Two days ago, the New York Times reported on the just-released publication of a 2008 report on the CIA's negligence, deceit, disregard for its own rules and stonewalling in connection with investigation of its practice of shooting down airplanes in Peru in 2001. Back then, it was deadly mistakes made in the war on drugs.
A day later, the Wall Street Journal published a report about ramping up the CIA's targeted killing program in the war against terrorism (or against Al Qaida, as the Administration now calls it).
The Peru example underscores why the United States should not be using the CIA to conduct targeted killings. The CIA operates, understandably, in secret. When and if its conduct is investigated, the reports of its violations usually remain secret as well. The power to impose death should not be delegated to an entity, and to individuals, so shielded from standard measures of accountability.
A massacre of indigenous protesters in Peru last weekend has resulted in the temporary roll-back of development laws that were passed without proper consultation under international law. They were part of a package of laws issued to comply with a free trade agreement with the US. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the overseas impacts of free trade laws that we routinely hear nothing about.
Peaceful protesters were attacked by police, who killed at least 22 of them, according to their latest count--police claimed just nine. Twenty-three police were killed in return. Democracy Now!reported on the massacre on Tuesday (excerpts on the flip), and Al Jazeera filed this report:
More about the massacre itself, and the legislative response on the flip.
For all the headlines about corruption that we saw in the lead-up to the 2006 election, we have to remember that the most pernicious form of corruption is the that is difficult to see - the kind that reporters and politicians alike pretend doesn't exist, but which lobbying disclosure records expose. This is the subject of my nationally syndicated newspaper column this week, out this weekend.
(Glenn is a brilliant emerging star in the progressive movement, and his judgment is worth strong consideration. - promoted by Matt Stoller)
On Tuesday, Barack Obama announced his support for President Bush's bid to expand the North American Free Trade Agreement to Peru.
Yup - Obama is once again helping pass one of President Bush's top priorities - even as Bush blocks the entire Democratic agenda and daily rains rhetorical abuse down on Democratic heads. Is this how Obama is going to negotiate in the White House?
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