Author: mopress

Writer/Attorney Jennifer Harbury Comments on the CIA

By Nick Braune

This week I interviewed Jennifer Harbury, an attorney in Weslaco who has
published three books. Her most famous, Searching for Everardo, details
her long, difficult, effort to locate her husband who had participated in political
and military struggles for freedom in Central America. Now a nationally known
figure in the fight against torture, Harbury has another book out: Truth,
Torture and the American Way, published by Beacon Press.

Braune: I know that your husband was a prisoner of
war in Guatemala and was suddenly “disappeared” and was later found to have
been tortured in complete disregard of the Geneva Agreements. And your
subsequent investigation revealed how the CIA had funneled tons of money to
the unprincipled Guatemalan military responsible for the disappearance and
torture of not only your husband, but many people. Given your expertise
in this area, I’m eager to ask a question:

The new “Integrated Global Knowledge” (IGKNU) center at U.T. Pan American,
which is trying to recruit Hispanic students to join agencies like the CIA,
recently cosponsored an “Ethics and Intelligence Conference” to legitimize
itself among the academics. I joined students from MEChA three weeks
ago publicly protesting IGKNU. What would you tell Pan Am students
who might think it is “patriotic” to join the CIA?

Harbury: I would commend the students for their wish to
be of service, but would tell them they are knocking on the wrong door. Here
is the reason: In fact, my husband was severely tortured for three years (1992-1994)
in a secret cell in Guatemala by military intelligence specialists who were
also working as paid CIA informants. The CIA knew where he was and what was
happening to him within a week of his capture, and they continued to receive
information about his plight during the three years he remained alive. In return
they continued to send money and ask for more information, even though they
knew this would result in further torture.

americanswhotellthetruth.org

Yet when members of Congress repeatedly demanded information in order to
assist me, the CIA falsely responded that there was no information. In the
end he was either thrown from a helicopter or dismembered. Three hundred other
secret prisoners were also killed during this period. We could have saved them,
but the CIA blocked our rescue efforts.

We received the CIA’s files on the case after my husband’s murder. They revealed
many of the torture techniques that the CIA is using today in Iraq and Afghanistan,
such as water-boarding and stress and duress positions. These techniques are
of course completely illegal, and do indeed violate the Geneva Conventions.
Worse yet, they dishonor and endanger our great troops. When the CIA declares
that its agents may lawfully water-board a detainee, then of course the same
“lawful techniques” will be used on our own soldiers when they fall prisoner.
How patriotic is this?

Braune: The Bush administration made it seem that the Geneva
Conventions are irrelevant. In your speaking engagements, what
do you tell audiences about the Geneva Agreements?

Harbury: The Geneva Convention on the rights of prisoners
of war does indeed limit itself to members of a formal army who wear uniforms,
etc. Some of the current detainees may not be eligible for those protections.
However, the Bush administration failed to mention the Geneva Convention on
the rights of civilians, which includes everyone who is not a soldier in a
formal army. It expressly includes saboteurs and persons who carry out deadly
acts against an occupying power. Obviously this would cover most of the people
fighting against us in Iraq today. Can they be arrested and imprisoned? Of
course, so long as they are given a fair trial. Can they be tortured? Of course
not. Is this a naïve situation? No. It is exactly the same as the legal
framework we have used here in the U.S. for two hundred years, and which worked
properly in the case of American terrorists like Timothy McVeigh.

Braune: I know it is hard to guess how the new administration
will turn out, but do you think a Democratic administration will improve things
as far as human rights and opposition to torture goes?

Harbury: The CIA has been using unlawful methods like torture
since its founding half a century ago. When human rights oriented Presidents
or Members of Congress have disagreed with them, they have simply kept the
matters secret from them. In short, we have a rogue agency. This does not work
with our system of checks and balances here in the United States.

Braune: Thank you, counselor, for your time today and your
years of work against torture.

Calendar note: Harbury has been invited to speak at the Valley-wide
Peace and Justice Gathering on February 7th.

Excerpt from Dallas Fed “Economic Letter.”

In short, tougher times appear to lie ahead. Worsening macroeconomic conditions, particularly in the retail and other service sectors, are hurting CRE [Commercial Real Estate] fundamentals. Meanwhile the intensification of the credit crunch is dampening market activity. And if commercial property’s situation does grow worse, banks are likely to face further losses. One factor that might limit these risks is that the commercial real estate sector wasn’t as grossly overbuilt heading into the current economic slowdown as it had been in the early 1990s.

See full report by Dallas Fed economist Roland Meeks.

By Greg Moses

As folks debate ways to pump the economy, November employment statistics remind us that

83 percent of nonfarm workers in Texas earn paychecks in the private sector.

Of the 10.7 million workers (nonfarm, not seasonally adjusted), 8.9 million are private

sector compared to 1.8 million government workers.

While it may be possible for government to pick up masses of workers to labor on roads,

bridges, and parks, or in emergency rooms, health clinics, and schools, there seems to be

obvious truth in the worry that this plan of action would raise taxes.

Still we should note that of the 32,700 net new jobs (actual, not seasonally adjusted)

added to Texas payrolls in November of 2008, at least 12,000 (or 37 percent) were added by

government, overwhelmingly at the local level.

Since there is no income tax in Texas, these jobs were funded by sales taxes and property

taxes. And while it does seem obvious that every new government job is to be counted as an

absolute increase in public tax burden, we’d like to remember some old sayings about ounces

of prevention.

After all, what sort of private sector employer is going to stick around very long in a

territory where taxpayers have pulled down their liabilities to zero by de-funding every

conceivable public service. Even the famous Laffer curve assumes that taxation has some

optimal rate.

From the point of view of civil rights development, it would be a cruel and unusual

economy that sets no public standards whatsoever to live by.

Nevertheless, let’s remember that 83 percent of the existing workforce in Texas does not

go to work for a government paycheck.

Now we’re going to leave aside the question of how many private workers depend upon a

government contract. So our KBR readers should not go around thinking that we ignore all

the public butter that gets spread on private bread.

But let’s go where the majority of workers live and try to prosper — in the private

sector.

It’s interesting in Texas that there are about as many workers in the “Goods Producing”

sector of the economy as there are in “Government” — about 1.8 million. But whereas the

government sector grew in November, the goods producing sector shrank (by about 6,000

jobs).

Not all parts of the goods producing sector lost jobs. In mining and oil and gas, about

a 1,000 new jobs were added.

Texas construction lost only a couple of hundred jobs, but the story would have been

worse if not for “Utility System Construction” which added 1,000 jobs. How much of that

private employment on utility systems depended upon public financing we’ll leave open to

further questioning.

Manufacturing, as you might guess, is still losing jobs in Texas. About 2,000 jobs were

lost in this sector during November, with losses in the wood, computer, and electronics

areas. We now have 924,800 manufacturing jobs left here.

It’s interesting to see that some sectors of manufacturing actually grew: “Fabricated

Metal Product Manufacturing” picked up 300 jobs; “Machinery Manufacturing” picked up 200

jobs; “Agriculture, Construction, and Mining Machinery Manufacturing” picked up 500 jobs;

“Transportation Equipment Manufacturing” picked up 500 jobs; and “Aerospace Product and

Parts Manufacturing” picked up 400 jobs.

No doubt there is some “public sector” contracting in these sophisticated heavy metal

operations in Texas, although I’m guessing we could wish for a healthier mix of “peace” to

“war” priorities.

When it comes to non-durable goods, Texas employed some 308,200 workers in November,

which is 700 fewer workers than October. It was a bad month for food (-400), plastics (-

200), and paper (-200). But a better month for animal slaughtering (+100) and products made

from petroleum and coal (+700) and chemicals (+200).

In the private sector, “Service” is the mammoth sector of the Texas economy. That’s

where 7.1 million workers were employed in November, an increase of 26,700 workers over

October. About 20,000 of those new jobs were split between clotting stores and department

stores. Another 5,000 jobs were added by “Other General Merchandise Stores.”

Information services fell by another 400 jobs, which is why you see more people like me

doing this grunt work for free (actually, the newspaper people are holding the line; nothing

lost, nothing gained).

In the “Finance and Insurance” sector, jobs are down slightly overall (-200), but there

is a growth niche in “Credit Intermediation,” which added 1,100 jobs.

In the professional services sector, lawyers, accountants, architects, and computer

experts are all finding fewer cubicles available.

Education and health care, on the other hand, are growing modestly; while “Leisure and

Hospitality” continue their slow decline.

In Texas, we are pleased to report, “Food Services and Drinking Places” are still “help

wanted” areas, with 2,500 new jobs added in November, 2008.

So if you want to help grow jobs in the Texas economy, especially if you’re a government

worker, go out and buy some new clothes, steer a shopping cart through your neighborhood

department store, and take the family out for dinner and drinks. And don’t forget to tip as

if it was your own salary you were figuring up.

Beyond these sorts of stopgap subsidies that we can share with each other, there do seem

to be some healthy fundamentals in the current economic profile in Texas, considering that

heavy machinery is growing jobs along with education and health services.

And when you think about all the experience that Texans accrue getting from one end of

the state to the other, why shouldn’t Texas step up to global leadership in the design,

management, and manufacture of transportation systems and services? Couldn’t we teach

ourselves to travel in ways that would prepare us to teach the world?

Oh, and remember not to shoplift. However, if you can look like you might be shoplifting could it create more jobs for security guards? Check out Grits for Breakfast on the shoplifting rate.