The shows highlight Argentine veterans’ difficult postwar adjustment process. A repressive military government mobilized the veterans, often conscripts from working-class backgrounds, for Argentina’s 1982 invasion of the islands in a last-ditch bid to rally popular support. Argentina’s leadership hadn’t expected the British to dispatch its own invasion force to retake the islands. Argentine troops were left underequipped and with only an improvised plan to confront the professional U.K. army.
The NYTimes magazine has a must-read report, Cocaine Incorporated (h/t AD), with a yowza,
In 2007, Mexican authorities raided the home of Zhenli Ye Gon, a Chinese-Mexican businessman who is believed to have supplied meth-precursor chemicals to the cartel, and discovered $206 million, the largest cash seizure in history. And that was the money Zhenli held onto — he was an inveterate gambler, who once blew so much cash in Las Vegas that one of the casinos presented him, in consolation, with a Rolls-Royce. “How much money do you have to lose in the casino for them to give you a Rolls-Royce?” Tony Placido, the D.E.A. intelligence official, asked. (The astonishing answer, in Zhenli’s case, is $72 million at a single casino in a single year.)
The interesting thing here is that when originally reported it appeared that remitters would not be able to send more than $500 to Cuba per quarter. It now seems, however, that U.S. citizens can send $2,000 a year to as many qualified Cubans as they like. I’m not a lawyer and I received this information too late to call OFAC, so I can’t say for certain.
The events of the past several months reveal a lack of consistency in Obama’s approach to various foreign conflicts. How does this administration justify its recognition of results of elections in Pakistan, Iraq, and other countries mired in constitutional disputes, but now refuse to recognize an election in Honduras, even if it is conducted in a free and fair manner? And why give greater diplomatic dignity to the representatives of Iran–who have no legitimacy whatsoever–and not those of democratic Honduras? Even after blatantly stealing the presidential election, the White House referred to Ahmadinejad as the “the elected leader” of Iran (which White House spokesman Robert Gibbs later had to retract).
In the immediate wake of Honduras’s constitutional crisis, it was understandable that the administration, caught by surprise, might jump the gun in its denunciation of the military action as a “coup.” Now, three months later and with legal repudiation from within its own government, U.S. policy has become a mistake in search of a rationale.
The Honduras debate is not really about Honduras. It is about whether it is possible to stop the spread of chavismo and all it implies, including nuclear proliferation and terrorism in Latin America. Most troubling is the unflinching support for Mr. Zelaya from President Barack Obama and Democratic Sen. John Kerry—despite the Law Library of Congress review that shows that Mr. Zelaya’s removal from office was legal, and the clear evidence that he is Mr. Chávez’s man in Tegucigalpa. On Thursday, Mr. Kerry took the unprecedented step of trying to block a fact-finding mission to Honduras by Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, who is resisting Mr. Obama’s efforts to restore Mr. Zelaya to power.
Otto Reich talking about Honduras, Venezuela and Obama:
Sophisticated Asian mafias organize intricate journeys to the U.S. A typical route leads from Beijing to Rome to Caracas, Venezuela, to Mexico City to the border, according to Matthew Allen, chief agent of the Phoenix office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Special thanks to the Baron, Dick, El Marco, Eneas, Larwyn, Maggie and Maria.
A comparison between Stanford and Madoff at the WSJ:
And a note on the bloggers’ influence in the investigation, from The Economist,
The SEC stepped up its probe after its Madoff mis-steps. But a bigger impetus may have been a deeply sceptical report on Stanford’s investment returns, published in January by Alex Dalmady, an independent analyst. The blogosphere picked this up, and within days it was making headlines worldwide. This offers hope for those who despair of the SEC’s bungling, suggesting that in the internet age forensic vigilantes and devil-may-care bloggers can, to some extent, fill the gap left by dilatory regulators and libel-constrained mainstream media.
R. Allen Stanford and his employees contributed $31,750 to Barack Obama’s presidential run, making the new president the third-largest recipient of Stanford campaign cash, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
An Obama aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the money was donated yesterday to charity.
This new scandal, coupled with Bernard Madoff’s pyramid, plus the Colombian pyramids scheme, plus the Brazilian and Mexican derivatives scandals that triggered a tumble in stocks, is helping erode the confidence in financial markets built up for years, and giving another excuse to populist presidents and politicians (most them opportunistic idiots) for launching attacks on banks and free markets and corporate independence.
Authorities tell ABC News that as part of the investigation, which has been ongoing since last year, Mexican authorities detained one of Stanford’s private planes. According to officials, checks found inside the plane were believed to be connected to the Gulf cartel, reputed to be Mexico’s most violent gang. Authorities say Stanford could potentially face criminal charges of money laundering and bribery of foreign officials.
Authorities say the SEC action against Stanford Tuesday may have complicated the federal drug investigation.
The federal investigation, however, did not stop Stanford from using corporate money to become a big man at last year’s Democratic convention in Denver.
A video posted on the firm’s web-site shows Stanford, now sought by U.S. Marshals, being hugged by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and praised by former President Bill Clinton for helping to finance a convention-related forum and party put on by the National Democratic Institute.
ANTIGUA
