The US, Cuba and Terrorism

Weekend Edition May 2-4, 2014
Same Old Story

The US, Cuba and Terrorism

by ROBERT FANTINA


The United States State Department, in its infinite wisdom, has once again designated Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism. The newest Country Report on Terrorism, issued on April 30, 2014, includes Cuba in a list of nations that “repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism”. The island country in the Caribbean has been so designated since 1982.One reads about the U.S. calling any other nation a ‘sponsor of terrorism’ in shocked disbelief. That the U.S., the greatest purveyor of terrorism on the planet, has the audicity to accuse any other nation of sponsoring terrorism is beyond all credibility.

Just since the beginning of the new millennium, the U.S. has unleashed horrific terrorism on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of at least hundreds of thousands of men, women and children, and the displacement of millions, and is currently sending drones to Yemen and other nations, ostensibly to kill ‘terrorists’, but resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocent people. Is this not terrorism?

And what of the U.S.’s continued and unwavering financial support of Israeli terrorism against the Palestinians? Not only does the U.S. finance that apartheid regime, it blocks any attempt by the international community to put a halt to it.

So 1982 is the year that the U.S. first decided that Cuba was a state sponsor of terrorism. This, despite U.S. antagonism toward that country since 1959, when the repressive and widely hated, U.S.-supported regime of Fulgencio Batista was overthrown by a popular resistance movement, led by the young leftist, Fidel Castro. At that time, the U.S. controlled 80% of Cuban utilities, 90% of its mines and cattle ranches, and nearly all of its oil refineries. No wonder Mr. Castro has incurred the wrath of the U.S. since then: when the American bottom line is threatened, no efforts are too great to protect it.

And what has the U.S., that shining beacon of peace, freedom and democracy, been doing on the world stage since 1982, when it first signaled out Cuba as a terrorist state? It has either invaded, or covertly or overtly worked for the overthrow of the governments of the following countries, sometimes on multiple occasions, and sometimes constantly:

Cuba

Nicaragua

Angola

Philippines

Iraq

Iran

Venezuela

Palestine

Afghanistan

Somalia

Haiti

Venezuela: Alleged plan to provoke protests

Venezuela: Alleged plan to provoke protests
Associated Press
Posted on May 2, 2014 at 10:03 PM
Updated today at 10:06 PM

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's government said Friday that it has arrested 58 foreigners, including an American, on suspicion of inciting violent street protests against the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres denounced what he called a plot to promote unrest aimed at overthrowing the government and said that among those detained was a man identified as Todd Michael Leininger, who he said had with him two pistols, two assault rifles, military uniforms and a U.S. passport.

"What was this man doing with those armaments at a guarimba (barricade) in San Cristobal," said Rodriguez Torres about Leininger, 32. San Cristobal is a city in southwest Venezuela.

Among the other foreigners arrested were Colombians, a Spaniard and an Arab, Rodriguez Torres said.

More:
http://www.khou.com/news/world/257667001.html

Think Uruguay’s president is fascinating? Meet his wife

Will Carless March 30, 2014 04:18Updated March 31, 2014 12:30
Think Uruguay’s president is fascinating? Meet his wife



Lucia Topolansky: Senator, ex-guerrilla, prison escapee, torture survivor, blonde-bombshell-turned-wild-haired, farm-living, hard-as-nails first lady.


MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — By most accounts, Uruguay’s President Jose “Pepe” Mujica is pretty badass.

He survived 14 years in prison, fought as a revolutionary, gives away most of his salary, drives a crumbling VW bug and shows up to official meetings in his sandals.

Hell, he even signed a law making Uruguay the first country on the planet that will grow, harvest, sell and tax marijuana.

But you know who’s just as much of a badass, if not more?

His wife.

Lucia Topolansky: Senator, ex-guerrilla, prison escapee, torture survivor, blonde-bombshell-turned-wild-haired, farm-living, hard-as-nails first lady.

A lot of Uruguayans, especially conservatives, don’t like the first lady very much. In the swankier suburbs of Montevideo, residents often turn up their noses at the mention of the former rebel's name. She’s dangerous, they say. An assassin. A liar, and a thief.

More:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/politics/world-leaders/140329/think-uruguay-s-president-fascinating-meet-his-wife-0

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Lucia Topolansky[/center]

Venezuela detains 58 foreigners on suspicion of inciting unrest

Venezuela detains 58 foreigners on suspicion of inciting unrest
May 03,2014

CARACAS, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan authorities have arrested 58 foreigners suspected of inciting unrest and violence during recent anti-government protests, the country's interior and justice minister said here Friday.

Miguel Rodriguez Torres told a press conference that the suspects had connections with extreme right-wing groups that launched a wave of violent protests starting in February that have left 41 people dead and hundreds injured.

"So far we have 58 foreign detainees ... almost all of them implicated in the use of weapons," said Rodriguez, adding it was usual that such anti-government movements involved recruiting mercenaries.

Some of the suspects have ties to former Colombia President Alvaro Uribe, said Rodriguez, accusing Uribe of being involved in a meticulous plan to spark the unrest and bring down President Nicolas Maduro.

More:
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=216209

Uruguay marijuana legalisation: Details unveiled

Source: BBC News

2 May 2014 Last updated at 21:20 ET
Uruguay marijuana legalisation: Details unveiled

The Uruguayan authorities have revealed how marijuana will be produced and sold legally in the country.

Licensed pharmacies will sell the drug for less than $1 a gramme, with consumers allowed 40g (1.4oz) a month.

The bill specifies that each household may grow up to six cannabis plants, and that marijuana may be consumed in the same places as tobacco.

Last year, Uruguay became the first country in the world to make it legal to grow, sell and consume marijuana.

The bill proposed by President Jose Mujica is expected to come into force early next week.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-27265310

U.S. one of few countries with rise in maternal deaths

Source: USA Today

U.S. one of few countries with rise in maternal deaths
Kim Painter, Special for USA TODAY 12:26 p.m. EDT May 2, 2014

The United States is one of just eight countries in the world where deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth rose between 2003 and 2013, a new report says. That puts it in the company of countries such as Afghanistan, Belize and El Salvador.

While U.S. maternal mortality rates remain lower than those in many poor countries, they are much higher than those in developed countries ranging from the United Kingdom to Saudi Arabia, says the report, published Friday in the Lancet by researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in Seattle.

The maternal death rate per 100,000 U.S. women was 12.4 in 1990, 17.6 in 2003 and 18.5 in 2013, the report says. The global rate per 100,000 was 209 and falling in 2013; the rate in developed countries was 12.1, half the 1990 rate.

The continued rise in the United States may reflect "the performance of the health system as a whole," and "poorer access to essential health care," compared with other developed countries, says study author Nicholas Kassebaum. It also may reflect health problems in U.S. women, he says.




Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/02/maternal-deaths-united-states/8602637/

UN: Torture remains widespread in treatment of detainees in Mexico

Source: Associated Press

UN: Torture remains widespread in treatment of detainees in Mexico
By The Associated Press May 2, 2014 8:10 PM

MEXICO CITY - A United Nations official says the torture of detainees in Mexico continues to be widespread and occurs between the time of arrest and when suspects appear before a judge.

U.N. special rapporteur on torture Juan Mendez says that signs of torture are found on people arrested by all levels of authority, from the military to state and local police.

Mendez spoke Friday in a press conference at the end of a two-week visit to Mexico, where he met with officials, activists and victims of torture.

He said practices reported include beatings with fists, feet and sticks, asphyxiating with plastics bags and electric shock to the genitals.







Read more: http://www.canada.com/news/world/Torture+remains+widespread+treatment+detainees+Mexico/9802284/story.html

Supreme Court Upholds Disbarment of Anti-Abortion Kansas Ex-AG Phill Kline

Weekend Edition May 2-4, 2014

Justice Upheld

Supreme Court Upholds Disbarment of Anti-Abortion Kansas Ex-AG Phill Kline

by DAVE LINDORFF


Disgraced former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, who while in office as AG and later as a county prosecutor conducted a draconian inquisition against abortion doctors and the state’s Planned Parenthood organization, may still be a visiting assistant professor of law at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty “University” in Lynchburg, Virginia, but he isn’t allowed to practice law anymore.

The US Supreme Court earlier this week, without comment, upheld the Kansas Supreme Court’s 2013 decision revoking Kline’s law license citing his abuses of power in pursuing abortionists — especially Dr. Kris Neuhaus, a referring physician who offered state-mandated second opinions for patients of abortion doctor George Tiller.

While the US Supreme Court didn’t comment in reaching its decision, the ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court, which the US high court ruling upholds, didn’t mince words, finding last October that Kline had misled or allowed subordinates to mislead others, including a Kansas City-area grand jury and local judges, so as to further his investigations. The justices wrote that they had found, in reviewing his behavior, “clear and convincing evidence” of professional misconduct. They ruled that during his time as the state’s top law-enforcement official and later as a county DA, Kline had violated 11 rules governing the professional conduct of attorneys.

While the Kansas Supreme Court didn’t go into specifics about cases in its ruling, the judges did consider Kline’s prosecutorial excesses as attorney general and county prosecutor, saying that his “fervid” pursuit of abortion providers in support of his anti-abortion “cause,” was an aggravating factor in their ruling.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/05/02/supreme-court-upholds-disbarment-of-anti-abortion-kansas-ex-ag-phill-kline/

Inside the Fanciful World of Stratfor

Weekend Edition May 2-4, 2014

Robert D. Kaplan’s Geopolitical Bunkum

Inside the Fanciful World of Stratfor

by STEVE BREYMAN


Readers of Time were recently treated to an absurd take on Ukraine, Putin, “the West” and a bunch of other stuff by journalist Robert D. Kaplan, “chief geopolitical analyst” of Strategic Forecasting, Inc., popularly known as Stratfor. Stratfor bills itself as a “private global-intelligence firm” that provides “strategic intelligence on global business, economic, security and geopolitical affairs.” Some bamboozled critics and fans call it “the shadow CIA.” Its mocking critics claim “Stratfor is just The Economist a week later and several hundred times more expensive.”

In addition to having its interns use Google to “gather intelligence,” Stratfor reportedly operates by paying corporate and foreign policy informants via Swiss bank accounts and prepaid credit cards for inside information that it then repackages as “analysis” and peddles to those of its 300,000 subscribers and clients—who include Dow Chemical, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, the US Marine Corps, the Defense Intelligence Agency, Henry Kissinger, and Dan Quayle—foolish enough to pay for it. It also follows the online antics of activists (including PETA and the Yes Men), “monitors the media” (for, among other things, coverage of Union Carbide’s chemical massacre in Bhopal twenty years on), and provides “information on the financial sector.”

Anonymous hacked Stratfor email servers two years ago. The hackers turned over five and a half million emails to Wikileaks which published them on the web. From the emails we learned that Russia and Israel sold out arms deal customers to their enemies, the US has a sealed indictment against Julian Assange, unnamed Pakistani intelligence and military officials knew the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, and other such not very surprising nuggets.

According to his Wikipedia page (from where this biographical background comes), Robert D. Kaplan, a national correspondent for The Atlantic, is a New Yorker who served in the Israeli army, traveled around a lot, and reported on fundamentalist resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan for Readers Digest. His 1993 book Balkan Ghosts allegedly convinced Bill Clinton “against intervention in Bosnia,” a result Kaplan found appalling. Kaplan or whoever wrote his Wikipedia entry, fails to explain how Clinton’s 1999 war against Serbia, complete with thousands of bombing sorties (including against the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade), massive industrial destruction, grievous civilian casualties, and lasting environmental damage constituted non-intervention.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/05/02/inside-the-fanciful-world-of-stratfor/

Colombia: Presidential Candidates Must Champion Human Rights

Colombia: Presidential Candidates Must Champion Human Rights

Written by Amnesty International
Thursday, 01 May 2014 17:06

Human rights and the fight to end impunity in Colombia must be a high priority for all candidates in the presidential elections scheduled for 25 May, Amnesty International said today in a public letter addressed to the five contenders.

“Human rights should be the cornerstone of any political platform, especially given the backdrop of the ongoing peace talks between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Havana,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Director for the Americas.

“A long-sought opportunity for peace may be looming, but the next president of Colombia must not bargain away human rights in the negotiations. The candidates should be clear that a lasting peace can only be built on justice and respect for human rights.”

“The Colombian government has failed to guarantee the protection of civilians, who continue to bear the brunt of the worst excesses of the protracted internal armed conflict. This conflict has destroyed the lives of millions of Colombians, and the lives of countless more are still affected on a daily basis.”

The figures are astounding. According to a report published last year by the governmental National Centre for Historic Memory, there have been:

• Almost 220,000 conflict-related killings, 80 per cent of them civilians, between 1958 and 2012.
  
• At least 25,000 victims of enforced disappearances between 1985 and 2012.
  
• Around 27,000 kidnapping victims between 1970 and 2010.
  
• More than 5 million people forcibly displaced between 1985 and 2012.