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ARTICLES IN FULL:

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1) Tale of last 90 minutes of woman's life
County officials express dismay at the events surrounding
the recent controversial death at King-Harbor hospital.
One nurse has resigned.
By Charles Ornstein
Times Staff Writer
May 20, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-king20may20,0,6057993.story?coll=la-home-center

2) REFLECTIONS BY THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF
THE ENGLISH SUBMARINE
By Fidel Castro Ruz
May 21, 2007
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/secciones/reflexiones/ing-009.html

3) Racism goes on trial again in America's Deep South
“The prosecution of three black Louisiana youths
reveals the rise of discrimination by stealth.”
by Tom Mangold in Jena, Louisiana
The Observer (UK) - May 20, 2007
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2083762,00.html

4) San Francisco Labor Council Resolution
Denounces the Proposed Iraqi Oil Law
Hands Off Iraqi Oil!

5) Immigration Raid Leaves Sense of Dread in Hispanic Students
By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN
WILLMAR, Minn.
May 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/education/23education.html?ref=us

6) Paramilitary Ties to Elite In Colombia Are Detailed
Commanders Cite State Complicity in Violent Movement
By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, May 22, 2007; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/21/AR2007052101672.html?nav=rss_world

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1) Tale of last 90 minutes of woman's life
County officials express dismay at the events surrounding
the recent controversial death at King-Harbor hospital.
One nurse has resigned.
By Charles Ornstein
Times Staff Writer
May 20, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-king20may20,0,6057993.story?coll=la-home-center

In the emergency room at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor
Hospital, Edith Isabel Rodriguez was seen as a complainer.

"Thanks a lot, officers," an emergency room nurse told
Los Angeles County police who brought in Rodriguez early
May 9 after finding her in front of the Willowbrook hospital
yelling for help. "This is her third time here."

The 43-year-old mother of three had been released from
the emergency room hours earlier, her third visit in three
days for abdominal pain. She'd been given prescription
medication and a doctor's appointment.

Turning to Rodriguez, the nurse said, "You have already
been seen, and there is nothing we can do," according to
a report by the county office of public safety, which
provides security at the hospital.

Parked in the emergency room lobby in a wheelchair after
police left, she fell to the floor. She lay on the linoleum,
writhing in pain, for 45 minutes, as staffers worked
at their desks and numerous patients looked on.

Aside from one patient who briefly checked on her condition,
no one helped her. A janitor cleaned the floor around her
as if she were a piece of furniture. A closed-circuit
camera captured everyone's apparent indifference.

Arriving to find Rodriguez on the floor, her boyfriend
unsuccessfully tried to enlist help from the medical staff
and county police — even a 911 dispatcher, who balked
at sending rescuers to a hospital.

Alerted to the "disturbance" in the lobby, police stepped
in — by running Rodriguez's record. They found an outstanding
warrant and prepared to take her to jail. She died before
she could be put into a squad car.

How Rodriguez came to die at a public hospital, without
help from the many people around her, is now the subject
of much public hand-wringing. The county chief administrative
office has launched an investigation, as has the Sheriff's
Department homicide division and state and federal
health regulators.

The triage nurse involved has resigned, and the emergency
room supervisor has been reassigned. Additional disciplinary
actions could come this week.

The incident has brought renewed attention to King-Harbor,
a long-troubled hospital formerly known as King/Drew.

The Times reconstructed the last 90 minutes of Rodriguez's
life based on accounts by three people who have seen the
confidential videotape, a detailed police report, interviews
with relatives and an account of the boyfriend's 911 call.

"I am completely dumbfounded," said county Supervisor
Zev Yaroslavsky, who has seen the video recording.

"It's an indictment of everybody," he said. "If this woman
was in pain, which she appears to be, if she was writhing
in pain, which she appears to be, why did nobody bother …
to take the most minimal interest in her, in her welfare?
It's just shocking. It really is."

The story of Rodriguez's demise began at 12:34 a.m. when
two county police officers received a radio call of
a "female down" and yelling for help near the front
entrance of King-Harbor, according to the police report.

When they approached Rodriguez to ask what was wrong,
she responded in a "loud and belligerent voice that her
stomach was hurting," the report states. She said she
had 10 gallstones and that one of them had burst.

A staff member summoned by the police arrived with
a wheelchair and rolled her into the emergency room.
Among her belongings, one officer found her latest
discharge slip from the hospital, which instructed
her to "return to ER if nausea, vomit, more pain
or any worse."

When the officers talked to the emergency room nurse,
she "did not show any concern" for Rodriguez, the
police report said. The report identifies the nurse
as Linda Witland, but county officials confirmed that
her name is Linda Ruttlen, who began working for the
county in July 1992.

Ruttlen could not be reached for comment.

During that initial discussion with Ruttlen, Rodriguez
slipped off her wheelchair onto the floor and curled
into a fetal position, screaming in pain, the report said.

Ruttlen told her to "get off the floor and onto a chair,"
the police report said. Two officers and a different nurse
helped her back to the wheelchair and brought her close
to the reception counter, where a staff member asked
her to remain seated.

The officers left and Rodriguez again pitched forward
onto the floor, apparently unable to get up, according
to people who saw the videotape and spoke on the condition
of anonymity.

Because the tape does not have sound, it is not possible
to determine whether Rodriguez was screaming or what
she was saying, the viewers said. Because of the camera's
angle, in most scenes, she is but a grainy blob, sometimes
obstructed, moving around on the floor.

When Rodriguez's boyfriend, Jose Prado, returned to the
hospital after an errand and saw her on the floor, he
alerted nurses and then called 911.

According to Sheriff's Capt. Ray Peavy, the dispatcher
said, "Look, sir, it indicates you're already in a hospital
setting. We cannot send emergency equipment out there
to take you to a hospital you're already at."

Prado then knocked on the door of the county police,
near the emergency room, and said, "My girlfriend needs
help and they don't want to help her," according to the
police report. A sergeant told him to consult the medical
staff, the report said. Minutes later, Prado came back
to the sergeant and said, "They don't want to help her."
Again, he was told to see the medical staff.

Within minutes, police began taking Rodriguez into custody.
When they told Prado that there was a warrant for Rodriguez's
arrest, he asked if she would get medical care wherever she
was taken. They assured him that she would. He then kissed
her and left, the police report said.

She was wheeled to the patrol vehicle and the door was opened
so that she could get into the back. When officers asked
her to get up, she did not respond. An officer tried to
revive her with an ammonia inhalant, then checked for
a pulse and found none. She died in the emergency room
after resuscitation efforts failed.

According to preliminary coroner's findings, the cause
was a perforated large bowel, which caused an infection.
Experts say the condition can bring about death fairly
suddenly.

Hours after her death, county Department of Health Services
spokesman Michael Wilson sent a note informing county
supervisors' offices about the incident but saying that
that police had been called because Rodriguez's boyfriend
became disruptive.

Health services Director Dr. Bruce Chernof said Friday
that subsequent information showed Prado was not, in fact,
disruptive. Chernof otherwise refused to comment, citing
the open investigation, patient privacy and "other issues."

Peavy, who supervises the sheriff's homicide unit, said
that although his investigation is not complete, "the
county police did absolutely, absolutely nothing wrong
as far as we're concerned."

The coroner's office may relay its final findings to
the district attorney's office for consideration of
criminal charges against hospital staff members,
Peavy said.

"I can't speak for the coroner and I can't speak for
the D.A., but that is certainly a possibility," he added.

Marcela Sanchez, Rodriguez's sister, said she has been
making tamales and selling them to raise money for her
sister's funeral and burial. Her family has been called
by attorneys seeking to represent them, but they do not
know whom to trust.

She said the latest revelations, which she learned from
The Times, are very troubling.

"Wow," she said. "If she was on the floor for that long,
how in the heck did nobody help her then?

"Where was their heart? Where was their humanity? …
When Jose came in, everybody was just sitting, looking.
Where were they?"

Sanchez said her sister was a giving person who always
took an interest in people in need, unlike those who
watched her suffer. "She would have taken her shoes
to give to somebody with no shoes," she said. Rodriguez,
a California native, performed odd jobs and lived
alternately with different relatives.

David Janssen, the county's chief administrative officer,
said the incident is being taken very seriously.
In a rare move, his office took over control of the
inquiry from the county health department and the office
of public safety.

"There's no excuse — and I don't think anybody believes
that there is," Janssen said.

Over the last 3 1/2 years, King-Harbor has reeled from
crisis to crisis.

Based on serious patient-care lapses, it has lost its
national accreditation and federal funding. Hundreds of
staff members have been disciplined and services cut.

Janssen said he was concerned that the incident would
divert attention from preparing the hospital for
a crucial review in six weeks that is to determine
whether it can regain federal funding.

If the hospital fails, it could be forced to close.

"It certainly isn't going to help," Janssen said.

At the same time, he said, the preliminary investigation
suggests that the fault primarily rests with the nurse
who resigned. "I think it's a tragic, tragic incident,
but it's not a systemic one."

Supervisor Gloria Molina, who hadn't seen the videotape,
said she wasn't sure the hospital had reformed.

"What's so discouraging and disappointing for me is that
it seems that this hospital at this point in time hasn't
really transformed itself — and I'm worried about it,"
she said.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich said he believed care had
improved at the hospital overall, but added, "It's
unconscionable that anyone would ignore a patient
in obvious distress."

Rodriguez's son, Edmundo, 25, said he still couldn't
understand why his mother died. "It's more than negligence.
I can't even think of the word."

His 24-year-old sister, Christina, said, "It just makes
it so much harder to grieve. It's so painful."

charles.ornstein@latimes.com

Times staff writers Stuart Pfeifer and Susannah Rosenblatt
contributed to this report.

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2) REFLECTIONS BY THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF
THE ENGLISH SUBMARINE
By Fidel Castro Ruz
May 21, 2007
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/secciones/reflexiones/ing-009.html

The press dispatches bring the news; it belongs to the Astute Class,
the first of its kind to be constructed in Great Britain in more than
two decades.

"A nuclear reactor will allow it to navigate without refuelling
during its 25 year of service. Since it makes its own oxigen and
drinking water, it can circumnavigate the globe without needing to
surface," was the statement to the BBC by Nigel Ward, head of the
shipyards.

"It‚s a mean looking beast", says another.

"Looming above us is a construction shed 12 storeys high. Within it
are 3 nuclear-powered submarines at different stages of
construction," assures yet another.

Someone says that "it can observe the movements of cruisers in New
York Harbor right from the English Channel, drawing close to the
coast without being detected and listen to conversations on cell
phones". "In addition, it can transport special troops in mini-subs
that, at the same time, will be able to fire lethal Tomahawk missiles
for distances of 1,400 miles", a fourth person declares.

El Mercurio, the Chilean newspaper, emphatically spreads the news.

The UK Royal Navy declares that it will be one of the most advanced
in the world. The first of them will be launched on June 8 and will
go into service in January of 2009.

It can transport up to 38 Tomahawk cruise missiles and Spearfish
torpedoes, capable of destroying a large warship. It will possess a
permanent crew of 98 sailors who will even be able to watch movies on
giant plasma screens.

The new Astute will carry the latest generation of Block 4 Tomahawk
torpedoes which can be reprogrammed in flight. It will be the first
one not having a system of conventional periscopes and, instead, will
be using fibre optics, infrared waves and thermal imaging.

"BAE Systems, the armaments manufacturer, will build two other
submarines of the same class," AP reported. The total cost of the
three submarines, according to calculations that will certainly be
below the mark, is 7.5 billion dollars.

What a feat for the British! The intelligent and tenacious people of
that nation will surely not feel any sense of pride. What is most
amazing is that with such an amount of money, 75 thousand doctors
could be trained to care for 150 million people, assuming that the
cost of training a doctor would be one-third of what it costs in the
United States. You could build 3 thousand polyclinics, outfitted with
sophisticated equipment, ten times what our country possesses.

Cuba is currently training thousands of young people from other
countries as medical doctors.

In any remote African village, a Cuban doctor can impart medical
knowledge to any youth from the village or from the surrounding
municipality who has the equivalent of a grade twelve education,
using videos and computers energized by a small solar panel; the
youth does not even have to leave his hometown, nor does he need to
be contaminated with the consumer habits of a large city.

The important thing is the patients who are suffering from malaria or
any other of the typical and unmistakable diseases that the student
will be seeing together the doctor.

The method has been tested with surprising results. The knowledge and
practical experience accumulated for years have no possible
comparison.

The non-lucrative practice of medicine is capable of winning over all
noble hearts.

Since the beginning of the Revolution, Cuba has been engaged in
training doctors, teachers and other professionals; with a population
of less than 12 million inhabitants, today we have more Comprehensive
General Medicine specialists than all the doctors in sub-Saharan
Africa where the population exceeds 700 million people.

We must bow our heads in awe after reading the news about the English
submarine. It teaches us, among other things, about the sophisticated
weapons that are needed to maintain the untenable order developed by
the United States imperial system.

We cannot forget that for centuries, and until recently, England was
called the Queen of the Seas. Today, what remains of that privileged
position is merely a fraction of the hegemonic power of her ally and
leader, the United States.

Churchill said: Sink the Bismarck! Today Blair says: Sink whatever
remains of Great Britain‚s prestige!

For that purpose, or for the holocaust of the species, is what his
"marvellous submarine" will be good for.

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3) Racism goes on trial again in America's Deep South
“The prosecution of three black Louisiana youths
reveals the rise of discrimination by stealth.”
by Tom Mangold in Jena, Louisiana
The Observer (UK) - May 20, 2007
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2083762,00.html

In the cool and beflagged small courtroom in Jena, Louisiana, three
black schoolboys - Robert Bailey, Theodore Shaw and Mychal Bell - are
about to go on trial for a playground fight that could see them jailed
for between 30 and 50 years.

Jena, about 220 miles north of New Orleans, is a small town of 3,000
people, 85 per cent of whom are white.

Tomorrow it will be the focus for a race trial which could put it on the
map alongside the bad old names of the Mississippi Burning Sixties such
as Selma or Montgomery, Alabama.

Jena is gaining national notoriety as an example of the new 'stealth'
racism, showing how lightly sleep the demons of racial prejudice in
America's Deep South, even in the year that a black man, Barak Obama, is
a serious candidate for the White House.

It began in Jena's high school last August when Kenneth Purvis asked the
headteacher if black students could break with a long-held tradition and
join the whites who sit under the tree in the school courtyard during
breaks. The boy was told that he and his friends could sit where they
liked.

The following morning white students had hung three nooses there. 'Bad
taste, silly, but just a prank,' was the response of most of Jena's
whites.

'To us those nooses meant the KKK [Ku Klux Klan], they meant, "Niggers,
we're going to kill you, we're going to hang you till you die,"' says
Caseptla Bailey, a black community leader and mother of one of the
accused. The three white perpetrators of what was seen as a race hate
crime were given 'in-school' suspensions (sent to another school for a
few days before returning).

Jena's major industry is growing and marketing junk pine. Walk down the
usually deserted main street and you will not find many black employees.
Bailey, 56, is a former air force officer and holder of a business
management degree. 'I couldn't even get a job in Jena as a bank teller,'
she said. 'Look at the banks and the best white-collar jobs and you'll
see only white and red necks in those collars.'

Billy Doughty, the local barber, has never cut black men's hair. 'They
just don't come here,' he mumbled.'Anyway, their hair is different
and difficult to cut.'

The majority of blacks live in an area known as Ward 10. Many homes are
trailers, or wooden shacks. Rubbish lies in the streets. On 'Snob Hill',
where the whites live, the spacious gardens and lawns are trimmed, the
gravelled drives boast SUVs and nice new saloons. Only two black
families live there. A teacher from Jena High had enough money to buy
his way in. But when he arrived local estate agents refused to show him
a 'white'property even though several were advertised in the local paper
('they're all under contract,' the agents lied). The teacher eventually
went to see one white owner and offered him cash. 'The guy preferred
green [dollars] to black, so I got the property,' laughed the teacher,
'but since we moved in three years ago we haven't been invited by a
single neighbour.'

On 30 November, someone tried to burn Jena High to the ground. The crime
remains unsolved. That same weekend race fights between teenagers broke
out downtown, and on 4 December racial tension boiled over once more in
the school. A white student, Justin Barker, was attacked, allegedly by
six black students.

The expected charges of assault and battery were not laid, and the six
were charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to
commit second-degree murder. They now face a lifetime in jail.

Barker spent the evening of the assault at the local Baptist church,
where he was seen by friends to be 'his usual smiling self'.

Nine days later, with the case technically sub judice, the District
Attorney made the following public statement to the local paper: 'I will
not tolerate this type of behavior. To those who act in this manner I
tell you that you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law
and with the harshest crimes that the facts justify. When you are
convicted I will seek the maximum penalty allowed by law. I will see to
it that you never again menace the students at any school in this
parish.'

Bail for the impoverished students was set absurdly high, and most have
been held in custody. The town's mind seems to be made up.

But now the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
and the American Civil Liberties Union - 'damned outsiders' - have
become involved and have begun to recruit, enthuse and empower the local
black population. Reporters from the BBC and the New York Times have
been drawn to the story. Jena does not like this publicity and shifts
uncomfortably in the glare.

It is 42 years since President Lyndon Johnson closed the loopholes that
allowed southern states to discriminate against blacks. When the accused
shuffle into court tomorrow, it's Jena that will be on trial.

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4) San Francisco Labor Council Resolution
Denounces the Proposed Iraqi Oil Law
Hands Off Iraqi Oil!

WHEREAS, in the opening days of the 2003 Iraq invasion, US soldiers were
ordered to protect the Oil Ministry, oil fields and refineries while
wholesale looting of Iraq's antiquities unfolded. The message to Iraqis was
clear: "We've come for the oil." There were no weapons of mass destruction.
Rather than democracy, the US brought massive destruction and civil war to
Iraq; and

WHEREAS, giving credence to Iraqi fears, the oil cartel has prepared a new
Oil Law which, if enacted by the parliament, will put effective control of
Iraq's vast oil resources in the hands of foreign companies. Nationalized
since 1975, Iraq's oil was, before the years of US sanctions and invasions,
the foundation for a relatively high standard of living, producing more
PhD's per capita than the U.S. and a health care system prized as the best
in the region; and

WHEREAS, President Bush says the war is not about oil but his actions belie
that claim. Before the 2003 invasion, the State Dep't "Oil & Energy Working
Group" met to plan how to open Iraq to foreign oil companies. The proposed
new Oil Law is virtually a photocopy of the "Options" plan first conceived
in Texas long before the US occupied Iraq. The law would create an Oil &
Gas Council, on which would sit representatives of Chevron, Exxon-Mobil,
Shell, BP, etc., whose tasks include approving their own contracts; and

WHEREAS, the practice in Iraq -- as in other countries with giant oil
reserves -- has been that control of oil production, development and sale
rests with the public sector. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iran run their
industries this way. Yet the proposed Oil Law calls for long-term
contracts, handing to foreign companies effective control of Iraq's oil
industry for up to 30 years, and as much as 70% of the profits; and

WHEREAS, the Iraqi people will not take this looting of their national
treasure lying down. The Oil Law has been unanimously and strongly
condemned by all of Iraq's major labor federations, including the
Federation of Oil Unions. The law would make a mockery of Iraqi sovereignty
and deprive Iraqis of the resources they need to rebuild their shattered
country; and

WHEREAS, the leadership of the Democratic Party has embraced the draft Oil
Law and put it into the supplemental funding bill as one of the
"benchmarks" by which the Iraqi government will be measured. By doing so,
the Democratic leadership becomes complicit in a backdoor effort to
privatize Iraq's publicly owned oil resources -- second largest in the
world; therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the San Francisco Labor Council join in solidarity with the
Oil Workers and Trade Unions of Iraq in opposing the proposed new Oil Law,
which is nothing less than a hijack of Iraq's oil by the international oil
cartel; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the Council urge Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congressional
Democrats to clearly oppose this shameful raid on Iraqi oil, and remove
passage of the Oil Law from their list of "benchmarks." The Bush
Administration and IMF are pressing Iraq to adopt this law. It is
unconscionable for the Congress to become partners in trying to shove this
law, which will benefit only the rapacious oil companies, down the throats
of the Iraqi people.

- Adopted by the San Francisco Labor Council May 14, 2007 by unanimous vote.

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5) Immigration Raid Leaves Sense of Dread in Hispanic Students
By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN
WILLMAR, Minn.
May 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/education/23education.html?ref=us

The day before everything happened, Alex Sorto left Willmar
High School as usual at 2:30, and grabbed a ride to his night
job as a janitor at the Jennie-O turkey processing plant.
He had been working there for four months, saving money
for college tuition, and hoping to study art even though
his mother wanted him to be a lawyer.

Alex had already heard there were immigration agents
in town, raiding the trailer parks and rented homes
of the Hispanics who had flocked to this county seat
on the Minnesota prairie in search of work at Jennie-O.
Alex believed that because he was a citizen, he was safe.

So he put in his eight hours sweeping and swabbing, and
went home to finish up the portfolio that was his final
project for communications class. The portfolio consisted
mostly of an autobiography. In it Alex recalled his early
years in Los Angeles, the child of two Honduran immigrants,
and the divorce that sent him and his mother, Rosa Sorto,
to a green-shingled duplex on Ann Street in Willmar.

As a senior, just a few weeks from graduation, Alex had
already passed the required state tests, which were being
administered at Willmar High the next morning.

So he knew he could sleep late, a rare treat on a weekday,
before starting his regular classes.

The next thing he knew, at the unfair hour of 6:30 a.m.
on April 13, he heard a banging noise. Groggy, he at first
assumed the racket came from the family upstairs.

By the time he tugged on a pair of jeans and walked toward
the living room, he could hear nearby voices shouting.
He saw his mother on the couch, being peppered with questions
by four immigration agents — questions about her papers,
questions about his, questions about two single men who
rented rooms from them. In his entire life, all 18 years,
Alex had never seen her so close to crying.

In the end, the agents from Immigration and Customs
Enforcement accepted the proof that Alex and his mother,
who has permanent resident status, were legal. The two
renters, Roberto and Augustine, were led away in handcuffs,
Roberto wearing only his boxer shorts.

Then Ms. Sorto discovered how the agents had apparently
entered her apartment; the window of the locked side door,
intact the previous night, was now broken.

Even after all the tumult, Ms. Sorto insisted that Alex
go to school. Even though it was 8:30, and he had no classes
for another hour, she drove him there. He watched her hands
quake as she tried to steer. In art class, his favorite,
he could not get his pencil to move. All he could think
about was what would become of him if his mother were
taken away.

Such was the triumph of Operation Cross Check, the federal
raid against illegal immigrants that went on for four days
last month in this community of about 18,500 people. To the
Department of Homeland Security, the operation was a success,
catching a convicted sex offender and several welfare cheats
among its 49 arrests. In a news release announcing the toll,
an immigration enforcement director for Minnesota said,
“Our job is to help protect the public from those who
commit crimes.”

Yet more than half of those arrested had committed no crime
other than being in the United States illegally, doing
the jobs at Jennie-O that prop up the local economy. And,
as the experience of Alex Sorto demonstrates, the aggressive,
invasive style of the sweep instilled lasting fear among
Willmar’s 3,000 Hispanics, many of them students born or
naturalized in the United States. These young people are
the political football in America’s bitter, unresolved
battle about immigration.

“All of us are scared,” said Andrea Gallegos, a junior
at the high school. “When you go to school, you don’t
know if your parents will be there when you come home.
I don’t feel safe anywhere — walking to the school bus,
walking outside the school building.”

Sharon Tollefson, a guidance counselor, had one promising
student vanish in the aftermath of the raid. The young man,
whom she identified by only his first name, Santiago, had
been attending both day and night classes to graduate this
spring. Ms. Tollefson was helping to arrange for him to visit
a local college, where he planned to study law enforcement
with the goal of becoming a police officer.

The first morning of the raids, April 10, Santiago took
his required state test in writing. The next day, when
he was supposed to sit for the math exam, he did not show
up at school. Ms. Tollefson has since heard rumors that
he was deported to Mexico.

“He was working his fanny off,” Ms. Tollefson said, almost
wistfully, in an interview last week. “I keep saying I’m not
taking him off my roster. I can’t believe he won’t be coming
back.”

THE objections to the immigration raid go far beyond the
anecdotal. A group of about 30 Hispanic residents of Willmar,
including Alex and Rosa Sorto, has filed suit in United States
District Court in Minneapolis, alleging that the immigration
and domestic security agencies violated the Constitution.
The suit maintains that the armed officers engaged in racial
profiling, and that they broke into private homes without
search warrants as part of a “campaign of terror and
intimidation.”

Tim Counts, a spokesman for the immigration agency in
Minnesota, declined yesterday to answer the suit’s
allegations in detail, beyond saying that the operation
was “fully within the law and appropriate.” He also said
that homes were entered only with the permission of
residents, and added, “We will make our case in the
court of law.”

When Alex Sorto moved to Willmar in the late 1990s, he
said he kept quiet about his past. He felt as if he was
the only child in school with divorced parents. Over time,
he grew comfortable enough to share the secret without
being ostracized.

Since that April morning, Friday the 13th, he has reacquired
the habit of silence. His communications teacher suggested
that he try to put the whole experience out of his thoughts.
But she isn’t the one who worries about what could happen
if his mother gets stopped by “la Migra,” as the immigration
agents are known, on a day she left her driver’s license
at home.

“This was the year everything was supposed to go right for
me,” Alex said. “And then all this happened.”

Samuel G. Freedman is a professor of journalism at Columbia
University. His e-mail address is sgfreedman@nytimes.com.

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6) Paramilitary Ties to Elite In Colombia Are Detailed
Commanders Cite State Complicity in Violent Movement
By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, May 22, 2007; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/21/AR2007052101672.html?nav=rss_world

MEDELLIN, Colombia -- Top paramilitary commanders have in recent days
confirmed what human rights groups and others have long alleged: Some
of Colombia's most influential political, military and business
figures helped build a powerful anti-guerrilla movement that operated
with impunity, killed civilians and shipped cocaine to U.S. cities.

The commanders have named army generals, entrepreneurs, foreign
companies and politicians who not only bankrolled paramilitary
operations but also worked hand in hand with fighters to carry them
out. In accounts that are at odds with those of the government, the
commanders have said their organization, rather than simply sprouting
up to fill a void in lawless regions of the country, had been
systematically built with the help of bigger forces.

"Paramilitarism was state policy," Salvatore Mancuso, a top
paramilitary commander, said last week at a hearing in this city's
Palace of Justice. "I am proof positive of state paramilitarism in
Colombia."

In a scandal that began to gain momentum last fall, investigators
have revealed dozens of cases of government collaboration with
paramilitary groups. But Mancuso's testimony, buttressed with remarks
made in a jailhouse interview by another top paramilitary commander,
represents the first time that major players in the scandal have
described in detail how the establishment joined forces with them.

Dozens of other top commanders are scheduled to testify before
special judicial hearings in the coming days and weeks. Their
testimony could help uncover the roots of the violence and drug
trafficking that have plagued this country and commanded significant
aid from Washington.

The administration of President Álvaro Uribe says that it has moved
aggressively to dismantle the paramilitary groups, and that its
determination to do so has made the investigations possible. The
investigations, however, have resulted in a collective and painful
catharsis for this country.

Ivan Duque, a strategist who helped formulate the ideology of the
paramilitary coalition known as the United Self-Defense Forces of
Colombia, or AUC, said in an interview that the group had alliances
with anyone of influence in the regions where it operated.

"Could these three groups -- I'm talking about political people,
economic people, the institutional people, meaning the military --
operate without having contact with the chief of chiefs?" said Duque,
speaking from the Itagui prison in Medellin, which houses dozens of
paramilitary commanders. "That's impossible. That cannot be."

Chosen by his fellow commanders to speak to two American reporters,
Duque said last week that, now that the paramilitary commanders have
decided to air their dirty secrets, it also was time for the elites
who helped the AUC to come clean. He said paramilitary groups had
17,000 armed fighters and more than 10,000 other associates, from
cooks to drivers to computer technicians and informers. And he said
it was plain for anyone to see.

"Men armed to the teeth," Duque said, gesticulating as he sat in an
office provided by prison guards. "Could you really travel the whole
territory so that no one could see them, notice them, that no one
collaborate with them? That's why I talk of this county of
hypocrisies, this society of lies."

Colombia's paramilitary movement began more than a generation ago to
counter a growing Marxist guerrilla force and quickly turned into an
irregular army that committed widespread massacres and
assassinations, funding much of its operations with cocaine
trafficking. The attorney general's office estimates the paramilitary
fighters killed about 10,000 people from the mid-1990s until the
early part of this decade, when its commanders began negotiating a
disarmament with Uribe's government. The AUC is on the U.S. State
Department list of terrorist organizations.

Now, in a crucial post-disarmament phase that requires commanders to
reveal their crimes in exchange for lenient treatment, Mancuso and
others have begun to speak.

Mancuso's testimony came in the midst of a difficult week for Uribe,
whose administration has received $4 billion in mostly anti-drug and
military aid from Washington since his election in 2002. Authorities
arrested more congressional allies linked to paramilitary commanders,
and then Mancuso began making his uncomfortable disclosures.

"Salvatore Mancuso spoke," the newsweekly Semana said, "and the
country's political sector trembled."

Uribe remains highly popular in Colombia for lowering violence, but
in Washington, Democrats on Capitol Hill are citing the recent
disclosures in holding back support for a U.S. free-trade deal with
Colombia.

So far, authorities have charged 14 members of Colombia's Congress,
seven former lawmakers, the head of the secret police, mayors and
former governors with having collaborated with paramilitary
commanders. A dozen more current congressmen are under investigation.
Most have been close Uribe allies who supported a constitutional
amendment permitting his reelection and approved the lenient law,
known as Justice and Peace, that governs the paramilitary disarmament.

Though Mancuso testified earlier this year to ordering murders and
collaborating with military units, his testimony last week was much
more explosive. He spoke of working closely with three former
generals, all of whom have denied ties.

Mancuso's disclosures -- particularly about retired Gen. Rito Alejo
del Rio, known in the state of Antioquia as the "pacifier" of the
Uraba region -- are embarrassing for Uribe. Though Uribe's
predecessor, Andrés Pastrana, fired del Rio for collaborating with
paramilitary groups, and though the United States rescinded his visa,
Uribe has publicly eulogized him as an "honorable man" and defended
him in Washington.

"I support all the generals who were in Antioquia," Uribe told
Caracol radio earlier this year.

Perhaps Mancuso's biggest impact came when he said that two current
ministers in Uribe's government, Vice President Francisco Santos and
Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, met with top paramilitary
commanders in the 1990s. The two men, cousins in an influential
family that owns El Tiempo, Colombia's most influential newspaper,
had acknowledged long ago having met with the paramilitary members.
Both said they did so to further peace in Colombia, not as part of a
sinister plot, as Mancuso alleged.

Mancuso's allegations have prompted some commentators to note that
the commander has besmirched as many people as possible while still
falling far short of accounting for all of the crimes he has
committed. "The strategy behind three days of testimony that tainted
people, institutions and business must be understood," said El Tiempo
in a Sunday editorial. "If the whole county is responsible, then no
one is responsible."

Still, Attorney General Mario Iguaran has noted that, under a new
system specially designed to try the commanders, they are required to
tell the truth or face losing benefits acquired under terms of the
disarmament law. "We should believe him," Iguaran told El Tiempo in
an interview. "That's the principle of the Justice and Peace law."

In the interview, Duque, the strategist, explained that he's writing
a book, tentatively titled "Stories of Silence," in which he plans to
lay out the history of paramilitarism. Once a small-town mayor and
teacher, Duque spoke of how deep anti-Marxist sentiments led him to
join the paramilitary groups. "I fell in love with this cause," he said.

Still, Duque called Colombia's war "dirty, slimy, anarchic,
anachronistic," and said paramilitary fighters had killed countless
civilians in massacres, contradicting long-held claims that those
slain in the attacks were Marxist guerrillas. And he said that the
paramilitary groups also murdered many union members for their
"ideological posture," not for purported ties to guerrillas, as was
claimed. "It was profoundly unjust," he said.

But Duque, like Mancuso, said that much of Colombia has to take
blame. "Colombia would turn another page," he said, "if in an act of
faith for our country we'd stand up and say straight out: 'Yes, I'm
guilty. Yes, I'm responsible.' "

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LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES

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Democrats Pull Troop Deadline From Iraq Bill
By CARL HULSE
May 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/washington/23cong.html?ref=world

Film Offers New Talking Points in Health Care Debate
By MILT FREUDENHEIM and LIZA KLAUSSMANN
May 22, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/22/business/media/22react.html?ref=business

Kentucky: Families Sue in Mine Blast
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The sole survivor of a mine explosion last year and relatives
of four of the five miners killed sued the coal company,
saying it had put production over safety. The suit cited
safety violations against the company, Kentucky Darby;
a supervisor, Ralph Napier; and Jericol Mining, which
provided management, planning, engineering and safety
training to the mine, Darby Mine No. 1. The plaintiffs
also seek damages against the manufacturer of the emergency
air packs that the victims used.
May 22, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/22/us/22brfs-FAMILIESSUEI_BRF.html

IRAQ: Educational standards plummet, say specialists
http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=72168

Exclusive: Secret US plot to kill Al-Sadr
By Patrick Cockburn In Baghdad
Published: 21 May 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2565123.ece

What's Next in Iraq? Juan Cole Interviews Ali A. Allawi
"Will a surge of U.S. troops make
a difference in Iraq? How viable is
the current Iraqi government? Will
an American withdrawal lead to
all-out civil war?
May 25, 2007
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i38/38b00601.htm

Black Media Delegation Returns from Darfur
Final Call, News Report, Jehron Muhammad,
Posted: May 20, 2007
http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=b4a5f713b944aebb26047375d0629bf7

Soldier’s Smallpox Inoculation Sickens Son
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
"A 2-year-old boy spent seven weeks in the hospital
and nearly died from a viral infection he got from
the smallpox vaccination his father received before
shipping out to Iraq, according to a government report
and the doctors who treated him."
May 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/18/health/18smallpox.html?ref=health

My Dear Fellow Species
By MARY JO MURPHY
"THE Origin of Species” is almost 150 — a fit survivor
of the science canon even if not everyone has seen fit
to jump from the Ark to the Beagle on the matter of
evolution (three Republican presidential candidates,
for example). But Darwin himself was slow to come to
his ideas, and slower still to disclose them to
a skeptical public. Last week, the Darwin Correspondence
Project, based at Cambridge University, put about 5,000
letters to and from Darwin, some of them previously
unpublished, online at darwinproject.ac.uk, with thousands
more to follow. The searchable database lets anyone track
the painstaking development of his research and thinking
— on all kinds of topics, personal and professional,
and with a huge array of correspondents." MARY JO MURPHY
May 20, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/weekinreview/20word.html?ref=science

The Closing of the University Commons
by Michael Perelman
May 19, 2007
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/perelman190507.html

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GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS AND INFORMATION

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LAPD vs. Immigrants (Video)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/qws/ff/qr?term=lapd&Submit=S&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Search&st=s

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Dr. Julia Hare at the SOBA 2007
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/proudtobeblack2/

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"There comes a times when silence is betrayal."
--Martin Luther King

DEMAND THE RELEASE OF SAMI AL-ARIAN

The National Council of Arab Americans (NCA) demands the immediate
release of political prisoner, Dr. Sami Al-Arian. Although
Dr. Al-Arian is no longer on a hunger strike we must still demand
he be released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). After an earlier
plea agreement that absolved Dr. Al-Arian from any further questioning,
he was sentenced up to 18 months in jail for refusing to testify before
a grand jury in Virginia. He has long sense served his time yet
Dr. Al-Arian is still being held. Release him now!

See:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/16/1410255

ACTION:

We ask all people of conscience to demand the immediate
release and end to Dr. Al- Arian's suffering.

Call, Email and Write:

1- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Department of Justice
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Fax Number: (202) 307-6777
Email: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

2- The Honorable John Conyers, Jr
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
(202) 225-0072 Fax
John.Conyers@mail.house.gov

3- Senator Patrick Leahy
433 Russell Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
(202)224-4242
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov

4- Honorable Judge Gerald Lee
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
401 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314
March 22, 2007
[No email given...bw]

National Council of Arab Americans (NCA)
http://www.arab-american.net/

Criminalizing Solidarity: Sami Al-Arian and the War of
Terror
By Charlotte Kates, The Electronic Intifada, 4 April 2007
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6767.shtml

Related:

Robert Fisk: The true story of free speech in America
This systematic censorship of Middle East reality
continues even in schools
Published: 07 April 2007
http://news. independent. co.uk/world/ fisk/article2430 125.ece

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[For some levity...Hans Groiner plays Monk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51bsCRv6kI0
...bw]

Excerpt of interview between Barbara Walters and Hugo Chavez
http://www.borev.net/2007/03/what_you_had_something_better.html

Which country should we invade next?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3g_zqz3VjY

My Favorite Mutiny, The Coup
http://www.myspace.com/thecoupmusic

Michael Moore- The Awful Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeOaTpYl8mE

Morse v. Frederick Supreme Court arguments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_LsGoDWC0o

Free Speech 4 Students Rally - Media Montage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfCjfod8yuw

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'My son lived a worthwhile life'
In April 2003, 21-year old Tom Hurndall was shot in the head
in Gaza by an Israeli soldier as he tried to save the lives of three
small children. Nine months later, he died, having never
recovered consciousness. Emine Saner talks to his mother
Jocelyn about her grief, her fight to make the Israeli army
accountable for his death and the book she has written
in his memory.
Monday March 26, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2042968,00.html

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Introducing...................the Apple iRack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KWYYIY4jQ

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"A War Budget Leaves Every Child Behind."
[A T-shirt worn by some teachers at Roosevelt High School
in L.A. as part of their campaign to rid the school of military
recruiters and JROTC--see Article in Full item number 4, below...bw]

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THIS IS AN EXCELLENT VIDEO DESTRIBUTED BY U.S. LABOR AGAINST
THE WAR (USLAW) FEATURING SPEAKERS AT THE JANUARY 27TH
MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOCUSING ON THE DEMAND - BRING
THE TROOPS HOME NOW.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6935451906479097836&hl=en

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Defend the Los Angeles Eight!
http://www.committee4justice.com/

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George Takai responds to Tim Hardaway's homophobic remarks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcJoJZIcQW4&eurl_

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Iran
http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html

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Another view of the war. A link from Amer Jubran
http://d3130.servadmin.com/~leeflash/

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Petition: Halt the Blue Angels
http://action.globalexchange.org/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=458
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/289327

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A Girl Like Me
7:08 min
Youth Documentary
Kiri Davis, Director, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, Producer
Winner of the Diversity Award
Sponsored by Third Millennium Foundation
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1091431409617440489

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Film/Song about Angola
http://www.prisonactivist.org/angola/

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"200 million children in the world sleep in the streets today.
Not one of them is Cuban."
(A sign in Havana)
Venceremos
View sign at bottom of page at:
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/index.html
[Thanks to Norma Harrison for sending this...bw]

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"Cheyenne and Arapaho oral histories hammer history's account of the
Sand Creek Massacre"

CENTENNIAL, CO -- A new documentary film based on an award-winning
documentary short film, "The Sand Creek Massacre", and driven by
Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho people who tell their version about
what happened during the Sand Creek Massacre via their oral
histories, has been released by Olympus Films+, LLC, a Centennial,
Colorado film company.

"You have done an extraordinary job" said Margie Small, Tobient
Entertainment, " on the Colorado PBS episode, the library videos for
public schools and libraries, the trailer, etc...and getting the
story told and giving honor to those ancestors who had to witness
this tragic and brutal attack...film is one of the best ways."

"The images shown in the film were selected for native awareness
value" said Donald L. Vasicek, award-winning writer/filmmaker, "we
also focused on preserving American history on film because tribal
elders are dying and taking their oral histories with them. The film
shows a non-violent solution to problem-solving and 19th century
Colorado history, so it's multi-dimensional in that sense. "

Chief Eugene Blackbear, Sr., Cheyenne, who starred as Chief Black
Kettle in "The Last of the Dogmen" also starring Tom Berenger and
Barbara Hershey and "Dr. Colorado", Tom Noel, University of Colorado
history professor, are featured.

The trailer can be viewed and the film can be ordered for $24.95 plus
$4.95 for shipping and handling at http://www.fullduck.com/node/53.

Vasicek's web site, http://www.donvasicek.com, provides detailed
information about the Sand Creek Massacre including various still
images particularly on the Sand Creek Massacre home page and on the
proposal page.

Olympus Films+, LLC is dedicated to writing and producing quality
products that serve to educate others about the human condition.

Contact:

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
7078 South Fairfax Street
Centennial, CO 80122
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103

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A NEW LOOK AT U.S. RADIOACTIVE WEAPONS
Join us in a campaign to expose and stop the use
of these illegal weapons
http://poisondust.org/

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You may enjoy watching these.
In struggle
Che:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqcezl9dD2c
Leon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkFVV5X0p4

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FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein
http://www.walterlippmann.com/sylvia-weinstein-fightback-intro.html

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[The Scab
"After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad,
and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with
which he made a scab."
"A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul,
a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue.
Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten
principles." "When a scab comes down the street,
men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and
the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out."
"No man (or woman) has a right to scab so long as there
is a pool of water to drown his carcass in,
or a rope long enough to hang his body with.
Judas was a gentleman compared with a scab.
For betraying his master, he had character enough
to hang himself." A scab has not.
"Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.
Judas sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver.
Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of
a commision in the british army."
The scab sells his birthright, country, his wife,
his children and his fellowmen for an unfulfilled
promise from his employer.
Esau was a traitor to himself; Judas was a traitor
to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country;
a scab is a traitor to his God, his country,
his family and his class."
Author --- Jack London (1876-1916)...Roland Sheppard
http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret]

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END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL!
Stop funding Israel's war against Palestine
Complete the form at the website listed below with your information.
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?
JServSessionIdr003=cga2p2o6x1.app2a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=177

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Sand Creek Massacre
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html

On November 29, 1864, 700 Colorado troops savagely slaughtered
over 450 Cheyenne children, disabled, elders, and women in the
southeastern Colorado Territory under its protection. This act
became known as the Sand Creek Massacre. This film project
("The Sand Creek Massacre" documentary film project) is an
examination of an open wound in the souls of the Cheyenne
people as told from their perspective. This project chronicles
that horrific 19th century event and its affect on the 21st century
struggle for respectful coexistence between white and native
plains cultures in the United States of America.

Listed below are links on which you can click to get the latest news,
products, and view, free, "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" award-
winning documentary short. In order to create more native
awareness, particularly to save the roots of America's history,
please read the following:

Some people in America are trying to save the world. Bless
them. In the meantime, the roots of America are dying.
What happens to a plant when the roots die? The plant dies
according to my biology teacher in high school. American's
roots are its native people. Many of America's native people
are dying from drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, hunger,
and disease, which was introduced to them by the Caucasian
male. Tribal elders are dying. When they die, their oral
histories go with them. Our native's oral histories are the
essence of the roots of America, what took place before
our ancestors came over to America, what is taking place,
and what will be taking place. It is time we replenish
America's roots with native awareness, else America
continues its decaying, and ultimately, its death.

You can help. The 22-MINUTE SAND CREEK MASSACRE
DOCUMENTARY PRESENTATION/EDUCATIONAL DVD IS
READY FOR PURCHASE! (pass the word about this powerful
educational tool to friends, family, schools, parents, teachers,
and other related people and organizations to contact
me (dvasicek@earthlink.net, 303-903-2103) for information
about how they can purchase the DVD and have me come
to their children's school to show the film and to interact
in a questions and answers discussion about the Sand
Creek Massacre.

Happy Holidays!

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103

"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
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