05/01/03: (Guadalajara Reporter) A probe has been launched into how the Atlanta-based corporation ChoicePoint Inc. was able to purchase data on Mexico’s 65 million registered voters as well as six million licensed drivers in Mexico City.

According to an investigation carried out by the Mexico City newspaper Milenio, ChoicePoint was commissioned by the U.S. government to obtain the data.

Mexican legislators want President Vicente Fox to ask his U.S. counterpart for what reason the U.S. government needs this confidential information.

ChoicePoint is the only data-gathering company that specializes in acquiring information on foreign nationals in general and Latinos in particular.
informationclearinghouse.info

Calder„n Says He Would Accept Partial Recount
MEXICO CITY, July 11 — Felipe Calderon, a free-trade booster who was declared the winner of Mexico’s disputed presidential election last week, said Tuesday that he would accept a partial recount but that a complete recount would be “absurd” and illegal.

Calder„n’s main opponent, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Democratic Revolutionary Party, has alleged widespread election fraud, called massive street protests and asked Mexico’s special electoral court to order a recount of votes cast in all 130,000 polling stations. In his first international media interview since being declared winner, Calderon said Tuesday that he would abide by the decision of the court, even if it orders a recount of as many as 50,000 polling places.

“I will respect what the tribunal says,” said Calderon, of the National Action Party.

During the wide-ranging interview at his Mexico City campaign headquarters, Calderon also took exception to remarks made Monday by President Bush’s spokesman, Tony Snow, about Calderon’s opposition to building more walls on the U.S.-Mexico border. Snow told reporters that the “last time I checked, Calderon did not have any official authority over the activities of the United States government.”

In the interview, Calderon said, “President Bush’s spokesman is someone who does not have the authority to tell me what I should be saying.”

Mexico Splits in Half: the Election Hits the Streets
A full week after the most viciously contested presidential election in its modern history, a Florida-sized fraud looms over the Mexican landscape and the nation has been divided almost exactly in half along political, economic, geographical and racial lines.

Mexico has always been two lands “Illusionary Mexico” and “Profound Mexico” is how sociologist Guillermo Bonfils described the great divide between rich and poor. But now, should it be allowed to stand, right-winger Felipe Calderon’s severely questioned 243.000 vote victory over left-wing populist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) will split the country exactly in half between the industrial north and the impoverished, highly indigenous south with each winning 16 states although the southern states won by Lopez Obrador, who also won Mexico City by a million votes, constitute 54% of the population.

LONDON – A British banker who was questioned by U.S. authorities in connection with the Enron scandal has been found dead, British media said Wednesday. The man’s body was found Tuesday in a park in east London, but police declined to identify him.

The Royal Bank of Scotland, however, sent condolences to the family of Neil Coulbeck, one of the bank’s senior employees who had been questioned by the FBI in the case of three British bankers facing Enron-related fraud charges. The British Broadcasting Corp. and other media outlets also identified the man as Coulbeck, 53.

Police would not immediately say how he died, but homicide officers were investigating „ standard procedure on all suspicious deaths.

The FBI said it would not comment on any aspect of the case. A formal identification was expected Thursday, police said.

David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew and Giles Darby „ all former bankers with National Westminster Bank, which is owned by Royal Bank of Scotland „ are expected to be extradited Thursday to the United States to face charges of defrauding their ex-employer of $7.3 million.

The three men have denied charges that they attempted to sell a part of the U.S.-based energy company Enron Corp. for less than it was worth. Enron filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2001.
news.yahoo.com

Okay I suspended my disbelief about Ken Lay’s ‘heart attack’, but this is too much.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – One of Mogadishu’s last warlords holding out against powerful Islamists surrendered after losing most of his territory in two days of fighting that killed more than 140 people, militia sources said on Tuesday.

“It has become necessary to surrender and give peace a chance,” a militiaman loyal to warlord Abdi Awale Qaybdiid told Reuters.
reuters.com

Augusto Pinochet’s $26m (£14m) fortune was amassed through cocaine sales to Europe and the US, the general’s former top aide for intelligence has alleged.
In testimony sent to Chilean Judge Claudio Pavez, Manuel Contreras alleges that Pinochet and his son Marco Antonio organised a massive production and distribution network, selling cocaine to Europe and the US in the mid-1980s.

According to Contreras, once Pinochet’s ally and now a bitter enemy, Pinochet ordered the army to build a clandestine cocaine laboratory in Talagante, a rural town 24 miles from Santiago. There he had chemists mix cocaine with other chemicals to produce what Contreras described as a “black cocaine” capable of being smuggled past drug agents in the US and Europe.

Pinochet denied the charges. His son also denied the charges and said he would sue the former head of intelligence whom he called “a liar” and “a monster”.
guardian.co.uk

The head of the anti-terrorist squad investigating Mumbai’s train bombings says a “big power” was behind the well-coordinated operation.

More than 180 people died in the seven blasts that targetted the city’s train network.

Hundreds of people were wounded.

The explosions hit within minutes of each other during the Tuesday evening rush hour.

The police anti-terrorism squad chief K P Raghuvanshi says it was a well-coordinated and well-planned operation and it seems some big power was behind it.

Forensic experts are examining timers found near the scene of the seven blasts, six of them in first-class compartments, that happened little more than 10 minutes apart.

Officials say they have not yet identified any group behind the blasts and no group has yet come forward to claim responsibility.
abc.net.au

Kashmiri militants deny carrying out the attacks

…The girl was apparently born August 19, 1991. Yet a widely published AP story today by Robert H. Reid repeatedly referred to the girl, whose last name was al-Janabi, as a ñyoung Iraqi woman” and later again as a “woman.” The story was in reference to the gag order being requested by attorneys for Steven D. Green, an ex-soldier who is one of the men charged with the rape and murders. It begins: “An al-Qaida-linked group posted a Web video today purporting to show the mutilated bodies of two Fort Campbell soldiers, claiming it killed them in revenge for the rape-slaying of a young Iraqi woman by American troops from the same unit.”

A separate AP story today by Juan Lozano, on the soldiers’ families defending them, also refers to the girl as a “young woman.” Another Reid story later in the day on suicide bombings also used “young Iraqi woman.”

In Tuesday’s Washington Post, an article by Joshua Partlow refers to the teen as an ñIraqi woman.î USA Today featured the AP “young woman” story. The CNN site called the victim a “young female” and a “woman.” A CNN report aired Tuesday by Nic Robertson continued to refer to the child as a “young woman.” So did the BBC.

Jim Lehrer on his PBS “NewsHour” last night referred to her a “woman.” At the CBS News site today, a joint CBS/AP story uses “young woman.” The Houston Chronicle goes with “young Iraqi woman” in an article by James Pinkerton for Wednesday’s edition.

Yet a full day earlier, and again today, The New York Times was calling her a “girl.” The Los Angeles Times on Tuesday referred to her as a “teenage Iraqi” and later as a “teen.” Bloomberg used “girl” and McClatchy’s dispatch chose “teenager.” Reuters simply stated her age: 14.
editorandpublisher.com

Relatives defend soldiers in rape case
…”He has very good morality,” Sanchez said, adding that he was raised a Jehovah’s Witness. “I know he’s not the kind of person who’s going to do something like this, especially to disrespect a woman. I don’t think so. I don’t see him that way.”

…But as the military continues investigations into alleged atrocities committed by U.S. troops in Iraq, some experts worry that the Army, stretched thin by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and under pressure to fill its ranks, might be signing up soldiers who should not be in the service.

The military’s revelation last week that former Pfc. Steven Green, who allegedly organized the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and the killing of her family, suffered from “anti-social personality disorder” sheds new light on the importance of how the Army decides whom to sign up for service, say military analysts.

“The issue is not whether they’ve met their quota,” said Winslow Wheeler, an expert on the U.S. military at the Center for Defense Information in Washington. “The issue is quality … and what concessions they are willing to make to meet this quota.”

…At the same time, in the first four months of this year, the percentage of recruits whom the Army otherwise considers fit for service but who required special waivers to join rose to 15.5 percent. The waivers were for misdemeanor offenses, drug- or alcohol-related violations or medical problems, Hilferty said. In 2004, 12 percent of recruits required such waivers; in 2005, 15 percent needed them.

Hilferty said Army recruiters have “an aggressive mental health program” consisting of tests and checkups intended to weed out applicants with mental health problems or personality disorders — which Green is reported to have — during either recruiting or at basic training.
sfgate.com

4 young people I work with, with severe emotional imbalance, have been recruited so far. The recruiters are like dogs on a bone, getting waivers for criminal records, PTSR diagnoses, and one who just left for boot camp has sex-offender status.

GUILDHALL, Vt. –A Vermont District Court judge has rejected a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the power of police to search a private home, concluding that the state offers greater protections in such cases.

Judge Robert Bent said that under the state Constitution police must knock and announce themselves before conducting a search, even if they have a warrant, or face the prospect that any evidence they find could be thrown out.

The Supreme Court said June 15 that evidence obtained without first knocking could be used at trial, but Bent said that would not apply in Vermont.

“Evidence obtained in violation of the Vermont Constitution, or as the result of a violation, cannot be admitted at trial as a matter of state law,” Bent wrote, citing an earlier state case as precedent. “Introduction of such evidence at trial eviscerates our most sacred rights, impinges on individual privacy, perverts our judicial process, distorts any notion of fairness and encourages official misconduct.”

A defense lawyer in the Vermont case said Bent’s ruling was an important statement. “Sanity prevails in Vermont,” said attorney David Williams.
boston.com

…”If you look at newspapers of 100 years ago, you see how, at the time, colonialist states justified their policies in Africa or in Asia. They talked of their civilising role, of the white man’s mission,” he said.

“If you change the word ‘civilising’ to ‘democratisation’, you find the same logic, you can read the same things in the press today.”

Mr Putin also said Moscow was ready to listen to “well-intentioned criticism”, according to a transcript of his interview with NBC released by the Kremlin.

Pointing to the fact that he was elected directly by the Russian people, he asked how that can be seen as undemocratic.

But he stressed that Russia would “categorically object to using all possible levers, including the idea that our society needs democratisation, for interfering in our internal affairs”.

He called Mr Cheney’s criticism of Russia’s record “a failed hunting shot”.
bbc.co.uk

Gorbachev: ‘Americans Have a Severe Disease’
…”We have made some mistakes,” he said, referring to recent attacks on Russia’s democracy. “So what? Please don’t put even more obstacles in our way. Do you really think you are smarter than we are?”

The former general secretary of the Soviet Union Communist Party accused Americans of arrogance and trying to impose their way of life on other nations.

“Americans have a severe disease — worse than AIDS. It’s called the winner’s complex,” he said. “You want an American style-democracy here. That will not work.”

BEIRUT, Lebanon – The Hezbollah militant group captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid Wednesday, triggering an Israeli assault with warplanes, tanks and gunboats against southern Lebanon as Israeli troops crossed the frontier to hunt for the captives.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the guerrilla attack “an act of war” and warned Hezbollah would pay a “heavy price” for its actions.
news.yahoo.com

As we tip into the chasm we must ask, who will ultimately benefit from all-out war in the Middle East? And that’s who is behind these ridiculously convenient incidents.

IDF Begins Incursion Into Central Gaza
…Columns of armored vehicles were poised to enter into Gaza earlier Tuesday. The incursion, officials said, would be an extension of Operation Summer Rains which began two weeks ago.

IDF sources said that the operation would include naval, infantry and air forces working jointly to destroy the infrastructure supporting the launching of Kassam rockets.

Ismail Haniyeh: Aggression Under False Pretenses
… The current Gaza invasion is only the latest effort to destroy the results of fair and free elections held early this year. It is the explosive follow-up to a five-month campaign of economic and diplomatic warfare directed by the United States and Israel. The stated intention of that strategy was to force the average Palestinian to “reconsider” her vote when faced with deepening hardship; its failure was predictable, and the new overt military aggression and collective punishment are its logical fulfillment. The “kidnapped” Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit is only a pretext for a job scheduled months ago.

‘Gaza is starving in the darkness’
…”Israeli bulldozers demolished houses and uprooted trees. Israeli soldiers took people’s homes. The Israelis kept three families in one room for three days. They were used as human shields.

At least 34 people were killed in the incursion. Half were the resistance, but the other half were civilians.

At al-Awda hospital five children aged between 12 and 15 were brought in having been shot in the chest or abdomen.

The hospital is working at full capacity in difficult circumstances. Because of the economic sanctions there are no medical supplies.

We are facing a critical situation in the Gaza Strip. Israeli shelling killed a family in their home in the east of Gaza.

A mother and her two children were killed. It reminded us of the recent killing of a family on the beach.

People in Gaza feel that it is the right of the Israeli family to have their son back, but it is the right of Palestinian families to have the political prisoners back.

We are being treated like third class humans. We are treated like numbers. This is why there is a bitter feeling.

The world needs to listen. This is not a war. It is racist discrimination against us.

Despite our situation we are living with resolve. There is a steadfastness of people.

We are coping. People have nothing to lose. The community is helping people who have been displaced by giving blankets, mattresses and water. A whole nation is going through a collective punishment.”

Three Palestinian teens killed in IAF strike on Beit Hanun
…playing football.