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US Guilty of Genocide in Guatemala Should be Real Headline

Fri, 05/17/2013 - 20:50 — Dave Culver

  • Now that former Guatemalan president Efrain Rios Montt has been convicted of genocide, it’s time for the “hegemonic puppeteer,” the United States, to be put on trial.
  • “If Efrain Rios Montt, and by extension the Guatemalan military, are guilty of the crime of genocide, the U.S. government and its officials are just as guilty.”
  • Federal Judge Orders Release Of Names Of SOA/ WHINSEC Graduates
  • Guatemala's Ríos Montt Genocide Conviction

Ajamu Baraka, Black Agenda Report

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Now that former Guatemalan president Efrain Rios Montt has been convicted of genocide, it’s time for the “hegemonic puppeteer,” the United States, to be put on trial. “U.S. officials were fully aware of the pogrom against the Ixil people in the mountains of Guatemala at the very moment that the U.S. government was involved in training and arming the Guatemalan military.”

May 16, 2013 | Last week news coverage around the world heralded the conviction of Efrain Rios Montt on the charges of genocide against the Mayan people during his 17 month tenure as Guatemala’s head of government and military strongman. The three-judge panel led by Jazmin Barrios determined that evidence presented to the court established that there was a clear and systematic plan to exterminate the Ixil people as a race and that the plan developed and executed by the Montt government satisfied the definition of genocide. With this conviction, the 86 year-old ex-dictator was sentenced to 80 years in prison.

Full story…

Related:

 

Guatemala's Ríos Montt Genocide Conviction, Jay Janson, Countercurrents.org <>

  • Omen For US Presidents And Their Hired Assassins
  • US Guilty of Genocide in Guatemala Should be Real Headline

Federal Judge Orders Release Of Names Of SOA/ WHINSEC Graduates, Hendrik Voss, SOA Watch

SOA Watch scored a major victory this week when we won our court case against the Pentagon! The judge ruled that the Pentagon has no grounds for its refusal to disclose the names of graduates and instructors of the SOA/WHINSEC.
 

 
Section(s): 
Foreign Affairs
Human Rights & Civil Liberties

Chomsky: The Cruelty That Keeps Empires Alive

Thu, 05/16/2013 - 17:23 — Dave Culver

  • Like many other oppressive countries, Israel's chief tools of control are through humiliation, degradation and terror.
  • In Palestine, Dignity and Violence

Noam Chomsky, AlterNet

This article is made possible with the generous contributions of all reader supported Evergreene Digest readers like you. Thank you!

AlterNet Editor's Note: This article is adapted from the Edward W. Said lecture given by Noam Chomsky in London on March 18, 2013.

April 2, 2013  |  The Swedish novelist Henning Mankell tells of an experience in Mozambique during the civil war horrors there 25 years ago, when he saw a young man walking toward him in ragged clothes.

"I noticed something that I will never forget for as long as I live," Mankell says. "I looked at his feet. He had no shoes. Instead he had painted shoes on his feet. He had used the colors in the ground and in the roots to replace his shoes. He had come up with a way to keep his dignity."

Full story…

Related:

In Palestine, Dignity and Violence, Noam Chomsky, Truthout

Contempt for the worthless victims is no small part of the barrier to achieving a settlement with at least a modicum of justice and respect for human dignity and rights. It's not beyond imagination that the barrier can be overcome by dedicated work, as has been done elsewhere.

 

 

Section(s): 
Books & Liturature
Foreign Affairs

Kap | made in banglaldesh / media.cagle.com

Wed, 05/08/2013 - 11:43 — Dave Culver

Section(s): 
Foreign Affairs

Report Back on SOA Watch El Salvador Delegation

Wed, 05/08/2013 - 11:29 — Dave Culver

  • 25 SOA Watch activists meet with Vice President Sánchez Cerén and other presidential candidates
  • Federal Judge Orders Release Of Names Of SOA/ WHINSEC Graduates

Lisa Sullivan, SOA Watch

This article is made possible with the generous contributions of all reader supported Evergreene Digest readers like you. Thank you!

April 2, 2013 | If ever there were a more compelling tale to provoke a stampede to shut the doors of the School of the Americas, it would be the tale of tiny El Salvador. As 25 of us discovered on a recent SOA Watch delegation there, even former supporters admit: the time has come.

The legacy of that school is etched in blood on the hearts and minds of Salvadorans, and on the walls, parks and pastures of their cities and towns. A wall in central San Salvador with 35,000 names engraved, most of them murdered by orders by SOA graduates. A makeshift cross under the shade of a conacaste tree where four bodies of US churchwomen were dumped. A garden where rose bushes grow on the spots where six Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter were murdered by the SOA- formed Atlacatl Battalion. A closet with the possessions left behind by Monseñor Romero, assassinated on orders of an SOA graduate. There are no shoes: Romero was buried in the only pair he owned.

Full story…

Related:

 

Federal Judge Orders Release Of Names Of SOA/ WHINSEC Graduates, Hendrik Voss, SOA Watch

SOA Watch scored a major victory this week when we won our court case against the Pentagon! The judge ruled that the Pentagon has no grounds for its refusal to disclose the names of graduates and instructors of the SOA/WHINSEC.
 

Section(s): 
Activism & Organizing
Foreign Affairs

Federal Judge Orders Release Of Names Of SOA/ WHINSEC Graduates

Mon, 04/29/2013 - 18:53 — Dave Culver

SOA Watch scored a major victory this week when we won our court case against the Pentagon! The judge ruled that the Pentagon has no grounds for its refusal to disclose the names of graduates and instructors of the SOA/WHINSEC.

Hendrik Voss, SOA Watch  

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April 22, 2013 | In a rare reflection of judicial independence, United States District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton from the Northern District of California ordered the Pentagon to release the names of who trains and teaches at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHINSEC), a U.S. military training school for Latin American soldiers that has been connected to torturers, death squads and military dictators throughout the Americas. Human rights activists had taken the U.S. government to court over its refusal to release the information, and won. 

 

Read the court ruling here.

SOA Watch compiled the names, course, rank, country of origin, and dates attended for every soldier and instructor at the SOA/ WHINSEC from 1946 to 2003. After researchers exposed many cases of known human rights abusers attending the WHINSEC (despite claims that the "new" school was committed to human rights), and shared this research with Congressional decision-makers, the Department of Defense (DOD) refused to disclose any future information about students or teachers at the WHINSEC. The human rights community and the U.S. Congress did not agree with the decision. In 2008 and 2009, the House of Representatives passed an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill demanding that the DOD release this information.

 

Full story… 

Related:

 

A School by Any Other Name, Craig Wiesner, Reach and Teach

A Conversation With The Public Affairs Officer At WHINSEC

Section(s): 
Activism & Organizing
Foreign Affairs

Jeff Nygaard | The Threat of Venezuala in the Propaganda System

Sun, 04/28/2013 - 13:39 — Dave Culver

  • If it's true that the legacy of Hugo Chávez is, overall, a positive one, then an obvious question presents itself: Why did U.S. leaders, and the media who take their cues from those leaders, come to hate him so?
  • Nygaard Notes | Venezuala
  • Urgent Action: Call on the State Department to Respect Venezuela's Democracy and Sovereignty

Jeff Nygaard, Nygaard Notes

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Greetings,

This may be the longest issue of Nygaard Notes I've ever published. Much to my surprise, I've been obsessed with researching the legacy of Hugo Chávez and the fascinating story of his Venezuela, and I think there are important lessons to be learned here.

Here's the main reason I'm spending so much energy on this subject: I think this story illustrates, better than any story in recent memory, how Propaganda really works. In this case, it's true that Hugo Chávez was hated by many powerful people in the United States, and that this hatred was reflected in virtually every media report ever published in this country since the time that Hugo Chávez came to anyone's attention. But virtually no one, outside of the planning and military circles that I quote extensively this week, has been willing or able to honestly state the real reason for their antipathy toward this man.

 

Full story…click here then scroll to Issue #528

Related:

Nygaard Notes | Venezuala, Jeff Nygaard, Nygaard Notes

  • The reality of Venezuela complex, and if some of the complexity of the issues and struggles of a nation undergoing rapid social change had made it into the corporate media in this country, then there would be no need to spend so much energy giving the "other side" of the story, as I do here. But that's not how the corporate media works, so an issue like this is necessary.
  • Special Report | Hugo Chavez

 

Urgent Action: Call on the State Department to Respect Venezuela's Democracy and Sovereignty, School of the Americas Watch

  • Tell the United States government to respect Venezuela's sovereignty.
  • Nygaard Notes | Venezuala

 

 
Section(s): 
Critical Thinking
Foreign Affairs

Rainer Hachfeld | Kerry, Maduro, Capriles / media.cagle.com

Fri, 04/19/2013 - 13:25 — Dave Culver

Section(s): 
Foreign Affairs

Urgent Action: Call on the State Department to Respect Venezuela's Democracy and Sovereignty

Fri, 04/19/2013 - 13:12 — Dave Culver

  • Tell the United States government to respect Venezuela's sovereignty.
  • Nygaard Notes | Venezuala

School of the Americas Watch

This article is made possible with the generous contributions of all reader supported Evergreene Digest readers like you. Thank you!

Following Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro's election win on Sunday, April 14, opposition candidate Henrique Capriles has asked for a recount of the votes. Despite Venezuela's electoral system being described as "the best in the world" by institutions like the Carter Center, the United States continues to stand alone in its failure to recognize the Venezuelan government and respect its democracy.

Tell the United States government to respect Venezuela's sovereignty.

Send a message to Secretary of State John Kerry through John McNamara, Director of the Venezuela Desk at the State Department, and Darnall Steuart, Deputy Director. <>

Full story…

Nygaard Notes | Venezuala, Jeff Nygaard, Nygaard Notes

  • The reality of Venezuela complex, and if some of the complexity of the issues and struggles of a nation undergoing rapid social change had made it into the corporate media in this country, then there would be no need to spend so much energy giving the "other side" of the story, as I do here. But that's not how the corporate media works, so an issue like this is necessary.
  • Special Report | Hugo Chavez

 

Section(s): 
Activism & Organizing
Foreign Affairs

Nygaard Notes | Venezuala

Thu, 04/04/2013 - 10:20 — Dave Culver

  • The reality of Venezuela complex, and if some of the complexity of the issues and struggles of a nation undergoing rapid social change had made it into the corporate media in this country, then there would be no need to spend so much energy giving the "other side" of the story, as I do here. But that's not how the corporate media works, so an issue like this is necessary.
  • Special Report | Hugo Chavez

Jeff Nygaard, Nygaard Notes 

This article is made possible with the generous contributions of all reader supported Evergreene Digest readers like you. Thank you!

March 19, 2013 | This issue (#527) of Nygaard Notes is entirely about Venezuela. It presents many positive facts about the changes initiated during the 14-year presidency of Hugo Chávez, who died on March 5th. I'm sure some people will think that I am painting too rosy a picture of the situation and, in a sense, I think I am. That's because this issue is the "other side" of the picture of Chávez's Venezuela that's been painted in the U.S. media, which has been a simple story of a totalitarian dungeon with a dictator in charge. As TIME Magazine put it, "It's tempting to remember [Chávez] as an erratic, messianic retro-revolutionary whose country's petro-wealth let him indulge his Marxist nostalgia."

 

My argument in this issue is that such a simplistic rendering of Hugo Chávez is not just "tempting" but, in the U.S. Propaganda system, essentially mandatory.

Full story (Issue #527)…

 

Related:

Special Report | Hugo Chavez: Week of March 17, 2013, David Culver, Evergreene Digest

The simple fact remains: Chavez, who died of cancer at the age of 58, was the only president of Venezuela in modern memory who did anything for the poor people of that country who make up the vast majority of its nearly 30 million citizens.


 

 

Section(s): 
Critical Thinking
Foreign Affairs

In Palestine, Dignity and Violence

Tue, 04/02/2013 - 17:43 — Dave Culver

Contempt for the worthless victims is no small part of the barrier to achieving a settlement with at least a modicum of justice and respect for human dignity and rights. It's not beyond imagination that the barrier can be overcome by dedicated work, as has been done elsewhere.

Noam Chomsky, Truthout

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Palestinian boys sit in rubble around a fire in a house destroyed during an Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, Nov. 26, 2012. (Photo: Wissam Nassar / New York Times)

Tuesday, 02 April 2013 | The Swedish novelist Henning Mankell tells of an experience in Mozambique during the civil war horrors there 25 years ago, when he saw a young man walking toward him in ragged clothes.

"I noticed something that I will never forget for as long as I live," Mankell says. "I looked at his feet. He had no shoes. Instead he had painted shoes on his feet. He had used the colors in the ground and in the roots to replace his shoes. He had come up with a way to keep his dignity."

Full story…

Section(s): 
Foreign Affairs
Human Rights & Civil Liberties

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