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7/11 and America’s “War on Terrorismo” – Part 3 of a series

FROM THE EDITOR

Dear readers:

I share with you this piece of text from a book, published by Michel Chossudovsky, which by its preface I can see that it carries enough detailed and researched information of the facts that have led us to be, from a free, democratic nation and the threshold of the world , to a nation with less freedom, less democracy, and no longer the threshold of freedom – and all in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001.
Due to its length, this article will be published in parts. This is PART 3 of a series.

by Michel Chossudovsky

The livelihood of millions of people throughout the World is at stake. It is my sincere hope that the truth will prevail and that the understanding provided in this detailed study will serve the cause of World peace. This objective, however, can only be reached by revealing the falsehoods behind America’s “War on Terrorism” and questioning the legitimacy of the main political and military actors responsible for extensive war crimes.” (Michel Chossudovsky, August 2005 )

Below is the preface of Michel Chossudovsky’s 2005 bestseller: America’s “War on Terrorism“.

The London 7/7 Bomb Attack

A new threshold in the “war on terrorism”was reached in July 2005, with the bomb attacks on London’s underground, which resulted tragically in 56 deaths and several hundred wounded.

On both sides of the Atlantic, the London 7//7 attacks were used to usher in far-reaching police state measures. The US House of Representatives renewed the USA PATRIOT Act “to make permanent the government’s unprecedented powers to investigate suspected terrorists”. Republicans claimed that the London attacks showed “how urgent and important it was to renew the law.”

Barely a week prior to the London attacks, Washington had announced the formation of a “domestic spy service” under the auspices of the FBI. The new department—meaning essentially a Big Brother “Secret State Police” — was given a mandate to “spy on people in America suspected of terrorism or having critical intelligence information, even if they are not suspected of committing a crime.” Significantly, this new FBI service is not accountable to the Department of Justice. It is controlled by the Directorate of National Intelligence headed by John Negroponte, who has the authority of ordering the arrest of “terror suspects.”

Meanwhile, in the wake of the 7/7 London attacks, Britain’s Home Office, was calling for a system of ID cards, as an “answer to terrorism”. Each and every British citizen and resident will be obliged to register personal information, which will go into a giant national database, along with their personal biometrics: “iris pattern of the eye”, fingerprints and “digitally recognizable facial features”. Similar procedures were being carried out in the European Union.

War criminals in high office

The anti-terrorist legislation and the establishment of a Police State largely serve the interests of those who have committed extensive war crimes and who would otherwise have been indicted under national and international law.

In the wake of the London 7/7 attacks, war criminals continue to legitimately occupy positions of authority,which enable them to xviii America’s “War on Terrorism” redefine the contours of the judicial system and the process of law enforcement. This process has provided them with a mandate to decide “who are the criminals”, when in fact they are the criminals. (Chapter XVI).

From New York and Washington on September 11 to Madrid in March 2004 and to London in July 2005, the terror attacks have been used as a pretext to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. People can be arbitrarily arrested under the antiterrorist legislation and detained for an indefinite period.

More generally, throughout the Western World, citizens are being tagged and labeled, their emails, telephone conversations and faxes are monitored and archived. Thousands of closed circuit TV cameras, deployed in urban areas, are overseeing their movements. Detailed personal data is entered into giant Big Brother data banks. Once this cataloging has been completed, people will be locked into watertight compartments.

The witch-hunt is not only directed against presumed “terrorists” through ethnic profiling, the various human rights, affirmative action and antiwar cohorts are also the object of the antiterrorist legislation.

The national security doctrine

In 2005, the Pentagon released a major document entitled The National Defense Strategy of the United States of America (NDS), which broadly sketches Washington’s agenda for global military domination. While the NDS follows in the footsteps of the Administration’s “preemptive” war doctrine as outlined in the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), it goes much further in setting the contours of Washington’s global military agenda. (See Chapter XIX.)

Whereas the preemptive war doctrine envisages military action as a means of “self defense” against countries categorized as “hostile” to the US, the 2005 NDS goes one step further. It envisages the possibility of military intervention against “unstable countries” or “failed nations”, which do not visibly constitute a threat to the security of the US.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon had unleashed a major propaganda and public relations campaign with a view to upholding the use of nuclear weapons for the “Defense of the American Homeland” against terrorists and rogue enemies. The fact that the nuclear bomb is categorized by the Pentagon as “safe for civilians” to be used in major counter-terrorist activities borders on the absurd.

In 2005, US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) drew up “a contingency plan to be used in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack”. The plan includes air raids on Iran using both conventional as well as tactical nuclear weapons.

Michel Chossudovsky is an award-winning author, Professor of Economics (emeritus) at the University of Ottawa, Founder and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

He is a contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His writings have been published in more than twenty languages. In 2014, he was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit of the Republic of Serbia for his writings on NATO’s war of aggression against Yugoslavia.

(IT WILL CONTINUE NEXT WEEK WITH AMERICA’S “WAR ON TERRORISM”).

Ten common habits that seriously damage your kidneys

by Amy Goodrich

Our kidneys are super important for our health. They filter our blood, produce hormones, absorb minerals, produce urine, eliminate toxins, and neutralize acids. So as one of the most important organs in your body, your kidneys deserve some love.

Damage or steady decline of your kidneys can often go unnoticed for years as your kidneys can still do their job with as little as 20 percent of their capacity. Therefore kidney diseases are often referred to as “The Silent Diseases”. That’s why it is so important to take care of them before it is too late.

Here’s a list of 10 common habits that put a lot of pressure on your kidneys and can cause serious damage over time.

1. Not drinking enough water

Your kidney’s most important function is to filter blood and eliminate toxins and waste materials. When you don’t drink enough plain water during the day toxins and waste material start to accumulate and can cause severe damage to your body.

2. Too much salt in your diet

Your body needs sodium or salt to work properly. Most people however consume too much salt which may raise blood pressure and put a lot of stress on the kidneys. As a good rule of thumb, no more than 5 grams of salt should be eaten on a daily basis.

3. Frequently delaying the call of nature

Many of us ignore the urge to go because they are too busy or want to avoid public bathrooms. Retaining urine on a regular basis increases urine pressure and can lead to kidney failure, kidney stones, and incontinence. So listen to your body when nature calls.

4. Kick the sugar habit

Scientific studies show that people who consume 2 or more sugary drinks a day are more likely to have protein in their urine. Having protein in your urine is an early sign your kidneys are not doing their job as they should.

5. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies

Eating a clean, whole food diet full of fresh vegetables and fruits is important for your overall health and a good kidney function. Many deficiencies can increase the risk of kidney stones or kidney failure. Vitamin B6 and magnesium, for instance, are super important to reduce the risk of kidney stones.

An estimated 70 to 80 percent of Americans isn’t getting enough magnesium, so there may be a good chance that you are one of them.

6.Too much animal protein

Over consumption of protein, especially red meat, increases the metabolic load on your kidneys. So more protein in your diet means your kidneys have to work harder and this can lead to kidney damage or dysfunction over time.

7. Sleep deprivation

We have all heard how important it is to get a good night’s rest. Chronic sleep deprivation is linked to many diseases and kidney diseases are also on the list. During the night your body repairs damaged kidney tissue, so give your body the time to heal and repair itself.

8.Coffee habit

Just as salt, caffeine can raise blood pressure and put extra stress on your kidneys. Over time excessive consumption of coffee can cause damage to your kidneys.

9. Painkiller abuse

Way too many people take painkillers for their small aches and pains, while there are many all-natural, safe remedies available. Excessive use or painkiller abuse can lead to severe damage of liver and kidneys.

10. Alcohol consumption

Although there is nothing wrong with enjoying a glass of wine or having a beer once in a while, most of us don’t stop after just one drink. Alcohol is actually a legal toxin that puts a lot of stress on our kidneys and liver.

To stay healthy and avoid kidney issues it is important to eat lots of fresh, whole foods and if you keep the above information in mind and avoid these common habits as much as possible, your kidneys will not be under constant stress and your body will thank you for that. (Natural News).

Trump demands Congress fund border wall as price for keeping dreamers

White House wants hardline measures in return for deal on DACA

Democrats, Dreamers and advocates slam ‘immoral’ and ‘shameful’ list

by Lauren Gambino

The Trump administration on Sunday issued a list of hardline immigration demands, including funding for a wall on the Mexico border and a crackdown on admittance of children from Central America, as its first move in negotiations for a deal to allow young undocumented migrants known as Dreamers to stay in the US legally.

Analysis What is DACA and who are the Dreamers?

Donald Trump is scrapping the Obama-era program for children brought to the US illegally. Here is everything you need to know about it
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/04/donald-trump-what-is-DACA-dreamers

Democrats rejected the list as “immoral” and “far beyond what is reasonable”, setting up a likely showdown in Congress. On Monday Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat from New Mexico and chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said if Republicans and the White House refused to back off, Democrats led by the CHC were prepared to derail legislation.

“They are not going to have Democrats to get them over the finish line on anything they need,” she said on a conference call with reporters, adding: “We’ll use every leverage point we have at our disposal to protect these Dreamers.”

Dreamers and groups who advocate for them also reacted with horror. Christian Ramírez, director of the Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC), said the decision to use Dreamers as a “bargaining chip” was “shameful”.

The list of principles also called for withholding federal grants for “sanctuary cities” and limiting legal immigration by issuing fewer family-based green cards to spouses and the minor children of US citizens and lawful permanent residents. It also demanded the creation of a points-based system for migrants to gain entry to the US.

On a call with reporters on Sunday, White House aides said the demands fulfilled campaign promises made by Donald Trump. As president, Trump has issued executive actions to restrict immigration that have included ramping up deportations and banning travelers and refugees from some Muslim-majority nations from entering the US.

Last month, the Trump administration announced plans to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program established by the Obama administration that issued renewable two-year permits to people brought to the country illegally as children, shielding them from deportation and allowing them to work and attend school. About 690,000 recipients are enrolled in the program. The last such work permits are due to expire in March 2018.

Congressional Democratic leaders had been optimistic about striking a deal. After a dinner with the president last month, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Nancy Pelosi said they had agreed to consider bolstering immigration enforcement as part of a deal to codify the DACA program and give Dreamers legal status.

Riding ‘the beast’: child migrants reveal full horror of their journeys to America

“The administration can’t be serious about compromise or helping the Dreamers if they begin with a list that is anathema to the Dreamers, to the immigrant community and to the vast majority of Americans,” Schumer and Pelosi said in a joint statement on Sunday.

“We told the president at our meeting that we were open to reasonable border security measures alongside the Dream Act, but this list goes so far beyond what is reasonable. This proposal fails to represent any attempt at compromise. The list includes the wall, which was explicitly ruled out of the negotiations. If the president was serious about protecting the Dreamers, his staff has not made a good faith effort to do so.”

Trump has previously said funding for the wall could be addressed separately and suggested that he did not expect it to be included in any DACA bill.
Lujan Grisham also condemned the decision to use the futures of hundreds of thousands of people to further White House policy goals. “It is immoral for the president to use the lives of these young people as bargaining chips in his quest to impose his cruel, anti-immigrant and un-American agenda on our nation,” she said in a statement.

On the White House call, a senior administration official said the agreement between the president and Democratic leaders had been mischaracterised. “There was a deal to work on a deal as fast as possible,” the official said.

Democrats and activists want any deal to include a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers. The White House official said: “We are not interested in granting citizenship.”

The attorney general, Jeff Sessions, an immigration hardliner who announced the rollback of DACA, welcomed the proposals, which he said “will restore the rule of law to our immigration system, prioritize America’s safety and security, and end the lawlessness”.

“These are reasonable proposals that will build on the early success of President Trump’s leadership,” Sessions said in a statement. “This plan will work. If followed it will produce an immigration system with integrity and one in which we can take pride. Perhaps the best result will be that unlawful attempts to enter will continue their dramatic decline.”

Bruna Bouhid, a Dreamer and spokeswoman for the advocacy group United We Dream, said the list contradicted Trump’s past promises and showed immigration policy was being steered by Sessions and White House adviser Stephen Miller, not the president.

“With this wishlist it’s pretty clear who is controlling the White House,” Bouhid told the Guardian on Monday, adding that United We Dream, the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the US, would continue to push for legislation to protect Dreamers.

Ramirez, director of the SBCC, noted that one out of five Dreamers live in border communities and would be directly affected by more aggressive border patrols.

“The president has an obligation to act in the interest of the people of the United States and not in continuing to promote divisive policies that undermine our safety and fail to ignore the contributions of immigrants to our nation,” he said.

While Trump’s list will appeal to a number of conservative Republicans, some lawmakers in the party are wary of sweeping reforms.

At a Senate hearing last week, Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina who has proposed legislation to protect DACA recipients, warned: “If Congress has proven an extraordinary ability to do anything, it’s to fail at comprehensive immigration reform.” (The Guardian).

NAFTA talks resume amid growing doubts

Mexico is bigger than the trade agreement, foreign affairs secretary tells senators

Compiled by Mexico Daily News

Trade talks resumed today amid growing doubts on both sides of the border about the likelihood of a successful conclusion to renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Some observers say there is a real possibility that a new NAFTA deal will not be reached while Mexico has given further indications that it is prepared to walk away from the 23-year-old agreement.

The fourth round of renegotiation talks in Washington comes on the heels of further threats by United States President Donald Trump to terminate the accord.

Speaking in the Senate yesterday, Foreign Affairs Secretary Luis Videgaray warned that Mexico would leave NAFTA if it wasn’t favorable to its interests and took aim at President Trump’s predilection for firing broadsides and threats via Twitter.

“We are not negotiating the agreement on social networks, we are not negotiating NAFTA through Twitter, we’re doing it with professionals, acting in good faith and that’s how we’ll continue. But we’ll only continue with this process and in this agreement if it’s in the national interest,” he said.
Videgaray also said that the objective remained to reach an agreement that is beneficial to all three countries but stressed that Mexico’s prosperity didn’t depend on it.

“Mexico is much bigger than the North American Free Trade Agreement and we must be prepared for the different scenarios that could result from this negotiation.”

Videgaray’s comments came after Trump once again weighed in on the issue by making another threat to abandon the trilateral trade treaty.

“I happen to think that NAFTA will have to be terminated if we’re going to make it good,” Trump said in an interview published by Forbes yesterday, adding, “I like bilateral deals.”

As a result of the increased uncertainty, the peso has sunk to its lowest level since June and is now trading at just below 19 to the dollar.
Trump’s hardline stance also attracted renewed criticism this week from business groups and farmers within the United States, including the country’s most powerful business lobby.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent a letter to the White House yesterday, co-signed by over 300 other U.S. business groups, to express their support for NAFTA as it currently stands.

Chamber president Thomas Donohue reiterated the organization’s views, saying that some of the proposals pursued by the Trump administration would undermine trade between the three NAFTA countries — Mexico, the U.S. and Canada — that is worth more than US $1 trillion annually.

“There are several poison-pill proposals still on the table that could doom the entire deal,” Donohue said at a business event in Mexico City.
He specifically referred to the controversial rules of origin proposal which would force automotive manufacturers to source more parts in North America, changes that have been proposed to a dispute resolution mechanism and a “sunset clause” that would force the three countries to reaffirm their commitment to the agreement every five years in order for it to continue.

The “existential threat” to NAFTA also threatened regional security, Donahue said.

Mexico and the U.S. cooperate on a range of bilateral issues beyond trade including the fight against drug trafficking and illegal immigration. Videgaray also said that an end to NAFTA would hurt bilateral cooperation.

At this week’s talks, the U.S. is expected to push a proposal that would require vehicles made in Mexico to have 85 percent NAFTA content in order to remain free of tariffs, up from the 62.5 percent content rule currently in force. Fifty per cent U.S. content may also be proposed, sources told CNBC.

But auto makers in Mexico say that any such move would have a detrimental impact on the industry’s competitiveness while Donohue said that it may have an opposite effect to the one intended because industry would seek to source more input from Asia.

He also criticized the emphasis that Trump has placed on reducing the US $64-billion trade deficit the country has with Mexico.

“It’s the wrong focus and is impossible to achieve without crippling the economy,” Donohue said.

Several analysts believe that there is a definite possibility that the talks — and the agreement — could break down as negotiations continue on the most contentious issues.
Karen Antebi, a senior economic advisor to the Mexican embassy in Washington, said “the risks of withdrawal are high, and we are preparing for that possibility,” while Juan Carlos Hartasánchez, a senior director at the consultancy Albright Stonebridge, said “I definitely think there’s a real chance this could fall apart.”

The chief global strategist at Horizon Investment was a bit more optimistic. Although Greg Valliere described NAFTA as being on “very thin ice” he said that even if threats to abandon the talks became a reality it would not necessarily put a final end to the agreement.

“I do think there is a chance the U.S. or Mexico could walk out,” Greg Valliere said.

“[But] I think people would consider it a stunt and maybe we could resurrect the talks.”

The Washington round is scheduled to conclude on Sunday although there is a possibility it could be extended by two days to Oct. 17.

Source: El Economista (sp), Reuters (en), CNBC (en)

Environment officials plan to oppose wall
Arguments have been prepared against Donald Trump’s border wall

Mexico is set to oppose United States President Donald Trump’s border wall on environmental grounds. But the debate will not begin until the wall’s construction is confirmed.

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Rafael Pacchiano Alamán said this week it was clear that the project could cause considerable environmental damage.

Construction of eight prototypes for the border wall began September 26 in San Diego, California. Six contractors from across the U.S. were selected for the process, which is expected to take about 30 days.

Four of the prototypes are to be built out of concrete while other materials will be used for the other four. The walls are to range between 5.5 and 9-meter high and must succeed in one prevailing goal: “deter illegal crossings in the area in which they are constructed.”

Once built they will be tested by the Department of Homeland Security, which will pay between US $300,000 and $500,000 for each one.

Testing will be based on the walls’ capacity for “anti-scaling, anti-climbing, anti-digging and safety of border patrol agents,” said Tekae Michael of the U.S. Border Patrol.

Several of the prototypes have been erected.

Mexico’s environment secretary said his department has the necessary environmental arguments against the project.

He also said there are international organizations that have been kept informed of the border wall and that they would collaborate with Mexico.

Source: El Sol de Tijuana (sp), NPR (en), WREG (en)

Ousted Brazilian President: US intervention in Venezuela could spark “Civil War”

Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff warned Sunday that Washington’s interference in Venezuela is “extremely dangerous” and could provoke an armed conflict

by Lucas Koerner
Global Research

“Our continent has been living in peace for 140 years. Any attempt to interfere in the legitimate constitutional process in Venezuela, including by forcing a presidential election, is extremely dangerous, as it might lead to a civil war,” she said in an exclusive interview with RT in Moscow.

Rousseff was herself impeached and removed from her elected post last year in what was widely decried as a “parliamentary coup”.

The Brazilian leader likewise took aim at her congress-designated successor, Michel Temer, who has moved to align Brasilia’s foreign policy closely with Washington, leading the regional charge against the government in Caracas.

“The Temer government has an absolutely incorrect attitude with respect to Venezuela and it’s not only the pressure from Trump and (Temer’s) intention to appear submissive, but above all the fact that it accepted joint action with US troops in the Amazon,” she continued, referencing a US-led military exercise set for November, in which the armed forces of 14 countries will participate.

Rousseff denounced the drills, which will involve the creation of a “multinational logistics base” in the Brazilian city of Tabatinga, as part of an “anti-democratic vision to besiege Venezuela”.

Located on the border with Peru and Colombia, Tabatinga is a little over 630 kilometers south of Venezuela.

The ex-president additionally criticized US support for Venezuela’s right-wing opposition, which led four months of violent anti-government mobilizations aimed at toppling the Maduro government earlier this year.

Comparing Venezuelan anti-government forces to the Syrian rebels, Rousseff said the US has “often been mistaken in regard to oppositions”.

“(Washington) says: ‘Those are democracy supporters’. They’ve said it about opposition forces in Syria too. And what has happened with that opposition? Islamic State has emerged, which has nothing to do with democracy.”

Over one hundred people were killed in the unrest, including at least 14 at the hands of Venezuelan state security forces and 31 direct and indirect victims of opposition political violence.

Lastly, Rousseff condemned as an “absurd error” the decision by the right-wing governments of Argentina and Brazil to indefinitely suspend Venezuela from the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR) on the grounds of a breach of the body’s democratic clause.

She slammed the move as hypocritical, noting that a similar measure was not taken against Brazil following her ouster.

In August, MERCOSUR’s parliament issued a statement backing Venezuelan sovereignty and rejecting US President Donald Trump’s threats of military intervention.

At the time, former Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva similarly hit back at the White House, calling US military threats “inadmissible.”

Boxing Program – The Sport of Gentlemen

OCTOBER 13, 2017
Fantasy Springs, Indio, CA, USA (ESPN / ESPN Deportes)

Fidel Maldonado Jr vs. Ismael Barroso

Pablo Cano vs. Marcelino López
OCTOBER 14, 2017
Barclays, Brooklyn, NY (Showtime)

Erislandy Lara vs. Terrell Gausha

Jermell Charlo vs. Erickson Lubin

Jarrett Hurd vs. Austin Trout
StubHub Center, Carson, CA, USA (PBC on FOX)

Abner Mares vs. Andrés Gutiérrez

Leo Santa Cruz vs. Chris Ávalos
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (Epicentre.tv)

El Guegüense of Nicaragua at Brava Theater of San Francisco

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

Dances for Nicaragua, along with the principal dancers of the Nicaraguan Ballet Company, and UNAN-MANAGUA Classic Lines would give life to an incomparable night of Nicaraguan Tradition, Culture and Art. Together with the renowned marimba Flor de Pino and guests from Bahia, the Brava Theater awaits us at 6 p.m. on Sunday Oct. 8.

Artists explore Italy

Beryl Landau and Anthony Holdsworth have been traveling and painting in Italy for thirty years.

This exhibition features watercolors and small oil paintings created onsite from Lake Como and Venice in the north to Palermo and Catania in the south.

It also includes larger works created in their studios after their return from these journeys.  

From now to Oct. 13, at Instituto Italiano di Cultura, 601 Van Ness Avenue, Opera Plaza.

2017 Fiesta on the Hill

Bernal Neighborhood Center presents 2017 Fiesta on the Hill, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Summer of Love. Come dressed for the summer of love.

Join your neighbors at this family-friendly and alcohol-free while benefiting BHNC’s youth, seniors, affordable housing, community engagement and employment programs.

Live music, food trucks, local artisans, dancing in the streets, family fun.

On Sunday Oct. 22, at 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. At Cortland Avenue. Sponsored by the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center. For more info call 415-206-2140 or visit: fiesta@bhnc.org.

Free Financial Planning Day at the Library

The Financial Planning Association of San Francisco, in partnership with the City and County of San Francisco Treasurer’s Office and the San Francisco Public Library, are pleased to announce the 8th annual San Francisco Financial Planning Day on October 28, 2017 from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.  

 Bay Area residents will be able to meet one-on-one with dozens of highly qualified Certified Financial Planner™ professionals to discuss their personal finance questions, concerns and interests.

 The event is a great opportunity for a free, private consultation with an expert on a wide variety of personal finance issues, including debt management, retirement planning, investment strategies, income taxes, insurance, and estate planning, among many others. Programs will run throughout the day covering budgeting and credit counseling.

 Best of all, there are no strings attached. Financial planners are volunteering their time and will not pass out business cards, marketing materials or sell products or services. They will be stationed at tables and will meet with one individual or a couple at a time. In addition to one-on-one consultations, there will be a series of informative classroom workshops presented by top financial planners on a wide range of financial topics. Prior events have served 300-400 Bay Area residents each year.

For the completed schedule, please visit:
http://financialplanningdays.org/event/san-francisco-financial-planning-day

Financial Planning Day – Oct. 28, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m., Main Library, 100 Larkin Street.

Statue of José Martí in New York arrives in Havana

by the El Reportero’s news services

Parque Plaza 13 de Marzo, capital of the Old Havana will host the replica of the equestrian statue of José Martí since 1950 in Central Park in New York, local media reported.

The three-ton, 5.67-meter-high sculpture was received on Tuesday at the Sierra Maestra port in Havana, after being delivered to the port of the Mariel Special Development Zone in a ship from the United States.

Forged in bronze and sculpted in Philadelphia, the piece is the fruit of the generous contribution of Cubans and Americans from both shores, according to a note from the site Radio Reloj.

The original work of the American artist Anna Hyatt (1876-1973), is located on the Avenue of the Americas of Central Park in New York, along with the sculptures of the Latin American pro-independence figures Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín.

Acclaimed global features and festival hits amongst October additions

San Francisco, CA – SFFILM has announced the lineup of new films premiering on the SFFILM Screening Room, the curated film streaming service available exclusively to SFFILM members through an easy-to-use web platform and mobile app. Five new feature films have joined the already strong roster of titles on the service, and are now available to stream. There are currently 25 acclaimed films to choose from on the service, with additional titles being added each month. We picked the Latino one.

Who is Dayani Cristal? Tells the story of the body of an unidentified immigrant that is found in the Arizona desert.

In an attempt to retrace his path and discover his story, director Marc Silver and Gael Garcia Bernal embed themselves among migrant travelers on their own mission to cross the border, providing rare insight into the human stories which are so often ignored in the immigration debate. This documentary premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013.

Television Academy Foundation honors Latinos in news and entertainment

Television Academy Foundation Honors Latinos in news and entertainment with Google Cultural Exhibit For National Hispanic Heritage Month.

Among celebrities featured from The Interviews: An Oral History of Television are Rita Moreno, Edward James Olmos, Hector Elizondo, and Jorge Ramos.

Sourced from the Google Foundation’s extensive video collection, The Interviews: An Oral History of Television, the virtual online exhibit features interviews with Rita Moreno (Netflix’s One Day at a Time), Edward James Olmos (Narcos), Hector Elizondo (Last Man Standing), Mario Kreutzberger aka ‘Don Francisco’ (Sábado Gigante), journalists Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas (Noticiero Univision), Sonia Manzano (Sesame Street), as well as the late Ricardo Montalban, and highlights the ground-breaking achievements and societal challenges of Latinos in U.S. entertainment and news. Created in partnership with Google Arts & Culture, the Foundation’s “Latinos in News and Entertainment” exhibit can be viewed online at: https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/exhibit/RwJSSMd744AXKw

This replica reflects the figure of the Cuban National Hero at the time of his death during the battle of Dos Rios, on May 19, 1895, and constitutes a gift from Cuba to the people of the United States as a symbol of friendship.

Chamber of Secrets: Teaching a machine what Congress cares about

Want to know what distinctive topics your members of Congress are concerned about? Represent’s got you covered

by Jeremy B. Merrill

If you asked congressional experts what legislative subjects, say, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington specializes in, they’d have a few pretty good guesses: maybe education and health care — because she’s the ranking member on a key committee that oversees those issues. If you asked who else in the Senate shares her interests, you might hear Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado. Why? Because he is a former school superintendent and a member on that same committee.

You could ask them the same question about more members of Congress, but before you got through all 535 lawmakers, they’d probably hang up on you.
But what if we could teach a computer what specific topics are distinctive to each member? We did just that. We trained a computer model to extract what phrases a Congress member uses more than the rest, using hundreds of thousands of press releases from 2015 to the present.

We hope this addition to Represent’s member pages will give constituents new insight into what the people who work in their names specialize in, whether it’s hot-button national issues or local happenings.

Many of the results are intuitive: Rep. Jared Polis, a Democratic representative from Colorado who is known as a civil libertarian, has “email privacy” as a topic; the model also knows Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican, talks often about “coal miners.”

But the model’s strength is not in making obvious observations, but spotting things others might not. The model has picked up on New Jersey Democrat Rep. Josh Gottheimer’s use of the phrase “moocher states,” for example, a phrase more closely associated with libertarian groups than his own party. And the model recognizes Rep. Yvette Clarke’s interest in “confederate generals,” as it relates to street names in Fort Hamilton, near her Brooklyn, New York, district.
The model notices issues that aren’t quite on the national radar, like the “wotus rule” — AKA, the Waters of the United States Rule, a change in who regulates water pollution that has raised the ire of Republicans such as Rep. Bob Gibbs of Ohio. Or widespread interest among representatives of the rural West, including Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah, about whether to add the sage grouse to the endangered species list, triggering rules that could limit farming and industry near the bird’s habitat.

Just because a topic appears on one member’s list but not another’s doesn’t mean the second Congress member don’t care about it. There may simply be more distinctive topics that they talk about. And for now, that means big topics that lots of representatives and senators talk about, such as education or crime, aren’t included in each member’s list. But we’re working on ways to reflect those, too.

Along with identifying discrete topics, the model finds which members of Congress’ press releases are most similar, in topic or turns of phrase, in essence calculating who “sounds like” whom.

The representative whose press releases are closest to Rep. John Lewis’ is Rep. A. Donald McEachin, another African-American Democrat from a southern state. Rep. Thomas Massie, the model says, puts out releases similar to Sen. Rand Paul, his fellow Kentuckian who also leans libertarian.
How the Model Works

Our code relies on an approximation of what English words mean created by mathematically representing the context in which they occur. The theory that this would give you an idea of words’ meanings is called “Distributional Semantics.”

Why the particular technique we use, called Word2Vec, works so well is a bit of a mystery — especially if you, like me, never studied linear algebra — but it does work. Without being explicitly programmed to know anything about U.S. politics, the model has learned a lot about how our country works:

• It knows that “death tax” and “estate tax” refer to the same thing.
• If you ask the model who has the same kind of relationship to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that Rep. Nancy Pelosi has to Rep. Paul Ryan, its answer is Sen. Chuck Schumer — the Democratic minority leader in the Senate. (Well, it’s a tie: the model suggests Schumer and his predecessor in that position, Harry Reid.)

A related technique, Doc2Vec, assigns a value to individual press releases or a member’s entire body of press releases from the sum of the meanings of the words. Similar to the way in which DW-Nominate, a powerful statistical technique used to characterize where politicians stand along a political spectrum, transforms a congressperson’s voting record into a location in two dimensions, Doc2vec transforms what the Congress member says into a location in 100 dimensions. (However, unlike DW-Nominate, there’s no good way to translate those dimensions into anything that makes analytical sense to humans.) Finding Congress members who sound alike is as easy as finding each member’s “nearest neighbor” in this imaginary 100-dimensional space.

The topics are generated in a way that uses the same software, called Gensim, but relies less on linear algebra and more on counting. It finds the phrases that occur most often in each member’s statements but rarely in everyone else’s — a statistical technique called term-frequency (over) inverse-document-frequency (often shortened to “TF-IDF”) that is a useful proxy for importance. More concretely, it finds that Sen. Enzi’s statements contain the phrase “sage grouse” a lot, but that phrase appears frequently in only a few other members’ statements. A more general topic like “environment” would not show up, since it’s relatively common and only one word long.

The results of the TF-IDF algorithm are not presented verbatim; we do some manual filtering to exclude, say, the name of the member’s contact person for press releases or the phrasing of their “contact me” button.

There’s more in store. Stay tuned for a way to see what bills are related to a given topic — in a way that’s more powerful than just a keyword search. We’re also planning to throw floor statements into the model, as part of the relaunch of the CapitolWords project we inherited from Sunlight Labs earlier this year.

So how did our algorithm do on Murray? Broader topics like “education” and “health care” tend not to get noticed, in lieu of more specific pieces of the topic, like “Trumpcare bill,” a topic the algorithm identified as one of Murray’s. And the algorithm does list Murray as one of the members most similar to Michael Bennet. Pretty decent for some math and a pile of press releases.

September/11 and America’s “War on Terrorism” – 2nd part of a series

FROM THE EDITOR

Dear readers:

I share with you this piece of text from a book, published by Michel Chossudovsky, which by its preface I can see that it carries enough detailed and researched information of the facts that have led us to be, from a free, democratic nation and the threshold of the world , to a nation with less freedom, less democracy, and no longer the threshold of freedom – and all in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001.
Due to its length, this article will be published in parts. This is PART 2 of a series.

by Michel Chossudovsky

The livelihood of millions of people throughout the World is at stake. It is my sincere hope that the truth will prevail and that the understanding provided in this detailed study will serve the cause of World peace. This objective, however, can only be reached by revealing the falsehoods behind America’s War on Terrorism and questioning the legitimacy of the main political and military actors responsible for extensive war crimes.” (Michel Chossudovsky, August 2005 )

Below is the preface of  Michel Chossudovsky’s 2005 bestseller: America’s War on Terrorism 

The mysterious Pakistani general

On the 12th of September, a mysterious Lieutenant General, head of Pakistan’s Military Intelligence (ISI), who according to the US press reports “happened to be in Washington at the time of the attacks”, was called into the office of Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitrage.

The “War on Terrorism” had been officially launched late in the night of September 11, and Dick Armitage was asking General Mahmoud Ahmad to help America “in going after the terrorists”. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was on the phone with Secretary of State Colin Powell and the following morning, on the 13th of September, a comprehensive agreement, was reached between the two governments.

While the press reports confirmed that Pakistan would support the Bush administration in the “war on terror”, what they failed to mention was the fact that Pakistan`s military intelligence (ISI) headed by General Ahmad had a longstanding relationship to the Islamic terror network. Documented by numerous sources, the ISI was known to have supported a number of Islamic organizations including Al Qaeda and the Taliban. (See Chapter IV in the book.)

My first reaction in reading news headlines on the 13th of September was to ask: if the Bush administration were really committed to weeding out the terrorists, why would it call upon Pakistan`s ISI, which is known to have supported and financed these terrorist organizations?

Two weeks later, an FBI report, which was briefly mentioned on ABC News, pointed to a “Pakistani connection” in the financing of the alleged 9/11 terrorists. The ABC report referred to a Pakistani “moneyman” and “mastermind” behind the 9/11 hijackers.

Subsequent reports indeed suggested that the head of Pakistan’s military intelligence, General Mahmoud Ahmad, who had met Colin Powell on the 13th of September 2001, had allegedly ordered the transfer of 100,000 dollars to the 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta. What these reports suggested was that the head of Pakistan’s military intelligence was not only in close contact with senior officials of the US Government, he was also in liaison with the alleged hijackers.

My writings on the Balkans and Pakistani connections, published in early October 2001 were later incorporated into the first edition of this book. In subsequent research, I turned my attention to the broader US strategic and economic agenda in Central Asia and the Middle East.

There is an intricate relationship between War and Globalization. The “War on Terror” has been used as a pretext to conquer new economic frontiers and ultimately establish corporate control over Iraq’s extensive oil reserves.

The disinformation campaign

In the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the disinformation campaign went into full gear.

Known and documented prior to the invasion, Britain and the US made extensive use of fake intelligence to justify the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Al Qaeda was presented as an ally of the Baghdad regime. “Osama bin Laden” and “Weapons of Mass Destruction” statements circulated profusely in the news chain. (Chapter XI.)

Meanwhile, a new terrorist mastermind had emerged: Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. In Colin Powell’s historic address to the United Nations Security Council, detailed “documentation” on a sinister relationship between Saddam Hussein and Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was presented, focusing on his ability to produce deadly chemical, biological and radiological weapons, with the full support and endorsement of the secular Baathist regime.

A Code Orange terror alert followed within two days of Powell’s speech at the United Nations Security Council, where he had been politely rebuffed by UN Weapons Inspector Dr. Hans Blix.

Realty was thus turned upside down. The US was no longer viewed as preparing to wage war on Iraq. Iraq was preparing to attack America with the support of “Islamic terrorists”. Terrorist mastermind Al-Zarqawi was identified as the number one suspect.
Official statements pointed to the dangers of a dirty radioactive bomb attack in the US.

The main thrust of the disinformation campaign continued in the wake of the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. It consisted in presenting the Iraqi resistance movement as “terrorists”. The image of “terrorists opposed to democracy” fighting US “peacekeepers” appeared on television screens and news tabloids across the globe.

Meanwhile, the Code Orange terror alerts were being used by the Bush administration to create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation across America. (See Chapter XX.) The terror alerts also served to distract public opinion from the countless atrocities committed by US forces in the Afghan and Iraqi war theaters, not to mention the routine torture of so-called “enemy combatants”.

Following the invasion of Afghanistan, the torture of prisoners of war and the setting up of concentration camps became an integral part of the Bush administration’s post 9/11 agenda.

The entire legal framework had been turned upside down. According to the US Department of Justice, torture was now permitted under certain circumstances. Torture directed against “terrorists” was upheld as a justifiable means to preserving human rights and democracy. (See chapters XIV and XV.) In an utterly twisted logic, the Commander in Chief can now quite legitimately authorize the use of torture, because the victims of torture in this case are so-called “terrorists”, who are said to routinely apply the same methods against Americans.

The orders to torture prisoners of war at the Guantanamo concentration camp and in Iraq in the wake of the 2003 invasion emanated from the highest levels of the US Government. Prison guards, interrogators in the US military and the CIA were responding to precise guidelines.

An inquisitorial system had been installed. In the US and Britain the “war on the terrorism” is upheld as being in the public interest. Anybody who questions its practices—which now include arbitrary arrest and detention, torture of men, women and children, political assassinations and concentration camps—is liable to be arrested under the antiterrorist legislation. (Part 3 will continue next week with The London 7/7 Bomb Attack).

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