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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 9, 1996)
O ctober 9, 1996 « T he P ortland O bserver P age A 2 I J I '' Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily Reflect Or Represent The Views O f ^Jortlaxib ffibseruer J b \ P eter K ornbuh “Z / T ’ C IA ,” R epresentative f l Cynthia McKinney (D- VLJ»-' GA) stated on the floor of Congress, has come to mean “Central Intoxication Agency.” Around the nation, public fury continues to mount over allega tions of U.S. government com plicity in the trafficking of drugs. This controversial issue cam e back into public view after a series o f articles in the San Jose M ercury News by reporter Gary Webb. It cam e up again in both o f Rev. Jesse Jack so n ’s debates with form er Reagan W hite H ouse aide Lt. C ol. O liver N orth, the first in Denver, and the second on the Larry K ing Show (CNN). D uring the D enver debate, Col. N orth denied that the National Secu rity m anagers o f the contra w ar ever condoned drug smuggling. “ I have never met in my 22 years o f govern ment service,” he declared, “any gov ernm ent official who would tolerate the delivery o f drugs into this coun try for distribution to anyone ” T o the contrary, we know from N o rth 's own diaries, m em oranda and E-M ail m essages (obtained through the Freedom o f Inform ation A ct by the public interest N ational Security A rchive), that U.S. officials knew about, tolerated, p rotected—and in som e cases, even paid—know n nar cotics traffickers who had a contri bution to m ake to the covert w ar against the Sandinistas in N icara gua. C O A L IT IO N CIA, Contras & Crack C onsider just som e o f the evi dence: ♦ O liver North, who to ld Congress it was "a neat idea " to use the A ya tollah K hom eni s m oney to support the contras, also w a n ted to use drug m oney f o r the sam e purpose. Two DEA agents testified before C on gress that North w a n ted to take S I. 5 m illion o f the M edellin C artel s m on ey that was on a p la n e b eing used in a drug sting a n d give it to the contras The DEA ju s t sa id no. ♦ O n.July 12, 1985, N o r th ‘s m ain weapons suppl ier rep o rted that "SI 4 m illion to fin a n c e " a n arm s "super m a rke t" in H onduras, w here the contras were b uying weapons, ‘ 'came fro m drugs. " There is no re co rd that North ever p a sse d this inform ation on to the DEA and/or law en fo rce m ent officials. ♦ O n A ugust 9, 1985, North s c h ie f liaison with the contras rep o rted to him that a "H onduran D C -6 which is being used fo r runs out o f New O rleans is p ro b a b ly being used fo r dru g runs into the U.S. "Again, there is no reco rd that North ever p a sse d this inform ation on to the DEA a n d / or law enforcem ent officials. ♦ Ten weeks after the New York Times ran a fro n t-p a g e story on G en e r a l M a n u el N oriega, "P a n a m a S trongm an S a id to Trade in Drugs, A rm s a n d Illic it M oney, ” W hite H ouse andC IA officials a ll sought to help N oriega "clean up his image, ” a ccording to N o r th ’s diaries a n d E- m ail memos. ♦ N o r th a d v o c a te d p a y in g N oriega one m illion dollars—fro m d iv e rte d fu n d s fro m the sa le o f arms to Iran—to fin a n c e sa b o ta g e opera tions N oriega a g reed to conduct in sid e N icaragua. R ea g a n 's National S ecu rity A dvisor a the time, John Poindexter, a uthorized North to meet secretly in London with N oriega to work out the details. "I have nothing a g a in st him other than his illegal activities, " P oindexter sta ted ♦ A cco rd in g to a Sept. 1 7 ,1 9 8 6 E -m a il m essa g e, O liv e r N orth, D uane ( 'larridge (the ( 'IA agent who ran the co n tra w a r betw een 1981 a n d 1985), a n d o th er high officials a ll "ca b a l[ed ] q u ie tly " to "look at options: pardon, clem ency, d ep o r tation, reduced sentence, "fo r a H on duran g en era l n a m ed Jo se B ueso Rosa. B ueso R osa h a d been caught in a co n sp ira cy Io traffic 345 kilos o f co ca in e into the U S — street value 540 m illio n —in p a rt to fin a n c e the assassination o f th e civilian p re si d en t o f H onduras! But since he was a key CIA liaison in the H onduran m ilitary w ho h a d h elp ed fa c ilita te th e co vert war against N icaragua, U.S. officials w a n ted to save him fr o m a j a i l sentence to keep him fr o m "spilling the beans " (E ventu a lly he se rv e d less than fiv e ye a rs in a w hite co lla r “C lub F ed " in F lo r ida—th a t sam e sentence that is now m a ndatory f o r 5 bags (529) worth o f crack.) These declassified docum ents cast serious doubts on the integrity o f the CIA. Did A m erican officials “ nod and w ink," in Rev. Jack so n ’s w ords, at the delivery o f drugs across our border, into our central cities, and into the bodies o f our young? T his charge m ust be fully investi gated, so that the rum ors can be re moved, or the culprits captured. The San Jose M ercury News story re mains a hot topic on talk radio, and in this natio n ’s ghettoes and barrios. It will rem ain so until these allega tions are fully investigated in a p u b lic forum. Light Rail: Coasting Towards An Ideal To The E ditor: he dream is alive and thriving. From Septem ber 8 -1 0 ,1 9 9 6 , 6 75 be lievers In the dream descended on Washington, D.C. for Rail- Volution, a national conference on light rail. W e cam e from six countries and we shared w ays in w hich to m ake the dream com e true. W e reaffirm ed the necessity o f brin g in g light rail to the Portland M etro area as a m eans o f im proving our neighborhoods, city, and regional area. I had the p rivilege o f attending the conference as a scholarship p ar ticip an t from the C itizens A dvisory C o m m itte e fo r the S o u th /N o rth Line. I was inspired by the enthusiasm , d edication, and creativity o f the co n ference attendees and left W ashing ton, D.C. thoroughly convinced o f the need to prom ote the active in volvem ent o f my neighbors, co w o rk ers, governm ent officials, and fel low O regonians in planning co m m unities around light rail stations. S ocial ju stice , crim e prevention, consolidation o f resources, en v iro n m ental protection, em ploym ent o p portunities, and energy co n serv a tion w ould all be positively enhanced by the developm ent o f light rail in our area. I saw several exam ples o f how light rail has transform ed isolated, concrete barriers w ithin cities and tow ns to w elcom e, inviting g ath er ing places w here people o f all ages can work, shop, or ju st hang out. I saw and felt the w arm th o f main streets that have been resurrected from m ajor arterial speeding vehi cles through areas with total disre gard to pedestrians, cyclists, or the ow ners o f business. W hat I saw and learned has en couraged me to actively w ork for the developm ent o f planned com m uni ties focusing around light rail We cannot continue to build m ore and more suburbs, resulting in longer and longer driving distances w ithout further destroying the integrity o f our beautiful state and negatively im pacting the everyday lives o f our citizens. We have a chance to m ake a very real and im portant difference in the quality o f life we all hope to attain. It is w ithin our pow er and ability to create the kind o f place w here chil dren thrive and people can live, work and recreate in a safe, satisfying and com fortable way. —Irene J. Park Reconsidering the death penalty by D eni S tarr J. D. was reading about the jl slaughter in Rwanda on the day that we, the Peo ple of the State of Oregon, killed Douglas Franklin Wright. O’ “ H ow could this happen?” puz zles Tergal Keane o f the BBC, w it nessing the slaughter in a church. We pass a classroom and inside a m other is lying in the co m er surrounded by four children. T he chalk m arks the last lesson in m athem atics are still on the board But the desks have been upturned by the killers. It looks as if the w om an and her children had tried to hide underneath the desks. We pass around a corner and I step over the rem ains o f a small boy. A gain, he has been decapitated. To my im m e diate left is a large room filled with bodies T here is blood, rust colored now with the passing w eeks, sm eared on the w alls. 1 do not know w hat else to say about the bodies because I have already seen too m uch. “ T his is —unbelievable.” Tony w hispers in my ear. W e are all w hispering, as if we m ight som ehow wake the dead with our voices. “ It i s ju s t- u nbeliev able. C an you imagine w hat these poor—w ent through?” And 1 answ er that no, I cannot imagine it because my pow ers o f visualization cannot possibly encom pass the m agnitude o f the terror. A m illion people were m urdered in R w anda in 1993, m ost o f them hacked to death with m achetes by th e ir n e ig h b o rs. R w an d a is not unique. Such genocide is still going on in Bosnia. Iraqis are still m urder ing Kurds. G enocide, the m urder o f Jews by the N azis, A rm enians by the Turks, T usis by the Hutus, K urds by the Iraqis, the indigenous peoples o f the A m ericas by Europeans, is not lim ited by tim e, geography, race, or level o f technological developm ent. W e in Am erica look at Bosnia, Rw anda, K urdistan, and say, it can not happen here. It has already hap pened here. Ask the A paches about Cam p Grant. Ask the Cheyenne about Sand Creek. Ask the D akota about W ounded Knee. These killings are all done by ordi nary people. Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Amin, Obote may all have been evil and insane, but the tens ofthousands o f ordinary people w ho helped them were not. Ordinary people like your neigh bors, like the guy your sister is married to, will do things like this if two things happen; they are convinced that kill ings solves problems and they are con vinced that a particular minority is responsible for their problems. M ost people believe that killing other people can solve problems. M ost o f the people who supported the execution o f D ouglas Franklin W right believed that killing him solves problem s. It certainly keeps him from killing anyone else. But along with that doctrine com es its logical, inevitable, horrifying sequel: if killing people solves problem s, then the more people w e kill, the more problem s we will solve. Do Am ericans really believe this? C onsider that recently o u r D em o cratic president and Republican con gress ju st changed the law so that instead o f three federal crim es being punishable by death, now over 60 federal crim es are punishable by death. The more people w e kill, the m ore problem s w e’ll solve. W ith the end o f the cold war, we are also seeing an upsurge in scapegoating. The Hutu people were told that the T usi were responsible for all their prob lems. The Germans were told that it was the Jews who caused a 11 the suffer ing in the world. Killing them was an act o f self defense. The populace was told over and over again “these people are a threat to us, we must defend ourselves.” The more people we kill, the more problem s w e’ll solve. W here is this b elief taking us? Is that w here we w ant to go? Standing against measure 34 To th e E ditor: ome misleading state ments made by support ers of Initiative measure 38 deserve a response. In th e O re g o n ia n , S e p te m b e r 22nd, D enzel Ferguson, an activist, says “ In 1920 populations o f all sp e cies o f anadrom ous fish in the C o lum bia R iver w ere in precipitous decline 13 years before the first dam (R ock Island) w as built.” He follow s this with a sentence, “ Livestock graz- ing is the leading im pedim ent to fish and w ildlife production in the W est.” It would seem that a voter is sup posed to make a connection between these two subjects. W hat he does not say is that livestock, which came with settlers in the 187O's had nothing to do with the fish decline in 1920 T his decline, I'm told, was the result o f over harvesting the fish, particularly using huge “fish w heels” that scooped salm on out o f the river in areas w here the runs were co n cen better ‘*£0 '£he (Svitar Send your letters to the Editor to: Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208 A note of approval *7d the editor... Just would like to comment on your September 25, 1996 issue... thrilling and newswatching!...99 -Thanks, Anan Shachaq / trated. They w ere so deadly efficient that they w ere outlaw ed, and the runs began building up again. I well rem em ber that when my father took me to see a fish wheel in the early 1920’s. It was aw esom e, for me as a child, to view that stream o f big silver fish sliding dow n its chute. It should also be noted that the D EQ w rote a letter to Bill M arlett, the activist w ho started Measure 38 about another m isleading statement, w hich said “the D E Q ’s assessm ent S ubscribe to o f w ater pollution found that range- land livestock grazing is the leading s o u r c e o f w a te r p o llu tio n in O regon."T he DEQ said that it felt the statem ent “ is m isleading and does not accurately portray our position.” These are only two o f the many reasons why I’m against this pro posed law. There are many others, and I urge all responsible citizens to study the issues closely and to vote N O on m easure 38. —Linda Bow m an anje fliortianh onitacruer The Portland Observer can be sent directly to your home for only $30.00 per year Please f ill out, enclose check or money order, and mail to: SUBSCRIPTIONS T he P ortland O bserver ; PO B ox 3137 P ortland , O regon 97208 N a m e :_______________________ A d d r e s s :_____ < ’ ity. State: _________ _______ Zip-Code: ______ ;______ __________________ ___ _____________________________ T hank Y ou F or R eading T iif P ortland O bserver P e r s p c c / i p c s Book Of Revelations; according to McKinley x t seems that I made a promise last week that my copyright attorneys pray was “not written in stone.” O’ I T he A frican experience o f re m ote an cesto rs to the contrary, s o m e tim e s it m ay b e ‘better to conceal than to rev eal-p articu larly when a prudent delay in these much later and highly com petitive tim es can avert theft, trade-m ark infringem ent and litiga tion. W e’re talking “bottom line” h ere-ed u catio n al curriculum and toys, vide cassettes, instructional gam es com pany and product must be named. Ms Phyliss G aines, a local A fri can A m erica business w om an, put these and sim ilar issues in p erspec tive during an interview in the Sun day O regonian business section for January, 14, 1996. H er experience- based advice-”T he N am e G am e”- has been cited by many as having been extrem ely valuable in struc turing legal protection from the very beginning o f their new enterprise. In any case I will hold back for now on any vain revelations co n cerning som e m ore-than-success- ful applications o f finalized learn ing m odels in trail runs ranging from the “ Saturday A cadem y” as I’ve described here several tim es (M ichael Grice, D irector), to sever al selected W ashington C ounty Schools to a few trial tutoring en- gage-with the children or g rand children o f fellow m em bers o f the A ssociation o f O regon Industries. Several m odels for teaching the very I ittle ones (head start age) have developed over the years since that 1971 Lake O sw eg o M ontessori School ex p erien ce o f d esig n in g com puter program 'b o a rd s’ for the five and six year o ld ’s; decision trees built around sibling priorities for bathroom , brushing teeth, school day or not, etc . I w as successful but not sure exactly why. Now, twenty five years later, hav ing plowed through the literature and suffered accordingly--"M ontessori Play And Learn, Young Children Invent Arithmetic, The Life And Growth o f Language, the Language Instinct, Patterns In The Mind, Lan guage, T hought By A nd R e a lity Professor (W h o rf), L an Mcklnley g u ag e T h o u g h t Burt A nd A ctio n (Hayakawa), The Alphabet Effect and on and on" - 1 think I may have the hang o f it Anyway its been fun. There follow s tw o poem s that have proved oh so useful in pro voking older children and youth to speculation about ‘tim e’ and posi tions (hyperbation) so im portant in understanding physics. O f course I use my own as well (sm iles). "Tim e p resent a n d tim e p a st A re both perhaps present in tim e future. A n d tim e fu tu r e co n ta in ed in tim e past. I f a ll tim e is eternally p resen t A ll tim e is unredeem able. W hat m ight have been is an a b straction R em aining a p erp etu a l p o ssi bility O nly in a w orld o f speculation. W hat m ight have been a n d what has been Point to one en d w hich is alw ays p re se n t" T.S. Eliot, Four Q uartets "Som etim es / p la y that I catch up with m yself. / run w ith what I was a n d w ith what / w ilt be, on the race o f w hat / cwt A n d som etim es I p la y th a t! pass m yself. Then m aybe T run in the race o f w hat ! ’m not. But th e re's still another race in w hich / 7/ p/cry that I m over taken a n d that will be the real one. " R oberto Juarroz, Vertical P oet ry, p 75 N orth Point Press S. F , ! 988 (N ext week: H Z,«/ works at the b a rrica d es a n d w hat d o e sn 't - B u rt’s solutions") Attention Readers! Please take a m inute to send us your com m ents. W e’re alw ays trying to give you a better paper and w e c a n ’t do it w ithout your help. Tell us w hat you like and w hat needs im provem ent... any suggestions are w elcom ed and ap preciated. W e take criticism well! Get your pow erful pens out NOW and address your letters to: Editor, R eader R esponse, P.O. Box 3137, P ortland. O R 97208, ^ la r tla n h O O b s e ru e r (USPS 959-680) Established in 1970 Charles W ashington P ublisher & E ditor M ark W ashington D istribution M anager G ary Ann T aylor Business M an ager Sabrina Sakata N ew s/C opy E ditor Danny Bell A dvertising S ales M an ager Sean Cruz C on su ltan t & E ditor P ortlan d O bservador G ary W ashington Public Relations Tim othy C ollins P hotography Paul N eufeldt Iesha W illiams Production & D esign Rovonne Black Business A ssistan t C on tributing Writers: Professor M cK inley Burt, Lee Perlm an, Pamela Jordan 4747 NE M artin Luther K ing, Jr. Blvd., P ortland, O regon 9 7 2 1 1 5 0 3 -288-0033 • Fax 503-288-0015 Email: Pdxobserv(a)aol.com Deadline for all submitted materials: A r tic le s :F r id a y , 5 : 0 0 p m A d s: M o n d a y, 1 2 :0 0 p m PO STM A STE R : Send A ddress C hanges To: Portland O bserver, P.O. Box 3 137, Portland, O R 97208. S ec o n d C lass p o sta g e p a id a t Portland, Oregon. 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