COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, May 25, 2007

Reports of al-Qaeda in Latin America should not confuse the US Congress with facts.


Channel 6 News in Costa Rica is reporting that four men with false Bangladesh passports were turned away back to Nicaragua and denied entrance to Costa Rica.


Al Qaeda alert in Nicaragua


Filadelfo Aleman in Managua, Nicaragua | May 25, 2005 14:02 IST

Nicaragua's National Police declared an alert along its borders because of the "possible presence" of two suspected members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network in Central America, officials said Tuesday.
An Interior Ministry news release identified the two as Ahmad Salim Swaydan, suspected of involvement an April 2002 plot against the US Embassy in Thailand, and a Yemeni man known only as Altuwiti.

A photo of Swaydan released by Nicaraguan authorities matched that of a man on the FBI's most-wanted terrorist list: Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, a 36-year-old Kenyan indicted on December 16, 1998 for alleged involvement in the bombings that year of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

The US State Department has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest.


65 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. from previous thread:
    ---
    Deuce:
    ---
    Hewitt on San Antonio Reporter Series

    "According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection apprehension numbers, agentsalong both borders have caught more than 5,700 special-interest immigrantssince 2001.
    But as many as 20,000 to 60,000 others are presumed to have slippedthrough, based on rule-of-thumb estimates typically used by homeland securityagencies."


    desert rat said...
    Through Nico land and Cuba, aye?

    What would those radical religous fanatics have to do with athiest commies?

    That must be bad reporting, aye?

    Those two types of folk would never get along, ferget about it!

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  3. Title of Hugh's Post:

    What Will The Jihadists Do? Apply For Their 601(h) Probationary Status, Of Course
    By Hugh Hewitt

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  4. The SA reporter says Guatamala is a hot transit spot.

    ReplyDelete
  5. That was where the Israelis were training the Army, back in the day. To reactionary for US, even with RR at the wheel.

    Do not know what it's like now, though. Assume it's more of the same. Fractured.

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  6. Yeah, that's why he said they use it.

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  7. Al-Sadr has returned now to his base in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.

    So where are the Deltas,Seals,Special Forces...hopefully gathering intel on exactly which five block area Al-Sadr might be in so that the Air Force can wipe that area off the face of the Earth..

    Please don't let the sonofabitch get away back to Iran again..take him OUT, NOW.

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  8. Channel 6 News in Costa Rica is reporting that four men with false Bangladesh passports were turned away back to Nicaragua and denied entrance toCosta Rica.

    Sorry to read this Deuce...it would appear they're trying to breech the wire. Sounds like only a matter of time before AQ is in all of that area.

    What's land going for on Swan Island?

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  9. "So where are the Deltas..."

    Not in Iraq. Or Afghanistan. And why would you need them - or any SOF - for Sadr, for heaven's sake?

    Get his own malcontents to do it.

    We're not gonna.

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  10. Over 100,000 US citizens have bought property in Costa Rica.

    They should bug out, now, because a squad of Ts got caught at the gate?

    Think not.

    Time to find another 100,000 US buyers, not retreat to the old bastions. Unless there's no other alternative.

    There are still other alternatives, today, short of overtly covert military action.

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  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. Both Panama and CR have about 3 million residents, each.

    In Panama a million of them live below the "poverty line", which is undefined.

    But close to 60,000 live on under one dollar a day. Read that somewhere.

    There are aprox. 6 million AZ residents, 600,000 or so are infiltrators.

    10%. That be 300,000 US citizens expratiating to CR or Panama to equal the impact of the migration into AZ.

    We're a third there in CR, not sure of Panama's numbers, yet.
    But Panama has a large historic US mental presence.

    In either case, the impact of the US citizens will be more elevating there than the infiltrators are depressing here.

    When the US is asked to leave Equador, bet we move back to Panama, Howard Airbase and Fort Kobbe are still sitting empty, after all these years. Well maintained, but lots of empty barracks and housing. Waiting.

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  13. IMPORTING A SLAVE CLASS
    by Ann Coulter
    May 23, 2007


    Apparently, my position on immigration is that we must deport all 12 million illegal aliens immediately, inasmuch as this is billed as the only alternative to immediate amnesty. The jejune fact that we "can't deport them all" is supposed to lead ineluctably to the conclusion that we must grant amnesty to ille gal aliens — and fast!

    I'm astounded that debate has sunk so low that I need to type the following words, but: No law is ever enforced 100 percent.

    We can't catch all rapists, so why not grant amnesty to rapists? Surely no one wants thousands of rapists living in the shadows! How about discrimination laws? Insider trading laws? Do you expect Bush to round up everyone who goes over the speed limit? Of course we can't do that. We can't even catch all murderers. What we need is "comprehensive murder reform." It's not "amnesty" — we'll ask them to pay a small fine.

    If it's "impossible" to deport illegal aliens, how did we come to have so much specific information about them?


    I keep hearing they are Catholic, pro-life, hardworking, just dying to become American citizens, and will take jobs other Americans won't. Someone must have talked to them to gather all this information. Let's find that guy — he must know where they are!

    How do we even know there are 12 million of them? Why not 3 million, or 40 million? Maybe we should put the guy who counted them in charge of deporting them.

    If the 12-million figure is an extrapolation based on the number of illegal immigrants in public schools or emergency rooms and well-manicured lawns in Brentwood, then shouldn't we be looking for them at schools and hospitals and well-manicured lawns in Brentwood?

    I believe that the shortage of unskilled, non-English-speaking Mexicans we experienced in the '60s has been remedied by now.

    Since Teddy Kennedy's 1965 Immigration Act, more than half of all legal immigrants have been unskilled, non-English-speaking Mexicans. America takes in roughly 1 million legal immigrants each year. Only about 30,000 of them have Ph.D.s. Why on earth would any rational immigration policy discriminate against immigrants with Ph.D.s in favor of unskilled, non-English-speaking immigrants?

    Say, don't Ph.D.s and other skilled workers have more influence on government policy than unskilled workers? Aren't they more likely to bend a president's ear? Yes, I believe they are! Noticeably, the biggest proponents of the government's policy of importing a huge underclass of unskilled workers are not themselves unskilled workers.

    The great bounty of cheap labor by unskilled immigrants isn't going to hardworking Americans who hang drywall or clean hotel rooms — and who are having trouble getting jobs, now that they're forced to compete with the vast influx of unskilled workers who don't pay tax es.

    The people who make arguments about "jobs Americans won't do" are never in a line of work where unskilled immigrants can compete with them. Liberals love to strike generous, humanitarian poses with other people's lives.

    Something tells me the immigration debate would be different if we were importing millions of politicians or Hollywood agents. You lose your job, while I keep my job at the Endeavor agency, my Senate seat, my professorship, my editorial position or my presidency. (And I get a maid!)

    The only beneficiaries of these famed hardworking immigrants — unlike you lazy Americans — are the wealthy, who want the cheap labor while making the rest of us chip in for the immigrants' schooling, food and health care.

    These great lovers of the downtrodden — the downtrodden trimming their hedges — pretend to bel ieve that their gardeners' children will be graduating from Harvard and curing cancer someday, but (1) they don't believe that; and (2) if it happened, they'd lose their gardeners.

    Not to worry, Marie Antoinettes! According to "Alien Nation" author Peter Brimelow, "There is recent evidence that, even after four generations, fewer than 10 percent of Mexicans have post-high school degrees, as opposed to nearly half of non-Mexican-Americans." So you'll always have the maid. As New York mayor Michael Bloomberg said, our golf fairways would suffer without illegal immigrants: "You and I both play golf; who takes care of the greens and the fairways on your golf course?"

    We fought a civil war to force Democrats to give up on slavery 150 years ago. They've become so desperate for servants that now they're importing an und erclass to wash their clothes and pick their vegetables. This vast class of unskilled immigrants is the left's new form of slavery.

    What do they care if their servants are made citizens eligible to vote and collect government benefits? Aren't the fabulously rich happy in Venezuela? Oops, wrong example. Brazil? No, no, let me try again. Mexico! ... Well, no matter. What could go wrong?

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  14. Bob Kerry wrote a piece in the WSJ that is interesting.
    He shares Jim Webbs' opinion that the US does not have to occupy a county to fight terrorist in it.

    Any way, it makes interesting reading. A small minority of Dems may "get it".
    read more here

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  15. Onward Atheist Marxist Soldiers!

    (and Saint King George, the Boner)

    Immigration Bill Provisions Gain Wide Support in Poll

    Americans want to allow illegal immigrants to gain legal status and to create a guest worker program, a Times/CBS News poll found.

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  16. Of course that's what it is, wage slaves.

    An economic underclass, that is fearful of lawful authority.

    Crime thrives in such an enviorment. The serial killers we had stalking the infiltrator community last winter a prime example. We had a serial rapist running rampent at the same time.

    Talk about your sheeple.

    Afraid of the Law, and being exploited all around. Better then Mexico for them, though.

    Or they wouldn't still be comning in droves.

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  17. Immigration push polling.

    General questions as opposed to the Bill's specifics.

    When the crews are bustin' ass, ptting in a mile of fence a day, then come back, we'll talk then.

    It's a fraud bein' perpetrated upon US.

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  18. The "American Public"

    Overwhelmingly support a guest worker program.

    To a lot of those JQ Public, that means a temporary GUEST WORKER PROGRAM.

    To the elites, such a program means SUPRACITIZENSHIP, with rights granted which far exceed those of us hard working, educated, patriotic, loyal, gringos.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Paid for by deserving public, INCLUDING Legal costs.
    (622m, or some such)
    WE pay THEIR Lawyers!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Ike had a TEMPORARY WORKER PROGRAM,
    the bracerro program.

    For the citizens and workers, it was workable.

    To the Elites, a humanitarian disaster, since it did not require govt/union intervention.

    ReplyDelete
  21. "Or they wouldn't still be comning in droves."
    ---
    Before King Kennedy Act I
    mandating family reunification and chain migration, and later LBJ/Kennedy welfare for breeders, there were hardly any WOMEN to Rape.
    Men came, sent money home, followed the money.

    Socialist Compassion is oh so compassionate.
    Just ask Compassionate George.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Bay Bridge overpass back up after 26 days!

    State of Hawaii Dept of Transportation would take at least 7 years!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Video:
    Ed Meese Explains What the Senate Amnesty Bill is Really All About

    Limbaugh

    ReplyDelete
  24. The congressional Democrats are cynical, but they are not stupid. If the surge works and U.S. troops are being withdrawn by fall 2008, they do not want it said of them that they "cut and ran" when the going got tough, that they played Chamberlain to Bush's Churchill.

    And if the war is going badly in 2008, they know that the American people, in repudiating the party of Bush and Cheney, have no other choice than the party of Hillary and Pelosi and Harry Reid.

    That is why congressional Democrats are surely saying privately of the angry antiwar left what has often been said by the Beltway Republican elite of the right: "Don't worry about them. They have nowhere else to go"

    And that is why the antiwar left was thrown under the bus.


    Sir Patrick, of RR speach writing fame, tells US what's what.

    Where is the right to go, but the Skull & Boner's trough?
    Or the left, for that matter. The Boners have both flanks and the middle covered.

    All others are considered to be either "radical or reactionary"

    And so out of the "mainstream"

    To be easily dismissed.

    ReplyDelete
  25. France will be PAYING immigrants to go home.

    ...can't afford THAT:
    Long War, ya know.

    ReplyDelete
  26. "Bolton said Thursday’s report by the IAEA that Iran may be only three to eight years away from developing a nuclear bomb should serve as a wake-up call to those who believe Iran’s nuclear goals are purely wholesome."

    Someone help me out here. In the collective memory of EB'ers can anyone point to any intel estimates that a country will acquire nuclear weapons in X or X+ number of years AND BEEN EVEN CLOSE?
    Seems to me that we had similar estimates with regard to N.Korea, and then one morning, well in advance of the most conservative estimates ...oops they had 'em...

    Iran
    9-18 months.

    ReplyDelete
  27. "Don't worry about them. They have nowhere else to go"

    I believe that's called the pincer movement, Rat.

    Avoid the pincer.

    At all costs.

    ReplyDelete
  28. this was taken from a Belmont blogger regarding the Polonium "poisoning" incident. i tend to agree and i do think they are refering to Iran.

    "There's only one reason why millions of dollars of polonium could possibly have been in transit in the black market. Polonium is used in nuclear initiators. It's the key ingredient in the trigger for nuclear weapons. It's used for virtually nothing else.

    It's also generated in nuclear reactors. So, if you have an atomic bombs program, but don't have any nuclear reactors to generate polonium, then you have to purchase some polonium on the black market to ensure that your nuclear weapons detonate properly.

    Now which entities are out there that:

    1) Are trying to build nuclear weapons.
    2) Do not have a nuclear reactor (and are possibly relying on centrifuges to generate their fissionable components.)

    Next, Polonium has a very short half life. It's the last ingredient you purchase before your nuclear weapon is ready to use because it deteriorates so quickly.
    Finally, if the object were to build a "dirty bomb", there are plenty of other sorts of nuclear materials that would make more sense to use. A "dirty bomb" is a psychological weapon. It results in hazmat trucks and area denial. It does not require something as exotic as polonium.

    Using polonium for murder or a dirty bomb would be like using gold bricks as weights to sink garbage into the ocean. Sure it's physically possible, but anyone who says that that was their plan is a liar.

    The big truth being concealed here is that by sheer luck on our part and stupidity on our enemy's part, a nuclear weapons program was disrupted. Britain cannot publically accuse Russia of allowing the covert transfer of nuclear weapons components into Britain because that would be an act of war that would have to be acknowledged. However, they want to get their hands on the other participants in the plot for vigorous questioning.

    So the only diplomatic way to proceed is to engage the convenient fiction that this case is an ordinary case of murder.

    But it isn't. It's a screaming alarm bell that some entity has nearly completed, or has completed nuclear weapons, and is looking for the detonation material to deploy them."

    ReplyDelete
  29. As CBS was traitorous enough to pointout buying on the black market is an iffy proposition.

    CBS was very vocal in pointing out how the US and other countries were slowing the progress of Iranian bomb building by providing parts built to fail after X time.

    The Reagan administration did the same thing overtly to the Soviets during our detente years by having IBM and other companies sell the Soviets simple stuff. Chips that would aid water treatment plants, hospitals, and electrical grids.

    They worked fine for a few years then things started to fail. The Soviets were in the dark about why..it was a espionage tour de force and it brought down the Soviet Union.

    Some only hope we are as successful in "black" marketing "genuine" goods to the Iranians. But even the seasoned operatives know that eventually the Iranians will be successful ...with the help of CBS.

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  30. Psychology is what it's all about.

    Charles Schwab wrote in one of his first books that the biggest mover of markets was investor psychology..everybody doing usually the wrong thing at the wrong time , but none the less, psychology is the driver of most everything.

    A "dirty bomb" is a psychological weapon. It results in hazmat trucks and area denial." You betcha it's a psychological weapon and just paint Wall Street with one and watch what happens.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Man still gotz ta eat...

    Polk Salad

    Pick a mess of it....

    volume

    ReplyDelete
  32. Tater, that's a most handsome, complimentary photo you have of yourself there, like you are dressed for the county fair or something. Very svelt, atrractive, clean cut. Does you more than justice.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I've been trying to formulate a question with regard to foreign guest worker programs, but I can't even ask it in a serious manner. I keep stumbling over the infinitely renewable "temporary guest worker" Z VISA and current interpretation of the 14th Ammendment. Even when I try, I can't take this guest worker bullshit seriously.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Miztuh Bob-l

    I knows barely howz da thank yuz for ey'n my new look. It was Ms HoneySuckleTater dat gotz me be'n smoove look'n.

    Butz you know wimmen folk be funny. She now all upsets cause down in da bog da ladies be lik'n da look ..you knows, be say'n thangs nice 'n sweet, rub'n up ..man o man.

    so din i gits all hell fo talk'n 'round wit Ms. MagnoliaTater and her frend Ms.LooseTater
    I thouts fo a time da be truble buts i clam HoneySuckle down.
    so we rock'n all night long.

    also dat be one fine link you done put dar fo us and i wants ta be grateful

    PossumTater

    ReplyDelete
  35. Miztuh Cutla suh,

    It be'n dat da eagle flys on friday, i advize'n just chill. cause ya knows it be a hard thand ta stop da boss man frum do'in ....jus remembr ..Stormy Monday com'n
    so enjoy

    Stormy Monday

    ReplyDelete
  36. Tater! Heads up! "The Legend of Hogzilla" is holding casting calls in your area now. From bog to Hollywood--your chance now, and you're lookin' good!

    ReplyDelete
  37. From Bog to Worldwide Download Zilla Sensation in a week.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Tater,
    Norkors weren't nuthin compared to our Allies the Pakis.
    Tenent:
    "They'll never git em,
    Slam Dunk."

    ReplyDelete
  39. "It's used for virtually nothing else."
    ---
    Except for every home around the Globe w/a Fire Detector.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Order it from the NRC if you have a Fire Detector Startup in the works.

    ReplyDelete
  41. If you get bored this evening, habu, head over to thewashingtonnote.com.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Death Row killer's last words: 'Go Raiders!'
    ---
    I already forgot mine:
    They're in the archives here, anybody 'member?

    ReplyDelete
  43. Word is, that was 'Rat's idear.
    They were buddies out in Apache Country.
    Always good to keep your sense of humor, I say.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Wolford '08!
    ---
    "Taking a person's life does not bring a person back," protester Dan Wolford said.

    "His taking a life doesn't justify taking his.
    He doesn't forfeit his right to live because he took someone else's life."

    "If you take an eye for an eye, it just makes both people blind," Wolford said.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Actually, you end up with two 1 eyed guys, perfect Jihadi Material.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Take their hands and you've got Abu Hamza material.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Tater,
    Fri May 25, 01:05:00 PM EDT
    You were just kiddin, right?
    We wouldn't never mess with somebody's water treater:
    At Gitmo we serve bottled Mecca Spring Water.
    Nuthin but the best for our erstwhile "enemies," ...soon to become best buds and released.

    ReplyDelete
  48. We're Saved!
    Norm's Deal-Killer Defeated.


    Dots!
    We don't need no Stinking Dots!


    Earlier, by the same margin, senators voted down a proposal by Sen. Norm Coleman (news, bio, voting record), R-Minn., to allow government authorities to question someone about his immigration status if they had probable cause to suspect the person was in the U.S. illegally.

    The razor-thin votes illustrated the tenuous nature of the immigration measure, which would grant an estimated 12 million unlawful immigrants legal status while improving border security and workplace enforcement. But the defeats also showed the durability of the unlikely coalition that cut the deal and is fiercely lobbying rank-and-file senators to preserve it. . .

    Public alerts Senate on immigration bill

    California Sen. Dianne Feinstein says the public emotion surging around efforts to overhaul the nation’s immigration policy is the greatest she has seen since her 1992 election.

    The Democrat said the topic hasn’t translated into the 30,000-plus phone calls to her office that would mean “something is really going on” in the nation´s most populous state, but the enthusiasm of opinion is fervent.

    “We’re dealing with an issue about which people have very strong, very deeply set views,” Mrs. Feinstein said. . .

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  49. "The Democrat said the topic hasn’t translated into the 30,000-plus phone calls to her office that would mean “something is really going on”

    Just the most since she's been in office.
    Nothin Really Going On here, move right alon.

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  50. If you take an eye for an eye Wolford it makes two one eyed cats.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Gotta Love Even Big John Sometimes:

    "By the way, Senator Obama, it's a 'flak' jacket, not a 'flack' jacket."

    Which is to say, "there is only one of us in this argument who has ever worn the uniform." (my words)

    And if you still don't get it, a McCain aide blows away the anthill with, well, a rocket.

    "Obama wouldn't know the difference between an RPG and a bong."

    ReplyDelete
  52. Considering McCain was a naval pilot, his military experience probably wouldn't make him an expert on RPGs either.

    ReplyDelete
  53. ...Which is not to say that Obama is not way out of his depth on nearly everything.

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  54. Trish,

    Took your advice and went over to peek at the Washington Note kinda hoping it was a jazz-blues club...nope.

    So I read the posts, the "hot one" about VP Cheney and his "acolytes" trying an "end run" around Bush so they can have their way and bomb Iran.
    Then the comments. I only got through about half of them, folks talking about a COUP D'ETAT against Bush by Cheney, then another poster with "Save the World, Nuke Israel".

    I always like to take a look see at who's driving the bus .. the guys credentials are typical Washington lower level to mid level duty ..worked for Sen Jeff Bingamen (D) of no real note.
    Did some Rand stuff and the site is described as left of center by Wiki for whatever that's worth ..tomorrow somebody could go in and describe it as rdically right wing..Wiki has a credibility gap they've noy closed yet but you'd think the words came down from Moses. Steve Clemons is the dude and the big black mark on him is his association with Charlie Trie and Chinagate which of course puts him next to Bill Clinton.

    After reading the thread and the bloggers comments, well it walks,talks and quacks LEFT, so my facial twitch started up and I punched out.

    I guess all of us are in the Will Rogers position of "I only know what I read in the papers", or today the blogs.
    I'm predisposed to discount Mr Clemons but I'm sure there's some value there.
    I mean do any of us really really know whats going on. I'd say uneqivacally no.
    Funny thing is is that it's actually been like this since the beginning of the country. Hamilton or Jefferson or Adams would send a letter to someone they knew would leak it to the press, and bingo your opponents "position " is out in the public for debate, but it's been initially defined by you....and you know what they say in politics, "if you're explain'in you're los'n"

    But thank fo the tip

    ReplyDelete
  55. Cutler,
    Just wait til Obama handlers put him in a tank with the "Snoopy" hat on a la Dukakis..

    He's this years cabbage patch doll phenom, the Sajaya darling du jour.

    ReplyDelete
  56. In Mexico, drugs stop the presses
    El Heraldo de Chihuahua
    Enrique Perea Quintanilla, publisher of "Dos Caras, Una Verdad" ("Two Sides, One Truth"), which covered, among other things the local drug trade, was shot dead last August in Chihuaha.

    Count Mexican journalism as one of the major victims of the increasingly ferocious drug war being waged there -- as outlined in a Chronicle story today ('Echoes of Colombia drug wars in Mexico').

    In addition to a number of journalists being killed, a newspaper in the state of Sonora, the Cambio Sonora, is shutting its doors "temporarily" after receiving threats and having a hand grenade tossed into its facilities last week
    -- the second in a month. ('Mexico newspaper is drug war casualty')
    It appeared to be the first action of its kind in a country where numerous journalists have recently died or disappeared as drug traffickers intensify their battle against the government.

    Mexico is second only to Iraq as the most dangerous country in the world for journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders.Check out a list of recent incidents in Mexico compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

    ReplyDelete