The Murder of Military Women Continues

Excellent article from Truthout.org.

If I had a daughter in the US military I would be living in a state of constant fear for her safety from her own comrades in arms.

Fred

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"My Daughter's Dream Became a Nightmare": The Murder of Military Women Continues
Tuesday 07 October 2008
by: Ann Wright, t r u t h o u t | Perspective



"My daughter's dream became a nightmare," sadly said Gloria Barrios, seven months after her daughter, US Air Force Senior Airman Blanca Luna, was murdered on Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas.

On March 7, 2008, Senior Airman Luna, 27, was found dead in her room at the Sheppard Air Force Base Inn, an on-base lodging facility. She had been stabbed in the back of the neck with a short knife. Luna, an Air Force Reservist with four years of prior military service in the Marine Corps including a tour in Japan, was killed three days before she was to graduate from an Air Conditioning, Ventilation and Heating training course.

When she was notified of her daughter's death, she was handed a letter from Major General K.C. McClain, commander of the Air Force Personnel Center, which stated that her daughter "was found dead on 7 March 2008 at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, as the result of an apparent homicide." When her body was returned to her family for burial, Barrios and other family members saw bruises on Blanca's face and wounds on her fingers as if she were defending herself. One of the investigators later told Mrs. Barrios that Blanca had been killed in an "assassin-like" manner. Friends say that she told them some in her unit "had given her problems."

Seven months later, Luna's mother made her first visit to the base where her daughter was killed, to pry more information from the Air Force about her daughter's death. Although the Air Force sent investigators to her home in Chicago several times to brief her on the case, she was concerned that the Air Force would not provide a copy of the autopsy report and other documents, seven months after Luna was killed. The Air Force says it cannot provide Mrs. Barrios with a copy of the autopsy as the investigation is "ongoing." Mrs. Barrios plans to have an independent autopsy conducted.

She was accompanied by her sister and six persons from a support group in Chicago and by several concerned Texans from Dallas, Fort Worth and Denton. The Chicago support group, composed of long-time, experienced social justice activists in the Hispanic community, also included Juan Torres, whose son John, an Army soldier, was found dead under very suspicious circumstances in 2004 at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Because of his battle to get documents from the Army bureaucracy on the death of his son four years ago, Torres has been helping the Barrios family in their effort to gain information about the death of Luna.

When Mrs. Barrios and friends arrived on the Air Base they were greeted by five Air Force officials. Mrs. Barrios requested that her support group be allowed to join her in an Air Force-conducted bus tour of the facilities where her daughter went to school and the lodging facility where she was found dead, but the request was denied. Mrs. Barrios then asked that her friend and translator, Magda Castaneda, and I be allowed to go on the bus and attend the meeting with the base commander and investigators.

After consultation with the base public affairs officer, Deputy Wing Commander Colonel Norsworthy decreed that only Mrs. Barrios' sister and Mr. Torres could accompany her. Mrs. Barrios, her sister and Mr. Torres are not fluent in English. Mrs. Barrios told the Air Force officers she did not feel comfortable with having translators provided by the Air Force and again asked that Mrs. Castaneda be allowed to translate for her as Mrs. Castaneda had done numerous times during Air Force briefings at her home. She asked that I be allowed to go, as I knew the military bureaucracy.

In front of the support group, the Air Force public affairs officer, George Woodward, advised Colonel Norsworthy not to allow Mrs. Casteneda and me to come on the base and attend the meetings as both of us were "outspoken in the media and their presence would jeopardize the integrity of the meeting with the family."

Mrs. Castaneda countered that during a previous meeting with the Air Force investigators in Chicago, she had been told by one investigator that she asked too many questions. Could that be the reason that she was unable to accompany Mrs. Barrios, she asked? Mrs. Barrios also reminded the officers that after she was interviewed for an article about her daughter that was published in July in the Chicago Reader, "Murder on the Base", she was warned by an Air Force official not to speak to the media again.

Mrs. Castaneda demanded that Woodward provide her a copy of the article on which he based his decision to recommend to the deputy base commander that she not be allowed on the base to translate for the family. Several hours later, Woodward gave Castaneda an article from Indy media in which she was quoted as the translator for Mrs. Barrios, and in which she had translated Barrios' statement: "Luna a four year Marine veteran."

While Colonel Wright (the author of this article) has written numerous articles concerning the rape and murder of women in the military, she reminded the officers that she holds a valid military ID card as a retired colonel, that she had not violated any laws or military regulations by writing and speaking about issues of violence against women in the military and that most families of military members who have been killed are at a disadvantage in dealing with the military bureaucracy in finding answers to the questions they have about the deaths of their loved ones. She reminded the officials that the parents of NFL football player Pat Tillman, who after three Congressional hearings on the death of their son in Afghanistan in 2002, still don't have answers to the questions of who killed their son and why the perpetrator of the crime hasn't been brought to justice. Families of "ordinary" service members, and particularly families with limited knowledge of the military and with limited financial means find themselves at the mercy of the military for information.

The base Catholic chaplain and the staff Judge Advocate, both colonels, were silent during the exchange. One would have thought that perhaps a chaplain who watched as Mrs. Barrios, a single mother whose only daughter had been killed and whose English was minimal, broke down in tears and sat sobbing on the curb as the public affairs officer described her friends as "outspoken and a threat to the integrity of the meetings" would have been sensitive to a grieving mother's need for a family friend who had translated in all the previous meetings with the Air Force investigators - but he was silent. Likewise, the senior lawyer on the base, who no doubt had handled many criminal cases, would have recognized that a distraught mother would need someone who could take notes and understand the nuances of the discussion in English during the very stressful discussions with the investigators - but he was silent. Instead, the colonels bowed to the civilian public affairs officer's advice that "outspoken" women were a threat to the "integrity of the meeting."

Eventually, Mrs. Barrios, her sister Algeria and Juan Torres met with Brigadier General Mannon, commander of the 82nd Training Wing, and with three members of the Office of Special Investigations. Mrs. Barrios said they were given no new information about the investigation and questioned again why her friends, who over the past seven months have been a part of the briefings from the Air Force, had been kept out of meetings where the Air Force officials knew they were not going to provide any new information.

Since 2003, there have been 34 homicides and 218 "self-inflicted" deaths (suicides) in the Air Force, and in 2007-2008 alone, five homicides and 35 "self-inflicted" deaths according to the Public Affairs Office of the 82nd Training Wing at Sheppard Air Force base.

On the same day that Mrs. Barrios went to Sheppard Air Force Base, October 3, 2008, the US Army announced that a US Army woman sergeant had been killed near Fort Bragg, North Carolina, by a stab wound in the neck. Sergeant Christina Smith, 29, was stabbed on September 30, 2008, allegedly by her US Army husband Sergeant Richard Smith, who was accompanied by Private First Class Matthew Kvapil.

Smith was the fourth military woman murdered in North Carolina in the past nine months.

On June 21, 2008, US Army Specialist Megan Touma, 23, was killed inside a Fayetteville, North Carolina, hotel, less than two weeks after she arrived at Fort Bragg from an assignment in Germany. She was seven months pregnant. Sergeant Edgar Patino, a married male soldier assigned to Fort Bragg, whom Touma knew from Germany and who reportedly was the father of the unborn child, has been arrested for her murder.

On July 10, 2008, Army 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc, an Army nurse at Fort Bragg, was killed. Her estranged husband, Marine Corporal John Wimunc of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, has been arrested in her death and the burning of her body and Lance Corporal Kyle Alden was arrested for destroying evidence and providing a false alibi.

Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach had been raped in May 2007 and protective orders had been issued against the alleged perpetrator, fellow Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean. The burned body of Lauterbach and her unborn baby were found in a shallow grave in the backyard of Laurean's home in January 2008. Laurean fled to Mexico, where he was captured by Mexican authorities. He is currently awaiting extradition to the United States to stand trial. Lauterbach's mother testified before Congress on July 31, 2008, that the Marine Corps ignored warning signs that Laurean was a danger to her daughter.

On Wednesday, October 8, at 11:30 a.m., a vigil for the four military women and all victims of violence will be held at the Main Gate at Fort Bragg, followed by a discussion on violence against women at the Quaker Peace Center in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and by a wreath laying at Lafayette Memorial Park. The events are sponsored by the Coalition to End Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault in the Military, Veterans for Peace and the Quaker Peace Center.

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Ann Wright is a retired Army Reserve colonel and a 29-year veteran of the Army and Army Reserves. She was a diplomat in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She resigned from the Department of State on March 19, 2003, in opposition to the Iraq war. She has written several articles on violence against women in the military, including "Sexual Assault in the Military: A DoD Cover-Up?", "U.S. Military Keeping Secrets About Female Soldiers' 'Suicides'?" and "Is There an Army Cover Up of Rape and Murder of Women Soldiers?". She is also the co-author of the book, "Dissent: Voices of Conscience."

Sarah Palin Debate Flow Chart

I received this flow chart today of Sarah Palin's thinking process during her debate with Senator Biden. Some system designer probably sat in a dark corner listening to his/her iPod and took a whole ten minutes to grind this out. It's a very good representation of what I perceived her thinking process was while I watched her in action. Fred

US - Field of Ruins

This is a very interesting opinion piece by a French/Canadian in Quebec on the legacy of the eight year George W. Bush Administration in the United States of America. I have to say that I agree with much of what he says.

This piece was originally published in the French Language newspaper La Presse. The translation of it into English was done by Leslie Thatcher of Truth Out.

Fred

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Field of Ruins
Wednesday 01 October 2008
»
by: Mario Roy, La Presse


Quebec's Mario Roy describes the US as an "empire which has seen its reputation, influence and real power in the world crumble over the last eight years."

The Americans will recover one way or another from the present financial crisis, whatever remedy they finally come up with between Wall Street and Congress during the next few days. They'll recover because they still make up a nation that never counts itself defeated, that is still inventive, determined, and powerful.

But something of the crisis will persist...

And that will be something extremely serious for the "empire in spite of itself," as the United States has frequently been designated. An empire which has seen its reputation, influence and real power in the world crumble over the last eight years. And seen disappear most significantly, the degree of trust its administration and its institutions have always enjoyed, in spite of what people said about them in the darkest hours of the 20th century: those of the bloodiest wars and the worst economic difficulties, of triumphant dictatorships and abysmal monetary devaluations.

Of all American institutions, the dollar will have been the most respected, whether in the hushed recesses of central banks managing open countries, or under the counter in closed countries where the lower class had no right to meddle with this dollar. So, this greenback, this symbol of the planet's most solid and reliable economy, is now washed out, pared down, trampled upon.

The idea of uncertainty will - from now on and always - be attached to it.

This frightening crack in the American financial edifice comes after the failure of its military apparatus, the slow collapse of which insidiously began, one may perhaps consider, in Korea. After the erosion of the United States' scientific and technological hegemony - which, in fact, leaves American students indifferent, while Asian youth gobble up the molecule and the algorithm. And after the great disenchantment with its diplomacy, to the point we see Nicolas Sarkozy's France cheerfully resume the role it has always considered its own since the time of Cardinal de Richelieu!

The United States' only intact power today remains its culture. But for how much longer? Culture is not a self-sufficient creature that can forever remain in better health than the society that feeds it.

Perhaps American culture has had the luck to remain almost outside the reach of politics. For it is politics, in particular the politics inflicted on the country for the last eight years, that is the source of the present evils. And those politics, far more than Wall Street's lure for money; or the incompetence of the military apparatus; or the decline of the universities; or the generalized abdication of individual responsibility.

Last week, in front of the UN General Assembly during his televised address to the nation, we saw a George W. Bush suddenly aged by 10 years. He had the look of someone who staggers, shattered, in a field of ruins.

He now, inevitably, knows what his place in History will be.

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Translation: Truthout French language editor Leslie Thatcher.

Rosh Hashanah

Got this photo today from a Jewish friend of mine. It's a Rosh Hashanah sign board in front of a Synagogue somewhere in the US. For those of you who don't speak Yiddish or German the word "Shvartzeh" means the Black guy/

German Government Under Pressure to Deliver on Crisis Promise

Germany isn't wasting any time in counteracting the economic tsunami generated by the outrageously mismanaged US economy. Unlike the US, Germany is a nation of very devout savers. Germans quickly learn in their youth that a minimum of 10% of all income is set aside in savings accounts for their own security and for the security of their country. Hence, the government of Germany will do whatever it takes to keep the bank deposits of its citizens secure and growing.

Below is a news item from Deutsche Welle describing the German governments actions to protect the economic assets of its citizens.

Fred

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FINANCE | 06.10.2008
German Government Under Pressure to Deliver on Crisis Promise

Doom and gloom: Germany has not escaped the financial storm sweeping in from the US

The German government has come under pressure to deliver as it races to reassure investors and individual savers that it will protect Europe's biggest economy from falling victim to the global financial crisis.

The stock exchange may not have got the message however as shares tumbled seven percent Monday in line with heavy losses elsewhere in Europe and Asia as Wall Street plunged too.

Berlin hoped a new 50-billion-euro ($68-billion) rescue plan for the distressed mortgage lender Hypo Real Estate (HRE), a Munich-based company that lends to commercial developers and municipalities to build hotels, offices, roads, airports and the like, and a blanket guarantee on private bank accounts would prevent panic from seizing a nation of savers.

Finance minister Peer Steinbrueck said he did not rule out raising state guarantees on HRE credit lines and that there was "a plan B in the drawer" to ensure the banking sector did not collapse.

Steinbrueck did not provide details but told a press conference: "We are aware that we will not get very far with case-by-case solutions."

The bank is now to be provided with credit lines worth a total 50 billion euros, of which a little more than half was to be guaranteed by the state.

HRE shares were hammered in afternoon trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange however, losing 35.15 percent to 4.87 euros.

Meanwhile, the government said it would guarantee private bank accounts, estimated to be worth 1.6 trillion euros.

Economics professor Hans-Peter Burghof of the University of Hohenheim told German radio that amount represented "the biggest guarantee in history.

"Never has anyone anywhere in the world guaranteed such a sum in two simple sentences," he said, while noting that in principle the idea of giving guarantees was to ensure they would not be needed.

Merkel pledges to protect financial system


Merkel tried to instill calm in investors and savers

Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters on Sunday that the government "will not allow an institution's crisis to become a crisis for the entire system."

"We are saying to women and men savers that their deposits are safe. The federal government promises that," Merkel said.

Questions about the German government assurance of an estimated 1 trillion euros ($1.4 trillion) of personal savings at German banks meanwhile were being raised on Monday. Neighbouring nations came under pressure to follow Germany's lead.

Berlin described the assurance to savers, issued by Chancellor Merkel in two sentences in front of television cameras on Sunday, as "able to be relied on."

Berlin has not announced any legislation on a deposit-insurance scheme beyond existing bank-industry guarantees. Officials said they were still talking to banks on how to shape the guarantee.

Merkel's spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said in Berlin, "It's a political statement that can be relied on and is decisive." The German government and its capabilities stood behind this assurance, he added.

Jonathan Todd, spokesman for European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, said: "We were informed by the German authorities of their intentions.

"The commission notes that the measures seem to be limited to retail bank deposits, and so less liable to give rise to distortions of competition."

Todd added, "In general, retail deposit guarantee schemes for savers can be an appropriate policy response to fears regarding the stability of the banking system."

The crisis reached Germany with the stumble by HRE and the embarrassment which followed a 35-billion-euro bail-out a week ago which proved inadequate.

Global Insight senior economist Timo Klein told reporters: "Since they were unable to correct themselves, financial markets looked to the German government (for help). The DAX is now looking for a general plan for the banks, maybe as early as Wednesday."

Brussels sees no problem with German plan


The Commission is keeping an eye on developments

In Brussels, the European Commission said the German decision regarding private accounts appeared to conform to EU competition rules and did not pose the same problems as a similar announcement by Ireland.

"The commission notes that the measures seem to be limited to retail bank deposits, so (it is) less liable to give rise to distortion of competition," said commission spokesman Todd.

In Britain, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman said London understood that Berlin did not plan to pass legislation on the guarantees and added: "We have been in the process of seeking clarification from Germany as to what they have committed themselves to."

An initial guarantee issued by the Irish government to banks has drawn criticism from several European Union countries which feared it could distort competition by making Irish bank accounts more attractive to EU savers.

HRE management under fire


The HRE has tottered on the verge of collapse for days

Meanwhile, as Germany sought to calm the public with a "decisive" pledge about savings, property lender HRE was under further pressure from other banks and Berlin to sack its chief executive.

German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said it was "unthinkable" to keep dealing with the same HRE top management.

He charged that HRE, at the same time as seeking state aid, had used lawyers against the government so as to "escape its responsibilities."

In Monday trading, HRE stock declined as much as 40 percent from Friday's close as investors worried that the new bail-out might also prove inadequate.

In Brussels, the EU Commission's Todd, said, "As soon as the details are notified to us we will assess very quickly whether the new measures are compatible with (the EU's) state aid rules."

A newspaper, Die Welt, was to appear Tuesday with a report that HRE was blaming its plunge from grace on a downgrading by ratings agencies that allowed creditors to call up loans.

Berlin has refused demands by the banking industry to nationalize HRE, a lender seen in Germany as too important to let fail.

Steinbrueck said financial securities that have been disdained in the past by central banks would be used as security for much of the 15-billion-euro expansion of the HRE bail-out.

The European Central Bank (ECB) had agreed to this, he said.

"Nobody can forecast just yet how much this paper is actually worth," he added.

The government and banking-industry guarantee that backstops the new bail-out remains limited to 35 billion euros, as announced one week ago.


DW staff (nda)

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Opinion: National Safeguards Won't Solve Financial Crisis
The German government's decision to guarantee private deposits is nothing more than a psychological gesture intended to calm markets and investors, writes DW's Andreas Becker. (06.10.2008)

Germany Mulls Umbrella Protection for Entire Bank Sector
In a step away from its long-held policy of aiding failing financial institutions on a case-by-case basis, the German government is reportedly examining ways to offer a safety net to the country's entire banking sector. (06.10.2008)

Germany Rescues Hypo Real Estate
The German government, together with banks and insurance companies, agreed late Sunday on a 50-billion-euro ($68 billion) deal to bail out the country's stricken commercial property lender, Hypo Real Estate. (06.10.2008)

Audios and videos on the topic
Shares in Hypo Real Estate Plummet Despite Deal
Munich: Center of Financial Crisis in Germany

50 People Murdered in Tijuana in the Last Week

I volunteered in the only regional AIDS outpatient clinic in Baja California - Tijuana - every Thursday for over 20 years. Now I don't set foot on the Mexican side of the border because it is just too dangerous. The conditions described in Tijuana also exist in the other border town near hear - Tecate. In addition to all the killings taking place in those cities the drug gangs are also doing a thriving business in kidnapping people who appear or are believed to have the resources to generate an acceptable ransom. Targets for those kidnappings are wealthy Mexican nationals who haven't yet escaped to safety north of the border, foreign managers of the many maquiladoras along the border and American tourists. I speak Spanish, know the culture intimately and have many powerful and influential friends in Mexico. Even with all that I fear too much for my personal safety to cross the border into Mexico. I know several Mexican families who are my neighbors who moved up here for their own personal safety. They also have stopped crossing the border into Mexico.

Things have gotten so bad in Tijuana, that the killings are now making international news through the BBC.

Fred

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More Mexican 'gang' victims found

The bodies of 10 more murder victims have been found by police in the Mexican city of Tijuana, where gang violence has escalated recently.

Five of the latest victims were found in an abandoned van near a shopping centre and the decapitated bodies of two others were found by a road.

State prosecutors have blamed the killings on a drugs turf war.

More than 50 people have been killed in the past week in Tijuana, a key transit point for drugs trafficked to the US.

It is not just suspected gang members who have been targeted in Mexico's recent spate of killings.

Mayor gunned down

On Saturday, the mayor of Ixtapan de la Sal, a tourist city near the Mexican capital was gunned down as he travelled in a vehicle with other officials.

BBC Americas analyst Warren Bull says the motive for the murder is still unclear, but public officials are major targets for crime gangs, especially if they are perceived to be a threat to illicit business.

Last week, the authorities found 16 bodies in 24 hours, most showing signs of having been trussed-up and tortured.

On Tuesday, President Felipe Calderon sent a series of measures to Congress aimed at fighting a wave of drug-related violence that has killed more than 3,000 people so far this year.

The package includes a proposal to set up a department to monitor and tackle corruption among Mexican police.

President Calderon launched a nationwide battle almost two years ago to reclaim territory controlled by some of the world's most powerful drug gangs.

But the cartels have responded with unprecedented violence - including kidnappings and killings that have sparked public outrage and huge street protests.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7653118.stm

Published: 2008/10/05 02:04:47 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

Afghan Victory Hopes Played Down

The BBC reports that British Brig Carleton-Smith said the war in Afghanistan cannot be won. Most European military strategists knew and still know that the US did not have sufficient troops and supplies in its military to successfully fight two wars (Afghanistan and Iraq) at the same time. They were and still are of the opinion that when the US cannibalized its troops in Afghanistan to support its war in Iraq that it made it impossible for the US to win either of those wars.

Fred

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Afghan victory hopes played down

Brig Carleton-Smith said the war in Afghanistan cannot be won

The UK's commander in Helmand has said Britain should not expect a "decisive military victory" in Afghanistan.
Brig Mark Carleton-Smith told the Sunday Times the aim of the mission was to ensure the Afghan army was able to manage the country on its own.

He said this could involve discussing security with the Taleban.
When international troops eventually leave Afghanistan, there may still be a "low but steady" level of rural insurgency, he conceded.

He said it was unrealistic to expect that multinational forces would be able to wipe out armed bands of insurgents in the country.

The BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul says Brig Carleton-Smith's comments echo a view commonly-held, if rarely aired, by British military and diplomatic officials in Afghanistan. Many believe certain legitimate elements of the Taleban represent the positions of the Afghan people and so should be a part of the country's future, says our correspondent.

'Taken the sting out'
Brig Carleton-Smith is the Commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade which has just completed its second tour of Afghanistan.

"If the Taleban were prepared to... talk about a political settlement, then that's precisely the sort of progress that concludes insurgencies," said Brig Mark Carleton-Smith

He paid tribute to his forces and told the newspaper they had "taken the sting out of the Taleban for 2008".
But he stated: "We're not going to win this war.

"It's about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that's not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army." Brig Carleton-Smith said the goal was to change how debates were resolved in the country so that violence was not the first option considered.

He said: "If the Taleban were prepared to sit on the other side of the table and talk about a political settlement, then that's precisely the sort of progress that concludes insurgencies like this. "That shouldn't make people uncomfortable."

Since the start of operations in Afghanistan in 2001, 120 UK military personnel have been killed.