[pjnews] The martyr of El Salvador
Info about subscribing or unsubscribing from this list is at the bottom of this message. http://snipurl.com/dngk The martyr of El Salvador By Richard Higgins | March 24, 2005 The Boston Globe IN SAN SALVADOR 25 years ago this week, on a Monday at 6:45 p.m., a lone man in the rear of a small chapel with a high-power rifle fired one shot at the 62-year-old priest raising his arms over the altar. Archbishop Oscar Romero fell dead to the marble floor, his vestments soaked in blood. The primate of the Salvadoran Catholic Church from 1977 to 1980, Romero was killed because he supported the right of poor Salvadorans to equal citizenship in their own society, and he tried to end the use of repression and violence to thwart it. The last quarter-century has not been kind to the broader liberation theology movement that Romero found inspiring. But his star burns bright. To liberals, Christians, and supporters of human rights and peace around the world, he is a figure of iconic, even mythological, proportions. Romero is recalled as someone who pursued and achieved a measure of change not through an elitist agenda, social theory, hatred of the rich, or fury at injustice. Rather he displayed the fundamental truth that valuing and loving others builds the foundation of justice. He was that rare person in a powerful position who sought to bring down the high and raise the low. Romero triumphed in failure. His murder was a crippling, even humiliating, loss to his supporters in 1980. To be shot dead while saying Mass was an unnerving exclamation point. To add to their dismay, the killing escalated El Salvador's 12-year civil war. Yet what the mourners did not see was that it was really too late to end his work. Romero had already sown the seeds of hope in countless others. When El Salvador's warring parties made peace in 1992, so many proponents of the accord cited Romero's legacy that even cynics had to wonder about the archbishop's remark, early in 1980, that if he was killed, he would rise again in the Salvadoran people. Romero's life was drenched in irony. Although he was personable and well-spoken, he was no firebrand at first, politically or theologically. He was viewed as a bland company man in the Salvadoran hierarchy and, upon being named archbishop, was expected to continue his conservative, helicopter-blessing ways. But as fellow priests, friends, and others were killed and as Romero consoled mourners and listened to witnesses, the company he kept changed him. It led him to do outrageous things. He named names in his weekly sermons broadcast over national radio. He asked Jimmy Carter to cut off American military aid. He went around military leaders and appealed directly to the soldiers carrying out the violence: I beg you, I beseech you, I order you, put down your arms. ''In the name of God, stop the repression. But he could not end the violence, which not only took his life but also marred his funeral. In the throng that choked Metropolitan Cathedral that day, 30 died in a bombing and stampede. All this has been known. Last fall, a federal judge in California confirmed what has also been suspected. In a ruling in a lawsuit brought under a 1789 law, the US court found that a retired Salvadoran military official, Alvaro Rafael Saravia, plotted the murder and was liable for civil damages. Saravia, who lives in Modesto, was an aide to Roberto D'Aubuisson, the founder of El Salvador's ruling right-wing party. Romero's legacy can afflict those people whom one would expect to be comforted by it, such as leaders of the Catholic Church in El Salvador and Rome. This is, perhaps, the mark of a prophet. At a ceremony marking Romero's assassination three years ago, the current archbishop of San Salvador said that while the event was ''horrific and sacrilegious, Romero was lucky ''to die in the best way a priest can die, at the altar. Archbishop Fernando Saenz's remark appears less strange in light of the purge of liberal priests and liberal Catholic practices that he has championed since he was chosen in 1995 to be one of Romero's successors. Indeed, the Catholic Church has enjoyed some success in controlling Romero's legacy and appeal to young Catholics. But history suggests that any effort to curb his influence or end his work will be limited. Romero's remark a few weeks before he died that his spirit would rise in the Salvadoran people struck many people as audacious at the time. It may turn out to be the opposite, however: that Romero, by specifying people in his country, actually understated how widespread his spirit would be. Richard Higgins is a writer and editor. He is a co-editor of ''Taking Faith Seriously. _ Note: This message comes from the peace-justice-news e-mail mailing list of articles and commentaries about peace and social justice issues, activism, etc. If you do not regularly receive mailings from this list or have received this
[pjnews] CIA Agents in University Classrooms
Info about subscribing or unsubscribing from this list is at the bottom of this message. Exposing the Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program The CIA's Campus Spies By DAVE H. PRICE The secrecy surrounding the current use of university classrooms as covert training grounds for the CIA and other agencies now threatens the fundamental principles of academic openness as well as the integrity of a wide array of academic disciplines. A new test program that is secretly placing CIA agents in American university classrooms for now operates without detection or protest. With time these students who cannot admit to their true intentions will inevitably pollute and discredit the universities in which they are now enrolled. There have long been tensions between the needs of academia and the needs of the National Security State, and even before the events of 9/11 expanded the powers of American intelligence agencies, our universities were quietly being modified to serve the needs of the intelligence community in new and covert ways. The most visible of these reforms was the establishment of the National Security Education Program (NSEP) which siphoned-off students from traditional foreign language funding programs such as Fulbright or Title VI. While traditional funding sources provide students with small stipends of a few thousand dollars to study foreign languages in American universities, the NSEP gives graduate students a wealth of funds (at times exceeding $40,000 a year) to study in demand languages, but with troubling pay-back stipulations mandating that recipients later work for unspecified U.S. national security agencies. Upon its debut in the early 1990s, the NSEP was harshly criticized for reaching through an assumed barrier between the desires of academia and state. Numerous academic organizations, including, the Middle East Studies Association and the African Studies Association, Latin American Studies Association, and even the mainstream Boards of the Social Science Research Council and American Council of Learned Societies expressed deep concerns over scholars' participation in the NSEP. And though the NSEP continues funding students despite these protests, there was some solace in knowing so many diverse academic organizations condemned this program. But while many academics reacted with anger and protest to the NSEP's entrance onto American campuses, there has been no public reaction to an even more troubling post-9/11 funding program which upgrades the existing American intelligence-university-interface. With little notice Congress approved section 318 of the 2004 Intelligence Authorization Act which appropriated four million dollars to fund a pilot program known as the Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program (PRISP). Named after Senator Pat Roberts (R. Kansas, Chair, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence), PRISP was designed to train intelligence operatives and analysts in American university classrooms for careers in the CIA and other agencies. PRISP now operates on an undisclosed number of American college and university campuses, and if the pilot phase of the program proves to be a useful means of recruiting and training members of the intelligence community then the program will expand to more campuses across the country. Currently, PRISP participants must be American citizens who are enrolled fulltime in graduate degree programs with a minimum GPA of 3.4, they need to complete at least one summer internship at CIA or other agencies, and they must pass the same background investigations as other CIA employees. PRISP students receive financial stipends ranging up to $25,000 per year and they are required to participate in closed meetings with other PRISP scholars and individuals from their administering intelligence agency. Less than 150 students a year are now authorized to receive funding during the pilot phase as PRISP evaluates the program's initial outcomes. Beyond a few articles in a Kansas newspaper praising Senator Roberts, as well as University of Kansas anthropologist Felix Moos' role in lobbying for the PRISP, there has been a general media silence regarding the program. The few guarded public statements issued describing PRISP stress supposed similarities between existing ROTC programs and the PRISP. For example, the Lawrence Journal World (11/29/03) published claims that, Those in the program would be part of the ROTC program specializing in learning how to analyze a variety of conditions and activities based on a thorough understanding and deep knowledge of particular areas of the world. Beyond the similar requirements that participants of both programs commit to years of service to their sponsoring military or intelligence branches there are few similarities between ROTC and PRISP. ROTC programs mostly operate in the open, as student-ROTC members register for ROTC courses and are proudly and visibly identified as members of the ROTC program, while
[pjnews] Death at 'Immoral' Picnic in the Park
Info about subscribing or unsubscribing from this list is at the bottom of this message. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1537512,00.html London Times 23 March 2005 Death at 'Immoral' Picnic in the Park Students are Beaten to Death for Playing Music as Shia Militiamen Run Amok by Katherine Philp THE students had begun to lay out their picnic in the spring sunshine when the men attacked. There were dozens of them, armed with guns, and they poured into the park, Ali al-Azawi, 21, the engineering student who had organised the gathering in Basra, said. They started shouting at us that we were immoral, that we were meeting boys and girls together and playing music and that this was against Islam. They began shooting in the air and people screamed. Then, with one order, they began beating us with their sticks and rifle butts. Two students were said to have been killed. Standing over them as the blows rained down was the man who gave the order, dressed in dark clerical garb and wearing a black turban. Ali recognised him immediately as a follower of Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shia cleric. Ali realised then that the armed men were members of Hojatoleslam al-Sadrs Mehdi Army, a private militia that fought American forces last year and is now enforcing its own firebrand version of Islam. The picnic had run foul of the Islamist powers that increasingly hold sway in the fly-blown southern city, where religious militias rule the streets, forcing women to don the veil and closing down shops that sell alcohol or music. In the election in January, the battle between secular and religious forces in Basra came down to the ballot box. The main Shia alliance triumphed with 70 per cent of the provinces vote, most of the rest going to a secular rival. That victory has brought to a head the issue of whether Iraqs new constitution will adopt Islamic law or Sharia as most religious Shia leaders desire. In Basra, however, Islamic militias already are beginning to apply their own version of that law, without authority from above or any challenge from the police. Students say that there was nothing spontaneous about the attack. Police were guarding the picnic in the park, as is customary at any large public gathering, but allowed the armed men in without any resistance. One brought a video camera to record the sinful spectacle of the picnic, footage of which was later released to the public as a warning to others. It showed images of one girl struggling as a gunman ripped her blouse off, leaving her half-naked. We will send these pictures to your parents so they can see how you were dancing naked with men, a gunman told her. Two students who went to her aid were shot one in the leg, the other twice in the stomach. The latter was said to have died of his injuries. Fellow students say that the girl later committed suicide. Another girl who was severely beaten around the head lost her sight. Far from disavowing the attack, senior al-Sadr loyalists said that they had a duty to stop the students dancing, sexy dress and corruption. We beat them because we are authorised by Allah to do so and that is our duty, Sheik Ahmed al-Basri said after the attack. It is we who should deal with such disobedience and not the police. After escaping with two students, Ali reached a police station and asked for help. What do you expect me to do about it? a uniformed officer asked. Ali went to the British military base at al-Maakal and pleaded with the duty officer at the gate. Youre a sovereign country now. We cant help. You have to go to the Iraqi authorities, the soldier replied. When the students tried to organise demonstrations, they were broken up by the Mehdi Army. Later the university was surrounded by militiamen, who distributed leaflets threatening to mortar the campus if they did not call off the protests. When the militia began to set up checkpoints and arrest students, Ali fled to Baghdad. A British spokesman said that troops were unable to intervene unless asked to by the Iraqi authorities. Colonel Kareem al-Zeidy, Basras police chief, pleaded helplessness. What can I do? There is no government, no one to give us authority, he said. The political parties are the most powerful force in Basra right now. The students have begun an indefinite strike, but fear that there is little that they can do to stop the march of violent fundamentalism. Saleh, 21, another engineering student, said: If this is how they deal with the most educated in Basra, how would they deal with ordinary people? The soul of our city is at stake. _ Note: This message comes from the peace-justice-news e-mail mailing list of articles and commentaries about peace and social justice issues, activism, etc. If you do not regularly receive mailings from this list or have received this message as a forward from someone else and would
[pjnews] Justice Redacted Memo on Guantanamo Detainees
Info about subscribing or unsubscribing from this list is at the bottom of this message. http://snipurl.com/do19 A Spinwatch investigation has revealed that journalists working for the Services Sound and Vision Corporation (SSVC) have been commissioned to provide news reports to the BBC. The BBC has been using these reports as if they were genuine news. In fact, the SSVC is entirely funded by the Ministry of Defence as a propaganda operation, which according to its own website makes a 'considerable contribution' to the 'morale' of the armed forces... http://snipurl.com/do1k Senior defense officials have described the CIA practice of hiding unregistered detainees at Abu Ghraib prison as ad hoc and unauthorized, but a review of Army documents shows that the agency's ghosting program was systematic and known to three senior intelligence officials in Iraq. -- http://snipurl.com/do1q Justice Redacted Memo on Detainees FBI Criticism Of Interrogations Was Deleted By R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, March 22, 2005; Page A03 U.S. law enforcement agents working at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, concluded that controversial interrogation practices used there by the Defense Department produced intelligence information that was suspect at best, an FBI agent told a superior in a memo in May last year. But the Justice Department, which reviewed the memo for national security secrets before releasing it to a civil liberties group in December, redacted the FBI agent's conclusion. The department, acting after the Defense Department expressed its own views on which portions of the letter should be redacted, also blacked out a separate assertion in the memo that military interrogation practices could undermine future military trials for terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay. It also withheld a statement by the memo's author that Justice Department criminal division officials were so concerned about the military interrogation practices that they took their complaints to the office of the Pentagon's chief attorney, William J. Haynes II, whom President Bush has nominated to become a federal appellate judge. The revelations in the memo, released yesterday by Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) , generally amplify previously disclosed FBI concerns that military interrogators at the island prison were using coercive interrogation methods that could compromise any evidence of terrorist activities they obtained. FBI agents and officials had complained about the shackling of detainees to the floor for periods exceeding 24 hours, without food and water; the draping of a detainee in an Israeli flag; and the use of growling dogs to scare detainees. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, who as White House counsel participated in detailed discussions about the legality of aggressive military interrogation techniques, has twice publicly expressed skepticism about the reliability of these FBI accounts. But the May 10, 2004, memo, written by an official whose name has not been disclosed, contains a highly detailed account of the efforts that FBI agents made to convince the Defense Department that its interrogation practices were wrongheaded. They met, for example, with Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, who took over the prison in October 2002, and another Army general to explain our position (Law Enforcement techniques) vs. DOD, the author wrote in a previously disclosed portion of the memo. Both agreed the Bureau has their way of doing business and DOD has their marching orders from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. Although the two techniques differed drastically, both Generals believed they had a job to accomplish, the author wrote in the memo, which was initially released to the American Civil Liberties Union at the insistence of a federal judge. Levin, who had pushed the Justice Department to release a version of the memo that included the new disclosures, yesterday sharply criticized the department's initial handling of it. As I suspected, the previously withheld information had nothing to do with protecting intelligence sources and methods, and everything to do with protecting the DOD from embarrassment, Levin said. Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra declined to address that assertion. But he said DOD did review this memo before its initial release last year. He said he could not comment on whether the Defense Department had requested the redactions or explain why he could not comment. Spokesman Bryan Whitman said it is Pentagon policy to request redactions based solely on national security and privacy. He also noted that the department has previously acknowledged modifying some interrogation tactics at Guantanamo Bay in January 2003 after protests were made inside the government. Jeffrey Fogel, legal director for the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, an advocacy group that helped organize lawyers for 150 military
