigations Department (CNI) to life in prison for the 1983 murder of
Juan Alegria Mundaca, a carpenter. The three officials are retired major
Alvaro Corbalan Castilla, the former chief of operations of CNI; retired
major Carlos Herrera Jimenez; and non-commissioned officer Armando Cabrera
Aguilar. Hypnotizer Osvaldo Pincetti was sentenced to 10 years and a day in
prison as an accomplice.
The latest ruling overturned the November 1998 acquittal of the four
defendants by Santiago Appeals Court judge Sergio Valenzuela Patino.
Valenzuela, who has a son who was an administrative official of the CNI,
said that he had acquitted the four for lack of evidence, and that his
conscience remains clear: "The Supreme Court still hasn't spoken," he
commented.
Alegria was found dead with his wrists slashed in his home in Valparaiso on
July 11, 1983, in an apparant suicide. Next to him was a letter in which he
expressed regret for having murdered union leader Tucapel Jimenez, killed
on Feb. 25, 1982. The note was later found to have been written by Alegria
under hypnosis; the CNI officials are charged with carrying out the murder
to frame Alegria and deflect investigations away the Jimenez murder.
The Jimenez case has been under investigation by judge Sergio Munoz since
April 1999, when the Supreme Court took it out of the hands of Valenzuela
Patino [see Updates #466, 480, 503]. Munoz has tried some 20 people in
connection with the murder, and is about to issue sentences. [La Tercera
(Santiago) 7/20/00]
On July 21, after three days of hearings, the Chilean Supreme Court
announced that it will hold an extraordinary plenary session of its 20
judges on July 25 to debate the question of whether former dictator Augusto
Pinochet Ugarte has immunity from prosecution or whether he must face trial
for human rights violations committed during his rule. After debating the
matter, the Supreme Court plenary must vote to either uphold or overturn a
May 23 decision by the Santiago Appeals Court which stripped Pinochet of
his immunity [see Update #539]. The decision in the case may be delayed for
another week because some of the judges want to further study the evidence.
Both anti-Pinochet and pro- Pinochet protesters gathered outside the court
building during the hearings. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 7/22/00 from EFE;
Agencia Informativa Pulsar 7/21/00; El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 7/22/00 from AP]
* * *
____________________________________________________________________
ARGENTINES MARK BOMBING ANNIVERSARY
____________________________________________________________________
On July 18 some 4,000 Argentines gathered at the new offices of the Jewish
Mutual Aid Association (AMIA) in Buenos Aires to mark the sixth anniversary
of a bomb attack on the original building that left 86 people dead and 300
wounded. Mourners heckled President Fernando de la Rua, who during last
year's election campaign had promised to "put all the power of the state"
into finding the masterminds of the crime [see Update #495]. "Buenos Aires
is the capital of impunity," Rabbi Sergio Berman, head of the group Active
Memory, told the crowd to loud applause. [La Republica (Lima) 7/19/00 from
AFP]
The day before, on July 17, the Buenos Aires daily La Nacion carried
charges from an unnamed former Iranian intelligence agent ("Witness C")
that former president Carlos Saul Menem (1989-99) received $10 million from
Iranian authorities to cover up their role in the attack. Menem dismissed
the witness as "crazy." [El Diario-La Prensa 7/18/00 from EFE]
ISSN#: 1084-922X. The Weekly News Update on the Americas is published
weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York. A one-year
subscription (52 issues) is $25. To subscribe, send a check or money order
for US $25 payable to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette Street,
New York, NY 10012. Please specify if you want the electronic or print
version: they are identical in content, but the electronic version is
delivered directly to your email address; the print version is sent via
first class mail. For more information about electronic subscriptions,
contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] Back issues and source materials are available on
request.
*****
SAN FRANCISCO LIBERATION RADIO - 93.7 FM
750 La Playa #852
San Francisco, CA 94121
Tel: (415) 386-3135
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web: http://www.slip.net/~dove
SFLR News
- Wednesday, 26 July 2000 -
-----
____________________________________________________________________
THE ELKHORN DOCUMENT:
Bush Family's Historical Ties to the Nazis
____________________________________________________________________
As the Republican Convention approaches and America moves irretrievably
closer to crowning George W. Bush as its next monarch, SFLR DJ Scott
Thompson has begun an examination of the Bush family's historical ties to
the Nazis.
Evidence for the connection is contained in a document now on the Web known
as the Elkhorn document.
Thompson is host of the Bakchos News Hour, which airs Monday nights 6-8
p.m. on SFLR.
In a reading from the Elkhorn Document this past Monday, Thompson said:
"In 1926 Bert Walker did a favor for his new son-in-law, Prescott Bush. It
was the sort of favor families to to help their children make a start in
life...Walker made Prescott vice president of W.A. Harriman...Walker's
specialty was companies that traded with Germany. As Fritz Teusen and the
other German industrialists consolidated Hitler's power in the 1930s, an
American financial connection was needed."
Reportedly, the banking operation became an "out and out Nazi money
laundering machine," said Scott.
The plot thickened, however.
"In 1931, Harriman and Co. merged with a British American investment
company to become Brown Brothers Harriman. Prescott Bush became one of the
senior partners of the new company."
In 1934 Walker took over the North American operations of the
Hamburg-America Shipping Line. This enterprise "became a cover for I.G.
Farben's espionage unit in the United States."
One of Walker's employees, however, blew the whistle on the spy operation.
The employee, Dan Harkins, became a double agent for the Roosevelt
Administration, pretending to be an ardent Nazi sympathizer while secretly
reporting back to U.S. Naval intelligence.
But the Bush family had connections of its own. Instead of divesting the
Nazi money, Prescott Bush allegedly hired a lawyer to hide the assets--a
lawyer with considerable expertise at such underhanded schemes. That lawyer
was Alan Dulles--who later became head of the CIA.
"In 1988 Project Censored, a news media censorship research organization,
awarded the honor of top censored story to the subject of George Bush. The
article revealed how the major mass media ignored, overlooked, or
undercovered at least 10 critical stories reported in America's alternative
press that raised serious questions about Bush dating from his reported
role as a CIA asset in 1963, to his presidential campaign's connections
with a network of anti-semites with Nazi and fascist affiliations in 1988."
The Elkhorn Document can be viewed on the Web at
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3751908d3af4.htm
Said Scott--"This is by no means a scholarly tome. It has a lot of useful
information. I would never say that I would read it uncritically, but there
is a lot of interesting and useful information for those of you will to
follow up on it."
Tune into the Bakchos News Hour next Monday for additional information on
the Bush family's business connections.
To subscribe to the SFLR News send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
SFLR broadcasts 7 afternoons and evenings per week, 4 p.m. - 11 p.m.,
without government license--bringing you programs and information you can't
get on government-licensed radio stations. Now also on the Web!!!
http://interzone.org/radio
*****
WORKERS WORLD NEWS SERVICE
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web: http://workers.org
- Tuesday, 25 July 2000 -
-----
____________________________________________________________________
Editorial: THE STRANGE DRUG WAR
____________________________________________________________________
Reprinted from the July 27, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper
Washington has a strange way of waging a war against drugs in Colombia.
On the one hand, Congress just voted $1.3 billion to send helicopters to
the Colombian Army and to drop dangerous plant-killing fungi on farming
areas in that country.
On the other, a federal court just let the U.S. officer who was in charge
of anti-drug operations in Colombia off with a five-month sentence for his
involvement in sending heroin back to the United States.
Col. James Hiett's wife, Laurie Anne Hiett, was convicted last May in Texas
of smuggling some $700,000 worth of heroin to New York in May and June
1999, using the diplomatic postal service at the U.S. Embassy.
She was sentenced to five years in prison.
Hiett plead guilty to concealing his knowledge that his wife was laundering
drug money. In doing so, he admitted she made two trips in April 1999 from
Bogota to New York, returning with $25,000. Hiett said he never questioned
her about it.
During his time in Colombia, Hiett commanded U.S. troops who trained
security forces for so-called counter-drug operations and also protected
radar bases used to track aircraft.
The prisons of New York and Texas are filled with tens of thousands of
youths, mostly Latino and African American, who are serving a minimum of 15
years supposedly for possessing enough drugs to be considered a seller.
Washington has put pressure on the Colombian government to extradite
so-called "drug lords" and handed them life sentences in U.S. courts.
So this extremely small sentence for the U.S. drug cop gone bad has
infuriated even the pro-U.S. officials of Colombia. The Colombian
government's chief prosecutor, Alfonso Gomez, told reporters July 14, "This
is a ridiculous sentence ... Seeing that they apply such low sentences to
U.S. citizens in the United States, this would seem to vindicate those who
say there's different treatment [for Colombians]."
More than anything else, it contradicts U.S. officials' claim that they are
intervening in Colombia to stop the drug trade. Indeed, Hiett has shown
they are part of the drug trade, just as they were in Central America in
the 1980s and Southeast Asia in the 1970s.
Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is
cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY
10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://workers.org
*****
____________________________________________________________________
FORMER CONTRA WINS REVIEW OF U.S. DRUG TIES
Fights deportation to Nicaragua, says CIA knew of cocaine deals
____________________________________________________________________
SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
Thursday, July 27, 2000, Page A4
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/2000/07/27/NEWS
1273.dtl
Bob Egelko OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
The former Northern California spokesman for the Nicaraguan contras, facing
deportation for cocaine trafficking in the 1980s, will apparently get the
chance to convince a federal judge that he was assured the drug deals had
U.S. government approval.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that a judge should
hear and evaluate Renato Pena's claim that a federal prosecutor in San
Francisco had told him after his arrest in 1984 that he was at no risk of
deportation for having carried cocaine and cash to Los Angeles about a
dozen times.
In court papers opposing Pena's challenge to his current deportation order,
the U.S. attorney's office said no such assurance was given.
Pena's case recalls the controversy over allegations of CIA-backed drug
dealing by the contras, the U.S.-supported guerrillas fighting Nicaragua's
leftist government in the 1980s. Accused in a San Jose Mercury News series
of connections to the early crack cocaine trade in Southern California, the
CIA hotly denied having anything to do with Los Angeles drug traffickers
who claimed contra connections.
Pena said he had been told by Norwin Meneses, a major drug trafficker with
ties to the contras, that CIA-connected contra commanders were aware of the
drug operation in which Pena took part. The CIA has denied any relationship
with Meneses.
The appeals court stopped well short of finding that the government
condoned Pena's activity as a drug courier. But the court said Pena's
claims about the government's attitude were relevant to his attempt to
overturn his 1985 drug conviction, the basis of the current attempt to
deport him.
"Pena and his allies supporting the contras became involved in selling
cocaine in order to circumvent the congressional ban on non-humanitarian
aid to the contras," the three-judge panel said. "Pena states that he was
told that leading contra military commanders, with ties to the CIA, knew
about the drug dealing. Pena believed that the sole purpose of these drug
transactions was to help the contras, and he believed the United States
government would not seek to prosecute.
"The circumstances surrounding Pena's case, including his belief that his
activity was supported by the U.S. government and his alleged reliance on
the assurances of the assistant U.S. attorney regarding his immigration
status, raise important questions about public confidence in the
administration of justice."
The court said a federal judge should hear testimony from Pena and others
about what assurances he had been given before pleading guilty in 1985, and
about whether his court-appointed attorney had acted incompetently by
failing to tell him he risked deportation. The judge would then decide
whether to set aside the guilty plea.
Pena's suit, seeking to overturn the guilty plea, had been dismissed by
U.S. District Judge Fern Smith in 1997. The hearing ordered Wednesday would
be held before another judge, because Smith now heads the Federal Judicial
Center in Washington, D.C.
"He's a credible person," said Pena's current attorney, Stephen Shaiken.
"He was good enough for the U.S. government when he was spokesperson for
the opposition and when he was an informant (against others in the drug
ring). He was telling the truth then, and he's telling it now."
He said Pena, now a San Francisco city employee, was not speaking to
reporters about the case.
The U.S. attorney's office, which represented immigration officials who
want Pena deported, declined comment on the ruling.
Pena was a member of the security force of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio
Somoza, who was overthrown by the leftist Sandinistas in 1979. Pena came to
the United States in 1980 and became the chief of public relations in
Northern California for the FDN, the contras' political arm.
He applied for political asylum in August 1984 but was arrested three
months later on charges of possessing cocaine with intent to distribute it.
Pena said he had been asked by Norwin Meneses' nephew, Jairo Meneses, to
travel to Los Angeles with money that would be used to buy cocaine and
finance contras, whose U.S. military aid had been cut off by Congress. He
was paid about $6,000 for carrying money and drugs to Los Angeles between
March and November 1984, the court said.
Pena said he had agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for a
reduced sentence and been told by a federal prosecutor that he would be
taken care of and had nothing to fear about his immigration status. He said
he never would have pleaded guilty if he had known he could be deported to
Nicaragua, then governed by the Sandinistas. He also said his
court-appointed attorney had never spoken to him about the possibility of
deportation.
After serving a year in a halfway house and testifying against another
Meneses relative in the drug case, Pena was granted asylum in 1987, the
court said. But the Immigration and Naturalization Service revoked his
asylum in 1996 and moved to deport him to Nicaragua because of his drug
conviction.
In court papers, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Yeargin said Pena's
asylum had been withdrawn because he had failed to disclose his conviction
on his asylum application.
Copyright 2000 San Francisco Examiner
Pointer Courtesy of Mike Ruppert, Publisher/Editor "From The Wilderness":
http://www.copvcia.com; E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
*****
____________________________________________________________________
ROBERTO SUAREZ, 68, A BOLIVIAN DRUG FIGURE, DIES
____________________________________________________________________
THE NEW YORK TIMES
International News
Sunday, July 30, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/obit-r-suarez.html
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Roberto Suárez García, once one of the most-wanted drug traffickers in the
world, died on July 20 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. He was 68.*
His family said the cause was a heart attack, The Associated Press reported.
Mr. Suárez entered the cocaine trade in the mid-1970's. He came to be
called the godfather of the trade in Bolivia and was a major supplier to
the Medellín cartel in Colombia. He claimed to have amassed $40 million.
But in 1989, the Bolivian police arrested him. Margaret Daly Hayes, a
political scientist and an expert on Latin America, wrote in 1990, "This
was the first time Bolivian authorities had taken action against a drug
kingpin."
The police surprised him at one of his ranches, in northern Beni, where he
had been born.
The arrest was made when nearby Chaparé Province reportedly accounted for
half the world's crop of coca leaf.
Mr. Suárez was convicted of producing and selling cocaine and began serving
a 15-year prison sentence, but was released in 1996. His wealth dwindled.
At his death, he owned 500 head of cattle, by one account. Weeks before, he
said on television that selling cocaine was "the worst mistake I ever
made." His lawyer said he had 18 children with several wives. A son,
Roberto Suárez Levy, was killed in 1990 in a gun battle with the police.
Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
* AFIB Editor's Note: That Suárez was long-identified as a major
drug-kingpin associated with the infamous Medellín cartel is hardly news.
However, what the New York Times fails to mention in its obituary is that
Suárez, in concert with Argentine Army Intelligence Battalion 601,
international fascist terrorists, neo-Nazis affiliated with the World
Anti-Communist League and CIA assets, launched the Bolivian "cocaine coup"
which brought dictator Luis Garcia Meza to power in 1980. The full-fledged
Argentine participation in the brutal coup had been funded by drug money
subsequently used by Battalion 601 "dirty warriors" for military operations
in Central America. Indeed, Argentine support for the fledgling Nicaraguan
"contra" movement was a critical factor in the launch of the Contras
against the leftist Sandinista revolution and the systematic introduction
of the brutal "Argentine method" of counterinsurgency warfare into the
region--in concert with the Reagan administration. For further reading see:
Robert Parry, Lost History [Arlington, The Media Consortium, 1999]; Gary
Webb, Dark Alliance [New York, Seven Stories Press, 1998]; Alexander
Cockburn, Jeffrey St. Clair, Whiteout [London, Verso, 1998]; Ariel C.
Armony, Argentina, the United States, and the Anti-Communist Crusade in
Central America, 1977-1984 [Athens, University of Ohio Press, 1997]; Martin
Edwin Andersen, Dossier Secreto [Boulder, Westview Press, 1993]; Michael
Levine, The Big White Lie, [New York, Thunder's Mouth Press, 1993]; Peter
Dale Scott, Jonathan Marshall, Cocaine Politics [Berkeley, University of
California Press, 1991]; Holly Sklar, Washington's War on Nicaragua,
[Boston, South End Press, 1988]; Scott Anderson, Jon Lee Anderson, Inside
the League [New York, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1986].
*****
____________________________________________________________________
REFORM PANEL VOTES BUCHANAN OFF BALLOT
____________________________________________________________________
THE WASHINGTON POST
Nation and Politics
Sunday, July 30, 2000; Page A22
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3865-2000Jul29.html
By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
PHILADELPHIA, July 29 -- The Reform Party's executive committee last night
voted to disqualify the candidacy of Patrick J. Buchanan in a controversial
and disputed decision virtually certain to turn the party's national
convention in Long Beach, Calif., next month into a chaotic confrontation.
A spokesman for Buchanan immediately challenged the legitimacy of the
executive committee meeting in Texas, charging that a quorum was not
present and that the party chairman refused to attend the session at a
hotel at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
"It was a bogus meeting with no authority," declared K.B. Forbes on behalf
of the Buchanan campaign. Forbes dismissed the session as "a meeting of
dissidents who couldn't even put together a quorum."
The decision to disqualify Buchanan was based on his submission of hundreds
of thousands of requests for primary ballots. Forces loyal to former Reform
Party candidate Ross Perot, many of whom back John Hagelin for the 2000
nomination as the only way to defeat Buchanan, contend that many, if not
most, of the names submitted by Buchanan do not meet party rules and amount
to stuffing of the ballot box.
Jim Mangia, the party's national secretary and a leader of the
anti-Buchanan wing, charged that Buchanan is trying to "hijack the party
and steal the nomination," which comes with $12.6 million in federal funds
for the November campaign.
Brian Doherty, another Buchanan spokesman, called the charges against
Buchanan "false and outrageous." He told the Associated Press before the
vote that the Perot forces "are just doing everything they can to obstruct
us or impede Buchanan's nomination. They can't defeat us legitimately, so
they go about it trying to defeat us in other ways."
The conflict between the Buchanan campaign and the Perot wing of the party
has reached such levels of hostility and distrust that it is unclear how
the party convention that will begin on Aug. 10 in Long Beach could reach a
decision between Buchanan and Hagelin that would not be viewed as illegal
by the losing camp. The two sides no longer agree on even the rules
governing the nominating process.
Ballots have already been sent out to many, if not all, of the people whose
names were submitted by Buchanan and to the 24,000 whose names were
submitted by Hagelin, as well as to the individuals who separately
requested ballots and all registered members of the Reform Party.
Mangia said he believes the accounting firm hired to tabulate the results
will disregard all Buchanan ballots, effectively giving the nomination to
Hagelin, but Mangia indicated that he was not entirely sure of the process.
Buchanan backers have already forced the calling of a full Reform Party
National Committee meeting on Aug. 8 in Long Beach, at which they hope to
have a majority of the 164-member group and to effectively take over all
the party machinery, replacing the anti-Buchanan majority on the executive
committee with Buchanan loyalists.
Mangia contended, however, that it takes two-thirds of the national
committee to either overturn an executive committee decision or recall its
members. He estimated that Buchanan has 70 to 80 national committee
members, just under a majority, and nowhere near the two-thirds level.
Forbes contended that, in effect, there was no executive committee decision
to disqualify Buchanan because, in his view, only five of the 10 executive
committee members were there, short of a quorum, and the party chairman,
Gerry Moan, did not attend. Two of those present at the hotel, he said,
were not members of the executive committee, and the person who
orchestrated the meeting, Perot loyalist Russell Verney, had lost his
position as a national committeeman during the Texas Reform Party
convention.
Perot loyalists on the committee claimed that the recall drives against two
committee members violated party rules and that the seven members
constituted a quorum when they voted unanimously to disqualify Buchanan.
Copyright 2000 The Washington Post Company
*****
____________________________________________________________________
RAILWAY BOMB RAISES NEO-NAZI TERROR FEARS
____________________________________________________________________
THE TIMES
World News: Europe
Saturday, 29 July 2000
http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/07/29/x-timfgneur01002.html
FROM ROGER BOYES IN BERLIN
THE splinter bomb attack at a Düsseldorf railway station, which left nine
foreign students injured, including six Russian and Ukrainian Jews, was
aimed at a group of foreigners and has been blamed on far-right extremists.
Five people were seriously injured in the attack on Thursday, including a
26-year-old woman, identified only as Tatjana L, who was five months'
pregnant. She lost the baby when a metal shard released by the bomb buried
itself in her abdomen.
She was said to be improving yesterday after surgeons saved her shattered
leg, which, it had been thought, would have to be amputated. Her husband,
Michail, 28, was also hit in the abdomen and is in a critical condition.
The bomb was wrapped in a plastic container and placed in a litter bin on a
covered pedestrian bridge leading to an urban railway station.
Johannes Mocken, the Düsseldorf prosecutor, said last night: "We are
primarily looking at racism and anti-Semitism as the motive."
Otto Schily, the Interior Minister, said: The heinous crime has to be
battled with all our available means. It can be assumed that this was a
racially motivated crime."
There were fears, too, that the crime was linked to British neo-Nazi groups
such as Combat 18, but experts said that there was insufficient evidence to
suggest a link since information about bomb-making was available on the
Internet.
The group of foreigners - émigrés from Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan -
attended German lessons at a language school every day and regularly walked
across the bridge after classes. The bridge could be observed at a distance
using binoculars. This would allow for ignition by remote control.
During their last class together, the students had discussed Germany's
extreme-right movement.
Their teacher, Olga Pankratz, said that the attack had changed the mood at
the school. "No one felt threatened but the attack has changed everything,"
she said.
She said that Tatjana L had mastered German in just three months and was
committed to establishing a new life and family in Germany. "She was so
happy about the baby."
A reward of DM10,000 (£3,500) is being offered for information leading to
an arrest.
The German authorities have been concerned for some months that neo-Nazis
are moving towards terrorist acts rather than harassing and assaulting
foreigners, although such thuggery continues.
Police said yesterday that three teenagers - aged 15, 16 and 19 - had been
arrested for kicking to death a homeless man in Ahlbeck on the Baltic
island of Usedom. A fourth suspect, a 24-year-old man, was on the run.
Police said that the man, a skinhead, had the slogan "White power" tattooed
on his skull and that he was being hunted in several regions.
Gerhard Schröder, the Chancellor, alarmed at the increasing number of
racist incidents, gave warning this week that he was ready to crack down on
the far Right.
Neo-Nazi literature intercepted by the police is calling for a crusade
against the Left, all foreigners and "the beginning of the armed struggle
for the capital of the Reich". Earlier this year police found a pipe-bomb
factory in a neo-Nazi's cellar and explosives in other houses used by
far-right extremists. A sniper's rifle has also been discovered.
The driving force towards organised rather than random terror seems to be
an umbrella organisation called the White Aryan Resistance. Some of the
far-right theoreticians are based in Hamburg and are in regular contact
with groups in Sweden and Britain.
Eckart Werthebach, the Interior Minister of Berlin, said: "We are talking
about violent individuals and small cells who are now trying to get in
touch with each other." Despite the small numbers involved, he said, they
posed a great danger.
Political concern at the threat of rising neo-Nazi terrorism has been
mirrored in the media. Die Welt, the leading newspaper, said in an
editorial this morning: "The motive for the brutal attack is still in the
dark, but the fact that the terror was aimed at a group of mostly Jewish
immigrants makes us fear the worst."
It said that racist crimes were not being taken seriously enough. "We have
grown accustomed to this as if it were something normal and that will open
the gates for the far-right mob."
Copyright 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd.
*****
____________________________________________________________________
KILLING KIDS: SHAKA & INTERNATIONAL LAW
____________________________________________________________________
By Mumia Abu-Jamal, M.A.
Column Written 7/11/2000
Source: Mark Clement, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Tuesday, 25 July 2000 -
Because self-preservation takes precedence over niceties of morality, the
law of the nations has tended to be the law of the jungle, although this
truth is slurred over with polite phrases. -- Carl G. Gustavson, A Preface
To History (1955)
The state-sanctioned murder of death row captive Shaka Sankofa (né Gary
Graham) by the Texas death machine and the Bush administration was surely a
base political killing for a higher office, but it was more. Followers of
the Sankofa case know that he was 17 years old at the time of his arrest,
but perhaps do not understand the significance of this simple fact. The
execution of a person who was under the age of 18 at the time of the
offense violates international law. On June 8, 1992, the U.S. congress
ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),
a global treaty. Article 6 of the ICCPR provides, in part:
6(5). Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by
persons below eighteen years of age and shall not be carried out on
pregnant women.
That's not all. Several other international treaties also have similar
provisions, for example:
* The Convention on the Rights of the Child;
* The Fourth Geneva Convention;
* The American Convention on Human Rights;
All of these (including the ICCPR) are international treaties to which the
United States is a signed party. All of these were violated by the legal
lynching of Shaka Sankofa-indeed, under international law, the killing of
Sankofa was truly an illegal lynching-a killing in violation of the law.
Some may ask, "Well, Jamal-is a treaty really a 'law'?" What does the
Constitution say? Read Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, which states,
in part:
"This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made
in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under
the authority of the United States, shall be the Supreme Law of the Land;
and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby...."
If a treaty which has been ratified by the U.S. Congress is the "Supreme
Law of the Land," why was Sankofa judicially and administratively murdered?
The answer is a grim, yet undeniable truth: the state will violate its own
so-called "law" in furtherance of white supremacy and in violation of black
life.
This same vicious, hypocritical state, that will call an illegal killing a
crime, committed a crime against Sankofa, in violation of the Constitution,
and international law.
What you have before you is a criminal system, that must be rejected,
opposed and replaced!
Copyright 2000 Mumia Abu-Jamal. All Rights Reserved.
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++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++
++++ if you agree copy these 3 sentences in your own sig ++++
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