THE IRAN/CONTRA AFFAIR; THAT’S SO 1980s—OR IS IT?
(Narcosphere
(Narcosphere)
At least one New Mexico man, Celerino Castillo, is still feeling acutely its after-affects. He is languishing in a NM jail on gun selling charges that he is now trying to challenge in court. A former CIA employee who blew the whistle on U.S. government complicity in drug running activity in Latin America in the 1980s, Castello has suffered many retributions in the following years, and claims that, in his current case, the federal prosecutor “lied” to the Judge in order to secure the court’s refusal to honor his appeal from his conviction.
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EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT, FACING POPULAR REVOLT, RESORTS TO A COUPLE OF FAMILIAR CONTAINMENT TACTICS.
(New York Times)
The first of these, which never seems to work in such situations, is that it offers “concessions” to the demands of the protesters even as it “cracks down” on insurgent expressions. The second is that it bids for support for the regime by blaming the unrest on “outside agitators,” in this case foreign agents who are accused of fomenting the insurrection. This is familiar territory for the sociologist of revolution, who note these tactics almost never succeed in their protest-quenching designs.
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WORKERS IN THE “MID-CHAIN” OF FOOD PROCESSING UNITE, YOU HAVE NOTHING TO GAIN BUT YOUR LIVES.
(Counterpunch)
Popular awareness of the struggles of poor immigrant workers tend to focus on agricultural enterprises like lettuce or tomato growing fields, as workers (typically undocumented immigrant ones) fight for just compensation and better working conditions. But a lesser-known problem for the food-chain labor source is highlighted in the recent incident of the death of a Guatemalan worker in an industrial accident in a tortilla factory in Brooklyn NY, a major center for the manufacturing and distribution of processed foods for the homes and restaurants of NYC. The appalling sweatshop conditions of labor there provoke a describer of these conditions to urge that people focus their concerns on the lightening of same, rather than join the chorus demanding suppression of the immigrant labor supply.
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AMERICA’S “SPUTNIK MOMENT” IN EDUCATION—WHAT DOES THAT REALLY MEAN?
(Black Agenda Report)
Black Agenda Report columnist Jared Bell pulls that phrase from Obama’s State of the Union address and finds ominous parallels with the way the Soviet Union’s head start on the U.S. in space development created educational “reforms” to the great disadvantage of black Americans. Then as now, the need for international competition (then in space, now in production of consumer goods) in the face of the successes of our rivals, is used as an excuse to “narrow the curriculum” of public education to a focus on science at the expense of study of the humanities. Then as now, corporate control and standardized testing are pushed as panaceas if America is to become more “competitive.” The presidential emphasis on what “we” require largely ignores the incorporation of black interests in the agenda of what “we” must do.
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NEW ESCALATION OF PAT-DOWNS HITS MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT.
(Miami Herald)
No. it’s not TSA in search of terrorists or DEA in search of drugs. It is customs agents “patting down” bouquets of flowers imported for Valentine’s Day from countries like Ecuador and Colombia in search of unwanted insects. No flower has yet complained about violation of his/her/its privacy by these measures.
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Quote of the day…
Mark Roomberg and four of the main agents that were involved in my case … have committed some heinous crimes by [wandering] off the reservation. The crux of their problems is that they [have been] living by a [double] standard for so long that they think lying was their birthright. They represent the core of what is wrong with the system. The real threat facing America is within because of the corrupt self-serving federal prosecutors and rogue agents. If this continues, the most powerful country in the world will go the way of Rome.
Celerino Castillo, whistle-blower on Iran/Contra drug operations in Latin America, in a “pleading” to overturn a conviction that he claims was based on the “lies” of Roomberg, a federal prosecutor.
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