Archive for June, 2007

The Great Immigration Debate

Published
by
Jennifer
on June 27, 2007
in Immigrant Rights and Immigration
. 0 Comments

As the senate revisits a revised immigration reform bill, everyone is showing their claws. I’ve compiled here a list of interesting articles that grapple with this debate. In order for the bill to pass, an over-whelming majority of the democrats need to vote for it. This bill is an intense mix of politics and alliances. Bush is pushing for his republicans to support it, because, as one author state, he is sympathetic towards Mexican immigrants: The NY Times: Texas Town, Now Divided, Forged Bush’s Stand on Immigration

At stake, in this bill, is the potential citizenship of 12 million illegal immigrants. However, it is the 200,000 person “guest-worker” program that divides the senate along multiple lines. Al Giordano of Narco News outlines this issue simply as ridiculous. He states:

To keep twelve million people “illegal” out of spite, however legitimate, toward the Court-Appointed President, is also a consequence of bigotry. Such a stance concludes that twelve million “aliens” (that’s what they called our ancestors, too, as if they had come from the moon) and their freedom do no count, do not matter, and are expendable. Excuse me: there is no other word for that than racism.

Others argue that the issue is more complicated–in particular the labor unions. Steven Greenhouse of the NY Times argues that it is the labor unions that may decide this bill.

The threat that labor poses to the bill has gone largely unrecognized in part because three prominent unions — the service employees, the farm workers, and the hotel, restaurant and apparel workers — have backed the legislation. But that support, advocates say, has been outweighed by opposition from the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and virtually all other unions, including auto workers, Teamsters, food and commercial workers, and construction unions.

The unions that are in support of the bill see the 12m workers as a priority…and worth the sacrifice. The others, on the other hand, feel betrayed by senators such as Kennedy who support a bill that could threaten the wages and way of life that they have grown accustomed.

This bill is an amazing case study of negotiation, distraction, and racism. This is obviously not the best possible scenario for immigrants (paying $5,000 among other things) so is it still worth it? As deals are made under the table to get enough senators on board, will we even understand all of the fine points of the final bill…probably not.

Here are a couple more interesting articles on the subject:
Story from BBC NEWS: US Senate revives migration plan

This one discusses the economics of the immigration debate:
Story from BBC NEWS: US immigrants spark growth debate

More on the debates between senators:
Immigration Bill Advances in Senate
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVI, SF Gate

Silly CIA

Published
by
Jennifer
on June 26, 2007
in CIA
. 0 Comments

Here is a fun thing to do as you look for things to explore on the internet. Visit http://www.foia.cia.gov/ and explore the “Family Jewels,” a recently released document from 1973 detailing illegal CIA activity. The dossier was compiled for the former director James Schlesinger to document illegal CIA activities and those that “conflict with the provisions of the National Security Act of 1947.” The prize of this document is the amateurish attempt by a few CIA agents to kill Fidel Castro. Simon Tisdall from The Guardian summarizes the story well:

The plot to kill Mr Castro, whom the US government at the time considered a threat to national security and a stooge of the Soviet Union, begins quietly and sinisterly in August 1960.

The documents released yesterday describe how a CIA officer, Richard Bissell, approached the CIA’s Office of Security to establish whether it had “assets that may assist in a sensitive mission requiring gangster-type action. The mission target was Fidel Castro”.

The dossier continues: “Because of its extreme sensitivity, only a small group was made privy to the project. The DCI (Director of Central Intelligence Allen Welsh Dulles) was briefed and gave his approval.”

Following the meeting with the Office of Security, Bissell employed a go-between, Robert Maheu, and asked him to make contact with “gangster elements”. Maheu subsequently reported an approach to Johnny Roselli in Las Vegas. Roselli is described as “a high-ranking member of the ’syndicate’ (who) controlled all the ice-making machines on the (Las Vegas) Strip and (who) undoubtedly had connections leading into the Cuban gambling interests”.

The CIA is careful to cover its tracks. According to the dossier, Maheu told Roselli that he (Maheu) has been retained by international businesses suffering “heavy financial losses in Cuba as a result of Castro’s action. They were convinced that Castro’s removal was the answer to their problem and were willing to pay the price of $150,000 (£75,000) for its successful accomplishment”.

Roselli was also told that the US government was not, and must not become aware of the operation.

Roselli in turn led the CIA to a friend, known as Sam Gold. In September 1960, Maheu was introduced to Gold and his associate, known as Joe. In a development that appears to underscore the amateurishness of the whole operation, Maheu subsequently accidentally spotted photographs of “Sam and Joe” in Parade magazine.

Gold was in fact Momo Salvatore Giancana, “the chieftain of Cosa Nostra (the mafia) and the successor to Al Capone”. Joe was actually Santos Trafficante, Cosa Nostra boss of Cuban operations.

At a meeting at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, Gold/Giancana suggested that rather than try to shoot or blow up Mr Castro, “some type of potent pill that could be placed in Castro’s food or drink would be much more effective”.

He said a corrupt Cuban official, named as Juan Orta, who was in debt to the syndicate and had access to the Cuban leader, would carry out the poisoning. The CIA subsequently obtained and supplied “six pills of high lethal content” to Orta but after several weeks of abortive attempts, Orta demanded “out” of the operation.

Another disaffected Cuban was recruited to do the job, but he demanded money up front. In the event, the dossier relates, “the project was cancelled shortly after the Bay of Pigs episode” (in April, 1961).

Yesterday’s document release under the Freedom of Information Act also reveals details of CIA bugging and surveillance operations and the handling of a Soviet defector and KGB agent, Yuri Ivanovich Nosenko, in 1965-67. Also made public are 147 pages of documents relating to CIA assessments of the Soviet and Chinese cold war leaderships.

“The CIA fully understands it has an obligation to protect the nation’s secrets, but it also has a responsibility to be as open as possible,” CIA director Michael Hayden said yesterday. “The declassification of historical documents is an important part of that effort.”

The 702-page document details other illegal activity, including wire-tapping of leading journalists, assistance given to local police, infiltration of anti-war organizations, among other things. Enjoy.

More Consequences of the Biofuel Boom

Published
by
Jennifer
on June 2, 2007
in Maí­z (Corn) and Mexico
. 0 Comments

When you have Google News set to automatically find you any news related to maize (corn), you can discover gems such as this one. I like that it links to all of the articles that Google news is failing to send me. With all of this negative attention on biofuel and the rising cost of food staples, I wonder what this will do to the drive for alternative fuel sources. Be sure to check out the related articles hyperlinked throughout the article.

Tequila, pork and orangutans: new victims of the biofuel boom
01 Jun 2007 15:07:00 GMT
Blogged by: Ruth Gidley

A looming shortage of tequila wouldn’t usually be an AlertNet crisis, but in this case it could be a sign of hungry times ahead.

Mexican farmers are torching fields of blue agave, the cactus-like plant used to make the fiery spirit, and resowing the land with maize as soaring U.S. ethanol demand pushes up prices.

The spiky-leaved agave plant can take eight years to reach maturity, so cutting them down and burning out the roots isn’t something that can be turned around easily.

Troubled farmers are hoping to cash in on the biofuels boom, but there have been protests over rocketing food prices in Mexico, where maize is the staple food.

In China, gas stations in some provinces already mix 10-percent ethanol into the gasoline they sell. The problem is that the increasing use of maize for industrial purposes in ethanol production is driving up the cost of corn for agricultural use, mainly to feed pigs. The knock-on effect is a dramatic rise in the price of pork, one of China’s most widely consumed food staples.

The Christian Science Monitor quotes Chinese political analysts who say the government is afraid that rising food costs could affect social stability. Inflation was an important factor in sparking the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square 18 years ago.

Authorities in Beijing are trying to impose limits on the production of ethanol using traditional food crops, but they are hard-pressed to keep a lid on the large and small ethanol factories which are springing up in China’s corn-producing regions and are starting to compete with animal-feed manufacturers for raw materials.

Chinese projects are under way to make ethanol instead from cassava - a starchy tuber common in Africa but not used as food in China - and jatropha, also inedible and grown in wastelands.

African food prices are feeling the impact of the biofuel boom too, with South African maize shooting from $85 a tonne in recent years to $282 a tonne in March, U.N. news service IRIN reports.

In Asia, palm oil is the big biofuel focus. Used in toothpaste, cookies, ice cream and breads, it’s the world’s second most popular edible oil after soy, and Malaysia and Indonesia together produce 83 percent of it.

They’ve already come under attack for clearing forests to plant palms for biofuel production. Apart from the environmental consequences of huge fires and diminishing forests, campaigners say orangutans could be extinct in 10 years because the animals’ habitat is shrinking and they’re sometimes killed for straying into palm plantations.

And let’s not forget about the people…people affected from an oppressive trade agreement…people affected by a system of globalization that is more complex than the biofuel issue.

One More Political Prisoner Released, 10 Remain

Published
by
Jennifer
on June 1, 2007
in APPO and Oaxaca, Mexico
. 0 Comments

Marcelino Coache Verano, an APPO activist, was released around 1:30pm on Thursday afternoon from his prison in Cosolapa. Verano was arrested on December 4, 2006 with Flavio Sosa, a well-known APPO speaker. While the police had an arrest warrant for Sosa and his brother, they arrested Verano for allegedly assaulting the officers. Verano’s release reminds us that political prisoners related to the Oaxacan uprising still remain in prison–dealing daily with abuses and maltreatment. Noticias reports that ten prisoners still remain.