-Caveat Lector- Subject: Fw: Free Press Facing Challenge to Its Rights: Insight on the News (The Washington Times) Insight on the News (The Washington Times) http://insightmag.com/main.cfm/include/detail/storyid/189906.html The Last Word By Paul M. Rodriguez February 22, 2002
Free Press Facing Challenge to Its Rights What do an international business consultant, an Ohio professor and three journalists have in common? Nothing more than independent work to expose squalid and disturbing allegations of ties among politicians, banks, narcotraffickers and money launderers on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border and tie-ins elsewhere around the world. A second common factor is that all have incurred the wrath of the Hank family - one of the most powerful clans in Mexico - which has launched high-powered legal exercises in Texas and Ohio to intimidate and harass members of the press and challenge their rights afforded by the First Amendment. This includes Insight and one of its senior editors, Jamie Dettmer, as well as Washington Post reporter Douglas Farah and Dolia Estevez, the Washington correspondent of Mexico's El Financiero newspaper. All three have received subpoenas to produce a wide range of information protected by U.S. press-shield laws and our Constitution. Reading the subpoena is like reading the summary of a high-suspense plot from a John Grisham novel, what with tantalizing hints of conspiracies, organized-crime ties, secret U.S. intelligence agencies, shady gumshoes, undercover sources and the assassination of a Roman Catholic prelate. Details are indeed contained in the two legal cases that now have enmeshed the magazine and the two newspapers in a lawsuit filed in Laredo, Texas, against writer and business consultant Christopher Whalen, and another filed in Cleveland against Donald Schulz, a political-science professor. If the subpoenas served on the news organizations are allowed to stand, many in the trade believe the precedent would chill reporting by the American press on efforts by U.S. authorities to resist suspected narcotrafficking and organized crime. So how did this happen? It began with an exclusive report by Dettmer back in March 1999 outlining details in federal law-enforcement and intelligence documents alleging close ties between the Hank family and Mexico's suspected top narcotraffickers, including the Arellano Felix cartel in Tijuana. The story included details of how tons of illegal drugs move freely across borders and the lax security that allows these substances to destroy the lives of millions. The article about the Hanks reported findings of a major multiagency probe into the Mexican family involving political and business support to help mask or otherwise support the illegal-drug trade. One of the documents referenced in the story involved Operation White Tiger. It concluded that the Hank family, consisting of the now-dead patriarch Carlos Hank Gonzalez, a billionaire businessman and top Mexican politician, and his two sons, Carlos Hank Rhon and Jorge Hank Rhon, represented a "major criminal threat" to the United States because of alleged political protection they afforded to drug cartels (see "Family Affairs," March 29, 1999). A month after Insight broke that story, U.S. and Mexican newspapers followed our lead with yet more information based on their own sources. The stories caused quite a stir within the Clinton administration and in Mexico, where at a summit of law-enforcement chiefs, Mexicans complained loudly to their U.S. counterparts, as did Mexico's then-president Ernesto Zedillo, whose campaign-nomination papers Carlos Hank Gonzalez had signed. Since then, the Hanks have mounted a major counterattack, including their recent U.S. lawsuits against Whalen and Schultz. Whalen is the former editor of The Mexico Report, a newsletter on politics and finance that carried similar stories about the allegations against the Hanks and others. Whalen also was an adviser to the U.S. Federal Reserve and reportedly helped to block a bid by Carlos Hank Rhon to buy a second bank in Texas to add to the family's ownership of the Laredo National Bank. In addition to suing Whalen for "tortious interference" in their effort to buy a second U.S. bank, the Hanks sued Schulz following a Wall Street Journal report identifying him as a "probable source" of leaks from Operation White Tiger to the press. Schulz is considered an expert on Central and South American issues and author of an unpublished (but circulated) study entitled Narcopolitics in Mexico. The Hanks' lawsuit charges that Schulz spread false and defamatory information about the family based on insider knowledge from the White Tiger report and his ties with U.S. law-enforcement agencies. There have been several stories about the ongoing cases in local press and one overview by The Nation magazine (see www.nation.com). But this is the first report on the subpoenas recently served on the news outlets - demands that seek astonishing access to a wide range of protected information. For example, in the subpoena accepted for Insight by the Washington law firm of Akin Gump, the Hanks want all unpublished documents, materials and e-mails and all details of conversations reporters and editors had on a wealth of matters relating to the family, federal law enforcement, other news outlets and any documents in our possession. In short, the whole enchilada, and to hell with the First Amendment! Such chilling requests are rare - and, generally, fail - but they raise serious issues about the rights of a free press to do its job. For smaller publications with limited resources it could deal a deathblow to enterprise reporting and shut down those who stand up to the rich and powerful. We'll keep you posted. Paul M. Rodriguez is the managing editor of Insight. -------------------------- Story Source: Insight on the News ****************************************************************************** ******** Hyperlinks to Related Stories:Family Affairs by Jamie Dettmer 3/29/99 http://insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=124098 Mexico Drug War Has a US Front by Christopher Whalen 4/02/01 http://insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=125809 War on Drugs: Reno Contradicts Drug Report by Jamie Dettmer 7/03/00 http://insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=125156 Mexican Standoff: The Narcostate Next Door by J. Michael Waller 12/27/99 http://insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=124907 Entrapment: a tale of money, lawyers and the threat to free speech by Julia Reynolds http://www.elandar.com/back/spring01/stories/story_entrapment.html Los Amigos de Bush: The disturbing ties of some of George W. Bush's Latino advisors http://www.elandar.com/bush/amigos.html The Nafta Gang by Julia Reynolds http://www.elandar.com/hanks.html Death of a Journalist: How the staff of a Tijuana newspaper tracked down the killers of their murdered reporter http://www.elandar.com/back/fall99/gato.html Hank owned Bank Violated US election laws by Julia Reynolds http://www.elandar.com/hank ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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