St. Bernardo Blog

WANT TO HAVE SOME FUN...

2006-01-14T01:30:00.000-05:00

Go to Google, type in "fuck fidel" and click IM FEELING LUCKY.

BTW "Comemierda" works perfectly as well.

HAHA

Sanitation poor at AIDS sanatorium

2006-01-14T01:28:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry to have left! I've been extremely busy with the news urban clothing line I'm marketing. I haven't had a second to think about posting!

but we're back! st. bernardo is having a new year and blogging is what st.bernardo will do!

so get this!!!

HAVANA, Cuba - January 11 (Amarilis C. Rey, Cuba Verdad / www.cubanet.org) - A patient at an AIDS sanatorium in Menocal, Havana province, complained here that sanitation at the facility is so poor that it imperils patients' lives.
"The water is contaminated with trash, stones, and leaves. The tanks are not cleaned and neither is the drinking water boiled. One can often see cats, dogs, and even cattle ambling through the kitchens and dining area," said Frank Leal.
Leal, who said he had been struck with diarrhea along with other patients recently, pointed out a sample of what he said was the sugar used at the hospital. It was noticeably contaminated with foreign particles.
There are more than 100 patients at the sanatorium.

***Pray for Ramon Saul Sanchez, he's doing something that deserves the highest merit. God bless!***

Spike Lee to make documentary about Katrina

2005-10-13T20:11:00.000-04:00

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Famed US filmmaker
Spike Lee' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> Spike Lee is reportedly to produce and direct a new documentary about the deadly aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in flood-stricken New Orleans.

Lee, 48, the maker of such hit feature films as "Malcolm X" (1992) and "Do the Right Thing" (1989), is to make "When the Levee Broke" for the US HBO cable television channel, the network told Daily Variety.
No details of the project were immediately available, however. Lee is currently putting the final touches on his latest film, "The Inside Man", starring
Denzel Washington

Terror tip for rich

2005-10-13T20:09:00.000-04:00

By ALISON GENDARDAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF

The city's rich and well-connected were tipped off to last week's subway terror threat days before average New Yorkers, the Daily News has learned.
At least two E-mails revealing the purported plot were sent to a select crowd of business and arts executives early last week by New Yorkers who claimed to have close connections to Homeland Security and other federal officials, authorities said.

The NYPD confirmed that it learned of the E-mails on Oct. 3 - three days before Mayor Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and the FBI went public with the threat.

"I have just received a most disturbing call from one of my oldest friends from growing up in Washington," one E-mail began. "He called with a very specific caution to not enter or use the New York City subway system from Oct. 7 through 10th."

A second E-mail sounded a similar ominous tone: "As some of you know my father works for Homeland Security, at a very high position and receives security briefings on a daily basis.

"The only information that I can pass on is that everyone should at all costs not ride the subway for the next two weeks in major areas of NYC."

One of the E-mails was dated Oct. 3 with a 6:05 p.m. time stamp, about 90 minutes before Bloomberg was fully briefed on the threat, a police source said.

The early warning infuriated several police officials, who noted that Homeland Security officials had challenged the credibility of the threat after the city and FBI warned the public.

"We're briefing the mayor, ratcheting up security, talking about when to go public - and Homeland Security is downplaying the whole thing while their people are telling friends to stay out of the subways," a police source said. "It's pretty bad."

NYPD investigators obtained copies of the E-mails on Oct. 4, as Bloomberg and Kelly were finalizing a plan to respond to the threat, and police officials gave the E-mails to the Homeland Security Department, police said.

'Members of our corporate security network informed the Police Department of the E-mails' existence days prior to any announcement of the threat," NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said yesterday.

Homeland Security officials confirmed that they were told about the early E-mail warnings.

"We have looked into them, but do not consider them to be of great significance," Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said yesterday.

"At best, they were based on anecdotal accounts of very limited information," he added, declining to reveal whether the feds were investigating.

The News obtained copies of two E-mails, one with the foreboding subject line: "Alarming call from Washington." Unsigned versions were also posted on Snopes.com, a site that examines urban legends.

One of the E-mail senders, when reached by The News, declined comment.

The plot, calling for terrorists to detonate bombs hidden in briefcases, suitcases or strollers, has been largely discredited since the public warning.

Bloomberg has defended his response, arguing the city had no choice but to act on the "specific threat." He has said he held off alerting the public until Oct.6 to give authorities time to round up suspects in Iraq.

2005-10-08T15:48:00.000-04:00

Ten Shots at Che

2005-10-08T15:47:00.000-04:00

1. HE WAS AGAINST CAPITALISM. In fact, Guevara was for state capitalism. He opposed the wage labor system of “appropriating surplus value” (in Marxist jargon) only when it came to private corporations. But he turned the “appropriation of the workers’ surplus value” into a state system. One example of this is the forced labor camps he supported, starting with Guanahacabibes in 1961.

2. HE MADE CUBA INDEPENDENT. In fact, he engineered the colonization of Cuba by a foreign power. He was instrumental in turning Cuba into a temporary beachhead of Soviet nuclear power (he sealed the deal in Yalta). As the person responsible for the “industrialization” of Cuba he failed to end the country’s dependency on sugar.

3. HE STOOD FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE. In fact, he helped ruin the economy by diverting resources to industries that ended up in failure and reduced the sugar harvest, Cuba’s mainstay, by half in two years. Rationing started under his stewardship of the island’s economy.

4. HE STOOD UP TO MOSCOW. In fact, he obeyed Moscow until Moscow decided to ask for something in return for its massive transfers of money to Havana. In 1965 he criticized the Kremlin because it had adopted what he termed the “law of value”. He then turned to China on the eve of the Cultural Revolution, one of the horror stories of the twentieth century. He simply switched allegiances within the totalitarian camp.

5. HE CONNECTED WITH THE PEASANTS. In fact, he died precisely because he never connected with them. “The peasant masses don’t help us at all,” he wrote in his Bolivian diary before he was captured—an apt way to describe his journey through the Bolivian countryside trying to stir up a revolution that could not even enlist the help of Bolivian Communists (who were realistic enough to note that peasants did not want revolution in 1967; they had already had one in 1952).

6. HE WAS A GUERRILLA GENIUS. With the exception of Cuba, every guerrilla effort he helped set up failed pitifully. After the triumph of the Cuban revolution, Guevara set up revolutionary armies in Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Panama, and Haiti, all of which were crushed. He later persuaded Jorge Ricardo Masetti to lead a fatal incursion into that country from Bolivia. Guevara’s role in the Congo in 1965 was both tragic and comical. He allied himself with Pierre Mulele and Laurent Kabila, two butchers, but got entangled in so many disagreements with the latter—and relations between Cuban and Congolese fighters were so strained—that he had to flee. Finally, his incursion in Bolivia ended up in his death, which his followers are commemorating this Sunday.

7. HE RESPECTED HUMAN DIGNITY. In fact, he had a habit of taking other people’s property. He told his followers to rob banks (“the struggling masses agree to rob banks because none of them has a penny in them”) and as soon as the Batista regime collapsed he occupied a mansion and made it his own—a case of expeditious revolutionary eminent domain.

8. HIS ADVENTURES WERE A CELEBRATION OF LIFE. Instead, they were an orgy of death. He executed many innocent people in Santa Clara, in central Cuba, where his column was based in the last stage of the armed struggle. After the triumph of the revolution, he was in charge of “La Cabaña” prison for half a year. He ordered the execution of hundreds of prisoners—former Batista men, journalists, businessmen, and others. A few witnesses, including Javier Arzuaga, who was the chaplain of “La Cabaña”, and José Vilasuso, who was a member of the body in charge of the summary judicial process, recently gave me their painful testimonies.

9. HE WAS A VISIONARY. His vision of Latin America was actually quite blurred. Take, for instance, his view that the guerrillas had to take to the countryside because that is where the struggling masses lived. In fact, since the 1960s, most peasants have peacefully deserted the countryside in part because of the failure of land reform, which has hindered the development of a property-based agriculture and economies of scale with absurd regulations forbidding all sorts of private arrangements.

10. HE WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE UNITED STATES. He predicted Cuba would surpass the GDP per capita of the U.S. by 1980. Today, Cuba’s economy can barely survive thanks to Venezuela’s oil subsidy (about 100,000 barrels a day), a form of international alms that does not speak too well of the regime’s dignity.

WRONG T SHIRT

2005-10-05T17:35:00.000-04:00

A Portland woman's flight home was stopped short in Reno, all because the message on the T-shirt she was wearing.

Lorrie Heasley claims it's a freedom of speech privilege, but airline officials say the message brings safety concerns.

Heasley, "There are bigger problems in the country, I can't believe people can be so petty."

Heasley boarded her flight Tuesday morning in Los Angeles, headed for Portland, Oregon with a stopover in Reno. But when Southwest Airlines employees asked her to cover her shirt, her stop over became a stop off her flight.

"I was told that basically that I had to cover my shirt, or I was told if I cover the shirt I can basically stay on the plane."

So she covered the shirt, but during a nap while passengers were boarding in Reno the cover came off. And Southwest employees insisted, change the shirt, or change flights. "I didn't feel that I should have to change my shirt, because we live in the United States, and it's freedom of speech and it was based on the move "The Fockers", and I didn't think it should have offended anyone."

But it did.

The shirt had pictures of members of the Bush Administration, and a phrase based on the movie "Meet the Fockers," but with one crucial vowel changed.

It was enough to cause complaints from other passengers and it's a problem the airline has had to deal with before.

Beth Harbin, Southwest Airlines, "We do get it occasionally. What someone is wearing, what someone is reading, what someone might be saying and it's very much a judgment call. But when other customers become concerned we do have to become involved in that and see what we can do to make everyone as comfortable as we can."

And while Southwest may have kept the peace on it's afternoon hop to Portland, a woman, not afraid to use her freedom of speech will now be using her freedom of choice.

"I most likely wont be flying Southwest Airlines again after this."

Southwest Airlines told Heasley she could take a different flight home if she changed her shirt. She refused and opted to rent a car and drive home.

Pulling of Guevara film sparks protest

2005-10-04T18:16:00.000-04:00

A Broward public library was the target of demonstrators after it rescheduled a film about revolutionary Che Guevara during Hispanic Heritage Month.

BY NATALIE P. McNEAL

nmcneal@herald.com

About 20 protesters picketed the Southwest Regional Library in Pembroke Pines on Monday, upset that it postponed showing a film about revolutionary Che Guevara during Hispanic Heritage Month.

The library planned to show The Motorcycle Diaries, a biographical film about a young Che Guevara, who traveled throughout South America with a friend and witnessed poverty and injustice.

Guevara, an Argentine who was slain in 1967, was a Cuban guerrilla leader and an icon of left-wing political ideals. During the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, Guevara advocated a nuclear showdown with the United States.

Library officials pulled the film after patrons complained about showing the film as part of a ''celebration'' for Hispanic Heritage Month.

Demonstrators chanting outside the library's entrance shouted ''Libertad!'' and carried signs that read ''Defend Free Speech,'' ''Shame'' and ''No to Censorship.'' Some wore T-shirts with Guevara's face emblazoned across the front.

`KOWTOWING'

''The library system is kowtowing to the extreme right-wing elements in this community,'' said Jack Lieberman, a South Florida activist.

The library rescheduled the film to be shown Nov. 7, outraging Guevara supporters.

The library says it did nothing wrong.

''We did not censor the film,'' said Eileen Cobb, associate director for public service, Broward County libraries division.

The library system has 49 copies of the movie.

REPLACEMENT FILM

In place of The Motorcycle Diaries, the library showed Valentín, a film about a 9-year-old boy who lives with his grandmother in Argentina.

The peaceful protest was supported by the Broward AntiWar Coalition, Bolivarian Circle of Miami and Miami for Peace.

Protesters called for patrons to write library staff and contact Broward County Commissioners.

Paul Lefrak, a librarian at the Fort Lauderdale branch, spent Monday evening protesting his employer's position.

''I am disappointed in the library for capitulating to political pressure,'' Lefrak said.

Bad News

2005-10-03T17:59:00.000-04:00

Monday, October 3, 2005; A16

MANY PEOPLE outside Latin America probably assume Daniel Ortega's political career ended 15 years ago when his ruinous attempt to install a Marxist dictatorship in Nicaragua ended with an election he decisively lost. The slightly better informed might suppose that his two subsequent electoral defeats, the allegations of corruption and child molestation that haunt him, or his single-digit rating in opinion polls have made him a marginal figure in Nicaraguan politics. Sadly, the truth is otherwise: Thanks to the weakness of the country's new democratic institutions, Mr. Ortega is close to regaining power and to broadening the Latin alliance of undemocratic states now composed by Cuba and Venezuela.

Mr. Ortega's comeback has been accomplished through a brazenly corrupt alliance with a former right-wing president, Arnoldo Aleman, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2003 for looting the national treasury. Mr. Ortega's Sandinista Party supported the prosecution, then abruptly switched sides and formed a pact with Mr. Aleman against President Enrique Bolanos, a member of Mr. Aleman's Liberal Party who bravely chose to tackle government corruption. The left-right alliance has used its majority in the National Assembly to rewrite the constitution and stack the Supreme Court. In the past week it has begun stripping the members of Mr. Bolanos's cabinet of immunity so that they can be prosecuted before Sandinista judges on bogus charges. If this power play succeeds, Mr. Bolanos will be next. Meanwhile, Mr. Aleman, who stole tens of millions from one of Latin America's poorest countries, was freed from house arrest last week.

Mr. Ortega's goal is to force Mr. Bolanos to accept his constitutional rewrite, which transfers almost all presidential powers to Congress. That would effectively deliver Nicaragua to Sandinista control without one of the elections that Mr. Ortega keeps losing. Scheduled elections next year could then be manipulated. Already, the corrupt alliance has lowered the percentage of the vote a presidential candidate needs to be elected to 35, and criminal charges have been brought against one of the leading candidates. The Sandinistas will have plenty of money to spend, thanks to Hugo Chavez. Mr. Ortega recently announced that he had arranged with Venezuela's self-styled "Bolivarian revolutionary" for a supply of subsidized oil.

Compared with Mr. Chavez's aggressive intervention, attempts by the Bush administration and other outsiders to save Nicaraguan democracy so far look feckless. The new secretary general of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, tried to broker a political compromise but pronounced himself frustrated when Mr. Ortega ignored his appeals to stop undermining Mr. Bolanos's government. The Bush administration managed to win congressional passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement this summer, but Mr. Ortega has blocked its ratification by Nicaragua.

Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick is due to visit Managua this week in what officials say will be an attempt to bolster Mr. Bolanos and persuade Mr. Aleman's right-wing supporters to abandon their self-destructive alliance with the Sandinistas. As happens so often in Latin America during the Bush administration, high-level intervention arrives late. It does have one thing going for it: Eighty percent of Nicaraguans say they oppose the Ortega-Aleman pact. Nicaragua's rescue will depend on people power, inside or outside the polls.

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

(H/T Mike Pancier)

6 Of 10 Cubans Stopped At Sea Returned

2005-10-02T22:18:00.000-04:00

MIAMI -- Six of 10 Cubans whose capture was broadcast on television in Miami have been sent back to Cuba, officials said.

Now tell me? How can this government sleep at night... knowing that they've sent these poor men seeking freedom to a land of no hope and hurt?

We'll pray for them as well as for those who suffer under Fidel that are truly against the regime.

19 reported dead in Bali blasts

2005-10-01T11:57:00.000-04:00

Do we have to stay in Iraq? yes!

------------
(CNN) -- A string of blasts on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Saturday killed at least 19 people and wounded about 50 others, hospital officials said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa told CNN it appeared the blasts were "the work of terrorists."

Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told Austrialia's ABC radio that one Australian was among those killed.

The blasts happened in Jimbaran and Kuta, the top tourist spots on the island, and Natalegawa said reports indicated the blasts appeared to have occurred just minutes apart.

Video of the scene in Kuta showed the glass windows of several upscale stores shattered, with glass littering the street, and the awning of Raja's Bar and Restaurant blown askew.

There have been local media reports that Westerners were among the casualties.

Kuta is where two powerful bombs detonated near several nightclubs on October 12, 2002, killing 202 people, most of them Australian and Indonesian.

That attack was blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah, which has ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono recently issued a warning that terrorist cells inside the country were still active, despite hundreds of arrests.

The blasts also come after recent warnings from several other governments, including the United States, of a high terrorist threat to foreigners in Indonesia as the holy Muslim month of Ramadan arrives early next week.

A report issued in early September warned that bin laden and his top lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri may be planning a series of attacks in October, dubbed "The Great Ramadan Offensive."

On Friday, the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta reiterated its warden's message issued in May, which said the threat of terrorism is high and that Americans there should be vigilant.

"Attacks could occur at anytime and could be directed against any location, including those frequented by foreigners and identifiably American or other western facilities or businesses in Indonesia," the message said.

The island of Bali -- a popular spot for tourists across the world -- is actually a Hindu enclave in Indonesia, which is the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Natalegawa said he was confident authorities would find the attackers.

"We know what it takes to bring the perpetrators to justice because our success rate ... has been rather good," he said.

Cuba, Syria, Belarus Join IAEA Board, Boosting Iran

2005-09-29T17:06:00.000-04:00

get a load of this...

VIENNA (AP)--Cuba, Syria and Belarus joined the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board Thursday, bolstering the ranks of countries expected to oppose any decision to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council in November.

The three nations were among 10 approved as new board members at the IAEA's 139-nation general conference as part of rotation that results in some board seats changing hands each year.

Although the board doesn't have permanent members, the U.S., Russia, China, the U.K., France, Germany, Canada and Japan effectively enjoy that status because of their nuclear or economic standing.

The three new board member nations' differences with Washington almost guarantees they will oppose any effort to haul Iran before the top U.N. decision-making body at the next board meeting in November - a likely development unless Tehran meets international demands about its nuclear program.

But they're not expected to actively prevent any Western-initated effort to refer Tehran to the Security Council.

Five of the 10 countries that were replaced by Thursday's rotation also oppose referral. They abstained at Saturday's vote by the board on a resolution clearing the path for such a move.

In all, 12 nations - including China and Russia -abstained. Venezuela cast the only vote against. But even abstentions are considered disapproval at board sessions, which usually make decisions by consensus.

Of the 35 board members, 22 voted in favor of the motion backed by the U.S. and the E.U, among others.

"Given the large number of countries that either voted for the resolution or abstained, I would expect you would have enough votes in favor of reporting Iran to the Security Council, should Iran not make progress," said a Western diplomat.

Washington suspects Iran is trying to develop atomic bombs, while Tehran maintains its activities are for generating electricity.

The resolution adopted Saturday was drafted by the E.U. and backed by the U.S. and its allies. It called on the board to consider reporting Iran to the council for noncompliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and suspicions that Iran's nuclear activities - including those linked to uranium enrichment, a possible pathway to nuclear arms - could threaten international peace and security.

The Security Council could impose sanctions if it determines that Iran violated the treaty, but the draft didn't mention sanctions, in recognition of Russian and Chinese opposition.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

09-29-051023ET

Copyright (c) 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

2005-09-27T19:22:00.000-04:00

This here has me in shock! How can a group of people believe this? Ignorance is BLISS, I guess...

Purported al Qaeda Newscast Debuts on Internet

2005-09-27T19:21:00.000-04:00

By Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, September 27, 2005; Page A16

ROME, Sept. 26 -- An Internet video newscast called the Voice of the Caliphate was broadcast for the first time on Monday, purporting to be a production of al Qaeda and featuring an anchorman who wore a black ski mask and an ammunition belt.

The anchorman, who said the report would appear once a week, presented news about the Gaza Strip and Iraq and expressed happiness about recent hurricanes in the United States. A copy of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, was placed by his right hand and a rifle affixed to a tripod was pointed at the camera.

The origins of the broadcast could not be immediately verified. If the program was indeed an al Qaeda production, it would mark a change in how the group uses the Internet to spread its messages and propaganda. Direct dissemination would avoid editing or censorship by television networks, many of which usually air only excerpts of the group's statements and avoid showing gruesome images of killings.

The broadcast was first reported by the Italian Adnkonos news agency from Dubai. The 16-minute production was available on Italian newspaper Web sites.

The lead segment recounted Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, which the narrator proclaimed as a "great victory," while showing Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia walking and talking among celebrating compatriots.

That was followed by a repeat of a pledge on Sept. 14 by Abu Musab Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, to wage all-out war on Iraq's Shiite Muslims. An image of Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born Sunni Muslim, remained on the screen for about half the broadcast.

The masked announcer also reported that a group called the Islamic Army in Iraq claimed to have launched chemical-armed rockets at American forces in Baghdad. A video clip showed five rockets fired in succession from behind a sand berm as an off-screen voice yelled "God is great" in Arabic. The Islamic Army asserted responsibility last year for the killing of Enzo Baldoni, an Italian journalist who had been kidnapped in Iraq.

A commercial break of sorts followed, which previewed a movie, "Total Jihad," directed by Mousslim Mouwaheed. The ad was in English, suggesting that the target audience might be Muslims living in Britain and the United States.

The final segment was about Hurricane Katrina. "The whole Muslim world was filled with joy" at the disaster, the anchorman said. He went on to say that President Bush was "completely humiliated by his obvious incapacity to face the wrath of God, who battered New Orleans, city of homosexuals." Hurricane Ophelia's brush with North Carolina was also mentioned.

The name of the broadcast refers to the Islamic empire that emerged following the death of the prophet Muhammad in the 7th century, eventually stretching from Turkey to Spain and creating an era of Islamic influence that bin Laden has said Muslims should reestablish. According to credits following the broadcast, it was produced by the Global Islamic Media Front.

Numerous radical Islamic organizations, some claiming affiliation with al Qaeda, spread information, including photos and videos, by the Internet. Some evade ongoing efforts to shut them down by disguising their presence within innocuous Web sites.

Feds probe flawed bulletproof vests sold to Bush, cops

2005-09-27T19:18:00.000-04:00

They should throw this companies president in JAIL!

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department is investigating whether a company sold defective bulletproof vests for President Bush, federal agents and local police and then waited nearly two years to alert customers that the body armor could be unsafe.

A former research chief for Second Chance Body Armor Inc. is cooperating with the criminal investigation and testified this month that the Secret Service tested and bought some of the defective vests for the president and first lady Laura Bush.

Many sales occurred well after Michigan-based Second Chance had been alerted that the Japanese-made Zylon material in the vests was degrading faster than expected from heat, light and moisture, allowing bullets to potentially penetrate the armor, according to the former employee's testimony and other documents.

Prosecutors have gathered documents showing that Second Chance was alerted as early as 1998 by the Japanese maker, Toyobo Co., that there were problems with Zylon.

By 2001, Second Chance's research chief, Aaron Westrick, was pleading unsuccessfully with his company's president to replace the vests, memos show.

''Lives and our credibility are at stake,'' Westrick wrote then-Second Chance president Richard Davis. ''We will only prevail if we do the right things and not hesitate. This issue should not be hidden for obvious safety issues and because of future litigation.''

California officer killed

Westrick urged Davis to ''immediately notify our customers of the degradation problems,'' let those with pending orders cancel them and cease all executive bonuses so the company could pay for a replacement, the memo shows.

Executives in 2002 prepared another memo, recommending two stark options.

''Solution 1: We continue to operate as though nothing is wrong until one of our customers is killed or wounded or Germany, Japan, DuPont or some other entity exposes the Zylon problem,'' the memo said.

The second option recommended the company publish an ad ''denouncing'' the vests and ''decline to make them'' unless customers know of the problem and still want them.

Second Chance customers were not alerted to the problems until 2003 -- after a California police officer was shot to death wearing the vest. AP

10 Most Dangerous Jobs

2005-09-27T19:15:00.000-04:00

families. They deliver our packages and take away our trash, and when we need a ride, they're there to whisk us away.

And they're risking their lives to do it.

According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the workers most likely to be killed at work aren't the ones donning bullet-proof vests to capture criminals or saving victims from fire-engulfed buildings. Instead, the workers most likely to die on the job are the ones who help provide us with our daily needs like a safe home, food and electricity.

The typical worker has a low risk of fatal injuries at work – the fatality rate for all occupations is 4.1 per 100,000 employed. But these hazardous jobs, all of which had a minimum of 30 fatalities in 2004 and 40,000 people employed, are far riskier. The BLS lists these occupations as 10 of the most dangerous in the nation:

1. Logging workers
Fatalities: 92.4 per 100,000 employed
Median Pay: $29,730
Logging and timber workers duties include cutting down trees and cutting and moving logs, providing the raw material for countless products. The nature of their work puts them at constant risk of being killed by heavy, falling objects.

2. Aircraft pilots and flight engineers
Fatalities: 92.4 per 100,000 employed
Median pay: $129,250 – but may be much lower for commercial pilots.
Although aircraft pilots and flight engineers have one of the most dangerous jobs in the nation, don't swear off air travel just yet. This category also includes commercial pilots of smaller aircrafts – including crop dusters and air taxis – that are far more likely to crash than your typical 747.

3. Fishers and related workers
Fatalities: 86.4 per 100,000 employed
Median Pay: $24,100
Fishers endure storms, fog, wind and hazardous working conditions before bringing you the fresh salmon on your dinner plate. Perilous weather puts fishers at risk of drowning if their boat capsizes or they fall overboard. And if they suffer serious injuries while at sea, help isn't readily available.

4. Structural iron and steel workers
Fatalities: 47 per 100,000 employed
Median pay: $42,430
These workers climb dozens of stories to lay the iron and steel that form buildings, bridges and other structures. Despite strapping on harnesses and other safety gear, structural iron and steel workers face a high risk of fatal injuries from falls.

5. Refuse and recyclable material collectors
Fatalities: 43.2 per 100,000 employed
Median pay: $25,760
When refuse and recyclable material collectors take away your trash, they risk traffic accidents and fatal injuries from explosions of hazardous materials. According to a University of Miami study, the leading cause of on-the-job fatalities for these workers is impatient motorists who try to pass the garbage truck and hit the driver.

6. Farmers and ranchers
Fatalities: 37.5 per 100,000 employed
Median pay: $40,440
Farmers and ranchers raise animals and plant, cultivate and harvest crops used to produce our food. However, the tractors and machinery used by these workers can be very dangerous: Non-highway vehicle accidents accounted for 40 percent of occupational fatalities for farmers and ranchers in 2004.

7. Roofers
Fatalities: 34.9 per 100,000 employed
Median pay: $30,840
When these workers climb atop your house to build or repair your roof, they risk slipping or falling from scaffolds, ladders, or roofs, or burning themselves on flammable, toxic materials.

8. Electrical power line installers and repairers
Fatalities: 30 per 100,000 employed
Median pay: $49,100
When your lights go out, line installers and repairers climb power poles and towers to get your electricity up and running. Power lines are typically high off the ground, so workers are at high risk of injury due to falls. Plus, these workers are often at risk of electrocution from contact with the high-voltage power lines.

9. Driver/sales workers and truck drivers
Fatalities: 27.6 per 100,000 employed
Truck driver median pay: $33,520
Driver/sales worker median pay: $20,090
Truck drivers transport goods including cars and livestock, and driver/sales workers deliver and sell their firm’s products over established routes. Both groups spend the majority of their time on the road, putting them at high risk of highway vehicle crashes.

10. Taxi drivers and chauffeurs
Fatalities: 24.2 per 100,000 employed
Median pay: $19,570
The dangers of shuttling around patrons go far beyond highway crashes. Taxi drivers, who often work alone and carry large amounts of cash, may also find themselves victims of robbery and homicide.

Reno stil doesn't get it...

2005-09-27T19:06:00.000-04:00

"...one of the moments I'll most remember was seeing photos of Elian smiling when reunited with his father.
I feel almost joyful about it, because that's what people came to this country for, to be able to stand on the street corner and call me names."

Seeing this I remember the long nights in front of that Little Havana home. The home where Elian Gonzalez was living, where the "miami mafia" was demonstrating day in and day out. I think about all the tears running down my face at 4a.m when that poor child was taken brutally from his loving home. Simply to be sent where many flee everyday to seek freedom.

God bless him!

Cubans' rough capture angers legislators

2005-09-25T09:47:00.000-04:00

''The free world never threw anybody back over the Berlin Wall,''

That statement is so true! It's time to get rid of the dry foot/wet foot policy. Bush did not pass this into law but he can simply do away with it! please listen President Bush...

Friday's televised capture of 10 Cuban refugees by U.S. boats drew the ire of Cuban American leaders, who condemned the federal wet foot/dry foot policy.

BY OSCAR CORRAL

ocorral@herald.com

Some Cuban American leaders, outraged at the fresh drama of Cuban refugees that played out in front of Miami television viewers Friday, called for a review of the methods used to take 10 Cuban men into custody.

And they condemned the controversial immigration policy known as wet foot/dry foot that will most likely send the 10 back to Cuba.

Boats from the U.S. Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security sprayed a water cannon at the 10 Cubans' homemade boat and repeatedly bumped it, spilling four of the men into the ocean at one point.

Cuban American Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart said that if the United States was going to repatriate Cubans, then it should also blockade all oil going to the Caribbean island.

''The free world never threw anybody back over the Berlin Wall,'' he said. ``I denounce this policy.''

U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez called wet foot/dry foot a ``failure.''

''U.S. policy must once again be made consistent with our tradition of standing with those who seek freedom and flee oppression,'' Martinez said.

He added: ``The tactics employed today also need review and clarification, but one thing is abundantly clear -- these men were desperate to seek freedom. My heart goes out to them.''

Diaz-Balart said he is asking the Bush administration to implement a policy where all refugees picked up at sea get an asylum hearing on dry land at the U.S. military base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Under current policy, Cuban refugees picked up at sea are interviewed by the Coast Guard and very few receive hearings in what Diaz-Balart called a ''summary'' process.

Most are repatriated to the island, unless they make it to dry land in the U.S., in which case they can usually stay.

''The administration has told me that they are taking this seriously,'' Diaz-Balart said of his request to have Cuban migrants interviewed.

Diaz-Balart said statistics show that Cubans picked up at sea get a raw deal. He said that about 65 percent of Cubans who make it to shore receive political asylum, but only about 2 percent of those picked up at sea do.

`NOT CRIMINALS'

U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, Lincoln's brother, said he would also be seeking answers about the way these particular migrants were treated by U.S. authorities -- especially whether the boat from Homeland Security was justified in striking the Cuban men's boat.

''We always have to remember that these are not criminals, these are people that are fleeing tyranny,'' he said.

Few aspects of U.S.-Cuba policy stir up as much emotion in the Cuban exile community as wet foot/dry foot. In fact, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, already a congressman, was arrested during a 1995 protest against the policy crafted by the Clinton administration.

Toting a placard that said ''Clinton lies about Cuba,'' Lincoln Diaz-Balart blocked the sidewalk outside the White House along with Metro-Dade Commissioner Pedro Reboredo. Both were arrested, then released within two hours. The charges were eventually dropped.

In 2003, the Diaz-Balart brothers and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen wrote a letter to Michael Garcia, commissioner for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Department of Homeland Security, asking that wet foot/dry foot be revised.

Among their requests:

• Legal counsel from recognized volunteer agencies should be allowed aboard Coast Guard vessels to provide legal advice to refugees.

• If a lawyer can't meet them, then all Cubans intercepted at sea should be taken to Guantanamo Naval Base for their cases to be ``properly evaluated.''

Nothing of the sort has been done to date.

CHANGES UNLIKELY

In August 2004, DHS wrote back to Lincoln Diaz-Balart, giving no hints that they intended to change the policy and explaining how the agency does a fair job.

''Most Cuban migrants we interview do not tell us they have left the Republic of Cuba seeking protection from persecution,'' said the letter, signed by Sarah Taylor in the office of Congressional Relations, in the name of the department director. ``Instead, they share their hopes of reuniting with family members already in the United States or their dreams of obtaining basic economic opportunities not available to them in their homeland.''

Lincoln Diaz-Balart acknowledged the wet foot/dry foot policy would be difficult to change because it was part of a greater migration accord with Cuba. So instead, the Diaz-Balarts feel the U.S. government should blockade all shipments of oil to Cuba to force Fidel Castro from power.

Ninoska Perez-Castellon, head of the anti-Castro Cuban Liberty Council, said that as long as Castro remains in power, these sad episodes will recur often.

''What's causing the problem is still there,'' she said. ``And his name is Fidel Castro.''

Clinton on Osama Bin Laden

2005-09-23T17:01:00.000-04:00

Tuesday, Apr. 20, 2004 11:16 AM EDT
Clinton: My Bin Laden Confession Was 'Inappropriate'

In a closed-door meeting with the 9/11 Commission on April 8, ex-President Bill Clinton said that his admission to a Long Island business group two years ago that he turned down Sudan's offer to arrest Osama bin Laden was "inappropriate," according to 9/11 Commissioner Bob Kerrey.

"What the president said, he just didn't understand the facts of the question," Kerrey told Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" on Monday. "He answered inappropriately."

Commissioner Kerrey told Alan Colmes that he'd been asked to "try to do some follow-up" on Clinton's bin Laden comments to the Long Island Association on Feb. 15, 2002.

"I haven't seen the full transcript of what he said or anything like that," Kerrey insisted, though the LIA supplied the 9/11 Commission with a videotape of Clinton's speech five weeks ago.

Rep. Peter King, R-NY, who attended the event in question, said Sunday that Clinton's bin Laden admission was spontaneous rather than a response to any direct question.

"I was actually there that day," King told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg. "[Clinton] brought it up - it wasn't even in response to a question. He was sort of ruminating and talking about what went right and what went wrong and then he brought up this whole story on his own about how he turned down taking bin Laden." [See transcript, below]

Last week, Commissioner Kerrey told North Dakota radio host Scott Hennen that when Clinton's bin Laden quote was read back to him during the 9/11 interrogation, the ex-president called it "a misquote."

When Hennen told Kerrey that Clinton's comments were on audiotape, the Nebraska Democrat asked for a copy - apparently unaware that the 9/11 Commission already has them on videotape.

During his interview with the 9/11 Commission, Clinton was accompanied by longtime aide and former White House counsel Bruce Lindsey, along with former national security advisor Sandy Berger, who insisted in sworn testimony before Congress in Sept. 2002 that there was never any offer from Sudanese officials to turn over bin Laden to the U.S.

TRANSCRIPT:

Ex-President Clinton's Remarks on Osama bin Laden
Delivered to the Long Island Association's Annual Luncheon
Crest Hollow Country Club, Woodbury, NY
Feb. 15, 2002

Question from LIA President Matthew Crosson:

CROSSON: In hindsight, would you have handled the issue of terrorism, and al-Qaeda specifically, in a different way during your administration?

CLINTON: Well, it's interesting now, you know, that I would be asked that question because, at the time, a lot of people thought I was too obsessed with Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.

And when I bombed his training camp and tried to kill him and his high command in 1998 after the African embassy bombings, some people criticized me for doing it. We just barely missed him by a couple of hours.

I think whoever told us he was going to be there told somebody who told him that our missiles might be there. I think we were ratted out.

We also bombed a chemical facility in Sudan where we were criticized, even in this country, for overreaching. But in the trial in New York City of the al-Qaeda people who bombed the African embassy, they testified in the trial that the Sudanese facility was, in fact, a part of their attempt to stockpile chemical weapons.

So we tried to be quite aggressive with them. We got - uh - well, Mr. bin Laden used to live in Sudan. He was expelled from Saudi Arabia in 1991, then he went to Sudan.

And we'd been hearing that the Sudanese wanted America to start dealing with them again.

They released him. At the time, 1996, he had committed no crime against America so I did not bring him here because we had no basis on which to hold him, though we knew he wanted to commit crimes against America.

So I pleaded with the Saudis to take him, 'cause they could have. But they thought it was a hot potato and they didn't and that's how he wound up in Afghanistan.

We then put a lot of sanctions on the Afghan government and - but they inter-married, Mullah Omar and bin Laden. So that essentially the Taliban didn't care what we did to them.

Now, if you look back - in the hindsight of history, everybody's got 20/20 vision - the real issue is should we have attacked the al-Qaeda network in 1999 or in 2000 in Afghanistan.

Here's the problem. Before September 11 we would have had no support for it - no allied support and no basing rights. So we actually trained to do this. I actually trained people to do this. We trained people.

But in order to do it, we would have had to take them in on attack helicopters 900 miles from the nearest boat - maybe illegally violating the airspace of people if they wouldn't give us approval. And we would have had to do a refueling stop.

And we would have had to make the decision in advance that's the reverse of what President Bush made - and I agreed with what he did. They basically decided - this may be frustrating to you now that we don't have bin Laden. But the president had to decide after Sept. 11, which am I going to do first? Just go after bin Laden or get rid of the Taliban?

He decided to get rid of the Taliban. I personally agree with that decision, even though it may or may not have delayed the capture of bin Laden. Why?

Because, first of all the Taliban was the most reactionary government on earth and there was an inherent value in getting rid of them.

Secondly, they supported terrorism and we'd send a good signal to governments that if you support terrorism and they attack us in America, we will hold you responsible.

Thirdly, it enabled our soldiers and Marines and others to operate more safely in-country as they look for bin Laden and the other senior leadership, because if we'd have had to have gone in there to just sort of clean out one area, try to establish a base camp and operate.

So for all those reasons the military recommended against it. There was a high probability that it wouldn't succeed.

Now I had one other option. I could have bombed or sent more missiles in. As far as we knew he never went back to his training camp. So the only place bin Laden ever went that we knew was occasionally he went to Khandahar where he always spent the night in a compound that had 200 women and children.

So I could have, on any given night, ordered an attack that I knew would kill 200 women and children that had less than a 50 percent chance of getting him.

Now, after he murdered 3,100 of our people and others who came to our country seeking their livelihood you may say, "Well, Mr. President, you should have killed those 200 women and children."

But at the time we didn't think he had the capacity to do that. And no one thought that I should do that. Although I take full responsibility for it. You need to know that those are the two options I had. And there was less than a 50/50 chance that the intelligence was right that on this particular night he was in Afghanistan.

Now, we did do a lot of things. We tried to get the Pakistanis to go get him. They could have done it and they wouldn't. They changed governments at the time from Mr. Sharif to President Musharraf. And we tried to get others to do it. We had a standing contract between the CIA and some groups in Afghanistan authorizing them and paying them if they should be successful in arresting and/or killing him.

So I tried hard to - I always thought this guy was a big problem. And apparently the options I had were the options that the President and Vice President Cheney and Secretary Powell and all the people that were involved in the Gulf War thought that they had, too, during the first eight months that they were there - until Sept. 11 changed everything.

But I did the best I could with it and I do not believe, based on what options were available to me, that I could have done much more than I did. Obviously, I wish I'd been successful. I tried a lot of different ways to get bin Laden 'cause I always thought he was a very dangerous man. He's smart, he's bold and committed.

But I think it's very important that the Bush administration do what they're doing to keep the soldiers over there to keep chasing him. But I know - like I said - I know it might be frustrating to you. But it's still better for bin Laden to worry every day more about whether he's going to see the sun come up in the morning than whether he's going to drop a bomb, another bomb somewhere in the U.S. or in Europe or on some other innocent civilians. (END OF TRANSCRIPT)

Editor's note:

"CATASTROPHE" Reveals the Secret Story Behind 9-11

Suicide in Cuba

2005-09-23T16:41:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty sure I'd think about suicide as well if I were living in those conditions.

-----------
El Pais Spain RAFAEL ROJAS

In the absence of an independent news media and other resources to oppose Fidel Castro's government, Cubans have learned to express themselves in other ways over the past 25 years. Almost two million of them have left the country by various and mostly arduous means; while about 70,000 have committed suicide by various means, all quite deadly - hanging, wrist-cutting, jumping out windows, a shot in the head... Over the last half century, a rough but realistic estimate is that some 100,000 Cubans have taken their own lives.

In the early 1980s the Cuban Health Ministry announced that the suicide rate in Cuba had risen over the figure of 20 per 100,000 per year. In little over a decade, the index of deaths by suicide had doubled - in 1969 it was eight per 100,000 - and Cuba had thus gained one of the highest rates in the Western Hemisphere. More Cubans had been killing themselves than had the people of most other nations, and the phenomenon approached the suicide rates of Nordic countries such as Denmark, Finland and Sweden, or of some of Cuba's then European allies, such as Hungary, Russia and the Baltic republics.

A 1990s study carried out in Miami questioned the statistics released by the World Health Organization, according to which the Cuban government had succeeded in containing this trend - at a rate of about 2,000 suicides per year. According to the study, the real rate was a good deal higher than that, but similarly high figures were also characteristic of Miami, with many more suicides than among other Hispanic communities in the United States.

The phenomenon has attracted the attention of novelists, historians and sociologists. Guillermo Cabrera Infante wrote an essay on it, Entre la Historia y la Nada (Between history and nowhere) in his book Mea Cuba (1993). In it he recounts famous Cuban suicides of the 20th century. A mayor, an orator, a president, an editor, several leaders of the revolution: there are plenty of examples.

In one of the chronicles in his book Dos cubalibres (2005), novelist Elisio Alberto speaks of recent suicides among Cuban writers and artists, including those of the poets Raúl Hernández Novas and Ángel Escobar, writers Guillermo Rosales and Miguel Collazo, painter Belkis Ayón and historian Raquel Mendieta. The European or American reader may find this list a little tedious, consisting as it does of unknown tropical romantics, born in the Antilles in the late 20th century, and yet determined to take their lives due to the misfortunes of history. Yet in all these cases we are talking about leading figures of Cuban cultural life, precisely at a time when Cuba, at its Utopian apogee, was the object of acclamation and praise throughout the world.

The latest book by the meticulous historian, Professor Louis A. Pérez Jr of the University of North Carolina, called To Die in Cuba: Suicide and Society (2005), also focuses on this subject, confirming what others had already said. Namely, this undoubted suicidal proclivity is not only due to the establishment of a Communist order in the Caribbean, but to the whole traumatic experience of the island's history and to a pathologically intense manner of living the country's political and social situation. Cuban suicide rates have long been higher than in the rest of the Latin American countries.

In 1907, for example, Jorge Le Roy Casa wrote a study called Quo Tendimus? showing how, in a little over a decade after 1890, 764 men and 355 women killed themselves in Cuba. That decade, of course, had been a time of bitter civil war. Yet a century later, the suicide rate remains high in a population capable of bearing the longest dictatorship in Western history - but not without cracking now and then.

Suicide is inexplicable, of course; but so are madness, love, miracles and hallucinations. In the Cuban case, as Pérez shows, this inveterate predisposition has to do with bad history. All the authoritarian or totalitarian experience the Cuban people have been living through since 1959, is expressive of the deathly shadow cast by each tyrannical regime.

Western fantasies portray Cuba as a Caribbean island with carefree community traditions, capable of mobilizing itself against modern rationality. The suicidal inclination of the Cubans, on the other hand, suggests a tormented people, incapable of overcoming historical frustrations, disinclined to leave their national traumas behind them, and too prone to an affective experience of political conflicts. There is no statistic more revealing of the somber character of Cuban socialism than these 100,000 suicides in half a century.

UPDATE IN MIAMI...

2005-09-23T16:33:00.000-04:00

THANK YOU BILL CLINTON FOR THIS WET-FOOT/DRY-FOOT POLICTY THAT ONLY RETURNS THOSE WHO SEEK FREEDOM BACK TO COMMUNISM...

A BOAT FULL OF CUBAN REFUGEES IS TRYING TO REACH THE COAST NEAR MIAMI BEACH AND IT

IS BEING BLOCKED BY THE US COAST GUARD. THE CUBANS ARE REFUSING TO BOARD THE COAST

GUARD BOAT AND ARE TRYING TO REACH SHORE.

THIS DRAMA WAS SHOWN ON LIVE TV.

12:17 PM THE FIRST TWO CUBANS ALREADY BOARDED THE COAST GUARD BOAT AND WERE PLACED
ON HANDCUFFS. SEVERAL OTHERS ARE STILL ON THE BOAT. A BOAT FROM HOMELAND SECURITY
RAMMED THE REFUGEES' BOAT AND SEVERAL OF THEM FELL ON THE WATER. AN OFFICER ON THE
HOMELAND'S SECURITY BOAT DREW A WEAPON AND ORDERED THE REFUGEES TO SURRENDER
WHICH THEY FINALLY DID.
The boat left Puerto Padre, Cuba, a week ago today. The refugees survived the high waves caused

by Hurricane Rita when it crossed the waters between Key West and Cuba, but were apprehended

by the Coast Guard when they were about a mile from the coast and will probably be returned to

Cuba in the next day or so.

Photos of the refugee boat trying to reach freedom and the US Coast Guard preventing them from
reaching shore (From Telemundo 51, Miami).

FORE MORE PICTURES GO HERE: http://www.therealcuba.com/

Katrina™, The Drink?

2005-09-21T16:33:00.000-04:00

SEPTEMBER 20---

With dead bodies still floating in the streets of New Orleans, a pair of Louisiana lawyers are seeking to cash in on the killer hurricane by slapping the name Katrina on alcoholic beverages. In a new filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Andrew Vicknair and Harold Ehrenberg provided federal officials with a logo--reproduced above--bearing the word Katrina, the phrase "Get Blown Away," and a small satellite image of the deadly storm. The trademark application was filed on September 4, just six days after the hurricane slammed into the Gulf Coast, killing more than 1000 residents and leaving thousands homeless. The filing by Vicknair, 31, and the 47-year-old Ehrenberg--both of whom are graduates of New Orleans-based Loyola University's law school--does not detail what kind of booze products will bear the Katrina name. But it's a safe bet that these wannabe profiteers are plotting some variation on The Hurricane, the Bourbon Street staple. According to their trademark application, Vicknair (pictured top left) and Ehrenberg (pictured bottom left) operate from an office in Metarie, Louisiana, a New Orleans suburb that suffered heavy hurricane damages. The property, which apparently was not flooded during the storm, also houses Ehrenberg's chiropractic office. A beta version of his web site includes a picture of "Dr. Harold" sandwiched between the words "Attorney" and "Chiropractor." The graphic also includes a series of six roman columns, three of which are actually human spines. Neither Vicknair nor Ehrenberg returned TSG phone messages seeking comment on their trademark bid. (4 pages)

CHECK OUT THE PICTURES OF THE TRADEMARK APPLICATION HERE:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0920051katrina1.html

Rita Almost Gone

2005-09-20T18:46:00.000-04:00

She's now in the middle of Key West and nothern Cuba.
Almost out of here, thankfully... horrible for TX and sadly LA.

If you are an enemy of America, you are a friend of Jesse!

2005-09-20T10:09:00.000-04:00

Little does he know that Castro's goverment make the life of a black person impossible!
Theres racism in Cuba people! Wake up! Racism should NOT exist in these times. By now you would imagine we'd get used to the world and it's people.
Jesse Jackson has to pick a side... Jesse get a real JOB!

Instead of supporting Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, a black Cuban doctor who was sent to jail for 27 years for
teaching his fellow Cubans about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson supports Castro, the dictator
who keeps Dr. Biscet in jail, and Chavez, Castro's puppet and dictator in turn. Jesse will only support
those who give him money, so that he can continue to live the good life without working, or those who
provide him with a photo opportunity. What a hypocrite leech this guy is!

Rita!!! NO!!!

2005-09-19T14:15:00.000-04:00

Here we go! Miami is under a Hurricane Warning... Please prepare!

Castro requested Soviet missiles in 1981

2005-09-19T14:12:00.000-04:00

He'll be Noriega's bunker partner soon.

---------------
The late Chilean President Salvador Allende received help from the Soviet intelligence agency KGB, according to newly released records.

BY JUAN O. TAMAYO

jtamayo@herald.com

Nineteen years after the Cuban missile crisis nearly sparked a nuclear war, Fidel Castro asked the Soviet Union to redeploy atomic weapons to his island, says a new book based on reports by Moscow's KGB intelligence agency.

The book, based on documents revealed by KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin when he defected in 1992, makes other bombshell allegations as it tracks KGB operations around the Third World in the 1960s and '70s:

• The KGB documents record actual and proposed payments to Chile's Salvador Allende totaling $420,000 both before and after his election as president in 1970.

• Costa Rica's José ''Pepe'' Figueres received $300,000 from the KGB for his 1970 presidential campaign and $10,000 afterward.

• Carlos Fonseca, founder of Nicaragua's Sandinista National Liberation Front, was ''a trusted KGB agent'' code-named GIDROLOG.

• Nicaraguan Manuel Andara y Ubeda was a KGB agent who led a group of Sandinistas tasked by Moscow in the late 1960s to scope out the U.S. border with Mexico for possible targets for KGB sabotage teams.

• The KGB ''trained and financed'' the Sandinistas who seized the National Palace in Managua and dozens of hostages in 1978. A senior KGB official was briefed on the plan on the eve of the raid, led by Edén Pastora, also known as Commander Zero.

Pastora could not be reached for comment. The book does not refer to him as a KGB agent. All the agents identified by name in the book are now dead.

Mitrokhin and respected British historian Christopher Andrew first collaborated on a 1999 book about KGB operations against the United States and Europe. That book is now regarded by intelligence experts as the definitive work on the topic.

Their new book, The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World, covers KGB operations in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Africa -- the Third World that Moscow believed it could come to dominate after Cuban President Castro embraced communism and became a beacon for leftists worldwide.

Its most startling revelation about Cuba is that Castro, concerned that President Ronald Reagan was planning to attack Cuba in 1981, urged a senior Soviet army general visiting Havana to counter the deployment of U.S. cruise missiles to Europe.

''Castro made the extraordinary proposal that, if the deployment went ahead, Moscow should seriously reconsider reestablishing the nuclear missile bases in Cuba dismantled after the missile crisis 19 years earlier,'' it says. The book does not elaborate or record the Soviet reaction.

`SEIZE THE INITIATIVE'

''Classic Castro,'' said Brian Latell, a retired CIA analyst on Cuba. ``Always seize the initiative. Always go on the offensive to surprise the enemy -- never mind that the Soviets were never ever going to consider that.''

But not surprising, Latell added, because Fidel's brother Raúl has said publicly that in the early 1980s, Moscow told Havana that it would not protect Cuba in case of hostilities with the United States.

Mitrokhin's archives show that the KGB provided virtually no support to Castro before his guerrillas seized power in 1959. But just three months later, it gave Cuba the code name AVANPOST -- bridgehead -- and cemented better relations with Havana than the Soviet diplomats stationed there had.

Even then, the KGB never stopped snooping. Besides its official presence in Havana, it ran a secret branch to spy on Cuba that in 1974 alone sent 269 reports to Moscow, the book adds.

Other KGB reports describe Raúl Castro, on a 1960 arms-buying trip to Czechoslovakia, as `` sleeping with his boots on and demanding the services of blonde prostitutes.''

'IMPORTANT' CONTACT

The book describes Allende as ''by far the most important of the KGB's confidential contacts in South America,'' because he was a democratically elected Marxist and Castro's ally. In KGB lexicon, a confidential contact is more like a friendly source, not an agent.

But Allende's KGB file says the agency maintained ''systematic contact'' with him since 1961, the book adds. One report says, ``He stated his willingness to cooperate on a confidential basis . . . since he considered himself a friend of the Soviet Union.''

So while the Nixon administration and CIA were working diligently to prevent his election in 1970, and to oust him afterward, the KGB also was working hard to put him and keep him in power, the book says.

Mitrokhin and Andrew also wrote that while president, Allende offered a KGB officer to send his trusted aides around the region to investigate and report on issues to the KGB. Allende died in the 1973 coup that toppled him.

Only about 130 of the book's 677 pages are devoted to Latin America -- from more innocent KGB contacts with other Latin American leaders to previously known Soviet weapons shipments to Salvadoran guerrillas.

On Costa Rica's Pepe Figueres, the book says that after his election he met regularly with the KGB chief in San José, rather than the Soviet ambassador, and agreed to a deal involving a small newspaper he ran.

A 1974 KGB report to Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev said this: ``In view of the fact that Figueres has agreed to publish materials advantageous to the KGB, he has been given 10,000 U.S. dollars under the guise of stock purchases in his newspaper.''

DID THEY KNOW?

Although the book does not say explicitly whether Allende and Figueres knew that their money was coming from the KGB, Andrew argued in an e-mail to The Herald that they surely knew.

''Allende knew well before he became president, and Figueres by 1970 at the latest, that they were dealing with a KGB officer rather than someone they assumed to be a Soviet diplomat or journalist,'' Andrew wrote in the e-mail.

``Allende's KGB case officer, Svyatoslav Kuznetsov, reported to Moscow that Allende reacted positively to his suggestions for reorganizing Chilean intelligence and establishing liaison with the KGB. Figueres took elaborate precautions to preserve the secrecy of his regular meetings with the KGB resident.''

NEW HURRICANE

2005-09-18T17:06:00.000-04:00

HERE WE GO AGAIN FOLKS!!!

IT'S NEAR THE BAHAMAS, WE'LL BE WITH A HURRICANE WARNING TOMORROW EVENING I'M SURE! GET READY!

TERRORISM TASK FORCE BUSTS BOGUS U of M STUDENT

2005-09-17T15:04:00.000-04:00

Right under our noses!
--------
Was Mahmoud Maawad a University of Memphis student and pilot-wannabe with a passion for flying small planes or an Arab terrorist looking to duplicate the suicide missions of 9/11?

Federal prosecutors in Memphis aren’t saying, but on Thursday they asked a U.S. magistrate to hold Maawad, 29, whose email logon is “pilot747,” without bond until trial. U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Thomas Anderson agreed with Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Parker, and Maaward becomes the second Memphis resident of Arab descent to be held without bond because of investigations by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. In April, Rafat Mawlawi was jailed in a separate investigation in which prosecutors have linked him to Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaida. He is awaiting trial on October 3rd.

Maawad is charged in a criminal complaint with fraudulent use of a Social Security number which he used to get utilities and a credit card and enroll in school. He entered the United States at New York City from Egypt in 1998 and his visitor’s visa expired in 1999. He has been in the country illegally since then. His address is 3557 Mynders Avenue in Memphis, where he moved in June. He previously lived in Olive Branch, Mississippi for an unknown period. He is currently enrolled as an undergraduate student at the University of Memphis, registering as a transfer student from New Jersey but failing to register as an international student.

Maawad was cited on March 11, 2005, by Memphis police for selling alcohol to a minor at 1171 Chelsea in Memphis

Maawad was busted again this week after federal agents searched his apartment and computer on September 9th and examined his Internet purchases of flight instructions and pilot paraphernalia. Since June, Maawad ordered $3,300 of merchandise over the Internet from Sporty’s Pilot Shop in Batavia, Ohio, including a private pilot course, flight simulator software, a flight gear bag, several DVDs, a $239 Navy leather flight jacket, a $19.95 DVD on “How an Airline Captain Should Look and Act,” and instructional programs on “airplane talk.” His email address was pilot747_200@hotmail.com.

After purchasing approximately $2,500 worth of merchandise, Maawad’s debit card was rejected by Sporty’s for lack of funds and his last three orders were not filled. Agents are in the process of examining his computer hard drive.

Former Students of Castro's 'Isla de la Juventud' Tell Their Story

2005-09-17T15:00:00.000-04:00

Friday September 16, 6:52 pm ET
Saharan Refugees From Morocco Recount Their Forced Participation in Castro's Indoctrination Machine

MIAMI, Sept. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Seven Saharan refugees will be in Miami this week to meet with Cuban-American leadership and discuss their forced education in Cuba, Castro's inroads to communist groups in northern Africa and the Cuban-backed refugee camps of southern

"In Cuba, they prepared us for war. They took away our individuality, we were lost. When I was finally reunited with my family after 11 years, I held back in many ways," recounted Ghalli Bentaleb, a former Saharan refugee who was sent to Cuba at age 12 and forced to live there for 13 years. Ms. Bentaleb continued, "We had heard of people leaving Cuba by rafts, and we wanted desperately to join them."

Even with the cold war behind us, Castro's ongoing effort to use education as a global tool for indoctrination and propaganda continues in Cuba today. Thousands of young Arab children are taken from their families and sent to spend their formative years in the hands of Castro's indoctrination machine on the "Isla de la Juventud" or Island of the Youth.

"This relic of the cold war survives in North Africa to this day," stated Robert Holley, Director of the Moroccan American Center for Policy in Washington, DC.

"The Polisario Front, an enduring ally of Castro's ideas, forces families to remain in squalid refugee camps by taking their children, sending them to Cuba and telling the families they must wait for their children to return. In many cases, the children are forced to stay in Cuba for more than 10 years without contact with their families," said Holley.

Thousands of Saharan refugees established camps in southern Algeria in the 1970s, following Spain's colonization of the area and the conflict resulting from Spain's withdrawal. The refugees are forced to live in camps in Tindouf, Algeria, controlled by the Polisario Front -- a group formed by Algeria, Libya and Cuba during the Cold War. Algeria and Cuba continue to provide support to the Polisario today.

During the conflict, which ended in a 1991 UN-brokered cease fire, the Polisario captured almost 2,500 Moroccan prisoners of war. The prisoners were held in torturous conditions and forced to perform slave labor, in gross violation of the Geneva Conventions. Under international pressure, the final 404 Moroccan prisoners of war were released in August 2005. The Saharan refugees are visiting the United States to continue the international pressure against the Polisario Front.

Theres Hope

2005-09-16T16:13:00.000-04:00

Castro gets sued for $50 million dollars!

By CURT ANDERSON
Associated Press
Posted September 15 2005, 3:30 PM EDT

MIAMI -- A former political prisoner in Cuba, who says he was repeatedly tortured with drugs and electric shocks, sued Fidel Castro's government Thursday for $50 million in damages in a case aimed partly at exposing what Castro opponents call his brutality toward dissidents.

Nilo Jerez said in court papers that the torture in the early 1970s made him sterile and continues to cause ``distress, anxiety, fear and apprehension.''

``It is time to have justice,'' Jerez told reporters outside the Miami-Dade County Courthouse after filing the lawsuit.

Jerez, a vocal opponent of Castro's government, said he was tortured during a three-month incarceration at a Havana psychiatric hospital called Mazorra where other political dissidents were kept. A former nurse at that hospital, Eriberto Mederos, who had moved to Florida was convicted in 2002 in federal court of illegally obtaining U.S. citizenship. He had concealed his role in torturing prisoners, including Jerez, but he died before he was sentenced.

``Regular torture sessions included forced drug injections and electroshock whereby electricity was passed through terminals into Mr. Jerez's head and his testicles causing severe pain and ultimately leading to the loss of bodily functions and conciousness,'' the lawsuit says.

One of Jerez's attorneys, John Gaebe, acknowledged that even if he wins the case it will be difficult to collect any money from Cuba or identify Cuban assets overseas that might be seized to pay the judgment. But he said the lawsuit is also aimed at reminding people that there are hundreds more Cuban dissidents like Jerez who say they suffered for their political views.

``It's an effort to bring justice to Mr. Jerez, but it's also an effort to shine a light on what is going on in Cuba,'' Gaebe said. Officials with the Cuban Government Interests Section in Washington, which represents Castro's government in the United States, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

The U.S. State Department has repeatedly condemned Cuba for repressing dissent and criticized the conditions under which political prisoners are held. ``The Castro government has long waged war on the basic human rights of its people,'' the department said in a recent report to Congress.

Jerez, who now lives in Miami, said he began protesting against Castro's government in 1964 at the age of 15, just five years after Castro came to power. He said he was arrested and sent to a labor camp, then sentenced to 25 years in prison after attempting to escape.

Nonetheless, he was released in 1970 and, after he soon resumed speaking out against Castro, was sent to the Mazorra hospital where the staff wore military uniforms and frequently threatened prisoners with execution by firing squad, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit names the government of Cuba as well as Castro and his brother and top defense official Raul Castro.

Bible codes Bad for Bush

2005-09-16T16:06:00.000-04:00

So now Bush is SATAN. ahhaha
can you imagine this?

Iran Ready to Share Nuclear Technology

2005-09-15T19:16:00.000-04:00

BAD NEWS...
We're just filled with it these days

---------------
By EDITH M. LEDERER
The Associated Press
Thursday, September 15, 2005; 4:27 PM

UNITED NATIONS -- Iran is willing to provide nuclear technology to other Muslim states, Iran's hard-line president said Thursday, notching up his rhetoric as his regime rejects international pressure to cut back its atomic program.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the comment after talking with Turkey's prime minister during a gathering of world leaders at the United Nations, Iran's state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said.

Ahmadinejad repeated promises that Iran will not develop nuclear weapons, the report said. Then he added: "Iran is ready to transfer nuclear know-how to the Islamic countries due to their need."

Iran has said it is determined to continue processing uranium so its nuclear program can be self-sufficient in meeting its own reactor fuel needs. It insists the program is intended only to generate electricity and denies having any ambition to build atomic weapons.

The United States and others have accused Iran of trying to develop atomic arms in violation of its commitments under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Europeans have been uneasy since it was revealed Iran kept parts of its nuclear program secret for years from U.N. inspectors.

Ahmadinejad's statement came just four days before the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is scheduled to discuss Iran's resumption of uranium conversion _ which produces material that can be used either for reactor fuel or for nuclear bombs.

His comments were likely raised during a Thursday afternoon meeting of the foreign ministers from the three European countries that have been negotiating with Iran on the nuclear issue _ Britain, France and Germany _ and Iran's new foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, and its top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani.

The European ministers met separately before they were joined about 15 minutes later by the Iranians in an office provided by Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette, European diplomats involved in the talks said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Afterward, officials wouldn't say what was discussed.

Germany's U.N. ambassador, Gunter Pleuger, said only that the session was a preparation for a meeting later in the day between Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Ahmadinejad. Pleuger said representatives of the three EU nations also would attend that meeting.

The United States and European countries warned last week that Iran was running out of time to freeze uranium processing or face referral to the U.N. Security Council for consideration of punitive sanctions.

However, diplomats and government officials in several European capitals said Thursday the U.S.-European push to take Iran before the council was meeting strong opposition and could be postponed. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hinted at that possibility Wednesday.

The officials in Europe, who agreed to discuss the delicate behind-the-scenes negotiations only if granted anonymity, said more than a dozen members of the IAEA's 35-nation board opposed making a decision about referral at their meeting Monday in Vienna, Austria.

Ahmadinejad has urged the United Nations not to bend to U.S. pressure to punish Iran.

"The raison d'etre of the United Nations is to promote global peace and tranquility," he told the General Assembly on Wednesday. "Therefore, any license for pre-emptive measures which are essentially based on gauging intentions rather than objective facts ... is a blatant contradiction to the very foundation of the United Nations and the letter and the spirit of its charter."

The European Union has taken the lead in trying to persuade Iran to halt uranium processing in exchange for economic help and a guaranteed supply of fuel for nuclear reactors.

Iran rejected that proposal, arguing the nonproliferation treaty gives it the right to run a peaceful nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad is expected to announced new Iranian proposals at the U.N. summit aimed at defusing the faceoff over its atomic operations.

The Meeting of the UNKIND!

2005-09-14T20:18:00.000-04:00

Two beasts, Robert Mugabe the dictator of Zimbabwe and Castro the dictator of Cuba are

conducting a love affair in Havana.

What a sad spectacle to see these two old mass murderers, responsible for the deaths of

hundreds of thousands of innocent people, having a great time while their people continue

to suffer.

Click here to read about Mugabe's crimes:

http://members.aol.com/maggemm/About.htm
http://www.practicesource.com/ale/blog/pivot/entry.php?uid=standard-113

Central Florida Man Drinks Soda Contaminated With Urine

2005-09-14T20:14:00.000-04:00

DELTONA, Fla. -- A Central Florida man is worried that his health is in danger because someone put urine in his soda as a malicious prank. The man is still waiting for the results of numerous health tests.

Publix, the company that owns the store, admitted the soda they sold was contaminated. The victim bought the tainted soda at the Publix-owned Pix convenience store at the corner of Elkcam and Howland in Deltona. That is where a construction worker said he bought and drank part of a Mountain Dew that was actually filled with an employee's urine.

"Got about half way through it and noticed that something wasn't right. I started vomiting all over my truck, started vomiting all over in the parking lot. I just couldn't control it, just nonstop vomiting," the victim said.

The man, who Channel 9 has agreed not to identify, received very bad news Tuesday. He said tests done by Publix confirmed his worst fear.

"I did find out what was in the bottle. It tested positive for urine and I had to call them to find out. They wouldn't even call me to tell me what was in it," he said.

The man bought the drink about two weeks ago and at first didn't realize what was inside the bottle.

"I went back inside and the manager told me it was just bad syrup," he said.

But later, an employee at the store called the victim to say a disgruntled co-worker had tampered with at least one soda bottle.

"He went in the back. He opened the bottle, urinated in it, put the cap back on and put it back on the shelf," he explained.

STRANGE PHOTOS

WEIRD! View 99 unusual photos capturing a variety of strange news. New photos are added frequently!
Now, the man's biggest fear is what might he contract.

"Our concern, obviously, is the health and welfare of this young man. He absolutely could have contracted HIV, gonorrhea, herpes," said attorney Dan Newlin.

"I'm just very concerned ... and how many other bottles did he do that to?" the victim questioned.

A local doctor told Channel 9 that the urine in the bottle could easily transmit diseases.

A Publix spokesperson said the employee admitted to urinating in the bottle and was suspended. They would not release his name and the supermarket chain did not contact law enforcement.

"We want to make sure our customers know that they can come into any of our Publix locations or Pix locations and be assured their product is safe for them and their families," said Publix spokesperson Dwayne Stephens by phone on Tuesday.

The victim said Publix was not responding appropriately.

"I'm very angry and it's hard for me to control. I'm just trying to stay civil and do the right thing and I think this man should be put in jail for it," he said.

Publix said the employee admitted to tampering with only one bottle of soda. He apparently worked in the deli area for about four years.

Product tampering is very illegal, but Publix did not call law enforcement. Tuesday, Channel 9 did.

Also Tuesday, Channel 9 did some investigating and found that this kind of product tampering is a felony under federal and state laws, punishable by up to 40 years in prison.

The victim in the incident was administered a battery of tests Tuesday to determine if he may have contracted any diseases. His attorneys were filing suit against Publix to obtain evidence in the case.
Copyright 2005 by wftv.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Judge rules Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional in public schools

2005-09-14T20:12:00.000-04:00

If times couldn't get worse, now this....

-----
(09-14) 11:28 PDT San Francisco (AP) --

Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was ruled unconstitutional Wednesday by a federal judge who granted legal standing to two families represented by an atheist who lost his previous battle before the U.S. Supreme Court.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled that the pledge's reference to one nation "under God" violates school children's right to be "free from a coercive requirement to affirm God."

Karlton said he was bound by precedent of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which in 2002 ruled in favor of Sacramento atheist Michael Newdow that the pledge is unconstitutional when recited in public schools.

The Supreme Court dismissed the case last year, saying Newdow lacked standing because he did not have custody of his elementary school daughter he sued on behalf of.

Newdow, an attorney and a medical doctor, filed an identical case on behalf of three unnamed parents and their children. Karlton said those families have the right to sue.

Karlton, ruling in Sacramento, said he would sign a restraining order preventing the recitation of the pledge at the Elk Grove Unified, Rio Linda and Elverta Joint Elementary school districts, where the plaintiffs' children attend.

If times couldn't get worse now this....

The decision sets up another showdown over the pledge in schools.

The Becket Fund, a religious rights group that is a party to the case, said it would immediately appeal the case to the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. If the court does not change its precedent, the group would go to the Supreme Court.

"It's a way to get this issue to the Supreme Court for a final decision to be made," said fund attorney Jared Leland.

Newdow, reached at his home, was not immediately prepared to comment.

Is this Bush's fault too????

2005-09-12T16:19:00.000-04:00

Look at this page... : http://www.wimp.com/orleans/

We Remember...

2005-09-11T10:18:00.000-04:00

IN GOD WE TRUST!

In Memoriam.

Gordon McCannel Aamoth. Edelmiro (Ed) Abad. Maria Rose Abad. Andrew Anthony Abate. Vincent Abate. Laurence Christopher Abel. William F. Abrahamson. Richard Anthony Aceto. Erica Van Acker. Heinrich B. Ackermann. Paul Andrew Acquaviva. Christian Adams. Donald L. Adams. Patrick Adams. Shannon Lewis Adams. Stephen Adams. Ignatius Adanga. Christy A. Addamo. Terence E. Adderley. Sophia B. Addo. Lee Adler. Daniel Thomas Afflitto. Emmanuel Afuakwah. Alok Agarwal. Mukul Agarwala. Joseph Agnello. David Scott Agnes. Joao A.D. Aguiar. Lt. Brian G. Ahearn. Jeremiah J. Ahern. Joanne Ahladiotis. Shabbir Ahmed. Terrance Andre Aiken. Godwin Ajala. Gertrude M. Alagero. Andrew Alameno. Margaret Ann (Peggy) Jezycki Alario. Gary Albero. Jon L. Albert. Peter Craig Alderman. Jacquelyn Delaine Aldridge. Grace Alegre-Cua. David D. Alger. Ernest Alikakos. Edward L. Allegretto. Eric Allen. Joseph Ryan Allen. Richard Dennis Allen. Richard Lanard Allen. Christopher Edward Allingham. Anna Williams Allison. Janet M. Alonso. Anthony Alvarado. Antonio Javier Alvarez. Telmo Alvear. Cesar A. Alviar. Tariq Amanullah. Angelo Amaranto. James Amato. Joseph Amatuccio. Paul Ambrose. Christopher Charles Amoroso. Spc. Craig Amundson. Kazuhiro Anai. Calixto Anaya. Jorge Octavio Santos Anaya. Joseph Peter Anchundia. Kermit Charles Anderson. Yvette Anderson. John Andreacchio. Michael Rourke Andrews. Jean A. Andrucki. Siew-Nya Ang. Joseph Angelini. Joseph Angelini. David Angell. Lynn Angell. Laura Angilletta. Doreen J. Angrisani. Lorraine D. Antigua. Seima Aoyama. Peter Paul Apollo. Faustino Apostol. Frank Thomas Aquilino. Patrick Michael Aranyos. David Gregory Arce. Michael G. Arczynski. Louis Arena. Barbara Arestegui. Adam Arias. Michael J. Armstrong. Jack Charles Aron. Joshua Aron. Richard Avery Aronow. Myra Aronson. Japhet J. Aryee. Carl Asaro. Michael A. Asciak. Michael Edward Asher. Janice Ashley. Thomas J. Ashton. Manuel O. Asitimbay. Lt. Gregg Arthur Atlas. Gerald Atwood. James Audiffred. Kenneth W. Van Auken. Louis F. Aversano. Ezra Aviles. Alona Avraham. Ayodeji Awe. Samuel (Sandy) Ayala. Arlene T. Babakitis. Eustace (Rudy) Bacchus. John James Badagliacca. Jane Ellen Baeszler. Robert J. Baierwalter. Andrew J. Bailey. Brett T. Bailey. Garnet Edward (Ace) Bailey. Tatyana Bakalinskaya. Michael S. Baksh. Sharon Balkcom. Michael Andrew Bane. Kathy Bantis. Gerard Jean Baptiste. Walter Baran. Gerard A. Barbara. Paul V. Barbaro. James W. Barbella. Ivan Kyrillos Fairbanks Barbosa. Victor Daniel Barbosa. Christine Barbuto. Colleen Ann Barkow. David Michael Barkway. Matthew Barnes. Melissa Rose Barnes. Sheila Patricia Barnes. Evan J. Baron. Ana Gloria Pocasangre de Barrera. Renee Barrett-Arjune. Arthur T. Barry. Diane G. Barry. Maurice Vincent Barry. Scott D. Bart. Carlton W. Bartels. Guy Barzvi. Inna Basina. Alysia Basmajian. Kenneth William Basnicki. Lt. Steven J. Bates. Paul James Battaglia. W. David Bauer. Ivhan Luis Carpio Bautista. Marlyn C. Bautista. Mark Bavis. Jasper Baxter. Lorraine G. Bay. Michele (Du Berry) Beale. Todd Beamer. Paul F. Beatini. Jane S. Beatty. Alan Beaven. Larry I. Beck. Manette Marie Beckles. Carl John Bedigian. Michael Beekman. Maria Behr. (Retired) Master Sgt. Max Beilke. Yelena Belilovsky. Nina Patrice Bell. Andrea Della Bella. Debbie S. Bellows. Stephen Elliot Belson. Paul Michael Benedetti. Denise Lenore Benedetto. Bryan Craig Bennett. Eric L. Bennett. Oliver Duncan Bennett. Margaret L. Benson. Dominick J. Berardi. James Patrick Berger. Steven Howard Berger. John P. Bergin. Alvin Bergsohn. Daniel D. Bergstein. Graham Andrew Berkeley. Michael J. Berkeley. Donna Bernaerts-Kearns. David W. Bernard. William Bernstein. David M. Berray. David S. Berry. Joseph J. Berry. William Reed Bethke. Yeneneh Betru. Timothy D. Betterly. Carolyn Beug. Edward F. Beyea. Paul Michael Beyer. Anil T. Bharvaney. Bella Bhukhan. Shimmy D. Biegeleisen. Peter Alexander Bielfeld. William Biggart. Brian Bilcher. Mark K. Bingham. Carl Vincent Bini. Gary Bird. Joshua David Birnbaum. George Bishop. Kris Romeo Bishundat. Jeffrey D. Bittner. Balewa Albert Blackman. Christopher Joseph Blackwell. Carrie Blagburn. Susan L. Blair. Harry Blanding. Janice L. Blaney. Craig Michael Blass. Rita Blau. Richard M. Blood. Michael A. Boccardi. John Paul Bocchi. Michael L. Bocchino. Susan Mary Bochino. Deora Frances Bodley. Bruce Douglas (Chappy) Boehm. Mary Katherine Boffa. Nicholas A. Bogdan. Darren C. Bohan. Lawrence Francis Boisseau. Vincent M. Boland. Touri Bolourchi. Alan Bondarenko. Andre Bonheur. Colin Arthur Bonnett. Frank Bonomo. Yvonne L. Bonomo. Sean Booker. Kelly Ann Booms. Lt. Col. Canfield D. Boone. Mary Jane (MJ) Booth. Sherry Ann Bordeaux. Krystine C. Bordenabe. Martin Boryczewski. Richard E. Bosco. Klaus Bothe. Carol Bouchard. John Howard Boulton. Francisco Bourdier. Thomas H. Bowden. Donna Bowen. Kimberly S. Bowers. Veronique (Bonnie) Nicole Bowers. Larry Bowman. Shawn Edward Bowman. Kevin L. Bowser. Gary R. Box. Gennady Boyarsky. Pamela Boyce. Allen Boyle. Michael Boyle. Alfred Braca. Sandra Conaty Brace. Kevin H. Bracken. Sandra W. Bradshaw. David Brian Brady. Alexander Braginsky. Nicholas W. Brandemarti. Daniel R. Brandhorst. David Reed Gamboa Brandhorst. Michelle Renee Bratton. Patrice Braut. Lydia Estelle Bravo. Ronald Michael Breitweiser. Edward A. Brennan. Frank H. Brennan. Michael Emmett Brennan. Peter Brennan. Thomas M. Brennan. Capt. Daniel Brethel. Gary L. Bright. Jonathan Eric Briley. Mark A. Brisman. Paul Gary Bristow. Victoria Alvarez Brito. Marion Britton. Mark Francis Broderick. Herman C. Broghammer. Keith Broomfield. Bernard Curtis Brown. Capt. Patrick J. Brown. Janice J. Brown. Lloyd Brown. Bettina Browne. Mark Bruce. Richard Bruehert. Andrew Brunn. Capt. Vincent Brunton. Ronald Paul Bucca. Brandon J. Buchanan. Greg Joseph Buck. Dennis Buckley. Nancy Bueche. Patrick Joseph Buhse. John E. Bulaga. Stephen Bunin. Christopher Lee Burford. Capt. William F. Burke. Matthew J. Burke. Thomas Daniel Burke. Charles Burlingame. Donald James Burns. Kathleen A. Burns. Keith James Burns. John Patrick Burnside. Irina Buslo. Milton Bustillo. Thomas M. Butler. Patrick Byrne. Timothy G. Byrne. Daniel Martin Caballero. Jesus Cabezas. Lillian Caceres. Brian Joseph Cachia. Steven Cafiero. Richard M. Caggiano. Cecile M. Caguicla. John Brett Cahill. Michael John Cahill. Scott W. Cahill. Thomas J. Cahill. George Cain. Salvatore B. Calabro. Joseph Calandrillo. Philip V. Calcagno. Edward Calderon. Sgt. 1st Class Jose Orlando Calderon-Olmedo. Kenneth Marcus Caldwell. Dominick E. Calia. Felix (Bobby) Calixte. Capt. Frank Callahan. Liam Callahan. Suzanne Calley. Luigi Calvi. Roko Camaj. Michael Cammarata. David Otey Campbell. Geoffrey Thomas Campbell. Jill Marie Campbell. Robert Arthur Campbell. Sandra Patricia Campbell. Juan Ortega Campos. Sean Canavan. John A. Candela. Vincent Cangelosi. Stephen J. Cangialosi. Lisa B. Cannava. Brian Cannizzaro. Michael R. Canty. Robin Caplan. Louis A. Caporicci. Jonathan N. Cappello. James Christopher Cappers. Richard M. Caproni. Jose Cardona. Dennis M Carey. Stephen Carey. Edward Carlino. Michael Scott Carlo. David G. Carlone. Rosemarie C. Carlson. Mark Stephen Carney. Joyce Ann Carpeneto. Alicia Acevedo Carranza. Jeremy M. Carrington. Michael T. Carroll. Peter Carroll. James J. Carson. Christoffer Carstanjen. Angelene C. Carter. Christopher Newton Carter. James Marcel Cartier. Sharon Carver. Vivian Casalduc. John F. Casazza. Paul Cascio. Neilie Casey. William Cashman. Margarito Casillas. Thomas Anthony Casoria. William Otto Caspar. Alejandro Castano. Arcelia Castillo. Leonard M. Castrianno. Jose Ramon Castro. William Caswell. Richard G. Catarelli. Christopher Sean Caton. Robert J. Caufield. Mary Teresa Caulfield. Judson Cavalier. Michael Joseph Cawley. Jason D. Cayne. Juan Armando Ceballos. Marcia G. Cecil-Carter. Jason Cefalu. Thomas J. Celic. Ana M. Centeno. Joni Cesta. John J. Chada. Jeffrey M. Chairnoff. Swarna Chalasini. William Chalcoff. Eli Chalouh. Charles Lawrence (Chip) Chan. Mandy Chang. Rosa Maria (Rosemary) Chapa. Mark L. Charette. David M. Charlebois. Gregorio Manuel Chavez. Jayceryll M. de Chavez. Pedro Francisco Checo. Douglas MacMillan Cherry. Stephen Patrick Cherry. Vernon Paul Cherry. Nestor Chevalier. Swede Joseph Chevalier. Alexander H. Chiang. Dorothy J. Chiarchiaro. Luis Alfonso Chimbo. Robert Chin. Wing Wai (Eddie) Ching. Nicholas P. Chiofalo. John Chipura. Peter A. Chirchirillo. Catherine E. Chirls. Kyung (Kaccy) Cho. Abul K. Chowdhury. Mohammed Salahuddin Chowdhury. Kirsten L. Christophe. Pamela Chu. Steven Paul Chucknick. Wai-ching Chung. Christopher Ciafardini. Alex F. Ciccone. Frances Ann Cilente. Elaine Cillo. Edna Cintron. Nestor Andre Cintron. Lt. Robert Dominick Cirri. Juan Pablo Alvarez Cisneros. Benjamin Keefe Clark. Eugene Clark. Gregory A. Clark. Mannie Leroy Clark. Sarah Clark. Thomas R. Clark. Christopher Robert Clarke. Donna Clarke. Michael Clarke. Suria R.E. Clarke. Kevin Francis Cleary. James D. Cleere. Geoffrey W. Cloud. Susan M. Clyne. Steven Coakley. Jeffrey Coale. Patricia A. Cody. Daniel Michael Coffey. Jason Matthew Coffey. Florence Cohen. Kevin Sanford Cohen. Anthony Joseph Coladonato. Mark J. Colaio. Stephen J. Colaio. Christopher M. Colasanti. Kevin Nathaniel Colbert. Michel Paris Colbert. Keith Eugene Coleman. Scott Thomas Coleman. Tarel Coleman. Liam Joseph Colhoun. Robert D. Colin. Robert J. Coll. Jean Marie Collin. John Michael Collins. Michael L. Collins. Thomas J. Collins. Joseph Collison. Jeffrey Collman. Patricia Malia Colodner. Linda M. Colon. Soledi Colon. Ronald Comer. Jaime Concepcion. Albert Conde. Denease Conley. Susan Clancy Conlon. Margaret Mary Conner. Cynthia L. Connolly. John E. Connolly. James Lee Connor. Jonathan (J.C.) Connors. Kevin P. Connors. Kevin Francis Conroy. Brenda E. Conway. Dennis Michael Cook. Helen D. Cook. Jeffrey Coombs. John A. Cooper. Julian Cooper. Zandra Cooper. Joseph J. Coppo. Gerard J. Coppola. Joseph Albert Corbett. John (Jay) J. Corcoran. Alejandro Cordero. Robert Cordice. Ruben D. Correa. Danny A. Correa-Gutierrez. Georgine Rose Corrigan. James Corrigan. Carlos Cortes. Kevin M. Cosgrove. Dolores Marie Costa. Digna Alexandra Rivera Costanza. Charles Gregory Costello. Michael S. Costello. Asia Cottom. Conrod K.H. Cottoy. Martin Coughlan. Sgt. John Gerard Coughlin. Timothy John Coughlin. James E. Cove. Andre Cox. Frederick John Cox. James Raymond Coyle. Michelle Coyle-Eulau. Anne M. Cramer. Christopher Seton Cramer. Lt. Cmdr. Eric Allen Cranford. Denise Crant. James L. Crawford. Robert James Crawford. Tara Creamer. Joanne Mary Cregan. Lucia Crifasi. Lt. John Crisci. Daniel Hal Crisman. Dennis A. Cross. Helen Crossin-Kittle. Kevin Raymond Crotty. Thomas G. Crotty. John Crowe. Welles Remy Crowther. Robert L. Cruikshank. Francisco Cruz. John Robert Cruz. Kenneth John Cubas. Thelma Cuccinello. Richard Joseph Cudina. Neil James Cudmore. Thomas Patrick Cullen. Joan McConnell Cullinan. Joyce Cummings. Brian Thomas Cummins. Nilton Albuquerque Fernao Cunha. Michael Joseph Cunningham. Robert Curatolo. Laurence Curia. Paul Dario Curioli. Patrick Currivan. Beverly Curry. Sgt. Michael Curtin. Patricia Cushing. Gavin Cushny. Caleb Arron Dack. Carlos S. DaCosta. Jason Dahl. Brian Dale. John D'Allara. Vincent D'Amadeo. Thomas A. Damaskinos. Jack L. D'Ambrosi. Jeannine Marie Damiani-Jones. Patrick W. Danahy. Nana Kwuku Danso. Mary D'Antonio. Vincent G. Danz. Dwight Donald Darcy. Elizabeth Ann Darling. Annette Andrea Dataram. Lt. Edward Alexander D'Atri. Michael D. D'Auria. Lawrence Davidson. Michael Allen Davidson. Scott Matthew Davidson. Titus Davidson. Niurka Davila. Ada M. Davis. Clinton Davis. Wayne Terrial Davis. Anthony Richard Dawson. Calvin Dawson. Edward James Day. William T. Dean. Robert J. DeAngelis. Thomas P. Deangelis. Dorothy Alma DeAraujo. Tara Debek. James Debeuneure. Anna Debin. James V. DeBlase. Paul DeCola. Capt. Gerald Francis Deconto. Simon Dedvukaj. Jason Christopher DeFazio. David A. Defeo. Jennifer DeJesus. Monique E. DeJesus. Nereida DeJesus. Donald A. Delapenha. Vito Joseph Deleo. Danielle Delie. Colleen Ann Deloughery. Joseph Deluca. Anthony Demas. Martin DeMeo. Francis X. Deming. Carol K. Demitz. Kevin Dennis. Thomas F. Dennis. Jean C. DePalma. Jose Nicolas Depena. Robert J. Deraney. Michael DeRienzo. David Paul Derubbio. Jemal Legesse DeSantis. Christian L. DeSimone. Edward DeSimone. Lt. Andrew Desperito. Michael Jude D'Esposito. Cindy Ann Deuel. Melanie Louise DeVere. Jerry DeVito. Robert P. Devitt. Dennis Lawrence Devlin. Gerard Dewan. Simon Suleman Ali Kassamali Dhanani. Michael L. DiAgostino. Lourdes Galletti Diaz. Matthew Diaz. Nancy Diaz. Obdulio Ruiz Diaz. Michael Diaz-Piedra. Judith Belguese Diaz-Sierra. Patricia F. DiChiaro. Rodney Dickens. Lt. Col. Jerry Don Dickerson. Joseph Dermot Dickey. Lawrence Patrick Dickinson. Michael David Diehl. John DiFato. Vincent F. DiFazio. Carl DiFranco. Donald J. DiFranco. Eddie Dillard. Debra Ann DiMartino. David DiMeglio. Stephen P. Dimino. William J. Dimmling. Christopher Dincuff. Jeffrey M. Dingle. Anthony DiOnisio. George DiPasquale. Joseph DiPilato. Douglas Frank DiStefano. Donald Americo DiTullio. Ramzi A. Doany. Johnnie Doctor. John J. Doherty. Melissa C. Doi. Brendan Dolan. Capt. Robert Edward Dolan. Neil Dollard. James Joseph Domanico. Benilda Pascua Domingo. Albert Dominguez. Charles (Carlos) Dominguez. Geronimo (Jerome) Mark Patrick Dominguez. Lt. Kevin W. Donnelly. Cmdr. William Howard Donovan. Jacqueline Donovan. Stephen Dorf. Thomas Dowd. Lt. Kevin Christopher Dowdell. Mary Yolanda Dowling. Raymond M. Downey. Frank Joseph Doyle. Joseph M. Doyle. Randy Drake. Patrick Joseph Driscoll. Stephen Patrick Driscoll. Charles Droz. Mirna A. Duarte. Luke A. Dudek. Christopher Michael Duffy. Gerard Duffy. Michael Joseph Duffy. Thomas W. Duffy. Antoinette Duger. Jackie Sayegh Duggan. Sareve Dukat. Cmdr. Patrick S. Dunn. Christopher Joseph Dunne. Richard A. Dunstan. Patrick Thomas Dwyer. Joseph Anthony Eacobacci. John Bruce Eagleson. Edward Thomas Earhart. Robert D. Eaton. Dean P. Eberling. Margaret Ruth Echtermann. Paul Robert Eckna. Constantine (Gus) Economos. Barbara G. Edwards. Dennis Michael Edwards. Michael Hardy Edwards. Capt. Martin Egan. Christine Egan. Lisa Egan. Michael Egan. Samantha Egan. Carole Eggert. Lisa Caren Weinstein Ehrlich. John Ernst (Jack) Eichler. Eric Adam Eisenberg. Daphne F. Elder. Michael J. Elferis. Mark J. Ellis. Valerie Silver Ellis. Albert Alfy William Elmarry. Lt. Cmdr. Robert Randolph Elseth. Edgar H. Emery. Doris Suk-Yuen Eng. Christopher S. Epps. Ulf Ramm Ericson. Erwin L. Erker. William J. Erwin. Sarah (Ali) Escarcega. Jose Espinal. Fanny M. Espinoza. Brigette Ann Esposito. Francis Esposito. Lt. Michael Esposito. William Esposito. Ruben Esquilin. Sadie Ette. Barbara G. Etzold. Eric Brian Evans. Robert Edward Evans. Meredith Emily June Ewart. Catherine K. Fagan. Patricia M. Fagan. Keith G. Fairben. Charles S. Falkenberg. Dana Falkenberg. Zoe Falkenberg. Jamie Lynn Fallon. William F. Fallon. William Fallon. Anthony J. Fallone. Dolores B. Fanelli. Robert Fangman. John Joseph Fanning. Kathleen (Kit) Faragher. Capt. Thomas Farino. Nancy Carole Farley. Paige Farley-Hackel. Elizabeth Ann (Betty) Farmer. Douglas Farnum. John G. Farrell. John W. Farrell. Terrence Patrick Farrell. Capt. Joseph Farrelly. Thomas P. Farrelly. Syed Abdul Fatha. Christopher Faughnan. Wendy R. Faulkner. Shannon M. Fava. Bernard D. Favuzza. Robert Fazio. Ronald C. Fazio. William Feehan. Francis J. (Frank) Feely. Garth E. Feeney. Sean B. Fegan. Lee S. Fehling. Peter Feidelberg. Alan D. Feinberg. Rosa Maria Feliciano. Edward P. Felt. Edward T. Fergus. George Ferguson. James Joe Ferguson. Henry Fernandez. Jose Manuel Contreras Fernandez. Judy H. Fernandez. Elisa Giselle Ferraina. Anne Marie Sallerin Ferreira. Robert John Ferris. David Francis Ferrugio. Louis V. Fersini. Michael David Ferugio. Bradley James Fetchet. Jennifer Louise Fialko. Kristen Fiedel. Amelia V. Fields. Samuel Fields. Alex Filipov. Michael Bradley Finnegan. Timothy J. Finnerty. Michael Curtis Fiore. Stephen J. Fiorelli. Paul M. Fiori. John Fiorito. Lt. John R. Fischer. Andrew Fisher. Bennett Lawson Fisher. Gerald P. Fisher. John Roger Fisher. Thomas J. Fisher. Lucy Fishman. Ryan D. Fitzgerald. Thomas Fitzpatrick. Richard P. Fitzsimons. Salvatore A. Fiumefreddo. Darlene Flagg. Wilson "Bud" Flagg. Christina Donovan Flannery. Eileen Flecha. Andre G. Fletcher. Carl Flickinger. Matthew Michael Flocco. John Joseph Florio. Joseph W. Flounders. Carol Flyzik. David Fodor. Lt. Michael N. Fodor. Steven Mark Fogel. Thomas Foley. Jane C. Folger. David Fontana. Chih Min (Dennis) Foo. Del Rose Forbes-Cheatham. Godwin Forde. Donald A. Foreman. Christopher Hugh Forsythe. Claudia Alicia Martinez Foster. Noel J. Foster. Sandra N. Foster. Ana Fosteris. Robert J. Foti. Jeffrey L. Fox. Virginia Fox. Joan Francis. Pauline Francis. Virgin (Lucy) Francis. Gary J. Frank. Morton Frank. Peter Christopher Frank. Colleen Laura Fraser. Richard K. Fraser. Kevin Joseph Frawley. Clyde Frazier. Lillian I. Frederick. Andrew Fredericks. Tamitha Freemen. Brett O. Freiman. Lt. Peter L. Freund. Arlene E. Fried. Alan Wayne Friedlander. Andrew K. Friedman. Paul Friedman. Gregg J. Froehner. Lisa Frost. Peter Christian Fry. Clement Fumando. Steven Elliot Furman. Paul James Furmato. Karleton D.B. Fyfe. Fredric Gabler. Richard Gabriel. Richard S. Gabrielle. James Andrew Gadiel. Pamela Gaff. Ervin Vincent Gailliard. Deanna L. Galante. Grace Galante. German Castillo Galicia. Anthony Edward Gallagher. Daniel James Gallagher. John Patrick Gallagher. Cono E. Gallo. Vincenzo Gallucci. Thomas Edward Galvin. Giovanna (Genni) Gambale. Thomas Gambino. Giann F. Gamboa. Ronald Gamboa. Peter J. Ganci. Claude Michael Gann. Lt. Charles William Garbarini. Andrew Garcia. Cesar Garcia. David Garcia. Jorge Luis Morron Garcia. Juan Garcia. Marlyn C. Garcia. Christopher Gardner. Douglas B. Gardner. Harvey J. Gardner. Jeffrey B. Gardner. Thomas A. Gardner. William Arthur Gardner. Francesco Garfi. Rocco Gargano. James M. Gartenberg. Matthew David Garvey. Bruce Gary. Palmina Delli Gatti. Boyd A. Gatton. Donald Richard Gavagan. Peter Gay. Terence D. Gazzani. Gary Geidel. Paul Hamilton Geier. Julie M. Geis. Peter Gelinas. Steven Paul Geller. Howard G. Gelling. Peter Victor Genco. Steven Gregory Genovese. Alayne F. Gentul. Linda George. Edward F. Geraghty. Suzanne Geraty. Ralph Gerhardt. Robert J. Gerlich. Denis P. Germain. Marina R. Gertsberg. Susan M. Getzendanner. Capt. Lawrence Daniel Getzfred. James Gerard Geyer. Cortz Ghee. Joseph M. Giaccone. Lt. Vincent Francis Giammona. Debra L. Gibbon. James A. Giberson. Brenda C. Gibson. Craig Neil Gibson. Ronnie Gies. Laura A. Giglio. Andrew Clive Gilbert. Timothy Paul Gilbert. Paul Stuart Gilbey. Paul John Gill. Mark Y. Gilles. Evan H. Gillette. Ronald Gilligan. Sgt. Rodney C. Gillis. Laura Gilly. Lt. John F. Ginley. Donna Marie Giordano. Jeffrey Giordano. John Giordano. Steven A. Giorgetti. Martin Giovinazzo. Kum-Kum Girolamo. Salvatore Gitto. Cynthia Giugliano. Mon Gjonbalaj. Dianne Gladstone. Keith Alexander Glascoe. Thomas I. Glasser. Edmund Glazer. Harry Glenn. Barry H. Glick. Jeremy Glick. Steven Lawrence Glick. John T. Gnazzo. William (Bill) Robert Godshalk. Michael Gogliormella. Brian Fredric Goldberg. Jeffrey Grant Goldflam. Michelle Herman Goldstein. Monica Goldstein. Steven Goldstein. Ron Golinski. Andrew H. Golkin. Dennis James Gomes. Enrique Antonio Gomez. Jose Bienvenido Gomez. Manuel Gomez. Wilder Gomez. Jenine Gonzalez. Joel Guevara Gonzalez. Mauricio Gonzalez. Rosa J. Gonzalez. Lynn Catherine Goodchild. Calvin J. Gooding. Peter Morgan Goodrich. Harry Goody. Kiran Reddy Gopu. Catherine Carmen Gorayeb. Lisa Fenn Gordenstein. Kerene Gordon. Sebastian Gorki. Kieran Gorman. Thomas E. Gorman. Michael Edward Gould. Douglas A. Gowell. Yugi Goya. Jon Richard Grabowski. Christopher Michael Grady. Edwin John Graf. David M. Graifman. Gilbert Granados. Lauren Grandcolas. Elvira Granitto. Winston Arthur Grant. Christopher Stewart Gray. Ian J. Gray. James Michael Gray. Linda Mair Grayling. John Michael Grazioso. Timothy Grazioso. Andrew Peter Charles Curry Green. Derrick Arthur Green. Wade Brian Green. Wanda Anita Green. Elaine Myra Greenberg. Donald F. Greene. Gayle R. Greene. James Arthur Greenleaf. Eileen Marsha Greenstein. Elizabeth (Lisa) Martin Gregg. Denise Gregory. Donald H. Gregory. Florence M. Gregory. Pedro (David) Grehan. John M. Griffin. Tawanna Griffin. Joan D. Griffith. Warren Grifka. Ramon Grijalvo. Joseph F. Grillo. David Grimner. The Rev. Francis E. Grogan. Linda Gronlund. Kenneth Grouzalis. Joseph Grzelak. Matthew J. Grzymalski. Robert Joseph Gschaar. Liming (Michael) Gu. Richard Guadagno. Jose A. Guadalupe. Yan Zhu (Cindy) Guan. Geoffrey E. Guja. Lt. Joseph Gullickson. Babita Guman. Douglas B. Gurian. Philip T. Guza. Barbara Guzzardo. Peter Gyulavary. Gary Robert Haag. Andrea Lyn Haberman. Barbara M. Habib. Philip Haentzler. Nizam A. Hafiz. Karen Hagerty. Steven Hagis. Mary Lou Hague. David Halderman. Maile Rachel Hale. Diane M. Hale-McKinzy. Richard Hall. Stanley Hall. Vaswald George Hall. Robert John Halligan. Lt. Vincent Gerard Halloran. Carolyn B. Halmon. James D. Halvorson. Mohammed Salman Hamdani. Felicia Hamilton. Robert Hamilton. Carl Max Hammond. Frederic Kim Han. Christopher James Hanley. Sean Hanley. Valerie Joan Hanna. Thomas Hannafin. Kevin James Hannaford. Michael L. Hannan. Dana Hannon. Christine Lee Hanson. Peter Hanson. Vassilios G. Haramis. James A. Haran. Gerald F. Hardacre. Jeffrey P. Hardy. Timothy John Hargrave. Daniel Harlin. Frances Haros. Lt. Harvey L. Harrell. Lt. Stephen Gary Harrell. Aisha Harris. Stewart D. Harris. John Patrick Hart. Eric Samadikan Hartono. John Clinton Hartz. Emeric J. Harvey. Peter Hashem. Capt. Thomas Theodore Haskell. Timothy Haskell. Joseph John Hasson. Capt. Terence S. Hatton. Leonard William Hatton. Michael Helmut Haub. Timothy Aaron Haviland. Donald G. Havlish. Anthony Hawkins. Nobuhiro Hayatsu. James E. Hayden. Philip Hayes. Robert Hayes. William Ward Haynes. Scott Hazelcorn. Lt. Michael K. Healey. Roberta Bernstein Heber. Charles Francis Xavier Heeran. John Heffernan. Michele Heidenberger. Sheila Hein. Howard Joseph Heller. JoAnn L. Heltibridle. Ronald John Hemenway. Mark F. Hemschoot. Ronnie Lee Henderson. Janet Hendricks. Brian Hennessey. Edward (Ted) R. Hennessy. Michelle Marie Henrique. Joseph P. Henry. William Henry. John Henwood. Robert Allan Hepburn. Mary (Molly) Herencia. Lindsay Coates Herkness. Harvey Robert Hermer. Claribel Hernandez. Norberto Hernandez. Raul Hernandez. Gary Herold. Jeffrey A. Hersch. Thomas Hetzel. Capt. Brian Hickey. Ysidro Hidalgo-Tejada. Lt. Timothy Higgins. Robert D. Higley. Todd Russell Hill. Clara Victorine Hinds. Neal Hinds. Mark D. Hindy. Richard Bruce Van Hine. Katsuyuki Hirai. Heather Malia Ho. Tara Yvette Hobbs. Thomas A. Hobbs. James L. Hobin. Robert Wayne Hobson. DaJuan Hodges. Ronald George Hoerner. Patrick Aloysius Hoey. John A. Hofer. Marcia Hoffman. Stephen G. Hoffman. Frederick J. Hoffmann. Michele L. Hoffmann. Judith Florence Hofmiller. Maj. Wallace Cole Hogan. Thomas Warren Hohlweck. Jonathan R. Hohmann. Cora Hidalgo Holland. John Holland. Joseph Francis Holland. Jimmie Ira Holley. Elizabeth Holmes. Thomas P. Holohan. Herbert W. Homer. Leroy Homer. Bradley Hoorn. James P. Hopper. Montgomery McCullough Hord. Michael Horn. Matthew D. Horning. Robert L. Horohoe. Michael R. Horrocks. Aaron Horwitz. Charles J. Houston. Uhuru G. Houston. Angela Houtz. George Howard. Brady K. Howell. Michael C. Howell. Steven L. Howell. Jennifer L. Howley. Milagros Hromada. Marian Hrycak. Stephen Huczko. Kris R. Hughes. Melissa Harrington Hughes. Paul R. Hughes. Robert T. "Bobby" Hughes. Thomas F. Hughes. Timothy Robert Hughes. Susan Huie. Mychal Lamar Hulse. Nicholas Humber. Kathleen (Casey) Hunt. William C. Hunt. Joseph G. Hunter. Peggie Hurt. Robert Hussa. Lt. Col. Stephen Neil Hyland. Robert J. Hymel. Capt. Walter Hynes. Thomas E. Hynes. Joseph Anthony Ianelli. Zuhtu Ibis. Jonathan Lee Ielpi. Michael Patrick Iken. Daniel Ilkanayev. Capt. Frederick Ill. Abraham Nethanel Ilowitz. Anthony P. Infante. Louis S. Inghilterra. Christopher N. Ingrassia. Paul Innella. Stephanie V. Irby. Douglas Irgang. Kristin A. Irvine-Ryan. Todd A. Isaac. Erik Hans Isbrandtsen. Taizo Ishikawa. Waleed Iskandar. Aram Iskenderian. John Iskyan. Kazushige Ito. Aleksandr Valeryerich Ivantsov. Sgt. Maj. Lacey B. Ivory. Virginia Jablonski. Bryan Jack. Brooke Alexandra Jackman. Aaron Jacobs. Ariel Louis Jacobs. Jason Kyle Jacobs. Michael Grady Jacobs. Steven A. Jacobson. Steven D. Jacoby. Ricknauth Jaggernauth. Jake Denis Jagoda. Yudh V.S. Jain. Maria Jakubiak. Robert Adrien Jalbert. Ernest James. Gricelda E. James. Mark Jardim. Amy N. Jarret. Mohammed Jawara. Francois Jean-Pierre. Maxima Jean-Pierre. Paul E. Jeffers. John Charles Jenkins. Joseph Jenkins. Alan K. Jensen. Prem N. Jerath. Farah Jeudy. Hweidar Jian. Eliezer Jimenez. Luis Jimenez. Charles Gregory John. Nicholas John. LaShawana Johnson. Lt. Col. Dennis M. Johnson. Scott M. Johnson. William Johnston. Allison Horstmann Jones. Arthur Joseph Jones. Brian L. Jones. Charles Edward Jones. Christopher D. Jones. Donald T. Jones. Donald W. Jones. Judith Jones. Linda Jones. Mary S. Jones. Andrew Jordan. Robert Thomas Jordan. Albert Joseph. Ingeborg Joseph. Karl Henri Joseph. Stephen Joseph. Jane Eileen Josiah. Lt. Anthony Jovic. Thomas E. Burnett Jr.. Angel Luis Juarbe. Karen Susan Juday. Ann Judge. The Rev. Mychal Judge. Paul W. Jurgens. Thomas Edward Jurgens. Kacinga Kabeya. Shashi Kiran Lakshmikantha Kadaba. Gavkharoy Mukhometovna Kamardinova. Shari Kandell. Howard Lee Kane. Jennifer Lynn Kane. Vincent D. Kane. Joon Koo Kang. Sheldon R. Kanter. Deborah H. Kaplan. Alvin Peter Kappelmann. Charles Karczewski. William A. Karnes. Douglas G. Karpiloff. Charles L. Kasper. Andrew Kates. John Katsimatides. Sgt. Robert Kaulfers. Don Jerome Kauth. Hideya Kawauchi. Edward T. Keane. Richard M. Keane. Lisa Kearney-Griffin. Karol Ann Keasler. Barbara Keating. Paul Hanlon Keating. Leo Russell Keene. Brenda Kegler. Chandler Keller. Joseph J. Keller. Peter Rodney Kellerman. Joseph P. Kellett. Frederick H. Kelley. James Joseph Kelly. Joseph A. Kelly. Maurice Patrick Kelly. Richard John Kelly. Thomas Michael Kelly. Thomas Richard Kelly. Thomas W. Kelly. Timothy C. Kelly. William Hill Kelly. Robert C. Kennedy. Thomas J. Kennedy. Yvonne Kennedy. John Keohane. Ralph Francis Kershaw. Lt. Ronald T. Kerwin. Howard L. Kestenbaum. Douglas D. Ketcham. Ruth E. Ketler. Boris Khalif. Norma Khan. Sarah Khan. Taimour Firaz Khan. Rajesh Khandelwal. Bhowanie Devi Khemraj. SeiLai Khoo. Michael Kiefer. Satoshi Kikuchihara. Andrew Jay-Hoon Kim. Lawrence Don Kim. Mary Jo Kimelman. Sue Jue Kim-Hanson. Heinrich Kimmig. Karen A. Kincaid. Amy R. King. Andrew Marshall King. Lucille T. King. Robert King. Lisa M. King-Johnson. Brian Kinney. Takashi Kinoshita. Chris Michael Kirby. Howard (Barry) Kirschbaum. Glenn Davis Kirwin. Richard J. Klares. Peter A. Klein. Alan D. Kleinberg. Karen J. Klitzman. Ronald Philip Kloepfer. Andrew Knox. Thomas Patrick Knox. Yevgeny Knyazev. Rebecca Lee Koborie. Deborah Kobus. Gary Edward Koecheler. Frank J. Koestner. Ryan Kohart. Vanessa Lynn Kolpak. Irina Kolpakova. Suzanne Kondratenko. Abdoulaye Kone. Bon-seok Koo. Dorota Kopiczko. Scott Kopytko. Bojan Kostic. Danielle Kousoulis. David Kovalcin. John J. Kren. William Krukowski. Lyudmila Ksido. Toshiya Kuge. Shekhar Kumar. Kenneth Kumpel. Frederick Kuo. Patricia Kuras. Nauka Kushitani. Thomas Joseph Kuveikis. Victor Kwarkye. Kui Fai Kwok. Angela R. Kyte. Kathryn L. LaBorie. Amarnauth Lachhman. Andrew LaCorte. Ganesh Ladkat. James P. Ladley. Daniel M. Van Laere. Joseph A. Lafalce. Jeanette LaFond-Menichino. David LaForge. Michael Patrick LaForte. Alan Lafranco. Juan Lafuente. Neil K. Lai. Vincent A. Laieta. William David Lake. Franco Lalama. Chow Kwan Lam. Lt. Michael Scott Lamana. Stephen LaMantia. Amy Hope Lamonsoff. Robert T. Lane. Brendan M. Lang. Rosanne P. Lang. Vanessa Langer. Mary Lou Langley. Peter J. Langone. Thomas Langone. Michele B. Lanza. Ruth Sheila Lapin. Carol Ann LaPlante. Ingeborg Astrid Desiree Lariby. Robin Larkey. Judy Larocque. Christopher Randall Larrabee. Hamidou S. Larry. Scott Larsen. John Adam Larson. Natalie Janis Lasden. Gary E. Lasko. Nicholas C. Lassman. Paul Laszczynski. Jeffrey Latouche. Cristina de Laura. Oscar de Laura. Charles Laurencin. Stephen James Lauria. Maria Lavache. Denis F. Lavelle. Jeannine M. LaVerde. Anna A. Laverty. Steven Lawn. Robert A. Lawrence. Nathaniel Lawson. David W. Laychak. Eugen Lazar. James Patrick Leahy. Lt. Joseph Gerard Leavey. Neil Leavy. Robert George LeBlanc. Leon Lebor. Kenneth Charles Ledee. Alan J. Lederman. Elena Ledesma. Alexis Leduc. Daniel John Lee. David S. Lee. Dong Lee. Gary H. Lee. Hyun-joon (Paul) Lee. Jong-min Lee. Juanita Lee. Kathryn Blair Lee. Linda C. Lee. Lorraine Lee. Myung-woo Lee. Richard Y.C. Lee. Stuart (Soo-Jin) Lee. Yang Der Lee. Stephen Lefkowitz. Adriana Legro. Edward J. Lehman. Eric Andrew Lehrfeld. David Ralph Leistman. David Prudencio LeMagne. Joseph A. Lenihan. John J. Lennon. John Robinson Lenoir. Jorge Luis Leon. Matthew Gerard Leonard. Michael Lepore. Charles Antoine Lesperance. Jeffrey Earle LeVeen. John D. Levi. Alisha Caren Levin. Neil D. Levin. Robert Levine. Robert M. Levine. Shai Levinhar. Daniel C. Lewin. Adam J. Lewis. Jennifer Lewis. Kenneth Lewis. Margaret Susan Lewis. Ye Wei Liang. Orasri Liangthanasarn. Daniel F. Libretti. Ralph M. Licciardi. Edward Lichtschein. Samantha Lightbourn-Allen. Steven B. Lillianthal. Carlos R. Lillo. Craig Damian Lilore. Arnold A. Lim. Darya Lin. Wei Rong Lin. Tomas Gallegos Linares. Nickie L. Lindo. Thomas V. Linehan. Robert Thomas Linnane. Alan Linton. Diane Theresa Lipari. Kenneth P. Lira. Francisco Alberto Liriano. Lorraine Lisi. Paul Lisson. Vincent Litto. Ming-Hao Liu. Nancy Liz. Harold Lizcano. Martin Lizzul. George A. Llanes. Elizabeth Claire Logler. Catherine Lisa Loguidice. Jerome Robert Lohez. Michael W. Lomax. Maj. Steve Long. Laura M. Longing. Salvatore P. Lopes. Daniel Lopez. George Lopez. Luis Lopez. Maclovio Lopez. Manuel L. Lopez. Joseph Lostrangio. Chet Louie. Stuart Seid Louis. Joseph Lovero. Sara Low. Michael W. Lowe. Garry Lozier. John Peter Lozowsky. Charles Peter Lucania. Edward (Ted) H. Luckett. Mark G. Ludvigsen. Lee Charles Ludwig. Sean Thomas Lugano. Daniel Lugo. Marie Lukas. William Lum. Michael P. Lunden. Christopher Lunder. Anthony Luparello. Gary Lutnick. Linda Luzzicone. Alexander Lygin. CeeCee Lyles. Farrell Peter Lynch. James Francis Lynch. James Lynch. Louise A. Lynch. Michael F. Lynch. Michael Francis Lynch. Michael Lynch. Richard Dennis Lynch. Robert H. Lynch. Sean Lynch. Sean Patrick Lynch. Terence M. Lynch. Michael J. Lyons. Monica Lyons. Nehamon Lyons. Patrick Lyons. Robert Francis Mace. Marianne MacFarlane. Jan Maciejewski. Susan A. MacKay. Catherine Fairfax MacRae. Richard B. Madden. Simon Maddison. Noell Maerz. Jeannieann Maffeo. Joseph Maffeo. Jay Robert Magazine. Brian Magee. Charles Wilson Magee. Joseph Maggitti. Ronald E. Magnuson. Daniel L. Maher. Thomas Anthony Mahon. William Mahoney. Joseph Maio. Takashi Makimoto. Abdu Malahi. Debora Maldonado. Myrna T. Maldonado-Agosto. Alfred R. Maler. Gregory James Malone. Edward Francis (Teddy) Maloney. Joseph E. Maloney. Gene E. Maloy. Christian Maltby. Francisco Miguel (Frank) Mancini. Joseph Mangano. Sara Elizabeth Manley. Debra M. Mannetta. Marion Victoria (vickie) Manning. Terence J. Manning. James Maounis. Alfred Gilles Padre Joseph Marchand. Joseph Ross Marchbanks. Hilda Marcin. Peter Edward Mardikian. Edward Joseph Mardovich. Lt. Charles Joseph Margiotta. Louis Neil Mariani. Kenneth Joseph Marino. Lester Vincent Marino. Vita Marino. Kevin D. Marlo. Jose J. Marrero. John Marshall. Shelley A. Marshall. James Martello. Michael A. Marti. Karen A. Martin. Lt. Peter Martin. Teresa Martin. William J. Martin. Brian E. Martineau. Betsy Martinez. Edward J. Martinez. Jose Martinez. Robert Gabriel Martinez. Lizie Martinez-Calderon. Francis (Frank) Albert De Martini. Lt. Paul Richard Martini. Joseph A. Mascali. Bernard Mascarenhas. Stephen F. Masi. Ada L. Mason. Nicholas G. Massa. Patricia A. Massari. Michael Massaroli. Philip W. Mastrandrea. Rudolph Mastrocinque. Joseph Mathai. Charles William Mathers. William A. Mathesen. Marcello Matricciano. Margaret Elaine Mattic. Lt. Col. Dean E. Mattson. Robert D. Mattson. Walter Matuza. Lt. Gen. Timothy J. Maude. Charles A. (Chuck) Mauro. Charles J. Mauro. Dorothy Mauro. Nancy T. Mauro. Robert J. Maxwell. Renee A. May. Tyrone May. Keithroy Maynard. Robert J. Mayo. Kathy Nancy Mazza-Delosh. Edward Mazzella. Jennifer Mazzotta. Kaaria Mbaya. James J. McAlary. Brian McAleese. Patricia A. McAneney. Colin Richard McArthur. John McAvoy. Kenneth M. McBrayer. Brendan McCabe. Michael J. McCabe. Thomas McCann. Justin McCarthy. Kevin M. McCarthy. Michael Desmond McCarthy. Robert Garvin McCarthy. Stanley McCaskill. Katie Marie McCloskey. Tara McCloud-Gray. Juliana Valentine McCourt. Ruth Magdaline McCourt. Charles Austin McCrann. Tonyell McDay. Matthew T. McDermott. Joseph P. McDonald. Brian G. McDonnell. Michael McDonnell. John F. McDowell. Eamon J. McEneaney. John Thomas McErlean. Katherine (Katie) McGarry-Noack. Daniel F. McGinley. Mark Ryan McGinly. Lt. William E. McGinn. Thomas H. McGinnis. Michael Gregory McGinty. Ann McGovern. Scott Martin McGovern. William J. McGovern. Stacey S. McGowan. Francis Noel McGuinn. First Officer Thomas McGuinness. Patrick J. McGuire. Thomas M. McHale. Keith McHeffey. Ann M. McHugh. Denis J. McHugh. Dennis P. McHugh. Michael Edward McHugh. Robert G. McIlvaine. Donald James McIntyre. Stephanie McKenna. Molly McKenzie. Barry J. McKeon. Evelyn C. McKinnedy. Darryl Leron McKinney. George Patrick McLaughlin. Robert C. McLaughlin. Gavin McMahon. Robert Dismas McMahon. Edmund M. McNally. Daniel McNeal. Walter Arthur McNeil. Jaselliny McNish. Christine Sheila McNulty. Sean Peter McNulty. Robert William McPadden. Terence A. McShane. Timothy Patrick McSweeney. Martin E. McWilliams. Rocco A. Medaglia. Abigail Medina. Ana Iris Medina. Deborah Medwig. Damian Meehan. William J. Meehan. Alok Kumar Mehta. Raymond Meisenheimer. Manuel Emilio Mejia. Eskedar Melaku. Antonio Melendez. Mary Melendez. Christopher D. Mello. Yelena Melnichenko. Stuart Todd Meltzer. Diarelia Jovannah Mena. Dora Menchaca. Charles Mendez. Lizette Mendoza. Shevonne Mentis. Wolfgang Peter Menzel. Steve Mercado. Wesley Mercer. Ralph Joseph Mercurio. Alan H. Merdinger. George C. Merino. Yamel Merino. George Merkouris. Deborah Merrick. Raymond J. Metz. Jill A. Metzler. David Robert Meyer. Nurul Huq Miah. William Edward Micciulli. Martin Paul Michelstein. Patricia E. (Patti) Mickley. Luis Clodoaldo Revilla Mier. Maj. Ronald D. Milam. Peter T. Milano. Gregory Milanowycz. Lukasz T. Milewski. Corey Peter Miller. Craig James Miller. Douglas C. Miller. Henry Miller. Joel Miller. Michael Matthew Miller. Nicole Miller. Phillip D. Miller. Robert Alan Miller. Robert C. Miller. Benjamin Millman. Charles M. Mills. Ronald Keith Milstein. Robert Minara. William G. Minardi. Louis Joseph Minervino. Thomas Mingione. Nana Akwasi Minkah. Wilbert Miraille. Domenick Mircovich. Rajesh A. Mirpuri. Joseph Mistrulli. Susan Miszkowicz. Lt. Paul Thomas Mitchell. Richard Miuccio. Jeff Mladenik. Frank V. Moccia. Capt. Louis Joseph Modafferi. Boyie Mohammed. Lt. Dennis Mojica. Manuel Mojica. Fernando Jimenez Molina. Kleber Rolando Molina. Manuel Dejesus Molina. Carl Molinaro. Justin J. Molisani. Brian Patrick Monaghan. Franklin Monahan. John Gerard Monahan. Kristen Montanaro. Craig D. Montano. Michael Montesi. Carlos Alberto Montoya. Cheryl Ann Monyak. Capt. Thomas Moody. Sharon Moore. Krishna Moorthy. Laura Lee Morabito. Abner Morales. Carlos Morales. Luis Morales. Paula Morales. Gerard (Jerry) P. Moran. John Christopher Moran. John Moran. Kathleen Moran. Lindsay S. Morehouse. George Morell. Steven P. Morello. Vincent S. Morello. Arturo Alva Moreno. Yvette Nicole Moreno. Dorothy Morgan. Richard Morgan. Nancy Morgenstern. Sanae Mori. Blanca Morocho. Leonel Morocho. Dennis G. Moroney. Lynne Irene Morris. Odessa V. Morris. Seth A. Morris. Stephen Philip Morris. Christopher M. Morrison. Ferdinand V. Morrone. William David Moskal. Brian Anthony Moss. Manuel Da Mota. Marco Motroni. Iouri A. Mouchinski. Jude J. Moussa. Peter C. Moutos. Damion Mowatt. Ted Moy. Christopher Mozzillo. Stephen V. Mulderry. Richard Muldowney. Michael D. Mullan. Dennis Michael Mulligan. Peter James Mulligan. Michael Joseph Mullin. James Donald Munhall. Nancy Muniz. Carlos Mario Munoz. Francisco Munoz. Theresa (Terry) Munson. Robert M. Murach. Cesar Augusto Murillo. Marc A. Murolo. Brian Joseph Murphy. Charles Murphy. Christopher W. Murphy. Edward C. Murphy. James F. Murphy. James Thomas Murphy. Kevin James Murphy. Lt. Cmdr. Patrick Jude Murphy. Lt. Raymond E. Murphy. Patrick Sean Murphy. Robert Eddie Murphy. John Joseph Murray. John Joseph Murray. Susan D. Murray. Valerie Victoria Murray. Richard Todd Myhre. Louis J. Nacke. Lt. Robert B. Nagel. Mildred Naiman. Takuya Nakamura. Alexander J.R. Napier. Frank Joseph Naples. John Napolitano. Catherine A. Nardella. Mario Nardone. Manika Narula. Shawn M. Nassaney. Narender Nath. Karen S. Navarro. Joseph M. Navas. Francis J. Nazario. Glenroy Neblett. Marcus R. Neblett. Jerome O. Nedd. Laurence Nedell. Luke G. Nee. Pete Negron. Laurie Ann Neira. Ann Nicole Nelson. David William Nelson. James Nelson. Michele Ann Nelson. Peter Allen Nelson. Oscar Nesbitt. Gerard Terence Nevins. Renee Newell. Christopher Newton. Kapinga Ngalula. Nancy Yuen Ngo. Khang Nguyen. Jody Tepedino Nichilo. Kathleen Nicosia. Martin Niederer. Alfonse J. Niedermeyer. Frank John Niestadt. Gloria Nieves. Juan Nieves. Troy Edward Nilsen. Paul R. Nimbley. John Ballantine Niven. Curtis Terrence Noel. Michael Allen Noeth. Daniel R. Nolan. Robert Walter Noonan. Jacqueline J. Norton. Robert Grant Norton. Daniela R. Notaro. Brian Novotny. Soichi Numata. Brian Felix Nunez. Jose R. Nunez. Jeffrey Nussbaum. James A. Oakley. Dennis O'Berg. James P. O'Brien. Michael O'Brien. Scott J. O'Brien. Timothy Michael O'Brien. Lt. Daniel O'Callaghan. Jefferson Ocampo. Dennis J. O'Connor. Diana J. O'Connor. Keith K. O'Connor. Richard J. O'Connor. Amy O'Doherty. Marni Pont O'Doherty. Douglas Oelschlager. Takashi Ogawa. Albert Ogletree. Philip Paul Ognibene. John Ogonowski. James Andrew O'Grady. Joseph J. Ogren. Lt. Thomas O'Hagan. Samuel Oitice. Capt. William O'Keefe. Patrick O'Keefe. Gerald Michael Olcott. Gerald O'Leary. Christine Anne Olender. Elsy Carolina Osorio Oliva. Linda Mary Oliva. Edward K. Oliver. Leah E. Oliver. Eric T. Olsen. Jeffrey James Olsen. Barbara Olson. Maureen L. Olson. Steven John Olson. Matthew Timothy O'Mahoney. Toshihiro Onda. Seamus L. O'Neal. John P. O'Neill. Peter J. O'Neill. Sean Gordon Corbett O'Neill. Betty Ong. Michael C. Opperman. Christopher Orgielewicz. Margaret Orloske. Virginia A. Ormiston-Kenworthy. Ruben Ornedo. Kevin O'Rourke. Juan Romero Orozco. Ronald Orsini. Peter K. Ortale. Jane M. Orth. Alexander Ortiz. David Ortiz. Emilio (Peter) Ortiz. Pablo Ortiz. Paul Ortiz. Sonia Ortiz. Masaru Ose. Patrick J. O'Shea. Robert W. O'Shea. James Robert Ostrowski. Timothy O'Sullivan. Jason Douglas Oswald. Michael Otten. Isidro Ottenwalder. Michael Chung Ou. Todd Joseph Ouida. Jesus Ovalles. Peter J. Owens. Adianes Oyola. Angel M. Pabon. Israel Pabon. Roland Pacheco. Michael Benjamin Packer. Diana Borrero de Padro. Spc. Chin Sun Pak. Deepa K. Pakkala. Jeffrey Matthew Palazzo. Thomas Anthony Palazzo. Richard (Rico) Palazzolo. Orio Joseph Palmer. Frank A. Palombo. Alan N. Palumbo. Christopher M. Panatier. Dominique Pandolfo. Lt. Jonas Martin Panik. Paul Pansini. John M. Paolillo. Edward J. Papa. Salvatore Papasso. James N. Pappageorge. Marie Pappalardo. Vinod K. Parakat. Vijayashanker Paramsothy. Nitin Parandkar. Hardai (Casey) Parbhu. James Wendell Parham. Debra (Debbie) Paris. George Paris. Gye-Hyong Park. Philip L. Parker. Michael A. Parkes. Robert Emmett Parks. Hasmukhrai Chuckulal Parmar. Robert Parro. Diane Marie Moore Parsons. Leobardo Lopez Pascual. Michael J. Pascuma. Jerrold H. Paskins. Horace Robert Passananti. Suzanne H. Passaro. Victor Antonio Martinez Pastrana. Avnish Ramanbhai Patel. Dipti Patel. Manish K. Patel. Steven B. Paterson. James Matthew Patrick. Manuel Patrocino. Bernard E. Patterson. Maj. Clifford L. Patterson. Cira Marie Patti. Robert Edward Pattison. James R. Paul. Patrice Paz. Sharon Cristina Millan Paz. Victor Paz-Gutierrez. Stacey L. Peak. Richard Allen Pearlman. Durrell Pearsall. Thomas Pecorelli. Thomas E. Pedicini. Todd D. Pelino. Michel Adrian Pelletier. Anthony Peluso. Angel Ramon Pena. Emerita (Emy) De La Pena. Robert Penniger. Richard Al Penny. Salvatore F. Pepe. Carl Allen Peralta. Robert David Peraza. Jon A. Perconti. Alejo Perez. Angel Perez. Angela Susan Perez. Anthony Perez. Ivan Perez. Nancy E. Perez. Berinthia Berenson Perkins. Joseph John Perroncino. Edward J. Perrotta. Emelda Perry. John William Perry. Lt. Glenn C. Perry. Franklin Allan Pershep. Daniel Pesce. Michael J. Pescherine. Davin Peterson. Donald Arthur Peterson. Jean Hoadley Peterson. William Russel Peterson. Mark Petrocelli. Lt. Philip S. Petti. Glen Kerrin Pettit. Dominick Pezzulo. Kaleen E. Pezzuti. Lt. Kevin Pfeifer. Tu-Anh Pham. Lt. Kenneth John Phelan. Michael V. San Phillip. Eugenia Piantieri. Ludwig John Picarro. Matthew Picerno. Joseph O. Pick. Christopher Pickford. Dennis J. Pierce. Joseph A. Della Pietra. Bernard T. Pietronico. Nicholas P. Pietrunti. Theodoros Pigis. Susan Elizabeth Ancona Pinto. Joseph Piskadlo. Christopher Todd Pitman. Josh Piver. Robert R. Ploger. Joseph Plumitallo. John M. Pocher. William Howard Pohlmann. Laurence M. Polatsch. Thomas H. Polhemus. Steve Pollicino. Susan M. Pollio. Lt. J.G. Darin Howard Pontell. Joshua Poptean. Giovanna Porras. Anthony Portillo. James Edward Potorti. Daphne Pouletsos. Richard Poulos. Stephen E. Poulos. Brandon Jerome Powell. Scott Powell. Shawn Edward Powell. Tony Pratt. Gregory M. Preziose. Wanda Ivelisse Prince. Vincent Princiotta. Kevin Prior. Everett Martin (Marty) Proctor. Carrie B. Progen. David Lee Pruim. Richard Prunty. John F. Puckett. Robert D. Pugliese. Edward F. Pullis. Patricia Ann Puma. (Retired) Capt. Jack Punches. Sonia Morales Puopolo. Hemanth Kumar Puttur. Joseph John Pycior. Edward R. Pykon. Christopher Quackenbush. Lars Peter Qualben. Lincoln Quappe. Beth Ann Quigley. Patrick Quigley. Lt. Michael Quilty. James Francis Quinn. Ricardo Quinn. Carol Rabalais. Christopher Peter A. Racaniello. Leonard Ragaglia. Eugene J. Raggio. Laura Marie Ragonese-Snik. Michael Ragusa. Peter F. Raimondi. Harry A. Raines. Lisa J. Raines. Ehtesham U. Raja. Valsa Raju. Edward Rall. Lukas (Luke) Rambousek. Julio Fernandez Ramirez. Maria Isabel Ramirez. Harry Ramos. Vishnoo Ramsaroop. Deborah Ramsaur. Lorenzo Ramzey. A. Todd Rancke. Adam David Rand. Jonathan C. Randall. Srinivasa Shreyas Ranganath. Anne Rose T. Ransom. Faina Rapoport. Rhonda Rasmussen. Robert Arthur Rasmussen. Amenia Rasool. Roger Mark Rasweiler. Marsha Dianah Ratchford. David Alan James Rathkey. William Ralph Raub. Gerard Rauzi. Alexey Razuvaev. Gregory Reda. Sarah (Prothero) Redheffer. Michele Reed. Judith A. Reese. Donald J. Regan. Lt. Robert M. Regan. Thomas M. Regan. Christian Michael Otto Regenhard. Howard Reich. Gregg Reidy. James Brian Reilly. Kevin O. Reilly. Timothy E. Reilly. Joseph Reina. Thomas Barnes Reinig. Frank B. Reisman. Joshua Scott Reiss. Karen Renda. John Armand Reo. Richard Rescorla. John Thomas Resta. Sylvia San Pio Resta. Martha Reszke. David E. Retik. Todd Reuben. Eduvigis (Eddie) Reyes. Bruce A. Reynolds. John Frederick Rhodes. Francis S. Riccardelli. Rudolph N. Riccio. AnnMarie (Davi) Riccoboni. David Rice. Eileen Mary Rice. Kenneth F. Rice. Cecelia E. Richard. Lt. Vernon Allan Richard. Claude D. Richards. Gregory Richards. Michael Richards. Venesha O. Richards. James C. Riches. Alan Jay Richman. John M. Rigo. Frederick Charles Rimmele. Theresa (Ginger) Risco. Rose Mary Riso. Moises N. Rivas. Joseph Rivelli. Carmen A. Rivera. Isaias Rivera. Juan William Rivera. Linda Rivera. Waleska Martinez Rivera. David E. Rivers. Joseph R. Riverso. Paul Rizza. John Frank Rizzo. Stephen Louis Roach. Joseph Roberto. Leo A. Roberts. Michael Edward Roberts. Michael Roberts. Donald Walter Robertson. Catherina Robinson. Jeffrey Robinson. Michell Lee Robotham. Donald Robson. Antonio Augusto Tome Rocha. Raymond J. Rocha. Laura Rockefeller. John M. Rodak. Antonio Jose Carrusca Rodrigues. Anthony Rodriguez. Carmen Milagros Rodriguez. Gregory E. Rodriguez. Marsha A. Rodriguez. Richard Rodriguez. David B. Rodriguez-Vargas. Matthew Rogan. Jean Roger. Karlie Barbara Rogers. Scott Rohner. Keith Roma. Joseph M. Romagnolo. Efrain Franco Romero. Elvin Santiago Romero. James A. Romito. Sean Rooney. Eric Thomas Ropiteau. Aida Rosario. Angela Rosario. Fitzroy St. Rose. Mark H. Rosen. Brooke David Rosenbaum. Linda Rosenbaum. Sheryl Lynn Rosenbaum. Lloyd D. Rosenberg. Mark Louis Rosenberg. Andrew I. Rosenblum. Joshua M. Rosenblum. Joshua A. Rosenthal. Richard David Rosenthal. Philip M. Rosenzweig. Richard Ross. Daniel Rossetti. Norman Rossinow. Nicholas P. Rossomando. Michael Craig Rothberg. Donna Marie Rothenberg. Mark Rothenberg. James M. Roux. Nick Rowe. Edward V. Rowenhorst. Judy Rowlett. Timothy A. Roy. Paul G. Ruback. Ronald J. Ruben. Joanne Rubino. David Michael Ruddle. Bart Joseph Ruggiere. Susan Ann Ruggiero. Adam K. Ruhalter. Gilbert Ruiz. Robert E. Russell. Stephen P. Russell. Steven Harris Russin. Lt. Michael Thomas Russo. Wayne Alan Russo. William R. Ruth. Edward Ryan. John J. Ryan. Jonathan Stephan Ryan. Matthew Lancelot Ryan. Tatiana Ryjova. Christina Sunga Ryook. Thierry Saada. Jason E. Sabbag. Thomas E. Sabella. Scott Saber. Charles E. Sabin. Joseph Sacerdote. Jessica Sachs. Francis J. Sadocha. Jude Elias Safi. Brock Joel Safronoff. Edward Saiya. John Patrick Salamone. Marjorie C. Salamone. Hernando R. Salas. Juan Salas. Esmerlin Salcedo. John Salvatore Salerno. Rahma Salie. Richard L. Salinardi. Wayne John Saloman. Nolbert Salomon. Catherine Patricia Salter. Frank Salvaterra. Paul R. Salvio. Samuel R. Salvo. Carlos Samaniego. Rena Sam-Dinnoo. John Sammartino. James Kenneth Samuel. Hugo Sanay-Perafiel. Alva Jeffries Sanchez. Erick Sanchez. Jacquelyn P. Sanchez. Jesus Sanchez. Eric Sand. Stacey Leigh Sanders. Herman Sandler. James Sands. Ayleen J. Santiago. Kirsten Santiago. Maria Theresa Santillan. Susan G. Santo. Christopher Santora. John Santore. Mario L. Santoro. Rafael Humberto Santos. Rufino Conrado F. (Roy) Santos. Capt. Victor Saracini. Kalyan K. Sarkar. Chapelle Sarker. Paul F. Sarle. Deepika Kumar Sattaluri. Gregory Thomas Saucedo. Susan Sauer. Anthony Savas. Vladimir Savinkin. John Sbarbaro. Lt. Col. David M. Scales. Robert L. Scandole. Michelle Scarpitta. Dennis Scauso. John A. Schardt. John G. Scharf. Fred Claude Scheffold. Angela Susan Scheinberg. Scott M. Schertzer. Sean Schielke. Steven Francis Schlag. Cmdr. Robert Allan Schlegel. Jon S. Schlissel. Karen Helene Schmidt. Ian Schneider. Thomas G. Schoales. Marisa Di Nardo Schorpp. Frank G. Schott. Gerard P. Schrang. Jeffrey Schreier. John T. Schroeder. Susan Lee Kennedy Schuler. Edward W. Schunk. Mark E. Schurmeier. Clarin Shellie Schwartz. John Schwartz. Mark Schwartz. Adriane Victoria Scibetta. Raphael Scorca. Janice Scott. Randolph Scott. Christopher J. Scudder. Arthur Warren Scullin. Michael Seaman. Margaret Seeliger. Anthony Segarra. Carlos Segarra. Jason Sekzer. Matthew Carmen Sellitto. Michael L. Selves. Howard Selwyn. Larry John Senko. Arturo Angelo Sereno. Frankie Serrano. Marian Serva. Alena Sesinova. Adele Sessa. Sita Nermalla Sewnarine. Karen Lynn Seymour-Dietrich. Davis (Deeg) Sezna. Thomas Joseph Sgroi. Jayesh Shah. Khalid M. Shahid. Mohammed Shajahan. Gary Shamay. Earl Richard Shanahan. Shiv Shankar. Cmdr. Dan Frederic Shanower. Neil G. Shastri. Kathryn Anne Shatzoff. Barbara A. Shaw. Jeffrey J. Shaw. Robert J. Shay. Daniel James Shea. Joseph Patrick Shea. Mary Kathleen Shearer. Robert Michael Shearer. Linda Sheehan. Hagay Shefi. Antoinette Sherman. John Anthony Sherry. Atsushi Shiratori. Thomas Shubert. Mark Shulman. See-Wong Shum. Allan Shwartzstein. Johanna Sigmund. Dianne T. Signer. Gregory Sikorsky. Stephen Gerard Siller. David Silver. Craig A. Silverstein. Nasima H. Simjee. Bruce Edward Simmons. Diane Simmons. Don Simmons. George Simmons. Arthur Simon. Kenneth Alan Simon. Michael John Simon. Paul Joseph Simon. Marianne Simone. Barry Simowitz. Jane Louise Simpkin. Jeff Simpson. Cheryle D. Sincock. Khamladai K. (Khami) Singh. Roshan R. (Sean) Singh. Thomas Sinton. Peter A. Siracuse. Muriel F. Siskopoulos. Joseph M. Sisolak. John P. Skala. Francis J. Skidmore. Toyena Corliss Skinner. Paul A. Skrzypek. Christopher Paul Slattery. Vincent R. Slavin. Robert Sliwak. Paul K. Sloan. Stanley S. Smagala. Wendy L. Small. Gregg Harold Smallwood. (Retired) Lt. Col. Gary F. Smith. Catherine T. Smith. Daniel Laurence Smith. George Eric Smith. Heather Lee Smith. James G. Smith. Jeffrey Randall Smith. Joyce Smith. Karl Trumbull Smith. Kevin Smith. Leon Smith. Moira Smith. Rosemary A. Smith. Sandra Fajardo Smith. Bonnie S. Smithwick. Rochelle Monique Snell. Christine Snyder. Dianne Snyder. Leonard J. Snyder. Astrid Elizabeth Sohan. Sushil Solanki. Ruben Solares. Naomi Leah Solomon. Daniel W. Song. Mari-Rae Sopper. Michael C. Sorresse. Fabian Soto. Timothy P. Soulas. Gregory T. Spagnoletti. Donald F. Spampinato. Thomas Sparacio. John Anthony Spataro. Robert W. Spear. Robert Speisman. Maynard S. Spence. George E. Spencer. Robert Andrew Spencer. Mary Rubina Sperando. Frank J. Spinelli. William E. Spitz. Joseph P. Spor. Klaus Johannes Sprockamp. Saranya Srinuan. Michael F. Stabile. Lawrence T. Stack. Capt. Timothy Stackpole. Richard James Stadelberger. Eric A. Stahlman. Gregory M. Stajk. Alexandru Liviu Stan. Corina Stan. Mary D. Stanley. Joyce Stanton. Patricia Stanton. Anthony M. Starita. Jeffrey Stark. Derek James Statkevicus. Patricia J. Statz. Craig William Staub. William V. Steckman. Eric Thomas Steen. William R. Steiner. Alexander Robbins Steinman. Edna L. Stephens. Andrew Stergiopoulos. Andrew Stern. Norma Lang Steuerle. Martha Jane Stevens. Michael James Stewart. Richard H. Stewart. Sanford M. Stoller. Douglas J. Stone. Lonny J. Stone. Jimmy Nevill Storey. Timothy Stout. Thomas S. Strada. James J. Straine. Edward W. Straub. George Strauch. Edward T. Strauss. Steven R. Strauss. Sgt. Maj. Larry Strickland. Steven F. Strobert. Walwyn W. Stuart. Benjamin Suarez. David S. Suarez. Ramon Suarez. Xavier Suarez. Yoichi Sugiyama. William Christopher Sugra. Daniel Suhr. David Marc Sullins. Lt. Christopher P. Sullivan. Patrick Sullivan. Thomas Sullivan. Hilario Soriano (Larry) Sumaya. James Joseph Suozzo. Colleen Supinski. Robert Sutcliffe. Selina Sutter. Claudia Suzette Sutton. John F. Swaine. Kristine M. Swearson. Brian D. Sweeney. Brian Edward Sweeney. Madeline Sweeney. Kenneth J. Swensen. Thomas F. Swift. Derek O. Sword. Kevin T. Szocik. Gina Sztejnberg. Norbert P. Szurkowski. Harry Taback. Joann Tabeek. Norma C. Taddei. Michael Taddonio. Keiichiro Takahashi. Keiji Takahashi. Phyllis Gail Talbot. Robert R. Talhami. John Talignani. Sean Patrick Tallon. Paul Talty. Maurita Tam. Rachel Tamares. Hector Tamayo. Michael Andrew Tamuccio. Kenichiro Tanaka. Rhondelle Cherie Tankard. Michael Anthony Tanner. Dennis Gerard Taormina. Kenneth Joseph Tarantino. Allan Tarasiewicz. Michael C. Tarrou. Ronald Tartaro. Darryl Taylor. Donnie Brooks Taylor. Hilda E. Taylor. Leonard Taylor. Lorisa Ceylon Taylor. Maj. Kip P. Taylor. Michael M. Taylor. Sandra C. Taylor. Sandra Teague. Karl W. Teepe. Paul A. Tegtmeier. Yeshavant Moreshwar Tembe. Anthony Tempesta. Dorothy Temple. Stanley L. Temple. David Tengelin. Brian J. Terrenzi. Lisa Marie Terry. Goumatie T. Thackurdeen. Harshad Sham Thatte. Michael Theodoridis. Thomas F. Theurkauf. Lesley Anne Thomas. Brian T. Thompson. Capt. William Harry Thompson. Clive Thompson. Glenn Thompson. Nigel Bruce Thompson. Perry Anthony Thompson. Vanavah Alexi Thompson. Eric Raymond Thorpe. Nichola A. Thorpe. Sgt. Tamara Thurman. Sal Tieri. John Patrick Tierney. Mary Ellen Tiesi. William R. Tieste. Kenneth F. Tietjen. Stephen Edward Tighe. Scott C. Timmes. Michael E. Tinley. Jennifer M. Tino. Robert Frank Tipaldi. John J. Tipping. David Tirado. Hector Luis Tirado. Michelle Titolo. Alicia Nicole Titus. John J. Tobin. Richard J. Todisco. Lt. Cmdr. Otis Vincent Tolbert. Vladimir Tomasevic. Stephen K. Tompsett. Thomas Tong. Azucena de la Torre. Doris Torres. Luis Eduardo Torres. Amy E. Toyen. Christopher M. Traina. Daniel Patrick Trant. Abdoul Karim Traore. Glenn J. Travers. Walter (Wally) P. Travers. Felicia Traylor-Bass. James Trentini. Mary Trentini. Lisa L. Trerotola. Karamo Trerra. Michael Trinidad. Francis Joseph Trombino. Gregory J. Trost. Willie Q. Troy. William Tselepis. Zhanetta Tsoy. Michael Patrick Tucker. Lance Richard Tumulty. Ching Ping Tung. Simon James Turner. Donald Joseph Tuzio. Robert T. Twomey. Jennifer Tzemis. John G. Ueltzhoeffer. Tyler V. Ugolyn. Michael A. Uliano. Jonathan J. Uman. Anil Shivhari Umarkar. Allen V. Upton. Diane Maria Urban. John Damien Vaccacio. Bradley H. Vadas. William Valcarcel. Antonio Jesus Montoya Valdes. Mayra Valdes-Rodriguez. Felix Antonio Vale. Ivan Vale. Benito Valentin. Santos Valentin. Manuel Del Valle. Carlton Francis Valvo. Pendyala Vamsikrishna. Edward Raymond Vanacore. Jon C. Vandevander. Frederick T. Varacchi. Gopalakrishnan Varadhan. David Vargas. Scott C. Vasel. Azael Ismael Vasquez. Santos Vasquez. Lt. Cmdr. Ronald James Vauk. Arcangel Vazquez. Peter Anthony Vega. Sankara S. Velamuri. Jorge Velazquez. Lawrence Veling. Anthony M. Ventura. David Vera. Loretta A Vero. Christopher Vialonga. Matthew Gilbert Vianna. Robert A. Vicario. Celeste Torres Victoria. Joanna Vidal. John T. Vigiano. Joseph Vincent Vigiano. Frank J. Vignola. Joseph B. Vilardo. Sergio Villanueva. Chantal Vincelli. Melissa Vincent. Francine A. Virgilio. Lawrence Virgilio. Joseph G. Visciano. Joshua S. Vitale. Maria Percoco Vola. Lynette D. Vosges. Garo H. Voskerijian. Alfred Vukosa. Gregory Wachtler. Lt. Col. Karen Wagner. Mary Wahlstrom. Honor Elizabeth Wainio. Gabriela Waisman. Wendy Alice Rosario Wakeford. Courtney Wainsworth Walcott. Victor Wald. Kenneth Waldie. Benjamin Walker. Glen J. Wall. Lt. Robert F. Wallace. Mitchel Scott Wallace. Peter G. Wallace. Roy Michael Wallace. Jean Marie Wallendorf. Matthew Blake Wallens. Meta L. Waller. John Wallice. Barbara P. Walsh. James Walsh. Jeffrey Patrick Walz. Ching H. Wang. Weibin Wang. Lt. Michael Warchola. Stephen Gordon Ward. Timothy Ward. James A. Waring. Brian G. Warner. Derrick Washington. Capt. Patrick J. Waters. Charles Waters. James Thomas (Muddy) Waters. Kenneth Watson. Michael H. Waye. Todd C. Weaver. Walter E. Weaver. Nathaniel Webb. Dinah Webster. William M. Weems. Joanne Flora Weil. Michael Weinberg. Steven Weinberg. Scott Jeffrey Weingard. Steven Weinstein. Simon Weiser. David M. Weiss. David T. Weiss. Vincent Michael Wells. Deborah Welsh. Timothy Matthew Welty. Christian Hans Rudolf Wemmers. Ssu-Hui (Vanessa) Wen. John Wenckus. Oleh D. Wengerchuk. Peter M. West. Whitfield West. Meredith Lynn Whalen. Eugene Whelan. Adam S. White. Edward James White. James Patrick White. John S. White. Kenneth W. White. Leonard Anthony White. Malissa White. Olga Kristin Gould White. Sandra L. White. Staff Sgt. Maudlyn A. White. Wayne White. Leanne Marie Whiteside. Mark Whitford. Leslie A. Whittington. Michael T. Wholey. Mary Lenz Wieman. Jeffrey David Wiener. William J. Wik. Alison Marie Wildman. Lt. Glenn Wilkinson. Ernest M. Willcher. John C. Willett. Brian Patrick Williams. Candace Lee Williams. Crossley Williams. David Williams. Deborah Lynn Williams. Kevin Michael Williams. Louie Anthony Williams. Louis Calvin Williams. Lt. Cmdr. David Lucian Williams. Maj. Dwayne Williams. Lt. John Williamson. Cynthia Wilson. Donna Wilson. William E. Wilson. David H. Winton. Glenn J. Winuk. Thomas Francis Wise. Alan L. Wisniewski. Frank T. Wisniewski. David Wiswall. Sigrid Charlotte Wiswe. Michael R. Wittenstein. Christopher W. Wodenshek. Martin P. Wohlforth. Katherine S. Wolf. Jennifer Y. Wong. Jenny Seu Kueng Low Wong. Siu Cheung Wong. Yin Ping (Steven) Wong. Yuk Ping Wong. Brent James Woodall. James J. Woods. Marvin R. Woods. Patrick Woods. Richard Herron Woodwell. Capt. David Terence Wooley. John Bentley Works. Martin Michael Wortley. Rodney James Wotton. William Wren. John Wright. Neil R. Wright. Sandra Wright. Jupiter Yambem. John D. Yamnicky. Suresh Yanamadala. Vicki Yancey. Shuyin Yang. Matthew David Yarnell. Myrna Yaskulka. Shakila Yasmin. Olabisi L. Yee. Kevin Wayne Yokum. Edward P. York. Kevin Patrick York. Raymond York. Suzanne Youmans. Barrington L. Young. Donald McArthur Young. Edmond Young. Jacqueline (Jakki) Young. Lisa L. Young. Elkin Yuen. Joseph Zaccoli. Adel Agayby Zakhary. Arkady Zaltsman. Edwin J. Zambrana. Robert Alan Zampieri. Mark Zangrilli. Christopher Zarba. Ira Zaslow. Kenneth Albert Zelman. Abraham J. Zelmanowitz. Martin Morales Zempoaltecatl. Zhe (Zack) Zeng. Marc Scott Zeplin. Jie Yao Justin Zhao. Yuguag Zheng. Ivelin Ziminski. Michael Joseph Zinzi. Charles A. Zion. Julie Lynne Zipper. Salvatore J. Zisa. Prokopios Paul Zois. Joseph J. Zuccala. Andrew Steven Zucker. Igor Zukelman.

Toxic Dummies Found in Caracas

2005-09-09T17:09:00.000-04:00

Skeleton-shaped dummies made in white cardboard and bearing Manila envelopes were found Thursday at several points in Caracas, poisoning two officers with the local police in Baruta Municipality who tried to remove one.

The chief of the Baruta Municipality police, Luis Godoy, asserted that around 4:30 a.m. officers found one of the dummies at a highway intersection in east Caracas. After they checked the cardboard skeletons they fell ill with general malaise, sweating and suffocation.

They were taken to the hospital, and doctors confirmed that they were intoxicated with a substance yet to be determined.

Godoy added that this incident was reported to the Scientific, Penal and Criminology Investigation Agency (Cicpc), which launched the relevant investigation and started to remove other dummies found through the town.

The skeletons, an alleged protest against President Hugo Chávez' government, were also found at Prados del Este, Las Mercedes, Los Campitos, Libertador Avenue (Country Club and El Bosque), Ruiz Pineda (Caricuao), San Martín avenue, December 9 and El Paraíso bridges, subway stations Parque del Este, Los Dos Caminos, La Paz and Ruiz Pineda, the Museum of Transportation, highway intersection near CCCT mall, La California bridge, Río de Janeiro avenue, Francisco de Miranda avenue (Parque Cristal building) and Bello Monte by the Guaire River.

Fidel Castro is a MORON!

2005-09-09T16:59:00.000-04:00

If Castro can offer the United States 34
tons of medical equipment to help treat
the victims of Hurricane Katrina, Why are
the hospitals treating the children of Cuba
in such terrible shape?

'St. Bernard Parish and Plaquemines was ground zero'

2005-09-08T18:46:00.000-04:00

Thursday, September 8, 2005; Posted: 1:37 p.m. EDT (17:37 GMT)

CHALMETTE, Louisana (AP) -- The cars were swallowed, the homes shattered and the people left clinging for life. Survivors waited for help, but it seemed like so little, so late.

More than a week since Hurricane Katrina cut its swath along the Gulf Coast, word is only now starting to trickle out from this outlying area of some 66,000 people on Louisiana's southeastern edge.

What's said is filled with anger -- residents feeling even more abandoned than hard-hit New Orleans -- and disbelief. (See video of a largely submerged parish -- 2:35 )

"If you dropped a bomb on this place, it couldn't be any worse than this," said Ron Silva, a district fire chief in St. Bernard Parish. "It's Day 8, guys. Everything was diverted first to New Orleans, we understand that. But do you realize we got 18 to 20 feet of water from the storm, and we've still got 7 to 8 feet of water?"

In the working-class parishes of St. Bernard and Plaquemines, the heavy rain and levee break brought a wall of water up to 20 feet high. Local officials expect the number of deaths to be in the hundreds.

In one wrenching case, 30 residents in a nursing home died and 30 others were evacuated, said Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, who has been working with search and rescue. (Full story)

Homes were chopped open, a Baptist church's steeple ripped off. Water gurgles and spurts in places from leaking natural gas.

"I can't even imagine trying to rebuild this," said Kevin Cobble, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife officer from Las Cruces, New Mexico, who has been looking for survivors.

As relief efforts sputtered in the days after the storm, Verlyn Davis Jr., an out-of-work electrician, took charge. He transformed his parents' bar and seafood restaurant, Lehrmann's, into a shelter where he dispatches people to clear roads, hook up generators and help in the disaster relief process.

About 20 people have been staying there these days. On a boarded-up window out front is a blue spray-painted sign: "ABOUT TIME BUSH!"

"The governor and the president let thousands of people die and they let them die on their roofs and they let them die in the water," said Davis, 45. "We got left. They didn't care."

Help has begun to pour in -- the sound of the military helicopters overhead interrupts the silence. Search teams in boats pound on rooftops. They shout, "Anybody home?" But they know the answer.

"New Orleans took a beating," said Jason Stage, a 47-year-old maintenance worker staying at Lehrmann's. "But St. Bernard Parish and Plaquemines was ground zero."

Barbara Bush 'meant well'

2005-09-08T17:54:00.000-04:00

What a fine woman she is!

-----

Washington - US President George W Bush is not the only member of his prominent political family to be drawing criticism for public utterances about Hurricane Katrina, his mother has raised eyebrows too.

In widely reported comments after visiting evacuees at a Texas sports arena, former first lady Barbara Bush on Monday seemed to suggest a silver lining for the "underprivileged" forced from their flooded homes in New Orleans.

She said: "What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality.

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway - so this is working very well for them."

Texas 'offering great help'

White House spokesperson Scott McClellan said: "I think that the observation is based on someone or some people who were talking to her and in need of a lot of assistance, people who have gone through a lot of trauma and been through a very difficult and trying time.

"And all of a sudden, they are now getting great help in Texas from some of the shelters."

Her son had faced criticism for saying that, on September 1, no one anticipated that New Orleans' levees would break - even though various federal and state agencies had warned of that scenario.

In his first tour of the devastated region, Bush also praised federal emergency management agency (FEMA) chief Michael Brown, saying: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

Sluggish response to Katrina

Brown had become a lightning rod for criticism of Washington's sluggish response to Katrina, one of the worst natural disasters to hit the US, and opposition democrats had stepped up calls for Bush to fire him.

Bush had also came under fire for paying tribute to ravaged New Orleans as a place he used to visit years ago "to enjoy myself - occasionally too much", an apparent reference to the days before he quit drinking.

In an effort to raise the spirits of the hundreds of thousands who had lost their homes, Bush promised to rebuild devastated areas better than they were before, but at one point focused on the home of a powerful parliamentarian.

9/11 attacks aftermath

He said: "Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house - he's lost his entire house - there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch."

There had also been echoes of the aftermath of the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks, after Bush urged Americans to go shopping and live their lives as normally as possible.

In some of her first remarks after the hurricane, First Lady Laura Bush told Gulf Coast evacuees: "It's very important to get your children in school. It gives children a sense of normalcy."

The White House later put together a plan to help students and school districts affected by the hurricane.

U.S. indicts man who threw bomb at Bush

2005-09-08T17:47:00.000-04:00

Items compiled from Tribune news services
Published September 8, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A man who admitted throwing a live grenade toward President Bush during a rally in the former Soviet republic of Georgia was indicted Wednesday by a U.S. grand jury on charges of trying to assassinate the president.

Vladimir Arutyunian already faces terrorism and murder charges in Georgia stemming from the May 10 incident in the capital of Tbilisi and the killing of a police officer in a shootout before his arrest in July.

Bush and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili were behind a bulletproof barrier addressing a rally of thousands in Tbilisi in May when the grenade in a plaid cloth landed about 100 feet away. It did not explode. No one was harmed.

The two-count indictment by a grand jury in Washington also charges Arutyunian with a related weapons charge. He could face life in prison if convicted.

White House swipes at Castro after Katrina aid offer

2005-09-07T23:38:00.000-04:00

AFP
September 7, 2005
The White House answered Havana's offer of aid to help victims of Hurricane Katrina by saying it hoped Cuban President Fidel Castro would

"offer freedom to his people."

Castro, who often deploys Cuban doctors abroad, has offered to send 1,586 doctors and 34 tonnes of medicine to the United States to help

in the aftermath of Katrina, one of the worst natural disasters to strike the United States.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the US State Department was handling overseas assistance offers but added: "In terms of Cuba,

we would certainly hope that Castro would offer freedom to his people."

The comments, which were not a rejection of Havana's offer, came after US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack did not rule out

accepting the assistance, saying it would depend on the needs in the region.

"In terms of Cuba, I understand that there has been an offer of medical personnel. I think it is an offer, along with some other offers of medical personnel, that we will continue to take a look at," McCormack said Tuesday.

Speaking in Havana later Wednesday, the president of Cuba's parliament, Ricardo Alarcon, said Cuba was still waiting for a response to its offer

of medical assistance for the US disaster zones.

"We are waiting for a response. I imagine it would not be easy to figure out a position, the reasons they will give, but it's urgent because there

are people who need medical assistance," Alarcon said.

McClellan said 94 countries and international organizations had offered help to the United States, but he declined to say whether any of those

assets were deployed along the storm-ravaged US Gulf Coast.

Cuba, under a strict US embargo for more than 40 years, has rejected past US aid offers to help the island recover from hurricanes.

ANOTHER IDIOT IN LOVE WITH CASTRO!

2005-09-06T20:48:00.000-04:00

Provided by WWW.THEREALCUBA.COM

Another dumb university professor in love with Castro
Luciana Bohne, who teaches film and literature at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, wrote an article in
the Online Journal complaining that the US government didn't accept an offer from the Cuban regime to
send doctors and medical equipment to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Ms. Bohne has every right
to question the actions of her government, but what I cannot accept is the fact that she is using this tragedy
to try to confuse those who read her article about who Fidel Castro really is.
Here is what she says about a criminal dictator who has murdered tens of thousands of innocent people:

"Perhaps because of his Jesuitical education; perhaps because of having to live up to the ethics of the
revolution, which places people before profits; perhaps because of natural tendency, Fidel Castro is one
among the most punctiliously courteous leaders in the world."

Can you believe such stupidity? Can you believe that this woman is teaching literature at an American
University?
I decided to write Ms. Bohne the following letter:
"Hi, I read your article about the 'medical help' being offered by Castro to the US on the aftermath of hurricane
Katrina. I have one question: If Cuba has the means to offer medical help to other countries, why are their own
citizens treated like this?:
http://therealcuba.com/page3.htm
http://therealcuba.com/Page10.htm

And this was her response:
"Dear Mr. George, It may be taken as presumptuous to assign homework to someone who finished school long
ago. Best regards, Luciana Bohne"

Seeing that she has no intentions to look at both sides of the Cuba issue, I sent this second letter to her. If she
responds I will post what she has to say:
"In other words, you want to continue to lie about Cuba without taking the time to learn what the truth really
is. If you don't have the time to research about this particular subject, the best you can do is to find some other
subject where at least you would have a vague idea of what you are talking about.To defend a fascist and racist regime like the one in Cuba, is shameful.Better do your homework! Regards, George"

If you want to write to her, this is her e-mail: lbohne@edinboro.edu

Kanye Bashes Bush

2005-09-06T20:37:00.000-04:00

WATCH VIDEO HERE:

video
http://www.schnittshow.com/main.html

FOR MORE ON THE STORY... PLEASE VISIT

Kanye has a certain point... I agree with him when he states that when theres a black person with a large bag he's "looting" and when theres a white person he's "finding food". That is most certainly correct. I've seen it numerous times, not just on the Associated Press.
I just pray that this will all be over soon. All of it!

George Bush is not the devil, he cares for lives... I don't feel that he hates black people, I feel he could do more. I'm a republican but I'll state the truth.

Thank you!

IN HARM'S WAY

2005-09-06T20:23:00.000-04:00

WELL WELL WELL...
what do we have here?

----

By John McQuaid and Mark Schleifstein
Staff writers

On the night of Aug. 10, 1856, a powerful hurricane struck Last Island off the southern tip of Terrebonne Parish. The sea rose in the darkness and trapped hundreds of summer vacationers visiting the popular resort. Wind-driven waves 8 feet high raked the island and tore it in two.

By morning, everything standing upright was broken, splintered and washed away, including all of the island's trees, its casinos, a hotel and the summer homes of wealthy New Orleans families. More than 200 people died. Many were crushed and others drowned after being struck by wreckage in the maelstrom.

Claire Rose Champagne's great-great-grandmother Amelie Voisin and a baby daughter were among those lost in the storm. Other family members survived and eventually abandoned Last Island — today the Isles Dernieres archipelago — for Dulac, a fishing village 30 miles inland up Bayou Grand Caillou. But there was no escape from the storms, which have followed the family inland over five generations.

In 1909, Champagne's fisherman grandfather was out at sea when another hurricane lashed the Louisiana coast with 110-mph winds that propelled a 10-foot wave of water through Dulac.

"My grandmother and (her) children were left at home and saved themselves by climbing into the attic of the house," she said. "Forty people tied ropes to the house and to two oak trees, then all stayed in the attic — women and children and some men. After the hurricane the government sent some tents for people to live in." Her grandfather made it back alive, but about 350 people along the coast died in the storm.

Hurricanes are a common heritage for Louisiana residents, who until the past few decades had little choice in facing a hurricane but to ride it out and pray.

Today, billions of dollars worth of levees, sea walls, pumping systems and satellite hurricane tracking provide a comforting safety margin that has saved thousands of lives.

But modern technology and engineering mask an alarming fact: In the generations since those storms menaced Champagne's ancestors, south Louisiana has been growing more vulnerable to hurricanes, not less.

Sinking land and chronic coastal erosion — in part the unintended byproducts of flood-protection efforts — have opened dangerous new avenues for even relatively weak hurricanes and tropical storms to assault areas well inland.

"There's no doubt about it," said Windell Curole, general manager of the South Lafourche Levee District, who maintains a hurricane levee that encircles Bayou Lafourche from Larose to the southern tip of Golden Meadow. "The biggest factor in hurricane risk is land loss. The Gulf of Mexico is, in effect, probably 20 miles closer to us than it was in 1965 when Hurricane Betsy hit."

These trends are the source of a complex and growing threat to everyone living in south Louisiana and to the regional economy and culture:

The combination of sinking land and rising seas has put the Mississippi River delta as much as 3 feet lower relative to sea level than it was a century ago, and the process continues. That means hurricane floods driven inland from the Gulf have risen by corresponding amounts. Storms that once would not have had much impact can now be devastating events, and flooding penetrates to places where it rarely occurred before. The problem also is slowly eroding levee protection, cutting off evacuation routes sooner and putting dozens of communities and valuable infrastructure at risk of being wiped off the map.

Coastal erosion has shaved barrier islands to slivers and turned marshland to open water, opening the way for hurricane winds and flooding to move inland. Hurricanes draw their strength from the sea, so they quickly weaken and begin to dissipate when they make landfall. Hurricanes moving over fragmenting marshes toward the New Orleans area can retain more strength, and their winds and large waves pack more speed and destructive power.

Though protected by levees designed to withstand the most common storms, New Orleans is surrounded by water and is well below sea level at many points. A flood from a powerful hurricane can get trapped for weeks inside the levee system. Emergency officials concede that many of the structures in the area, including newer high-rise buildings, would not survive the winds of a major storm.

The large size of the area at risk also makes it difficult to evacuate the million or more people who live in the area, putting tens of thousands of people at risk of dying even with improved forecasting and warnings. The American Red Cross will not put emergency shelters in the area because it does not want to put volunteers or evacuees in danger.

The Army Corps of Engineers says the chance of New Orleans-area levees being topped is remote, but admits the estimate is based on 40-year-old calculations. An independent analysis based on updated data and computer modeling done for The Times-Picayune suggests the risk to some areas, including St. Bernard and St. Charles parishes and eastern New Orleans, may be greater than the corps estimates. Corps officials say the agency is studying the problem with an updated model.
It all adds up to a daunting set of long-term economic, engineering and political challenges just to maintain the status quo. Higher levees, a massive coastal-restoration program and even a huge wall across New Orleans are all being proposed. Without extraordinary measures, key ports, oil and gas production, one of the nation's most important fisheries, the unique bayou culture, the historic French Quarter and more are at risk of being swept away in a catastrophic hurricane or worn down by smaller ones.

NEW AID FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES POPPING IN! HERE'S THE LIST

2005-09-03T23:36:00.000-04:00

I see that on the list Cuba and Venezuela has offered help... I'm glad they can break the barrier for this heart felt tragedy. I hope they can see for once what many of the people in their countries are living the same way daily!

------
Qatar offers $100m to relief fund

Saturday, September 3, 2005; Posted: 10:48 p.m. EDT (02:48 GMT)

Programming Note: Give to hurricane victims, and watch "Larry King Live" Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, replays midnight

(CNN) -- The oil-rich nation of Qatar has offered the United States $100 million to assist in the humanitarian crisis triggered by Hurricane Katrina.

The state-run Qatar News Agency said Saturday that Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, decided to contribute that amount for relief "and humanitarian supplies for the victims of this disaster."

The U.S. government has received offers of support from dozens of nations across the globe.

As of Friday, the White House had not accepted any offers, but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the State Department was "working very closely with the Department of Homeland Security to match up what is available with what is needed."

There was no immediate word whether the United States would take Qatar up on its offer.

Other offers of aid and assistance have come in from countries around the world -- including from India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia, the four countries hardest-hit by the December 26 Asian tsunami.

The State Department said offers of help had been received from more than 50 countries, including:

Australia, Austria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Belgium, Canada, China, Columbia, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Germany, Guatemala, Greece, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, Philippines, Portugal, South Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.

International organizations also offered help ranging from medical teams to tents to cash donations. They include NATO, the Organization of American States, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, and the World Health Organization.

The United Nations has offered to help coordinate international relief.

State Department officials have not yet said if any of these offers -- beyond specific offers of cash to humanitarian organization -- have been accepted.

Following is a list of some of the aid offered by governments.

-- Sri Lanka has offered what it called a "token contribution" of $25,000 through the American Red Cross.

-- Mexico has offered $1 million and is sending 15 truckloads of water, food and medical supplies via Texas. The Mexican navy has offered to send two ships, two helicopters and 15 amphibious vehicles.

-- Australia is giving A$10 million ($7.6 million), most of it to the American Red Cross.

-- China has offered $5 million.

-- -- Germany has offered a wide range of assistance including evacuation by air, medical services, transportation services, water treatment capabilities, assistance in searching for victims, vaccination teams and supplies, and emergency shelter. Germany has also said it is ready and willing to "dip into its own emergency oil reserves" to release some 2 million barrels a day for 30 days.

-- France has offered mobile help from the French Antilles, which is relatively close to the affected regions, including a civil defense detachment of 35 people, tents, camp beds, generators, motor pumps, water treatment units and emergency kits, two CASA cargo aircraft, a ship (Batral Francis Garnier) and the frigate Ventose with its Panther helicopter, and a hurricane disaster unit (20 soldiers and 900 kg of specialized supplies and medical support).

-- France has also offered assistance from the French mainland including: one or two C-135 planes, one A-310 aircraft , and four C-160 Transalls, an airborne emergency unit. In addition, the NGO Telecoms Sans Frontieres, which specializes in restoring phone lines and Internet service in disasters, is ready to send a team of experts and equipment. Veolia Environment, which has facilities in Louisiana, has offered to make its local water management resources available to the American authorities or the Red Cross. It can also quickly send in a team of hydraulic experts.

-- Japan has offered to provide $200,000 to the American Red Cross. The government of Japan will identify needs in the affected regions through the U.S. government and, upon request, is ready to provide necessary and available emergency assistance supply amounting to up to $300,000 worth of items such as tents, blankets, power generators, portable water tanks and more from a supply depot maintained by the Japanese government in Florida.

-- Cuba's President Fidel Castro said on Friday his nation was ready to send 1,100 doctors and 26 tons of medicine and equipment.

Asia
AUSTRALIA: "We're going to provide A$10 million ($7.6 million) and the bulk of that money, if not all of it, will go to the American Red Cross," said Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. The Australian government said there may be up to 24 Australians trapped in Louisiana in the aftermath of Katrina.

CHINA: China offered $5 million in aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina which devastated the Gulf Coast ahead of President Hu Jintao's U.S. visit. If needed, the Chinese government is also prepared to send rescue workers, including medical experts, officials said.

JAPAN: Will provide $200,000 to the American Red Cross to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said on Friday. Japan will also identify needs in affected regions via the U.S. government and will provide up to $300,000 in emergency supplies such as tents, blankets and power generators if it receives requests for such assistance, the ministry said.

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Armed Forces, responding to requests by the United States Texas Army National Guard, has sent three Chinook helicopters to Fort Polk, Louisiana, to help in relief efforts. The government said the Chinooks will help to ferry supplies and undertake airlift missions.

SOUTH KOREA: Has pledged aid and is waiting for a U.S. response, a government official said. "We have sent our intention to offer recovery aid," a Foreign Ministry official said on Friday.

SRI LANKA: Will donate $25,000 to the American Red Cross.

TAIWAN: Has pledged more than $3 million to the relief effort.

Americas
CANADA: Offered to help in any way it can and the navy is preparing a ship full of emergency disaster relief supplies to be sent when a request comes.

CUBA: Cuban President Fidel Castro offered to fly 1,100 doctors to Houston with 26 tonnes of medicine to treat disaster victims.

MEXICO: The country is sending 15 truckloads of water, food and medical supplies via Texas and the Mexican navy has offered to send two ships, two helicopters and 15 amphibious vehicles.

VENEZUELA: President Hugo Chavez, a vocal critic of the United States, offered to send cheap fuel, humanitarian aid and relief workers to the disaster area.

Europe
EUROPEAN UNION: EU countries are ready to give the United States oil if it requests help, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Friday. But British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said this was not what the EU had in mind when it discussed how to help.

FRANCE: Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said France was ready to offer support, telling TF1 television: "We have rescue teams based in the Caribbean and we are naturally ready to provide aid to the Americans, and that is what we have told them."

GERMANY: Has offered mobile units to provide clean water, military hospital facilities and medical aid.

ITALY: Has offered to "immediately" send aid and evacuation specialists, Italy's civil protection unit said. Authorities have prepared two military transport planes to fly amphibious vessels, pumps, generators, tents and personnel to New Orleans and other areas. They were awaiting word from U.S. officials, the unit said.

NETHERLANDS: Will provide teams for inspecting dykes and for identifying victims if there is a formal request from the United States. It will also send a frigate from Curacao to New Orleans shortly to provide emergency assistance, the government said.

RUSSIA: Has offered to help with rescue efforts, but is still awaiting a reply from Washington. "Above all with heavy transport planes, which can be loaded with helicopters and generators -- as there is no electricity in the area of the catastrophe," Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said.

SPAIN: Expects to receive a formal request to release gasoline stocks to the United States and is prepared to grant it, an Industry Ministry spokesman said.

SWEDEN: The Rescue Authority said it was on stand-by to supply water purifying equipment, healthcare supplies and emergency shelters if needed.

UNITED KINGDOM: British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said Britain stands ready to help the United States in whatever way it can.

Middle East
SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Refining, a Houston-based subsidiary of state oil firm Saudi Aramco, will donate $5 million to the American Red Cross to support relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Castro's Gulag

2005-09-03T12:32:00.000-04:00

Arresting a bling woman dissident

This is the true story of Cuba's Communist Island!

300 troops with kin in Katrina zone sent home

2005-09-03T12:25:00.000-04:00

This will shut some people up! I hope!

-----------------------
Air Force personnel in Afghanistan, Iraq can now 'attend to families'

Saturday, September 3, 2005; Posted: 10:53 a.m. EDT (14:53 GMT)

(CNN) -- Three hundred Air Force members in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere abroad will return to their Mississippi Air Force base "so they can attend to their families' needs after Hurricane Katrina," according to an Air Force command statement.

The personnel -- active duty and reserves -- had been assigned to Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, an area hard-hit by the hurricane.

The troops were assigned to bases throughout the Central Command area of responsibility and were supporting operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Nearly 100 airmen who were scheduled to deploy from Keesler AFB will not deploy now. Their jobs supporting the war on terrorism will be filled by others throughout the Air Force not affected by the hurricane," the statement said.

"Many of these 300 airmen have served for nearly four months and are going home as part of the Air Force's normal air expeditionary force rotation. Others have just arrived and are going home."

While this applies only to 300 troops assigned to Keesler, "Airmen assigned to other home stations who may have had families displaced by the hurricane or affected in other ways may be granted emergency leave depending on their individual situation," the military said. (See the cleanup efforts in Biloxi, Mississippi -- 1:32)

"While our focus remains on fighting the war on terrorism, taking care of people is a top priority -- they can't effectively perform the mission if their heads and hearts are focused on the safety and welfare of their loved ones," said Brig. Gen. Allen G. Peck, Combined Forces Air Component deputy commander, quoted in a news release.

"We are facilitating the effort to expeditiously replace airmen directly affected by this catastrophe with other Air Force personnel," Peck is quoted as saying.

FIDELITO

2005-09-02T18:01:00.000-04:00

EVEN FIDELS SISTER IN LAW FALLS ASLEEP!

Death toll in Louisiana could be above 10,000: US Senator

2005-09-02T17:13:00.000-04:00

BATON ROUGE, United States (AFP) - US Senator David Vitter said that the death toll from Hurricane Katrina could top 10,000 in Louisiana alone.

"My guess is that it will start at 10,000, but that is only a guess," Vitter said, adding that he was not basing his remarks on any official death toll or body count.

Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, also called for the immediate deployment of regular US combat troops in New Orleans, saying the build-up of National Guard troops was too slow to quickly restore order.

Such a step would require Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco to formally request the dispatch of federal army soldiers, a highly unusual step.

Blanco said on Thursday that she had asked for 40,000 troops, the majority of which are National Guard units from Louisiana and elsewhere.

Five-thousand National Guard troops are expected to be on the ground in violence-wracked New Orleans by late Friday, military leaders said.

But Vitter said that timeline could be too slow, amid reports that bands of armed men are roaming the streets in the city, which is 80 percent submerged in floods brought in by a storm tide after the hurricane hit on Monday.

Vitter, speaking to reporters at the emergency response center in Baton Rouge, also said he gave the federal government a grade 'F' for its response to the disaster so far.

Foreign Governments Line Up to Help after Katrina

2005-09-02T17:07:00.000-04:00

I was hoping for this, I'm so glad. It's great to see that other countries are giving back to a country that has ALWAYS been able and ready to help them.
Thank you!

------------
WASHINGTON - More than 20 countries, from allies Germany and Japan to prickly Venezuela and poor Honduras, have offered to help the United States cope with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Accustomed to being a rich donor rather than on the receiving end of charity, the United States initially seemed reticent about accepting foreign aid, but later said it would take up any offers. The hurricane devastated New Orleans and other parts of theUS Gulf Coast, killing hundreds and possibly thousands.
"Anything that can be of help to alleviate the tragic situation of the area affected by Hurricane Katrina will be accepted," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

"America should be heartened by the fact that the world is reaching out to America at a time of need," he added.

Earlier, President George W. Bush said in a television interview that the United States could take care of itself.

"I'm not expecting much from foreign nations because we hadn't asked for it. I do expect a lot of sympathy and perhaps some will send cash dollars. But this country's going to rise up and take care of it," Bush told ABC's "Good Morning America."

McCormack said there had not been a change of position over accepting foreign aid and White House spokesman Scott McClellan also said the United States would take up offers of help.

The State Department said offers so far had come from Belgium, Canada, Russia, Japan, France, Germany, Britain, China, Australia, Jamaica, Honduras, Greece, Venezuela, the Organization of American States, NATO, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Greece, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, South Korea, Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

Assistance ranged from medical teams, boats, aircraft, tents, blankets, generators and cash donations.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wrote to Bush offering medical teams that specialized in trauma and natural disasters and said they could be ready in 24 hours.

"During these difficult times, we, the people of Israel stand firmly by your side in a show of solidarity and friendship," said the letter, which was released by the Israeli Embassy in Washington.

Where the United States really needs help is getting cheap oil and the Bush administration will be approaching Arab nations and other oil producers over the coming days.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a vocal critic of the United States, offered to send cheap fuel, humanitarian aid and relief workers to the disaster area.

The State Department did not comment on Venezuela's offer but several officials smiled at the gesture from Chavez, who on Wednesday called Bush a "cowboy" who failed to manage the disaster.

Cuban President Fidel Castro, a close Chavez ally, led a minute of silence in remembrance of the victims of Katrina in parliament on Thursday. The parliament then returned to normal business with a resolution attacking Bush over the Iraq war.

Story by Sue Pleming

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

Bush Comforts Citizens

2005-09-02T17:03:00.000-04:00

This is a sign of good things to come...

------

President Bush has been trying to console people who lost their homes, and everything else but their lives, to Hurricane Katrina.

Visiting Biloxi, Mississippi, Bush spoke with a tearful woman who told him, "We don't have anything." They stood alongside the ruins of homes that had been reduced to pieces amid fallen trees and other debris.

He walked through the debris with the woman and a girl, his arms
around their shoulders, and told them to "hang in there."

Bush flew today to Mobile for an update on the relief efforts, and left from there to tour other areas of the Gulf coast that were ravaged by the storm.

Before leaving the White House, he said the efforts to provide food and water to survivors, and to stop the lawlessness in New Orleans, had not been good enough. He said, "The results are not acceptable."

HURRICANE KATRINA... WITNESS

2005-09-01T16:58:00.000-04:00

that is part 1

that is part 2

Listen to this amazing call and hear him describe the situation in New Orleans as he sees it.

Bush tells displaced: 'A lot of help coming'

2005-09-01T16:57:00.000-04:00

HAVE NO FEAR! AMERICA IS HERE FOR THE HURRICANE VICTIMS.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush sought Thursday to reassure victims of Hurricane Katrina that the federal government is doing its best to send aid to the thousands of displaced and stranded people.

"I understand the anxiety of people on the ground," Bush told ABC's "Good Morning America." "... But I want people to know there's a lot of help coming."

Congress will reconvene early from its summer recess either late Thursday or Friday to pass a $10 billion hurricane relief bill, according to House and Senate sources.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE :http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/01/bush.katrina/index.html

BUY THIS BOOK!

2005-09-01T16:53:00.000-04:00

The book with the confessions of "Popeye," main confidant and right hand man of Colombia's famous
drug trafficker Pablo Escobar, which details the links between Fidel, Raul Castro and the Medellin Cartel
is now available at amazon.com Read how the Castro brothers conspired to import hundreds of tons
of cocaine to the US and how Castro ordered his accomplices shot when American authorities discovered
a large shipment of the drug that came from Cuba.

Search of it on Amazon by typing in :'Astrid Legarda'

UPDATED HELP INFO!

2005-09-01T16:51:00.000-04:00

every little bit counts! thank you!

Update 1:15 PM:Here is some more emergency contact information:

EMERGENCY LISTINGS
FEMA- REGION 6 RRCC (Denton,TX)
1-940-898-5433

(Mississippi State EOC Rescue Hotline)
1-601-352-9100

FEMA- REGION 4 RRCC (Atlanta, GA)
1-770- 220-5600

Kentucky (EOC) 1-800-928-2380 0r 1-800-255-2587

U.S. Coast Guard 1-800-DAD –SAFE to search for a loved one. 3 2 3 7 2 3 3

American Red Cross (victims registry)
1 866-438-4636

They will do a welfare inquiry (search/rescue) after 48 hours.
Must have full name, full address, age, work number for the person(s) being sought and all the seeker’s contact information as well. They will do a welfare inquiry (search/rescue) after 48 hours.

Local (ATL) (ARC) (404 ) 876-3302

American Red Cross Donation Line 1-800 435-7669

Individual Assistance- ESF 11 Margaret Hester #5572

www.mstraffic.com for traffic info

WDSU (NBC ) AFFLIATE IN NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA
Web site www.wdsu.com
You can find latest news, videos, shelter information, and other information about hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

WLBT (NBC) AFFLIATE IN JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI
Web site www.wlbt.com
You can find latest news, videos, shelter information, and other information about hurricane Katrina in Mississippi.

Reality

2005-08-30T19:19:00.000-04:00

www.therealcuba.com provided by therealcuba.com

According to a moron who wrote to our Feedback

section the other day, "people fleeing on rafts are

drug lords and terrorists escaping Cuban justice."

Have you ever seen drug lords traveling on rafts?

These are simple Cubans who are trying to escape

from the 'sea of happiness' that, according to

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, Castro has

created for the Cuban people. Chavez has promised

Venezuelans that he will take them to this 'sea of

happiness.'

The only thing that I can add is: Poor Venezuelans!

Want to help?

2005-08-30T19:18:00.000-04:00

IF YOU WANT TO HELP! CONTACT THEM... THANK YOU! PRAY FOR THIS SOULS....

The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists these organizations for those seeking to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina:

Donate cash
American Red Cross (800) HELP NOW (435-7669) English; (800) 257-7575 Spanish

Operation Blessing (800) 436-6348

America's Second Harvest (800) 344-8070

To donate cash or volunteer
Adventist Community Services (800) 381-7171

Catholic Charities, USA (703) 549-1390

Christian Disaster Response (941) 956-5183 or (941) 551-9554

Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (800) 848-5818

Church World Service (800) 297-1516

Convoy of Hope (417) 823-8998

Lutheran Disaster Response (800) 638-3522

Mennonite Disaster Service (717) 859-2210

Nazarene Disaster Response (888) 256-5886

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (800) 872-3283

Salvation Army (800) SAL-ARMY (725-2769)

Southern Baptist Convention -- Disaster Relief (800) 462-8657, ext. 6133

United Methodist Committee on Relief (800) 554-8583

I'M BACK, SORRY

2005-08-29T20:07:00.000-04:00

I was gone for a moment but I'm back. I lost power till right now... I was hit by hurrcina Katrina Thursday night here in Miami.
But whats sad is that it hit Lousiana much harder, killed more people. Pray for all those who need help. Thank you

Katrina Claims At Least 8 Lives On Gulf Coast
At Least 40,000 Homes Flooded

UPDATED: 7:54 pm EDT August 29, 2005

NEW ORLEANS -- Hurricane Katrina has killed at least five people since landing on the Gulf Coast, and three others died during the evacuation Sunday.

Authorities in Alabama said at least two people died in highway accidents related to the storm, and there have been at least three deaths in Mississippi. No details are yet available on the Mississippi deaths.

And an official with the East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner's Office said three residents of a New Orleans nursing home fleeing Hurricane Katrina aboard a school bus died Sunday during an evacuation to a Baton Rouge church.

The names, ages and sexes of the dead were not available.

Don Moreau, chief of operations, said the coroner's office responded to a call from emergency medical technicians to a Baptist church, which was the destination for the bus of nursing home patients. Once there, Moreau said one person was dead inside the church and another was found dead inside the bus.

He said the person in the bus appeared to have been dead for some time.

Moreau said the others on the bus, 21 people, were transported to Earl K. Long Hospital, where a third nursing home resident later died.

The coroner's office has not determined a cause of death for any of the three. However, Moreau said many people on the bus were suffering from dehydration.

It is not known how long the bus was on the road, but many other travelers reported drive times from the New Orleans area to Baton Rouge of several hours.

Officials are still worried about waves and heavy rains from the hurricane.

A 20-foot storm surge pounded homes in Mississippi and authorities in New Orleans said at least 40,000 homes have been flooded. Louisiana's governor said she's heard reports that dozens of people were stranded in attics or on rooftops.

Emergency officials said they have not yet been able to reach many of the hardest-hit areas.

Hurricane Katrina has weakened to a Category 1 storm, with winds down to 95 mph. It was at Category 4 just before coming ashore Monday, and had spent the night at the strongest rating, Category 5.

But it isn't going away. Forecasters warn the storm will keep dumping water and spreading strong winds on the Gulf Coast before moving further into the U.S.

Katrina came ashore in Louisiana as a 145 mph monster, with sheets of rain completely submerging some New Orleans neighborhoods. A slight switch to the east spared the Big Easy the catastrophic blow many experts figured it would be dealt.

But they still warn of the potential for severe flooding in a city that sits below sea level.

Mississippi got a storm surge of around 20 feet. Gulfport's fire chief called the scene "complete devastation," with Katrina the strongest storm to hit the state in 36 years.

Several streets in the Alabama town of Mobile are flooded, as are parts of the Florida Panhandle.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said he feared loss of life among those who chose to ignore evacuation orders.

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The storm surge reached 20 feet in Mississippi, perhaps higher in places, and it could be hours before the water recedes, Barbour said. Rescue teams, including the military, would move into storm-ravaged areas when conditions permitted, Barbour said.

National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield said at midmorning the worst flooding from storm surge was on the Mississippi coast, east of the eye, with the highest storm surge recorded so far at 22 feet in Bay St. Louis.

Gulfport, Miss., Fire Chief Pat Sullivan, who ventured into the hurricane to check threatened areas, told reporters that his city had suffered a critical blow. At least 75 percent of the buildings in Gulfport have major roof damage -- if they have a roof left at all, he said.

Similar damage was reported all long the coast. Civil defense officials in Harrison County, Miss., reported rising water and winds pushed sailboats from their berths onto U.S. Highway 90. The wind blew down a wall at a high school.

Interstate 10, the major east-west route, was closed in Harrison County due to flooding from the Biloxi River.

A hospital in Biloxi also suffered major damage.

There were reports that Beau Rivage Hotel and Casino, one of the premiere gambling houses in Biloxi, had water on the first floor, according to Lea Stokes, spokeswoman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

Rescue workers in Gulfport braved bursts of heavy rain and wind to rescue several adults and children from a duplex after Katrina's winds ripped the roof from a nearby structure and slammed it into their apartment. No injuries were reported.

Gulfport's Central Fire Station was closed after the winds tore off bay doors and caused some structural damage. Nearby, a utility pole dangled by its wires.

In Hancock County, the westernmost of Mississippi's three coastal counties, water surged over the beach and onto Beach Boulevard and continued to rise.

New Orleans Damage

Katrina spared New Orleans a direct hit, but the storm's effects are still being felt there and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast. When it first came ahore early Monday, Katrina was a Category 4, with strong winds and blinding rain submerging large swaths of New Orleans and sending some residents fleeing to their rooftops. By midday, the winds eased to about 105 mph, making it a Category 2 storm.

Driving winds ripped pieces off the giant Superdome arena's roof. Thousands had gathered there when it was opened as a shelter. The damage sent them scrambling away from areas where the rain poured in. At one point, power failed at the Superdome. Backup generators kicked in, but they are not strong enough to run the air conditioning.

New Orleans-area emergency officials said they can't reach a building that was blown down Monday as Katrina made landfall. Residents of the building on the Mississippi River's west bank called 911 to say people might be trapped inside. Click here to see raw footage of damaged New Orleans buildings.

The storm's powerful wind and rain continue to make a mess of the city, where water covered the first-floor of some buildings in the downtown area, and highway off-ramps from Interstate 10 resembled boat ramps leading down into a lake. But dire predictions of catastrophic flooding appear to have been overstated. You can see raw footage of New Orleans flooding by clicking here.

On historic Jackson Square in the French Quarter, two huge oak trees toppled outside the 278-year-old St. Louis Cathedral. They fell on either side of a marble statue of Jesus Christ, snapping off just a thumb and forefinger on his outstretched hand. To see other tree damage in New Orleans, click here.

Elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, the storm flung boats onto land in Mississippi, lashed street lamps and flooded roads in Alabama, and swamped highway bridges in the Florida Panhandle. At least a half-million people were without power from Louisiana to Florida's Panhandle, including 370,000 in southeastern Louisiana and 116,400 in Alabama, mostly in the Mobile area.

Federal Help Available

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said the government has known for a long time how vulnerable New Orleans would be in a major hurricane like Katrina.

FEMA Director Michael Brown said Louisiana went through a tabletop drill a year ago and is doing a good job responding right now. He also said the government is preparing supplies and response teams to move wherever Gulf state governors need them, once the weather allows.

Brown praised emergency responders he said are "leaning out of the foxhole," putting their lives in jeopardy to help others in the storm's path. Recovery could be a long-term thing. Brown added restoring electricity could become a "block to block, house to house" reconstruction effort, and some people may be without power for weeks.

The American Red Cross has moved 250,000 meals to Baton Rouge, ready to bring them into New Orleans and surrounding parishes once the storm passes.

Federal officials are stockpiling supplies in Selma, Ala. They already have 290,000 bags of ice, more than 250,000 gallons of water, 652,000 meals ready to eat and 110,000 tarps.

More than 4,000 National Guardsmen are mobilizing in Memphis, Tenn., before heading to New Orleans to help police the streets.

Heavy rain was falling in much of the New Orleans area, where more than a foot of rain could fall. Thousands were fleeing New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast or making preparations to ride the storm out, and at least three people were killed while evacuating.

Mandatory evacuations were issued Sunday morning for New Orleans -- much of which sits below sea level -- and parts of southern Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama as Katrina churns toward the coast.

Storm's Vital Statistics

At 7 p.m. CDT, the center of Hurricane Katrina was located near latitude 32.9 north, longitude 88.9 west or about 30 miles northwest of Meridian, Miss.

Katrina is moving toward the north-northeast near 21 mph, and an increase in forward speed is expected during the next 24 hours. On this track, the center will be moving over central and northeastern Mississippi and northwestern Mississippi Monday night and across west-central Tennessee on Tuesday.

Maximum sustained winds are near 65 mph, with higher gusts. Although Katrina is no longer a hurricane, Katrina's winds are still capable of downing trees and creating hazardous conditions.

Tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 205 miles, mainly to the southeast. At 2 pm CDT, a wind gust to 110 mph was measured, before instrument failure, in Laurel, Miss., by Jones County Emergency Management.

Coastal storm surge flooding along the northern and northeastern Gulf of Mexico coast will begin to slowly subside later Monday.

Storm rainfall totals of 4 to 8 inches, with isolated maximum amounts of 10 inches, will accompany Katrina from the Gulf Coast through the Tennessee and Ohio valleys.

A few tornadoes are possible over portions of central, eastern, and northern Alabama, as well as portions of western Georgia and the western Florida panhandle Monday evening.

Battered Florida

Katrina first churned ashore in south Florida with 80 mph winds Thursday night before dumping 15 inches of rain or more as it crossed the peninsula. At least nine people were killed, and losses are estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Dozens of families in Miami-Dade County were flooded out of their homes. The hurricane center described it as a "significant heavy rainfall event."

Katrina then took an unexpected dive south after making landfall between Hallandale Beach and North Miami Beach as a Category 1 hurricane -- and it didn't weaken much.

"Normally, when a hurricane is on shore for five or six hours, the wind speed is cut in half. However, that has not happened with Katrina," a meteorologist said.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush asked for federal disaster assistance for Miami-Dade and Broward counties, where some residents said they were caught off-guard by the gathering storm.

He is also urging Panhandle residents to monitor the storm and make necessary preparations.

Katrina was the second hurricane to hit the state this year -- Dennis hit the Panhandle last month -- and the sixth since Aug. 13, 2004

Bush: We will complete the mission

2005-08-25T07:30:00.000-04:00

President vows to stay in Iraq in address to Idaho National Guard

Wednesday, August 24, 2005; Posted: 5:59 p.m. EDT (21:59 GMT)

NAMPA, Idaho (CNN) -- Americans appreciate "the service and the sacrifice of the military families" during the ongoing war in Iraq, President Bush told Idaho National Guard members and their families Wednesday, as he insisted again that a withdrawal from the strife-torn country would be a mistake.

"We mourn the loss of every life. We pray for their loved ones," Bush said. "These brave men and women gave their lives for a cause that is just and necessary for the safety of the country, and now we will honor their sacrifice by completing the mission."

Bush also was scheduled to meet with the families of 19 U.S. soldiers killed in action in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

Wednesday's address in Idaho, a state Bush won with 69 percent of the vote in 2004, is the second the president has delivered this week in a bid to boost sagging support for the Iraq conflict. The war is now nearly two-and-a-half years old.

Anti-war protesters led by Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Baghdad last year, have kept a vigil since August 6 outside the president's Texas ranch, where Bush has been vacationing. White House aides have acknowledged they underestimated the amount of attention the demonstrators would draw.

Nationwide, National Guard units are falling short of their enlistment goals for the year. As of July 31, recruiters have managed to bring in only 77 percent of the 51,000 National Guard recruits they had hoped to enlist.

As he has since June, Bush said U.S. troops will begin to leave Iraq only after they have trained sufficient Iraqi security forces to assume responsibility for security. He also praised Iraq's progress toward drafting a constitution, calling the draft submitted Monday to a transitional parliament "another important victory over the terrorists."

"The establishment of a democratic constitution will be a landmark event in the history of Iraq and the history of the Middle East," he said. "It will bring us closer to the day that Iraq is a nation that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself."

Negotiators in Baghdad are still trying to iron out differences between Sunni Arabs and the Shiite Arab and Kurdish leaders who largely drafted the latest document. Government leaders have imposed on themselves a deadline of before midnight Thursday to reach a wide-ranging consensus.

Of the 138,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, 1,700 are from the Idaho National Guard. Ten of the 1,870 Americans killed since war began ago were Idaho residents.

"The citizen soldiers of Idaho are making history," Bush said. "You're fighting to make sure our freedom, like the state of Idaho, may endure forever. Americans are grateful for your devotion to duty and your courage under fire. We'll live in freedom and peace because of your determination to prevail."

Bush said his administration was working to make call-ups "more respectful of you and your families," raising bonuses and limiting repeated mobilizations and extensions of tours of duty. And he singled out for praise the family of Tammy Pruett, an Idaho woman who has four sons serving in Iraq with the National Guard. (Full story)

Pruett's husband and another son returned from duty there last year, the president said.

"America lives in freedom because of families like the Pruetts," Bush said.

Bush's acknowledgment of military families comes as opponents of the war have rallied around Sheehan, who says she wants to meet with the president to ask what "noble cause" her son -- an Army mechanic who was killed in Baghdad -- died to achieve.

Sheehan was expected to return to Crawford on Wednesday after nearly a week in California to care for her mother, who suffered a stroke last week. Sheehan's vigil has drawn scores of supporters -- and counter-demonstrators -- to her protest site "Camp Casey."

Bush, who met with Sheehan after her son's death in 2004, said Tuesday that Sheehan "doesn't represent the view of a lot of families I have met with."

But Celeste Zappala, whose son, Army Sgt. Sherwood Baker, also was killed in action in Baghdad last year, told CNN these families "all deserve answers."

Sheehan and Zappala are founding members of Gold Star Families for Peace, an anti-war group led by relatives of fallen troops.

Zappala said she didn't know exactly what should be done about the ongoing war but suggested, "We think the president might learn something from us if he could possibly listen to the people who didn't agree with him."

Castro and Colombian drug pin Pablo Escobar

2005-08-24T23:35:00.000-04:00

Oh Boy!

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New book reveals the connection between Castro and Colombian drug pin Pablo Escobar

A new book written by Colombian journalist Astrid Legarda being published this week, reveals the connection

between Castro and Pablo Escobar Gaviria, Colombia's most famous drug pin, who was shot to death in 1993.

The book, The true Pablo: Blood, treason and death, based on interviews with John Jairo Velazquez, 'Popeye',

considered the man closest to the drug dealer, the book reveals how the relationship between Castro and

Escobar began when the drug dealer visited Nicaragua in the early 1980s when the Sandinistas were in power.

The book also reveals that Nobel laureate and Castro's close friend, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, was once used by

the drug pin to deliver a private letter to Castro. In the book, Popeye tells Legarda that he met with Garcia

Marquez at the Benito Juarez airport in Mexico and gave him a letter saying that it was Escobar's wishes that

the letter be hand delivered to Castro. "I will do that" replied Garcia Marquez.

The book explains in detail how Escobar wanted to get his drugs to "the streets of America" using friendly

governments in the area who were considered enemies of the United States.

"He wanted to do it on a large scale; and had already being doing that through Nicaragua," said Popeye, who

added that the drug pin then sent one of his men to Cuba to meet with Raul Castro.

During that trip, Escobar's envoy and Raul Castro signed a deal that allowed the drug trafficker to move large

quantities of cocaine that were being shipped from the port of Buenaventura in Colombia to Cuba and from

there to the US by boats. According to Popeye, this deal lasted for two full years and hundreds of tons of

cocaine were able to enter the US undetected.

The cocaine was packed in condoms that were tied together in groups weighting one kilo and then it was

shipped to Cuba by air 10 to 12 tons at a time.

In Cuba, the shipments were supervised and guarded by Castro's soldiers, under the direction of Gen. Arnaldo

Ocho and officer Tony de la Guardia., and later transported to the US mainland by boats where a member of

the Medellin Cartel was in charge of receiving and hiding the drugs.

According to Popeye, when US authorities confiscated a large shipment and found out what was going on,

Castro orchestrated a farce that blamed Ochoa and de la Guardia while protecting him and his brother. As a

result, Ochoa de la Guardia and eight more were shot to death in front of a firing squad.

Popeye also told Astrid Legarda that two guerrilla leaders of the Colombian M19 movement, Alvaro Fayad and

Ivan Marino Ospina, acted as mediators between Escobar and the Castro brothers.

These two guerrilla leaders were the ones who later asked Escobar to finance the attack against the Justice

Palace in Bogota. The drug pin agreed to give them two million dollars for the guerrilla operation which took

place in 1985 and resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people, including several of Colombia's Supreme Court

judges and several of the insurgents.

This is what Castro does...

2005-08-24T23:33:00.001-04:00

Curtesy of THE REAL CUBA. COM

WWW.THEREALCUBA.COM

Meet Juan Carlos Leiva, he is a Cuban dissident who is blind and that the Cuban regime

put in jail for demonstrating in support of other political prisoners.

Here is what Amnesty International had to say about his case:

Amnesty International is reiterating its concern for the health of Juan Carlos Leiva, a

blind 37-year old lawyer, held in Holguín prison in Holguín province, Cuba. Juan Carlos

Leiva reportedly weighs approximately 45 kilos following a (partial) fast from 4 September

until 25 December 2002. Amnesty International is also concerned that Juan Carlos Leiva

could be maltreated. On one occasion he reportedly was left in the interrogation chamber

and, despite being blind, had to find his own way back to his cell, bumping into obstacles.

He has also reportedly been denied the use of a cane.

Furthermore, he stated that food and water caused a burning sensation en route in his

digestive system, which should be investigated. Juan Carlos Leiva’s his wife, Maritza

Calderín, and his brother José have also said to have been harassed and threatened with

imprisonment.
The incredible thing is that this brutal regime still has supporters here in the US and in

many free countries of the world! Shame on them!!

Imprisoned journalist on hunger strike

2005-08-24T23:33:00.000-04:00

New York, August 24, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply worried about the health of imprisoned journalist Adolfo Fernández Saínz, who began a hunger strike last week to protest the mistreatment of another imprisoned dissident.

Fernández Saínz began the strike on Friday, after learning that imprisoned dissident Arnaldo Ramos Lauzurique had been beaten by a prison officer on August 17 and later placed in a punishment cell, according to his daughter, Joana Fernández Núñez. He will continue his hunger strike until Ramos Lauzurique is taken out of the punishment cell, she said.

Fernández Saínz, 57, one of 24 independent Cuban journalists now imprisoned, is currently at the Holguín Provincial Prison in eastern Holguín Province, hundreds of miles from his home in Havana. His wife is entitled to visit three times per year; she and other family members may visit another four times per year.

A journalist with the independent news agency Patria, Fernández Saínz was sentenced to 15 years in prison in April 2003 for committing acts “aimed at subverting the internal order of the nation and destroying its political, economic, and social system.” This is his fourth hunger strike to demand adequate food and medicine or to protest the mistreatment of other imprisoned journalists or dissidents.

Fernández Saínz suffers from several ailments and has lost considerable weight, his family has said. His wife, Julia Núñez Pacheco, told CPJ in April that he was 25 pounds below his normal weight. In December 2004, a medical checkup revealed that he had pulmonary emphysema, hiatal hernia, high blood pressure, and a small kidney cyst, Núñez Pacheco said.

“We are very worried about the health of our colleague, Adolfo Fernández Saínz, who has been imprisoned for almost two and a half years solely for exercising his right to express his views,” CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said. “We renew our calls on the Cuban government to release all imprisoned journalists immediately and unconditionally.”

Robertson apologizes

2005-08-24T17:02:00.000-04:00

Robertson is still the MAN!
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(CNN) -- Conservative religious broadcaster Pat Robertson apologized Wednesday for calling for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during Monday's broadcast of his "700 Club" program.

"Is it right to call for assassination? No, and I apologize for that statement," he said in a written statement.

Earlier, Robertson said that his remarks about Chavez were taken out of context and that he never called for the killing of the Latin American leader.

"I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should 'take him out.' And 'take him out' can be a number of things, including kidnapping; there are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP [Associated Press], but that happens all the time," Robertson said on "The 700 Club." (Watch video)

The controversy began Monday when Robertson called Chavez "a terrific danger" bent on exporting Communism and Islamic extremism across the Americas. (Full story)

"If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it," said Robertson Monday. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war." (Watch Robertson's comments)

"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," he said. "We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

Venezuelan officials reacted angrily to the broadcaster's comments, while U.S. officials dismissed the remarks.

Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel accused Robertson of inciting violence and challenged the White House to take action against him.

"What is the U.S. government going to do about this criminal statement made by one of its citizens?" he asked.

In Havana, where he had met with Cuban President Fidel Castro to discuss ties between the two countries, Chavez told reporters he had never heard of Robertson.

Asked about the broadcaster's call for his assassination, Chavez said, "It doesn't matter to me."

"I don't know who that person is," he said. "As far as his opinion of me goes, I couldn't care less."

You Don't Speak For Me Cindy!

2005-08-24T17:00:00.000-04:00

the picture says it all!

KILL SADDAM!

2005-08-24T16:58:00.000-04:00

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/1997/11/kill_saddam.html

The latest saber-rattling with Iraq has an odd twist: As the United States government shows restraint and revives the lost art of diplomacy, this time it's the U.S. press that's howling for blood -- the blood of Saddam Hussein personally. The press, of course, has the distinct advantage that nobody really follows their policy suggestions anyway, so their advice doesn't have to be diplomatic, or even legal:

The law:

Prohibition on Assassination. No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.
-- Executive Order 12333, issued Dec. 4, 1981, by President Ronald Reagan, continuing the policy of his predecessors Ford and Carter. Neither Bush nor Clinton has rescinded it.

The handy (and illegal) tips from the press:

"Conventional Wisdom," Newsweek, Nov. 17: "Take him down." (next to a photo of Hussein and a downward-plunging arrow)

Thomas Friedman, foreign affairs columnist, New York Times, Nov. 6: "Saddam Hussein is the reason God created cruise missiles. ...So if and when Saddam pushes beyond the brink, and we get that one good shot, let's make sure it's a head shot."

George Stephanopolous, former Clintonite and current ABC News analyst, on ABC'S "This Week," Nov. 9: "This is probably one of those rare cases where assassination is the more moral course...we should kill him."

Sam Donaldson, co-host of "This Week," Nov. 9: We should kill Saddam "under cover of law.... We can do business with his successor."

Bill Kristol, ABC News analyst, "This Week," Nov. 9: "It sounds good to me."

Cokie Roberts, co-host of "This Week," Nov. 9: "Well, now that we've come out for murder on this broadcast, let us move on to fast-track..."

Jonathan Alter, Newsweek, Nov. 17: "It won't be easy to take him out. ...But we need to try, because the only language Saddam has ever understood is force."

Newsweek, Dec. 1: "Why We Should Kill Saddam."

Thanks to Matthew Rothschild and The Progressive for the inspiration

So this is how it feel to have freedom of speech in Cuba

2005-08-24T16:56:00.000-04:00

1) Home of independent union leader raided by security agents
HAVANA, August 23 (Ariel Delgado Covarrubias / www.cubanet.org) - State security agents on Saturday raided the apartment of Maybell Padilla, assistant secretary general of the dissident Unitarian Council of Cuban Workers.

Two agents seized a fax machine, documents, foreign newspapers and some money from the apartment.

Padilla was taken to the police station where she was warned that charges could be leveled against her in the future.

Padilla has been running the union since the arrest in 2003 of Pedro Pablo Álvarez Ramos, currently serving a 25-year prison sentence.

2) Human rights activist says young communist leader beat him up

HAVANA, August 23 (José Antonio Fornaris, Cuba Verdad / www.cubanet.org) - René Montes de Oca, president of the Pro Human Rights Party of Cuba, says Hassán Pérez Casabón, second secretary of the Union of Young Communists, kicked him in the head as he lay defenseless on the ground.

Montes de Oca has been held in custody since July 13 as a result of arrests carried out of those who were commemorating the sinking of the tugboat "13 de Marzo." The incident with Communist leader occurred when a pro-government crowd attacked Montes de Oca and others who were at the ceremony.

Montes de Oca is among dissidents being held pending charges of public disorder.

3) Santa Clara dissident beaten and detained

SANTA CLARA, Cuba, August 23 (Guillermo Fariñas, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - Dissident pacifist Freddy Martín Fraga was beaten in his home in front of his 11-year-old son last week.

Martín Fraga said he was about to take his son to a nearby swimming pool when some 20 men came to his home and attacked for what he said was his opposition to President Fidel Castro.

Martín Fraga is vice coordinator of the Christian Democratic Movement in Cuba, and the father of three minor children. He is being held in a cell at police headquarters.

UPDATE 1-Chavez offers poor Americans cheap gasoline

2005-08-24T16:44:00.000-04:00

The day we've been waiting for is here! horray! damn bastards, god I HATE COMMUNISTS! They are so full of it!
read on and be disgusted by the lies...

of course now everyone will flock to Citgo and buy cheaper gas, what they don't know is they're hurting many by doing so.

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HAVANA, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, popular with the poor at home, offered on Tuesday to help needy Americans with cheap supplies of gasoline.
"We want to sell gasoline and heating fuel directly to poor communities in the United States," the populist leader told reporters at the end of a visit to Communist-run Cuba.

Chavez did not say how Venezuela would go about providing gasoline to poor communities. Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA owns Citgo, which has 14,000 gas stations in the United States.
The offer may sound attractive to Americans feeling pinched by soaring prices at the pump but not to the U.S. government, which sees Chavez as a left-wing troublemaker in Latin America.

Gasoline is cheaper than mineral water in oil-producing Venezuela, where consumers can fill their tanks for less than $2. Average gas prices have risen to $2.61 a gallon in the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Chavez said Venezuela could supply gasoline to Americans at half the price they now pay if intermediaries who "speculated ... and exploited consumers" were cut out.
Venezuela supplies Cuba with generously financed oil and plans to help Caribbean nations foot their oil bills.

Chavez, in Cuba to attend the graduation of Cuban-trained doctors from 28 countries, was seen off at the airport by Cuban President Fidel Castro. Washington has accused the two leaders of being a destabilizing influence in South America.
Chavez and Castro offered to give poor Americans free health care and train doctors free of charge.

Bush: Iraq Withdrawal Would Weaken U.S.

2005-08-23T17:08:00.000-04:00

I agree also..
I honestly don't feel that the families that have lost a family member in contact feel the say as Mrs. Sheenan.
That family knew the moment that he enlisted that his life would at one point dramatically change...

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By NEDRA PICKLER
DONNELLY, Idaho - President Bush took on the California mother who has been defiantly protesting outside his Texas home, saying Tuesday that Cindy Sheehan doesn't represent the views of most military families and that fulfilling demands like hers for withdrawal from Iraq would weaken the United States.

Bush said he understood the anguish of the woman whose son was killed in Iraq last year. But he said he disagreed with her assertion that U.S. troops should be brought home before more die in a "senseless war."

"I think those who advocate immediate withdrawal from not only Iraq but the Middle East are advocating a policy that would weaken the United States," Bush said.

The president said U.S. troops in Iraq are keeping Americans safe and that Iraqis are making progress toward democracy. He urged patience as officials in Baghdad struggle to complete a constitution.

"The fact that they're even writing a constitution is vastly different from living under the iron hand of a dictator," Bush said.

Bush also said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had made a tough and courageous decision to withdraw Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip. He said the next step was to establish a government in Gaza that responds to the Palestinian people.

Bush, dressed in blue jeans and a fleece jacket, spoke underneath the tall pine trees at the Tamarack Resort, where he is spending two nights away from his ranch. His visit to the mountain getaway came between two speeches to rally support for the war _ one Monday in Salt Lake City and another Wednesday in Nampa, Idaho, that is to be followed by more than two hours of private meetings with relatives of dead soldiers.

Bush met Sheehan last year at a similar series of meetings with families of the war dead. But Sheehan says there have been developments since then and she has more she wants to say to Bush.

Her vigil in Crawford, Texas, has given momentum to the peace movement, and even some Republicans have said Bush should meet with her.

"Well, I did meet with Cindy Sheehan," Bush said Tuesday. "I strongly support her right to protest. There's a lot of people protesting. And there's a lot of points of view about the Iraq war."

He added: "She expressed her opinion. I disagree with it."

At a Pentagon briefing, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was asked about Sheehan's vigil and what he would say to her if he had the chance. "While it has to be a heart-wrenching thing for each of the families involved, our task is to try to help them and the country understand the importance of the work that's being done," he said.

Bush spoke once before about Sheehan, during a foreign policy summit at his ranch on Aug. 11. He said then, too, that he sympathized with her but disagreed with her call to bring the troops home immediately.

He said Tuesday, "She doesn't represent the view of a lot of the families I have met with."

After speaking to reporters, Bush took a bike ride and then had dinner plans with Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and the state's congressional delegation. He said he also planned to spend some "quality time" with the first lady.

Bush spoke a day after the Iraqi parliament missed a second deadline to approve a draft constitution. Iraqi leaders completed a draft and submitted it to parliament by the midnight deadline, but they delayed a vote for three days to give them time to persuade Sunni Arab negotiators to accept it.

Bush said he was getting updates about Iraq in phone calls with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and that she is optimistic that Sunnis will accept the draft.

"The Sunnis have got to make a choice," Bush said. "Do they want to live in a society that's free? Or do they want to live in violence? And I suspect most mothers, no matter what their religion may be, will choose a free society so that their children can grow up in a peaceful world."

On the Net:

The White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov

A service of the Associated Press(AP)

Credit Card Letter Addressed 'Dear Palestinian Bomber'

2005-08-23T17:06:00.000-04:00

WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO?

-------------------
By CLAYTON SANDELL
ABC NEWS...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22, 2005 — Officials at JP Morgan Chase have apologized and promised to improve their screening policies, after a credit card solicitation letter sent to a 54-year-old naturalized American citizen came addressed to "Palestinian Bomber."

The form letter for a Visa Platinum card arrived earlier this month at the home of Sami Habbas, a grocery store manager from Corona, Calif. The words "Palestinian Bomber" appear above his address and the salutation reads, "Dear Palestinian Bomber." The document included the signature of Carter Franke, chief marketing officer for Chase Card Services.

Habbas is a naturalized U.S. citizen of Palestinian heritage. He told ABC News he is "extremely upset" at receiving the letter, pointing out that he has lived in the United States for 51 years and also served in the U.S. Army, receiving an honorable discharge in 1969.

"It's upsetting, derogatory and slanderous," Habbas told ABC News. "I have no idea how this sort of thing happened."

Habbas was even more shocked when, on several occasions, he said he called an 800-number for JP Morgan Chase and spoke to operators in an effort to complain. Each time, he says the operators called up his information on a computer but apparently didn't catch on. According to Habbas, "The operators always said, 'Yes, Mr. Palestinian Bomber, how can we help you?' "

After receiving the letter and his experiences with the operators, Habbas contacted the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C., a Muslim civil liberties group. CAIR denounced the Chase letter as "racist" and asked JP Morgan Chase to launch an investigation, conduct sensitivity training and issue a formal apology to Habbas.

In a statement, Chase vice president Kelly Presta blamed the incident on information in a list purchased from a third-party vendor. The company said it was taking steps to improve the screening procedures and offered "sincere apologies" to anyone offended by the letter.

"Although no Chase employee was involved in creating this information, we are embarrassed by this incident and regret that our automatic screening procedures did not catch this erroneous information," said Presta, executive vice president of Chase Card Services.

It is unclear if the person responsible for the letter knew Habbas was of Palestinian descent or simply guessed. A CAIR official said Habbas is a fairly common Arab name.

The incident comes on the heels of last week's announcement by Comcast that two customer service representatives in Chicago were fired after they changed a woman's name to "Bitch Dog" on her bill. She had repeatedly complained about bad service.

Suspected hacker taps into military records

2005-08-23T17:05:00.000-04:00

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AP) -- A suspected hacker tapped into a military database containing Social Security numbers and other personal information for 33,000 Air Force officers and some enlisted personnel, an Air Force spokesman said Tuesday.

That figure represents about half of the officers in the Air Force, but no identity theft had been reported as of early Tuesday, said Tech. Sgt. James Brabenec, a spokesman at the Air Force Personnel Center at Randolph Air Force Base.

The case was under investigation.

"Protecting airmen's personnel information is something we take very seriously," Maj. Gen. Tony Przybyslawski, commander of the personnel center, said in a statement. "We are doing everything we can to catch and prosecute those responsible."

The Social Security numbers, birth dates and other information was accessed sometime in May or June, apparently by someone with the password to the Air Force computer system, Brabenec said.

On Friday, the people affected were notified of steps they can take to protect their identity, he said.

The military, while protecting classified information, has had trouble protecting data about its people, a computer expert told The Washington Post, which first reported the story.

"They have historically done much better at protecting operational systems than at protecting administrative systems," said John E. Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org.

Hacking has been on the rise in commercial industry.

Business leaders in July announced an education campaign to better protect sensitive client information from hackers and other thieves, after a string of high-profile data thefts and losses.

In June, CardSystems Solutions Inc. disclosed that a breach of its system that processes transactions between merchants and credit card issuers exposed 40 million accounts to possible fraud.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Chavez might be a gonnnerrr!

2005-08-23T16:52:00.000-04:00

Finally, someone has the balls to speak out!
Wow! Nice job there!

What a disgrace to hear that a Chavez supporter called this man a "fascist", I truly wonder what she thinkgs for Chavez? Oh my

here are some good links to read today:

http://http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/23/robertson.chavez/index.html

Venezuela Slams Robertson Over Remarks
CARACAS, Venezuela

Venezuela's vice president accused religious broadcaster Pat Robertson on Tuesday of making "terrorist statements" by suggesting that American agents assassinate President Hugo Chavez.
Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said Venezuela was studying its legal options, adding that how Washington responds to Robertson's comments would put its anti-terrorism policy to the test.

"The ball is in the U.S. court, after this criminal statement by a citizen of that country," Rangel told reporters. "It's huge hypocrisy to maintain this discourse against terrorism and at the same time, in the heart of that country, there are entirely terrorist statements like those."

FPL freezes rates, but bill higher

2005-08-23T00:30:00.000-04:00

SOON WE WON'T BE ABLE TO HAVE LIGHT. oh lord! haha

FPL freezes rates, but bill higher

Florida Power & Light dropped plans to hike rates $4 a month. In turn, consumer groups dropped opposition to increases in fuel costs and hurricane surcharges.

By MARY ELLEN KLAS

meklas@herald.com

TALLAHASSEE - South Florida consumers saved a potential $3 to $4 per month on their electric bills when Florida Power & Light agreed Monday to freeze its rates for four years.

The deal put a halt to scheduled hearings before the Public Service Commission on the company's request to boost its base rates. The $430 million request, the largest in nearly 20 years, drew intense opposition from the attorney general, consumer groups and several business coalitions.

Consumers still will see higher utility bills, however.

FPL has already won approval from the PSC to charge an average $3.49 a month for fuel costs and it now wants to increase that charge again. The company also received a temporary $1.68 monthly surcharge beginning in September to help recover the cost of last year's hurricanes.

In exchange for FPL dropping the rate increase request, Attorney General Charlie Crist, AARP, the Florida Retail Federation and other business users agreed to drop opposition to FPL's attempt to get approval for those charges.

Consumer and business groups fought the rate increase because they believed the proposal was excessive in light of FPL's healthy profit margin.

In addition to the retail federation, a consortium of federal agencies that included Kennedy Space Center, Patrick Air Force Base and the South Florida Hospital and Healthcare Association opposed the rate increase.

Attorneys for each of the groups were pleased with the agreement. FPL touted it as a fair compromise.

''We think it fairly balances the many and often competing interests here at the table,'' said Wade Litchfield, lawyer for FPL.

The company said it needed the rate increase to help build transmission lines, power plants and other infrastructure to meet the increasing demand for electricity in South Florida.

Settlement talks began last week after Crist's chief negotiator, Chris Kise, met with FPL officials.

''The company wanted to get this case resolved without coming to a hearing,'' he said.

FPL President Armando Olivera said in a statement that while ''there is never a good time to ask for a rate increase'' the company believes it was necessary to respond to the growing electricity demands that requires it to ``spend billions of dollars to maintain reliable electric service.''

FPL will still be required to give customers refunds if its profits exceed a certain threshold. Since 1999, those agreements have resulted in $225 million in refunds.

''If they're efficient, as they have been, they can continue to make money,'' Kise said.

The settlement resulted in a better deal for consumers than likely would have been reached had the issue gone before the PSC, said Walter Dartland, attorney for Common Cause, the consumer advocacy group. His organization has accused PSC commissioners of being too close to the companies they regulate.

''This is better for us than to go to the PSC and have them give them a rate increase that we probably would lose on appeal,'' he said. ``By getting everybody united and preventing a full out battle, I think we probably came out ahead, maybe not much, but some.''

The PSC will meet Wednesday to give regulators time to review the settlement and consider its approval.

TV Station Refuses to Air Anti-War Ad

2005-08-23T00:28:00.000-04:00

I have to write to this station! Good work! The war must continue...
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By JENNIFER DOBNER, Associated Press Writer
Sun Aug 21, 2:13 AM ET

SALT LAKE CITY - A Utah television station is refusing to air an anti-war ad featuring Cindy Sheehan, whose son's death in Iraq prompted a vigil outside President Bush's Texas ranch.

The ad began airing on other area stations Saturday, two days before Bush was scheduled to speak in Salt Lake City to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

However, a national sales representative for KTVX, a local ABC affiliate, rejected the ad in an e-mail to media buyers, writing that it was an "inappropriate commercial advertisement for Salt Lake City."

In the ad, Sheehan pleads with Bush for a meeting and accuses him of lying to the American people about Iraq's development of weapons of mass destruction and its connection to al-Qaida.

"I love my country. But how many more of our loved ones need to die in this senseless war?" a weary-looking Sheehan asks in the ad. "I know you can't bring Casey back. But it's time to admit mistakes and bring our troops home now."

Salt Lake City affiliates of NBC, CBS and Fox began running the ad Saturday.

The ads were bought by Gold Star Families for Peace. Washington, D.C.-based Fenton Communications, a public relations firm working for the group, provided a copy of the e-mail received from station sales representative Jemina Keller to The Associated Press.

In a statement Saturday evening explaining its decision, KTVX said that after viewing the ad, local managers found the content "could very well be offensive to our community in Utah, which has contributed more than its fair share of fighting soldiers and suffered significant loss of life in this Iraq war."

Station General Manager David D'Antuono said the decision was not influenced by the station's owner, Clear Channel Communications Inc.

Celeste Zappala, who with Sheehan co-founded Gold Star Families for Peace, said she was puzzled by the decision.

"What stunned me was that it was inappropriate to hear this message," she said. "How is it that Salt Lake City should hear no questions about the war?"

The e-mail read: "The viewpoints reflected in the spot are incompatible with our marketplace and will not be well received by our viewers." It added that the spot didn't qualify as an issue advertisement.

For the ad to have been considered an "issue" advertisement a ballot measure would have had to be at stake, D'Antuono said.

Mark Wiest, vice president of sales for NBC-affiliated KSL television, said that in the interest of freedom of speech, his station didn't hesitate to run the ad. KSL is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"The bigger picture is, by suppressing the message are we doing what is right under the First Amendment and in an open democratic society?" Wiest said.

Bush received nearly 70 percent of the vote last fall in Utah, one of the most conservative states north of the Bible Belt.

WMAL Suspends Talk-Show Host for Comment on Islam

2005-08-23T00:27:00.000-04:00

OPPPSSS!

--------------
By Paul FarhiWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, July 29, 2005; Page C01
Radio talk-show host Michael Graham was suspended by station WMAL-AM yesterday for repeatedly describing Islam as a "terrorist organization" on his program.

Graham said he has been ordered off the Washington station, without pay, for an indefinite period while the station investigates the comments that drew complaints from a Muslim group, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Officials at WMAL, which is owned by the Walt Disney Co., had initially declined to take disciplinary action against Graham. However, WMAL President and General Manager Chris Berry said last night that Graham would be suspended for making statements that "crossed the line."

"We do not condone his position and believe his statements were irresponsible," Berry said in a statement.

Graham, 42, said on his mid-morning program on Monday that the fault for recent acts of terrorism lies not with Islamic radicals alone but also with Muslims generally because religious leaders and followers have tacitly supported extreme elements. "The problem is not extremism," Graham told listeners. "The problem is Islam." He also said, "We are at war with a terrorist organization named Islam."

CAIR denounced the comments as "hate-filled" and asked its members to contact the station's advertisers to express their dismay. Several hundred people across the country sent e-mails to the station and some of its advertisers, said Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR's communications director.

"I think this action is long overdue and appropriate," Hooper said of Graham's suspension. "I think it's a testament to the determination of individual Muslims who contacted the station and its advertisers to say Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry are unacceptable." One advertiser, Moore Cadillac Hummer, wrote a letter to CAIR denouncing Graham's statements but did not say it would pull its ads, he said.

Graham, whose program is part of WMAL's lineup of conservative talk shows, remained unapologetic and defiant. "I honestly don't know what Disney is investigating me for, unless it's for doing a compelling talk show that gets people's attention," he said. "I thought that was my job."

He also said, "If fighting for free speech and for the truth in the war on terrorism means getting fired by some corporate suits at ABC Disney who can't stand up for free speech -- so be it. But I will not recant."

However, station sources say Graham is unlikely to be fired and will be back on the air after the current controversy cools down.

Graham's comments about Muslims weren't the first to get him into trouble with his employers. According to news accounts, he has been fired twice from radio hosting jobs for on-air statements. His most recent termination was in 1999 when he was working as a radio talk-show host on WBT in Charlotte. Just hours after the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, Graham told listeners that the killing of athletes at the school was "one minor benefit of this otherwise horrible story."

He later apologized, calling the comment "a stupid, insensitive and indefensible remark."

Rudolph's mother: Son not a 'monster'

2005-08-23T00:24:00.000-04:00

Oh really? Then what is he???

-------------

Mom says she loves bomber, doesn't condone what he did

Monday, August 22, 2005; Posted: 10:14 p.m. EDT (02:14 GMT)
(CNN) -- Eric Rudolph's mother says her son's confession to a string of bombings across the Southeast was "quite a shock," but that she still loves him and will continue to do so "no matter what happens."

"I think each man is destined in life to fulfill whatever he's called to do, and some people, unfortunately, are on the dark side," Pat Rudolph, 77, said in an exclusive interview from Florida that aired Monday on CNN, her first television appearance.

"I don't see him as a monster. I don't think I could," she said.

Now estranged from her son, Pat Rudolph was not in an Atlanta federal courtroom Monday when he was sentenced to life without parole for bombings at the 1996 Olympic Games, a women's clinic that performed abortions and a lesbian nightclub.

The blasts killed one woman and wounded more than 100 others.

Confronted in court Monday by some of his victims and their families, Rudolph apologized for the Olympic bombing but not for any of his other attacks. (Full story)

He had earlier received life sentences for a 1998 bombing at a Birmingham, Alabama, women's clinic where abortions were performed, in which a security guard was killed and a nurse severely injured. He confessed to all four bombings.

In April, Rudolph revealed his motives for the first time, blaming his attacks on the legalization of abortion and "aberrant sexual behavior." (Full story)

Pat Rudolph said the idea that her son will be "buried in a cell" for the rest of his life is something she tries not to think about.

"I have to live in the moment, because ... the past is history, tomorrow is just a possibility," she said.

Asked what she would say to those people her son injured and the families of those killed, she said, "I don't know if I could be of any comfort, only in the sorrow that I feel as a mother."

"I'm sure they feel the same type of sorrow of losing some loved ones, but their life has to go on as well as mine," she said. "You learn to live with it."

And while she said she shares her son's distrust of government power -- "I think the government that rules the least is the best" -- she insisted she never condoned his use of violence in an attempt to further his anti-government aims.

"His anger, his way of dealing with this cause, is not mine; it's his. Therefore, the responsibility is his," she said.

In the 1960s, Pat Rudolph and her late husband were radical pacifists, protesting the Vietnam War.

Eric was the fifth of six children, and she "always found him a real comfort as a child." Her husband died when her son was a teenager, leaving her to raise her large family alone.

Rudolph and his family were connected with the Christian Identity movement, a racist, anti-Semitic organization that believes whites are God's chosen people.

Pat Rudolph brought 18-year-old Eric and an older brother to a Christian Identity congregation's compound in Missouri in 1984. They returned to North Carolina after less than a year.

Referring to the experience as experimentation and in the past, Pat Rudolph denied imparting racist values to her son, saying she was drawn to the group by the promise of home schooling.

She said that as a pacifist she disagreed with her son's decision to join the U.S. Army, and she is convinced "that the Army contributed to some of these ideas he has on force."

Following the Birmingham blast, Eric Rudolph disappeared into the mountains of western North Carolina after being identified as a suspect.

"I was very sad, very troubled and terribly invaded," his mother said, noting that she and other family members were questioned and watched. "My privacy was invaded. I was no longer a private person. I lost many friends."

Rudolph was able to elude authorities for more than five years, surviving in the rugged, rural area in the midst of a massive FBI manhunt.

"It's very interesting that he knew how to do all of this," his mother said. "I'm sure a lot of it he didn't know. He just improvised as he went along. And for some reason which we don't fully know, he was able to survive."

Pat Rudolph said she has plans to write a book, which will be "mostly personal" and will not get into her son's case.

"My life, I think, has been an interesting one. Maybe other people would find it interesting," she said. "People need to know that Eric and his family are just human beings, like everyone else."

Cuba, Panama Restore Full Diplomatic Relations

2005-08-22T16:55:00.000-04:00

Saddening news... yet another country wants to be part of Cuba's show...

NewsMax.com WiresMonday, Aug. 22, 2005
Cuba and Panama have restored diplomatic ties, one year after they were severed due to Panama's decision to pardon four Cubans accused of trying to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and his Panamanian counterpart, Ricardo Duran, Saturday signed documents in Havana to officially declare normal relations.
Havana cut off relations with Panama on August 26, 2004, after then-President Mireya Moscoso pardoned the Cuban exiles. Her successor, Martin Torrijos, had vowed to re-establish ties after his inauguration last year.

Mr. Torrijos arrived Saturday in Cuba, where he attended a graduation ceremony at the Latin American School of Medicine along with Mr. Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
(VOA News)

Chávez-Castro show cost USD 138 million/hour

2005-08-22T16:53:00.000-04:00

News provided by www.therealcuba.com
thank you!

"President Hugo Chávez spent more than USD 1 billion in his trip to Cuba last weekend," said opposition parliamentarian Carlos Berrizbeitia. He added that the presidential entourage, comprising 22 people, incurred in costs for USD 96,800, including travel expenses and lodging. Chávez himself was boarded in UDS 4,500/night hotel, which is very far from the principles of the new socialism he trumpets. Berrizbeitia also reminded that every single flight hour of the presidential plane has a cost of USD 30,000.

He added that other expenses were incurred this time, as Chávez' weekly radio and TV show was broadcast from the island. This move had a cost of USD 138 million per hour, including satellite transmission, technical equipment and staff needed for a live broadcast from a foreign country.

"If we make the calculations for the five-hour show he co-hosted with Fidel Castro, we can say that Venezuela lost an opportunity to give Pérez Carreño Hospital (in Caracas) dialysis drugs to treat patients for 40 days, or to give the hospital emergency room medical supplies for 40 days. For that you need exactly USD 690 million that Chávez rather spent in a marathon show that means no benefit for the country."

31 Cubans missing after shipwreck off Florida

2005-08-22T16:50:00.000-04:00

Very sad what people have to endure to seek freedom
-----

Mon Aug 22,11:49 AM ET
MIAMI (Reuters) - The
U.S. Coast Guard' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> U.S. Coast Guard searched on Monday for 31 Cubans reported missing at sea after their boat capsized between Florida and Cuba.

Three survivors were plucked out of the water by the crew of a merchant ship about 30 miles north of Matanzas, Cuba, on Sunday night and told their rescuers their speedboat had overturned with 31 other people aboard, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

The survivors were taken ashore in Cuba and Cuban authorities alerted the U.S. Coast Guard. Search crews found a capsized boat in the area on Monday but had not found any more survivors.

A Coast Guard spokesman said he did not know whether any passengers had life vests or if the voyage was a migrant smuggling attempt.

"We haven't talked to the three who were rescued so everything we're getting is coming from the Cuban government," U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Ryan Doss said.

Under immigration accords between the United States and Cuba, Cuban migrants stopped at sea are generally taken home. But undocumented Cubans who reach U.S. shores are usually allowed to stay, a policy that Cuba says encourages migrants to attempt the dangerous voyage in overloaded or unseaworthy vessels.

The Coast Guard has intercepted an increasing number of Cuban migrants at sea this year, though nothing like what occurred in the 1994 rafter crisis when more than 30,000 tried to make the voyage to Florida.

They have halted 2,366 Cubans at sea since the start of the fiscal year on October 1, up from 1,225 last year and the biggest number since 1994.

New pics

2005-08-21T13:28:00.000-04:00

Thanks to www.therealcuba.com for providing the pictures...

Seems like Fidelito needs help walking... boo hoo! fall bastard!

Cuban Government Confiscates Land Where Dissident Meeting Was Held, Activist Says

2005-08-21T13:26:00.000-04:00

By VANESSA ARRINGTON
The Associated Press
Aug. 19, 2005 -

The Cuban government has confiscated the land where an unprecedented gathering of Cuban dissidents took place earlier this year,

an activist said Friday.

Felix Bonne and his wife, who hosted the gathering on a lot next to their home, received a letter Thursday signed by an official from

the agriculture ministry, said Martha Beatriz Roque, who also helped organize the gathering. The letter said the land was not being used

sufficiently, Roque said.

"We feel even more repressed, more crushed, than usual," Roque told The Associated Press. "But we are not going to back off, not one

millimeter."

According to Roque, Bonne's family will be allowed to continue living in their house next to the lot.

Bonne, who does not have a telephone, was not immediately available for comment, nor were government officials.

Many were surprised that the communist government had allowed the gathering to take place, and activists predicted punishment would

come later, when there was less global attention on the event.

"With (this latest action) they want to show that everything belongs to the state, to Fidel Castro," Roque said. "I have no doubt that this

is about May 20. It's an act of repression, at a time when the government is being very repressive."

In a speech on July 26 marking the anniversary of the start of his revolution, the Cuban president called the dissidents "traitors" and

"mercenaries," and defended the recent detentions of dozens of activists and counter-protests by government supporters.

Last month, 33 dissidents planning a protest outside the French Embassy in Havana were detained in a police roundup.

In March 2003, the Cuban government arrested 75 independent journalists, opposition politicians, rights activists and others, accusing

them of receiving U.S. aid to overthrow Castro's government and sentencing them to long prison terms.

U.S. authorities have repeatedly rejected charges that it pays dissidents to help undermine Castro's rule.

Thousands join pope on Youth Day

2005-08-21T13:23:00.000-04:00

COLOGNE, Germany (CNN) -- Before an enthusiastic crowd numbering in the hundreds of thousands, Pope Benedict XVI has celebrated an open-air mass to end World Youth Day.

The week-long gathering of Catholic youths, which takes place every three years, was created by his predecessor, Pope John Paul II in 1985.

During his homily in a field near the German city of Cologne, the pontiff spoke about the need for the faithful to commit to attending Mass weekly.

"Sometimes, our initial impression is that having to include time for Mass on a Sunday is rather inconvenient," the pope said. "But if you make the effort, you will realize this is what gives a proper focus to your free time. Do not be deterred from taking part in Sunday Mass, and help others to discover it, too."

In some parts of the world, Benedict XVI said, "there is a strange forgetfulness of God," and also "this feeling of frustration, a sense of dissatisfaction with everyone and everything. People exclaim, 'This cannot be what life is about.' And indeed, it is not."

He urged the crowd to read the catechism of the Catholic Church, but acknowledged "books alone are not enough. Form communities based on faith."

But he seemed to criticize the commercialism of religion, noting a "kind of new explosion of religion" but saying, "if pushed too far, religion becomes almost a consumer product. Some are even able to make a profit from it."

The pope was driven to the altar overlooking the Marienfeld, or Mary's Field, in his tall popemobile to the sound of hymns as thousands of priests lined up to assist in the service.

At the end of the two-hour service, Benedict XVI announced the next World Youth Day would be held in Sydney, Australia, in 2008.

At a prayer vigil Saturday night, Benedict XVI stuck to the script -- a departure from the folksy style of John Paul II, who was known to sing Polish songs and tell jokes at such events, said John Allen, CNN Vatican analyst.

However, he said, Benedict XVI was smiling and friendly as he delivered his message, and seemed to generate affection with the crowd. Allen added that he believed Benedict XVI was right in not attempting to clone the previous pope.

During his four-day trip to his homeland, his first as pontiff, Benedict XVI visited a synagogue, where he voiced concerns about "renewed signs" of anti-Semitism, and met a group of Muslim leaders and spoke about defeating the spread of terrorism.

In blunt remarks, he told Muslim leaders they had a "great responsibility" in properly educating their younger generations, according to The Associated Press. (Full story)

"I am certain that I echo your own thoughts when I bring up as one of our concerns the spread of terrorism," Benedict told the Muslim leadership, mainly Turks, in his most extensive remarks on terrorism during his four-month papacy.

"Terrorist activity is continually recurring in various parts of the world, sowing death and destruction, and plunging many of our brothers and sisters into grief and despair."

Benedict did not mention specific attacks or assess blame.

"Those who instigate and plan these attacks evidently wish to poison our relations, making use of all means, including religion, to oppose every attempt to build a peaceful, fair and serene life together," he said, according to AP.

PRIEST CALLED `A PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE'

2005-08-20T12:02:00.000-04:00

Human rights advocates and U.S. officials are demanding the release of former Miamian Gérard Jean-Juste from a Haitian jail.

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

jcharles@herald.com

Former Miami activist Gérard Jean-Juste has become the focus of a strong letter-writing campaign urging his release from a Haitian jail and calling him a political prisoner.

A Catholic priest who led the most powerful Haitian rights group in the country, Jean-Juste was arrested last month for investigation in the murder of a journalist, but no formal charges have been filed.

He has been one of the staunchest critics of Haiti's U.S.-backed interim government, accusing authorities of human rights abuses against supporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and Washington of racist policies.

Aristide's supporters allege that more than 700 of their brethren have been jailed for political reasons. They include former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and Annette Auguste, a 70-year-old Haitian grandmother and popular singer known as Só Ann.

Twenty-nine members of the U.S. Congress plus thousands of supporters from 42 countries and 10 U.S. states have sent letters to the U.S. and Haitian governments demanding his release from a Port-au-Prince jail.

'TRUMPED UP' CHARGES

Amnesty International has said the charges against Jean-Juste are ''trumped up'' and it has called him a ''prisoner of conscience,'' a classification usually reserved for the victims of the worst abuses.

''Father Jean-Juste is an advocate for human rights in Haiti, and his arrest is part of a long-standing attempt to silence him for his criticism of the Haitian government,'' said Archi Pyati of Human Rights First, a lawyers advocacy group based in New York. The group's campaign triggered 1,351 letters to the Haitian government, Pyati said.

In Miami, where Jean-Juste's supporters have held a candlelit prayer vigil in Little Haiti and protests outside the Haitian consulate, many Haitians remember him as head of the now defunct Haitian Refugee Center, which helped thousands of Haitians obtain legal residency status. Jean-Juste served as director of the center from the early 1980s until 1991, when he resigned to move back to Haiti to work for the Aristide government.

He remains one of the few Haitian leaders who can draw a crowd in Little Haiti, and hundreds of Haitians clamored to touch his face at a rally he appeared at in December, just days after he was released from his first stay in a Haitian jail.

''I know that Father Jean-Juste is being persecuted for what I don't know,'' said Farah Juste, a Miami community activist. ``He's fighting for the cause of the masses''

In a letter dictated from jail to his U.S. lawyer, a defiant Jean-Juste said he had collapsed from unknown causes on Sunday but pressed his demands:

`JOINING MY VOICE'

''Regardless of all the hardship, I am still joining my voice to the voices of all democracy lovers to demand the return of constitutional order in Haiti, the physical return of our elected president Aristide, release of all political prisoners, respect of all human rights,'' he wrote.

But while Jean-Juste's demands for the return of Aristide may have ruffled the Haitian government's feathers, supporters say he has become even more of a problem amid increasing talk that he might run for the presidency in elections scheduled for Nov. 6.

''They do not want him out [of jail] because he could potentially register as a candidate for president and easily win if he has the support of Aristide,'' said Ira Kurzban, a Miami lawyer who has known Jean-Juste for 27 years and worked for the Aristide government.

Jean-Juste has denied any interest in being a candidate, saying he wants to maintain his devotion to his church and to Haiti's poor. Aristide also was a Catholic priest, but left his order to pursue politics.

Jean-Juste was arrested July 21 after a mob attacked him during the funeral of Jacques Roche, a journalist who was kidnapped and murdered.

The priest said he went to the funeral to show his respect and that he and Roche were related.

But the mob, which accused Aristide supporters of killing Roche, chased and threatened Jean-Juste.

''They don't have anything as evidence or a charge,'' said his Port-au-Prince attorney, Mario Joseph. He filed a motion seeking Jean-Juste's release while the investigation is completed, but the judge has not yet replied.

Jean-Juste was first arrested by the post-Aristide government in October for suspicion of inciting violence and hiding pro-Aristide gunmen. He spent 48 days in jail but was not charged.

QUESTIONED BY POLICE

The week before his latest arrest, police stopped and questioned him for several hours after he arrived at the Port-au-Prince airport on a flight from Miami. Days earlier, Aristide critics had accused Jean-Juste of handling some of the former president's money.

Supporters credit his aggressive activism with halting U.S. government attempts to deport Haitians who had illegally migrated to South Florida.

''He's responsible for [Miami] having a Haitian community,'' Kurzban said. ``It was through his leadership and his creation of the Haitian Refugee Center and working with us on the legal work and organizing people politically that [he] stopped the deportations. It was the initiation and the creation of the Haitian community here.''

Police keep 'shoot-to-kill' policy

2005-08-20T12:01:00.000-04:00

THEY MUST KEEP IT THIS WAY

------

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- London's police force has reviewed its controversial "shoot-to-kill" policy and left it largely unchanged despite the killing of a Brazilian mistaken for a would-be suicide bomber, Scotland Yard said on Saturday.

"We have reviewed it and we have made one or two small changes, but the operation remains essentially the same," a Metropolitan police spokeswoman told Reuters.

The spokeswoman declined to detail the changes, but London police chief Ian Blair said officers would continue to use deadly force to stop possible terror attacks.

"The methods that were used appeared to be the least worst option (for tackling suicide bombers) ... we still have the procedure in use," he told the Daily Mail.

A spokeswoman for the Association of Chief Police Officers, which issues the shoot-to-kill guidance, codenamed "Operation Kratos", said the overall policy was unaffected.

"They are going to make changes operationally, but they are not in a position to change the guidance. We are not changing it," she said.

Operation Kratos outlines what level of force officers can use to thwart what police call a "deadly and determined attack".

Public awareness of the policy only emerged after police shot Jean Charles de Menezes eight times at point blank range as he boarded an underground train on July 22, the day after four bombs failed to explode on the London's transport system.

De Menezes's family has called for Blair to resign. (Full story)

Len Duval, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority, which oversees policing in London, said there was a growing consensus for a public inquiry into the policy but it was a decision for the government.

"If greater oversight of operations provides public reassurance then that can only be a good thing," he told the Independent newspaper.

"But I urge caution ... The issue of suicide bombers is not going away and there needs to be an effective way of dealing with this threat."

At the time of the incident Blair said de Menezes was under surveillance as part of a manhunt to catch the four fleeing bombers and had not respond to police challenges.

Police admitted they had shot the wrong man and apologized.

Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

U.S., Taliban bargained over bin Laden, documents show

2005-08-20T11:57:00.000-04:00

Declassified State Department papers detail 1998 meetings

Friday, August 19, 2005; Posted: 10:21 p.m. EDT (02:21 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- During secret meetings with U.S. officials in 1998, top Taliban officials discussed assassinating or expelling Osama bin Laden in response to al Qaeda's deadly bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa, according to State Department documents.

The newly declassified documents, posted Thursday on the National Archives Web site, provide a fascinating glimpse into U.S. diplomacy exerted on Afghanistan's ruling Taliban -- a regime officially unrecognized by Washington -- nearly three years before the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on the United States.

According to the documents, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan, Alan Eastham Jr., met with Wakil Ahmed, a close aide to Taliban leader Mullah Omar, in November and December 1998. That was just months after the August al Qaeda attacks that killed more than 200 people at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

"It is unbelievable that this small man did this to you," Ahmed said during their meeting on December 19, 1998, according to the documents.

Ahmed told Eastham that he spoke with Omar about bin Laden and that the Taliban still considered the Saudi exile "innocent."

Talk of assassination
During a meeting between Ahmed and Eastham on November 28, 1998, just days after the Taliban's supreme court cleared bin Laden of terrorist activities, Ahmed said one possibility "would be for the U.S. to kill him or arrange for bin Laden to be assassinated."

Ahmed "said that the U.S., if it chose to do so, could arrange to have bin Laden killed by cruise missiles or other means, and there would be little the Taliban could do to prevent it," according to the documents.

Another alternative, Ahmed said, would be for the United States to provide the Taliban with cruise missiles to have "the situation resolved in this way." Ahmed also noted that expelling bin Laden likely would result in the Taliban regime being overthrown, according to the documents.

And while Ahmed suggested a possible assassination of bin Laden, he also "urged the U.S. not to bomb Afghanistan again" as Washington did in the weeks following the embassy bombings. Ahmed "asked instead for a new U.S. proposal aimed at resolving the matter," the documents said.

'I consider you as murderers'
Ahmed expressed anger about the cruise missile attacks ordered by President Clinton on al Qaeda training camps in Khost, Afghanistan, targeting bin Laden after the embassy bombings. Twenty-two Afghans, including members of al Qaeda, were killed in the attacks.

"If Kandahar could have retaliated with similar strikes against Washington, it would have," Ahmed said, according to the documents.

"I consider you as murderers of Afghans," Ahmed told Eastham. "The U.S. said bin Laden had killed innocent people, but had not the U.S. killed innocent Afghans in Khost too? Was this not a crime?"

Saudi influence
The declassified State Department documents were cables recapping the meetings and outlining the U.S. position on bin Laden. They were originally sent to U.S. officials in Washington; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Peshawar, Pakistan; Cairo, Egypt; Abu Dhabi, UAE; Lahore, Pakistan; and the United Nations.

A State Department cable sent on October 19, 1998, said the best course of action in getting bin Laden handed over would be through Saudi Arabia, which "maintains significant prestige in Pakistan and Afghanistan."

It said a then-upcoming trip by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah to Pakistan provided a "ready-made opportunity for the Saudis to press the Pakistani government to exert pressure on the Taliban concerning bin Laden."

It also said the United States should continue to pursue talks amid "indications that other Taliban leaders are getting nervous on the issue."

"The U.S. should appeal to the natural trading mentality of many Afghans -- and perhaps some Taliban -- by setting out what the Taliban stand to gain by expelling bin Laden as well as what they stand to lose," the cable said.

Taliban cooperation
At the same time, U.S. officials were under no illusions about the prospects of Taliban cooperation: "The fact is that the leader of the Taliban appears to be strongly committed to bin Laden. It is questionable whether U.S. or Saudi efforts can influence Omar's decisions."

By the end of the November 28 meeting, pressed on why the Taliban refused to turn over bin Laden, Ahmed said that the Afghan people "would not understand why the Taliban had expelled a man who was regarded as a 'great mujahid,' or Islamic fighter, during the war against the Soviets. They would reject the Taliban if the Taliban took this action."

Eastham responded by telling Ahmed the Taliban had to recognize for itself "that the role of political leadership is to shape public opinion, not to decline to act because they think opinion is otherwise."

The cable concluded that Ahmed "wanted very strongly to convey the message that the Taliban did not consider the bin Laden matter resolved in the wake of the recent supreme court decision."

But within a month, it was clear the Taliban had hardened its position. "We have little indication that anything we said got through to" Ahmed, a cable said about the December 19 meeting.

Bin Laden 'most important'
The documents indicate that bin Laden was clearly Washington's priority with the Taliban in 1998 -- rather than reported human rights violations by their Afghan government.

"The continued presence in Afghanistan of bin Laden and his network is by far the most important," said a State Department cable sent on October 19, 1998.

The State Department has issued a $25 million reward for bin Laden and $10 million for Mullah Omar.

In October of 2001 a U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan toppled the Taliban regime.

Dissidents say government supporters are taking repressive measures against them

2005-08-19T16:11:00.000-04:00

My question is... if the REVOLUTION is so good, why isn't it working?

--------------------
SANTA CLARA, Cuba - August 18 (Niurvys Díaz Redmond, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - Members of the Democratic Christian Movement of Cuba in Santa Clara say supporters of the government have been taking repressive actions against them.

Roberto Carlos Pérez García, national coordinator of the organization, and Fidel Rodríguez García, a neighbor, were surrounded by government supporters who shouted "Terrorists!" and "Mercenaries!" at them.

Member Freddy Martín Fraga said he was shoved by a member of Power Power when he took his infant daughter to a day-care center. "The man told me that I was forbidden to leave my home," Fraga said.

A member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces told his wife to stop caring for the daughter of independent journalist Karel Castillo.

Julio Marrero, a movement member, said some 30 members of the Communist Party congregated outside his house and shouted, "Fatty, come out of your house! We're going to kill you!"

An advisor to the movement, Guillermo Fariñas Hernández, was shoved by a member of the Communist Party while he was talking to a neighbor in front of his house.

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba, August 17 (Rosa María Montoya, APLO / www.cubanet.org) - Dissident Reinier Rodríguez Salgado, a member of the Cuban Orthodox Renovation Party, has been threatened with eviction from his home, which the government says he has been occupying illegally.
Rodríguez Salgado bought the house for US$7,000 in 1998 from Guillermo R. Casero Roselló, recognized at the time as the legal owner of the property at Maceo No. 129 in the district of Dos Caminos de San Luis.

The Housing Department on August 12 told Rodríguez Salgado that he did not have ownership of the house because sales between private citizens is illegal and the property has passed to the hands of the government.

The department said Casero Roselló could recover the house if he repaid the sales price to Rodríguez Salgado.

Rodríguez Rodríguez said he is a self-employed barber and uses the house for business purposes as well as a family residence.

SANTA CLARA, Cuba - August 16 (Guillermo Fariñas, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - Independent journalist Niurvys Díaz Remond says her father insisted she and her husband leave the family home where they lived because authorities planned to arrest her.
Blas Díaz Aguilar, a leader in Cuba's food industry, went to his mother's home, where Díaz and her husband were staying, and told her to leave.

"My father told me that I was going to be sentenced to 30 years in prison," she said.

Diaz's husband, Roberto Carlos Pérez García, is national coordinator of the National Christian Democratic Movement in Cuba.

Díaz, a former economics student, is an editor at Cubanacán Press and belongs to the dissident Guillermo Cabrera Infante Union of Independent Writers and Journalists.

Fukufuji follows NHL dream

2005-08-19T16:07:00.000-04:00

THIS IS HIS REAL NAME! TOO FUNNY, CHECK THIS OUT!

The Associated PressYutaka Fukufuji knows it's a long, hard road to the NHL but that's a trip the Japanese goalie is prepared to take even if it means riding the buses in hockey's backwaters for a few more years.

Fukufuji signed a two-year, two-way contract with the Los Angeles Kings earlier this month. The 22-year-old goaltender will attend a Kings' rookie camp next month. If he doesn't make it with the Kings, he'll likely be assigned to L.A.'s American Hockey League farm team, the Manchester Monarchs.

"My goal is to play in the NHL," Fukufuji said at a press conference Thursday. "I know it will be tough but I'm ready for rookie camp and I'm looking forward to taking on my rivals."

The 1.85-meter, 77-kilogram Fukufuji was selected by the Kings 238th overall in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft. He played for the Bakersfield Condors in 2004-05 and posted 27 wins, with three shutouts and a 2.48 goals-against average while helping the team to the East Coast Hockey League playoffs.

While some have likened Fukufuji to baseball's Hideo Nomo or soccer's Hidetoshi Nakata, the soft-spoken goaltender says he's got other things on his mind than being a pioneer.
"I'm not thinking about becoming the first Japanese player in the NHL," Fukufuji said. "Sure, if it happens, I'll be happy but right now I've got a lot of work ahead of me."
Fukufuji made his pro debut in North America on Feb. 7, 2003, with the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL. He won four games and lost three, and had a 3.13 GAA.

He was the ECHL rookie of the month in January when he won seven straight games and posted his first pro shutout. Fukufuji said the toughest part of playing in places like Bakersfield and Cincinnati are the endless bus rides.
"The bus rides are tough," said Fukufuji, who grew up in Hokkaido, the one place in Japan where hockey competes with baseball and soccer.

Fukufuji began playing hockey at the age of nine. He preferred it over the other sports in which he was involved.

He was a skater at first but by the age of 11 was asked by his coach if he could strap on the goalie pads.

Other than the prospect of stopping a Mario Lemieux slap shot, Fukufuji says his biggest challenge will be mastering English.

"I can't speak English very well but I'm working on it," said Fukufuji, who watches reruns of Seinfeld to practice his English.

Fukufuji, who said he wasn't even aware of the NHL when growing up in Hokkaido, said his favorite goalie is Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils.
He played for the Kokudo Bunnies of the Japanese league in 2001 and said he started getting interested in playing overseas when he represented Japan at the world championships.
The Kings open training camp on Sept. 14. Goaltenders Mathieu Garon and Jason Labarbera are expected to compete for the starting job.

Comcast deal signed NEW YORK (AP) NHL games will air on Outdoor Life Network for at least the next two seasons. The league finalized a two-year deal with Comcast Corp. -- the owner of OLN -- late Wednesday night after ESPN declined to match the agreement that will pay the NHL $65 million this season and $70 million in 2006-07.

The agreement between Comcast and the NHL was approved by the league's board of governors last week. ESPN, which resumed regular broadcast of NHL games in 1992, had until Wednesday night to match the contract but decided to pass.
"Over the years, thousands of great NHL moments were presented to our fans through the lenses of ESPN cameras," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said. "ESPN was a supportive partner, and both the National Hockey League and ESPN enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship. We wish ESPN continued success."

The new deal can be extended up to six years. For the 2007-08 season, Comcast would pay the NHL $72.5 million but that number could go higher based on contingencies.
The Japan Times: Aug. 19, 2005

Castro style 'democracy'

2005-08-18T17:21:00.000-04:00

Thanks to the REAL CUBA.com which provided this information.

-----------
Another cell, this one in Manzanillo, that also had a very low ceiling and didn't allow\the prisoners to stand.
Between 10 and 15 political prisoners were kept in cells like these for six or more months.
The space between the small wall and the back of the cell was used by the prisoners to defecate and urinate
since there were no toilet facilities in these cells.

One of the cells known as 'gavetas' (drawers) where prisoners had to spend most
of their time lying down because the roof was too low for them to standup

Cuba's painful transition from sugar economy

2005-08-18T17:19:00.000-04:00

Sadly, this is whats happening to a country that was at one point the third richest country in the Western Hemisphere...

-------------------
By Marc Frank
Wed Aug 17,

REUTERS

Mounds of scrap metal, rusting railway cars and abandoned mills pockmark Cuba's countryside as the island abandons much of traditional

sugar plantation economy and culture, leaving residents in limbo.

"Cuba will never live off sugar again. That belongs to the era of slavery," Cuban President Fidel Castro said earlier this year.

More than a decade after the collapse of Soviet communism and the loss of a subsidized market for its sugar, Cuba is still coping with the

effects. It is closing down obsolete sugar mills that cannot compete given today's low world prices. In 2002 the island nation shut half its

sugar refineries and this year decided to close down more.

Sugar was Cuba's most important export for more than a century, but it has slipped to third place after nickel and tobacco products. It also

trails tourism and family remittances from Cubans living in the United States as a source of hard currency.

Some 500,000 workers and their families -- 2 million of Cuba's 11 million inhabitants-- depended on the sugar industry, living in mill towns

that dotted the countryside.

"You can imagine, when the mill closed people were mad, they were confused, they felt really terrible. It was the heart of the town," said

55-year-old Justo Corona Marquez, lifetime resident of Jobabo in eastern Las Tunas province.

"You feel sad. After so many years there is no more harvest," Corona said, as he sat on a park bench in the town's center contemplating

the dismantled Peru sugar mill, now reduced to three smokestacks amid a pile of rusting iron.

Seventy-one of 156 mills closed in 2002 in a restructuring that left as many as 200,000 workers jobless. The government said new industries

would arise and 3.1 million acres of land would be shifted from sugar cane to other agricultural uses, an area equal to 62 percent of Cuba's

arable land.

LITTLE DEVELOPMENT

Three years later more mills are closing even as towns wait for new industries to arise and land falls into disuse in a country that

imports half its food.

"There is no capital for development and the government has so far refused foreign investor offers to save mills and develop land,"

a Cuban agriculture expert said.

Residents in the First of January municipality in Ciego de Avila province fretted they would be next. Their local mill will not operate

in the coming harvest for the first time since it opened in 1918.

The Sugar Ministry blamed a two-year drought for this year's output of 1.3 million tonnes of raw sugar, well below the government's

post-restructuring target of 2 million. It is the lowest harvest since 1908 and compares with 8 million tonnes in 1990.

The First of January mill, with a capacity of 124,000 tonnes, produced just 38,000 tonnes this year, local workers said.

"They told us we operated at a loss and would not mill until there was enough cane, perhaps in 2007," said Arnaldo, an automation specialist.

"First of January is dying. Many people are looking to move, to find other jobs," he added.

Foreign and local experts said drought was only part of the problem.

"This year's performance was blighted not only by drought. It was also the result of long neglect, under-investment, bad management

and poor organization," international sugar industry analyst G.B. Hagelberg said.

Farmers complained only a small portion of sugar lands have been converted to other uses while the remainder is being overrun by brush and

weeds.

WORKERS STUDY ON FULL PAY

In the Jobabo park, fronting the dismantled Peru mill, adolescents played ping-pong and dominoes. A barber plied his trade on the sidewalk

as pigs were roasted nearby for pork sandwiches. People walked through the mill rubble and across abandoned railroad tracks going about

their daily business.

Romana Alvarez Cruz, umbrella shielding her from the burning sun, said she was being paid a full salary for a five-year course in the humanities

and hoped to work in culture.

"Here I am and, yes, there is a future, there are lots of projects," the 34-year-old mother-of-two said, unable to specify what they were beyond

chicken and rabbit breeding and planting fruit trees and vegetables.

Corona said the town had settled down since 2002 because the government kept its promise that workers would be retrained on full pay and

guaranteed their wages until new jobs were found.

"Here the government leaves no one to their fate. It is doing what it can," he said.

read the rest of the article here : http://www.therealcuba.com/Page11.htm BE SURE TO READ ON!

The JAILS of Cuba

2005-08-18T17:17:00.000-04:00

During the Batista dictatorship, there were 11 prisons in Cuba. Now, as can be seen on the
above map, there are over 300! The entire island is surrounded by prisons!

The questions are: Why so many prisons in a country where everyone is supposed to be equal?

Why so many prisons in a country where the people are in charge?

Why so many prisons in a country that for 46 and a half years has been 'educating' the 'new man'
that is supposed to be like Che?

Why so many prisons in a country where 99.9999% of the people 'vote' in favor of the dictator for life?

Cuban Crackdown Brings Arrests of 50 Dissidents

2005-08-18T17:09:00.000-04:00

Must read story!

-----
By Gary Marx Tribune foreign correspondent Wed Aug 17, 9:40 AM ET

In the harshest crackdown on dissent in two years, Cuban authorities have temporarily detained more than 50 opposition figures in recent weeks and encouraged government militants to disrupt opposition activities.

At least 15 dissidents arrested in July remain in custody, and several of them face up to 20 years in prison for threatening to undermine Cuba's communist government, according to Amnesty International and other organizations.

On Friday, more than 60 pro-government militants gathered outside the home of Vladimiro Roca, a prominent dissident leader, shouting "worm," "traitor" and "terrorist" as they prevented Roca from holding an opposition gathering.

The same day, government supporters surrounded the homes of two other dissidents, one of whom planned to attend the meeting at Roca's house.

Roca said the demonstration outside his home was organized by Cuban state security, which had warned him the night before that his meeting would not be allowed to take place.

"They wanted to stop it," Roca said. "The problem is that [Cuban President] Fidel Castro is very afraid and when he is afraid he doesn't want to show it, so he does these acts of terror against the population."

Biggest crackdown since '03

The arrests and other actions represent the most serious attack against dissidents in Cuba since 2003, when 75 opposition leaders, labor activists and others were given long prison sentences. Sixty-one of the 75 dissidents remain jailed.

The latest crackdown, like the one in 2003, has sparked criticism from human-rights groups, the 25-member European Union and other organizations.

Holly Ackerman, Caribbean coordinator for Amnesty International, said Cuban officials designed the crackdown to intimidate and silence internal critics.

"If you harass and arrest people, it terrifies the general population," Ackerman said. "It prevents them from expressing themselves politically."

Wayne Smith, a former leading U.S. diplomat in Havana, said Cuban authorities are concerned about growing unrest on the island triggered by power outages and other problems.

"They are worried about the grumbling--the fact that people are really upset," Smith said. "The crackdown is to indicate that there is a limit on how far you can express discontent."

In his July 26 speech commemorating the birth of his revolutionary movement in 1953, Castro derided the dissidents as a miniscule group manipulated and bankrolled by an aggressive U.S. government. U.S. officials and dissident leaders deny those charges.

Castro warned that the Cuban people would continue defending the revolution.

"This is what will happen whenever traitors and mercenaries go a millimeter beyond the point that our revolutionary people ... [are] willing to accept," Castro said.

Not intimidated

But Martha Beatriz Roque, a well-known dissident leader, said she is not intimidated by Castro's words or the crackdown.

"We have a commitment to the country, and we can't stop," said Beatriz Roque. "We will continue on with our work."

U.S.-Cuba relations with Castro, who recently turned 79, have sunk to their lowest point in several years.

In late July, President Bush angered Cuban officials by appointing a "transition coordinator" responsible for accelerating the demise of the Castro government and providing assistance to what Bush describes as a subsequent democratic Cuba.

Yet Cuba's dissidents remain split by personal and strategic differences, and they are largely ignored by island residents, who know little about their activities because dissidents have no access to state-run media.

Still, more than 150 Cuban opposition activists gathered in Havana on May 20 in an unprecedented event to demand democratic reforms and the release of all political prisoners.

"This might have made the government a bit nervous, and they thought it's time to teach them a lesson and nip this in the bud," said Joanne Mariner, deputy director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch.

"The last thing the government wants is to let the dissident activity get out of hand," she said.

One of the organizers of the May 20 gathering, Rene Gomez Manzano, is among nine dissidents who remain in custody after being arrested July 22--the same day an opposition demonstration was planned in front of the French Embassy in Havana.

The activists were protesting France's decision to ease European sanctions against Havana by inviting Cuban government officials to its Bastille Day celebration, a rapprochement that angered some dissidents.

Six other dissidents remain in custody after being arrested a week earlier for marking the anniversary of the sinking of a tugboat in Havana Bay 11 years ago that killed 35 people trying to flee the island, according to human-rights groups.

Jorge Gomez Manzano, the dissident leader's brother, said Rene has been charged with violating the Law for the Protection of the National Independence and Economy of Cuba.

Cuban authorities used the same law to prosecute most of the 75 opposition activists in 2003.

"He could get 13 years in prison. He could get a fine. Or he could be freed," said Gomez Manzano. "We don't know what will happen."

READ ON...

2005-08-18T16:56:00.000-04:00

GOD I CAN'T STAND PEOPLE LIKE THIS! THIS IS SO NOT TRUE!!!
AND, NO! President Bush is NOT the Biggest Terrorist in the WORLD! When are these people going to realize what happened the MORNING OF SEPT. 11TH!

------------------------------
CINDY UNLEASHED: 'THE BIGGEST TERRORIST IN THE WORLD IS GEORGE W. BUSH'Wed Aug 17 2005 21:51:56 ET

"We are not waging a war on terror in this country. We’re waging a war of terror. The biggest terrorist in the world is George W. Bush!" So declared Cindy Sheehan earlier this year during a rally at San Francisco State University. Sheehan, who is demanding a second meeting with Bush, stated: "We are waging a nuclear war in Iraq right now. That country is contaminated. It will be contaminated for practically eternity now." Sheehan unleashed a foul-mouth tirade on April 27, 2005: "They’re a bunch of fucking hypocrites! And we need to, we just need to rise up..." Sheehan said of the Bush administration.

"If George Bush believes his rhetoric and his bullshit, that this is a war for freedom and democracy, that he is spreading freedom and democracy, does he think every person he kills makes Iraq more free?" "The whole world is damaged. Our humanity is damaged. If he thinks that it’s so important for Iraq to have a U.S.-imposed sense of freedom and democracy, then he needs to sign up his two little party-animal girls. They need to go to this war." "We want our country back and, if we have to impeach everybody from George Bush down to the person who picks up dog shit in Washington, we will impeach all those people." END

Farmer Writes Personal Ad in Cornfield

2005-08-18T16:54:00.000-04:00

CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. - It sounds a little corny. A farmer looking for love has planted a personals ad, using corn stalks in a cow pasture. It reads: "S.W.F Got-2 (love symbol) Farm'n." Underneath is a 1,000-foot-long arrow pointing single white females to his house.

"It only took me about an hour — I did it with a corn planter in May," Pieter DeHond said Wednesday as he removed weeds from the 18-acre field. "I was just horsing around."
In place of a newspaper ad, DeHond said he decided on an impulse to use up the extra corn seed left after spring planting at his 200-acre Pleasure Acres farm in western New York.
"I wouldn't place a personal ad in the paper. To me it seems desperate," he added, laughing. "This is more of a fun thing. I put this out in a field where nobody could see it unless you flew over it."

The 41-year-old divorced father said running a business and looking after his two teenagers doesn't leave a lot of room for socializing.

His corn stalk appeal, featured this week in his hometown Daily Messenger newspaper, has already drawn quite a few phone calls and e-mails.

"I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't a little proud," DeHond said.

5 bucks a gallon for gas? Expert sees it in 2006

2005-08-17T22:05:00.000-04:00

Everyone! I'll be riding my bike to work. Hialeah here I come! haha

------------
If you think all this flirting with $3-a-gallon gas is already a pain in the pocketbook, brace yourself.
Oil expert Craig Smith predicts gas prices will skyrocket next year, jumping to five bucks a gallon.
And if terrorists successfully strike a major Middle East oil field, Americans might end up paying $10 a gallon -- about $110 to fill a Ford Focus' 11-gallon tank.
Smith, a self-proclaimed geopolitical know-it-all hawking his new book Black Gold Stranglehold, says Americans -- tree-hugging politicians and car-addicted commuters alike -- should blame themselves for the coming spike in prices.
"Why are they charging higher prices for gas? Because people will pay it. Apparently, we're not changing our driving habits much," he said. "Blame this on ourselves. This country has not built a new refinery in 30 years, we stopped new oil exploration . . . and put a moratorium on offshore drilling."
Smith -- who last year predicted $3-a-gallon gas and $65-a-barrel crude oil prices this year -- says oil prices will jump to $80 a gallon by the end of 2006.
On Tuesday, the national average was $2.52 a gallon, according to AAA. And the price of gas topped $3 here last week.
If you don't believe the average cost of gas will double in 12 months, Smith points to places such as Hong Kong, Korea and France, where gas prices regularly top the $5 mark.
The solution here for high oil prices: "find it, drill it, refine it and burn it" domestically, Smith said, pointing to untapped crude reserves in Alaska, Colorado, Utah, off the California coast and in the Gulf of Mexico.

Luis Moro in the news

2005-08-16T18:11:00.000-04:00

NBC6.net: Filmmaker On Cruise Captures Rescue Of Cuban Refugees
11 Refugees Get On Cruise Ship After Boat Sinks

POSTED: 11:19 am EDT August 15, 2005UPDATED: 11:30 am EDT August 15, 2005
MIAMI -- A filmmaker vacationing on a Royal Caribbean cruise captured footage of Cuban refugees being rescued as they tried to get to the United States Friday.Luis Moro was filming as passengers aboard the ship saw the Cubans' boat sinking.

"No one ever expected that to happen on a cruise," Moro said. "Even though you are going around the island of Cuba, no one expects to see a boat with Cubans trying to get to the U.S."
Moro's video shows 11 Cuban refugees being placed onto one of the cruise ship's life rafts and taken to the ship.

"When they got on, the first group of Cubans got on the life raft, they were brought back and everybody started cheering. It was great," Moro said. FeedRoom But in that moment of rejoicing came sorrow for Moro, who is a Cuban-American. He said he knew the quest for freedom would possibly end in vain, and he blames the events on politics and a U.S. embargo that he believes should be lifted.

"This has to stop," Moro said. "I bet my life they (refugees) have family that is not in Cuba and I bet they are financially well-off here."

Moro was right. A mother in South Florida spotted her son's failed attempts at freedom.

"At least I know he's alive. That calms me down a little but now we have to wait and see what happens," Miriam Perez said in Spanish.

"I can't imagine what it's like to do what they do," Moro said. "I would be shocked if many people have the courage to get on a raft and take off."

A representative from the U.S. Coast Guard said the Cuban refugees were still being processed.
There's no official word on whether they will have to return to Cuba.

Luis, maybe you should ask your political soulmate, fidel castro, about why people are willing to risk becoming lunch for sharks rather than staying in Cuba. Common sense and unobstructed thinking would lead a normal person to deduce that fidel takes all of the blame for this and not the "well-off" Cubans here in Miami, all of us rich, sugar-plantation owning, Batista stooges.
Here are some folks who took to sea, risking their lives to reach the freedom in the US and instead of blaming fidel and his communist regime, for creating the conditions that have led to this, your first instinct is to blame us here in Miami. And, of course, you trot out the ever popular argument of the intellectually challenged, "end the embargo."

Your statements are so self-serving, so repugnant and so ill-informed that I don't know whether to get pissed off at you or to pity your stupidity.

(H/T to Daniel for alerting me this morning on this story.)

Cuban's Panic attack

2005-08-16T17:56:00.000-04:00

From Cubanet:

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Cubans on the brink of a panic attack
Rafael Ferro Salas, Abdala Press

PINAR DEL RÍO, Cuba - July (www.cubanet.org) - Six o'clock in the morning, Cuba. Felipe, 77 years old, leaves his house. He arrives at the corner cafeteria and waits for his first customer to arrive. A 20-year old mulato man approaches him. Felipe puts his hand in his pocket and takes out two cigarettes. The mulato pays him.

By the end of a half hour a dozen persons have bought cigarettes sold by the elderly Felipe. Everything seems normal, but it's not; the old man sells the cigarettes secretly. This kind of selling is forbidden in Cuba. At mid-morning, the old man goes home after buying the newspaper. "Today was good," he says to me. "There were no police, nor inspectors with their fines, but I never stop being nervous."

At the other end of the city lives Miriam, 32 years old. She's a black woman who has a two-year old boy. She's single. She works at the place where kerosene is sold for household stoves (abundant in Cuba). Miriam's salary doesn't provide her enough to live on and maintain her son, so she seeks alternatives amid high risks.

Near the end of her work shift a sixty-year old woman visits her. She hands over a big can and Miriam fills it with kerosene. The woman pays and leaves satisfied. She was sold her share of kerosene a week ago using her ration card. But it didn't last. So she comes to Miriam and she sells her the extra under the table.

"If we aren't lucky and an inspector catches us, they'll fire me and impose a fine on her," Miriam tells me. "I do everything for my son, the money they pay me doesn't even allow me to clothe him. I get very nervous when I do this. I live alone with my son, and if they fire me from my job or jail me, I don't know what I'd do."

Orlando Zamora is a young man who graduated in computer science two years ago. He is self-employed and works at home writing graduate theses for which he is well paid. Since his graduation he hasn't found work, so writing theses allows him to survive.

I found him one afternoon in the park and he told me he hadn't done any work the whole day. I asked him if his clientele had slackened and he answered me: "There's never a lack of clients, there's always someone who's going to graduate. What happens is I'm afraid to start writing and have a power outage break my computer. Then I'll have to throw it in and die of hunger."

"The power outages make you nervous, don't they?" I asked him in jest. He responded very seriously.

"They have everyone nervous, pal. I think we Cubans will have blackouts for the rest of our lives. It seems the one we'll have after we die isn't enough."

Thinking of what he just told me makes me nervous, too. I realize I've also been attacked today by the syndrome Cubans are dragging behind for some time: the panic attack.

Walking the city is like walking in the 1960s, although I was too young then to do it alone. My mother was at my side. I remember she walked nervously. It seemed we all walked nervously. It was the month of October and we were on the brink of an explosion. Later it became known as the October Missile Crisis.

We Cubans have never stopped being nervous after January 1959. The 1960s arrived and we enlisted in obligatory foreign wars. The 1980s came with collapses and firing squads in high circles. The 1990s left us without any kind of hopes. The new millenium opened its doors but things continue to cling to an enforced stagnation. Cubans debate amidst uncertainty with something in common: we all live on the brink of a panic attack.

Is "Blame Israel First" the Democrats' Message?

2005-08-16T17:52:00.000-04:00

Turns out Cindy Sheeham has been seen in family pictures with G. W. Bush...

Contact: Matthew BrooksMonday, August 15, 2005

“You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestineand you'll stop the terrorism.”-- Cindy Sheehan, anti-war protestor in Crawford.

The front page of just about every newspaper this weekend noted the anti-war protest of Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier who was killed in Iraq. The Democrats have jumped on board Ms. Sheehan’s protest – casting her and her message as heroic examples for the rest of the nation.

She has been heralded by Democrats such as Joe Trippi, campaign manager for Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean’s campaign for President, Michael Moore, and organizations such as Democrats.com, MoveOn.org, True Majority, and Democracy for America.
While Democrats are busy making Cindy Sheehan their spokesman and avatar of their views, we see her as yet another example of how critics of Israel within the Democratic Party have taken control of the party's agenda.

If Cindy Sheehan’s ideas are what the Democrats have to offer, then more and more American Jews will continue to see that there is no place for them in the Democratic Party.
Take another look at the quote at the top of this letter. If only it were an aberration. Unfortunately, it represents only a tip of the iceberg of Ms. Sheehan’s world-view.
In a letter to Nightline, Ms. Sheehan wrote that the entire Iraq War was part of a neo-conservative plot to benefit Israel:

Am I emotional? Yes, my first born was murdered. Am I angry? Yes, he was killed for lies and for a PNAC Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel. My son joined the Army to protect America, not Israel. Cindy Sheehan's letter And Ms. Sheehan, the voice of Democrat opposition to the war, reported what she would tell the President if she were to meet him (again):

You tell me the truth. You tell me that my son died for oil. You tell me that my son died to make your friends rich. You tell me my son died to spread the cancer of Pax Americana, imperialism in the Middle East. www.truthout.org Is that where the Democrats are on the War in Iraq – and on US policy in the Middle East? The elimination of Saddam Hussein’s tyrannical rule is a victory for the oil companies and for American imperialism?

You know, as well as I, that Saddam Hussein launched scud missiles at Israel.

You know that he operated rape rooms and torture chambers.

You know that he launched chemical weapons at his own people.

You know that he housed terrorists as his guests in Iraq – terrorists such as Abu Nidal and Abu Abbas, who murdered Leon Klinghoffer on the Achille Lauro cruise ship.

You know that Saddam paid a bounty of $25,000 to the families of Palestinian homicide bombers.

You know that he was a threat to the stability of the entire region.

You also know that there were strong links between Saddam’s Iraq and Al Qaeda (for a new comprehensive summary of the latest evidence, check out www.HusseinAndTerror.com).

State could shut down body exhibit

2005-08-16T17:48:00.000-04:00

Tampa, Florida - The state Anatomical Board will hold an emergency meeting Wednesday in Gainesville and vote on whether to allow the Bodies Exhibit. But at this point The Museum of Science and Industry says it plans to open the exhibit on August 20th. The controversial show put actual body parts on display. Premier Exhibitions which is the same group that brought the titanic exhibit to the bay area is displaying the Chinese body parts and neither it nor MOSI thought to ask the anatomical board for permission to do the exhibit.At one point they questioned whether the board had the authority to regulate the exhibit, but Attorney General Charlie Christ ruled under Florida Law it is clear the board must give person for any bodies coming in our out of the state for medical education and research purposes.If the board votes against allowing the exhibit it will be up to either Hillsborough State Attorney’s office or the Attorney General’s office to issue an injunction to keep MOSI from going ahead with the exhibit.Part of the controversy comes from the fact that some medical ethicists say the only people who have given permission for their bodies to be used for purposes like this should be put on display. There is some question about the circumstances of the bodies of the Chinese people being used in this exhibit.

SMS from doomed plane a hoax

2005-08-15T17:04:00.000-04:00

Thessaloniki - Police in northern Greece arrested a man on Monday who had claimed to have received a telephone text message from a passenger on board a Cypriot airliner which crashed north of Athens, killing 121 people.
Police identified the man as Nektarios-Sotirios Voutas, 32.
Voutas had called Greek television stations shortly after the Helios Airways flight crashed into a mountainous region north of the capital on Sunday, saying his cousin, who he identified as Kostas Petridis, was on board.
He claimed his cousin had sent him a cellphone text message minutes before the crash saying: "Farewell, cousin, here we're frozen."
The report that the plane was cold was taken as a sign of decompression - one of the possible explanations authorities have given for the crash, which was Greece's deadliest.
But police in Thessaloniki said they had determined he was lying, and there was no Petridis on the Cypriot government's official list of victims.
Voutas, a resident of the northern port city of Thessaloniki who had identified himself to Greek media as Sotiris Voutas, was arrested on charges of disseminating false information and causing a public disturbance, police said.
He was scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Tuesday, they said.