All Notebook Entries

The leaders of a torture training course provided to León municipal police's Special Tactics Group (GET in its Spanish initials) have been unofficially identified by León mayor Vicente Guerrero Reynoso as Britain Jerry Wilson and Cuban-Mexican Gerardo Arrechea.

ICE Special Agents and San Luis Police Department Officers Raid San Luis Middle School

In May of 2008, Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents, San Luis Police Department police officers, along with three K-9 units conducted a raid at the San Luis Middle Schools in search of drugs.

The ICE special agents involved are stationed in Yuma, Arizona and at the time of the raid, the ICE’s special agent in charge (SAC) was Alonzo Pena. Because of the sensitivity of deviating from their primary responsibility, and the fact that ICE special agents were used to search middle school students (minors) for drugs, I assume the then SAC, Alonzo Pena was advised and apprised of the raid. Pena is now allegedly the DHS Attache assigned to Mexico City after spending approximately 14 months as the ICE’s SAC – Arizona District.

The source of information for the Narco News story published last night about the hostage rescue in Colombia this past Wednesday contacted us to clarify a few details about the operation.

A total of two helicopters were involved in the rescue mission; however, one of those helicopters, for logistical reasons, did not land at the meeting place where the hostages were being held, the source says. The second helicopter was held back, on the ground, at a nearby location.

ICE's Office of Investgation now investigating corruption cases and deporting U.S. Citizens?

Exposing John McCain’s True God:  The Office of the U.S. Presidency

Mayor says torture training will continue and public officials will not be punished.

Exactly one day after George Bush signed the first year of the $1.6 billion Plan Mexico into law--giving Mexican military and police US training, armament, and resources--videos surfaced showing Mexican police undergoing torture training in León, Guanajuato. The torture training is directed by a British man from an unidentified US private security company.

Open Letter to U.S. Senator Charles E. Grassley Re: Misuse and Mismanagement of Federal Funds

July 2, 2008

The Honorable Charles E. Grassley – Chairman

United States Senator - Committee on Finance
219 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-6200

By Brenda Norrell

Kahentinetha Horn, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, is recovering and has been released from the hospital. Kahentinetha, 68, suffered a heart attack while handcuffed in a police stress hold in Canadian custody on June 14, after being attacked by special forces at the Cornwall/Akwesasne border. Katenies, an editor of Mohawk Nation News, was also beaten and jailed. Katenies was thrown on the ground, her face ground into the concrete and a knee jabbed in her kidneys. The two Mohawk grandmothers were attacked by at least 10 special forces.

Open Letter to U.S. Senators Barack Obama and John McCain: DHS-ICE

If elected our next President of this great country of ours, what steps would you take to remove the “cancerous tumors” at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement, (ICE) Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and other DHS’ agencies?  Of course, we tax-payers know that incidents of corruption, mismanagement, waste, fraud and abuse are not isolated to only one particular agency. However, under the banner of fighting “terrorism” and “illegal immigration” under our “national security” our U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights have been radically “trashed” by our “Imperial Lords” president George W. Bush and Michael Chertoff.

The firing of an ICE special agent by DHS Attaché Alonzo Pena that back-fired

Introduction

I reviewed the Gilberto M. Rodriguez v. Department of Homeland Security, MSPB Case No. DA-0752-07-0177-I-1 decided on April 10, 2008 and wanted to contribute with my evaluation an assessment of how ICE’s Alonzo Pena administered discipline on this case that I am sure echoes several others.

Congressman Silvestre Reyes, whose office called U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for assistance in rescuing a Mexican citizen kidnapped in Mexico, has issued a statement concerning the incident -- which was first reported by Narco News.

The initial Narco News report indicated that the kidnapping victim was Reyes' sister-in-law. A subsequent report by Narco News, based on a leaked ICE document, indicated that the victim, Erika Posselt, was Congressman Reyes' "relative," but was silent on the precise nature of the relationship.

The Associate Press published a story a few hours ago about the Juarez kidnapping case involving a relative of U.S. Congressman Silvestre Reyes that takes the art of repackaging someone else’s reporting, without credit, to a new level of sleaziness for the nation’s supposed premier news service.

New details have surfaced concerning the recent kidnapping of a U.S. Congressman’s relative in Juarez that provide a clearer picture of the crime, and the U.S. government’s involvement, than was reported earlier this week by Narco News.

The bloodshed in Ciudad Juarez being fueled by the drug war must have triggered a major alarm in Washington, D.C., this past weekend when the sister-in-law of a prominent U.S. Congressman was kidnapped while on a shopping excursion in the Mexican border town.

by Eliza Ruiz Jaimes, translated by Kristin Bricker
Noticias Voz e Imagen de Oaxaca, June 21, 2008

Grassroots Haitian trade unionists are in the midst of an ongoing struggle against privatization and neoliberalism. In April-May 2008 the International Workers of the World (IWW) sent a delegation to Haiti to build solidarity with the Confederation of Haitian Workers (CTH). Visit the IWW Haiti Delegation Blog here.

The delegation provided a detailed analysis of how Haitian workers are resiting:

Telephone interview with Katenies

By Brenda Norrell

AKWESASNE -- Mohawk grandmothers Kahentinetha Horn and Katenies were in custody at the US/Canadian border on Saturday, June 14, 2008, when the two women were handcuffed and beaten by gangs of officers and border patrol agents. Eight officers beat Kahentinetha, 68-years-old, and five officers beat Katenies. Kahentinetha, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, suffered a heart attack and is in a Canadian hospital. Katenies was released from jail Monday evening and is in seclusion. Katenies, in a telephone interview on Tuesday afternoon, described the police attack on the women at the border. Katenies said the women were returning to Canada from a visit in the US, when they were stopped at the border. After the women showed their Haudenosaunee identification, they were told the IDs were not sufficient and they were detained. Then border agents did a background check.

By Brenda Norrell

AKWESASNE -- Mohawk grandmothers Kahentinetha Horn and Katenies were in custody at the US/Canadian border, when the two women were handcuffed and beaten by gangs of Canadian officers and border patrol agents. Eight officers beat Kahentinetha and five officers beat Katenies. Kahentinetha, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, suffered a heart attack and is in a Canadian hospital. Katenies is in seclusion. Both are Mohawk grandmothers. In a telephone interview Tuesday, a member of the Mohawk Warrior Society said, "They did this because we have the greatest weapon, the truth. They are terrified of the truth. What they are trying to do is provoke the Mohawks." He said ultimately what they want is to provoke the Mohawks into a confrontation so the Mohawks who are resisting will be shot and killed. He said the plan when Kahentinetha was taken into custody, was to assassinate Kahentinetha.

The President of Panama's National Assembly, Pedro Miguel Gonzalez, has filed a demanda de inconstitucionalidad with the Supreme Court against the Salas-Becker Agreement. That agreement between Panama and the United States, signed in 2002, allows for joint patrols in Panamanian waters and the conduct of bilateral maritime police operations to prevent illicit activities such as drug trafficking, illegal fishing, and contraband transport. In reality however, the US has arrested, taken and jailed Panamanian suspects under the agreement without even letting Panama know about it and that, claims Gonzalez, is in violation of Panama's constitution.

El pasado fin de semana se realizó en la ciudad de Rosario (Argentina) la Celebración del 80º Aniversario del Nacimiento del Comandante Ernesto “Che” Guevara en la que participaron personas de todo el mundo. En dicho marco se realizaron charlas, encuentros de debate, un campamento Internacional de la Juventud, recitales entre otras actividades que reunieron referentes de organizaciones nacionales e internacionales.

By Brenda Norrell

Kahentinetha Horn, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, was beaten by special forces at the US/Canadian border. Kahentinetha suffered a heart attack and is currently hospitalized in Canada. Katenies, who was accompanying her, was taken to prison at an undisclosed location. Please read the following message, which has been confirmed as true, and contact the leaders of Canada and demand both women be released and justice served to the perpetrators.

I didn't realize the full extent of this when I wrote the original post on the State Department's purging of Secrecy News, but another act of egregious reader censorship is occurring over at what used to be the authentic Field.

Al Giordano's blog on the presidential election has been erased, along with thousands of reader posts and commentary, and visitors are now redirected to a limp version of the Field called the "Back Forty." (Backward Forty might be a more apt name.)

Here’s a new twist on censorship — a publication wiping a subscriber from its mailing list because the subscriber had the audacity to point out some shoddy reporting.

Welcome to the digital age, where the consolidation of the media — in this case in the hands of the biggest monopoly of all (our own U.S. government) — makes it possible to not only censor the news, but the readers as well.

Video shows Columbus Ohio police attacking Long Walker

Good morning from Raccoon Creek State Park, where the Longest Walk Northern Route is camped. The Pennsylvania governor’s representative met the walkers at the Pennsylvania border with a proclamation in support of the walkers. The warm welcome to Pennsylvania came after walkers were attacked by Columbus Ohio police and two walkers sustained minor injuries, cuts and bruises.

In the context of Plan Mexico, the US government's material support for Mexican president Felipe Calderón's deadly war on drugs which has already claimed over 4,100 lives, it's worth taking a look at where all that new military hardware will go in the south. Despite having never caught a Zapatista with a single bag of pot (or a bottle of beer, for that matter), the government continues to use the war on drugs as an excuse to terrorize Zapatista communities.

The New Government Provocation Against Zapatismo

By Brenda Norrell

CAMBRIDGE, Ohio -- Seated at the Longest Walk Northern Route camp in Ohio, Marie Littlemoon, Mescalero Apache walker, remembers how Columbus, Ohio police grabbed her, bruising her right arm, and terrified the preschoolers in the car, as the walkers walked the prayer near downtown Columbus.

Marie Littlemoon, 60-year-old grandmother who has been cooking for the walkers since they walked out of California enroute to D.C., said she was shocked by the brutality of the officers and the way they terrified the children.

by Rafael Landerreche, translation and footnotes by Kristin Bricker
La Jornada - November 10, 2007

By Brenda Norrell

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Unprovoked Columbus, Ohio police attacked Long Walkers, by first pointing a taser at the head of Michael Lane and then forcing Luv the Mezenger to the ground and handcuffing him.

By Brenda Norrell

ARIZONA -- With the release of the US censored climate report -- that Bush and his corporate handlers censored for four years -- the words of the late Hopi spiritual leaders are mirrored forth.