Reports & analysis by investigative journalist Lucy Komisar “”

Archive for the Category ‘Human Rights’

“Where’s Mobutu!”

“Where’s Mobutu!”

June 18, 2008

I never thought I’d hear those words, certainly not at the Council on Foreign Relations. Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico spoke at a Council lunch today. The subject was immigration. Before the talk, several people, including this reporter, stopped at the speaker’s table to chat. Maurice Templesman, photo by Lucy Komisar I was standing there when Maurice Tempelsman approached Richardson. The Governor greeted him and said, “Where’s Mobutu!”

Well, that was a conversation stopper! Tempelsman, a very very rich man, and a generous donor, frequently gets a place of honor at the Council head table, though not today. Nobody raises the question of how he got his money.

Peru: US Gov’t Document Links García to 1980s Death Squads

Peru: US Gov’t Document Links García to 1980s Death Squads

Inter Press Service (IPS), Dec 5, 2007

There is irony in the recent announcement by Peru’s President Alan García that he would publish the names of 1,800 “freed terrorists”, so that people might recognise and report them if they were participating in anti-state conspiracies. His list includes people imprisoned on false charges or never convicted or sentenced.

One name that is not on the list is that of Alan García. Alan García However, according to a declassified U.S. government document, García, during his first administration from 1985-1990, gave instructions to terror squads organised by his political party to assassinate suspected leftists. Victims included trade unionists and other civil society leaders.

This writer discovered the document, and it was declassified at her request. It is posted following the full article.

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