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tradition, they hope to leave the impression with people who know better than they officially don't sanction a reign of terror, the destruction of all those lives in order to instruct the general population they'd never ever want to get in the road of the government for any reason whatsoever. As you mentioned, this utter disregard for human life in order to lay down a thick blanket of fear in order to maintain the primacy of a fascist government has been repudiated everywhere throughout South America, with a few pockets of stubborn oligarchy resisistance scattered around. The entire region has made the decision not to "live" like that any longer, and is moving toward a human way of life for ALL the people of Latin America, rather than only those who choose to keep close ties to corporatists in the U.S. at the heartbreaking expense of their countries' people. It's hard to understand how both Clinton and Obama have ended up getting involved wih people who are working directly contrary to Democratic legislators who dug in their heels long ago in their decision not to reward Uribe's government for its savage behavior toward the general population. Uribe has been throwing everything he's got against them for a couple of years, and that's how he acquired Mark Penn. He's one of four specialists Uribe hired to wage war against these principled Democrats in our own Congress to find some way to beat some submission into them so Uribe can continue his gravy train spectacle at the expense of his own people, and clearly at the expense of the American taxpayers. "False positives," or killing citizens and pretending they've killed them some more "enemies" is a tradition going back for YEARS. The US government has known about it for a LONG time. The only people who were in the dark were the very people whose hard-earned taxes have been extorted to reward these murderous clowns. It was almost a miracle that any of our news organizations, like the Washington Post, finally broke down and did any articles on it, considering how well known all this has been for a long time. You rightfully questioned at the time why the Post had suddenly decided to "out" the "false positive" killers in the Colombian military. I hope we're going to get the answer for that in time. From April, 2008: Penn, Wolfson, Colombia: A pretty confused picture
If the Mark Penn story wasn't mostly inside baseball, it would be a pretty big mess at this point.
Yesterday, the Clinton campaign announced that Penn was giving up his job as chief strategist for the campaign, because Hillary opposes a trade deal with Colombia while Penn was working for Colombia on the same deal, meeting with the ambassador last week to strategize on how to get the deal passed in his capacity as chairman of Burson-Marsteller.
Already fired by Colombia over the conflict, the Clinton release said he had decided to step down from his campaign post, but sources said he had been pushed. And it made sense -- because the strategy devised by Hillary and Penn hasn't exactly worked well, and having a political aide who was trying to get a deal passed with an anti-union regime didn't seem like a great way to secure blue-collar votes in Pennsylvania.
In 24 hours, however, two things complicate the narrative:
First, a report that in fact -- announcement notwithstanding -- Penn continues to serve as a "key" campaign staffer, participating today in daily message calls and debate preparation calls. From Atlantic political correspondent Marc Ambinder: "Mr. Penn 'is still going to be very much involved,' a senior campaign official said."
And, later, a report in Politico that one of Penn's replacements -- Hillary spokesman Howard Wolfson -- retains an equity interest in the Glover Park Group, a DC PR firm that "signed a $40,000 per month contract with the government of Colombia in April of 2007 to promote the very agreement that Clinton now rails against on the presidential campaign trail." His interest is valued at $500,000 to $1 million.
There's nothing wrong with that. DC operatives have to make their money. It's hardly news that they're a mercenary class, not always true believers. It's kind of understood that if you're going to be a player, you're going to have some smelly involvements. And, arguably, passively benefiting from work for Colombia is different from actively advocating for it. But, combined with Penn's continued important role at the campaign, it raises questions about the real reasons behind his public demotion.
Apparently, Clinton doesn't feel any deep discomfort with aides making money off of advocacy for a Colombian trade deal while, in Hillary's words today, "violence against trade unionists continues and the perpetrators are not brought to justice." She isn't taking a stand against conflicts between her positions and her advisors' clients. There's no principle here. http://blogs.trb.com/news/local/longisland/politics/blog/2008/04/penn_wolfson_colombia_a_pretty.htmlAnd: By Alex Koppelman
Sunday, April 6, 2008 20:06 EDT
Penn out as Clinton's chief strategist
Mark Penn has resigned his position as chief strategist in Hillary Clinton's campaign, campaign manager Maggie Williams announced Sunday. According to Williams, Penn and his firm, Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates, Inc., will still be providing the campaign with polling and advice.
Penn has been a subject of controversy at various points throughout the race -- with plenty of criticism coming from inside the Clinton campaign, as well as from outside -- but he apparently could not survive his latest brush with it. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported on a meeting Penn had with the Colombian ambassador to the U.S. to discuss a bilateral trade deal Clinton opposes. Penn was reportedly there in his role as chief executive Burson-Marsteller Worldwide, a communications and lobbying firm.
According to ABC News' Political Radar blog, Penn resigned "under pressure from an angry Sen. Clinton, who believed that Penn had recused himself from any clients who might pose a conflict for her campaign." Two labor groups -- Change to Win and Unite Here, both of which have endorsed Obama -- had called for Penn's firing.
On Saturday, Colombia fired Penn's firm. In a statement announcing the move, the Colombian government said: Mr. Mark Penn, President and CEO of Burson Marsteller, reponded to claims by Union representatives who questioned his relationship with the Colombian Government by declaring that it was an "error in judgment" to meet with his client the Colombian Ambassador on March 31. The Colombian government considers this a lack of respect to Colombians, and finds this response unacceptable. http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/04/06/penn/Regarding Eric Holder: ~snip~
In 1988, GOP President Ronald Reagan appointed Holder to the bench in Washington's Superior Court. Six years later, as U.S. attorney in Washington, Holder's office indicted then-Democratic House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, who ended up pleading guilty in 1996 to mail fraud. And the Senate unanimously confirmed Holder in 1997 for the Justice Department's No. 2 post.
Holder has been in private practice since 2001 and some of his cases remain before the Justice Department. He is handling civil case negotiations for the Chiquita International Brands, which claims it was forced to agree to a plea deal and $25 million fine to avoid indictment over security payments the company made to a right-wing Colombian paramilitary group that the U.S. government designated as a terrorist group.
A group suing the company said Wednesday it has raised concerns with the Senate Judiciary Committee about Holder's defense of Chiquita in lawsuits seeking payment for the families of people who were killed by the terrorists. The group _ Earth Rights International _ wants senators to question Holder's human-rights credentials because he has argued that there is no evidence linking killings in Colombia to Chiquita. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/30/eric-holder-obamas-attorn_n_137696.html?page=4And: Thursday, November 20, 2008
ERIC HOLDER, CHIQUITA & THE AND COLOMBIA DEATH SQUADS
Kevin Gray, Portfolio, October 2007 - For years, Chiquita Brands secretly paid off death squads in Colombia. Now the U.S. Congress is asking questions. . .
In northern Colombia's lush banana-growing region. . . Chiquita Brands International, the $655 million fruit giant, slipped into a blood-soaked scandal. Between 1997 and 2004, Chiquita gave $1.7 million to the A.U.C., whose death squads destroyed unions, terrorized workers, and killed thousands of civilians. Chiquita's top officials admit approving the payments but say they thought that if they didn't pay up, the A.U.C. would kill its employees and attack its facilities. Because the U.S. State Department has labeled the A.U.C. a terrorist organization, federal prosecutors charged Chiquita in March with engaging in transactions with terrorists. In an agreement with the Justice Department, Chiquita pleaded guilty and will pay a $25 million fine. . .
The firm's lawyers have struggled to explain publicly that Chiquita had to make a choice between "life and law" and that it chose the "humanitarian" route of protecting its workers. "This company was in a bad position dealing with bad guys," says Eric Holder, a Washington attorney representing Chiquita. "There's absolutely no suggestion of any personal gain here. It's not a case like Tyco, where someone is squirreling money away. No one is out buying great shower curtains."
As a corporation, though, Chiquita stood to benefit greatly from the lethal cleansing that Castano delivered. At the time, the Marxist guerrillas routinely kidnapped U.S. executives, blew up railroads, and sabotaged oil pipelines. Chiquita says it became increasingly difficult to protect its workers and their families. Castano's death squads, however, were squarely pro-business. They were not just ridding Uraba of guerrillas; they were killing leftists and eradicating unions. . .
During the A.U.C.'s reign of terror, according to the federal complaint, the region would become Chiquita's most profitable farming operation in the world.
While the A.U.C. was murdering thousands of Colombians, "to our knowledge, the paramilitaries never touched a hair on the head of a U.S. citizen or company," says Adam Isacson, director of the Colombia program at the Center for International Policy, in Washington. In fact, Isacson says, the A.U.C.'s stranglehold brought "a strange form of peace to the region through terror. It created a much more friendly business environment."
But for Eric Holder, Chiquita's lawyer, that argument falls flat. "It's like saying a shopkeeper feels safe because the Mob is extorting him for protection payments," Holder says. "You're not paying these guys to protect you from someone else; you're paying them to protect you from them."
Scott Creighton - Barack Obama, the man who spoke so eloquently in the last debate about not passing the Columbia Free Trade Agreement until more was done to bring the killers of the union workers to justice, has just announced that he is going to make the lawyer for one of the companies responsible for these killings, his Attorney General. You can't make this stuff up. http://prorev.com/2008/11/eric-holder-chiquita-and-colombia-death.html |
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