|
Washington, D.C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790. More, HERE. Mexico City is the capital and largest city in the country of Mexico. As the seat of the powers of the Union (i.e. seat of the Mexican federal government), Mexico City is also the Federal District. More, HERE. Mexico State or State of Mexico is a state in the center of the country of Mexico. The state's capital is the city of Toluca. More, HERE. .Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo, is one of the 31 constituent states of Mexico. More, HERE. Guanajuato is a state in the central highlands of Mexico. It is named after its capital city, Guanajuato, which comes from the local indigenous language, meaning “Hill of Frogs. Las Ranas (“the frogs”) is a nickname for people from this state as frogs are their state animal. More, HERE. Also, The Illegal Drug Trade & Bank of America Corporation is a financial services company, the largest bank holding company in the United States, by assets, and the second largest bank by market capitalization. More HERE, by Wikipedia.
FACTS by the US Department of Health and Human Services .. For over a thousand years South American indigenous peoples have chewed the coca leaf, a plant that contains vital nutrients as well as numerous alkaloids, including cocaine. More HERE.
As of December 29, 2009 an estimated 4.3 million American adults aged 50 or older, or 4.7 percent of adults in that age range, had used an illicit drug in the past year, based on data from the 2006 to 2008 NSDUH surveys. More, HERE.
As of December 17, 2009 about one quarter (26.7 percent) of American adolescent females engaged in violent behavior in the past year. More HERE.
In 2007, the Treatment Episode Data Set recorded just over 1,600 adolescent substance abuse treatment admissions for heroin abuse. On average, adolescent heroin admissions were 14.8 years old when they first used heroin and 16.3 years old at admission to treatment, indicating approximately 18 months of use before entering treatment. More than half (56 percent) of adolescent heroin admissions had had at least one prior treatment episode. More, HERE.
Latest Data on Alcohol, Tobacco, and Illegal Drugs
More than 100,000 are still without power after blizzard dumped more than two feet of heavy snow; major roads remain covered in ice, slush. Photo: Wendy Galietta/Post
Crashes and chaos
Photo: James A. Parcell/For Post
Higher temperatures made for wet, heavy snow.
'Stay in unless you absolutely have to be out'
A push to get homeless to shelters
U.S. Baptists charged in Haiti: Ten Americans, who said they wanted to save orphans, are charged with child kidnapping in case that has raised fears about trafficking.
Incoming snowstorm likely to be historic
Crippling accumulations of 1 to 2 feet may be common; Washington residents scramble to prepare for onslaught of winter weather.
Forecast prompts debate over school closings
U.S. to launch inquiry into Toyota Prius brakes
Bank of America Faces Charges.
Civil fraud charges filed against Bank of America
By Zachary A. Goldfarb and Tomoeh Murakami Tse
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Federal and state regulators filed civil fraud charges Thursday against Bank of America and its former chief executive and former chief financial officer in the broadest action brought to date against a major player in the financial crisis. The bank agreed to pay $150 million to settle some of the charges.
Regulators accused Bank of America and its former top executives -- chief executive officer Ken Lewis and chief financial officer Joseph Price -- of lying to investors in fall 2008 about mounting losses at Merrill Lynch, the troubled investment bank it was acquiring, and billions of dollars in bonuses paid to employees. Regulators also charged that the bank misled federal officials by falsely claiming it would back out of a deal to buy Merrill Lynch without billions of dollars more in bailout funds. More, HERE.
US cleric: Accused plane bomber was my student
White House Justifies Handling Of Suspect In Attempted Plane Bombing
By Anne E. Kornblut , Washington Post Staff Writer, Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Senior White House officials are mounting an aggressive campaign to defend their handling of terrorism suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, mapping out their successful efforts to gain his cooperation -- and noting that his treatment has been similar to that of suspects captured during the Bush administration.
Abdulmutallab, who was arrested after trying to detonate explosives on board a plane as it landed in Detroit on Christmas Day, has been cooperating with interrogators since last week, and is providing fresh material, administration officials said Tuesday. More, HERE.
Iran launches research rocket
Bomb Plot Suspect Cooperating: Nigerian student accused in failed Christmas Day plot is providing useful intelligence, source says
Colin Powell shifts stance on 'don't ask, don't tell' policy
Retired Army Gen. Colin L. Powell, who opposed allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the armed forces when he was the nation's top military officer, said Wednesday that he supports efforts to lift the ban on their service.
"Attitudes and circumstances have changed" in the 17 years since Congress, with strong military backing, mandated the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, Powell said in a statement issued by his office. Noting that he has said for the past two years that Congress should review the legislation, Powell said he "fully supports the approach" outlined in testimony Tuesday by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. More, HERE.
Officials warn of looming al-Qaeda terror risk
3 U.S. soldiers killed in Pakistan
Don't forget Iraq
Electronic throttles eyed in 'runaway' Toyotas
Haitian judge questions detained Americans
Frustration growing at Haiti aid bottlenecks
Costa Rica poised to elect first woman president
People comfort each other as they stand in front of an altar in homage of one of the students killed Saturday in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, Monday, Monday, Feb. 1, 2010. Late Saturday, armed men stormed a party, killing 16 people, mostly teenagers, and injuring about two dozen more. (AP Photo) (AP)
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- Gunmen who killed 15 people in this Mexican border city - many of them teenagers with no known criminal ties - were directed to the neighborhood by a resident who said members of a rival gang were planning a party, an official said Wednesday.
The mayor of Ciudad Juarez and other officials have said the victims had no criminal records and the gunmen may have been acting on mistaken information. More, HERE.
Mexico gangs cut into Super Bowl avocado bounty
Mistrial declared in alleged cartel hit man's case
© Copyright 1996- 2010 The Washington Post Company
Policing Mexico's Deadliest Beat
Saturday, 6 February 2010
Blanca Del Rio, has become one of Ciudad Juarez's new police cadets
Police in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez have a tough beat, with one of the world's highest murder rates and the all-powerful drug cartels to combat. Yet eager recruits are still ready to join the fray, as Katya Adler reports. More, HERE.
 ©MMX
Execution of Top Capos Only Escalates the Madness
Who's Who in Mexico's Narco Wars?
By JOHN ROSS
Infiltration of Mexico's security apparatus by narco gangs is an old story. In the mid-'80s, the Direction of Federal Security, than the federal government's lead police agency, distributed get-out-of-jail passes to original gangsters like Rafael Caro Quintero and Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo - the DFS was subsequently disbanded and its agents distributed to other security forces. In the 1990s, Mexico's drug czar General Jesus Rebollo was caught with his hand in the cookie jar accepting sumptuous bribes for protecting the transportation routes of Amado Carillo AKA "The Lord of the Skies" and sentenced to 40 years in durance vile.
Since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the nation's drug cartels six days after his chaotic Dec. 1st, 2006 inauguration, infiltration of Mexico's security agencies has escalated so stupendously that the U.S. military's Joint Chief of Staffs issues reports characterizing Mexico as a "potential failed state". More, HERE.
In the past 4 years 22 universities across the U.S. have quietly taken the CIA’s dollars and agreed to become spy-factories for student spooks. David Price breaks the story, identifies the campuses, details secret faculty protests and charts the strategy for resistance. The U.S.’s warlord clients in Afghanistan now produce 90 per cent of the world’s opium. Peter Lee reports how the U.S. sponsors widening drug plagues in Iran and Russia.
COCAINE & US GOVERNMENT DRUG CONSPIRACIES
University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: When the San Jose Mercury News ran a controversial series of stories in 1996 on the relationship between the CIA, the Contras, and crack, they reignited the issue of the intelligence agency's connections to drug trafficking, initially brought to light during the Vietnam War and then again by the Iran-Contra affair. Broad in scope and extensively documented, Cocaine Politics shows that under the cover of national security and covert operations, the U.S. government has repeatedly collaborated with and protected major international drug traffickers. A new preface discusses developments of the last six years, including the Mercury News stories and the public reaction they provoked.
Wikipedia: The Iran–Contra affair was a political scandal in the United States which came to light in November 1986, during the Reagan Administration, in which senior US figures agreed to facilitate the sale of arms to Iran, the subject of an arms embargo, to secure the release of hostages and to fund Nicaraguas Contras.
Celerino Castillo: On New Years Eve, 1979, he joined the DEA as one of the few Latino agents. Cele's career history clearly shows his dedication to his work, his patriotism and his love of the United States, his tireless attempts to fight a true war on drugs and his unwillingness to compromise his beliefs despite pressure from his superiors.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Are Mexican Officials Negotiating with Narco Kingpins?
By Samuel Logan
Mexican Federal Police arrested four members of the Sinaloa Federation, killing a fifth, in a shootout on 27 January after anonymous informants tipped the police to armed men seen entering and exiting a house in the state of Chihuahua. Such sporadic shootouts and arrests are now commonplace in Mexico, but the arrest of members of the Sinaloa Federation, it seems, remains a rare event.
According to analysts, Mexican authorities have made 53,174 drug-related arrests, with only 941 of those arrests — some 1.7 percent — pertaining to the Sinaloa Federation, believed to still be under the control of one man: Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
Americans spend $14 billion each year on drugs, fueling Mexican violence
February 22, 2008, by ALFREDO CORCHADO
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
/ The Dallas Morning News
CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico – American drug users are paying ruthless Mexican kingpins nearly $14 billion annually for their meth, heroin, cocaine and especially marijuana – monies that are helping fund an unprecedented bloody turf war that's threatening Mexican institutions, the White House drug czar said.
John P. Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said marijuana, not heroin or cocaine, is the "bread and butter," "the center of gravity" for Mexican drug cartels that every year smuggle tons of it through the porous U.S.-Mexico border.
Of the $13.8 billion that Americans contributed to Mexican drug traffickers in 2004-05, about 62 percent, or $8.6 billion, comes from marijuana consumption.
These are the only figures available, because this was the first time the agency conducted a market analysis, a spokesman said.
"The ability to have people purchase arms, corrupt institutions and pay assassins is fueled by the dollars of marijuana users in the United States, which is a huge, huge part of the detonator of crime and terror you're seeing across Mexico, particularly along the U.S.-Mexico border," Mr. Walters said in a telephone interview with The Dallas Morning News from Baja California, where he's meeting with Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora.
On Thursday, federal authorities returned to a Juárez warehouse where last month they confiscated 1.7 tons of marijuana. Authorities declined to comment, but one official speaking on condition of anonymity said they were digging for possible human remains. Early Thursday, authorities began moving in heavy machinery and trained dogs.
"Like in many homes in Juárez, the speculation is that there are bodies buried there," a city official said on condition of anonymity. "But until now, nothing is confirmed."
Mr. Walters expects violence to increase in the months ahead, as powerful cartels feel squeezed and their profits threatened by President Felipe Calderón's strategy, which includes deploying more than 30,000 soldiers across the nation in an effort to dismantle the cartel's organizational structures, create internal strife and disrupt their distribution routes.
But Mr. Walters stressed that Americans, both consumers and elected leaders, need to do more to help Mexico, in part by approving the $1.4 billion Merida Initiative. That proposal, awaiting U.S. congressional approval, calls for the U.S. government to provide increased services and equipment to help Mexico take on cartels.
"Shame on us if we don't take advantage of this historic opportunity," Mr. Walter said. "There are things we can do to help as partners and ensure that we have a secure, prosperous neighbor."
Decreased demand
Drug demand in the U.S. continues to fall, Mr. Walters said, but consumer awareness about the economic ripple effects and increased potency of marijuana needs to increase, he said.
"What you are choosing to do when you consume these dead-end drugs, particularly marijuana, is you're choosing to buy the guns that kill people not just along the border, but throughout Mexico, guns that kill law enforcement authorities, civilians and threaten fundamental Mexican institutions," Mr. Walters added. "It seems not too much to ask these consumers who are making these people powerful, 'Is that something you're OK with?' "
Mr. Walter's assessment comes as Ciudad Juárez and other communities bordering Texas grapple with fierce violence.
Already, more than 300 people in Mexico have been killed this year, more than 60 in the Juárez area. The majority of those homicides are tied to drug traffickers caught in a power struggle for control of distribution corridors to such U.S. cities as Angeles and Dallas.
The Juárez region is the gateway of the so-called Golden Triangle, formed by the northern states of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua, which account for most of the marijuana cultivation, according to U.S. and Mexican drug enforcement officials.
Caught in crossfire
Over the last two years, more than 5,000 people have been killed throughout Mexico. Decapitations have become common, as well as disseminating videos documenting gruesome deaths, including "narco messages" to threaten rivals, the government and terrorize U.S. and Mexican citizens. The spillover of violence continues, as well as pervasive corruption on both sides of the border.
Increasingly, civilians have been caught in the crossfire, as in a recent shooting here over a busy weekend when an elderly woman was injured during a shootout and two suspected drug traffickers were killed.
Earlier in the week, Mr. Calderón, speaking in Monterrey, said that the country has "suffered losses," but "that's because we're confronting organized crime like never before. ... If you see dust fly, it's because we're hard at work, cleaning our house."
Mr. Walters praised Mr. Calderón and said, "We all need to come to grips that American consumers are funding this violence. We share responsibility, and we need to do more to help."
© 2008, The Dallas Morning News, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
The Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG) is an independent research and media group of writers, scholars, journalists and activists. The CRG is based in Montreal. It is a registered non profit organization in the province of Quebec, Canada. ESPAÑOL, Português, Deutsch.
Spying on Americans: A Multibillion Bonanza for the Telecoms. America's endless & highly profitable, "War on Terror."
February 1, 2010 by Tom Burghardt
Court Tosses NSA Spy Suits, Sides with White House Over Illegal Surveillance
In late January, the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General released a report that provided startling new details on illegal operations by the FBI's Communications Analysis Unit (CAU) and America's grifting telecoms.
For years, AT&T, Verizon, MCI and others fed the Bureau phone records of journalists and citizens under the guise of America's endless, and highly profitable, "War on Terror."
Between 2002 and 2007, the FBI illegally collected more than 4,000 U.S. telephone records, citing bogus terrorism threats or simply by persuading telephone companies to hand over the records. Why? Because the FBI could and the telecoms were more than willing to help out a "friend"--and reap profits accrued by shredding the Constitution in the process. More, HERE.
© Copyright Tom Burghardt , Antifascist Calling..., 2010
© Copyright 2005-2009 GlobalResearch.ca
Mexico's PAN and PRD: Love letters in the making?
The rival political parties are considering a marriage of convenience this year to thwart an elections sweep by the PRI.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon's conservative PAN party is considering a series of alliances with the leftist PRD in July elections. (Fabrice Coffrini / AFP/Getty Images / January 29, 2010)
By Ken Ellingwood, February 1, 2010
Reporting from Mexico City - They are oil and water, Mars and Venus, cat and dog. And they might be the hottest pair in Mexican politics this year.
The political world is abuzz with the possibility of an election year alliance between the conservative National Action Party of President Felipe Calderon and the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, whose members are so miffed over Calderon's disputed win in 2006 that they still refuse to recognize him as president. More, HERE.
Copyright 2010
MEXICO CITY & STATES OF MEXICO, GUANAJUATO AND MICHOACAN DECLARED STATE OF EMERGENCY AS REPORTED BY PRESTIGIOUS LOCAL MEDIA, IN SPANISH, BELOW
El Universal has no official political affilation and is the most read newspaper in Mexico.
BAJO LAS AGUAS NEGRAS. Calles del Distrito Federal y el estado de México continúan inundadas por aguas residuales. En la colonia El Arenal, en Venustiano Carranza, los niveles aún llegan a los 80 centímetros, admitió el jefe de gobierno capitalino, Marcelo Ebrard | Ver nota Foto David Jaramillo
La diputada priísta Margarita Liborio retó al legislador panista Guillermo Zavaleta, quien en conferencia de prensa atacó al gobernador de Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz. Mas, AQUI.
Choque de militares y Zetas en Nuevo León; mueren dos sicarios
Damnificados del DF y Edomex reclaman a Calderón, Peña Nieto y Ebrard
Tres días de lluvias en Michoacán provocan 18 muertos y más de 20 mil damnificados
Deslave en carretera de Toluca deja una decena de muertos
Jornada de 10 ejecutados; seis de ellos decapitados
Caos en Michoacán y Chalco por lluvias
Seis decapitados en Apatzingán
Espectacular operativo en el Bar-Bar por “conato de incendio”
Ocho muertos y miles de damnificados por lluvias en Michoacán y Guanajuato
Lluvias saturan drenaje del DF; alerta en Iztapalapa y Venustiano Carranza: Ebrard
LLuvias en Michoacán dejan tres muertos y 10 desaparecidos
Inocentes, los jóvenes masacrados en Juárez: Procuraduría de Chihuahua
Exige ONU a gobierno federal respetar a víctimas de Juárez
Cabañas ya se levantó, pero no declarará: médico
Va la PGJDF por escoltas de "El JJ"
Vuelve a la pasarela exmiss Sinaloa vinculada al narco
Expulsa PRD a diputado racista
MVS obtiene amparo provisional contra licitación del triple play
Contesta Ebrard a Calderón: "Si hay injerencia federal" en caso de matrimonios gay
Masacre en Juárez: Iban por sicarios de El Chapo, revela detenido
Gobernador de Chihuahua, financiado por el narco: Javier Corral
Amaga nuevo cártel con acabar con “Los Zetas”
El imperio del narcoterrorismo
El narco, sin capacidad para desestabilizar a México: EU
2009 CISA, Comunicación e Información, S. A. de C. V.
Prohibida su reproducción parcial o total
|
