Daily Report

Puerto Rico: rallies honor Ojeda Rios

Thousands of Puerto Ricans rallied in the northwestern town of Lares on Sept. 23, the anniversary of the 1868 Grito de Lares ("Cry of Lares"), an uprising against Spanish rule. The events also marked the first anniversary of the death of independence leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios, who was killed in an assault by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on the farmhouse where he was living clandestinely. The ceremony in Lares was largely devoted to remembering Ojeda and Socialist Front leader Jorge Farinacci, who died of cancer in August 2006. Organizers said attendance was up this year because of anger over the killing of Ojeda.

Oaxaqueños march to Mexico City

Even as the administration of President Vicente Fox renewed its pledge to find a negotiated solution to the crisis in Oaxaca, some 4,000 protesters left the state capital Sept. 21 on a planned two-week cross-country march to Mexico City, where they intend to establish an encampment outside the Senate to press their demand for the ouster of Gov. Ulises Ruiz.

Ahmadinejad: "the days of the atomic bomb are over"

What are we to make of this? Iran's ayatollahs have issued both fatwas for and against nuclear weapons in recent months, while the country's National Orchestra performs a Nuclear Energy Symphony. Is Ahmadinejad saying what he really thinks here? Or is this just intended for consumption by his useful idiots, no more real than his recent transparently bogus disavowal of anti-Semitism? From BBC Monitoring (not online), Sept. 21:

Gunmen open fire on Florida mosque

Are domestic Islamophobes starting to emulate the tactics of their counterparts in India? Note that this comes on the heels of the atrocious mosque desecration in Maine. From AP, Sept. 23:

Shots were fired at a mosque in Melbourne, Florida as worshippers celebrated the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but no injuries or arrests were reported, authorities said Saturday.

Southern California neo-Nazis wish Jews happy Rosh Hashana

Tell us again how the anti-Semitic upsurge is all in our imagination. We keep forgetting. From KNBC, Los Angeles, Sept. 22:

ENCINO, Calif. -- Two flags depicting Nazi swastikas were draped over a freeway overpass in Encino on Friday, on the eve of the Jewish High Holy Days.

Feminist dissent from Chavez embrace of Ahmadinejad

From our correspondent Jennifer Fasulo:

Chavez’s Shameful Embrace of Iranian President Ahmadinejad:
Show Solidarity with the Women and People of Iran, not their Oppressors!

Hugo Chavez, one of the key important figures in the left populist movements spreading throughout Latin America, has publicly lauded and embraced Iranian president Ahmadinejad. (See “Two anti-US nations heap praise upon each other,” AP, Sept. 17) It is moments like this, when feminists and any activists who care about women's liberation, are reminded of just how little women’s lives matter in the world of patriarchal nationalist politics.

US politicians bash Chavez ...but that doesn't mean he isn't really getting a little wacky

The Sept. 22 Daily News carries the front-page headline: "BIG APPLE TO BIG MOUTH: ZIP IT!" It gleefully quotes various New York politicians bashing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for calling Bush a "devil," including Sen. Chuck Schumer ("despicable and disgusting"), Gov. George Pataki ("The best thing he can do is go back to Venezuela and try to provide freedom for his people") and Rep. Charles Rangel ("I draw the line at allowing a foreign leader to come to my country and my community to personally insult my president"). The story also has further inflammatory quotes from Chavez's "rambling 90-minute rant" at Harlem's Mount Olive Baptist Church, where he was flanked by actor Danny Glover, City Councilman Charles Barron and author Cornell West. Reiterating the facile if obvious "devil" epithet, Chavez backed up the charge with the following comments:

Project Censored v. WW4 Report: war of perceptions on African genocide

Our one-time contributor Keith Harmon Snow has won an award from Project Censored for his article, co-written with David Barouski, "Behind the Numbers: Untold Suffering in the Congo" (ZNet, March 2006). Project Censored dubs the story "High-Tech Genocide in Congo," considering it the fifth most-censored story of the year. Snow and Barouski share the award with a writer called "Sprocket," who wrote an article entitled "High-Tech Genocide" for the August 2005 Earth First! Journal. Both articles concern the role of the mineral coltan, used in cellular telephones, to fund militias in the war-torn east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Snow has also covered the coltan connection in his writing for WW4 Report (see "Proxy Wars in Central Africa," July 2004), and won a Project Censored award last year for his April 2004 story for WW4 Report, "State Terror Against Indigenous Peoples in Ethiopia." The coltan story is an important one which indeed warrants far greater exposure. However, in his Project Censored "Update" on the question, Snow makes a completely unwarranted attack on his former editors at WW4 Report—and, more importantly, undermines his own work by equivocating on the question of African genocide. The comments are online at Guerrilla News Network:

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