All Notebook Entries

See Part I of this story here:

The connection between former Kyrgyzstan president Askar Akayev and John McCain may seem oblique by the shallow, personality-driven reporting standards that dominate coverage of a presidential election. But dig a bit deeper, and that connection proves far from superficial.

Syracuse University’s Research Center: incriminating data on DHS-ICE’s deceptive practices available

“Only a handful of agencies said they have conducted annual audits to ensure their fleets are the right size. The Department of Homeland Security said it hasn't conducted a department-wide audit since the agency was created five years ago. The agency said it is “working toward that end” but doesn't yet have the resources to analyze its 41,000-vehicle fleet.” http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20080731-1039-unclesamscars.html

By Brenda Norrell

Today is a day of mourning for the U.S. media. In case you missed its passing, columnist Roberto Rodriguez' article "Questions journalists never ask," serves as a memorial. Rodriquez' column also points out that it wasn't just the integrity of the U.S. media that died, but U.S. democracy, now on the fast track to Nazi-style dictatorship. The Bush administration and its team of multi-national corporate profiteers continue co-opting the U.S. Congress, military, police and commerce.

By Brenda Norrell

OAK SPRINGS, Ariz. -- Navajo Michelle Cook, 23, from Oak Springs, Arizona, recently served as a peace delegate to Iran, with the intention of doing what she could to prevent the United States from declaring war on Iran. While in Iran, she found people much like Navajos at home. Cook was selected by the Fellowship of Reconciliation to participate as a civilian diplomat on a Peace and Friendship Delegation to Iran. This fact-finding mission was to shed light on and prevent a potential war between the United States and Iran.

A fictitious case scenario: a bus transporting 20 alleged professional Mexicans football players had crossed the Nogales, Arizona border destined to the University of Arizona (UA) where they are going to play at the UA's stadium. However, after all 20 Mexican nationals checked in at one of the UA's dorms, a 911 call is placed to the local police department stating that the alleged 20 football players are actually ruthless drug cartel members in possession of explosives, bombs, fully-automatic weapons, are in possession of 1000 pounds of cocaine, used fraudulent immigration documents to come across, and have taken 10 students hostages. It is unknown what their demands are. Based on the above information, which law enforcement agency do you believe will be in charge in coordinating the safe release of all 10 students, the arrest of all violators and the seizure of all contraband? Actually, the FBI, ICE, DEA, ATF, the Tucson Police Department, The UA's Campus Police (if any), the Pima County Sheriff's Department, or the Arizona Department of Public Safety can be in charge and take control of the command post. Why I list all of these agencies? They all have jurisdiction over certain illegal aspects of the case.

I learned that the government of Ecuador and City Oriente have come to terms, cancelling City's oil contract.

Background on the topic is here.

The price is fair to both parties--probably about a quarter of the value of proven reserves which is good for Ecuador but enough to pay for time, expense and investment with a reasonable profit for City Oriente.

By Brenda Norrell

I didn't see it coming. After 25 years of writing American Indian news, I didn't really expect to be blackballed and censored out of the business. But, then again, any journalist writing serious news in the United States should expect to be censored. There are some hot topics that get U.S. journalists fired, including investigating the war in Iraq. U.S. Presidents realize the power of words and song to move the masses. It was Buffe Sainte Marie's "Universal Soldier," during the Vietnam War that led to her being blackballed and censored out of the music business in the U.S.

OPEN LETTER TO U.S. SENATORS CHUCK SCHUMER AND HILLARY CLINTON

Honorable U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton: The parents of Miladin Kovacevic’s victim, Bryan Steinhauer need to be told the truth; that the main reason Miladin Kovacevic is long gone and a fugitive from justice is because our mismanaged and dysfunctional federal agency, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) failed to do its job. It is possible if the alien defendant’s name would have been Jose Lopez, native and citizen of Mexico, arrested for the crime of being an illegal alien, ICE would have immediately responded. My apology for making this assertion but unfortunately, this is how ICE is currently operating. ICE, according to its website has 26 listed “leaders” – when you compare the ICE’s leadership cadre with other major federal law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, DEA, ATF, U.S. Secret Service and others, ICE rank number one in the numbers of leaders (Senior Executive Series) managers has at its headquarters.

Now and then, you see national headlines news made by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) employment enforcement raids and the number of criminal and administrative arrests they made.

Fo the average American citizen these are good news. ICE is doing an "outstanding job" in removing more and more illegal alien workers and "express-shipping them" to their country of origin.

This is a reporter's notebook in the real sense-- raw notes, to be turned into an article next time I have Internet.

The routes for the Peace and Dignity Journeys runners for Central Arizona beginning today, Saturday, July 26, are listed below. Another route ran from Wheatfields on the Navajo Nation south this week through Apache lands. A route in New Mexico is scheduled to arrive in Las Cruces today, Saturday, July 26, 2008. Jose Malvido, northern coordinator for the Alaska to Panama route, said there are several routes of runners now running through New Mexico and Arizona on their way to Vicam Pueblo in Mexico and ultimately Panama.

Panama's Supreme Court took a decision the 17th of this month in a libel case brought by HSBC bank USA/Panama against a Canadian expatriate that has far reaching consequences for the country's (in)famous banking and corporate secrecy which has made it a money laundering and tax dodging haven over the years.

The decision will hit hard in that - substantial - part of the offshore finance business where secrecy is essential for survival: (drug) money laundering and (corporate) tax evasion. Investigations and arrests of narco kingpins invariably lead to Panama where drug trade profits are laundered and then hidden in numerous corporate structures. The real estate construction boom thrives on dirty money, and the DEA described the industry as follows:

La Habana 22 de julio 2008

The United States has one of the highest levels of press freedom in the world. We know this because four different press freedom organizations say so. The fact that all four receive generous funding from the U.S. government doesn’t seem to matter.

Fidel told Frei Betto in an interview that he considered freedom of the press to be nothing more than freedom of ownership, and this is true: money is power, and the U.S. press has the power to choose our political leaders for us. Just ask Dennis Kucinich, John Edwards and Ralph Nader, and they will tell you how they were disappeared from the 2008 presidential race as quickly and definitively as any Soviet leader who fell into disfavor with Stalin.

La Habana 21 de julio 2008

On the occasion of the 19th anniversary of the triumph of the Sandinista revolution, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez warned that the world crisis would continue to grow and said that the greatest crisis is the lack of common sense on the part of those who rule the world, citing a letter written to him by Fidel Castro.

Before an estimated 450,000 people, Chávez sent a message to the next leaders of the United States, saying,

“We don’t want war, we want a peaceful change to search for deep and true peace for our people. We don’t want more destabilizations,” he said.

La Habana 19 de Julio 2008

The offices of Granma, are neither large nor elegant. They have the Spartan look one expects of the “Official Organ of the Communist Party of Cuba.” Granma is the least pretentious national daily in a world full of pretentious newspapers. On Friday it devoted one of its sixteen pages to Fidel’s reflection and another to the text of decree No. 259, signed by President Raúl Castro, dealing with the distribution of unused land for agricultural production. This may not seem like big news, but with the new prioritization of food security and incentives offered, many ordinary people are interested in taking up farming.

Kahentinetha Horn, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, filed a complaint with the United Nations, following the attack on her and Katenies at the border. Kahentinetha suffered a trauma induced heart while handcuffed in a police stress hold during the attack by special forces at the Canadian border. Katenies, editor of Mohawk Nation News, was beaten and jailed. The Mohawk grandmothers live in fear for their lives after exposing the truth of Canada's genocide of First Nations peoples, including the genocide of uranium mining, the murder of innocent children in residential schools, the seizure and rape of Indigenous Peoples lands and digging up the graves of the ancestors for housing, industrial development and the NAFTA highway. The complaint to the United Nations sent today follows:

From the Mohawk grandmothers, Kahentinetha Horn and Katenies, beaten at the northern border, to the bogus arrests at DQ University of students and elders in California, to the attack by the Columbus, Ohio police on the Longest Walkers, Native Americans are under assault by police and special agents using bogus charges. In the case of the Long Walkers, a taser was pointed at the forehead of Michael Lane, Menominee, without provocation, and walker Luv the Mezenger tackled and thrown in the concrete by Columbus police. Kahentinetha, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, suffered a trauma-induced heart attack while handcuffed in a police stress hold at the Canadian border. Katenies was tackled and thrown to the concrete and jailed during the attack by special forces. The arrest and jailing of Ernest Moristo, Tohono O'odham, defending the O'odham's sacred Baboquivari Mountains from tribal development and the swarming and littering Border Patrol agents on sacred Tohono O'odham land at the southern border, is the latest attack.

I'm heading for Berlin on Wednesday to help the Obama campaign find and register new voters.  I'm taking my camera and laptop, so I hope to be able to post pictures from the Thursday event shortly after it's over.  Stay tuned...

Yaqui ceremonial leader Jose Matus describes the crisis at the US/Mexico border, where the border wall and Homeland Security's increased restrictions violate lifeways present since time immemorial

By Brenda Norrell

SOUTH FORK, Nevada -- Jose Matus, Yaqui ceremonial leader and director of the Indigenous Alliance Without Borders/Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras, said Homeland Security's increased border restrictions are interfering with the Yaquis ability to preserve their culture and ceremonies.

La Habana 18 de julio 2008

The José Martí National Library is located in the Plaza de la Revolución, across from the José Martí monument and museum. This is the famous plaza where huge public spectacles take place, dominated by the image of Ché which takes up the side of a tall building.

La Habana 17 de Julio 2008

Today we met with Armando Briñis of the International Press Center. This was a little awkward, given that I’m an independent (not employed) journalist, and the CPI is there for real working journalists, who come to Cuba from all over the world to denigrate the country. Cuba puts up with 150 resident foreign correspondents (probably including technical workers) and for big events, like the pope’s visit, may receive up to 4,000. However, Briñis, like everyone else who deals with foreigners, was respectful towards the journalists, laying the blame for their lousy reporting on owners and editors. On the positive side, they bring in money, so at least they are contributing something to Cuba.

Police are attempting to serve Kahentinetha Horn, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, with charges at her home. Special agents at the Canadian border attacked and beat Kahentinetha, 68, and she suffered a trauma induced heart attack on June 14. She is now in recovery from the heart attack. Katenies, Mohawk grandmother, was also beaten.

While $4/gallon gas and resulting higher food costs present inconveniences for North Americans, in non-oil producing nations of Central America, these higher prices mean real hardship.

An article from the LA Times on the subject:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-poverty18-2008jul18,0,3356414,full.story

By Brenda Norrell

SOUTHFORK, Nevada -- After four days on the road after the culmination of the Longest Walk in DC, the Earthcycles radio webcast is live and uncensored at the 15th Annual Indigenous Environmental Network's Protecting Mother Earth Conference, July 17 -- 20, 2008.

It is my hope that U.S. Senators Barack Obama and John McCain or someone working on their campaign staff read this Narco News story and bring it to their attention.

As the final elections are getting closer, we learned that Obama and McCain are trying to score points with our Latino voting community. Perhaps, the title of this news story should read better: “How to win more American Votes” since the issues I am about to mention involves not only Latin voters but our entire hard-working average tax-payer’s American people.

Officials and NGO representatives from the Guatemalan state of Petén flew to the capital "for an impromptu meeting with President Álvaro Colóm, who is unveilling a proposal that he says will promote forest conservation on a grand scale," Michael Stoll reports from Guatemala.

Large scale gold mining has nothing to do with romantic images of people sifting through river beds, panning sediments for gold dust. It is about massive excavations, cyanide to dissolve gold residues, exploitation of workers.

Case in point is Petaquilla Mining, a Canadian/Panamanian outfit that owns a concession in the Panamanian province of Coclé. If you read their website, it’s all about building roads and helping local communities.

Here is an English translation of the just released National Statement in Solidarity with the Zapatistas:

The zapatistas are not alone!

END THE WAR AGAINST THE ZAPATISTA COMMUNITIES

We, the organizations, collectives, movements, networks, communities, peoples, families and individuals who are adherents or sympathizers of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandón Jungle, women, men, children and elders of the entire country declare:

La Habana 15 July 2008

The Cuban Journalists’ Union (UPEC) is a voluntary association that brings together media workers from all over the country. It has 3.680 members. This year, UPEC held its first congress in nine years. We arrived too late to attend, but information about the proceedings can be found at the Web site, http://www.cubaperiodistas.cu/

The Friends of the Border Patrol (FOBP), a nonprofit law-enforcement advocacy group, has filed a complaint with a Congressional committee calling for an ethics investigation into the activities of U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas.