diff --git a/us_atrocities.md b/us_atrocities.md index 7129f03..4091674 100755 --- a/us_atrocities.md +++ b/us_atrocities.md @@ -87,6 +87,7 @@ Notes : - In 2017, [Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Maria#Puerto_Rico), leaving 3.4 million without electricity and fuel, and causing an estimated $50 Billion in damage. 55% of Puerto Ricans have no potable water, in one of the worst humanitarian crises in decades. In marked contrast to the initial relief efforts for [Hurricane Katrina](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina) and the [2010 Haiti earthquake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Haiti_earthquake), on September 22 the only signs of relief efforts were beleaguered Puerto Rican government employees. The US response has been dismal, leading many to believe that the US prefers a decapitalized Puerto Rico. On September 29, San Juan Mayor Cruz held a press conference to plead for aid and to highlight failures by FEMA, saying, "This is what we got last night. Four pallets of water, three pallets of meals, and 12 pallets of infant food — which, I gave them to the people of [Comerío](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comer%C3%ADo,_Puerto_Rico), where people are drinking off a creek. So I am done being polite. I am done being politically correct. I am mad as hell." Cruz continued. "So I am asking the members of the press, to send a mayday call all over the world. We are dying here... And if it doesn't stop, and if we don't get the food and the water into people's hands, what we are going to see is something close to a [genocide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide)." In response [President Donald Trump](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Donald_Trump) wrote on [Twitter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter): "Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help." [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Maria#Puerto_Rico) - Following a series of terrorist attacks against Cuba (such as the bombing of [Cuban commercial flight 455](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubana_Flight_455), that originated from anti-Castro Cuban exile groups in the US, such as [Alpha 66](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_66), the [F4 Commandos](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=F4_Commandos&action=edit&redlink=1), the [Cuban American National Foundation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_American_National_Foundation), and [Brothers to the Rescue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_to_the_Rescue)), the Cuban government sent spies to infiltrate these insurgent groups operating in Miami. Afterwards, the Cuban government then provided 175 pages of documents to FBI agents investigating [Posada Carriles's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Posada_Carriles) (a former CIA operative) role in the [1997 terrorist bombings in Havana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Cuba_hotel_bombings), but the FBI failed to use the evidence to follow up on Posada. Instead, they used it to uncover and imprison the Cuban spies, known as the [Cuban Five](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Five). [[18\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Five#cite_note-18)[[19\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Five#cite_note-19). The Cuban Five said they were spying on Miami's Cuban exile community, not the US government. They were imprisoned from 1998, until their eventual release via a prisoner swap in 2014. The terrorist bomber Posada Carriles (who admitted to planning 6 bombings of Havana Hotels and Restaurants) is currently being safeguarded by the US government, and resides in Miami. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Five) - In 2009, [a coup in Honduras](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Honduran_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat) has led to severe repression and death squad murders of political opponents, union organizers and journalists. At the time of the coup, U.S. officials denied any role in the coup and used semantics to avoid cutting off U.S. military aid as required under U.S. law. But two Wikileaks cables revealed that the U.S. Embassy, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was the main power broker in managing the aftermath of the coup and forming a government that is now repressing and murdering its people, including popular leader Berta Cáceres. The two men who killed [Berta Cáceres](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berta_C%C3%A1ceres) were trained in the US. A former soldier with the US-trained special forces units of the Honduran military asserted that Caceres' name was included on a hitlist distributed to them months before her assassination.[[66\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berta_C%C3%A1ceres#cite_note-66) According to a February 2017 investigation by *The Guardian*, court papers purport to show that three of the eight people arrested in connection with the assassination are linked to the US-trained elite troops. Two of them, Maj Mariano Díaz and Lt Douglas Giovanny Bustillo, received military training in the US.[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berta_C%C3%A1ceres#cite_note-67),[2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Honduran_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat) +- In 1996, investigative journalist [Gary Webb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb) exposed a CIA-run business of selling cocaine produced in Nicaragua, to help fund the anti-communist Contras in their fight against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. These drugs were mostly sold to black communities in California, and helped spark the Crack epidemic. Several of the US dealers such as such as [Ross](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22Freeway%22_Rick_Ross) and [Oscar Danilo Blandon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Danilo_Bland%C3%B3n), were found to have CIA and DEA ties. Webb's reports were surpressed in the news media. In 1997, Webb stated: "If we had met five years ago, you wouldn't have found a more staunch defender of the newspaper industry than me ... And then I wrote some stories that made me realize how sadly misplaced my bliss had been. The reason I'd enjoyed such smooth sailing for so long hadn't been, as I'd assumed, because I was careful and diligent and good at my job ... The truth was that, in all those years, I hadn't written anything important enough to suppress." In 2004, Webb was found dead in his home, shot in the back of the head twice. His death was ruled a suicide. - In 1990 in Haiti, Competing against 10 comparatively wealthy white candidates, leftist priest [Jean-Bertrand Aristide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Bertrand_Aristide) captures 68 percent of the vote. A few months later, the CIA-backed military [deposes him in a coup](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Haitian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat). More military dictators brutalize the country, as thousands of Haitian refugees escape the turmoil in barely seaworthy boats. The CIA "paid key members of the coup regime forces, identified as drug traffickers, for information from the mid-1980s at least until the coup."[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change#cite_note-Whitney320-66) Coup leaders Cédras and François had received military training in the United States. As popular opinion calls for Aristide’s return, the CIA begins a disinformation campaign painting the courageous priest as mentally unstable.[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Haitian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat) - In 1989, The U.S. invades Panama to overthrow a dictator of its own making, [General Manuel Noriega](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Noriega), with the stated goal of "Defending democracy and human rights in Panama". Noriega had been on the CIA’s payroll since 1966, collecting at least $100,000 per year from the U.S. Treasury. As he rose to be the de facto ruler of Panama, he became even more valuable to the CIA, reporting on meetings with Fidel Castro and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and supporting U.S. covert wars in Central America, and had been transporting drugs with the CIA’s knowledge since 1972. By the late 80s, Noriega’s growing independence and intransigence had angered Washington. Between 500-4,000 people died in the US invasion. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Noriega) - In 1987, the former CIA Station Chief in Angola in 1976, [John Stockwell](http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4068.htm), testified to Congress and told a grisly tale of US involvement on behalf of business interests in Latin America. He cited covert operations in Nicaragua, Panama, Guatemala, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba. Over the course of his testimony, he estimated that given the bombings of water supplies and other essential infrastructure, the invasions, the coups, that the United States, on its quest for empire, has been responsible for **6,000,000 deaths.** The CIA retaliated by [suing him into bankruptcy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stockwell). [1](http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4068.htm) @@ -283,7 +284,7 @@ Notes : ## Latinos -- In early June, 2019, [several reports](https://truthout.org/video/dhs-watchdog-confirms-horrific-conditions-at-immigrant-jails/) of [abuse](https://twitter.com/ECMcLaughlin/status/1139192167501484033) surfaced about the US's migrant prison camps, run by US customs and Border Patrol. One such facility, named ["The Dog Pound"](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news/border-patrol-outdoor-detention-migrants-el-paso/), by border patrol agents, had no running water, no tarp or safety from the elements. A group of prisoners were held in a single cell for 30 days without shower or clothes changes, in 100 degree temperatures outside. There is severe overcrowding in the El Paso camp, with as many as 76 migrants packed into a tiny cell designed for a maximum of 12 people. A number of children have died while being held, including [one baby born in an overcrowded cell. The mother was never taken to a hospital](https://ktla.com/2019/06/13/premature-baby-found-in-overcrowded-border-patrol-facility-in-texas/). Children are often [taken from mothers](https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/national/-it-s-inhumane-what-they-re-doing-says-mother-separated-from-daughter-at-the-border), due to the horrible conditions of the camps. Health and Human Service says it is past capacity with over 13,000 kids in its care at the moment. +- In early June, 2019, [several reports](https://truthout.org/video/dhs-watchdog-confirms-horrific-conditions-at-immigrant-jails/) of [abuse](https://twitter.com/ECMcLaughlin/status/1139192167501484033) surfaced about the US's migrant prison camps, run by US customs and Border Patrol. One such facility, named ["The Dog Pound"](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news/border-patrol-outdoor-detention-migrants-el-paso/), by border patrol agents, had no running water, no tarp or safety from the elements. A group of prisoners were held in a single cell for 30 days without shower or clothes changes, in 100 degree temperatures. There is severe overcrowding in the El Paso camp, with as many as 76 migrants packed into a tiny cell designed for a maximum of 12 people. A number of children have died while being held, including [one baby born in an overcrowded cell. The mother was never taken to a hospital](https://ktla.com/2019/06/13/premature-baby-found-in-overcrowded-border-patrol-facility-in-texas/). Children are often [taken from mothers](https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/national/-it-s-inhumane-what-they-re-doing-says-mother-separated-from-daughter-at-the-border), due to the horrible conditions in the camps. Health and Human Service says it is past capacity with over 13,000 kids in its care at the moment. - On January 29th, 2019, Tempe Arizona police [shot and killed a 14 year old, Antonio Arce.](https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe/2019/01/30/family-tempe-teen-antonio-arce-killed-police-speaks/2702186002/) He was shot in the back between his shoulder blades while running away. Police at first delayed, then released a [small section of the bodycam footage, intentionally cut right before seeing the body, 3 days after the shooting.](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tempe-police-shooting-antonio-arce-bodycam-footage-in-fatal-shooting-of-boy-with-airsoft-gun/) After backlash over the shortened video, they held a *private showing* to select reporters, barring any cameras or recording devices, seemingly showing Arce with the orange-tipped airsoft gun found near his body. They've refused to release that video to the public, leading many to believe it to be doctored, with police planting an airsoft gun on him after the killing as a justification. The original video has no such airsoft gun. The officer who murdered him is currently on administrative leave. - On Nov 25, 2018, US customs and border agents [fired tear gas at hundreds of Central American migrants on the US border](https://www.apnews.com/72efa4f1822241c2817a2fb6aa191fb4). “We ran, but when you run, the gas asphyxiates you more,” Honduran migrant Ana Zuniga, 23, told the Associated Press while cradling daughter Valery, 3, in her arms. The use of tear gas [is banned in warfare](https://jacobinmag.com/2018/05/tear-gas-protests-riot-control-police), while its use for riot control is internationally accepted. Protesters and amnesty seekers would have *more* rights and protections if they simply declared war on the US government. - Starting in April 2018, the Trump administration began a policy of separating families who attempt to cross the border. Separated children have been housed in a number of newly constructed tent facilities, such as [one in Tornillo, TX](https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2018/06/trumps-holocaust-us-child-concentration.html). Andrea Pitzer, the author of “One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps" writes, “While writing a book on camp history, I defined concentration camps as the mass detention of civilians without trial, usually on the basis of race, religion, national origin, citizenship, or political party, rather than anything a given individual has done. By this definition, the new child camp established in Tornillo, Texas, is a concentration camp.” Recently it has been found that the Trump administration has been [drugging children without consent](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/07/31/trump-administration-must-seek-consent-before-giving-drugs-to-migrant-children-judge-rules/?utm_term=.707cbb1c25f8). Children as young as 14 [were abused at a Stanton VA ICE facility](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/06/21/abused-immigrant-children-allege-mistreatment-detention-center/720773002/). "Whenever they used to restrain me and put me in the chair, they would handcuff me," said a Honduran immigrant who was sent to the facility when he was 15 years old. "Strapped me down all the way, from your feet all the way to your chest, you couldn't really move. ... They have total control over you. They also put a bag over your head. It has little holes; you can see through it. But you feel suffocated with the bag on." [1](https://www.democracynow.org/2018/7/5/concentration_camps_in_the_us_andrea),[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/07/31/trump-administration-must-seek-consent-before-giving-drugs-to-migrant-children-judge-rules/?utm_term=.707cbb1c25f8),[3](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/06/21/abused-immigrant-children-allege-mistreatment-detention-center/720773002/)