At 7:42 PM 8/25/96, Michael Perelman wrote:
>Did you get a copy of my book yet?
To answer the personal question first: yes.
>By the way, is the Village Voice
>article on the marxism list available on the net. I will have trouble
>getting ahold of a copy out here in the sticks.
By chance it was posted to Bad Subjects. Here it is.
Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sun, 25 Aug 1996 16:34:23 -0500
=46rom: t byfield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: netiquette isn't just for breakfast anymore
> The Flaming Path
> Richard Gehr
> Village Voice 8/27 p 21
> Connecticut landscaper Julian Calero knows as much about e-mail lists on
>the Internet as your average computer nerd knows about Communism in Peru.
>Nevertheless, a bizarre flame war between a group of Long Island city
>Maoists associated with Peru's Shining Path guerrilla movement--officially
>the Partido Comunista del Peru (PCP)--and a Canadi=7Fan journalist may have
>led to the arrest of Calero and his possible extradition to Peru. <...>
> The sad story begins in April, when K. K. Campbell, a writer for
>Toronto's eye WEEKLY (a paper not unlike the Voice), wrote about Adolfo
>Olaechea, a Peruvian activist living in London. Olaechea has been fined
>half a billion dollars by the Peruvian government for his alleged
>terrorist activities, making him, as he told Campbell, "one of the richest
>men on the planet, in negative terms." In the same piece, Campbell also
>discussed "Luis and Marcellina Quispe," pseudonymous editors of the
>locally produced, pro-PCP magazine The New Flag. Campbell seemed so
>sympatico to The New Flag that Luis Quispes even requested his help in
>editing a pamphlet--an offer that concluded with a thinly veiled threat
>regarding journalists who betray the cause. ("Deliver these words properly
>or you will feel the wrath of the people through me.")
> Unfortunately, Campbell didn't realize that Olaechea and the Quispes
>had been involved for some time in one of those nasty ideological disputes
>endemic to revolutionaries. This one occurred in the Marxism e-mail list
>sponsored and archived by the leftist Spoon Collective. Infuriated by the
>attention Campbell gave their enemy, the Quispes uploaded the e-mail he
>had sent them to the list--a major breach of netiquette-- attaching their
>own comments to establish his betrayal. Campbell responded with a
>hilariously fabricated version of his correspondence with the Quispes.
>This included a loony cocaine-smuggling scheme, pornography, and a mocking
>demand for "Death to the fascist insect that preys on the bandwidth of the
>people! "
> A sympathetic lefty who specializes in "Net loons, Campbell obviousl=
y
>a had a blast baiting his humor-impaired Queens correspondents. The flames
>and ridicule continued until May 10, when the Quispes unloaded another
>barrage of all-caps invective against Campbell and their other enemies:
>"TALKING ABOUT FUJIMORI AND HIS PRISON SENTENCES TO PERUVIAN EXILES:...
>THREE OF OUR MEMBERS WERE ALSO SENTENCED (ONE ACCUSED OF BEING A MEMBER OF
>THE PEOPLE'S ARMY IN CAJATAMBO-LIMA, HIS WIFE WAS ARRESTED RECENTLY IN
>LIMA FOR RENTING A ROOM TO AN ALLEGED "MEMBER OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE")
>TO LONGTERM PRISON SENTENCES. DO WE MAKE A BIG DEAL ABOUT IT TO PROMOTE
>OURSELVES LIKE THE CHARALTAN OLAECHEA DOES?" The New Flag's cryptic
>references to members of their "clandestine organization" may well have
>been noticed by either the feds or Peru's intelligence agency, SIN. On May
>30, Jay Miles, director of Detroit's leftists Peru Support Committee,
>heard reports that Julian Calero was arrested by the FBI on his way to a
>hearing on his application for political asylum. It was at this point,
>says Campbell, that the flame throwing "stopped being a joke."
> Campbell thinks the Quispes post may well have led to Calero's arres=
t.
>In any event, the Peruvian government had issued a warrant identifying him
>as a terrorist who participated in the murder of police and civilians in
>1991. Never mind that this was more than a year after he'd left the
>country. To the feds, the warrant was grounds enough for holding Calero
>without bail. The Peruvian government's hefty documentation provides no
>evidence of any murder, says Michael Deutsch, an attorney with the Center
>for Constitutional Rights. It does say that, in 1992, Fresia Calderon
>Garagate, Calero's wife, rented a room to a Shining Path regional leader.
>While Calero had been involved in land reform issues--reason enough for
>him to be wanted in Peru--his attorney insists he's never been a member of
>the Shining Path. (Garagate was brought to trial in Peru but not
>convicted; she is currently seeking political asylum in Europe.)
> The U.S. Attorney's office could not comment on the case, pending
>further information from the State Department. But instead of releasing
>Calero, the feds are giving Peru more time to elucidate its charges.
>Deutsch, who wants Calero released on bail immediately, is filing a writ
>of habeas corpus. "What's most troubling about all this says Deutsch, "is
>that by knowing of the Peruvian government's record of secret trials and
>military proceedings, and by processing their warrant, the United States
>is being complicit in this type of human-rights violation."
> Contacted by e-mail, The New Flag maintains the fateful post did not
>refer to Calero.. "His wife was not the only one arrested by the
>trumped-up charge "renting a room to terrorists: Lori Berenson...and
>several others were" Calero, they add, "was attending immigration hearings
>regularly for two years prior to his arrest. He didn't need anyone to
>finger hgim out, he went by himself to the wolf's mouth." But the folks at
>The New Flag remain convinced that Campbell is a "counterintelligence
>operative" and Olaechea "mercenary," so it's hard to say whether their
>protestations hold water.
> Julian Calero, meanwhile, remains in isolation at the Metropolitan
>Correctional Facility.
Doug
--
Doug Henwood
Left Business Observer
250 W 85 St
New York NY 10024-3217
USA
+1-212-874-4020 voice
+1-212-874-3137 fax
email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
web: <http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/LBO_home.html>
