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From Invictus:-
The Torture Victims Relief Act (TVRA), HR-1511, first passed in 1998, authorizes funding to support torture treatment programs in the U.S. and abroad. With the continued practice of torture in over 100 countries, and the recent surge in political will to denounce torture, it is a crucial time for the U.S. to reaffirm its commitment to treatment for torture victims, both at home and oveseas.

The bill has been referred to the House Foreign Affairs and House Energy and Commerce committees. Please call your Congressperson and ask them to reauthorize TVRA in 2009 and appropriate the funds at authorized levels. You will be doing something concrete to help those tortured abroad who, despite the torture scandal that envelops this country right now, have come to the U.S. seeking refuge and safety from oppression and torture in countries as diverse as Guatemala, Philippines, Bosnia, Russia, Ethiopia, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Burma (Mynamar), Yemen, and many, many more.

"...as I say, I think it's important that Jewish people who have a public profile, that we speak out to say that this is not being done in our name. I think that Israel has an idea of itself as being noble. Israeli people have an idea of themselves as being noble. When you attack somebody but you have this idea of yourself that you're the good guy and you think that well, how can this be? I'm the good guy and I'm killing these people, and what you do is you blame the people that you killed and you hear all the time from Israeli spokespeople that they are angry with the people they have murdered for making them murder them.
And it is the foulest..kind of ..it is the psychology of the murderer, it is the psychology of the rapist, it is the psychology of the bully. That's what Israel is in this situation."

Or- Dead men tell no tales, but laptops can sing any tune the authorities want.

So...the Magic Laptop of Death procured via a cross border raid into Ecuador by Colombian 'special' forces, CIA ahem, (just to distinguish it for the Magic Laptop of Death the Bush regime procured which according to them show Iran has a super top secret nuclear weapons program that the 16 US intelligence agencies found no evidence of, ahem) hey wait a minute...seeing any common threads here. Anyways, the Magic Laptop of Death that was meant to be full of emails tying deceased (as in they whacked him & 25 others in the raid/ambush, most in their pj's) FARC leader Raúl Reyes to the Empire's public enemy Number 1, a Mr Huge Chávez along with various other nemeses of Washington & Uribe. Well, the thing is...um how shall I put this...Captain Ronald Hayden Coy Cortiz an anti-terrorism investigator of the Colombian police said under oath before the prosecution lawyers-

"We haven't seen any e-mails, I haven't found them so far. They found a large number of e-mail addresses, but Reyes kept these in a Word document and other Microsoft documents," the investigator said in his testimony.
Coy Cortiz made the statements in the investigation of an Ecuadorean politician with alleged ties to the guerrillas. Several journalists and politicians are accused of having ties to the guerrillas.

Reyes was killed on March 1st, so there's been plenty of time to find any emails on a laptop, even the shittiest IT support could manage that. So...that leaves the supporters of the Magic Laptop of Death super incrimination device a bit...fucked?

BoRev- (click for links) Yeah, so...this raises some questions, like--Christ where to begin?--what exactly were the "huge caches of Emails" the Colombians leaked to the Economist last March, that formed the basis for their big hyperventilating profile thingy here? And what was the "leaked Email" that Guardian reporter Rory Carroll intercepted in May, showing that the FARC might be about to secure money from the Venezuelans? And then what were the "dozens of e-mails in the rebel computers" that were shown to narcissist-retardist Miami Herald columnist Andres Oppenheimer last July? And what were the emails that Human Rights Watch said "raised serious questions about Venezuela's relationship with the Colombian guerrillas"?

I guess the thing is when you get away with WMD lies about the most serious thing on Earth- a war, faking up shit on the odd laptop comes pretty easy as does slavish reporting on it by sympathetic hacks. Otto @ Inca Kola News who led the way on this also noted the suspiciously shiny newness of the 3 procured laptops-

It does remind me of the pristine condition of those laptops, as shown by Colombia to the world in May. That's the official police photo above....I mean, just look at it. There's not a scratch on those machines. Don't you find that slightly weird for three pieces of computer equipment carried round the jungle by a bunch of terrorists? Don't you find it weird after Reyes and his cohorts had the crap bombed out of them by several bombing runs and then commandos piling in to give them lesde grace a few minutes later? And then there was this story uncovered by Daniel Denvir....the one about how the photos that Colombia leaked as from the FARC machines were proven to be Colombia intelligence snaps.

So will our news organs apologise (Carroll *cough*), mea culpas all round or as Otto says-

I find it amazing that yesterday's revelation (no other word will do) there were no e-mails on the Raul Reyes FARC laptop computer hasn't made any headlines this morning. I've just checked on Google and nobody's running this story outside of fringe media in the Spanish language.

Surely you remember how world publications up to and including The Economist told us about the "huge caches of e-mails" that implicated the world and his wife (most notably Chávez, but natch natch and thrice natch, yeah?). In fact that Economist note is shown to be a very large crock, as it makes constant references to e-mails that (and get this very clear) do not exist.

This is, of course, precisely why the media won't be dwelling much on this story. The news that the "thousands of e-mails" they used to whack those nasty lefty people over the head with do not exist is rather embarrassing. So in true style, the story will be ignored and spiked in newsrooms around the world. Not a single apology, not a single correction.

More background from The Real News Network back in May, who were somewhat more diligent in their reporting-

Xposted @ Ten Percent

With tears in her eyes, she remembered how a group of "men from the city" burned alive one of her colleagues last September 11th. Next to the burned body, the woman's baby was crying hysterically, she narrated. Enboldened by the wails and discontrol, they picked the baby up by the legs and shook it and, as it wouldn't stop crying, shot it in the head.

More details at Inca Kola News. And remember, the perpetrators of this are the ones backed by Washington. So there's the answer before you ask- Why is this not in the news?

PS. Also on what the media hide Otto reports Bloomberg and Reuters only allow high paying people to know the Venezuelan unemployment figures they have, why might this be? Because evil socialist Chavez actually has dropping figures while neoliberal hellholes see huge increases perchance?

Xposted @ Ten Percent

35 years after the US backed coup against Allende the UNASUR summit met in Chile and made the Moneda Declaration from the Palacio de La Moneda. 35 years after the fascist Pinochet (admired by our own lovely Margaret Thatcher, yes the one Gordon met with this week, again) supported by America overthrew the democratically elected government, stormed La Moneda and Allende died. As did over 3,000 people executed and tortured to death and thousands more tortured to keep the terrorist government in power all endlessly praised by the US and Milton Friedman & his acolytes. 35 years and their forces of torture regimes that spread throughout Latin America, sometimes staffed by escaped Nazis, America allying with former enemies from WWll, perpetrators of the Holocaust, implementing fundamentalist neoliberalism.

They have lost.

In facing down the Santa Cruz fascists and their allies in Washington Evo Morales and UNASUR have signalled a new reality for Latin America, independent, sovereign and no longer Uncle Sam's 'backyard'. The struggle is far from over but the unity and purpose of the congregated leaders demands respect and is a powerful symbol of the new democracies grown from the ashes of right wing dictatorships of unimaginable brutality.

An essential summing up of recent events at Abiding in Bolivia, with all the racism and fascism the corporate media oddly never mention- Santa Cruz, Republica de Mierda

The full translated text of the Moneda Declaration below by Otto @ Inca Kola News (also see his personal delcaration, word!). And after it Evo Morale's 10 points to save the planet, life and humanity, here's a hint to our 'leaders' he got 67% of the vote, you feel me?

Santiago de Chile, September 15 2008

The heads of state and the government of Unasur, meeting in the Palace of the Moneda, Santiago de Chile, September 15 2008, with the purpose of considering the situation in the Republic of Bolivia and remembering the tragic episodes 35 years ago in this very place that shocked all humanity:

Considering the the constitutive treaty of Unasur, signed in Brasilia on May 23rd 2008, enshrines the principles of unrestricted respect for sovereignty, of the non-interference in internal affairs, of the integrity and inviolbility of territory, of democracy and its institutions and the unrestricted respect of human rights;

Faced with the grave occurances reported in the sister Republic of Bolivia, and in favour of the strengthening of political dialogue and cooperation for the strengthening of citizen's security, the countries that make up Unasur express:

1. Their fullest and decided support for the constitutional government of President Evo Morales, whose mandate was ratified by a wide margin in the recent referendum.
2. They warn that its respective governments energetically reject and do not recognize any situation that implies an intent of civil coup d'etat, the rupture of institutional order, or that compromises the territorial integrity of the Republic of Bolivia
3. Consequent to the above, and in consideration of the grave situation that affects the sister Republic of Bolivia, they condemn the attack on government installations and public forces by groups that look for the destabilization of Bolivia's democracy, and demand the prompt return of those installations as condition for the start of the dialogue process.
4. At the same time, they call for all political and social actors involved to take the necessary measures so that acts of violence, intimidation, attacks on the democratic institutionality and estabished judicial order cease immediately.
5. In this context, they express the firmest condemnation of the massacre that took place in the department of Pando, and support the call made by the Bolivian government for a Unasur commission to be set up in this brother country to impartially investigate and report this lamentable occurance as soon as possible, and to formulate recommendations in such a way that it is not left unpunished.
6. They ask all members of Bolivian society to preserve national unity and the territorial integrity of that country, basic fundamentals of any State, and to reject any intent to undermine those principles.
7. They call for dialogue to establish the conditions that will permit the present situation to be overcome, and create the search for a sustainable solution, under full respect of the state of curfew and the current legal order.
8. In this respect, the Presidents of Unasur agree to create a commission open to all members, coordinated by the Pro-tempore Presidency, to accompany the tasks of the the dialogues conducted by the legitimate government of Bolivia
   
9. They will create a support and assistance commission to the government of Bolivia, in function to its requirements and including specialist human resources.

Bolivian President Evo Morales’ 10 commandments to save the planet, life and humanity:

1-Acabar con el sistema capitalista
1-Stopping the capitalist system

2-Renunciar a las guerras
2-Renouncing wars

3-Un mundo sin imperialismo ni colonialismo
3-A world without imperialism or colonialism

4-Derecho al agua
4-Right to water

5-Desarrollo de energías limpias
5-Development of clean energies

6-Respeto a la madre tierra
6-Respect for Mother Earth

7-Servicios básicos como derechos humanos
7-Basic services as human rights

8-Combatir las desigualdades
8-Fighting inequalities

9-Promover la diversidad de culturas y economías
9-Promoting diversity of cultures and economies

10-Vivir bien, no vivir mejor a costa del otro
10-Living well, not living better at the expense of others

More detail -

First: a call to end the capitalist system. The capitalist system was inhuman and encouraged unbridled economic development. The exploitation of human beings and pillaging of natural resources must end, as should wars aimed at securing access to those resources. Also, the world should end the plundering of fossil fuels; excessive consumption of goods; the accumulation of waste; as well as the egoism, regionalism and thirst for earning where the pursuit of luxury was taking place at the expense of human beings. Countries of the south were heaped with external debt, when it was the ecological debt that needed paying.

Second, the world should denounce war, which brought advantage to a small few, he said. In that vein, it was time to end occupation under the pretext of “combating drugs”, such as in South America, as well as other pretexts such as searching for weapons of mass destruction. Money earmarked for war should be channeled to make reparations for damage caused to the Earth.

Third, there should be a world without imperialism, he said, where no country was dependent upon or subordinate to another. States must look for complementarity rather than engage in unfair competition with each other. Member States of the United Nations should consider the asymmetry that exists among nations and seek a way to lessen deep economic differences. Moving along those lines, he said the Security Council — with its lifelong members holding veto rights — should be democratized.

Fourth, he said access to water should be treated as a human right, and policies allowing the privatization of water should be banned. Indigenous peoples had a long experience of mobilizing themselves to uphold the right to water. He proposed that they put forth the idea of forming an international convention on water to guarantee it as a human right and to protect against its appropriation by a select few.

Fifth, he said the world should promote clean and eco-friendly energies, as well as end the wasteful use of energy. He said it was understood that fossil fuels were nearing depletion, yet those who promoted biofuels in their place were making “a serious mistake”. It was not right to set aside land not for the benefit of human beings, but so that a small few could operate luxurious vehicles. It was also because of biofuels that the price of rice and bread has risen; and the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were now warning that such policies must be prevented. The world should explore more sustainable forms of alternative energy, such as geothermal, solar, wind and hydro-electric power.

Sixth, he said there should be more respect for Mother Earth, and the indigenous movement must bring its influence to bear in fostering that attitude. The world must stop thinking of Mother Earth in the capitalist sense — which was that of a raw material to be traded. For who could privatize or hire out his mother?

Seventh, he stressed the importance of gaining access to basic services for all. Services such as education and transport should not be the preserve of private trade.

Eighth, he urged the consumption of only what was necessary and what was produced locally. There was a need to end consumerism, waste and luxury. It was an irony that millions of dollars were being spent to combat obesity in one half of the globe, while the other was dying of hunger. He said the impending food crisis would necessarily bring an end to the free market, where countries suffering hunger were being made to export their food. There was a similar case with oil, where the priority lay in selling it abroad, rather than domestically.

Ninth, he said it was important to promote unity and diversity of economies, and that the indigenous movement should put forth a call for unity and diversity in the spirit of multilateralism.

Tenth, the world should live under the tenet of “trying to live well”, he said, but not at the expense of others.

He said the best way forward lay in social movements, such as the indigenous people’s movement, which would not fall silent until it had brought about change. He ended by greeting fellow South Americans in the room, acknowledging their role in the fight. In Bolivia, the provisions of the Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples had been made into law, and he expressed hoped that other countries would do the same. He welcomed the attention, good or bad, he was receiving as a member of that movement, saying that perhaps it would lead to ideological clarity.

Xposted @ TenPercent

Evo Morales negotiated with the secessionist group and having done that made it clear he wants to solve this problem but Bolivia won't be pushed around by racists and fascists backed by the US-

Morales took responsibility for leaving soldiers and police defenseless against mobs in Santa Cruz and Tarija. “I want to say a truth, that perhaps I am guilty for telling the Armed Forces and the National Police not to use arms against the people and perhaps because of that some groups took advantage to offend and humiliate the Armed Forces and to the National Police,” said Morales.

"They are conspiring against us with a fascist, racist coup," Morales, Bolivia's first Indian leader, said as he pledged to adopt a new pro-indigenous constitution bitterly opposed by right-wing governors demanding autonomy. "Their plan is to topple the Indian. They may topple the Indian, but they will never topple the Bolivian people," Morales added. "Just imagine how unpatriotic they are. They are the enemies of all Bolivians."

As posted previously the Prefect Leopoldo Fernández has fled to Brazil, he defended the massacre saying-

"They've accused me of using hit men, when everyone knows those socialist peasants, those fake peasants, were armed,"

So that's a non denial denial and if they were armed and it was a fair fight, how come no casualties on his side and what makes a person fake just because they have leftist politics, too uppity for you Leo, should they be meek peasants which is clearly what your terror was designed to achieve? Then-

Bolivia's government said on Saturday that it would arrest the governor of a restive northern province in the wake of deadly clashes they accuse him of instigating, amid a deep political crisis.

So he legged it. Again, testimony of the massacre-

"The road was blocked with trucks from the Prefecture, and there they started to shoot at us. Those that escaped towards the river were chased and were killed at the water's edge. Some of the survivors that arrived at the Riberalta hospital were (immediately) murdered," said one of the survivors.

(The survivors) also reported that several women were kidnapped, including old aged woman and mothers with babies or pregnant, and were forced to strip naked and were then tortured.

There is a lot of concern for the wellbeing of Professor Víctor Choque de El Chivé, member of the Cooperativa Intergral Agroextrativista de Campesinos de Pando, who was tortured inside the hospital but is believed still alive.

Otto @ Inca Kola News says-

Meanwhile, the most important development (for me at least) is that Michelle Bachelet, the in-turn President of the 12 country regional body UNASUR, has called an emergency council meeting over the Bolivia situation that takes place tomorrow. The pledges of attendance have been excellent, especially considering this summit has been called for at the drop of a hat. This is very, very significant. For maybe the first time ever, Latin America is taking full control of its own problems and is sending a clear message to the rest of the world. We can sort this out by ourselves, and we don't need you.

And thanks to his comment alerting me, it appears Uribe has felt compelled to make a statement-

"Faced with the occurances presented in the sister Republic of Bolivia, Colombia wishes to express to the government and nation of Bolivia its support of President Morales, the democratic institutions and to the state of curfew (in the Pando department)." (Colombia) has also suffered through violence and does not wish this lamentable flagellation on any brother people."

The US has responded (note a bipartisan expression of empire siding against the democratically elected leader) to Morales firing of the Ambassador by cancelling a favoured trading pact with Bolivia-

In the wake of the Morales government kicking U.S. Ambassador Phillip Goldberg out of the country, two members of the House, Republican Dan Burton and Democrat Eliot Engel, have announced their withdrawal of support for extension of an important trade agreement with Bolivia that is key to textile exports from the highlands that are a part of Morales' political base.

While the mainstream media narrative is being pushed that the US has no role in this (like a kid standing by a broken vase covered in their chocolaty fingerprints- it wasn't little old innocent me!) and it is Morales and Chavez stirring up trouble to help with their domestic support er, except their domestic support is far in excess of a majority and the ambassador was caught meeting with the coup leaders in secret and breaking a covert soldier out of jail with diplomatic immunity, and y'know decades of imperial history in Latin America, but hey nice try corporate shills. But get how arrogant the coup mob are, they want to go to the summit as if they were heads of state-

Cossio said the opposition governors would also ask Chilean President Michelle Bachelet to allow them to attend a presidential summit in Santiago on Monday of the Union of South American Nations to discuss Bolivia.

But with the flight of Leopoldo Fernández and even Uribe having to express support for Morales it looks like the jig is up for effective US puppetry south of the border and the sovereign states are dealing with it for themselves.

PS. And Otto of Inca Kola News from comments adds this good information-

The reaction down here has been strongly anti-Santa Cruz from all sides and all countries. Word from the city itself (from a friend there right now…impossible to give names, as you’d imagine) is that the average Joe is distancing himself/herself from the conflict and doesn’t like the stain of racism that the city has picked up. Great news, of course.

Xposted at TenPercent

UPDATE: 30 Dead and Pando Prefect Leopoldo Fernández (implicated in the killings) has fled to Brazil.

UPDATE: 30 Dead and Pando Prefect Leopoldo Fernández (implicated in the killings) has fled to Brazil.

Abiding in Bolivia and Inca Kola News are doing great work reporting on the Bolivian secessionist coup. Between them they report that an ambush in Pando "massacre of El Porvenir", the assault by gun toting autonomistas on pro-government campesino marchers. As they also note the whorehouse shenanigans and secret meeting should of been covered by the media as it was a lead in to what is happening now, then bang goes the gas pipeline and the expulsion of the US coup plotter/Ambassador and the fascists attacked. Inca Kola translates survivor testimony, right now this is what Bush is supporting being done in Bolivia-

"The road was blocked with trucks from the Prefecture, and there they started to shoot at us. Those that escaped towards the river were chased and were killed at the water's edge. Some of the survivors that arrived at the Riberalta hospital were (immediately) murdered," said one of the survivors.

(The survivors) also reported that several women were kidnapped, including old aged woman and mothers with babies or pregnant, and were forced to strip naked and were then tortured.

There is a lot of concern for the wellbeing of Professor Víctor Choque de El Chivé, member of the Cooperativa Intergral Agroextrativista de Campesinos de Pando, who was tortured inside the hospital but is believed still alive.

Martial law is active and Morales is holding back any violent response and instead is entering negotiations with the autonomistas/fascists. Some are questioning this at a time that phalangist militias (ie. Santa Cruz Youth Union -UJC) yes this is them (so no, it is not hyperbole to call them fascists)-

are attacking workers, indigenous people and union figures. As for the expulsion of the US plotter, El Duderino @ Abiding in Bolivia reports on the neglected speech he made on the 5th of September-

"Goldberg claimed that since Bolivia is presently in a state of political instability, the US institutions should interfere in Bolivia's internal affairs."

Then-

the significance of Goldberg's arrival as the donation of 12 million dollars (a lot of money in Bolivia) to the departmental government and 80 thousand dollars to Sucre's municipal government (pay off for sabotaging the Constituent Assembly?).

This is a case in point of the need for full transparency on the part of the US mission in Bolivia as to whom exactly is being funded with US government cash. As has been noted before, USAID has been directing its funds towards opposition regional department governments and as is the case in Chuquisaca, they are usually of highly questionable moral character.

Not to mention -The new director of Bolivia's Peace Corp, Kathleen M. Sifer, just arrived from her last position directing Peace Corp operations in... wait for it.... Georgia, yea the country!- Most corporate media are not reporting the events accurately or the US role in backing with political, military and economic support. Bush ally Uribe is the only leader not to make a statement or show any support for the democratically elected Morales administration. Also via Abiding a Real News Report-

Xposted @ TenPercent

The National Iranian American Council says-

Wednesday, July 9 is a national call-in day for H.Con.Res 362, the blockade resolution.

H.Con.Res.362 has over 220 cosponsors; is yours one?

Call your member of Congress and ask him or her not to support a blockade on Iran.

Congress is considering this bill at this very moment; now is the time to act to oppose this plan for war. Groups from all over the country are joining together for a national call-in day on H.Con.Res. 362.

This resolution demands that the president initiate an international effort to impose a land, sea, and air blockade on Iran to stop shipments of gasoline, and to subject all cargo entering or leaving Iran to stringent inspection requirements.

Call your representative and ask him or her to oppose the blockade resolution.

Imposing a blockade without United Nations authorization (which the resolution does not call for) would be considered an act of war. Though a vote on this bill has been successfully delayed so far, some Congressional sources say the House could vote on it as early as next week. They need to hear from you before the vote.

Adoption of this resolution would pave the way for war and bypass diplomacy. The immediate effect would be a further increase in oil prices - with gas prices in the US inching closer to $7/gallon and beyond.

Is your representative a cosponsor? Click here to find out.

Tell your member of Congress to oppose H CON RES 362 and join thousands of Americans in the rising chorus of concern over this dangerous legislation.

If your Representative is a co-sponsor: ask them to withdraw their sponsorship.

If your Representative is not a co-sponsor: thank them for not signing on and ask them to work to stop this dangerous legislation from going forward.

Call your representative today!

Go here, enter your zip code to get details.