In case anyone needed further evidence that President Paul Kagame’s Rwanda is the Pentagon’s proxy, 140 Rwandan police are about to undertake special training before heading to Haiti, as reported in the Rwanda New Times, because, according to Rwandan Police Chief Edmund Kayiranga, “Rwanda wants to be involved in promoting peace in other countries” and, if need be, they would send more peacekeepers to other countries.
Tags:
Amnesty International,
Ann Garrison,
Belgian paratroopers,
Congolese Army (FARDC),
counter-terrorism,
criminal investigation,
cyber crimes investigation,
Dongo rebellion,
Equateur Province,
FBI training Rwandan police,
Haiti and Latin America,
Haiti earthquake,
Haitian lawyer and human rights activist Marguerite Laurent,
Human Rights Watch,
interrogating techniques,
journalists escape arrest,
Keith Harmon Snow,
mineral riches,
National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP),
oil and mineral rich D.R. Congo,
oil reserves,
Pentagon’s proxy,
Pentagon’s Rwandan proxy army,
Port au Prince,
President Paul Kagame,
Reporters Without Borders,
Rwandan 2010 presidential election,
Rwandan Army’s constant invasions and mineral theft,
Rwandan CNDP militia,
Rwandan Defense Force,
Rwandan police,
Rwandan Police Chief Edmund Kayiranga,
Rwandan troops,
Rwanda’s Kigali Gitarama Prison,
Sen. Russ Feingold,
the Africa Faith and Justice Network,
the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative Group,
the Greens European Free Alliance,
three viable parties,
U.N. peacekeepers (MONUC),
U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM),
U.S. State Department
If Rwanda’s three viable opposition parties are allowed to register and participate in free and fair elections, they have a good chance, in coalition, of defeating Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) Party. Those three parties condemned the Feb. 19 deadly grenade attacks in Kigali, calling them “an attempt to instill fear in the population” prior to Rwanda’s August presidential election.
Tags:
1994 Rwanda Genocide,
Africa and the World,
American and European Greens Federations,
Amnesty International,
Ann Garrison,
autocratic rule,
BBC,
Bernard Ntaganda,
British Prime Minster Gordon Brown,
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper,
Commonwealth Heads of Government,
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative Group,
crimes against humanity,
David Barouski,
Democratic Republic of Congo,
Derek Ingram,
disputed history of the 1994 genocide,
Double Genocide Theory,
Frank Habineza,
genocide,
Genocide denial,
genocide ideology,
George Bush,
Global Citizenship Award,
Global Greens,
Green Parties worldwide,
grenade attacks,
human rights violations,
Human Rights Watch,
Hutu,
Hutu ethnic group,
interahamwe,
International Medal of P.E.A.C.E.,
Keith Harmon Snow,
Kenyan judge and legal scholar Yash Pai Ghai,
Kigali,
Kigali’s Gasabo District,
Le Parti Social Imberakuri,
Pastor Rick Warren,
Permanent Consultative Council of Opposition Parties in Rwanda,
political repression,
President Bill Clinton,
President Paul Kagame,
pretrial detention,
Rwanda,
Rwanda Chamber of Deputies,
Rwanda New Times,
Rwanda News Agency,
Rwandan government,
Rwandan Minister of Internal Security Sheikh Mussa Fazil Harerimana,
Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) Party,
Rwanda’s August presidential election,
Saddleback Church,
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
Senegalese Green Party President Papa Meissa Dieng,
terrorism,
The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda,
Truth and Reconciliation Commission,
Tutsi,
U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy and Labor,
United Democratic Forces – Inkingi,
University of Michigan Professor Allan Stam,
Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza,
war crimes
1) Lennar paid federal lobbyists $240,000 to win them a $320 million cash bailout characterized as a retroactive tax refund. 2) In the accounting for its fourth quarter report, announced on Jan. 7, 2010, Lennar used $284.9 million of the $320 million to offset its quarter losses. 3) Lennar then reported the remaining $35.6 million as profit, earned income. 4) Taxpayers, yet again, footed the bill.
Tags:
AIG,
Ann Garrison,
bioremediation,
create green jobs,
credit default swaps,
derivatives,
earned income profit,
Eric Rosenbaum,
extend unemployment benefits,
federal bailout for big industrial homebuilder-lenders,
foreclosure and distressed real estate,
forest restoration,
Gretchen Morgenson,
higher education,
Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009,
Lennar Corp.,
lobbyists,
mortgage-backed securities,
New York Times,
predatory lending and foreclosure,
private prison realty,
public transportation,
real estate investment trusts,
recession,
retroactive tax refund,
San Francisco Board of Supervisors,
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom,
San Francisco Redevelopment Agency,
Sigmund Freud,
solar installation,
tax credit,
tax refund,
Too Big to Not Build tax bailout plan,
trickledown economics,
Worker,
“jobless recovery”
At the close of 2008 and throughout 2009, Americans watched our federal government reward the reckless multinational financial sector with trillions of dollars for causing the worst hardship since the Great Depression. San Franciscans and Californians joined in the agony but few understood that both San Francisco and California have come up with their own bailout for one of the major players in the meltdown, the South Florida based Lennar Corp.
Tags:
adjustable rates,
Ann Garrison,
balloon payments,
Bank of America,
D.R. Horton,
D.R. Horton‘s DHI Mortgage,
Deutschebank,
Goldman Sachs,
Gretchen Morgenson,
home builder mortgage operations,
Hoover’s,
IMF,
investment banks,
John Caulfield,
Lennar CEO Stuart Miller,
Lennar Corp.,
Lennar Home,
Lennar’s UAMC,
Morgan Stanley,
NAHB (National Association of Home Builders),
Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory,
negative amortization payments,
Proposition G,
public private partnerships,
Pulte,
Pulte Homes’ Pulte Mortgage,
Reaganite trickle down economics,
San Francisco’s Hunters Point Naval Shipyard,
secondary mortgage market,
Sen. Mark Leno,
Senate Bill 792,
subprime loan meltdown,
tent cities,
toxic dumpsites,
UAMC mortgages,
Universal American Mortgage Co. (UAMC),
World Bank
On Friday, Nov. 13, the London Guardian reported a “Huge rise in birth defects in Fallujah,” Iraq. I sent the news to KPFA Radio 94.1FM Weekend News anchor Anthony Fest, along with contact info for Bob Nichols, San Francisco Bay View newspaper correspondent and winner of a 2004 Project Censored Award for his reporting on the U.S. military’s use of depleted uranium weapons in Iraq and consequent radiation poisoning.
In their fight against the push to privatize their state park, Bayview Hunters Point activists are fighting the privatization of California as hard as anyone I know. They’re fighting for all of us, so I hope that other Californians who don’t want to see the whole state on the auction block will contact their Assembly representatives and ask them to vote against Senate Bill 792.
Tags:
12th District Assembly Member Fiona Ma,
13th District Assembly Member Tom Ammiano,
8th District Sen. Leland Yee,
Ann Garrison,
Arc Ecology,
ARC Ecology Director Saul Bloom,
Audubon Society,
Bayview Hunters Point,
California Native Plant Society,
Candlestick Point State Recreation Area,
Caravan for Justice,
Chinese Progressive Association,
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club,
Idriss Stelley Action and Resource Center,
IMF and World Bank,
KPFA News,
KPFA Weekend News Producer Anthony Fest,
Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles,
Lennar,
Lynn Suter,
Michael Cohen,
People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER),
privatization of California,
San Francisco Bay View newspaper,
San Francisco Green Party,
San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly,
San Francisco Supervisor John Avalos,
Sen. Mark Leno,
Senate Bill 792,
Sierra Club,
Sierra Club trustee John Rizzo,
state budget crisis,
Stop Lennar Action Movement (SLAM),
structural readjustment,
Tranquillon Ridge
Upon her release and return, Cynthia McKinney spoke to WBAIX-New York from New York’s JFK Airport, where she reported that the Israeli Navy had towed the “Spirit of Humanity,” not directly to Port Ashdod but on a circuitous route, bypassing the Gaza Coast. This, she said, suggested that the Israeli Navy is engaged in activity that they do not want observed off the Gaza Strip, known to be the site of billions of dollars worth of natural gas reserves.
San Francisco bus fares will go up and service will go down – impacting Blacks more than any other group – as the struggle over who gets stimulus funds continues. Transit authorities around the country are in line for token stimulus funds, but only for new building projects; no immediate operating support to stave off fare hikes, service cuts and layoffs.
Tags:
Ann Garrison,
bank bailouts,
fare hikes,
Great Depression,
Lennar Corp.,
San Francisco Mayor and California gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom,
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency,
service cuts,
stimulus funds,
transit worker layoffs,
Transportation for America
We now know where a lot of coltan and cassiterite stolen from Congo go, in the end. They go to Ghana and other parts of Africa as toxic electronic waste, often disguised as charity: European and North American “contributions” of worn-out, broken, no longer fashionable tech garbage.
Tags:
Ann Garrison,
cassiterite,
coltan,
conflict minerals,
Democratic Republic of Congo,
Greenpeace,
North Kivu Province,
President Barack Obama,
Rwanda,
Rwandan President Paul Kagame,
toxic electronic waste,
U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM),
U.S. Army Gen. William "Kip" Ward
Lennar, when will you stop stirring up all that radioactive asbestos in the Hunters Point Shipyard into the air that all the fine people of color in Bayview Hunters Point are obliged to breathe in order to live?
Cobalt is essential to our military industries’ ability to manufacture the modern weapons of war. So, the Congo War, a.k.a. the African holocaust, is a war for the sake of war itself.
Tags:
African holocaust,
African proxy armies,
African World War,
Ann Garrison,
Barack Obama,
Blue Angels,
cobalt,
coltan,
Congo,
Congo War,
Congolese Army (FARDC),
Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP),
Forces Democratique de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR),
Katanga Copper Belt,
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA),
Patrice Lumumba,
President Patrice Emery Lumumba,
Robert Gates,
Rwanda,
Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF),
U.N. peacekeepers (MONUC),
Uganda,
Ugandan army (UPDF)
In March 2008, the Jewish Community Federation arranged San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s all-expense paid junket to Israel, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel.
Tags:
10th largest economy,
Ann Garrison,
boycott Israeli products and divest from Israeli corporations,
BrightSource,
California Israel Chamber of Commerce,
Gavin Newsom,
Israel,
Israeli Aircraft Industries,
Jewish Community Federation,
Lockheed Martin,
Lockheed-Martin F-16 fighter bomber jet,
Nakba,
Palestine,
Palestinian,
PG&E Energy,
Ronald Reagan,
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom
The Congolese people continue to suffer staggering casualties in the ongoing African holocaust, which has cost between 5 and 6 million Congolese lives since 1996, and which continues to cost 45,000 lives a month.
Tags:
African holocaust,
Ann Garrison,
Belgium,
Congo-Kinshasa,
Congolese mineral wealth,
Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP),
Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Independent Republic of Congo,
International Rescue Committee,
Patrice Lumumba,
Rwanda,
Uganda,
Zaire
The corporate press, and the U.S. State Department, are awash in propaganda about the Congo War, also known as the Congo crisis, or, the African holocaust, in which 6 million Congolese have died since 1997. They typically characterize it as an insoluble ethnic conflict, but the Congo War is, most fundamentally, an imperial resource war, [...]
Tags:
Africa and the World,
Ann Garrison,
Anthony Fest,
Congo,
ethnic conflict,
imperialism,
KFCF,
KPFA,
KPFB,
Laurent Nkunda,
Obasanjo,
resource war
The war in Congo is a U.S. proxy war; the U.S. uses Kagame, the Rwandan army and terrorist Gen. Laurent Nkunda as their African proxy force in Congo, but this is war. It has been the deadliest, though barely reported, war on the planet for years.
Tags:
Ann Garrison,
cobalt,
deadliest war on the planet,
Democratic Republic of Congo,
Gen. Laurent Nkunda,
Kambale Musavuli,
Katanga Province,
North Kivu Province,
Paul Kagame,
Rwanda,
U.S. State Department's Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer,
Zaire
I know no honest, informed Congo watchers who doubt that Gen. Laurent Nkunda and his ruthless militia are tools of the U.S. and its African proxy, Rwanda, in the imperial resource war now raging in Eastern Congo.
Tags:
African World War,
Ann Garrison,
Barack Obama,
castration,
Congo,
Cynthia McKinney,
Friends of the Congo,
Goma,
Joseph Kabila,
Kambale Musavuli,
Kivu Province,
Laurent Nkunda,
looting,
Maurice Carney,
mineral riches,
murder,
Pambazuka News,
rape,
Rwanda,
Rwandan Embassy,
San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper,
torture
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the green heart of Africa. The country has the second largest rainforest in the world. It is resource rich but plagued with humanitarian crises resulting from the plundering of the DRC’s mineral resources are severe.
Tags:
Ann Garrison,
bauxite,
Breaking the Silence on the Congo Week,
cadmium,
cassiterite,
child labor,
child soldiers,
coal,
cobalt,
coltan,
conflict diamonds,
Congo Friends,
consumer electronics,
copper,
De Beers,
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),
diamond,
diamond mines,
Dustin Blitchok,
Friends of the Congo,
germanium,
gold,
human rights,
industrial and gem diamonds,
International Rescue Committee,
iron ore,
Katanga Province,
manganese,
Mbjui Mayi,
mineral resources,
niobium,
radium,
rainforest,
Rwanda Metals,
safe drinking water,
Second Congo War,
Shinkolobwe uranium mine,
silver,
tantalum,
timber,
tin,
UNICEF,
uranium,
zinc
I was sitting in San Francisco, something like halfway between England and its former convict colony, Australia, when I stumbled on news that the Queen of England had placed former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, one of President George Bush’s closest allies, very near the top of her list of 458 Australian birthday honors on June 9, just eight days after Australia’s new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd finally pulled the last of the Australian troops that John Howard had, in 2003, committed to our Iraq War.
Tags:
Ann Garrison,
Australia,
Australian Liberal Party,
Black aboriginal Australia,
England,
former Australian Prime Minister John Howard,
Harvard University,
President George Bush,
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd,
Queen of England,
San Francisco
The current plan to launch yet another environmental assault on Bayview Hunters Point, with three natural gas turbine combustion power plants, and yet another at the San Francisco International Airport, was tabled for two weeks by the Board of Supervisors.
Tags:
Ann Garrison,
Australia,
Barack Obama,
Bayview Hunters Point,
Burrup Peninsula,
Chevron-Shell,
Coastal Conservation Association,
energy security,
Gavin Newsom,
Gulf Coast Protection Act,
Indonesia,
Iraq,
LNG terminals,
Nancy Pelosi,
natural gas combustion turbine power plants,
New Orleans,
San Francisco,
San Francisco Board of Supervisors,
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission,
Sierra Club,
Stand Up for the Burrup,
the Gulf Restoration Network,
wetlands restoration,
Woodside Petroleum
This is to let you know how thoroughly disgusted I was by the Board of Supervisors’ vote today to plant three more fossil fuel power plants – natural gas turbine combustion power plants – in Bayview Hunters Point.
Tags:
Ann Garrison,
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,
Bayview Hunters Point,
Burrup Peninsula,
Chris Daly,
Chuck Devore,
Exxon-Mobil,
G'wichen,
liquified natural gas,
natural gas turbine combustion power plants,
Ngarlema,
Northern Cheyenne,
Prince William Sound,
Sierra Club
English